rabble.ca - News for the rest of us

Caterpillar and the Investment Canada Act

M.Gregus — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:26:59 +0000

There's been some good public debate about the need for changes to the Investment Canada process in light of Caterpillar's incredible actions in London. They showed up uninvited in 2010, took over a long-standing productive profitable plant, demanded money (from workers and government alike), then left -- leaving behind a shuttered plant and a shattered community.

Clearly something needs to change in terms of how the federal government regulates this process: sorting out foreign investments that can add genuine value to our economy, from those which are beneficial to corporate interests and investors but ultimately undermine our capabilities to produce and innovate.

'Constructing Change' podcast from rabble.ca features online resources from its Activist Toolkit

rabble staff — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:58:11 +0000

rabble.ca has launched a new podcast for people who want to engage in their communities. The podcast, Constructing Change: Tools from the activist toolkit, features tools from rabble's Activist Toolkit wiki, interviews with local activists, mini-docs on social change and more.

Movement elder Marshall Ganz shares his organizing wisdom

jessicabell — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:51:42 +0000

Marshall Ganz is one great social movement elder.

He organized with Caser Chavez to build the United Farm Workers of America Union in the 1960s. He helped set the grassroots strategy that underpinned Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. And Ganz has also spent the last decade or so teaching and writing about social movements at Harvard University. Ganz has a lot of useful information to share! His two websites (he's got the Practicing Democracy Network one and then his Harvard University one) are chock-full of ideas, tools and resources for organizers.

Romeo Saganash: Thoughts on Canadian leadership

Romeo Saganash — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:35:20 +0000

Friends,

I'd like to tell you about what we can achieve, together, for Canada.

We can have the strongest economy in the world. We can have the healthiest environment in the world. And we can have the fairest society in the world.

Those are lofty ambitions, but Canadians are up to the challenge. We are blessed with a terrific head start. We still have abundant natural resources, fresh water, forests, arable land, minerals and energy. We have a well-educated, multilingual workforce with strong ties around the world. We have a long history of peaceful coexistence and cooperation among our people. These and other advantages provide Canada with a deep history and a bright future.

Not Rex: Popamatic rabble

M.Gregus — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:28:45 +0000

Have you got rabble? Check out Not Rex's commercial spot for the rabble.ca fundraiser!

Nathan Cullen and Peggy Nash in NDP family drama

M.Gregus — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:40:39 +0000

There's a great family drama going on just beneath the surface of those nearly unwatchable NDP leadership debates. Watchable TV isn't everything.

We owe it to Nathan Cullen. He's the brat who insists on bringing up what everyone else at the table is determined, with gritted teeth, not to mention. It involves the fate of the nation. Good for naughty Nathan.

Inside a migrant worker transport van

M.Gregus — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:18:34 +0000

In light of this week's tragic incident involving the deaths of 10 migrant workers in southern Ontario, I felt it was finally time to -- at least partially -- take the wraps off of a journal I kept during a two-week trip in early 2004 to investigate the conditions of undocumented Chinese migrant farm workers. I hope this can help shed light on the kinds of conditions faced every day by the people who tend, pick, and process the food we eat.

For more about this week's incident see here.

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Electro-Motive-CAW talks: Interview with Tim Carrie

M.Gregus — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:46:26 +0000

It's no secret that people in southwestern Ontario -- Londoners in particular -- are seriously pissed with Caterpillar. In fact, in an unprecedented show of support for labour, both London Mayor Joe Fontana and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty are on record as saying Caterpillar has been unfair to the employees of Electro-Motive.

Thursday afternoon I caught up with the president of CAW Local 27, Tim Carrie, in the lobby of the London Hilton during a break from closure negotiations with Caterpillar.

Meg Borthwick: So Tim, negotiations seem to be progressing ...

Accident that claimed 11 Peruvian workers' lives not a tragedy but a crime

M.Gregus — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:32:11 +0000

Peruvian lives on Canada's conscience

M.Gregus — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:16:10 +0000

As the Peruvian immigrant community in Kitchener-Waterloo -- and families at home in Peru -- mourn the loss of 11 of their own in a deadly highway crash in rural Ontario on February 6, at least one Toronto daily newspaper two days later prioritized instead the highway death a single girl (a white, 19-year-old aspiring model), pushing the 11 Peruvian lives to page eight.

This is but a symptom of a larger problem that suggests that white/Canadian lives are more valuable than their non-white/non-Canadian counterparts.

Why the NDP silence on Palestine?

rabble staff — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:31:37 +0000

As pronouncements on Palestinian statehood at the UN are fiercely debated around the world, on the ground in Palestine the violent realities of Israeli military occupation and apartheid continue without reprieve.

In Canada, despite broad international support for peace with justice in Palestine, illustrated by the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, Palestine has in recent years seldom been highlighted as a foreign policy priority by the NDP. The subject, for instance, has only rarely been mentioned in the current NDP leadership race.

rabble.ca weekly blog roundup!

rabble staff — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:15:52 +0000

Good morning!

Welcome back to another edition of the rabble.ca weekly blog roundup! We have yet another heavy listing of great blogs this week because of the care, attention and passion that the rabble.ca bloggers bring to their posts.

This week it is yet another diverse package of content with everything from the profit monster that is Caterpillar to the disenfranchised peoples fighting the Enbridge pipeline, to the new-found cupid and the parameters of love to the reality-based CBC Reads and the presence of the right-wing voice. Among these we also have some new bloggers joining the rabble.ca family: Laurie Miller, and, who else? Oh right, David Suzuki!

So, happy Friday and happy reading!

Few oxen gored in Alberta Tories' exquisitely political budget

djclimenhaga — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:23:16 +0000

Oddly enough, there actually was a lesson that could be learned from the first budget of Alberta Premier Alison Redford's government.

While the Budget Speech read yesterday by retiring Finance Minister Ron Liepert was self-evidently an election-year creation designed to offend no one who might wield influence, one ox was gored: post-secondary education.

While the media were reporting a 2.7-per-cent increase to post-secondary operating funds, they weren't saying anything about the effects of inflation, huge population increases and big cuts to maintenance budgets that critics estimated would put the system back $80 to $100 million.

Alert! Radio #202: Canada's surveillance society and the campaign against unions

tommyallen789 — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:39:12 +0000

On this episode of ALERT! we present a look at new legislation that increases the powers of law enforcement agencies to undermine citizens' privacy. We examine the aftermath of the closure of Caterpillar's Electro-Motive Diesel plant in London and its implications for labour, and we will hear concerns regarding the Conference of Defence Associations and the advice they are giving to the Canadian government.

jhr Rights Report #16: The price of silence on gender-based violence

JHR — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:59:14 +0000

The 16th edition of the jhr Rights Report brings attention to gender-based violence in Canada and around the world.

Day 5: A successful tow, and on to Attawapiskat!

Laurie Miller — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:22:30 +0000

Yesterday, 55.5 kilometres from the community at 5 p.m. the groovy yurt truck met another snowbank. This one wasn't so easy to get towed out. When they say ice road, that is actually what it is.

We shovelled for two hours to clear the snow away. There were many attempts to pull it out with a truck and then a loader.

We enjoyed a great pasta dinner cooked by Yves while we waiting for larger equipment to show up. It was 3 a.m. before we were pulled out by a bulldozer.

Day 4: The trucks arrive, frozen battery and all

Laurie Miller — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:47 +0000

We stayed in Moose Factory last night. It has ice road access from Moosonee in the winter, water taxi in the summer.

This morning, Yves and I walked the three kilometers to Moosonee, to meet the freight train. It was a little dicey around a large slushy area. Our feet remained dry.

Moose Factory was a point of entry for fur trade - we come across a heritage building.

Harper in 2005: 'My government will fully preserve Old Age Security'

kim elliott — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:39:15 +0000

How times change. Stephen Harper said on December 9, 2005, that his government will preserve Old Age Security for pensions.

Capitalism, the infernal machine: An interview with Frederic Jameson

alex — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:31:17 +0000

The literary critic and Marxist political theorist, Fredric Jameson, has written Representing Capital: A Reading of Volume One, a book that revisits Karl Marx's most important work, Capital.

On one level it may seem odd evaluating a book almost 150 years old. How much relevance and practical applicability could it have to the world we currently inhabit? Yet to overlook Capital -- as is too often the case -- is to miss its searing critique and keen insight.

David Suzuki: Canada must do more for its oceans

David Suzuki — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:02:46 +0000

It's been 20 years since Canada's East Coast cod fishery collapsed, and we still have no recovery target or timeline for rebuilding populations. That's just one finding in a damning report from a panel of eminent Royal Society of Canada marine scientists.

Sustaining Canada's Marine Biodiversity notes that Canada has "failed to meet most of our national and international commitments to protect marine biodiversity" and "lags behind other modernized nations in almost every aspect of fisheries management."

Activist Toolkit weekly roundup: HIV workshops, fat activism, the Canadian fruit machine, composting, supporting prisoners

The Activist Toolkit — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:52:54 +0000

It's getting to be that time of year again: roses appearing in the middle of winter, chocolate flying off the shelves... it must be almost time to Occupy Valentines Day! What's more passionate than fighting for social justice? Love comes in many forms -- a sister to be remembered, the fresh smell of compost in the morning, a community you build online, but no matter how you celebrate this week's Toolkit has got you covered.

Canadians abducted by Israel begin cross-Canada speaking tour next week

CanadianBoatToGaza — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:28:04 +0000

Three Canadians, who were forcibly abducted from the Canadian ship Tahrir by Israel and detained without charge this past fall, are demanding the Conservative government press Israel to return the boat and its contents. And they are taking this message directly to nine communities from coast to coast in an upcoming speaking tour beginning February 15 to address Canada’s role in the blockade of Gaza and give their firsthand account of the capture at sea of the Tahrir.

Dates, locations, and details of the speaking tour: http://www.tahrir.ca/speaking-tour-2012

Smash the State Report: They ignore, we take action

dan kellar — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:19:07 +0000

Days of action for students (drop tuition, forgive debt) and labour (Caterpillar) in Canada as #Occupy Oakland attempts, unsuccessfully, to take an abandoned convention hall to use as a social space and for lodging. The vicious attack by the police in Oakland sparked continent-wide solidarity actions. We also look into more #deportkenney news, and the continuing and mounting disrespect from settler states towards Indigenous peoples through ignoring historic treaties.

More AW@L on the web at http://peaceculture.org - check out http://nooneisillegal.org for more info about Kenney's disgraceful behaviour.

Action Alert: Help save the Wakefield Spring and 300-year-old white pine trees!

Making Waves — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:06:26 +0000

Residents of Wakefield have been fighting the extension of Highway 5 between Chelsea and Wakefield for almost 2 years. The extension threatens old-growth pines in Gatineau Park as well as Valley Drive (Wakefield) Spring. More than 3,000 local residents depend on the spring for their drinking water needs year round, while an additional 2,000 people use the spring seasonally.

All certificates have been approved, and the cutting of trees at Brown Lake will start any day now.

A5X, a growing group of citizens concerned with the impact of a 4-lane highway on the village of Wakefield and its environment, are urging people to contact Jean Charest and other politicians.

NDP leadership candidate Nathan Cullen brings co-operation and charisma

M.Gregus — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:57:50 +0000

It isn't all more prisons and less freedoms. Yes, it has been tough watching the sludge come pouring out of Parliament since Harper got his majority last May. But there's an exciting window of opportunity open right now. It is a limited-time offer, though, so try not to sleep through it.

I'm talking about the NDP leadership race. And frankly, if you're not a supremely dedicated NDP loyalist or a seriously addicted political junkie, it's almost impossible not to be nodding off at the mere mention. Really, how could it be otherwise?

Harper deals threaten human rights and the environment in Canada and China

Maude Barlow — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:21:15 +0000

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is basking in the uncritical media reporting of his state visit to China. His "open for business" message has been very well received in Beijing where he has just signed a slew of trade and investment deals in energy, agriculture, and natural resources. Small wonder. The world is running out of conventional energy, land, water, and natural resources. China, as the emerging superpower, needs unfettered and unconditional access to all of these.

Rolling over speed bumps: Weekly news update from OpenMedia.ca

OpenMedia.ca — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:00:30 +0000

It's the beginning of the end for Internet throttling, and our newest campaign is coming into play as the hotly contested Bill C-11 moves through the House of Commons.

Comparing two carbon bombs: Liquid Natural Gas plants vs. Enbridge pipeline

Progressive Economics Forum — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:33:32 +0000

With the spotlight on the federal government's aggressive push to export tar sands bitumen via the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat, and from there by tanker on to China, the B.C. government reclaimed some attention on the energy file when it released its Natural Gas Strategy last week. With lots of glossy pages, but little detailed content, it is reflective of Premier Clark's signature style. The short of it is that shale gas from B.C.'s Northeast is to be pipelined to Kitimat and loaded onto tankers in liquid form (LNG) to be exported to China.

Obama administration battles Catholic Church over contraception access

M.Gregus — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:06:20 +0000

The leadership of the Catholic Church has launched what amounts to a holy war against President Barack Obama. Archbishop Timothy Dolan appealed to church members, "Let your elected leaders know that you want religious liberty and rights of conscience restored and that you want the administration's contraceptive mandate rescinded," he said. Obama is now under pressure to reverse a health-care regulation that requires Catholic hospitals and universities, like all employers, to provide contraception to insured women covered by their health plans. Bill Donohue of the Catholic League said, "This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions, and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets." In the wake of the successful pushback against the Susan G.

Black History Month in rabble.ca's Activist Toolkit

M.Gregus — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:32:21 +0000