Three Canadian Women in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
The best political films of 2010
Pro-life militants, kid activists, fracking, garbage portraits, and the decline of the American Empire
By Ezra Winton
Art Threat
December 16, 2010
We’ve searched far and wide to assemble this list, and in the process have drawn on the talents and experience of three international programmers. Aside from picks from yours truly (EW), we have selections from Charlotte Selb (CS), Director of Programming for RIDM – Montreal’s International Documentary Film Festival, Jean-Pierre Rhem (JPR), Executive Director of the FID Marseille International Film Festival, and Matthew Hays (MH) film critic and writer for the Montreal Mirror, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, Cineaste Magazine and The Daily Beast. He teaches film studies and journalism at Concordia University. We’ll begin with Mr. Hays:
Read more HERE.
By Ezra Winton
Art Threat
December 16, 2010
Read more HERE.
A Nuclear Waste Ban: Can We Take The Bull By The Horns?
By Jim Harding
Originally published in RTown News
December 3, 2010
The FSIN taking $1,000,000 from the industry-based Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) has put nuclear waste back in the news. And apparently the Métis Nation has also taken hundreds of thousands of NWMO money. What does it mean that both large Aboriginal organizations have gone this far? Do they seriously believe that an industry-funded “information” campaign can create informed consent about a nuclear dump in Saskatchewan?
Relying on industry is fraught with dangers to Aboriginal self-determination and to our larger democracy. So what are people who don’t want to see Saskatchewan become a nuclear dump to do? Are we to close our eyes to the realities facing Métis and First Nations communities in the north? Are we to sidestep the role that the lack of economic opportunities in the north is playing in the nuclear waste controversy? Are we to oppose a nuclear dump while ignoring the role of the powerful uranium industry in the north?
Originally published in RTown News
December 3, 2010
Relying on industry is fraught with dangers to Aboriginal self-determination and to our larger democracy. So what are people who don’t want to see Saskatchewan become a nuclear dump to do? Are we to close our eyes to the realities facing Métis and First Nations communities in the north? Are we to sidestep the role that the lack of economic opportunities in the north is playing in the nuclear waste controversy? Are we to oppose a nuclear dump while ignoring the role of the powerful uranium industry in the north?
Internal Revolt Shakes B.C. NDP, Labour Movement
By Roger Annis
Socialist Voice
December 17, 2010
Two political shakeups have rocked British Columbia in the past two months. First was the resignation of the long-standing premier of the province, Gordon Campbell, on November 3, victim of the fallout of a hated tax he imposed. One month later, the leader of the opposition party, Carole James, was forced to step down by a revolt within her party.
Campbell’s Liberal Party will now attempt to rise from the wreckage of the hated consumption tax it imposed in 2009. A new leader will be chosen at a convention early next year, following which the party will claim it has something “new” to offer for voters. A snap election would catch the opposition seriously unprepared.
For its part, the trade union-based New Democratic Party is facing a wrenching decision, namely, whether it wants a new leader and platform that would distinguish it from the government’s course. The outgoing leader never did that. A significant section of the party decided it was unlikely it could win government with her at the helm.
Socialist Voice
December 17, 2010
Campbell’s Liberal Party will now attempt to rise from the wreckage of the hated consumption tax it imposed in 2009. A new leader will be chosen at a convention early next year, following which the party will claim it has something “new” to offer for voters. A snap election would catch the opposition seriously unprepared.
For its part, the trade union-based New Democratic Party is facing a wrenching decision, namely, whether it wants a new leader and platform that would distinguish it from the government’s course. The outgoing leader never did that. A significant section of the party decided it was unlikely it could win government with her at the helm.
A sad day for the US if the 1917 Espionage Act is used against WikiLeaks
Resurrecting the 1917 law would be a mistake: it has a history of being used to suppress dissent
Stephen M Kohn
guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 15 December 2010
Numerous US officials are calling for a resurrection of the US Espionage Act as a tool for prosecuting WikiLeaks. The dusting-off of the old law is all but certain. But the outcome of the constitutional dust-up that is sure to follow will result in triumph or tragedy for the US bill of rights.
In 1917, in the midst of a war hysteria, the United States passed the Espionage Act. The law has nothing to do with prosecuting spies. From its inception, it had everything to do with suppressing dissent. The Great War was unpopular with many Americans, very like today's engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Make no mistake about it. The Espionage Act targeted political dissidents. Senator Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee offered a simple defence of the law when it was introduced to Congress: "If we cannot reason with men to be loyal, it is high time we forced them to be loyal." Others, such as Congressman William Green of Iowa, were more blunt. His statement resembled modern calls supporting the execution of the suspected WikiLeaks "whistleblower" Bradley Manning: "For the extermination of these pernicious vermin no measures can be too severe."
Stephen M Kohn
guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 15 December 2010
In 1917, in the midst of a war hysteria, the United States passed the Espionage Act. The law has nothing to do with prosecuting spies. From its inception, it had everything to do with suppressing dissent. The Great War was unpopular with many Americans, very like today's engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Make no mistake about it. The Espionage Act targeted political dissidents. Senator Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee offered a simple defence of the law when it was introduced to Congress: "If we cannot reason with men to be loyal, it is high time we forced them to be loyal." Others, such as Congressman William Green of Iowa, were more blunt. His statement resembled modern calls supporting the execution of the suspected WikiLeaks "whistleblower" Bradley Manning: "For the extermination of these pernicious vermin no measures can be too severe."
Thursday, December 16, 2010
‘The Book Thief’ and ‘Red Orchestra’ offer anti-Nazi lessons
By Nick Bart
People's World
January 7 2010
It was the Mexican historian George Santayana who said those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In their majority, U.S. voters showed last year that they grasped some of history's lessons. The unity of the core movements, including labor and women, was one result. The election of Barack Obama was another. Two recent books, one fiction, one non-fiction, bring ringing historical authority to this.
"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak brings to life the everyday struggles of a typical and essentially apolitical German working class family in the late 1930s and early 1940s. While loosely based on the author's grandmother's experiences, it is fiction. "Red Orchestra - The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler" by Anne Nelson reveals the stories behind one, and at times, more than one, antifascist group functioning in Germany during WWII. Anne Nelson did extraordinary research here for this nonfiction drama.
People's World
January 7 2010
"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak brings to life the everyday struggles of a typical and essentially apolitical German working class family in the late 1930s and early 1940s. While loosely based on the author's grandmother's experiences, it is fiction. "Red Orchestra - The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler" by Anne Nelson reveals the stories behind one, and at times, more than one, antifascist group functioning in Germany during WWII. Anne Nelson did extraordinary research here for this nonfiction drama.
Indigenous Nations and Marxism: Notes on an Ambivalent Relationship
Charles R. Menzies
New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry
Vol. 3, No. 3 (June 2010) Pp. 5-6
The relationship between Marxism and Indigenous nations is an ambivalent one. For every story of a successful engagement we can find a story of a failed relationship. Neither has the track record of various Marxist, Socialist, or Social Democratic political parties been all that remarkable. Nonetheless, it does seem that the analytic reach of Marxist inspired theoretical concepts and frameworks should have some salience for navigating a path toward decolonization autonomy.
Marxism retains an incisive core that helps understand the dynamics of the world within which we live. Marxism points to the inherent contradictions of our social formations; it highlights the ways in which power is structured through ownership; it puts the spotlight on the function of states in the accumulation of capital and the redistribution of wealth from the many to the few.
Understanding how those with power operate is of critical importance and Marxism provides an analytic lens through which to examine how power operates. On the global scale it provides a way to tease out the linkages between media corporations, oil rig operators, and vested government officials. At the local level it gives one a clear understanding of how business works (not in the MBA cheerleading sense) and facilities intervention and engagement with businesses desiring to develop and appropriate Indigenous land.
Read more HERE.
New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry
Vol. 3, No. 3 (June 2010) Pp. 5-6
Marxism retains an incisive core that helps understand the dynamics of the world within which we live. Marxism points to the inherent contradictions of our social formations; it highlights the ways in which power is structured through ownership; it puts the spotlight on the function of states in the accumulation of capital and the redistribution of wealth from the many to the few.
Understanding how those with power operate is of critical importance and Marxism provides an analytic lens through which to examine how power operates. On the global scale it provides a way to tease out the linkages between media corporations, oil rig operators, and vested government officials. At the local level it gives one a clear understanding of how business works (not in the MBA cheerleading sense) and facilities intervention and engagement with businesses desiring to develop and appropriate Indigenous land.
Read more HERE.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
A serious public intellectual
Mel Watkins' report set federal policy for decades.
By Linda McQuaig
Straight Goods
Monday, December 13, 2010
There is so much to lament about living in this dark neoconservative age, but one of those things is that a serious public intellectual like Mel Watkins hasn't been allowed to play the important public role his natural talents equipped him for.
Given the cataclysm of the recent financial meltdown and ensuing economic despair, the need to get beyond the narrow confines of the "science" of economics seems palpable. But instead of the media turning to the likes of a brilliant and insightful economist like Mel Watkins, our airwaves are clogged with hack neoconservative bank economists — and Tom Flanagan, who taught Stephen Harper economics and of course most recently called for the assassination of Julian Assange.
By Linda McQuaig
Straight Goods
Monday, December 13, 2010
Given the cataclysm of the recent financial meltdown and ensuing economic despair, the need to get beyond the narrow confines of the "science" of economics seems palpable. But instead of the media turning to the likes of a brilliant and insightful economist like Mel Watkins, our airwaves are clogged with hack neoconservative bank economists — and Tom Flanagan, who taught Stephen Harper economics and of course most recently called for the assassination of Julian Assange.
Imagine, a lefty media star!
The Waffle group held that Canadian nationalism and socialism are mutually essential.
By Rick Salutin
Straight Goods
Monday, December 13, 2010
(Join the Mel-abration at Straight Goods HERE)
Mel Watkins is one of the few media stars produced by the Canadian left (leaving aside NDP leaders, who get a kind of complimentary pass into the media, and premodern figures like William Lyon Mackenzie, Louis Riel or Norman Bethune). Mel taught economics and Canadian studies at University College, the University of Toronto, until he retired in 1998. He's been my friend and colleague for 25 years, but I'm going to write about him anyway.
In the early 1960s, Liberal finance minister Walter Gordon asked Watkins, a young economist, to study the effect of American ownership on Canada's economy. The grim result, The Watkins Report, became a media buzzword and has been a subtext in discussions of the national destiny ever since.
By Rick Salutin
Straight Goods
Monday, December 13, 2010
(Join the Mel-abration at Straight Goods HERE)
 |
| Mel Watkins (left) and Cy Gonick at the 1969 NDP National Convention |
In the early 1960s, Liberal finance minister Walter Gordon asked Watkins, a young economist, to study the effect of American ownership on Canada's economy. The grim result, The Watkins Report, became a media buzzword and has been a subtext in discussions of the national destiny ever since.
Mother Russia and the Socialist Fatherland: Women and the Communist Party of Canada, 1932-1941
With specific reference to the activism of Dorothy Livesay and Jim Watts
by Nancy Butler
This dissertation traces a shift in the Communist Party of Canada, from the 1929 to 1935 period of militant class struggle (generally known as the ‘Third Period’) to the 1935-1939 Popular Front Against Fascism, a period in which Communists argued for unity and cooperation with social democrats.
The CPC’s appropriation and redeployment of bourgeois gender norms facilitated this shift by bolstering the CPC’s claims to political authority and legitimacy. ‘Woman’ and the gendered interests associated with women—such as peace and prices—became important in the CPC’s war against capitalism. What women represented symbolically, more than who and what women were themselves, became a key element of CPC politics in the Depression decade.
Through a close examination of the cultural work of two prominent middle-class female members, Dorothy Livesay, poet, journalist and sometime organizer, and Eugenia (‘Jean’ or ‘Jim’) Watts, reporter, founder of the Theatre of Action, and patron of the Popular Front magazine New Frontier, this thesis utilizes the insights of queer theory, notably those of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Judith Butler, not only to reconstruct both the background and consequences of the CPC’s construction of ‘woman’ in the 1930s, but also to explore the significance of the CPC’s strategic deployment of heteronormative ideas and ideals for these two prominent members of the Party.
(note: this essay is 467 pages - for serious readers!)
PDF of essay HERE.
by Nancy Butler
The CPC’s appropriation and redeployment of bourgeois gender norms facilitated this shift by bolstering the CPC’s claims to political authority and legitimacy. ‘Woman’ and the gendered interests associated with women—such as peace and prices—became important in the CPC’s war against capitalism. What women represented symbolically, more than who and what women were themselves, became a key element of CPC politics in the Depression decade.
Through a close examination of the cultural work of two prominent middle-class female members, Dorothy Livesay, poet, journalist and sometime organizer, and Eugenia (‘Jean’ or ‘Jim’) Watts, reporter, founder of the Theatre of Action, and patron of the Popular Front magazine New Frontier, this thesis utilizes the insights of queer theory, notably those of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Judith Butler, not only to reconstruct both the background and consequences of the CPC’s construction of ‘woman’ in the 1930s, but also to explore the significance of the CPC’s strategic deployment of heteronormative ideas and ideals for these two prominent members of the Party.
(note: this essay is 467 pages - for serious readers!)
PDF of essay HERE.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The Struggles of the German SPD
By Michael Miebach
Policy Network
The SPD is still trapped somewhere between 22 and 27 per cent. The discontent with the conservative-liberal government has simply translated into growing support for the Greens.
Upon his election as SPD party chairman in November 2009, Sigmar Gabriel made an evocative plea for his party to regain “discursive hegemony” in Germany.
On this front, it can be said that his first year in office was not very successful. In major political debates the SPD took up squishy positions and did not make its voice heard. This was in marked contrast to the distinct positions of its opponents.
Monday, December 13, 2010
These astroturf libertarians are the real threat to internet democracy
As I see in threads on my articles, the online sabotaging of intelligent debate seems organised. We must fight to save this precious gift
George Monbiot
guardian.co.uk
Monday 13 December 2010
They are the online equivalent of enclosure riots: the rick-burning, fence-toppling protests by English peasants losing their rights to the land. When MasterCard, Visa, PayPal and Amazon tried to shut WikiLeaks out of the cyber-commons, an army of hackers responded by trying to smash their way into these great estates and pull down their fences. In the WikiLeaks punch-up the commoners appear to have the upper hand. But it's just one battle. There's a wider cyberwar being fought, of which you hear much less. And in most cases the landlords, with the help of a mercenary army, are winning.
I'm not talking here about threats to net neutrality and the danger of a two-tier internet developing, though these are real. I'm talking about the daily attempts to control and influence content in the interests of the state and corporations: attempts in which money talks.
George Monbiot
guardian.co.uk
Monday 13 December 2010
I'm not talking here about threats to net neutrality and the danger of a two-tier internet developing, though these are real. I'm talking about the daily attempts to control and influence content in the interests of the state and corporations: attempts in which money talks.
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!
Old Hippie's Review
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
From 1964 comes - perhaps - Stanley Kubrick's best known work. But it's a dark, and I do mean dark comedy. Remember back then, the cold war was going on. The USA built bombs and the USSR built more. Then we built more, etc., etc. Under the provisions of "Plan R" a base commander can issue the 'go code' for B-52 bombers to attack Russia. "Plan R" stipulates that this is only to occur if Washington D.C. and the President have already been wiped out. Just one little problem... The President and Washington D.C. are fine - just fine.
Sterling Hayden as Brigadier General Jack Ripper is insane! He believes that a communist plot using fluoridized water is sapping us all of our "precious bodily fluids." Quote, " I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids." OMG!
The cast is outstanding, with George C. Scott as General 'Buck' Turgidson, Slim Pickens as Major Kong, and James Earl Jones as Lieutenant Lothar Zogg. Most noteable is Peter Sellers in three roles as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake / President Merkin Muffley and Dr. Strangelove.
The only way to recall the planes is through a decoder - the CRM-114. On Major Kong's plane, this has been knocked out. Now, on a lighter note, watch Back to the Future sometime. There is a connection. As Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly) plugs a guitar into the amp & turns up the volume, one of the knobs is clearly marked CRM-114. I died laughing. My poor son didn't understand what was so funny.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Sterling Hayden as Brigadier General Jack Ripper is insane! He believes that a communist plot using fluoridized water is sapping us all of our "precious bodily fluids." Quote, " I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids." OMG!
The cast is outstanding, with George C. Scott as General 'Buck' Turgidson, Slim Pickens as Major Kong, and James Earl Jones as Lieutenant Lothar Zogg. Most noteable is Peter Sellers in three roles as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake / President Merkin Muffley and Dr. Strangelove.
The only way to recall the planes is through a decoder - the CRM-114. On Major Kong's plane, this has been knocked out. Now, on a lighter note, watch Back to the Future sometime. There is a connection. As Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly) plugs a guitar into the amp & turns up the volume, one of the knobs is clearly marked CRM-114. I died laughing. My poor son didn't understand what was so funny.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Our Generation: Land, Culture, Freedom
The ground-breaking new documentary on Aboriginal rights, by Sinem Saban and Damien Curtis.
A rollercoaster journey into the heart of Australia's Indigenous relations, a hidden shame that is pushing the world's oldest living culture to the edge. Through the stories of the Yolngu of Northeast Arnhem Land, the film looks at the Government's ongoing policies of paternalism and assimilation, examines the real issues underlying Indigenous disadvantage, and opens dialogue on ways forward that respect Aboriginal culture and dignity. A fresh and unflinching look at unresolved issues, with music by John Butler Trio, Yothu Yindi and Gurrumul.
For more information, visit http://www.ourgeneration.org.au/
A rollercoaster journey into the heart of Australia's Indigenous relations, a hidden shame that is pushing the world's oldest living culture to the edge. Through the stories of the Yolngu of Northeast Arnhem Land, the film looks at the Government's ongoing policies of paternalism and assimilation, examines the real issues underlying Indigenous disadvantage, and opens dialogue on ways forward that respect Aboriginal culture and dignity. A fresh and unflinching look at unresolved issues, with music by John Butler Trio, Yothu Yindi and Gurrumul.
For more information, visit http://www.ourgeneration.org.au/
Canada & Venezuela
By Yves Engler
Yves Engler's ZSpace Page
While many on the left know that Washington has spent tens of millions of dollars funding groups that oppose Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, less well known is Ottawa’s role, especially that of the Canadian government’s “arms-length” human rights organization, Rights & Democracy (R&D).
Montreal-based R&D recently gave its 2010 John Humphrey Award to the Venezuelan non-governmental organization PROVEA (El Programa Venezolano de Educacion-Accion en Derechos Humanos). According to R&D’s website, “The Award consists of a grant of $30,000 and a [December] speaking tour of Canadian cities to help increase awareness of the recipient’s human rights work.”
Yves Engler's ZSpace Page
Montreal-based R&D recently gave its 2010 John Humphrey Award to the Venezuelan non-governmental organization PROVEA (El Programa Venezolano de Educacion-Accion en Derechos Humanos). According to R&D’s website, “The Award consists of a grant of $30,000 and a [December] speaking tour of Canadian cities to help increase awareness of the recipient’s human rights work.”
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