Hamas won in Palestinian elections. A party that was considered to radical to win has taken the seat of power. I think we can relate to that on a certain level here in Canada.

Although I do agree with Howard Zinn’s assesment of WWII I don’t think that an anti-war movement in itself will stop war. The capitalist machine drives war. The system has to change first. Do take note of the holocaust revisionist comment at the bottom of the article.

An interesting read about terrorist movements and why they will never work.

In case you didn’t know, Petttigrew lost his seat in parliament. You can thank Haiti Action Montreal for handing out thousands of flyers and and for protesting the appearance of this SOB wherever he showed his face in public.

Asaf Rashid

This is an early update on the Sixth World Social Forum (WSF) in Caracas, Venezuela. The WSF is the largest gathering of social and environmental Justice organizations in the world, with groups arriving from all over the globe, with main messages ranging from “another world is possible” to “another world is necessary”.

McKenna could lead the Liberals in Ottawa. If Mckenna’s track record in N.B. is any indication it wouldn’t be good for this country. Mckenna froze public wages, shrunk the civil service, made cuts to health care, and was openly hostile to unions. Anyone who hasn’t read the Polaris Institue’s paper on Mckenna, I’d encourge them to take a look.

The U.S. seems pretty optimistic about Harper. I wonder if they really know what the words ‘minority government’ means.

“On Thursday, December 6, an assembly of around 150 workers took place at the aluminium factory ALCASA, organized by the executive board of the plant. This is a factory that employs around 3000 workers, situated in Puerto Ordáz (Ciudad Guayana) in the industrialized Bolivar state in the eastern part of Venezuela.”

Remember ‘The Take’ by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein? This is an overview of Zanon since workers occupied the factory over 4 years ago.

Iraqi Unions are standing up to Breton Woods institutions that import neoliberal programs.

The Labour movement in the U.S. is seriously weak if Unions are resorting to non legal union organization. Labour is doing the right thing though because they are doing what they can for workers while, hopefully, pushing for better legislation. It is important to stress that worker associations are no substitute for unions.

Would it be worth putting the country through another election in 8 months to stop Harper? I think so.

A concise economic history of China. Don’t believe the hype that everyone in China is thriving because of this country’s pro captitalist bent. A highly centralized and bureaucratic CCP instituted capitalist reforms that didn’t strengthen their socialist programs. There is hope though; China has the largest working class in the world. They will create change but they need help.

“The highly competitive nature of Chinese goods is possible because they are produced with the most advanced technology (thanks to the huge level of investment over the last 20 years, of 600 billion dollars in 480 companies) combined with wage levels 10 or even 20 times lower than in Europe or the USA.”

Imagine you’re an economist for CAW and the Conservative party cites you as a source, vouching for viability of cutting the GST. That’s what happend to Jim Stanford and others. Is this the “research” that Harper mentioned? Tax cuts will do nothing but shrink government’s capacity to deliver social programs and fix the ones that the Liberals broke.

In case you wern’t watching last night, the Conservatives have won a minority government. Graham leaves the country for just a few days and look what happens ;)… I hope they let him back in. The NDP made significant gains though, and they haven’t had this many seats since Ed Broadbent led the party in the late ’80s. Regional tenions in this country are going to increase.

This should provide some interesting discussion on the organization of the work place - more articles on the subject to appear later

Although I have yet to watch all of CBC’s documentary on China that aired last night, it appears to be endorsing China’s recent economic reforms and ignoring its consequences. The voice-over commentary was oblivious to the workers often featured building the country. Much of China’s growth has been achieved by squeezing more out of labour and stomping on rural farmers.

“These [South American] socialists have not won power by finessing it but rather with bold, popular policies that take on the big problems that working people face every day. Is there not a lesson for Canada’s left here?”

Although I think it is too early to tell what Chile’s Michelle Bachelet will do. A good analysis of the NDP in this election though.

This article concerns Hargrove’s endorsement of the Liberals. The article is by Mel Watkins, former Waffle leader (a radical left faction within the NDP in the ’70s). Hargrove is one of those mushy softcore left Liberals and hopefully CAW will sack him for it.

Just in case anyone was falling into the trap of strategic voting. Look at the record of the man you’d be voting for.

For those of you who aren’t fammiliar with Tommy Douglas’ famous speech, have a look. Even after over 60 years the story is still relevant today. The video is in asx format and should stream relatively fast through windows media.