–Arundhati Roy continues to take on the big guns here. Bush is not welcome in India… I would dare to say he is not welcome most places on the earth.

–Robert Fisk continues his lone journalistic trek in the Real World. It is too bad that the rest of the elite journalists do not meet him there. Have a read.

–This is a rather scathing letter when read with historical insight. Actions in Iran and around that area are very fragile, not because the US is carrying out imperialist actions but because there is a split between what the people on the ground want and what their government continue to do. More organisation is being carried out. However, if the US continues to threaten Iran the reactionary forces there will come out, as they have in Iraq, and grassroots action being built will be lost. Of-course, this will not change the minds of the policy makers in the US (they are not concerned with the safety of the people in the Middle East) but we should be able to convince the hoodwinked academics that this is the case.

–The first thing the Conservatives do when in office is appoint un-elected officials to government. The second thing they do is start talking about weapons in space. Do people really think voting for these people is a good idea?

–Not everyone thinks that the CUPE union leadership went far enough here. Have a read at what they won and have a think about what they could have won.

–The new Minister of Social Development is a right-wing conservative who thinks that women should be at home with the kids and no where else. This should be seen as something to respond to, in my opinion.

–It is remarkable that this conflict can go on like it is without the international community getting more involved. I really cannot see how starving off money to a government that won democratically, after demanding elections, is going to amount to anything but resentment and hostility. What is the plan here? Is it just to aggravate the fanatics so that you can react with more force? The right continue to amaze me with their complicated plans and a complete inability to focus on anything to do with ending suffering.

–The Tories are always trying to re-paint themselves. Here, some of them in Britain are trying to paint themselves red. Seems like a waste of time to me but if it causes the right to fracture then I am all for it.

–The Independent is reporting on plans for major conflicts over water and other resources because of Climate Change. Some would say that they are not too far off here.

–If the Quebec liquor board is privatised then there will be even more lost to greed.

–Badly run organisations, be it private or public, are always going to lead to some corruption. The problem here is that the opportunists on the right will use it to push for privatization.

–The Canadian press establishment is falling over itself to support the Canadian take-over of troops in Afghanistan. We are starting to witness the amazing ability for the elite to back anything that the Canadian State does to support the US. Afghanistan should be the last place that Canadian forces should be. We should not be a country that continues the American imperialist project.

–A look at ownership and the Irvings in New Brunswick.

–Comsky on the Cuban Five and the State. An interesting article, as always.

–The MST write about how the agribusiness has taken much more than it has given to the people in Brazil. This is definitely worth a read.

–More analysis of the anti-everyone else policy coming from the government of the US over new take-overs of ports by international companies not based in the US.

–Attacks against the left-wing politicians in Britain come mostly from the right-wing presses. Livingston has had his fair share over his lifetime.

–FOX News is just ridiculous. Is there anything more absurd and hatefull than this line of answers?

–It is important to make sure people know where the initiatives like publicly funded healthcare come from. There have been some politicians in the past that actually worked for the people. Unsurprisingly, they are on the Left of the aisle.

–Venezuela moves towards the introduction of a halted project to bring cleaner burning cars to the streets.

–Racist, xenophobic protectionist policies are still alive and well inside the US administration.

–Think the corporations are going to protect our rights for us? Think again.

–No Scab workers! Allowing scabs to undercut collective organizing cannot be tolerated if this country is serious about unionization and collective bargaining.

–I do not usually post reactions from authors to people that clearly do not get it but this one is interesting and informative. There have been some reactions from the “elite” sectors of the intelligentsia towards the Parecon model. Unfortunately, they all seem to miss the point. It would be great to have a real critique of the Parecon model, one that actually suggests how it can be improved or changed to suit different circumstances.

–We must all lead the fight against the Conservatives’ plan to eradicate gains in the public childcare system.

–If teachers are not able to inform the parents about the ill effects of class size and the ill effects of bad working conditions for them and the students, then who would? The parents must stand with the teachers against those that are only interested in pulling public funding out of the school system.

–Violence, violence, violence…. that is all you get on the news about Iraq. It is, of-course, because there is lots of violence happening in Iraq. However, out of violence can come solidarity of the majority who reject sectarian violence. These groups are the ones that will be victorious in the end if they acknowledge that the sectarian divides are fostered by the agents of imperialism.

–This is funny. The government commission has written about how the power of the government is undermining democracy. That’s the point. isn’t it? There is nothing about the way that the Neo Labour Party operates that is democratic or socially focused. The people in Britain must not wait for the government to grant them the power to have democracy, they must organize at the grassroots level and take it themselves.

–I always find it amazing how everyone can use the word “democracy” to describe their form of government without the media taking issue with it. Here we have a corrupt regime saying that the popular movement to overthrow the ruling party “un-democratic”. It seems to me that any action that has the backing of the majority of the people is democracy…

–People will always come out in numbers against hatred if they are given the opportunity. It is a shame that we do not still march in force for the people killed by the imperialist wars around the world.

–There has been some talk of “freedom of speech” in the side comments. This is an article that might get some more discussion going. This article makes a distinction between liberal-capitalist “freedom of speech” and what socialists mean when we say freedom from State repression.

–There are a few stories here from Douglas Ireland ranging from Rwanda, Sexual McCarthyism, and Guantanamo Bay. Always an interesting read.

–The current Conservative government is a real danger to the social systems that are in place in this country. If they are not contested at every step they can undo many of the concessions workers, students, and activists have wrested from the system over the past 100 years very quickly. We cannot afford to be silent.

–I really do not think that a “coalition” between the NDP and the Liberals can amount to much good. The party should try to work something out of parliament (a concession or two) but beyond that I think that being cozy with the Liberals is not something the party membership would like to see. I am not sure that I buy Duncan Cameron’s argument here.

–Capitalists do not seem to mind using repressive regimes to oppress their work force so long as profit increases. This is just one more example of this.