–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.

–This scare anyone else? The Tories have not got the weight of the country behind them as they make these decisions never mind their interests. More money for the imperialist machine means less money for the people at home and more oppression for the people around the world. We must condemn these measures.

Asaf Rashid
(February 19, 2006)

Most notably, Canada’s gash has been made through participation in the February 29, 2004 coup of democratically-elected Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide and through the bloody aftermath that has followed the coup. The process ultimately breaks down into a class war pitting the elites in Haiti, Canada, France and the United States against the extreme poor people of Haiti—and indirectly against the poor people of Canada. But none of the significance in cruelty of Canada’s involvement in Haiti, and what it means in a bigger picture of historical oppression, can be understood without first dipping into the past.
Read the rest of this entry »

All happening at the Underground Cafe at 8pm on Wednesday February 22. (The Cafe is located in Fredericton in the Charlotte St Arts Centre, 732 Charlotte St.)

Learn the history that has been avoided through the course of the mainstream…

The Orangeburg Massacre:
At 10:33 p.m. on the night of February 8, 1968, eight to 10 seconds of police gunfire left three young black men dying and 27 wounded on the campus of South Carolina State College in Orangeburg….

Want to know more? Listen to History PhD student Chris Powell (who has written extensively on it) discuss the issue.

**As well, see “America, Beyond the Color Line” (Henry Louis Gates Jr)…
Coming face to face with the people and places that constitute the African-American experience today, Gates confronts the issues he spends his time writing and thinking about: race, identity, integration, culture, class, the legacy of history and what it means to be black and American today…

@ the Underground Cafe at 8pm on Wednesday February 22

–Feeling down about the Left in the US and the rest of the West? Have a read of this article by Steohanie Luce about the history of the social movements in the US and how there is an active fight at the ground level to try to build an alternative. Battles continue to be won… it is just too bad that they are not reported as much as we would like. The struggle continues.

–An obvious statement above, but unfortunately it needs to be said. The Left needs to be more vocal against the take-over of the “free-speech” tag to spread hatred and mobalize right-wing reactionary groups.

–Thomas Walkom clearifies the Quebec Healthcare system for all of us…

–More on Workers’ Control and Nationalization. This article is a slightly indepth look at the Venezuelan Bolivarian Revolution. There will be a talk on this coming up during the second week of March. Stay tuned for details.

–I am not for protectionist policies but I am also not for the forced opening of markets in a move to push down wages. These are economic imperialist actions.. also known as neo-liberalism.

–Political manouvering in Spain looks interesting as a growing push from the right-wing to destabalize the Socialist Party that is in power. The Left needs to make sure that the common goals maintain their place out front so that the reactionary parties cannot regain their foothold on the government.