Unfortunately, as long as individual nations are not compelled to abide by international law, extending coercive implements into space is a logical, natural progression, and there is no reason not to do it.

If, in some future time, the fetish of nationalism were subordinated to a functioning system of international justice, capable of enforcing transgressions of international law, then it would be possible to prevent the militarization of space.

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–Always a good call. A tribute to Harry Magdoff.

–An interesting article outlining some people’s ideas of the future of Cuba. Personally, I think that anyone who thinks things are going to swing wildly towards capitalism just because Castro is out of the picture do not know their history or the history of Cuba very well.

–Anthony Fenton takes a look at the role the North plays in the South. I have to say that the title is more than a little misleading but it is a good article.

–Arundhati Roy looks at some recent events in India and asks the question: “Can you believe the government’s story on this?”

–An interesting read.

–The word is not ‘wrong’, but “underestimated”.

–Democracy Watch has released a report trouncing the Conservatives in ability to match rhetoric with reality around accountability.

–This should be a major wake-up call to politicians who look to education to fund tax-cuts. Conservatives are always going on about their social values but they seem to ignore these types of stats when they get in the way of profits.

–The Canadian military cannot get recruits so they are relaxing the standards to get in. This and the mass failing of drug tests of our soldiers in Afghanistan should start people questioning if the Defence Department is really a competent organisation at all.

–This is not the way that you fight terror.

–Private militias in Iraq. This is the gift of “democracy” that we are leaving the people there?

–More tax cuts for the already rich.

–Can everyone say “Monopoly Capitalism“? Seems odd to me that a private monopoly energy company can be more efficient and provide the same level of service and low price as a monopoly public company. Wait, that is because it cannot. End corporate monopolies of the energy sector, it should be put back under public control and be reorganised to help fight climate change.

–I beg to differ. There is no evidence that the corresponding decrease in consumption after a rate hike continues for very long or is evenly distributed through the population. The working people of New Brunswick deserve the right to heat their homes without having to choose to sacrifice something else. We must find better ways of distributing power throughout the province without harming the people of the province.

–You have to earn votes with promises and platforms you can keep. The NDP needs to make sure that it stands for something in and between elections in the Maritimes otherwise it will continue to lose.

–Leftnews supports the calls of the Common Front. Support programmes that help the poor get back into the workplace without being penalised for it.

–Doing deals with the likes of the Conservatives means that you do not get what you asked for and they get some propaganda. The Conservatives do not have any credibility on the environment and it will be political suicide and a gift to the right-wing Green Party.

–The State has a monopoly on violence. Now it wants a monopoly on information and media so that it can continue its imperialist actions. The move to establish and consolidate power over the flow of information to the people is a deliberate action to further remove any aspect of democracy.

I find it amazing that the US administration can continue to deride the democratic states of this world while carrying out the very undemocratic policies that they blame these states for carrying out.

We must protect the independent media.

–A new article is available on the Citizens’ Press written by one of it editors Dana Brown.

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Labour / Le Travail is a bilingual and biannual journal covering a broad range of approaches to studying the working class in Canada. Based out of Newfoundland’s Memorial University, L / LT has received international acclaim as a pioneer in Canadian working class history. This journal was born out of the political and socially tumultuous years of the ’60s and ’70s. Labour / Le Travail emerges from the New Left movement, and it might, as Verity Burgmann alludes, be a product of increased access by working class youth to Universities across the country during the ‘50s and ’60s.[1] The journal received its intellectual inspiration by a circle of historians inside the Communist Party of Great Britain, such as Eric Hobsbawn and E. P. Thompson.[2]

–The National Union of Students in the UK have put on a rather large demonstration against tuition fees. The Canadian Federation of Students here in Canada will be putting on its national day of action in February. We will only get freezes and reductions in tuition fees if we demand them. Look for the posters around your campus and demand that your student union get involved (or get involved yourself). Together, students can make a difference in their own lives and the lives of the next generation.

http://www.reducetuitionfees.ca/