–The title says it all. Support independent media.

–An analysis of culture that can easily be applied to Canada. We must help those within our boarders protect their cultures, otherwise it will be a very boring world of just empty and shallow Western capitalist “culture”. Culture takes time to develop and almost no time to destroy. We must bare this in mind when deciding what direction we want Canada to go.

–The veterans and soldiers of war reject the Iraq war as being illegal and not a war for the interests of the people. We must stand together to bring the troops home from both the Iraq and Afghan conflicts.

–Write to your MP and urge them to vote in favour of the Anti-Scab legislation. In New Brunswick this is especially important for working people to be able to bargain with their employers in good faith.

–The wold must keep an eye on the actions of the State in Mexico. There is no reason for violence by the State and it must be condemned. Support the right of workers to demand fair wages.

–The people continue to speak out against the neo-liberal model in Latin America. It is time for us, here in the North, to start to do the same.

–Public universities are becoming private institutions and places where politicians try their hair-brained schemes. Tuition should be the same for all people, no matter where they are from. Tuition should also be affordable by everyone (lower the better) and needs based grants should be available to students no matter where they are going to school. The federal government has the ability to make this happen and the provinces have the ability to push the federal government to act. Support a tuition freeze and equality in access to education.

–No fly lists have been shown not to work, are racist, and only interfere with the freedoms of the regular citizens of the world. All people should oppose such a list.

–Yet another bad article from the CBC. The inference at the bottom of the page is that because there were not a lot of people out at the rallies (given the bad weather it is not really a surprise) and because of the propaganda report that was published by the defense department there is still support for the war. This is simply bad logic. If there were lots of people out for a pro-war rally and if there had been a real survey about support for the AFGHAN mission (the report only asked if Canadians support ‘combat roles’ for Canadian troops) then you could make that claim but the realities are somewhat different. There is no support for the Afghanistan War that troops are currently engaged in. All the polls that ask that question say so and the vast majority of the people that are encountered by the Peace Movement in Canada say so. Given this, how is it that the CBC can come to the conclusion that there is support for the war?

The thing to remember regarding Afghanistan, is that the whole mission began when the US demanded the Afghan government hand over Osama. They refused to provide any evidence and when the Afghan government refused to comply, they bombed the country mercilessly. Now if Cuba, unilaterally decided to flatten the US for harboring a suspected terrorist, after refusing to provide evidence to support their claim, we all would think of it as a crime. When discussing Afghanistan, this is the first, and most critical point that should be addressed, namely, international aggression. Rebuilding the country as a democracy was not the original war aim. Bringing Osama to “justice” was. We are expected to believe that collective punishment of the Afghan people was justified since we wanted to capture Osama. Since civilians being crushed under rubble are only important and meaningful when American, this is a palatable hypocrisy.

After the aggression was over and Afghanistan was virtually destroyed by American power, the mission turned into one of “peacekeeping” and rebuilding Afghanistan in a way suitable to westerners. When you look at the Afghani cabinet, it is in large part, warlords and fundamentalists –not secular, democracy-loving politicians. There is one importance difference now - they are compliant with western business interests. Like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan – all nations with extensive human rights violations – they can be “partners” when they line up and help us put the squeeze on upstarts like Iran or North Korea.

The last point that should be discussed is the various intelligence studies, such as the one by Robert Pape of the university of Chicago, which demonstrate conclusively that foreign military presence, and/or intervention, simply increases terrorism, and rather obviously, refugee’s, starvation and human suffering.

In paragraph seven, the article mentions diplomatic efforts that obtained endorsements from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan for the Proliferation Security Initiative. It goes on to mention that Uzbekistan was already cooperating with the PSI. In the final paragraph, it mentions Kim Jong-il and his inner circle, which are “thought to be utterly insensitive to the suffering of the populace.” Then the article quotes a European Diplomat who states, “They’re closer to Al Capone than a state.”

It’s worth mentioning that in July 2000, Kazakhstan’s parliament passed a law granting President Nursultan Nazarbayev lifetime powers and privileges, including access to future presidents, immunity from criminal prosecution, and influence over domestic and foreign policy – a de facto “president for life.” Nazarbayev has repeatedly censored the press through arbitrary use of “slander” laws, blocked access to opposition web sites, banned the Wahhabi religious sect and drawn criticism from Amnesty International for excessive executions following specious trials.

Turkmenistan, according to the 2005 ‘Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index’ had the second worst press freedom conditions in the world behind North Korea.

Uzbekistan has been defined by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, as well as the United States Department of State and Council of the European Union as “an authoritarian state with limited civil rights” with “wide-scale violation of virtually all basic human rights”. According to the reports, the most widespread violations are torture, arbitrary arrests, and various restrictions of freedoms: of religion, of speech and press, of free association and assembly. In 2005, Uzbekistan was included into Freedom House’s “The Worst of the Worst: The World’s Most Repressive Societies”

It should be self-evident that what we have here is a group of monsters, aligned to help knock off an impetuous upstart.

–The “mainstream” media is saying that there is no clear indication who fired “first” but it is clear that the people that died were in solidarity with the popular struggle in Oaxaca. More news will be on the Narconews and Indymedia websites.

Externalities is when a corporation “out-sources” an expense. For example, anyone in Fredericton who has an oil tank in their home would have received a post card from Irving last week advising them that they could log onto www.gnb.ca, and if they are poor enough, they may qualify for an oil rebate.

Similarly, in the international realm, when vital commercial interests are endangered by indigenous insurgents, the job of protecting these interests can and will be “outsourced” to a national military, if the civilian population consents.

Its so absurd it would be comical, if this practice did not cause so much death and suffering.

Paragraph 8 more or less sums it; privatization is very unpopular therefore, foreign and elite interests will have to force it on the Mexican population.

–A planned economy is necessary for the continued survival of our species and to stop our negative effects on the world’s ecology and environment. The problem, of-course, is that the only way to get this planned economy is to move out of a system of capitalism. Have a read of why and where to go for some good analysis here.

–If you look at the majority of the main capitalist powers around the world none of them operate under “free market” rules. We must push through the propaganda wall around this myth and start to examine the realities of our economy and the differences between neoliberal myth and reality. Capitalism continues but it has nothing to do with “free markets”.

–This victory is only part of the battle. The fight must continue to gain the rights of workers to strike. We must also do more to educate the public on why this is important legislation and why we must all support the right for workers to strike.

–Fair trade now.

–Attacks on women continue in Poland.

–The Church should never be involved in the workings and policy creation of the State. Some major education campaigns need to be started in Nicaragua about the realities that these laws are having in Nicaragua. The Sadinistas should know better being a supposed leftist party who used to champion increased access to abortion while they were in power.

–Cheney says it is a “no-brainer” to support the use of simulated drowning as a usable technique to question people. I think that it goes without saying that Cheney is a monster. Where to next? Electric shock is alright too? Maybe keeping victims alive through transfusions while you slice them up? The people must draw the line on what we deem appropriate in a civilised country and I am afraid that Cheney crossed that line a long time ago.

–We love the Postal Workers here on Leftnews. Long live the CUPW!