–Some reading for the weekend. The Monthly Review continues to outline labour history.

–The same is true for Canada.

–It’s about time. The Unions should be on this more than almost anything else.

–The British look to be mistaken in their announcement that the sailors were in Iraqi waters. The media continue to be confused by the whole thing without being able to do any independent research of their own. What has our media come to when they cannot even go on a map and find our where the boarders are? The Iranian government is using this opportunity to react to being labeled crazy but because of the complete inability of the two cultures to see past their stereotypes and the ineptitude of the media to filter it for us the message is lost. So, because of the imperial nature of the relationship between the US and Britain to Iran and the rest of the Middle East, a simple police action by a country defending its own boarders turns into a edge of reason international circus. When are we all going to grow up?

–We must keep our media, we must demand accountability from that media, and we must demand that Canadian content be allowed on the screen so that our acting community and our culture is maintained. The CEP fight for this and we should support them.

–We must have a top end to our work life. The problem is that because of the erosion of our public social services we are increasingly depressed about the end of our working lives. We must demand that the work that we have done over our lives be enough to provide some comfort and flexibility later in life and allow the next generation access to the job market.

–More on South America and the revolutionary process. All the history of oppression by the North continues to fuel the people to demand independence and self-determination. We must support their struggle.

–Public airwaves need public content and that is what they are going to be getting in Venezuela.

–Once again the province is carrying out reforms without consulting the people that the reforms affect.

My letter accompanying the budget can be seen here

From Richard Sanders -

Contrast Gildan’s Top Salaries with Haiti’s Minimum Wage

• Working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week at minimum wage in Gildan sweatshops, Haitians would have to work 2481 years to earn CEO Glen Chamandy’s 2006 salary, and 8016 years for CFO Laurence Sellyn’s 2006 salary.

• Assuming he worked 40 hours per week in 2006, Gildan’s CEO Glen Chamandy received a Haitian sweatshop workers’ annual salary every 50 minutes, while Gildan CFO Laurence Sellyn earned that much every 15 minutes.

(Source: Press for Conversion! published by the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade Issue #60 (March 2007) “A Very Canadian Coup d’état in Haiti: The Top 10 Ways that Canada’s Government helped the 2004 Coup and its Reign of Terror”)

See the above wage-disparity factoids (and grinning photos of Sellyn and Chamandy) on page 45 of the latest issue of Press for Conversion!

–George Ciccariello-Maher has hit the nail on the head here when talking about the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Those that continue to think that one party is the end of democracy and pluralism need to re-examine if they actually have democracy an pluralism in the old bureaucracies that exist now. The movement forward must include the elimination of these old and tired sectarian structures and move towards the development of grassroots and revolutionary leadership and democratic control. We must demand debate and democracy. We must demand our leadership follow our direction. We must unite to move forward. The socialist project is nothing without active debate and organising and we cannot let those in the leadership positions that are scared of losing some of their power disturb the march forward. One united party, many tendencies, democracy from bellow.

–Some analysis of the current economic model coming from the MAS (Movement Towards Socialism). There is some question whether their economic policies are actually moving in the correct direction or if they are just more of the same neo-liberalism. There needs to be some grassroots mobilising and progressive alternatives put forward to counter this tendency.

–Some food for thought when dealing with the current challenges to the economic system from people getting older. We need to re-evaluate the way that the State is doing its math.

–The reason for this is commercialisation of research at universities and private profit driving the system. You cannot have innovation if you cannot see beyond the end of the next quarter. Only publicly funded, longterm investment in education and infrastructure and a collaborative environment will give us innovation.

–Canadian foreign policy…

–There are many myths surrounding biofuels and why they are not the alternative environmentalists are seeking. We need sustainable alternatives that are not going to cut into the food supply and cause a price increase.

–Hedges takes a look at Evangelical and other religious anti-materialism and its effects on society. A very interesting read.

In his new book, economist Dean Baker debunks the myth that conservatives favor the market over government intervention. In fact, conservatives rely on a range of “nanny state” policies that ensure the rich get richer while leaving most Americans worse off. It’s time for the rules to change. Sound economic policy should harness the market in ways that produce desirable social outcomes – decent wages, good jobs and affordable health care.

–Watch and listen to some leaders in the field of studying the effects of Public-Private Partnerships.

–It is rather obvious to most people on the ground why the ADQ did so well in the polls… so why is it so hard for the media to figure it out?

–It is rather interesting to note that these judges are getting in the way of a democratic process to write a constitution that represents the majority opinion.

–George Monbiot writes about biofuels and why they cannot be implemented the way that the US government wants. It also seems that Castro agrees with him. I think that it is fairly obvious that there should be some more thought put into a plan that wants to replace growing food with growing fuel for US consumers.

–

A special investigation reveals how the Home Office deported a Darfur refugee back to the Sudanese capital, where he was then tortured. He escaped to tell his story, reports Inigo Gilmore.

Are we really to believe that the West is a civilised society when it purposely sends people to areas where they know things like this will happen? We are not only responsible for sending people back to this but we are also share the blame for the cruel governments that are in power in these regions.

–Most of the Left do not like CIDA and see it as an imperialist organisation (they would be correct in this analysis), the problem is that many of these people work for NGOs that get their money through CIDA grants… How about calling for dedicated funding for NGOs that is not filtered through the CIDA bureaucracy.

–Is there still an argument against oversight of the RCMP?

I am leaving Fredericton soon and I am afraid I have to leave part of my library behind. I am offering these books for sale. There are no prices listed, as I have not set any. Simply make an offer to geoffrey_mccormack[at]yahoo[dot]ca and we can determine price on a case by case basis.

All of this in a city that only a year ago was cited as an example of progress toward peace in Iraq by Bush.

–… and the attack on the people and their environment continues.

–Exposing health hazards should not put your job in danger… at least it wouldn’t in country that put the citizens ahead of profit.

–Interesting method of getting the message out.

The main prize is control over pipelines that will deliver an estimated 5 percent of the world’s dwindling energy reserves to market. And the players are far more diverse: In addition to the US, China, France, and India, the region’s five post-Soviet states are getting into the game, giving the local hazards that stalk them – including faltering authoritarian governments, rising Islamic militancy, and a wave of drug trafficking that originates in the poppy fields of Afghanistan – a new international dimension

“The Central Asian countries are still very much locked into the Russian pipelines and infrastructure and must sell their oil and gas to world markets on Russian terms,” says Ivan Saffranchuk, Moscow director of the independent World Security Institute. “The Western idea is that these countries will have real sovereignty only when they are able to independently sell their resources.”

The US strongly backed the recently opened $4 billion Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, which carries Caspian oil to the West without Russian participation. Mr. Suslov says that Washington is urging hydrocarbon-rich Kazakhstan to break free from Russia’s grip and build links to the Baku- Ceyhan network. China has recently managed to buy a key Kazakh oil company and in 2005 a 1,000-mile pipeline began carrying Kazakh crude to China. It reportedly has plans to extend the pipeline westward by 2011 to funnel Caspian oil eastward.

Prices for processed uranium ore, also called U308, or yellowcake, are flying through the stratosphere. Yellowcake is trading at around $90 a pound, nearing the all-time high, adjusted for inflation, of about $120 in the mid-1970s. The price has more than doubled in the past six months. As recently as late 2002, it was below $10.

The fundamental causes of the uninterrupted ascendance of prices since 2003 can be traced to inventory constraints among power companies and a drying up of the excess supply of uranium from old Soviet-era nuclear weapons that was converted to use in power plants, coupled with the expected surge in demand from China, India, Russia and a few other countries for new nuclear power plants to fuel their growing economies.

But many people in the region, including leaders of the Navajo Nation, are not particularly excited to have Pandora and its nuclear bedfellows back in their communities. They have not forgiven the mining and power companies for poisoning their workers and residents, in some cases fatally, with radon, silica and tainted groundwater.

–Have a look at this animation from CUPE. It is a response to the current Federal Budget from the Conservatives.

–James Laxer writes about the current situation in Quebec politics.