Labour activists should read this article and commit these seven reasons, along with the arguments, to memory. They will come in handy during a drive, when workers are trying to evaluate the “pros and cons” of unionization, or when management is engaged in anti-labour propaganda.

Struggling Ontario joins have-not ranks

Ontario to get slice of equalization pie

What does this actually mean for Canada?

This article also includes a link to the opposing website: Boycott DMC Pharmacy

It’s only a matter of time before we see this in Canada - if it doesn’t already exist. If you have doubts, google “Calgary pharmacist Maria Bizecki”. I can’t stomach re-posting that junk.

“A new poll by the Associated Press and Yahoo News has found that deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close. The poll found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks. The polling suggests Obama would receive an estimated six percentage points more support if there were no racial prejudice.”

Also see: When You’re a Black Candidate There’s No Such Thing as a Safe Lead | Counter Punch

“For example, if Obama goes into election day with a six point lead (say 53-47 percent), it would only take 3.01 percent of supposed Obama voters to change their minds to defeat him by 49.99 to 50.01 percent. Only five percent would need to change their minds to wipe out a ten percent lead.”

“Academics and researchers from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Mexico, Peru, Phillipines, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela participated in The International Political Economy Conference: Responses from the South to the Global Economic Crisis, held in Caracas from October 8 to 11, 2008 … We convene a second International Political Economy Conference: Responses from the South to the Global Economic Crisis to be held in the first four months of 2009.”

“Across the 24 OECD nations for which data was available, the cumulative increase in inequality was around 7 percent from the mid-1980s to mid-2000s … The report said income inequality in general had risen significantly since 2000 in Canada, Germany, Norway, the United States, Italy, and Finland”

Buzz Hargrove, the outspoken former national president of the Canadian Auto Workers, will speak at a public lecture in Fredericton on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at the Wu Conference Centre, University of New Brunswick at 4 p.m..

In “Looking Back, Looking Ahead”, the New Brunswick-born Hargrove will talk about his life as a trade unionist and why Canadian democracy needs a strong labour movement to survive. Mr. Hargrove’s speech is sponsored by the New Brunswick Labour History Project at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. A public reception hosted by the Office of the Vice-President of Research Services, UNB, will follow. Everyone is most welcome to attend.

For further information contact Carol Ferguson, Project Officer, New Brunswick Labour History Project at 506-453-4599 or cferguso@unb.ca.

Buzz Hargrove prononcera une conférence publique à la UNB

Buzz Hargrove, ce syndicaliste au franc-parler et ancien président national des Travailleurs canadiens de l’automobile, prononcera une conférence publique au Wu Conference Centre de la University of New Brunswick à Fredericton, le mercredi 22 octobre 2008 à 16 h.

Dans sa présentation intitulée « Lookink Back, Looking Ahead», Hargrove, un natif du Nouveau-Brunswick, parlera de sa vie de syndicaliste et démontrera que la démocratie canadienne a besoin d’un mouvement ouvrier fort pour survivre.

La conférence de Monsieur Hargrove est parrainée par le Projet d’histoire du travail au Nouveau-Brunswick (Fredericton). Une réception, offerte par le Bureau du vice-recteur à la recherche de la UNB, suivra. Bienvenue à toutes et à tous.

Pour plus de renseignements, veuillez contacter la chargée de projet Carol Ferguson, Projet d’histoire du travail au Nouveau-Brunswick, au 506-453-4599 ou par courriel : cferguso@unb.ca .

Some proposals outlined at: “The International Conference on Political Economy [which] took place in Caracas, Venezuela from October 8-11, 2008, and was attended by academics and researchers from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, South Korea, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, the United States, the Philippines, France, England, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. … The Second International Conference on Political Economy: Responses from the South to the World Economic Crisis, [will] take place in Caracas in the first quarter of the year 2009.”

Last week, the Monthly Review group stated: “At Monthly Review we therefore should take as a primary task the job of driving the stake into the heart of what should be mortally wounded neoliberalism … Let us ruthlessly ridicule all the years of the dishonest jargon of “economic freedom” and “reform” spewed upon the public by economists and journalists serving as the bankers’ whores. Let us help clear the ground for a global return to the socialist path, the only hope for the majority of humankind — the propertyless.”

William K. Tabb’s article is a brilliant contribution to this objective.

“In a perverse way, Henry Paulson and his co-conspirators have done the [U.S.] public a great favor. He has told [them] that, Yes, the federal government can come up with $700-plus billion, in an instant, if the health of the nation demands it. He has expanded the fiscal scope of the domestic political debate, so that it may encompass projects of transformational size. Never again can the corporate class speak of socially valuable projects being so large as to “break the bank” or the budget. Popular forces are now free to think large, too, without being ridiculed from the corporate Right.”

-Groups like the NoToPope Coalition are calling for protests of the Pope’s visit to the World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, although the “Labour” Party government in Australia is trying to make protests illegal.  This article also draws out how religious doctrine has negatively impacted international aid and served to worsen the AIDS/HIV epedemic in Africa.  Read how and why.