–Great news for all those that care about the wheat farmer. Independent farmers need the Wheat Board if they are going to survive in the face of the monopolies of the Agro-Corps.

–Slowly, the neo-liberal reforms remove all the protections the working-class worked a century to get. An opt-out clause? How about a state responsibility clause where the state has the responsibility to make sure wages are high enough so that people do not have to work 65 hours a week to survive?

Racist behaviour in our country’s “multicultural” metropolitan centres is often more vulgar and violent than outside. Here’s a perfect example.

“Last September there were a rash of disturbing attacks against Asian fishermen [just north of Markham, ON] … Six assaults were eventually reported to York police. Arrests have been made in five. Dozens more victims told stories of harassment, racial slurs, theft and assault on Chinese-language call-in shows. Incidents were reported as far away as Peterborough and Westport … Were these attacks racially motivated, or just a troubling example of tensions between locals and anglers, who are often Asian? As the debate raged, nine parked vehicles were vandalized with swastikas, anti-Semitic graffiti and homosexual slurs in late September … In late October, two men strung up a black-painted skeleton from a noose at the end of their yard in Keswick. The life-size dummy dangled from a flagpole beneath an oversized Confederate flag. It hung there for several weeks until a police officer noticed.”

“We could talk about so many other issues – the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples, First Nations poverty, drinking water – and the list is quite extensive.”

150,000 children were removed from their communities and put in the “residential school system”, and according to CBC Newsworld, this includes those kidnapped from their mothers immediately after birth.

–This was posted at the link above on Lenin’s Tomb. Great clip.

British officers and armed bluejackets boarded the Christianiafjord and in the name of the officer commanding the port called upon me, my wife, my two boys and five other passengers to leave the steamer. The reasons, they told me, would be given to me at Halifax. We answered that the demand was illegal and that we would refuse to comply. Thereupon the armed sailors, amid shouts of “shame” from a considerable number of passengers, bodily carried us aboard a naval cutter, which took us to Halifax under escort of a cruiser. A dozen of the sailors were busy with my struggling person when my elder boy ran to my assistance and planted his tiny fist in the officer’s face, crying, “Shall I hit him again, father?”

He was eleven years old: it was his first contact with British democracy

–A timely article exposing the myths the Media continue to tout that there is some formal connection between Chavez and the FARC given the article on CBC below.

–Lebowitz writes on the significance of May Day and the reason to fight for a shorter work-day. The struggle is as significant today as it was back then.

-Happy birthday, Lenin.

–There is a lot to be learned from the outcome and implementation of The New Deal especially given the ongoing debate over the nature of the current downturn.

See also this report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

–Being an avid reader of Lenin’s Tomb but having no direct affiliation with the IS Tendency, I feel completely safe from being called a shill by suggesting that people buy and read this book. If you are in the peace movement then you need the analysis to attack the liberal apologists of imperialist war. If you are not in the peace movement that opposes imperialist war then you need to read this book as a kick to your head. Consider this an official Leftnews.org endorsement.

–A new movement against nuclear armament. There is a long history in the UK of protests against the Bomb, hopefully the people will learn from their mistakes last time and merge the movement with others that fight for similar causes.

–An interesting read of the history of the US Left.

–Long live Castro. Long live the Cuban revolution.

What really gets me about this is that the liberal media is having trouble with keeping their long held position of Castro being a dictator but at the same time trying to report the facts at this point — which are that he is not running for election to be president again.

Of-course, we cannot help but ask who might be up next. The Guardian.co.uk has some hypotheses.

–This is a lists of facts and paradoxes of the history of imperialism and oppression. Worth the time to read.

–Fisk takes us through some recent history of Imad Mougnieh in Lebanon.

Here’s Kelly “the lumber jack” Lamrock ready to turn over our education system to do a few tricks for big-daddy Bill Gates. Don’t let Lamrock’s stage theatrics and flowery prose fool you. He’s out to earn a buck.

Polls show that Canadians want government to run schools, not private companies. But then again, Lamrock has already demonstrated he doesn’t care what parents want.

Privately owned and operated public schools foster the corporate takeover of education, they threaten the working conditions of teachers, and they put profit and shareholder’s needs over our children’s education.

Canada’s Sweetheart: the Saga of Hal C. Banks (1985) is a docudrama about the Seafarers’ International Union and its corrupt, Al Capone-like American leader, Harold Banks. It was co-written, produced and directed by legendary Canadian film maker, Donald Brittain. This film was based on the true story of American trade unionist, Harold C. Banks, turned Canadian labour leader in the 1950s and 1960s. The story is rife with political intrigue, corruption, scandal, and organized crime. Essentially, a convicted felon with a shady past is allowed into Canada to destroy the Canadian Seaman’s Union. It started with chains, bats, and pitched battles between communists and thugs (one such battle occurred in S.J. New Brunswick), and ends with fat-cat corruption and the complicity of the Federal Government. The true story and the film has all the trappings of a film-noir, or gangster inspired film, but these cinematic themes, and all the codes that they command, misses the broader, more important commentary that this chapter in Canadian history necessitates. This film is actually considered part of a minority genre known as working-class or labour films, but you’d never know it. Donald Brittain’s commentary overlooks key concepts in labour history that could have accentuated his film’s message.

Interesting read about Quebec’s large cooperative movement. The forestry cooperatives are of specific interest for New Brunswickers thinking of alternative models after several catastrophic private capital failures.

A little reminder from our recent history.

–Caution: contains the truth.

–The Columbus myth is at the top of the list of myths that need exposing in the US. The entire pseudo-history of the Americas rests on it.

–This is an interesting article everyone interested in neo-liberalism should read.

–He killed himself on the fence in Cancun to protest the WTO. This is the extent to which farmers are affected by `free trade’.

–Chomsky, Zinn, JB Foster, Klein, and Prashad have signed onto this open letter opposing military ties between India and the US.

–Looks like Che is back. Of-course, for some, he vision of a socialist South America never left.

–Chavez calls for a re-united Left within an international framework. For those that understand the Left’s history the title could read: Chavez calls for a new International. This contributor agrees.

–I am not saying that I agree with this statement (it is up to those that study history to debate whether Lenin was, in fact, a `humanitarian’) however, it is an interesting thesis.

–Working people continue to be under attack. In the US, workers seemed to be losing ground over recent history but things are coming around lately.

–Robert Fisk writes about the Armenian genocide.

–A message from Fidel Castro.

–A graphical rundown of the anti-imperial actions (for the most part) in South and Central America.

Naji Al-Ali’s Handala lives on. Have a look at the impact a cartoon can have on the world.