Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Monday, December 1, 2008
an NDP/Liberal coalition?
First of all, it's rather interesting that on left blogs and websites throughout Canada, there seems to be a sort of jubilation around the idea that the NDP and Liberals will join forces to take out the Tories and form a coalition government. Go to Rabble for just one example among many.
But the reality is, however, that such a coalition really represents labor's parliamentary voice being subverted by the twin party of the Conservatives - the Liberals. Sure, there *are* differences between them, mainly in the constituencies they mobilize around election time, but their class basis is identical to the Conservatives - they are both the parties of Bay Street.
Such a merger then, places the aspirations of millions of working Canadians who want 'change' in a similar place as those held by their American counterparts who had faith in an Obama presidency representing their interests - namely, into the hands of a corporate party willing to promise anything in order to gain power, but being little different in structure or outlook once power is attained.
such a situation is actually quite disastrous for the future of the NDP on a couple of fronts - first of all it sends the message that ABC (Anybody But Conservative) politics is the way to go...if the Liberals are more viable at the polls in more places, then why not just vote Liberal? It gives way too much ammunition to the strategic voting argument.
secondly, it forces the NDP into a position where it will have to make attacks on working people in order to stay in power.
and finally, rather than being a response to the economic crisis, as it's being presented by both the Liberals and NDP as well as the media coverage, it actually ignores the root of the problem. The present downturn is a direct consequence of capitalism as a whole to be sure, but more specifically the severity of the current crisis is a direct result of decades of neoliberal economic policy. One doesn't have to have a tremendous memory to recall that the Liberal party throughout the 1990s were at the forefront of the neoliberal agenda, engineering the largest cuts in Canadian history to programs like healthcare, unemployment insurance (renamed "Employment Insurance" in a move that Orwell would be proud of) and so on, even pushing through NAFTA after coming to power by promising not to do so - basically devastating living conditions for many working people, while ensuring that the money they lost went to the corporate elite.
It is precisely this kind of politics that's behind the current mess - and it's very important to recognize that the current crisis facing the Conservatives actually represents a worldwide political crisis created by the economic one - it is a crisis of legitimacy, as decades of slash and burn neoliberal ideology is being challenged by demands for bailouts and 'stimulus packages'
It's very important that we understand that the key factor moving forward is organizing and building working class resistance, because it's precisely that fightback which will be decisive in the coming period, not blind faith in a parliamentary coalition, no matter how much we may despise the party it's pushing out of the way.
Only working class resistance can ensure that issues like restoring cuts to public services, ending the war in Afghanistan immediately, investing in public sector jobs, protecting pensions, getting rid of 'security certificates' and other issues like these are pushed to the forefront.
But the reality is, however, that such a coalition really represents labor's parliamentary voice being subverted by the twin party of the Conservatives - the Liberals. Sure, there *are* differences between them, mainly in the constituencies they mobilize around election time, but their class basis is identical to the Conservatives - they are both the parties of Bay Street.
Such a merger then, places the aspirations of millions of working Canadians who want 'change' in a similar place as those held by their American counterparts who had faith in an Obama presidency representing their interests - namely, into the hands of a corporate party willing to promise anything in order to gain power, but being little different in structure or outlook once power is attained.
such a situation is actually quite disastrous for the future of the NDP on a couple of fronts - first of all it sends the message that ABC (Anybody But Conservative) politics is the way to go...if the Liberals are more viable at the polls in more places, then why not just vote Liberal? It gives way too much ammunition to the strategic voting argument.
secondly, it forces the NDP into a position where it will have to make attacks on working people in order to stay in power.
and finally, rather than being a response to the economic crisis, as it's being presented by both the Liberals and NDP as well as the media coverage, it actually ignores the root of the problem. The present downturn is a direct consequence of capitalism as a whole to be sure, but more specifically the severity of the current crisis is a direct result of decades of neoliberal economic policy. One doesn't have to have a tremendous memory to recall that the Liberal party throughout the 1990s were at the forefront of the neoliberal agenda, engineering the largest cuts in Canadian history to programs like healthcare, unemployment insurance (renamed "Employment Insurance" in a move that Orwell would be proud of) and so on, even pushing through NAFTA after coming to power by promising not to do so - basically devastating living conditions for many working people, while ensuring that the money they lost went to the corporate elite.
It is precisely this kind of politics that's behind the current mess - and it's very important to recognize that the current crisis facing the Conservatives actually represents a worldwide political crisis created by the economic one - it is a crisis of legitimacy, as decades of slash and burn neoliberal ideology is being challenged by demands for bailouts and 'stimulus packages'
It's very important that we understand that the key factor moving forward is organizing and building working class resistance, because it's precisely that fightback which will be decisive in the coming period, not blind faith in a parliamentary coalition, no matter how much we may despise the party it's pushing out of the way.
Only working class resistance can ensure that issues like restoring cuts to public services, ending the war in Afghanistan immediately, investing in public sector jobs, protecting pensions, getting rid of 'security certificates' and other issues like these are pushed to the forefront.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
after ages away from the blogosphere...
i'm back.
expect content, lots of it.
why now? because i think something like this blog, combined with a little bit of research, will help me to organize my thoughts on this whole disorganized mess.
expect content, lots of it.
why now? because i think something like this blog, combined with a little bit of research, will help me to organize my thoughts on this whole disorganized mess.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
been a while...
wow...it has been forever (well, March) since i last updated this. for whatever reason I just haven't felt up to it, but I'm going to try to keep it more up to date. One thing that I'm pretty excited about locally is that there's a new fair trade coffee shop/leftist book store in town. and I live in a city of 50000 people. Cities of 50000 people generally don't have leftist bookstores, so I feel quite lucky indeed...
It's called the Organic Underground - all of the food/beverages fall into the fair trade and/or organic categories...and there's a good selection of left (mostly anarchist - but i plan on changing that - the store owners, one of whom i've done a fair bit of organizing with in the past, is letting me help out with the books...so i plan on getting some more socialist literature in there.)
one other great thing about this place is that it's open for use as a space for public meetings/forums/etc - something that has been severely lacking in this town for as long as i can remember (well at least as long as i can remember being politically conscious)
on top of all of this, and i can play go there as well. pinch me, i'm dreaming!
It's called the Organic Underground - all of the food/beverages fall into the fair trade and/or organic categories...and there's a good selection of left (mostly anarchist - but i plan on changing that - the store owners, one of whom i've done a fair bit of organizing with in the past, is letting me help out with the books...so i plan on getting some more socialist literature in there.)
one other great thing about this place is that it's open for use as a space for public meetings/forums/etc - something that has been severely lacking in this town for as long as i can remember (well at least as long as i can remember being politically conscious)
on top of all of this, and i can play go there as well. pinch me, i'm dreaming!
Saturday, March 24, 2007
should the anti-war movement rely on the Democrats?
"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." - George W. Bush
that being the case, i guess things are pretty easy right now for George. when a president promises to use veto power to clearly defy the will of voters, what else can you call it but dictatorship?
As MoveOn.org says:
"Congress has passed a deadline to end the war. The Supplemental bill is a real step forward, but it's not enough - we need to keep the pressure on to end the war quickly and safely. The media has focused on divisions among Democrats, but the biggest division is between the president, who'll veto any deadline, and the voters, who want one."
I agree with most of that sentiment - but Bush's defiance clearly shows that simply voting for Democrats (many of whom have very questionable anti-war credentials) hoping they're going to push him out of Iraq won't work. What's this about a timetable? The US needs to get out of Iraq yesterday, not a year from now. The growing anti-war mood in the US shows that the support (generated through relentless administration/corporate media propaganda) for the war is no longer there.
it's time to make his job a LOT harder - how can this be done without relying on a strategy of relying on the Democrats to do it in a system that prevents them from doing so?
well, how about a general strike from Americans opposed to the war?
it's time to say STOP THE WAR with the overwhelming economic power that the majority who oppose this war hold but don't realize. the strike as political tool is used successfully elsewhere, why not in America? if immigrant workers (a minority) can successfully join together and show their collective power by not showing up for work on May Day, why can't those opposed to war (an overwhelming majority) do the same thing? is that some impossible pipe dream?
i really don't think so. if there's one thing the Bush administration is really good at it's unintentionally waking up large groups of people out of their collective slumber. it's pretty hard to sleep when the house is on fire, the neighbours go missing, and the phone lines are being tapped - it's pretty hard to sleep when the house is a little emptier because you lost a loved one overseas and don't even have a good reason why - and it's pretty hard to sleep when the house gets severely flooded and despite your prayers nobody comes to help for days.
many, many, people are questioning THIS war, and a smaller number are questioning for the first time American involvement in war in general - but picking and choosing which interventions are good and which ones aren't like it's some sort of shopping list is very dangerous for Americans, and very dangerous for the rest of the world as well. Don't like war in Iraq? Maybe you'll like war in Iran. *ahem* i don't think so.
how can we turn those in group A (who support the war but think it's being waged poorly) into members of group B (who support some interventions but oppose Iraq) and then turn those people into active members of group C? (that is, people who see American interventionism and "global policing' for the imperialist sham that it really is)
if we can't collectively answer that question (and i believe we can but it's going to take lots and lots of hard work) Bush's job, and more importantly the ugly job of the system he represents, is going to be far too easy indeed...
that being the case, i guess things are pretty easy right now for George. when a president promises to use veto power to clearly defy the will of voters, what else can you call it but dictatorship?
As MoveOn.org says:
"Congress has passed a deadline to end the war. The Supplemental bill is a real step forward, but it's not enough - we need to keep the pressure on to end the war quickly and safely. The media has focused on divisions among Democrats, but the biggest division is between the president, who'll veto any deadline, and the voters, who want one."
I agree with most of that sentiment - but Bush's defiance clearly shows that simply voting for Democrats (many of whom have very questionable anti-war credentials) hoping they're going to push him out of Iraq won't work. What's this about a timetable? The US needs to get out of Iraq yesterday, not a year from now. The growing anti-war mood in the US shows that the support (generated through relentless administration/corporate media propaganda) for the war is no longer there.
it's time to make his job a LOT harder - how can this be done without relying on a strategy of relying on the Democrats to do it in a system that prevents them from doing so?
well, how about a general strike from Americans opposed to the war?
it's time to say STOP THE WAR with the overwhelming economic power that the majority who oppose this war hold but don't realize. the strike as political tool is used successfully elsewhere, why not in America? if immigrant workers (a minority) can successfully join together and show their collective power by not showing up for work on May Day, why can't those opposed to war (an overwhelming majority) do the same thing? is that some impossible pipe dream?
i really don't think so. if there's one thing the Bush administration is really good at it's unintentionally waking up large groups of people out of their collective slumber. it's pretty hard to sleep when the house is on fire, the neighbours go missing, and the phone lines are being tapped - it's pretty hard to sleep when the house is a little emptier because you lost a loved one overseas and don't even have a good reason why - and it's pretty hard to sleep when the house gets severely flooded and despite your prayers nobody comes to help for days.
many, many, people are questioning THIS war, and a smaller number are questioning for the first time American involvement in war in general - but picking and choosing which interventions are good and which ones aren't like it's some sort of shopping list is very dangerous for Americans, and very dangerous for the rest of the world as well. Don't like war in Iraq? Maybe you'll like war in Iran. *ahem* i don't think so.
how can we turn those in group A (who support the war but think it's being waged poorly) into members of group B (who support some interventions but oppose Iraq) and then turn those people into active members of group C? (that is, people who see American interventionism and "global policing' for the imperialist sham that it really is)
if we can't collectively answer that question (and i believe we can but it's going to take lots and lots of hard work) Bush's job, and more importantly the ugly job of the system he represents, is going to be far too easy indeed...
Friday, March 16, 2007
my jaw just dropped
living in Canada, where Fox News is a subscribers-only channel (at least it is in my household) i haven't had the misfortune of watching much of it. from what i've seen of/read about it, i figured it was a bit more biased towards Republicans and a little more pro-war than the other pro-Republican/pro-war channels like CNN.
never in my wildest dreams did i imagine anything quite like this. from the looks of it, it's not much less openly racist than Der Sturmer was.
you must see this.
never in my wildest dreams did i imagine anything quite like this. from the looks of it, it's not much less openly racist than Der Sturmer was.
you must see this.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
creating new ideas
when asked for a description of myself on here, i put 'just a person trying to break with old ideas' - that begs the question - what can we do to create 'new ideas' regarding the way society should be run?
one thing that has become very apparent to me is that there are a couple of ways that people can really learn about the way the society around them works - one is the inefficient path, the one that i took - the one that really takes a certain personality type for any kind of results.
that is, to look at the world and to just study as much as you can about what's going on, making sure to include viewpoints that contradict the status quo - after all if you're unsatisfied with the status quo in society it makes sense to look at alternative viewpoints, right?
but i really don't think this path is for most people. it's for the fanatics - or half-a-fanatics - like me, who don't just settle for turning on the evening news, absorbing what they see, spending a bit of time with the family, and going to bed. but i really don't think that describes most people. so, that being the case, how can we expose people to new, visionary ideas?
the answer is all around us. under class society, people adopt many contradictory viewpoints - someone who's quite progressive when it comes to understanding the need to push for a safer workplace might also hold some regressive views too - for example they could be racist.
so how can we resolve these contradictions, and win people over to a different outlook?
most people aren't carrying out their own personal research project. but they do absorb the ideas around them. on one hand there are the ideas perpetuated by class society - ideas such as:
i'm not smart enough to make these decisions, let's leave it to the boss
i'm having trouble making ends meet, but if i work hard enough everything will be ok
i'm broke, but if i had some money, everything will be ok
that person over there who looks different from me is trying to take my job and make my life worse
women's interests and men's interests are by their very nature, in conflict with one another
etc etc etc...
but there's also the teacher of experience - that often contradicts these 'old ideas' and this experience can teach us:
the boss is so far removed from my situation that he has no idea what needs to be done
i work and work, but i never get ahead, i just have less time to spend with family and a higher level of stress
i've got some money, but it hasn't made me any happier 'cause i know the neighbor's kids go to bed hungry
that person over there who looks different from me is someone i work with and we really need to stand together if our interests are threatened
men and women both benefit if we fight for safer communities free from violence and a greater say in what happens to all of us
etc etc etc...
so how do we resolve these contradictions? push people away from the former ideas and to a greater understanding of the latter? well, plenty of people come to understand the latter ideas all by themselves - but how do they come to these understandings? by working with one another, by simply interacting with one another. but that's how individuals come to understand them. how can we work so that wider groups within society do too - groups that have much more potential to create positive change than individuals? here's where the need for organization comes in. if we believe in creating a future based upon values of solidarity, social justice, equality, etc etc, then we must organize to actively engage people in struggle - the greatest teacher of all - in their communities, in their workplaces - so that they can be won over to the idea that change is actually possible with numbers, and so their individual contributions to this desired change can help us all further our goals. in short:
ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE!
one thing that has become very apparent to me is that there are a couple of ways that people can really learn about the way the society around them works - one is the inefficient path, the one that i took - the one that really takes a certain personality type for any kind of results.
that is, to look at the world and to just study as much as you can about what's going on, making sure to include viewpoints that contradict the status quo - after all if you're unsatisfied with the status quo in society it makes sense to look at alternative viewpoints, right?
but i really don't think this path is for most people. it's for the fanatics - or half-a-fanatics - like me, who don't just settle for turning on the evening news, absorbing what they see, spending a bit of time with the family, and going to bed. but i really don't think that describes most people. so, that being the case, how can we expose people to new, visionary ideas?
the answer is all around us. under class society, people adopt many contradictory viewpoints - someone who's quite progressive when it comes to understanding the need to push for a safer workplace might also hold some regressive views too - for example they could be racist.
so how can we resolve these contradictions, and win people over to a different outlook?
most people aren't carrying out their own personal research project. but they do absorb the ideas around them. on one hand there are the ideas perpetuated by class society - ideas such as:
i'm not smart enough to make these decisions, let's leave it to the boss
i'm having trouble making ends meet, but if i work hard enough everything will be ok
i'm broke, but if i had some money, everything will be ok
that person over there who looks different from me is trying to take my job and make my life worse
women's interests and men's interests are by their very nature, in conflict with one another
etc etc etc...
but there's also the teacher of experience - that often contradicts these 'old ideas' and this experience can teach us:
the boss is so far removed from my situation that he has no idea what needs to be done
i work and work, but i never get ahead, i just have less time to spend with family and a higher level of stress
i've got some money, but it hasn't made me any happier 'cause i know the neighbor's kids go to bed hungry
that person over there who looks different from me is someone i work with and we really need to stand together if our interests are threatened
men and women both benefit if we fight for safer communities free from violence and a greater say in what happens to all of us
etc etc etc...
so how do we resolve these contradictions? push people away from the former ideas and to a greater understanding of the latter? well, plenty of people come to understand the latter ideas all by themselves - but how do they come to these understandings? by working with one another, by simply interacting with one another. but that's how individuals come to understand them. how can we work so that wider groups within society do too - groups that have much more potential to create positive change than individuals? here's where the need for organization comes in. if we believe in creating a future based upon values of solidarity, social justice, equality, etc etc, then we must organize to actively engage people in struggle - the greatest teacher of all - in their communities, in their workplaces - so that they can be won over to the idea that change is actually possible with numbers, and so their individual contributions to this desired change can help us all further our goals. in short:
ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE!
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