THE BEST OF THE BLOGS:

MOLLY'S WEEKLY FEATURE:

Every week Molly tries to sweep through recent posts on the blogs that are listed in her Links list to find those that have interested her the most. So here is this week's listing in no particular order:

The Molly prize once more goes to Uber-Blogger Eugene Plawiuk for his recent efforts on Le Revue Gauche concerning both the recent inquiry into the Air India Disaster and his demand that the whole actions of the RCMP and CSIS be subject to a public inquiry. The stench around what happened in the Air India bombing grows by the day, and there is a huge elephant sitting in the middle of the room on this matter. Were the warnings deliberately ignored? It wouldn't be the first time that a terrorist action has been allowed to proceed "for reasons of state". At times such actions have actually been organized by the secret police of various states for political purposes. Comrade Plawiuk says no such thing, but others in the Indo-Canadian community have raised this possibility, and Molly will here. Maybe the Canadian secret police are indeed woefully stupid, or maybe there are other things that will come out in 100 years about their machinations. Plawiuk also has several posts on the plan to use nuclear power in the Alberta Tar Sands project, an ill-advised plan.

Amor y Resistencia has an article on the anarchist Mayday actions across the world as does Bombs and Shields. The Anarchist Philosophy site has an article titled 'Should Anarchists Use Violence to Fight Oppression'. The answer is 'no'. Auckland's Burning has an attempt to placate the prrimitivists entitled 'The Fallacy of Wilderness', arguing for permaculture rather than the ideological construct of "wilderness". An Australian Anarchist Weblog has a collection of quotes on patriotism entitled 'The last Refuge of a Scoundrel'. The Freedom of Speech blog from Canada has an interesting essay on proper internet etiquette. Kevin Carson's Mutualist Blog features a draft of a new work of his entitled 'Decentralized Production', an exploration of the economics of local production. Finally, Janet Biehl's blog continues her project of a comic strip presentation of the work and life of Murray Bookchin. Really great in Molly's opinion.

THE BEST OF THE BLOGS:

This is another entry is Molly's regular feature from her endless blog surfing amongst the blogs listed in our Links board. Pride of place this week goes to Eugene Plawiuk who has accidentally posted early on the Carnival of Anarchy roundtable on violence and anarchism. His post which includes references to his previous writings on the subject thoroughly discredit the ideological construction that anarchists who want to justify senseless violence wrap themselves in. Their whole reason for being is more adolescent acting out than political action. Go on over to see this post along with some others that are beginning to trickle in. Also on his other blog Le Revue Gauche, Eugene has a number of interesting new posts. One continues the references he made to Benjamin Tucker in his post at the Carnival of Anarchy, and is titled 'Are Anarchists Thugs'. Another is titled 'Jamestown:The Birth of Capitalism' and is a far ranging survey of the origins of the Jamestown colony, slavery and indentured labour, black history, the campaign against slavery and British imperial interests. Then there's another article entitled 'Why Managers Need Unions' that examines the recent court decision against Peter Nygard of Winnipeg. Not that Molly agrees with Eugene's desire to subsume "managers" under a "working class" heading, but Nygard is a "special case"- to say the least. Molly has been gathering material on him since he closed down one of his factories here in Winnipeg, and the character of the man is truly astounding. To my understanding his employee was awarded only $11,000 in unpaid overtime (I'll try and find court costs) while Nygard's legal expenses in dragging this matter all the way up to the 'servants' entrance' of the Supreme Court were undoubtably several multiples of this amount. Totally amazing ! Hopefully Molly's little article on Nygard will eventually see the light of day. Anyways, drop over to Le Revue Gauche to see megablogger Eugene in action.

Molly also dropped in on a very enlightening post about "schooling" at the Aucklands Burning blog from New Zealand. Part of it is a reprint from the Stanselen blog, but it also contains some interesting material and references about compulsory schooling. Meanwhile over at Kevin Carson's Mutualist Blog the author weighs in heavily (28 pages when I printed it out) on 'The Ethics of Labour Struggle: A Free Market Perspective'. The title is deceptive as most of the essay revolves around working class tactics and their effectiveness (or lack thereof). Carson takes on some of the pro-business apologists in American libertarianism, but a lot of his essay revolves around documenting the effectiveness of "network" means of struggle for workers. The post describes lessons from the IWW that show how workers can win the real value of their labour by various tactics that are totally ignored amongst the official union movement.

But there are a few more items to round off this tour. The Slackbastard blog from Australia has a wide selection of anti-fascist posts recently. Seems to be something SB is concentrating on. Larry Gambone's Porkupine Blog has an interesting entry titled 'Anarchists and the Ultra-Left:the Mine Canaries of the Revolution' arguing that the desirability of a revolutionary change can be gauged by its actions towards those "on the left" of the winning party. He also argues that not all revolutions "devour their children". Over at Social Design Notes there are a couple of interesting resources. One is a link to a collection of maps, essays and statistics on the number, significance and scope of US military bases around the world. The other is an examination of the US budget in 2006 and an expose of how much of American tax money is spent on military ventures. Rounding off this little tour the Solidarity Across Borders blogspot from Montreal has an interesting essay titled 'Why Do Ordinary People Commit Evil Deeds'. it is basically an update on the famous 'Stanford Prison Experiment' and shows how the desire to conform resonates to today with the atrocities in various US run prisons across the world, from Iraq to Guantanamo.

All of the blogs mentioned above, and many more, can be found in the Blogs section of our Links list.

Molly