The Bullet | Socialist Project

Today

Receive alerts | RSS

Home

The Bullet

	Date	Author	Title ISSN 1923-7871
Bullet archive: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10			Send submissions to info@socialistproject.ca
1090.	March 16, 2015	Adam Hanieh	Fundamental Rifts: Power, Wealth and Inequality in the Arab world
Over four years since mass uprisings ousted sclerotic regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, it can seem that the initial hopes represented by these movements lie in tatters. Libya, Syria, Yemen and Iraq remain mired in bloody armed conflicts that have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and displaced millions more within and across borders. In the pivotal case of Egypt, military rule has returned through the violent crushing of protests, the arrests of an estimated 40,000 people and the rebuilding of the repressive structures of the Hosni Mubarak era.
1089.	March 11, 2015	Spyros Lapatsioras, John Milios and Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos	Syriza's Only Choice: A Radical Step Forward
The transitional "bridge Agreement" of the 20th of February is a truce intended by the Greek government and welcomed by the other side (the European 'institutions'). Within the truce period (the next four months), the conditions for negotiating the next agreement will be shaped. This could mean that everything is still open. However, that is not true for two reasons. First, the very transitional agreement changes the balance of power.
1088.	March 6, 2015	David Bush and Doug Nesbitt	Austerity Strangles Ontario: the TA strikes in Context
Austerity for working people and the accumulation of wealth in the corporate sector was sold as short-term pain for long-term gain. What we got of course was pain now, pain later, and never-ending pain if we don't organize to end it.
1087.	March 4, 2015	Gabriel Levy	The Paris Climate Talks and the Failure of States
The officials in charge of the United Nations climate talks say that no deal will be done in Paris in December (COP21) to avoid dangerous global warming. After preparatory negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, this month, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, confirmed that the target set previously, of limiting warming to 2 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels, would be missed.
1086.	February 27, 2015	Greg Shupak	The Disaster in Libya
The title of Horace Campbell's book on NATO's 2011 Libyan intervention, Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya, is an allusion to a Guardian article by Seumas Milne entitled, "If the Libyan war was about saving lives, it was a catastrophic failure." Echoing Milne's use of "catastrophic" is apt. Claudia Gazzini of the liberal NGO International Crisis Group points out that, if the casualty figures provided by Libya's National Transitional Council are accurate, "the death toll subsequent to the seven-month NATO intervention was at least ten times greater than the tally of those killed in the first few weeks of the conflict" before NATO intervened.
1085.	February 25, 2015	John McMurtry	Breaking Out of the Invisible Prison
As we enter 2015, the global corporate system deepens and spreads in its eco-genocidal effects. But the dots are not joined in their common cause across domains. Money-value coordinates like gross domestic product (GDP), commodity productivity and stock market indexes are still adopted as the measures of "economic performance" rather than life capital development which is systemically depredated.
1084.	February 24, 2015	Ezequiel Adamovsky; Atilio Boron	Alberto Nisman's Death and AMIA: Who Cares About the Truth?
On 18 January the Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead in his apartment in Buenos Aires. A few days before he had returned from his vacations in Europe and presented a shocking and unexpected accusation. He claimed he had proof that President Cristina Kirchner and the Foreign Minister Hector Timerman were in the process of orchestrating a cover-up in the investigation of Iran over the 1994 bombing of AMIA.
1083.	February 20, 2015	Sean Sweeney	Syriza Can Show 'Another Energy is Possible'
During its first days in office, Syriza has taken actions that suggest it is willing to confront the EU's neoliberal approach to energy and to embark on a new course. New Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has also stated his government will restore collective bargaining agreements and stop 300,000 planned layoffs.
1082.	February 18, 2015	Sakis Gekas	Hard Talk
On January 25th, Syriza formed a government in Greece with the help of the ANEL (Independent Greeks). Within 24 hours direct attacks, threats and provocations aimed at the Greek government, about to begin negotiations with EU and Eurozone leaders, began.
1081.	February 12, 2015	J. F. Conway	How About a Memorial to the Victims of Harperism?
Roy MacGregor was commenting on Harper's latest ideological propaganda foray into keeping us safe by reminding us of all the bogeymen out there on the very big, broad left. Harper is building a big ugly memorial to the victims of communism on a million dollar piece of public land right beside the Supreme Court.
1080.	February 11, 2015	Donatella della Porta	Another Europe With Syriza
There is no doubt that the near majority obtained by Syriza in the elections last month represent a point-of-no-return for Europe. This is the result most feared by the rulers of several countries and, above all, by the financial powers that have undertaken an intense campaign of threats, based on the idea of an increasingly liberal Europe.
1079.	February 10, 2015		Disinformation and Repression Against BDS
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations that leads the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, has condemned the Canadian government's ramped up disinformation campaign and repressive measures against the BDS movement for Palestinian rights.
1078.	February 9, 2015	Ernest Tate	Thomas Sankara and Burkina Faso's 'Black Spring'
A press report in 1983 that a popular uprising in Upper Volta, a small and poor land-locked country in Western Africa had led to an obscure, but charismatic army officer becoming head of state was truly inspiring news for all those looking for some kind of breakthrough against imperialism in that part of the world.
1077.	February 6, 2015	John Clarke	The Fight Against Street Deaths in Toronto
The twin agendas of urban redevelopment and austerity have increased the scale of the homeless crisis in Toronto. Over 4,000 people cram into the emergency shelters every night and many more try to survive out on the streets. This situation raises the question of what lengths the agenda of austerity can be taken to. If people are allowed to freeze to death for lack of basic shelter then we have moved beyond reduced entitlement and arrived at a situation of reckless and lethal social abandonment.
1076.	February 3, 2015	An Interview with Alexis Tsipras	Seizing the Opportunity to Fight Austerity
The effects of the crisis on Greek society have been truly devastating. It comes as no surprise that there have been major changes in the political scene. Syriza has always offered a detailed analysis of the crisis and the underlying causes. While the mainstream parties led people on -- rather brazenly, I might add -- we were vehement that austerity would have severe negative consequences and lead to recession; these policies simply weren't sustainable.
1075.	February 1, 2015	Sungur Savran	The Monster of Soma Rears Its Head
The AKP government in Turkey and, in particular, its undisputed leader, Tayyip Erdogan, president of the republic since last August, are usually remembered by the international public for their brazen violation of political and civil rights, their brutality in dealing with the Gezi revolt of June-September 2013, their unabashed support for the sectarian war waged against the Syrian regime by the various offshoots of the Al Qaeda movement and their growing tendency to impose Islamic rules on public life in Turkey, safely the most secular country in the Muslim world.
1074.	January 30, 2015	Patricia Perkins	Ecological Economics and Changing Everything
I would like to thank and acknowledge the First Nations of the territories where we live and are meeting, the Anishinaabe Mississauga, Seneca, Huron-Wendat, 'Neutrals,' and other peoples whose ancestors lived here. The land claim of the Mississaugas of the New Credit, relating to the Crown's 1805 acquisition of land running from Ashbridge's Bay westward to the mouth of the Credit River, and extending 28 miles northward, is still under negotiation.
1073.	January 28, 2015	Brenda Thompson	Rapid Transit Rip-Off
Campaigning for re-election in April 2014, Liberal leader and Premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne announced that Ontario would invest $29-billion in roads and transit. She did not make this announcement from the Office of the Premier at Queen's Park or at Metrolinx headquarters on Bay Street. She spoke at the Toronto Regional Board of Trade, at an event sponsored by global, mostly foreign, multinational corporations.
1072.	January 27, 2015	Sid Shniad	68 Years of Struggle and Resistance for Peace, Justice and Freedom
When I was invited to speak at today's forum, the attacks in Paris against the magazine Charlie Hebdo and the kosher super market had not taken place. In light of the media coverage of what happened in Paris, I feel the need to situate my comments against the backdrop of those events. I hope you will indulge me.
1071.	January 23, 2015	Leo Panitch	The Greek Election
As we enter the eighth year of the long-lingering global economic crisis, it is sobering indeed that it is only in Greece that a political party putting forward a clear, radical democratic alternative to the perverse policies of neoliberal austerity stands on the doorstep of entering the state.
1070.	January 22, 2015	Lee Sustar	Why the Whole World is Watching Greece
Syriza is favoured to win parliamentary elections on January 25, giving it a strong chance to form a new government that could confront the catastrophic austerity agenda that has plunged Greece into severe economic and social crisis. Lee Sustar answers questions about the rise of Syriza and what a victory for it on January 25 would mean.
1069.	January 19, 2015	Hassan N. Gardezi	The United States of America in the AfPak Region and Beyond
It may sound rather odd in the face of the open war on terror that has been raging in Afghanistan and the Middle East to speak of United States' alliance with Islamic terrorists, but that is the messy reality of our times. The United States, it seems, has decided to live with the contradiction of courting Islamic terrorists at the same time as it is waging a war on Terror.
1068.	January 15, 2015	Sungur Savran	Nous Sommes Tous Charlie... de Gaulle!
In politics there is a golden rule: beware agreements that cut across all political currents! The tragedy of Charlie Hebdo has been turned into a farce by the mammoth march in Paris, along with similar ones in cities across France, large and small. It is an insult on human intelligence to tie, in whatever combination, the names of Wolinski, Charb, Cabu and company with people of the ilk of the Camerons, Merkels, Rajoys, Renzis and Junckers of the world!
1067.	January 14, 2015	IUF	Breakthrough in Greece? Austerity and Solidarity
Greece will hold parliamentary elections on January 25 and Syriza, the left-wing party which has consistently called for debt restructuring and an end to austerity, is leading the polls. The Troika are warning of the 'threat' of Syriza coming to power and have forcefully indicated their support for Greece's ruling coalition by conditioning further financial support on the re-election of a pliable government.
1066.	January 9, 2015	Sam Gindin	When History Knocks
To raise the environmental crisis in Canada is to simultaneously highlight the notorious Alberta Tar Sands, the fastest growing polluter in Canada. But the Tar Sands are more than an environmental issue. This crisis-in-motion is inseparable from other fundamental issues at the core of Canadian society: indigenous land claims, Canada's integration to the American empire and its oil-hungry military leviathan, a focus on resource extraction as a core of Canada's economic development and a set of contested values about 'the good life.'
1065.	January 6, 2015	Ursula Huws	An Unconditional Citizen's Income
In these straitened times, the idea of a basic income, granted unconditionally to every citizen, from cradle to grave, feels utopian. How on earth could it be paid for, we wonder. Wouldn't everyone just stop working? Where would we be then?
1064.	January 4, 2015	Richard Fidler; Claudio Katz	Release of Cuban Five Opens New Chapter in Cuba-U.S. Relations
The release December 17 of the remaining three of five Cubans held for 15 years in U.S. prisons is an historic victory for the Cuban people, their government and supporters around the world. Ramón Labañino, Geraldo Hernández and Antonio Guerrero joined Fernando González and René González, released earlier, in an emotional reception in Havana with President Raúl Castro.
1063.	December 30, 2014	Steve Ellner	After Chavez: The Maduro Government And The 'Economic War' in Venezuela
Nearly two years after the death of Hugo Chávez, the key question that many on the left are debating, in Venezuela and elsewhere, is whether his successors have been true to his legacy, or whether the 'revolutionary process' initiated more than a decade ago has now stalled or even been thrown into reverse.
1062.	December 17, 2014	Richard Fidler; Evo Morales	Bolivia to Host 2015 Meeting of Social Movements to Fight Climate Change
Meeting in Havana December 14, the 13th summit of ALBA leaders endorsed a Bolivian proposal to host an international assembly of social movements in 2015 to discuss and adopt a united strategy for fighting climate change. The decision by the ALBA-TCP coincided with release of the final agreement adopted by the United Nations COP20 climate talks at Lima, Peru.
1061.	December 5, 2014	Lilian Yap	From the TarSands to 'Green Jobs'? Work and Ecological Justice
From deforestation, toxic pollution, to greenhouse gas emissions, there is no doubt that tar sands development has been and will be an immensely destructive force, first for the communities who are already living within its reach, but ultimately, through its impacts on global climate, for the planet as a whole.
1060.	November 28, 2014		The 10th Asia-Europe People's Forum Call to Action
The 10th Asia Europe People's Forum (AEPF), representing citizens, people and social movements from Asia and Europe (which met on 10th to 12th of October 2014 in Milan, Italy), urges the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and its member Governments to recognize the following issues and priorities and to take forward our recommendations.
1059.	November 26, 2014	Justin Paulson	43 Students and the Future of Mexico
Nearly two months ago, on September 26, a group of students from the Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos -- a boarding school for student teachers in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero -- was soliciting funds in nearby Iguala when they were attacked by local police, acting under orders. Six people were killed; the remaining 43 students were arrested and were not heard from again. They have, for now, joined the ranks of Mexico's disappeared.
1058.	November 21, 2014	Richard Roman and Edur Velasco Arregui	Partners in Crime: The Continental Capitalist Offensive and the Killing Fields of Mexico
The Mexican government, welcomed as a partner of the Canadian and U.S. governments in continental economic development (NAFTA) and continental security also happens to partner in crime and the slaughter of its own people. The murders and disappearances of the students from Ayotzinapa on September 26, 2014, was a crime of the State.
1057.	November 19, 2014	Bryan D. Palmer	Dining Out in Dinkytown
If you are in Minneapolis, after a hard day's night, the place to go for a morning pick-me-up is Al's Breakfast. Or so I was informed. Being in the Twin Cities in mid-July, I made my way to the legendary AM eatery, located in the heart of Dinkytown, the neighborhood adjacent to the University of Minnesota where Al's is located.
1056.	November 16, 2014	Panagiotis Sotiris	How Can We Change the World, If We Can't Change Ourselves?
The anti-capitalist Left in Europe is in crisis. From the crisis of the International Socialist Tendency, to the political implosion of the New Anticapitalist Party in France, and from the fragmentation of the left-tendencies of Rifondazione Comunista in Italy to the inability of ANTARSYA in Greece to broaden its appeal despite the immense political shifts in Greek society.
1055.	November 14, 2014	Jasa Lategano	Crisis and Class-Struggle in Slovenia
For many liberal spectators, Slovenia was for a long time considered a success story of transition from a 'socialist dictatorship' into a 'parliamentary democracy' based on a market economy. In the winter of 2012, however, mass popular uprisings swept through the larger cities and eventually brought down the far-right neoliberal government of the Slovenian Democratic Party.
1054.	November 11, 2014	Gregory Shupak	Harper's Iraq War Plan: Save People by Killing Them?
The Harper government's plan to send Canadian air power to help combat the Islamic State in Iraq, and possibly Syria, and for Canadian special forces to continue operating there is homicidal, won't achieve its supposed goals and needs to be opposed. Legislation tabled by the federal government on October 3 says that "unless confronted with strong and direct force, the threat ISIL poses to international peace and security, including to Canadian communities, will continue to grow." There is plenty of evidence to suggest that exactly the opposite is true.
1053.	November 10, 2014		Drawing a Line in the Tar Sands
Of all possible futures, the least likely is one in which business as usual continues unabated. Peoples' movements will either succeed in transforming our economic and political systems to build a new world, or we will burn with the old one.
1052.	November 6, 2014	Pedro Marlez	The 'Consultation' in Catalonia
The Spanish political crisis is advancing slowly but inexorably. In the last five or six months we have witnessed a series of events that have exacerbated the process of decomposition: the turbulence produced by the European elections, the succession to the throne, the most serious corruption scandals to surface for generations, and the conflict between the central government and Catalonia.
1051.	November 4, 2014		SOS Alternatives to Capitalism
SOS: Alternatives to Capitalism is a handy, slim compendium of vital, essential thoughts and discussions on the concept of an alternative economy and society by Richard Swift. His new book has been brought out by Between the Lines and New Internationalist Publications and has been excellently received in various circles, both academic and activist. He was interviewed by Rana Bose, co-editor of Montreal Serai.
1050.	October 29, 2014	Kevin Skerrett	Can We Defend Our Pensions Without Challenging Financialized Capitalism?
Unrelenting employer attacks on workplace based pension plans are intensifying, and the struggle to defend them is becoming more challenging right across the country. One recent development appears to be an important partial victory. Some 900 workers at Bombardier's Thunder Bay production facility, represented by Unifor, launched an eight-week strike on July 14, and the dispute centred on an employer demand to eliminate the secure, 'defined benefit' type pension plan with an individualized 'defined contribution' savings scheme for all new hires.
1049.	October 27, 2014	J. F. Conway	The War Against the Islamic State
Stephen Harper finally got his war in Iraq, something he demanded while in opposition when Bush's ill-fated "coalition of the willing" was inveigled by the U.S. to bomb, invade and occupy Iraq, all contrary to international law. Harper's war in Iraq will be a rather sad and inglorious affair, hardly up to the excesses of his war-mongering rhetoric.
1048.	October 17, 2014	Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois	Cacouna, Couillard and the Ties that Bind
It's an evening like any other. The first item on the Téléjournal is about the controversial Cacouna oil port project. The journalist speaks to citizens in favour of and opposed to the project. Then the spokesperson for TransCanada, the project's sponsor, appears onscreen. His talking points aren't particularly noteworthy, but his face is strangely familiar.
1047.	October 12, 2014	Richard Fidler	How Bolivia is Leading the Global Fight Against Climate Disaster
We are "ecosocialists" because the climate crisis now bearing down on us is the major issue facing the world's peoples. It threatens the very survival of human life. It is directly caused by capitalism as a system. The alternative to capitalism is socialism, and our socialism must reflect the centrality of climate crisis in our thinking and actions.
1046.	October 9, 2014	Kamran Nayeri	Moving Forward After the People's Climate March
The September 21 People's Climate March in New York City was a huge success. Over 310,000 people consisting of hundreds of contingents of various origins and interests marched in New York (some have put the number of marchers as high as 400,000). The organizers report that 2,807 similar actions took place in 166 countries during that weekend.
1045.	October 8, 2014	Liz Fekete	Protecting European Democracy or Reviving the Cold War?
A new report by Human Rights First on fascism in Hungary and Greece raises important questions. But its orientation toward U.S. national interests smacks of Cold War thinking.
1044.	October 7, 2014	Patrick Bond	Climate Justice Resurfaces Amidst New York's Corporate Sharks
The world's largest ever march against climate change on Sunday (Sept 21) brought 400,000 people to the streets of New York, starting a lively parade at Central Park. On Tuesday, 120 of the world's political leaders -- notably not including the Chinese and Indians -- gathered 25 blocks away at the United Nations.
1043.	October 3, 2014	Richard Fidler	Scotland's Referendum: Some lessons for Quebec... and Canada
Superficially, the 55-45 victory of the No forces in Scotland's referendum September 18 was a clear rejection of independence. The Yes forces won a majority only in the four poorest and most deprived of the nation's 32 local divisions, although a class breakdown of the vote would show a majority of the working-class voted for independence.
1042.	October 1, 2014	Sean Starrs	Students Unfurl the 'Umbrella Revolution' in Hong Kong
The largest student demonstrations and occupations in Hong Kong's history is currently unfurling -- what is increasingly being called the 'Umbrella Revolution' in reference to the sea of umbrellas being used as cover against both pepper-spraying riot police and the rays of the sun (the latter a common practice in Northeast Asia).
1041.	September 30, 2014	Dan La Botz	Climate Convergence Moves Us Forward, But Challenges Us to Create a Strategy
The Global Climate Convergence with its more than one hundred workshops, its large plenary sessions, and its miles-long mass march of more than 300,000 people, the largest climate protest in American history, represents a turning point for the environmental movement.
1040.	September 28, 2014	Benjamin Selwyn	Beyond 2015: Is Another Development Possible?
As we near 2015, the United Nations will probably set new objectives on behalf of the global community to supersede the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are held largely by the UN, the World Bank and many anti-poverty campaigners, which I label here the anti-poverty consensus, to have been a success. According to the UN, The First MDG -- the objective of halving world poverty between 1990 and 2015 -- was achieved already in 2010.
1039.	September 24, 2014	Asbjørn Wahl	Ten Points for a Trade Union Strategy Against Climate Change
Firstly, I will establish some of the important factual basis on which we have to build our strategies and policies. Climate change is not a threat of the future, it is already happening here and now, it is man-made, and the consequences can be catastrophic.
1038.	September 23, 2014	Ben Neal	The Russian Far Right
The current crisis in Ukraine has, among other things, highlighted the issue of nationalism in the former Soviet republics, and in particular extreme right nationalism. The politics of the Euromaidan movement, which toppled President Viktor Yanukovych are overwhelmingly those of Ukrainian nationalism in various forms, and far right organizations such as the Right Sector and the Svoboda Party played significant roles in the movement.
1037.	September 18, 2014	Chris Williams	We Need System Change to Stop Climate Change
Viking I landed on Mars, the Ramones released their first album, the Soweto Uprising began in South Africa, North and South Vietnam reunified to become the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and Gerald Ford was in the White House. 1976: The same year scientists discovered that refrigerant chemicals, chlorofluorocarbons, better known as CFCs, were responsible for creating a hole in the ozone layer.
1036.	September 14, 2014	Eric Blanc	National Liberation and Bolshevism Reexamined
A view from the Czarist empire's borderlands obliges us to rethink many long-held assumptions about the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, as well as the development of Marxist approaches to national liberation, peasant struggle, permanent revolution, and the emancipation of women.
1035.	September 12, 2014	Ezgi Yildiz	Shifting Centres and Dead-Ends
Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the first publicly elected President of Turkey in the history of the Republic, winning 52 per cent of the votes at the presidential elections of August 10. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, joint candidate of the CHP and the MHP, finished second with 38 per cent of the vote. Selahattin Demirtas of HDP came in third with 9.6 per cent of the votes.
1034.	September 10, 2014	Roger Annis	Ukraine Ceasefire: Underlying Political Conflicts Unresolved
A ceasefire in the war in eastern Ukraine was announced in Minsk, Belarus on September 5. Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko made a simultaneous announcement in Wales where he was a special guest at the summit meeting of the NATO military alliance. A 12-point agreement was signed in Minsk by representatives of the Kyiv government and the People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
1033.	September 9, 2014	Dimitris Fasfalis	Past and Present: Malcolm X in Ferguson
Protests, riots and police violence in Ferguson, Missouri, last August have laid bare "America's racial rift" says The Guardian Weekly. Mainstream opinion-makers have tended to interpret the Michael Brown case and the protests that followed his death in terms of police brutality, racial tensions, and legal responsibility (of the shooting of unarmed 18-year-old African American, Michael Brown), showing these events as specific to American society.
1032.	September 5, 2014	J. F. Conway	Déjà Vu in Edinburgh
It was hard not to remember the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum as one walked the streets of Edinburgh in August. The Yes (Yes Scotland) and No (Better Together) sides campaigned relentlessly everywhere: tables in the streets; posters; TV ads; constant references during many Fringe performances. The city and the country were polarized.
1031.	September 3, 2014	Mario Candeias	Real Democracy and the Capture of Institutions
It is no longer enough to win over civil society, occupy public spaces, take to the streets, carry out symbolic actions, prevent evictions, or to win plebiscites. In Spain movements for 'real democracy' are setting a course to capture institutions -- albeit with the aim to recreate these institutions in a constitutive process in the interests of 'real democracy'.
1030.	September 1, 2014	Sam Gindin and Michael Hurley	Working Class Politics After the NDP
The issue that we can't ignore this Labour Day is the disorientation in our movement's politics. List the issues working people are most concerned about today -- whether deindustrialization, unemployment and underemployment; access to healthcare, childcare and pensions; poverty, racism, conditions of foreign workers and appalling levels of overall inequality; the environment, transit costs and transit services; another corporate-friendly trade agreement that is insensitive to workers and communities.
1029.	August 31, 2014	Leo Panitch	The U.S. Still Decides the Future of Capitalism
International attention has been diverted away from this year's G20 meetings in Australia by the declaration from the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, at their meeting in Fortaleza Brazil this July, that they would launch a new "BRICS bank."
1028.	August 29, 2014	Leonard Gentle	(part 2) South Africa and the Changing Politics of Labour
NUMSA has always been the left critic within COSATU. Its roots lay in the traditions of independent socialism of FOSATU and MAWU, which precede the formation of COSATU -- a tradition to the left of the SACP and long castigated as 'workerism' by the SACP and the ANC in the 1980s.
1027.	August 27, 2014	Leonard Gentle	South Africa and the Changing Politics of Labour
The two biggest signifiers of the state of the labour movement in South Africa in 2014 are, on the one hand, a terminal crisis within what is still, formally, the biggest trade union centre -- the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), aligned to the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), and, on the other, the emergence of new workplace militancies by workers, notably the national strike wave in the second half of 2013.
1026.	August 26, 2014	Marta Harnecker	New Paths Require a New Culture on the Left
I completed this book one month after the physical disappearance of President Hugo Chávez, without whose intervention in Latin America this book could not have been written. Many of the ideas I raise in it are related in one way or another to the Bolivarian leader, to his ideas and actions, within Venezuela and at the regional and global level.
1025.	August 24, 2014	David Mandel	Understanding the Civil War in Ukraine
The Ukrainian conflict, like most political phenomena, is multi-dimensional and highly complex. As such, it calls for a holistic -- dialectical, if you wish -- approach. But to judge by American and NATO spokespersons and by their mass media, there is only one really decisive factor that explains everything: Russia's imperialism, Vladimir Putin's determination to dominate and further dismember the Ukraine as part of his plan to restore the Soviet empire.
1024.	August 22, 2014	John Riddell	Responding to Capitalist Global Disaster: 1914 and Today
On June 28th, one hundred years ago, a Bosnian nationalist assassinated the crown prince of Austria-Hungary, setting in motion a chain of events that led a month later to the outbreak of the First World War. The war shattered the world socialist movement and unleashed an overwhelming social catastrophe in Europe, killing seventeen million soldiers and civilians.
1023.	August 20, 2014		Reflections on the Maidan Protests and the Pro-Autonomy Political Movement in Eastern Ukraine
The following interview was conducted by Roger Annis for Truthout with Daniel Grigor'ev, a social researcher at the Moscow-based Institute for the Study of Globalization and Social Movements and a graduate of Moscow State University.
1022.	August 16, 2014	Suzanne Weiss	Not In My Name
I am proud to join more than 250 Jewish Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors in condemning "the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza" and "the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people." Our statement of solidarity calls for "an immediate end to the siege against and the blockade of Gaza" and a "full economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel."
1021.	August 15, 2014	David Camfield	Colonialism and the Working Class in Canada
It's good news that in a number of cities people "are meeting together in growing numbers to explore what it means -- and doesn't mean -- to stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples within Canada," as journalist Meg Mittelstedt wrote recently.
1020.	August 13, 2014	Leo Panitch	'Responsible Capitalism' is Nonsense
Ed Miliband's challenge to "the manufactured, the polished, the presentational" practice of politics, where democracy is reduced to "showbiz, a game, who is up and who is down," deserves to be discussed in terms that go beyond the effect this may have on his own electoral prospects. It should open up a larger debate on what's wrong with the practice of democracy today.
1019.	August 6, 2014	Shourideh C. Molavi	If Palestinians Were Human Beings
Today the struggle for people of conscience appears to be less about convincing people that Israel is committing war crimes against Palestinians or grossly violating international law. Instead the struggle has become about convincing the world that Palestinians are human beings too.
1018.	August 3, 2014	Ana Garcia	Building BRICS from Below?
The Sixth Summit of the BRICS Heads of States, in Fortaleza, was accompanied by three others: the Business Meeting of BRICS, the Third Trade Union Summit and NGO's and movement's "Dialogues on Development: the BRICS from the perspective of peoples." They are composed of actors from very different fields.
1017.	July 31, 2014	Greg Shupak	The Logic of Israeli Violence
One could be forgiven for understanding Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip as butchery for its own sake. That's a plausible interpretation of the killing of 1,284 Palestinians, at least 75 per cent of whom are civilians, and injuring another 7,100.
1016.	July 29, 2014	Herman Rosenfeld	Low Income Transit Passes: Consolidate and Struggle to Make it Free
The passing of a resolution to "develop a Policy Framework for Toronto Transit Fare Equity for consideration by the end of 2015" by Toronto City Council on July 8th, 2014 is a step forward. It reflects a series of struggles by low income people, social activists working in community movements, social agencies, transit activists and allies.
1015.	July 27, 2014	J. F. Conway	Fatal Advice for the NDP
Murray Mandryk, the political columnist for Saskatchewan's capitalist press, once again gives the NDP free political advice regarding the dangers of toying with left-wing ideas. He represents a long tradition in Canadian political commentary -- the capitalist media have repeatedly warned the CCF and the NDP about the electoral folly of being too left-leaning.
1014.	July 25, 2014	Salimah Valiani	Mobilizing Temporary Migrant Workers
While labour migration has been a recurring phenomenon in human history, what is new in the post-1970 period of restructuring in the world capitalist economy is the increased use of temporary migrant labour by employers around the world.
1013.	July 22, 2014		From Bolivia, a Trade-Union Appeal for International Anti-Capitalist Solidarity
As a follow-up to the June summit meeting of the G77 + China leaders, held in Santa Cruz, the Bolivian government and the Bolivian Workers Central sponsored an "Anti-Imperialist International Trade Union Conference" in Cochabamba, June 30-July 2. The conference was attended by representatives of unions in 22 countries, affiliated with the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU).
1012.	July 20, 2014	Michal Rozworski	The Outsize (un)Importance of the Tar Sands
It's easy to overestimate the importance of the tar sands to the Canadian economy. Tar sands and their pipelines are, after all, hailed by the ruling Conservatives, sections of the business press and the ever-present oil lobby as this young century's 'nation-building' project.
1011.	July 18, 2014	Dan La Botz	The Working Class and Left Politics: Back on the American Radar
The American political system, so highly polarized between conservative Republicans and moderate Democrats, has experienced in the last year some interesting changes on the left-hand margin of the national political scene. From Bill de Blasio's victory in the mayoral election in New York City, to Kshama Sawant's winning of a city council seat in Seattle.
1010.	July 15, 2014	Martin Hart-Landsberg	Africa And Globalization
Economists continue to celebrate the free movement of goods, services, and capital. However, faced with slowing economic conditions in core countries, it is now third world growth that is highlighted as proof of the gains from unregulated globalization.
1009.	July 13, 2014		Statements of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
We, Palestinians trapped inside the bloodied and besieged Gaza Strip, call on conscientious people all over the world, to act, protest, and intensify the boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israel until it ends this murderous attack on our people and is held to account.
1008.	July 12, 2014	Faculty for Palestine	Breaking the Canadian University Links with Israeli Institutions
On June 12, Israel launched a massive military operation called "Operation Brother's Keeper." Since then, the Israeli state has bombed the Gaza Strip, killed a rapidly rising number of Palestinians, arrested more than 500 others, and violently invaded 1,300 Palestinian sites, including three university campuses.
1007.	July 10, 2014		Time for Canada to Honor its UN Obligations Toward Palestine
July 9th, 2014 marked a critical landmark for the Palestinian struggle against Israeli Apartheid as it marks the International Court of Justice opinion on the Apartheid wall in the West Bank as being illegal under international law. One year after the decision on July 9th 2005 the united Palestinian call for a movement of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions was issued.
1006.	July 9, 2014	Richard Swift	The Commons As a Fount of Hope
The commons is not just a battlefield between corporate predators and those who resist them -- it is also a source of hope for those willing to imagine a world beyond capitalism. It represents a space between the private market and the political state in which humanity can control and democratically root our common wealth.
1005.	July 6, 2014	Brad Hornick; Sam Gindin	False Hopes or Political Strategy?
There are two points of common agreement amongst almost all sections of the Left. We are in the midst of a fundamental turning point in the earth's environment from climate change, with many catastrophic consequences unfolding, from species extinction to habitat loss to enormous obstacles and costs for human adaptation; and the Left remains, in almost all zones of the world, but especially in North America, on the margins as a social force in the face of a reconstructed and more authoritarian neoliberalism. How to respond in such a situation?
1004.	July 2, 2014	Roger Annis	NDP Lurch to the Right Underscores Need for A New, Left-Wing Party in Canada
Voters in Canada's largest and most industrialized province went to the polls on June 5 to choose a provincial government. The choices were limited lesser evils, 'bad,' or 'worse,' constrained by a lurch to the political right by the union-based Ontario New Democratic Party.
1003.	June 30, 2014		A New World Order for Living Well
The Summit of the Group of 77 plus China, marking the alliance's 50th anniversary, closed in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on June 15 with the adoption of a Declaration containing 242 articles, entitled "For a New World Order for Living Well." The Summit set a record for high-level participation, with the presence of 13 presidents, 4 prime ministers, 5 vice-presidents and 8 foreign ministers among the delegates of the 104 countries in attendance.
1002.	June 24, 2014	Gavin Fridell	Alternative Trade
Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously declared on many occasions that "there is no alternative" to economic liberalism and free trade. This popular slogan, referred to by the acronym TINA, has persisted beyond Thatcher's own time in office, which ended in 1990, and has become a widely accepted wisdom.
1001.	June 19, 2014	Sungur Savran	Turkey After Soma
May 31 was the anniversary of the eruption of the popular rebellion in Turkey that has gone under the name of Gezi Park around the world. On that anniversary, a virtual state of emergency was established in Istanbul, with 25,000 police officers deployed around Taksim Square.
1000.	June 18, 2014	Sam Gindin	Unmaking Global Capitalism
When Karl Marx famously declared that while the "philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it," he was asserting that it was not enough to dream of another world nor to understand the dynamics of the present. It was critical above all to address the question of agency in carrying out transformative change.
999.	June 17, 2014	Doug Nesbitt	Boycott IKEA: Some Assembly Required
Locked out for thirteen months, over three hundred IKEA workers in Richmond, BC are still holding out. While setting record profits in 2013, IKEA is trying to impose a two-tier wage system and seriously weaken benefits. The stakes are high as IKEA Richmond sets workplace standards for non-union IKEA stores.
998.	June 16, 2014		Stop the War in the Ukraine!
On June 7-8 a conference of antiwar left forces from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus was held in Minsk. Its purpose was to strengthen the unity of internationalists of the three countries in the fight against the rampant violence, nationalist hysteria and repressions on both sides of the Ukrainian-Russian border.
997.	June 12, 2014	Sabrina Fernandes	Brazil on Strike: Class Struggle in the Wake of the World Cup
Many labour unions are either in the process of negotiating with their respective employers (mostly municipal, state, or federal governments) in Brazil, while others are actively on strike. These include federal workers from the government bureaucracy, school teachers, city staff, and university staff and faculty.
996.	June 11, 2014	Robert Chernomas, Robin Chang	Healthcare in Canada and the U.S. in an 'Age of Permanent Austerity'
In North American debates over healthcare, Canada's universal public 'single-payer' system of health insurance is often celebrated compared to the private employer-delivered system for being lower cost, more accessible, and producing superior health outcomes. But recently, the Canada Health Accord has ended, and 'Obamacare' has been installed, which are major developments in the political economy of healthcare financing in both countries.
995.	June 10, 2014	Derrick O'Keefe	Revolutionary Activism in the 20th Century and Beyond
Not long ago, I overheard a prominent social democratic politician in British Columbia repeating an old saw sometimes attributed to Winston Churchill, "Any man who is not a socialist at age 20 has no heart. Any man who is still a socialist at age 40 has no head." He was offering this line to the editor of the Vancouver Sun -- a joking way to put a right-wing journalist at ease.
994.	June 9, 2014	Evert Hoogers	Aeration and the CLC Convention of 2014
When you are slowly suffocating due to oxygen deprivation, it's a bit of a priority to breathe fresh air again. It helps if someone finally opens a window so air circulation can start. In the case of the Canadian Labour Congress of 2014, this invaluable service fell to Hassan Husseini, a union organizer and negotiator with deep roots in the Ontario social justice, international solidarity, left and labour community.
993.	June 6, 2014	Esther Vivas	Spanish State: After the Abdication of the King, It's Time to Checkmate the Regime
The regime is collapsing, it is dying and in its last-ditch struggle to survive, the king has abdicated. Never has the regime resulting from the Transition been as widely challenged as it is today. The pillars on which it rests, the monarchy, the judiciary, bipartisanship, have been greatly delegitimized for some time now.
992.	June 4, 2014	Roger Annis	Ukraine: New President Escalates Austerity, Civil War
The newly elected president of western Ukraine is deepening the disastrous course to civil war of his interim predecessor. Within hours of his election on May 25, Petro Poroshenko ordered jet fighters, helicopter gunships, artillery and snipers to back fascist stormtroopers from western Ukraine in attacking the airport and surrounding neighbourhoods in Donetsk in the east, the country's fifth-largest city.
991.	June 3, 2014	Chris Schenk	Continental Crucible: Workers and Unions in the Transformation of North America
Continental Crucible examines the clash between what the authors term the 'corporate offensive' and the movements of resistance on a continental level. The conflict of these forces can be seen through the prism of free trade agreements, the restrictions on social spending resulting in severe cuts to needed social services and the continuing attacks on public sector unions in all three countries (Canada, Mexico and the United States).
Bullet archive: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10			Send submissions to info@socialistproject.ca