The Bullet
Health Care Spending In Ontario Continues to Decline
Contrary to the hysteria from conservatives, health care spending continues to decline as a percentage of the provincial budget. Last year, health care accounted for 38.5 per cent of total expenditures, this year the government plans to bring it down to 38.3 per cent. This continues the trend downward since 2003/04 when health care accounted for 40 per cent of total expenditures.

China: Fed up With Growth at Any Cost
In the past year, we've seen images of extreme pollution events across China, far in excess of anything that would be tolerated in developed countries. What's been largely uncovered by mainstream media in the west, are the protests and demonstrations, sometimes violent, that have been breaking out against new coal power stations, oil and gas development, and polluting industries across China.
climatecrocks.com | 23 May 2013, 6:00pm

The Faullines
Since special conference, the sense has grown that the present leadership would be incapable of organising a demonstration, a union meeting, a t-shirt stall... if it did not have the notes left to it by others who had done the job better over the past 60 years. An obvious starting point is the publicity for this year's Marxism festival, with the prominence it gives to such 'highlights' as talks by Suzanne Jeffery, Joseph Choonara and Jane Hardy. The website takes what has been for years one of the best events on the left, and makes it feel old and unexciting.
the-faultlines.blogspot.ca | 23 May 2013, 3:00pm

In Bolivia, Morales faces a challenge from below
The quasi-socialist government of Evo Morales in Bolivia is facing a popular challenge from below. Since May 6, tens of thousands of striking miners, teachers and health workers have been marching through the streets of major Bolivian cities, clashing with riot police, paralyzing traffic, and confronting government officials in front of ministry buildings. A group of miners even set off dynamite in the streets of La Paz during violent clashes last week, while another tried to occupy the national airport to force the state into concessions.
roarmag.org | 23 May 2013, 12:00pm

Pakistan's right-wing and religious parties sweep election
A right-wing wave swept Pakistan in the May 11 general elections. At the federal level, the conservative Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) will form the government having won 35% of the vote.
links.org.au | 23 May 2013, 3:00am

Thirteen years, two inspiring women, both radical activists, one conversation. Mountains That Take Wing (2009) puts iconic African American scholar-activist Angela Davis in conversation with Yuri Kochiyama, revered grassroots community activist, confidant of Malcolm X and 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Filmed in 1996 and 2008, when Kochiyama was 88 years old, these longtime friends discuss their shared experience as political prisoners and their enduring passion for social justice. They reflect upon topics Jim Crow laws, Japanese American internment camps, Civil Rights, anti-war, women's and gay liberation movements to campaigns for political prisons and prison reform. Winner of several awards.

Watch the trailer at www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu3sHunAmt8

Presented by the Yuri Kochiyama 92nd Birthday Celebration Committee
Co-sponsored by the Canadian Auto Workers union and Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival.

beitzatoun.org

7:30pm, Thursday May 23, 2013
Beit Zatoun 612 Markham Street, Toronto.

Event begins at 7:10am, Thursday, May 23rd.
Where and When: Assembly point is the Human Rights monument (northeast corner of Elgin and Lisgar)
Ultimate destination -- Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Ave W

Background:
Thursday, May 23rd will be Day 133 of a strike by 22 courageous aircraft fuellers at Toronto based Porter Airlines. The group, members of COPE Local 343, earns wages of $12 and $13 per hour, and they are proposing health and safety training and equipment for their members. The company has offered paltry increases of zero for some, and 25 cents per hour for others, with nothing at all to address the group's health and safety concerns. Porter Airlines is led by CEO and majority owner Robert Deluce, who clearly aims to bust the recently-formed union, and establish poverty wages and rotten working conditions as their competitive advantage over other airlines.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson is marking Day 133 of this strike by picking a side in this dispute – and he has picked the wrong side. Rather than join the growing list of mainstream political leaders respecting the COPE-called Porter Airlines boycott, the Mayor has outraged local residents by inviting Porter’s millionaire CEO to speak to a crony, $45-a-plate breakfast with Ottawa’s Chamber of Commerce. (See www.obj.ca/FlyingPage/35 for breakfast details) It is speculated that the Mayor may be hoping to persuade Deluce to re-locate his union-busting operation to Ottawa.

The Workers Action Working Group of Solidarity Against Austerity is joining the growing grassroots campaign in support of these striking workers. We invite all those interested in standing up for workers, and challenging these predatory business practices, to join us for a Solidarity Information Picket at the site of this crony breakfast – Ottawa’s City Hall. We will gather at the Human Rights Monument at the corner of Elgin St. and Lisgar St. at 7:10am on Thursday, May 23rd.

Our message:
Boycott Porter Airlines! Corporate union busters not welcome in Ottawa!
Bring your pots and pans, let’s make some noise!

For more information: Solidarity Against Austerity | www.dontflyporter.com | Twitter: @porterstrike | #dontflyporter

7:10pm, Thursday May 23, 2013
Elgin and Lisgar, Ottawa.

A conversation with Eddie Yuen and David McNally

Eddie Yuen teaches Urban Studies at the San Francisco Art Institute and is a writer, editor, and radio producer. His publications include The Battle Of Seattle: The New Challenge to Capitalist Globalization, Eds. Eddie Yuen, Daniel Burton-Rose, and George Katsiaficas (Soft Skull Press, 2002). Eddie is also a contributing producer for the radio program Against the Grain. He is a contributor to Catastrophism: The Apocalyptic Politics of Crisis and Rebirth.

David McNally teaches political Science at York University and is the author of many books, including, Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism (awarded the 2012 Deutscher Prize). He is a contributor to Catastrophism: The Apocalyptic Politics of Crisis and Rebirth.

Meeting sponsored by the Toronto New Socialist Group | Facebook event

7:00pm, Thursday May 23, 2013
Regal Beagle 335 Bloor St. W, Toronto.