Friday, August 04, 2006

A Green Harper?

The Edmonton Journal suggests that Harper could become the Green PM if he made Clayoquot Sound a national park. I am sure the editorial board had its tongue firmly in its cheek, with this cheeky comment;

If the B.C. government won't come to its senses and reverse the regional board's decision and permanently protect the area, Prime Minister Stephen Harper ought to find a way. Harper could think of it as a fitting payback to the lumber industry that has embarrassed him over his softwood lumber deal, and at the same time as a way of winning back some of the environmental support his government has lost over the retreat from the Kyoto climate-change accord.

Anyone in the PMO reading the Edmonton Journal? You might want to pass this on to the Harper.



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Murray Bookchin RIP


It is with great sadness that I have found out that anarchist theoritician, the author of Listen Marxist, The Limits of the City, etc. Founder of the Social Ecology Movement and anti-Lifestylist/Anti-Post Leftist Anarchism, and general curmodgen of the anarchist movement, Murray Bookchin has passed away.I agreed with Bookchin more than I disagreed with him.

For instance he dared to challenge the tree huggers with this idea; strip mining is better than deep mining. Mining is a horrible experience for workers as we can tell from the amount of mine accidents that occur. Far safer is strip mining. While it looks awful, the fact is that for the workers who mine, it is far more effective and safe. And the land can be reclaimed. While a mine can never be reclaimed. Those who talk about strip mining raping the earth should think about the miles of deep mines that dig into the earth never to be used again for anything expect perhaps for dumping toxic and nuclear waste. Brilliant.

A toast to Murray who will be with us still in his volumous writings. And I hope will continue to influence our movement with his thoughts. Because he remains a real alternative to the dweebs like the Chuck O , Jason McQuinn and the Green Anarchists. They are intellectual fleas and woe betide our movement with them as the next generation of anarchists. Ok everyone back to the books, lets read our Bookchin to get a good grounding in modern anarchist thought.


Here is a biography/eulogy on Murray.


Murray Bookchin, visionary social theorist, dies at 85
Murray Bookchin, the visionary social theorist and activist, died
this Sunday, July 30.
By Brian Tokar
Murray Bookchin, the visionary social theorist and activist, died
during the early morning of Sunday, July 30th in his home in Burlington,
Vermont. During a prolific career of writing, teaching and political
activism that spanned half a century, Bookchin forged a new
anti-authoritarian outlook rooted in ecology, dialectical philosophy and
left libertarianism.


Keywords: Analysis, Global, Political Theory,

Murray Bookchin

Murray Bookchin, the visionary social theorist and activist, died
during the early morning of Sunday, July 30th in his home in Burlington,
Vermont. During a prolific career of writing, teaching and political
activism that spanned half a century, Bookchin forged a new
anti-authoritarian outlook rooted in ecology, dialectical philosophy and
left libertarianism.

During the 1950s and ‘60s, Bookchin built upon the legacies of utopian
social philosophy and critical theory, challenging the primacy of
Marxism on the left and linking contemporary ecological and urban crises
to problems of capital and social hierarchy in general. Beginning in the
mid-sixties, he pioneered a new political and philosophical
synthesis*termed social ecology*that sought to reclaim local
political power, by means of direct popular democracy, against the
consolidation and increasing centralization of the nation state.

From the 1960s to the present, the utopian dimension of Bookchin’s
social ecology inspired several generations of social and ecological
activists, from the pioneering urban ecology movements of the sixties,
to the 1970s’ back-to-the-land, antinuclear, and sustainable technology
movements, the beginnings of Green politics and organic agriculture in
the early 1980s, and the anti-authoritarian global justice movement that
came of age in 1999 in the streets of Seattle. His influence was often
cited by prominent political and social activists throughout the US,
Europe, South America, Turkey, Japan, and beyond.

Even as numerous social movements drew on his ideas, however, Bookchin
remained a relentless critic of the currents in those movements that he
found deeply disturbing, including the New Left’s drift toward
Marxism-Leninism in the late 1960s, tendencies toward mysticism and
misanthropy in the radical environmental movement, and the growing focus
on individualism and personal lifestyles among 1990s anarchists. In the
late 1990s, Bookchin broke with anarchism, the political tradition he
had been most identified with for over 30 years and articulated a new
political vision that he called communalism.

Bookchin was raised in a leftist family in the Bronx during the 1920s
and ‘30s. He enjoyed retelling the story of his expulsion from the Young
Communist League at age 18 for openly criticizing Stalin, his brief
flirtation with Trotskyism as a labor organizer in the foundries of New
Jersey, and his introduction to anarchism by veterans of the immigrant
labor movement during the 1950s. In 1974, he co-founded the Institute
for Social Ecology, along with Dan Chodorkoff, then a graduate student
at Vermont’s Goddard College. For 30 years, the Institute for Social
Ecology has brought thousands of students to Vermont for intensive
educational programs focusing on the theory and praxis of social
ecology. A self-educated scholar and public intellectual, Bookchin
served as a full professor at Ramapo College of New Jersey despite his
own lack of conventional academic credentials.He published more than 20
books and many hundreds of articles during his lifetime, many of which
were
translated into Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish and other
languages.

During the 1960s - ‘80s, Bookchin emphasized his fundamental
theoretical break with Marxism, arguing that Marx’s central focus on
economics and class obscured the more profound role of social hierarchy
in the shaping of human history. His anthropological studies affirmed
the role of domination by age, gender and other manifestations of social
power as the antecedents of modern-day economic exploitation. In The
Ecology of Freedom(1982), he examined the parallel legacies of
domination and freedom in human societies, from prehistoric times to the
present, and he later published a four-volume work,The Third Revolution,
exploring anti-authoritarian currents throughout the Western
revolutionary tradition.

At the same time, he criticized the lack of philosophical rigor that
has often plagued the anarchist tradition, and drew theoretical
sustenance from dialectical philosophy*particularly the works of
Aristotle and Hegel; the Frankfurt School*of which he became
increasingly critical in later years*and even the works of Marx and
Lenin. During the past year, even while terminally ill in Burlington,
Bookchin was working toward a re-evaluation of what he perceived as the
historic failure of the 20th century left. He argued that Marxist crisis
theory failed to recognize the inherent flexibility and malleability of
capitalism, and that Marx never saw capitalism in its true contemporary
sense. Until his death, Bookchin asserted that only the ecological
problems created by modern capitalism were of sufficient magnitude to
portend the system’s demise.

Murray Bookchin was diagnosed several months ago with a fatal heart
condition. He will be remembered by his devoted family members*including
his long-time companion Janet Biehl, his former wife Bea Bookchin, his
son, daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter*as well as his friends,
colleagues and frequent correspondents throughout the world. There will
be a public memorial service in Burlington, Vermont on Sunday, August
13th. For more information, contact info(at)social-ecology.org.


Also See:

Anarchists


Anarchism

RIP/Obitruaries



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Thursday, August 03, 2006

Laxer Wrong

James Laxer, the old new leftie is wrong again. He predicts that Kennedy will win the Liberal Leadership race and be a threat to both the NDP and Conservatives. Wishful thinking that. He dismisses Bob Rae outright. Of course that was yesterday. Today we know that Bob Rae has raised more filthy Liberal lucre than any other Leadership hopeful. Leaving the likes of Ken Dryden to reconsider their campaigns.

Its a race between the back room boys candidate Ignatieff and Rae. No other Liberals need apply.

Ignatieff remains the voice of the right wing of the party, apparently Rae can mobilize the progressive wing at least in Toronto. While Laxer claims Kennedy has sold more memberships, that merely places him as King Maker, not a contender. Kennedy is dull, dull, dull as a candidate.

Rae has been underestimated because of the debacle of his NDP government in Ontario. And while the Liberal base is strong in Ontario, it is a National Leadership race. And the only thing that wins such a race is money. And the Liberals are all about money. Grassroots support is nice rhetoric, but its cold hard cash that buys, err...wins races.

So it behooves me to ask the remaining Liberal Leadership candidates to do us all a big favour; quit. This is a two man race, lets get it on before December. How about doing it in September, so we can have a nice fall election. Huh, how about it?


http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/02autumn/images/Ignatieff&Rae3.jpg

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Pets Perish


Like the debacle of the evacuation of New Orleans after Katrina, once again peoples animal companions were denied the right to evacuate with their human owners from Lebanon. While this item covers the US evacuation, the Canadian State also denied its citizens the right to bring their pets with them from Lebanon.

US Rescue Efforts Again Fail Animals and their People
The cruise ships and helicopters sent by the U.S. to rescue Americans from war torn Lebanon are poignant symbols of our government’s commitment to its citizens, wherever they may be. Yet for many of the people who are desperate to escape the strife, the government’s plan comes at a high cost. U.S. officials forced these men, women and children, who already lost their homes and belongings, to leave their dogs, cats and other companion animals behind. Beloved animals were ordered out of their owners’ arms, abandoned on the streets and left to starve amidst the rubble.
Motro: In war, all living creatures can use some luck

Luna the albino boxer lolls indolently on her queen-size doggy bed in a Tel Aviv beauty salon while her master's customers stream through to be permed, streaked and touched up. Fat and secure, nothing disrupts Luna's quiet life of privileged luxury.

In contrast Luna's compatriot a mere 60 miles away is living life on the edge. A long-haired spaniel is featured smack on Page 1 of Haaretz, Israel's most prestigious newspaper. She stares at the camera with limpid gaze, showing off pink tongue, fluffy ears and snappy red leash. Around her paws lie jagged chunks of collapsed wall, smashed glass, shredded curtain and twisted metal.


Of course unlike Corporations that are defined as 'persons' under US law, animals are still defined as property, thus evacuations limit the amount of 'property' evacuees can travel with. Catch 22 until we change the laws around companion animals to be deemed 'persons'.

Pets are property, and people traditionally have received little more than the animal's market value, according to Joyce Tischler, founding director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, an advocacy group based in Cotati, Calif.



And of course the indiscriminate bombing of the Lebanese coastline by Israel has created suffering for animals there too. Oil slicks are now contaminating the Mediterranean coast line.

Coastal animals latest casualty in war-torn Lebanon Discovery Reports Canada

Lebanon Oil Spill Makes Animals Casualties of War National Geographic



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The New Cuban Revolution


David Suzuki covers the Cuban Green Revolution in his TV Series the Nature of Things. Rather timely it should show this week. Proving that the revolution in Cuba is alive and kicking, regardless of the embargo by the US and the declining health of el presidente.



cuba:
the accidental revolution

Cuba: The Accidental Revolution are two one-hour documentaries celebrating the country's success in providing for itself in the face of a massive economic crisis, and how its latest revolutions, an agricultural revolution and a revolution in science and medicine are having repercussions around the world.

Without fertilizer and pesticides, Cubans turned to organic methods. Without fuel and machinery parts, Cubans turned to oxen. Without fuel to transport food, Cubans started to grow food in the cities where it is consumed. Urban gardens were established in vacant lots, school playgrounds, patios and back yards. As a result Cuba created the largest program in sustainable agriculture ever undertaken. By 1999 Cuba's agricultural production had recovered and in some cases reached historic levels.

It is this adaptablitiy of the Cuban State that will allow it to survive the eventual death of Castro. And no it won't turn reactionary and collapse into Mafia Capitalism like the Soviet Union did. Despite the rhetoric about the 'Castro dictatorship' the Cuban revolution is still a 'Peoples Revolution', and the people will defend their gains.

Also See:
CUBA


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Business As Usual


US Senator Elizabeth Dole likes to say in defense of the US invasion of Iraq that it is bringing the poor oppressed people there "Free Market Democracy". Truly American enteprize and business have taken over Iraq;

Judge Radi Hamza Radi, head of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity set up in 2004, says corruption has “exploded" since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003.

US auditor lists failures in rebuilding of Iraq

The top auditor of the US reconstruction effort in Iraq yesterday detailed a series of failures, including a $218.5 million emergency radio network that doesn't work, a hospital that is turning out to be twice as expensive as planned, an oil pipeline that is spewing lakes of crude oil onto the ground, and a prison that was meant to hold 4,400 inmates but can house only about 800.

Stuart Bowen Jr. , the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, cited multiple causes for the failures at a Senate hearing yesterday, among them the growth of the Iraqi insurgency, poor planning by the US government, and corruption in the Iraqi government.

But he also took aim at the ``cost-plus" contracts given to American construction firms -- including Bechtel, part of the consortium that oversaw Boston's Big Dig -- which guaranteed profits on top of the cost of the project, even with huge overruns.

Thats Iraq now ask yourselves what is happening in Afghanistan? Same thing.

"Everybody complains about corruption in government administration, especially with the judiciary," Hazami told The Associated Press.


Mission Impossible?

NATO faces a culmination of challenges aside from the Taliban military threat. The poppy culture of the south runs the local economy and serves the interests of the Taliban. It is run by tribes that live on both sides of the border with Pakistan, forging stronger ties amongst themselves and pushing any allegiance with Kabul further away. The area is dominated by a Pakistani sphere of influence; politically, economically and socially. Many businesses trade the Pakistani rupee as a means of legitimate currency and cross border trading and businesses are only second to opium production as the most profitable commercial activity in the area. This is a tough challenge for international troops to overcome as they try to prop up a central government’s control where it is already widely mistrusted and unwanted.

NEWS ANALYSIS: Rogue States Within States Pose Growing Threat

Although the United States largely destroyed al Qaeda's haven in Afghanistan, the terrorist network remains the world's most feared -- and probably the hardest to contain -- transnational group.

"The only thing that we found works is if we can convert (groups like al Qaeda) ... isolate them in a state, so that it looks more or less like a state threat," said Chet Richards, a former U.S. Air Force Reserve air attache to Saudi Arabia, who has written extensively about nontraditional enemies the United States is likely to face in the 21st century.

"We did it in Afghanistan. But once ... you've taken down their main state basis, they become basically organized crime."

Although it lost control of Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban has returned -- this time, as a nonstate actor, which in recent months appears to have gone from strength to strength, launching incursions into Afghanistan out of the tribal provinces of western Pakistan, where the Pakistani government has been unable -- or, some experts say, unwilling -- to rein it in.

Also See:

Iraq

Afghanistan



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Tie

One party is rudderless and the other is leaderless Conservatives, Liberals almost level in poll

The latest results by Decima Research, released to The Canadian Press, put the Conservatives and Liberals in a virtual tie nationally.



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Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Another US Faliure

While the Middle East burns, and Afghanistan moves towards becoming the same old Islamic Republic it was under the Taliban, let us not forget that other American regional faliure; Somalia. Clearly freedom and democracy to these folks means Islam, not capitalist democracy. Opps.

Lawmakers' exodus leaves Somalia reeling

Somalia's government was trying to regroup on Wednesday after nearly 30 lawmakers resigned in less than a week, saying the virtually powerless administration has failed to reconcile with Islamic militants who have taken over the capital.

"The prime minister has failed to talk to the Islamic union," said Hasaan Abshir Farah, one of six ministers who stepped down overnight from Somalia's 275-member parliament.

Four resigned on Tuesday and 18 resigned late last week.

The administration was formed two years ago with the support of the United Nations to help Somalia emerge from more than a decade of anarchy, but it has no power outside its base in Baidoa, 250km from the capital, Mogadishu.


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Hezbollah Are Not Terrorists

As I said here Hezbollah is a nationalist movement, a poltical organization and civil defense army for the imporverished residents of Lebanon. As Juan Cole succinctly points out;

What is Hizbullah?

Western and Israeli pundits keep comparing Hizbullah to al-Qaeda. It is a huge conceptual error. There is a crucial difference between an international terrorist network like al-Qaeda, which can be disrupted by good old policing techniques (such as inserting an agent in the Western Union office in Karachi), and a sub-nationalist movement.

Al-Qaeda is some 5,000 multinational volunteers organized in tiny cells.

Hizbullah is a mass expression of subnationalism that has the loyalty of some 1.3 million highly connected and politically mobilized peasants and slum dwellers. Over a relatively compact area.

I take sub-nationalism as a concept from Anthony D. Smith. It would be most familiar to Western readers under the rubric of the Irish Catholics of North Ireland, or even the Scots of the UK. Subnationalism, like the larger, over-arching nationalism, is a mass movement.

Thus, a very large number of the Pushtuns in Afghanistan are sub-nationalists with a commitment to Pushtun dominance. They deeply resent the victory of the Northern Alliance (i.e. Tajiks, Hazara Shiites, and Uzbeks) in 2001-2002. A lot of what our press calls resurgent "Taliban" activity is just Pushtun irredentism. There are approximately 14 million Pushtuns in Afghanistan and another 14 million or so in Pakistan.

The continuing war in Afghanistan is not against the Taliban but the Pashtun, poor farmers and their only economical crop.

Fierce clashes around Afghan opium centre

War on Afghan opium farming an "absolute disaster"

So why is Canada involved in this opium war? Which the Harpocrites refuse to call a war! And which is causing the deaths of our troops. Why be where we are not wanted. Afghan Farmers Resentful

Oh yeah we are protecting democracy, Afghani women and girls and their ability to go to school and work in the new fledgling Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Islamic republic. Afghan 'virtue' cops concern diplomats

A republic that allowed a Canadian to die for opening a school for women and girls. A Canadian abandoned by the Harpocrites, doing the real work of reconstruction, which was what the current Afghan mission was supposed to be about, but of course isn't.

A tip o the blog to Rusty Idols for this.

Also See:

Afghanistan

Israel

Lebanon



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Don't Cry For Me Little Havana

I like it when I can say; I told ya so.


Experts: Belief that Castro’s Illness Will Trigger Change in Cuba,
Premature

When news reports hit early this week that Fidel Castro had transferred the reins of power to his brother while he underwent serious gastrointestinal surgery, pictures of dancing expatriate Cubans and Cuban Americans in the streets of Miami flashed on television screens.

But suggestions of the Cuban leader’s imminent demise, as well as that of his form of government, may be greatly exaggerated.


Fidel Castro: The Last Titan

While the Cuban community in Miami is ecstatic, believing that Fidel’s illness and possible absence brings their day closer, the evidence points to the contrary. Going by all news reports there is a stark contrast between the scenes of exultation in Miami and the widespread mood, somber, hopeful, stoic, in Cuba. There is also a glaring gap between the reactions in Miami and those in the rest of Latin America. Whatever the outcome of Fidel’s health crisis, the repugnant scenes in Miami have widened the moral gulf between native and rightwing émigré Cubans, and between the latter and the rest of Latin America. Whatever the mirages of transition pursued by the White House, Fidel’s illness makes the reclaiming of Havana by Miami less not more likely.

In his Cuba: A New History, a work that is rather critical of Fidel Castro, Richard Gott, veteran commentator on Latin America, author of a standard work on the region’s guerrilla movements and one of those who identified Che Guevara’s body in Bolivia, concludes with an unconventional observation, namely that the post Castro transition had already taken place:

‘Personally I expect little change in the years ahead, or even when Castro dies. Cuba has already been governed for several years by a post-Castro government. Raul Castro runs the armed forces today as he has done since 1959. Ricardo Alarcon at the national assembly is the country’s political guru, aware of shifts in public opinion as well as a long serving and expert negotiator with the United States. Carlos lage is the prime minister and controller of the country’s economy. Felipe Perez Roque is a sure hand at foreign affairs, sustaining Cuba’s extraordinary worldwide support. This is a more than competent team that could run the affairs of any country at any time, as one admiring western ambassador explained to me.

By Stephen Gibbs
BBC News, Cuba

On the streets of Havana there has been a remarkable sense of calm, almost nonchalance, in the face of the dramatic news that President Castro has undergone complicated surgery to stem intestinal bleeding.

Poster of Fidel Castro in Havana
President Castro's exhortations to Cuban remain highly visible

People have been going to work as normal. Shops remain open. Cinemas are full.

In the shadow of one of the posters of the smiling president that last year were put up around the capital, pasted with the words "Vamos Bien" ("we are doing well"), Dinorah Padron, a retired nurse in her 60s, expresses an opinion that reflects the thoughts of many Cubans of her generation.

"We think he will be better very soon", she says. "He's healthy".

After 47 years in power many assume that President Castro will live, if not for ever, then at least for the foreseeable future.

"He has to recover", said David Santos, 54, who was wearing a revolutionary T-shirt and was on his way to see his grandchildren. "He is our leader, the maximum, the best."



Also See:

Cuba



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