Return Of Internment Camps

In Alberta,and across Canada, during the dirty thirties under the Bennett Buggy Conservatives unemployed single men were not granted relief, that is a dollar a day payments that predated unemployment insurance.

Instead they were rounded up and placed in internment camps, called relief camps but which were concentration camps by any other name, run by the Army. They were used for building roads, clearing brush etc. just as internees during WWI had been.

They led to the radicaliztion of the unemployed and the historic revolt in the camps that led to the famous On To Ottawa Trek.

I wonder if this is being considered by these nice folks in Calgary as a solution to homelessness; gather up the homeless and ship them out. Calgary To Become First Homeless Free City?

After all R.B. Bennett was from Calgary just like our current PM.




Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
homeless, homelessness, Canada, Alberta, internment camps, relief, R B Bennett, history, unemployed, On To Ottawa Trek, Calgary, relief camps

Trilateral Commission

Rona Ambrose was a Member of the Trilateral Commission as reported in Vancouver's Georgia Straight, August 24, 2006.

Well shucks who knew. The Trilateral Commission is the public face of the those other secret societies of the corporatist ruling class like the Bilderbergers and the Davos Forum.

It is the original source for George Bush Seniors announcement of the New World Order.

Managing the International System Over the Next Ten Years: Three Essays
The Trilateral Commission (© 1997)
Bill Emmott, Koji Watanabe and Paul Wolfowitz

The 2006 annual meeting of the Trilateral Commission dealt with "Globalisation and Governance".

The Commission, which operates through three regional secretariats, coordinates task forces on a variety of pressing issues in international affairs and meets in regional groups as well as in an annual three-day plenary to discuss these studies and to share perspectives on common political, economic, and foreign policy challenges. The task force reports are published as a series called The Triangle Papers. Also, a report on the annual meeting is published each year as part of the Trialogue series. The annual meeting of Trilateral Commission members rotates among the three regions.

Holly Sklars book remains one of the best on the Trilateral Commission and it's importance in setting the agenda for Globalization, without falling into the tinfoil hat conspiracy theories that abound around ruling class institutions like these. As I wrote in my article; Conspiracy Theory or Ruling Class Studies

"The Trilateral Commission is international and is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the U.S." -- attributed to Senator Barry Goldwater.

The new "trilateralism" reflects the realization that the international system now requires "a truly common management," as the Commission reports indicate. The trilateral powers must order their internal relations and face both the Russian bloc, now conceded to be beyond the reach of Grand Area planning, and the Third World. Noam Chomsky: The Carter Administration: Myth and Reality

A Trilateral Commission Task Force Report, presented at the 1975 meeting in Kyoto, Japan, called An Outline for Remaking World Trade and Finance, said: "Close Trilateral cooperation in keeping the peace, in managing the world economy, and in fostering economic development and in alleviating world poverty, will improve the chances of a smooth and peaceful evolution of the global system." Another Commission document read: "The overriding goal is to make the world safe for interdependence by protecting the benefits which it provides for each country against external and internal threats which will constantly emerge from those willing to pay a price for more national autonomy. This may sometimes require slowing the pace at which interdependence proceeds, and checking some aspects of it. More frequently however, it will call for checking the intrusion of national government into the international exchange of both economic and non-economic goods." In other words, they were promoting world government by encouraging economic interdependence among the superpowers.

The Trilateral Commission was formed in 1973, and it is widely perceived as an off-shoot of the Council On Foreign Relations. According to Christopher Lydon, writing in the July 1977 Atlantic, "The Trilateral Commission was David Rockefeller's brainchild." At the time, David Rockefeller was Chairman of the Council On Foreign Relations, having been elected to that post in 1970. David Rockefeller became the founding Chairman of the Trilateral Commission, which consists of leaders in business, banking, government and mass media from North America, Europe, and Japan invited to join by Rockefeller himself.

A related purpose of the Trilateral Commission was to promote cooperation among the industrialized countries in the face of an emerging bloc of Arab, African and Asian states which had come to dominate the General Assembly of the United Nations.

But the Trilateralists did not want to give up on the United Nations. The economic and political elites of America and Europe seek international political power in order to provide a stable investment climate, including protection against nationalization of their assets.

At the same time, the international bankers and multi- national corporations have gained much of their wealth through partnership with government. The corporate elite look to governments for lucrative contracts; taxpayer subsidized financing; and protection from competition.

The international bankers and multinational corporations have exploited two UN financial agencies in particular - the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. But they have relied on their own national governments to attempt to protect their foreign investments.

The politicians have looked to a strengthened United Nations for a different reason. Politicians seek power. Control over their own government is all too often only a beginning to their ambition. History is littered with corpses who mutely testify to the imperial ambitions and arrogance of politicians.

In 1973, the U.S. was winding down its involvement in Vietnam. The Vietnam War had proved to be a costly mistake, and had turned a majority of the American people against the idea of military intervention in other countries.

As noted, the Trilateral Commission was founded in 1973, in the midst of the Middle East oil crisis. The ostensible cause of the oil crisis was a decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to dramatically raise the posted price for oil, with the price hike enforced by limited production quotas for each member country.

11 Jun 1993 The Washington Times reports: "Presidential counsellor David Gergen resigned yesterday from the all-male Bohemian Club, three days after saying he would not run around naked at its annual Bohemian Grove encampment and insisting he would not quit. White House spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers announced the resignation along with Mr. Gergen's departure from 17 other interest groups, charities and public boards ranging from the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group and Council on Foreign Relations."

For Canadians our concern has to be that the Trilateralists promote deep integration starting with the original Mulroney Reagan FTA followed by NAFTA evolving into a continental alliance,or North American Union, including shared monetary standards.

Canadians On the Trilateral Commission 2005 appointments

Rona Ambrose, Member of Parliament, Ottawa, ON

Maurizio Bevilacqua, Member of Parliament, Ottawa, ON

Arthur A. DeFehr, President and Chief Executive Officer, Palliser Furniture, Winnipeg, MB

André Desmarais, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Power Corporation of Canada, Montréal, QC; Deputy Chairman, Power Financial Corporation

Peter C. Dobell, Founding Director, Parliamentary Centre, Ottawa, ON

Wendy K. Dobson, Professor and Director, Institute for International Business, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON; former Canadian Associate Deputy Minister of Finance

Peter C. Godsoe, Chairman of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts; Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Scotiabank, Toronto, ON

*Allan E. Gotlieb, Senior Advisor, Stikeman Elliott, Toronto, ON; Chairman, Sotheby’s, Canada; former Canadian Ambassador to the United States; North American Deputy Chairman, Trilateral Commission

E. Peter Lougheed, Senior Partner, Bennett Jones, Barristers & Solicitors, Calgary, AB; former Premier of Alberta

Roy MacLaren, former Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom; former Canadian Minister of International Trade; Toronto, ON

John A. MacNaughton, former President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Toronto, ON

Brian Mulroney, Senior Partner, Ogilvy Renault, Barristers and Solicitors, Montréal, QC; former Prime Minister of Canada

Hartley Richardson, President and Chief Executive Officer, James Richardson & Sons, Ltd., Winnipeg, MB

Gordon Smith, Director, Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC; Chairman, Board of Governors, International Development Research Centre; former Canadian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Personal Representative of the Prime Minister to the Economic Summit

Ronald D. Southern, Chairman, ATCO Group, Calgary, AB

Barbara Stymiest, Chief Operating Officer, RBC Financial Group, Toronto, ON

See:

Bilderberg

Conspiracy Theory

Conspiracy

Ruling Class



Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Rona Ambrose, Trilateral Commission, CFR, Bilderberg, Davos, Secret Societies, NWO, New World Order, Globalization, Conspiracy, Conspiracy theory, Bohemian Grove, Conspiracy Theories, Ruling Class, Chomsky, Carter, Bush, UN

Mr Harper Forgets Redmonton

The Conservatives think they have Alberta sewn up. I guess they forgot about Redmonton.

As the Edmonton Journal editorial on the new Harper Cabinet points out.

A more conventional leader might have worried that Edmontonians, who used to boast the country's deputy prime minister, might feel they are being taken for granted -- surely an odd thing for a minority government to do to a city with small margins of victory for Conservative MPs, and a past record of electing Liberals and even New Democrats.

But this possibility doesn't seem to have occurred to Harper, who has barely set foot in Edmonton since his election, and who obviously feels all Albertans will be equally thrilled to have a third Calgarian, and a fourth MP from Southern Alberta, articulating the aspirations of their province in Ottawa.

Will Edmontonians feel that Kenney, a social conservative from Calgary, is as good an extra voice for them in Ottawa as one of the talented alternatives in the city or elsewhere north of Highway 1?

This is the second time Redmonton has been passed over for any cabinet posts.

And speaking of potential cabinet choices has anyone seen Rahim Jaffer anywhere? Nope missing in action, something we all know about in Edmonton Strathcona.

Once a prominant critic in opposition he is now just another pretty face on the arm of newly minted Parliamentary Secretary Helena Guergis. Having been the token Muslim in the Conservatives even that is now a passing claim to fame.

And Laurie Hawn, who fought so hard (twice) to replace the Liberal Deputy PM Anne McLellan, is still cooling his jets in the backbenches when he could have replaced the geriatric mouthpiece for the military industrial establishment as Minister of Defense.

And what of long suffering and long bearded backbencher Peter Goldring, who could have been made a Secretary of State for the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Yep lots of possibilities there but none to be had.

Unless you accept Rona Ambrose as being from Edmonton since she lives in Old Strathcona, but of course she represents Spruce Grove which Edmonton has not yet annexed.

Redmonton is not in the bag for the Tories.

Linda Duncan is running against Jaffer for a second time after her excellent showing last election.

Nicole Martel may run against Goldring again, she too did well last election.

And what of Anne McLellan, might she decide to try and make it another landslide?

Given the Tories dismissal of womens issues, the environment, social justice, and its attacks on the Wheat Board the election should any of these three candidates run and win it would be sweet revenge for Redmonton and a lesson for Harper.



See:

Cabinet



Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Helena Guergis, Linda Duncan, Nicole Martel, Peter Goldring, Laurie Hawn, Anne McLellan, RahimJaffer, Harper, Conservatives, Cabinet, Government, politics, Edmonton, Alberta, NDP, Liberals, Ambrose, Redmonton

Who Is He Signalling

The death of sex workers in Edmonton has given rise to theories of a serial killer, or killers.

I think it may be the case of the latter.

Since this creep has been busted for two of the deaths of young inner city women, you have to ask who is he signalling to keep silent, or assuring he will be silent.

He made a pointed effort to make sure the media filmed him doing this.



See

Crime

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
prostitutes, sexworkers, ProjectKare, Edmonton, Alberta, serial killer, Svekla, crime, murder,

Variable Labour=Variable Captial

Just when you thought that the American worker could not get squeezed for any more juice, major retailers have come up with a new cost-savings innovation to apply more pressure on their workforce. Indeed, staffing is the latest area where big retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, and Payless hope to wring out a few pennies with new operational efficiencies.

Major features in the Wall Street Journal and the San Francisco Chronicle this week reveal that new computerized scheduling systems will move many American workers from a predictable work shift to staffing based on the number of customers in a store at any given time. The system will allow managers to start the business day with a few employees on hand, then bring in "on call" workers when business picks up during the course of the day. Once commerce lags, the manager can send workers home until further notice. In short, it matches staffing to more closely match customer demand.

"The whole point is workers were a fixed cost, now they're a variable cost," Kenneth Dalto, a management consultant told the Wall Street Journal. "Is it good for workers?" he added. "Probably not."

Labour under capitalism has always been a variable cost, which Marx called variable capital, it is the source of profit. This is an example of the speed up of production and the use of flexible labour time as is done in factories now applied to the social factory of the service/retail industry.

Variable capital means that proportion of capital which is invested in wages, in the purchase of labour-power. Marx called this capital “variable” because it is this proportion of capital which, if it is used wisely may produce a new, surplus value in the course of the labour process, over and above the “necessary labour time” which the worker needs to live and is paid in the form of wages. This investment is the only one which creates new value, because the worker is able to produce more than he needs in order to live.

So for example, let us suppose a worker earns $100 and consumes $1000 worth of materials and components to produce a product which is sold for $1300. This value could be represented as constant capital ($1000) + variable capital ($100) + surplus value ($200). That $200 of surplus value was added to the product solely by the activity of the worker. That is, of the capitalist’s investment of $1100, only the variable capital, $100, expanded.

Marx represented this relation symbolically:

c + v -› c + v + s

The ratio of constant to variable capital, (c/v), he called the “organic composition of capital”; the ratio of surplus value to wages, (s/v), he called the rate of surplus value, or the rate of exploitation of labour, and s/(c + v) the rate of profit.

The contradiction brought out by this analysis is this. Every capitalist works might and main to reduce the wages bill, and turn over as much material as he can, investing in expensive machinery and increasing c to cut labour costs, v; this produces a general increase in the “organic composition of capital”, c/v. However, since it is only the variable capital that produces profit, the result is a falling rate of profit.

Economic Manuscripts: Capital Vol. I - Chapter Eight

Thus all workers produce capital and thus capitalism. This is what made Marx revolutionary, in identifying the proletariat not the capitalist as the source of capitalism. Even if work is not productive in the traditional meaning of producing goods, in the expansion of capitalism into all social relationships, the commodification of all our being, every worker who is also a consumer is the producer and product of capitalism.

It is this social relationship that means all workers, whether in a factory or in retail store, are the greatest threat to the functioning of capitalism. Which is why revolutionaries call for the General (ized ) Strike by all members of society against the system which exploits us as cogs in the machine.

A tip o' the blog to my co-conspirators at News Trolls for this.

See:

Suplus Value

Labour Produces All Wealth

Libertarian Labour

Peter Drucker RIP

It's the Labour Theory of Value, stupid

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Wal-Mart, Target, retail, workers, variable costs, labour, labor, Marx, variable capital, labour theory of value, social-factory, proletariat, capital, capitalism, profit, working conditions, service workers

Un-Strike

Suppose they called a strike and no one showed up.......

ACTRA on strike, but most actors still working Film, television and radio performers were in a position to strike in three provinces early Monday, but there was not a picket line to be found across the country.

This is the ideal strike for those who oppose unions, because strikes inconvenience the public.

See

Unions

Labour

Strike


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
film, television, radio, media, labour, labor, unions, ACTRA, strike, Canada, actors

Temporary Workers Exploitation

Here is why the Governments temporary foreign worker program is legalized exploitation.

Maple Leaf ends Chinese worker program over job fees
Maple Leaf Foods has shut down a program to import workers from China after discovering that 61 employees at its Brandon, Man., pork processing plant each had to pay a $10,000 fee to get the jobs. "Are you going to wait the four to six years to emigrate? Or are you going to choose the quicker and the faster [option] and pay the premium?"

While the Harper government has deported undocumented foreign workers it is encouraging foreign temporary workers to come to Canada, who are exploited by those 'importing', them. In the same fashion that undoucmented Chinese workers coming to Canada are exploited by Snakeheads in their own country.

See:

Alberta's Free Market In Labour

The Labour Shortage Myth

AFL Agrees With Me

Monte Solberg




Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
temp-workers, foreign-workers, labour, labor, labour-shortage, Federal Government, Manitoba, Canada, Trade Union, meat cutters, immigration, Maple Leaf Foods, UFCW, Conservatives, Monte Solberg, Stephen Harper, HRSDC, Cabinet Minister

Real Costs of Bio-Fuels

The Green Party strongly supports the development of biofuels

But at what cost? The death of the Wheat Board so that the big agribusiness corporations that are producing bio-fuels, like Archer Daniels Midlands, can gain more state subsidies

And increase the profits they make as the market price for grain increases in response to market speculation on state funding of bio-fuels.

Not for farmers of course, but for the big agribusiness buyers and sellers, who also dominate the bio-fuels market.

"The Wheat board's marketing efforts are worth $500 million a year to farmers,"
said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. "The question is why is Stephen Harper so intent on selling out Canadian farmers to agricultural conglomerate like Cargill and ADM?"

The answer is Bio Fuels, which the Green Party supports. The problem is that they are not economical, without massive state subsidies. And the Green Party knows that.

Major food processors like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland Company are investing heavily in biofuels. On the energy front, Chevron and BP are pouring millions into biofuels production or processing.

Ethanol is the best reference biofuel when discussing options for biodiesel support. In the last 3 years, Canadian ethanol capacity has grown from 175 million litres to 1.2 billion litres. To initiate the rapid growth of a Canadian ethanol industry, the government of Canada provided $123.9 million in capital subsidies to corporations during the first two rounds of the Ethanol Expansion Program ethanol production has increased as a direct result of the capitalization assistance

"Ethanol Production Update"

Currently, 110 grain ethanol biorefineries have the capacity to produce more than 5.3 billion gallons of ethanol ethanol. An additional 79 (81 according to their latest update of their list) construction projects are underway that will add nearly 6 billion gallons of new ethanol production capacity.

Archer Daniels Midland remains the largest producer with 1,070 mgy of capacity at six sites and 275 mgy under construction or planned. VeraSun comes in second and US Bioenergy third, each with less than half of ADM's capacity.

And the biggest critcs of the biofuel hoax are environmentalists, not political opportunists like May and her Party.

Biomass for biofuel isn't worth it

Although Pimentel advocates the use of burning biomass to produce thermal energy (to heat homes, for example), he deplores the use of biomass for liquid fuel. "The government spends more than $3 billion a year to subsidize ethanol production when it does not provide a net energy balance or gain, is not a renewable energy source or an economical fuel. Further, its production and use contribute to air, water and soil pollution and global warming," Pimentel says. He points out that the vast majority of the subsidies do not go to farmers but to large ethanol-producing corporations.

See

ADM

Wheat Board

Farmers

ind blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Canada, agriculture, wheat, WheatBoard, farmers, Western-Canada, barley, wheat, Strahl, Government, Conservatives, Harper, Elizabeth May, NDP, Green Party, ADM, ethanol, biofuels,

Editorial Comment

I see my editorial comment on Peter MacKay's secret surprise unannounced propaganda visit to Afghanistan has upset some partisan Blogging Tories, in particular BBS and Steve Janke. Hello its called editorial comment.

And Mr. Janke is concerned I am implying Peter MacKay is a pedophile. But child brides are ok in Afghanistan. That is the real crime. Which was my point, stated in a pointed way.

You can't be a pedophile if its ok in the country you are in to marry a child bride can you? And if it is pedophilia then I would expect Janke to be outraged, as I was, over the conditions of exploitation girls and women still suffer under the Karzai regime. But of course Janke wasn't nor was MacKay.

Janke would rather attack me personally and then attack the NDP as if I was a partisan blog for the NDP, which I am not. Missed my post on partisan blogging did we Steve. Missed Libertarian Communist Blog in my header did we.

The Harper government continues to prop up a misogynist anti-women regime that allows child brides. But the silence of the Harper government over the lack of womens rights in Afghanistan is deafening. But then they don't believe women's equality is important in Canada so why should it be important in Afghanistan.

Peter MacKay zooms over for a Harper propaganda photo op handing out some token funds to women, while avoiding the issue of the current famine and drought and families selling off child brides to survive.

Of course child brides are an offense to all right thinking folks, which was my point. But clearly my supposedly besmirching Mr. MacKays reputation is more important to a partisan hack like Janke than the condition of girls and women in Afghanistan.

Nothing new there, both BBS and Janke are Blogging Tories.


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
PeterMackay, childbrides, women, girls, Afghanistan, exploitation, famine, drought, Canada, BloggingTories, SteveJanke,

Tiger Tiger Burning Bright

This is from my fellow News Now contributor Phil Davis.

There are only 4000-5000 Tigers in the wild,they are being poached at the rate of one per day.They are being killed for their skins,which people wear to show their wealth,also for their body parts being used in traditional chinese medicine.There is no proof to show that consuming Tiger parts cure anything,as there are alternative medicines.also we should not be killing TIGERS period.WE NEED WORLD HELP,PLEASE HELP THE TIGER,WE NEED TO ACT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.You can find out more about our projects at www.tigerawareness.co.uk.

There are half a million seals in Canadian waters that the Green NGO's will once again mobilize to protect from nasty brutish seal hunters.

But there are far less Tigers. Real endagered spiecies like Tigers, Wolves, Bears, and Primates that need protection and the worlds attention.

More than the cute cuddly poster seals who are commercially exploited by the Green NGO's to line their pocketbooks.

The Tiger

TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake. 1757–1827

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Tigers, endangered spiecies, Tiger refuge, William Blake, The Tiger