Happy Canada Day! Make Poverty History

July 1 - International Day of Action to Help Make Poverty History
On July 1 (Canada Day), Canadians will be joining millions around the world for White Band Day, a global call for action against poverty. International White Band Day will see national landmarks wrapped in huge versions of the campaign's symbol - a white band."This international White Band Day is an opportunity to show the G8 leaders that the world is watching and wanting them to act to end poverty," says Gerry Barr, co-chair of the Make Poverty History campaign in Canada.


Being an Internationalist libertarian communist I can be proud of the revolutionary history and struggles of the aboriginal people and the working class immigrant men and women who built this modern nation.

But to wave the flag and say like Joe Molson " I AM CANADIAN" well please give me a break. Such patriotism led to the Whyte Riot of 2001 (on Whyte Ave) here in Redmonton thanks to an overabundance of Molson's Canadian.

I dedicate this space to the project above in the spirit of Internationalism on Canada Day. Party down folks but don't forget we have it good here because millions of people feed us through their exploitation and oppression abroad and at home.

What, then, is patriotism? "Patriotism, sir, is the last resort of scoundrels," said Dr. Johnson. Leo Tolstoy, the greatest anti-patriot of our times, defines patriotism as the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers; a trade that requires better equipment for the exercise of man-killing than the making of such necessities of life as shoes, clothing, and houses; a trade that guarantees better returns and greater glory than that of the average workingman. Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays: Patriotism: A Menace to Liberty