Honk For Public Day Care

I want a national Day Care Program and I won't let go until I get it.

That Harper sure has a way with kids.

Harper willing to go to the polls over child-care allowance
Harper said that he could work with the NDP and Bloc Québécois. He suggested those parties are not ideologically opposed to his plan, but instead criticize the amount of the allowance.

What BS. They are opposed to his plan which only creates a baby bonus and ends federal funding to the provinces and does not create a national public daycare program. The NDP plan is just that plus a $1200 tax credit, not cash which will be taxed. Chow calls Conservatives’ childcare bluff

The BQ only care about getting money for Quebecs existing program, the so called fiscal imbalance. So the Tories will count on them to back up this baby-bonus, in exchange for an asymetrical fiscal deal with Charest.

Not only does the kid put the squeeze on Harper but in the very community centre where he is speaking the folks also think his plan is bunk. PM Keeps Plan for Child Care

Prime Minister Stephen Harper challenged his opponents yesterday to take his minority government down over the Conservatives' cherished child-care plan, saying they'll have the chance to do it soon.

Harper's announcement received lukewarm response from some parents in the community centre.

"I think it's just a payoff. Of course I'm going to take the money but I don't think it's solving any problems," said Lydia Pranaitis, who has two children under two.

When she goes back to work from maternity leave, Pranaitis said it will cost her $1,900 per month for child care.

"I think this whole system is breeding poverty," she said.

"If I were a single mother, what could you do?"

Benn Uba agreed it's better to have the money than nothing.

But the father of two children said he would rather see more child-care facilities with subsidies for parents.

"It's tight, it's hard," Uba said of trying to pay the family's bills and pay for child care.

"People don't want to have children anymore."

Besides the cash for parents, the Conservatives also pledged in their first throne speech to create 125,000 new spaces by offering $250 million in tax credits for businesses and non-profit groups that create new spaces.

Critics have said similar efforts by provincial governments have failed to motivate corporations in the past.

Taking Care of Canada's Children

By Nicole Hacock, Director of YWCA Cambridge

The fatal flaw in the Conservative plan is that it ignores Canadians’ desire for quality early learning and care programs. Although the government says it will offer tax incentives to businesses so they can create child care spaces, when the Mike Harris government in Ontario tried this in the 1990s, guess how many spaces the private sector created? None.

The Conservative plan confuses families’ legitimate desire for income support with the need for an accessible, high quality child care. We believe that Canada can deliver both. Families need both, if they are to help their children get the best start in life and balance the overwhelming demands of work and family life.

Since February 24, more than 22,000 Canadians have signed an on-line open letter that urges politicians to work together to honour the child care agreements created last year. At www.buildchildcare.ca, people from all walks of life are saying the same thing: $1,200 a year is not enough. Canada can, and must, do better.

Hayley Wickenheiser, a gold medal mother (and hockey star at the Turin Olympics) signed the child care open letter this week.

Also See

Childcare

Daycare



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Edmontonian Discovers New Dinosaur

And no its not the Conservatives though it does bear a striking resemblance to Alberta's very own Ralph-saurus

New discovery dethrones T-rex

U of A paleontologist identifies carnivore bigger than Tyrannosaurus and millions of years older

EDMONTON - A University of Alberta dinosaur hunter has identified one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs to ever roam the planet, a bloodthirsty beast that hunted in packs in South America and ripped apart much bigger plant-eaters with its razor-sharp teeth and snapping jaw.

Philip Currie, a well-known paleontologist and biological sciences professor at U of A, and Rudolfo Coria, a paleontologist in South America, excavated a group of at least seven of the ferocious predators in red desert sandstone outside Plaza Huincul in Argentina.

The bones are 80 to 90 million years old -- much older than those of the Tyrannosaurus rex, which lived 65 to 70 million years ago in what is now Asia and North America.

"It's always pretty exciting when you realize you're working on a new type of dinosaur," said Currie, who co-authored a paper about the discovery that appears in the spring edition of Geodiversitas, a journal about earth sciences.

"For me, especially, big carnivorous dinosaurs have been one of my passions since I was a kid and found a dinosaur in a cereal box."

A Meat Eater Bigger Than T. Rex Is Unearthed

The discovery, along with other recent ones in Canada, Mongolia and the United States, appeared to support an emerging interpretation of the hunting behavior of predatory dinosaurs. Instead of being solitary hunters, as once thought, they may have operated in groups.

"The presence of so many animals in one quarry," Dr. Currie said in a statement released by the University of Alberta, "suggests that they were living together in a pack at the time leading up to their catastrophic death." Giant dino-predators may have hunted in packs

Meat-Eating Dinosaur Was Bigger Than T. Rex

Other dinosaur experts say the discovery sheds valuable new light on the most fearsome land predators ever known.

Lowell Dingus is an associate paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

"The remarkable remains of Mapusaurus provide another important example of the spectacular kinds of gigantic carnivorous dinosaurs that roamed South America near the end of the age of the dinosaurs," he said.

Mapusaurus belongs to a group of recently recognized theropod dinosaurs called carcharodontosaurs, which have also been found in Africa.

The new species "increases both our knowledge of the anatomy and the diversity of this peculiar group of theropod," said Ronan Allain of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France.

Allain says Mapusaurus is more closely related to the Argentinian Giganotosaurus than to the African species.

"It means a South American [carcharodontosaur] lineage could have evolved regardless of the African forms."

He says the other main contender for the title of biggest ever meat-eating dinosaur is Spinosaurus, whose fossil remains come from North Africa.

More on Dinosaurs

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Canadian's Vote Out Berlusconi

Now if we only had been able to vote for the "President of the Free World" , Kerry would be in the White House. Italian Canadian voters pivotal in electing Prodi

Also see: The Friendly Fascist



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Haiti Canada's Colony

Here is another example of the continuing Canadian colonialism of Haiti.

I like this telling headline; Canada Gov. General For Haiti

Governor-general returning to Haiti
Michaelle Jean was a terrified 11-year-old when she and her family fled a barbarous regime in Haiti. Next month, she will return to her homeland as Canada's governor-general, sitting shoulder to shoulder with other heads of state to witness the inauguration of Haiti's new president. The initial plans are for Jean to attend the inauguration of Rene Preval in Port-au-Prince on May 14.

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Vegan Myth Busting

Progressive Bloggers has had an open thread this weekend on the Seal Hunt debate. One of the contributors Mark Francis has been defending veganism, the dietary ideology behind many of the hunt opponents.

As I remarked in my previous post meat eating, hunting and fishing, and later animal husbandry were essential for human evolution. However Mark in a post asserts that Vegans produce less greenhouse gases in their consupmtion of fruit and vegitables;


Of course, there's problems with animal husbandry: vegan diets are much better for the earth: 'Vegans produce 1.5 tons less greenhouse gas emissions per year'


The study failed to consider the high cost and petrochemical basis of fertilizers, soil destruction, labour intensive farming for vegitables and fruits, DDT and pesticide/herbicide use, gas comsuption by combines and other farm equipement and their emissions, etc. And they failed to consider the large scale use of water, irrigation in California for instance, and the electricity and energy associated with it.

When we do green assessments of production, all input variables have to be taken into consideration which was not done in this case.

They compared apples and oranges, pardon the pun. In criticizing the waste from massive single animal factory farms, such as the massive swine farms, they failed to compare it with the average single crop vegitable or fruit farm. And they failed to compare it to the large scale vegitable crop production in the US, such as cotton, peanuts, soy, etc. which are subsidized, and are used for oil seed production not food. They also failed to consider the input and output costs of GMO, genetically modified, crops.

True industrial farming of single animal species is problematic, espicially swine. However so is single crop production of seed products for oil or sugar beets , as the deterioration of soil conditions in Southern Alberta show's.

So when folks talk about food production as if one form of industrial production is better than another, they are frankly pissing in the wind. All industrial based farming is energy intensive, and produces waste, whether in secondary and tertiary production and transportation. To look at these costs would be to look at the real green costs of capitalist food production.

The key to the regeneration of farming is green input output organic small scale farming, not the industrial model. Regardless of crops or animals raised. And that farming has to be based on an understanding of the ecology and ecological impacts it has.

Also See: The Truth About the Farm Crisis




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Big Meat Eaters

Mammoth meals helped early tribes thrive REGULAR meals of mammoth meat helped some early human tribes to expand more quickly than their largely vegetarian contemporaries, according to a genetic study.

And of course they survived better than their strictly vegitarian relatives who died out. Veganism is a urban consumer phenomona of industrial society (call it the California diet) not a natural phenomena amongst human societies. And thanks to a meat diet our brains grew larger, as Engels points out;

But all that was not yet labour in the proper sense of the word. Labour begins with the making of tools. And what are the most ancient tools that we find – the most ancient judging by the heirlooms of prehistoric man that have been discovered, and by the mode of life of the earliest historical peoples and of the rawest of contemporary savages? They are hunting and fishing implements, the former at the same time serving as weapons. But hunting and fishing presuppose the transition from an exclusively vegetable diet to the concomitant use of meat, and this is another important step in the process of transition from ape to man. A meat diet contained in an almost ready state the most essential ingredients required by the organism for its metabolism. By shortening the time required for digestion, it also shortened the other vegetative bodily processes that correspond to those of plant life, and thus gained further time, material and desire for the active manifestation of animal life proper. And the farther man in the making moved from the vegetable kingdom the higher he rose above the animal. Just as becoming accustomed to a vegetable diet side by side with meat converted wild cats and dogs into the servants of man, so also adaptation to a meat diet, side by side with a vegetable diet, greatly contributed towards giving bodily strength and independence to man in the making. The meat diet, however, had its greatest effect on the brain, which now received a far richer flow of the materials necessary for its nourishment and development, and which, therefore, could develop more rapidly and perfectly from generation to generation. With all due respect to the vegetarians man did not come into existence without a meat diet, and if the latter, among all peoples known to us, has led to cannibalism at some time or other (the forefathers of the Berliners, the Weletabians or Wilzians, used to eat their parents as late as the tenth century), that is of no consequence to us today.

The meat diet led to two new advances of decisive importance – the harnessing of fire and the domestication of animals. The first still further shortened the digestive process, as it provided the mouth with food already, as it were, half-digested; the second made meat more copious by opening up a new, more regular source of supply in addition to hunting, and moreover provided, in milk and its products, a new article of food at least as valuable as meat in its composition. Thus both these advances were, in themselves, new means for the emancipation of man. It would lead us too far afield to dwell here in detail on their indirect effects notwithstanding the great importance they have had for the development of man and society.

The Part played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man

A tip o' the blog to Dust My Broom for this.


Also See:

Ecology=Equality

The Incredible Shrinking Man

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Carnival of Socialism

Once upon a time there was a Carnival of Un-Capitalism. It was one of those aggregate blog Carnivals that are so popular. It stopped being published when the Un-Capitalist Journal was created, in August 2005. Check it out. Great collection of articles.

Sigh, so where are lefties to go and Carnival?

Well a new Carnival has been started by John Angliss, thanks, the Carnival of Socialism, which will post aggregate stories every fortnight (two weeks to those of you not from the UK). The first collection will be out May Day, May 1st. How appropriate.

See ya at the Carnival.




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Union Busters Update

Currently workers at the Northern Canadian Ekati Diamond Mine in Diavik, owned by BHP are on Strike.

It is a misnomer to call this a mine, it is an enormous large scale operation that is less a mine than a huge deep open pit processing operation like the Tar Sands.

A blog has been set up BHP Labour Watch, by the striking workers that details their issues and day to day struggles.

The union busting goon squad from AFI is currently on the picket line protecting scabs crossing the lines, AFI will be speaking at a Human Resource Managers conference in Victoria this week promoting their corporate protection services.

Bottomline is that AFI are professional union busters, their purpose on the picket line is to intimidate strikers, harrass them, attack them, document them for court cases by the employer, in other words to be the front line in the bosses attack on workers rights. Just like their predecesors the Pinkertons.

BHP Labour Watch says;

BHP CLAIM THEY "WON'T USE REPLACEMENT WORKERS" HAS NO MERIT.

BHP, has hired a southern secturity force to intimidate and harass picketers and citizens of Yellowknife. But that isn't all this company does. Here is an excerpt from one of their pomotional docmuments. You decide: is BHP telling the truth?

AFI strives to recruit the best personnel for clients requiring replacement workers to continue operations. Our complete replacement workers service includes performance monitoring and the administration of payroll and benefits, which removes clients from all direct responsibility for the temporary workforce.
Accredited through the Professional Recruiting Association of Canada, our recruiting teams use a comprehensive, three-phase selection process to identify the best possible employees.
Note that the skill or trade of replacement workers required will affect the recruiting time and rates of pay.

Neither BHP or AFI have any respect for Northern values that is obvious.

BHP USING GOONS

Ekati “Goons” Harassing Yellowknifers

(Yellowknife) Ekati’s professional strike breakers have been attempting to intimidate Yellowknife citizens showing sympathy for the Ekati diamond workers currently on strike.

The President of the Union of Northern Workers, Todd Parsons has been receiving reports of people being followed around Yellowknife and even to their personal residences late at night.

“I think it goes beyond simple harassment when women are being followed home. I think this is very close to stalking which is a criminal offence.”

When consulted, a BC Federation of Labour spokesperson said they were not surprised by the use of intimidating tactics. The southern security force hired by BHP Billiton is well known for its use of provocative and intimidating tactics.

“I am disgusted by BHP’s recent statement that they would not tolerate harassment by our members while they turn around and employ people to specifically harass not only our members but innocent citizens of Yellowknife,” said UNW President Todd Parsons.


A tip o' the blog to my pal Bill Tieleman for this.

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Creating Scientologists

"In an effort to inform family and those close to Katie Holmes on how to handle a Scientologist birth, Tom Cruise has been conducting seminars. "

They are going to give birth to a little scientologist.....wonder if the baby is going to look like this.

Internet websites are reporting that Holmes was inseminated with L. Ron Hubbard's frozen sperm.


Scientology Founder L Ron Hubbard researching if tomatoes feel his pain


Mission Impossible star Cruise vows to eat placenta after birth

No wonder the Chef quit South Park he is needed at the Cruise Home




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The One Party State

Ya gotta love a blog from Alberta that tells it like it is and calls itself; Renewing the One Party State Which is covering the current leadership race for who will be Alberta's next CEO. It's the joy of living in an out and out plutocracy.

Cause as I have said here repeatedly ad nauseum that Alberta is unique in the Western Hemisphere as one of the few democratically elected one party states.

Yep Stalin and Castro would be jealous. And it goes to prove that representative democracy is not democracy at all just majoritarian rule that can provide for a tyranny and a dictatorship. Nothing new in that, both the old Soviet Union had and Cuba has 'free' elections too, and they had purges. So do we. Ralph Stalin Purges Alberta Cabinet

Also See:

Medicare Calgary Style

Eleven Days of Scandal Alberta Style

Go West Liberals,Thar's A Boom Out Thar

The Real Story of Alberta's BSE Crisis

Alberta Provincial Election 2004

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Whither the NDP

Aiden the Marijauna Party Candidate in Peterborough has a blog. Guess you could call it a Green blog....he he....anyways in a well written insightful article he challenges the right over the label socialist being applied to the NDP.

And he links to my humble blog article on the capitalist nature of the major Parliamentary Parties. So in return, I thought I would link to his article, and here is a taste of his commentary;

The debate now is whether the NDP is a liberal party or a social democratic one. The NDP has not necessarily embraced neoliberalism yet like many of their social democratic European sister parties or like the Green parties. But we can be sure that Jack Layton would love to be a Canadian Tony Blair if it meant he could capture government.

Like I said can't disagree with his assessment of Smilin Jack as I have blogged here.


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Rich Man's War

Steve Earles rockin country anti-war album The Revolution Starts Now is not only a political challenge to the powers that be in the US and their Warfare State, but its as I said rockin, C&W. Not a single song that ain't a toe tapper and left wing. I give it five cowboy boots out of five. Kick ass album.

I was impressed with the album but even more so now that it takes on a more international flavour with his song Rich Mans War. It mentions of course Kandahar, where Canadian Forces are now covering for the American Empire's exit. US forces in Bhagdad need us in Kandahar.

Which is why WE MUST oppose our excursion in Afghanistan. That and it is still a rich man's war. Our armed forces like the Americans are a working class volunteer army. People joined to get jobs and skills, not to go and fight and die for the capitalists and their state. Something the Progressives For War keep forgetting.

Afghan mission is proving ground for Canada's future military leaders

Their performance will influence, accelerate or kill their future careers and the Afghan veterans who rise up the ranks will help shape Canada's armed forces.

But a spokeswoman at National Defence headquarters says there's no crush of volunteers looking to burnish their personnel files with a stint in Kandahar.

"There hasn't really been a bunch of people saying 'I want to go to Afghanistan so I can further my promotion possibilities.,' " says Cmdr. Denise Laviolette, chief of public affairs at military personnel, the office that handles promotion and selection boards.

The military wants well-rounded leaders, she says, which means along with overseas deployment, holding staff appointments, serving as training instructors and undertaking academic and language studies.

Only about 400 soldiers in Canada's Kandahar contingent belong to the "sharp end" - the units conducting actual combat patrols. The rest are in crucial logistical and planning positions.

Artist/Band: Earle Steve
Lyrics for Song: Rich Man's War
Lyrics for Album: Revolution Starts Now

Jimmy joined the army ‘cause he had no place to go
There ain’t nobody hirin’
‘round here since all the jobs went
down to Mexico
Reckoned that he’d learn himself a trade maybe see the world
Move to the city someday and marry a black haired girl
Somebody somewhere had another plan
Now he’s got a rifle in his hand
Rollin’ into Baghdad wonderin’ how he got this far
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

Bobby had an eagle and a flag tattooed on his arm
Red white and blue to the bone when he landed in Kandahar
Left behind a pretty young wife and a baby girl
A stack of overdue bills and went off to save the world
Been a year now and he’s still there
Chasin’ ghosts in the thin dry air
Meanwhile back at home the finance company took his car
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

When will we ever learn
When will we ever see
We stand up and take our turn
And keep tellin’ ourselves we’re free

Ali was the second son of a second son
Grew up in Gaza throwing bottles and rocks when the tanks would come
Ain’t nothin’ else to do around here just a game children play
Somethin’ ‘bout livin’ in fear all your life makes you hard that way

He answered when he got the call
Wrapped himself in death and praised Allah
A fat man in a new Mercedes drove him to the door
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man’s war

Sarangel Music (ASCAP)

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NARUS Is Big Brother

It's called NARUS and it is the evolution of tracking software, it allows thousands of emails and phonecalls to be monitored for terms like terrorist, bomb, etc. But it goes further it puts them into context, reads between the lines and can determine if the terminology being used is actually a threat or not. An Engineer Blows The Whistle On AT&T

It is being used by the NSA in the US and it is currently reading and monitoring this as you read it. It recognizes no soverignty as it sweeps the net, phone lines and email. It is being used by President Bush to read your blog, emails and monitor your phone calls whether you live in the United States, Canada or Mexico.

It is now being used by repressive regimes to monitor blogs and email in their countries.

It is an invasion of privacy and a violation of Canada's privacy laws according to Technology commentator, and founding member of the TAO collective, Jesse Hirsch in an interview on CBC Live today. Because tghe backbone of the internet is in the US and all our websites and services are routed on that backbone. We have no Internet soveriegnty says Hirsch. And he advocates that Canadian's using email, the web, VOIP, etc. complain to your MP. Here, Here.

The secret Narus spy software at Folsom Street

The venture capital-backed Silicon Valley company Narus has found itself at the center of a legal fight over domestic spying. We're now wondering how its software is being used abroad in places like China and the Middle East.

Narus is based in Mountain View, and makes a network management software.

This week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed documents contending Narus' software was plugged into AT&T's network as part of a massive surveillance program conducted by the National Security Agency -- to eavesdrop on Americans' international phone calls and e-mails. President Bush signed a secret order in 2002 authorizing the NSA project.

Tangled up in spying controversy
NARUS SAYS IT WAS UNAWARE ITS TRACKING SOFTWARE AIDED THE NSA

Last week, the EFF filed a declaration from former AT&T technician Mark Klein alleging that AT&T assisted the NSA in spying. Klein said he learned that a computer containing Narus' software had been installed in a secret room in the company's Folsom Street office in San Francisco sometime after October 2003 to monitor ``people's e-mail, Web surfing or any other data.''

Narus CEO Greg Oslan said the company's software is designed to allow carriers to monitor all Internet traffic, including Web searches, e-mail content and attachments, and Internet phone calls.
Narus was founded in 1997 and has more than 100 employees around the globe. Some of the world's largest phone and Internet carriers have signed up as Narus customers, including T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Brasil Telecom, Korea Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Saudi Telecom and Shanghai Telecom, according to the company. Narus Helps Countries to Block VoIP







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Canadian Community Found at TTLB

Whew I thought the Canadian blogging community was gone forever due to a page malfunction at TTLB ecosystem, but no its not. Its here. You just can't use their Search for Weblog feature to find it. You have to click oncommunities in the header bar. With all that cash rolling in from the ads in their sidebar you'd think they could afford to fix their f**k up.

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Agribusiness Bad Boys

Tyson Foods Inc., Cargill Inc. and Greeley-based Swift & Co. may have to pay $9.25 million in fines after a federal jury found them guilty of ignoring incorrect government beef-price reports, which producers say depressed cattle prices.

Aw shucks say it ain't so. And to think Tysons and Cargill benefited from Alberta's BSE payout which was supposed to go to farmers. But didn't. Instead it benefited Tyson's and Cargills bottom lines which were hurting without the taxpayers of Alberta generous donation.

And it was the Harper Conservatives that killed the parilamentary committee that was investigating these crooks.

And they still succumbed to price fixing the beef market.

Ain't capitalism grand.

Cargill Net Up; Grain and Poultry Credited

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Peter McKay Has A Crush...

on Condoleeza Rice.

Well they are both single after all.

She is of course a cougar.

And he is such a twink.

And we have less of an image problem with inter-racial romances than the Americans.

Of course it would be nice if besides wooing Ms. Rice the eligable bachelor did something for Canada.

Besides taking it up the.....

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay was so appreciative after his first visit Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that he nearly ran out of superlatives.



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The Truth About the Farm Crisis

Finally the Liberal Ag Critic says what the Liberals would never say when they were the Government. That the WTO ruling on agribusiness benefits Cargill and the big agribusiness interests, not the producers or producing countries. Wayne Easter was talking with Craig Oliver today on CTV's Question Period. Strahl pledges Canada's farmers won't be forgotten

Easter finally admited the fact that the whole debate around subsidies to farmers is not about farmers at all but about global agribusiness as I have documented in my research on Cargill.

The industrialization of farming is the ongoing creation of capitalism, it has been since the industrial revolution and the origin of capitalism in England. And in terms of the world captialist agriculture, single crop production for export is leading to desertification.The destruction of the family farm is the agenda of agibusiness, it does not want food sovereignty nor sustainable agriculture the real basis of market agriculture. It wants to create large scale farms, run by managers using GPS technology for export crop production. WTO Who Cares?

Thus the destruction across the prairies of the community grain elevator and its replacement with the one stop shopping agribusiness like Cargill. They offer fertilizers, seed, seed cleaning and processing, shipping and selling of grains. In fact the largest port operation on the B.C. coast is Cargills.

This destruction of the family farm in the prairies began over thirty years ago, before Cargill, Kraft created the conditions of buying up dairy farms and prairie dairy operations in order to drive milk prices down by controlling the market. Thus the National Farmers Union in the early seventies called for the first ever national agribusiness boycott of Kraft.

In Canada the Kraft boycott in the seventies was the equivalent of, and cooresponded too, the grape boycott in the U.S. It was all about saving the family farm.

After Kraftco. came the American giant Cargill in the late seventies and early eighties buying up the grain elevator business. Green Cargill elevators dominated the prairies. Slowly at first and then becoming ever dominant. As the farm economy collapsed during the eighties more and more family farms in Canada and the U.S. were sold off to the agribusiness giants like Cargill and then ADM.

Farmers who survived did so because they bought up their neighbours farms, added mechanization, and cooresponding bank debt, and increased crop yeilds with fertilizers and seed from Cargill and then Monsanto. Crop production such as GMO Canola from Monsanto became a major export product. Farm production of grains was now part of the global agribusiness market, no longer did we have local food production for local use.

This was the changing and is the changing nature of food production in Canada. First the Loaf: And it has been subsidized and supported by the government. Regardless of political stripe. Mulroney Conservatives opened up the market to ADM, they allowed the last independent mill to be sold to them, Robin Hood Mills, and for a reward Mulroney was give a post as a director of ADM.The Ethanol Scam: ADM and Brian Mulroney


The Liberals before them had allowed Cargill in with a wink and a nod. Trudeau's disdain for the west and farmers was well known. And its cost was the death of the family farm. The farm crisis and corporate power

The new Liberal regime, under Chretien and Martin added the stake to the heart of farmers by allowing Monsanto's expansion of GMO production of canola, they opened up the possibility of radioactive food sterlization, and the Supreme Court allowed for Monsanto's patent and control of it's GMO seeds at the expense of the soveriegnty of the family farm.

No one is innocent in the death of the Family Farm in Canada, no government federally or provincially. The Farm Crisis & Corporate Profits A Report by Canada’s National Farmers Union November 30, 2005 View the report

It is inevitable the mechanization of farming, but it does not need to lead to agribusiness corporatization. Certainly in the 1930's we saw the greatest achievement of farm mechnization when thousands of combines cleared farmers crops across the North American prairies in just a few weeks. It was a colossal collective endeavour never achieved again, it was in response to the depression on North American prairie farmers.

Varty, John F. "On Protein, Prairie Wheat, and Good Bread: Rationalizing Technologies and the Canadian State, 1912-1935"
The Canadian Historical Review - Volume 85, Number 4, December 2004, pp. 721-753

Dependent Harvests Grain Production on the American and Canadian Plains and the Double Dependency with Mexico, 1880–1950

The Social Bases of Technical Change: Mechanization of the Wheatlands of Argentina and Canada, 1890 to 1914

From Farm to Factory: Structuring and Location of the US Farm Machinery Industry

Changing Machinery Technology and Agricultural Adjustment

Mechanization is not the enemy of the family farm, technology is not either. Nor is collectivism and cooperation. Marketing boards are the life blood of the family farm, but not the corporate farm which can market itself directly.

The Cooperative Commonwealth ideology of prairie populism reflected the needs of farmers/producers and of workers. Today that ideal is gone, as agribusiness truimphs with its capitalist market of food production. Gone is the real market of farm/producer cooperatives, which are essential for individual family farms.

The modern Canadian farmer instead of sharing or creating equipment cooperatives, has sold their soul to the banks to keep up on the latest in seed or mechanical technology. That along with single crop production has left them vulnerable to corporatization.

Instead of moving to organic farming, mixed crops, truck farming, herb farming, organic animal husbandry, hemp farming, or with creation of bioenergy fuels, etc. along with cooperative farming of large areas in order to maintain soil conservation, cooperative/community equipment buying, the family farm today must grow or die. It must become a mini-corporation, which means it becomes vulnerable to corporate take over, mergers and aquistions by Agribusiness.

The alternative is cooperative farming and the creation of indigenous markets, like farmers markets in cities, supplying Halal and Kosher butchering and dairy needs, the vegatarian market, whole foods, etc. creating producer controled marketing boards and of course producer controled banks/credit unions for low interest loans, gaining control of transportation and grainaries, feedlots and slaughterhouses under producer worker control.

Those on the right who attack the Wheat Board for instance are those whose farms have succeeded in becoming a single crop corporation, having taken over their neighbours farms when they were driven to bankruptcy in the economic crisis of the eighties. The marketing boards in Quebec and Ontario are also reflections of this corporatist model of farming. And that is why agribusiness wants them destroyed, to allow the remaining corporate farms to taken over by them.

Also See:

Migration

A History of Canadian Wealth, 1914.

Origins of the Captialist State In Canada

The Real Story of Alberta's BSE Crisis

Lost and Found

Kids Are Commodities

Development Versus Population Growth

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Canada, family-farm, farming, agriculture, WTO, subsidies, farm-crisis, producers, marketing-boards

National ID Card

Yep coming to a government office near you the new Canadian Bio-Metric National ID card. Why cause George Bush says so. U.S. says border passport a must

But our PM and his Peter of course toughed it out with the Americans and now;Border ID cards coming, PM says

Yep tough negotiators those Tories, can't wait till Stockwell Day meets with the Republican Homeland Security folks in the U.S. MacKay makes no headway in slowing controversial border ID plan

Of course no-one will admit that their whole border issue is not about security but good old fashioned Yankee anti-Mexican immigration jingoism. THE PREDATORY ESCALATION OF ‘IMMIGRATION POLICIES’

And while these ID cards will be embraced by those who live on both sides of the Canada US border the likelyhood of them being embraced by folks in North Carolina or Georgia is well zip, nada, zero.

But don't worry the majority of Americans don't travel farther than a few hunderd miles from home. To them thats a big deal. We are dealing with an insular nation of navel gazers, here folks.

America is a nation who in order to keep Mexican and Central American migrants out will impose a National ID card on us. And of course the Security Statist Tories will push it through for their own authoritarian purposes. And they will be supported by the Liberals who already planned for the National ID cards.

So where is the outrage from the right wing Liberaltarians and their ilk at the Blogging Tories?


See:
Migration

Development Versus Population Growth

Free Labour


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Canada, US, Harper, Bush, immigration, borders, security, ID, passports

Canadians Not Social Conservatives

The right wing in Canada is a minority because most Canadians are not evangelical Christians, which has been the sole source of the rights power in the U.S.

Social Conservatives that attempted to dominate Harpers Conservatives had to rely on their American counterparts in the election to lobby for their christian values coalition. Their power is far less than the power of their bankbooks.

So says a recent poll.

So when folks tell us about how their 'values' are Canadian values, well no they aren't.

One of the key libertarian findings of the survey was that Canadians distrust institutions. And the church in all its forms is an institution we have a healthy scepticism about. Which is why Quebecois are Catholics as a community and individuals but disdain the church and its values.

Belief strong in Canada, but the pews are empty

The survey shows a widening gulf between Canadians and Americans.

In the U.S., regular church attendance is more the norm and has remained virtually unchanged since the Second World War.

Thirty-nine per cent of Americans said they went to church at least once a week, more than double Canada's regulars.

The difference can be attributed to Canadians' mistrust of institutions and the fact that there are fewer smaller evangelical churches in this country that there are in the U.S, said Richard Ascough, a religious studies professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

"The church in a way is perceived as just another institution and people are shying away more and more from things institutional," he said.

And the greatest growth in religion in Canada was in paganism and alternative spiritualities according to the last census done by Stats Canada. Alternative religions such as Wicca and Paganism were placed under the rubric "no religion".

Those who identified as pagans or had increased over 200%.

And the greatest growth was in Alberta. And contrary to Alberta's evangelical/social conservative image over a quarter of Albertans reported that they had no religion.

Which is why this makes sense; Da Vinci Code gospel to 22% in Alberta



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Canada, religion, spirituality, evangelicals, social, conservatives, pagans, gnostics, heresy, christianity, church, Harper

CLC at 50

The Canadian Labour Congress is fifty years old this year and Canada Post has issued a stamp commorating it's birthday. Now will they do the same for the labour movement's party; the NDP when it turns 50?

And prices for stamps were a heck of a lot less fifty years ago.

Ironically Canada Post provides a bit more labour history about the CLC than the CLC does on its own website. Tch, tch.

Formed in 1872 as the Canadian Labour Union from groups that had promoted the Nine Hours Movement, it evolved over the years as mergers and reorganizations took place. Between 1883 and 1956, it operated under the name the Trades and Labour Congress (TLU). In 1939, the TLU expelled members affiliated with the US-based Committee for Industrial Organizing (CIO); the expelled members set up the Canadian Labour Council. In 1956, the Trades and Labour Congress merged with the Canadian Labour Council to become the Canadian Labour Congress.



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labour, Canada, unions, CLC, stamp, Post,

Do As I Say

Vision TV is showing a biography of the founder of the Toronto Star, Joseph E. Atkinson, and of course the Star has a lengthy article on Atkinson and the biopic. It shows that the paper has long been the voice of the red liberal establishment in Canada. And in someways Atkinson's editorialship reminds me of Judy Rebick and Rabble.ca a case of progressives saying do as I say not as I do.

Much is made of Atkinson supporting striking unionworkers in the General Motors' strikes in the late 1930s. Former publisher Beland Honderich, filmed just before his death, allows a smile in saying Atkinson's determination to keep the Newspaper Guild out of his newsroom was at odds with his philosophy. The Guild only received full recognition in 1949, the year after Atkinson's death.

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Canada, Toronto, Star, media, labour, unions, liberals, Liberal, politics, newspaper, rabble.ca

Union Busters To Speak in Victoria

The psuedo fascist security goons who dress in paramilitary drag and work for AFI are a common sight on picket lines across Canada. These goons assault picketers and act as provcatuers on the picket lines. The company boasts its anti-union security operations protecting scabs who cross picket lines.

AFI ensures employers are secure as secondary picketing becomes commonplace In keeping with its commitment to help employers mitigate extraordinary risks, two leading security experts from AFI International Group Inc. will deliver an address in Victoria April 20 on ways to ensure the security and protection of non-union employees and management during a labour dispute.

These goons assualted several of the Edmonton IWW branch members who were supporting the Telus Strikers here. We have seen them at other strikes as well. So folks out in B.C. should show them a bit of labour courtesy and set up a picket action at their speaking engagement.

  Two of AFI's senior executives - Warren Wilson, Vice President of
Corporate Relations and Michael Thompson, Executive Vice President of
Investigations - will be addressing human resource professionals April 20 at
the B.C. Human Resources Management Association (HRMA) annual conference,
Building Business Results in Victoria April 19-21.

Also see: Union Busting Alberta Style


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The enemy of my enemy

Is not my friend says Jack Layton about the Liberals move to the left in their Leadership race. Layton says Liberal hopefuls wasting their time seeking alliance with NDP
And no its not because he is pissed off with Bob Rae being a turncoat. Rather it is the pragmatic real politicks of Layton. He did it with the Liberal government and now he plans to do it with the Harpocrites. As the Salmon Arm Observer reports;

Of particular interest is the apparent co-operation between the Tories and the NDP - traditionally parties on opposite sides of the political spectrum. The message is clear: work together. So far, the NDP and the Conservatives appear to be doing that. Harper met several times with opposition leaders prior to the throne speech and NDP Leader Jack Layton said he felt issues he raised in their talks were reflected in the speech. While Harper and Layton as allies might be sickening to die-hard right wingers and ardent lefties, it also represents reality.
Harper's move to identify common ground with the NDP may be borne as much out of political expediency as anything else. But so what if it produces a long-lasting government that delivers a little something for those on both sides of the political divide?
If the Liberals have become Canada's natural governing party by straddling the political middle, then co-operation between the Conservatives and NDP might represent a logical evolution. In fact, this sort of left-right alliance might be a global trend.
Those who scoff at the prospect of an NDP-Tory coalition might want to look to Germany, which is currently being governed by former political enemies now working together.

Layton wants to be King Maker again. And lets not forget this is not about the Left or the NDP, its all about Jack.

A tip o the blog to Maple Leaf Politics

Also see: Edmontons Liberal Leadership Candidate


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Stephen Bush

Galloping Beaver writes;

Stephen Harper's appearance in front of an armed forces audience twice in as many months is somewhat illuminating. That isn't to say it's good. In fact, it shows a real desire on Harper's part to emulate his chicken-hawk hero in Washington. His speech and words are mere copies of the jingoistic rhetoric for which George W. Bush has become well-known.

And I would add that Georgie Porgie has been using the term; "Cut and Run" quite a bit lately ever since his pal Stephen used it in his pronouncement in Kandahar.

"There will be some who want to cut and run, but cutting and running is not my way and it's not the Canadian way," he said, to a round of applause.

Of course Bush used the term cut and run before the Harper did.

This is the new face of Canadian US relations, a mirror image of each others autarchic politics.

Muzzling the press, muzzling the cabinet, making Law and Order and Security the catchphrases for politics. Yep Stephen is a Bush now.






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A Message From the Management

rabble staff
recent-rabble-rouser
Babbler # 12458

posted 13 April 2006 08:48 PM

---

We on rabble staff have been watching the protest by many babblers on behalf of Audra, whose contract was terminated at the beginning of April. We are all sorry to see Audra go, and have enjoyed having her as a colleague at rabble. We are also sorry for the loss many babblers are feeling right now.

We understand that you have perceived our working conditions at rabble to be very poor. We have seen comparisons of rabble's labour practices to sweatshops, individual board members viciously maligned, and the discussion forum spammed almost into inoperability by participants who are understandably unhappy about losing Audra as one of their moderators. We have seen suggestions that rabble be turned into a worker's co-operative, and a demand that the rabble management committee answer to the participants on babble for their labour practices.

We feel that the protest you are engaging in is not a strike. It is a protest/boycott. We are the workers on this site, and we are not on strike.

We furthermore have no desire to be on strike. We do not feel that rabble is a poor employer. On the contrary, the management style of rabble is very staff-directed and oriented. We are currently going through a renewal process which we feel is a constructive way to address any work-related issues we might have. We enjoy the collaborative spirit of working together on it, and we are happy to have a Board that encourages us to do so.

It is with dismay and anger that we have read some of the attacks on individual members of the management committee (namely, Judy Rebick and Wayne MacPhail), as well as the committee as a whole. They are not just colleagues, but friends who share our progressive principles and values. While we appreciate that those who have
been protesting on Audra's behalf, and on the behalf of rabble workers in general mean well, we feel that you do not have an accurate impression of our working conditions.

Therefore, we do not support the current protest action on babble. We feel that babble is a very important part of the site, and that it cannot continue to be disrupted in the manner that it has been, and certainly not in the name of the workers at rabble. We would like the protest to end.

This is an excellent example of contract workers being coopted by liberal left
organizations that spout the progressive line but are neither worker run cooperatives nor unionized.

The Babble board at rabble.ca has now been shut down for the weekned, and who knows how long after that, due to the online picketing of it and protest commentaries over the firing of the Babble editor/administrator. Rabble Needs A Union

The folks at Rabble.ca have no union thus no grievance procedure, no recourse to outside arbitration, nor do they have a democratic worker run organization, there are owners and there are workers by their own admission.

This is not unlike situations that have arisen at other progressive organizations such as Greenpeace, which fired staff, when they unionized.

Rabble.ca staff are correct though in asking folks to quit spiking the babble board with attacks and trolling.

Better to BOYCOTT RABBLE.CA

Read Straight Goods instead, which started before Rabble. And oh yes if you have a complaint about how Rabble has treated its NON UNIONIZED staff, write to their advertisers who ARE UNIONS and ask them to boycott Rabble until this situation is resolved between the users/consumers of babble and its 'owners' and their staff.

This is an important lesson for the progressive Left community; Rabble and all so called progressive media online and in print that pay writers and editors should be unionized. Period. Even if the workers are on contract. If they aren't then they are hypocrites and despite their ideological bent still screw workers.

Also see: Unite the Left

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rabble.ca, babble.ca, Rebick, union, Audra, Williams, picket, strike, union