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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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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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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Only 9% Support for Harper

The Blogging Tories and other syncophants of the Harpocrite government will be doing cartwheels over the latest poll headlines: PM's agenda resonating with voters, new poll finds

But wait lets dig a little deeper and we find;

In all regions of the country, about 9 per cent of respondents said Mr. Harper's priorities were identical to their own,

So we have a government that represents the interests of less than 10% of Canadians. There should be no joy in Mudville over that number.

It has remained static. This is the real base of the right wing in Canada.

Meanwhile the great unwashed middle, 54-58% of those polled, is found to be 'supportive' of the governments priorities but, and it's a BIG BUT;

“When you poke further and say, ‘Do you have any other priorities?' a solid majority say yes,” Mr. Gregg said.

Those other priorities cover a broad range of issues, topped by education, the environment and other aspects of health beyond the reduction of waiting times.

“When you put those three together, you've got a good solid chunk of the population and that should be a little warning sign to him,” Mr. Gregg said. “There's stuff that he's doing right now in terms of cutting back on the greenhouse-gas emissions that just plays to his weakness.”

And this poll will bouy the Stalinist regime of the Harpocrite. He will use the poll to justify his autarchic authoritarian control over his party and the cabinet in Ottawa,Alberta. And let's remember it's only a honeymoon poll.

The government has had only one week in the house with a question period dominated by the Harpocrite anwsering for all his ministers. Wait till the budget and the bills come into the house. What we have here is Stephen Bush, remaking the PMO into the White House.

It's not obvious that Canadians will be comfortable with this new Canada. What is certain is that this much change can only happen if a prime minister applies his extraordinary powers in ways usually associated with presidents.And that's what Harper is doing. In commanding centre stage, he is accelerating a trend that reduces ministers to bit players whose principal role is filling policy blanks. At the same time, he's reading from the George W. Bush script by staying relentlessly on-message and playing to public perceptions of the media as negative, unruly children in desperate need of adult discipline. PM's control strategy is working — for now

For an excellent slice and dice commentary on this poll see:A BCer in Toronto


More on Harper

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Words of Wisdom From Captain Watson

Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, "I have no respect for Newfoundland or Newfoundlanders. They debased Canada when they joined the nation in 1949 and they continue to embarrass us in the eyes of the world as they inflict bloody carnage on innocent creatures, peddling seal penises and their silly seal flipper pie to the ecological perverts who actually pay for these obscenities."

Captain Paul Watson is a vegan who has no other mission in life than to stop all hunting. Period.

He is an idiot and an embarassment.

And while I support animal conservation endeavours around the industrial fishing of Whales, he goes too far there too when he attacks single whale hunts by West Coast and Northern aboriginal peoples. Which he would ban.



My Seal Hunt Articles


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A Word From Our Sealers

Jack Troake, a fisherman and sealer from Twillingate in central Newfoundland. Last Sunday, Mr. Troake left for the Labrador seal hunt, as he has nearly every spring for four decades. Sealing is a dangerous, gruelling pursuit, Mr. Troake said, conducted solely to put food on the tables of families in struggling, rural communities. "It's not pretty," said Mr. Troake, who is in his early 70s. "You kill any of God's creatures and it's not pretty."It's 'not pretty,' but seal business thrives

Amen to that.

My Seal Hunt Articles


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June Pointer RIP

Here is a short and sweet tribute to June Pointer who passed away this week from cancer. She was of course one of the Pointer Sisters.

JUNE POINTER

1953-2006

While the kind of cancer was not made public I find it interesting that finally we are seeing reports on the increasing amount of lung cancer among non-smokers. Especially women.

It is an under-reported fact. On the the moral majority that is imposing its non-smoking agenda on us overlook. And I say it is a moral issue because it blames the victims of this addiction, and it blames the victims of lung cancer who may never have smoked. The non-smokers lobby wants cancer to be caused by one thing and one thing only, smoking. But of course it is easy to blame smokers, the whole anti-smoking movement has been based upon this mythology that it is ONLY smoking that causes cancer When in fact cancer is the result of industrial capitalism, and its resulting toxic environment; chemicals, pollution, etc.

Even though it is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, lung cancer attracts much less research money than other major cancers, Dr. Siegfried said, largely because it is so strongly linked to smoking that people often blame the victims for giving the disease to themselves. The Thinkers: Celebrity deaths shine light on lung cancer

Lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer death
for both men and women in Canada according to annual
statistics released this week by the Canadian Cancer Society.
Despite alarming trends, including an increasing
incidence of lung cancer in women and life-long non-smokers, 
Lung cancer tops list as biggest cancer killer

"A significant body of scientific evidence links exposure to radiation and synthetic chemicals to an increased risk of breast cancer," said Susan Roll, Associate Executive Director of the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition and one of the event's primary organizers. "We hope that legislators and their constituents will begin to think about reducing toxic chemicals as one way of preventing some diseases and disorders."Exploring chemical links to disease

Also See:

Smoking At Home Will Be Banned

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