Saturday, September 09, 2006

NDP Wobbles

Found on the NDP Convention Blogs....Jim Loney the member of the PeaceMakers team that was held hostage in Iraq attended the convention.

Charlie here, NDP MP for Timmins--James Bay.

Jim Loney spoke today for our new faith and justice commission. Jim Loney called us - "to build the new society in the shell of the old"


Gee I know that phrase, lets see I got it here somewhere, oh yeah here it is....

Preamble to the IWW Constitution

Direct Action Gets the GoodsThe working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.

We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.

Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.

Of course Loney was member of the Catholic Workers and they too are an anarchist union.

Also See

IWW


NDP



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Place Your Wagers

Courtesy of Mr. Ipsos and Mr. Reid

Alberta's Conservative Party Leadership Race

Jim Dinning (54%) The Frontrunner In Favourability Ratings – Lyle Oberg (48%) In Second Place With Dave Hancock (44%) Gaining Momentum

One-Quarter (26%) Of Albertans Think Dinning Would Do The Best Job As The Next Premier, But Oberg (21%) Hot On His Trail

Hey I scooped Daveberta on this one.

Also See:
Alberta




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CanWest Anti-Union


The Regina Leader Post has run an anti-union diatribe barely a week after Labour Day. Remember Labour Day. The day brought to us by unions. The author issues the usual unions are no longer necassary. Outmoded. etc. etc. ad nauseum. He goes on to say this;

Unions also have a negative effect on the individual. While workers get paid more, they also have to pay more for consumption which leads to no gain in real terms. Unions can also force a particular wage/benefit structure upon all the workers and eliminate the ability of the worker to negotiate individually for something that fits their needs. This is disadvantageous for the best workers who have to take a lower wage than their skills may warrant AND for the least-skilled workers, as they aren't able to negotiate a lower wage to be worth hiring.

Now thats a nice bit of fantasy but nowhere in a normal capitalist economy do workers negotiate their wages. Bosses set the wages and working conditions and benefits and workers have to accept them. In good times as well as bad.

Negotiations are non existant for ordinary workers without collective bargaining power. Perhaps if one is a professional or managment type then one may be able to negotiate but the average worker skilled or unskilled is at the mercy of the market and the boss. Which is exactly why we need unions.

Berry pickers appealing EI fraud penalty

Elderly Indo-Canadian berry pickers have been routinely underpaid and pressured to go along with employers who cheat the employment standards system, an appeal has heard.

Even in overheated labour markets like Alberta where businesses are closing because they can't find workers, its not a matter of the worker setting the demands but what the boss is willing to offer.

Ironically as more businesses in Alberta discover they have set their wage and benefits too low they can't find help. Or if they do the workers leave. It's called the labour theory of value, that is business contrary to its own ideology, does not create wealth, workers do. Without workers there is no wealth.
Labour Produces All Wealth

Which is why the average boss likes to keep wages and benefits low. To make more profit. And in order to do this they also need a high unemployment rate; Alcan Proves Marx Right

Which is another reason to have a union.

Oh yes and this is another example of how right wing ideology now dominates our media.


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For every action there is


An opposite reaction. Why are wind turbines killing Alberta's bats?

Before folks run off embracing 'alternative' energy technologies as the saviour of a 'sustainable' green capitalism we might want to check the ecological effects they have. Just a thought.


Also See

Kyoto


A Critique of Kyoto Capitalism Is NOT Sustainable

industrial ecology

Social Ecology.

Green Capitalism




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Afghan Woman Speaks Out

Ok can we now drop all the platitudes about how we are fighting for women and girls in Afghanistan.

Canadian troops making things worse: Afghan legislator

Canada's troops are making matters worse for the Afghan people, a popular member of the war-torn country's national assembly told an NDP policy convention Friday.

With federal New Democrats debating a resolution to withdraw Canadian troops from combat in southern Afghanistan over the next six months, Malalai Joya, 27, the youngest elected Afghan parliamentarian, said efforts to fight the Taliban are helping warlords and drug lords take control of the country, suppressing the voices and rights of women and children.

"If (Canadians) want to prove themselves as real friends of the Afghan people, they must act independently," said Joya, who has escaped several assassination attempts since she was first elected in 2003. "They continued the policy of the U.S. and our people don't agree with U.S. policy, and this is why there is no positive results right now."


Also See:

The War For Women's Rights

Afghanistan

War

Feminism







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Brits Cut And Run In Afghanistan

For those of you who say we should not withdraw Canadian troops, I say why not the Brits have!

Nato reveals that Britain withdrew an offer of 800 extra troops, reports Michael Smith in Kabul

BRITAIN agreed to provide an extra 800 troops to allied forces fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan but later withdrew the offer, Nato officials disclosed last week.

Lieutenant General David Richards, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, planned to use the 800-man force as troubleshooters, sending them into any area where fighting broke out.



However, John Reid, then the defence secretary, was so angry at the reluctance of other Nato countries to supply troops that the offer was retracted.

Reid, who famously said that he hoped British troops would leave Afghanistan without firing a single shot, indicated that the UK would send no more troops other than the 3,300 men to be based in Helmand province.


Meanwhile the NATO meeting in Warsaw has been a failure to get any agreement on more reinforcements.

WARSAW, Sept 9 (Reuters)
- Defence chiefs from NATO's 26 nations agreed on Saturday they needed more troops and fewer limitations on the use of their forces to step up the fight against insurgents in the violent south of Afghanistan. No pledges of extra troops were announced after two days of talks in Warsaw but NATO officials said national defence chiefs had agreed to consult with their capitals on reinforcements to tackle fiercer-than-expected Taliban resistance.

Leaving Canada to reinforce this mission despite the comments to the contrary, or the contrary comments made by War Minister O'Connor who flip flops more than a trout out of water.

But O'Connor made it clear that the country would not contribute more troops, and said: We have more than met our commitment.

Defence minister changes his opinion from the day before
Hints that Canada may be sending more military resources

The NDP is right to say we withdraw our troops immediately leave this dirty war to the Americans who cut and ran to Iraq. They have twenty thousand troops still there, while we do the dying for them.


Also See:

Afghanistan

War




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Watch the NDP Convention On CPAC


Headline Politics: 8am ET / 5am PT
New Democratic Party of Canada Convention from Québec City, September 9, 2006.


Because the CBC and CTV are NOT covering the convention live, except to have camera men on the 'Con' mike during the Get Troops Out of Afghanistan resolution debate.

Also See:

Afghanistan

NDP


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Afghanistan A Brit View

The Conservatives say this is the war on terror if that is the case it was lost when the Americans cut and ran from Afghanistan in the rush for war in Iraq.

For General Sir Michael Rose, who led the SAS and commanded British forces in Bosnia, it is simple. "Having defeated the Taliban in 2001, the West then mistakenly shifted its effort and resources to Iraq, leaving most of Afghanistan insecure," he said. "This has allowed the Taliban to return." In other words, not only have gains in the real "war on terror" been dangerously eroded, the reckless detour into Iraq has made things worse.

Far from hunting Bin Laden down, the West has been forced to prevent his allies re-establishing a foothold in Afghanistan. n many areas, Nato has found the populace incensed by what General Rose called "American search-and-destroy tactics".

The Afghan army, which has so far trained 42,000 men, is better regarded than the police, but is of very uneven quality. One report from British trainers with a unit in Musa Qala claimed Afghan soldiers refused to fight, extorted money from local people, spent much of their time high on drugs and even threatened to shoot their British allies.

For General Rose it is already too late. "Given the level of resources Nato has at the moment, and the strategy we are pursuing, we simply cannot win. The forces there can't achieve the objectives they have been given."
9/11 - A bloody legacy

Also See:

Afghanistan

War




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Rushton Is A Fascist

A recent study proves it is ''very likely'' that the reason women have difficulty rising to the top in their careers is because they are less intelligent than men, according to controversial University of Western Ontario psychologist J. Philippe Rushton.

The professor already criticized for claiming that whites are intellectually superior to blacks, and that higher AIDS rates in Africa are due to a more insatiable sexual appetite in the black community believes the ''glass ceiling'' phenomenon is probably due to innate ability rather than discrimination.Men smarter than women

Very likely is a weak statement. But Phil Rushton has never let that stop him from painting in broad strokes to justify his fascist ideology. And I don't use that term lightly.

Rushton has been associated with American Renaissance, a white nationalist monthly magazine. He has also written articles for VDARE, a right-wing anti-immigrant website.

I was at the Learned Socities meeting at UWO when Le Affaire Rushton occured. He is from UWO. He published his paper on blacks being stupid, whites smart, asians smarter causing an uproar in academia and in the MSM. Now he is attacking women, should make Real Women happy. This headline is telling;

Men Smarter than Women, Scientist Claims

Psychologists are NOT scientists, despite their attempt over the past three decades to pretend they are. Psychology is a social science, which has about as much in common with science as it does Art.

Rushton uses statistical data to prove his points, just as his American counterparts did with their book the Bell Curve. The ressurection of fascist psychology by Rushton and his American counterparts began with Arthur Jensen, whom Rushton adores. And lets make no bones about it Rushton is a fascist psychologist, all his work is directed towards differentiating humans by race and now sex. It is the political nature that underscores all his research.

His articles are published in defense of eugenics. He has supporters like this guy.
and well known Nazi supporters like Paul Fromm. And he is admired by the White Nationalists. No surprize that when we writes things like this.

American Renaissance News: Genes Contribute to Patriotism and Group Loyalty

Research showing the importance of genetic similarity to group loyalty and patriotism was published in the October issue of Nations and Nationalism, an academic journal of the London School of Economics.

The paper, entitled “Ethnic nationalism, evolutionary psychology, and genetic similarity theory” shows that genetic similarity is a “social glue” in groups as small as two spouses and best friends, or in those as large as nations and alliances.

The evidence comes from studies of identical and non-identical twins, adopted and non-adopted children, blood tests, social assortment, heritabilities, family bereavements, and large-scale population genetics.

For example, identical twins grieve more for their co-twin than do non-identical twins. And, family members grieve more for children who resemble their side of the family than they do their spouse’s side.

Also, spouses who are more genetically similar have longer and more satisfying marriages.

Based on their DNA, two randomly chosen individuals from the same ethnic group are found to be as related as first cousins.

Thus, two random people of English ancestry are the equivalent of a 3/8 cousin compared to people from the Near East; a 1/2 cousin by comparison with people from India; and like full cousins by comparison with people from China.

The study’s author, J. Philippe Rushton, professor of psychology at the University of Western Ontario said, “This explains why people describe themselves as having “ties of blood” with members of their own ethnic group, who they view as “special” and different from outsiders; it explains why ethnic remarks are so easily taken as ‘fighting words.’”

Rushton belongs to the a group of uptown intellectuals who cleverly cover their racism and fasicist ideology under the cover of science and academic respectability. Not unlike defrocked fascist David Irving.

His phoney science was exposed by Stephen J. Gould in his book The Measure of Man.

Here is a man who has power and authority and a teaching position but for that establishment standing would be considered as much of a crackpot as this guy.

The work of Philip Rushton at University of Western Ontario on the intelligence of Aryans, Asian, and Africans is no accident. It represents part of the backlash to the demand for inclusion. Many debates in the African Canadian community charge fields such as Psychology, Anthropology, Education, History, Sociology with advancing racist and sexist agendas. There is a challenge, therefore, to re-examine the content and the motives of these disciplines. Many feel that these disciplines attempt to appropriate and define people of African descent without their participation. To further exacerbate the situation, university professors have the power to deny authority to the voice of these groups. For example, books published by African scholars on the psychology or sociology of African people are rarely be used as texts in "White" institutions. Herein lies the challenge to our world view.Challenges of Teaching in the 90s

We should not now be surprised that Rushton would apply his fascist ideology towards women. For woman hatred is the core nature of the fascist ideology as Theweitweit observed in his work Male Fantasies.

Fascism is the political ideology of the little man, who wants to be in power and is also afraid of the powers of others, as radical psychologistWilhelm Reich pointed out.

Also See:

Fascism



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Blogging Tories Campaign Fails


The Bloginng Tories campaign to end funding for Status of Women is now online with a petition.

It is pathetic that since this campaign began last month their petition has a total of 592 signatures. And many of those signatures are from men. You know the guys these rightwhingblogs have been complaining about.

Ohh bestill my beating heart, the masses have spoken. Actually these dweebs deliberately confuse a federal department with a feminist organization, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, which lobbies the department.

Be that what it may, this campaign is a tempest in a teapot, created by the ladies auxilary of the neo-cons.

The petition should have thousands of signatures the way they claim to speak for all Canadian women. Less than 600 signatures is pathetic and speaks the the failure of the right whing blogs to actually mobilize any grassroots support. They are only good at appearing to speak for a movement, enough to get them some press coverage. But when push comes to shove they are politically weak-tea.

When John Loney was held captive in Iraq, the petition to save our PeakeMakers got over thirty thousand signatures in a few days. 592 over a month is a dribble.

When it began the MSM that made a big deal out of this faux campaign. It should now be reporting on the failure of this campaign, but it won't. Moving on to other issues now. Ironically the campaign came to the attention of the MSM via Steve Janke's whitewhing blog. Anti-feminist Janke is a man. Surprise!

This is all about the Blogging Tory self promoting echo chamber sturm and drang signifying nothing. No real campaign of the masses, just right wing special interest politics.

It is also addressed to the wrong person. It asks the Finance Minister to end funding for the Status of Women.

Fine and dandy except that Status of Women is its own department and cabinet position under
Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women - Bev Oda.
Whom BigBlueWave called a radical feminist. Really.

So it's a bunch of radical feminist bureaucrats consulting radical feminists to hear what they want to hear to promote more radical feminism on my dime.”

So they can't even get the who in the petition right and then they accuse Bev Oda of being a feminist bureaucrat. Hilarious.

Of course this is a simple case of misdirected misanthropic myopic mysoginist politics. There I got to use all the M words. Except mother. Ok, their mothers should be ashamed of them.



Also See:

Real Women

Feminism



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