Canadian Dimension magazine, May/June 2008 issue

by Bryan D. Palmer
University of Illinois Press, 2007

The extraordinary British radical historian Edward Thompson described one of his goals as being to spare those whose lives and dreams are lost to history from the “enormous condescension of posterity.” In writing the first half of the life of James P. Cannon, Bryan Palmer takes up an even more ambitious task. Given that Cannon later became the central figure in U.S. Trotskyism, Palmer’s task was both to spare Cannon the condescension of the mainstream and to save him from the uncritical adulation of revolutionaries who regard him as the very embodiment of “revolutionary continuity.” (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension magazine, May/June 2008 issue

by Jeffrey Simpson, Mark Jaccard and Nic Rivers
McClelland & Stewart, 2007

The Church of the Free Market Fairy is divided into two denominations.

The fundamentalists believe that the Free Market Fairy will always deliver the best of all possible worlds, so long as we don’t let the government interfere. (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension magazine, May/June 2008 issue

Every street in every old Canadian industrial town has its own Gus Popadopolous. He’s the old timer on your block that stuck around when the abandoned factory morphed into gentrified condos. His mode of dress is a white undershirt, no matter what the weather. His all-purpose accoutrement is a shovel, not a cell phone. He might cheer you on at road hockey, but wouldn’t hesitate to yell at you if the ball went into his garden. You know him. You might even be him! (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension magazine, May/June 2008 issue

The Canadian peace movement has just held a series of marches to mark the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq and to call on the Canadian government to end our military involvement in Afghanistan. A majority of Canadians want the troops home, and over sixty per cent oppose extending the mission past 2009. Yet, almost every Liberal MP lined up with the Conservatives on March 13 to support Stephen Harper’s plan to extend Canada’s mission in Afghanistan to 2011. (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension magazine, May/June 2008 issue

The earth moved. It was one of those rare moments in history when all that had been solid (and stultifying) seemed to melt into air. As William Wordsworth wrote of the epoch of the French Revolution, in 1805 — verse that also captured something of the spirit of the ’68: “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,/ But to be young was very heaven!” (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension magazine, May/June 2008 issue

H.L. Mencken once wrote, “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension magazine, March/April 2008

The Chávez Code: Cracking U.S. Intervention in Venezuela
by Eva Golinger
Olive Branch Press, 2006 (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension magazine, March/April 2008

Manufacturing Dissent: Uncovering Michael Moore
Directed by Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine
2007, 96 min. (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension magazine, March/April 2008

We Don’t Play Golf Here! (and other globalization stories)
Directed by Saul Landau
2007, 33 min.
Available on dvd from roundworldproductions [at] gmail.com (Keep reading…)

Canadian Dimension magazine, March/April 2008

They came by the hundreds, packing the Commodore, Vancouver’s big-band-era ballroom, with leopard-print leggings and neon arm bands to see the socially conscious rapper, M.I.A. Known for her political lyrics, her eclectic personal style and her culture-mashing sound — a raw fusion of dancehall reggae, favela funk and electro — M.I.A. has recently taken up the role of brash envoy for the Third World. (Keep reading…)