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Harper and the Honduran coup

Ottawa was strikingly dilatory in denouncing the military coup in Honduras. In fact, by all appearances the Harper government tacitly supports the ousting of President Jose Manuel Zelaya. On Rabble, Yves Engler, author of the recently published Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, discusses the Zelaya government’s involvement in the move towards a left-leaning front of Latin American nations as another factor in the Harper government’s antipathy.

• Harper Government Isolated as Opposition to Coup in Honduras Grows by Yves Englar — Rabble.ca

A different kind of civics lesson

Capital is determined to make working people bear the brunt of the economic crisis they did not create. But amid all the concessions being successfully extracted from organized labour, there is also resistance, as exemplified by the strike of municipal workers in Toronto. Greg Albo and Herman Rosenfeld offer some in-depth analysis in The Bullet:

• Toronto City Workers on Strike: Battling Neoliberal Urbanism by Greg Albo and Herman Rosenfeld — The Bullet

And James Laxer devotes a recent Rabble blog to the subject:

• On the Toronto Civic Workers Strike by James Laxer — Rabble.ca

The road to recovery

While the idol of economic growth appears increasingly to have clay feet, especially in light of the catastrophic ecological crisis, many progressive voices remain committed to growth, albeit in a different guise from the bankrupt neo-liberal model. In a recent contribution to the Relentlessly Progressive Economics blog, Andrew Jackson argues for public investment in such areas as urban infrastructure and alternative energy as the only viable stimulus to economic recovery:

• Rebuilding Our Economy: Public Investment and Green Jobs by Andrew Jackson — Progressive Economics