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Why is Ottawa aligning itself with Venezuela’s most anti-democratic elements?
Canadian PoliticsNot only has Canada financed and otherwise supported opposition parties in Venezuela, Ottawa has allied itself with some of its most anti-democratic, hardline elements. While the Liberal government has openly backed Voluntad Popular’s bid to seize power since January, Ottawa has supported the electorally marginal party for years. Venezuelans require a vibrant opposition that challenges the government. They don’t need Canada to boost an electorally marginal party that drives the country into increasing conflict.
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Never mind the yuppies: Vancouver’s wealthy elites driving away workers who keep the city safe
Canadian PoliticsSolutions to Vancouver’s unaffordability crisis should prioritize accommodating the city’s working people and emergency service staff. Will the city, provincial and federal governments continue passing the burden of unaffordability in Vancouver onto nurses, paramedics, firefighters and other working people, or take decisive steps to end the destructive inflow of speculative international capital, and properly invest in social housing and adequately raise the pay and conditions of workers who keep the city’s essential services safe and operational?
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The Yellow Vests of France: Six Months of Struggle
EuropeThe Yellow Vests are still here, in the fray, holding the breach open. The crisis in France is far from over. If and when the other oppressed and angry groups in France – the organized workers, ecologists, North African immigrants, students struggling against Macron’s educational ‘reforms’ – also turn off their TVs and go down into the streets, things could change radically. The Yellow Vests’ avowed goal is to bring France to a grinding halt and impose change from below.
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Labour a Key Partner in a Canadian Green New Deal
EnvironmentWell over a decade ago, we were involved in the creation of Blue Green Canada — an initiative that emerged to address historic mistrust between trade unions and environmentalists. In the years since, friends and allies on both sides of the equation have worked hard to strengthen relations. Once a novel idea, co-operation between union and environmental activists has entered the mainstream. In the emerging climate discussion, those bonds can become frayed once again or they can be strengthened for a new century.
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The Threat of War with Iran
Middle EastA war with Iran—even assuming it would not include a land invasion—would be catastrophic. Iran is three times the size and population as Iraq and has a far more formidable military force. At the time of the 2003 U.S. invasion, Iraq had virtually no navy, air force, or long-range missiles, since much of its military capacity was physically destroyed or otherwise rendered inoperable as a result of the 1990 Gulf War and the subsequent U.N. disarmament regime and rigorous international sanctions.
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So Much for ‘Austerity-Lite’ in Ontario
Canadian PoliticsFor Doug Ford’s Conservatives, democracy is but one more apparently inefficient entanglement getting in the way of business. The 2019 budget makes clear the alignment of the Ford regime with the authoritarian right-wing populism gaining traction around the world as it moves to extend the era of “permanent austerity,” which has been a hallmark since the 2008 recession. This is the political terrain upon which the growing social movement will be forming its strategy of resistance.
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Green leader May supports same old pro-imperialist foreign policies
Canadian PoliticsWhile she’s criticized some Canadian foreign policy decisions, May rarely strays far from the liberal establishment worldview. In laying out her party’s 2015 election position in Esprit de Corps magazine May wrote, “the world needs more Canada” and argued, “we should also support the United Nations’ ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine”, which was used to justify bombing Libya in 2011 and ousting Haiti’s elected government in 2004. In her article May also bemoaned that “defence expenditures are headed to an unprecedented low.”
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U.S. dollar hegemony forcing regime change in Venezuela
Latin America and the CaribbeanDespite threats after pompous threats and false accusations and failed coup attempts, President Maduro holds on to a solid backing of six million voters who supported him, more than two thirds of those who went to the ballots, on 20 May 2018. He also has the solid support of the military, who have a revolutionary integrity and conscience unknown to the west. And not least, he has the support of Russia and China. Nevertheless, the United States will not let go. Why do they risk everything – even a devastating war?
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Where is Canada’s Socialist Resurgence?
Canadian PoliticsThe growth of socialism is just one side of the political polarization taking place in the United States. The surge of the far-right and the confidence Trump has empowered racists and reactionaries everywhere is extremely troubling. This dynamic of political polarization is occurring in many advanced capitalist countries such as France, the UK, Spain and Germany.
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Canada’s defence minister promoting arms sales to anti-democratic, repressive regimes
Canadian PoliticsCanada’s current Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan heads a ministry intimately tied to a globally oriented corporate weapons industry that profits from war. Is this something Canadians understand and support? Or would the majority of us be upset to learn their Minister of Defence is an arms pusher, promoting sales to anti-democratic, repressive regimes?
