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Big Oil is the real foreign meddler in Canadian affairs
Canadian PoliticsLet’s be clear: enormous amounts of money are being spent in the global battle to lobby governments and sway public opinion on climate change in the roughly dozen years we have left — according to the UN’s panel of climate experts — before it’s too late to stop the world’s descent into climate hell. But the vast majority of this money — by a margin of about 10 to 1 — is spent by the fossil fuel industry, according to research by Drexel University’s Robert Brulle.
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20 Essential Books on Marxist Ecology
EnvironmentIt’s two years since I published my last Essential Reading list. Since then I’ve received many suggestions for additions, and many new books have been published. It’s time for an update. My selection criteria are subjective: these are books that I have found particularly valuable, that I refer to frequently, and that I often recommend to others. I make no apology for including two of my own books — if I didn’t think people ought to read them, I wouldn’t have written them.
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The Global Currency War Has Begun
GlobalizationFor the past decade or more, US policy has been to use both monetary policy and tax policy to subsidize capital incomes to the tune of trillions of dollars a year, every year. It used to be that monetary (Fed) and fiscal policy were used to ‘stabilize’ the economy in the event of recession or inflation. No longer. A decade and more of using these policies to subsidize capital incomes has led to the effective negation of the effectiveness of these policies for economic stabilization.
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Jeremy Corbyn is the most smeared politician in history
EuropeThe media serves an important if not vital function in a democratic society. But, what if the bulk of the mainstream press becomes controlled by a handful of foreign-based billionaires? Anyone can see the obvious perils of a state-controlled media, but the dangers of the extreme opposite scenario are not widely understood. In the UK and the US, we are justified to mock countries like Russia for their consumption of a state-owned media and propaganda, but we need to acknowledge that we have serious problems of our own.
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Top 5 Reasons the Green New Deal is Workable, Winnable and the Idea We Need Right Now
Canadian PoliticsWe know that investments in renewable energy and efficiency create many more jobs than investments in fossil fuels. 5 times more, per unit of electricity generated, according to one UK study. But that only scratches the surface of the transformation required to cut our emissions at least in half in a decade. When you start thinking about the rest of the low-carbon economy: health care, education, local agriculture, land and water defense, and other forms of care work, the job creation potential is far greater.
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Resisting “The Resistance”
Canadian PoliticsConservatives are gaining momentum in part because of the absence of a real radical resistance. Politically, there have been few notes of optimism, with the exception of Québec solidaire. The socalled alternative parties, the NDP and Greens, have demonstrated a cowardly lack of leadership in recent years as well as an inability to put forward a bold set of policy proposals that address the root of our social, economic, and ecological problems: capitalism with its attendant ills of patriarchy and white supremacy.
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Introducing the Courage Coalition
Canadian PoliticsCampaigning on some of these items, Courage has made itself an attractive force. At the federal NDP convention last year in Ottawa, the group was a major presence in debates over democratization and Palestinian rights. In Ontario, the Coalition was key to the election of left-wing ONDP MPP Joel Harden in Ottawa Centre. Courage also helped elect an Edmonton city councillor, and is in the process of identifying left NDP candidates in the upcoming federal election to “endorse” and actively support.
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A Jason Kenney Alberta
Canadian PoliticsExcept for the information that he is unmarried and a devout Catholic, Kenney’s personal life beyond politics is a black box. Don Martin describes Kenney as “brilliantly analytical,” “flawlessly bilingual,” and “tirelessly energetic,” noting further that he “keeps his social conservative beliefs under a kimono that’s never to be lifted.” Like his mentor, Stephen Harper, Kenney’s demeanor runs the full gamut from serious to somber; his occasional smile seems forced. As the election showed, he is a staunch ideologue.
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Anti-racist organizations remain silent on the JNF
Canadian PoliticsHow could any self-respecting anti-racist organization refuse to criticize the Jewish National Fund (JNF)? Its racism is well documented and can be discerned from its Twitter tag. Furthermore, the JNF is not a marginal organization. The century-old organization has nine offices across Canada and has raised nearly $100 million over the past five years. A number of Canadian prime ministers, including the last two, have attended or spoken at JNF fundraisers.
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Prospects for the federal election
Canadian PoliticsThe NDP is currently at its lowest level of popularity since its meteoric rise in 2011, when the party won 103 seats, including 59 in Québec, with nearly 31 per cent of the vote. Ambushed by Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe in 2015 on the issue of identity and the wearing of the niqab, Mulcair lost his lead and began his decline. Trudeau overtook the NDP on its left by promising to increase investment and maintain the deficit. The NDP ended with 19.71 per cent of the vote and 44 seats, including 16 in Québec.
