It should not be surprising that the growing world-wide boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign, which also has taken root among some Jewish Israelis, would spark anti-boycott campaigns–internationally and within Israel.

Former Senate page Brigette DePape’s bit of parliamentary pluck has garnered near universal praise from the Canadian Left. But while her mute entreaty during the Throne Speech to “Stop Harper” earned loud applause, her appeal in subsequent statements for “a Canadian version of an Arab Spring, a flowering of popular movements” provoked some fiery debate.

The far-Right capitalizes on the rage of a declining middle-class by offering “simplistic answers for exceedingly complex problems, and [developing] effective rhetorical strategies to motivate people to vote against their own long-term interests”; it appeals to “people’s sense of betrayal and victimization,” while avoiding “the real social and economic processes that left them vulnerable.”

A current context for Chomsky’s 1967 essay ‘The Responsibility of Intellectuals”.

Just as labour exploitation threw up working class movements that fought to constrain capital’s werewolf’s tendency to consume workers in its quest for profits, capital’s recklessness with nature leads to a “rebellion of nature” as “powerful social movements demand an end to ecological exploitation.”

One of the most intriguing things about the chaos of the G20 in Toronto has been the effectiveness with which the black-clad violent individuals (who we’ll indulge by calling the ‘black bloc’) have contributed to the protection of the G20, its message, and what it represents.

I can still remember, as an undergrad, the debate at York University about the War Measures Act in 1972. That will give you some idea of my age and that I am not a black-shirted anarchist.

Tyler McCreary’s article for Canadian Dimension, “Tough union, tough lessons” would be a useful contribution to the important post-mortem of a strike ended wrong, if not for the fact that most of the evidence upon which his arguments are premised bears little resemblance whatsoever to the historical record.

Sections of CUPE 3903 were motivated by the dream of a general strike. But their self-aggrandizement and disdain for working with other unions effectively undermined the objective conditions that would make such a struggle possible and winnable. While unions must be willing to strike to win, it is also necessary to build coalitions and to coordinate larger collective actions.

Disability, Mothers, and Organization: Accidental Activists, by Melanie Panitch, looks specifically at the development of the community living movement across Canada, an organization that (broadly speaking) assists people with developmental disabilities in meeting their needs.