Wednesday, January 31, 2007
STILL MORE LINKS FROM THE CAT WHO JUST CAN'T QUIT:
In her obsessive compulsive madness Molly has added yet more links to this blog. Don't ask me for justification as the usage of these links seems to be few and far between, but it's at least useful to have them somewhere. as the owner of the 'I Love Physics' site commented previously on this blog, he and I were disappointed when Science magazine ended their 'Netwatch' feature. Even if only a few people find these links useful they are still worthwhile, especially as they fulfill the long buried dreams of a childhood insect collector and a frustrated librarians. Hey, maybe I should have tried to be a taxonomist. I's have little competition these days as people flock to "sexier" fields of science. Anyways...
Under the 'Scientific Links' I have added the following:
1)Mathworld : This bills itself as "the most extensive mathematical resource on the internet", and the claim may indeed be true. The links listed make up for the lacunae in the site itself. Not really for the uninitiated. tutorials are not us. Molly can catch the drift of some subjects such as "number theory" or "linear algebra" where she has had either previous training or a long interest, but some other things "fuzz her". My eternal efforts to keep up with calculus wouldn't be helped by a site such as this, but the links may guide someone like myself who had training but never used it for decades. I hope. Maybe. I'll try in my usual slow and lazy feline way to provide other mathematical links that can guide the totally uninitiated from "ground zero" sometime in the future. But this site is the "best" in many ways for those with at least a minor knowledge of various fields of mathematics.
2) Al Roth's Game Theory and Experimental Economics Page : A good comprehensive introduction and reference to "game theory". Contains at least a bit of introductory material. As you can guess from the title heavy on economics and "fading" in other applications such as evolutionary biology, anthropology, etc.. Still very good, but Molly once more plans to supplement this at a future time.
3) The Stephen Jay Gould Archive : A more or less "official" archive for the writings of the late Stephen Jay Gould, one of Molly's favourite popularizers of science, with emphasis on evolutionary biology. Despite disagreeing with some of his opinions Molly feels that Gould was one of the "greats". Which leads to a scary thought. Almost all my "favourite scientists" are now dead. Gould, Sagan,etc.. Once more, despite disagreements I hope that Margulis lives to be 100. I guess that Molly's fur is getting grey as she ages.
Well...enough of brooding on mortality. Under the 'Other Interesting Links' section I have also listed the following:
1) The website of Jerome Tuccille : As a socialist anarchist Molly cannot obviously agree with Tuccille, but, as I have expressed in a previous post, I find him one of the great writers in the American "libertarian" tradition. Always entertaining if not always right, though I suppose that my own disagreements with him are on the same level as those in science with people like Gould and Margulis.
2) The Library of Economics and Liberty : Well... here I can find things that are truly offensive as this site is from a conservative perspective in the hard "neo-liberal" American sense. Yet... this site is the repository of the online writings of almost all of the great economists in history. Their complete works are their for your perusal. Download either 'Das Capital' or 'The Wealth of Nations' as your fancy leads you. Amongst dozens !!! of other offerings. The absolute best source to see economics classics in their originals. Have a look.
That's it for now,
Molly
Labels: Jerome Tucille, links, Mathworld, Stephen Jay Gould Archive, The Library of Economics and Liberty
THE BEST OF THE BLOGS:
Kevin Carson has recently published an interesting article on his Mutualist Blog on the viability of the "alternative economy" ie the "consumers' and producers' co-ops, self employment, LETS systems, house gardening and other household production, informal barter,etc.". He introduces this article, published on January 18th, 2007 with an exerpt from the Ecodema Blog of Pierre Ducasse(see our links section under 'Blogs"), one time candidate for the NDP leadership who advocated and advocates a cooperative form of socialism as opposed to the statist form.
In his article Carson argues that the "counter-economy" can indeed be a viable alternative to our present economic system, to a large extent because it already is such a thing. Existence is very much an argument for possibility. He also argues for the need for further coordination of this economy as part of a viable mutualist strategy. Drop on over to the Mutualist Blog for the full article.
Molly
Kevin Carson has recently published an interesting article on his Mutualist Blog on the viability of the "alternative economy" ie the "consumers' and producers' co-ops, self employment, LETS systems, house gardening and other household production, informal barter,etc.". He introduces this article, published on January 18th, 2007 with an exerpt from the Ecodema Blog of Pierre Ducasse(see our links section under 'Blogs"), one time candidate for the NDP leadership who advocated and advocates a cooperative form of socialism as opposed to the statist form.
In his article Carson argues that the "counter-economy" can indeed be a viable alternative to our present economic system, to a large extent because it already is such a thing. Existence is very much an argument for possibility. He also argues for the need for further coordination of this economy as part of a viable mutualist strategy. Drop on over to the Mutualist Blog for the full article.
Molly
Labels: blogs, Mutualist Blogspot
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
THE SEA OF TRANQUILLITY:
Last night was again a good night for viewing the Moon here in Winnipeg, though once more Molly was reduced to binoculars because she was too cowardly to set up in wind chills of 33 below. Because of that I could only observe the largest of features in this tour of the major mare of the Moon. This night's feature is the Mare Tranquillitatus, the Sea of Tranquillity (the item numbered #9) on the moon map to the left, located just a little to the left of the Mare Criseum discussed before. This is called "to the west" in lunar terminology, the obverse of Terran convention.
Even in a pair of binoculars the difference in colour between the Sea of Tranquillity and the Sea of Serenity is obvious. Tranquillity is something of a "steely grey" while Serenity shows up as a brownish "sea". It is believed that Tranquility is younger than Serenity. All of the present Mare are believed to have formed in earlier times when the Moon was still geologically active. The presumed mechanism is lava flows following impacts.
The main features of the area of Tranquillity visible in binoculars are the 'Sinus Amoris' the 'Bay of Love', extending to the upper right (northeast) towards Criseum and the 'Sinus Asperitatus', the 'Bay of Roughness' extending to the southeast (lower right) to the Mare Nectaris(#12 in the figure to the left).
Molly hopes to do at least a few more of these surveys in the time left in this lunar cycle. The next upcoming full Moon, the Full Snow Moon (See Molly's Blog, Dec 31, 2006 for a description of the traditional names of the full Moons of the year), will occur on Feb 2nd. Last night was great for viewing, with the Moon approximately 20 degrees towards the zenith above Orion. Tonight has been mostly overcast. I'll return to the Moon in future posts and hopefully get beyond this sort of rough description as time goes by, particularly if it is warm enough to crack out the telescope. More detail to give then. I won't finish the survey this cycle, especially as the best nights for viewing are also the coldest, but much more detail will follow.
Til then,
Molly
Labels: amateur astronomy, moon, Sea of Tranquilty
Monday, January 29, 2007
A BEAUTIFUL MATH:
BY TOM SEIGFRIED
On the surface this book is about John Nash (1), the Princeton mathematician most famous for his portrayal in the movie 'A Beautiful Mind' (2)about a mathematical genius cursed with schizophrenia. Nash won the 1994 Nobel prize for his pioneering work in the branch of mathematics called "game theory", but his contributions to algebraic geometry were what actually won him the most fame within the mathematics community.
The subtitle of this book is 'John Nash, Game Theory and the Modern Quest for a Code of Nature', but the author ranges far and wide across a number of theorists, fields of inquiry and ideas. From Asimov to Lan Zhou, from 'The Age of Reason' to 'Zero Sum Games', it all plays out on these pages.
Siegfried is an award winning science journalist who has taken on a rather grandiose project in this book. While Nash is indeed important to the development of game theory and its applications as diverse as evolutionary biology, information theory and experimental economics one can't help but feel that the title and cover were designed more to capitalize on the success of the movie rather than to describe the contents of the book. In his introduction the author tries to give a brief overview of game theory and how it touches on such fields as those mentioned above and others such as neurophysiology, anthropology and even, according to the author, quantum physics. Nash himself is rather peripheral to the central thread of the book, that game theory may be the sort of "psychohistory" that Sci-Fi author imagined in his 'Foundation Trilogy', ie a mathematically precise theory that can describe the changes and stases in society in the same sort of statistical but testable way that statistical mechanics describes the behavior of such things as gases even if the behavior of each and every molecule is inaccessible to analysis. Asimov put it as "the science of human behavior reduced to mathematical equations", but Siegried makes much larger claims for the utility of this branch of mathematics, some of them already being played out and some of them quite frankly speculative.
Molly has to admit to a certain amount of scepticism regarding such claims. While there is little doubt of the utility of game theory in evolutionary biology and in experimental economics some of the other claims are the purview of the fringes of certain fields. But...I'm reviewing this book as I read it, so many my scepticism will be overcome by the time I reach the index. For now...
Chapter One: Smith's Hand: Searching for the Code of Nature:
There's an old libertarian book, written I believe by Jerome Tuccille (3), entitled 'It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand' . In this case it begins way before that. Siegfried goes back a lot further to a much more respected figure, the economist Adam Smith(4), to begin his story. Chapter one is all about the theories of Adam Smith, with special reference to his "invisible hand" and how it was a precursor to the sort mathematical science of society that he sees in game theory. Along the way he gives a brief biography of Smith, how he was influenced by the French physiocrats, especially Francois Quesnay, and of how he came to formulate his theories in reaction to theirs, especially in regards to the source of wealth which Smith believed was labour rather than land. Both Quesnay and Smith believed that most (certainly not all in the case of Smith) government interference with the economy disrupted a natural process of economic interaction that usually produced results much superior to those produced by government action. Both authors opposed the prevailing merchantilist theories of the day that encouraged ceaseless government action to produce a favourable balance of trade, and both held to a free-trade "laissez-faire" attitude towards most economic questions.
Where this connects with the 'Code of Nature' that Siegfried sees in game theory is that Smith's was the first systematic "inquiry" that tried to build a theory of society that examined how the efforts of individuals could produce "macro" effects such as the changes in price that result from a competitive economy. This was the "invisible hand", and it described in at least a partial way how an equilibrium resulted from actions taken by individuals that have no such goal in mind. Along the way the author corrects a lot of misconceptions about Smith. Adam Smith was not the dogmatic advocate of free markets in all things that moderns tend to think he was. He saw at least a limited role for government. He also wrote on "moral sentiments" and did not believe that "rational selfish calculation" explained more than a subset of human society and its developments. What Smith, however, pointed to was that there could be a "natural order" of society that could be investigated by scientific methods. The present day experimental economists carry out this tradition investigating the often messy and even non-rational ways that choices are made by real people in the real world.
The chapter concludes with a brief subheading on 'The Origin of Darwinism'. In 'The Structure of Evolutionary Theory' Stephen J. Gould (5)has traced innumerable influences on Darwin's intellectual development. Smith was one of them, but it was not 'The Wealth of Nations' with which Darwin was familiar but rather another of Smith's works, 'The Theory of Moral Sentiments' in which Smith argues in a manner quite different from what he is usually portrayed as today.
What Darwin took from the general culture, of which was Smith was an illustrious part, is not some fantastic turn of political opinion. What he took was the general idea that small actions could produce-statistically- large effects which were part of an 'emergent order' not immediately implied by the actions themselves. If individual competition can produce an economy with regular laws then natural selection can produce the origin of species.
More on this book later,
Molly
MOLLY NOTES:
1) See also John Nash's home page at http://math.princeton.edu/jfnj and his Nobel prize address at http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1994/nash-auobio.html which gives the account of his life in his own terms.
2) The official site for the movie is at http://abeautifulmind.com . The PBS Network did a much better biography on Nash that corrects many of the misstatements and omissions of the movie. this can be accessed at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/nash . The PBS site includes many more items on Nash including something of a "Game Theory for Dummies" guide.
3)Ahhh....Jerome Tuccille. In addition to the above link you can see his home page at http://jerometuccille.com . Tuccille is a long time libertarian, and one of the most amusing authors I have ever read. I can remember his 'It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand' from decades ago. At the time I read it as a leftist anarchist who had never met a libertarian in his life. The times have changed. At the time libertarianism was purely !!!! an American ideology. I had no end of pleasure of reading his account of attempting to form an alliance between the anti-statist realms of both the left and right at that time (the early 70s). I probably agree with him now about as much as I did then ie "only in a very limited sense", but his writing style was entertaining beyond belief, and I was as much gratified then as I am now by his descriptions of the "nuts on the right" and how it consoled me in my "hope" that insanity and creepiness was not just confined to my own position as a leftist. I can recommend Tuccille beyond all other writers with whom i disagree merely because of the skill of his description.
4) While researching this blog I came upon the on-line library of the 'Library of Economics and Liberty'. This site contains the online writings of a great number of economists, including Adam Smith. So, if you want to read the classics of economics go there. Everything from 'The Wealth of Nations' to Marx's 'Capital' is available there. The site is conservative in political orientation, but it is still the best resource for economics "in the original" that I have yet to come upon.
5)See also the Stephen J. Gould Archive at http://www.stephenjaygould.org, a collection of many of his writings and a brief biography at http://www.annonline.com/interview/961009/biography.html
6)One thing that Molly became aware of during the writing of this blog is the general impression that great mathematicians have a much greater incidence of insanity than others, especially other scientists. The list of famous mathematicians who were demonstrably insane or at least unstable enough to commit suicide is long and impressive. It began with many Greek mathematicians who committed suicide when their theories were proven wrong and continues on to the modern day with people such as Cantor, Godel, Turing, Boltzmann and Eherenfest. Even that supreme example of a failed human being, the 'Unibomber' apparently studied mathematics during his academic days, though he can hardly be counted as a "great mathematician" as even an "adequate one" as he was as much a failure there as he was in the rest of his life. Is it the subject matter and the talent needed for same that leads to this connection between mathematics and insanity ? Is the connection real or merely a widely believed myth ? If it is not the subject matter is there perhaps something about the "culture of mathematics" that drives successes to insanity or suicide or failures(both professional and personal) such as the Unibomber to murder ? All that is the matter of another blog entirely.
Molly
Labels: A Beautiful Math, Adam Smith, books, darwinism, economics, game theory, Jerome Tucille, John Nash, Tom Seigfried
Sunday, January 28, 2007
THE 23RD CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKERS ASSOCIATION:A LITTLE HEAT BUT PRECIOUS LITTLE LIGHT:
The 23rd Congress of the International Workers' Association (IWA-AIT) was held in Manchester, England last December. The Congress was hosted by Solidarity Federation, the British affiliate of the IWA. In the public press releases the present IWW secretariat, based in Norway, was pretty non-committal about the decisions that were actually taken at the Congress. The Secretariat was to be taken on by the Serbian Anarcho-Syndicalist Initiative, and the next Congress will be organized by the COB-AIT of Brazil in December of 2008.
Despite being the "official" International the AIT/IWA represents a small minority of active anarcho-syndicalists in the world today. To a large extent it is the creation of the Spanish CNT, and even in Spain the CNT is outnumbered by the CGT by at least an order of magnitude. In countries where the policies of the AIT have led to a split in anarcho-syndicalism, such as France and Italy, the "unofficial" anarcho-syndicalists also outnumber the official affiliates of the AIT.
The original split in Spain between the CNT and the CGT was over the issue of standing in "union elections", which the comrades of the CNT saw as "reformist". Similar splits in France led to the CNT-Vignoles becoming very much the public face of anarcho-syndicalism in that country while the purists of the CNT-AIT have been reduced to a propaganda group of only 100 to 200 members. The Italian USI-AIT also split over the same issue, but the remnant in the USI-AIT ended up participating in the "works councils" of that country anyways(1). Thus they are not in the same minoritarian position as the French purists are. In Spain the CGT has gone on to become the 3rd largest union in the country while the official CNT languishes with afew thousand members.
The REAL issues at stake in this latest Congress were not discussed in any public press releases. Anxious to avoid the loss of their Italian section the AIT avoided the question of the USI's participation in the councils, but this decision will undoubtedly come back to haunt them as it is the be-all and end-all of the whole split in international anarcho-syndicalism. The question of why the USI, which unlike the other sections of the AIT outside of Spain, actually functions as a real union, can "get away" with what others have been expelled for will come back.
The question of the German section, the FAU, and its planned participation in the upcoming I-07 conference in Paris, sponsored by the CNT-Vignoles of France was also "put off" with a reference to deciding whether they should be expelled at some future date. The question of the status of the American ex-affiliate, the Workers' Solidarity Federation(expelled in 2000), was also apparently on the agenda, but efforts by American comrades to gain access to the decisions concerning this matter have born little fruit to date.
Once more very little light. The larger Spanish CGT, along with the French CNT-Vignoles and the Swedish SAC, along with others, have begun a regroupment process in International Libertarian Solidarity and the European Federation of Alternative Syndicalism. The IWW tries to maintain friendly relations with both sides of this dispute, but they generally meet a much more fraternal response from the unions outside of the AIT.
This dispute is a sad reflexion on the present state of international anarcho-syndicalism. The purists, headed by the CNT, would be much more effective in debates within the growing anarchosyndicalist unions across the world. In their present state of isolation they cannot advance the cause of syndicalism at all, but they would be a much needed corrective to more opportunist tendencies in those organizations that have taken a more realistic approach.
For more on the 1979 split in Spain see the Wikipedia article on 'Anarchism in Spain' . The Congress and its "non-news" have been discussed extensively in the forums on Libcom and in the comments section of Anarkismo , often with little light being shed on what actually happened. Molly wonders if the actions of sending the Secretariat to Serbia and the date of the next Congress 2 years into the future and to the other side of the globe may be something of a "pulling a Marx" where the Spanish CNT would rather see the AIT destroyed than fall into the hands of its "competition". Marx did a similar thing when he maneuvered to transfer the First International to the USA rather than see his control of it challenged. This is, of course, just speculation, but it is something to think about.
MOLLY NOTES:
1)In Italy both of the two USI's claim the name of the AIT/IWA even though only the "official" one named above, also known as the USI PRATO-Carnico, has the approval of the AIT as a whole. The other USI, the USI-Roma, is present in many areas of Italy where the "officials" are absent, and vise versa. BOTH appear to be functioning unions, unlike most of the groups in the AIT outside of Spain. Should the "official" USI be expelled from the AIT there would be little to prevent a reunification with the other USI.
The use of the name "AIT" has not degenerated into the legal wrangling stage that the use of the name "CNT" did at the time of the CNT/CGT split some years ago. Not that such a course hasn't been suggested, but the Italians have demonstrated a little more sense in this regard.
Labels: anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, anarkismo.net, CGT, CNT, events, FAU, IWA-AIT, LibCom, SAC., Solidarity Federation, USI
STILL MORE LINKS:Molly's added quite a few more links to her blog recently. Almost all of them except that of the Movement of the Libertarian Left have been other blogs. As you may gather from the previous item I've also decided to add some libertarian (in the American sense) items to the contacts here, not because I necessarily agree with all that they say but because there is a wing of American libertarianism that is authentically anarchist and not just a front for minimal statism. They also present the case for individual liberty in a way that is often ignored not just amongst the "socialist anarchist" sector but also amongst some who claim the individualist label while tying it to things peripheral to anarchism. So here goes in no particular order. Those blogs that are libertarian are marked with an "(L)" after them.
Anarchia
A Rush and a Push
Anarcho Geek
Insultadarity
Life During Capitalism
Wolfeblog (L)
Freeman (L)
Utopia
The Doors of Deception (L)
@git Prop (L)
Anarchy Reloaded (L)
The Liberator (L)
Amor Y Resistencia
Many more to follow for sure,
Molly
Labels: A Rush and a Push, Anarchia, Anarcho Geek, links, Movement of the Libertarian Left
MOLLY'S ANARCHISM:
WHY I AM NOT A REVOLUTIONIST PART 2:
I have already quoted the usual definition of "revolution" as a more or less sudden change in the political and socio-economic structure of a society. Until the year 1989 I was under the impression that no revolution was possible in any industrial country, that fundamental change would come either as a result of a slow and gradual process or by political agreements between warring political factions, as it did indeed come in South Africa. The collapse of the Soviet Empire proved me wrong in the narrow sense. revolutions are indeed possible in industrial societies providing 1)that the change involved is small enough so that most of society can "carry on as usual" while the process unfolds and 2)that one of the classical requirements for a revolution is fulfilled, that the ruling class is both demoralized and divided.
The end of Communist tyranny in eastern Europe fulfilled both these requirements. In most cases the initial change was one of political form which only later led to the end of one form of managerial rule and its replacement by another as the former managers looted the national stock of productive forces. Lights will still work, subways will run and water taps will deliver water while parliaments are dissolved and reformed. The political dream is basically irrelevant to the day to day running of a society. Yes, these events were revolutions, but ones that were more !!!! than slightly limited in what they proposed compared to one envisioning libertarian goals. The basic class structure of eastern Europe remained intact, and the second requirement was overfulfilled as many of the bureaucrats helped in the revolutionary process- or helped themselves which amounted to the same thing.
Even in those countries such as Romania,Serbia or Albania where parts of the old ruling class put up an armed resistance they were opposed by more forward looking parts of the same class. The violence was restricted in scope because of this division in the ruling class, and society did not have to endure a protracted civil war with all that that would entail. Usually history records that such civil wars result in a era of at least temporary tyranny. Eastern Europe mostly escaped this fate.
All this is, of course, irrelevant to the sort of social change that anarchists might envision. This change would leave little scope for the old ruling class to find new positions in the new order, almost by definition. This means simply that the prospect of a divided ruling class would be much !!!! less likely if such a revolution had libertarian goals. One of the essential conditions of almost all past revolutions would not be fulfilled. The canard that "no ruling class ever gives up its power voluntarily" can be thrown back in the face of the believers in "revolution". Yes, they do indeed do so because a portion of them see new possibilities for power in the new revolutionary society. A libertarian revolution faces an uphill battle that few other revolutions have in the past. Its very nature makes the division of the ruling class essential for success much less likely than in ordinary cases. Hence "revolution" is a far less attractive strategy for anarchists than it is for other political ideologies.
The chances of a revolutionary situation developing in an atmosphere of overwhelming libertarian sentiment anywhere today are quite remote. The best that anarchists can hope for is to participate as one of the forces amongst a plurality of revolutionary forces. This leads to the question of "corruption from below" in contrast to the "corruption from above" when members of the old ruling class come to power in the sort of "class suicide" that advocates of revolution claim, in the face of all the historical evidence, is "impossible. Both of the now almost "ancient" revolutions that anarchists point to as at least partially embodying their ideas, the Russian and the Spanish, ended up far from anarchism. Both had elements of both corruption from above and corruption from below that pushed them in a statist and tyrannical direction. They are special cases and have to be dealt with even if they are far in the past. In the Russian case many of the former rulers did indeed find place in the new order and supported its development, but the greatest fault was corruption from below. In the Spanish case the real revolution was long since defeated by the time Franco's troops moved in. The Communist Party provided a revolutionary refuge for all those non-fascist elements in Spanish life who could not accept Franco, and eventually they overwhelmed the CNT-FAI and their allies amongst the socialists. This was indeed a case of a division in the old ruling class which, just as in the Russian case, was no less revolutionary despite the fact that it turned on its anarchist allies.
But that is the subject of another post. For now lets note that the usual canard about ruling classes not relinquishing their power is obviously false as actual history proves. They do indeed relinquish it in order to regain it under a new form, and this act is actually a prerequisite of almost all revolutions. The chances of avoided this sort of end depend upon having not just a very large minority, as in the Spanish case, of the population influenced by anarchist ideas but actually having the vast majority influenced by same. If the Spaniards couldn't do it way back them what persuades people that it can be done now ?
More later,
Mollymew
NOW ON AT THE CARNIVAL OF ANARCHY:This weekend at the Carnival of Anarchy site features the subject of "socialism and anarchism". Come on over to see the sparks fly. The COA is a site of 'anarchism without adjectives' where anarchists of various persuasions post and play. A meeting place for left anarchists and libertarians, for all those who value freedom above all. Have a look.
Labels: anarchism, Carnival of Anarchy
MEXICO: FREEDOM FOR ANARCHIST PRISONERS IN OAXACA: FREEDOM FOR OSCAR AND SACRAMENTO !From the Amor Y Resistencia site, a bilingual (Spanish and English) site recently added to our list of links under the Blogs heading.
The anarchists of the state of Oaxaca, the CODEP, the CIPO-RFM, the Bloque Autonomo and the Occupacion Intercultural en Resistencia, played a vital role in the resistance of the people of Oaxaca to the government of Ulisses Riuz Ortiz. Since the final breaching of the barricades numerous activists have been hunted down and presently languish in jail. Amongst these are Oscar Santa Maria Caro (20) from Oaxaca and Sacramento Delfino Cano Hernandez (29) of the State of Mexico City. Both were arrested on November 30th, 2006 and have been abused in detention since their arrest. They are being held in the regional prison CERESO in Miahuatlan de Porfirio Diaz, Oaxaca in Hall B, Cell 5.
The comrades of Amor Y Resistencia have issued a denunciation of these arrests including the abuse in prison and the death threats issued against Oscar and Sacramento to try and force them to confess to trumped up charges. they have also denounced the other arrests, abuses and even murders suffered by the activists of Oaxaca since last November.
For more information see the Amor Y Resistencia site above or email the collective at noestamostodas@gmail.com (in Spanish). The collective is presently trying to set up a paypal account for financial contributions to the defense. for info on this email amoryresistencia@yahoo.com .
Labels: Amor y Resistencia, Mexico, Oaxaca, solidarity
Saturday, January 27, 2007
FROM THE SATIRICAL POLITICAL REPORT (SEE OTHER INTERESTING LINKS SECTION):
CITING CHINESE ANTI-SATELLITE TEST, BUSH INVADES SPACE:
In direct response to China's recent and successful test of an anti-satellite system, President Bush today announced a sudden and complete redeployment of all U.S. troops out of Iraq, and into space.
Bush said that the biggest threat faced by the country is now WSD-weapons of space destruction. Consequently the administration is implementing a plan called The New Way Upward.
The President also indicated that he would immediately bring back Donald Rumsfield to head the invasion, since Rumsfield was always considered the in-house space cadet. Bush further explained that "Rumsfield's favourite strategy of 'quick and light' is particularly well suited to a battlefield where there is no gravity."
Bush therefore announced that the tours of all active duty forces would be extended to three light years, to accommodate the long travel involved. In addition, due to the shortage of military resources caused by the lengthy war in Iraq, all U.S. space troops will be required to purchase their own heat shields.
To try to scare up public support for this venture, Bush has dispatched Vice President Cheney to the Sunday morning talk show circuit, to claim that in 2001, the Chinese had met with Mohammed Atta on the third ring of Saturn. Tim Russert did his damnedest to challenge Cheney's account, but could only extract a promise from the VEEP not to attack Buffalo.
Critics of the President point out that the Bush administration, prodded by the neo-moons, itself caused this arms race by refusing to negotiate a treaty regulating the weaponization of space. There is also speculation that Bush's true motive is to prevent the Chinese from shooting down the FOX NEWS satellite, which accounts for the 19% of "Cling-ons" who mysteriously still support the Administration.
To express their outrage over this latest belligerency, the Democratic Leadership is seeking a non-binding resolution that suggests Bush watch all episodes of Star Trek, in order to develop a healthy respect for outer space.
However, Ted Kennedy plans to introduce more ambitious legislation to "boldly send Bush where no man has gone before".
Labels: anarchism humour, George Bush
MARE CRISIUM: THE SEA OF CRISES:
The Moon has just passed the first quarter (Jan 25th), and now is an excellent time to image the Mare Crisium, the feature labelled "12" in the map of the moon at the left. It is just to the "north" of the "Sea of Fecundity" and to the "east"(right) of the "Sea of Tranquillity" of moon lander fame. On the lower right of Crisium there is a cape like feature called the Promonitorium Agarum. Also to the left, about in the middle of the sea is the crater "Picard". Eat your heart out Jean Luc. Just on the left rim is the crater Yerkes, a little up from Picard. With a better pair of binoculars (or the telescope that I am too cowardly to set up in a wind chill of 34 below) you may be able to pick out the small Mare Anguis just to the upper right of the mare Crisium. The sea is a laval plain that flowed over previous impact features.
Labels: amateur astronomy, Mare Criseum, moon, Picard Crater, Promentitorium Agarum, Sea of Fecundity, Sea of Fertility
Thursday, January 25, 2007
MORE ON THE KELVIN COMMUNITY CLUB:
The latest proposal from the residents of Elmwood is that the City of Winnipeg simply "sign over" the ownership of the Kelvin Community Club to the Association and let it sink or swim on its own. This proposal has been more or less supported by our local MLA, Jim Maloway, who has expressed the suspicion of many residents of this neighbourhood- that the property will be subject to a "quick flip" for commercial development. One should note that none of us will ever be invited to the Mayor's Christmas parties. The best that Molly can do in that regard is knowing one of the "contractors" (fucking literally) who helped build up the decadent decorations for Sammy's soiree. So it is just a "suspicion" that the property will be opened up for friends at a less than fair bidding process. I would never suggest such a thing as reality. People have, however, expressed this opinion on talk shows in this town, and Molly is merely a good reporter here.
What Molly can say is that this idea is the idea that she has promoted all along, that Community Centres should be independent of the ever tempting "free money" from government, whether it be city or otherwise. It is the only path to true security. The Mayor and his coterie have been on the media recently claiming that they have no plans to close other community centres in this city- just like Mayor Katz claimed in 2005 that there would be NO forced closures of any community centres(see previous posts on this blog for the references). Residents of Elmwood have caught him up in this lie. The next items on the list will inevitably be other centres in poorer areas of this city. The powers that be have, after all, "promised" to review the matter annually (can we say "plot" ?) to see what happens if this test case goes through.
WELL...Kelvin becoming an independent cooperative, just like other likely victims going the same route, would certainly save the City tax money. The only losers in such a case would be real estate developers who salivate over the prospect of acquiring such properties. But, of course, such people never socialize with the right wing majority on city council. Even if they do there would be no paper trail. Amazing what can be done over a glass of fine wine.
Well... if Kelvin closes Molly can expect a few things. Being well skilled in handling Rottweilers she has little fear of the increase in gang activity very close to her on the south. Molly is one nasty bloody cat, and she's lived in worse places before. She feels sorry for the kids who will be caught up in such things as the right wing of City Council attempts to correct it by more police, but it is minor. What Molly is really concerned about is the kids who have to trek east through a rough neighbourhood to get to the Chalmers Community Centre or have to trek north to the Bronx Community Centre just north of Molly's cathouse. So far my "window of excitement" on Henderson Highway is merely for vehicle accidents. As I have said before this happens at least once a month. I have no desire to watch kids trying to cross this goddamn speedway where nobody slows down for pedestrians and having them killed in front of me. To date many people have been killed crossing this road, but they have always been either to the south or the north. I've tended to schmucked dogs out on the median. I have no desire to tend to a schmucked kid. It's bad for my blood pressure. I've seen a lot of shit on this road, and I have no desire to see the potential increased by a factor of ten.
One kid quoted on the media said it would take him 45 minutes to walk from Kelvin to Bronx. I live just south of Bronx. I can get to a bit south of Kelvin in less than 30 minutes. On the other hand in my younger days I was able to run a mile in less than 4 minutes despite my tiny short little feline legs. Some 2o year olds could make it in 20 minutes, but these guys could also lift 200 pounds. I walk that sometimes to rent a car because walking is faster than waiting for a bus in this town...a little something to think about when you consider how kids are going to get up here to Bronx. Also think about wind chills of 40 below, But mainly think about crossing Henderson. It is one evil graveyard of a road.
Well, maybe Mayor Katz doesn't live on a major thoroughfare, and neither do his co-conspirators. Maybe they don't live a short distance from "gangland", and maybe they think that making rules about "panhandling" will address the issue of crime in this city. Maybe they think all sorts of things, and maybe they think that they can bask in the glory of Olympic athletes while undercutting the communities that produce them. Maybe they think that this is "progressive"- an ugly word if I've ever heard one. Progress to where and what ? Maybe they think that Olympians should only come from their own "good people", and that the underclass doesn't deserve such opportunity, small as it is.
This is the "cleanest" and simplest issue that this City has seen in decades. It's not muddied by issues of race, like much in Winnipeg is. Elmwood is very much a multi-racial community. It's not muddied by matters of special interests demanding fat easy jobs. It is starkly an issue of class, of the poor and the working class and small business people versus those who attempt to control their lives. It calls for the support of all ordinary people across this city, and the support of small business who oppose a corporate agenda for this city. Think about it. The bulldozer may head towards you next.
Molly
The latest proposal from the residents of Elmwood is that the City of Winnipeg simply "sign over" the ownership of the Kelvin Community Club to the Association and let it sink or swim on its own. This proposal has been more or less supported by our local MLA, Jim Maloway, who has expressed the suspicion of many residents of this neighbourhood- that the property will be subject to a "quick flip" for commercial development. One should note that none of us will ever be invited to the Mayor's Christmas parties. The best that Molly can do in that regard is knowing one of the "contractors" (fucking literally) who helped build up the decadent decorations for Sammy's soiree. So it is just a "suspicion" that the property will be opened up for friends at a less than fair bidding process. I would never suggest such a thing as reality. People have, however, expressed this opinion on talk shows in this town, and Molly is merely a good reporter here.
What Molly can say is that this idea is the idea that she has promoted all along, that Community Centres should be independent of the ever tempting "free money" from government, whether it be city or otherwise. It is the only path to true security. The Mayor and his coterie have been on the media recently claiming that they have no plans to close other community centres in this city- just like Mayor Katz claimed in 2005 that there would be NO forced closures of any community centres(see previous posts on this blog for the references). Residents of Elmwood have caught him up in this lie. The next items on the list will inevitably be other centres in poorer areas of this city. The powers that be have, after all, "promised" to review the matter annually (can we say "plot" ?) to see what happens if this test case goes through.
WELL...Kelvin becoming an independent cooperative, just like other likely victims going the same route, would certainly save the City tax money. The only losers in such a case would be real estate developers who salivate over the prospect of acquiring such properties. But, of course, such people never socialize with the right wing majority on city council. Even if they do there would be no paper trail. Amazing what can be done over a glass of fine wine.
Well... if Kelvin closes Molly can expect a few things. Being well skilled in handling Rottweilers she has little fear of the increase in gang activity very close to her on the south. Molly is one nasty bloody cat, and she's lived in worse places before. She feels sorry for the kids who will be caught up in such things as the right wing of City Council attempts to correct it by more police, but it is minor. What Molly is really concerned about is the kids who have to trek east through a rough neighbourhood to get to the Chalmers Community Centre or have to trek north to the Bronx Community Centre just north of Molly's cathouse. So far my "window of excitement" on Henderson Highway is merely for vehicle accidents. As I have said before this happens at least once a month. I have no desire to watch kids trying to cross this goddamn speedway where nobody slows down for pedestrians and having them killed in front of me. To date many people have been killed crossing this road, but they have always been either to the south or the north. I've tended to schmucked dogs out on the median. I have no desire to tend to a schmucked kid. It's bad for my blood pressure. I've seen a lot of shit on this road, and I have no desire to see the potential increased by a factor of ten.
One kid quoted on the media said it would take him 45 minutes to walk from Kelvin to Bronx. I live just south of Bronx. I can get to a bit south of Kelvin in less than 30 minutes. On the other hand in my younger days I was able to run a mile in less than 4 minutes despite my tiny short little feline legs. Some 2o year olds could make it in 20 minutes, but these guys could also lift 200 pounds. I walk that sometimes to rent a car because walking is faster than waiting for a bus in this town...a little something to think about when you consider how kids are going to get up here to Bronx. Also think about wind chills of 40 below, But mainly think about crossing Henderson. It is one evil graveyard of a road.
Well, maybe Mayor Katz doesn't live on a major thoroughfare, and neither do his co-conspirators. Maybe they don't live a short distance from "gangland", and maybe they think that making rules about "panhandling" will address the issue of crime in this city. Maybe they think all sorts of things, and maybe they think that they can bask in the glory of Olympic athletes while undercutting the communities that produce them. Maybe they think that this is "progressive"- an ugly word if I've ever heard one. Progress to where and what ? Maybe they think that Olympians should only come from their own "good people", and that the underclass doesn't deserve such opportunity, small as it is.
This is the "cleanest" and simplest issue that this City has seen in decades. It's not muddied by issues of race, like much in Winnipeg is. Elmwood is very much a multi-racial community. It's not muddied by matters of special interests demanding fat easy jobs. It is starkly an issue of class, of the poor and the working class and small business people versus those who attempt to control their lives. It calls for the support of all ordinary people across this city, and the support of small business who oppose a corporate agenda for this city. Think about it. The bulldozer may head towards you next.
Molly
Labels: Kelvin Community Club, Winnipeg
MOLLY'S ANARCHISM: PART TWO, CHAPTER ONE:WHY I AM NOT A "REVOLUTIONIST":
Wayne Price of NEFAC (The Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists) has recently published an essay entitled 'Why I am Not a Pacifist' on the Anarkismo board. His essay makes some telling points (no, there was no way to remove Hitler without violence, pacifists mistake their actions for "non-coercion", etc,etc) with things that can best be styled "flights of fancy" (the only way to avoid the holocaust was through a 'proletarian revolution', Americans may have to call for an invasion from Mexico to "save their revolution",once more, etc.,etc.,etc.).
Now, Molly has actually met a very few real pacifists in her life. They don't include the majority of those who style themselves as such. Wayne's points about "coercion" can be telling in these cases. Molly likes these people even if she considers them wrongheaded. However "wrongheaded" they may be, however, they are less so than others whom Molly has met who are under some sort of delusion that a "revolution" in imminent in North America (or any European country for that matter) and especially that they can hasten this apocalypse by mindless acts of militancy. Mr. Price is, of course, not amongst this collection of fools. As a member of NEFAC he recognizes the value of patient organization and is at least somewhat aware of the broad outlines of reality in terms of how (un)popular a libertarian view of socialism is in North America. Yet, perhaps for 'romantic reasons' he clings to the idea of "revolution" as a Deus ex-machina that is both possible and necessary to achieve the goals of libertarian socialism in his country (the USA) and mine (Canada). Molly disagrees with both the term "possible" and the term "necessary", and I will try and explain this as I go along in this blog. Not all will be said in this post. I will also eventually reproduce Price's essay here and reply to it, but that is unimportant for now.
For now I refer the reader back to my previous post on 'Molly's Anarchism' and what I quoted professor Richards as saying. The non-statist trend of world socialism has always be present in Canadian socialism, just as it has been present elsewhere under different names, often taking the word "anarchism" to describe itself. In Canada non-statist socialism has been represented by the cooperative movement, whether it be that of Western Canada (with which I am most familiar), Quebec or the Antigonish movement of the East Coast. It has been represented in the unions, whether they were the IWW or the OBU of history or the more recent attempts to chart a course independent of the US based Internationals. It has even been present in a multitude of local community struggles for various things, struggles that presuppose that local communities should have a greater role than the feds, the provinces or even the cities in determining things in their immediate environment. Native struggles have been lighthouses in this matter, but they are hardly unique or even more than a minority of such struggles across Canada.
This socialism is different from that which has been the dominant strain in Canada to date. It has nothing whatsoever to do with "building political parties" whether they be social democratic such as the NDP or bizarre communist sects. It has everything to do with building cooperatives, both producer and consumer cooperatives. It has everything to do with attempting at all times to recover political power for the most local community possible and to expand the scope of democracy beyond that of a popularity contest. It has everything to do with the day to day struggle of working people to control the conditions of their work life and eventually to take the workplaces over and govern them by democratic principles.
This sort of socialism is neither pacifist nor revolutionary. It is merely "realistic". It recognizes and builds on popular struggles that have occurred throughout Canadian (and American) history and asks for the maximum possible clarity in regards to same. This clarity means that we have to "work with" those who believe in "political means" but that we should always be apart from them, with an ideal of total independence for the popular organizations as the ultimate goal. It means that we push bit by tiny bit towards this goal, navigating the possible, and not recruiting for some dangerous enterprise in the foggy future. It means that we agree to be pluralistic and not dream of some show of force in the future, a dream that would almost inevitably lead to disaster.
It furthermore means that we take the best of our own socialist traditions and build on them, and that we call ourselves "anarchists" because this is the best, though limited, name for what we want to achieve- a socialism that builds cooperation without the excessive burden of state imposed conformity. Look above to the graphic on this blog. This is the graphic of the Spanish CGT. Spain has always been the "heartland" of anarchism. There have been disagreements in Spanish anarchism for well over a century about how to proceed towards libertarian socialism. The present day CGT which represents about 2 million Spanish workers is the heir of one of these currents, the anarchism of Salvador Segui, of Juan Piero, of Angel Pestana (before he deserted the cause). This anarchism is the reborn anarchism of the Iberian Peninsula, an anarchism that is appropriate for the modern age. It is the same as the socialism of those here in Canada who advocated (and advocate today) for community clinics, for local control, for increased rights for workers, for producers and consumers cooperatives. It is the only socialism worthy of the name, and its name is anarchism. It does not imply a quasi-religious commitment to some future "revolution", only the commitment to advance the cause today in the here and now.
Molly is not a "revolutionist" for many reasons which I will detail later, but the main reason is that the "revolution" is a fantasy which is way in the future and far away from how we live today. But the struggle for socialism- well that I've seen every day of my life. It exists here and now. One more cooperative is socialism. One more victory against the state is socialism. I don't live in an utopia. I live in the here and now.
Much more later,
Molly
Labels: anarchism, Juan Piero, NDP, NEFAC, revolution, Salvadoe Segui, social democracy, socialism, tactics, Wayne Price
MAHYE BE HAVIN' A WEE HAPPY ROBBIE BURNS DAY:
Today, January 25th, is the celebration of the radical democratic poet Robbie Burns. However much "yon birkie, ca's a lord, wha struts, an states, an' a' that" may try to disguise the democratic and socialist sentiments at the heart of Burns' poetry the flame is very much findable for anyone who cares to look.
Molly can suggest no better place to begin than Eugene Plawiuk's blog. Two years ago Plawiuk did a masterful piece on Robbie Burns. You can have a look at http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005/radical-robbie-burns-peoples-poet.html .
Ga on ovr an' ha' a peek. Now Molly's off to chase the haggis for tonight. More later. Til then we wait the day, as the poet says,
"Then let us pray that come it may,
(as come it will for a' that)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that."
Molly
Labels: Eugene Plawiuk, holidays, Robbie Burns
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
CITY COUNCIL VOTES TO CLOSE KELVIN:
After the Mother of All City Council Meetings, while Elmwood residents filled the Council chambers and spilled into the hallway- a very unusual happening for any meeting of City Council- councillors debated for close to six hours on the closing of Kelvin. Yet, in the end, the Mayor's circle held firm and the final vote was 11 to 4 to close the Kelvin Community Centre despite the fact that the "lack of volunteers" had long since been corrected and despite the fact that plans were afoot to raise the money for renovations outside of city grants. A motion to postpone Kelvin's closing under the expansion of the Bronx Community Centre was completed was also turned down. Emotional residents vowed that "this is not the end", and hopefully it will not be. More on this in days to follow.
After the Mother of All City Council Meetings, while Elmwood residents filled the Council chambers and spilled into the hallway- a very unusual happening for any meeting of City Council- councillors debated for close to six hours on the closing of Kelvin. Yet, in the end, the Mayor's circle held firm and the final vote was 11 to 4 to close the Kelvin Community Centre despite the fact that the "lack of volunteers" had long since been corrected and despite the fact that plans were afoot to raise the money for renovations outside of city grants. A motion to postpone Kelvin's closing under the expansion of the Bronx Community Centre was completed was also turned down. Emotional residents vowed that "this is not the end", and hopefully it will not be. More on this in days to follow.
Labels: Kelvin Community Club, Winnipeg
Sunday, January 21, 2007
MONTREAL ANARCHIST BOOKFAIRThe Montreal Anarchist Bookfair , which bills itself as "the largest Anarchist event in North America", has issued a "callout" for tablers, workshops, presentations and art exhibits. The Bookfair will be held on Saturday, May 19th, from 10am to 6pm and will be followed on Sunday, May 20th by workshops and presentations. The deadline for workshops is Feb 15th, 2007. The deadline for tabling, art exhibits, and films is April 1st, 2007. The Bookfair will be part of a month long 'Festival of Anarchy' in the Montreal area. For information on the Festival of Anarchy see http://salonanarchiste.taktic.org/festival_of_anarchy.html . The organizers of the Bookfair can be contacted at the Salon Anarchiste website, by email at anarchistbookfair@taktic.org , by phone at 514-859-9090 or by mail at Montreal Anarchist Bookfair, 1500 Maisonneuve Ouest, Suite 204, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1N1, Canada.
Please note that the website gives a list of events and times from last year, the 7th Bookfair. This year is the 8th, and the website will hopefully be updated soon.
Labels: anarchism, events, Montreal, Montreal Anarchist Bookfair
NEW FROM CHRISTIE BOOKS:Christie Books , a British anarchist multimedia publisher has recently added the film 'The Wobblies' to its list of anarchist videos available via the internet. The Wobblies by Stewart Bird and Deborah Schaeffer is a moving study of the men and women of the Industrial Workers of the World, the IWW. Christie Books now has over 165 films on file that can be viewed from your website. You can get instructions on the process from http://tinyurl/t8sta or http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=219646953&firstVideo=0 . The Wobblies can be viewed by accessing http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=433480993 . Steaming video.
Christie Books is financed by sales of its publications and posters as well as by donations. Instructions are available on the website.
Labels: anarchism, Christie Books, films
NEW ANARCHIST PAMPHLET:RESISTANCE TO NAZISM:The Anarchist Federation (Britain) has published a new pamphlet, 'Anarchist Resistance to Nazism'. This is an exposition of the historical resistance to fascist tyranny in the 30s and 40s. It concentrates on the resistance to Nazism in Germany and France, telling the story of the 'Edelweiss Pirates' (Germany), the FAUD (Germany) and the Zazous (France) . It also, however, speaks of the British Jewish organization, the '43 Group' who resisted fascism in England and the 'Arditi del Popolo' in Italy. The Italian movement, being one of the largest outside of the Spanish speaking world, put up a particularly vigorous resistance to fascism, and an appendix details to anarchist underground press of the time, both inside and outside Italy.
The pamphlet can be ordered in a print version from the website of the AF. It is available in both html and pdf versions online at the following addresses:
http://flag.blackened.net/af/ace/anarchist_resistance_to_nazism.pdf
http://flag.blackened.net/af/ace/anarchist_resistance_to_nazism.html
http://afed.libcom.org.uk/ace/anarchist_resistance_to_nazism.pdf
http://afed.libcom.org.uk/ace/anarchist_resistance_to_nazism.html
Labels: anarchism, Anarchist Federation, fascism, pamphlets
Saturday, January 20, 2007
RELIANCE ON THE INTERNET:
Molly has no great "revolutionary illusions" unlike the owner of one private anarchist empire who thinks he can rebuild the summit hopping fad such that "the crowd advancing towards the police will be so huge that they will run in fear". Actually in such situations look towards who will control the "Solidarity Fund" for those arrested, beaten and perhaps even killed. Human nature is the same whether it wears an "anarchist tag" or not.
This sort of thing is, of course, silly, and it could only gain currency in a closed subculture where criticism and contact with reality is considered the same sort of "mortal sin" as Catholicism defines so many things as. The owner of the empire has actually said that he will not tolerate any contact with the reality of other views "bad mouthing"the overblown rhetoric of anarchist triumphalism. Hard to build up a cult when the recruits are exposed to reality.
But that is neither here nor there. The same sort of nonsense appears on the site of the private empire as it does elsewhere in the anarchist "ethernet", that there is some sort of "security culture" that can prevent the state from knowing each and every time you burp. The whole idea that the supreme arrogance of such people leads them to imagine that they can brag in public forum about how much better they are better than organizations that have thousands of times more resources is actually quite stunning. This sort of arrogance can only exist where there is a deliberate effort to escape from reality. Not just ignorance but deliberate ignorance that will never have to be tested against the real world.
Fine and dandy. Leave those who wish to make a spectacle of anarchism to their games but warn them about the dishonesty of their leaders. What I find more disturbing is the reliance that anarchists who have a connection to to reality have placed on the Internet. One quick flick of a switch and all their communication ceases. That is neither here nor there for a reformist such as Molly, and it is certainly neither here nor there in the situation of most developed countries today. But it should be a matter of concern to those who hold revolutionary pretensions or who simply look either ahead or elsewhere.
Is the Internet overdone in terms of anarchist communication ? Something to think about.
Labels: anarchism, internet, security culture, tactics
MOLLY'S ANARCHISM:
Before it disappears from the front page of this blog I'd like to reproduce a comment that appeared under the "Marxism Under the Microscope' posting, from someone who signs themselves as "Joe". It is something that has to be answered because it goes to the heart of why I style myself an "anarchist" despite all the bad connotations that such a label evokes. "Joe" says,
"I would assume that there aren't many 'anarchist' professors as Marxist professors because anarchy is obviously not a workable system. Marxism isn't a workable system either as it appears to lead almost at once into brutal dictatorship. Personally I like constitutional republics."
"Joe" is an example of the intelligent ordinary person whom I have devoted decades of my life to talking to. I can pick apart what he said easily by pointing out that there is a difference between Marxism, as a way of organizing observations about the world (which I mostly disagree with by the way) and the organizational principles set down by what is known as "Leninism" which is probably what he refers to as "Marxism". There are numerous "Marxists" who differ so little from anarchists that the only reason I can see that they don't make the leap is the eternal human tendency to "mental conservatism". I can also point out that there are Marxists such as the Socialist Party of Chile (drowned in blood by the USA sponsored coup of Pinochet) who have been fully committed to the "constitutional republic" means of government, even if they were in alliance with a Communist Party which was not.
I can further point out that the degree of brutality varies from one Marxist dictatorship to another. Stalin's USSR was far more brutal in terms of "body counts" than his erstwhile ally and later opponent Hitler. NO government in human history has ever equalled the "body counts" of the communist dictatorship in China, and, whatever Noam Chomsky may try to say, NO government has EVER equalled the "body count as a percentage of the population" that the Kymer Rouge did in Cambodia/Kampuchea. YET... the dictatorship in say Cuba(which I have NO sympathy for, by the way) has been FAR less brutal than a great number of dictatorships sponsored in that part of the world by the "constitutional republic" of the USA. Without the consent of the citizens of said "constitutional republic" !
I also disagree with the idea that representation in the academy is some sort of litmus test as to the "workability" of a political ideology. History is far more complex than that. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of German professors in the mid 1930s to 1945 were good Nazis. Does this prove that German fascism was a "more workable system" than the alternatives. The answer was delivered by steel and bombs in the most direct way possible. The over-representation of Marxists in the Academy has roots in the situation in the early and mid 60s when there were viable Leninist models active in the world, when the working class entered the academy in large numbers and when anarchism was considered, unlike today, as an antique historical curiosity. Things are different now.
All that being said "Joe" is still right. His question has to be answered even if it was phrased in the wrong context. Is "anarchism" a realistic view of the world ? Maybe yes. Maybe no. It depends on what you mean by "anarchism". All that Molly can do is present her own view of anarchism, of why she calls herself an anarchist. In this exposition she will try to point out the varieties of anarchism-which is no one single thing. some of these varieties are very much "unrealistic" as Joe says. Some are simply insane and vicious. Some are idealistic statements of sainthood that lack a broader view of the failings of humanity. But....some are very much a workable political set of tactics, as Molly will hope to demonstrate. This series will continue on this blog as long as is necessary to give intelligent non-anarchists an idea of where Molly's own anarchism stands and how it relates to other strands of anarchism.
For now lets begin with an observation by the Canadian professor of political economy John Richards. This was originally stated, I believe, though I may be wrong, in his book 'Prairie Capitalism'. He noted that there were two stands in the agrarian rebellion that gave birth to such Canadian political parties as the CCF. Now, Richards is the furthest thing from an anarchist. His own political career is opportunism personified as he went from being a fervent supporter of 'The Waffle' to being an advocate of the extreme right wing of the NDP. His earlier work, however, named the cooperative and localist impulses of the movement that gave birth to the CCF as "libertarian socialist" as opposed to the "state socialist" of the majority of the Party. Molly sees herself very much in this tradition of "prairie populism" that is anarchist at its core. In future posts I will try and show how this tradition that didn't know its name connects with the larger worldwide tradition of libertarian socialism that is called "anarchism". I will also try to point out how there has always been a struggle for "the soul of anarchism" between various tendencies in said movement. That is not surprising. As an astute reader of the above can see there has been a struggle for the soul of Marxism as well. There have been similar struggles in all political ideologies, and such struggles continue today. So... see subsequent posts on this blog.
Molly
Labels: anarchism, CCF, Marxism, NDP, tactics
DEMOCRACY WATCH:Molly has just added another item to her links list under the heading of 'Other Interesting Links'. This is the Ottawa based organization Democracy Watch which attempts to improve the state of democracy in Canada by various campaigns involving violations of same by both government and the private sector. this site is quite far from anarchism, but it is a meliorist campaign that shares one of the central concerns of libertarian socialism ie the broadest possible participation of people affected by a decision in the making of same. I highlight this item here because one of their campaigns, 'Honesty in Politics' relates very much to what I said in the previous post about our mayor's broken promises. The Democracy watch believes that politicians should be penalized for breaking their promises just like those of us out here in the real world are. Drop on over to their site and have a look.
Molly
Labels: Democracy Watch, links
SUPPORT BUILDS TO SAVE THE KELVIN COMMUNITY CENTRE:
Since the recent decision by Mayor Sam Katz's Executive Policy Committee to close Kelvin (see previous posts here), despite the fact that the "reasons" given are either wrong or outdated further support has grown to keep this Centre open. The community has a website, 'Friends of Kelvin Community Centre' where the Elmwood community's side of the story is presented in a downloadable factsheet. The final decision on kelvin now has to go to a full City Council meeting that will be held this upcoming Wednesday, January 24th, at the City Hall Council Building, 510 Main St.. The meeting will unfortunately be held at 9:30 am when many working people cannot attend, but the Friends of Kelvin urge all who can to attend this meeting.
Meanwhile local Winnipeg Free Press journalist Gordon Sinclair Jr. has taken up the issue in two columns in the FP, one last Thursday (Jan. 18th) and today, Saturday, Jan. 20th. He points out something that the Friends of Kelvin also point out in their fact sheet, that "false economies" in closing community centres in poorer parts of this city will have to be paid for by increased youth crime. The Friends of Kelvin mention how they have working with local youth who used to vandalize the Centre and now volunteer at it. It doesn't take many stolen cars and high speed chases ending in crashes to equal the cost of keeping a community centre open. One traffic light or street light taken down may equal a week of keeping a centre open. Never mind the cost to the car owners. Molly has a front row seat to look out on the Henderson Speedway (oops, I mean Highway), and not a month goes by without a good major accident visible from my front door. Many of these involve high speed police chases in pursuit of stolen vehicles. Closing centres in poorer parts of town ends up costing more than keeping them open.
Canadian Olympic gold medal winner Clara Hughes (cycling and speed skating) has also signed on board. She grew up in the Elmwood neighbourhood, and frequented the Kelvin Community Centre. She also promised to help raise funds for the Centre if it stays open. She features in a number of TV ads that our local MLA, Jim Maloway, will begin airing on Monday. his ads, paid for out of his constituency allowance, will urge residents to show up at the Tuesday meeting and also phone both the Mayor and councillors urging that Kelvin remain open.
Mayor Sam Katz has been more than willing to bask in the reflected glory of Winnipeg's Olympians in the past, once creating something of a controversy by likening himself to "Hugh Hefner" surrounded by the exclusively female gold medal winners. Ooops Sammy. Control yourself. maybe he should realize that not all of these athletes come from privileged neighbourhoods like his own. But that would be too much to ask.
Speaking of Sammy Molly went to his promotional website to find a couple of interesting items. One is a portal entitled 'Promises Made:Promises Kept' which supposedly lays out what an honest politician our Mayor is. There is also a portal to 'Media' which only features recent items. There is, of course, no "search function" or visible archives on the mayor's site. Perhaps out of wisdom.
Items posted on the internet can come to have a life of their own. They become cached, and can be retrieved even if one erases them from the site. Here's one example of a "Promise Made' by Sam Katz in the media section of his own site on April 15th, 2005,
"As I promised during the election, there will be no forced closures of community centres," said Katz, "but we will have to make decisions with the interest of the whole city in mind, and this strategy ensures the ownership for those decisions is retained by the community"
Which community ? Elmwood, the North and West End, Point Douglas ? Or maybe just Tuxedo ?
A bit of a misreading perhaps ? Here's another item from the minutes of the City's 'Civic Environmental Committee' on May 9th, 2005:
"As I promised during the election, there will be no forced closures of community centres" said Katz.
The Mayor went on to say that,
"I firmly believe that the people who live in these areas know them best, and by working with GCWCC, our community centres will have an enhanced opportunity to manage their own futures".
Unless, of course, they live in Elmwood or other poorer areas where they "don't know best" and "forced closures" have to happen.
Love them Promises Kept.
Since the recent decision by Mayor Sam Katz's Executive Policy Committee to close Kelvin (see previous posts here), despite the fact that the "reasons" given are either wrong or outdated further support has grown to keep this Centre open. The community has a website, 'Friends of Kelvin Community Centre' where the Elmwood community's side of the story is presented in a downloadable factsheet. The final decision on kelvin now has to go to a full City Council meeting that will be held this upcoming Wednesday, January 24th, at the City Hall Council Building, 510 Main St.. The meeting will unfortunately be held at 9:30 am when many working people cannot attend, but the Friends of Kelvin urge all who can to attend this meeting.
Meanwhile local Winnipeg Free Press journalist Gordon Sinclair Jr. has taken up the issue in two columns in the FP, one last Thursday (Jan. 18th) and today, Saturday, Jan. 20th. He points out something that the Friends of Kelvin also point out in their fact sheet, that "false economies" in closing community centres in poorer parts of this city will have to be paid for by increased youth crime. The Friends of Kelvin mention how they have working with local youth who used to vandalize the Centre and now volunteer at it. It doesn't take many stolen cars and high speed chases ending in crashes to equal the cost of keeping a community centre open. One traffic light or street light taken down may equal a week of keeping a centre open. Never mind the cost to the car owners. Molly has a front row seat to look out on the Henderson Speedway (oops, I mean Highway), and not a month goes by without a good major accident visible from my front door. Many of these involve high speed police chases in pursuit of stolen vehicles. Closing centres in poorer parts of town ends up costing more than keeping them open.
Canadian Olympic gold medal winner Clara Hughes (cycling and speed skating) has also signed on board. She grew up in the Elmwood neighbourhood, and frequented the Kelvin Community Centre. She also promised to help raise funds for the Centre if it stays open. She features in a number of TV ads that our local MLA, Jim Maloway, will begin airing on Monday. his ads, paid for out of his constituency allowance, will urge residents to show up at the Tuesday meeting and also phone both the Mayor and councillors urging that Kelvin remain open.
Mayor Sam Katz has been more than willing to bask in the reflected glory of Winnipeg's Olympians in the past, once creating something of a controversy by likening himself to "Hugh Hefner" surrounded by the exclusively female gold medal winners. Ooops Sammy. Control yourself. maybe he should realize that not all of these athletes come from privileged neighbourhoods like his own. But that would be too much to ask.
Speaking of Sammy Molly went to his promotional website to find a couple of interesting items. One is a portal entitled 'Promises Made:Promises Kept' which supposedly lays out what an honest politician our Mayor is. There is also a portal to 'Media' which only features recent items. There is, of course, no "search function" or visible archives on the mayor's site. Perhaps out of wisdom.
Items posted on the internet can come to have a life of their own. They become cached, and can be retrieved even if one erases them from the site. Here's one example of a "Promise Made' by Sam Katz in the media section of his own site on April 15th, 2005,
"As I promised during the election, there will be no forced closures of community centres," said Katz, "but we will have to make decisions with the interest of the whole city in mind, and this strategy ensures the ownership for those decisions is retained by the community"
Which community ? Elmwood, the North and West End, Point Douglas ? Or maybe just Tuxedo ?
A bit of a misreading perhaps ? Here's another item from the minutes of the City's 'Civic Environmental Committee' on May 9th, 2005:
"As I promised during the election, there will be no forced closures of community centres" said Katz.
The Mayor went on to say that,
"I firmly believe that the people who live in these areas know them best, and by working with GCWCC, our community centres will have an enhanced opportunity to manage their own futures".
Unless, of course, they live in Elmwood or other poorer areas where they "don't know best" and "forced closures" have to happen.
Love them Promises Kept.
Labels: Friends of Kelvin Community Centre, Jim Maloway, Kelvin Community Club, Sam Katz, Winnipeg
Friday, January 19, 2007
THE VARIETIES OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE
BY CARL SAGAN
This is the second(1) posthumous book published and edited by Carl Sagan's widow, Ann Druyan(2). The subtitle is 'A personal view of the search for God', and this is because the book is a compilation of the 1985 Gifford Lectures (3)on Natural Theology at the University of Glasgow. Sagan himself describes "natural theology" in his introduction as "everything about the world not supplied by revelation" . A more apt description might be the attempt to read theological lessons from the natural world. I've recently finished reading this book, and these are my "midnight thoughts" on what the author says.
Sagan begins his lecture series with 'Nature and Wonder: A Reconnaissance of Heaven'. This presentation attempts to "travel outwards" from a terrestrial perspective to the furthest reaches of the visible universe. The slides that the author used to illustrate this journey are somewhat indifferently reproduced here- with updates from more recent astrophotography. Along the way to the furthest reaches the author picks up a number of historical turning points in humanity's conception of "the heavens", and how our sense of wonder has expanded as more and more of the vastness of "creation" is revealed, a vastness that makes many(most?) of our inherited religions seem paltry and petty by comparison.
Sagan used this first lecture to present the questions that he wished to pose to "natural theology", in particular the contrast between what are the really very parochial concerns and assertions of traditional theology and the huge scale of reality. as he says,
"...a general problem with much of Western theology in my view is that the God portrayed is too small. it is a god of a tiny world and not a god of a galaxy much less of a universe."
In his second lecture, 'The Retreat From Copernicus: A Modern Loss of Nerve', Sagan goes further into this idea, relating the human tendency to "project" their own psychology (hence animism) and their own sociology (hence the illusion of privilege and class "reproduced in the heavens" with the privilege of the earth and humans) to the history of what he calls "a series of assaults on human vainglory". This is the very gradual growth of the virtue of humility in the face of actual knowledge. From the dethronement of the Earth centred Universe by Copernicus to the dethronement of even our ideas of time and space by relativity the march has been pretty well invincible. Attempts at reaction, from the Roman Catholic Church's prohibition on "modernism" to the present maelstrom of the "American Id" in all its technicolour varieties- from intelligent design to primitivism to post-modernism(4)- come and go and fail. Sagan devotes a good portion of this lecture to his disagreements with one of the more intellectually respectable "retreats from this advance", the anthropic principle. I guess this goes with his own cosmological concerns, though it hardly has an effect on the public consciousness, even amongst the "intellectuals". The alternative quantum theory of "many worlds" has something more of an "excitement value", though both show tendencies of where science can veer off into mere poetry.
In his next lecture 'The Organic Universe' Sagan proceeds into what was one of the central concerns of his scientific career, the origin of life and its possibility elsewhere in the Universe. He spells out the ubiquitous presence of organic chemicals in the astronomical field, and the vast stretches of time involved in the life of our universe. All this is tied in with his argument against the classical "argument from design". In lecture #4, 'Extraterrestrial Intelligence' he goes further into his own interests. This brings up the inevitable invocation of the Drake Equation and Sagan's views of it, including his own views that not every civilization will necessarily be technologically advanced and the possibility that those who are mostly self destruct.
Sagan brings up here the possibility of communication with such extraterrestrials which led him naturally into lecture five 'Extraterrestrial Folklore:Implications for the Evolution of Religion'. This is another aside into one of Sagan's other central concerns, the debunking of pseudoscience and occult faddism. Sagan uses this chapter to compare the claims that conventional religions make for their miracles with those made by obviously fraudulent modern "urban folklore", and the comparison is none too flattering for traditional religion.
In his next lecture, 'The God Hypothesis' Sagan finally goes right to the heart of the matter that is supposed to be at the centre of the Gifford Lectures, 'Natural Theology'. In this lecture Sagan goes into the full extent of the traditional proofs of the existence of God, and he also points out the very obvious point that there are many statements in the traditional Western concept of God that are actually quite separable. Omniscient is indeed quite separable from omnipotent as is the term "benevolent" and the term "eternal", and the term "omnipresent" (let alone its contradiction "transcendental"),etc.etc.. In actual fact the various terms inevitably contradict each other, and they are not always present in the description of "God" in either thinkers in the Western tradition or, especially, in other religious traditions. The heart of this is, as Sagan says,
"I therefore conclude that the alleged natural theological arguments for the existence of God, the sort we're talking about, simply are not very compelling."
In his next lecture, 'The Religious Experience' Sagan discusses the more "personal proofs" of the sacred ie "religious experiences" with emphasis on both its possible bases ie neurochemistry and evolutionary biology. This chapter is rather far ranging as it also compares these religious experiences across cultures and their content within various cultural settings and even their meaning within a broad sweep of human sociobiology. To say the least this chapter is sketchy as it is the subject of volumes of books and not a few pages.
Sagan then goes into lecture number eight, 'Crimes Against Creation'. This is a chapter that attempts to develop ideas that Sagan expressed previously, that traditional theology is actually quite a mixture of sometimes contradictory ideas, some of them benign and some of them quite toxic. In this lecture Sagan attempted to "set the stage" for some sort of alliance between humanists such as himself and those Christians who took the emotional content of "stewardship" quite seriously. This is particularly related to the centrepiece of Sagan's lifelong political commitment, the question of nuclear disarmament and nuclear war. One wonders what he would say today in the age of concern about global warming if he were alive today. Sagan had been arrested more than once in the course of protests against the American military machine.
Finally Sagan concluded his lectures with 'The Search' in which he ties all of what he has said together. He restates that his own vision of the immensity and beauty of the universe is just as valid an answer to the "big questions" posed by religion as the various dogmas are. With considerably more of the "cardinal virtue" of humility Molly may add. And with a much greater appreciation of the fragility of human life than any of the religious traditions provides. The book concludes with an appendix that consists of questions and answers from the various lectures. Molly concludes with the following quote from 'The Search',
"Now, another way of looking at this is as a conflict within the human heart, as a conflict between the bureaucratic, hierarchical, aggressive parts of our nature, which in a neurophysiological sense we share with our reptilian ancestors, and the other parts of our nature, the generalized capacity for love, for compassion, for identification with others who may superficially not look or talk or dress exactly like us, the ability to figure the world out that is concentrated in our cerebral cortex. Our survival is(how could we have imagined it to be anything else?) a reflexion of our own nature and how we manage these contending tendencies within the human heart and mind".
MOLLY NOTES:
Molly apologizes if this review has not conveyed the full sense of what Dr. Sagan presented in his lectures. Inevitably one individual will concentrate on those points that interest them the most. I urge readers of this blog to go to the original book as it is far richer than I could hope to present in a brief review. Those who are interested in Carl Sagan in a fuller sense are advised to go to the Carl Sagan Portal maintained by his last wife and his children and, of course, the very enlightening and entertaining Wikipedia item on him.
1)The first posthumous book was arranged by Ann Druyan and published in 1997 as 'Billions and Billions:Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium'. 'The Varieties of Scientific Experience' was published by Penguin Press, New York, in 2006 (ISBN # 1-59420-107-2).
2)Carl Sagan had the good fortune to be married to three outstanding women in his lifetime. Ann Druyan was his third wife. His second was the artist Linda Salzman , and the first the scientist Lynn Margullis was the most prominent of all. There is little doubt that Margullis was by far a greater scientist than Sagan ever was, whatever his ability to capture the public imagination. Her concerns were with the origins of eucaryotic life as a symbiosis of various organisms. Her ideas about the origins of such organelles as mitochondria and chloroplasts have gone from being heresy to being orthodoxy. Her ideas about the origins of such things as flagella and cilia are somewhat more controversial, but they have something to be said for them, just as her rather extreme views about genetic interchange in modern organisms have. Time will tell. Margulis, by the way, stands in the tradition of Kropotkin and other Russian naturalists who emphasized the role of cooperation (symbiosis is the extreme version) in evolution.
3) The Gifford Lectures and their presenters read like something of a who's who of modern intellectual life. They have included William James, John Dewey, Albert Schweitzer, Reinhold Neibuhr, Gabriel Marcel, Michael Polonyi, Arnold Toynbee, Paul Tillich, Werner Heisenberg, Hannah Arendt, Noam Chomsky and Roger Penrose amongst many others with which Molly in her ignorance is not familiar. Sagan's inclusion in this company is an indication of the respect in which his ideas are held today.
4)Just as there is little to be said intellectually for the Catholic Church's attempt to "hold back the tide of modernism", an attempt that the Church seems to want to repeat again, there is little to be said for most of the more fashionable trends coming out of the USA today. Whether they be the pseudo-respectable babble of post-modernist academics who decry all rational thought and proclaim a new "triumph of the will", whether they be the dressing up of biblical literalism in pseudoscientific garb of design, intelligent or otherwise or whether they be the far !!! more marginal cultists who disgrace anarchism by saying that it must oppose such abstractions as "civilization". There are probably hundreds of other examples. All of them stand in the classic American tradition of "hucksterism". Academic ex-Marxists who babble on about "texts" can best be understood as pale imitations of the more successful Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. This may seem insulting, but it is true, even though the academics make a much more immediate financial profit from their output. But they have little staying power.
Anyways, down from the heavens and back to the earth soon,
Molly
Labels: Ann Druyan, books, carl Sagan Portal, carl Sagan., Drake equation, Gifford lectures, Lynn Margulis, religion, science, The Varieties of Scientific Experience
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
THE MAGIC DOOR TO MEMORY LANE:
The Ontario Coalition against Poverty (also see our links list) has mounted a campaign in support of restaurateur Victor Jiang, a Chinese immigrant who operates a restaurant on behalf of his elderly father in downtown Toronto (the view from here in the West is Ick!, but we'll leave that aside). The powers that be in TO have determined that no good deed should go unpunished and hence they are determined to close down this restaurant, the Cabbagetown Restaurant, first by denying it its liquor licence because it is "a centre of drug dealing and drunkenness" (even though it closes in the early evening). Mr. Jiang has become something of a local fixture because he offers a place where poor people can gather and socialize. He is very easy going about tabs and even has gone into the street to invite poor people in for a free snack and coffee. The real reason why Mr. Jiang is being persecuted is that "development plans" are afoot to "upscale" the neighbourhood he operates in, and a restaurant catering to poor people just doesn't fit into such plans. The OCAP website will hopefully explain more about this campaign. Go there to see more.
Why this tweaks Molly's diminishing number of memory neurons is that I can remember exactly the same sort or gathering places from my misspent youth. When I was about 13 my father retired and we moved into one of the "not nice" neighbourhoods of downtown Regina (though hardly the most "not nice" one). It was like right out of 'West Side Story'. I actually lived in Regina's "West End" and picked up the usual turf stuff very quick. It helped that I came in from the country and was at least twice as strong pound for pound as any city kid and was even quicker. Took me a little time to pick up the nastiness, however. Nowadays this sort of culture shock is reserved for the poor buggers who come in from the reserve, but 40 years ago it was the fate of a lot of us "white boys" as well. At the time we fought occasional petty wars with others from the same class from Regina's "North End" (presently Regina's worst neighbourhood), but our main venom was reserved for the more affluent people in the "South End". Lots of stuff to tell there, but it is long ago and far away.
But anyways, while I was trying to make my way as a country boy in this alien environment I rapidly became aware of certain "points of honour". There were certain small businesses that were located in our neighbourhood whom we very obviously recognized as "our own". We were befriended by the owners and whatever the conflicts that might arise from our "occasional"(or more than occasional) bad behavior, all was forgiven in the end. These businesses gave coherence to the neighbourhood, not just to us kids but to all residents. None of this stuff was very "politically correct" in our present day phraseology. Because us kids were on the street at all sorts of hours we would beat the shit out of anyone trying to break into "Willy the Chinaman's " store. Later in life I had the opportunity to help his son who was studying in the sciences. This was not done out of any ideology such as is common today but only because "Willy" was recognized as "one of us". You "owe" your own.
It was a different world that most people today cannot appreciate, where class and neighbourhood trumped the sort of identity politics that was to be invented shortly thereafter. West Side Story, like I said.Similarly for "John the Greek" who ran the "Chicken Inn". It was a "hangout" in the same sense that I suspect Mr. Jiang's place is. Though we were "rougher" in some ways and far less "rough" in other ways. The world changes. John had what he called the "Centennial Broom". He went to Expo 67, and named his weapon after it. He's use this club to break apart a few of the fights we started in his restaurant. He also used it twice (at least when I was present) when thieves attempted to rob him. After he's downed the thugs the rest of us would get in on the job to finish the beating. NEVER was anybody beaten to the point of near death, and NEVER were the police called. Also never did any fool try to come back to either Willy's or John's.
Presently Molly lives in what is basically a middle working class neighbourhood. She likes it. Life is nowhere near as rough now here. Molly is much older now. But still....
EVERY time when someone talks about "revitalizing a neighbourhood" what they are really talking about is pushing either sleaze or working class people to somewhere else. Molly's old "13th Avenue" neighbourhood in Regina has seen a gradual expansion of trendiness,expanding each year from the East to the West. I see the results every year when I visit the city to see relatives(none of whom live in the old neighbourhood). From a blinkered "lefty" point of view this may seem great, as the "trendiness" looks like progress to their eyes. Downtown is worse. It's a concrete area of monuments that makes downtown Winnipeg look "vibrant". That is the "vision" of those lefties who see no problem in joining the Liberal Party. No room for those left behind in their "progressive" vision. I forget how many "unsolved fires" occurred in each year to clear the area for this development. For those in the know!!!-God bless Montreal. At least Winnipeg never got into the "arson mode of urban redevelopment". Better an abandoned storefront than a burned out hulk that would serve as a good parking lot here in Winnipeg.
So, for any readers of this blog, go to the OCAP site. Do what you can to help in this "conservative" cause because not all progress is good. Think of your own childhood. Long live real conservatism !!!
Molly
The Ontario Coalition against Poverty (also see our links list) has mounted a campaign in support of restaurateur Victor Jiang, a Chinese immigrant who operates a restaurant on behalf of his elderly father in downtown Toronto (the view from here in the West is Ick!, but we'll leave that aside). The powers that be in TO have determined that no good deed should go unpunished and hence they are determined to close down this restaurant, the Cabbagetown Restaurant, first by denying it its liquor licence because it is "a centre of drug dealing and drunkenness" (even though it closes in the early evening). Mr. Jiang has become something of a local fixture because he offers a place where poor people can gather and socialize. He is very easy going about tabs and even has gone into the street to invite poor people in for a free snack and coffee. The real reason why Mr. Jiang is being persecuted is that "development plans" are afoot to "upscale" the neighbourhood he operates in, and a restaurant catering to poor people just doesn't fit into such plans. The OCAP website will hopefully explain more about this campaign. Go there to see more.
Why this tweaks Molly's diminishing number of memory neurons is that I can remember exactly the same sort or gathering places from my misspent youth. When I was about 13 my father retired and we moved into one of the "not nice" neighbourhoods of downtown Regina (though hardly the most "not nice" one). It was like right out of 'West Side Story'. I actually lived in Regina's "West End" and picked up the usual turf stuff very quick. It helped that I came in from the country and was at least twice as strong pound for pound as any city kid and was even quicker. Took me a little time to pick up the nastiness, however. Nowadays this sort of culture shock is reserved for the poor buggers who come in from the reserve, but 40 years ago it was the fate of a lot of us "white boys" as well. At the time we fought occasional petty wars with others from the same class from Regina's "North End" (presently Regina's worst neighbourhood), but our main venom was reserved for the more affluent people in the "South End". Lots of stuff to tell there, but it is long ago and far away.
But anyways, while I was trying to make my way as a country boy in this alien environment I rapidly became aware of certain "points of honour". There were certain small businesses that were located in our neighbourhood whom we very obviously recognized as "our own". We were befriended by the owners and whatever the conflicts that might arise from our "occasional"(or more than occasional) bad behavior, all was forgiven in the end. These businesses gave coherence to the neighbourhood, not just to us kids but to all residents. None of this stuff was very "politically correct" in our present day phraseology. Because us kids were on the street at all sorts of hours we would beat the shit out of anyone trying to break into "Willy the Chinaman's " store. Later in life I had the opportunity to help his son who was studying in the sciences. This was not done out of any ideology such as is common today but only because "Willy" was recognized as "one of us". You "owe" your own.
It was a different world that most people today cannot appreciate, where class and neighbourhood trumped the sort of identity politics that was to be invented shortly thereafter. West Side Story, like I said.Similarly for "John the Greek" who ran the "Chicken Inn". It was a "hangout" in the same sense that I suspect Mr. Jiang's place is. Though we were "rougher" in some ways and far less "rough" in other ways. The world changes. John had what he called the "Centennial Broom". He went to Expo 67, and named his weapon after it. He's use this club to break apart a few of the fights we started in his restaurant. He also used it twice (at least when I was present) when thieves attempted to rob him. After he's downed the thugs the rest of us would get in on the job to finish the beating. NEVER was anybody beaten to the point of near death, and NEVER were the police called. Also never did any fool try to come back to either Willy's or John's.
Presently Molly lives in what is basically a middle working class neighbourhood. She likes it. Life is nowhere near as rough now here. Molly is much older now. But still....
EVERY time when someone talks about "revitalizing a neighbourhood" what they are really talking about is pushing either sleaze or working class people to somewhere else. Molly's old "13th Avenue" neighbourhood in Regina has seen a gradual expansion of trendiness,expanding each year from the East to the West. I see the results every year when I visit the city to see relatives(none of whom live in the old neighbourhood). From a blinkered "lefty" point of view this may seem great, as the "trendiness" looks like progress to their eyes. Downtown is worse. It's a concrete area of monuments that makes downtown Winnipeg look "vibrant". That is the "vision" of those lefties who see no problem in joining the Liberal Party. No room for those left behind in their "progressive" vision. I forget how many "unsolved fires" occurred in each year to clear the area for this development. For those in the know!!!-God bless Montreal. At least Winnipeg never got into the "arson mode of urban redevelopment". Better an abandoned storefront than a burned out hulk that would serve as a good parking lot here in Winnipeg.
So, for any readers of this blog, go to the OCAP site. Do what you can to help in this "conservative" cause because not all progress is good. Think of your own childhood. Long live real conservatism !!!
Molly
Labels: OCAP, personal, Regina
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
STILL MORE LINKS:Molly has added a few more links to this blog in the last few days. Under the general 'Links' section is the Interactivist Info Exchange, something like an Indymedia without a locality but rather a subject- activism. It is an open source publishing site, but mercifully lacks at least one flavour of the cranks that infest some Indymedias. Under 'Other Interesting Sites' I have also included the IndyMedia Watch, not because I agree with all that it says but because it has some interesting things to say.
Meanwhile I've also added two new blogs to the list, the Lonestone Revolution and Anarchy Reloaded.
Finally, under the 'Scientific Links' section I've added the Carl Sagan Portal and the website of the Manitoba Naturalists' Society . More on both Sagan and the MNS later.
Molly
Labels: Anarchy Reloaded, carl Sagan Portal, IndyMedia Watch, Interactivist Info Exchange, links, Lonestone Revolution, Manitoba Naturalists's Society
Monday, January 15, 2007
WINNIPEG INDYMEDIA SHUTS DOWN:
Plagued by a chronic lack of volunteers, old feuds and a never ending volume of spam from anti-semites, conspiracy nuts and campaigners for the Canadian military Winnipeg Indymedia has closed its portals for now. Visitors to the site will be greeted by an appeal for volunteers to hopefully resurrect the site at some unspecified time in the future. The problems of the Winnipeg site are reflexions of what may be a wide spread malaise amongst Indymedia sites across the world. Many question whether Indymedia sites have any more function in a world filled with blogs. Mollymew feels that they do. A blog such as this one is very much a personal statement. As such it can hardly cover the range of subjects that a truly cooperative effort such as what an Indymedia site should !!! do. At the same time blogs will almost inevitably cover subject matter that is hardly "news" in the narrow sense of the term. Websites such as Indymedias can provide a more impersonal and wider view than any blog can do. Items should obviously be reprinted from blogs on such sites as these blogs are often the news sources of our day, but the individualistic slant of blogs should have no place in what, after all, aims to be a community media/meeting place.
Molly did a little survey of the 12 Canadian Indymedia sites still listed on the internet. Five have been closed (Winnipeg makes six). Two (Montreal/Quebec and Vancouver/Victoria) are "consolidated sites". The Vancouver site has seperated off into local, national and international sections. BOTH the national and international areas are infested with the sort of neo-Nazis that were such a plague in the case of Winnipeg. The Montreal/Quebec site (CMAQ) along with the sites in Ottawa and Thunder Bay appear to have taken a hard line on the nuts. All three have a good selection of local news, especially so in the case of Thunder Bay. The CMAQ, however, gives every indication of being an almost totally anarchist oriented site. It may seem strange coming from a self-confessed anarchist that I find this inadvisable, but I certainly do. To Molly's tiny little feline mind this at once is a disservice to the larger community that should be served by something such as an Indymedia and a disservice to the anarchist movement itself. It allows an overestimation of one's own importance and encourages the isolation that breeds "triumphalism" and ill considered actions.
Two other Canadian Indymedia sites, the Maritimes and London, Ontario are still arguing about the nuts, and neither site features much local news anymore. They seem to be going down the same road that Winnipeg went.
The problems of the Canadian Indymedias are reflected worldwide. There is even a blog, Indymedia Watch dedicated, with a certain amount of malice, to exposing the problems of Indymedias across the world. What that blogger has to say, however, is not what the more rhetorical would imagine. There is more than enough wrong with what has been appearing on Indymedia sites worldwide, wrongs that deserve legitimate criticism. The blogger puts most of this down to a "lack of accountability" in that the informal leaders of Indymedias have abdicated all responsibility in terms of fact checking and of removing the hate mongers and the conspiracy mongers from the sites. Failure to do so means that the latter two categories rapidly take up the majority of space on the sites. This is a lack of responsibility not just to abstract concepts such as truth and sanity. It also reeks of a direct betrayal of the communities that Indymedia sites are supposed to serve. It's "going rat" just because of some abstract principle or simply laziness.
The Wikipedia Empire (evil or not- a burning question) has launched its own alternative to the Indymedia sites, called the Wikinews . It hardly seems to be likely to offer anything like the coverage that other mainstream online news services do today, even though its efforts at "journalistic neutrality" seem a mirror image of what such services aspire to. Looking over its recent efforts one finds them quite sparse, and hardly evidence of the sort of different viewpoints that one can already get simply by looking at the news services of different countries.
In the discussions on Winnipeg Indymedia shortly before it was shut down Molly put forward the proposition that not just certain opinions like anti-semitism should be banned but that a whole area of discussion,- the Middle East, its religions and any conspiracy theories connected to same- should be declared off limits, at least for a time. Also that priority should be given to local news. Perhaps only local and national news should be allowed. The Indymedias in Canada that are most likely to last are basically those who have come closest to such strictures, those who have taken a hard line not just with the nuts but also with well meaning leftists who think they can solve the problems of the other side of the world by taking one or another side. This well meaning cheerleading is precisely !! the door through which the neo-Nazis enter.
So...that's it for now. This whole matter has actually made me reconsider my own policy here at Molly's Blog. To date I have deleted only commercial spam from the comments. I still have no problem whatsoever with fanatic conservatives, commies who don't realize their religion is dead, other religious proselytizers, "anarchists" who disgrace the name or those who simply want to insult me. It stays in. I can be twice as abusive as any one of these. But, from this point forward, any anti-semitic trash or conspiracy theories in general will be deleted forthwith. Nobody has ever posted such a thing yet, and I hope they never do. But I will hit the delete button just as fast as I advocate others should do.
End of the Molly hissssss.
Labels: Winnipeg, Winnipeg Indymedia
Friday, January 12, 2007
A LITTLE APOLOGY:
International readers of this Blog(From Argentina to India to Rumania) may lose interest as I go on and on about local matters recently. I'm sorry about this, but I've become involved in a campaign to reform the local Indymedia site. The sad fact is that our local Indymedia site here in Winnipeg has become nothing more than a sounding board for anti-semitic propaganda, praise for both Canada's and the USA's imperial adventures and silly fatwaas from a presumed mullah . I'm doing my best to correct this, though I will probably fail. But i will at least try..
I ALWAYS intend to feature a certain amount of "local content" here, but I find it disgusting that the small amount that I have featured is about 10 times what has been featured on our local Indymedia site. If you are interested in what is happening on the local Winnipeg Indymedia site visit it and see for yourself. Hold your nose.
For my other readers, I will continue to post matters biological, anarchistic and astronomical. I beg your indulgence for the moment.
International readers of this Blog(From Argentina to India to Rumania) may lose interest as I go on and on about local matters recently. I'm sorry about this, but I've become involved in a campaign to reform the local Indymedia site. The sad fact is that our local Indymedia site here in Winnipeg has become nothing more than a sounding board for anti-semitic propaganda, praise for both Canada's and the USA's imperial adventures and silly fatwaas from a presumed mullah . I'm doing my best to correct this, though I will probably fail. But i will at least try..
I ALWAYS intend to feature a certain amount of "local content" here, but I find it disgusting that the small amount that I have featured is about 10 times what has been featured on our local Indymedia site. If you are interested in what is happening on the local Winnipeg Indymedia site visit it and see for yourself. Hold your nose.
For my other readers, I will continue to post matters biological, anarchistic and astronomical. I beg your indulgence for the moment.
Labels: Winnipeg, Winnipeg Indymedia
STILL MORE LINKS:Molly has recently added a few more links to her 'Scientific Links' section. All of these are "skeptical sites" about medical quackery, something near to Molly's feline heart. Basically, if so called "radicals" could expend at most 10% of the skepticism that they apply to real medicine to quack medicine it would both make them far better people and help left wing politics in general. Orwell had a lot to say about this over 70 years ago, and little has changed since that day. Anyways, here they are:
National Council against Health Fraud
NutriWatch
The Skeptic's Dictionary
Anti-Quakery Ring
QuackWatch
HomeoWatch , skepticism
NaturoWatch
Be a skeptic. don't take my word for it. Go over to these sites.
Labels: Anti-Quackery Ring, HomeoWatch, links, National Council Against Health Fraud, NutriWatch, QuackWatch, The Skeptic's Dictionary
MORE ON THE KELVIN COMMUNITY CENTRE:
In reference to my previous blog on this matter the councillor who "flipped out" on our dear and sacred Major Sam Katz was our local councillor for this area (Elmwood-East Kildonan). She was not actually the originator of the new name for loan-ducker Mayor Sam Katz. The term "sell out-Sammy" was yelled out by the crowd at the meeting concerned. Her rather alliterative term was " "mindless mincing minions" for the members of Katz's "cabinet" the EPC (Executive Policy Committee) who towed the proper line at the meeting. I'm sure they will get their proper reward, either in this present life as city councillors or in the future life when they do business with the City.
Thomas was, of course, called "unprofessional" by the winners of this little fracas. "Professional" is one of the great misused words in the English language. She actually "showed emotion"- the proper English term- because her constituents had been betrayed while her opponents were busy with the gloating of "got you now you son-of-a-bitch" which is, of course, VERY "professional". When the people you represent have been lied to and deprived of their rights then "emotion" is "not professional" while talking behind peoples' backs and gloating at a victory is quite "professional". "Professional" has come to mean very much the power to smile at some poor bugger while you screw them over. No emotion there, of course, because smug satisfaction doesn't count as an emotion in that ideology.
Of the members of the EPC only Mike O'Shaughnessey (Old Kildonan) voted against the proposal to close the Kelvin Community Centre. Many kudos to him, though I'm sure he will have to make it up to Sammy to stay on the EPC. For out of town readers the EPC is appointed by our local right wing Mayor, and it has powers accorded to it separate from the full City Council.
Molly has in her possession a copy of 'The Herald' written shortly before this atrocity took place. this, our local community newspaper, expressed some optimism that the decision to close this centre would be rescinded, but events have proven this wrong. The PLAN to build mega centres goes on even if we up the road DON'T want an expansion and even if the problems at Kelvin have been corrected.
The COST, by the way, awarded to some consulting firm that planned the consolidation of Winnipeg's Community Centres was $500,000. One wonders whether City employees couldn't have done this for the cost of their salaries. But maybe somebody wouldn't have received a favour then? One also wonders about the consistency of this present administration who are the first to point out the cost of "consultants" hired by former lefty Mayor Glen Murray (not that Molly defends lefty corruption either, but the old saying about "sauce for the goose" holds here). One should also note that the PLAN (like many of Stalin's five year plans) has an "estimated" cost of $43 MILLION. No "consultant" will ever be hired to compare this cost with that of keeping our present Community centres running.
Spokesmen for the 'Concerned Elmwood Neighbours' noted that the meetings of the EPC were held during working hours when many residents of Elmwood and East Kildonan could not attend, and that many of the residents of Elmwood don't own cars (a rather poor neighbourhood) necessary to take their children to the Bronx Centre. The spokesman also noted that this is part of a general plan on the part of the City to close centres in poorer neighbourhoods of the city.
The final vote on the closure will take place at a a general meeting of City Council on January 24th. Load voices are required and encouraged.
Molly Notes:
This is one of the sad situations that result when there is NO libertarian socialist alternative ready to present alternative ways of organizing society. the simple fact is that, as long as a government gives the money, you are dependent on said government. When the complexion of the government changes , as it has here in Winnipeg, you are simply shit out of luck. The usual "lefty" solution, advocated by those who have never seen a tax or a government expenditure that they couldn't love is no solution, as this situation amongst many millions demonstrates. The ONLY solution is independence for community initiatives, and no matter how much Molly may advocate the conservative option of preserving this or that community asset, she recognizes that this is not some sort of eternal and infallible guard-whatever leftists may say.
The real !!! guard would be a reform of tax law, federal, provincial and municipal, such that people could choose the expenditures that their tax dollars went to. Organizations such as the United Way already offer this option. It is not impossible. One could also say that contributions to this and that would be "deductible from income tax" as so many things are today. If your buying sports equipment for your child is a tax deduction under federal law(as it is now) then a contribution to a community centre should be as well.
Community Centres will never be free of external powers that impose their agendas for ideological reasons until they are financially independent. THAT should be a long term goal.
In reference to my previous blog on this matter the councillor who "flipped out" on our dear and sacred Major Sam Katz was our local councillor for this area (Elmwood-East Kildonan). She was not actually the originator of the new name for loan-ducker Mayor Sam Katz. The term "sell out-Sammy" was yelled out by the crowd at the meeting concerned. Her rather alliterative term was " "mindless mincing minions" for the members of Katz's "cabinet" the EPC (Executive Policy Committee) who towed the proper line at the meeting. I'm sure they will get their proper reward, either in this present life as city councillors or in the future life when they do business with the City.
Thomas was, of course, called "unprofessional" by the winners of this little fracas. "Professional" is one of the great misused words in the English language. She actually "showed emotion"- the proper English term- because her constituents had been betrayed while her opponents were busy with the gloating of "got you now you son-of-a-bitch" which is, of course, VERY "professional". When the people you represent have been lied to and deprived of their rights then "emotion" is "not professional" while talking behind peoples' backs and gloating at a victory is quite "professional". "Professional" has come to mean very much the power to smile at some poor bugger while you screw them over. No emotion there, of course, because smug satisfaction doesn't count as an emotion in that ideology.
Of the members of the EPC only Mike O'Shaughnessey (Old Kildonan) voted against the proposal to close the Kelvin Community Centre. Many kudos to him, though I'm sure he will have to make it up to Sammy to stay on the EPC. For out of town readers the EPC is appointed by our local right wing Mayor, and it has powers accorded to it separate from the full City Council.
Molly has in her possession a copy of 'The Herald' written shortly before this atrocity took place. this, our local community newspaper, expressed some optimism that the decision to close this centre would be rescinded, but events have proven this wrong. The PLAN to build mega centres goes on even if we up the road DON'T want an expansion and even if the problems at Kelvin have been corrected.
The COST, by the way, awarded to some consulting firm that planned the consolidation of Winnipeg's Community Centres was $500,000. One wonders whether City employees couldn't have done this for the cost of their salaries. But maybe somebody wouldn't have received a favour then? One also wonders about the consistency of this present administration who are the first to point out the cost of "consultants" hired by former lefty Mayor Glen Murray (not that Molly defends lefty corruption either, but the old saying about "sauce for the goose" holds here). One should also note that the PLAN (like many of Stalin's five year plans) has an "estimated" cost of $43 MILLION. No "consultant" will ever be hired to compare this cost with that of keeping our present Community centres running.
Spokesmen for the 'Concerned Elmwood Neighbours' noted that the meetings of the EPC were held during working hours when many residents of Elmwood and East Kildonan could not attend, and that many of the residents of Elmwood don't own cars (a rather poor neighbourhood) necessary to take their children to the Bronx Centre. The spokesman also noted that this is part of a general plan on the part of the City to close centres in poorer neighbourhoods of the city.
The final vote on the closure will take place at a a general meeting of City Council on January 24th. Load voices are required and encouraged.
Molly Notes:
This is one of the sad situations that result when there is NO libertarian socialist alternative ready to present alternative ways of organizing society. the simple fact is that, as long as a government gives the money, you are dependent on said government. When the complexion of the government changes , as it has here in Winnipeg, you are simply shit out of luck. The usual "lefty" solution, advocated by those who have never seen a tax or a government expenditure that they couldn't love is no solution, as this situation amongst many millions demonstrates. The ONLY solution is independence for community initiatives, and no matter how much Molly may advocate the conservative option of preserving this or that community asset, she recognizes that this is not some sort of eternal and infallible guard-whatever leftists may say.
The real !!! guard would be a reform of tax law, federal, provincial and municipal, such that people could choose the expenditures that their tax dollars went to. Organizations such as the United Way already offer this option. It is not impossible. One could also say that contributions to this and that would be "deductible from income tax" as so many things are today. If your buying sports equipment for your child is a tax deduction under federal law(as it is now) then a contribution to a community centre should be as well.
Community Centres will never be free of external powers that impose their agendas for ideological reasons until they are financially independent. THAT should be a long term goal.
Labels: Kelvin Community Club, Lillian Thomas, Mike O'Shaughnessey, Sam Katz, tactics, Winnipeg
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
KELVIN COMMUNITY CENTRE TO CLOSE:
The news today is that the Kelvin Community Centre here in East Kildonan will be shut down by the City of Winnipeg. The rationale is partly that the buildings are "dated", though from what Molly has seen of them they are quite structurally sound, perhaps more so than some other public buildings here in Winnipeg. The second rationale is that said Community Centre has lacked volunteers in years past and has had to be run by a City department. This has NOT been true during the past few months since the City floated the idea of closing the Centre. Since the plan was unveiled the Kelvin Centre has attracted enough volunteers to become one of the more vibrant Community Centres in the city. But the City continues with its original plan despite changed circumstances.
A little setting is in order for readers from the other side of the world. East Kildonan is basically a middle level working class neighbourhood here in Winnipeg. It is part of a federal constituency that is considered one of the safest NDP (Canadian social democrats) seats in Canada. The further south you go in this neighbourhood, closer and closer to the dreaded downtown Winnipeg, the poorer the people get. The Kelvin Centre is located on the south end of this neighbourhood.
The City's plan is to close down the Centre and expand the more northerly Bronx Community Centre. Molly lives between the two centres, closer to the Bronx Centre. What hasn't been mentioned in the local news about this event-so far- is that many of us in this part of EK oppose the expansion of the Bronx Centre because the city plans to cut off the "back road" that we often use to avoid the traffic on Henderson Highway. People have been organizing against this City plan around here for over a year now, but it appears that they won't listen to us either.
So what you have is the City overriding a newly viable community group who want to keep their own community centre in order to expand another where the residents want no part of such expansion. Is this democracy ?
Apparently a local city councillor for this ward threw a temper tantrum at Mayor Sam Katz in the hearing today and graced him with yet another name ie "sell-out Sam". Sammy has acquired quite a few of such names in his career. Local representatives of the Kelvin group claim that Katz and his confreres on City Council have said two different things. In public he says that the age of the building and the old state of the community's lack of volunteers is the reason for closing the Centre while in private meetings without the media he admits that this is part and parcel of the City's "general plan". These community reps are calling on support from other parts of the city because this general plan is to close more and more of the local centres.
More on this as the story develops.
Molly
The news today is that the Kelvin Community Centre here in East Kildonan will be shut down by the City of Winnipeg. The rationale is partly that the buildings are "dated", though from what Molly has seen of them they are quite structurally sound, perhaps more so than some other public buildings here in Winnipeg. The second rationale is that said Community Centre has lacked volunteers in years past and has had to be run by a City department. This has NOT been true during the past few months since the City floated the idea of closing the Centre. Since the plan was unveiled the Kelvin Centre has attracted enough volunteers to become one of the more vibrant Community Centres in the city. But the City continues with its original plan despite changed circumstances.
A little setting is in order for readers from the other side of the world. East Kildonan is basically a middle level working class neighbourhood here in Winnipeg. It is part of a federal constituency that is considered one of the safest NDP (Canadian social democrats) seats in Canada. The further south you go in this neighbourhood, closer and closer to the dreaded downtown Winnipeg, the poorer the people get. The Kelvin Centre is located on the south end of this neighbourhood.
The City's plan is to close down the Centre and expand the more northerly Bronx Community Centre. Molly lives between the two centres, closer to the Bronx Centre. What hasn't been mentioned in the local news about this event-so far- is that many of us in this part of EK oppose the expansion of the Bronx Centre because the city plans to cut off the "back road" that we often use to avoid the traffic on Henderson Highway. People have been organizing against this City plan around here for over a year now, but it appears that they won't listen to us either.
So what you have is the City overriding a newly viable community group who want to keep their own community centre in order to expand another where the residents want no part of such expansion. Is this democracy ?
Apparently a local city councillor for this ward threw a temper tantrum at Mayor Sam Katz in the hearing today and graced him with yet another name ie "sell-out Sam". Sammy has acquired quite a few of such names in his career. Local representatives of the Kelvin group claim that Katz and his confreres on City Council have said two different things. In public he says that the age of the building and the old state of the community's lack of volunteers is the reason for closing the Centre while in private meetings without the media he admits that this is part and parcel of the City's "general plan". These community reps are calling on support from other parts of the city because this general plan is to close more and more of the local centres.
More on this as the story develops.
Molly
Labels: Kelvin Community Club, Winnipeg
THE BEST OF THE BLOGS:
"ANTI-CIV ANARCHISTS" FROM ANARCHAFAIRY:
The following is a reprint from the New Zealand Blog 'Anarchafairy' mentioned previously. as the author mentions the ideology of "primitivism" hardly translates outside of North America and, in particular, its birthplace the USA. While Molly may disagree with the author saying that this ideology stands in the tradition of American individualism (it actually stands much more firmly in the tradition of American millenarian religious cultism) what he says is very perceptive. It should be seen as the statement of the classic "unbiased outside observer". Anyways here it is:
"I just received a copy of Green Anarchy(Issue 23) today- an American "anti-civ" journal.
Now, I must admit before going any further that I used to call myself something of an anarcho-primitivist. The images of going back to a simpler, more peaceful, "wild" undomesticated existence really did something for me, and in many ways they still do. But I think anti-civ anarchists have really lost the plot, and I'm really not surprised that this is a current largely confined to the US (and a little to Britain). (1)
Anti-civ anarchists are strongly influenced by insurrectionism(2), though they probably don't know it as they religiously claim to be "anti-ideology" This critique of insurrectionalism applies very well to the anti-civ crew. It seems that the anti-civ fetish with small-scale militant direct action, their perceived(REAL!-Molly Note) social isolation and their perceived backwardness of the majority of people are very much a reflexion of their desire for radical social change in the face of ecological destruction but the lack of mass struggle. I can understand their rejection of mass organization, but not their rejection of mass movements. They seem to be very much trapped in the American individualist tradition and quite out of touch with popular struggles in North America (!!!!!!-Molly)(excepting their fetishizing of indigenous struggle...they're wild peoples, you see). In fact, they remind me of the desperation of militant groups in 1970s US, the Weather Underground, who became more militant the more apathetic the general population became.(3)
The other major point of critique has to be questioning exactly what the fuck "civilization" is. Having read a lot of this, I know that the definitions(4) are all over the place. It seems bizarre to reify such a vacuous concept and create a whole political ideology seeking its abolition. They claim they seek the end of domestication, while "leftist" anarchists merely seek the destruction of the State and capitalism. What do they mean by domestication ? Well, at times it refers to human domestication, at other times it refers to animal domestication and at other times to all forms of domestication of life, including plants. Surely the first is the aim of any anarchist project, and the second the aim of any anarchist project with the slightest of an animal-lib tinge. The third is more bizarre, and obviously aims for a hunter-gatherer lifestyle simply not possible in a lot of countries (NZ included) (5) and not possible with current population levels. Their reasoning for it is based in Marxism, and some recent (6) , rather weak anthropological studies that point to the domestication of plants and the resulting surplus as the seed of domination. This fails to take into account all the anthropological evidence, from the likes of David Graeber, that show that hunter-gatherer societies come in both authoritarian and and non-authoritarian varieties, as do horticultural societies. See Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology for more on this(he takes a paricularly vicious swipe at John Zerzan(7) ).
John Zerzan, while were on the topic, also seeks as part of his abolition of civilization the abolition of time, language and symbolic thinking. Go figure. Thankfully most of the anti-civ people haven't taken this on board.
Anti-civ anarchists go to great lengths to characterize other anarchists as latent authoritarians, going so far as to claim that after our revolution 99% of social life will be the same. Well I certainly hope not. I would imagine the destruction of the State, capitalist relations, patriarchy, ecological domination, etc. would mean quite a major shift i daily life for most people.
Molly Notes:
1)I've personally observed and read about a very small number of Spanish and Italian adherents to this American export, though in both countries their influence on the much larger anarchist movements there is virtually nil.
2)Very true, sometimes the "personnel" is virtually interchangeable. Cheering on mindless militancy that can easily veer into terrorism is part and parcel of the American anti-civ fad.
3)One hopes that the analogy only holds for that part of American anarchism that is romantically attached to "summit-hopping" and perpetually losing street battles against the police. The phenomenon of 'Weatherman' was a symptom of a movement in terminal decline. One hopes that present day NA anarchism has grown up and moved on to better things rather than being hooked into nostalgia for the "glories" of the recent past.
4)So are the definitions of such things as "technology" in the wordplay that passes for "theory" in such circles.
5)Speaking from Canada it is still possible for a small number of people to live as "hunter-gatherers" here and, to a lesser degree, in the USA. What is actually astonishing if you stop and think about it is that a few people do indeed make such an attempt, but none ie exactly zero of the ideologues of primitivism have ever been known to do such a thing. An ideology that is never practiced by its proponents while others do make the attempt to live according to the dictates without professing the ideology. There is something more than slightly smelly here.
The high priests of primitivism in the USA have declared "ex-cathedra" that the accusation of "hypocrisy" is not applicable, but they have never said why it is not except for the fact that they have said it.
6)Actually the most cited anthropological studies amongst the primitivist cult are about 40 years old and have been well debunked decades ago. The whole matter of cultural materialism and the concept of "surplus" is not restricted to Marxism and is a matter of great dispute amongst the legitimate study of anthropology outside of cultism.
7)Zerzan may not be the total dip that his Papal pronouncements make him out to be. After all he acquires both fame and money from his bullshit, an accomplishment ! for somebody who has never acquired a useful skill to make his living in the real world. Those who take his nonsense as gospel, however, are quite likely to end up serving lengthy prison terms...but the Pope keeps on getting paid for interviews. In a low reptilian way he's a lot smarter than his followers. But never let us forget that the accusation of "hypocrisy" doesn't apply to these "cosmonauts of critique". They say so themselves.
Labels: AnarchaFairy Blog, blogs, David Graeber, primitivism, tactics, Zerzan
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
MARXISM UNDER THE MICROSCOPE:
While browsing through the links in an article on the AnarchaFairy Blog mentioned previously I happened to come upon an interesting "factoid" that I had never noticed before, or if I did it never clicked. Now Molly loves factoids almost as much as she loves catnip and mouse guts, and she can't resist pointing this one out. The source is David Graeber's 'Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology', and the quotes reads as follows,
"...Marxist schools have authors. Just as Marxism sprang from the mind of Marx, so we have Leninists, Maoists, Trotskyites, Gramscians, Althusserians...(Note how the list starts with heads of state and grades almost seemlessly into French professors)...Now consider the different schools of anarchism. There are Anarcho-Syndicalists, Anarcho-Communists, Insurrectionists, Cooperativists, Individualists, Platformists...None are named after some Great Thinker (sic ! -Molly); instead, they are invariably named either after some sort of practice, or most often, organizational principle.(Significantly, those Marxist tendencies which are not named after individuals, like autonomism or Council Communism, are also the ones closest to anarchism)."
Graeber's quote above is embedded in a discussion of why there are so few anarchists in academia. Perhaps this may be something to be quite proud of considering the cesspool that academic leftism has been in the past, let alone what it has become in recent decades. The quote is also embedded in an argument about how Marxism reproduces the worst aspects of academia (or maybe it is the other way around). Still... this is an observation that our little cat never really took to heart before, and it speaks well of anarchism. Give it some thought. To parody it in scientific language:
This reviewer feels that the recent microscopic demonstration of the egobootile organelles of the pathogenic bacterium Socialisma degenerata var. totalitinaria may open up fruitful lines of research into the pathogenesis of this disease that has killed close to 100 million victims in the past century. Understanding of the signalling mechanisms whereby this organism gains entry into susceptible victims may lead to innovative methods of prevention in the future and even give insights into other pathogens such as Francsisella fundamentala and its close relative F. fascisata, both of which pale in terms of total death tolls compared to S. degenerata but are much more likely to cause pandemics in the future. With a genuflection to the unspoken God of most science, further research is required.
Labels: AnarchaFairy Blog, anarchism, David Graeber, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, Marxism
NEW ON YOUTUBE:
Jonathan Culp, aka 'Satan Macnuggit', an Ontario video and performance artist and activist, has begun to place his short videos on Youtube, and all are invited over for a viewing. As Jonathan says, "from OCAP stuff to stuffed animals, and it's free". Pop on over and have a look at:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=satanmacnuggit
Labels: Satan Macnuggit, video, You Tube
Monday, January 08, 2007
AN OUT OF PLACE ITEM AND TWO INTERESTING NEW LINKS:
Just a little Molly notice here. I took some time preparing a review of Bryan Sykes book 'The Seven Daughters of Eve' which I have recently read. I began the review of January 3rd, and have only published it today. Thus it appears back in time on the date of January 3rd on this blog thanks to the wonders of blogger.
I'll also eventually get around to recreating the archives links on the main page that got lost in my Christmas time ooops. I recreated the links first. Honest, honest, honest .
Finally, there are a couple of new links I's like to draw your attention to. Both are from a Kiwi. The first is the Anarchofairy blog, and the second is the New Zealand anarchist publishing project from the same person (I think) called Rebel Press under the anarchist Publishers and Distributors section. I've pulled a particularly good essay off the first item and hope to republish it later here under 'The Best of The Blogs' title.
Til Then,
Molly
Just a little Molly notice here. I took some time preparing a review of Bryan Sykes book 'The Seven Daughters of Eve' which I have recently read. I began the review of January 3rd, and have only published it today. Thus it appears back in time on the date of January 3rd on this blog thanks to the wonders of blogger.
I'll also eventually get around to recreating the archives links on the main page that got lost in my Christmas time ooops. I recreated the links first. Honest, honest, honest .
Finally, there are a couple of new links I's like to draw your attention to. Both are from a Kiwi. The first is the Anarchofairy blog, and the second is the New Zealand anarchist publishing project from the same person (I think) called Rebel Press under the anarchist Publishers and Distributors section. I've pulled a particularly good essay off the first item and hope to republish it later here under 'The Best of The Blogs' title.
Til Then,
Molly
Labels: AnarchoFairy, books, Bryan Sykes, evolutionary biology, links, Rebel Press, The Seven daughters of Eve
Sunday, January 07, 2007
A LITTLE ITEM FROM THE LOCAL PRESS:
The Sunday Books supplement of the Winnipeg Free Press contained a review of 'Natural Causes' (author Dan Hurley) by local writer Don Marks. The book in question is an expose of the American vitamin and herbal supplement industry as its subtitle makes plain: 'Death, Lies and Politics in America's Vitamin and Herbal Supplement Industry'. Essays in muckraking are long overdue in this field, and Hurley's attempt would make John Steinbeck proud, though it is a sad comment on the decline of "radicalism" (sic) in North America that books such as this inspire at least 100 times as may defenses of an $21 billion (one estimate) amongst "progressives" as it does agreements on the subject. The review of the book is pretty well fair, though Molly could spot some howlers. In general the reviewer agreed with the author that a simple common sense approach to diet and that sick managerial word "lifestyle" is a much more effective way to stay healthy than purchasing miracle cures. The reviewer, however, obviously lacks any general view of the "manipulation and commodification of belief" that would allow him to put the "natural hocus pocus" into some sort of context.
This can be seen from small things such as the complaint that Hurley's book has an "almost total absence of any effective counter-arguments". Molly suggests that there may indeed be NO such things. But this obscures another and more significant matter of blindness on the reviewer's part. He undoubtedly visits bookstores, and as such the opportunity to count "shelf space" is always open to him. Should he visit even the "better book stores" he should notice that the amount of space devoted to only health quackery is at least 50 times greater than that devoted to all debunking books that deals not just with this matter but matters far afield such as psychic frauds, ufos, etc.,etc.,etc.. I challenge the reviewer to find the great and golden "balanced argument" in any ie just one of the titles that proliferate on the market. Debunking books, of course, are simply not stocked in the majority of bookstores.
Perhaps the reviewer felt that he had to make some sort of "critical comment" about the book he reviewed, and, even if he agrees with the author's general thesis, he felt compelled to make an even greater howler in the following statement;
"He acknowledges the powerful lobby that supports the massive pharmaceutical industry in the U.S.. But he also tries to convince the reader that manufacturers and marketers of alternative remedies wield almost as much power."
Ack, cough, choke !!! There's a dirty little secret hidden here that a little probing can easily uncover, but those who buy into the ideological camouflage of the "new entrepreneurs" will consistently ignore it because of ideology. Nobody ever bothers to look up the market share of the vitamin and supplement market because they are under the magic influence of a mythology of evil corporate dragons versus pure and noble New Age Saints. Some ideology survives all bruising contact with reality ! The evil corporate dragons and the saintly purveyors of "natural cures" are very much exactly the same people. Look it up yourself, but here is a list of the major players in the "neutraceuticals market" in the USA circa 2005. It should be noted that almost all of the market for "functional foods" is monopolized by major international food and drink manufacturers, and that the market for vitamin, mineral and supplements is increasingly dominated by the "house brands" of major retailers. The list:- Bayer Corporation
- GNC Corporation (formerly General Nutrition Companies Inc.)
- GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals
- Leiner Health Products Inc.
- NBTY Inc. (includes Rexall Sundown Inc.)
- Perrigo Company
- Pharmavite LLC (Otsuka Pharmaceuticals Group)
- Twinlab Corporation
- Weider Nutrition International Inc.
- Wyeth (formerly American Home Products Corporation)
Doesn't sound like a left wing conspiracy to me. Anyways, if you are curious about the effects of such fad diets you can look to such references as the Merck index or Current Medical Diagnosis where the sections of nutritionally based disease are pretty dependent on food fashion for a lot of their entries. There is an overwhelming amount of pro-food fad material on the market, a lot of it poorly disguised advertising. For the other side try the following references:
Homeowatch (on homeopathy)
Naturowatch (on naturopathy)
National Council Against Health Fraud
Labels: books, Dan Hurley, Don Marks, health nuts, Natural Causes, New Age, Winnipeg Free Press
Saturday, January 06, 2007
HAPPY UKRAINIAN CHRISTMAS EVE !!!!!
FROM MOLLYMEW
Well, maybe a little late, but happy Ukrainian Christmas anyways!
Labels: holidays, Ukrainian Christmas
SOLIDARITY NEEDED FOR PAKISTANI WORKERS:
Workers at the Coca-Cola plant in Karachi, Pakistan are continuing to struggle for their rights against continued management efforts to deny them their rights. The management of 'Coke-Pakistan' has always attempted to impede the efforts of their workers to unionize. union activists have been targeted in dismissals and when this failed to achieve the desired effect massive "casualization" was tried. Regular employees were classified as temporary so as to expedite their firing if they should seem to be pro-union. Large numbers of employees who were not management in any sense of the term were reclassified as outside of union organization efforts. The management of the plant has also attempted to shift its hiring more and more to "employment agencies". On December 9th termination notices were sent to 150 workers at the plant, coincidentally including known union activists. The Karachi government was very compliant in sending extra police to the plant to add to security after this move.
To learn more about this assault on workers' rights and to add your voice to international solidarity against it visit the IUF site at http://www.iuf.org/den3999 or see our links section for the IUF under the 'Other Interesting Links' section.
Molly
Labels: labour, Pakistan, solidarity
FOUND TREASURES WE SHOULDN'T LOSE:
The Winnipeg Free Press has recently (Friday, Jan 5th) reported on the latest plans for the City of Winnipeg to divest itself of the railroad that it owns under the Water and Waste Department. The railroad was originally built to provide access to Shoal lake from which Winnipeg draws its water supply in 1914. In its early years the line named 'The Greater Winnipeg Water District railway' offered not just access to the construction site and the aqueduct but also access to Winnipeg for rural communities, a supply line for products of the Shield and an opportunity for Winnipeg residents to go on excursions to the Lake. When present Mayor Sam Katz came to power he was reportedly "shocked" to discover that Winnipeg actually owned its own railroad, and, like the bell ringing in front of Pavlov's dogs, the reflex action of "sell it" came to mind. to this date the city tries to concoct a different way of maintaining the aqueduct without a railroad. Sounds sort of hopeless to me. The line runs through country inaccessible by any other route, but the effort persists in trying to find a way to do the impossible- let alone do it cheaper than what exists. Seems that some "conservatives" have forgotten the meaning of the word "conserve", let alone common sense prescriptions such as "don't fix what isn't broke".
Now Molly was "surprised" herself to find that the City has its own private choo choo, but even as an anarchist it doesn't offend her moral sensibilities--so she is not "shocked". As a matter of fact she sees it as an opportunity rather than a liability for the people of this city. Something that should NOT be torn up in favour of some crackpot scheme devised by a porkbarrel consultant. Something that should NOT be sold off for the ideological illusion-contrary to simple economic principles- that a private profit making firm will ALWAYS provide a cheaper service.
But much more on this later. It's still new to our good cat, and there is much to be explored. Unlike the bureaucrats that Sam demands to produce some way to fulfill his dream I'll charge nothing for my services as the study goes on. I haven't formed a full opinion yet.
Molly on the cheap.
Labels: railroads, urban transport, Winnipeg, Winnipeg Free Press
LABOUR SITE OF THE YEAR: VOTING NOW OPEN:
The labour solidarity site Labour Start has begun the voting for the Labour Site of the Year'. People interested in voting for what they feel is the best union website in the whole, whole world can register their vote by going to the site (or see our links list) or by going directly to http://www.labourstart.org/lwsoty/index2007.html .
The labour solidarity site Labour Start has begun the voting for the Labour Site of the Year'. People interested in voting for what they feel is the best union website in the whole, whole world can register their vote by going to the site (or see our links list) or by going directly to http://www.labourstart.org/lwsoty/index2007.html .
Labels: labour, Labour Site of the Year, Labour Srart, solidarity
HEAVEN
BY RUPERT BROOKE
FISH(fly-replete, in depth of June,
Dawdling away there wat'ry noon)
Ponder deep wisdom, dark or clear,
Each secret fishy hope or fear.
Fish say, they have their Stream and Pond;
But is there anything Beyond ?
This life cannot be All, they swear,
For how unpleasant, if it were.
One may not doubt that,somehow, Good
Shall come of Water and of Mud;
And, sure, the reverent eye must see
A Purpose in Liquidity.
We darkly know, by Faith we cry,
The future is not wholly dry.
Mud unto mud!--Death eddies near--
Not here the appointed End, not here !
But somewhere, beyond Space and Time,
Is wetter water, slimier slime !
And there (they trust) there swimmeth One,
Who swam ere rivers were begun.
Immense, of fishy form and mind,
Squamous, omnipotent, and kind;
And under that Almighty Fin,
The littlest fish may enter in.
Oh ! never fly conceals a hook,
Fish say, in the Eternal Brook,
But more than mundane weeds are there,
And mud, celestially fair;
Fat caterpillars drift around,
And Paradisal grubs are found;
Unfading moths, immortal flies
And the worm that never dies.
And in that Heaven of their wish,
There shall be no more land, say fish.
Molly Notes:
As yes. Heaven is not a place. It's a construction project with cranes of imagination, scaffolds of hope and front end loaders of resentment.
Truer words were never spoken that by this poet, a person who exemplifies the truism that you don't have to be swift in other ways to be a great poet (something like T.S. Elliot). Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) was born into the English middle class and eventually won a scholarship to Cambridge. As the son of a schoolmaster at Rugby he exerted himself to appear more upper class than his upper class peers. He became acquainted with the Bloomsbury group and was widely admired by them. If he couldn't impress people by his brilliance he could always impress them with what was called his "boyish charm" and good looks. He could play on anybody that way for Brooke was bisexual in a time when the word to describe such a thing was hardly current.
Brooke was the classic "overachiever". He struggled to charm and write his way to the admiration of an audience of upper class people that he never felt he could truly belong to just as he could not belong sexually to either the dominant Victorian/Edwardian form or the every present subculture of upper class English homosexuality. His early work was his greatest. While it may appear rather juvenile with its obsession with death it occasionally threw off great sparks such as the above poem.
Brooke's quest to appear more true blue British than the upper class he had graduated into led to his early death. His cuteness came to the attention of Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, and he was commissioned as a naval officer in 1914. He participated in the Navy's 1914 Antwerp expedition in 1914, and in 1915 he died from a disease transmitted by a mosquito bite on his way to the total disaster of the Gallipoli expedition. A rather sad and less than glorious end. Churchill wrote his obituary, saying "he advanced to the brink...with absolute conviction of the rightness of his country's cause".
Probably true. As Brooke attempted to out Blimp the Blimps his latter poetry became jingoism worthy of being the obverse side of the coin of "socialist realism". His volume of 'War Sonnets', written during WW1 became quite famous. The English government built a myth around him in an attempt to encourage recruiting- to such an extent that his first name "Rupert" became slang in the British army for the sort of gung-ho idiot officer produced by the upper class English public schools.
Today there are statues and monuments of and to Brooke in numerous places in England and out here in the "colonies" such as at the Canadian Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. Generations of suffering school children have been forced to memorize the opening lines from his poem 'The Soldier';
"If I should die think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England"
All of the teachers and, of course, all of the good patriots will always neglect to mention Brooke's sexuality when teaching him or eulogizing him. Doesn't make good copy I guess.
No matter how silly the tributes to the undying British Empire may appear in this century a casual reading seems to say that they were a cut above what is preferred by "intellectuals" celebrating our present world power- America. That's however, something for the next century to judge properly. Find me a poem, however, celebrating the American invasion of Iraq.
For the other side of what happened in WW1 poetry wise look up the poet Siegfried Sassoon and what he had to say about the war.
Molly
Labels: poetry, Rubert Brooke
MORE ON THE WINNIPEG GREYHOUND BUS DEPOT:
There has been more reported on the plans to relocate the Greyhound bus depot here in Winnipeg. Company spokesman Mel Levandoski recently presented more on the company's reasons for planning to relocate to the local media. Any move, however, would be delayed until 2009 when the company's lease on its present facilities expires. With a proper genuflection towards the idea that Greyhound has "to make sure this is the right thing to do for the community, for our customers, for the company" Levandoski went on to present reasons why the move is being contemplated. He mentions that the facility isn't large enough as over 300,000 people used it in 2006. Here Molly asks you to take out a calculator. The "big number" divided by 365 equals 822 in any given day. Molly further asks you to consider the "hours of the day". Let's be generous and say the bus depot is only open 12 hours a day. Divide again. The result is 68 people. It's amazing how fast large numbers become less impressive when looked at in a different perspective. All of these 68 people could bring their whole families to the present depot and there would still be lots of room. The place is not wall to wall people even at its busiest time.
A more serious problem is that the facility was built in 1964 for buses with a length of 13 meters. Present day buses are about three meters long, and according to Levandoski, "often tow five-metre-long cargo trailers". This might present a better case even if the present depot seems to handle this traffic adequately at this time. The "trailers" mentioned should perhaps have a different adverb in the sentence as opposed to "often". Everybody certainly has seen such trailers. Are they "often", "sometimes", "occasionally" or "rarely". Molly's observations would seem to indicate a choice of the latter two rather than the first. It should be noted also that the present day depot does handle buses of the present length. Are there plans to purchase buses that are even longer ? How would these handle on the highways ? Finally, if the length of present day buses is presenting a problem would it perhaps be a call for another facility close to downtown rather than out on the edge of the city ? Once more, a large proportion of the Dog's customers are from rural areas or have limited means and pretty well all of what they want to access in Winnipeg is located downtown.
Levandoski stated that "the company is not looking anywhere but to the airport at the moment". Is this wise management ? Shouldn't other options at least be considered ?
The company spokesman reiterated the Dog's promise to provide a free shuttle service between the city centre and the airport. Try to remember that word free is years to come. It's not quite a promise, but it is being made to try and soften a public relations blow. Other questions come to mind. Is it "free" both ways or just on incoming buses ? What will the hours be for the remaining downtown office ? How frequently will it run- will you have to sit 5 hours at the airport to catch a bus because the shuttle doesn't run often enough ? Does the word "free" mean "included in the (increased) price of a ticket" or really and truly "free". If the latter is meant how can the company save costs so as to keep ticket prices steady ? Can they really do this by incurring a capital debt by new construction and acquiring a new fleet of shuttles ? Seems hard to me to see how you can save money by spending more. A much more likely outcome is an increase in the price of bus tickets.
Finally, for those passengers mentioned who travel to Winnipeg by bus to take a plane, wouldn't it make more sense to have a shuttle for this minority going to the airport ? Without inconveniencing the majority.
More later as this story goes on
Molly
Labels: Grey Hound Bus, Winnipeg
Thursday, January 04, 2007
THE USUAL TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE DEPT:
The latest news on the late afternoon radio this day (Jan 4th) is that University of Manitoba student Evelynn Ye will be released from custody as a judge has agreed to the applications of her lawyer, John Corona, to have the court agree to her release on the surety that her father CAN provide. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
The Ye family are Chinese refugees from Vietnam. Her father speaks VERY little English. Her mother, who is separated from her ex-husband, has little to no money. Other family members are presently overseas on a return trip to Vietnam(conditions are much better there now for ethnic Chinese).
The Crown initially demanded a $10,000 surety. Two days ago Queen's Bench Justice Karen Simonson set bail at $2,000. The initial judgement was that Mr. Ye could not meet the conditions for his daughter's release. This has been overturned according to the news.
Ms Ye is presently studying for a Bachelor of Science degree at the U. of M. Has she committed any crime that would justify imprisonment ? She was arrested five days ago and held since then in that "wonderful" tourist hotel known as the Winnipeg Remand Centre, an interesting "trip" for a 20 year old with no previous criminal involvement.
Her crime ???? NONE WHATSOEVER, as EVEN the Crown who applied for her arrest FULLY admitted. She was being held as a "material witness" in the case of one of "beautiful" downtown Winnipeg's recent murders. In June, 2005 one 'Tam Le'(30) (NO relation to Evelyn Ye) allegedly killed 20 year old Miguel Munoz (of a family of refugees from Guatemala) outside the Montcalm Gordon Motor Hotel. Molly has NO OPINION of the facts of the case. That is for a jury to decide. All that our good cat can say is it is a shame how many immigrants are murdered in this city because they are under the illusion that this is a "safe place". Mr. Munoz is hardly the first refugee from a war zone to come to Winnipeg and be murdered. Think about THAT all you "Winnipeg Boosters". Rah, rah on !
What this little cat DOES know is that Evelyn Le claims to NOT have witnessed the fatal shooting, NOT an uncommon occurrence in a brawl outside a bar in this town. There are a lot of unanswered questions that come from the Crown's actions in this case.
A. What is so BLOODY IMPORTANT about a VERY circumstantial witness to an event who has already !!! expressed the fact that she is NOT a "direct witness" ? Does her testimony deserve jail ?
B. If the family cannot afford $2,000 bail can they REALLY afford the money to fly her out of the country to Vietnam ? I regularly pass by an Oriental travel agency on my little drives through downtown, and I idly read the ads on their signs. Someday I'D like to visit China. China is less expensive to get to than Vietnam, and China is more than a FEW bucks. Check out airline tickets to Ho Chi Minh City if you like.
Is there more than a "little hole" in the Crown's case ? Or as the old anarchist in the movie Seven Beauties said to the idiot young mafioso, "bullsheeet amigo".
C. Is this POSSIBLY an attempt to intimidate a witness into giving testimony that agrees with the Crown's case ? Perish the thought that educated Crown prosecutors could EVER stoop so low as to "imagine" that throwing an innocent 20 year old in a cell with 'Big Bertha' could EVER be a form of pressure. Of course not. As Mark Anthony said, "they are honourable men". Perish the thought that they could imagine in their wildest dreams that throwing a member of a refugee family from a Communist dictatorship into a jail could "ever" be a way of exerting pressure to testify in a "certain way". Of course not, for as Mark Anthony said, "they are honourable men". Of course not. They REALLY believe their own case, and such thoughts could NEVER cross their educated minds.
Ah well, we'll see what the morrow brings.
The latest news on the late afternoon radio this day (Jan 4th) is that University of Manitoba student Evelynn Ye will be released from custody as a judge has agreed to the applications of her lawyer, John Corona, to have the court agree to her release on the surety that her father CAN provide. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
The Ye family are Chinese refugees from Vietnam. Her father speaks VERY little English. Her mother, who is separated from her ex-husband, has little to no money. Other family members are presently overseas on a return trip to Vietnam(conditions are much better there now for ethnic Chinese).
The Crown initially demanded a $10,000 surety. Two days ago Queen's Bench Justice Karen Simonson set bail at $2,000. The initial judgement was that Mr. Ye could not meet the conditions for his daughter's release. This has been overturned according to the news.
Ms Ye is presently studying for a Bachelor of Science degree at the U. of M. Has she committed any crime that would justify imprisonment ? She was arrested five days ago and held since then in that "wonderful" tourist hotel known as the Winnipeg Remand Centre, an interesting "trip" for a 20 year old with no previous criminal involvement.
Her crime ???? NONE WHATSOEVER, as EVEN the Crown who applied for her arrest FULLY admitted. She was being held as a "material witness" in the case of one of "beautiful" downtown Winnipeg's recent murders. In June, 2005 one 'Tam Le'(30) (NO relation to Evelyn Ye) allegedly killed 20 year old Miguel Munoz (of a family of refugees from Guatemala) outside the Montcalm Gordon Motor Hotel. Molly has NO OPINION of the facts of the case. That is for a jury to decide. All that our good cat can say is it is a shame how many immigrants are murdered in this city because they are under the illusion that this is a "safe place". Mr. Munoz is hardly the first refugee from a war zone to come to Winnipeg and be murdered. Think about THAT all you "Winnipeg Boosters". Rah, rah on !
What this little cat DOES know is that Evelyn Le claims to NOT have witnessed the fatal shooting, NOT an uncommon occurrence in a brawl outside a bar in this town. There are a lot of unanswered questions that come from the Crown's actions in this case.
A. What is so BLOODY IMPORTANT about a VERY circumstantial witness to an event who has already !!! expressed the fact that she is NOT a "direct witness" ? Does her testimony deserve jail ?
B. If the family cannot afford $2,000 bail can they REALLY afford the money to fly her out of the country to Vietnam ? I regularly pass by an Oriental travel agency on my little drives through downtown, and I idly read the ads on their signs. Someday I'D like to visit China. China is less expensive to get to than Vietnam, and China is more than a FEW bucks. Check out airline tickets to Ho Chi Minh City if you like.
Is there more than a "little hole" in the Crown's case ? Or as the old anarchist in the movie Seven Beauties said to the idiot young mafioso, "bullsheeet amigo".
C. Is this POSSIBLY an attempt to intimidate a witness into giving testimony that agrees with the Crown's case ? Perish the thought that educated Crown prosecutors could EVER stoop so low as to "imagine" that throwing an innocent 20 year old in a cell with 'Big Bertha' could EVER be a form of pressure. Of course not. As Mark Anthony said, "they are honourable men". Perish the thought that they could imagine in their wildest dreams that throwing a member of a refugee family from a Communist dictatorship into a jail could "ever" be a way of exerting pressure to testify in a "certain way". Of course not, for as Mark Anthony said, "they are honourable men". Of course not. They REALLY believe their own case, and such thoughts could NEVER cross their educated minds.
Ah well, we'll see what the morrow brings.
Labels: Evelynn Ye, Winnipeg
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE:
BY BRYAN SYKES
Since beginning his research career on mitochondrial DNA in the late 1980s Bryan Sykes has found himself propelled to the forefront of a virtual revolution in the way that genetics perceives the origin and spread of modern humans. This book(1), published in 2001, is a two part story. The first part covers how Sykes travelled from his early career as a medical researcher studying "brittle bone disease", also known as "osteogenesis imperfecta", an inherited disease of collagen formation found in cats, cattle, dogs and humans. As part of this the author gives a brief reconstruction of the history and science behind human genotyping in such chapters as 'From Blood Groups to Genes' and 'The Special Messenger'. Interspersed with this is a layman's explanation of DNA and, especially, mitochondrial DNA(2). Mitochondrial DNA is what Sykes research has been focused on. This is DNA that is inherited only (or at least 99.99%) through the maternal line. Sperm only contain mitochondria in their tails which are shed at the time of egg fertilization. As such they contribute only nuclear DNA to the new embryo.
What this means is that sequencing of mitochondrial DNA and its mutations can provide an estimate of the relatedness of individuals via their mothers, and their mothers, and their mothers,etc.. Research separate from that of Sykes and his group in this field has contributed to the idea of "Mitochondrial Eve", the mother of us all who lived in Africa(3) about 150,000 years ago.
After his excursion into the history and basic science of human genotyping Sykes describes the development of his field through an autobiographical account of his research. Not all of this is in chronological order, but the cast of characters that passes by is impressive. His early work was on extracting and amplifying mitochondrial DNA from bones only a few hundred years old at a time when the whole matter of the PCR technique was a matter of "shake and bake" chemistry in flasks rather than automated machines. From this it is on to proving the technique by research on golden hamsters. All of these pet animals are descended from one female first captured in Syria in 1930. Yup, it worked. The mitochondrial DNA of all pet and lab hamsters in the world was exactly identical. The story was true. They were indeed all descended from one mother.
From that humble beginning it's upward and onward. Tracing the presumed bones of the last Tsar and his family discovered in Ekateringburg in 1991 by comparison with living relatives of the Romanovs (at least a partial confirmation of the fate of Russia's last Royals and a disconfirmation of several claims to "Anasthasiahood"); genotyping of the "Iceman" found in the Italian Alps in 1991(and finding his living relatives in many present day Europeans); definitive proof of the South East Asian origins of the Polynesians (as opposed to the theory of their American origin); disproof (though often disputed) of the theory that Neanderthals interbred with early modern humans. All of this and more, all the time interspersed with clear explanations of the technical details involved and the disputes to which mitochondrial DNA testified.
All of this is perhaps a lead-in to what Sykes obviously considers his greatest triumph, his dispute with Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, the acknowledged world expert on human genetics. The matter was the origin of modern European populations and whether they date deep into the paleolithic or whether they are the result of fairly recent "replacement" by agriculturalists "invading" from the Middle East. After a great amount of dispute and sound and fury Cavalli-Sforza came to accept Sykes' theories as derived from a study of mitochondrial DNA. In Sforza's case the clincher came from his own research on the DNA of the Y Chromosome, the "paternal line" as contrasted with Sykes' maternal line. Agriculture came to Europe by diffusion rather than invasion, and the present population of Europe traces back to women who lived in the paleolithic- despite a small contribution from the Middle East.
As a matter of fact Sykes traces the vast majority of present day Europeans back to just seven "founding mothers", the "daughters of Eve" of the book's title. Other researchers in the field have claimed that there are actually 10 to 12 "matrilines" present in Europe, and ongoing research is tracing more than 29 other "matrilines" across the world that descend from the original Mitochondrial Eve. The relationships between these clades(4) is a matter of present day dispute, but the general idea that individuals can trace their genetic ancestry to a small number of "founding mothers" is pretty well an established fact.
The new science of human origins founded on facts such as these is light years removed from the sort of "population origins" theorized about in faculties of anthropology even 25 years ago. Every population is a mosaic of origins in which different individuals trace their origins back to different "founding mothers", and in which the descendants of these mothers can easily live at opposite ends of the Earth. Combine this with the fact, as demonstrated by writers such as Richard Dawkins that various genes in a human individual may have totally different ancestors, and the concept of "race" becomes even more like a relic from a bygone age that only politicians can argue about.
The latter half of Sykes' book is devoted to an imaginative reconstruction of the everyday lives of each of the presumed daughters of Eve. They lived in different times and places, but their lives held more than a few commonalities. Despite the different climes and technologies available the lives of these women had much more in common than they had in difference. Sykes basically follows the consensus view of most modern archaeologists in that the lives or these women were indeed short and hard (in contrast to the Arcadian dream world of some ideologists), but they had more than their share of joys. The worlds that Sykes describes have a much greater feel of reality about them than the projected wishes of said ideologists who seem to envision "primitive people" as bodiless distillations of the ideologue's hopes and dreams, wistful ghosts who drift around busying themselves with "being one with nature" and playing whatever "joyful games" the modern ideologue may approve of (but never those he might disapprove of). On the other hand this paleolithic world may have always had the potential for intergroup conflict, but the consensus is that this was a rare event compared to the fantasies of the ideologues of "man the warrior". This also holds the aura of truth rather than ideological begging the question.
The second half of Sykes' book is admittedly not a work of science, but it is at least a journeyman's work of historical fiction.
MOLLY NOTES:
1)'The Seven Daughters of Eve' by Bryan Sykes, W. W. Norton and company Ltd., New York, London (2001). ISBN 0-393-02018-5
2)See the following references on mitochondria and their DNA
i)Mitochondria
ii)Mitochondrial DNA
iii)The Mitochondrial Genome
3) The actual homeland of Mitochondrial Eve is in dispute. The majority opt for the area of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. A minority feel that an Asian origin is more likely. What is hardly in dispute, however, is that this woman lived at a time of a "population bottleneck" when the number of proto-moderns was extremely low. Hence the fact that all of us today descend from her in a line traced through our mothers. It should also be noted that this woman was not the "single ancestor" that the term Eve suggests. It is pretty well certain that other women living at that time left descendants, but she is the only one whom we can trace back in an unbroken line of mothers. Many others left their genes to their sons to pass on. their nuclear DNA lived on, but their mitochondrial line was broken.
4)Clades are groups of organisms that are traced through common descent and not just through anatomical similarities.
Labels: Bryan Sykes, evolutionary biology, Mitochondial Eve, The Seven daughters of Eve
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
SPEAKING TOO SOON:
The latest edition of the Industrial Worker, the published organ of the IWW, has a rather self congratulatory article entitled 'NY foodstuffs workers win contract at EZ supply'. It reports how the IWW had won a contract with the NYC based EZ Supply company that supplied food to various restaurants in that city (see http://www.iww.org/en/node/3052 for details of the contract negotiated by the IWW, a contract that included wage raises of $1.70 to $2.45 an hour over the next two years, a grievance procedure, paid vacation and sick time and extra pay for certain types of work. The management and union had also agreed that all company files would be purged of mention of union organizing and that back wages for unpaid work (ie theft of time- Molly) would be paid). Looked pretty good at the time of the agreement on November 27th, but over the Christmas time a little idea dawned on the bosses of EZ Supply, just as it dawned on bosses at five other warehouses in New York City where the IWW has organized in the last year and a half. If you can't beat the union in a normal way, then try and threaten the workers with threats regarding their "immigration status". On December 26th, Boxing day, the boss at EZ Supply reneged on his agreement and issued threats to his workers about their "status". On the evening of December 28th EZ Supply fired all its union workers.
The IWW Food Industry and Allied Workers' Union is calling on EZ Supply and other warehouse owners in the NYC area such as Amersino, Handyfat and Top City produce to cease their anti-union activities, reinstate fired workers and to negotiate in good faith with the union. It should be noted that any penalties that may be applied to the bosses for KNOWINGLY hiring undocumented workers will be VERY minor compared to the penalties applied to the workers. What famous French writer once opined that "the law in all its majesty equally forbids both a rich man and a poor man from sleeping under a bridge" ? A Molly prize for the answer.
In any case, if you want to see how you can help these workers follow the cases on the IWW website , phone "Tomer" at 646-753-1167 or phone the bosses at EZ Supply directly at 718-386-3600.
One more example of counting your chickens before they are hatched, but in this case the IWW can be forgiven for missing the idea that an egg-sucking dog can steal the eggs even as the chicks are pecking out of the shell.
Molly
Labels: anarcho-syndicalism, EZ Supply Company, Industrial Worker, IWW, labour, solidarity
Monday, January 01, 2007
A FEW NEW LINKS:
I've added a few new links to this blog besides those mentioned earlier. Under the Blogs section I've added the Little Red Blogger and Yaya Canada . Under the 'Other Interesting Links' section I've added two online news feeds from BC, B.C.Politics and The Republic of East Vancouver. I've also added the Encyclopedia Mythica under the same heading. This is one of Peter Marshall's favourite links, and it gives information on a wide variety of world mythologies.
Labels: B.C. Politics, Encyclopedia Mythica, links, Little Red Blogger, The Republic of East Vancouver, YaYa Canada
THE WAR PRAYER
BY MARK TWAIN:
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands played, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheered them with voices chocked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meeting listened, panting to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest depths of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and a half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrunk out of sight and offended no more in that way.
Sunday morning came- next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams-visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabres, the flight of the foe, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender ! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory ! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbours and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honour, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation:
God the all-terrible!
Thou who ordainest !
Thunder thy clarion and lightening thy sword !
Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever merciful and benign Father of us all would watch over our young soldiers and aid, comfort and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory...
An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body cloaked in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preachers side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer and at least finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, father and Protector of our land and flag".
The stranger touched his arm, motioning him to step aside- which the startled minister did- and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said,
"I come from the Throne-bearing a message from Almighty God !"
The words smote the house with a shock, if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention.
"He has heard the prayers of His servant, your shepherd, and will grant it if such be your desire after I, his messenger, shall have explained to you its import-that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of-except he pause and think.
God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought ? Is it one prayer ? No, it is two-one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this-keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware ! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbour at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbour's crop which may not need rain and may be injured by it.
You have heard your servant's prayer- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it- that part which the pastor-and also you in your hearts-fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly ? God grant that it was so ! You heard the words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God' ! That is sufficient. The whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory- must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen !
O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle- be Thou near them ! With them- in spirit- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it-for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet ! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him who is the Source of Love, and who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen !
(After a pause) Ye have prayed for it; if ye still desire it, speak ! The messenger of the most high waits !"
It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.
Labels: humour, literature, Mark Twain, The War Prayer, war
JAN 11: INTERNATIONAL DAY TO SHUT DOWN GUANTANAMO:
January 11th, 2007, will be the fifth anniversary of the first prisoner arriving at the US Guantanamo Bay detention centre. The "war against terror" has since that time seemed to become even more endless, and the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo has become a source of international and domestic controversy. A number of mostly faith based groups have called for an international day of action to shut down the torture/detention centre at the US base on January 11th. After 5 years not a single detainee has been charged and convicted of any crime. The torture centre has been condemned by the United Nations and Human Rights Watch amongst others. Court cases in the USA have brought the constitutionality of the methods used at Guantanamo into question.
The coalition that includes the Center for Constitutional Rights, CodePink, the Network of Spiritual progressives, Pax Christi, the School of the Americas Watch and United for Peace and Justice have called for an international day of action with its focus on Washington DC on Jan. 11th. To learn more about this action, to add organizational endorsement or to see how you can organize support actions in your own community go to the Witness Against Torture site.
Labels: events, Guantanamo, Witness Against Torture
NEW ISSUE OF ZABALAZA: A JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN REVOLUTIONARY ANARCHISM #7 OUT NOW:
- The latest issue of Zabalaza, the journal of the platformist Zabalaza Federation is now out and available as both an online text at http://www.zabalaza.net/zab_paper/zab07.htm and as a downloadable pdf at http://www.zabalaza.net/pdfs/sapams/zab7.pdf . This issue features articles such as:
- After 10 years of GEAR:COSATU, the ZUMA Trial and the Dead End of Alliance Politics.
- Collective Bargaining by Riot:Election Day in South Africa
- The Anti-Liberation Movements
- Swaziland After the Bombings
- A Free Working Class Needs Free Minds:May-BEE Another Day
- The New American Imperialism in Africa
- Is China Africa's New Imperialist Power ?
- Defend Libertarian Centre for Studies and Investigation in Morocco: Solidarity with the CLER of Boumaalne-Dades
- Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization in South America
- Remembering and Learning From the Past:The 1976 Uprising and the African Working Class
- A New World in Our Hearts: Remembering the Spanish Revolution of 1936
- Remembering Our Fallen Comrades ! Another Anarchist Dies in Prison: Abel Ramarope, Political prisoner Turned Anarchist, died September 2005
Labels: anarchism, magazines, South Africa, Zabalaza
