Alternative News
Articles from non-mainstream as opposed to corporate for profit sources.
Will you become a Sustaining Member today?
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- Published on Friday, 04 September 2020 06:14
- Written by editor
Dear Friend,
Day in and day out, we tackle a wide variety of civil liberties and human rights issues. Whether you follow and support us for our work in patients’ rights, police accountability, prisoners’ rights, CBSA accountability, or privacy, the work that speaks to us also speaks to you.
You might have a passion for one issue or for all of them. One thing is sure though; you’re a supporter of the BCCLA because you believe in the value of our work.
The ongoing work and the victories we share are only possible because...
The biggest land grab in history is being proposed, and all in the name of "conservation".
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- Published on Friday, 04 September 2020 06:02
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Next year, I stand down as Director of Survival. I started with your charity, as a volunteer, 49 years earlier.
Dear friend,Next year, I stand down as Director of Survival. I started with your charity, as a volunteer, 49 years earlier.
This means that I won’t have the same relationship with you, our supporters. So, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of you so much for the magnificent help you’ve provided to tribal peoples – many of you for decades. Survival International is you, and I’d be delighted if we could carry on being in contact through Twitter (@StephenCorrySvl) or correspondence.
I hope that my leaving the Director’s role will not mean I’ll stop fighting for tribal peoples’ rights. Freedom from CEO responsibilities will hopefully give more time to battle against those who seek to eradicate the precious human diversity on which biodiversity and humanity depends. As Noam Chomsky told me recently, Survival has never been needed more.
One of our most controversial campaigns is to expose the big conservation NGOs trampling on tribal people’s rights and kicking them off their land. This is criminal on so many levels: The environment’s best guardians are being destroyed by such NGOs which often partner with the world’s most polluting and destructive industries.
Everything You Need to Know About the COVID-19 Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund
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- Published on Friday, 04 September 2020 04:34
- Written by editor
READ
Everything You Need to Know About the COVID-19 Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund
...Read more: Everything You Need to Know About the COVID-19 Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund
Socialism and Accountability
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- Published on Friday, 04 September 2020 03:44
- Written by editor
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2184 ... September 4, 2020
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Socialism and Accountability
Alex Demirović
History teaches us nothing, so said Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Andrea Nahles, to justify discontinuing the SPD’s Historical Commission. Long ago, Rosa Luxemburg took the opposite position: "history is the only true teacher." Perhaps history really doesn’t teach us how we should act immediately in our current situation. This is true in general, and also in very specific circumstances. Were we not convinced that the tradition of critical fascist analysis would give us the concepts to resist developments in capitalist society that tend toward an erosion of democracy, toward authoritarian and exceptional state forms which drastically worsen the prospects of emancipation? Didn’t we believe that, equipped with this knowledge, with all our "historical interrogations," we would be better able to resist and defeat right-wing forces? It appears not to be the case.
But history teaches us something much more fundamental, namely that our present moment is the present of a history. In this present, the struggles and the missed opportunities of the past are condensed in a special...
Im terrified as back to school week approaches
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- Published on Thursday, 03 September 2020 15:50
- Written by editor
Friends,
I’m terrified as back to school week approaches. Here where I live, in Manitoba, the government is gambling with the health of my two sons by sending them back to school without reducing class sizes or taking proactive measures to reduce COVID-19 exposure.
I worry about my kids. I worry for all children going back to school this week and next. I worry especially about the health of Indigenous children across the country, many of whom continue to live under boil water advisories that the Trudeau government has consistently failed to address.
As a father, I also worry about our governments’ priorities when it comes to public spending.
I was flabbergasted when Trudeau pledged a measly $2 billion for back to school safety last week, while continuing to sink well over $13 billion into the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Worst still is that we still don’t know the true cost because the government is refusing to share it with the public.
This is unacceptable. Tell Trudeau and Freeland to show us the true cost...
Canadas most endangered mammal
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- Published on Thursday, 03 September 2020 15:04
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In a time of uncertainty, you took action
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- Published on Thursday, 03 September 2020 08:56
- Written by editor
Dear Friend,
Over the last few weeks, we’ve told you about some worrying news that has come out of BC and Alberta.
Bill 10 in Alberta and Bill 19 in BC are new laws that expand government powers and limit public accountability. These bills allow cabinet ministers to unilaterally write new laws without any oversight from the Legislative Assembly.
We told you about how we’re gearing up for a fight to push back against these laws, and asked for donations to support this urgent work.
Our community of supporters really stepped up! 67 people have donated nearly $3,000 to support us in our fight to defend your democratic rights.
In times of uncertainty, we need to choose action. We need to stand up for what we believe in. Thank you for taking action.
We’re going to pressure the government in BC to roll back the powers they’ve given themselves under Bill 19. We’re also seeking leave to intervene in a...
Trans Mountains insurance
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- Published on Thursday, 03 September 2020 07:48
- Written by editor
We just passed the renewal deadline
Monday was Trans Mountain’s final deadline to secure the insurance it needed to proceed with its climate-wrecking pipeline – a controversial project which would transport dirty tar sands oil all the way from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia.
And though we won’t know for sure which insurance companies renewed their coverage until the official certificate is published next April – I do know one thing. Thanks to this campaign, we are closer to stopping the pipeline than we've been in a very long time.
Let me explain.
Back in 2019, we realized that taking on the insurance industry may just be one of our best strategies for stopping the Trans Mountain pipeline, and stopping the expansion of the entire tar sands industry.
Because without insurance, the pipeline cannot go ahead. And as more and more companies start to live up to their climate commitments and refuse to insure tar sands projects, the harder it is for not only Trans Mountain – but any future pipelines – to get the backing they need. (Yep, the world of insurance can actually be super exciting
Home Depot's Roundup
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- Published on Thursday, 03 September 2020 07:02
- Written by editor
People are still spraying Monsanto's Roundup all over the gardens and lawns where you and your family like to relax and play.
Tell Home Depot and Lowe's to stop selling these dangerous products!
A,
Glyphosate, the primary ingredient in Monsanto's weed killer Roundup, has been labeled a “probable carcinogen” by the World Health Organization.
And yet, Home Depot and Lowe's are still selling Roundup in thousands of stores across North America every year.
In a few short days, SumOfUs will be delivering a petition to Lowe’s and Home Depot — the two largest home improvement retail chains in North America — demanding that they stop selling these dangerous weed killers.
The dangers of glyphosate to you and those you care about are becoming clearer every day.
In 2018, a San Francisco jury determined that extensive exposure to Roundup caused Dewayne...
The Scarlet Standard: Episode 1 – The Christie Pits Riot
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- Published on Thursday, 03 September 2020 04:18
- Written by editor
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A Socialist Project podcast ... No. 1 ... September 3, 2020
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The Scarlet Standard: Episode 1 – The Christie Pits Riot
In this inaugural episode we discuss the legacy of The Christie Pits Riot of August 1933. As the largest riot in Toronto’s history, this event stands as a watershed moment in Canadian-Jewish history, and should be regarded as a great act of anti-fascist resistance. Today, echoes of this history can be seen in rising tides of fascist violence, the bizarre relationship between Canadian police and Nazism, and the courageous efforts of protesters in the Black Lives Matter Movement.
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Contradictions of the Belarus Protest: What We Can Learn
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- Published on Wednesday, 02 September 2020 02:32
- Written by editor
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2183 ... September 2, 2020
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Contradictions of the Belarus Protest: What We Can Learn
Aleksandr Buzgalin
The crisis in Belarus is intensifying, and even if Alexander Lukashenko manages to retain his hold on power, his authority will remain precarious. In this country’s society, an understanding of the need for change and a preparedness to struggle for it will ripen still further. However exactly the situation develops, it is clear that Belarus (and not only Belarus) will no longer be the same as during the past quarter-century. One question is whether citizens, members of the left, and governments in the post-Soviet countries will succeed in understanding the events now unfolding in Belarus and in drawing the appropriate lessons.
A further question, no less perplexing, is what the content of these lessons will be. To the first of these questions, I am inclined to answer in the negative. Most likely, the people involved will once again fail to learn anything, but this should not spare left-wing theoreticians from trying to spell out the meaning of events. The time has not yet...
Read more: Contradictions of the Belarus Protest: What We Can Learn
Stopping Trans Mountain by climbing trees
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- Published on Tuesday, 01 September 2020 09:28
- Written by editor
Yes, really
In a news cycle inundated with one disaster or crisis after another, I’m happy to be able to bring you some good news for a change.
The Trans Mountain pipeline that we’ve been fighting (and successfully blocking!) since December of 2013 suffered another major setback that could delay construction on a critical section of the pipeline for another full year.
And none of it would have been possible without people like you.
This comes on the heels of another victory earlier this summer when Trans Mountain lost its biggest insurer, Zurich, who will not be renewing its contract with this dangerous tar sands project.
These setbacks, combined with mounting costs and diminishing public support, mean that Trans Mountain is closer to being stopped for good than it has been in quite some time. Yes, really.
The GM Lands: Renaissance or Ongoing Catastrophe?
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- Published on Tuesday, 01 September 2020 02:04
- Written by editor
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2182 ... September 1, 2020
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The GM Lands: Renaissance or Ongoing Catastrophe?
Since 2010, the site of the former GM components plant on Ontario Street in St. Catharines has sat idle. The facility that once employed thousands was sold in 2014 to Bayshore Groups, a private land remediation company that later announced a $250-million redevelopment plan. But after having scrapped the plant and sold its parts, Bayshore ditched the redevelopment. Now, nothing but an empty shell and a pile of rubble remains on the site.
Concerned about the site’s environmental and safety hazards, a Coalition for a Better St. Catharines formed to pressure the city of St. Catharines to clean up the former GM lands. In light of recent reports of high-levels of PCBs in the Twelve Mile Creek adjacent to the property, the Coalition is seeking to hire an environmental consultant to further review the potential that contaminants are leaking off the site. Donations can be made on the Coalition’s action network page.
The story of the Ontario Street site underscores Green Jobs Oshawa’s urgent calls for public...
Read more: The GM Lands: Renaissance or Ongoing Catastrophe?
Were nominated...for an Emmy?!
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- Published on Monday, 31 August 2020 06:02
- Written by editor
I’m still somewhat stunned by the news: our short film Message From the Future with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been nominated for an Emmy award, in the category of Outstanding News Analysis: Editorial and Opinion.
It’s an incredible honor for a film that started off with a simple question: what if we actually pulled off a Green New Deal? What would the future look like?
This project seemed to strike a chord precisely because it didn’t just name the multiple crises we face, but dared to imagine the world we want to build. And this is central to our work at The Leap. We see the Green New Deal as an emergency plan to confront climate change while creating millions of good, unionized jobs, expanding the public services and infrastructure that make our communities healthier, and dismantling the racism and economic inequality that structure so much of how we live together now.
Learn from this explosive controversy
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- Published on Monday, 31 August 2020 03:12
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Download this newsletter in PDF.
Conflict transformation tips and free workshop
CFSC staff Matt Legge wrote a popular blog post on the topic of what influences our reactions to mass protests and was interviewed on BBC Radio about it....
Augmenting the Left: Challenging the Right, Reimagining Transformation
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- Published on Monday, 31 August 2020 01:44
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2181 ... August 31, 2020
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Augmenting the Left: Challenging the Right, Reimagining Transformation
Niko Block
The ongoing wave of action for the defunding and abolition of armed police has provoked a familiar yet unresolved series of questions for the left. Momentous though the movement may be in its scope and demands, it nonetheless now confronts a series of political obstacles, and will need to maintain an expansive coalition of activists and supporters to achieve its long-term goals. The danger, as we witnessed with other recent uprisings such as Idle No More or the first wave of Black Lives Matter protests, is that the movement will dissipate while its organizers are scrambling to simultaneously maintain its focus and expand its support base by broadening their political analysis.
Both of these tasks must be accomplished by any successful movement, and yet they can easily contradict each other. In the context of today’s defunding movement, the specific demand for the reduction of armed police must remain at the forefront of public discussion in order for concrete progress to occur; but at the...
Read more: Augmenting the Left: Challenging the Right, Reimagining Transformation
Donald Trump: A New Emperor of the Lumpenproletariat?
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- Published on Sunday, 30 August 2020 03:26
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2180 ... August 30, 2020
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Donald Trump: A New Emperor of the Lumpenproletariat?
Clyde W. Barrow
In The Dangerous Class: The Concept of the Lumpenproletariat (University of Michigan Press, forthcoming 2020), I argue that US President Donald Trump should be understood as a "Prince of the Lumpenproletariat." The question that will confront us on November 3rd and long afterward is whether Donald Trump will become "Emperor of the Lumpenproletariat." These terms are taken from Karl Marx’s 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, where he applied to Louis Bonaparte III. I argue that Trump has followed the script of the 18th Brumaire, which is the story of the exceptional rise to power of a lumpenproletariat organized and led by an authoritarian populist.
Marx described Louis Bonaparte III as an authoritarian dictator:
"who constitutes himself chief of the Lumpenproletariat, who here alone rediscovers in mass form the interests which he personally pursues, who recognises in this scum, offal, refuse of all classes [i.e., the lumpenproletariat] the only class upon which he can base himself unconditionally... An old crafty roué, he conceives...
Read more: Donald Trump: A New Emperor of the Lumpenproletariat?
Nestlé
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- Published on Saturday, 29 August 2020 06:00
- Written by editor
A, did you see this?
Nestlé is stealing water from a drought-stricken community in France. Local residents in Vittel have had enough -- and SumOfUs members like you are helping them fight back against this corporate giant.
Will you help these water warriors organize their community and beat back Nestlé’s greed?
If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:
Donate CA$92 nowDonate another amount
Thank you for everything that you do,
Fatah, Eoin and the team at SumOfUs
Here's my original email, with more information about Vittel's struggle against Nestlé:
Nestlé has drained millions of gallons of groundwater out from under the small town of Vittel, France… sometimes without a license!
A small group of brave residents is hoping this is the year they stop Nestlé -- but they’re paying for their whole fight out of their own pocket, and they’re running out of cash. Can you...
Justice for Berta Cáceres a step closer
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- Published on Wednesday, 18 November 2020 13:22
- Written by editor
Upcoming Event! Policing Black and Indigenous Lives in Canada
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- Published on Friday, 28 August 2020 10:04
- Written by editor
Dear BCCLA Supporter,
Join us for a digital teach-in bringing together organizers and lawyers from across the country to engage in a discussion around policing Black and Indigenous people in Canada.
Date: Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Time: 12PM-2PM PST/ 3PM-5PM EST
Where: The event will be livestreamed on YouTube. Register below to receive the link!
Register to attendRelying on their on-the-ground experience and legal expertise, speakers will address the role of police in colonization, the evidence of police violence and discrimination, current strategies for transformative change, and how people can get involved in advocating for alternatives to police harm.
Speakers:
El Jones is a recipient of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission Burnley “Rocky” Jones award and co-founder of the Black Power Hour, a radio show developed with prisoners.
Dr. Pam Palmater is a...
Read more: Upcoming Event! Policing Black and Indigenous Lives in Canada
More Articles...
- Charmin
- A Measles Outbreak in the DRC Is Officially Over
- The MST on the Crisis in Brazil: Economy, Education and Politics
- Erin OTooles climate plan
- Trudeaus priorities
- BC — #EndCovidEverywhere
- How We Move Is How We Survive
- URGENT Action! Help stop tribal evictions.
- Policing Black and Indigenous Lives in Canada
- The Vaccine
