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By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on April 23, 2013, at 12:00 pm Some years, Earth Day clicks for people in a profound way. I’ve spoken to a few who were distinctly non-plussed with how things didn’t come together for them and their dreams this year.
If you need some optimism for the rest of your week, check out this compendium. Pay attention to the ages of those in photos, and immediately scroll to the bottom to read what our dear Cascadian friends to the south got up to at U-Dub. What would that look like in your community?
Embrace peace, watch your footprint, look up for bald eagles, imagine the future you (Read more…)
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on March 18, 2013, at 12:00 pm Who Framed Roger Rabbit reminded us all of the Great American Streetcar Scandal: cars over mass transit. Now, in the lower mainland we have the UBC tunnel over light rail to the valley.
This week, we start with a transportation spin alert.
Last week, Allen Garr wrote an interesting piece about the seemingly obvious idea of running a Skytrain subway to UBC [see below]. One possibly contentious issue would be whether it would be bored or made with the disastrous cut-and-cover debacle that broke Cambie Street, and its socio-economic fabric, for so long.
But I think there is (Read more…)
By Jasmin Mujanovic, on December 22, 2012, at 5:33 pm Pollution, people and tombstones in Zenica.
Owned by the Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest steel producer—creating some 93 billion USD of revenue as of 2011. Granted, steel is an essential building block of the modern world yet ArcelorMittal’s obscene profit margins do raise the question of “how are you possibly making this much money?”
Turns out, profitability margins are greatly aided by the economic pillaging and environmental destruction of a still-recovering-from-war southeastern European locale: Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The central-Bosnian city of Zenica has for decades been one of the industrial centers of the region. The steel mills in the area, prior to the outbreak of the 1992-1995 war, employed some 25,000 people—a shining beacon of the Yugoslav state’s productive capacities. Today, owned by ArcelorMittal, that number is just over 3000—with the company actually looking to downsize even further, according to local union organizers.
Yet the story . . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Why does ArcelorMittal hate Bosnia?
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on May 11, 2012, at 12:00 pm We need to leave the tarsands oil in the ground.
We need an increasing carbon tax.
We need to stop subsidizing carbon energy producers.
We need public money invested in post-carbon energy.
We need to do it now.
I say all this, as does this NASA physicist:
The science of the situation is clear — it’s time for the politics to follow…Every major national science academy in the world has reported that global warming is real, caused mostly by humans, and requires urgent action. The cost of acting goes far higher the longer we wait — we can’t wait any
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: We Must Force the Politicians to Go Post-Carbon
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on February 13, 2012, at 11:00 am Tonight at 6pm [East Vancouver time], Politics, Re-Spun teams up with The Rational on COOP Radio with an analog radio show at 102.7fm in Vancouver, which will be streaming live at COOPRadio.org and interactively in a multimedia liveblog here below.
Here is what we’ve got tonight:
1. Tia Everitt interviewing Glen Thompson about saving spotted owls in the Chilliwack River Valley 2. Alnoor Gova interviewing Andrew Frank, on who really are enemies of the people of Canada 3. Alnoor Gova interviewing Boonaa Muhammad
2012.02.13 Politics, Re-Spun on Coop Radio
August 9, 2010 — Capitalists:
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on January 9, 2012, at 11:00 am Mordor
It’s really very simple. A front group for tarsands polluters is accusing opponents of being puppets of foreign interests. EthicalOil.org thinks only Canadians should be permitted to take part in the tarsands climate debate, which would exclude anyone or any group involving foreign resources or money.
An organization called EthicalOil.org has attacked “foreigners and their puppets” who oppose the Northern Gateway pipeline, and may have found a sympathetic ear in Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The website, based in Toronto, features a number of articles criticizing the presence of “foreigners” and “rich Americans” at the impending hearings into
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: The Galling Hypocrisy of EthicalOil.org
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on January 8, 2012, at 9:00 pm Tragedy of the Market: From Crisis to Commons January 6-8, 2012 Vancouver/Burnaby
All panelist biographies are here. Below are some lessons learned and observations from the sessions.
Friday:
The opening panel is recorded in the Twitter storify here.
Saturday:
My notes are here.
Sunday:
Opening Panel
Radical Squares: Reflections on the Global Indignant Moment
Nefertiti Altán, George Caffentzis
Nefertiti Altán
Crisis in the economy:
Greed leads to assaults on living wages, off-shoring, migrant workers, slashing pensions. US unemployment is 9.7% or 14.9 million people, 16% for African-Americans and 42% for African American youth. The number is higher when . . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Day Three of Tragedy of the Market: From Crisis to Commons
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on January 7, 2012, at 10:00 pm Tragedy of the Market: From Crisis to Commons January 6-8, 2012 Vancouver/Burnaby
All panelist biographies are here: Below are some lessons learned and observations from the sessions.
Friday:
The opening panel is recorded in the Twitter storify here.
Saturday:
Opening Panel A Global Tradition: History of the Commons
Silvia Federici
Rebuilding our Commons will allow us to live in a free and self-determined way. When we talk about the Commons, we are not talking about small-scale experiments like communes, but whole social formations. The Commons involves sharing our resources because nature is not for sale. The principle of common . . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Day Two of Tragedy of the Market: From Crisis to Commons
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on January 7, 2012, at 12:00 pm This weekend I attended Tragedy of the Market: From Crisis to Commons community gathering in Vancouver and Burnaby, sponsored by these groups and people.
The basic premise is not so much that capitalism is broken, and we just need to fix it, but that neoliberal market fundamentalism is inherently broken when we’re thinking about sustainability, equity and building a healthy future, largely because capitalism is diametrically opposed to the commons and rich community.
All panelist biographies are here.
Below is a storified collection of tweets from the opening night.
[View the story “Tragedy of the Market: Opening” on Storify
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