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By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on January 21, 2013, at 12:00 pm Quack.
It’s 9am, do you know where your millennial employees are? No? No worries. It’s all good. They’re not factory chickens.
People who study characteristics of different generations have some incredibly important things to say about how different groups work. Organizations, however, are typically run by older people with their own generation-influenced work norms. Those that adapt to include younger generations more effectively will be more successful. And, no surprise, it seems that co-ops are structures that fit the work styles of millennials. Let’s explore the future of work, for organizations that figure it out in time!
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: How Millennials Can Improve Everyone’s Job Satisfaction
By Jasmin Mujanovic, on September 14, 2012, at 8:30 pm The ongoing protests in the parts of the Middle East and North Africa, ostensibly in the wake of a Z-list anti-Islam film produced in the US, have elicited the same tired, hackneyed response on the part significant portions of Western audiences and commentators. “Savages,” the refrain has been, “uncivilized barbarians!” from comment sections from The Blaze to the CBC. The brutal murder of American envoy Chris Stevens should certainly be condemned—yet the broader chauvinistic and racist response to the events in Libya, and in the wider region, speaks to a deep seated misunderstanding and ignorance on the part
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Fair Weather Friends: Western Reaction(s) to the Middle East Protests
By Guest Contributors, on September 8, 2012, at 2:09 pm What Has Changed Since September 11, 2001?
W2 Media Cafe and Siraat invite you to a public forum on Monday, September 10, 2012, looking at Canada’s racist legacy, as we mark 11 years after the events of September 11, 2001. 7pm at 111 West Hastings Street, Vancouver.
Invited Panellists: Kat Norris, Jasmin Zine, Abdhullah Almalki, Alnoor Gova and Imtiaz Popat
Moderated by Charlie Smith, Editor of the Georgia Straight
Kat Norris: Founder of Indigenous Action Movement. A survivor of the residential schools, she has been organizing against police abuses including the Frank Paul Inquiry.
Jasmin Zine: Associate Professor at
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: What Has Changed Since September 11, 2001?
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on September 5, 2012, at 2:41 pm Less than 12 after being elected to a minority government in Quebec, the PQ has announced it will cancel the socially and economically regressive tuition fee hikes and repeal the flagrantly unconstitutional Bill 78, which trampled on expression and assembly rights.
Quebec, long one of the most progressive socially and economically progressive cultures in our federation, is showing the rest of us once again what a stern devotion to progressive policies looks like.
Every NDP government or government in waiting needs to watch what assertiveness looks like.
And while we will likely see much discussion about language policies from Quebec
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Let’s Watch Where Quebec Leads Us All
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on July 31, 2012, at 12:00 pm “Before my father died, he said the worst thing about growing old was that other men stop seeing you as dangerous….Dangerousness was sacred.”
Last night I watched Act of Valor. I liveblogged it so you don’t have to watch it. You’re welcome.
First there was The Lottery, a dystopic tale of social gruesomeness that I encountered in high school English. It got me thinking.
Then there was The Running Man and now the Hunger Games.
Now we have UFC and reality TV and their bastard child: Act of Valor, designed to both decry a life filled with
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Act of Valor, Redux
By GroupThink ReSpun, on May 29, 2012, at 12:00 pm We have decided that “GroupThink ReSpun” will be the name of the process whereby various of the Politics, Re-Spun crew collaborate on editorializing about a current event. Enjoy the poetry of the term!
So apparently, the RCMP wants to ease into allowing US agents to operate freely in Canada:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/rcmp-ease-canadians-idea-u-agents-canada-201905380.html
1. Do you want to be American? Discuss.
Amputating one of my limbs with a nail clipper and then sewing it to my forehead sounds more appealing, really. I don’t make a very good American. Clinging to my sacred socialist cows and such. – Tia
First
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: GroupThink ReSpun: On US Police Forces Operating in Canada
By Peter Prontzos, on May 22, 2012, at 11:00 am It is truly stunning to see how the elites react when people dare speak out against “austerity” – that is, to squeeze even more profits out of workers, students, and citizens in general. Almost as appalling is the way that the corporate media (and often the CBC) follow the party line.
Consider these two recent attacks on Quebec students.
We begin with Margaret Wente’s screed in Saturday’s Globe & Mail, “Tuition protesters are the Greeks of Canada.” For starters, this ignorant and racist rant is an insult to Greeks, to students, and to all Quebeckers.
She condemns the
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: How Dare You Drones Resist?!
By Tia Everitt, on May 1, 2012, at 5:18 pm
Last week, our favourite sweatervest hoarding Prime Minister made the world’s laziest Nazi/Hitler invocation during Question Period. This is the latest in a string of Hitler references made by sundry politicos in Ottawa during 2012, and we’re not even half way through the year. His gaffe brought jeers and tears of laughter to denizens of the House and online. For your viewing pleasure, witness the exchange between Mulcair the Bearded Sandwich Explainer and Stevie Soulless Eyes HERE.
After I was done laughing and wiping tears of hilarity from my eyes, I went back to the Politics Respun crew, and
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Springtime for Hitler in Ottawa
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on April 21, 2012, at 2:22 pm Closing prisons from the 19th century is surely a good idea, but I have no faith that the Conservative Party cares to replace them with anything progressive based on research from any time since the 19th century.
So here’s a Canadian prison Shock Doctrine perfect storm:
The Conservatives [Reform Party] want to spend billions on new prisons because they believe prisons are good. I expect them to be privately run, for profit. Prisons are over-crowded already so we need more, but ideally more that are effectively designed and operated. Don’t hold your breath. Dickens-era prison philosophy is in vogue among . . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Vic Toews’ Prison Shock Doctrine Recipe
By Imtiaz Popat, on April 2, 2012, at 6:00 pm Long time social justice and democracy activists fooled their foes on April Fools this year giving the world a double victory with Aung San Suu Kyi and George Galloway winning by-elections to restore voices for reason in the world.
Suu Kyi, a long time political prisoner, won her first election after being freed by the Myanmar military regime. She has fought long and hard for the democracy movement in the former Burma in the tradition of her father General Aung San. The military still controls the country and elected politicians have a token role to play.
George Galloway was also
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Social Justice and Democracy Activists Fool their Foes on April Fools
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on March 16, 2012, at 11:00 am Nathan Cullen has my vote.
Let me begin by saying that we are at an historical moment in Canadian history. We are being besieged by an increasingly draconian corporatist, neo-conservative and neoliberal Conservative Party government which is far worse than Mulroney’s free trade corporatist “Progressive” Conservatives from a generation ago. This government is an ecological criminal in foreign affairs, obsessed with domestic surveillance and mongers war.
We are at a time of heightened awareness of the illegitimacy of the first-past-the-post electoral system that has allowed such extremist doctrine to have a majority of power in the country with less than
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Why I’m Voting for Nathan Cullen
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on February 28, 2012, at 11:00 am The Harper government is paying consultant Deloitte Inc. almost $90,000 a day for advice on how to manage the cuts.
via Harper personally approved $22,000 tab for visiting bureaucrats – The Globe and Mail.
I am flabbergasted to read this entire article about money Harper personally signed off on to wine and dine the global elite/1% in OECD contempt-fests.
But I am more stunned by the sentence quoted above, which appeared at the very end of the piece. Despite the tens of thousands of dollars spent on single events, why in the name of all that is not-so-contemptuous and oh-so-righteous,
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Harper Spends $90k of Our Money/Day to Spin Us on His Cuts
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 10, 2012, at 11:00 am I have a great deal of respect for Canadian Forces personnel. I have generally disagreed with virtually every one of their foreign deployments in my lifetime, but that is a criticism I make of our political leaders who order our forces to go here and there.
I support our troops by encouraging the government not to continue slashing their pensions and healthcare, and to actually treat soldiers with respect and dignity by providing the kind of care they need: vocationally, psychologically, emotionally, etc.
I do not, however, like the militarization of Canadian culture because it is priming us for a
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: My Canada Does Not Include Militarizing Canada Day
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
By Jasmin Mujanovic, on December 23, 2011, at 6:03 am “I think Hannah Arendt did say somewhere in The Origins of Totalitarianism that the thesis of the modern state is: ‘Everyone should die.’” –Suffled How it Gush (pg. 74)
I have joked with my partner that I have a certain amount of angst regarding my future as any sort of “real” academic (read: employed). Mostly it stems from the fact that I often don’t feel my ideas sufficiently “sophisticated.” Since I have begun earnestly researching Balkan and Bosnian politics, in particular, the general tenor of my analysis has been “assholes are ruining it for everyone.”
. . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Book Review: Suffled How it Gush: A North American Anarchist in the Balkans
By Jasmin Mujanovic, on October 29, 2011, at 4:22 am It is not customary to begin a discussion about terrorism with a joke but, given the context, I think it appropriate. How else, after all, is one to deal with the idiocy of this recent attack on the US Embassy in Sarajevo? Mujo and Suljo are the two stock characters of Bosnian humour: a sort [...] . . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Terror in Sarajevo? Islam in Bosnia & the Rejection of Extremism
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on August 28, 2011, at 11:00 am I happen to agree with Ezra Levant today. Only in part. Here’s a piece on Quebec’s desire to license journalists. The government of Quebec wants to licence journalists. Christine St-Pierre, its minister of culture and communications, thinks it just ain’t right there aren’t controls over people like me. Or, more to the point, people like [...] . . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Agreeing with Ezra Levant?
By Jasmin Mujanovic, on July 10, 2011, at 1:30 pm This is as close to a eulogy and an ode as I can write for a place with which I struggle every day. As I write this, a now yearly procession is making its way to the town of Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The remains of hundreds of men of all ages are making their way [...] . . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: The Bridge Builders: Cultural Survival in Bosnia
By Sallie Caulfield, on July 10, 2011, at 11:00 am Can I get a “WOW”? Just look at all those women! I couldn’t stop grinning as woman after woman after woman rose and spoke. What happened to all the arrogant white dudes? Oh, they’re posturing and questioning. I guess someone noticed as the past few questions have been lobbed by female CPC MPs. Aside from [...] . . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Thoughts on a Filibuster
By Jasmin Mujanovic, on May 26, 2011, at 8:58 pm The ongoing attacks on net neutrality constitute a new round of enclosures of the modern commons. If the original enclosure movements during 16th and 17th centuries in England signified the opening overture of capitalism, then the contemporary attacks on the electronic commons are certainly part of its fully formed fruition. Taking what was once common, [...] . . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Anonymous: The Commons and the Last of the Outlaws?
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on May 25, 2011, at 11:00 am Yesterday I lifted my head from some work to watch the Ottawa journalists in Twitter filling us all in on John Baird’s first press conference as the majority Conservative government’s Foreign Affairs minister. They noted he read from the speech: very odd. It was a signal of a new degree of hypocritical oddity now besetting [...] . . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Harper, Hypocrisy, Syria, and Degrees of Freedom
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on May 17, 2011, at 3:00 pm I know what’s in a name. Soon, everyone will. We’ll have a long time with this new Harper Government. Bets are now on in terms of what he’ll name the Government of Canada this time. He’s tried “Canada’s New Government” and “The Harper Government” already. But when I read analysis of the election results, it [...] . . . → Read More: Politics, Re-Spun: Tory, PC, Harper, Conservative, Alliance, or Reform Majority?
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