The ruling class of society keeps control through a mix of repression, ideology and material provisioning of the population it rules. Repression alone is expensive and, in the long run, ineffective to keep power. Rulers usually have to provide some material protection and provisioning of society, whether that is keeping the people of a city […]
Continue Reading
Update, November 25: Twelve days ago Kenney finally recognized the threat of COVID, and took some limited steps. However, it was too little and today he was forced to take more thorough actions. Even still his actions are too little and too late. Dr. Joe Vipond, a Calgary emergency room physician, stated “Now that our […]
Continue Reading
Updated with full results after postal votes counted. The New Democratic Party (NDP) strolled to a solid victory in the October 24 provincial election. After a delay of three weeks to count the 660,000 postal ballots, the NDP has won 57 seats up, taking two additional seats from the Liberals in each of the Okanagan […]
Continue Reading
Capitalism turned the coronavirus into a huge disaster. COVID-19 was not an inevitable and unavoidable pandemic; capitalism made it more likely that a virus would cross to humans and did not prepare for that. Once the virus was known to be infecting humans the response was inadequate. Almost everything capitalism did and is doing made […]
Continue Reading
To no one’s surprise the BC New Democrats (NDP) have called a provincial election, which they are highly likely to win. The opposition parties are having little or no impact and, not surprisingly, are criticizing the decision. COVID-19 COVID has dominated people’s thoughts for most of 2020. Up to recently, the NDP was considered to […]
Continue Reading
Canada has now been under COVID-19 restrictions for three months and many provinces are starting to open up again, although the virus is not under control. Canada is not yet out of the first wave and is certainly not ready to deal with the inevitable second wave. The Liberal government has acted too little and […]
Continue Reading
Around the world countries are lifting the restrictions that were introduced to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. People are allowed to leave their homes, and workplaces, cafes and stores are re-opening. The sharp closures of society and economy were needed to reduce the level of infection and death from the virus, only because of the inadequate […]
Continue Reading
Canada is opening up after varying degrees of restrictions due to COVID-19. Retail stores, cafes, bars and restaurants, hairdressers and many workplaces are restarting operations. Of course, many businesses and workplaces deemed essential (some rather dubiously, like building luxury condos or pipelines) never closed. Schools in most provinces are closed, apart from provision for some […]
Continue Reading
Locusts and Fires Raging fires in Australia and a plague of locusts in east Africa dominated global news at the start of 2020. These rapidly receded in consciousness as the COVID-19 pandemic erupted onto the world, already made dangerously vulnerable by capitalism. The climate devastation was mounting around the world. The world’s economy was […]
Continue Reading
On April 3, the Canadian government awarded Amazon the contract to distribute personal protective equipment and supplies during the COVID-19 disaster.A couple of days earlier Amazon had fired a New York worker, Chris Smalls, for helping to organize a strike over the lack of safety provision in Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse. On April 14, Amazon […]
Continue Reading