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15 years ago @ rabble.ca Canadian fed... - Lets ask good question... · 0 replies · +1 points

update: Sarkozy, Merkel, Brown and friends are trying to spin their plan for the global economy as a 'New Deal', similar to what was set up after the Great Depression. Yet the EU/UK plan is neither new nor a deal. It simply sets up a bunch of their crony 'supervisors' to supposedly 'monitor' and act as an 'early warning system' to the financial sector. Feel reassured? Where is the 'deal' for labour ? Where is actual participatory/public space for accounting and verification? Do they think the public trusts them after allowing 30 years of free-fall of public funds into private pockets? Are we going to let them to continue to speculate behind their 'college of supervisors' on climate change, water depletion, food security, weapons, and any other thing they please??
This is the big question which people of all political stripes can find some unity on.
We don't want another new higher crust of financiers dispensing more of their 'solutions' while the loaf implodes.

15 years ago @ rabble.ca Canadian fed... - Lets ask good question... · 0 replies · +1 points

(cont)
This campaign has been based on;
- intentionally instigating rural resentment toward city folks, and vice versa
- using media and money to promote music and symbols in rural areas that resonate with many middle and lower income residents (along with the usual litany of messaging)
- basically force-feeding vulnerable people (whose incomes they've stolen through the commodities casino), a shallow, false identity instead.

So we have to find ways, perhaps the cultural folks have some good ideas, on how to bridge divides to get messaging through, particularly around alternatives to the current $ system. Keynesians, for example, might want to remind rural dwellers of the kinds of the interventionist policies were established after the Great Depression, which rural dwellers do remember quite vividly. This should be combined with careful critique of current so-called 'New Deal' proposals on offer from the UK/EU which may allow further financier self-regulation, and no public supports. (cont.)
ps. We do not need to further entrench city/country divides. This approach will distract us from the core economic issues which unite us.

15 years ago @ rabble.ca Canadian fed... - Lets ask good question... · 0 replies · +1 points

sigh..there was a middle section to this point, it's disappeared twice now...hope it shows up

15 years ago @ rabble.ca Canadian fed... - Lets ask good question... · 0 replies · +1 points

(cont.2)
Others may want to highlight some of the very hopeful alternatives proposed in Morale's new constitution, the majority of rural dwellers are not vast landowners, and would see there some solid supports for their livelihoods, if they are allowed to see the specifics, without the trappings of ideology which will shut the door to further dialogue.

Put that in a country music song, and..., well, you get the idea.

15 years ago @ rabble.ca Canadian fed... - Lets ask good question... · 0 replies · +1 points

The points gained by PC in the last couple days reflected the news of a G7 plan for the financial crisis. This was confirmed when stocks rose by 900 points on the Monday. PC's thus had it in the bag with a number swing ridings in the 905 and other areas where people might have voted differently.

At the same time, the PCs also enjoy the support of a very different demographic, rural lower income people. These include the residents of close knit towns and communities where you know everyone in the grocery, where people still hold dances for their neighbours whose houses burn down from woodstove fires. On voting day PCs were out driving their neighbours to their polls, the elderly, young people, anyone who could vote.

The PCS were entirely shut out of Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto. It's a rural/urban split, encompassing the suburban rich responding to the finance shock and 'relief' ,and the rural poor, responding to years of a multifactored campaign. (cont.)

15 years ago @ rabble.ca Canadian fed... - Morning After ... · 0 replies · +1 points

Harper said, 'savings, earnings, and future opportunities' for all Canadians, quite distinct from others' call for protection of 'savings, homes, jobs' and we might add, 'lives'.
The lives and self-determination of all peoples and species depends upon clear understanding and collective action in resistance to the current financier power grab.
This means linking our analysis and efforts- peace demo coming up? make the links with money, power, environment, military squashing of indigenous Life.
focus and hold onto what unites us, if it is eachother's hands, then lets use that circle to ring 'em round.

15 years ago @ rabble.ca Canadian fed... - Get Out and (S... · 0 replies · +1 points

Climate scientist Weaver asks Elizabeth May and Green voters to sacrifice the $1.89 votes for the sake of the planet. see the news item posted at voteforenvironment.ca .

15 years ago @ rabble.ca Canadian fed... - Putting humans... · 0 replies · +1 points

Dear Dr. Suzuki,

Yes, we need to put humanity back in perspective, in relation to other species.
And the market, currently, runs our show. It is probably true that if policies are designed to make environmentally-friendly directions attractive to the market, then environment-friendly directions may result. Maybe.
But what if the market is filled with crony corporatists who have too much invested in oil, gas, nukes, mining, and a given financial system, that they don't want to lose?
Could we not demand that the reins of the market be given back to the majority who, according to statistics, do want a healthy planet?
Should we not resist further financier self-regulation, marketed as 'regulation'?
All of us need to demand strong, Publicly Verifiable regulation of finance, and economies geared to support the grassroots in every sense of that word. At this moment, if we don't together call for a truly democratic financial system, our policies and hoped-for outcomes around emissions will disappear into the expanding ocean of liquidity.
Thanks for your consideration of these issues, and best wishes, Leigh Thomson

15 years ago @ rabble.ca Canadian fed... - Injecting NAFTA into t... · 0 replies · +1 points

pieces of the timeline:
1) an April 11/08 press release from Paulson http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/hp919.htm outlines the G7 plan of more deregulation: Financier self-reporting disguised as 'regulation'. A 'college of supervisors' is proposed, unspecified, along with the rapid completion of the WTO Doha Round.

2) -4) see note above
5) Outrageous investment deals with Colombia and the EU are proceeding along under Harper's voluminous sweater, expanding the worst elements of NAFTA, and sneaking in more disastrous financial self-regulation proposals.

6) Self-regulated global finance would give financiers what they failed to get at the WTO, that is, full control of public pocketbooks around the world.

7) The EU financier self-regulation package embedded in Harper's EU deal is NAFTA on steroids. To pull the rug out from under these outrageous proposals, we can take up a call to re-open NAFTA, in the interests of the environment, workers, and all residents. www.polarisinstitute.org has a feature item on this call.

15 years ago @ rabble.ca Canadian fed... - Injecting NAFTA into t... · 0 replies · +1 points

it looks like the first and third parts of this missive are lost in cyberspace...maybe they'll show up later. the space limits on this board force commenters to chop up comments. i'll check back later, connecting the dots on these issues is critical, even more critical than my frosted veggies in fact...

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