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Category: Archive

Writings prior to December 2007.

Hugo Blanco on tour – National liberation for the 21st century

SEPTEMBER 23, 2007 – He was a modest grey-haired man sitting on the chair in a little living room in Toronto. But to be in the room with him was a privilege. Hugo Blanco, in his life and struggles, embodies the long battle of the “other America” – the America south of the Rio Grande – to emerge from generations of imperialism and oppression. Today Blanco edits Lucha Indígena (Indigenous Struggle).[1] All his life he has been an anti-imperialist and a socialist. And all his life, he has been marked by imperialism as a man who had to be stopped.…

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Space for the workers

JUNE 13, 2007 – Workers in the US stand at the threshold of a new era in the labour movement – taking the class struggle into space. Close to 600 NASA launch workers – members of the International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers – reached an impasse in contract negotiations at the beginning of June.[1] The IAM was in negotiations with the imposingly named “United Space Alliance” – an alliance between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.[2] The very composition of this alliance is just about perfect. Lockheed Martin – as documented by Michael Moore’s film “Bowling for Columbine”[3]…

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Ocean’s Thirteen: Slyly Progressive

JUNE 13, 2007 – Don’t get me wrong – Ocean’s Thirteen[1] is not a great film. But it’s not as bad as many critics have painted it. And if you’re a progressive critic of a North America run by Bush and Harper, it has moments that are, well, wonderful. I won’t give the story line away – which is just as silly, improbable and complex as in the previous Ocean films. But what do you say about a film that refers favourably to Emiliano Zapato, leader of Mexico’s great revolution? What do you say about a thief who goes to…

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Government, police, racism to blame in Dudley George’s death

JUNE 1, 2007 – When Justice Sidney Linden finally tabled his long-awaited report into the death of Dudley George, there was applause in the courtroom from family and supporters of the slain indigenous activist. Twelve years ago, on September 6, 1995, a bullet from the gun of Ontario Provincial Police officer, Kenneth Deane, ended unarmed George’s life. He was only 38. Deane was found criminally negligent in George’s death, but didn’t serve a day in jail, getting two years less a day community service.[1] Linden’s report concluded that George’s death resulted from: Ottawa’s long-term neglect of indigenous land claims; the provincial…

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300 – A Propaganda Film for the Pentagon

APRIL 19, 2007 – There are few words to describe the movie 300.[1] One that comes to mind is awful. Some are seeing it as the next Lord of the Rings. But if racism and imperialism were implicit in Tolkein’s work, in 300 these are explicit. The movie portrays a “brave group of free white” men holding the line against a slave-holding empire where the emperor is … Black! “We are fighting “for all Greeks and the promise this country holds” we are told at one point. But wait a minute. This “brave group of free white men” are from…

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Zero out of Slevin

JANUARY 27, 2007 – So, we renew our membership at Alliance Atlantis, to secure free parking for the year and a 15 per cent discount at Il Fornello’s – and we get a free DVD – “Lucky Number Slevin.”[1] Unlucky us. I’ve trolled the Internet, and checked out a few of the reviews. It’s supposed to be a “film noir” thriller. A movie that makes you think. It’s a movie that makes you think that our society is really sick. The gratuitous violence is non-stop. But that seems to, now, go without saying in what passes for “entertainment” from the…

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Galabuzi book launch – ‘Racism is a Canadian phenomenon’

APRIL 11, 2006 – The tiny space of Bathurst Street’s best bookstore could barely handle the overthrow crowd of more than 100 people March 30, there to help Grace-Edward Galabuzi launch his new book. Canada’s Economic Apartheid: The Social Exclusion of Racialized Groups in the New Century,[1] is a revised and updated version of a study which, when it was released, sparked a much-needed debate on racism in this country. “Between 1980 and 2000” said Galabuzi, “there has been a 361 per cent increase in poverty for racialized groups in Toronto. “Too often we think of racism as something experienced…

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Watch these DVDs – but Brokeback is the classic

APRIL 10, 2006 – Two of the best films of the last year are now available on DVD. Crash, directed by Paul Haggis and with an all-star cast including Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock and Matt Dillon – is a very fine exposé of the racism which permeates modern U.S. society. For viewers from racially profiled Toronto with its creeping economic apartheid, there is no question that its message resonates here as well. The film won three Oscars, and mostly deservedly-so. But when viewed side by side with the really great DVD released this month – it’s pretty clear that one…

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The letter The Star wouldn’t print

MARCH 16, 2005 – Tomorrow, March 5, will see marches across the country to celebrate International Women’s Day. Your paper (The Toronto Star) will undoubtedly cover these events. But to really cover issues of women’s rights, your paper should also cover a story a little closer to home. Since December 6, 59 mostly women workers – members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers’ Union (CEP), Local 87-M – have been on strike against Brabant Newspapers, a company owned by TorStar – the owners of your newspaper. These workers earn a top rate of $8.99 an hour. But they have been offered…

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Women workers fight back – Support the Brabant strikers

MARCH 7, 2005 – The Toronto Star likes to market itself as a progressive voice, including a progressive voice for women’s rights. But its owner – TorStar Corp. – is now 14 weeks into a bitter labour dispute with 59 low-paid, mostly women workers at Brabant Newspapers in Stoney Creek. And not one line about the strike has appeared in the pages of the “progressive” Toronto Star. The strikers – members of local 87-M, Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) – include inserters, whose top rate is $8.99 per hour. Mike Sullivan of CEP says that in 1993,…

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