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The Bullet

	Date	Author	Title ISSN 1923-7871
594.	February 2, 2012	Gary Lawrence	Labour Leadership Squabbles in Ontario
As the capitalist crisis intensifies, austerity measures against public sector workers continue to mount. In Ontario, another round of cuts will soon be proposed by the Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services, headed by Don Drummond.
593.	January 30, 2012	Carlo Fanelli	An Incomplete Victory or the Beginning of the End for Ford Nation?
Does the 2012 City of Toronto budget represent an incomplete victory for the Rob Ford Administration or is it indicative of its impending demise? It really depends on how you look at it. The tax and service cuts of the first year of Mayor Ford's term remain in place.
592.	January 28, 2012	Alan Sears	Toronto Politics in the Year of the Lockout
We are still very early in 2012 but so far it seems to be shaping up as the Year of the Lockout. A lockout is a labour disruption initiated by management, shutting unionized workers out of the workplace if they do not agree to the employer's contract demands.
591.	January 26, 2012	Tithi Bhattacharya	Standing Up to Indiana's Attack on Unions
Some 10,000 angry workers swarmed around the Indiana State House January 23 to protest a pending anti-union 'right-to-work' bill that the Republican-controlled state Senate passed by a vote of 28-22. The next day, another 7,000 workers returned, enraged by the Senate vote.
590.	January 25, 2012	Christoph Hermann	Neoliberalism and the End of Shorter Work Hours
While in previous crises shorter work hours were discussed as a measure to combat growing unemployment, an astonishing feature of the current economic downturn from 2007 on was that work time reductions were nowhere on the political agenda.
589.	January 24, 2012	Steve Ellner	The Distinguishing Features of Latin America's New Left In Power
Most political analysts place the governments of Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales and Rafael Correa in the same category but without defining their common characteristics. Beginning with the publication of Leftovers in 2008, critics of the left sought to overcome the shortcoming by characterizing the three presidents as 'populist leftists,' which they distinguished from the 'good leftists.'
588.	January 23, 2012	Hans Bennett; Bret Grote	The Torture of Mumia Abu-Jamal Continues off Death Row
On December 7, following the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to consider the Philadelphia District Attorney's final avenue of appeal, current DA Seth Williams announced that he would no longer be seeking a death sentence for the world-renowned death row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal - on death row following his conviction at a 1982 trial deemed unfair by Amnesty International, the European Parliament, the Japanese Diet, Nelson Mandela, and many others.
587.	January 20, 2012	Paul Kahnert and Sam Gindin	Tax Cuts, Privatization and Deregulation Disguised as Public Policy
Where are we going as a society? We once proudly invested in our schools, pools, libraries, daycare, healthcare, roads, electricity, water and sewers. Today we're busy slashing social services and letting our infrastructure crumble.
586.	January 17, 2012	Doug Nesbitt	Canadian Labour At The Crossroads?
A wage cut of fifty per cent. An elimination of pensions. Cuts to benefits. These demands have inevitably led to a major showdown at a locomotive factory in London, Ontario between the 700 unionized workers of Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) and Caterpillar, a massive U.S.-based corporation.
585.	January 6, 2012	John S. Saul	A Poisoned Chalice: Liberation, ANC-Style
There is good and obvious reason to celebrate the long history of the African National Congress (ANC): the organization's marked dedication over one hundred years to the cause of the betterment of the lot of the oppressed African people in South Africa.
584.	January 2, 2012	Vishwas Satgar	Reclaiming the South African Dream
During the 20th century, South Africa's national struggle occupied an iconic place in the global political imagination. International opposition to apartheid came together in the heady days of socialist revolutions, anti-colonial struggles and the rise of the 1968 new left.
583.	December 29, 2011	Simten Cosar and G�lden �zcan	Talking About Dissent in Turkey? Hush, Hush!
With the successes of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in three consecutive general elections in Turkey (getting 34% of the total votes in 2002, 47% in 2007 and almost 50% in the 2011 general election), Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has emerged as a world figure.
582.	December 27, 2011	Carlo Fanelli	Mayor Ford versus CUPE Locals 79 and 416: Some Thoughts on Strategy
As the Canadian government and its provincial equivalents take part in the global push for austerity, its after effects have significantly strained the fiscal and political dimensions of municipal governance.
581.	December 22, 2011	Ursula Huws	Crisis as Capitalist Opportunity
I think the left, certainly the British left, has very much focused on seeing the financial crisis as something to do with banks and something to do with financialization and the finance economy. All the political action that we've seen recently is all focused on how the banks are the baddies, how to change the banking system, how to make it responsible etc.
580.	December 19, 2011	Richard Fidler	Québec Solidaire Struggles to Define its Space in Shifting Political Landscape
About 400 members of Québec solidaire met in Montréal, December 9-11 in a delegated convention to debate and adopt positions on major social and cultural questions.
579.	December 13, 2011	Steven Tufts	Greening Work in an Age of Uncertainty
The theme for the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Durban was "Working Together: Saving Tomorrow Today." Canada's conservative government, backed by the U.S., is, however, clearly not interested in working with others on addressing global warming.
578.	December 9, 2011	Adam Hanieh	Class and Capitalism in the Gulf
The Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) supplies of oil and gas are among the highest in the world. There are various estimates here, but a commonly cited figure is that the GCC holds about 40-45 per cent of global proven oil reserves and 20 per cent of world gas. This gives the region a vital importance to the patterns of accumulation in the global economy.
577.	December 6, 2011	Samir Amin	Audacity, More Audacity
The historical circumstances created by the implosion of contemporary capitalism requires the radical left, in the North as well as the South, to be bold in formulating its political alternative to the existing system. The purpose of this paper is to show why audacity is required and what it means.
576.	December 2, 2011	John W. Warnock	Social Democracy and the Economic Crisis: The Saskatchewan Case
In the Spanish general election, the Socialist Party government was soundly defeated. The rightist Peoples Party won the election but only increased their vote by a very small margin. The Indignados, the people who staged mass street mobilizations, asked the voters to stay home, spoil their ballot or vote for the numerous smaller parties.
575.	November 30, 2011	Dan Freeman-Maloy	Kadima's Black Flags and Israel's Image Problem
Israel is currently experiencing an internationally visible collapse of its 'liberal democratic' camp, raising significant problems for a state whose underlying theocratic and apartheid features have historically been partially covered from international view by liberal democratic pretenses.
574.	November 28, 2011	Hugo Radice	The Next Banking Crisis
In the ongoing Euro-crisis, our political leaders are constantly criticized for 'playing catch-up' and not being 'ahead of the curve' (although others might feel that they are completely round the bend). Perhaps, therefore, it is time to look up from the turmoil in the sovereign bond markets and the counsels of the European Union.
573.	November 25, 2011	Hilary Wainwright	Resistance Takes Root in Barcelona
The Catalans have a phrase: em planto. It has a double meaning: 'I plant,' or 'I've had enough.' At end of the huge 15 October demonstration of Indignados ('outraged') in Barcelona - the papers put it at around 250,000 - we were greeted with an impromptu garden under the Arc de Triomf, the end point of the march.
572.	November 22, 2011	Larry Lohmann	Unravelling Carbon Markets
The carbon market creates new asset classes (and opportunities for accumulation) at a time of profit crisis. It is part of a 'new phase of accumulation' that is also reflected in - to take two other prime examples - the trends in public service commodification described in Ursula Huws' chapter in this year's Socialist Register, and the growing global trade in 'ecosystem services' generally.
571.	November 18, 2011	Matthew Brett	Resisting Expropriation of the Occupy Movement
The occupy movement is currently being forcefully dismantled by police across North America and Europe. The pretext for these police interventions are health and safety concerns, but the reality is that public space is being re-occupied by the status quo.
570.	November 17, 2011	Marcello Musto	Political Crisis in Italy and Greece: Marx on 'Technical Government'
In recent years Karl Marx has again been featured in the world's press because of his prescient insights into the cyclical and structural character of capitalist crises. Now there is another reason why he should be re-read in the light of Greece and Italy: the reappearance of the 'technical government.'
569.	November 15, 2011	Pham Binh	You Can't Evict a Revolution
At 1 a.m. the New York Police Department began clearing Liberty Plaza of the hundreds of occupiers who camp there every night. People were told to leave with their property or face arrest. About 100 or so refused to move. Some of them chained themselves to trees, others linked arms.
568.	November 13, 2011	Michael Roberts	Italy and Greece: Rule by the Bankers
It looks as though, by Monday, both Greece and Italy will be ruled by so-called 'technocratic' governments. Even though both Greek prime minister George Papandreou and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi were elected comfortably in parliamentary polls and were never defeated in any vote of confidence in parliament, they have been ousted -- to be replaced by unelected ex-central bankers.
567.	November 11, 2011	Shourideh Molavi and Justin Podur	The Regressive Politics of the Iranian-Canadian Khavari Petition
On October 12, members of the Iranian-Canadian community sent a petition to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney expressing concern about the arrival in Canada of Mahmoud Reza Khavari, the former chairman of the largest Iranian state-owned banking institution (Bank Melli).
566.	November 10, 2011	Tammy Ko Robinson	South Korea's 300 Day Aerial Sit-in Strike Highlights Plight of Precarious Workers
From atop the No. 85 crane's cab 35 meters above Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction's Yeongdo Shipbuilding Yard in Busan, Kim Jin Sook has been protesting the company's December 15, 2010 announced plan of a reduction in the workforce, is supported on the ground by the Korean Metal Workers' Federation.
565.	November 7, 2011	Gavin Fridell	Corporations Occupy Fair Trade
Over the past few weeks the Occupy Wall Street movement has shone the spotlight on corporate power and social inequality, and calls have begun to emerge from within the movement around an array of demands, from a windfall tax on the richest 1 per cent, to Adbuster's "Robin Hood" tax.
564.	November 3, 2011	Samir Sonti	Organized Labour and the Occupations Movement
The Occupy Wall Street phenomenon has achieved a stature and longevity unrivaled by recent demonstrations in the United States, and has understandably struck a chord with a wide range of people dismayed by the barbaric level of inequality that is the defining feature of contemporary American society.
563.	October 31, 2011	J. F. Conway	Saskatchewan Election 2011: the Looming Debacle
A reporter covering Tory Prime Minister Kim Campbell's campaign during the 1993 election likened it to watching a dog die slowly. Campbell replaced Brian Mulroney after his public support collapsed and she was punished for his sins, winning only two seats and 16 per cent of the vote.
562.	October 26, 2011	Roger Annis	Canadian Government Announces Multi-Billion Dollar Warship Building Program
The champagne corks were popping in Halifax and Vancouver on October 19 when the Canadian government announced that two shipyards there have been chosen to build a new, multi-billion dollar generation of warships and coast guard vessels.
561.	October 23, 2011	Aris Leonas	Greece on the Brink of Emergency: A Matter of Days
In Greece a number of factors stand out, suggesting that Greece is on the verge of some major changes. The disruption of basic operations of the state in conjunction with the wide spread certainty that the Greek debt cannot be controlled compose the picture of political instability and crisis which seems to be the precursor of a more generalized political crisis.
560.	October 21, 2011	Alan Sears	Occupy Actions: From Wall Street to a Campus Near You?
The Occupy Wall Street movement and the mobilizations of the 'indignant' in Europe have sparked solidarity actions in many places around the world. October 15, 2011 was a massive day of action that included over 60 marches in Spain, a huge demonstration of over 100,000 in Rome and Occupy actions in cities and towns across North America and in many other places.
559.	October 20, 2011	Bashir Abu-Manneh	A 'Palestinian Spring'? Not Yet
The 'Palestinian Spring' is the only one of the 'Arab Springs' to be announced from the General Assembly platform of the UN. "At a time when," Mahmoud Abbas declared in his speech for UN recognition of Palestinian statehood, "the Arab peoples affirm their quest for democracy -- the Arab Spring -- the time is now for the Palestinian Spring, the time for independence."
558.	October 19, 2011	The Organizer	Occupy Wall Street, the Trade Union Movement and the Fight to Stop the Cuts and Concessions
Tens of thousands -- if not hundreds of thousands -- of people have taken to the streets over the past four weeks across the United States as part of an Occupy Wall Street movement to protest the intolerable conditions of massive unemployment, growing inequality, rampant home foreclosures, and stepped-up cuts in the social safety net.
557.	October 17, 2011	Palestinian BDS National Committee	Occupy Wall Street not Palestine!
The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, the largest Palestinian civil society coalition struggling for Palestinian rights, is proud to stand in solidarity with the movements struggling for a new world based on democracy, human rights and economic justice. From New York to Athens, from Madrid to Santiago, from Bahrain to Rome.
556.	October 16, 2011	Justin Podur	The Logic of Occupy Wall Street for Canada
The Occupy Wall Street Movement and the Occupy Together movements that are inspired by it actually have a simple premise: society shouldn't be run for the unrestricted benefit of the wealthiest. The immediate grievance is the 2008 banking crisis, in which the U.S. banks engaged in fraudulent and criminal activity and were subsequently rewarded for doing so with trillions in government funds, while their victims reaped evictions and foreclosures.
555.	October 14, 2011	Matt Fodor	Ontario Election 2011: Hard-Right Rejected, But Neoliberalism Still On The Agenda
In a very uninspiring campaign, the Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty has been re-elected to a third term. The Liberals ended up just one seat shy of a majority government -- winning 53 of 107 seats in the legislature and 37.6 per cent of the popular vote.
554.	October 13, 2011	Frances Fox Piven	From Protest to Disruption
Frances Fox Piven has spent decades writing about and participating in social movements in the United States. She was gracious enough to sit down for an interview with Chris Maisano, a writer and activist in the New York local of Democratic Socialists of America. They discuss the Occupy Wall Street protests, the complex interplay between social movements and electoral politics, and the future of the occupation movement.
553.	October 12, 2011	Matthew Flisfeder	Occupy Wall Street: Beyond the Rhetoric
One of the distinguishing features of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement is its apparent lack of central leadership. Not only does the movement seem leaderless; it does not appear to be organized around any clearly defined 'demands.' This has been perceived as something quite positive for participants and supporters of the movement.
552.	October 7, 2011	John Weeks	Occupy Wall Street: Why Bother the Bankers?
When he ran for president in 1948, Harry Truman complained of the "blood-suckers of Wall Street," an unkind characterization of the upstanding bankers and financiers who manage America's money so brilliantly.
551.	October 6, 2011	Pham Binh	The 99% Occupy Wall Street
The entrapment and arrest of 700 peaceful Occupy Wall Street (OWS) activists on the Brooklyn Bridge has created a huge wave of support for their movement. The number of daytime occupants in Liberty Plaza doubled or tripled from 100 the week prior to 200-300 this past Monday and Tuesday.
550.	October 5, 2011	Doug Allan	The Coming Battle: Healthcare Privatization and the Ontario Election
In the past, capitalists had given many aspects of healthcare a pass in Canada and Ontario. There was a general preference to leave medicare intact from the lower costs it provided employers, especially in export sectors like auto, that gave Canadian companies a cost advantage.
549.	October 3, 2011	Richard Fidler	Ottawa Tar-Sands Protest: Reports and Impressions
I participated in the demonstration against the Alberta tar sands outside the Canadian Parliament here in Ottawa on September 26. As was widely reported, the civil disobedience component of the action resulted in over 200 arrests.
548.	September 26, 2011	Kirsten Francescone	Internal Fractions and the Right in Bolivia
A month has gone by since the people of the Territorio Indígena Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS as they are referred to in Bolivia) departed from Trinidad in the province of Beni, Bolivia in reaction to the Movimiento al Socialismo's (MAS) announcement to construct the highway 'Villa Tunari-San Ignacio de Moxos' through their territory.
547.	September 23, 2011	David McNally	Follow the Money: Behind the European Debt Crisis Lie More Bank Bailouts
While I was cursing the inane mainstream commentary on the global economy recently, I was reminded of a pivotal scene in the 1976 movie, All the President's Men. As two young reporters investigate the burglary of Democratic Party offices in the Watergate Hotel, a disgruntled, high-ranking FBI agent, code-named Deep Throat, advises, "Follow the money. Always follow the money."
546.	September 22, 2011	Murray Cooke	Layton's Legacy and the NDP Leadership Race
With the death of Jack Layton, the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) has been thrust into an unexpected leadership race, its future in question. Layton led the NDP to a historic breakthrough in Quebec and brought the NDP to Official Opposition status for the first time.
545.	September 19, 2011	Jorge Costa, Feyzi Ismail	The Left Bloc and Resistance Across Europe
A major European Conference Against Austerity is slated for London on 1 October, as part of building and coordinating a set of mobilizations across the fall in Europe. A key zone for the anti-austerity struggle is Portugal. The administration of Jose Socrates, of the 'Third Wayist' Partido Socialista, was already moving toward sharp public sector austerity.
544.	September 15, 2011	Colin Leys	Britain: The Health and Social Care Bill and the Negation of Democracy
In voting, in the British House of Commons, for the third reading of Andrew Lansley's Health and Social Care Bill last week MPs voted to replace the National Health Service (NHS) as a public service with a system of competing businesses -- foundation trusts, social enterprises and for-profit corporations.
543.	September 11, 2011	Steve D'Arcy	A Civil Society Strategy for Revitalizing the Left
What happened to the North American Left? Why is it that, even now, when capitalism seems so obviously unappealing, unsustainable and unfair, the Left cannot mount a more serious challenge to the Right or its grim austerity agenda?
542.	September 6, 2011	Manuel Larrabure and Carlos Torchia	The Chilean Student Movement Against Neoliberalism
Perhaps the greatest challenge for the radical left today is to articulate a politics that decisively breaks with the disastrous experiences of many 20th century socialisms. This is a difficult task that requires self-reflection, active questioning, and openness to new expressions of struggle by the always complex and fluid global working-classes.
541.	September 5, 2011	Steven Tufts and Mark Thomas	Worker Power in an Age of Uneven Austerity
Any time commentators speak of a new 'age,' powerful assumptions quickly become entrenched in our thinking. An 'age of austerity' now encompasses many western economies as governments launch fierce campaigns against workers to lower public sector wages.
540.	September 4, 2011	Kirsten Francescone	Marching for Land, Dignity and the Proceso de Cambio
August 15th 2011, marked yet another historic event in Bolivia's long and rich history of struggle. At nine in the morning, after a support rally from their allies, CIDOB along with their bases, the people of the TIPNIS opted to re-take up the historic march for Tierra y Dignidad.
539.	August 29, 2011	Clarice Kuhling	One Year After the G20 Protests: Forms of Protest Reflect Our Power
On the one year anniversary of the anti-G20 protests, where the largest mass arrests in Canadian history were carried out, civil society groups held a press conference challenging the lack of a full public inquiry into police abuses and breaches of civil and political rights -- the details of which are still unfolding.
538.	August 25, 2011	Tyler Shipley	Harper in Honduras: Left Solidarity and the Future of Coup Resistance
It must have been a struggle for Honduran coup-President Porfirio 'Pepe' Lobo to keep a straight face during his recent press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. After all, even Lobo's supporters have never gone so far as to claim - as Harper inexplicably did - that the man who was installed as President after a military coup, fraudulent elections and a violent and murderous crackdown on dissent was "a prominent human rights leader in this country."
537.	August 17, 2011	John Weeks	The Size Of The U.S. Public Debt
It is quite possible that you believe that the U.S. public debt is quite large. You may even think that it is dangerously large, as in 'unsettling financial markets.' If you harbour these beliefs it may come as a surprise that the public debt is not very large, and by any rational calculation the 'burden' it imposes is tiny.
536.	August 15, 2011	Leo Panitch	The Left's Crisis
A common response of the left to the financial crisis that broke out in the USA in 2007-08 was often a kind of Michael Moore-type populist one: Why are you bailing the banks out? Let them go under. This kind of response was, of course, utterly irresponsible, with no thought given to what would happen to the savings of workers.
535.	August 12, 2011	David Harvey	Feral Capitalism Hits The Streets
"Nihilistic and feral teenagers" the Daily Mail called them: the crazy youths from all walks of life who raced around the streets mindlessly and desperately hurling bricks, stones and bottles at the cops while looting here and setting bonfires there, leading the authorities on a merry chase of catch-as-catch-can as they tweeted their way from one strategic target to another.
534.	August 10, 2011	Ralph Blake	Eurozone Debt Crisis on the Road to Credit Crunch II?
The public debt crisis that is currently at its deepest in the Eurozone has its roots in the general crisis of capitalism. To attempt to solve capitalism's crisis of the 1970s and the dynamic path it has followed since then vast amounts of credit were made available over the last three decades.
533.	August 8, 2011	Carlo Fanelli	Selling the City: Rob Ford's Toronto
As the immediacy of the financial crisis fades from public scrutiny in Canada, its aftershocks continue to strain public finances. The public treasury bailed-out banks and corporations by taking on their bad debts, supplying subsidies and increased spending to counter a sharp recession.
532.	August 5, 2011	Richard Fidler	Nycole Turmel's Induction in the Federalists' Wonderland
Surprise, surprise! Belatedly, the Globe and Mail 'discovers' that an elected NDP member of parliament -- in this case interim party leader Nycole Turmel -- has been a member of a Quebec sovereigntist party. And not just one but two!
531.	August 4, 2011	Andrew Jackson	Public Sector Austerity: Why is Canada Leading the Way?
The major economic problem faced by Canadians is a very slow recovery and weak job market, not government deficits or rising debt. But public spending cuts at the federal and provincial level will make the real problem even worse.
530.	August 1, 2011	Herman Rosenfeld	Making Sense of the Federal Election in Canada
Making sense of the surprising outcome of the May 2nd federal election in Canada is a major challenge for everyone on the Left, especially among those who are engaged in efforts to create a political space to the left of social democracy.
529.	July 27, 2011	Ilan Pappe	The Grumpy Diplomats of the Rogue State
The Israeli ambassador to Spain, Raphael Schutz, has just finished his term in Madrid. In an op-ed in Haaretz's Hebrew edition he summarized what he termed as a very dismal stay and seemed genuinely relieved to leave. This kind of complaint now seems to be the standard farewell letter of all Israeli ambassadors in Western Europe.
528.	July 20, 2011	Park Hyun-jung	The Hope Bus Campaign: South Korean Workers Resist Layoffs
The Hope Bus Campaign is establishing itself as an icon of resistance to employment anxieties that are threatening worker and working-class livelihoods. The Hope Bus Campaign was launched with the goal of supporting embattled union members and Kim Jin-suk, a member of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. Kim is currently in the 186th day of an aerial protest.
527.	July 18, 2011	Martin Hart-Landsberg	The Deficit Battle
The tension mounts as President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner appear locked in a battle over how best to slash the federal deficit. The Treasury Department is scheduled to run out of borrowing authority on August 2 unless Congress agrees to raise the federal debt ceiling.
526.	July 13, 2011	Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber	The Cartagena Accord: A Step Forward for Canada in Honduras
Honduras entered a new political phase on May 28 with the return of exiled former President Manuel Zelaya. His repatriation followed the signing of the Cartagena Accord between Zelaya, Honduran strongman Porfirio 'Pepe' Lobo, and the governments of Colombia and Venezuela.
525.	July 11, 2011	Rami El-Amine and Mostafa Henaway	A People's History of the Egyptian Revolution
No matter how it unfolds, the Egyptian revolution will go down in the history books as a defining moment in the 21st century. Millions of Egyptians brought down one of the world's most repressive regimes, that of the U.S.-backed Hosni Mubarak, in just 18 days.
524.	July 6, 2011	Todd Gordon and Jeffery R. Webber	Imperialism and the Future of the Honduran Resistance
Just over a month ago, the Cartagena Accord was signed by the Venezuelan, Colombian, and Honduran governments. The event facilitated the return of ousted Honduran President, Manuel Zelaya, to Tegucigalpa on May 28, and the readmission of Honduras into the Organization of American States on June 1.
523.	July 4, 2011	Patrick Bond	Climate Meetings are Conferences of Polluters
Judging by what transpired at the global climate negotiations in the former West German capital, Bonn, it appears certain that in just over five months' time, the South African port city of Durban will host a conference of climate procrastinators, the COP17 (Conference of Parties), dooming the Earth to the frying pan.
522.	June 29, 2011	Michael Hudson	Bail Out Financial Speculators, But Not Social Security or Medicare
Financial crashes were well understood for a hundred years after they became a normal financial phenomenon in the mid-19th century. Much like the buildup of plaque deposits in human veins and arteries, an accumulation of debt gained momentum exponentially until the economy crashed, wiping out bad debts -- along with savings on the other side of the balance sheet.
521.	June 27, 2011	Harold Lavender	Could Election Reform Make a Difference?
In the May Federal election, Stephen Harper won a majority government without winning a majority of the vote. Only 39.6 per cent of the population voted Conservative while 60 per cent voted against. Much discussion has focused on the election results and what to do about the Harper majority.
520.	June 24, 2011	Juliet Schor	Why Recent Bad Economic News Means It's Time for Working Less
The economic news of the last few weeks has not been encouraging. In Europe, the various national debt crises remain unresolved, with a continued monopoly of banker-friendly austerity programs, and their predictable consequences of rising unemployment and stagnation.
519.	June 22, 2011	Martin Hart-Landsberg	Globalization And Its Consequences
Although capitalism has always been a global system, the international integration of production and finance and our dependence on cross-border activities seems greater than ever before. At the risk of oversimplifying, we now have a world system within which Latin America, Africa and the Middle East specialize in the production and export of primary commodities, increasingly to East Asia.
518.	June 20, 2011	Toby Leon Moorsom	A People's Assembly: A Strategy for the Harper Years in Kingston
2011 is turning out to be ripe with paradoxes in Canada. The effects of the financial crisis of 2008 are now reverberating across Canadian society, as the financial crisis shifts into the public sector as private debt is replaced by public debt.
517.	June 17, 2011	Mathew Nelson	Austerity, the Conservative Majority and the CLC Action Plan
The recent Conservative majority in Parliament presents organized labour with the challenge of finding new ways to build and mobilize working people against the neoliberal austerity agenda. The neoliberal offensive in Canada has intensified since the election of the Conservative Party under Stephen Harper in 2006.
516.	June 14, 2011	Michael Hurley and Sam Gindin	The Assault on Public Services
We are living one of those historic moments that cry out for rallying the working-class to build new capacities, new solidarities, and concrete hope. The crucial question is not how far the attacks on the public sector will go. The real question is how far we will let them go?
515.	June 9, 2011	Russell Diabo and Shiri Pasternak	First Nations Under Surveillance
Internal documents from Indian Affairs and the RCMP show that shortly after forming government in January of 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had the federal government tighten up on gathering and sharing intelligence on First Nations to anticipate and manage potential First Nation unrest across Canada.
514.	June 8, 2011	Patrick Bond	Gaza: A View From the Ground
Here in Palestine, disgust expressed by civil society reformers about Barack Obama's May 19 policy speech on the Middle East and North Africa confirms that political reconciliation between Washington and fast-rising Arab democrats is impossible.
513.	June 3, 2011		Battling Austerity: CUPW Hits the Picket Lines
The purpose of this strike activity is to encourage Canada Post Corporation to abandon their proposals for significant concessions and instead negotiate solutions to the very real problems that are being experienced by 48,000 postal workers.
512.	June 2, 2011	Tim McCaskell	Learning from QuAIA's Experience: Why Free Speech Matters
In 2009, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid kicked off the annual Pride season in Toronto with a public meeting about the continuities of queer solidarity organizing -- from the Simon Nkodi Anti-Apartheid Committee in the 1980s to QuAIA's work against apartheid in Israel/Palestine today.
511.	June 1, 2011	Dick Nichols	Portugal: Left Bloc Fires up to Fight Austerity
When the 548 delegates to the seventh national convention of Portugal's Left Bloc came together in a vast sports hall in Lisbon over May 7-8, they had two big questions to answer. The first was what alternative should they propose at the June 5, 2011, Portuguese elections to the 78-billion Euro "rescue package."
510.	May 31, 2011	Adam Hanieh	Egypt's 'Orderly Transition'? International Aid and the Rush to Structural Adjustment
Although press coverage of events in Egypt may have dropped off the front pages, discussion of the post-Mubarak period continues to dominate the financial news. Over the past few weeks, the economic direction of the interim Egyptian government has been the object of intense debate in the World Bank, IMF and the EBRD.
509.	May 27, 2011	Mamdouh Habashi	"Only the Names Have Changed": The Continued Struggle for Democracy in Egypt
The army leadership was not neutral, it was never neutral. The army is not operating on a battlefield, but rather in the political sphere. They are following a clear plan. They want to save as much as possible of the old regime's structures.
508.	May 26, 2011	Felipe Stuart Cournoyer and John Riddell	Agreement Signed for Democratic Rights in Honduras
On May 22, Honduran president Porfirio Lobo Sosa and former president José Manuel Zelaya Rosales signed an agreement "For National Reconciliation and the Consolidation of the Democratic System in the Republic of Honduras."
507.	May 25, 2011	Atilio Boron	Spain: The 'Indignant' and the Paris Commune
Perhaps it's one of history's surprises that the popular uprising surging through Spain today (and which is beginning to reverberate throughout the rest of Europe) was sparked on the 140th anniversary of the Paris Commune, a heroic moment in which the fundamental demand was also that of democracy.
506.	May 24, 2011	Mike Treen	A New Working-Class, pro-Maori Political Voice
An interview with Mike Treen, national director of the Unite Union in Aotearoa/New Zealand and a member of the newly formed Mana Party.
505.	May 23, 2011	Sadri Khiari	The Tunisian Revolution Did Not Come Out Of Nowhere
The Tunisian revolution has been the detonator of the wave of protests and uprisings which have spread across North Africa and the Middle East since January, 2011. Sparked by the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian revolution quickly spread from the towns in the central mining and agricultural regions of the country to the coastal cities, including the capital Tunis.
504.	May 20, 2011	Hugo Radice	Germany and the Eurozone Sovereign Debt Crisis: the Lessons of History
With pig-headed persistence, Germany is continuing to prioritize the rescue of German banks from their reckless lending to europeriphery banks and governments, over the wellbeing of millions of working people in the so-called 'deficit countries.'
503.	May 19, 2011	Eric Ruder	Killed for Demanding the Right of Return
Thousands of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators came under fire from Israeli troops on May 15 as they marched on Israel's borders from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Gaza as part of a coordinated protest to demand the right to return to homes Palestinians were driven from when Israel was founded in 1948.
502.	May 12, 2011	Alan Sears and James Cairns	After the Election 2011: Building Our Movements on Shifting Ground
The federal election of 2011 drastically shifted the terrain of parliamentary politics in Canada. With 39.6% of the vote, Stephen Harper's Conservatives won 167 of 308 seats in Parliament, meaning that they will now rule with all the power that comes with a majority government.
501.	May 11, 2011	Richard Fidler	The Federal NDP's Electoral Breakthrough in Quebec: A Challenge to Progressives in Canada
If Jack Layton's election-night speech to his Toronto supporters is an indication of what lies ahead, the New Democratic Party is going to have a hard time coming to terms with a parliamentary caucus now composed of a majority of MPs from Quebec.
500.	May 10, 2011	Sam Gindin	Unionism, Austerity, and the Left
Clearly these are not very good times for public sector unions, not only in Canada but worldwide. What characterizes the current situation? How does it differ from what unions have faced historically and how they could respond, not only in the 1990s, but during their formation in the 1960s?
499.	May 9, 2011	John Riddell	Progress in Bolivia: A Reply to Jeff Webber
Six years after Bolivians elected their first Indigenous-led government, their ongoing struggle for national and social liberation remains a subject of debate and disagreement among socialists around the world.
498.	May 6, 2011	Colin Leys	What Matters Is What Works
After forty years of ideological onslaught the very idea of 'the state' is close to joining others, such as 'collective' (not to mention 'socialist,' and even 'left'), in the depository of Unclean Concepts. 'State bad, private good' may be a crude and simplistic slogan, but it is the very real starting-point of many politicians and most media commentators and BBC interviewers.
497.	May 4, 2011	David McNally	And They Call This a Recovery?
The strut of confidence is gone and the jitters are back. A flurry of dreadful statistics at the end of April made sure of that. On April 26 came the news that the British economy grew a mere 0.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2011.
496.	April 30, 2011		Anti-Austerity Struggles and the Canadian Election
The economic crisis that whipped across the advanced capitalist countries in 2007-09 has now moved into a phase of unprecedented government austerity. Rather than spelling the end of neoliberalism, the response to the crisis is intensifying its primary distributional and administrative norms.
495.	April 25, 2011	John Riddell	Montreal Conference Rallies Support for Rights of Nature
Bolivia marked Earth Day (April 22) this year by formulating the Law of Mother Earth, which - when adopted - will establish eleven new rights for nature, including the rights not to be polluted and to continue vital cycles free from human interference.
494.	April 21, 2011	Edgardo Lander	The Path for Venezuela Cannot Be Neoliberalism or Stalinism
Edgardo Lander is Professor of Social Sciences at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas. Lander is one of the leading thinkers and writers on the left in Venezuela, both supportive and constructively critical of the Venezuelan revolution under Chavez.
493.	April 20, 2011	Abdul Ilah Albayaty, Hana Al Bayaty, Ian Douglas and Mohammad Ammar	Using Libya to Abort the Arab Spring
We said on 18 January in our article "The Arab Spring of Democracy" that all Arab states share the same characteristics, and from this deduction that the same conditions will produce the same results.
492.	April 14, 2011	Leo Panitch	Rebuilding the Left in a Time of Crisis
Leo Panitch is interviewed by Edward Lewis about the long crisis of the left and his ideas for a reinvigorated anti-capitalist strategy. The discussion focuses on the labour movement, class and identity politics, proposal for a new kind of political party as well as some of the immediate questions faced by the left at the present juncture.
491.	April 12, 2011	Richard Fidler	'Beyond capitalism'?: Québec Solidaire Launches Debate On Its Program For Social Transform
At a convention held in Montreal on March 25-27, Québec solidaire concluded the second round in the process of adopting its program. More than 350 delegates from party associations across the province debated and adopted the party's stance on issues in relation to the economy, ecology and labour.
490.	April 11, 2011	Art Young	The Two Wars in Libya
Two wars are being waged simultaneously in Libya. One has grown out of a revolutionary struggle for democracy; the other is an attempt by imperialism to strengthen its domination of the country. Both wars appear to share the goal of 'regime change' but they stand at opposite ends of the political spectrum.
489.	April 9, 2011	Vagia Lysikatou	Greece: The Struggle of the 300 Immigrant Hunger Strikers Ends in Victory
The desperate struggle of the 300 immigrant workers, who started a hunger strike on 25 January in Athens and Thessaloniki ended in a victory. The 300 immigrants endangered their lives in order to demand their self-evident right to a life in dignity.
488.	April 8, 2011	Hilary Wainwright	A New Trade Unionism in the Making?
As the financial crisis has mutated in its latest phase into a crisis of public sector finances and debt, a fundamental attack has been evolving across the advanced capitalist countries on public services and public sector unions.
487.	April 7, 2011	Jenny Peto	Why the Town of Markham is so Concerned About Israeli Apartheid Week
The battle over Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) has reached 'the 905' as the Town of Markham, a suburb just north of Toronto, has decided to take its own swing at IAW. Councillor Howard Shore introduced a motion calling on the Town of Markham to ban IAW and to pressure York University to do the same. The motion was first debated in March 2011 and will be brought to council again on April 11, 2011.
486.	April 6, 2011	Alan Sears	Fighting Mayor Ford's Austerity Regime
Workers in Wisconsin have responded to attempts to destroy collective bargaining rights in the public sector with massive protest actions. These actions have galvanized workers in other states to confront their own employers and to support the movement in Wisconsin.
485.	April 5, 2011	Marko Kostanic	Anti-Government Protests in Croatia: Changing Politics
Anti-government protests have continued for more than a month in a dozen towns across Croatia. The largest have been in the capital, Zagreb, which have gathered more than 10,000 people at a time.
484.	April 1, 2011	John Clarke	Austerity, Resistance and the Poor
On April 1, the Dalton McGuinty government, will introduce a new version of the Special Diet benefit for those on Social Assistance. This vital benefit, which provides up to $250 a month in additional income to people on assistance, has been accessed by tens of thousands of people over the last five years and has been the only means to alleviate the extreme poverty and ill health caused by grossly inadequate social assistance rates.
483.	March 31, 2011	Gilbert Achcar; Kevin Ovenden	Two Views on the NATO Military Intervention in Libya
The United Nations-NATO military intervention in the Libyan civil war has posed a challenging question for socialists in Canada -- all the more given the active participation of the Canadian armed forces in the air war.
482.	March 28, 2011	Gord Wilson	Ontario's Bill 150 and the Right to Strike
One of the first things that right-wing populist Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, did after getting elected in the fall of 2010 was to call for the elimination of the right to strike of Toronto Transit workers -- organized in the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU). Ford declared that Toronto public transit be designated an 'essential service.'
481.	March 24, 2011	Matt Swagler	Tunisia's Ongoing Revolution
An eventful two months have passed since mass protests toppled former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali -- largely out of the media spotlight once the revolution spread to Egypt, but with great importance for the struggle for democracy and justice, in Tunisia and beyond.