The Green Shift and Farmers

Farmers in Eastern Ontario have voiced their concerns to Stephen Dion over their survival, in general and in the wake of his Green Shift proposals. There is a palpable feeling that soaring fuel prices and rising costs of production may soon find many of them severely hard pressed to continue, if not completely put out of, business.

With some painting the Green Shift as the end all of (relatively) cheap oil for Canada, M. Dion reminded his audience that a. Canadian Farming is too dependent on fossil fuels, and b. his plan will raise the price of a litre of fuel only 4 cents over 4 years (that's one cent a year if you hadn't worked it out) compared with the 46 cent rise in price seen over the past two years. The participants also doubted Dion's promises that the tax rebates would adequately compensate the rise in costs which will be felt as the effect of the Green Shift. Dion assured them that a Liberal government would work very closely with the farming community to try and reduce energy dependence on oil, and that the tax refund/rebate/whatever, would be sufficient to make up for the losses.

The Liberal Party of Canada is right to work with those communities most affected by his plans and try to reassure them that they won't be hit unnecessarily hard in a bid to help the environment. The Green Shift in general continues to beg the question: Just what are Canadians willing to pay, to give, to help become a less harmful nation? The answer to that question of course would differ greatly region to region, group to group, as we well know. Is the Green Shift the place for consensus?

Also, one wonders what the run-down of such a meeting would look like had this been held when he was in Alberta recently...

Libellés : Environnement, Libéraux, Politique

par Borges à 15:02

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Pour le Québec ouvrier: Libéraux promissent 18 000 plus places dans les CPE

Le gouvernement libéral de Premier Ministre Jean Charest continue améliorer l'état de la classe ouvrière au pays avec l'annonce d'un ajout de plus de 18 000 places dans les garderies, ça veut dire les Centres pour la petite enfance (CPE, qui servent, premièrement, les travailleurs ordinaires du pays avec un prix bas de 7$ par jour). C'est très bien, mais il ne suffit pas pour satisfaire le besoin qui existe au Québec pour les places subventionnées, et même s'il ne semble beaucoup d'argent pour payer, 188$ par mois pour un enfant, mais pour beaucoup de ménages il est encore un cout inabordable pour envoyer un enfant à la garderie.

Récemment on a appelé le gouvernement se souvenir ses promesses récentes pour aider les québécois ordinaires, et on est très heureux pour apprendre que l'administration Charest n'a pas oublié l'importance des crèches pour gens qui travaillent fort. Mais ces mêmes travailleurs menacent les garderies SANS FRAIS, comme existe en Grand Bretagne et plusieurs pays au monde.

Libellés : Libéraux, Politique, Québec, Socialisme

par Borges à 09:48

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On Stalin and socialism

Part of any socialist political transformation is coming to terms with the atrocities committed in the name of building «socialism» in the Soviet Union after it's degeneration into a bonapartiste régime which used terror and coercion in order to control society and build the fledgling nations economy. After the Revolution's glory, and Lenin's death, Stalin took control of the country and in effect quickly stripped the people of their rights and democratic form of government and left only a sham political system. Soon began the process of mass deportations and executions.

Two of the groups worst hit were the Chechen and the Ingush peoples (proportionally anyway, of course the Ukrainian kulaks suffered most in number, if one isn't mistaken) who had their political autonomy taken away and subsequently deported to Siberia to work in the massive industrial works which were expanding after the War. Below, leading British Trotskyist (Marxist) Ted Grant denounced the actions of the Stalinist régime:

The uprooting and exile of entire peoples is a measure of such unmitigated barbarism, that it can be compared only with the excesses of the Nazis in modern times. It is a measure of national oppression that is nothing but a mockery of the elementary conceptions of socialism.

The real meaning behind these measures of repression is to terrorise the peoples of the national Republics into submission to the Great Russian bureaucracy. This is an example of what happens to any people who may oppose the monstrous Stalinist regime. The pretext that there were quislings among these people does not hold water. All, innocent or guilty, workers or peasants, members of the Communist Party—all are to suffer a like fate. This in the name of Socialism! [07.1946, Ted Grant, Socialist Appeal UK]

This clearly wasn't socialist (no workers control, democracy, etc.) ideology at work, and yet that is the picture that entire world has of socialism, communism and Marxism. And we socialists, Marxists, we have nothing to look for hope besides maybe the ten years after the Russian Revolution when the Soviet government was socialist, though there were significant mistakes made even then.

The monstrosity of the Stalinist model, exported throughout the world, has nothing to do with socialism. And despite the leaps and bounds made by Soviet society during the Stalinist period in industry and technology, there can be no justification for the tens of millions who died of famine, deportation, over-working, or execution. No Marxist could deny that, no Marxist could support any regime so oppressive.

So to the glory days of the 1917 Russian Revolution we look back to, but we learn from the mistakes made, and analyse the reasons for its disintegration into the dictatorship that it became, and why the whole system collapsed all those years later. And to the future we look forward brightly to the revolutions that have yet to come, we build class-conciousness bit by bit, person by person, standing on the concrete ideas of Marxism.

Libellés : Histoire, Socialisme

par Borges à 11:10

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Bush befriending Ahmedinijad?

While Barak Obama wants to go «face to face» with President Ahmedinijad of Iran, President Bush is pushing less direct diplomatic contact, but important all the same. The United States government will soon be submitting a request to open up an «interests office» in Iran, a half-step below an embassy by all accounts, and will be the first diplomatic visit since the revolution.

And after all that talk of war, bomb-bomb Iran, nuclear weapons, defending Israel, destabilising Iraq, blah blah blah, all the political rhetoric, basically blew over and the real motive behind all foreign policy, financial interest, takes command of the situation. The Presidents are keen to open up investment in Iran to the United States, and vice versa. Friendly nations prosper...

Question one: Will McCain follow Bush's lead?
Question two: What does Israel think of this? What consequences does a shift in U.S. attitudes and actions have for Israeli foreign policy.

Libellés : Diplomatie, États-Unis

par Borges à 12:34

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On the phallacy of change: Oil interests in politics

Just like the Republicans, the Democrats have done their part to help big oil companies make mega profits at the expense of working people. It is well known that Bush and co. are oil men and women, but this is not unique. Oil money has seeped into many hands in Washington, those in power have returned the favour.

Even the “environmentalist” Al Gore has played his part. During the Clinton/Gore years the largest act of privatization by the federal government took place when the Department of Energy sold 47,000 acres of the Elk Hill oil reserve to the energy company Occidental. The sale of the publicly owned oil reserve to a private company came after five years of lobbying, with Clinton and Gore pushing for Elk Hills to be sold as part of their 1995 “Reinventing Government” initiative, despite a recommendation against privatization by the National Academy of Public Administration. Gore served on the board of directors of the private company hired to assess the sale’s environmental impact and at the time controlled $500,000 of Occidental stock. After the sale, Occidental’s stock shot up by 10 percent, netting hefty gains for Mr. Gore.

In addition, oil companies have not made payments of at least $10 billion in royalties for the right to drill on public land. This began under Clinton and has continued and been compounded under Bush. Whistleblowers in the Department of the Interior have reported intimidation at attempts to rectify this situation from within the department.

So can we expect anything to change now that Bush is on the way out and the Democrats seem poised to take the reins of power? Obama opportunistically and demagogically poses as an opponent of big business. For example, earlier this year he appeared in a TV ad stating: “I’m Barack Obama. I don’t take money from oil companies or Washington lobbyists, and I won’t let them block change anymore…”

As it happens, ever since 1907, federal law has prohibitted corporations from contributing directly to federal candidates – making his statement technically true of all the candidates. Nevertheless, they receive millions from big oil on the campaign trail and then serve corporate interests once in office. What Obama fails to mention is that, while he has received no money directly from corporations, he has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from top executives of oil companies in the form of individual contributions. George Kaiser, the chairman of Oklahoma-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Co., ranks 68th on the Forbes list of world billionaires, and is listed on Obama’s web site as having raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for the candidate. He has also received contributions from “individuals” at ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and BP. All in all, he has taken in more than $213,000 from “individuals” in the oil and gas industry alone.

Obama, seen by many as a candidate of “diversity,” also equally respects the funding he has received from those in the nuclear power industry. For example, the executives and employees of Illinois-based Exelon have contributed at least $227,000 to Obama’s campaigns for the United States Senate and now for President. Two top Exelon officials, Frank M. Clark, executive vice president, and John W. Rogers Jr., a director, are among his largest fund raisers.

Of course, working people can expect no more from McCain. Although he has said: “I am very angry, frankly, at the oil companies,” he takes their money just the same, to the tune of $720,613. Big oil is clearly hedging their bets in order to ensure their interests are represented no matter which party wins the Presidency. [16.7.08, Shane Jones, Socialist Appeal USA]

Libellés : Politique, États-Unis

par Borges à 11:29

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Québec Liberals: Still going strong

Liberals continue to dominate political opinion as is reflected in the latest poll, indicating a 10 point lead over the Parti Québécois and a 28 point lead against the official opposition ADQ. Pauline Marois and the souverainist crew haven't really capitalised on Charest's inaction over the dossiers unveiled concerning the healthcare system, reasonable accommodations, etc. and the ADQ have been nothing but whiners when it comes to politics, both on the campaign trail in by-elections and in the National Assembly.

It's at this point that the socialist left should really remind the Charest government of their mandate, because it is quite pro-worker in its proposals. They say that the first priority of Québécois is healthcare (one would argue that for Francophones, the first priority is French, but that is besides the point). They promise: 1500 more doctors and 2000 more nurses, along with operations guaranteed within 6 months (one would assume that means without outsourcing patients across the border). So let's see it happen Charest!

In education, they promise to raise the level of français au pays (one idea is to organise a national spelling bee...), add an hour of extracurricular activities for school-age children, and a raised level of support for professional qualifications in across Québec, with 6 million extra dollars to be invested in the school councils in order to better offer short-term technical courses etc. Also the typical priorities of reducing décrochage, getting people back to school, and having students master English by the time they leave school.

The list could go on and on and on. Basically, stop revelling in the glory of the C-Series and get on with it...

Libellés : Libéraux, Politique, Québec

par Borges à 11:57

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