Briarpatch articles from November 2005

Briarpatch archives from November 2005

Not limited to leadership.(Letters to the Briarpatch)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... Alex Levant has it completely wrong to suggest that I say that the problems of the union movement are limited to bad leadership. Anyone who has read my columns in Canadian Dimension would know that I frequently focus on the structural problems...

The Joe Hill in us all.(Letters to the Briarpatch)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... A comment on Alex Levant's article about the CLC convention ["The Unrealized Power of the Working Class," Sept/Oct 2005]. The rank and file, I'm sorry to say, have lived off the fat of the land put there by our union forefathers and...

Invoking the ghost of a living man.(Letters to the Briarpatch)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... I just finished reading the review of Jean-Claude Parrot's memoirs [Sept/Oct 2005], and can't help thinking how I long for the good old days. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) is just a pale imitation of the strong, militant...

The Vancouver Bus Riders Union: social movement unionism gets on the bus.
November 1, 2005... It's a typically dreary and rainy fall day in Vancouver. You've just shuttled your kids to daycare, made a trip to the grocery store, and are counting your blessings for having found a seat on the bus for the ride back home. As you sit there...

Solidarity with the soldiers ... who lay down their arms. Tyler McCreary talks with Brandi and Joshua Key.(Brandi Key)(Interview)
November 1, 2005... CAN HISTORY repeat itself? In 1969, when Canada opened its border to US deserters and draft dodgers, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau declared that "those who make the conscientious judgment that they must not participate in this war... have my...

Stacy Chappel navigates the toy arms race.
November 1, 2005... THE ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATION at Centennial square reignited the ongoing debate I have with my son about war toys. We covered the same territory as usual. In his view, there is a difference between pretend war and the real thing. In my view, the...

The third sex: supporting the struggles of transgendered people.
November 1, 2005... WHAT DOES IT MEAN to be transgendered? If you are born in a body that fits your internal idea of who you are and what your gender is, you have probably never thought about it. But more people than you might imagine face this issue. Someone you...

"What will never die is the revolution:" an interview with Orlando Fundora.(Interview)
November 1, 2005... Orlando Fundora was elected President of the World Peace Council in May 2004, and has been President of MovPaz, the Cuban Movement for Peace and People's Sovereignty, since 1985. He spoke with Briarpatch during his recent visit to Regina. ...

Walking the line that broke the lock-out.(Interview)
November 1, 2005... The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is back on the air, but the fight for the soul of public broadcasting is far from over. In September, Don Kossick spoke with locked-out CBC employees Kathy Fitzpatrick and Kaveri Bittira about the...

"Racism is a cowering thing:" Ward Churchill on calling things by their rightful name.(Interview)
November 1, 2005... Earlier this year, Indigenous fights activist and scholar Ward Churchill spoke in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Churchill titled his talk A Little Matter of Genocide: Lining US Aggression Abroad to the Domestic Oppression of Indigenous...

Missing in action: losing Tooker Gomberg.
November 1, 2005... TOOKER GOMBERG WAS a modest, gentle, easygoing but determined man. Without personal pretension or apparent aspirations for prominence or authority, Gomberg managed to inspire and unite large numbers of conscientious folk across a broad...

"Now I am the Vietcong": a review of Stan Goff's Full Spectrum Disorder: The Military in the New American Century.(Book Review)
November 1, 2005... "Now I am the Vietcong": A Review of Stan Goff's Full Spectrum Disorder: The Military in the New American Century, Soft Skull Press, 2004. "Everywhere I turn--past, present, and future--I am inside imperialism, and not just positioned...

Micro Eco-Farming: Prospering from Backyard to Small Acreage in Partnership with the Earth.
November 1, 2005... Micro Eco-Farming: Prospering from Backyard to Small Acreage In Partnership with the Earth Barbara Berst Adams New World Publishing. 2005 ALL ACROSS NORTH America, family farms are being swallowed up by expanding cities and ever-growing...

The Imperial Presidency: Sovereignty, Terror and the "Second Superpower.".
November 1, 2005... The Imperial Presidency: Sovereignty, Terror and the "Second Superpower." Noam Chomsky Spoken Word CD G7 Welcoming Committee, 2005. POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS are designed and run by the same industries that sell toothpaste and cars. Just like...

The politics of disaster.(QUOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND)
November 1, 2005... "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." George W. Bush "Despite continuous warnings that a catastrophic hurricane could hit New Orleans. the Bush administration and Congress in recent years have repeatedly denied...

Racism, feminism and the Sharia debate.(The Last Word)
November 1, 2005... The recent uproar over the possible inclusion of Sharia law in Ontario arbitration has raised a number of important questions concerning religious freedom and the place of religious law in a secular society. While superficially, the issue might...