As we near the end of November, Meg is returning from the bargaining table, and I am about to take off for union meetings in Ottawa, with a fresh tattoo on my arm of the IWW sabocat – symbol of the wildcat strike and industrial sabotage. I won’t write much myself today, but instead want [...]
Posts Tagged ‘History’
Red November, Black November
Posted in Labour and Unions, Political Stuff, tagged History, IWW, Labour and Unions, Resistance, Working Class on November 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Mavericks
Posted in Political Stuff, tagged History, Politics on October 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Normally I write here about whatever’s on my mind. But this piece from the New York Times, following on the heels of the US Vice Presidential Debate and the Palin-McCain deployment of that age-old strategy to seize the populist imagination – however much of a stretch – deserves to be read. And not only because [...]
Markets, Money and Dorothy’s Slippers
Posted in Political Stuff, Reading and Writing, tagged Capitalism, Financial Crisis, History, Reading and Writing on September 30, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Last evening Mica and I went down to the local Neighbourhood House to check out their new community gathering – a movie and potluck the last Monday of each month. Tonight’s feature – The Wizard of Oz. Now, as I’m sure we all have, I’ve seen this movie countless times. But tonight was interesting, because [...]
Catchin’ Up and Lookin’ Back
Posted in Misc., Political Stuff, tagged History on September 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Been a couple of days since I’ve managed to write here – not for lack of interest or lack of things to talk about, but simply because it’s gotten pretty damn busy all of a sudden. Tons of cases on my desk at work, preparing to enter collective bargaining for a first agreement with my [...]
Quebec City: the first morning
Posted in Misc., tagged History, Personal, Poetry on August 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
We look out the hotel window over the Plains of Abraham, the St. Lawrence loping along one side, three-hundred year-old cathedrals and row houses jostling with chain restaurants along the other. I arrived a few hours before my luggage last night, early enough to meet Megan after her first day of union convention and have [...]
Revolution from Catholicism to the Yippies
Posted in Political Stuff, tagged History, Resistance, The Left on June 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In 1973 my parents returned to BC from a two-year CUSO stint in Nigeria, three young boys in tow. In one step up from the lumber mills of Vancouver Island, my dad found work in Kitimat, working a white collar job for a major mining company. My mom jumped into political work on Africa, beginning with the [...]
Union Bosses
Posted in Labour and Unions, tagged History, Labour and Unions, The Left, Work on May 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It’s been a union-centred life of late, even more than normally. Meg spent last week in Ottawa bargaining and rallying to express offense at the flat-out shitty offer the government has made to its workers, so I was thinking about her and her frustrations alot. And here in Vancouver I was getting settled into my first week back [...]
Solidarities and Rages
Posted in Political Stuff, tagged Africa, History, Resistance, Southern Africa, The Left, Zimbabwe on May 19, 2008 | 2 Comments »
This is what I wake up to. News out of South Africa that 12 people – most likely all Zimbabweans forced into economic or political exile – have been killed in a wave of anti-immigrant violence in Johannesburg. Yeah, free South Africa. I’ve never travelled to S.A., but Zimbabwe I know quite well. I know [...]
90 Years of Sedition
Posted in Political Stuff, tagged History, IWW, Resistance on May 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Today, May 16, marks the 90th anniversary of the US Sedition Act. It’s purpose? From History.com, hardly a radical information source, here’s the gist. “Aimed at socialists, pacifists and other anti-war activists, the Sedition Act imposed harsh penalties on anyone found guilty of making false statements that interfered with the prosecution of the war; insulting [...]
KISS and The Ramones
Posted in Music, Political Stuff, tagged History, Music, Rock'n'roll on May 15, 2008 | 1 Comment »
When I was in grade five, my friend Arthur showed up at school one day with a little tape-player and an earphone, and called me over before class began to take a listen. I’d never heard such sounds before. He then reached into his bag and pulled out an album cover – four guys, [...]
