by: The Revd Fr Hastings Smyth
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Oratory of Saint Mary and Saint Michael, 1941.
...The Christian Religion, therefore, requires a positive attack upon the fallen world's disorders. Under certain circumstances this attack may be so necessarily radical that it will prove revolutionary.
The central tragedy of our age is that most Christianity is today presented as a religious method of salvation by extricating, or "fishing out", individual souls from the evil world and thus getting them into "heaven". This is an almost utter perversion of Christianity and, in so far as it prevails, it turns it into a religion with little to recommend it over Buddhism or Mohammedanism, which are also extrication religions. This is why that in so far as Christian missions are tainted with extricationism they justify the popular criticism that other peoples had best be left in peace with their own native religions, since these are often thought to be better suited to their peculiar needs and circumstances.
The Society of the Catholic Commonwealth rejects Christianity as an extrication religion. It rejects the logical accompaniments of such religion: the individualistic pietism characteristic of both Protestantism and Papalism; sentimental and non-liturgical rituals which pander to subjective [6/7] emotionalism; individualistic preoccupation with "going to heaven"; a legalistic view of rewards for goodness and punishments for sin; withdrawal or aloofness from the natural world; the view that the natural world is a hindrance to salvation rather than potentially the substantial foundation necessary to human salvation; indifference to the character of the political, social and economic patterns of human corporate life.
Therefore it also rejects a Church which can live corporately and organizationally at peace with an evil world, accepting money and power on that world's terms, provided only she herself is left undisturbed to fish out individual souls and to get them into heaven when individual bodies die. The Society asserts that Christian salvation includes the body with the soul and that without a re-created natural humanity there can be no substantial foundation for a supernatural resurrection. And since man is by nature a social animal, individual perfection is impossible apart from an accompanying process of corporate social perfection. Mass cannot be offered without a perfected natural bread and wine. The consummated Kingdom of God is unthinkable without a previously perfected social Kingdom of God in the natural order of human affairs.
The Society therefore also rejects "going to church" as mere comfort, mere refuge from life's storms, mere edification, mere inspiration, all of which things are symptoms of, and stages in, extricationism. In short, it rejects all "purely spiritual" and non-Sacramental idealism; for apart from functional Sacramentalism, the only connection of ideals [7/8] with man's material state rests tenuously and abstractly in what are called the "practical implications" of religion. Implicationism is veiled idealism. The Society rejects idealism as the most subtle and deadly enemy of the Sacramental Religion of the Incarnation.
The Society therefore sets itself anew the task of forming one or more social seeds or cells of that new social order required by Our Lord's extending humanity.
Is the Revolution in sight?
looks like the barge may be lifting off a sand bar...
December 5, 2008
From, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific: Preface
Frederick Engels -
"The materialist conception of history starts from the proposition that the production of the means to support human life and, next to production, the exchange of things produced, is the basis of all social structure; that in every society that has appeared in history, the manner in which wealth is distributed and society divided into classes or orders is dependent upon what is produced, how it is produced, and how the products are exchanged. From this point of view, the final causes of all social changes and political revolutions are to be sought, not in men's brains, not in men's better insights into eternal truth and justice, but in changes in the modes of production and exchange."
"The materialist conception of history starts from the proposition that the production of the means to support human life and, next to production, the exchange of things produced, is the basis of all social structure; that in every society that has appeared in history, the manner in which wealth is distributed and society divided into classes or orders is dependent upon what is produced, how it is produced, and how the products are exchanged. From this point of view, the final causes of all social changes and political revolutions are to be sought, not in men's brains, not in men's better insights into eternal truth and justice, but in changes in the modes of production and exchange."
December 4, 2008
Text of NDP Leader Jack Layton's address, The Star.com, Dec. 03, 2008 THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA – The full text of NDP Leader Jack Layton's live televised address Wednesday:
My fellow Canadians, tonight we are at a crossroads in our collective history.
An economic storm unlike anything seen in a generation is upon us.
And Canada must have a strong and effective government that holds the confidence of Parliament.
Tonight, we do not.
Tonight, far too many Canadians will lie awake not knowing how they'll put food on the table tomorrow, or pay the bills this month.
Seniors will check their pensions and savings and see the true cost of collapsing markets.
And in Canada, this recession has only just begun.
Tonight, only one party stands in the way of government that works for Canadians.
When people look to their federal government, they want to see a sense of leadership.
Mr. Harper has not shown this leadership.
Families about to receive their last paycheque needed hope.
World leaders have acted rapidly and boldly to stimulate their economies.
Economists and business leaders have asked for strong and targeted measures.
In Canada, New Democrats offered constructive input and good ideas.
On election night, I committed to working collaboratively with Mr. Harper in the new minority Parliament.
In the days and weeks following that election, I laid out our effective ideas to stimulate the economy.
I described them in great detail in speeches across the nation.
In the House of Commons.
And in a face to face meeting - at my invitation - with Mr. Harper on November the 12th.
I focused on the needs of working families, of those being thrown out of work or whose pensions were at risk.
Of those working in our key industrial sectors.
And the need for a new energy economy to create new jobs for the 21st century.
Instead of acting on those ideas, or presenting any plan to stimulate the economy, he delivered a partisan plan to sell off public buildings, kill off opposition parties and roll back workers' and women's rights – none of which would create one job or protect one pension.
Stephen Harper refused to act. Now he is trying to turn an economic crisis into a political one.
But Stephen Harper has broken trust with the Canadian people.
And because of that, he has lost the confidence of Parliament.
He's more interested in his job than you and your families' jobs.
That's wrong.
It was Stephen Harper's job to make Parliament work.
But he has refused.
By putting an end to Parliament, buy putting locks on the doors, he is rejecting the democratic choice of 62 per cent of the people.
And every MP will see their democratic right to vote confidence in the government.
Every member of Parliament will be denied their vote.
Every Canadian will be silenced in the people's House.
We will have a Conservative government without legitimacy.
That doesn't have to happen, because this is a remarkable moment in Canadian history.
The opposition parties have acted together with a common goal: to return hope to people and help them go through these very difficult economic times.
For the first time, the majority of parities chosen by the people have put aside their differences. For the good of the people.
For the first time in memory, the majority of the people's representatives set aside their differences for the good of Canada.
This is a time of hope.
Tonight, only one party stands against the welfare of the Canadian people.
On Monday, the two leaders of the proposed coalition sent Her Excellency the Governor General a letter making it clear that the majority of members of Parliament no longer have confidence in this Conservative government.
Nothing we have heard tonight changes that fact.
And tonight, we are announcing that if it pleases Her Excellency, every New Democrat member of Parliament is prepared to individually express their lack of confidence in this government.
A new kind of government, with a new kind of politics, is ready to serve, one that will put the economy and working families first.
Thank you, and good night.
My fellow Canadians, tonight we are at a crossroads in our collective history.
An economic storm unlike anything seen in a generation is upon us.
And Canada must have a strong and effective government that holds the confidence of Parliament.
Tonight, we do not.
Tonight, far too many Canadians will lie awake not knowing how they'll put food on the table tomorrow, or pay the bills this month.
Seniors will check their pensions and savings and see the true cost of collapsing markets.
And in Canada, this recession has only just begun.
Tonight, only one party stands in the way of government that works for Canadians.
When people look to their federal government, they want to see a sense of leadership.
Mr. Harper has not shown this leadership.
Families about to receive their last paycheque needed hope.
World leaders have acted rapidly and boldly to stimulate their economies.
Economists and business leaders have asked for strong and targeted measures.
In Canada, New Democrats offered constructive input and good ideas.
On election night, I committed to working collaboratively with Mr. Harper in the new minority Parliament.
In the days and weeks following that election, I laid out our effective ideas to stimulate the economy.
I described them in great detail in speeches across the nation.
In the House of Commons.
And in a face to face meeting - at my invitation - with Mr. Harper on November the 12th.
I focused on the needs of working families, of those being thrown out of work or whose pensions were at risk.
Of those working in our key industrial sectors.
And the need for a new energy economy to create new jobs for the 21st century.
Instead of acting on those ideas, or presenting any plan to stimulate the economy, he delivered a partisan plan to sell off public buildings, kill off opposition parties and roll back workers' and women's rights – none of which would create one job or protect one pension.
Stephen Harper refused to act. Now he is trying to turn an economic crisis into a political one.
But Stephen Harper has broken trust with the Canadian people.
And because of that, he has lost the confidence of Parliament.
He's more interested in his job than you and your families' jobs.
That's wrong.
It was Stephen Harper's job to make Parliament work.
But he has refused.
By putting an end to Parliament, buy putting locks on the doors, he is rejecting the democratic choice of 62 per cent of the people.
And every MP will see their democratic right to vote confidence in the government.
Every member of Parliament will be denied their vote.
Every Canadian will be silenced in the people's House.
We will have a Conservative government without legitimacy.
That doesn't have to happen, because this is a remarkable moment in Canadian history.
The opposition parties have acted together with a common goal: to return hope to people and help them go through these very difficult economic times.
For the first time, the majority of parities chosen by the people have put aside their differences. For the good of the people.
For the first time in memory, the majority of the people's representatives set aside their differences for the good of Canada.
This is a time of hope.
Tonight, only one party stands against the welfare of the Canadian people.
On Monday, the two leaders of the proposed coalition sent Her Excellency the Governor General a letter making it clear that the majority of members of Parliament no longer have confidence in this Conservative government.
Nothing we have heard tonight changes that fact.
And tonight, we are announcing that if it pleases Her Excellency, every New Democrat member of Parliament is prepared to individually express their lack of confidence in this government.
A new kind of government, with a new kind of politics, is ready to serve, one that will put the economy and working families first.
Thank you, and good night.
December 3, 2008
CEC Communist Party of Canada Letter on present events and Possibilities raised by NDP-Lib Coalition
Dear comrades and friends,
This is a decisive moment for the future of Canada – one in which working people and all progressive forces need to be in motion to ensure the most favourable outcome to the current political crisis, beginning with the removal of the Harper gang from office.
The global capitalist economic crisis is deepening daily, and it is precisely at this crucial moment that the current political crisis on Parliament Hill provides an unforeseen and extremely important opportunity to turf the most right-wing, pro-war and pro-US imperialist government in our country’s history.
While no one should harbour any illusions or exaggerated expectations about a new Liberal-NDP government, it is necessary to grasp the great potential that would arise with the defeat of the Tories and their replacement by a new working majority of the Opposition parties. Such a new coalition government would be highly susceptible to public pressure, and would open new doors to win pro-people policies through the broad and united mobilization of the labour movement, Aboriginal peoples, women, youth and students and other social movements and forces outside of Parliament.
We strongly urge all of our members and supporters, and all working people to spare no effort over the coming days and weeks to help realize this great potential to win a new direction for Canada and its peoples.
Comradely yours,
Central Executive Committee,
Communist Party of Canada
This is a decisive moment for the future of Canada – one in which working people and all progressive forces need to be in motion to ensure the most favourable outcome to the current political crisis, beginning with the removal of the Harper gang from office.
The global capitalist economic crisis is deepening daily, and it is precisely at this crucial moment that the current political crisis on Parliament Hill provides an unforeseen and extremely important opportunity to turf the most right-wing, pro-war and pro-US imperialist government in our country’s history.
While no one should harbour any illusions or exaggerated expectations about a new Liberal-NDP government, it is necessary to grasp the great potential that would arise with the defeat of the Tories and their replacement by a new working majority of the Opposition parties. Such a new coalition government would be highly susceptible to public pressure, and would open new doors to win pro-people policies through the broad and united mobilization of the labour movement, Aboriginal peoples, women, youth and students and other social movements and forces outside of Parliament.
We strongly urge all of our members and supporters, and all working people to spare no effort over the coming days and weeks to help realize this great potential to win a new direction for Canada and its peoples.
Comradely yours,
Central Executive Committee,
Communist Party of Canada
CPC Statement on the Parliamentary Crisis - Drive the Harper Tories Out!
In January 2006, taking advantage of widespread voter anger, Stephen Harper's Conservatives — with just 37% of the popular vote — narrowly won a minority in a divided Parliament. Despite the backing of big business and the corporate media, the Tories have failed to build public support for their agenda. Yet they cling to power, advancing their pro-war, anti-working class policies, and manoeuvring to win a majority in the next election.
Consider the wretched record of the Conservative government:
*
A large majority of Canadians and MPs want to end the military mission in Afghanistan — now or by February 2009 at the latest. But the Harper government, aided by the military brass and the media, are trying to whip up a "patriotic" frenzy, sacrificing Canadian troops to prop up US-aligned warlords while doing nothing to improve the lives of the Afghan people.
*
Real wages and income supports are being eroded, homelessness is on the rise, and one-fifth of Canadian children live below the poverty line. Meanwhile, annual corporate profits have soared past the $200 billion mark, and corporate taxes are being slashed.
*
The last vestiges of Canadian sovereignty are being shredded in the push for "deep integration" into the US economy and military machine. The August summit meeting of Bush, Harper and Calderon will focus on the "Security and Prosperity Partnership" agreement, a wide-ranging scheme to advance North American integration.
*
Natural resources, industries and service sectors are being sold off to the highest foreign bidders — primarily US-based capital.
*
250,000 manufacturing jobs have been wiped out over the past five years, and the Harper government is doing nothing to reverse this dangerous trend.
*
Acting in the interests of the big energy monopolies, the Harper Tories have torn up Canada's Kyoto commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
*
The Harper government has ripped up the Kelowna Accord and signalled support for racist efforts to remove inherent Aboriginal hunting and fishing rights.
*
Aboriginal peoples, and Canadian-born and recent immigrants, are increasingly forced into low-paid, temporary and precarious jobs.
*
Young people face high unemployment, enormous student debt loads, marginalized jobs, and discriminatory "training" minimum wages, while the Tories step up military recruitment drives and cut summer job programs.
*
The Conservatives refuse to use the Canada Health Act to block the for-profit health care policies of provincial governments.
*
Women's equality rights and programs have been devastated by the Conservatives, and the National Childcare program was scrapped.
*
While Prairie farmers face the bleakest economic prospects in decades, the Tories are gutting the Canadian Wheat Board despite massive public opposition.
*
Using the so-called "war on terror" as a justification, the Tories have continued the policy of state repression against the Arab and Muslim communities.
Every day Harper remains in office is another threat to the social gains and equality rights achieved through decades of struggle by working people, another step towards the elimination of Canadian sovereignty. Stephen Harper and his big business gang have no mandate to govern! The parliamentary opposition parties must be compelled to put the survival of Canada ahead of their narrow partisan interests, and to bring down the Harper government as soon as possible.
Many important struggles are taking place, such as the resistance movements of Aboriginal peoples, anti-war coalitions, and trade unions, and the defenders of Medicare, Canadian sovereignty, women's equality, and LGBT rights. These threads of resistance must be drawn together into a united fightback, building unity-in-action around the concept that "an injury to one is an injury to all." Only by moving hundreds of thousands of people into the streets and onto picket lines can we force the Tories into retreat, stiffen opposition in Parliament, and lay the basis to bring down this government and then to press for progressive change.
Allowing the Harper Tories to remain in office for as long as another two years is not an option. By that time, Canada may be too far down the road of continentalism and the destruction of social programs to turn back the clock.
The Communist Party of Canada urges the working class and all democratic forces to take up this crucial issue, in our trade unions and our social justice movements, at our workplaces and campuses: unite around the common demand to DRIVE OUT THE HARPER TORIES NOW!
Canadians need and desrve a new Parliament, one that will break with the right-wing agenda, and put people's needs before corporate greed. A new Parliament that will end the war, defend Canadian sovereignty, guarantee labour and democratic rights, and oppose sexism, racism and the rising threat of fascism. Together, we can win such a new direction for Canada!
Consider the wretched record of the Conservative government:
*
A large majority of Canadians and MPs want to end the military mission in Afghanistan — now or by February 2009 at the latest. But the Harper government, aided by the military brass and the media, are trying to whip up a "patriotic" frenzy, sacrificing Canadian troops to prop up US-aligned warlords while doing nothing to improve the lives of the Afghan people.
*
Real wages and income supports are being eroded, homelessness is on the rise, and one-fifth of Canadian children live below the poverty line. Meanwhile, annual corporate profits have soared past the $200 billion mark, and corporate taxes are being slashed.
*
The last vestiges of Canadian sovereignty are being shredded in the push for "deep integration" into the US economy and military machine. The August summit meeting of Bush, Harper and Calderon will focus on the "Security and Prosperity Partnership" agreement, a wide-ranging scheme to advance North American integration.
*
Natural resources, industries and service sectors are being sold off to the highest foreign bidders — primarily US-based capital.
*
250,000 manufacturing jobs have been wiped out over the past five years, and the Harper government is doing nothing to reverse this dangerous trend.
*
Acting in the interests of the big energy monopolies, the Harper Tories have torn up Canada's Kyoto commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
*
The Harper government has ripped up the Kelowna Accord and signalled support for racist efforts to remove inherent Aboriginal hunting and fishing rights.
*
Aboriginal peoples, and Canadian-born and recent immigrants, are increasingly forced into low-paid, temporary and precarious jobs.
*
Young people face high unemployment, enormous student debt loads, marginalized jobs, and discriminatory "training" minimum wages, while the Tories step up military recruitment drives and cut summer job programs.
*
The Conservatives refuse to use the Canada Health Act to block the for-profit health care policies of provincial governments.
*
Women's equality rights and programs have been devastated by the Conservatives, and the National Childcare program was scrapped.
*
While Prairie farmers face the bleakest economic prospects in decades, the Tories are gutting the Canadian Wheat Board despite massive public opposition.
*
Using the so-called "war on terror" as a justification, the Tories have continued the policy of state repression against the Arab and Muslim communities.
Every day Harper remains in office is another threat to the social gains and equality rights achieved through decades of struggle by working people, another step towards the elimination of Canadian sovereignty. Stephen Harper and his big business gang have no mandate to govern! The parliamentary opposition parties must be compelled to put the survival of Canada ahead of their narrow partisan interests, and to bring down the Harper government as soon as possible.
Many important struggles are taking place, such as the resistance movements of Aboriginal peoples, anti-war coalitions, and trade unions, and the defenders of Medicare, Canadian sovereignty, women's equality, and LGBT rights. These threads of resistance must be drawn together into a united fightback, building unity-in-action around the concept that "an injury to one is an injury to all." Only by moving hundreds of thousands of people into the streets and onto picket lines can we force the Tories into retreat, stiffen opposition in Parliament, and lay the basis to bring down this government and then to press for progressive change.
Allowing the Harper Tories to remain in office for as long as another two years is not an option. By that time, Canada may be too far down the road of continentalism and the destruction of social programs to turn back the clock.
The Communist Party of Canada urges the working class and all democratic forces to take up this crucial issue, in our trade unions and our social justice movements, at our workplaces and campuses: unite around the common demand to DRIVE OUT THE HARPER TORIES NOW!
Canadians need and desrve a new Parliament, one that will break with the right-wing agenda, and put people's needs before corporate greed. A new Parliament that will end the war, defend Canadian sovereignty, guarantee labour and democratic rights, and oppose sexism, racism and the rising threat of fascism. Together, we can win such a new direction for Canada!
December 2, 2008
Excerpt from, Chapter I, "Yanovka", of Leon Trotsky's MY LIFE:
Childhood is looked upon as the happiest time of life. Is that always true? No, only a few have a happy child hood. The idealization of childhood originated in the old literature of the privileged. A secure, affluent, and unclouded childhood, spent in a home of inherited wealth and culture, a childhood of affection and play, brings back to one memories of a sunny meadow at the beginning of the road of life. The grandees of literature, or the plebeians who glorify the grandees, have canonized this purely aristocratic view of childhood. But the majority of the people, if it looks back at all, sees, on the contrary, a childhood of darkness, hunger and dependence. Life strikes the weak -- and who is weaker than a child?
Atheists Knock at Religion's Door - Leonardo Boff
http://www.leonardoboff.com/site-eng/lboff.htm
Science and religion must change. Science, up to now, has not respected the otherness of beings. It has placed itself above them, dominating them. Religion has not freed itself from its fundamentalism in reading the sacred texts. It can maintain its faith and still recognize the evolution of species. It brings reverence to the grandeur of the universe and respect for all forms of life. This attitude turns power into protection and care. And this sacred alliance can save us from the threat to life.
Free translation from the Spanish by Melina Alfaro, done at Refugio Del Rio Grande, Texas
Science and religion must change. Science, up to now, has not respected the otherness of beings. It has placed itself above them, dominating them. Religion has not freed itself from its fundamentalism in reading the sacred texts. It can maintain its faith and still recognize the evolution of species. It brings reverence to the grandeur of the universe and respect for all forms of life. This attitude turns power into protection and care. And this sacred alliance can save us from the threat to life.
Free translation from the Spanish by Melina Alfaro, done at Refugio Del Rio Grande, Texas
ENSURE MORE JUST AND EQUITABLE TRADE SYSTEMS: Observer of The Vatican to the United Nations
VATICAN CITY, 2 DEC 2008 (VIS) - Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in New York, yesterday participated in an international conference on financing for development being held in Doha, Qatar.
"Social and economic development must be measured and implemented with the human person at the centre of all decisions", said Archbishop Migliore speaking English. While noting that aid has increased over recent years, he pointed out that "questions remain: how many people do not have access to even basic healthcare and how many lack decent employment to provide a living wage for themselves and their families?"
"National governments need the co-operation of the international community in order to accelerate economic and human development. ... The recent financial crisis demonstrates that when political will is combined with concern for the common good we are able to generate, within months, substantial funds for financial markets".
The archbishop went on: "Renewed attention must be given to ensuring more just and equitable trade systems. ... Trade-distorting subsides, financial speculation, increased energy prices and decreased investment in agriculture have recently given rise to lack of access to the very thing which is necessary for life, namely food. This economic volatility, which strikes at the heart of human existence, gives greater urgency to finding a common commitment to addressing global trade and development".
The Holy See permanent observer to the U.N. concluded his remarks by noting that "uncertainty and anxiety seem to prevail at this particular point in time. However, the virtues and principles which have led the global community out of so many crises remain; that of solidarity with our global community, just and equitable sharing in resources and opportunity, prudent use of the environment, restraint from seeking short-term financial and social gain at the expense of sustainable development, and finally, the political courage which is necessary to build a world in which human life is placed at the centre of all social and economic activities".
DELSS/FINANCING DEVELOPMET/DOHA:MIGLIORE VIS 081202 (340)
"Social and economic development must be measured and implemented with the human person at the centre of all decisions", said Archbishop Migliore speaking English. While noting that aid has increased over recent years, he pointed out that "questions remain: how many people do not have access to even basic healthcare and how many lack decent employment to provide a living wage for themselves and their families?"
"National governments need the co-operation of the international community in order to accelerate economic and human development. ... The recent financial crisis demonstrates that when political will is combined with concern for the common good we are able to generate, within months, substantial funds for financial markets".
The archbishop went on: "Renewed attention must be given to ensuring more just and equitable trade systems. ... Trade-distorting subsides, financial speculation, increased energy prices and decreased investment in agriculture have recently given rise to lack of access to the very thing which is necessary for life, namely food. This economic volatility, which strikes at the heart of human existence, gives greater urgency to finding a common commitment to addressing global trade and development".
The Holy See permanent observer to the U.N. concluded his remarks by noting that "uncertainty and anxiety seem to prevail at this particular point in time. However, the virtues and principles which have led the global community out of so many crises remain; that of solidarity with our global community, just and equitable sharing in resources and opportunity, prudent use of the environment, restraint from seeking short-term financial and social gain at the expense of sustainable development, and finally, the political courage which is necessary to build a world in which human life is placed at the centre of all social and economic activities".
DELSS/FINANCING DEVELOPMET/DOHA:MIGLIORE VIS 081202 (340)
The political crisis and youth, Statement by the YCL-LJC CEC
(CEC Statement of Young Communist League, Communist Party of Canada / la Ligue de la jeunesse communiste)
Tuesday, December 2nd
The coalition emerging between the Liberals and the New Democratic Party, supported by the Bloc Quebecois, is a very important democratic development for all young people. It could stop the Bush-style Conservative government that blocks any possibility of advance for a youth and student agenda. It will shape our struggles against militarism and the war in Afghanistan, bad jobs and poverty wages, and skyrocketing tuition fees.
The 1985 Ontario Liberal-NDP accord government showed the parties internally struggling for public support, creating better terrain for extra-parliamentary struggle. Without any illusions about either parties, lets act on the greater potential for pushing forward a youth and student agenda!
The Conservative’s defeat could set-back neo-liberalism. Youth have suffered greatly from cutbacks, deregulation, privatization, as well as environmental destruction and the drive to war. These same policies helped incubate the current structural crisis of capitalism, and made the crisis’s effect on youth and students much worse.
The real victory will be shaped outside of parliament. Now is the time to creatively, broadly and boldly set-up the fight-back, projecting an immediate alternative agenda to ensure the big corporations – and not our generation – bear the costs of the financial crisis: create hundreds of thousands of good quality jobs for youth; raise minimum wages; get Canada out of Afghanistan and NATO; cut-back the bloated military budget; establish a national childcare system; expand public school funding and universal, accessible public post-secondary education.
Youth and students are right to demand that any back-room deals to maintain Conservative rule be exposed and stopped, and to join the cross-Canada actions demanding an end to the Harper Conservative’s power. The YCL calls on all youth and students to join with that growing movement, and demand a pro-people, pro-youth and student agenda!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What do you think of these recent developments? What are your friends, classmates and co-workers saying? How important do you think it is to get rid of Harper?
2. Many have countered Harper’s claim that the coalition is anti-democratic by pointing out that he has no deep love of democracy, and the majority of Canadians voted against him. What do you think?
3. How is the emerging coalition similar or different from what the Communist Party called for in the election with these slogans: Dump the Tories, block the right, elect a large progressive block of MPs, and put people before profits? Did you think any of these slogans were realizable at the time?
4. Check out the YCL-LJC CEC’s statement on the financial crisis. How is this crisis a reflection of the economic crisis?
5. Why do you think the YCL-LJC CEC chose to put the emphasis on struggle outside of Parliament?
Tuesday, December 2nd
The coalition emerging between the Liberals and the New Democratic Party, supported by the Bloc Quebecois, is a very important democratic development for all young people. It could stop the Bush-style Conservative government that blocks any possibility of advance for a youth and student agenda. It will shape our struggles against militarism and the war in Afghanistan, bad jobs and poverty wages, and skyrocketing tuition fees.
The 1985 Ontario Liberal-NDP accord government showed the parties internally struggling for public support, creating better terrain for extra-parliamentary struggle. Without any illusions about either parties, lets act on the greater potential for pushing forward a youth and student agenda!
The Conservative’s defeat could set-back neo-liberalism. Youth have suffered greatly from cutbacks, deregulation, privatization, as well as environmental destruction and the drive to war. These same policies helped incubate the current structural crisis of capitalism, and made the crisis’s effect on youth and students much worse.
The real victory will be shaped outside of parliament. Now is the time to creatively, broadly and boldly set-up the fight-back, projecting an immediate alternative agenda to ensure the big corporations – and not our generation – bear the costs of the financial crisis: create hundreds of thousands of good quality jobs for youth; raise minimum wages; get Canada out of Afghanistan and NATO; cut-back the bloated military budget; establish a national childcare system; expand public school funding and universal, accessible public post-secondary education.
Youth and students are right to demand that any back-room deals to maintain Conservative rule be exposed and stopped, and to join the cross-Canada actions demanding an end to the Harper Conservative’s power. The YCL calls on all youth and students to join with that growing movement, and demand a pro-people, pro-youth and student agenda!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What do you think of these recent developments? What are your friends, classmates and co-workers saying? How important do you think it is to get rid of Harper?
2. Many have countered Harper’s claim that the coalition is anti-democratic by pointing out that he has no deep love of democracy, and the majority of Canadians voted against him. What do you think?
3. How is the emerging coalition similar or different from what the Communist Party called for in the election with these slogans: Dump the Tories, block the right, elect a large progressive block of MPs, and put people before profits? Did you think any of these slogans were realizable at the time?
4. Check out the YCL-LJC CEC’s statement on the financial crisis. How is this crisis a reflection of the economic crisis?
5. Why do you think the YCL-LJC CEC chose to put the emphasis on struggle outside of Parliament?
November 30, 2008
An Excerpt from Digger leader Gerrard Winstanley's 1649 Socialist Tract "The True Levellers Standard Advanced"
by Gerrard Winstanley
And that this Civil Propriety is the Curse, is manifest thus, Those that Buy and Sell Land, and are landlords, have got it either by Oppression, or Murther, or Theft; and all landlords lives in the breach of the Seventh and Eighth Commandments, Thou shalt not steal, or kill.
First by their Oppression. They have by their subtle imaginary and covetous wit, got the plain-hearted poor, or yonger Brethren to work for them, for small wages, and by their work have got a great increase; for the poor by their labour lifts up Tyrants to rule over them; or else by their covetous wit, they have out- reached the plain-hearted in Buying and Selling, and thereby inriched themselves, but impoverished others: or else by their subtile wit, having been a lifter up into places of Trust, have inforced people to pay Money for a Publick use, but have divided much of it into their private purses; and so have got it by Oppression.
Then Secondly for Murther; They have by subtile wit and power, pretended to preserve a people in safety by the power of the Sword; and what by large Pay, much Free-quarter, and other Booties, which they call their own, they get much Monies, and with this they buy Land, and become landlords; and if once Landlords, then they rise to be Justices, Rulers and State Governours, as experience shewes: But all this is but a bloudy and subtile Theevery, countenanced by a Law that Covetousness made; and is a breach of the Seventh Commandement, Thou shalt not kill.
And likewise Thirdly a breach of the Eighth Commandment, Thou shalt not steal; but these landlords have thus stoln the Earth from their fellow Creatures, that have an equal share with them, by the Law of Reason and Creation, as well as they.
Book Review by Sheldon Currie : J.B. McLachlan: A Biography, by David Frank
The Antigonish Review
Issue 121
J.B. McLachlan: A Biography, by David Frank, James Lorimer & Company, Toronto, 1999, 592 pp.
http://www.antigonishreview.com/bi-121/121-currie.html
This magnificent biography should be read by the many people who will never read it: journalists whose rhetoric reveal their belief that miners are no more than underground ditchdiggers. And those clergy who seem to think that allegiance to their enterprise should take precedence in a coal miner's mind over the welfare of his family. And politicians for whom the safety and economic security of the citizens they serve comes second after their allegiance to corporate bankers. And bureaucrats of the judiciary who create laws and have no idea that they create them in their own image for the purpose of offering security and riches to, well, themselves.
Alas, history is like money: those most in need are the least likely to find more than enough to stave off starvation. But unlike financial poverty, unfortunately, intellectual poverty is more likely to damage the pauper's clients than the pauper. In 1885 Emile Zola's novel Germinal, the first, best, and grandfather of all coal mining novels, outlined the plight of coal mining families at the mercy of denseheaded politicians and "industrialists," as they like to call themselves. Zola made graphically clear the consequences ofprofiteering stupidity. If Zola had lived to be 100, he might easily have rewritten his novel, setting it in Glace Bay during the first three decades of the 20th century, changing only the language and the names of the characters. Of course those who didn't read Germinal learned nothing from it. And had he written it in 1940, or even 1990, I don't imagine it would have altered the brief, devastating history of the Westray conspiracy to produce money and votes.
David Frank's biography of J.B. McLachlan is as clear and as devastating as Zola's fictional history of a coal town and no doubt quite as futile in its attempt to wam the future. As W.H. Auden said in his tribute to W.B Yeats, "Poetry makes nothing happen: it survives in the valley of its saying." But at least this biography, which is a clear and concise history of industrial Cape Breton, will serve to send the sinners to the Hades of history and secure for them a permanent location in Nova Scotia's Hall of Shame.
During strikes in the coalfields of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia an unwritten rule dictated that the miners would provide basic maintenance so the mines would not flood and when the strike was over, the mines would be ready for production. A correlative rule dictated that miners and their families would not be denied credit at the company stores and would not be turned out of their company houses, that is, left homeless and starving. The problem was that the company and the provincial and federal governments held the first rule to be sacred, but the correlative to be flexible. In spite of accusations against McLachlan that he was a communist, a bolshevist, that he was godless, and a host of other buzzword accusations, his real crime was that he considered both sides of the correlation to be sacred: if you are going to starve our children, we are not going to protect your mine.
In the lines of contemporary Poet Dawn Fraser, McLachlan's position was not only practical, reasonable and effective, but heroic. "Then Roy the Wolf began to weep/His tears fell fast, his groans were deep--/' I don't care what you do to me/But, oh, protect my property!/ All this was music sweet to Jim/ McLachlan only laughed at him/ Says he, "It's no affair of mine/ Go ahead and save your mine/ You never saved a worker's child.
Not everyone shared the poet's view. Roy Wolvin, known as Roy the Wolf, the subject of Fraser's lines referred to J.B. as "the concentrated cause" of labour unrest in the coal industry. James Burdock, Prime Minister MacKenzie King's minister of Labor, denounced McLachlan and all his miners as "un-British, un-Canadian and cowardly."Father A.M.Thompson warned his parishioners that trade unionism was acceptable only under the leadership of "people of sound mind"-"not irresponsibles whose sole purpose was to further the cause of Bolshevism, socialism and to keep the country in continual turmoil." (p276) John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers of America, appeared to be more depressed than impressed with Mc Lachlan's activity. In a letter to the District 26 president Livingstone he wrote: "The United Mine Workers is not a political institution Neither can it be used to sustain officers of perverted business morals or individuals suffering from mental aberration such as yourself and the aggregation of papier-mache revolutionists who are associated with you." (p.313) So much for support from the fearless leader.
Frank's biography makes pretty evident what any disinterested or fair minded person knew throughout J.B.'s career as a labour leader. He was a man of consistently high moral principles, and practiced the cardinal virtues he inherited from his parents and learned from his teachers and his avid reading. He was a man of courage, able to face the dangerous moment, and of patience for the long haul. He was the Eliot Ness of the labour movement who could be neither corrupted nor intimidated by power, money, or by "his betters," the bosses, lawyers, clergymen, politicians on the right or left, nor by labour leaders whose hidden agendas clashed with the welfare of Nova Scotia coal miners.
As both union leader and newspaper editor McLachlan kept firmly in mind the two great needs of the coal miners he represented: money enough for their families to live healthy lives, and a safe environment to work in-the two great needs, of course, that the company did not want to satisfy. And it is sad to say that in his quest to satisfy these basic needs, J.B. got no help from church or state and damn little from the United Mine Workers of America. In 1929 he wrote in the Nova Scotia Miner, that District 26 of the UMW "had become a'dues collecting machine' for John L. Lewis, and a 'wage-cutting tool' for the company." (P445)
Indeed it would have been hard to find an institution whose representatives did not conspire against him, the newspapers, the courts, the politicians, the churches, and in spite of his superior intelligence, his iron integrity, his genius for tactics and strategy, they finally landed him in prison on a charge of "sedition." The charge turned out to be as flimsy as an old miner's lung; McLachlan was in Dorchester no more than a week when preparations were already in the works for his release, in spite of the great danger he posed for the entire nation. Me Lachlan himself said it all:
Sedition is when you protest against the
wrongs inflicted on working men; when you
protest against the resources of the
province being put in the control of men
like Roy Wolvin; when wage rates are forced
on you without your consent. If you say that
strongly enough, you are liable to get into
jail for sedition.
As a prisoner in Dorchester he spent his time as a book-keeper and a shoemaker, and in his spare time, reading from books they allowed him to borrow from the prison library (nothing seditious, of course) and from his own copy of Carlyle's Sartor Resartus, one of his favourite books, a brand new copy of which his daughter Jean gave him to celebrate his departure for prison. Jean acquired the new copy by saving up Surprise Soap wrappers and sending them off to the company so she could replace the worn out copy of the book he kept in the house on Steele's Hill.
Among the J.B. Mc Lachlan prison stories, one claims he voluntarily stayed in prison an extra day to finish making a pair of shoes for a fellow prisoner. If the story is true it tells us something about the man. If apocryphal it tells us something about what real people thought of him. Another story records an encounter with an inmate in the recreation yard. When the prisoner asked him what he was in for, J.B. answered:
"Sedition."
"Is that something to do with women?"
[the prisoner] whispered.
"Sometimes.,' said Jim.
"How many times did you do it?"
"Dozens," said Jim.
Outrage poured from every corner of the country, mostly from labour organization and individuals. Where was the press? Where were the politicians? Where were the "industrialists" in the face of this transparent miscarriage of justice? Well, here is where they were:
The Toronto Globe rejected a letter to the editor with these revealing words: "We do not care to print your letter which makes a hero of McLachlan."
The president of BESCO, Roy Wolvin wrote to Prime Minister Mac Kenzie King with his views: "I certainly do not want any man in prison who does not belong there but our courts in refusing his appeal must have acted wisely. I have had much experience with this man's activities and I consider him a dangerously clever 'Red' with him away for a few years, possibly, his teachings will be forgotten."
Cape Breton Liberal MP George W. Kyte wrote to the Prime Minister. "If he is liberated now, without having served any portion of his sentence, it will be accepted by his friends as an admission on the part of the government that his trial was unfair and his conviction illegal." McLachlan had run against Kyte in the 1921 election. J. S. Woodsworth MP for Winnipeg had made a speech in Glace Bay comparing McLachlan to Joseph Howe and suggesting that if J.B. were to be freed the chances are good that he might soon become the MP for Glace Bay. We don't know if MP Kyte was in the Savoy Theatre to hear Woodsworth's speech so we will assume that his motives for keeping J.B. in jail were pure and probably patriotic.
But he was liberated, because the charge was so outrageous, and the outrage from the country so insistent, and the "piety" of his enemies so festered with self-interest and polluted with political and financial agendas that fear of exposure and embarrassment forced the issue. He was released on the hypocritical grounds that, as the Toronto Globe feared, his continued confinement might turn him into a hero, a martyr and thus hurt the cause of the "possessed," and aid the nefarious agenda of the "dispossessed."
J.B. Mc Lachlan never fully recovered from health problems that developed while he was in Dorchester, but he continued to work for his cause until his death. In his later life he was a man honoured by the people he fought for. After his death he became a legend and if he had blemishes they have been purged by the passage of time. And this book, clear, concise, and beautifully written in a vivid narrative style will elevate J.B. to the heaven of history from whence he can look down on the mess that was made in the coalfields of Nova Scotia from Springhill, to Westray, to Inverness, to Sydney Mines, to Reserve Mines, to Dominion, to New Waterford, to Glace Bay, and he can console himself if need be with the thought that he did everything he could to prevent it. As for the future. Well, we all know the oft repeated dictum about history, quoted, usually, by people who never read it.
The Ever-Worshipped Bible, from Charles Marson's: God's Co-operative Society
http://www.anglocatholicsocialism.org/marson.html
from Charles Marson's God's Co-operative Society. London, 1914.
Above all things the greatest source of disunion and individualism in religion is the unreasonable and baseless view about the Bible, which is but too common among devout English people. Even in the zeal and excitement about the Divine Library which prevailed in the seventeenth century, the Second Sunday of Advent was provided with a beautiful Collect, describing the Christian use of the Scriptures. These are for learning, to teach patience, to bring the comfort of the Holy Word (which is not the Bible, but the living Christ), and to inspire hope. The Bible is not the rule of faith. We did not promise at our Baptism to believe the Bible. The Church is not founded upon it. It is not the one thing needful. It was written, composed, gathered, preserved, and translated by Churchmen for Churchmen. Many of the dead in Christ never knew there was or would be a New Testament at all. When we have it, it is not of private interpretation. It has quite other than the literal meanings, as we assert when we sing the Gloria after each psalm. These are often the exact opposite of the author's meanings. The Church has the right to contradict the Bible. For instance, in Psalm lxxxviii, verses 10, 11, and 12, the poet expected the answer No, to his questions. The Church gives the answer Yes, and uses the psalms as proper for Good Friday, If abuses were ever an argument against use, surely the misuse of the Bible would be an overwhelming reason for denying it to nearly everybody. The proud ignoramus, who thinks that a Bible in his knapsack makes him master of the highest wisdom, is in a perilous condiition indeed. He fancies that he is bound by a golden rope to the heavenly Guide, so that no precipices need now trouble him the slighest. He actually believes that he has the Eternal Word in his fingers, that the Word took print instead of flesh, that a work of human mechanics is the Divine device for his salvation. He pits the handmaidens, the writings of the holy servants, against the Mother and Mistress of Christians, against the Bride of God. He will prove to you that the Bible is inspired, because it says, or he thinks it says, that it is inspired; that it cannot err, nor he err in construing it. The plenary inspiration of the bumptious reader is the sole creed of such unfortunate wanderers. Every man becomes infallible without further ado. Let him once have an authorised or loose version, sold under cost price, he is fully equipped for heaven. No greater device was ever invented for ruining the sweetness, modesty, and graduation of the soul in the School of Christ. No wonder the ever-worshipped Bible becomes the object of the utmost contempt and derision. Often the earnest youth, trained in Bible adoration, ends as the most bitter detractor of what he ought never either to adore or to burn.
The ANC's former Montreal representative slams how the world is fighting AIDS
Chengiah Ragavan is an old comrade of mine who in the 1980s invited me and a couple other activists to form with him 'African National Congress Formation Group, Montreal Chapter'. Chengiah always presents a frank, multi-sided presentation of the political situation.
-Andrew W. Taylor
http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2001/120601/news5.html
Muddling through catastrophe
by WAYNE HILTZ
Teaching sociology at Concordia and fighting tooth and nail against apartheid in his native land during the 1980s and early '90s, South African exile Chengiah Ragavan was widely known as an uncompromising seeker of truth and fighter for justice.
Returning briefly last weekend at a local gathering of dozens of old friends and students, the former African National Congress...Montreal representative and a renowned race-relations scholar showed that he has lost none of his radical fire. Ragavan spoke frankly about the many serious problems facing his country--deep popular frustration at the lack of real change, the economic control by Western financial interests, and rampant violence and crime.
Last, but certainly not the least, his country is going through a full-blown AIDS crisis that affects about 4.5-million people, or one out of nine South Africans. Ragavan feels that President Thabo Mbeki has gotten a bad rap after reportedly denying that HIV causes AIDS--a statement picked up and widely played in the Western media.
As a parliamentary researcher on the issue before leaving South Africa two years ago, Ragavan argues that the president's position is more nuanced. "[The HIV denial] is not exactly what Mbeki stated," he asserts. "He said that HIV does cause AIDS but there are also other causes such as abject social conditions."
Ragavan points to a UN report released last week on AIDS in former Soviet republics such as Ukraine that essentially backs up that view. "If you're only talking about HIV causing AIDS, that's a limited discourse," Ragavan concludes.
The extent of the South African AIDS epidemic has spurred the creation of a powerful anti-AIDS movement that remains highly critical of President Mbeki's increasingly isolated position. The South African leader has come under intense fire for his statement that anti-retroviral drugs are toxic and for his refusal to declare the disastrous situation as an emergency, which would entitle the country to produce cheaper, generic drugs without breaking World Trade Organization rules.
There has also been a more paranoid response to the AIDS epidemic. Many township youth, says Ragavan, are convinced that the virus is a form of "bio-terrorism" to limit population growth in Africa. "They believe that it's not an accidental plague that has visited the world. Scientifically, of course, that can't be taken seriously."
A lot of blame for the AIDS crisis in South Africa can be laid at the government's feet. But the strategies and investment choices made by powerful external organizations are another major factor in its spread and lack of prevention. Ragavan discovered that the World Bank's $300-million (U.S.) earmarked for fighting AIDS in Africa is going much more to multinationals, particularly pharmaceuticals, to do research and to agencies who have spent funds on "plush offices" and other bureaucratic expenses.
"Why aren't the primary health-care providers on the ground receiving any sums of money from the various regional organizations set up by the World Bank?" he demanded. "It's a tragedy to see people dying in the numbers that they are and very little is being done."
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