HISTORY:ROSA PARKS:On this date Rosa Parks (1913-2005), the mother of the American Civil Rights Movement was born. On December 1st 1955 she refused an order from a bus driver to give up her seat for a white and "move to the back of the bus". This led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott that was the first action of the civil rights movement in the USA. The notice for this anniversary was from the Daily Bleed. To learn more about Rosa Parks see this Wikipedia entry. …
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AMERICAN LABOUR: WORKERS WIN INJUNCTION AGAINST WALMART CONTRACTORS:Here's an interesting item and an appeal for solidarity from the Making Change At Walmart group.*************************Workers win injunction against Walmart contractorsPosted on February 2, 2012 by benjaminwaxmanYesterday, employees working for two Walmart contractors that operate warehouse facilities won a major victory in federal court. The U.S. District Court for Central District of California issued an injunction prohibiting two companies, Schneider Logistics and Rogers-Premier Unloading Services, from firing workers …
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ANARCHIST THEORY:DIFFERENT SORTS OF FREEDOM:My dear mother, God rest her soul, used to regale me with stories of the most stupid family in the patch of geography where she grew up. She was born near Simferopal Crimea and grew up in northwest Saskatchewan where you could go 200 miles to anything that resembled a city. From my point of view a great place to grow up but also a great place to leave at the time of puberty. I was blessed. Anyways, amongst the tales of the "stupid family" shooting their horses while duck hunting and also shooting themselves in the foot (accidentally believe it or …
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CANADIAN LABOUR:SOLIDARITY WITH TORONTO CIVIC WORKERS:The following appeal for solidarity with civic workers in Toronto Ontario is from the Toronto based Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).***********************Don't be a STRIKEBREAKER for Rob Ford!‏Sent: January-27-12 5:46:26 PM~A Message from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty~ Rob Ford and his friends on City Council are out to wipe out public services in this City and to attack the workers who deliver those services. Thousands of members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees face the threat of being locked out by the City. …
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TODAY IN HISTORY:CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY JOSE MARTI BORN:On this day in 1853 Cuban revolutionary José Marti was born. An early advocate of both independence from Spain and resistance to the imperialist designs of the USA, Marti advocated a socialism that while still statist was considerably more libertarian than what "socialism" generally stood for in the 20th century and especially more libertarian than the present dictatorship in Cuba. Notification from the anarcvhist timeline The Daily Bleed (which gets a serious Molly endorsement). …
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CANADIAN LABOUR QUÉBEC:RIO TINTO LOCKOUT SOON TO ENTER SECOND MONTH:In the town of Alma Québec the lockout of employees of Alcan will soon be into its second month. 780 members of the United Steel Workers have been locked out since January 1. Management`s demand...simple "destroy the union"; all new workers hired from this point on are to be "subcontractors" rather than permanent employees. Here's the story from the International Metalworkers Federation.**************************Canadian Rio Tinto lockout nears one monthOn January 1, 2012, Rio Tinto’s aluminium subsidiary Alcan locked out …
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HUMOUR:MUCH ADO ABOUT... …
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CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:MONTRÉAL ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR CALLOUT....................The ever popular Montréal Anarchist Bookfair will be coming up on May 19 1nd 20 this year. This is the biggest and possibly the best anarchist gathering in North America, and if you can travel at all this is one event to attend. Here`s the callout for participants (la version français suive au-dessous)++++++++++++++++++++++++Callout for proposals:en français ici: http://www.salonanarchiste.ca/[Callout for proposals (deadline March 1/April 1, 2012): http://www.anarchistbookfair.ca/callout-for-proposals or …
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HUMOUR:TO ALL MY ENEMIES: …
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CANADIAN LABOUR LONDON ONTARIO:COMMUNITY SUPPORT FOR LOCKED OUT CATERPILLAR WORKERS:Time ticks on until this Saturday's mass demonstration in solidarity with workers at the Electro-Motive Diesel plant in London Ontario. While this is being planned the local community in London Ontario is rallying behind the workers affected who are supposed to have their wages cut by 50% as per the company's offer. There has been much discussion about the culpability of the federal government in allowing a foreign purchase of this enterprise insofar as it was "in the interests of Canada". Obviously it is not, …
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VISIONS: THE PRODUCER CO-OP OPTION: There are basically two types of cooperatives, consumer and producer. The former is a mutual aid society of purchasers banded together to get the best possible value for their dollar by cutting out the capitalist middleman. By banding together the members of such co-ops not only avoid value draining intermediaries but also get the advantage of size and bulk purchasing power, something beyond the capacity of singular households. The most visible consumer co-ops in Canada are the gasoline co-ops active in most provinces, but this option is hardly restricted to …
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CANADIAN LABOUR NEWFOUNDLAND: TROUBLE IN PARADISEIt is a very old story out in Newfoundland way. Fish processing companies come and go, opening, closing and reopening elsewhere. All, of course, to keep labour costs as low as possible no matter what the effect on local communities. The Ocean Choice International company is cut from the usual cloth. They have recently laid off 400 workers in Port Union and Marystown. This has come along with a "request" to the Newfoundland government to grant the company permanent exemption to ship fish outside of the province for processing. In return the …
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CANADIAN LABOUR LONDON ONTARIO:RALLY TO PUSH BACK AGAINST THE CORPORATE BULLDOZER CATERPILLAR INC.:Since New Year's Day 425 workers at Electro-Motive (a subsidiary of heavy equipment firm Caterpillar) have been locked out. The demands of this quite profitable company are quite amazing - a 50% cut in wages as well as the decimation of benefits-, and it is entirely possible, as the following article points out, that management is not serious at all in its bargaining. The rally is being organized by a number of labour groups. The Electro-Motive workers are represented by the Canadian Auto Workers …
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IMAGES:THE CORPORATE RESPONSE: …
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ART:POLICING:As in keeping "someone's peace. …
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HUMOUR:TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS …
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BOOKS:PAPAL SIN AND LORD ACTON:"The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks"- Lord ActonI thought that the above quote from Lord Acton was the most appropriate for our times, even more so than his famous "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Acton is very much like the Bible; often quoted but rarely read. In recent times conservatives have tried to claim him as their own, but the more intelligent denizens of the conservative world recognize that he was actually a classical liberal. Thus …
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THE NEW YEAR'S SPECTRE:Perhaps the ghost of New Years Yet To Come ? …
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PERSONALHAPPY NEW YEAR:Welcome to 2012 all you friends, enemies and innocent bystanders of Molly's Blog. May it be even more eventful and productive than 2011. …
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RELIGION:PAPAL SINS:Amazingly enough I finished reading two books on a single day. There are two more rather technical books that I am still reading, but probably few would be interested in them. The first book I finished was the collected fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. I've already mentioned said book here. The second book is Garry Wills' 'Papal Sin'. You can read it yourself here at Google Books. I hope the referral is right. I often make mistakes in long addresses.I have to say that the book surprised me. From the title and a brief perusal I expected this book to get into the gritty …
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LOCAL NEWS:THE LAST MAN STANDING:Last Wednesday December 21 the Province of Manitoba finally moved to evict Occupy Winnipeg from Memorial Park at, of course, 7:00 am. According to what I read Occupy Winnipeg was the last Occupy camp to be evicted in Canada. Not bad strategy on the part of the City and Province actually, especially considering the dispute about who is responsible for "peace"-keeping on Provincial land within the City. In the end Manitoba Conservation and the Winnipeg City Police outnumbered the hardy souls, three in number, who were still braving the cold in the early morning …
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INTERNATIONAL ANARCHISM:SOLIDARITY WITH INDONESIAN PUNKS:In the countries where anarchism is a tradition the idea of "anarchist subcultures" is definitely a peripheral matter. Even in countries where anarchism is not a large tradition but where historical memory has been preserved anarchists are well into moving beyond subcultures. But in countries such as Indonesia (and many others) anarchism is being introduced via the "punk subculture". This may not be the optimal way to introduce the ideology, but it is the way in reality. In Indonesia the area of Aceh has become a testing ground for the …
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PERSONAL: FAREWELL TO MY SISTER:I've reached the age where I see my siblings dying, something quite different from having your parents die (many years in the past for me). Just this week I have been to Calgary for the funeral of my sister Anne. Sister sister actually. She had been a member of the Congregation of the Sisters Of Charity of St, Louis for many decades (since 1959), and had actually been Sister Superior on two different occasions. My sister died in the Calgary airport. For some inexplicable reason I want to attribute her massive heart attack to running to make a connecting flight. …
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CANADIAN POLITICS: CONSERVATIVES ATTACK UNIONS ONCE MORE:Well, this probably counts as non-news as nobody should be suprised that a Conservative Party wants to gut the power of organized workers to fight back. The following articles (English and French) from the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) warns of this desire. I think the most significant point made below is that union books are already open to members, the only openness that should count. The government, of course, sees this as merely an opening salvo in a long term campaign to deprive the NDP of union support. Now …
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INTERNATIONAL POLITICS:2011: A YEAR OF REVOLUTION:2011 was a remarkable year. As revolutions sparked throughout the Arab world the "lower" classes of many other countries also rose up as evidenced in Europe, North America and South America and now even in Russia. In sum there hasn't been so much opposition to power for decades. It's hard to say where this will all lead. As the following article says the year has been quite remarkable, and few (nobody ?) could have predicted its events. The following article is from the online magazine 'The Indypendent'. The reader should note that "Molyneux" …
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PERSONALMOLLY DEBATES THE INSANEMost of Molly's "action" is now over at her Facebook site. Over there there is an interesting "debate" if you can call it such. The substance concerens the "torching" of a cop car by supposed anarchists at a recent demonstration about the rigged Russian election. Anarchists certainly took part in the demonstration against the rigged elections. What I await confirmation of, given the police set-up that led to the torching of three police cars in Toronto, is verification from the REAL anarchist organizations in Russia. We'll see. If it is true it is an act of …
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