The February B-List

Your monthly media supplement of seven recommended readings from beyond the Briarpatch. Sign up to receive the B-List via email by using the form on our homepage.

1. The Ecology of Destruction
by John Bellamy Foster
Monthly Review
February 2007

“It is a characteristic of our age that global ecological devastation seems to overwhelm all other problems, threatening the survivability of life on earth as we know it. How this is related to social causes and what social solutions might be offered in response have thus become the most pressing questions facing humanity.”

http://www.monthlyreview.org/0207jbf.htm

2. How the Left Should Frame Issues
By Murray Dobbin
The Tyee
February 6, 2007

“The right did not have to change people’s values. They just had to change people’s expectations. And they did it through a stunningly successful seizure of the language of public discourse.”

http://thetyee.ca/Views/2007/02/06/WordGames/

3. An Interview with Jean Bertrand Aristide
By Peter Hallward
London Review of Books
February 22, 2007

“Something irreversible has been achieved, something that works its way through the collective consciousness. This is the meaning of Toussaint’s famous claim, after he had been captured by the French, that they had cut down the trunk of the tree of liberty but that its roots remained deep.”

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n04/hall02_.html

4. Iran: A War is Coming
By John Pilger
The New Statesman
February 1, 2007

“As the American disaster in Iraq deepens and domestic and foreign opposition grows, “neocon” fanatics such as Vice-President Cheney believe their opportunity to control Iran’s oil will pass unless they act no later than the spring.”

http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=426

5.Is the Big Ship America Sinking? Contradictions & Openings
By Sam Gindin
The Bullet (Socialist Project)
February 8, 2007

“It is tempting to identify signs of the unraveling of the American empire. But to argue that the American economy may be on its last legs substitutes wishful thinking for sober analysis.”

http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet042.html

6.Unmasking Vancouver’s Olympic Legacy: Poverty cleansing the Downtown Eastside by public policy
By Am Johal
Seven Oaks
February 27, 2007

“As nice smiling Canadians wave their maple leafs and commodified aboriginal logos in anticipation of the 2010 Winter Olympics, poor people are getting fucked over in Vancouver. And no one seems to care.”

http://www.sevenoaksmag.com/commentary/olympicsunmasked.html

7. Faux-pinion: In College, I Marched Against Racism — And It Worked
By Jim Byers
The Onion
February 14, 2007

“Today’s youth spend their time sitting in front of their computers, but the people of my generation took a stand, took action, and reshaped our country. When I was in college, I marched against racism, and now there isn’t racism anymore.”

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/in_college_i_marched_against

Compiled by Dave Oswald Mitchell