The B-List is your monthly media supplement of 7 recommended readings from beyond the Briarpatch.
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2008.
Tags: Cuba, disaster capitalism, Latin America, peak oil, revolution, zapatistas
By Allan Dawson
Winnipeg Free Press
January 27 2008
THE Conservative minority government was elected two years ago and seems no closer to implementing an open market for barley than the day it came to power.
It’s not that it hasn’t really, really tried. It rigged the plebiscite on the barley marketing by giving farmers three choices instead of two and then combining results.
By Thomas Walkom
The Toronto Star
January 18, 2008
American Defence Secretary Robert Gates may well be right when he says that Canadian and European troops in Afghanistan are not well equipped to fight a counter-insurgency campaign. But what has been lost in the controversy over his impolitic remarks is that we did not sign on to fight insurgents – there or anywhere else.
The International Stabilization and Assistance Force, which NATO now commands and which includes some 2,500 Canadian soldiers, was set up in late 2001 by the United Nations to do just what its name suggests – stabilize a country emerging from years of civil war and assist the fledgling Kabul government in its redevelopment efforts.
Fighting the Taliban (or, as they were called then, the Taliban “remnants”) was a job that Washington insisted on reserving to itself through what it called Operation Enduring Freedom.
Canada helped out in that one too, sending troops to serve under U.S. command in 2002. But in those days, America wanted to keep its sometimes squeamish allies well away from a dark war that was aimed primarily at capturing terror suspects and transferring them to interrogators at Guantanamo Bay.
It was only after 2003, when the U.S. found itself troop-short and bogged down in Iraq, that Washington changed the rules of engagement for its allies. Gradually, Afghanistan became NATO’s war. Washington’s plan then was to gradually reduce its 20,000 troop commitment to Afghanistan and switch them over to Iraq.
Which is why, since 2006, Canadian troops have found themselves under fire in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
It’s worth remembering that we keep sending soldiers to Afghanistan not because Canada has been attacked by the Taliban, but because our friends, the Americans, feel they are at war with them.
The Dutch are in southern Afghanistan for the same reason. So are the British – who have paid a severe price at home for their decision to support Washington’s various anti-Islamist wars.
That’s why Gates’ comments rub so raw in this and other NATO countries. Since 2001, one Canadian diplomat and 77 soldiers have died in Afghanistan. More than 250 more have been wounded in action. Yet this was never our war. It was always America’s.
The U.S. chose to declare Afghanistan the enemy after the terrorist attacks of September 2001. Had Washington elected to avenge 9/11 by invading the country from which most of those terrorists came, Canadian troops would now be fighting in Saudi Arabia.
Their call, their war, their show.
Now, Washington has shifted its focus again. On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced it will send an additional 3,200 Marines to Afghanistan – bringing the total number of U.S. troops there to more than 30,000.
It is in this context that Gates made his remarks. In effect, the American public is being told that its soldiers have to fix Afghanistan because the pusillanimous Europeans and invisible Canadians aren’t up to the job. Or, as the Washington Post noted editorially: “It’s becoming clear that the war must be won by U.S. troops, and not by NATO.”
Which, in the broader scheme of things, is just fine. Let America, freshly confident after its counterinsurgency successes in Iraq and Vietnam, finish its own war itself. Then Canadian troops can come back to Canada. And the North Atlantic Treaty Organization can refocus on the North Atlantic.
Thomas Walkom’s column normally appears Thursday and Sunday.
Tags: Afghanistan, foreign policy, war on terror
“If non-indigenous readers are capable of listening, they will . . . discover that while we are envisioning a new relationship between Onkwehonwe and the land, we are at the same time offering a decolonized alternative to the Settler society by inviting them to share our vision of respect and peaceful coexistence.”
-Alfred Taiaiake, preface to Wasáse: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom (Broadview Press, 2005).
Though many Canadians remain blind to it, the colonial relationship continues to shape every aspect of Canadian society, economy, and foreign and domestic policies. Non-indigenous social justice advocates have begun to recognize, however, that real progress towards a society based on equality, social justice, and respect for the environment requires working in solidarity with indigenous peoples to decolonize our minds, our movements and our institutions.
To that end, Briarpatch Magazine invites contributions to our June/July 2008 issue on Indigenous/settler relations. We are looking for feature articles, provocative essays, investigative reportage, news briefs, reviews, interviews, profiles, poetry, humour, and artwork that explores the issues surrounding the struggles of Indigenous peoples for autonomy and self-determination, the state of Indigenous/settler relations in 21st century Canada, and the roles and responsibilities of settler allies in the struggle to decolonize Canada.
Possible topics could include (but are by no means limited to) the role of the treaties as a guide for Indigenous/settler relations, the “no Olympics of stolen land” campaign, the fight against the extradition of John Graham, Canadian Forces recruitment on reserves, the state of First Nations efforts to impede (or at least control) resource extraction on reserve or unceded lands, warrior societies, anarcho-indigenism, tips and tactics for decolonizing the social/environmental justice movement, and the impact of the tar sands and other oil and gas projects on affected First Nations communities.
Queries are due by February 18, 2008. If your query is accepted; first drafts are due by March 14, 2008. Your query should outline what ground your contribution will cover, give an estimated word count, and indicate your relevant experience or background in writing about the issue. Please provide a brief writing sample.
Please review our submission guidelines before submitting. Send your queries/submissions to editor AT briarpatchmagazine DOT com.
We reserve the right to edit your work (with your active involvement), and cannot guarantee publication. Briarpatch is presently experimenting with a $0.05/word payment policy, where none existed before.
By Jeff Halper
Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions
January 23, 2008
The people of Palestine have done it again, taking their own fate in their hands after being let down by their own “moderate” political leadership and, indeed, the entire international community in their struggle for freedom. Early this morning they simply blew up the wall separating Gaza from Egypt, breaking a siege imposed on them by an Arab government in collaboration with Israel.
Tags: direct action, Israel/Palestine
By Mark Engler
In These Times
January 22, 2008
In the closing weeks of 2007, a region in revolt against the economics of corporate globalization issued its most unified declaration of independence to date.
On Dec. 9, standing before the flags of their countries, the presidents of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Venezuela, along with a representative from Uruguay, gathered in Buenos Aires and signed the founding charter of the Banco del Sur, or the Bank of the South.
The Bank of the South will allow participating governments to use a percentage of their collective currency reserves to strengthen Latin America’s economy and promote cooperative development. It plans to begin lending as early as 2008 with around $7 billion in capital.
Tags: economics, IMF, Latin America, neoliberalism, World Bank
By Mohan Balaji
Asia Times Online
Jan 23, 2008
The much-heralded democratization process, as well as Bhutan’s increasingly complex role as a “buffer state” between China and India, have overshadowed the country’s refugee issue. This week’s blasts, however, may have shifted the focus back to the decades-old situation that has been condemned by rights groups and drawn the scrutiny of the United States and the United Nations.
CHENNAI - The orchestrated bomb blasts that detonated on Monday in the capital of Thimphu and three other locations across Bhutan are a powerful reminder of the simmering refugee problem that has long plagued the ruling government and tarnished the reputation of the tiny Himalayan kingdom often referred to as Shangri-La.
According to Bhutanese police, the explosions were suspected to be linked to one of three militant organizations based in Nepal - the Bhutan Tiger Force, the Bhutan Maoists Party and the Communist Party of Bhutan.
By John F. Conway
Planet S (Saskatoon)
January 17, 2008
When you combine recent reports on the earnings of the rich in Canada compared to those earning average wages and salaries with the recent political behaviour of Canadians, a stark conclusion seems unavoidable.
Class politics in Canada appears to have been successfully snuffed out by the business lobby’s relentless 25-year propaganda offensive.
Tags: canadian politics, class, history, inequality
By John Ross
January 15, 2008
At the stroke of midnight this past January 1st, a hundred or so farmers and day laborers from both sides of the border converged on the hump of the Cordoba Las Americas bridge that connects up El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, to mark the demise of Mexican agriculture. In accordance with the timetables set by the North American Free Trade Agreement signed by Mexico, the U.S. and Canada 14 years ago, as of January 1st 2008, all tariffs on corn, beans, powdered milk, sugar and 200 agricultural products were reduced to zero, setting in motion a doomsday scenario that farmers organizations here say will inevitably lead to crisis in the Mexican “campo” or countryside, mass abandonment of unsustainable plots, increased hunger, and even armed rebellion by the nation’s beleaguered small farmers.
Tags: agriculture, Latin America, Mexico, trade
The Briarpatch website has recently undergone a major back-end overhaul and subtle front-end redesign, thanks largely to the generous assistance of Dawn Buie. Expect much more frequent posting to the briarblogs, now that we’ve worked through our technical knots.
I encourage you to poke around the site. Your feedback is most welcome. We’ll be working out any remaining bugs in the coming weeks, including broken intra-site links. If you notice any, please let us know. Also, please notify other webmasters whose links to this site have been broken, and kindly ask them to update their links.
–Dave Oswald Mitchell
