In an age of intensifying global inequalities and social upheaval, how are women’s movements responding, particularly in the Global South and in marginalized communities? How are anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist feminists adapting their demands, tactics and strategies to changing circumstances? To what extent is liberal/Western/white/middle-class feminism aiding or inhibiting the struggles of women when these struggles intersect with issues of race, class, nationality and ethnicity? What are the emerging paradigms that will shape struggles for women’s autonomy in the decades to come? These are the sorts of questions we explore in our “global feminism” issue.

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features

the gender of enlightenment
Female Buddhists face a glass ceiling in Thailand
By Gita Tewari

’words are powerful weapons’
The story of the speech that drove Malalai Joya underground
By Malalai Joya with Derrick O’Keefe

blanket condemnations
Contested feminisms and the politics of the burqa
By Erum Hasan

‘memsahib’ & ‘bourgeoisification of the brown nation’
Poems by Farah Shroff

no one answer
An interview with Marilyn Waring
By Brittany Shoot

cupcakes, gender, nostalgia
The commodification & consumption of girlhoods past
By Ondine Park & Tonya Davidson

profiles of feminism

The blind leading: Gender & eye care in the Global South
By Heather Wardle

The Honduran Committee for Peace Action: Women’s community organizing under pressure
By Angela Day

Forging ahead: The Ñaña knitters collective
By Teresa Krug

departments

letter from the editor
The next wave will come from the South

contributors’ bios

letters to the editor

review

J. R. Miller’s Compact, Contract, Covenant: Aboriginal Treaty-Making in Canada
Reviewed by Tyler McCreary

comic: luz
“Riot Girl” by Claudia Dávila

quotes from the underground
Sojourner Truth, Eve Ensler, John Berger, Vandana Shiva, Minke-An Ligeon, Anasuya Sengupta, Robin Morgan

parting shots
Naming the violence that has taken our sisters
By Joyce Green

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Subscribe to our digital edition.

In the wake of the global convergence in Copenhagen and looking ahead to the anti-Olympic demonstrations in February, Briarpatch sets out in this issue to assess the state of social movements today. Where are the emerging opportunities for collective action and popular empowerment? What have we learned in the ten years since Seattle? How do we translate the convergences in Copenhagen, Vancouver or elsewhere into ongoing political pressure and social transformation? Our “responsibility to protest” issue looks at these and other questions

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features

from invisibility to stability
Transgender organizing for the masses
By Mandy Van Deven

food politics & the tyranny of rights
A profile of Brewster Kneen
By Devlin Kuyek

water fight
First Nations’ water rights in the Thompson Okanagan
By Hannah Askew

selling the Olympics in the schools
Goverment & anti-Olympics groups take their messages to the classroom
By Jenn Hardy

boosters’ millions
Better ways to spend $6.1 billion than on the Olympics
By Dawn Paley & Isaac Oommen

mass protests & the future of convergence activism
Is summit-hopping a dying tactic or the next Olympic sport?
By Jane Kirby

collective power
A retrospective photo essay, illustrating Jane Kirby’s article
By Elaine Brière

when we were feminists
The 20-year reunion of the Radical Obnoxious Fucking Feminists
By Penelope Hutchison

departments

letter from the editor
Collective power and the responsibility to protest

letters to the editor

contributors’ bios

review

Brian D. Palmer’s Canada’s 1960s: The ironies of identity in a rebellious era
Reviewed by Lorne Brown

luz: girl of the knowing

quotes from the underground
Naomi Klein, George Orwell, John Berger, Lester B. Pearson, John Michael Greer, Michael Stone, Cho Se-Hui & Norm MacDonald

parting shots
What the right does right
By Armine Yalnizyan

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Subscribe to our digital edition.

The economic crisis has taken a grim toll on working people and on the labour movement. In its wake, can labour activists and environmentalists join forces to build a green economy that works for everyone? This is just one of the many questions we set out to answer in our annual labour issue, which also brings you a report on the sorry state of freelance journalism, a first-hand account of fighting fire in Canada’s Big Wild, an assessment of the prospects for union organizing in tough times, a look at the intersection of neoliberalism and volunteerism in New Orleans, and more.

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features

global perspectives on the great recession:

Saints or scabs? The impact of volunteer labour in New Orleans
By Sara Falconer

Two-tier workforce: South Korea’s migrant underclass bears the brunt
By Steven Borowiec

Hong Kong’s women workers & the fight for a minimum wage
By Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

organizing in tough times
Should labour unions hunker down or go on the offensive?
By Sarah Ryan

will write for food
The dismal state of freelance journalism
By Andrea Crummer

cutting the global economy down to size
The nature of work & the green-collar workforce
By Robin Tennant-Wood

Supplement: Resources to fuel the shift to a green economy

work less, live more
Renegotiating our relationship with work
By Anna Kirkpatrick

days of smoke & roses
Fighting fire in the Big Wild
By Angela Street

are governments doing enough to address the global jobs crisis?
Global Jobs Pact a blueprint for change
By Stephanie Dearing

departments

letter from the editor
Turtles and teamsters, ten years on

review

Aziz Choudry et al’s Fight Back: Workplace justice for immigrants
Reviewed by David Koch

quotes from the underground
Thus spake Stephen Harper

parting shots
The coming austerity
By Simon Enoch

luz: girl of the knowing
(Luz returns next issue)

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Subscribe to our digital edition.

The education system, broadly conceived, represents both our best hope of emancipatory change and the primary mechanism for replicating the status quo. In our “Education for a Change” issue, Briarpatch surveys this contested space, exploring the challenges as well as the opportunities the current moment presents to allow us to rethink the ways we share knowledge (and consequently power) with one another, with our children, and with the children of others.

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features

the myth of the multicultural patchwork
Anti-racist education & the problem with multiculturalism
By Tyler McCreary

retooling schooling
4 projects that are revolutionizing the way we teach & learn
By Colin Payne, Anna Kirkpatrick, Michelle Miller & Chris Benjamin

corporate crisis, community opportunity
Rebuilding local media for the 21^st century
By Jacqueline Cusack McDonald & Steve Anderson

single-gender education
Fad or future?
By Jacquie McTaggart

freedom, absurdity & The Stranger in the classroom
Facing the Sunday blues with Albert Camus
By Joelle Renstrom

B.A., M.A., McJob
The student debt bubble, the shrinking middle class and the future of post-secondary education
By Leslie Jermyn

generation debt
What’s the real cost of knowledge?
By Alethea Spiridon

the road to flobbertown
How standardized testing is changing the way we teach our kids
By Sue Stock & Shayna Stock

departments

letter from the editor
Education for a change

letters to the editor

contributors’ bios

review

Adrienne Clarkson’s Norman Bethune: Extraordinary Canadians series
Reviewed by Ruth Latta

quotes from the underground
Derrick Jensen, John Berger, George Carlin, Gerry Hurton, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Hubert Humphrey, Eugene Debs & Malcolm X

parting shots
Who taught you to teach, professor?
By Don Sawyer

luz: girl of the knowing
“A Class Act” by Claudia Dávila

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What if the ongoing economic recession is not just a regrettable temporary setback in the never-ending march of growth-fuelled prosperity, but the beginning of a painful but ecologically necessary process of scaling back our footprint to a more sustainable level?

How would we manage the decline so as to ensure the burdens are shared out equitably? How would we go about reorganizing our society and economy around conservation and community well-being rather than economic growth and short-term profit?

The revolution envisioned above would require a fundamental transformation in every aspect of our lives — our jobs, our homes, our food system, our arts and entertainment, etc. At the risk of biting off more than we can chew, these are the questions we set out to answer in our July/August 2009 issue: “Briarpatch Unplugged, Or How I Learned to Stop Destroying the Planet and Love the Global Recession.”

To subscribe or order a copy of this issue, call 1-866-431-5777 or visit our secure online shop.

features

kick-starting the environmental movement
An interview with Noam Chomsky
By Dan Mossip-Balkwill

the myth of the wealthy environmentalist
Connecting Finnish innovation & Mongolian degradation
By Chris Benjamin

envisioning ecological revolution
Why ecological transformation requires a social revolution
By John Bellamy Foster

salt & earth ( a photo essay)
A year and a half in the life of an ecovillage
A photo essay by Jonathan Taggart

old growth, new approach
Learning from the Haida Land Use Agreement
By Erik Haensel & Justine Townsend

why less is more
A conversation with six visionary thinkers about a scaled-down future
By Mark Brooks

six big ways to work for a smaller world
Small actions that add up
By Stephanie Dearing, Brittany Shoot, Anuradha Rao, Candace Hodder, Tim Rourke & Dalia Levy

online exclusive:
Resources & tools for powering down

departments

letter from the editor
How I learned to stop destroying the planet and love the global recession

reviews

Peter Victor’s Managing Without Growth: Smaller by Design, Not Disaster
Reviewed by Brett Dolter

E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered
Reviewed by Yarika Rose

luz: girl of the knowing
“Luz makes a refrigeration basket” by Claudia Dávila

quotes from the underground
Susan Sontag, Edward Abbey, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Motherwell, CrimethInc., Maximilien Robespierre, Peter Ustinov, Michael Stone & John Berger

parting shots
Generation LESS comes of age
By Jessica C. Y. Wong

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Crime dominates the news, but the standard political pronouncements on the subject seldom move beyond empty, knee-jerk vows to “get tough” on the perpetrators. This approach to the topic only stokes the politics of fear, of blame, of poor-bashing and insidious racism. In our crime & punishment issue, Briarpatch brings you a variety of ethically engaged perspectives on questions of crime, punishment, and the justice system, from policing mental health to securing the Olympics, from the fathers’ rights movement in Canada to the drive for prison reform in Ghana — plus some killer investment advice.

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features

policing mental health
When can a group of men break into a man’s home and kill him with impunity?
By Calvin Whilte

between home and a hard place
Security detainees’ house arrests jail whole families
By Matthew Behrens

the detestable solution
Prison reform in Ghana
By Chris Benjamin

“indians can manage their own justice” (pdf)
Traditional justice & indigenous autonomy in Colombia
A photo essay by Dawn Paley

class-war games
The financial & social cost of “securing” the 2010 OIympics
By Christopher A. Shaw & Alissa Westergard-Thorpe

anger in action
The politics of fathers’ rights in Canada
By Deanna Ogle

departments

letter from the editor
Crime, punishment & other miscarriages of justice

letters to the editor

reviews

Kerry Pither’s Dark Days: The story of four Canadians tortured in the name of fighting terror
Reviewed by Lorne Brown

Irvin Waller’s Less Law, More Order: The truth about reducing crime
Reviewed by Reuel S. Amdur

Margaret MacMillan’s The Uses & Abuses of History
Reviewed by Ruth Latta

luz: girl of the knowing
“High Intensity” by Claudia Dávila

quotes from the underground
Talking torture with Slavoj Žižek, Michael Ignatieff & Naomi Klein

parting shots
How to profit from the global recession
By Anna Reitman

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When we approach gender as an androgynous zone rather than viewing male and female as sovereign territories permanently set off in opposition to one another, interesting possibilities and unexpected allegiances begin to emerge. In this, our gender & sexuality issue, Briarpatch undresses the politics of adultery, flirts with the practice of polyamory, discusses the decriminalization of sex work, weighs the cost of transexual healthcare in Canada, investigates Nepal’s human trafficking epidemic and checks out Vancouver’s queer dance scene.

To subscribe or order a copy of this issue, call 1-866-431-5777 or visit our secure online shop.

features

queering the scene
Vancouver’s Fuck Off and Dance collective
By Michelle Miller

a pound of flesh
The cost of transsexual health care in Canada
By Calvin Neufeld

adultery & other half revolutions
Towards a post-scarcity economy of love
By CrimethInc.

polyamory in practice
An open discussion with Tristan Taormino & Jenny Block
By Mandy Van Deven

sex work & the state
An interview with Kara Gillies
By Emily van der Meulen

villages without women
Nepal’s human trafficking epidemic
By Chelsea Temple Jones

departments

letter from the editor
Androgynous zones & other political hot spots

letters to the editor

review
Cruising the Red Meat District: A review of Carol  Adams’ The Sexual Politics of Meat
By Calvin Neufeld

quotes from the underground
Lois Wyse, Utah Phillips, Susan Sontag,  Martin Luther King, Jr., Helen Keller, Woody Allen, Harold Thurman & Heidi Postlewait

parting shots
Change your name, boy, and you’ll challenge the world to change, too
By Rachel Penner de Waal

luz: girl of the knowing
“Dirt Shares” by Claudia Dávila

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There is perhaps no more politically charged issue today than food - how it is grown, who controls its processing and distribution, and who eats what — or who doesn’t eat at all. In our special issue focusing on food politics, Briarpatch casts a hopeful eye over the multitude of food activism initiatives springing up all around us, reports from the Fifth International Conference of La Via Campesina in Maputo, Mozambique, investigates the claims of the whey protein supplement industry, discusses the dangers of genetically modified food, whips up an activist cookbook of do-it-yourself food activities, and much more.

To subscribe or order a copy of this issue, call 1-866-431-5777 or visit our secure online shop.

features

learning from success
Local food activism & the fight for a livable planet
By Aric McBay

feeding the world & cooling the planet
The Vía Campesina’s Fifth International Conference
By Luis Hernández & Annette Aurélie Desmarais

cow powder
The unnatural growth of milk-based protein supplements
By Samantha Magnus

genetic modification ‘inherently unsafe’
Avoiding genetically modified ingredients is harder than you might think
Michael Smith interviews Jeffrey Smith

cover story: eat, play, live
8 food activism initiatives that are changing how we eat & how we live
By Geeta Sehgal, Yolanda Hansen, Jon Steinman, Aruna Handa, Shayna Stock, Kaitlin Kazmierowski, Adam Perry, Charles Levkoe & Angie Koch

the activist cookbook
A do-it-yourself food activism starter kit
By Saima Sidik, Julia Ewaschuk & Andrea Peloso

from the world’s breadbasket to the empire’s fuel tank
How the agrofuels lobby is reshaping prairie agriculture
By Cathy Holtslander, Glen Koroluk & Ian Lordon

departments

letter from the editor
The power of food

letters to the editor

reviews:

Chow Now: Three indictments of a broken system
By Aruna Handa

The Herbivore’s Dilemma: A review of Lierre Keith’s The Vegetarian Myth
By Aric McBay

luz: girl of the knowing
“Long Distance Romance” by Claudia Dávila

quotes from the underground
Michael Pollan, Thich Nhat Hanh, Earl Butz, Bob Marley, Raj Patel & John Michael Greer

parting shots
Building a more transparent food system
By Alissa Hamilton

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In our special focus on Canada’s most red hot (and easiest to draw) province, “Saskatchewan Rising: Dispatches from Canada’s Crucible,” Briarpatch sails a prairie schooner through a city of charlatans, assesses the folly of bargain-basement resource royalty rates, speaks with Naomi Klein about what the Left can and should do in the midst of yet another crisis, celebrates the work of activists and visionaries building the foundation of a sustainable future, and prognosticates on the brewing battle between the Wall government and the Saskatchewan labour movement. One thing’s for certain: there’s a hell of a lot going on in Saskatchewan these days, and progressives from coast to coast to coast would do well to take note.

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features

the shipbuilder, dog river & other roadside delights
By Tonya K. Davidson
How I learned to stop in Saskatchewan.

dirty deeds done dirt cheap
By Erin Weir
Crunching the numbers on Saskatchewan’s multi-billion dollar resource give-away.

living behind the uranium curtain
By Jim Harding
The dubious legacy and dangerous future of Saskatchewan’s uranium legacy.

wall’s war on the working class
By J. F. Conway
Labour is the lynchpin in the right’s plan for more sweeping changes.

disaster populism
Dave Oswald Mitchell interviews Naomi Klein
Discussing the prospects for progressive change in the midst of crisis.

full steam ahead
By Ryan Meili
Station 20 West, Saskatoon’s innovative engine for urban renewal, is back on track.

little footprint on the prairie
By Peter Dodson
Baby steps towards a more sustainable Saskatchewan.

saskatoon’s green party
By Shayna Stock
The We Are Many Festival promotes small actions for big change.

departments

letter from the editor
A ‘curse of wealth’ & a new leaf

quotes from the underground
Thomas Jefferson, Arundhati Roy & Kurt Vonnegut

luz: girl of the knowing
“Smells like ingenuity” by Claudia Dávila

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In this special focus on workplace activism, Briarpatch looks at unions’ increasing use of social networking tools, assesses the prospects for the Canadian labour movement heading into a recession, travels with solidarity activists to Colombia and Haiti, asks why CanWest can’t take a joke, and more.

To subscribe or order a copy of this issue, call 1-866-431-5777 or visit our secure online shop.

features

northern exclusion
By Kate Press
Nunavut booms, who benefits?

canada does colombia
By Dawn Paley
Labour groups oppose the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, but can they mobilize Canadians?

plus: Liliany Obando: Profile of a jailed Colombian dissident
By Roger Langen

haiti & the canadian labour movement
By Roger Annis
Building the Haiti Union Solidarity Fund.

union organizing 2.0
By Carmelle Wolfson
Labour enters the Facebook matrix.

adventures in coordinated bargaining
By Erinn White & Dayn Gray
New organizing models bear fruit for Ontario university-sector workers.

too little, too late?
By John Peters
The state of the Canadian labour movement today.

the butterfly in the classroom
By Roger Langen
Academic freedom & the labour movement.

departments

letters to the editor

review
Jim Stanford’s Economics for Everyone: A short guide to the economics of capitalism
Reviewed by Nick Bonokoski

quotes from the underground
Slavoj Žižek, James Meek, Barack Obama, Raj Patel, Albert Einstein, John Michael Greer & Eric Hoffer

parting shots
A SLAPP in the face for free speech
By Robert Jensen

luz: girl of the knowing
“Fired up about resources” by Claudia Dávila

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