The May 2012 Insurrection

Adbusters , 26 Apr 2012

Hey you dreamers, strikers and new left redeemers out there, for thirty-one magical days beginning this Tuesday, May 1, we take the plunge and strike! Details here.

Occupy Winnipeg Oct.  2011 PLT photo

Top 1% in the US Enjoyed 93% of Economic Recovery in 2010: Report

March 6, 2012 by Common Dreams
In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 and the recession that followed, huge numbers of US workers lost their jobs, homes were lost to foreclosure, and most found themselves in the most precarious economic shape of their lives. Full story here.


Occupy Winnipeg. PLT photo

The Cancer in Occupy

By Chris Hedges Truthdig Feb 6 - '12

The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in Oakland and other cities, are the cancer of the Occupy movement. Details here.

Many Support Occupy Movement, Global Poll Finds

Melissa Martin Wpg. Free Press 01/21/2012

"Occupy Winnipeg" in Oct. PLT photo

 Results from a new global poll suggest if the Occupy Winnipeg camp is indeed reborn in the spring, many Manitobans might be sharing some goodwill. Details here.
Please also watch my video here.  Larry.

Canadian CEOs vs. the 99%: No Contest When it Comes to Pay

Jan 3'12 - Cdn. Centre for Policy Alternatives

TORONTO—The highest paid 100 CEOs on Canada’s TSX Index had reason to cheer the New Year: By noon January 3, they had already pocketed $44,366 – what it takes the average wage earner an entire year to make. Details here.

Please also read: "The People's Corporation Loses the Common Touch"    and "Of Banksters, Occupiers and Head-Knockers."

Greg Selinger Strikes a Blow for Fire Safety - Shuts Down "Occupy Winnipeg!"

If you like this blog, please consider a donation. Thanks! Larry

PLT: Congratulations, Mr. Premier, I feel much safer now that you have evicted the three remaining protestors from the camp in Memorial Park. It was, after all, a firestorm waiting to happen - perhaps enveloping your place of business - the provincial legislature - if not much of the capitol, itself! (Sarcasm intended.)

Might we now expect provincial authorities to move in on owners of million dollar homes and evict them under cover of darkness, if they do not have firewalls installed between their houses and attached garages?  

Of course not. That would be ridiculous! 

But is it any less ridiculous to bring down the heavy hand of government on the Occupiers and no one else? The inference here seems to be that any fire where there are a few tents - (perhaps $89 specials from Canadian Tire?) would represent a much larger hazard to public safety than the massive fire which recently destroyed the huge home in Linden Woods, (L. KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) apparently one which might have been prevented, but for lax building codes in effect when the home was built.

Might this be a shining example of what Occupiers everywhere have been saying since Day One? (i.e. There is one set of laws for the top 1% - another for the rest of us.)
 
Oh, and another thing, Mr. Premier, you have now carved out a political "non-niche" of remarkable uniformity among North American leaders, including the likes of Rob Ford and Michael Bloomberg, those "progressive" mayors who worship the kind of law and order which protects elites over everything else.  You have just blown a golden opportunity to show the world that your NDP government, the only one in Canada, is somehow different. 

You are no different. 

As for the protestors, your camp may have been an insignificant annoyance to some. To me, it was a humble but shining expression of the human spirit, bent on improving things for the 99% of us who need it. Congratulations for what you have done! I hope you continue in some form or other!
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Please also read: "Of Banksters, Occupiers and Head-Knockers."

Broadcaster Bill Moyers "Nailed" the Motivation Behind the Occupy Movement - Even Before it Began! (Video)

Of Banksters, Occupiers and Head-Knockers

What to do with the Occupy camps. How about - let them be! 
by Larry Powell

A peaceful camp

It's hardly surprising. 

The mood of Canada's elites is becoming increasingly ugly as the "Occupy" movement continues to "hang in there" for a lot longer than they likely expected. 

It is, after all, what elites do. They simply cannot tolerate those who challenge the very system that keeps them in power.

Cops are already being ordered to start knocking some heads in some Canadian cities, as well as south of the border.

Neither is it surprising that some news media are misrepresenting what the movement is all about. 

A recent editorial in the Dauphin Herald, for example, dismissed the protesters as "whiners," whose support is dwindling. (In fact, the movement has persisted and spread to many parts of the world.)

The editorial also proclaimed, "It was the squandering of tax dollars (by governments) which originally created the movement!"

Wrong!
 
The newspaper obviously got the Occupiers mixed up with their polar opposites, U.S. "Tea-Partiers," and Republicans, who are unbending in their support of tax cuts for the rich and cuts to health care and other government services which might help ordinary people!

While I have yet to hear a single Occupier defend government "squandering," it was actually the growing gap between the super rich and the rest of us, which motivated them. This is all made worse by the criminal actions of bankers and rich corporations (who still, to this day, run around Scott-free, while countless Occupiers have been jailed for exercising their democratic rights to freedom of speech and assembly!) Meanwhile, those "banksters" and other "upstanding paragons of corporate virtue," like British Petroleum, are given free-reign to exploit our resources and pollute our planet (all, tax-free, of course)!

Many Canadians seem to be under the impression that things are better here than in the 'States - that banks are better regulated, for example. That is true - partly.

But the belief that our big banks have been "soldiering on" without the help of our hard-earned dollars, is also a myth. According to one very capable, investigative columnist, the Harper Government quietly issued those banks a bailout amounting to $75 billion in 2008. Michel Chossudovsky heads the Montreal-based Centre for Research on Globalization. Chossudovsky claims that, taken on a per-capita basis, that is on par with the infamous bailouts the US government made of its own crooked and failed financial institutions a few years ago.  

(Here, our own, "vigilant" corporate media seemed to have missed that story.)

Keep in mind these same banks, all five, invest billions in the Alberta tar sands, helping to destroy our natural world and climate, at the same time.

What is puzzling is how indignant some people are that homeless people are actually moving into the camps. Imagine that! A basic tenet of the "Occupy" movement is that we need a more even distribution of wealth. Why, then would they turn away those who are suffering the most from this imbalance?

I recently had the privilege of visiting the "Occupy Winnipeg" site, twice in October. Yes, there were homeless there, sitting around the bonfire, drinking the industrial-strength coffee,  and sampling the occasional, meagre bit of food. (Which renders as doubly ludicrous, suggestions that they are there "just to have fun.") To me, their presence just proved that the movement is inclusive and hardly prepared to turn away our poorest, who perhaps themselves best exemplify the inequity with which our wealth is distributed.

It should also be noted that, on the first day of "Occupy Winnipeg" there were also working people, environmentalists, representatives of First Nations, the embattled Wheat Board, and so on. 

One union representative there told me he believed Harper was out to crush the labour movement. He cited recent examples of how the government moved to bring ruthless ends to strikes in both the public and private sectors this year. Its back-to-work decrees, in both cases, came down with unprecedented haste. For postal workers, they imposed a lesser settlement than even the employer would have granted! For Air Canada flight attendants, the government locked in entry-level wages which are below the poverty line, while doing nothing to prevent obscene bonuses for corporate executives. 

Was that labour rep wrong? I don't think so.

One of the speakers told the gathering on opening day, Harper had broken an election promise and abruptly ended funding to the Canadian Environmental Network. That has thrown the future of this group into disarray and uncertainty. The Network has been co-ordinating the activities of various Eco-groups across the country and helping governments implement enlightened legislation to safeguard our air, water and soil, for decades. 


Does this strengthen the argument that, under Stephen Harper, Canada's policies are becoming the most hostile toward the environment of any nation in the world? 

Sounds like!

To suggest that this movement has been controlled by whiners and reduced to squatter camps is to do a great disservice to thousands of sincere, caring people, determined to build a better world.

(All photos by PinP.)

RELATED:

Greg Selinger Strikes a Phoney Blow for Fire Safety - Shuts Down "Occupy Winnipeg!"

Next Steps for the Occupy Movement

By Shamus Cooke Global Research, Oc 17, 2011

As the Occupy Movement gains strength nationally and internationally, questions of "what next" are popping up. Details here.


"Occupy Winnipeg" Manitoba legislature
Oct. 15th - '11 PLT photo