Who votes for Conservatives anyway?

So who votes for the Conservative Party of Canada?

• not parents that had national daycare taken from them

• not aboriginals that saw two treaties rescinded and killed

• not scientists that had their work muzzled by the government

• not economists or social planners that were against tampering with the census

• not women’s groups that had their funding pulled for supporting a woman’s right to choose or abolishing the gun registry

• not anyone believing in freedom of information

• not environmentalists

• not anyone that protested at the G20 and watched the CONs squander a billion public dollars

• not anyone that thinks political parties shouldn’t use government funds to spread their propaganda – 45 million and counting

• not anyone that wanted fiscal responsibility and transparency

• not anyone that sees the CONs spending more to deliver less

• not anyone that wanted to see the CPP improved despite millions of Canadians calling for public pension improvements

• not anyone who lost money in the income trust funds

• not anyone who lost their job when the CONs cut funding to the arts, public sector or dismantling of manufacturing thriving communities

• not civil servants that saw anyone of their members who pointed out abuse vilified in the media

• not watchdogs that saw their power weakened until they could no longer do their job

• not those that shook their head at terms like “ethical oil,” “cancer is sexy” “build more jails to deter unreported crime” and “Hitler theory”

• not many nations when it came time to fill a UN Security Council seat

The international community has turned its back to Harper, Canada should too… a pair of glasses does not make the PM any wiser.

Stephen Harper plans to run on his “Tough on crime” “Family Values” and his “Business friendly agenda”

Go for it Steve. Your crime policies are a joke and are going to end up costing more money, and will not reduce crime or make society and safer. Your business friendly policies are an even bigger joke after the debacle with the UAE, and as for “Family Values” I can look after my own damn values and I don’t need you to do that for me.

Why don’t you run on your real agenda:

You will continue to run up accumulated debt which is more of a danger to the economy than anything else. You will continue your shameless self promotion, you will continue to waste tax payer dollars like water running through a sieve, and you will continue to embarrass Canada internationally, and you will continue to repeat the lie that you are an economist, and you will continue to be a fiscally reckless and incompetent leader.

Sounds like a plan, and at least it would be the truth. That would be a first for Stephen Harper.

Did you know Harper and Flaherty have a  dirty little secret.

The sub-prime mortgage fiasco they enable by de-regulating the Banks.

A Globe and Mail investigation in 2010 into more than 10,000 foreclosure proceedings has uncovered a burgeoning subprime mortgage problem that many, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have insisted does not exist in Canada.

The last five years under the Harper, Refrom regime has been a nightmare. They do not represent 68% of the electorate, but they keep ramming the ideologically driven Tea Party policies through government while ignoring parliamentary procedure.

Their boorish, arrogant, self-centred, big spending leader is an abomination to the majority of Canadians who did not vote for his condescending bills on law and order, corporate tax deductions, environment, and, in your face abuse of public funds to promote the Reform Party.

So if the Conservative party is testing the water and on-the road promoting their plans for Canada we may want to enact some real alternatives to what good government is all about.

Voting for the Cons or Libs reminds me of people who go into a bar looking for a meaningful relationships, get f–ked over, whine and complain about it, and yet, go back into the bar the very next night.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Bolivia lowers retirement age as part of radical pension reform

The government of Bolivia has passed a new pension law that reduces the retirement age for most men to 58 from 65, in stark contrast to many other countries which are seeking to hike the retirement age in order to deal with climbing life expectancy rates.

Signed by President Evo Morales, the new measure will also nationalize pension funds.

In addition, the law, which will come into force next year, will for the first time grant pensions to the 60 percent of the workforce who work in informal jobs, including market traders, bus drivers and taxi drivers, as long as they make contributions. It is estimated that 3-million Bolivians (or 60 percent of the workforce) are employed in the “informal sector.”

The retirement age for miners was reduced to 56.

For women, will be able to retire at age 55 if they have three or more children. (Women currently retire at age 60).

In a symbolic gesture, Morales signed the new law at the headquarters of Bolivia’s main trade union federation, accompanies by miners, peasants and other workers.

“What is most important to highlight is the fact that, when we bring together workers with their experience and our ministers and our experts, it is possible together to formulate, propose, and develop a law for the benefit of the Bolivian people,” Morales said in a speech at the Bolivian Workers’ Center .

In response to the reduced pension ages, Bolivian ministers explained that many poor Bolivians work in difficult jobs in harsh conditions which older workers cannot reasonably be expected to do. Moreover, the nation’s life expectancy rate is only 62 years for men and 65 years for women.

However, Bolivian business leaders have criticized the new laws, saying they are unsustainable.
Thirteen years ago, Bolivia privatized pension funds after a state-run system collapsed.

 

Thanks to Palash R. Ghosh for this information.

The Real News 200k Challenge

The Real News Network is running a fundraiser over the next three days.

The LIVE broadcast runs December 7th -9th 2010.
8:00p.m.-12-p.m. Eastern US time

Help support the work of this news network or visit the website as well at http://therealnews.com/t2/

The Real News Network is a television news and documentary network focused on providing independent and uncompromising journalism. Our staff, in collaboration with courageous journalists around the globe, will investigate, report and debate stories on t

• The Real News
• Support The Real News. Donate Today

As the economic crisis deepens, climate change approaches critical levels and global tensions increase, the need to break the monopoly on television daily news has never been greater. We must know why the crisis is happening and what we can do to defend ourselves. Corporate TV news won’t ask the real questions, let alone provide answers.

The scale of the problems facing us demands original and profound solutions. If ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, get ready for an era of unprecedented imagination and innovation. But there will be no progress without a fight against forces wedded to the status quo. We are entering a period of action, where people take solutions into their own hands and create a bold vision for new ways of living and doing business. The Real News Network is such a solution; it’s the missing link in the global media landscape.

We need video news that cuts through the propaganda and spin with facts and context. But we need more than that. We must have journalism that reports on models for change and people getting organized seeking justice and transformation. We require a platform for the best minds on the planet to debate solutions and speak to millions of people. We need video news with the courage only economic independence provides, to follow facts fearlessly to rational conclusions.

Over the past year, our beta news production has given you just a small taste of what we can do. TRNN has challenged the official version of events in 2000 stories that have received more than 15 million views. Now it’s time to further popularize the content and style, and take the project to scale.

The Real News Network is at a critical juncture. New distribution deals put us on the verge of an audience in the millions. Yet, this comes at a time when the financial crisis has knocked out some of our expected seed funding. We need thousands of new donor/members now if we are to continue. We have to move to a primarily small donor model now.

There are two important developments you should know about. We have an agreement with the McClatchy Newspapers Washington Bureau that delivers The Real News stories to millions of viewers who visit McClatchy papers’ websites. Here is a recent screen grab from the McClatchy DC bureau website that shows what this collaboration looks like.

We also have a contract with Tivo that puts The Real News channel in one million households across the USA. Other content partnerships (including dedicated apps for cell phones) will push our video news service to millions of people. Soon, we expect to establish a presence on cable TV on-demand services and on radio. We are working on similar arrangements in Canada.

Over the next 12 months, The Real News Network is expanding its news and current affairs programming to more directly target a mass TV and Internet audience. We will enhance our news coverage and introduce innovative, interactive programming that enables citizens to engage in the process.

The Real News will develop a “beat” system with production units dedicated to:

• Solutions, models for change and visions of a better future
• The economic crisis and daily life
• Issues that affect families, students and young workers
• The climate change crisis and its solutions
• Foreign policy, national security and the abuse of power

The Real News Network will produce branded segments on specific issues, including:

An Evening of Song, Speech Art and Dance

An Evening of Song, Speech, Art and Dance with Naomi Klein, Hawksley
Workman, LAL and DJ Aruna & Billy! Hosted by Comedienne Martha Chaves.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11.

What: G20 Legal Defence Fundraiser with NAOMI, HAWKSLEY and LAL (with an
optional special meet and greet with Naomi Klein)

When: Thursday, November 11. 8pm.

Where: The Great Hall 1087 Queen St West, Toronto ON

Website: www.g20.torontomobilize.org/nov11

During the G20 summit in June this year, the residents of Toronto bore
witness to the largest mass arrest in Canadian history as approximately
1200 people were assaulted, harassed, beaten and arrested by the police.
More than 250 were charged and six remain in jail. Others are out on bail
under extraordinarily restrictive conditions, continuing to face police
harassment and re-arrest. Legal costs are mounting.

Despite this repression, more than 40,000 people marched on the streets of
Toronto to resist the destructive, exploitative and exclusionary agenda of
the G20. As we continue to organize against the G20 agenda, we must now
also raise money to defend all those who are forced to go through
expensive legal proceedings.

Join us for an evening of song and speech with Naomi, Hawksley, LAL and
friends! All proceeds raised will be donated to the G20 legal defence
fund.

Tickets: $50 in advance, $60 at the door

You can purchase tickets for the show online at GalleryAC here:

http://www.galleryac.com/tickets/hawksley-workman-naomi-klein-event.html

Show Tickets also available at the following stores:

ANOTHER STORY: 315 Roncesvalles Avenue/ 416-462-1104
ROTATE THIS: 801 Queen St. West/ 416-504-8447
SOUNDSCAPES: 572 College St./ 416-537-1620
TORONTO WOMENS BOOKSTORE: 73 Harbord St/ 416-922-8744

+++PRE-EVENT WITH NAOMI KLEIN+++
A special reception with Naomi Klein prior to the beginning of the main
show. Capacity limited to 60 people. On first come first serve basis.
Tickets for pre-event + show are $100, and are available online only here:

http://www.galleryac.com/tickets/hawksley-workman-naomi-klein-event-exclusive.html

Tactical Briefing

A few days ago protests against the status quo erupted across Europe. The Prime Minister of Iceland was pelted with eggs; a man outraged by bank bailouts drove a cement truck into the gates of the Irish Parliament; and over 100,000 workers from two dozen countries took to the streets in Brussels. However, the most spectacular actions of all occurred in Spain where 20% of the population, and an astronomical 42% of those under the age of 25, are unemployed. 

For twenty-four hours, Barcelona was shut down by a general strike: public transit ground to a halt, cafes were shuttered and garbage collection ceased. Later, as passions rose, a Levi’s clothing store was looted and its merchandise distributed to the crowd, a police car was torched and riot cops tussled with everyday folk. And in a sign that this time the insurrectionary passion will not subside, Portugal’s largest union is calling for a general strike on November 24th which is, coincidentally, in the midst of the global Carnivalesque Rebellion. “We think that there are now conditions for wide protests, a wave of strife that we have not seen in decades,” one observer explained.

These events in Europe are truly exhilarating. They suggest that a tsunami of dissent is building that has the potential to fundamentally transform society. If this rebellious mood keeps boiling then November 22–28 may well turn out to be the catalytic global mindshift moment we’ve all been waiting for.

Deep in a recession and with scary ecological scenarios looming, now may be the ripest moment we’ll ever have to power-shift global capitalism onto a new path. Adbusters #85 asks economics students around the world to join the fight to revamp Econ 101 curriculums and challenge the endemic myopia of their tenured neoclassical profs. Read a few articles, download the Kick it Over Manifesto (and other posters) and whack them up in the corridors of your campus. Make sure your university is at the forefront of the paradigm shift from neoclassical to ecological economics now underway.