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Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter
February 26, 2015
This Week: Ukraine, police state legislation, solidarity, people's history
Ukraine is spotlighted in this issue of Other Voices.
We've got several articles on the background to the events of the past
year, which include the overthrow of Ukraine's elected government; its
replacement by a puppet regime in which the extreme right plays a
prominent role; threats and violence directed against the
Russian-speaking population of eastern Ukraine, leading to a resistance
movement and demands for autonomy for the eastern regions, and finally
armed conflict. Shaping and driving these events are reckless US-NATO
military and economic pressure directed at Russia, uncritically
applauded by the mainstream media, who seem to regard the prospect of a
military confrontation that could lead to nuclear war as nothing to
worry about.
Worried though we may be, we
continue to regard movements for social justice as key to creating a
radically different future, as well as to understanding our past. In
this issue, you'll find information about a campaign in the UK by #DomesticExtremists to ridicule the latest police state legislation, and a handy illustration that explains world inequality in one simple image.
In the People's History section, we've got an article about mass strikes during the First World War, and a review of Pride, the film about gays and lesbians who organized to support striking mineworkers during the UK miners' strike in 1984.
Seeds of Fire for
February 26 recalls two events which illustrate our continuing
challenges and our continuing resistance. February 26, 1942 marked the
imposition of the War Measures Act in Canada, the legislation under
which thousands of Japanese-Canadians were expelled from their homes and
interned for reasons of "national security." February 26, 1851, on the
other hand, saw the founding of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada, by
ordinary people appalled by the injustice of slavery, an event worth
commemorating war.
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Global inequality, illustrated, described, explained
Places rarely suffer from having
too many people, but frequently suffer from a few people taking far too
much. The world with its billions does not have too many people, but it
does have too many in their thousands who think that they are worth a
million others. Individually these people take up the space that used to
house hundreds; they consume fossil fuels and other resources far less
sustainably than thousands of others collectively consume, and they
demand the time and labour and subservience of tens of thousands of
others in mining for their needs, manufacturing for them and servicing
them in a way that deprives millions more of the potential benefits of
that labour. Read More
Keywords: Inequality - Wealth
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#DomesticExtremist trend mocks UK police surveillance of protestors
Non-conformists across the UK
took to social media earlier this month to declare themselves
#DomesticExtremists in a bid to raise awareness about secretive police
powers. Organized by the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol), the
first annual 'Domestic Extremist Awareness Day' encouraged Facebook and
Twitter users to publicly declare what might make someone a so-called
'domestic extremist'. Read More
Keywords: Police State - Surveillance
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The Fallujah Option for East Ukraine
The fundamental thing to
understand is this: Washington needs a war in Ukraine to achieve its
strategic objectives. The US wants to push NATO to Russia's western
border. It wants a land-bridge to Asia to spread US military bases
across the continent. It wants to control the pipeline corridors from
Russia to Europe and to ensure that gas continues to be denominated in
dollars. And it wants a weaker, unstable Russia that is more prone to
regime change, fragmentation and, ultimately, foreign control. These
objectives cannot be achieved peacefully. Read More
Keywords: Ukraine - US Foreign Policy
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Wretched US Journalism on Ukraine
A basic rule of journalism is
that there are almost always two or more sides to a story and that
journalists should try to reflect that reality, a principle that is
especially important when lives are at stake amid war fevers. Yet,
American journalism has failed miserably in this regard during the
Ukraine crisis. With very few exceptions, the mainstream U.S. media has
simply regurgitated the propaganda from the U.S. State Department and
other entities favoring western Ukrainians. There has been little effort
to view the worsening crisis through the eyes of ethnic Russian
Ukrainians living in the east or the Russians witnessing a political and
humanitarian crisis on their border. Read More
Keywords: Media Bias - Ukraine
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Washington Piles Lie Upon Lie
The mountain of lies piled up by
Western governments and media has obscured the true story. The US
government orchestrated the overthrow of the elected government in
Ukraine and imposed a US puppet in Kiev. Washington's puppet government
began issuing threats and committing violent acts against the Russian
populations in the former Russian territories that Soviet leaders
attached to Ukraine. The Russian people in eastern and southern Ukraine
resisted the threat brought to them by Washington's puppet government in
Kiev. Read More
Keywords: Lying - Propaganda
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The Petulant Entitlement Syndrome of Journalists
Prior to the advent of blogs,
establishment journalists were largely immunized even from hearing
criticisms. Blogs, and online political activism generally, changed all
of that. They were confronted for the first time with aggressive
critiques, with evidence that not everyone adored them. What made the
indignity so much worse was that the attacks came from people these
journalists regard as nobodies: just average people, non-journalists.
What right did they have even to form an opinion, let alone express one? Read More
Keywords: Blogs - Journalism
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From the Archives
"Can a project's success be judged on the basis of its never being
completed? Yes, if it's a living archive of the world's most diverse and
complex countryside. Rural India is in many ways the most diverse part
of the planet. Its 833 million people include distinct societies
speaking well over 700 languages, some of them thousands of years old...
The same diversity characterises rural Indian occupations, arts and
crafts, culture, literature, legend, transportation. As the Indian
countryside rushes through an extremely painful transformation, many of
these features disappear, leaving us poorer....
Much of what makes the countryside unique could be gone in
20-30 years. Without any systematic record, visual or oral, to educate
us -- let alone motivate us - to save this incredible diversity. We are
losing worlds and voices within rural India of which future generations
will know little or nothing. Even as the present one steadily sheds its
own links with those worlds...
There is surely much in rural India that should die. Much in rural
India that is tyrannical, oppressive, regressive and brutal -- and which
needs to go. Untouchability, feudalism, bonded labour, extreme caste
and gender oppression and exploitation, land grab and more. The tragedy,
though, is that the nature of the transformation underway more often
tends to bolster the regressive and the barbaric, while undermining the
best and the diverse. That too, will be captured here. PARI is both a
living journal and an archive. It will generate and host reporting on
the countryside that is current and contemporary, while also creating a
database of already published stories, reports, videos and audios from
as many sources as we can. All PARI's own content comes under the
Creative Commons and the site is free to access." Read More
Keywords: India - Libraries/Archives - Rural Living
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Unite and Fight
Pride
isn't just excellent labour history. It's a reminder of what real
solidarity looks like. The film is an emphatic statement about
solidarity organizing and the importance of movement culture to
political struggle. As the miners and LGSM members get to know one
another, speak at each other's assemblies, and sleep on each other's
couches, the two communities are transformed. Read More
Keywords: Gay & Lesbian History - Solidarity
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Mickey Z.
writes: "Since it appears so many folks need reminding that "USA" has
always stood for "United States of Aggression," here are a forgotten few
from February's Files:" Read More
Keywords: US History - US Imperialism
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The events
of the last year, starting with the overthrow of the country's elected
government in February 2014, have been a disaster for the people of
Ukraine - especially the Russian-speaking population of eastern Ukraine.
They have also, because of continuing US/NATO military and economic
pressure, become a flashpoint of international relations. The US is
pushing ahead recklessly, seemingly willing to risk a military
confrontation with Russia, raising the spectre of nuclear war. Ukraine
is therefore an issue for us all.Check out the Connexions Subject index
for more analysis and information about Ukraine.
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Information
and analysis of the critis in Ukraine and the NATO offensive in Eastern
Europe. Reports from a network of correspondents on events in Ukraine
and related conflicts, and their causes and background. Newcoldwar.org
Keywords: Regime Change - Ukraine
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Since
World War II, the world has believed that US foreign policy means well,
and that America's motives in spreading democracy are honourable, even
noble. William Blum, a leading non-mainstream chronicler of American
foreign policy, argues that nothing could be further from the truth.
Moreover, unless this fallacy is unlearned, and until people understand
fully the worldwide suffering American policy has caused, we will never
be able to stop the monster. Read More
Keywords: Intervention - U.S. Imperialism
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February 28-March 01, 2015
Labour and the Environment
Hamilton, Canada
March 01, 2015
Zero Discrimination Day ------------------Worldwide
March 06-07, 2015
Beit Zatoun's Annual Open House & Rent Party -----------------------------------------------Toronto, Ontario
March 08, 2015
International Women's Day ---------------------------Worldwide
The Connexions Calendar is an online calendar that exists to
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ecology, and other causes. We invite you to use it to promote your
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Read more →
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February 26, 1851
The Anti-Slavery Society of Canada is founded “to aid in the extinction of slavery all over the world.”
February 26, 1942
The Canadian government uses the War Measures Act to intern 26,000 Japanese nationals of military age.
Read more →
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Copyright
Connexions 2015. Contents are licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution Non-Commercial License. This means you are welcome to share
and republish the contents of this newsletter as long as you credit
Connexions, and as long as you don’t charge for the content.
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter, is available online here
Thanks to Ulli Diemer for his work on this newsletter.
Connexions
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Phone: 416-964-5735
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