We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, December 2, 2013

Challenging Harper's Imperialist Agenda

Click here to access article by Greg Albo from MR Zine.  

Having spent several years in Canada, I have been sensitized to the radical integration of Canadian political policies to conform to the interests of the Empire's evolving transnational capitalist class. This was most poignantly impressed upon me over time with my cross border travels in which I observed a gradual shift from a pre-9/11 warm welcoming of US visitors to a Canadian border police operation that mirrors the police state mentality of US border policies. But, during this period I've also been aware of the increasing use of Canada's military to carry out Empire imperialist policies in many parts of the world. 
A massive restructuring of the Canadian state followed 2001.  This was to secure the economic integration of NAFTA, on the one hand; and to expand military and diplomatic capacities for direct foreign intervention in defence of the neoliberal world order, on the other.