"We're going to win, Judy," Stephen Lewis told me over the phone a few days before the 1990 Ontario election.
"C'mon Stephen, you guys always get a little delusional as the election approaches," I replied.
"No, really, we are going to win."

It is beyond belief that a broadcast consortium that no one appointed has decided to exclude Elizabeth May from the leaders' debate. That a handful of TV executives can wipe out the clear voting preferences of almost a million Canadians and exclude the only woman leader from the debate is an egregious example of how our democracy is dying of a thousand blows.

It is time for the people of this country to stand up and let the media and the politicians know that an election is a time for people's voices to be heard and Elizabeth May speaks for a lot of people in this country.

Here is what you can do:

- Sign petition

The history of IWD is a history of the struggle of ordinary women to throw off the burden of the oppression and discrimination they faced. In 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. The first National Women's Day was celebrated in 1909 to demand right to vote, be trained, hold office and an end to discrimination on March 19.

As some of you know, I am currently in New Zealand working on a memoir of my life in the 1960s and 70s. I had just finished the chapter on 1965 the year McGill erupted with the youth rebellion that had been spreading across the continent from Berkeley California when the people of Egypt rose up against a brutal dictatorship. That year taught me that things can change very quickly.

Last fall, I invited Hugo Salvatierra, a founder of the MAS,  to speak in Toronto.  I in particular felt that it was really important to introduce Hugo Salvatierra to the left here  because Hugo is, I think, one of the most articulate translators of the Bolivian process. He was a founder of the MAS along with Evo Morales. He was in the founding government of the MAS as Minister of Rural Development, Agriculture and the Environment and then he persuaded Evo to let him resign so that he could go back to Santa Cruz, which is the centre of the right and organize the social movements in Santa Cruz.

Last year I spent December 6 in Montreal to attend a conference upon the 20th Anniversary of what in Quebec they call Polytechnique. Here are my reflections following the conference and picking up on some of the extraordinary discussion that took place there. This year, like every year for the last 21st I will be at a vigil. Today in Toronto at 6 p.m. at Philosopher's Walk, please join us.

The report below comes  from  Telesur.  They identify the proposals as coming from Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez but in fact they were the work of the first World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, held in Cochabamba, Bolivia where more than 35,000 people met and came up with the proposals mentioned in the report as part of the Cochabamba Accord.  The domination of Cancun by the "rich countries" as Evo says makes the

Imagination has always been important to change but today more than ever.  I just finished teaching an intensive course on social movements that changed the world and realized that nothing I did opened the minds of my students more than documentaries.  Now in a struggle for survival of the planet a new film is in development that I think can open our minds and hearts to the kind of change we need and you can be part of helping it along

Today the Voice of Women For Peace celebrates its 50th Anniversary with a free conference at Hart House and a gala dinner.

My last book Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution starts in the early 1960's with the emergence of an extraordinary group called Voice of Women for Peace that challenged the anti-communist monoculture of the Cold War with a warm embrace directed towards the women who were supposedly our enemies. The Voice of Women, as pioneer feminist Ursula Franklin points out below was the seedbed for the feminist revolution in Canada and we were lucky it came before preparing the ground in many ways.

On Thursday Nov. 11 at 8 p.m., internationally acclaimed author Naomi Klein, Juno award winning singer, musician Hawksley Workman, comic Martha Chaves and electronic group LAL take the stage in Toronto at the Great Hall, 1087 Queen St. W. to raise funds for the G20 arrestees. But you don't have to be in Toronto to see the concert or contribute to the fundraising efforts. rabble tv will be live streaming the event and providing a link for you to make a contribution to the defence fund in a virtual telethon.