In search of the North American Spring: Activists are debating how best to reach out and build their movements.
occupy
Moments of Excess: Essential reading for Occupy and Quebec student activists
Moments of Excess: Movements, Protest and Everyday Life
(PM Press,
2011;
$16.95)
As attention turns toward the mass student strike on the streets of Montreal, ongoing for three months, the Quebec student movement clearly exemplifies the power that activism holds to shape our collective imagination.
The student protests distant from the halls of political power in Quebec City, are largely setting the terms of political debate on moves by the Quebec government to significantly hike post-secondary tuition fees.
Occupy, the New Politics Initiative and reclaiming the commons
My nearly 30 years of experience as a social activist in Saskatchewan immediately attracted me to the NPI 10 years ago: I had despaired for years over the deep and irrational divide between NDP party politics and the active social movements which characterized Saskatchewan political culture. The two should have been working together -- at least informally -- yet they existed as two solitudes. The NDP establishment detested social movements (and distrusted the labour movement) as naive and uncontrollable troublemakers because when the NDP was in power they persisted in criticizing the NDP government and making things uncomfortable for the ministers. Roy Romanow once told me he thought social movements were "totally useless."
Not Rex: Occupy general strike!
When they come to shut down Occupy in your town, Occupy yourself at work...
Related rabble.ca story:
A progressive dialogue: Young people and the future of democracy
Brigette DePape on youth and democratic change.
Related rabble.ca story:
Globalizing resistance: Marxism conference this weekend in Toronto
This time last year, the effects of the Arab Spring had already inspired millions of people around the world to think about the possibility of revolution - and the role that they themselves could play in creating a better world.
While political pundits and right-wing leaders argued that the revolutions would never last (and that they had no connection to what was going on over here), activists had other ideas.
Occupy shines light on capitalism's inequality
U.S. war veterans challenge NATO's occupation of Chicago
Veterans of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are now challenging the occupation of Chicago.
This week, NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is holding the largest meeting in its 63-year history there. Protests and rallies will confront the two-day summit, facing off against a massive armed police and military presence. The NATO gathering has been designated a "National Special Security Event" by the Department of Homeland Security, empowering the U.S. Secret Service to control much of central Chicago, and to employ unprecedented authority to suppress the public's First Amendment right to dissent.
