What if you were in a dysfunctional and abusive relationship? How many times would it be effective for you to ask or demand of your partner that s/he stop the abuse? How many times do you put up with situations where you have no choice but to defend yourself as best you can from vicious attacks against you and/or your children? How productive is it to argue or attempt rational discussion with your abuser in the hope s/he'll see there error of her/his ways? How many times should you appeal to family, friends or authorities to exert influence over your abuser's actions?
political crisis
Moving from despair to resistance in Greece
On Sunday, February 12, 2012, the people of Greece, in demonstrations and street fights all over the country, expressed in a massive, collective and heroic way, their anger against the terms of the new loan agreement dictated by the EU-ECB-IMF "troika" (European Union, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund). Workers, youth and students filled the streets with rage, defying the extreme aggression by police forces, setting another example of struggle and solidarity.
The Face of Imperialism: An interview with Michael Parenti
This fall, Michael Parenti's timing as a writer could not have been better. The independent scholar and lecturer has produced 22 books on political and cultural subjects. But his latest, The Face of Imperialism, jives completely with the current Occupy movement in cities around the world.
Parenti spoke to rabble.ca this week while on a three-city tour of Ontario university campuses. Parenti's short Canadian tour took him to Toronto (Tuesday), Guelph (Wednesday) and Hamilton (Thursday).
Budget blues
It is depressing. The budget passed yesterday and what felt like a small opening in the door for a new kind of politics, has now slammed shut. The old fractious bombast has re-emerged in full force along with the feeling that government power is now shared between Conservatives wearing liberal clothing and Liberals who are really just tarted-up conservatives. The whole scene feels so strangely out of time.
For a brief period, the shocking answer to a political crisis was cooperation. And it was powerful. The threat of losing the Government transformed the Harper government into a puppet of its own political ambition. The result is that we are stuck with Flaherty's foolhardy attention deficit disorder budget. But Harper has a serious decline in popular support to show for it.