And the party on the left ...
Sat, 2014-06-28 17:26
#1
And the party on the left ...
Sat, 2014-06-28 17:50
#2
I've had an on-again, off-again relationship with the Orange Team for many years. It's been the only game in town, warts and all, for a practical man or woman of the Left. There one could discern at least the outline of socialist principles, like gorillas in the mist. But we all know what happened to them.
...
Welcome to the Third Way. I thought we'd put a stake through its foul heart with the departure of Alexa McDonough. It seems to involve mimicking the other guys to the point of running bloody foreign wars on a fuel of taxes and lies, and launching attacks on the weak and the poor at home. Holding up the likes of that unmitigated scoundrel Blair as a model is like (Godwin alert!) praising you-know-who for being a vegetarian.
...
And so, like the old pensioner in a haunting pre-Icke science-fiction piece about ruling reptiles, I woke up fully. But so what? And now what?
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/j-baglow/2014/06/shapeshifting-lizards
This piece describes my relationship with the Orange team. All politicians are promising no more than a little tweak. Even after more than a decade of the vilest type of right wing government Dix lost in BC because he was selling liberalism. Dix offered little to nothing for anyone in the province that was not middle class. I had to convince my disabled brother to vote in the election because neither party was offereing anything that would be significnt in his life. In the end he voted for the NDP for the same reason I did, to elect a nice liberal woman who was subjected to misogynist and racist attacks. Other than an issue like that or a candidate that stands out like Bill Siksay there is no reason to bother with any of the parties since they all promise more of the same. The NDP merely promises to add a little more bread to the shit sandwich that many Canadians are forced to live on.
So now what? I have moved on and the "now" what is what I would like to discuss. Thinking locally is a good way I have found to get over my life long addiction to party politics.
A local community issue that is part of my "now what" is buying more forest land to add to the Community Forest that was purchased last year after massive fundraising for a number of years. Here is hoping that as a community we can raise the funds to add 56 more hectares to the 71 hectares already in trust for future generations.
Here is a link to the Community Forst Society.
http://www.cumberlandforest.com/
Would anyone else like to share some community initiatives that transcend party politics?
Sun, 2014-06-29 08:34
#3
I think we're looking at his best blog post to date. Thinking and building locally is a worthwhile endeavor. It's certainly a better use of time than listening to all of the political operatives going on the way they do about the art of the impossible. Local efforts should include an attempt to convince others to withdraw their support from an electoral system that only recycles and reproduces all the nothingness being offered to us.
Sun, 2014-06-29 11:29
#4
Absolutely, community initiatives are worthwhile endeavours, both in terms of actual results that make real changes, - and in terms of the sense of personal (individual and collective) achievement amongst participants.
But as we all know, - local progress and achievement can be rolled back in a heartbeat through government action or inaction. So politics and elections still do matter, - very much so.
From my side, I sense the next federal election will be a BIG one, perhaps defining the political terrain for a generation. So I am seriously weighing the prospect of taking early retirement and investing several months full-time labour in support of the NDP in the run-up to the 2015 election.
In otherwords, I think I am up to one "last" serious kick at the electoral can ... and then just stand back to watch what the movers and shakers inside Ottawa cobble together as a "progressive" alliance / co-alition after the election. It won't be ideal and it won't be pretty, but I am now too grizzled to complain about the inherent messiness of sausage making.
I will admit that this inclination (not yet a confirmed "commitment") to give electoral politics one more serious go feels more like an obligation than a prospect to be relished. The 'fun stuff' will come afterwards, - re-engaging in a set of community / co-op / environmental intiatives that I suspect will never quite "transcend" party politics.
Wed, 2014-07-02 19:49
#5
kropotkin1951 wrote: Thinking locally is a good way I have found to get over my life long addiction to party politics. A local community issue that is part of my "now what" is buying more forest land to add to the Community Forest that was purchased last year after massive fundraising for a number of years. Here is hoping that as a community we can raise the funds to add 56 more hectares to the 71 hectares already in trust for future generations.
I was thinking about this over the long weekend. The issue that interests me most as a post- party politics "project" is also environmental - but focused on the oceans and fisheries, not the forests. (Its a Maritime thing, I guess.)
What I was musing over is that forest conservation (at least at a modest-scale) is indeed a viable community initiative since it can be achieved within our free-market context - by mobilising the resources required to purchase the land and secure the future of the forests through some sort of conservancy / trust agreement.
The process for communities to somehow conserve 'common' resources, - such as air and water - is not as readily defined. It will inevitably fall back on public policy-making at provincial, national and international levels. Which means that governments (elections and parties) eill be critically important. For better or for worse.
Wed, 2014-07-02 20:02
#6
Anyone who praises the legacy of Tony Blair has no business being the head of a supposedly leftist party.