Meet the Editor! Derrick O'Keefe on babble every Friday, 12 p.m. EST

Good idea. Some stories and directions are indeed 'dead wrong'. Libya was one such story as was made obvious by the NDP support for a war that left Libya in ruins. Unfortunately they were not alone. Here's Derrick O' Keefe co-chair of the Canadian Peace Alliance last year:

"...We're making it clear that people in Canada support the people there who are bravely fighting against a dictator who is willing to shed an enormous amount of his own people's blood to hang onto power." Georgia Straight, February 2011

Perhaps Rabble.ca can assist a badly needed but seriously misguided national peace movement from adopting the stupid and self-serving political positions of the ndp, with which it has hitherto been unfortunately connected and hence badly led, by an umbilical cord of piano wire.

I think the NDP had few alternatives but to defer to reports from western intelligence agencies. 

We could have said, look here, the Russians' satellite imagery shows no evidence that Gadaffi's air force is bombing their own citizens. 

And then where would we be with taking sides in the colder and sometimes hot war in the Middle East? 

I think Mulcair straddled that fine line when he made loose mention of the U.S. Military's proof of bin Laden's death. Mulcair quickly backtracked when it seemed he was questioning the American inquisition's claim to have have assassinated Elvis bin Laden. 

Nobody expects the American inquisition. Nobody is willing to challenge the American inquisition.

Not even the NDP. 

The time for challenging the powerful Atlantic Alliance military inquisition will come at some point. For now we have to focus our fight on winning basic rights for all, like the right of every Canadian to have one vote in democratic elections.

Wow, Derrick's back?  That's great - welcome back, Derrick! :)

NDPP, since you seem to imply that I supported the NATO intervention in Libya, I think it's relevant to share the next few paragraphs from that article in the Straight: 

“In Vancouver, there’s been some kind of rally every Saturday for the last month, as the revolutions and uprisings have spread to Egypt and now Libya and Bahrain and many other countries,” said O’Keefe.

“This Saturday, the focus is on Libya, and we’re just making it clear that people in Canada support the people there”¦who are very bravely fighting against a dictator who is willing to shed an enormous amount of his own peoples’ blood to hang onto power,” he added.

O’Keefe said his organization will be speaking out against the potential for western military intervention in Libya.

“In the last 24 hours especially, there has started to be talk of a sort of western military intervention, or perhaps NATO intervening in Libya, and the Canadian Peace Alliance just wanted to make clear that we would strongly warn against any kind of NATO military intervention,” he said.

Letter to the Editor:

Hi Derrick, and congrats on taking up the new/old job.  

I think it's been made clear that those forces the people of Canada were said to support; and one wonders what sort of polling led to that conclusion; were and continue to be quite capable in their own right of shedding enormous amounts of blood.  Turns out that not supporting NATO, while supporting 'forces,' was an contradictory position to assume.  But there's a silver lining to all of that now that you're back.  Potentially, you have your very own built in focus group right here on the board that would be only too glad to help out I'm sure with any of those tricky editorial slants.  If anything, there's a certain consistency hereabouts that you'd be hard pressed to find practically anywhere else.  And I'd have to second NDPP's request.  Normally it's the case that certain leaders will grant pardons on their way out, but howzabout the nifty suggestion of turning that on it's head and doing things differently in that regard.

Your friend:

Slumberjack

I always thought 12 p.m was a fictious time much like 12 a.m.

A well earned kudos should go out to the cast of characters who appear on the Rabble home page, for bringing us news of events and activities not otherwise discussed or revealed elsewhere. Personal favorites are Climenhaga's blog, Activist Communiqué, and Mandy Hiscock's jailhouse rock letters, but collectively all of the contributors rock with a fresh perspective set well apart from the largely monotone drivel out in the mainstream. The only thing I would like to see included within the editorial policy is a commitment to critique, be it opinionating, editorializing, or journalistic reporting, from an adversarial perspective, where it concerns the direction of all of the political flavours and oppositional politics, as much as one would expect to be undertaken of Liberal or Conservative ideology, statements and policies. Perhaps the editor can address any concerns people may have about editorial balance in this regard.

Also, predictably I've not quite put the week's editorial work to bed. One change from a couple of years ago is the sheer volume of new material coming on the site every day. For example we still have a couple more pieces to publish today, including an excellent feature on food security from Sally Miller. 

Well, it's a good things this is 420 day as well then....pffffffffft.

I'm really happy that rabble's publishing Mandy's blog. Besides just opposing Harper's law and order legislation, it's important to hear from prisoners themselves. I'd be interested to know what sort of Internet access is available to prisoners across Canada. The freedom to communicate and to education from within prison walls has always been an important struggle to support. 

One of the many outrageous things about the G20 arrests, charges and trials are the conditions the authorities have put, trying to limit even activists who aren't imprisoned from communicating with each other and with the broader public. Running's Mandy's blog is one small way to push back against this... 

I have no 420 anecdotes to share, even though I'm in Vancouver. I'm in the minority out here who do not partake :)

Hi Caissa, 

Well I would say that babble is kind of an autonomous community within rabble, in the sense it has really well established people who for many years have debated and discussed. Because some of the most political people and biggest news hounds in the country are members of babble, often discussion of big news events happens on here before it's even on our editorial radar and certainly before we're able to publish coverage. 

babble is also able to take some of the debates on rabble further, deeper, and sometimes much more polemical... With user names instead of bylines, the gloves can come off -- for better or worse. So, for instance, if you weren't checking in on babble you probably weren't getting the full picture of the debate and divisions within the recent NDP leadership race.

So Derrick where does the CPA stand on the ever increasing use of sanctions by Canada.  Does it support improvising the citizens of Syria and Iran for the misdeeds of their governments?  The increasingly knee jerk NDP call to destroy the economies of other countries who disagree with NATO is rather disturbing to me. I think that historically sanctions aimed at destroying a sovereign nations economy have been seen as a act of war.  Our navy has been active on various "blockade" missions in the Middle East since parliament "refused" to commit ground troops to the first Gulf War.  Does the CPA have any comments about the Canadian navy's support roll in the area?

Hi Kropotkin1951, You can check out the CPA statements on Iran -- opposed to sanctions -- here: http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/IranMain.htm

And there's a good statement on both Syria and Iran by the Vancouver StopWar coalition I've worked with here: http://stopwarca.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/no-to-war-threats-against-syria-and-iran/

I don't mean to be obtuse Slumberjack, but I don't see that we differ on Libya, unless you're saying there was no legitimate opposition against the Gaddafi regime... 

How can we cover these international issues better on rabble? 

I'd like to see more jouranlists looking into Canadian weapons sales, like the massive deals with Saudi Arabia. Canadian made weapons and armoured vehicles were used when the Saudi and Gulf states crushed the democracy movement in Bahrain last year. This story should have been a scandal but it was barely a blip in the mainstream media. I'd like to see rabble follow up on this and related stories...

I have to get back to finishing up some editing and correspondence with writers... we have got some great May Day related coverage coming up in the next week and a half. I look forward to making this a regular Friday discussion -- thanks for all the input! 

derrick wrote:

I have to get back to finishing up some editing and correspondence with writers... we have got some great May Day related coverage coming up in the next week and a half. I look forward to making this a regular Friday discussion -- thanks for all the input! 

Thanks Derrick. Love the site and have liked your past work with Seven Oaks Mag too.

Howard wrote:

I like HuffPo is a good place to look to for what rabble could be like (but we/you can do it better).

Please, Derrick, do [b]not[/b] make rabble into a Canadian Huffington Post. HuffPo carries some of the most right-wing garbage and it's becoming harder and harder to find worthwhile, original, left-wing commentary there.

M. Spector wrote:

 

You should beg Richard Sanders of the [url=http://coat.ncf.ca/]Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade[/url] (and occasional babbler) to write for rabble.

Excellent suggestion - and I'll second it.

derrick wrote:

Hi Kropotkin1951, You can check out the CPA statements on Iran -- opposed to sanctions -- here: http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/IranMain.htm

And there's a good statement on both Syria and Iran by the Vancouver StopWar coalition I've worked with here: http://stopwarca.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/no-to-war-threats-against-syria-and-iran/

How can we cover these international issues better on rabble? 

I'd like to see more jouranlists looking into Canadian weapons sales, like the massive deals with Saudi Arabia. Canadian made weapons and armoured vehicles were used when the Saudi and Gulf states crushed the democracy movement in Bahrain last year. This story should have been a scandal but it was barely a blip in the mainstream media. I'd like to see rabble follow up on this and related stories...

I would agree that rabble should provide more of that kind of coverage.  I am very familiar with Stopwar.ca and often marched with them before my knees gave out. Libya for me is a watershed in Canadian history.  The RCAF bombed cities in a foreign country.  Every political party in the country voted to go to war and our MSM hailed our heroes who killed innocents from thousands of feet in the air. 

When Bush wanted a coalition of the willing Canadians and their political parties mostly said no way.  I remember the nice walks with tens of thousands of my friends and neighbours. What has happened to us as a society when all of our political parties are in lock step with an aggressive NATO agenda that makes the chaos inflected on Iraq the norm. How have progressives decided that we have the "duty" to bomb people on the other side of the planet to protect them from their fellow citizens.

I won't be happy, no matter what you do Derrick! :)

Re: Huffpost, one thing we know for sure is -- all April Fools aside -- that rabble won't be selling out to AOL or Bell. Re: Briarpatch and Our Times, yes rabble has some partnerships there traditionally as well as with Canadian Dimension and other print magazines. We could certainly think more about how to cross-promote and share content on a more regular basis. 

Howard, thanks for the kind words and for remembering Seven Oaks! 

MSpector, yes to getting Richard Sanders to contribute more often and also to have more writers follow-up on the invaluable research he does... 

derrick wrote:

Yes, I'll be back for some time today starting at the top of the hour... but go easy on the Canucks topic - the wound is still fresh... 

Ah Derrick, good thing you aren't a Leafs fan.  You'd be crushed, lying twitching on the floor at the end of their season each year ... we are a relisiant lot, if pathetically loyal to a fault.

On le printemps erable, we are doing our best to make up to date coverage available to rabble readers, including publishing a translation of a manifesto this week. In fact I'm just working on putting up a translation of the latest statement from CLASSE responding to the latest attacks from the Charest government. 

By the way, I'll take silence as compliance and assume we're doing everything well - at least this week ;0