RMR: Rick's Rant - Double Standard

RMR: The Harper Method

The secrecy continues - somebody has something to hide

On March 8, 2010 citizen blogger, Joe Kuchta, posted an entry on his "Owls and Roosters" blog entitled: "Secrecy continues as Wall government denies third freedom of information request for Western Economic Partnership records".

Kuchta has been attempting for months to uncover the shady and secretive goings on over at the Marble Palace on the shores of the mighty Wascana. Once again, citizen Joe is being denied access to documents that all Saskatchewan citizens have a right to see. The stonewalling, secrecy, and excuses continue.

Kuchta writes:

"For the third time in less than a year, the Saskatchewan Party government has denied a freedom of information request for records pertaining to the Western Economic Partnership between Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan.

The request, dated January 26, 2010, was submitted to Executive Council for copies of any briefing notes regarding the economic partnership since October 1, 2009. The ministry’s executive director of corporate services, Bonita Cairns, denied the application on March 2, 2010, pursuant to several sections of The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act."

I think Premier Wall has something to hide. If he wasn't trying to hide something, the government would release the documents to Mr. Kuchta.

So-called "Right-to-Work" advocates oppose democracy

Here's a video clip of a U.S. member of congress taking on the Vice President of the National "Right-to-Work" Committee. Notice how the Right-to-Workers detest the concept of democracy.

Sounds just like the current governments of Saskatchewan and Canada, when it comes to workers exercising their constitutional right to free collective bargaining.

RMR: Rick's Rant - The Throne Speech

The importance of being an advocate

The importance of being an advocate

(This is the lead article from the March 2010 issue of the SFL Labour Reporter)

Download complete PDF Version of the March issue by clicking here...

On so many fronts, the labour movement is advocating for a stronger democracy, respect for human rights, and a thriving Saskatchewan economy. This edition shares just a few of those stories.

The SFL Trade Committee is working to expose the provincial government for signing onto an anti-democratic trade deal at the World Trade Organization. The procurement agreement could jeopardize local and provincial government’s ability to support local job creation and smaller businesses.

Guess who brokered the deal? That’s right, the Harper government, the same government who prorogued Parliament to avoid scrutiny over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan. In a single back-door deal, we see both levels of government moving democracy backward.

Our Solidarity and Pride Committee is preparing arguments to present to the Court of Appeal on the Wall government’s proposed changes to the Marriage Act. The changes amount to discrimination against same-sex couples. Again, our government seems to be moving backwards, in this case around the issue of fundamental human rights.

You’ll also read an update on the Building Trades campaign to have Bill 80 withdrawn. The construction industry is thriving without Bill 80 – the current system provides labour stability, good jobs and a solid apprenticeship system. These things contribute to a stable economy and support tradespeople who want to work and raise a family in Saskatchewan. Call your MLA now. It’s not too late to have your voice heard.

Finally, I invite you to enjoy a special feature on SFL Executive Vice-President, Jan Cibart. Jan is a member of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses and was recently appointed to the International Labour Organization as a worker representative on the issue of HIV/AIDS in the workplace.

Every time we advocate for fairness, equality and a strong Saskatchewan our trade union values shine through.

In Solidarity,
Larry Hubich

The Saskatchewan Government is making the health shortages WORSE

Voices of Union - Voices of Young Workers

"A compelling short documentary about the importance of unions to young workers. This video shows not only why young workers want to be unionized, but also the challenges of involving young workers in the labour movement and how they can become the new leadership incorporating their hopes and concerns. - Wolf Sun Productions"

Back room deals bad for Saskatchewan

News Release

For immediate release February 9, 2010

Back room deals bad for Saskatchewan

The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour today denounced the provincial government’s agreement to sign onto the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement.

It has been reported that all 10 provinces have agreed to sign the WTO agreement, which will restrict the ability of provincial and municipal governments to support domestic firms employing Canadian workers when they procure goods and services. In return, Canadian businesses will receive a limited exemption from Buy American provisions in the US stimulus spending package.

“Mr. Harper calls it a “breakthrough deal”, but we fail to see why. It is widely accepted that Canadian businesses would only have potential access to a very limited amount of funding delivered under only the current U.S. stimulus program. The Americans have not agreed to permanent access of any kind and most of the money has already been spoken for. What kind of deal is that?” said SFL President Larry Hubich.

“We are very concerned that the Harper government and the Wall government have signed away local government’s ability to tailor their hiring and purchasing to local workers and companies. Local procurement policies can be a powerful tool for ensuring that taxpayer money is spent in ways that aid local job creation and support Saskatchewan companies. Why would we sign away our ability to build a stable and strong Saskatchewan economy?” added Hubich.

“As we often see with these kind of quick and dirty trade deals, they take place with no public oversight or legislative scrutiny. Neither the Harper nor the Wall government consulted citizens before making this deal, yet citizens and local businesses will be the ones to suffer when contracts go to giant American corporations,” said Gary Schoenfeldt, chair of the SFL Trade Committee.

“Saskatchewan and Canada have permanently opened up our local markets to the Americans, likely in preparation for a trade deal with the European Union as well, and in return the Americans have agreed to throw a few crumbs our way. Who benefits from this deal? It looks like the multinational corporations are the big winners, who can afford to come into local communities and undercut local mom and pop operations. Who loses? Regular taxpayers and wage-earners, local businesses, and democracy,” added Schoenfeldt.

“The Saskatchewan economy was built around three pillars: a thriving cooperative sector, private sector innovation, and a strong public sector including our Crown Corporations. This balanced approach to the economy works for a province like ours, and has helped us weather the latest economic storm. The provincial government should strengthen these pillars, rather than taking important instruments for a stable economy out of the hands of local governments,” said Hubich.

The SFL represents 95,000 unionized workers from 37 affiliated unions in Saskatchewan.

Download a pdf version of the news release here.

Canada's Pro-Democracy Movement: The Real News

"People take to the streets accusing Prime Minister of shutting down Parliament to avoid a war crimes inquiry into his administration. For more visit http://www.therealnews.com/. Produced by Jesse Freeston"

31 Days of Action - February 1 - March 3

Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament

www.noprorogue.ca

Olbermann: Freedom of speech has been destroyed

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Wanted: For Crimes Against Democracy

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Olbermann slams Limbaugh and Robertson for hatred against Haitians

Get back to work - noprorogue.ca

"Following Stephen Harper's cynical decision to suspend democracy for the second time in a year, an unprecedented backlash is building across Canada. On 23 January 2010, at demonstrations in over 30 communities from coast to coast to coast, Canadians will send an unmistakable message in defence of Parliament, pluralism, and our nation's proud democratic tradition."

www.noprorogue.ca

Harper, "Naked self interest" - The Economist

Read the editorial: Harper goes prorogue - The Economist

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And while your at it read this one too: Halted in mid-debate - The Economist

"Parliamentary scrutiny may be tedious, but democracies cannot afford to dispense with it."

Stand Up for Democracy!

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=260348091419&ref=nf

www.noprorogue.ca

The idiot empire: by Murray Dobbin

Reproduced below, and linked here is a brand new column from Murray Dobbin's blog. One of the best I've read in a long time. It needs no explanation.

The idiot empire

Posted on January 4, 2010 by murraydobbin

What happens when an empire is run by people who have a visceral contempt for government and all it stands for? You have an empire that will ultimately fail and collapse because whatever else you might leave to “market forces” administering a global empire and protecting the motherland from attack is not something you want to leave beholden to the profit motive.

We have become so accustomed to the US being a clumsy and inept giant that it’s frighteningly stupid responses to crises (most of its own making) don’t even warrant comment any more. Only if the catastrophe is on the scale of Katrina do people notice. Take the response to the Nigerian who nearly blew a plane out of the sky – an operation effective in its planning but fortunately not in its execution.

The system should have worked and the US had extraordinary luck in being informed by the man’s father that he was becoming increasingly – perhaps dangerously – radical in his Islamic beliefs. Other intelligence told the CIA and the National Security Agency that a Nigerian was being trained in Yemen to attack an airplane.

Yet the most powerful, well resourced, empire in the history of the world still could not prevent the attempted attack. What on earth has to happen for the system to work? The source of the failure was apparently territorial jealousy at the agencies which declined to share the information with other critical players in the anti-terror security network. This lack of co-operation is taken as normal but from any reasonable assessment it is as if the whole intelligence community consists of miscreant teenage boys too addled by testosterone to take even minimally mature decisions to save their own country.

But even that idiocy pales in comparison to the response to the attempted bombing. A massive “security” effort after the fact which caused, and continues to cause, chaos in air travel without any evidence that flying is safer. The terrorists didn’t manage to kill anyone but they must be delighted at the hundreds of millions in damage to the economies of the West they have caused.

The defensive reaction – pat downs of mothers and their children from Peoria to Podunk – would be humiliating to any self-respecting nation. But the US is not a self-respecting nation – it is free market loony-bin – a private capital free-for-all encouraged and facilitated by a terminally corrupt government made dysfunctional by corporate money.

The edict that no one can now go to the bathroom in the last hour of a flight was breathtaking in its stupidity – as it was apparently based on the fact that the terrorist tried to detonate his device in the last hour of his flight. Can this be happening? Will they ban bathroom trips in the first hour of flights if the next terrorist tries in the first hour? Do they think that blowing up a plane in the last hour is a tenet of Islam?

Did the US government and its seventeen (!) intelligence agencies not have somewhere in its hundreds of possible attack scenarios that someone would try exactly what Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried? Did they decide it was, what? Unlikely? Too expensive to guard against? The mind boggles.

Except that this is exactly what we should expect from a country whose elites consist of people becoming obscenely wealthy while 25% of their country’s children survive on food stamps, or the pols and their hangers-on who see being elected to government as nothing more than an opportunity to receive bribes from corporations.

It’s just one small part of the failed security apparatus (price: $75 billion a year) but it is telling: the last line of defence against a terror attack on planes in the US is carried out by airport security people being paid minimum wage working for private firms ever-obsessed with the bottom line. They are untrained, unmotivated, unorganized and the turnover is what you would expect of such unrewarding jobs. That is how serious the US is about fighting terrorism.

Hendrik Hertzberg writing in the New Yorker a few years back put it best: “when the ameliorative functions of government are held in contempt, then a single thread ties together upper-income tax cuts, the dismantling of environmental and safety protections, the shredding of the social safety net, the peopling of regulatory agencies with cronies hostile to their purposes, and, finally, outright corruption. If government is seen as a whore, why not treat her like one? All that remains is to fleece the johns and divide the take.”

When the US Empire finally enters its death throes this quote would be a suitable inscription to place on its grave stone.

Top CEOs still raking it in: CCPA

The national office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released it's new analysis of CEO compensation in Canada today:

"National Office Update
Projects & Initiatives: Growing Gap
January 4, 2010

Canadians may have been hit hard by a worldwide economic recession, but it appears Canada’s 100 highest paid CEOs are enjoying a soft landing.

Hugh Mackenzie's latest report on executive compensation shows the total average compensation for Canada's 100 highest paid CEOs was $7,352,895 in 2008—a stark contrast from the total average Canadian income of $42,305. They pocketed what takes Canadians earning an average income an entire year to make by 1:01 pm January 4—the first working day of the year.

Click here to read more and download the full report. Click here to use our CEO pay calculator to find out how quickly a top CEO will earn your salary."

Tommy Douglas on Fascism

Tommy Douglas on Fascism: “Once more let me remind you what fascism is. It need not wear a brown shirt or a green shirt -- it may even wear a dress shirt. Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege."