Shares of the week
Empowering People
Govt proposes to buy bulk subscriptions of all scientific journals, provide free access to all - Knowledge is power and governments who want to empower their citizens will make it easier for them to obtain it. If India were to indeed open up scientific journals and libraries for its citizens, it would be a huge step in making their country more democratic at a time when authoritarianism is rising around the world and in India itself.
Google workers announce plans to unionize - Though the union isn’t yet going as far as collective bargaining and will have a voluntary membership of a small amount of total Google employees, this would still be a small victory in the overall war for workers rights in the exponentially-growing tech industry.
The Moral Core of Socialism Is Our Responsibility to Each Other - As we continue to be led to believe we are pursuing individual independence, the reality is, we are becoming more and more interdependent as a society. As explained in this interview of Jedediah Britton-Purdy, the goal of the left needs to be “working towards creating the conditions in which that mutuality can become material realty.” Until that happens, we will continue to be divided and powerless.
Oppressing People
Saudi women's rights activist Loujain Alhathloul sentenced to nearly 6 years in prison: state-linked media - The jailing of the prominent, Canadian-educated women’s rights activist is a prime example of the barbarism that continues in theocratic Saudi Arabia. This is a country that Canada continues to trade with despite us having a government that seeks to push human rights and, particularly, women’s rights across the world. Do the people being oppressed by the Saudi Arabian government matter to Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government? The hypocrisy of our woke government knows no bounds.
The anti-porn religious lobby just destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of pornographers - Alcohol prohibition didn’t save lives. The war on drugs didn’t save lives. Shutting down Back Page didn’t end prostitution or save any lives. Cracking down on pornography will not save lives. What abolition and stamping down on vices does is destroys the livelihoods of those who are trying to follow the law while pushing the rest underground where violence and abuse can be better hidden. Why are so many people either incapable of or refuse to try to understand that censorship and abolition never works? Here’s a bonus Canadaland Short Cuts podcast on this topic: #289 Canada’s Secret Porn Stash.
New Study: Militarizing the Police Doesn’t Reduce Crime - 2020 really put a magnifying glass on the growing problems with police in America. Now that there is evidence that militarizing the police not only fails to reduce crime but that it fails to protect police officers, will communities start to move funding to other areas where a more effective impact on public safety can be made? I have my doubts but us in Canada need to take a serious look at our own bloated police forces because we seem to be following in the same footsteps as our neighbours.
Flow-Up Economics
From food to housing: What will cost you more in 2021? - Surprise, everything is going up except our wages. The rich get richer and the rest of us continue to be exploited. I’m not sure how these continuing, unsustainable trends avoid a coming disaster.
Trickle-down economics is dead. It’s time to tax the rich harder - Trickle down economics is not dead because it was never alive. Lowering taxes and regulations was always about funneling more wealth away from workers to those who already have immense wealth. It is time we stop perpetuating this lie and begin reversing the damage that has been done by decades of neoliberal policies. It starts by raising taxes on the rich.
Rules for thee, but not for me
Here are the Canadian politicians facing questions over travel amid COVID-19 restrictions - These revelations is a prime example of why people are losing trust in government. It’s an extremely privileged position for someone to tell us at the peak of the pandemic to go to work, and not to travel for non-essential matters or visit family (even if they are sick or dying in hospital), while at the same time ignoring these public health measures themselves. Some of these people have since resigned or been stripped of their cabinet positions but no matter the political stripe, none of them deserve to represent any of us with their poor decision making and lack of leadership.