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“Radical feminism is a materialist analysis which argues that gender is not produced merely through discourse and performance, but is a system within which one gender (male) has economic and political power, and the other (female) does not – and the dominant group has an investment in keeping it that way.” - Joan Scanlon, Talking about Gender http://ift.tt/16ZShoa

via Deep Green Resistance Women’s Caucus http://ift.tt/1x9TAeS (via pizza-rolls-not-gender-roles)

hashtagcdnpoli

Harper Government Has Supported the Mining Exploitation of Africa's Resources

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Canadian policy in Africa can be summed up in nine words: Do what is good for Canadian-owned mining companies. Despite rhetoric about aid to the poorest people in the world, the Harper Conservatives have worked assiduously to ensure that Canadian corporations profit from Africa’s vast mineral resources. Even widespread criticism of their operations has failed to dampen the Conservatives’ support for Canada’s many mining interests in Africa. Canadian mining companies have been accused of bribing officials, evading taxes, dispossessing farmers, displacing communities, employing forced labour, devastating ecosystems and spurring human rights violations. But, more important than the specific instances of abuse, which I detail in my forthcoming book, Canada in Africa – 300 years of Aid and Exploitation, the mining industry contributes little to sustainable economic development. Instead it is a prime part of a vast vacuuming up of resources to benefit wealthy people, only a few of whom live in Africa. Indifferent to the deleterious impacts of the sector, International Trade Minister Ed Fast has included numerous mining executives in his delegations to the continent, while former foreign minister John Baird visited African countries partly based on where Canadian resource companies sought business. For his part, International Development Minister Christian Paradis praised the sector’s development benefits in a bid to (misleadingly) convince African officials that “Canada owes much of its economic growth to extractive industries.” Stephen Harper personally promoted Canadian mining companies. When leaders from Tanzania, South Africa and Benin visited Ottawa in 2013 he used the opportunity to promote mining interests. During a trip to Senegal in 2012 the Prime Minister met with representatives from five resource firms or trade associations and publicly lauded the sector. On a visit to Tanzania in 2007, Harper gave audience to more than 10 Canadian resource firms, describing the meeting as an opportunity to discuss “the general business climate [and] what the government of Canada can do to assist in building our investments here.” In the months after Harper’s visit, reported This Day, the Canadian High Commission launched an “intense” lobbying effort to convince Tanzania’s Parliament to reject the country’s Mineral Sector Review Committee’s recommendation that a larger proportion of profits from higher mineral prices be retained by the government. Since 2012 Ottawa has pumped tens of millions of dollars into mining initiatives in Africa. The public money helped establish branch offices of a professional society, the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, in Senegal and Burkina Faso and a Senegalese school for geomatics (combining geography and information technology to map natural resources). Last year, Canada gave $18.5 million of tax money for an extractives skills training centre in Mozambique and earlier this year Ottawa announced a $12 million grant for the Project Strengthening Education for Mining in Ethiopia “to develop more industry driven geology and mining engineering undergraduate programs.” In 2014 the Conservatives budgeted up to $25 million per year for the Extractives Cooperation for Enhanced Economic Development (EXCEED) initiative, which it described as “a new funding mechanism to expand Canada’s involvement in areas of high development impact in the extractive sector in Africa.” In addition to promoting the sector in general, the Conservatives’ ploughed millions of dollars into specific companies’ corporate social responsibility projects. One example of this “aid” was a $4.5-million grant to Lundin for Africa, the philanthropic arm of mining giant Lundin Group of Companies, for its operations in Ghana, Mali and Senegal. Ottawa also put up $5.6 million for a project between NGO Plan Canada and IAMGOLD near the company’s mine in Burkina Faso. As they pumped tens of millions of “aid” dollars into initiatives supporting the controversial sector, the Conservatives blocked efforts to regulate an industry notorious for abuses in jurisdictions with weak legal structures. The Conservatives defeated bill C-300 to withhold diplomatic and financial support from companies found responsible for significant abuses abroad. They also opposed legislation, modeled on the U.S. Alien Torts Claims Act, to allow lawsuits against Canadian companies responsible for major human rights violations or ecological destruction abroad. In maybe their most significant support to Canadian mining corporations in Africa, the Conservatives negotiated Foreign Investment Protection Agreements (FIPAs) with more than 10 African countries. FIPAs give corporations the right to sue governments – in private, investor-friendly tribunals – for pursuing policies that interfere with profits. In essence, the aim of a FIPA is to counter “resource nationalism”. Having benefited from two decades of privatizations and loosened restrictions on foreign investment, mining companies operating on the continent fear a reversal of these policies. These concerns can be somewhat alleviated by gaining rights to sue a government if it expropriates a concession, changes investment rules or requires value added production take place in the country. Academic Paula Butler notes: “Canada appears keen to negotiate FIPAs with some of the most economically and politically vulnerable but resource rich African countries before they develop a taste for resource sovereignty.” Canadian policy in Africa has become largely synonymous with the interests of Canadian mining companies. The Harper Conservatives have sought to ensure that the continent’s mining policy serves the interests of foreign corporations, the majority of Africans be damned. A version of this article appeared on Richocet. ALSO ON HUFFPOST: from Canada Politics Blog on The Huffington Post http://ift.tt/1NFzyVJ Via the #1 source for Canadian political news - #cdnpoli What do YOU think? Share via social media

crystalline-canopy-deactivated2

i dont dream of a world where both men and women can wear high heels-i dream of a world where products that are inherently harmful to people aren’t produced at all and we arent slaves to a dogma that requires us to harm ourselves to be deemed professional

seebster

So, I ask to the women who are still not sure about rape culture, patriarchy, or male supremacy, if you see the problem behind a culture in which “no” is punishable, but where failure to say “no” makes any violation of your personhood your own fault. When you sit back for a moment and think to yourself that surely you can say no to men, and that I am blowing things way out of proportion, then at least do this test within your own life: Start saying No more often when No is what you really want to say. Establish firm boundaries with men and do not let up. See if the male you are saying no to immediately stops and respects your boundary, or if his automatic response, reflexive—as though he’s been learning how to do this since he was a boy, as though he sees no other response more logical than this—is to attempt to do what you have just asked him not to do to you. Notice how you feel when telling a man “no” as well. Do you feel butterflies in your stomach? Do you feel guilty (denying him his right of access to you)? Do you feel mean? Do you feel unsure at all as to whether or not you have the right to tell him no? It is very easy to feel that men are not so bad when you are still making sure to give them what they want.

Looking Male Supremacists Dead in Their Dead Eyes (The Boner Busters Takedown)

“IT IS VERY EASY TO FEEL THAT MEN ARE NOT SO BAD WHEN YOU ARE STILL MAKING SURE TO GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT.”

(via froelich)

songsforgorgons

“The cliché that when women are liberated men will be liberated too shamelessly slides over the raw reality of male domination — as if this were an arrangement in fact arranged by nobody, which suits nobody, which works to nobody’s advantage. In fact, the very opposite is true. The domination of men over women is to the advantage of men; the liberation of women will be at the expense of male privilege. Perhaps afterwards, in some happy sense, men will be liberated too — liberated from the tiresome obligation to be ‘masculine.’ But allowing oppressors to lay down their psychological burdens is quite another, secondary sense of liberation. The first priority is to liberate the oppressed. Never before in history have the claims of oppressed and oppressors turned out to be, on inspection, quite harmonious. It will not be true this time either.”

— From “The Third World of Women,” by Susan Sontag. Partisan Review, Vol. 40, No. 2 (1973).

no-corners-deactivated20160918

Capitalism has literally killed hundreds of millions of people

Treatable disease

Preventable famine

Leaving homeless people in the freezing cold while houses sit empty

Imperialist wars

Suicide due to alienation

Crimes of desperation committed by working-class people

Ecological disasters such as the gulf oil spill

Environmental destruction such as global warming

Dangerous consumer products

Wage slavery, sweatshop labor and other forms of genocidal work

Colonialism, and the murder and enslavement of native peoples

The preservation of a patriarchal, white supremacist, hetero-normative, ableist social order under the guise of “free speech”

laheylarae

Capitalism, by its very nature, is a predatory system that leads finally to the survival of a select few, followed by the exploitation of the many by the “successful” few. Sadly, we are heading for that point at breakneck speed now that we have turned over the governing of our societies to big businesses who are interested only in profits at any cost.

psacbc

A new report by the Council of Canadians harshly condemns the federal government's "assault" on laws and institutions protecting Canada's freshwater.”

The Navigable Waters Protection Act no longer protects water. The Fisheries Act no longer protects fish. The Environmental Assessment Act no longer requires environmental assessments be done before important decisions are made.

The Vancouver Observer.

socialjusticesummoner

when white men are vastly over represented in positions of power, you have to either admit that the system is broken or admit that you believe white men are inherently superior. there is no third option.

hommedeseptiles

Senior National Post vice-president said the column had been taken down Friday because fact checking hadn't been completed and remaining questions over whether it aligned with Post ‘values.’

According to Devin N, a Star commenter:

Differences between earlier and later versions of the article. Later version: 1. Next: Why should the taxpayer foot the bill for the micromanagement of Harper’s hair? 2. Jean Chrétien’s paralyzed face, laugh a minute! Earlier version: 1. Next: Why should the taxpayer foot the bill, even in part, for the micromanagement of Harper’s hair? 2. Jean Crétien’s paralyzed face, laugh a minute! 3. Why is Harper still coyly hiding the two-million-dollar donors to his party leadership race? Don’t we have a right to know who put him in there? Who’s he working for, them or us? 4. In his earlier quoted comment, “I don’t care what they say,” who are they? 5. He’s given four mutually exclusive answers so far. Is there a hidden real answer?

National Post Article (censored version): http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/hair-is-in-the-election-season-air-but-is-it-crucial-to-your-vote

Post Article may have changed since. Yet again.

directdemocracynow-blog

3. Why is Harper still coyly hiding the two-million-dollar donors to his party leadership race? Don’t we have a right to know who put him in there? Who’s he working for, them or us?

And there we have it.

azspot

In the sickness of modern culture, the ability to exploit with impunity is distorted into a human right even by a renowned and respected humanitarian organization. That is quite a card trick. We live in a global culture where the wretched of the earth are chattel and where sexual slavery—which is what most prostituted women and girls around the globe endure—is sanctified by market forces. These women and girls are among our most vulnerable. After being crushed by poverty, racism and sexism, they are unable to find other ways to make a sustainable income. They are treated little better than livestock transported to markets for consumption. That a so-called human rights organization parrots vile justifications is emblematic of the depth of our moral degeneration and the triumph of misogyny.

Chris Hedges (via azspot)

seebster

According to Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, the first definition of “bitch” is “the female of the dog or some other carnivorous mammals.” The second is “a malicious, spiteful or overbearing woman - sometimes used as a generalized term of abuse.” And the third is “something that is extremely difficult, objectionable, or unpleasant.” Although these definitions seem familiar and unremarkable, one can find, with a little bit of analysis and breakdown, a much more menacing concept underneath. The basic idea is that if a woman is in any way disagreeable she is deemed a bitch, so I ask: where does the association between a female canine animal and a woman cross paths? According to dog breeders, it is very difficult to breed a female dog because they are only receptive to the male on specific occasions, whereas breeding a male is much simpler because he is always open to the breeding process. If we apply this comparison to women and men it can be understood that women are more reluctant to the ‘breeding’ process, i.e. sex.

Shanelle Matthews, The B Word Ah, gendered slurs for females and other persons of degraded worth. Whatever else this word has come to mean in the vernacular or for you personally, this is what is beneath it. Do we really want to reclaim the word bitch? (via seebster)

fycanadianpolitics

The numbers prove it: Women continue to be killed off by the men they’re closest to

[…] The fact is domestic violence against women happens so often and with such recurring banality that we rarely get to focus on it. We barely get to mourn one victim before there’s another.

The statistics are staggering. Here are some of the harrowing numbers compiled by the Canadian Women’s Federation:

On average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.

About half (49 per cent) of all female murder victims in this country are killed by a former or current intimate partner.

Only 7 per cent of male murder victims are killed by intimate partners. (This puts in context the complaints of male rights groups who claim they don’t get equal coverage.)

On any given day in Canada, more than 3,300 women (along with their children) are forced to sleep in an emergency shelter to escape domestic violence.

Each year, over 40,000 arrests result from domestic violence — that’s about 12 percent of all violent crime in Canada.

Since only 22 per cent of all incidents are reported to the police, the real number is much higher.

The strong sense of territorial entitlement many men seem to have over the women in their lives overwhelmingly contributes to domestic violence. Amanda Marcott, author of Why Men Kill Women Is Not a Mystery, explains how this entitlement over women’s bodies and lives seems to transcend cultures, religions, and race, and can be seen around the world in various forms and degrees.

Even more disturbing, despite rates of domestic violence actually decreasing in Canada from 2006 to 2010, the rate of intimate partner homicide committed against females increased. According to the Canadian Women Federation’s data, the rate for male victims fell by almost half over the same period. […]

radicalduck

Protect Native American girls and women

macgregor13mathers-deactivated2

sinidentidades-blog

People starving when tons of unsold food is thrown away globally because people couldn’t afford to purchase the food, that’s violence.

People dying and going bankrupt to pay for their healthcare, that’s violence.

People being evicted from their homes when there are more houses than there are houseless people, that’s violence.

dgrwomenscaucus

Pimp Douglas Fox is now admitting that he not only authored Amnesty’s policy advocating for decriminalizing johns and pimps, but that he encouraged his fellow pimps to infiltrate the organization in order to overpower Amnesty’s violence against women campaign group, who stood opposed:

rapistsdoms-andothers

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