If you ever wonder how we could end up living in a world where the richest 80 people on Earth are now as wealthy as the 3.5 billion poorest people.
Or wonder why the top ten percent in Canada are wealthier than the rest of us.
Or wonder how the sinister ideologue Stephen Harper has managed to change this country so much.
Here's an excerpt from Donald Gutstein's excellent new book: Harperism: How Stephen Harper and his Think Tank Colleagues Have Transformed Canada.
And welcome to Steve's World and the neoliberal conspiracy.
The combined firepower of neoliberal think tanks over forty years has reshaped the Canadian climate of ideas to such an extent that it will take years — perhaps decades — for those views to change again. On top of these ideological underpinnings, Harper has fundamentally modified the relationship between state and society.
The theme is simple: we must remove obstacles to the attainment of a state governed, not by duly elected officials, but by market transactions, because the market and economic freedom are more fundamental than democracy and political freedom.
Where you get to understand the nature and size of the monstrous machine we must fight. And understand why Harper's insane obsession with balancing the budget, is just a cover for so much more.
Harperism is more than fiscal conservatism. While he’s cut government’s ability to look after its citizens, Harper has inched forward in his quest to remove obstacles to the market state: replacing scientific understanding of the environment with market signals, weakening the role of trade unions in the labour market, bringing private property rights to First Nation reserves, and undermining the effectiveness of non-profit organizations critical of business and the market. The opposition parties may not even be aware of the extent to which the changed climate of ideas will constrain their actions.
And if you wonder what the followers of the Church of Savage Capitalism Triumphant have done to us with all their grubby "free trade" deals. Or where all the good jobs have gone.
You can watch this new video from Operation Maple...
And what I take from all of the above, are just more reasons why we need to build a mighty progressive movement, to fight for our vision of a more equal and better world.
Because a movement not only helps defeat the enemy, it can also force the progressive parties to stand for real change.
For there will be real change or there will be REVOLUTION.
And a movement is a first step in that direction.
I saw its potential in Scotland last summer, I saw it in some Occupy places, I saw it in the streets of Montreal...
And it was AWESOME.
So we should take that first step too.
Start a Great Stop Harper Movement, even if for now that just means putting one of these stop signs in your window.
To let people know how we feel about the Con regime and its depraved leader, its monstrous accomplices, and its foul ideology.
And tell Canada and the world that we're coming to help save them.
By fighting harder than we ever have.
To get that crazy Con monkey off our backs...
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15 comments:
When I started reading "Haperism" by Donald Gutstein, I was very surprised/shocked........read the Introduction of 7 1/2 pages several times and kept asking myself what is going on here?
The more I read, the more I understood what our dear Prime Minister Stephen Harper meant when he said WE would not recognize Canada when he was through with it!
Bottom line: Oust the Cons OR Canadians are screwed.......forever!
The infamous omnibus bills are one way the reforma-harper party has hoodwinked the public, bury the details and push it through, incremental baby steps add up. The "balanced budget" rhetoric they spew is just more of the code for stripping public services to hand cash to the "forces of the market". I would argue that many of these changes in ideas are irreversible as not only have they changed, the weight given to them overwhelms other points of view. A few examples are the dutch disease phenomenon, the emphasis on the terrorists vs real threats of climate change and the stunning change in policing, the stripping of charitable status of organizations who oppose the harper regime. I could continue all day but it's alarming how this closet dwelling blowhard is getting away with this. The perfect campaign sign for the upcoming election is a stop harper sign, especially in the heart of harper country here in the lovely BC Interior.
So right Kat Harper and his cons have already screwed Canada and ordinary Canadians. Can we host a recall election before Harper's trumped up election? All Harper-cons must go behind the barn to be taught a lesson and their pensions withheld...
I think the 'Stop Harper' idea is a good start. The image of the brave little page in the Senate holding her 'Stop Harper' sign is the desktop background image on all of my computers.
But we Canadians have to ask ourselves a more fundamental question than just 'Stop Harper'. The question is something like this: do you want to live as a slave in a corporate state, or as a free person in a democratic state?
I find it incredible that while Harper and his CONS are secretly implementing neo-liberal policies, that literally no MSM has drawn attention to it.This along with his authoritarianism makes him a very dangerous man!
Budgets still have to be balanced. We can't just keep adding to the massive debt. That just burdens people of the future. All the 620 $billions have to be paid. Adding to the debt increases the interest burden.
The US for example has over $18 Trillion of debt.
Also, I don't like the idea of defacing stop signs.
ISDS (investor-state dispute settlement) in NAFTA is why Eli Lilly is suing Canada for $500 million.
CETA, China-FIPA deals also have ISDS.
hi Kathleen... Nothing in Gutstein's book is really news to me. I knew all about the shadowy neocon conspiracy. But I'm finding the details fascinating, and I hope it will wakeup some of those sleepwalking Canadians who haven't the foggiest idea what Harper is really planning. And yes that is the bottom line, and the message we must convey to all who will listen...
hi bcwaterboy...yes, everything this government does is aimed at concealing what they are really doing. It's unprecedented, similar to the activities of a criminal organization, And of course, coming from a guy who came to office promising transparency it's simply outrageous. As for whether he has really changed Canada that much, polls seem to suggest that he has not. At least not when it comes to the question of values. But he has been very successful in making taxes sound like a bad word. When in fact they are one of the pillars upon which a civilized modern society rests. And that is a real problem. The progressive parties should be making the arguments for taxes, but they don't dare. And until they do, we will continue in a deadly race to the bottom...
hi mogs...they only thing we absolutely must do is prepare for the election, the only recall mechanism we have, and make sure that whatever we do we don't lose it....
hi anon...I'm suggesting a Stop Harper movement because it is our best known symbol of resistance. And because it's an easy way to spread the message. But of course we need to ask ourselves more fundamental questions, like the ones you list. And I intend to make some videos on them to help get them out there. But as Chairman Mao once pointed out, every Long March begins with the first step...
hi Pamela...the problem is that much of the MSM has absorbed those neoliberal values like babies imbibe their mothers' milk. I can forgive ordinary Canadians for parroting those values without understanding to what jungle they will lead us. But I can never forgive our useless, cowardly. and thoroughly mediocre media...
hi Hugh...Yes budgets should be balanced, but ours will be balanced, and all we're talking about is whether it should be done in three months or less than a year. Racing to do it, and imposing more extreme austerity merely for crass political purposes, could hurt the economy at this tme more than it could ever help it. As for the STOP signs I'm certainly not suggesting that real stop signs be defaced. I'm talking about making our own paper or cardboard ones, and placing them in the window. They are really easy to make, all you need is some red paper, some white paper, some scissors and some glue. Now imagine if wherever you went you saw those signs. Wouldn't it be a wonderful sight?
hi Hugh...I think I read somewhere that we are the most sued country of the NAFTA deal. We seemed to have gone into it with our eyes closed, and have ended up looking like suckers. Some Europeans have put up some resistance on the question of sovereignty, but we seem to have surrendered absolutely...
Newfoundland is apparently now opposing CETA. It would mean job losses for fishery workers.
I read that over 1 million people in Europe signed a petition against CETA/TTIP.
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