greenpolitics.ca

Book Review Political activist Judy Rebick has written a visionary and inspiring book that shows how applied people-power can transform politics from being élitist, secretive, and corrupt, into genuinely open, grassroots, and democratic systems. Her writing is highly-charged and visionary, but her focus on South American politics glosses over the fact that Canadian political culture is very different. Can western democracy be transformed, or are we just too affluent to organise for change?

A trip to a ferry terminal turned into a reminder of the fragility of democratic rights and the insidious way that both Liberal and Conservative governments have secretly adopted the self-serving corporate agenda of North American integration. Is the repressive, anti-democratic Security and Prosperity Partnership the beginning of The Age of Razor Wire? Wake up, froggies! The water is beginning to boil!

There’s a growing gulf between those in our society that have — jobs, income, property, family — and those who have not. And that gulf is widening to include many more formerly middle-class people in the ‘have-not’ category.

I believe we are now entering a new period in history. Welcome to the corporate era. It’s going to be an interesting time — especially if you’re not safely ensconced inside a corporate castle. From the outside, the castle walls look cold, dark, and steep.