Debt Is Not The Cause Of The Crisis

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Stephen Harper are all over the media attacking European Union politicians for failing to take decisive action to deal with the "debt overhang", particularly in places like Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy. This failure of political leadership they contend is at the core of the problems facing the world economy.

Mr. Flaherty said a failure to adequately address Greece’s debt problems puts the global economy at risk, sharpening his criticism again as he and other top Canadian officials have in recent days.

This is what you call missing the point. The problem is not the debt it is the undemocratic priority-setting imposed by global financial traders, ratings agencies and businesses. The same people who almost destroyed the economy in 2008 by creating an unregulated shadow banking sector that was little more than a giant ponzi scheme are now demanding the economic priorities of sovereign nations be determined by them. The lunatics are truly running the asylum. Not only has this crew demonstrated that it doesn't have the interests of the economy at heart, rather they are interested in wringing profits out of every pore of a country then moving on to the next. They don't care about investments in productive or socially necessary infrastructure. The determinants of good or bad, efficient and inefficient bear no resemblance to common sense understanding of those terms. It is entirely determined by their accumulation of wealth.

But even that is really just a symptom of deeper problems. In Europe, it is true that Greece and some other countries have high levels of public sector debt. But it is to miss the point entirely - as I've argued more than once - to look only at public sector debt. It is total debt within an economy that shapes the likelihood of whether there will be investment to stave off a recession or protracted stagnation. In the USA the federal government has a debt of $14 trillion. That's a lot, representing about 100% of GDP. But it is dwarfed by the $36 trillion in private sector debt that has ensured that monetary policy - basically pushing down both long and short term interest rates to close to zero - has next to know impact on economic growth. There is literally no room left on the credit cards, lines of credit or mortgages of the nation. The parrot is dead.

And total debt loads themselves are a reflection of the fact that profit rates have been falling almost steadily for the past thirty-five or forty years. In the first instance, the decline in profit rates led governments to embark on an assault on working class living standards that has led to stagnant or declining wages and the de-unionization of the workforce - most spectacularly in the United States where the private sector is basically union free.

And for the first time on record, family incomes are actually falling. New figures this week from the U.S. Census Bureau show that the median income for working-age households fell 10 per cent between 2000 and 2010, even as women worked more hours...
Experts say the seeds of this lost decade were planted long before the recession. Wages fell out of step with rapidly rising productivity and soaring corporate profits in the 1980s, and the gap has been growing wider ever since. The average real wage for working men is now lower than it was in 1973.

But in an economy which is 70% consumer spending, this decline creates a roadblock to further growth. To overcome this workers were encouraged to take on ever more debt. Alan Greenspan kept interest rates low, fuelling speculative bubbles, first in tech then in housing, that gave the illusion of growing incomes. Inevitably, that bubble would burst and leave a wasteland of debt, foreclosed homes and unemployment.

Since the decline in living standards was itself an expression of the problems in the core economy, it is not surprising that debt levels rose across the economy as a whole as profit rates stagnated. In particular, with pressure to move in the direction of a "financialized" economy, debt levels in the financial sector went through the roof. Looking at the graph of US data above you can see that while all levels represented - non-financial business debt, federal government debt, household commercial credit debt - have risen since 1953, they have risen astronomically in the financial services sector, particularly beginning in the early 1970s when profit rates really took a hit. If we look at debt in terms of billions of dollars, as opposed to comparing the change in levels over time, we see in a more pronounced form the very real reason for government debt.

This graph includes financial sector debt, non-financial business sector debt, corporate debt, state & local government debt and federal government debt. As you can see, at the start of Bush Jr's term in office, federal government debt had stopped growing. Bush, of course, slashed taxes for the wealthy and ploughed money into foreign wars, which led to the return to deficit and debt growth. But, even with costly tax breaks to the corporate sector, business debt continued to rise - particularly financial sector debt. Now, look at the grey line around 2010, which indicates the 2008 financial crisis and recession. Notice how financial sector debt declines dramatically while federal government debt skyrockets? What this indicates is that the federal government saved the banking sector from itself by taking on toxic debt. This pattern was repeated in country after country. Those same bankers - who resisted all efforts to regulate them post-2008 (largely successfully) are now howling about the high levels of "sovereign debt."

The upshot is that we are expected to pay for the disaster that they caused with further reductions in our living standards - that's what Flaherty and Harper are going on about: screwing us. The irony, of course, is that smashing Greece's economy into tiny little bits - and doing the same to every other economy upon which they've set their sights - will not solve the problems. They will make them worse. People will need more, not less debt, or they will simply stop spending, causing an economic contraction. They aren't stupid - they know this. The point of the austerity exercise isn't about economic efficiency per se. The hope of people like Flaherty and Harper is that a decisive defeat for workers in Greece and beyond will drive down living standards sufficiently to restore the rate of profit - which, in the graph above, can be seen on a long decline from the mid-1960s. The question is not whether their goal is about making us pay for their crisis. It is whether or not they will be successful.

G20 Inquiry: T.O. Cops Plead Stupidity, Incompetence

Tell me this, if your boss gave you the power to use any resources at the disposal of the company to organize an event, along with the help of half of the entire workforce - plus hundreds more people from other workplaces - and six months to plan for the event - if you screwed it up so bad that you were the laughing stock of the entire planet and the subject of three inquiries, do you think that you'd not only still have a job but that you'd get a raise?

Fat. Fucking. Chance.

Unless you're the cops. Then you can have the power of de facto martial law, along with vast quantities of weapons, bolstered numbers, detention centres and support from the pro-cop media and the lap dogs on Toronto City Council - including the so-called left. You can still fuck it up, break into the homes of families while they're sleeping, tear off the artificial leg of a protestor (seriously) as he cries out in pain, make the biggest mass arrests in national history - almost all released without charges - and claim afterwards "gee, we just didn't know what we were doing."

Seriously. It has to be a joke somebody is playing on us. Did an internal police inquiry really just shrug and say "hey, we were confused and didn't have any good planning." And we're supposed to swallow that even with $1 billion (!?) and six months that they couldn't figure out how to deal with a few dozen anarchists who wanted to go and throw themselves at a fence and break a couple of shop windows? I mean, half the planet has seen the video of the police marching away from about a dozen Black Bloc morons kicking in the window at a Second Cup at Yonge & College. And an equal number (yes, that means the entire planet) have seen the video of the police hanging out around the corner - doing nothing - while the "abandoned" police car is set alight by another half dozen morons less than 200 metres away. Frankly, I'd prefer to think that the police are so diabolical that they allowed property damage to happen in order to justify the security budget. The other possibility is too pathetic to contemplate. Do we need to include a line item in the police budget to remind them to breathe?

There is also this sweet little tidbit:

"The report also discusses organizational problems at the temporary detention centre, which may explain why prisoners were deprived of food and water and not released quickly enough."

"Duh, we didn't know how to turn on a tap and fill some buckets with water." They had a billion dollars and they couldn't buy a half dozen freaking pizzas to feed the people that they KNEW they'd be arresting (otherwise why did they have a temporary detention centre set up with cages) and that they therefore knew they would have a legal obligation to provide with the necessities of life? Is this seriously any kind of an excuse? Could anybody claim this level of incompetence and not be immediately shit-canned? Here in Toronto the police can - and they can expect to see their budget increased year after year. They already comprise the single biggest line item in the Toronto budget, soaking up a quarter of all our tax money.

Here's a thought, let's spend our money on swimming pools, youth centres, after school programs, social programs, literacy programs, employment programs, childcare. If we spread the money around to lots of different services not only will they fight crime more effectively (nothing like jobs and good services to bring down crime rates), but by also diversifying the management structures it will make it less likely that so much money will be controlled by gleeful, self-confessed morons.

Toronto Police say they lacked effective tactics to deal with G20 - The Globe and Mail

My Own G20 'Most Wanted' List

The Toronto Star is reporting that the Toronto Police have released photos of the ten "most wanted" vandals from the G20 demonstrations and riot of two weeks ago. I will at least give the police credit that all of the "suspects" at least appear to have been at the demo. There's no photos of the guy who got shaken down on his way to play medieval role playing games, swinging a foam broadsword. I suppose that's sort of a step forward.
Of course, it doesn't answer a single one of the questions that have been raised by concerned citizens about the suspension of civil liberties. About the horrid conditions and brutal treatment of arrestees, 95% of whom were never charged.
But more than that, if these guys smashed some windows and a couple of, cough cough, abandoned police cruisers, it is nothing compared to the damage of the real vandals at the G20. So, in the interest of balance, RedBedHead is releasing its own "Most Wanted" List. If you know the location of any of these thugs, just pass them along to my desk officer. We'll fill out a report and then get our agents on the case to track them down and arrest them.

WANTED FOR THUGGERY AND VANDALISM

1. STEPHEN HARPER

Don't let the cute kitty-cat fool you, this man is armed and dangerous. He is wanted for holding an entire city hostage, suspending civil liberties, and directing the cops to treat protesters like the enemy within. He's also wanted for funnelling money to the most destructive energy project on earth - the Alberta Tar Sands; for ignoring all democratic checks and balances; attacking women's right to abortion; and championing an economic austerity model that was adopted by the G20 and will lead to immiseration for tens of millions of people around the world. Since he organized the whole stupid thing, he gets to be number one.

2. BARACK OBAMA

He started off so well but just couldn't resist picking up bad habits. We all loved him and wanted him to succeed. The President of the United States has shown himself a willing participant in the murder of tens of thousands by commission and omission. He convinces us he was anti-war and then sent an extra 35,000 troops to Afghanistan. He told us he was for stimulus spending and bank accountability - and now he's moving towards austerity. He said he represented a new, cooperative model of foreign policy and then sent thousands of Marines to Costa Rica as a threat against Nicaragua, backed the Honduran coup, supporter bombings and massacres in Pakistan, gave the thumbs up to every crime that Israel could come up with. He reneged on his promise to rescind the odious Defence of Marriage Act, to support immigrants who face sustained assault by Tea Party, Minutemen and the whackjobs who ran half of the states in America. He reneged on providing real public healthcare and defending a woman's right to choose. The list of crimes continues for quite a while but this is enough for an arrest warrant. He's probably guarded by some heavily armed, sunglasses wearing thugs, so approach with caution.

3. WEN JIABAO

Wen Jiabao, China's Premier, may wear silly hats but this thug is all business back home. He has been involved with repression in Tibet and the Xinjiang region of western China. Then there's all that stuff about stealing organs from prisoners and dissidents. That's worth a few years in the big house right there, serving tea and crumpets to some Falun Gong supporters. Wen rules over a country that prevents freedom of speech and crushes dissent - except where doing so will lead to bigger explosions, as with the recent industrial strike wave.

4. SILVIO BERLUSCONI

His true nature was laid bare a long time ago but he's managed to avoid capture by constantly changing the laws of Italy to maintain parliamentary immunity. It helps that his control and manipulation of the media has made Italy the most unfree media climate in the western world. Besides being an all around SOB, he's also happily supported the war in Afghanistan and repression against trade unions and the left at home. He is in the process of implementing a serious austerity package against Italian workers, which, if he gets away with it, will immiserate millions. He cavorts with open fascists and has created an atmosphere in Italy conducive to the recent pogroms against immigrants and Gypsies. Luckily, it seems that he will soon be thrown out of office and will thus be easier to arrest.

5. NIKOLAS SARKOZY

He looks a bit like Clive Owen here but this guy has no charm at all. Besides his current package of austerity that has generated a massive general strike, he has also attacked immigrants, particularly Muslims at every opportunity. He is for repression, harsh nationalism, and attacks on workers rights and living standards.

6. DAVID CAMERON

The goofball "conservative with a heart of gold" Prime Minister of Britain is what the brits call a toff, which sounds like toffee, but really translates more accurately into rich, inbred bastard. This criminal mastermind is bent on recreating the terror of Thatcher and imposing it on the poor people of Britain. He's a racist, elitist scumbag and his assault on the National Health Service of Britain, as well as the broader public sector is set to be the most significant attack on the welfare state ever seen. Hopefully the people of Britain will give him a swift kick in the pants and his weak coalition government will fall apart. He's best sedated upon arrest or he'll try to charm you and ply you with some of those dreadful British breath mints.

7. TORONTO POLICE CHIEF BILL BLAIR

There's something Pinochet-esque about Billy boy in this photo. Give him the moustache and away he would go. He obviously revels in unbridled power and has a penchant for lying publicly and frequently. As the leader of the biggest street gang in the city of Toronto, he's not to be taken lightly. Don't try to approach him as he's sure to attack.

8. DALTON MCGUINTY

He's a liar. He's boring as shit. Somebody stop him before he passes more police special powers laws that he didn't pass and never really existed in the first place even though he pretended they did until it became politically inconvenient.

9. ROB FORD & GEORGIO MAMMOLITI

He's a bigot, a bully and an asshole who represents every vile, narrow attitude that porcine white assholes can possibly hold without being fascists. And he was number one scum when it came to fellating the TO police over what a wonderful job they did implementing their mini-police state.

Ah, Georgio, how long we have known and despised ye. All the way back to when you scabbed on the NDP same spousal legislation. So it was particularly rich when you put forward a motion to withhold funding from future Pride festivals because they permitted Queers Against Israeli Apartheid to march (under enormous pressure). Having assisted in denying same sex couples any of the rights of heterosexual couples for another decade or so is enough to warrant frog-marching this weasel straight out of city hall and into the hoosegow. But the fact that he fought to get to the front of the line, ahead of his long time arch-foe, Rob Ford, in sucking up to the coppers post-clampdown makes him a double-weasel.

10. MAYOR MILLER

There he is: Curly, Larry and Shemp. I'll leave it to you, trusty reader, to decide whom is whom. If we have to endure one more "progressive" mayor like Miller I'm gonna cack. I thought Barb Hall was bad enough - Christ, she was beaten by Mel Lastman! But this guy is worse. Sure, we were all excited when he deposed Mel "Noooobody" Lastman with his three dollar suits and world knowledge gleaned from reading the Sunday funnies. But by the time we got to Miller's second term it would be an understatement to say that the thrill was gone. He went after public sector unions last summer, forcing a strike and then demonizing them as he sought significant concessions - as though public sector workers are to blame for the sorry state of city finances (here's a hint: cut the police budget). Then he went out of his way after the G20 fiasco to congratulate the police on what a good job they did - before knowing the facts of the matter. He did later apologize for the martial law situation - sorta, kinda - at a community event in North York, out of the eye of the media but the damage was already done. Of course, he has done no worse than the other progressives on council who all voted to withhold funding for Pride unless they censored the political views of participants viz Israel and who all voted to applaud the cops for smashing heads and suspending our rights. Nice goin' Milly Vanilly. Get outta here, you punk. Do no pass GO, do not collect $200!

Well, that's it. It's a bit of an arbitrary list, of course. There were so many scumbags assembled in one city that, frankly, it's a surprise that the World Health Organization didn't send in a team to disinfect ole Hogtown. I never even mentioned Germany, for instance. Or Russia - whoa, he's a dirtbag though, ain't he? But I think that if we can nail these guys, make an example of them with some show trials, convict them in the media - hey, we could get Christie Blatchford to cover it - then it will discourage copycat scumbags from following in their path. Two-thirds of the law is about deterrence. Remember that, kiddies. Now get out there and hunt these bad boys down like the dogs they are.

This initiative is an excellent idea. If the Tories and McGuinty won't hold an independent inquiry then the people should form their own independent inquiry as a focus for the anger that people continue to feel. If it can be connected to a campaign of mass mobilization, all the better. The Tories may be hoping that this issue is going to die in the summer heat but it seems clear that this particular fantasy of theirs isn't going to happen - not by a longshot.
There is to be a press conference today to launch the initiative - I'll keep you posted.

G20 PEOPLE'S INVESTIGATION

We are calling on the public to come forward with photos, video, and eye witness accounts of police violence against civilians during the G20 summits in Toronto. This evidence will be used to ensure that there are consequences for all those who beat and injured people, and for the masterminds who conspired to plan and give orders for the widespread police violence and repression that was experienced by thousands on the streets.

Can you identify these violent thugs?

Look at the images here. If you can identify one of these police officers, please emailg20policeviolence@gmail.com

Did you come in contact with the police or witnessed a police violence incident?

Please fill out this form and share widely with friends and networks. We know that 1,090 people were arrested and at least 275 were charged and are hoping to gain accounts of everyone of those as well as the intense violence that took place that did not result in formal arrests.

Do you have photographs of Police Violence?

You can share images through two ways:

1. Email pictures to g20PoliceViolence@gmail.com (Will not be shared unless you give us permission to do so)
2. If you've uploaded images on Flickr, please tag them #G20PoliceViolence

Do you have videos of Police Violence?

You can share images through two ways:

1. Email videos or links to videos to g20PoliceViolence@gmail.com (Will not be shared unless you give us permission to do so)
2. If you've uploaded images on YouTube, please tag them #G20PoliceViolence

If you would like to stay in touch, please add your email address to the mailing list (Scroll down on the tool bar to the right)

*Here are some videos you should see:
http://www.youtube.com/user/torontomobilize#grid/user/20DF3A28F9C558E6

Democracy: A Waste of Taxpayers Money

The Public Safety and National Security Committee met yesterday to debate setting up an inquiry into the decision-making that led to the G20 debacle. Unfortunately, the Conservatives on the committee prevented a vote being taken on the motion at hand by talking out the allotted time. Besides suggesting that any kind of public accountability would simply give a forum to "thugs and hooligans" they also suggested that accountability is just too darn expensive.

During Monday’s debate, the government side argued it would be premature to undertake a study and a waste of taxpayers money to hold hearings during the summer while MPs are supposed to be working in their constituencies."

Would it cost as much, say, as a $2 billion Summit in the biggest urban centre in the country? Or perhaps the problem is that the money would be used to spread anarchy since the NDP "seems to be lining itself up with anarchist groups" like Amnesty International and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, according to Tory MP Dean Del Mastro. Well, we certainly wouldn't want the government to spend money on anything that might cause anarchy.

MacLeans Magazine Is Right! Lock Up The Thugs!

Democracy makes MacLeans froth like a dog

I never thought I'd say that I agreed with that bile-oozing catalogue of demagogic, Tory-fellating asininery that is meant to be our version of Time Magazine. These toads give new meaning to trollness. That's why I was surprised to find myself in total agreement with this week's front cover title - "Lock them up: Why the G20 thugs don’t deserve any leniency - Canada"

Dammit, they're right. Those G20 thugs should be locked up and the key thrown away. Why just last week the US military killed a bunch of people in Afghanistan. And Harper spent $2 billion to host these miserable cretins, including the oppressors of Tibet (China), the blood-soaked British Empire (retired), and the god-awful French who still find time to keep their claws into parts of Africa, not to mention treating their own North African population like utter shite. Never mind that France, the US and Canada played an important role in deposing Jean Bertrande Aristide, the democratically elected president of Haiti, in order to replace him with death squads backed up by Canadian and UN troops - who committed a massacre in 2005 in Cite Soleil. These thugs came out of this summit with the plan to impose austerity (read: layoffs, tax breaks for the rich and massive service cuts for the rest of us) on the majority of the world's population. I mean, what would you call any group of people who lash out uncontrollably, leaving death and destruction in their wake - sociopath, perhaps but thugs will do for me.

Oh, wait. I misunderstood the article. MacLeans meant that WE are the thugs. Shee-it, what was I thinking?

"Only the professionalism and preparedness of police prevented circumstances from being much worse. Rather than an inquiry, we need further police effort to ensure every one of those lawless thugs is brought to justice."

Ha ha ha. Are these guys serious? They must have been drunk when they wrote this. Or, embarrassingly, it was written by some boob who'd only managed to catch Christie Blatchford's trollish and dubious take on events. Somebody ought to tell this writer, after all, that the government spent $1 billion on security, had 20,000 cops on the scene, and had infiltrated the main anarchist organization for over a year, and was therefore in on all the plans. If that's preparedness, then the bar has been set pretty low. But having ensured us that no matter what fuck-up the cops engaged in we were clearly hallucinating it or missing the point, the editorial dismisses the complaints arising from the largest mass arrest in Canadian history:

"It’s possible many of those arrested for breach of the peace were not directly involved in any violence. But they were released in a matter of hours. Canadians’ constitutional rights have survived the ordeal unscathed."

Let's see, 1000+ arrested, less than 20 charged with any offences. That's a charge rate of 2% - or rather, a failure rate of 98%. And given that the cops failed to do what they received $1 billion to do, the fact that they compounded that failure by suspending the civil liberties of everybody, doesn't reflect well on their, you know, preparedness. But, again, this utter failure to achieve any aims that one could regard as reasonable goals in the present circumstances - to permit business and normal life to continue uninterrupted by the G20 circus, to permit the citizenry to exercise their constitutionally enshrined right to express a dissenting an opinion - doesn't seem to disturb MacLeans Magazine, which fulminates that "whatever steps the police took to prevent [the black bloc from disrupting the Summit] were both necessary and welcome."

That's a pretty big blank cheque when, given the 5 metre high fences and 20,000 cops on parade - along with all the toys that the boys in blue love, from helicopters to sound cannons - there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that anyone was getting anywhere near the Summit. All the cops had to do was sit side-by-side at the fence, sipping tea, and poking through the holes with a stick every now and again and nobody would have made it over, let alone inside the Convention Centre. The truth is MacLeans has a deeper agenda at play here and it is one that ought to chill our spines if these cockroaches ever got the reins of power.

"The protection of free speech and assembly can only exist when there is proper respect for the rule of law. Legitimate protest acknowledges the existence of state authority while providing a different point of view. "

This idea that the citizenry must exist in a state of servitude to the state, accepting its authority no matter what, is frighteningly reminiscent of fascist ideology. What if the state is corrupt or serving interests other than your own? Should Nelson Mandela have "acknowledged the existence of state authority"? How about protesters during the Vietnam War? Or those who fought against the laws of the Canadian state that prohibited access to abortion - or criminalized homosexuality? Clearly, MacLeans either hasn't thought through the madness that they doth preach or someone should give them a very basic lesson in the precepts of democratic rule, in which the state exists to serve the sovereign people and not the other way around. Or perhaps they know full well what those precepts are and are just honest about their view of the role of those of us who can only access power through mass mobilizations. Our role is to shut up or face the justifiable consequences.

Crypto-fascist kookery aside, the MacLeans article is like a sad, over-told joke, proclaiming as has been done again and again that "the global protest movement appears to be losing steam." What are they talking about? The anti-capitalist movement that had it debutante ball at the Seattle protests in 1999? Somebody ought to update these guys on the history of the last ten years. It's been rather tumultuous what with multiple wars, both those that Canada has participated in and those that we have supported - like Israel's thrashing against anything and anyone who might have a problem with genocide. The cycle of mobilizations has certainly seen its ups and downs, such is always the case. But with the conflicts that mobilized people not ending. With growing anger at Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and their supporters int he wake of last year's invasion of Gaza and the more recent aid flotilla slaughter. And with the bewilderment and bitterness that the economic disaster of global capitalism is causing, it is hardly the case that the "global protest movement" is going away. With general strikes rocking Europe and with 25,000 marching in Toronto - the largest mobilization since 2003 - if anything there is a renewed vigour. In any case, none of us need worry about our civil rights or the issues of the day, the important thing is that the G20 leaders agreed a consensus on what next.

At the end of the day, debate over street violence, protest and police ought to be secondary to the summit’s practical achievements. And the G20 summit did conclude on a note worthy of some optimism: a pledge to cut government deficits in half by 2013. While this only applies to the most advanced economies within the G20, it is still a step in the right direction. Bringing the world’s major economies back to fiscal balance is crucial to closing the book on the Great Recession.

This is a fitting closure to an obtuse and delusional editorial. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman and others have noted, implementing austerity when the economy is still such a mess is merely a recipe for an even deeper recession, perhaps depression. The threat at the moment isn't inflation generated by too much deficit spending. It is deflation, particularly in the face of a dramatic shrinking of money supply by reining in government spending. The Japanese could teach us a few things in this department, having done the same thing back in the 90s, causing what became known as "The Lost Decade". In a recent NY Times article Krugman argued that there have been two major Depressions in the past 150 years and that we are entering into a third. And this Depression will be the result of foolish economic policy, ie. imposed austerity at a time when stimulation is necessary. Claims that the crisis in Greece or Ireland demonstrate the need to slash and burn public services, pensions and wages are not rooted in reality, but in a destructive dogma.

I don’t think this is really about Greece, or indeed about any realistic appreciation of the tradeoffs between deficits and jobs. It is, instead, the victory of an orthodoxy that has little to do with rational analysis, whose main tenet is that imposing suffering on other people is how you show leadership in tough times.
And who will pay the price for this triumph of orthodoxy? The answer is, tens of millions of unemployed workers, many of whom will go jobless for years, and some of whom will never work again.

To my way of thinking, people who deliberately inflict pain on others to demonstrate who is in charge is the very definition of thug. And yes, MacLeans, I agree: these thugs ought to be hunted down and brought to justice. Let's start with you.

Mayor Miller Apologizes For G20 Cop Riot

Well, sort of... Check out the video around 8:05 till 8:43. He gives an extended preamble talking about the violence of the "anarchists" as though the cops total clampdown, lies about their "special powers" prior to the event, and indiscriminate sweep was the result of a few broken windows on the Saturday. But since we have plenty of evidence that the police knowingly allowed this to happen this narrative is a total lie. Don't forget that the police infiltrated the key anarchist organization, SOAR, over a year prior to the event and thus knew of their plans and perhaps even helped to formulate and instigate them. And then there's the viral videos (see the one I've posted earlier) making the rounds that show the cops standing back and allowing their cars to be burned, windows to be smashed etc. So, frankly, Miller's mealy-mouthed apology - after voting along with City Council to commend the cops - isn't worth a tinker's damn.
But what's interesting is that it was clearly a response to some people at the Jane and Finch event having been arrested themselves and taking Miller to task. He - and the other weasly councillors with their comfy relationship to authoritarianism - need to be challenged at every step for failing to defend basic civil liberties and for their unquestioning support for martial law under the leadership of Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, who was caught lying more than once - about the police powers, about the weapons that they rounded up. This is disgraceful and they ought to face the anger of us, their constituents, for it.

[pics, video] July 10 Civil Liberties Protest

Unfortunately I had to leave because of childcare responsibilities and I didn't get a chance to participate in the march. As Judy Rebick says on the video I've attached, they planned to march to Queen & Spadina and take back that corner - made notorious by the police lockdown during the G20 protests, in which hundreds were forced to sit through a torrential downpour, including people who weren't even protesting. This is a good symbolic act.
By the time I left the demo, about 1:30, there were around 750-1000 people there and people were still coming in significant numbers from the subways at the south end of Queens Park. It wouldn't surprise me if the numbers hit about 1,500. That's less than the protest in the days following the G20 clampdown - particularly the very impressive Canada Day protest - but, hell, it's summertime and a weekend. But more important than the timing, I think, is the fact that there have now been several investigations launched into G20 security, the legal maneuverings of McGuinty, and the overall preparations and decision-making process of the Harper Tories - these are from the Toronto Police Services Board, the Ontario Ombudsman, and (likely) through the federal Committee on Security and Public Safety, respectively.
That sense of having forced the government at various levels to act may well have given a significant number of people a reason to stay at home, with a feeling that showing up was now less urgent. Notwithstanding this partial victory, it was important for people to come out today and keep the issue in the public eye. From Harper on down, the government and security apparatus has gotten a black eye in the last two weeks in a multi-pronged exposé including mobilizations, institutional opposition and the much-discussed social media of twitter, facebook and youtube. They have definitely scored an own goal here, turning what might have been a weekend of mobilizations - primarily the Saturday - after which everyone would have returned home, into a sustained level of anger and politicization.
This awakening, mobilization and victory could serve us well in the coming struggles. There is no doubt that a deeper and more vicious austerity awaits working people in Canada (and around the world) in the coming months. That was a key affirmation of the communique. What remains in doubt is the effectiveness of the response from our side. The last two weeks have increased the likelihood that there will be more sparks, more pools of resistance. And every act of resistance to austerity is a threat to them - thus the need for such a harsh crackdown. Lots of working people feel resentment that it is us who is having to shoulder the global crisis, which was caused by bankers playing a fancy game of Russian Roulette. A spark can turn that resentment into the confidence needed to fight. And fight we must. Or we'll be screwed.








Judy Rebick onstage



An excellent shot of my finger...and some Steelworkers and LGBT Pride flags



People still arriving

Judy Rebick introduces the rally

Toronto Council Bans Everyone Everywhere Who Has Ever Had An Independent Thought

Newsflash: failed-mayoral candidate Georgio Mammoliti and creepy-mayoral candidate Rob Ford took a break from swatting each other Three Stooges style to put forward a jointly sponsored motion to protect the citizens of Toronto from Free Thought.

"It is obvious that there are a lot of scumbags, probably unemployed bums and thrill-seekers, who are running around threatening our way of life with radical ideas," said Ford, while he plucked the wings off of pigeons to demonstrate his commitment to a clean city.

"AAaaaaaaaaah!," Georgio Mammoliti added. "Want make Toronto people think! Must be crushed."

The idea for the motion came to the two city councillors after reading a news story that revealed both Dustin Hoffman and Meg Ryan had backed out of attending an Israeli film festival after Israeli commandos were forced to kill several unarmed passengers on a Gaza aid flotilla in international waters. Israel was ruthlessly and unfairly singled out for responsibility in the deaths of the 9 Turkish nationals as though it were their fault.

"People die all the time," said an Israeli spokesperson. "Why are the media only talking about people we killed? Why is nobody talking about heart attacks and strokes? They kill a lot more people - almost all of them unarmed civilians."

The councillors agreed. "These people are scumbags," Ford noted. "AAaaaaah!" concurred Mammoliti.

While the soon-to-be-banned actors were the spur for the motion, it also includes mention of several other potential terrorists. 

Ireland recently expelled an Israeli diplomat after the alleged illegal use of forged Irish passports in the killing of a Hamas official in a Dubai hotel in January.

"Ireland is banned," said Ford. "All of 'em. Have you seen that country? It's filled with goddamn redheads. And you know what red is - it's the colour of communism. We're better off without 'em."

New Pentagon Supremo David Petraeus is also being proposed to be on the banned list for criticizing Israel. So too did vice-president Joe Biden who told Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that Israel's actions were costing America lives in the Middle East.

"What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace," he said.
British journalist Jonathan Freedland, who writes for the Guardian, is also on the list for penning an article that pointed out that Israel's friends increasingly also think that they are nutso, including several high profile people in the American foreign policy establishment like Anthony Cordesman - not to mention the relatively new Jewish organization J Street, which is critical of the crazier aspects of Israeli policy.
"These people are scumbags," Ford re-iterated. "Ban 'em. Ban 'em all."
"AAaaaaaah," Mammoliti reiterated.
According to the two councillors they have lined up what will likely be a unanimous vote. One "progressive" councillor who declined to be named told redbedhead that "we'd like to oppose this but we're afraid that we'll be banned too. Or worse, voters might notice we exist and you know what that means - people might have a reason to vote against us. Then what the hell would I do?"

[Video] G20 Cops Watched As Cars Burned

I know I know, city councillor knobs-in-chief Rob Ford and Georgio Mammoliti have already said it loud and clear: the police did a brilliant fucking job, risking life, limb, future progeny, not to mention golf balls that never materialized to defend our great city. There was not a moment of danger in which the cops didn't throw themselves into saving puppies, windows, old ladies and civil liberties. Any suggestion that the whole thing was a set-up to justify the clampdown that targeted everybody including puppies, old ladies and civil liberties is just despicable and ought to lead to a heavy beating and a night in police custody.

Or maybe that narrative is an undiluted crock of shit and the coppers were playing fast and loose with the law and their jobs in order to fulfill a larger political agenda. Check out the pan back and forth that happens at 2:10 on this video.

Star Calls For G20 Inquiry While City Council Congrats Cops

The call for an independent inquiry into the G20 debacle continues to gather momentum with the Toronto Star editorial board coming out today with a statement reiterating the call and stating that while the about-face by the Toronto Police Services Board is welcome it simply isn't enough.

"However, the proposed review of Toronto police actions is still insufficient in scope to get to the bottom of what happened in our city on the G20 weekend. The decision-makers included not just the Toronto police but also their counterparts from the OPP and RCMP and politicians in all three levels of government.
"Collectively, they turned our city into an armed camp with empty streets, secretly invoked special police powers, allowed a few hooligans to run amok burning police cruisers and smashing store windows, and then arrested and incarcerated more than a thousand people, the vast majority of them guilty of no crime. Businesses in the downtown area suffered a big drop in sales. Instead of showcasing the city, the event produced damaging images, broadcast around the world. What is needed is a full public inquiry, called by either the province or Ottawa."

The Federal NDP has also called for the Orwellian-sounding Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security to be convened to implement an immediate inquiry. As a result of the request the Committee must be convened within five days.

“The Conservatives spent close to a billion dollars on security but are refusing to be held publicly accountable for all that went wrong,” said [NDP Public Safety Critic Don] Davies. “They said the massive security force would prevent violence – it did not. They said that civil liberties would be protected – they were not.”

This is a welcome change from the sycophantic cop-worship by Toronto's city council, including the so-called left, who voted unanimously to commend the outstanding work by the cops. What a bunch of knobs - and not just ultra-right wingnut Rob Ford, who thought that the police were "too nice."

A Nematode

This is the same guy who got thrown out of a Leaf's game for picking a fight with another fan. He's lucky it wasn't during the G20 or the cops would have locked him up for 17 hours and strip-searched him. His other odious, bigoted and racist behaviour and utterances demonstrate that he is really too stupid to take seriously - if only he weren't a mayoral candidate. I tell you if that nematode is elected mayor I will strongly consider signing up to join the Black Bloc.

Mammoliti Loses His Shit
Ford's usual pro-cop drool-a-thon was only matched by the frothful meanderings of his arch-rival in stupidity and politics, Georgio Mammoliti, who had to be calmed down by the Council Speaker, Sandra Bussin. Mammoliti responded, Strangelove-like, by shouting at her "you should be on trial for your behaviour right now."

Why Is Christie Blatchford Such An Arsehole?

Police release new photo showing anarchist assault
It may seem like a facetious question but I really mean it sincerely. In many ways I'm actually inclined to like Christie Blatchford. She and her co-troll Rosie DiManno are a couple of tough women in a field still dominated by men. Hell, she covers crime, war and sports.

But she's just such a f***ing jerk. If I could find one article in which she didn't genuflect towards the cops, the Tories, the generals and sneer at youth, uppity immigrants (particularly Muslims), activists and anyone who might ask uncomfortable questions of their betters I would suspect that there was still an ounce of warm, beating flesh in the cold lump of coal that is her heart. But, given her breathless promo campaign on behalf of the Tories a couple of elections ago that was supposed to pass for journalism, I suspect that if she had any such flesh she cooked it up and fed it by hand to Mr. Harper on his battle bus when once they strayed too far from a Tim Horton's donut shop. She is a compromised and heartless sycophant to power, indeed.

Take her coverage of the hearings that began yesterday into the "G17" - the remaining 17 protesters being held by the cops in relation to rioting at the G20. She makes one good point - these trials shouldn't be held in secret and it is reflective of a more general problem in the Canadian court system. Then she spins this out as a "soft on crime" story in relation to these kids. Are the proceedings being hidden from view to protect the charged? I don't know but I doubt it somehow.

And since Christie, like a certain Martin Regg Cohn whom I wrote about yesterday, knows quite well what transpired over the past two weeks she is being more than a little coy when she whines about perceptions of the press.

It was the press, after all, who dutifully carried the farcical "weapons cache" that looked like the dressing room from the Medieval Times Dinner Theatre. It was so bloody obvious that these so-called weapons were pretty much anything that the police could dig up from the lockers in the basement of the police station - arrows fitted out with pool noodles? A chainsaw? Seriously? - and yet it was only when the guy who owned the scale mail armour and graphite swords came forward to inform the "scum of the press" that they were dumb as posts that they took any notice. So, perhaps Ms. Blatchford might like to note that the public does have reasonable grounds to suspect the abilities of the press if not their motives.

But besides this little oversight in her coverage, she is so busy sneering at these youth - whose strategy has been demonstrated to be an all-around bad idea (not least because they were so easily infiltrated by the cops - as all Black Blocs have been since at least as far back as Genoa in 2000) but whose hearts are probably in the right place. It was dumb to think that smashing windows would change the world or that the $1 billion police tab wouldn't be used in part to nail and vilify activists who thought so. However, a few broken Starbucks windows really aren't the story here.

Why doesn't Ms. Blatchford mention the extraordinary suspension of civil liberties - that turned out to be a hoax perpetrated on the city by the Chief of Police with the help of a little political sleight of hand on the part of Dalton McGuinty? She fulminates poetically on how the detainees have been treated wonderfully since being transfered to proper prison authorities - as though this is the same as the temporary detention facility. Yet makes no mention of numerous eyewitness accounts from people who haven't been charged (you know, the other 987 or so) who faced abuse physical, mental and legal.

She makes - as the headline of her article emphasizes - the race, class and dental care of the detainees as though this makes their political point invalid, the equivalent of "liar liar, pants on fire." And yet she doesn't note the policies of immiseration and austerity that were agreed at the Summit, which will ensure that people throughout the world will see their ability to feed, clothe and house themselves seriously diminished - including "middle class", white people here in North America.

No, she doesn't notice any of this because Christie Blatchford has used her talents and the fire in her belly not to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable", not even to question the more obvious elements of a police state strategy that unfolded in Toronto. She uses that energy to shore up her own position - with honest belief, no doubt - as a vicious terrier for whichever powers-that-be need her "assistance" at any given moment. In this case, she has played her part in occluding the issues at stake and contributed to a discourse that suggests protesters were frivolous and privileged punks - thus helping to also disappear the other 25,000 working people who roused themselves on a rainy summer weekend to send a message to Ms. Blatchford's masters that we shouldn't have to pay for an economic disaster that we didn't create.

G20 Cops Stole Amputee's Leg

Seriously? Are the cops run by a committee including the Marquis de Sade and Monty Python's Flying Circus? According to this story in Niagara-at-Large 57-year old John Pruyn had his artificial leg stolen from him and was badly beaten by riot cops who were protecting Torontonians from our civil rights. Read this disgusting account of what happened:

As Sarah began pleading with them to give her father a little time and space to get up because he is an amputee, they began kicking and hitting him. One of the police officers used his knee to press Pruyn’s head down so hard on the ground, said Pruyn in an interview this July 4 with Niagara At Large, that his head was still hurting a week later.
Accusing him of resisting arrest, they pulled his walking sticks away from him, tied his hands behind his back and ripped off his prosthetic leg. Then they told him to get up and hop, and when he said he couldn’t, they dragged him across the pavement, tearing skin off his elbows , with his hands still tied behind his back. His glasses were knocked off as they continued to accuse him of resisting arrest and of being a “spitter,” something he said he did not do. They took him to a warehouse and locked him in a steel-mesh cage where his nightmare continued for another 27 hours.
“John’s story is one of the most shocking of the whole (G20 summit) weekend,” said the Ontario New Democratic Party’s justice critic and Niagara area representative Peter Kormos, who has called for a public inquiry into the conduct of security forces during the summit. “He is not a young man and he is an amputee. …. John is not a troublemaker. He is a peacemaker and like most of the people who were arrested, he was never charged with anything , which raises questions about why they were arrested in the first place.”

How many more reasons do we need to get an independent public inquiry and Chief Bill Blair's head on a platter? Will cops and politicians only admit that something was seriously amiss in Toronto if it turns out that they beat the Dalai Lama and charged him with being a dangerous anarchist? Oh, but then we'd really just be aligning our policy with that of one of our biggest trading partners, G20 member, China. So it probably would make no difference.

Canada Day Protest For G20 Inquiry

It was an excellent turnout for a protest on Canada Day. I've never actually seen a Canada Day protest of any significance in all my 20 years of being an activist, so I rate this as being pretty significant. I'm still trying to figure out how to use all the new-fangled social media gadgetry so this is still pretty crude, I think. But here's a small taste from a demonstration that I guesstimate to be about 2,500 strong. It was very determined but also very disciplined and peaceful.

July 10 Day of Action for Civil Liberties

Hey there - this just dropped in my mailbox. This is an excellent follow-up to the brilliant demonstration that took place yesterday at Queen's Park and drew about 2,500 people - an impressive turnout for such short notice and on Canada Day. The anger was palpable, as well as the determination. The momentum that this is generating across the country could lead to a real crisis for the Tories - in the dog days of summer, no less - and win a tangible victory in the form of an inquiry and, less likely but still possible, the resignation of Toronto Police Chief, Bill Blair.

Pass the word along to everyone you know!

Facebook | July 10 Day of Action for Civil Liberties

During the G20 Summit in Toronto on June 26 and 27, more than $1.2 billion was spent on a reported 20,000 police and security officers, a 5 metre fence, and new weapons designed to stifle dissent and silence public opposition.
Despite threats of new crowd dispersal weapons and dubious claims that police were granted extraordinary powers of search and arrest, over 25,000 people peacefully marched to question the legitimacy of the G20 and call on Canada to take action on the economy, jobs, public services, global poverty, climate change, Indigenous rights, migrant and undocumented workers’ rights, women’s rights, human
rights, peace, inequality and social justice.
Under the pretext of stopping vandalism, the police descended upon peaceful protesters and confused passers-by with force that was disproportionate, arbitrary and excessive, and included raids, rubber bullets, tear gas and pre-emptive detentions. In total, more than 900 people were detained based on dubious charges, in the largest mass arrest in Canadian history.
Demonstrate your opposition to the excessive use of police force and the unprecedented curtailment of civil liberties. Demand an independent public inquiry. Join the Day of Action for Civil Liberties in towns and cities across Canada and Québec on July 10, 2010.

Queen’s Park, Toronto
Saturday, July 10 @ 1 p.m.
Mass demonstration & march

Community members and organisations in other regions are
encouraged to organise their own local events on the same day, to
pressure all levels of government to support civil liberties.
___________________________________________
For information or to endorse, email: CivilLibertiesNOW@gmail.com

Rally for a G20 Public Inquiry

Hey there - I got this through good, old Facebook, that great mobilizing tool. We need to keep up the pressure for an independent, public inquiry and, even better, the resignation of Police Chief Bill Blair - the lying dog.

***************
Join us in a peaceful protest on Canada Day.


Over the course of the the G20, police have ignored our civil liberties through illegal searches, detentions, and mass arrests -- with Chief of Police Bill Blair making up the law and misleading the public as he went along. Countless people have been profiled, harassed and many people have been beaten on the streets and in their homes, shot at with rubber bullets and gassed without provocation.


The Toronto 900 are the biggest mass arrest in Canadian history and have been denied basic legal rights of access to lawyers, phone calls, food/water, medications while being kept in cages. There are accounts of detainees being taunted, female prisoners strip-searched by male guards and threatened with sexual assault, a prisoner who is deaf denied an independent sign language interpreter, and specific targeting of Aboriginal, Francophone and Queer prisoners.


The political prisoners need to be released immediately. We need an independent inquiry over the criminalization of dissent. We need to take our city back.

Those of you not in Toronto: We will be having solidarity protests in various cities on the 17th. Please join this group and help organize and spread the word!

http://www.facebook.com/specialshi?v=wall&story_fbid=751379792437#!/event.php?eid=139227296091761

Not on facebook? Go to http://torontoparticipates.ca/ for details!

THIS IS IMPORTANT! GET THE WORD OUT! TELL YOUR FRIENDS! EVEN IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT YOURSELVES!

G20 Weaponsgate: A Page Out Of Israeli Propaganda Book

I must admit that I thought it a little funny that amongst the so-called weapons intended for use against the G20 that police bigwig Bill Blair put on display for the media were medieval siege fashion-wear. And with good reason. It turns out that it was all a crock of shit.
You see, the arrows that Blair claimed were going to be doused in gasoline and lit on fire a la Robin Hood and his Merry Men were actually confiscated from a guy who was on his way to a medieval role-playing society. They had nothing to do with the G20 - and Blair knew it. Same with the machetes and the chainsaw and the chainmail armour.
It's stunning to me that everything this guy has said has turned out to be an utter lie and yet nobody is asking for his head on a platter. Would any of the rest of us mere plebes be able to lie about several key things - including things that put others' lives in danger - and not get canned from our jobs? Apparently there is one rule for the people at the top and one for the rest of us.

But actually, it's more accurate to say that the other people at the top, who could have Blair turfed in a heartbeat, support this strategy. We know this because it's used over and over and over again to the usually gullible mugs who work for the media. It was done years ago in Miami as part of the ramp-up to justify attacking protesters against the FTAA.

And it was done recently to justify Israel's murderous assault on the humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza. After murdering 9 people, including several who received multiple gunshots to the head, mob execution style, the IDF proved that the passengers were dangerous by releasing photos of all the weapons that they were carrying. Clearly the IDF were only defending themselves - like the Toronto Police.
As the two photos here demonstrate, those devious Turks (Muslims, the lot of them) were up to no good and intending to take on the Israeli commandos with violent attacks using dvds (think Chinese throwing stars), kefiyehs (Palestinian national symbols are particularly dangerous to Israeli commandos - like garlic to vampires), some steak knives, and a wrench or two. But worst of all in the following picture - the ship had on board a power tool. Those murderous buggers were a bloodthirsty lot and clearly intended - as the photo demonstrates - to cut some Israeli handrails but bloody fast.

Conclusion: Cops and paramilitaries the world over are fucking obtuse. The only thing that makes their cravenly stupid attempts to justify various horrors possible are the even more stupid members of the media who swallow it like Jim Jones Kool-Aid. While I don't think that anyone should be subject to police batons, boots, tear gas or lockdowns, if it rattled a few brain cells into active life in the heads of a few journalists, it can't be such a bad thing that they got a taste of what is usually reserved for us rubes. Perhaps they've started to notice a not-so-subtle pattern emerging.

Iran slams Canada human rights abuse

Iran slams Canada human rights abuse: "'The use of various violent tools and ways to counter a peaceful rally is by no means justified. The move by the Canadian government is a blatant breach of basic rights of citizens to freedom of expression,' Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Tuesday."

It seems only fair that if the Canadian government can be hypocritical bastards towards Iran, that the Iranian government should return the favour. What's more disturbing is that neither Canada nor Iran have a sense of irony about it.

Newsflash: Cops Break Law To Stop Lawbreakers

When I read Toronto cop boss Bill Blair's media offensive to demonstrate that their dress rehearsal for a police state was necessary I felt angry. But, you know, this dude is so damn crazy that I can't decide if I'm scared or relieved that there is no sane plan behind all this suspension of civil liberties.
Now, it seems, the police lied about what our rights were during the G20 summit. Now, I'm no lawyer but I can't imagine that it isn't illegal to deliberately mislead the public about what are and are not the laws of the land. It seems pretty straightforward, I can't go into a theatre and yell fire and the chief of police can't arrest me for breaking laws that don't exist.

Admitting this seems like the act of a man who has seriously lost the plot. I think that there is a very sound basis to force this Machiavellian freak to resign.

G20 Golfball Terrorists Threaten Our Way Of Life

Weapons seized in G20 arrests put on display - The Globe and Mail: "The “weapons” included items not normally considered dangerous, including bike helmets, bandanas, golf balls, a baseball bat, bamboo poles, a drill and goggles."

Oh my God - apparently some people had golfballs and were going to hit a birdie at the G20. Good thing we spent $2 billion on this boondoggle. Why, if those cyclists with their helmets had headbutted the world leaders, who knows what would have happened. And that's why we had to suspend the civil liberties of everybody in the same time zone as the summit and raid the homes of veterinarians (after all, who knows the damage that a well-thrown cat could cause amongst the G20 pigeons!).

Seriously. Who the fuck are these people? Arrows with sacks that were going to be lit on fire? Really. I guess that these would-be Russell Crowes and Kevin Costners are unfamiliar with the basic laws of physics, thinking that they can fire a flaming sock on the end of an arrow. This is just a media offensive to justify an absolutely disgraceful attack on the rights of anybody with a functioning brain.

I had the misfortune of suffering from insomnia last night and happened upon an interview with Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair justifying the Sunday night attack on anybody who happened to be in the neighbourhood of Queen & Spadina - one of Toronto's busiest downtown corners.

"This was not a site where somebody casually walked up to catch a bus. It was clearly a large and dangerous demonstration."
Ah, so there's the rub. It was dangerous. And how do we know this? Well, the people did sit in the road and sing the national anthem before the cops charged them. And, as everyone knows, the national anthem is a pretty terrible song, musically speaking. And when sung by a large crowd that could only be construed as a premeditated assault.  But then, Blair's leap of logic to justify forcing people to sit in a torrential downpour, or face threats of gang rape, or be denied basic civil rights, including the right to go potty or not have your hands turn blue from zipcuffs, is acceptable because all right-thinking people support him. After all it is only "advocates for the anarchists [that] are offended. I can live with their offence."
This guy should be forced to resign and Mayor Miller, the "progressive" mayor, should be forced to apologize.