Title search results
Showing 101 - 120 of 3307 items
Class Privilege: How Law Shelters Shareholders and Coddles Capitalism
By Harry Glasbeek. 2017
Capitalism’s agenda is the endless pursuit of private accumulation of socially produced wealth. In our system, the corporation—created by law—is…
meant to hide this agenda, to distract us so that flesh and blood capitalists can do what they like. But when the workings of the corporation are examined, they reveal a betrayal of the very values and norms that, for their legitimacy’s sake, capitalists in our parts of the world purport to share. Harry Glasbeek highlights one of capitalism’s weak spots–the perverting economic, political, and ethical roles played by the prime instrument of private wealth accumulation: the legal corporation. Once the corporate mask is ripped off, those who hide behind it become visible. Stripped of their protective garb, the capitalist class will be just as naked as the rest of us are when we face their corporations.No-Nonsense Guide to the United Nations (No-Nonsense Guides #24)
By Maggie Black. 2008
In the first book to distill the entire history of the United Nations into one accessible volume, Maggie Black explains…
how this complex organization works. In doing so, she explores its successes, failings, and limitations. This No-Nonsense Guide addresses the U.N.’s creation and early history, how it is structured, and whether it can effectively fulfill its mandate. The author considers possibilities for reform to make it more democratic and efficient.No-Nonsense Guide to Degrowth and Sustainability
By Wayne Ellwood. 2014
The world’s addiction to economic growth continues with barely any recognition that this is a problem. Indeed, in a Western…
world currently dominated by austerity measures and ducking in and out of recession, growth is seen even by progressives as the only possible solution for our economic and social woes. This No-Nonsense Guide looks deeper into the idea of economic growth–to trace its history and understand why it has become so unchallengeable and powerful. And then it goes beyond that to present the alternative–how we can kick our dirty habit, how degrowth can be turned into a positive and how we can arrive at a new levels of environmental sustainability without having to turn the clock back to the Dark Ages.Mediocracy: The Politics of the Extreme Centre
By Alain Deneault. 2018
There was no Reichstag fire. No storming of the Bastille. No mutiny on the Aurora. Instead, the mediocre have seized…
power without firing a single shot. They rose to power on the tide of an economy where workers produce assembly-line meals without knowing how to cook at home, give customers instructions over the phone that they themselves don’t understand, or sell books and newspapers that they never read. Canadian intellectual juggernaut Alain Deneault has taken on all kinds of evildoers: mining companies, tax-dodgers, and corporate criminals. Now he takes on the most menacing threat of all: the mediocre.Cyber-Proletariat: Global Labour in the Digital Vortex
By Nick Dyer-Witheford. 2015
The utopian promise of the internet, much talked about even a few years ago, has given way to brutal realities:…
coltan mines in the Congo, electronics factories in China, devastated neighborhoods in Detroit. Cyber-Proletariat shows us the dark-side of the information revolution through an unsparing analysis of class power and computerization. Dyer-Witheford investigates how technology facilitates growing polarization between wealthy elites and precarious workers. He reveals the class domination behind everything from expanding online surveillance to intensifying robotization. At the same time, he looks at possibilities for information technology within radical movements.Warrior Nation: Rebranding Canada in an Age of Anxiety
By Ian McKay, Jamie Swift. 2012
Once known for peacekeeping, Canada is becoming a militarized nation whose apostles—-the New Warriors-—are fighting to shift public opinion. New…
Warrior zealots seek to transform postwar Canada’s central myth-symbols. Peaceable kingdom. Just society. Multicultural tolerance. Reasoned public debate. Their replacements? A warrior nation. Authoritarian leadership. Permanent political polarization. The tales cast a vivid light on a story that is crucial to Canada’s future; yet they are also compelling history. Swashbuckling marauder William Stairs, the Royal Military College graduate who helped make the Congo safe for European pillage. Vimy Ridge veteran and Second World War general Tommy Burns, leader of the UN’s first big peacekeeping operation, a soldier who would come to call imperialism the monster of the age. Governor General John Buchan, a concentration camp developer and race theorist who is exalted in the Harper government’s new Citizenship Guide. And that uniquely Canadian paradox, Lester Pearson. Warrior Nation is an essential read for those concerned by the relentless effort to conscript Canadian history.Shift Change: Scenes from a Post-industrial Revolution
By Stephen Dale. 2021
Hamilton’s industrial age is over. In the steel capital of Canada, there are no more skies lit red by foundries…
at sunset, no more traffic jams at shift change. Instead, an urban renaissance is taking shape. But who wins and who loses in the city’s not-too-distant future? Is it possible to lift a downtrodden, post-industrial city out of poverty in a way that benefits people across the social spectrum, not just a wealthy elite? In Shift Change, author Stephen Dale sets up “the Hammer” as a battlefield, a laboratory, a chessboard. As investors cash in on a real estate gold rush and the all-too-familiar wheels of gentrification begin to turn, there’s still a rare opportunity for both old-guard and newcomer Hamiltonians to come together and write a different story—one in which Steeltown becomes an economically diverse and inclusive urban centre for all. What plays out in these pages and at this very moment is a real-time case study that will capture the attention and the imagination of anyone interested in equitable redevelopment, housing activism, and social justice in the North American city.A Beauty that Hurts: Life and Death in Guatemala
By W. George Lovell. 2019
When A Beauty That Hurts first appeared in 1995, Guatemala was one of the world’s most flagrant violators of human…
rights. An accord brokered by the United Nations brought a measure of peace after three decades of armed conflict, but the country’s troubles are far from over. George Lovell revisits Guatemala to grapple once again with the terror inflicted on its Maya peoples by a military-dominated state.Worth Fighting For: Canada’s Tradition of War Resistance from 1812 to the War on Terror
By Lara Campbell, Michael Dawson, and Catherine Gidney. 2015
Historians, veterans, museums, and public education campaigns have all documented and commemorated the experience of Canadians in times of war.…
But Canada also has a long, rich, and important historical tradition of resistance to both war and militarization. This collection brings together the work of sixteen scholars on the history of war resistance. Together they explore resistance to specific wars (including the South African War, the First and Second World Wars, and Vietnam), the ideology and nature of resistance (national, ethical, political, spiritual), and organized activism against militarization (such as cadet training, the Cold War, and nuclear arms). As the federal government continues to support the commemoration and celebration of Canada’s participation in past wars, this collection offers a timely response that explores the complexity of Canada’s position in times of war and the role of social movements in challenging the militarization of Canadian society.Le 6 février 1920, un petit groupe d’employés de la fonction publique se réunit pour la première fois afin de…
former une association professionnelle. Un siècle plus tard, l’Institut professionnel de la fonction publique du Canada (IPFPC) est un agent négociateur représentant près de 60 000 travailleurs du secteur public dont les efforts pour le bien collectif améliorent la vie de chaque Canadien. Publié à l’occasion du 100e anniversaire de fondation de l’IPFPC, À l’avant-garde du progrès dresse le portrait complet de son évolution, de 1920 à aujourd’hui, et lève le voile sur un pan souvent négligé de l’histoire syndicale nord-américaine. L’auteur, Jason Russell, s’appuie sur une abondante collection de sources, dont des documents d’archives et des témoignages de dizaines de membres actuels et passés de l’IPFPC. Marquée par des réussites et semée d’embûches, l’histoire est complexe et racontée avec clarté et modération. Après des décennies de changements démographiques et générationnels, de booms et de crises économiques et de bouleversements politiques, les membres de l’IPFPC entament les cent prochaines années guidés par la même mission importante que celle qui les a inspirés jusqu’à présent : militer pour une justice sociale et économique pour le bien de tous les Canadiens et Canadiennes.Unearthing Justice: How to Protect Your Community from the Mining Industry
By Joan Kuyek. 2019
The mining industry continues to be at the forefront of colonial dispossession around the world. It controls information about its…
intrinsic costs and benefits, propagates myths about its contribution to the economy, shapes government policy and regulation, and deals ruthlessly with its opponents. Brimming with case studies, anecdotes, resources, and illustrations, Unearthing Justice exposes the mining process and its externalized impacts on the environment, Indigenous Peoples, communities, workers, and governments. But, most importantly, the book shows how people are fighting back. Whether it is to stop a mine before it starts, to get an abandoned mine cleaned up, to change laws and policy, or to mount a campaign to influence investors, Unearthing Justice is an essential handbook for anyone trying to protect the places and people they love.Radical Transformation: Oligarchy, Collapse, and the Crisis of Civilization
By Kevin MacKay. 2017
Radical Transformation is a story about industrial civilization’s impending collapse, and about the possibilities of averting this fate. Human communities…
first emerged as egalitarian, democratic groups that existed in symbiotic relationship with their environments. Increasing complexity led to the emergence of oligarchy, in which societies became captive to the logic of domination, exploitation, and ecological destruction. The challenge facing us today is to build a movement that will radically transform civilization and once more align our evolutionary trajectory in the direction of democracy, equality, and ecological sustainability.Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-up Call
By Arthur Manuel, Grand Chief Ronald M. Derrickson. 2021
A Canadian bestseller and winner of the 2016 Canadian Historical Association Aboriginal History Book Prize, Unsettling Canada is a landmark…
text built on a unique collaboration between two First Nations leaders. Arthur Manuel (1951–2017) was one of the most forceful advocates for Indigenous title and rights in Canada; Grand Chief Ron Derrickson, one of the most successful Indigenous businessmen in the country. Together, they bring a fresh perspective and bold new ideas to Canada’s most glaring piece of unfinished business: the place of Indigenous peoples within the country’s political and economic space. This vital second edition features a foreword by award-winning activist Naomi Klein and an all-new chapter co-authored by law professor Nicole Schabus and Manuel’s daughter, Kanahus, honouring the multi-generational legacy of the Manuel family’s work.Curing Affluenza: How to Buy Less Stuff and Save the World
By Richard Denniss. 2018
Affluenza has not just changed the world, it has also changed the way we see the world. Short of money?…
Borrow some. Caught in the rain? Buy an umbrella. Thirsty? Buy a bottle of water and throw the bottle away. Our embrace of “convenience” and our acceptance of our inability to plan ahead is an entirely new way of thinking, and over the past seventy years we have built a new and different economic system to accommodate it. There is nothing inevitable about this current way of thinking, consuming, and producing. On the contrary, the vast majority of humans who have ever lived would find the idea of using our scarce resources to produce things that are designed to be thrown away absolutely senseless. The fact that our consumer culture is a recent innovation does not mean it will be easy to change. Indeed, the last few decades have shown how contagious affluenza can be. But we have not always lived this way, which proves that we don’t have to persist with it. We can change—if we want to.Women Winning Office: An Activist’s Guide to Getting Elected
By Peggy Nash. 2022
When Peggy Nash first decided to run for elected office, she had no idea where to start, who to contact,…
or what the rules were. For those who are underrepresented in political life, politics can seem like a secret society designed to shut them out. Women Winning Office is a practical handbook for activist women on how to open doors and take their place in the political process. Find out how to build a team, get nominated, inspire volunteers, and canvass voters. Nash draws on her experience in five federal campaigns, as well as the stories of many inspiring Canadian women who have run for office at all levels of government. Some succeeded; some did not. Some faced difficult and painful experiences. Every one of them would do it again. To make real progressive change, we need to change not only who gets elected in Canada, but how our democracy functions. If you want to find out how to take your desire for a better world into elected office, this book is for you.On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare
By Noam Chomsky, Andre Vltchek. 2013
In On Western Terrorism Noam Chomsky, world-renowned dissident intellectual, discusses Western power and propaganda with filmmaker and investigative journalist Andre…
Vltchek. The discussion weaves historical narrative with the two men’s personal experiences, which have led them to a life of activism. Beginning with the New York newsstand where Chomsky first began his political education as a teenager, the discussion broadens out to the shifting forms of imperial control and the Western propaganda apparatus. Along the way Chomsky and Vltchek touch upon many countries of which they have personal experience, including Nicaragua, Cuba, China, Chile, and Turkey. A blast of fresh air which blows away the cobwebs of propaganda and deception, On Western Terrorism is a powerful critique of the West’s role in the world and a testament to two lives dedicated to humanism, activism, and the search for knowledge.The Mantle of Struggle: A Biography of Black Revolutionary Rosie Douglas
By Irving Andre. 2023
Rosie Douglas, former prime minister of Dominica, had a life unlike any other modern politician. After leaving home to study…
agriculture in Canada, he became a member of the young Conservatives, under the Canadian prime minister’s guidance. However, after he moved to Montreal to study political science his politics started to shift. By the late sixties he was an active civil rights supporter and when Black students in Montreal began to protest racism in 1969, he helped lead the sit-in. He was identified as a protest ringleader after the peaceful protest turned into a police riot, and served 18 months in prison. After his deportation from Canada in 1976, having been named a danger to national security, Douglas participated in political movements around the world building global solidarity. He became a leader of the Libyan-based revolutionary group World Mathaba and supported Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress. Once back home in Dominica, he led the movement for Dominica’s full political independence from Great Britain, then served as a senator in the post-independence government, an MP, party leader, and finally prime minister. Relying on family sources, interviews, newspaper articles, government documents, and Douglas’ own articles, letters, and speeches, Irving Andre has drawn a rich and riveting record of this important Black revolutionary.Just as the need for action on climate change becomes more urgent and overwhelming, the campaign to deny that humans…
are causing it has gained more traction. This completely new book meets the skeptics head on, offering a guide to the science, an insight into the politics of climate justice and a clear sense of the way forward. This is an ideal offering for students, academics and anyone interested in the growing issue of society’s impact on climate change and how to make climate justice a reality.Cleaning Up: Portuguese Women’s Fight for Labour Rights in Toronto
By Susana P. Miranda. 2023
This fascinating book uncovers the little-known, surprisingly radical history of the Portuguese immigrant women who worked as night-time office cleaners…
and daytime “cleaning ladies” in postwar Toronto. Drawing on union records, newspapers, and interviews, feminist labour historians Susana P. Miranda and Franca Iacovetta piece together the lives of immigrant women who bucked convention by reshaping domestic labour and by leading union drives, striking for workers’ rights, and taking on corporate capital in the heart of Toronto’s financial district. Despite being sidelined within the labour movement and subjected to harsh working conditions in the commercial cleaning industry, the women forged critical alliances with local activists to shape picket-line culture and make an indelible mark on their communities. Richly detailed and engagingly written, Cleaning Up is an archival treasure about an undersung piece of working-class history in urban North America.Captive Audience: How Corporations Invaded Our Schools
By Catherine Gidney. 2019
White Spot, a popular BC restaurant chain, solicits hamburger concepts from third and fourth grade students and one of the…
student’s ideas becomes a feature on the kids’ menu. Home Depot donates playground equipment to an elementary school, and the ribbon-cutting ceremony culminates in a community swathed in corporate swag, temporary tattoos, and a new “Home Depot song” written by a teacher and sung by the children. Kindergarten students return home with a school district-prescribed dental hygiene flyer featuring a maze leading to a tube of Crest toothpaste. Schools receive five cents for each flyer handed to a student. While commercialism has existed in our schools for over a century, the corporate invasion of our schools reached unprecedented heights in the 1990s and 2000s after two decades of federal funding cuts and an increasing tendency to apply business models to the education system. Constant cutbacks have left school trustees, administrators, teachers, and parents with difficult decisions about how to finance programs and support students. Meanwhile, studies on the impact of advertising and consumer culture on children make clear that the effects are harmful both to the individual child and the broader culture. Captive Audience explores this compelling history of branding the classroom in Canada.