Dans Mémoire de fille, Annie Ernaux se remémore l'été de 1958. Elle avait alors 17 ou 18 ans et séjournait dans une colonie de vacances. Son récit tente d'éclaircir les émotions ressenties dans les années suivant les évènements de cet été-là, aussi confus et immatures puissent-ils sembler.
Revenue Options for Toronto (and other cities); Selling Toronto Hydro is a terrible idea; October 1 is a chance to capture hearts and minds; New immigrants good for schools; 30 years of the Handmaid's Tale; Indian high court enforces copyright exemption for education; Corbyn Dominates UK Labour Party Leadership Contest
The Toronto mayor and his ideological allies have been trying to turn people against public ownership of Toronto Hydro by pointing to specific outages and 'decaying' infrastructure. This is an act right out of the provincial Liberal's play book – pointing to the need for infrastructure investment has been the go-to response for the Wynne government while selling Hydro One.
Following the global economic crash of 2008, there has been a lot of discussion about the need for a re-think of mainstream economic thought. While this 'orthodox' economics held claim to the economic growth before 2008, it completely failed to predict the economic crash and seems unable to deal with the aftermath. Unfortunately, while the economy they supported collapsed, the theories that set the foundation for the economic crisis have not lost their dominance.
Where does economic critique come from?; The struggle continues for fair wages and workers' rights; Young workers, activism, and building a better world; Free trade is front and centre again; LEFT NOISE!
I often have the chance to speak to groups of young workers, most of the time Unifor members under 35, to do skill-building and engagement workshops. For those occasions, I have used different versions of this presentation, which I have adapted here in written form.
'The United States has a large military presence throughout the gulf, with training missions in Saudi Arabia and large bases in Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The United States also cooperates with Saudi Arabia in military operations in Yemen and elsewhere'
'We'll introduce legislation to ban companies taking on excessive debt to pay out dividends to shareholders. And we'll rewrite the Takeover Code to make sure every takeover proposal has a clear plan in place to pay workers and pensioners. … We'll reintroduce sectoral collective bargaining across the economy, ending the race to the bottom on wages. And let me give you this commitment: in the first hundred days of our Labour government, we'll repeal the Trade Union Act. … And we'll introduce a “Right to Own”, giving workers first refusal on a proposal for worker ownership when their company faces a change of ownership or closure. So the next Labour government will promote a renaissance in co-operative and worker ownership. The new regional development banks will be tasked with supplying the capital a new generation of business owners will need to succeed.'
In 1985, Canadian author Margaret Atwood published The Handmaid's Tale. The book would go on to win the Governor General's Award for English language fiction that same year and further establish her as a prominent writer. As a francophone reader, I am late in the game of reading Atwood's work, but this novel's 30th anniversary prompted me to add it to my summer reading list. As it turns out, The Handmaid's Tale is a timely, provocative read for initiated and first-time readers alike.
