This week's list of articles, news items and opinion pieces that I see as must reads if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.
This list covers the week of January 21-28. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.
This installment has three entries from before the period. They have been integrated into the post.
1) Let's call the pro-lifers what they are: pro-death
Barbara Ehrenreich and Alissa Quart
On the 45th anniversary of Roe v Wade, it’s time to highlight a hidden truth: restricting abortion means more maternal deaths.
Read the full article.
2) The Fake Feminism Of The #MeToo Backlash
Claire Fallon, Huffington Post
The #MeToo backlash ― much predicted, fitfully rehearsed ― arrived in earnest this week, disguised as feminism. The pretext: a messily written story published on Saturday on Babe.net, about a woman’s coercive sexual encounter with comedian Aziz Ansari.
Read the full article.
3) Naomi Parker Fraley, the Real Rosie the Riveter, Dies at 96
Margalit Fox, The New York Times
Unsung for seven decades, the real Rosie the Riveter was a California waitress named Naomi Parker Fraley.
Read the full article.
4) Ursula K. Le Guin, Acclaimed for Her Fantasy Fiction, Is Dead at 88
Gerald Jonas, The New York Times
Ursula K. Le Guin, the immensely popular author who brought literary depth and a tough-minded feminist sensibility to science fiction and fantasy with books like “The Left Hand of Darkness” and the Earthsea series, died on Monday at her home in Portland, Ore. She was 88.
Read the full article.
5) Kid Rock’s NHL All-Star Game show undercuts hockey’s message of inclusiveness
Satchel Price, SB Nation
For a lot of hockey fans, that’s a slap in the face. It’s another sign that all these initiatives and fancy nights where players use rainbow sticks during warmups mean little until the rest of the league’s actions back up its words. The idea of celebrating Hockey Is For Everyone month days after having a Michigan native who loves the Confederate flag play your marquee event is dumbfounding.
Read the full article.
6) I Refused to Believe Tel Aviv Has Segregated Preschools – Until I Visited One
Orly Vilnai, Haaretz
We didn’t want to believe the woman from north Tel Aviv who told us about the segregation. We thought she was imagining things when she said there are separate preschools for black and white children in the Tel Aviv neighborhood of Tzahala. But she was insistent. So we went to the Tzahala preschool compound and kept going back and forth between the classrooms as the unbelievable sights gradually sank in: One preschool was filled with white children; the other with black children. In Israel, 2018.
Read the full article.
7) The 1960s backlash over the minimum wage
Jamie Bradburn, TVO
When the provincial government introduced hourly minimum-wage legislation in 1963, opponents of the move predicted doomsday scenarios. Diners going under. Staffing reductions. Costs passed on to consumers. Implementation of minimum tabs. And, worst of all, the demise of the 10-cent cup of coffee, a staple since the Second World War. “After all,” Dalton Waller, president of the Canadian Restaurant Association, observed in an interview with the Toronto Daily Star, “this is an industry that takes in many unskilled people, folks who don’t speak the Queen’s English or any English.” Waller also warned: “You start paying it to the fellow who does menial tasks and pretty soon everyone above him feels they ought to get more too.”
Read the full article.
8) If Denmark has no minimum wage laws, should Canada follow suit?
Tom Parkin, The Toronto Sun
It’s true the Nordic social democracies do spectacularly well without a minimum wage law. And if Canada was a social democracy, abolishing minimum wage laws would be brilliant. Until then, using laws to promote shared prosperity is the smartest tool we’ve got.
Read the full article.
9) Communist Party demands anti-austerity budget for Ontario
Communist Party of Ontario
The Communist Party of Canada (Ontario) has produced a comprehensive submission to Ontario’s 2018 Pre-Budget Consultations, calling explicitly for an end to austerity and privatization, and demanding a budget for full employment, expanded public services, equality, and progressive tax reform. The CPC(O) notes the devastating impact austerity policies have had on the working class – rapid and widespread growth of precarious employment, plant closures resulting in over 8000 jobs lost, lost wages and benefits, deep cuts to programs, and soaring costs for services including child care and tuition. At the same time, corporate profits have spiked, rising from $156 billion in 2008 to a projected $306 billion for 2017. Profits The Royal Bank of Canada alone announced a profit of $11.5 billion for the third quarter of 2017.
Read the full statement.
10) ROBERT DE NIRO ACCUSED OF EXPLOITING HURRICANE IRMA TO BUILD RESORT IN BARBUDA
Naomi Klein & Alleen Brown, The Intercept
A CHORUS OF VOICES from the Caribbean island of Barbuda is accusing Robert De Niro of being part of a backroom effort to exploit a devastating hurricane to fundamentally change the island’s communal land ownership law in the interest of developers — changes opposed by many Barbudans, but which could aid the actor’s controversial plans to build a large luxury resort called Paradise Found Nobu.
Read the full article.
11) Men Only: Inside the charity fundraiser where hostesses are put on show
Madison Marriage, Financial Times
A furore has erupted over a men-only fundraising dinner in London for the Presidents Club charity after an FT investigation revealed hostesses at the event were groped, sexually harassed and propositioned. Here is the FT coverage of the event and its aftermath.
Read the full article.
12) Most wealth gained last year went to richest 1%, Oxfam says
The Associated Press
A CEO from one of the world's top five global fashion brands has to work for just four days to earn what a garment worker in Bangladesh will earn in an entire lifetime, campaigning group Oxfam International said Monday.
Read the full article.
13) Is There A Ticking Time Bomb Under The Arctic?
Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR
A short drive north of Fairbanks, Alaska, there's a red shed stuck right up against a hillside. The shed looks unremarkable, except for the door. It looks like a door to a walk-in freezer, with thick insulation and a heavy latch. Whatever is behind that door needs to stay very cold.
Read the full article.
14) If you're going to blame a cyberattack on North Korea, you better show your work
Matthew Braga, CBC News
Figuring out who's behind a cyberattack is hard — something that cybersecurity experts will tell you time and time again.
Read the full article.
15) In 2018 Porn Is An Industry: And It’s Not Sex That’s Being Sold, It’s Abuse
Tom Farr, Medium
As per the trend so far, it will become increasingly abusive and violent in order to remain relevant and profitable, and what for? We don’t need pornography, and nor should we want it. Sexual exploration can happen between two adults without the prior need for a video of a poorly paid (increasingly young) woman suffering physical and verbal abuse to “inspire” us. If third-wave, liberal leftist men truly believe in equality, then it’s high time they start rejecting the things that only reinforce inequality. It’s time we start expecting more for ourselves, and better of ourselves.
Read the full article.
16) Female OPP employees say they’re being paid far less than uniformed police doing the same work
Wendy Gillis, The Toronto Star
Dozens of female Ontario Provincial Police civilian employees are alleging systemic, gender-based discrimination by the province’s largest police service, claiming they have for years been paid salaries far lower than their predominantly male, uniformed police colleagues performing the same or comparable work.
Read the full article.
17) Kap Snubbed by NFL Campaign, Named Finalist For Players Award
Telesur
The ex-quarterback and four other players are finalists for the NFL Players Association’s (NFLPA) Byron “Whizzer” White Community MVP award, according to NBC Sports. Surprisingly, Kaepernick was named a nominee after spending the entire season as a free agent. Contrastingly, the NFL announced, on Tuesday, its “Let’s Listen Together” campaign – which was launched to highlight a commitment to social justice and equality, but without a single reference to Kaepernick.
Read the full article.
18) White Evangelicals, This is Why People Are Through With You
John Pavlovitz
I know it’s likely you’ll dismiss these words. The fact that you’ve even made your bed with such malevolence, shows how far gone you are and how insulated you are from the reality in front of you.
Read the full article.
19) Give The Finger Back To Anti-Transit King Street Business Owners
Davide Mastracci, The Huffington Post
King Street is open, but the time where business owners could bully the city is hopefully coming to a close. If these businesses can't keep up with the changing city, so be it. They shouldn't be allowed to drag commuters down with them.
Read the full article.
20) The Rise of a New Left in Chile?
Manuel Larrabure and Fernando Leiva, NACLA
Building on the student-led mass protests of 2006 and 2011, a newly forming leftist coalition in Chile is well-positioned to challenge Sebastián Piñera’s incoming right-wing administration.
Read the full article.
21) US Embassy Shuttered as Thousands in Haiti Protest Trump's "Shithole" Remarks
Jon Queally, Common Dreams
"We are here today to let President Donald Trump know that we declare him persona non grata in Haiti," declared protest leader and human rights attorney Mario Joseph.
Read the full article.
22) Companies which don't recognise unions could be stripped of government contracts under Labour
Kevin Schofield, Politics Home
Companies which do not recognise trade unions are among those which could be stripped of public sector contracts under a Labour government.
Read the full article.
23) Nova Scotia PC Leader Jamie Baillie forced out over allegations of 'inappropriate behaviour'
CBC News
Jamie Baillie has been forced out as leader of Nova Scotia's Progressive Conservative Party following an investigation into "allegations of inappropriate behaviour."
Read the full article.
24) Sexual advances by Patrick Brown left woman feeling 'anxious,' she tells CBC News
Mike Crawley & Amara McLaughlin, CBC News
Patrick Brown allegedly made sexual advances toward a teenage staffer who was drunk and nearly half his age during his time as a federal MP, according to one of two women whose accusations of sexual misconduct led to his resignation as leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party early Thursday.
Read the full article.
25) Why did Patrick Brown evoke his sisters in his defence?
Shree Paradkar, The Toronto Star
Why do men need their daughters and sisters and wives to serve as moral compasses? Why do they view women as relationally earning the right to protection? Shree Paradkar writes.
Read the full article.
26) Powerful men laid low by the hour: #MeToo remaking society literally overnight
John Ibbitson, The Globe and Mail
But the public square is not a court. And everyone of good will stands today with those who say: Enough. No more. No more fine words and fancy declarations that protected no one. No more lip service to equality, even as the man presses himself against the girl or boy – frozen, terrified, not knowing what to do.
Read the full article.
27) How Patrick Brown went so quickly from Ontario PC Leader to yesterday’s man
Adam Radwanski, The Globe and Mail
Politics is not a court of law. People who seek jobs at the highest level of public life do so knowing they will be held to a higher standard. Mr. Brown's implicit promise to his party, when he sought its leadership, was that he could meet that standard. They now have specific evidence he could not.
Read the full article.
28) Vic Fedeli interim leader for Ontario PCs
The Canadian Press
Fedeli, 61, was selected by the PC caucus during a morning meeting and it’s not immediately clear if he will stay on to fight the spring election at the head of the party.
Read the full article.
29) Sport Minister Kent Hehr resigns from Trudeau cabinet amid sexual harassment allegations
Kathleen Harris, CBC News
Federal Sport and Disabilities Minister Kent Hehr has resigned from cabinet pending an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment.
Read the full article.
30) Woman faces death threats after alleging sexual harassment by Kent Hehr
Emma Graney, The Calgary Herald
“I can’t go home tonight, because I’m worried about what will happen to me,” Raworth said Saturday.
Read the full article.
31) Democrats Paid a Huge Price for Letting Unions Die
Eric Levitz, New York Magazine
The GOP understands how important labor unions are to the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party, historically, has not. If you want a two-sentence explanation for why the Midwest is turning red (and thus, why Donald Trump is president), you could do worse than that.
Read the full article.
32) Trudeau Suggests E.I. For Sears Workers Who Risk Losing Pensions
Daniel Tencer, Huffington Post
Gee, thanks.
Read the full article.
33) Senior UN figures under investigation over alleged sexual harassment
Rebecca Ratcliffe, The Guardian
World Food Programme official suspended pending inquiry as UNAids declines to comment on scrutiny of deputy director.
Read the full article.
34) Czech Republic re-elects far-right president Miloš Zeman
Robert Tait, The Guardian
Anti-immigrant and pro-Putin leader takes decisive victory over liberal opponent Jiří Drahoš.
Read the full article.
35) Hungary Jews angered by rightwing memorial on Holocaust day
AFP
Hungary’s main Jewish organization lashed out Wednesday against a senior member of the ruling Fidesz party for participating in a memorial for a Nazi-allied wartime leader to be held on a Holocaust remembrance day.
Read the full article.
36) Polish Parliament's Lower House Votes to Criminalize Mention of Polish Crimes in the Holocaust
Ofer Aderet and Noa Landau, Haaretz
The lower house of the Polish parliament has approved a controversial bill that would forbid any mention of participation of the "Polish nation" in crimes committed during the Holocaust. The bill would also bar use of the term "Polish death camp" to describe the death camps where Jews and others were murdered in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War.
Read the full article.
37) Jeremy Corbyn announces Labour will buy every homeless person in the country a house
Kate McCann, The Telegraph
Labour will buy every homeless person in the UK a house if the party is elected, Jeremy Corbyn has announced.
Read the full article.
See also: Martin Luther King Jr., Unifor, #MeToo and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List January 14-21
See also: Tim Hortons, BDS and Israel, Donald Trump and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List January 7 - 14
