Dangerous Ideas Festival

07/26/2024

Our schools need to be

07/02/2024

So my university served this bu****it to students standing up for divestment from an active genocide:

https://uwaterloo.ca/freedom-of-expression/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/statement-of-claim-university-of-waterloo-24-jun-202479.pdf

If it were 1987, they'd be expelling and charging students for standing up against S African Apartheid.

If it were 1968 they'd be cheering MLK's assassination.

This is the neoliberal university.

06/11/2024

Lawyer Steven Donziger writes:

"BREAKING: In a landmark victory for human rights, a US jury just found ⁦

⁩ guilty of funding death squads in Colombia that were killing people near the company's banana farms.

First time US courts hold major corporation accountable for human rts abuses abroad"

06/08/2024

Cumulative impacts of legislation on Anishnaabe food ways

ABSTRACT
Nation-to-nation cooperation is a central premise of treaty-making for Indigenous treaty rights holders. The 1850 Robinson Huron Treaty is a nation-to-nation land sharing agreement between the Anishinaabek Nation and the Crown. Crown institutions disregard Anishinaabe socio-political institutions and worldviews, undermining nation-to-nation cooperation at the centre of this Treaty. This disregard is clear in Ontario’s approach to forestry. Anishinaabek recognize cultural, social, and spiritual relationships and obligations with all beings whom collectively make “forests”. Crown institutions view forests primarily as sites of timber extraction, missing the forest for the trees. Since 2008, Traditional Ecological Knowledge Elders along Lake Huron’s north shore have organized to protect Anishinaabek forests from arial herbicide used to convert forests to plantations. Our study centres Anishinaabek Elders’ perspectives on the cumulative impacts of Crown forestry policies and practices on Anishinaabek food ways. Through a case study, we review changes in 2020 to Ontario’s forestry legislation. We ask how these changes impact Anishinaabek food ways and, by extension, Ontario’s obligations to protect Anishinaabek food ways under the Robinson Huron Treaty (1850). Applying Anishinaabe research methods, we reflect on limitations of colonial knowledge systems and incommensurability of contemporary settler “management” systems with the practice Anishinaabek food ways. Ontario’s abandonment of environmental assessment processes within forest management eliminates what few mechanisms were in place to bring “Native forest values” into management decisions along with “Timber values”, leaving current Ontario practice in contravention of Treaty obligations. The study concludes with a challenge for settler scholars to rethink settler colonial narratives.

05/28/2024

FINAL EDIT:

Imagining Food Futures: Limits of Settler Colonial Knowledge Systems

ABSTRACT
Imagining food futures is a daunting task in a rapidly warming world that is 70 - 80% less biodiverse than when I was born. Climate breakdown and biodiversity loss are converging crises which scholars tie directly to settler colonial ‘resource management’ regimes. While calls are increasingly made to ‘include’ indigenous knowledge in Canada’s efforts to contend with climate breakdown and biodiversity loss, Indigenous peoples are alarmed by Canadian policies that directly accelerate biodiversity loss in indigenous territories. Traditional Ecological Knowledge Elders from Anishinaabek communities along the north shore of the Great Lakes joined with Chiefs of Ontario (COO) issuing a 2008 call for a moratorium on glyphosate use. Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum agricultural herbicide used in forestry to ‘manage’ regrowth following clearcuts. In 2001, Quebec banned glyphosate use in forestry, yet Ontario continues to increase use. Proponents claim herbicide improves stand regeneration. Use of glyphosate-based herbicides speeds conversion of mixed forests into pine plantations. Ontario policymakers are not seeing the forest for the trees. Regenerated plantations lack the biodiversity at the heart of Anishinaabek food ways. Food ways include various cultural, economic, material, linguistic, spiritual, intergenerational, intellectual, ceremonial, and social dimensions of food governance. This study contributes to radical food geographies scholarship by characterizing cumulative impacts of forestry policies on indigenous food ways. This dissertation consists of three manuscripts in which i apply case studies and participatory action research methods to analyze limitations of settler colonial frameworks for imagining shared food futures in which treaty obligations are upheld. In the first manuscript publish in CAFS (2022), I adapt Vivero Pol’s multi-governance framework to Canada’s settler colonial context. Analysing customary and contemporary indigenous food initiatives through a food commons lens reveals limitations of applying ready-made settler colonial frameworks for imagining shared food futures. The second manuscript seeks to overcome these limitations by centering an Anishinaabek research paradigm in collaboration with TEK Elders. We analyse the impacts changes to forestry legislation in 2020 have on Anishinaabek food ways. We ask what this study reveals about limitations of settler colonial knowledge systems for understanding the impacts of forest ‘management’ decisions on Anishinaabek governance and law. To better understand these limitations I turn to indigenous scholars. Applying participatory action research methods, I analyse transcripts from ecological economics events I co-organized and attended between 2019 and 2023, where indigenous scholars expressed frustration with colonial cooptation of indigenous concepts, resulting in depoliticization of indigenous resurgence. I ask what Indigenous Knowledge keepers and language speakers have to say about sustainabilty researchers within colonial knowledge systems repackaging Indigenous concepts. Despite gestures towards ‘weaving’, ‘two-eyed seeing’, and co-management frameworks, settler colonial frameworks uphold depoliticization of indigenous resistance and resurgence, often reinforcing colonial narratives of land cessation and dispossession. Without addressing the underlying settler colonial assumptions and structures, sustainability scholars and the policy makers relying on their research risk replicating the violence inherent in food policy frameworks built on settler supremacy. Collectively, these manuscripts identify actions settler colonial scholars may consider to begin to transform settler colonial narratives.

05/01/2024

more bird flu news ...

Giant poultry companies say outbreaks are out of their control. But their very practices are largely to blame. Their solution? Kill infected animals by the millions w/taxpayers footing

https://farmaction.us/2024/04/18/avian-flu-big-chicken-is-bringing-us-big-problems/

"They’re at it again: The largest food companies and their unchecked corporate practices have created a problem, and now they are putting you on the hook to pay for it through taxpayer bailouts and grocery price gouging.

As the highly pathogenic avian influenza rips across the country, the dominant food corporations want you to believe this outbreak is out of their control — but their industrialized practices are largely to blame for today’s cyclical outbreaks of this influenza.

Make no mistake, this system is working just as corporations intended. Today’s industrial model of food production, supported by our government, has minimal risks for the corporations perpetrating these practices because they can simply push their costs off on the rest of us.

Lay of the Land: Avian Flu
To be clear, the avian flu wasn’t created by industrial agriculture — it has been documented since 1878. But this disease has become more frequent and deadly as our food system has consolidated in recent decades.

Just how deadly are we talking? When the U.S. experienced a major outbreak of the avian flu between 2014-2015, there were more than 200 detections on commercial operations and just over 20 detections on backyard flocks. More than 50 million egg-laying hens and turkeys were culled or died from the disease during this outbreak. This was the largest avian flu outbreak ever recorded in the country — the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) called the outbreak “arguably the most significant animal health event in U.S. history.” Response and further preparedness activities to address the outbreak totaled $950 million, also making it the most expensive animal health incident recorded in the country.

Less than a decade later, it happened again: Avian influenza was confirmed in a U.S. commercial flock in February 2022. Since that outbreak, 82 million birds — mostly egg-laying hens — have been culled. To put this into context, that’s more than 22% of the entire U.S. poultry flock.

And just this month, Cal-Maine Foods — the largest egg producer in the country — is reporting yet another news-worthy outbreak in its facilities. The disease even transferred species in March 2024, jumping to dairy cattle and then from a cow to a human...."

Dominant food corporations tell us cyclical avian flu outbreaks are out of their control. But their industrialized practices are largely to blame, and taxpayers are footing the bill for their problem.

04/13/2024

Canadian University students renaming buildings on Campuses after Universities destroyed by our "ally" Israel with Canadian armaments and using Canadian intelligence:

McGill University students in Montreal, Canada, have renamed over 30 campus buildings after Palestinian cities by affixing stickers with Palestinian city nam...

04/11/2024

The Dean of Berkeley Law, Erwin Chemerinsky, a staunch supporter of the “Israeli state,” hosted a dinner for all graduating law students on the last day of Ramadan. Head of Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine, Malak Afaneh, got up to draw attention to the law school’s investment in the genocide of Palestinians and their $2 million investment in weapons manufacturers, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, BlackRock, and more.

On the last day of Ramadan, UC Berkeley Law Professor Catherine Fisk, and Dean Chemerinsky’s wife, assaulted a Palestinian Muslim hijabi law student that was exercising her First Amendment rights to draw attention to UC complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people. Fisk and Chemerinsky would rather resort to violently assaulting one of their students than face the truth of their support for genocide.

Upon saying “Assalamulaikum,” “peace and blessings to you all in Arabic,” and talking about the importance of Ramadan for both Palestinians and Muslims, UC Berkeley Law professor Catherine Fisk assaulted the law student.

The admin at UC Berkeley Law have a history of calling for the sanctioning of students that express concern over Palestine.

Many have said that Dean Chemerinsky is in the running to be the next chancellor of UC Berkeley. UC Berkeley, is this who’d you like to be the next chancellor?

04/11/2024

Stop funding fossil fuels, protesters tell RBC at Montreal rally
Bank needs to 'stop talking and start acting,’ says Greenpeace

Joe Bongiorno, Kwabena Oduro · CBC News · Posted: Apr 06, 2024 6:17 PM EDT | Last Updated: April 6

RIGHT NOW IN ETOBICOKE: F-- YOU RBC!

Montreal Raging Grannies getting up in RBC's grill:

04/11/2024

Affirm Indigenous Sovereignty and Defend Mother Earth

Stand with Land Defenders at Annual General Meeting of RBC

A protest is being held at the Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) annual general meeting in Etobicoke in the west end of Toronto on April 11. RBC and other banks are heavily involved in projects like the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline, built on unceded land of the Wet’suwet’en without their consent, and imposed through state violence by the RCMP. Legal cases facing several land defenders remain before the courts.

Organizers state: “Indigenous people, impacted community members and youth are coming to Etobicoke to speak truth to power. Join us at 644 Dixon Road on April 11 at 10am to stand in solidarity with the frontlines!”

The website Fossil Free RBC explains RBC’s involvement in the CGL pipeline:

“Built by TC Energy, the 670-km Coastal GasLink pipeline is intended to carry fracked gas from Dawson Creek to Kitimat, BC, where it will be converted to liquified natural gas (LNG) for export to global markets. Despite unequivocal Wet’suwet’en opposition to the project, the pipeline runs through 22,000 square kilometres of the Nation’s unceded territory. It also crosses more than 206 ecologically sensitive waterways. The pipeline is built to carry 2.1 billion cubic feet per day of fracked gas, with a peak capacity of up to five billion cubic feet per day.”

RBC is among five commercial banks (including Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank, CIBC and TD bank) that provided the project with working capital, including co-financing a $6.5 billion loan. Originally estimated to cost CAD$6.6 billion, the cost of the project, as of February 2023, has risen to CAD$14.5 billion. The pipeline was physically completed at the end of 2023. Compressor stations along the pipeline and a processing and export facility in Kitimat are still to be completed. RBC, the largest bank in Canada, is also heavily invested in TC Energy. Fossil Free RBC explains:

“RBC also holds over 85 million shares in TC Energy, which translates to about 8.6 per cent of the company or more than a $1.03 billion-dollar stake (at $58/share). RBC not only finances TC Energy; it’s deeply invested in the company, and doubly exposed in the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

“In September 2021, RBC joined the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) – a coalition of financial institutions committed to accelerating economic decarbonization. Yet, between January and October 2021, RBC provided fossil fuel companies with $23.9 billion in loans and underwriting and $51 billion in investments.

“Coastal GasLink contradicts both Canada’s international climate commitments and BC legislation intended to stem the climate crisis. The pipeline is expected to transport up to five billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per day. When burned, this will produce an estimated 585.5 million pounds of C02 each day, which is equivalent to the C02 emissions released from burning over 300 million pounds of coal, or the greenhouse gas emissions from driving more than 59,000 passenger vehicles for a year.

[…]

“The Wet’suwet’en have re-asserted their land use, occupancy, hereditary governance system, and remain the title holders with the authority and jurisdiction to control the unceded lands where the pipeline is currently being built. The project contravenes ‘Anic ‘niwh’it’en (Wet’suwet’en), federal, and international laws, yet TC Energy and Coastal GasLink have refused to withdraw.

“Coastal GasLink also violates free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), as protected in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP), and which Canada adopted at both federal and provincial levels. Even the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called on the Canadian government to ‘immediately halt the construction and suspend all permits and approvals for the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline in the traditional and unceded lands and territories of the Wet’suwet’en people, until they grant their free, prior and informed consent, following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult.'”

04/08/2024

April 22nd 7pm, FB live by invitation
Want to join us? DM me for invitation or indicate in comments below, I will invite you.

Let's talk about climate denialism through disinfo in the meme-sphere

03/07/2023

Organic farmers call for a Day of Action, Thursday March 9 th , 2023 Help the Minister get the message! No Hidden GM Seeds   Call the agriculture minister on Thursday March 9th The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, could decide soon to allow some genetically...

07/03/2022

Osaka, May 11 (Jiji Press)--Kohei Saito, author of a Marxist book popular in Japan, has called for applying a…

03/04/2022

March 12. Day of Action.
This is what we are engaging. Be creative.

“It’s life-or-death survival for us to fight for our land.”For nearly four years, this women-led Indigenous group has been fighting the Trans Mountain Corpor...

02/26/2022

Teach In: Kevin Sutton in conversation with Jodi Koberinski
The Limitations of "Left -- Right" Framing

This discussion was inspired by the over-emphasis in "left/ right" binaries shaping the perception of division in so-called Canada in the wake of the protests at the border and in Ottawa over the course of February.

Listen in, and add your comments below. Both Jodi and Kevin will add some links to resources to deepen the engagement with some of the ideas and examples arising from their conversation.

02/21/2022

Our current aim for the spring of 2022 is to provide 20-30 min teach ins that address the missing context for some of the real world issues that have folks freaking out right now.

Additionally, our archives offer some really important teachings that provide insights on the uprisings that occurred across so-called Canada this past month.

Many of our presenters in the past have an underlying analyses regarding the ruling class and their efforts under GATT, IMF, WTO, and the WEF to enact a neoliberalization of the colonial capitalist economy, and its effort to displace various forms of "socialism" and "communism" that were springing up in place of the fallen Euro-Imperialism.

Civil society movements, Indigenous sovereign peoples, and grass roots populists have sought in many cases to reclaim languages and governance systems that were subject to the genocidal policies of Imperialists. Land Back movements globally seek to create the conditions for the emergence of Indigenous-led economies to displace the extractivism that has taken root under the neo-colonialism "free trade" has ushered in... Scholars have introduced discussions of post-capitalist economies/ societies that centre socio-spiritual paradigm shifts that Ariel Salleh calls "Ecologism".

Guests offer a range of additional teachings and experiences to inform our collective "what now"?

As the World Social Forum first proposed, "Another World is Possible".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ-sQqrisVA

Dbiyoung Anitafrika interview following her 2015 Reclaiming the Commons performance piece, a must watch interview for this moment, and an invitation to read their book "Oya: Collection Of Writing"

d"bi. young anitafrika gave an animated theatrical presentation at the second annual festival of dangerous ideas that is pertinent to our idea of what is com...

02/19/2022

AHHHHH had another technical fail today, folks, and we just did a teach in that didn't post live!

Gathering our steam, will try again later and post here are a recording!

--

02/19/2022

Lots of folks are hearing about the WEF and its big plans, these did not come out of nowhere. Despite the lack of discussion about the WEF, the global social movements responded to this threat in 2001 forming the World Social Forum. This talk is an introduction to the WSF and an invitation to dive deeper and consider getting involved.

02/18/2022

Greetings! Our next teach in will be a history of the WEF and the existing movements that offer a different vision for humanity and our shared ecosystems — and what *you* can do to join the resistance.

Saturday 3pm. Feel free to join us! Live stream here at this page.

Please comment in this thread:
1) when did you learn about the WEF?
2) Were you aware before this post of the WSF?
3) Visit the site. Now that you know about May Day to May 6th World Social Forum in Mexico what are *you* as a person concerned about the Great Reset and the 4th Industrial Revolution and what that means for people, planet, and all our relations going to commit to in 2022 in relation to this 21 year effort to stop the WEF from displacing local and regional democratic governance systems with their extractivist technocracy built on what they politely call stakeholder capitalism ?

WSF 2021 Registration English Français Português Español Welcome to the WSF 2021 registration space! Through a few simple steps you can register organizations, activities, or initiatives that will be part of the Virtual WSF 2021 that takes place from January 23 to 31, 2021. For more information o...

02/13/2022

Context Fairie Teach In

02/11/2022

02/11/2022

4pm today. Here. Teach In with Russ Diabo.

02/10/2022

Friday February 11th 4pm - 5pm eastern.

TEACH IN — countering rising (and sustaining) fascism with Mohawk Strategic Analyst Russ Diabo!

More details to come. Live feed HERE!