Tag Archives: Palestine

A Better World is Needed, Activism, Class War, Colonialism, Consumerism, Corporations, Idle No More, Imperialism, International Relations, Israel, Poverty, Psychology, Racism, Soft Fascism, Unions, Vancouver

ACTION: Illegal Israeli Settlement Goods Sold at London Drugs

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mandela_palestineSodaStream boycott informational picket

Saturday, Dec. 21, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

London Drugs, Broadway @ Cambie, Vancouver

Below is a notice of an important event happening on Saturday in Vancouver. If something is labelled as “Made in Israel” but is really made in an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank of Palestine, where does it really come from? Nowhere that I would want to buy from. You?

I’m only as free as everyone is free. Don’t tolerate occupation. The boycott alternative information is here.

Nelson Mandela has died, but the memory of his commitment to universal freedom and justice lives on.  Mandela championed justice for the oppressed not only of South Africa, but everywhere.   

In an address to the ANC in 1997- three years after the demise of apartheid in South Africa – he reminded his listeners of the UN’s strong stand against “this iniquitous system” and how, over time, an international consensus grew which helped bring about its end.  Describing the UN’s 1977 inauguration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People as a demonstration of its “recognition that injustice and gross human rights violations were being perpetrated in Palestine,” Mandela added: “But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians . . .”  

Hopefully this memory will inspire shoppers to buy responsibly and ethically, as they choose last-minute gifts this Christmastime and “Boxing Week.” That includes refusing to buy SodaStream home carbonation devices, which – although fraudulently labelled “Made in Israel” — are actually produced in the industrial park of the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim in the occupied West Bank of Palestine.

Boycotts of SodaStream, already widespread throughout Western Europe and the United States, are now gaining ground in Canada. Independent Jewish Voices–Canada, the United Church of Canada, district and provincial labour councils, student groups, and many others have called on their supporters to refrain from buying SodaStream. In the lower mainland, local affiliates of the Canadian Boycott Coalition for Justice in Palestine/Israel (www.canadianboycottcoalition.ca) and the United Network for Justice in Palestine and Israel (www.UNJPPI.org) have held two public actions so far. The next will be on Saturday, December 21 at 2:00 p.m. in front of London Drugs, 525 W. Broadway, Vancouver.  Please join us and help spread the word.

As Tyler Levitan, campaigns coordinator for Independent Jewish Voices-Canada, has stated: “It is vitally important that we support nonviolent struggles against systems of mass oppression. The Israeli occupation of Palestine, and the ongoing theft of Palestinian land and resources, is a serious crime that we all must acknowledge.”

A Better World is Needed, Activism, Class War, Colonialism, Conservative Party of Canada, Consumerism, Corporations, Democracy, Education, International Relations, Israel, Justice, Liberal Party of Canada, Neoliberal Economics, Psychology, Society

Transform Corporate Interests to Humanitarian Justice

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This week I’d like to highlight 5 campaign goals for 2011 for Global Exchange, one of my favourite organizations in the world.

Last week I received their welcome-to-2011 email with their activist agenda. Here’s the first goal:

Transition from corporate interests to humanitarian justice: Corporate interests are among the strongest forces fueling the Israeli Occupation of Palestine. Come February, Global Exchange will host courageous feminist peace activist Dalit Baum. Dalit is currently working in Israel on a project called Who Profits?, an online database that exposes companies and corporations profiting from the Israeli occupation. She will bring her extensive knowledge of grassroots activism to North America, teaching Who Profits’ research methods to the peace movement to infuse their work with new perspective and hard-earned wisdom. The long-term goal is to help change public opinion and corporate policies, moving towards an end to the occupation and a lasting peace in Israel/Palestine.

Palestine is no isolate case of corporations leading a political agenda. When I think of banana republics, I ponder the corporation/cartel that is the de facto leadership of the nation, often with the help of the corporations’ home government pressuring the official leadership of the banana republic.

We too are a banana republic. For almost 150 years ago, corporations have had tremendous sway over the Liberal and Conservative parties that have run Canada since 1867. So when Global Exchange is supporting some education about how corporations guide political policy, often to the detriment of whole populations [domestic and international], we would do well to learn the tactics required to spot how corporate control of our democracy is as ubiquitous as the air around us.

Changing public opinion and corporate policies are fantastic outcome goals for this campaign. If you have seen/read The Corporation you know how psychotic they are. How we aren’t beating down our legislature doors to demand widespread corporate charter revocation is beyond me…oh wait, it’s because the air we breathe is infused with the normalized paradigm of corporate control of our society.

That’s why, right.

In the end, this is one reason why I support Global Exchange. And so should you.