Political Digest

I currently have various political writings on the computer table.
- Karl Marx (with Friedrich Engels) on Communist Manifesto; Wages, Price and Profit; Capital (selections); Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
- Z Magazine (October 2007)
- Workers Vanguard No. 898 Sept 14.
- Spartacist Canada No. 154 Fall 2007
- Spartacist No. 60 Autumn 2007
- Readings on: 1891 Intro to The Civil War in France by Engels; The State by Lenin
- The Basic Bakunin
- The Militant Vol. 71 No. 37 Oct. 8

Three of the above I bought from Tynan(?spelling) who is part of the Spartacus Youth Club, who I guess wouldn't mind if I labelled him a Trotskyist or Bolshevik. Dave and I met him at the Anti-Poverty protest on Sept 26 at Queens Park. He's pretty cool for talking to us, and taking the time to listen to my ramblings. Although his phone solicitations remind me too much of sales techniques I had to learn at GreenLawn and Direct Energy (*shudder*).

Anyways, I was on campus today and saw the Communist League had a table set up in front of the Student Centre. They had a rack full of books. Some of them touched on Cuba, Fascism, one by a Jewish holocaust victim, feminism, etc. I talked with one of them (ashamedly I forgot his name). He was working as a meat packer and was running as the Eglinton-Lawrence Communist Party of Canada candidate. I guess if I go on their site and look for that riding I'll find him. http://www.thestar.com/ontarioelection/ridings/candidateprofile/259936 Yep. That's him. I guess, if I can remember the conversation, highlights were about Fascism by Trotsky, immigrant arrest in U.S., Cuba as a working though not complete model of communism, and his involvement in his union. I bought "a Socialist Newsweekly Published in the Interests of the Working People", the Militant for $1.50 from him. Headlines on it include: "U.S. uses UN visit to whip up pro-war rallies against Iran," "Justice for Jena 6," "London bails out bank hit by defaults in home loans," and "International conference discusses overseas Chinese." The discussion was interesting though not remarkable. I always feel a little inferior or idiotic when I have convos or debates or discussion, just because I feel I don't know enough or forget words I need to express my point, or most importantly I'm not being rational, objective, or scientific enough.

Which reminds me, I also talked to Ahmad today about some stuff. I guess the last thought I carried from it is the evolution of our political systems. Is the political structure that can replicate its memes and ideals, the one most suited to our human needs and social, moral, & ethical concerns?

Anyways, I had to leave Joe to go drop in a SPC (Sustainable Purchasing Coalition) meeting. (See - http://www.yorku.ca/spc_ft/) It was introduction meeting. Imran (working on promoting No Sweat) talked about how SPC developed and the working groups it has which included No Sweat, Ethical Purchasing, and Fair Trade. They also work with and get funding from OPIRG (Ontario Public Interest Research Group). There wasn't a lot to the meeting. I guess I will probably volunteer some time on one of their campaigns.

I'm still hoping to start a Agnostic/Atheism club at York, but I haven't met that many passionate Athiests to get support from, that and I haven't had time to even look where to start. I guess the first thing would be to ask YFS (York Federation of Students) for advise. Maybe I'll focus doing that next year.

After that I went to see if Tynan was on campus. He left a message on the answering machine saying that he would be near the bus stops between 6-7pm. His table was set up right were the Communist League was a few hours ago. I thought it was coordinated but apparently Workers Vanguard and the Communist League disagree with each on (from what Tynan described) revolution vs. reform. Basically, the impression I got from him was that the Communist Party was just trying to work within the capitalist system to achieve the same ends as the Workers Vanguard, and Tynan believed doing that would be impossible. He's kind of right there. How can real change be executed through our horribly flawed "democratic" system. I can't even say it's democratic, because it's all a sham. Not that a true democratic system would be good. The issue of propaganda still remains. But I still found it funny that the faction got expelled in 1960 from the Communist League. Anyways Tynan talked to me for a while, the contents of the conversation I am too lazy right now to type. I'll be sure to put up a post about it.

So, I was fairly busy today without even noticing how time went by. I was going to wake up at 7 but ended sleeping in until 10am. I missed my Physics tutorial which I really should've gone to. Anyways, me and Dave went to York. He had to take the York Go bus back to Hamilton once we got off the TTC, to catch a dentist appointment. He called me in the afternoon sounding very cute with a missing tooth. I went to the library and was a bit distracted by the usual, Facebook, email, etc. I decided to look up Election Ontario and saw there was still advance polling going on in my riding so when I came home today, I dropped by Dominions and filled out a ballot. I won't tell you who I voted for, for fear of criticism, but I did vote MMP (Mixed Member Proportion) for the referendum. I really hope the referendum will end in a "victory" for the MMP system. If that happened, then I wouldn't be able to wait for the next elections results.