Salt of the Earth: A Must See Film

By Peter Miller, reprinted from The Cannon with permission.

Michael Parenti, a marxist historian,  wrote a book called Make Believe Media that takes a critical view at the film and television industry in North America. Parenti argues that the film and television industry promotes the ideas of the political and economic forces that control them. These ideas are often anti-labour, militarist, as well as implicitly xenophobic, racist, and sexist. He advocates for viewers to watch the media with a critical eye. He also provides some alternative films, that take a progressive stance and have become popular despite the repression of these films by the mass media.

The Leaky Department of National Defence

Canadian Peace Alliance
March 21, 2013

For the third year in a row, a document has been "leaked" to the press warning of cuts to military spending just as the federal budget is due to be released.

The reality is the Conservatives have overseen billions in additional spending on the Canadian forces. When they came into office in 2006, spending on the military was $15 billion. Even with the proposed reductions, they are due to spend roughly $19 billion each year.

That extra $4 billion is enough to provide free post-secondary tuition for all Canadian students. It would also be enough to provide adequate housing for all Canadians living on the streets or to hire almost 40,000 nurses. Harper wants to fund war instead.

For a Conservative government that is known to have a tight leash on all federal departments, these continued leaks must be disconcerting. In 2012, a leaked letter from the Prime Minister to Peter Mackay called for more cuts to the DND budget. In 2011, another leak – this time of a report by Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie – caused a stir by calling for $1 billion in cuts.

Ironically, it seems the Department of National Defence has a serious security problem.

That may be the case, but the consistency of the leaks does make one wonder if there is another motive for the Harper government. Given that a huge majority of Canadians believe that we should cut money from the military before cutting social and environmental programs, it seems more likely that the Conservatives are using these leaks to try and soften the blow of other cuts to come. Evidently they want to highlight the fact that everyone is tightening their belts – before they ask us to tighten them again.

We all know how gung-ho this Prime Minister is. He has re-branded the Canadian forces as the Canadian Armed forces so we don't forget that they are there to, "kill detestable murderers and scumbags" in the words of Former Defence Chief Rick Hillier, even if its main victims in Afghanistan turned out to be unarmed civilian men, women and children. They have worked hard to make Canadians proud of our military, spending millions on the War of 1812 events and have even re-written the new Citizens handbook to highlight Canada's military history.

Harper is also the most vocal cheerleader for an attack on Iran and has never shied away from deploying the Canadian forces whether in Libya, Afghanistan or now Mali. This government has also called for Canada to open up 8 new military bases abroad and had earmarked almost a half trillion dollars in military spending in the Canada First Defence Strategy (CFDS). In the first 5 years as Prime Minister, Harper increased the military budget by $1 billion each year. Just recently, Harper announced that Canada intends to spend another $1 billion on an armed drone program.

The cuts as outlined will reduce the total amount earmarked for the military but it hardly suggests a department that is in trouble financially. The military is still the largest discretionary item in the budget. If we add up all the reductions as outlined in the myriad of leaked reports we are looking at a total allotment for the time frame outlined by the CFDS of approximately $450 billion by 2025.

Zuma remembers Sharpeville, reflects on South Africa today

Zuma visis with strikers at Marikana
where 34 miners were killed by police last year

Rebel Youth reprints this excerpt from a speech by South African President Jacob Zuma on March 21st 2013, commemorating the Sharpeville Massacre and Human Rights Day, for discussion.


The 1923 Bill of Rights, the African Claims of 1943, the Women's Charter in 1954, the Freedom Charter in 1955 and the ANC's 1988 Constitutional Principles for a Democratic South Africa are our national pride.

These documents, developed by the ruling party the ANC during the struggle for liberation, underline and confirm South Africa's longstanding systematic development of policy affirming human rights. They informed the content of the Constitution of the Republic at the dawn of freedom.

We are particularly proud of the fact that the landmark 1943 Bill of Rights was produced five years ahead of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. South Africa led the world in this regard!

Today is also the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, proclaimed in 1966 in memory of the Sharpeville massacre, by the United Nations through UN resolution 2142...

We mark Human Rights Day 2013 under the theme; "United in advancing socio-economic freedom for all". The purpose is to promote the idea of socio-economic freedom for all South Africans.

It also highlights the advanced nature of our Constitution which recognises more than just political and civil rights.

This was based on the understanding that civil and political rights mean little if they are not accompanied by tangible socio-economic rights. These include the rights to housing, education and health care and the right to favourable working conditions.

While marking the importance of socio-economic rights today, we also highlight the fact that today has a particular significance, as it is a day on which in 1960 the apartheid police shot and killed 69 people and wounded many others in Sharpeville. The liberation movement resolved then, to build a South Africa in which such incidents would never occur when freedom dawned.

This is also the commitment of the democratic government.

Today we re-affirm our determination to build a police service that respects the rights of all. The South African Police this year marks a centenary of its existence. The period since its establishment in 1913 until 1994, is marked by state-sanctioned cruelty and brutality by the policy.

In 1994 the democratic government began to transform the police service into one that is people-centred and which serves all the people of our country. A lot of progress has been made with regards to both transformation and service delivery.

Today we are happy that each year statistics indicate a reduction in serious crimes.

Crimes against women and children remain a serious problem but statistics prove that the perpetrators are being caught and punished. We trust that this will act as a deterrent. For example, in the past financial year, police secured over 363 life sentences, with a conviction rate of over 70% for crimes against women and girls.

At the same time, there have been some regrettable, shocking and unacceptable incidents involving the South African Police Service since the last Human Rights Day commemoration.

These include the Marikana tragedy and other cases of police brutality against suspects. Government has taken action on both.

There is a commission probing the Marikana incident and we will not comment much on it at this stage until the findings. The law is taking its course with regards to the other incidents.

However, these incidents should not make us condemn our entire police service which comprises 200 000 men and women as being brutal.

The overwhelming majority of our police fight crime within the confines and discipline of the Constitution and we applaud them for that.

We urge you today, to continue supporting the police in their work. The police can only continue succeeding in fighting crime if they have the support of communities they serve.

We must support them as well in their efforts to root out rotten apples from their ranks who engage in criminal action including corruption.

To promote a human rights ethos amongst police officials, we have directed that the SAPS Code of Conduct, in which an ethos of human rights is firmly entrenched, be promoted amongst all police officials.

They must live, breathe and personify the police Code of Conduct.

Included in this pledge of excellence, signed by each police official upon attestation, is the promise to do the following:

"to uphold and protect the fundamental rights of every person; act in a manner that is impartial, courteous, honest, respectful, transparent and accountable; exercise the powers conferred in a responsible and controlled manner;

"And work towards preventing any form of corruption and to bring the
perpetrators thereof to justice".

We expect our men and women in blue to live up to that promise.