Reformed commie Giorgio Mammoliti can smell communism, and he doesn’t want its sour scent on his Facebook page

http://www.torontolife.com/daily/informer/quoted-informer/2011/08/09/giorgio-mammoliti-smells-communism/

To: "Oliver,AJ" <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask]
From: Dennis Raphael/fs/YorkU
Date: 08/13/2011 04:44PM
Subject: Re: HEN, oppression and intersectionality

I dare say most "blokes" would agree with this:

What Can You Do?

The primary means of reducing poverty is through the enactment of public policies 

that provide people with adequate living conditions. Public policies that would reduce 

poverty are not pipe dreams: they have been implemented in many wealthy developed 

nations to good effect.

Pressure Government to Act

     Governments at all levels have neglected the reduction and elimination of poverty. Since 

it appears that elected representatives and policy-makers are aware of poverty and its 

effects yet choose to not act, social and political movements must be developed that will 

pressure governments and policy-makers to enact poverty-reducing public policy.

There are numerous ways of accomplishing this. One involves educating Canadians 

about the causes of poverty and its adverse ef ects and then translating this knowledge 

into action. Canadians must confront their elected representatives at all levels about 

what is being done to reduce poverty. Canadians should also raise these issues with 

agencies, organizations, and institutions whose mandates include promoting health and 

well-being and preventing illness.

Ask Your Professional or Employee Association or Union to Speak up about Poverty

     Almost everyone touched by the issue of poverty has an association or organization that 

can make themselves heard by elected representatives and policy-makers. Public health 

workers have the Canadian Public Health Association and their provincial organizations. 

Nurses, physicians, psychologists, social workers, and others all belong to organizations 

that have a responsibility to speak up about their members’ concerns.

   The average worker may have a union or employee association. Local community 

organizations and agencies are also potential contributors to the debate about poverty in

Canada and how to address it. All of these organizations have a responsibility to “speak 

truth to power” about what is happening in Canada.

Urge the Health Sector to Get Involved

    Public health units, disease associations (such as the Heart and Stroke Foundation, 

Canadian Cancer Society, and the Canadian Diabetes Association), and health care 

organizations (such as hospitals and professional associations) must educate themselves 

and their clients on the role poverty plays in shaping health and quality of life. h ey 

should urge governments and policy-makers to create and implement poverty-reducing 

public policies. Canadians should ask these organizations what they are doing to educate 

Canadians about poverty.

Get Involved in Politics

     Another way to reduce poverty is to support candidates of political parties that are receptive 

to serious poverty reduction activities. Such candidates can be found in every political party, but are 

more likely to be candidates of the New Democratic Party. Evidence is 

abundant that, in Canada and elsewhere, left political parties are more likely to develop 

poverty reduction policies such as universal health care, public pensions, housing programs, and universal child care that support poverty reduction ef orts.

Support the Right to Unionize Workplaces

  There is strong evidence that an essential aspect of poverty reduction is the organization 

of labour. Support is needed to ease the path for Canadians to unionize their workplace 

(see Box 14.5). In Canada, working under a collective agreement is related to higher 

wages, better benei ts, and improved employment security and working conditions. h e 

strength of labour unions is also related to dif erences among developed nations in the 

extent of poverty.

Get Involved with an Anti-poverty Organization

     Finally, Canadians can join and/or i nancially support organizations that work to reduce 

poverty. h ese organizations include:

• Campaign 2000—www.campaign2000.ca/

• Canada Without Poverty—www.cwp-csp.ca/

• Make Poverty History—www.makepovertyhistory.ca/

• Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives—www.policyalternatives.ca/

• Canadian Council on Social Development—www.ccsd.ca/home.htm

• Citizens for Public Justice—www.cpj.ca/

There are also numerous provincial and local anti-poverty organizations that need 

your help and support. (See Mikkonen and Raphael, 2010, for a list of organizations 

engaged in working on related issues such as housing, child care, and health and social 

services.)

-----"The Health Equity Network (HEN)" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: -----

To: [log in to unmask]
From: "Oliver,AJ" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent by: "The Health Equity Network (HEN)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 08/13/2011 03:30PM
Subject: Re: HEN, oppression and intersectionality

Alex

I think there is actually a fourth group, that fall generally under the term of neo-Marxists. They see a continuing class-based struggle that I don't really recognise in modern Britain. They would also only serve to secure the interests of particular groups in society, which is a conception of socialism that I believe is dangerous (if it was realistic) and undesirable (as history has repeatedly showed). Everybody makes up a society. But even if you hold this fourth view, you would probably achieve your ends much better if you worked within the prevailing, broadly held, political vision. It would be interesting, for example, to see how Dennis Raphael would get along if he started to express some of his views in the pubs on the council estates that I grew up on. I think he might learn a thing or two if he were to do that.

Best

Adam

On 13 Aug 2011, at 20:12, "Alex Scott-Samuel" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I've watched this discussion from Wales where I was on holiday; now that I'm back I find it regrettable that no-one attempted to respond to Cole's very valid points about the list. The fact is that in polarised, unequal England, an academic involvement in health equity by no means guarantees the social democratic critique you might expect to find in an equity listserv. While Scotland and Wales now have devolved governments that on the whole behave in a social democratic fashion, we have had no such government in England since Thatcher came to power in 1979. Blair had the rhetoric and indeed was commended by the WHO social determinants commission for England's broad inequalities strategy; sadly however it was a strategy without depth in that it failed completely to acknowledge, let alone address the root causes of inequality - which are of course a systematic element and product of the market liberalism actively pursued by all post-1979 English governments.

Health ‘inequalogists’ fall into three groups: the social democrats / socialists whose core values inform their equity discourse; the ‘microscopists’ who see inequality as an interesting research subject, to be viewed as if through a microscope (you recognise them at conferences because they find their new method for measuring inequality to be as exciting as the democrats would find an effective means of challenging inequality); and the ‘christian democrats’ - see below* - who conceptualise equity within a socially and economically conservative discourse. Active members of this list fall, in my estimation, primarily into the second and especially the third group.

The above is of course why the highly relevant ideas of intersectionality theory, to which Cole refers, never feature in HEN discussions. With their direct focus on power inequalities and oppression, they are I fear beyond the HEN horizons – at least as currently constituted.

All the best, Alex

* Wikipedia: Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching. It continues to be influential in Europe and Latin America, though in a number of countries its Christian ethos has been diluted by secularisation. In practice, Christian democracy is often considered conservative on cultural, social and moral issues (social conservatism) and advocates a social market economy in the economic field (crossing over with social democratic economics but based on the family).

 

On 10/08/2011 20:14, Gately, Cole wrote:

[log in to unmask]" type="cite">

I don't write to this list usually, but I have to say I'm surprised at the lack of anti-oppression analysis in many of the posts today. I joined this network because I felt that any list that professes to discuss issues of inequity must surely have some grasp of the ways that race and class intersect and that riots that last for days on end simply can't be accounted for by boredom.

 

I agree with Vernellia that oppression can very often lead to rioting, or in the words of Darcus Howe (interviewed by the BBC yesterday) insurrection. Where is the analysis? What about social inequity? Why such reactionary, knee-jerk responses to what seems to be an event that is related in all sorts of ways to the issues we are all fighting to redress through social justice and equity work? I understand that many of you are close to the rioting, but that should not cloud your intellectual judgement. There are always people who will exploit a situation to their own ends, but the anger unleashed in these riots clearly come from a place of deep disaffection and anger.

 

Cole Gately
Street Outreach Coordinator
Mental Health and Street Outreach Services
Clinical and Preventive Services Division
Public Health Services
City of Hamilton
Housing Help Centre

This message, including any attachments, is privileged and intended only for the stated recipient.  This material may contain confidential or personal information which may be subject to the provision of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.  Any other distribution, copying or disclosure is striclty prohibited.  If you are not the intended recipient or have received this message in error, please notify me immediately and permanently delete the original transmission, including any attachments, without making a copy.

-----Original Message-----
From: The Health Equity Network (HEN) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Vernellia Randall
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 2:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: May be of interest

I wasn't suggesting that what is going on in england was a race riot. I was suggesting that people who are oppressed will sometime riot rather than take their oppression in silence. . . Whether race or class or something else. . . there is more going on than just no respect for the law.

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