Canada - a post nationalist state? Really?

It often takes an outsider to put a situation or a place in perspective. KatarzynaWezyk, a reporter recently sent by to report on Canada by Polish magazine Agora has recently performed this favour in a new book, not as yet, published in English. Wezyk, aprogressive feminist, approaches Canada as a model alternative for her own country of what she calls “post-nationalism”. For Wezyk the country she visited was one that has been largely, and understandably, mythologized in many regions as one of the best places to live in the world: a vast, open, prosperous country with a superior social safety net. But the “paradise” that is the Canada of Anne  of  Green Gables , ironically grounded by the recent Paradise paper revelations about tax evasion by government officials like Finance Minister Bill Morneau and others, has a darker side and the reporter in Wezyk is critical enough to include thast along with her appreciative references to the well knownchildren’s story. 

So, for each of the various Canadian pluses she cites Wezyk also notes shadowy minuses. Canada’s vast natural beauty is shadowed by polluting resource industries, most notably Alberta’s tar-sands, from which the country derives much wealth. Canada’s relatively welcoming inclusion of immigrants from around the world is shadowed by its shameful treatment of the First Nation inhabitants of the land to which it has given the name Canada. Canada’s international reputation as principled defender of human rights is historically shadowed by the historical treatment by its colonial elites of French-speaking citizens in Quebec and the murder and incarceration of so many of its aboriginal inhabitants.

Perhaps wisely Wenzyk makes no attempt at a comprehensive interpretation of these contradictions of the Canadian reality. She leaves readers to make their own judgments. With a Canada seemingly content with its role as a respected middle power on the world stage it is unlikely that any real national effort to remove such dark shadows from the sunny ways celebrated by Prime Minister Trudeau in his “Justin of Green Gables”character, is likely to occur, however many  selfies with happy citizens he agrees to submit himself to. 

I appreciate and respect Wenzyk for her book’s willingness to see both light and shadow where they exist but among inevitable omissions was her failure to present the often very different opinions of many Polish immigrants to Canada from older generations, in their comfortable neglect of Canada’s dark side. Both Canadians and Poles will benefit from Wezyk’s reflections on the coexistence of light and dark in Canada’s legacy. With both countries situated next to large and insecurity generating powers Canada and Poland thus have much political psychology in common, But the difference between the two cultures is profound. Throughout its history Poland has had to fight for its existence, while Canada, though not its first nations, meti, and inuit populations, has peacefully coexisted with imperial powers, first Britain and now the USA to the south. The large distance of Canadian Anne’s green gables from the now rebuilt from devastation cities of Poland, like Warsaw, is more than physical. There is potentially much to learn and apply but we should not underestimate the limits. 

The New Poland: Too Old and Too Young

Poland’s new system of capitalism, now 30 years old, raised expectations by offering a radical Western style “normality”. The elite who led the peaceful revolution did not take into account the social costs inevitably followed. Many new writers are now turning attentions to these social costs and lookibg for alternatives. One of these new voices, Marek Szymaniak in his book Urobieni (the Overworked ) presents the stories of those who have paid the highest price for the post-1989 change to capitalist neo-liberalism , e.g. a  woman who, to retain work, hides her critical illness and dies, the mainly young 2 million economic refugees who have left Poland and the 2 more million who want to. In this new world there are few, if any, social supports. So, there is aging society and desperate undocumented workers Ukrainians imported to work as modern day slaves e.g. a domestic helper kept captive and employed in several locations and workers whose wages were stolen. Plus corporations like Amazon, so predatory that workers are organizing strikes in solidarity with other Amazon workers in Germany and Spain.

The political left, historically the representatives of the excluded and exploited, are either too old (relics of the communist regime) or too young - the new left that like in many other countries is heavily represented among the educated and the high income elites, unlike in the 1960’s and 1970’s when the left was based in the working class and the right supported the affluent. 

Many are surprised and shocked by the rise of right wing populism but, as Thomas Piketty`s, noted French economist,analysis of 4 most developed Western countries over 70 years documented the political left and right are both controlled by elites, the left by technocratic intellectuals the right by the rich. Meanwhile the poor and the working class are not being heard or represented and so are showing their anger through right-wing nationalistic populism. The internal contradictions of capitalism are deepening inequality and injustice in Poland. The global crisis of 2008 was survived in Poland because the relatively immature financial system in Poland was less exposed. Since then the new system has been allowed to run unchallenged through the EU funding and large scale emigration. There has no real debate about alternatives to the new status quo to avoid being seen as nostalgic about the communist past.  

So where can Poland go now. The solutions Szymaniak suggest include strengthening unions, greater participation, more democracy and meaningful work. Will it work? If the rich are willing to sacrifice a little for the common good. The status quo cannot continue, so alternatives are necessary.
In my opinion Szymaniak’s suggestions are worthy of serious consideration. A right-wing populism is the political expression of this sense of frustration. As stated by Timothy Garton-Ash in his recent presentation in Toronto, Poland once again is similar to the others only more so. The major alternative political groups currently active in Poland are either too old or too young for thismarginalized group and populist groups are addressing theirfrustration by actions such as increasing the minimum wage, blaming immigrants, supporting the old, and lowering theretirement age. 

Progressive economists like Andrzej Szahaj that is interviewed for the book “Urobieni”…… point out that Poland wanted change so much  that they ignored progressive options like Kowalik’s and Scandinavian social democracy because they were not “different enough.”  

Retrotopia: the new Eastern Europe?

In 1989, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, capitalism extended into Eastern Europe, and brought the "consumer dream" of happiness through stuff to the impoverished masses of the former Eastern Bloc. This dream has turned out to be an illusion for many. 

Robbed of former ideals and beliefs and feeling powerless to control their future many now seek alternatives. One such alternative, was described by renowned Polish sociologist Zygmund Bauman in his last book. He called it Retropia; it is a form of utopia in the past. As absurd as it may seem for those who knew the real historical past, idealizing it, or selected portions of it, may seem attractive. The temptation is fuelled in large part by today's lack of credible visions of a better world. Has the Left, the traditional source of utopian dreams, lost the struggle for minds, not just for popular support? 

Bauman thinks so. One result is that people are left with two primary lifestyle options, both troubling: one - existence as a faceless individual alienated from community  and their fellow consumers; the other - join a mass movement, of the kind offered by today's right-wing populists, that idealizes a previous world of connectedness from the past. For Bauman this latter ideal of what he calls retrotopia is an opponent to the progress sought by all left movements, that is: a continuous improvement in the human condition for all. Without reframing positive left futures Bauman leaves us with the clear conclusion that going back to times that were anything but utopias is definitely not the way forward.     

New Literature from Poland

In 1989 the "Iron Curtain" ideologically separating Easten Europe and the Western world was lifted. But since 1989 a new cultural curtain has been unveiled. As a result many in the Western world, including Canada, are completely unaware of the new literature emerging from the former "Eastern Bloc".  InPoland, for instance, many young writers have appeared on the literary scene. Several of these writers are explaining the world beyond eastern Europe, for example Katarzyna Wezyk, who sees Canada as a "post-national" state because of its progressive policies around refugees, the environment and its social safety net, Natasha Goerke, Wojciech Jagielski, Artur Domaslowski, Wojciech Tochman, Przymowich Szcztrek. These writers address universal problems of our time, such as poverty, exclusion, hunger and exploitation. Other writers like Adrzej Stasiuk, Olga Tokarczuk, Doronto Maslowska, Paulina Wilk, and Magdalena Tulli focus more on specifically eastern issues. All these writers exhibit innovative approaches to language and literary form. A rich new tradition of eastern European literature is exploding but if you visit your local library in the GTA, as I did in Mississauga,
you will find only a few and then often not their most recent works.  

Question MORE, Chris!

Alexander Sokolov, investigative reporter detained since 2015
Alexander Tolmachev, journalist sentenced to 9 years in prison
Igor Rudnikov, editor of "Novye Kolesa" in detention since 2017
Alexander Valov, editor of the Site "Blogsochi" in detention since Jan. 2018
Alexey Nazimov, editor of "Tvoya Gazeta" in detention since 2016
Zhalaudi Geriev, journalist sentenced to 3 years in prison
Alexey Kungurov, blogger in detention since 2016

Why aren't these Russian journalists at the World Cup?
Have you heard anything about them on RT (Russia Today)?
They are all in Russian jails. 

At a time when the Putin regime in Russia is engaged in a full-blown propaganda war unprecedented since the “Cold War” of the 1950’s and 1960’s a new presence has emerged in the world of news media. Its name is Russia Today, or RT for short to conceal its origins. 

According to EU vs Disinformation Campaign 

The chief editor of RT (Russia Today), Margarita Simonyan, cannot be blamed for lack of openness about the nature of the outlet whose output she manages on behalf of the Russian government. In her own words, RT is needed “for about the same reason as why the country needs a Defense Ministry.” RT is capable of “conducting information war against the whole Western world,” using “the information weapon,” Simonyan has explained. (January 15, 2018)

Along with its military powers, Russia's use of RT and other media is an aggressive weapon in its information war with the West.  To support this campaign RT has an annual budget of $400 million, with which it has been able to attract former headline voices of the western progressive media such as Lee Camp, Ed Schulz, and Chris Hedges, well-respected and insisive critics of U.S. mainstream politics and culture. Hedges who formally worked for the New York Times and has established  a reputation for fearless investigative reporting, now works for RT America, where he presents an interview show called On Contact. 

RT America is a state-run outlet for the Putin regime which is engaged in all-out campaign to silence its own critics. Most recently, Max Borodin, a Siberian journalist who "fell from the balcony of his apartment". Most notoriously, but by no means the last victim, was an outspoken journalist of the Novaya Gazeta, Anna Politovskaya, who was beaten to death.

In working for RT, without explanation or apology as far as I know, Hedges is betraying his fellow journalists and weakening the credibility of many former allies on the political left.  In doing so he is encouraging a kind of new McCarthyism. Whatever his reasons – and Hedges has been silent about them to date – the damage has been done. To apply to him RT's trademark sign-off slogan, it is time for Chris Hedges to “Question More" of Russia, a country ranked 148 in the 2018 World Press Freedom Report.  That report is annually compiled by the Reporters Without Borders and is based on levels of press pluralism, independence, legal protection and journalist safety. For more see Reporters Without Borders website https://rsf.org/en/

American Indians: the Polish Connection

It is March, 2018, only a few months after the protests at Standing Rock, North Dakota against a proposed pipeline across historic Sioux territory. The Standing Rock  Campaign has been, and is, one of the largest movements of North American Indians since Wounded Knee in the 1970’s, reaching significant numbers of the non-inidigenous population, particularly young people and environmentalists. It is recognized by more and more that ongoing economic dependence on fossil fuels is bad for the environment as for people and when this realization is combined with a rejection of the injustice of further incursions into indigenous land a mass movement can arise; and it has.      

If, as indigenous groups always knew, and more and more and more others are now understanding, water is life, then there is nothing more important for living creatures than to safeguard water. This was the vision that Russell Means, leader of the American Indian Movement in the 1980’sexpressed at an ecological conference in the Black Hills of Dakota. For Means, living was a spiritual state, while property is merely physical. It follows that if life requires water then water is spiritual too. The functional approach to nature of the colonizing Europeans interfered with Nature and Means predicted that nature would eventually have its way. The growing pollution and climate change caused by industrial processes represent a kind of natural world revenge that Means understood.    

In terms of imperial human imposition on nature there can be few more extraordinary insults than the famous presidential carvings at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. The sculpture of four former presidents on Mount Rushmore in the state occupies the sacred land of the Lakota Indians and so symbolizes in material form the subjugation of America’s first nations by the European invaders, who became Americans.  Beyond colonial appropriation the carvings actually depict the material conquest of the Nature worshipped by the native inhabitants of the area as their spiritual womb. In this case the medium is definitely the message. Thus, the four giant presidential heads make a giant statement, more about conquest of the land than the will of nature itself.

Less well known, but close by, another giant head looks out across the hills of South Dakota. It is the sculpted head of Crazy Horse chief of the Oglala first nation. It was carved from the hills to remind the world of the other side of the American dream, the enduring spirit of the American Indian in the face of its ongoing American holocaust. The sculpture of Crazy Horse was created by Polish-American Korczak Ziolkowski, a brave artist committed to the truth about American history. The memorial has now been under construction for over 70 years. This long journey was not always easy and some, including native Indians considered Ziolkowski’s sculpture to be as much a violation as the Presidential Heads. I believe that the Crazy Horse carving honours the guardians of the land while the American memorial celebrates those responsible for its ongoing destruction and associated genocide. The sculpture’s importance in capturing in stone the Indian reality was recently told in a new book by MaciejJarkowiec, about the history of Indian struggles, PowroceJako Piorun (“I will return like thunder”, a quotation from the words of Lakota chief Russell Means, former head of the American Indian Movement). 

Korczak Ziolkowski, self-taught sculptor, was born in Boston. After a tragic childhood when both his parents died before his first birthday, at sixteen Ziolkowski turned to carving as a hobby and met supporters who enabledhim to pursue this art as a career that        
included a statue of renowned pianist Ignacy Paderewski. Initially employed around the
site of the Mount Rushmore presidential memorial, Ziolkowski was invited by the local chief to create a sculpture of Crazy Horse, an independent spirit held in almost mystical reverence by many Indians, and one who rejected any compromises with the American invaders. Legend has it that Crazy Horse said “my land is where all my dead are buried” and these words will be inscribed in the monument, now over seventy years in construction, when completed.  As well as the head of Crazy Horse the monument presents the chief with his hands outstretched towards his people’s ancestral lands.  True to his uncompromising principles Crazy Horse allowed no photographs to be made of him so Ziolkowski’ssculpture is based on generic Lakota characteristics. Fatefully according to some, sculptor Ziolkowski was himself was born on Sept.6.1908, the same day as the chief’s death, 31 years later.

Since 1947, when he started his remarkable undertaking, Ziolkowski initially lived in a tent on the site and spent the rest of his days working on the project. To this day the Ziolkowski’s dream continues as a living monument to America’s Indians and is much more than a sculpted head. The legend of Crazy Horse himself was believed to be incarnate in American Indian Movement (AIM) leader Russell Means and Korczak wanted the work to be funded only by donations from the people. Consequently he refused several large government grants. The scale of the sculpture, designed to be to be 10 times bigger than the presidential memorial, is enormous, both physically and culturally. Around the head of Crazy Horse there has by now been created a community centre, medical service, museum and a university. Of Ziolkowski’s ten children born at the site seven remain and continue the work to this day. 

After his sudden death in 1982 Ziolkowski’s body was buried in the mountain. His epitaph describes him as writer in stone. Many leaders worldwide sent condolences and aletter of Lech Walesa, founder of Solidarity, Poland’s workers’ movement, declared him to be, as a     Pole, proud of Ziolkowski’s work that symbolizes heroism, freedom  and invincibility. A visionary to the end, Ziolkowski left plans for a university and hospital at the site that honours Crazy Horse, another indomitable spirit. A chief of the Sioux nation, Henry Standing Bear, praised Ziolkowski for showing the whites that “redskins have their heroes too” and trusted this Polish orphan, “storyteller” to tell the history. 

The Crazy Horse memorial is an extraordinary accomplishment in itself but it has also contributed to the growing strength and awareness of indigenous issues in recent years, not least of which is the Idle No More movement in Canada. In the U.S.A. 700 tribes meet at an annual pow-wow in Albuquerque, and even political leaders, like Barak Obama, who withdrew a pipeline construction plan and Justin Trudeau of Canada, who didn’t, but pledged a new “nation to nation” relationship with Canada’s first nations, have taken notice. A major journal on indigenous affairs, called “Native People” attracts 155,000.  Maybe they are becoming fearful of the prediction of an old native chief that “when the black snake goes under the river” apocalypse will follow. For all the newfound goodwill the struggle goes on. The anti-pipeline occupation at Standing Rock was forcibly removed at a cost of 300 injured protesters, 500 arrests and a cost of 1 million dollars to the U.S. state. Teepees have been built beside the Washington memorial and the Trump Tower in  the same city.

MARIA SKLODOWSKA-CURIE, a Heroine of the Commons

As Toronto prepares for the Creative Commons global summit to take place in the city from April 13-15, 2018 I’m thinking about  a pioneer of the Open Science movement, double Nobel Prize winner Marie Sklodowska-Curie. After a lifetime of dangerous and back-breaking labour to exact radium from Pitchblende Curie refused to patent her discovery.  For the Curies, Marie and her family, who followed her footsteps in research for the common good, radium, as a natural element, was a part of the earth’s natural commons and so should not be the possession of any individual. Sadly, big business expropriated Marie’s discovery and used it primarily to get rich rather than benefit humankind. As a result, Marie was forced to visit the USA twice after World War 1 to raise funds to buy 1 gram of the substance she had discovered. The full story of Curie’s instructive struggle for the knowledge commons was told in the recent book “Marie Curie and Her Daughters” by Shelley Emling. Both Marie and, later, her daughter Irene, also a Nobel Prize winner in physics, suffered for their values. Marie endured ill health from her work with radium while daughter Irene, a communist who continued her mother’s tradition, experienced criticism and ostracism for her dedication to science for the benefit of all.  

As if all her scientific work was not enough, Curie’s example as a scientist and her support for a greater role for women in society, led to progressive political change. A recent article in the journal Nature (2017, 551:440) -“Trailblazer: when Marie Curie went to Brazil” - describes how Curie’s visit to Brazil in 1926 led to the extension of the right to vote to women in one area of that country and eventually, in 1934, to female enfranchisement throughout Brazil. 

Scientist, feminist, philanthropist, Curie remains a model for all who believe that all have the right to benefit from all that is in our world.

IN MEMORY OF URSULA LE GUIN, PROPOHET AND VISIONARY

'In the beginning was the Word'  Gen 1.1

Though known to the world as a science fiction writer at the end of her life (she died at the age of 88 in January 2018), Ursula Le Guin made it clear that she wanted to be known as a "Fiction writer" i.e. without the marginalizing adjective. In her works, she creates alternative realities. These realities are fictional, but possible.  In the world monopolized by the TINA (There Is No Alternative) mindset, she became a visionary for an alternative that we desperately need; more equality, more justice, more freedom. In a recent interview with noted Polish journalist Paulina Wilk (Przekroj, January 24, 2018) Le Guin explained that we need new words to describe these new realities.  

After the collapse of the Eastern bloc ideology in 1989 and of market fundamentalism in 2008, the present times hunger for a new vision that does not exploit the gap between the poor east and the rich west or the poor south and the rich north. Le Guin saw her chosen form as a way to advocate for social values including freedom, gender equality, and progressive social change, in the tradition of her revolutionary great great grandmother,  Paulina Radziejowska-Kraków, who was one of the first Polish feminists, an editor of the paper for women "Pierwiosnek"  and an author of a revolutionary book "A new prayer book for Polish women" ("Nowej książki do nabożeństwa dla Polek") published in 1842.

For me, Le Guin prepares us for revolutionary social changes, as many great novelists and poets did in the past.  Her fiction is an important lens on potential futures.

Two examples of visionary movements that are happening now are Peter Joseph’s Zeitgeist and the Jacques Fresco’s utopian realist Venus Project.

The Culture of “Non/Fiction”

In this time of post-truth and fake news, quick reactions and commentary on fidgety social media, when nothing lasts long or can be trusted, it’s refreshing to have voices available to us that offer an alternative to the mainstream global culture of Fiction. As an alternative, Karolina Bednarz and Dorota Groyecka, two young Polish activists/journalists, continuing the tradition of reportage established by renowned fellow-countryman Ryszard Kapuscinski, have just issued a new publication called “Non/Fiction “, part of a growing Slow Journalism* movement. 

‘Slow journalism” represents a different approach to reporting. Instead of joining the relentless electronic mass media chase for the latest, most sensational news, Non/Fiction is committed to in-depth reflection on pressing issues of our every-day lives such as hunger, housing and labour.  Each issue focuses on one important topic, inviting specialists in the relevant fields to contribute their thoughts on the subject.

Non/Fiction 1 was published in 2017. Produced on heavy paper and supplemented by in-person and on-line discussions, Non/Fiction delivers an important blow in the struggle for a new values-based journalism of serious reflection, and integrity. 

We are pleased to bring this member of the slow journalism family to the attention of Canadian readers for the first time.  Please tell us about any examples of ‘slow journalism’ that you know about.  Here are the other examples that we know about to date in addition to Non/Fiction.  All the publications listed below are in English and can be ordered online.                                                

 1.The Outpost (Lebanon) http://www.the-outpost.com

 2. Berlin Quarterly (Germany)  http://berlinquarterly.com                                                              

 3. Delayed Gratification (England)               

                                                                                                                            

Join the movement for slow journalism!  As our contribution to universal open access to the latest and best knowledge on key public issues we will donate a copy of each Non-Fiction issue to the Toronto Public Library system. 

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 * Slow journalism definition: independent, original, in-depth, collaborative, interactive reporting