Brains behind Occupy Wall Street disappointed by the "loony left"

Last week, Kalle Lasn, editor of Adbusters magazine and the man behind the campaign that launched the Occupy Wall Street movement, expressed his disappointment in the quality of the protesters who showed up at Occupy camps in Canada and the US. In an interview with CJME radio, he said:

"I must admit, there is something kind of special about Canada," Lasn said in a telephone interview. "Somehow I found that many of the things that were happening in the U.S., there seems to be more vigour and spunk in some of the occupations there."

Lasn's impressions of the comparative lassitude stemmed from visits to the Occupy site in his adopted home town of Vancouver, which _ along with other urban campsites in Toronto, Montreal, Quebec and Edmonton _ was forcibly shut down by city authorities earlier this week.

While the site attracted its share of energized, politically engaged youth who the Estonian-born Lasn describes as "the new left," he also noted a stronger presence from fringe elements that has given left wing movements a bad name in the past, he said.

"I just had a feeling that there was a little bit too much of the loony left there," Lasn said. "I had a feeling that we needed more of the young, new-left spunk that I felt was happening in Zuccotti Park. I didn't see all that much of it here in Vancouver."

"New-left spunk"? So that's what that smell was. Mr. Lasn naturally blamed the collapse of the movement on "the mainstream media":

Lasn is quick to lay much of the blame on mainstream media, who he accuses of depicting the protesters as lawless rebels and their camp sites as dens of iniquity.

By zeroing in on incidents of drug use and crime _ which take place in staggering numbers every day _ Canada's news outlets failed to communicate the key message at the heart of the "Occupy movement," he said.

"The Canadian media really dropped the ball on this one," Lasn said. "Instead of seeing it as a movement of young people fighting for a different kind of future, which is so beautiful and so valid, they basically saw it as a pesky irritation that had to be got rid of."

You've got to be kidding me. The mainstream media handled the Occupy protests with kid gloves and hyped it beyond belief. Most reporters filed breathless stories like they were calling in from Tiananmen Square. If it hadn't been for bloggers and a few outlets like Sun News and the National Post, we would have learned very little about the filth, violence and substance abuse that was happening.

I personally visited two Occupy camps in Ottawa and Kingston. I saw for myself what was going on and I would have been really surprised if I had relied solely on the CBC, CTV or the Toronto Star for my information.

I have news for Kalle Lasn: the loony left IS the new left.

Time to end Ontario's beer cartel

Most beer drinkers in Ontario don't realize that the neighbourhood beer retailer with the folksy name "The Beer Store" is not a branch of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, nor is it run by any government agency at all. It is in fact a legal cartel run by Ontario's three largest brewers: Molson's (now owned by US brewer Coors), Labatt's (now a branch of Anheuser Busch InBev of Belgium) and Sleeman's (owned by Japanese brewer Sapporo). It jealously guards its monopoly and furiously resists attempts to allow competition, and it's not above strong-arming small craft brewers to do so.

In 2008, The Beer Store (TBS) harassed the Brick Brewing Company of Waterloo and threatened to cut off its supply of industry-standard long-necked bottles if it didn't stop bottling its Red Cap beer in distinctive stubby bottles. This prompted a lengthy and expensive court case which Brick eventually won:

The fight over the stubby is just one example of how tough it is to compete in a retail distribution system owned by some of his biggest rivals, Brickman told the Star earlier this summer. His comments came in an interview for a series examining the ownership structure at The Beer Store.

Though licensed by the province, the retail chain that accounts for more than 80 per cent of all beer sales in Ontario is owned and operated by Canada's three largest brewers, which in turn are foreign dominated.

They are Labatt, owned by Belgium's InBev SA, Molson, part of U.S.-based Molson Coors, and Sleeman, now owned by Sapporo of Japan.

Together they control $2.5 billion in beer sales in the province, with little government involvement.

So, when Brick got into a fight with The Beer Store over its use of the non-standard bottle, it had nowhere to go but court to complain – an expensive route for a small firm, Brickman noted.

"Our beef is that the owners (of the store) have their own agenda," he said.

That same year TBS squeezed the Beau's All Natural Brewing Company, a craft brewer in Vankleek Hill near Ottawa. Beau's sold its signature Lug Tread Lager in bottles with ceramic swing tops. Although Beau's didn't sell its beer at Beer Store outlets (opting for the LCBO, the only other legal retail outlet in the province), customers were returning the empties to the Beer Store and getting a refund. However, since Beau's was not carried by the Beer Store, TBS refused to give the company its bottles back. Beau's eventually set up a charity bottle drive through Operation Go Home, an Ottawa based youth shelter, just to get its bottles returned.

Beau's is again in the sights of the beer monopoly because it had the temerity to set up a home delivery service (proceeds were again being donated to Operation Go Home) which last week ran afoul of Ontario's Alcohol and Gaming Commission. Steve Beauchesne of Beau's explains:

Today we launched Buy Your Beau’s Online, our project with Operation Come Home to deliver beer to people’s homes in Ottawa, and promptly had the service effectively shut down by the AGCO.

That’s right, after less than a day of operation, BYBO has been closed, after another brewery (we weren’t told which one) complained. The complaint has nothing to do with the service or the fact that at-risk youth were involved, but over a technicality involving what I believe to be a typo in the regulations around home beer delivery services.

Our retail store operates as an authorized beer store by the LCBO, but the regulation around home delivery uses the wording ‘operated’ instead of ‘authorized,’ which is how it is worded to allow us to sell to special occasion permit holders, and retail customers. It is interesting to note that the Beer Store, which is not operated by the LCBO or government is somehow allowed to sell to home delivery services.

So…

No specialty beer delivered to our Ottawa customers.
No employment for homeless youth, to get them off the street.
No additional revenue for Operation Come Home.

What’s really got me irked about this situation is the complete arbitrariness of the regulation that is being used to kill a social enterprise designed to do good for the community and the malicious behaviour by another brewery in this province.

The Beer Store is a retail outlet owned by three breweries. Why would they be allowed to sell to a home delivery service and Beau’s (or any other brewery) not be? It doesn’t make any sense, it’s anti-competitive and it restricts choice to the residents of this province.

I know that there are a lot of cut-throat competitive tactics used by some of the less honourable members of the brewing community, but taking a job from a homeless youth to thwart us is beyond reprehensible.

I’m disappointed that the AGCO has decided to act this way, using the letter and not the spirit of the law to guide their decision-making, but ultimately I understand that they may not have had a choice once the complaint was lodged. I would have rathered more consultation from them or that they refused the delivery license application when they were informed how the service would work. If that had happened, at least Corey and Kyle, the two youths who had been hired to start this service, wouldn’t have had their hopes lifted and then let down in such a dramatic way.

I’m simply aghast, though that another brewery instigated this.

I’m really disappointed that this service is unfortunately going to be shut down.

I’m sorry to the youth who have been dealt yet another misfortune, to our customers who were looking forward to gaining better access to our beer and to other breweries who probably would have been able to use similar models to compete better in this Province.

Beer purchases are tightly controlled in Ontario. Beer drinkers can get their suds from the Beer Store, a cartel run by the three big brewers and regulated by the Ontario government, or from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, a liquor monopoly run by the Ontario government. This crazy system was set up in 1927 after Prohibition ended to placate the nervous Nellies of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and almost a century later we're still under its thumb. What kind of civilized country still treats its alcohol consumers like crazed underage teenagers and permits a cartel run by three foreign multinationals to control the beer supply? The province has a paternalistic assumption that the citizens of Ontario are not mature or responsible enough to handle wider more unrestricted access to alcohol. It's embarrassing and insulting.

By the way, if you want to sign a petition urging the Ontario government to end the Beer Store's monopoly, go here. Free the oppressed microbrewers of Ontario! And if you're in the Ottawa area, pick up a case of Beau's Lug Tread Lager - it's really good.

Occupy Kingston: This is what a pathetic protest looks like

I was in Kingston, Ontario this afternoon taking a stroll downtown on a beautiful fall day when I stumbled on the Occupy Kingston encampment in Confederation Park in front of Kingston's beautiful 19th century city hall. I had such fun talking to the folks at Occupy Ottawa a few weeks ago that I thought I would wander over and see how the revolution was going.

Kingston is a city of about 150 000 people (including the surrounding suburbs) at the headwaters of the St Lawrence River and home to Queen's University (approximately 15 000 students) and the Royal Military College of Canada. It is a town of remarkable beauty with a distinguished history; it was once the capital of the united provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. I was curious to see how a movement to bring down the capitalist system would fare in this establishment town; I was confident the lefty Sociology and Post-colonial Studies students at Queen's could be counted on to put on a decent show.

Check out their website - there's the standard boiler-plate agitprop about being part of the world-wide "Occupy" movement that sounds quite impressive:

From America to Asia, from Africa to Europe, people are rising up to claim their rights and demand a true democracy. Now it is time for all of us to join in a global non violent protest.

The ruling powers work for the benefit of just a few, ignoring the will of the vast majority and the human and environmental price we all have to pay. This intolerable situation must end.

United in one voice, we will let politicians, and the financial elites they serve, know it is up to us, the people, to decide our future. We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers who do not represent us.

On October 15th, we will meet on the streets to initiate the global change we want. We will peacefully demonstrate, talk and organize until we make it happen.

They've been at it for over a month - surely the movement has grown to the point where the citizens of Kingston can no longer ignore it. I wandered over expecting to encounter a raucous crowd of malcontents, but that was far from the case. In fact, when I spotted their weird igloo made of fiberglass tarpaulins, I thought it was maybe a construction excavation that had been covered over for the weekend.

This couldn't be the Kingston cell of the infamous Occupy Wall Street movement, could it? I walked around the structure and finally found a sign that said that this was in fact ground zero for the Kingston Revolution (even if they couldn't spell "Kingston" properly).

The "People's Tent" is apparently sponsored by organized labour - there was a United Steelworkers flag flying over it and a banner from the Ontario Federation of Labour taped to one side. Steelworkers of the world, unite!

The Occupiers also apparently have a problem with WalMart:

I would love to have talked with the protesters about how the destruction of WalMart would help the working class, or how the hobbling of giant corporations like Stelco and Dofasco would benefit the Steelworkers of Canada, but I couldn't find anyone to talk to. There was no one around. Not a soul. The camp was empty. In fact the only people anywhere near the encampment were a young couple who were taking pictures of each other in front of the People's Tent. This is apparently now the main function of Occupy Kingston - a backdrop for tourists to use to update their Facebook photo pages.

This is the movement that is sweeping the land? This is what the mainstream media have been breathlessly and uncritically reporting as North America's "Arab Spring moment"? Pathetic.

My advice to the Mayor of Kingston is to leave this camp in place to expose it as the sham that it is. Trying to get a court injunction against the occupiers and sending the police in to clear out the tents will only feed the media narrative and give the occupiers undeserved publicity. Wait until the winter arrives in earnest and the tarpaulins collapse under the weight of a Kingston winter, and then send in the Parks and Recreation department in the spring to clean up the mess.

This is how it's done, folks

In New York, a former NYPD cop teaches a lesson to an Occupy Wall Street protester:

Meet New York’s newest hero.

Kevin Hiltunen, a former NYPD officer, yesterday grabbed an Occupy Wall Street demonstrator by the collar and dragged him out of a Queens school where he’d been heckling US Rep. Bob Turner at the congressman’s swearing-in ceremony.

“I guess you could say I sorted him out,” said Hiltunen, 48, his jacket and tie barely mussed after dragging the scruffy protester out on his rear end.

Atlas Shrugged, the movie - a plot rewrite

Peter Foster’s review of Atlas Shrugged (Part 1), the movie, criticizes its implausible plot lines and suggests a re-write:

... its slightly off-kilter, futuristic, film noir look does capture - at least to some degree - the wonderful weirdness of the book on which it is based.

... The movie is set in today's not-too-distant future, but has kept Dagny in railroads and Hank in metals by positing a massive oil crisis due to the implosion of the Middle East. The Dow at 4,000 we can believe, but oil at $37.50 a gallon? At that price, a Chevy Volt might actually not be such a bad deal. Domestic oil is once again king (despite being utterly unaffordable) but is being carried by train. Whatever happened to pipelines?

None of this makes much sense. ... it should have been thoroughly reformulated to reflect statism's new threats.

... How's this for a rewrite? Dagny now runs a pipeline company trying to build a huge new system for a form of oil previously uneconomic but now made available by wonderful advances in capitalist technology. Let's say this oil is located in Alberta and her line is to go to the U.S. refineries of the Gulf Coast, to replace imports from dictatorships.

... Hank is still in the steel industry but his new wonder metal is now to be used to build a cheaper, stronger and safer type of pipe. However, he is opposed not by other steel or pipe makers, but by [new villains:] ... a pack of meretricious, politically savvy environmental NGOs ... fronted by naive chanting muddle-heads, who have no idea where their rich lifestyles originate, and backed by capitalist foundations (the irony!) that have been hijacked by socialists, and by CEOs either too cowardly or stupid to say no (or by those who seek to take advantage of government handouts to produce throwback technologies). These NGOs claim that the oil is "dirty" and destroying the climate and that Hank Rearden's new and better steel in unsafe, and threatens aquifers and environmentally sensitive areas. Their hysterical claims are eagerly swallowed by gullible liberal media. Meanwhile politicians, despite high unemployment, are prepared to sacrifice tens of thousands of jobs because they, too, are cowed by the ENGOs, and in any case attracted by the unparalleled power prospects of aspiring to control the weather.

... I know this is all a bit farfetched, but we are talking a movie plot here. ... [:-)]

Works for me!

Ann Coulter on Obama's crony capitalism

At the 3 minute mark:

Occupy Ottawa - at this rate, the revolution is going to take awhile

I was in Ottawa on the weekend to attend a concert at the downtown National Arts Centre, so on Saturday afternoon while I was waiting to hobnob with the bourgeoisie I wandered down the block to Confederation Park where the "99%" are camped out to Occupy Ottawa. From what I saw, the revolution is going to be a tough sell.

Confederation Park is located within sight of the Parliament Buildings at the corner of Laurier and Elgin, about a block from the War Memorial and the National Arts Centre. It covers about a city block and fronts onto two of Ottawa's busiest streets. The protesters have set up a tent city on the lawn in one corner of the park.

Ottawa is of course the national capital and is the fourth largest urban area in Canada after Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Including the surrounding suburbs, it has a population approaching 1 150 000 people. You'd think that here at the nexus of the government/urban/military/industrial complex the Occupy Wall Street movement would find a seething cauldron of revolutionary fervor ripe for upheaval, but apparently the message isn't resonating with Ottawa residents; I counted less than a hundred people in the park at 1:00 pm on a beautiful fall day, and most of the ones I talked to were from out of town.

The tent city has maybe 50 tents set up around a forlorn and muddy common area that serves as sort of a main office. Here's a panoramic shot taken from Elgin St:

There's a little soup kitchen with a few people standing around chatting about revolution:

The residents mill about, hanging up wet bedding and making announcements using their weird call-and-response "human microphone". While I was there I heard someone yell "Mic check" and everyone responded "MIC CHECK". The first person yelled "Is there anyone here from the security committee?" and everyone standing around chanted "IS THERE ANYONE HERE FROM THE SECURITY COMMITTEE?" even though no one in the camp was further than 20 yards from the person asking the question.

Everyone seems bored and waiting for something to happen. People skateboard and throw frisbees around. There's a permanent smell of pot smoke in the air.

The usual angry signs are scattered around the park, but it seems a little forced. The messages are mixed to say the least - this sign outlines the broad spectrum of their grievances, which just about covers everything:

There were several confusing signs referring to the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act which was passed by the US Congress - not sure what that has to do with Ottawa or the Canadian banking system, but the movement is a big tent, apparently.

I must say, for a group that according to the breathless reporting of the media is about to march on the manor houses with torches and pitchforks, it's the most unthreatening crowd I've ever been in. I've felt more on edge during high school basketball games. They have meetings all the time and there are tons of committees and healthy snacks; they even recycle their garbage. It's like a meeting of an elementary school PTA.

People are friendly and love to talk; I chatted for a while with these two young men, one from Vancouver via Montreal, and the other from Toronto. The guy on the left smoked pot during the entire conversation while his two pet rats clambered over him; both of them were eager to explain why they were there.

The guy with the pipe said he had come up from Occupy Montreal because "there were too many rules" in the Montreal camp. Apparently Occupy Ottawa is a lot more libertarian. The guy in black told me he had come from Toronto where he "ran a transportation company" which also has a branch in Ottawa. I asked him who's running the company while he's camped out in Confederation Park: he responded that he "has employees" and that he runs the company from his smart phone, and he really should be home doing invoices. Sounds pretty bourgeois to me.

When I asked them how it was going in the camp, they both said things were generally fine, but they were having problems with homeless people. "They come in at night and eat our food, and a lot of them are drunk" said Pipe Guy. Transportation Guy nodded and said "I support the homeless, but a lot of them are taking advantage. Sometimes they create problems - like one of them assaulted a woman the other day." When I asked him what they do when this kind of thing happens in the camp, he said "we call the police".

Transportation Guy seemed a little frustrated by the lack of focus; "No one's in charge here", he complained. "Isn't that kind of the point?" I politely prodded. "Well, when there are no leaders, nothing gets done" he responded. There you have it - the only thing this anarchist movement needs is leaders.

I asked how long they were preparing to camp in the park; "as long as it takes" was the reply. When I asked if they had ever spent a winter in Ottawa, they said that they were preparing to insulate their tents, and that they would build igloos once the snow was deep enough. "When change comes and the system crashes, we want people to have a place where they can come when it happens." Transportation Guy said that he figured the police would kick them out by Winterlude, the winter carnival that happens in Ottawa in February, since they usually put the ice sculptures in the park. They were negotiating with the local Algonquin natives for permission to camp since "they basically own all the land around here anyway". If the police kick them out for Winterlude, they're planning to move to Parliament Hill.

Later that afternoon we were walking through the Byward Market. Capitalism seems alive and well there - the place was thronged with people buying stuff and enjoying the weather in the sidewalk cafes. Business seems to be good; a far cry from the sad atmosphere up at Confederation Park.

In the middle of our stroll, we crossed paths with Ottawa's Hallowe'en Zombie Walk. Hundreds of people dressed as zombies were lurching down Dalhousie Street moaning "brains". There was even an appearance by the late Colonel Gaddafi. The zombies outnumbered the protesters at least ten to one, proving that in the historic contest between anarchy and the market, the market usually wins.

Later that night on the way back from the concert, we heard music coming from Confederation Park. It was Open Mic Night at Occupy Ottawa, and a kid not much older than twenty was singing half-heartedly to a crowd of about fifty people, while bourgeois corporate types like me watched on in amusement. He was singing Bob Dylan's "The times they are a'changin' " and Neil Young's "After the gold rush" while clouds of pot smoke drifted through the park. That's the image I'll remember of Occupy Ottawa - kids too young to remember the actual sixties trying in vain to recreate them while members of the generation that lived through them look on bemusedly on their way to and from their jobs. This movement is based on hot air, nostalgia and ennui - they'll be out of the park by the time the snow falls.

"Evil corporations"

From Blazing Cat Fur.

"We Day"

In Vancouver yesterday:

... Some 18,000 students ...[at]Vancouver’s Rogers Arena Thursday.

... "we are building a school in Haiti...” said Jacob Gebrewold, ... one of those youth, ... 15, a Grade 11 student at Port Moody secondary. Gebrewold, who was attending his second We Day...
“... my parents are from Ethiopia and there’s a huge Ethiopian community here in British Columbia,” he said. And they’ve raised me and inspired me to believe in the fact that I am as big a part of the change as any senator, any lawyer, any president.

... a range of speakers and entertainers from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to NBA all-star Shaquille O’Neal, actress and activist Mia Farrow, the band Hedley, former child soldier Michel Chikwanine and others. [What?! GW Bush wasn't invited!]

Well it’s nice to see that kids are being encouraged to help the less fortunate. But that comes off as “the biggest part of ‘We’ is 'Me'" - exactly what we might expect from the narcissistic self-esteem generation. Young Jacob doesn’t seem to get that “senators”, “lawyers” and “presidents” may have done something to earn their status and positions of influence. Participating in “We” fests may be a start in that direction but no more than a start.

It would be more encouraging if we had some confidence that these students were getting a good grounding in the knowledge and skills needed for them to understand the real world and how it is that they came to be in such a privileged position, to be able to afford to help with “building a school in Haiti”. However, I expect they’re getting more “social justice” indoctrination - in the evils of racist, white, Western colonialism and capitalism - than anything.  Look for them to be participating in tomorrow's "Occupy Vancouver" day.

Ben & Jerry's Megacorp. Ltd. Supports "Occupy Wall Street"

The Board of Directors of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Inc. has issued a statement of support for the protesters of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement:

We know the media will either ignore you or frame the issue as to who may be getting pepper sprayed rather than addressing the despair and hardships borne by so many, or accurately conveying what this movement is about. All this goes on while corporate profits continue to soar and millionaires whine about paying a bit more in taxes. And we have not even mentioned the environment.

This is priceless coming from a company that, as Ed Driscoll points out, is a division of the British/Dutch multinational corporation Unilever:

Unilever owns more than 400 brands as a result of acquisitions, however, the company focuses on what are called the "billion-dollar brands", 13 brands, each of which achieve annual sales in excess of €1 billion. Unilever's top 25 brands account for more than 70% of sales

I'm sure that goes over well with Naomi Klein and the No Logo crowd. By the way, what does it take to run a socially-conscious politically-correct Ben & Jerry's franchise these days? Here's a helpful guide:

What does it take to become a Ben & Jerry's franchisee?

• Strong business acumen and knowledge of how to develop and operate a business.
• Restaurant management, retail management, or business ownership experience in the last 10 years.
• A full-time commitment to building and developing the Ben & Jerry's franchise business.
• A minimum net worth of $300,000 (excluding residence), of which $80,000 must be liquid.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions:

• Average total start-up cost per shop is approximately $250,000.
• Our franchisee fee is on a sliding scale from $30,000 to $9,000.
• Royalties are 3% of gross sales; the marketing contribution is 4%.
• We do not offer financing, but we do have relationships with national lenders who prefer to work with our franchisees. This approval process can be expedited to about 2-3 weeks.

Well, I'm glad the Board of Directors is putting its money where its mouth is, so to speak. Plus, it's apparently good for business - Unilever stock was trading today (on the New York Stock Exchange, oddly enough) at a share price of US$31.87, up $0.09.

"Capitalism: Thumbs Up Or Thumbs Down?"

[Via]