Dismissing China’s repression in Xinjiang Vijay Prashad and Tings Chak recently defended China’s policy toward ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang. David Brophy exposes the weakness of their case.

An absolutely masterful take-down of a couple clumsy apologists for China’s repression in Xinjiang. This is how you do it! tempestmag.org/2026/04/dism...

Hungarians are singing ‘We Are The Champions’ in celebration of the landslide victory of Peter Magyar

This is also true! Whittle down just about everything we've come to expect from the government of a wealthy society--education, research, safety inspections, arts funding, whatever. But amp up the coercive capacity. And provide a sweet playground for the connected insiders of the ruling movement.

@joshtpm.bsky.social's trenchant take on DoD budget: "It is a huge reorientation of the entire federal government from being a modern government, focused primarily on supporting and protecting its citizens, to one focused on, and built for, force and violence." talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-n...

Please call your US rep and senators. Yes, I know it can feel like screaming into a black hole. Still. Call them NOW.

reps.fyi

202-224-3121

Protesters gather flowers in memory of Zhou Enlai during the 1976 Tiananmen Incident.

We are already at the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Tiananmen incident, a protest that was suppressed, then legitimated by the Party.

Federal NDP elect filmmaker Avi Lewis as new leader Lewis, who was considered the front-runner in the contest, takes over leadership in a period of turbulence for the party

I think this is the best outcome? Definitely better to have someone who sparks excitement as a leader than someone you just imagine others will be OK with. I hope Lewis recognizes the urgency of repairing ties to western party activists, though. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Just saw Josh Ritter play a solo set in my little corner of Canada. Still remember him as the fourth-year folk singer heartthrob when I was a freshman in college.

Check out our AAS panel: "Class and Contentious Politics in China" cdmcd.co/mR5ZGn #AAS2026

Annual Labour Lecture: Dr. Anelyse Weiler - UBC Okanagan Events Calendar Find out how labour movements have advanced stronger workplace safety laws at this year's annual labour lecture.

Our third annual labour lecture co-hosted with the North Okanagan Labour Council is tomorrow (Thursday). Dr. Anelyse Weiler will be discussing farm workers' struggles. events.ok.ubc.ca/event/annual.... Join us if you are in Kelowna!

Support MP Kwan’s bill to close the US Loophole! Canada is quietly arming Israel — and fueling genocide. Email your MP and demand they support MP Kwan’s private members’ bill to shut down the U.S. loophole that lets Canadian weapons end up in Israel...

Discussion is starting on the bill this week. www.cjpme.org/no_more_loop...

What’s with Carney signing off on every American intervention overseas? Venezuela, Iran… I can’t tell if it is an attempt to win favor or a reflection of his actual convictions about the world.

In Major Breakthrough, Volkswagen Auto Workers Reach Tentative Deal Volkswagen had dangled a treat: a ratification bonus of $4,000, sweetened by $1,500 if a first contract at its assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was approved by Halloween 2025. But auto worker...

“Equipment operator Angel Gomez felt the power shift after the vote. A supervisor came up to ask him what he’d be able to do now. ‘The way you’re touching the machines now, you ain’t going to be able to do that,’ he told him.” labornotes.org/2026/02/majo...

Black Flag Book Canadian Tour │ Exclaim! Greg Ginn's fresh-faced latest reboot of the band play 11 cities across six provinces this spring

Black Flag is coming to Kelowna. Hive mind: do I go see this reboot? exclaim.ca/music/articl...

An image of the cover of the book “The Life and Death of Chinese Civil Society.”

Just got my copy of Mujun Zhou’s new book, which provides a really compelling argument about why China’s various grassroots social reform movements embraced and then became disaffected with Chinese liberals’ grand “civil society” project (I provide an appreciative blurb on the back).

Opposition movements elsewhere have brought down competitive authoritarian regimes by leaning into traditional get-out-the-vote tactics despite the deck being stacked against them—-and then calling out irregularities afterward. See Bunce and Wolchik’s work: www.cambridge.org/core/books/d...

A fast, effective campaign. For context: the Jim Pattison Group is something of a grocery monopolist in BC--they own at least five grocery store chains in my city--plus they control car dealerships, radio stations, and billboards. Yet, the company obviously felt vulnerable to charges of complicity.

As a Swedish-American, I am delighted to be on the receiving end of these accusations!

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio) YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

This is not in fact the definition of the “working class.”

indivisible.org/resource/cal...

A Santa Claus who looks like a cheerful Karl Marx

This year’s batch of inflatable Santas in my neighborhood all seem ready to (cheerfully) pronounce, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf…”

How Bad Is It?: Three Political Scientists Say America Is No Longer a Democracy Podcast Episode · The Political Scene | The New Yorker · 2025-12-11 · 49m

Best discussion about where the US stands right now that I’ve listened to in a while. Featuring Stephen Levitsky, @dziblatt.bsky.social, and @lucanway.bsky.social. Somehow at once sobering and hopeful. podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/t...

Kelowna-area MLA wants provincial holiday in honour of the Freedom Convoy - Kelowna News A Kelowna-area MLA wants a new statutory holiday to honour the 2022 Freedom Convoy that took over downtown Ottawa.

Another embarrassment from an MLA near me: a proposal to establish a provincial holiday in honor of the Freedom Convoy. Won a somewhat close election last year. Checked an old news report and she said then she would focus on “affordability, housing and healthcare.” www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna...

All I can say is that if the Democrats come back, they better not bail these people out this time around like Obama felt he had to do in 2009. At least not without asking for a LOT more in return. Otherwise, both bad policy & bad politics.

Will check this out. But didn’t Graeber and Wengrow’s book argue the opposite—that pre-agricultural societies could be hierarchical (sometimes / for some parts of the year) and settling down did not necessarily lead to hierarchy?

The point isn't that one thing cancels out the other. And other positive changes could also be mentioned: noticeably quieter streets due to EVs, the continued expansion of high-speed rail, etc. Just saying that, at this particular moment, China's energy transition slams you with contradictions.

Windmills in North China

Smog in North China

Traveled through N. China for a few days and was impressed by both the expansion of green power since I last spent real time there--solar panels draping terraced hills and poking up out of villages, windmills along ridges--and, at the same time, the persistence incredible levels of air pollution.

More from the scene