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I was just wondering if any other babblers read this publication. I never seem to be able to get through it. I mean, it takes forever to read all of the many (good) articles.
Any suggestions? Do you read it while on the throne? With green eggs and ham? I'm serious. I just never get through it all.
signed,
a weary CCPA supporter.
Is there a university in your community? The university library might carry it, I know that is the case at the Universities of Brandon and Winnipeg.
I never read it. Usually by the time I am finished grimacing and groaning my way through the Toronto Star, I can barely make it to babble. Mostly I read books. I am reading about the rise of Blackwater now. Very depressing.. and weird... if only it was merely a good old mercenary outfit, and not a front for Christo-fascists.
I haven't looked other than in my local (small community) library. They had one year's worth and that was it. I requested they get a subscription, but, alas, teen fashion magazines and golf digests get a higher priority.
Anyway, that's not the problem. I have a subscription and I just renewed it. I'm talking about reading and getting through the whole thing. it's exhausting.
I have lots of reading due to some ps courses i'm taking but, of course, i have my "other" reading. Some is books, of course, some online. I still like to read Monthly Review even though it's at a pretty high theoretical level.
Anyway, i just felt that i should be more up on canadian social issues and the research around those issues and so got a sub to the Monitor. It's really, really good but i think i need to be a full time social scientist or something.
Yeah. Things become pretty abstract when you get into the deep stuff. Reality strikes though when you try and explain in simple terms how capitalism relies on having surplus labour in the market in order to supress wages without using the words "Marx" or "Socialism" or "Capitalism", as I did today at a local coffee shop. Sometimes just the basics count for a lot.
the monitor is great. i don't have a subscription, but i'm lucky enough to get a monthly copy from someone in my apartment building!
Funny, i gave a few issues to my dad, who currently votes conservative and he was really into it, like he discovered independent media for the first time.
I haven't recieved it for several months, because after getting it for many years I forgot to renew. I'll have to get on that. I keep them in a basket beside the livingroom sofa, so I can just pick them up now and then.
I find the moniter to be an incredibly depressing publication, despite the effort every month to throw in some humour.
That's odd. It's supposed to come from an organization about POLICY ALTERNATIVES. But I have to admit that the same idea has occurred to me. I read their educational magazine Our Schools Our Selves and that is quite positive.
I really do not care for the poetry or the portions where they have the scripted scenes from "Yes Minister." What the heck is the point of that? I rather they would dedicate one or two pages to a fact sheet on a particular topic that one could photocopy for the office door or the dorm door or a telephone poll. Some of the articles are great and others not so much but at least a one page or two page fact sheet could make it useful as an intro to others who find their articles too daunting. Maybe make the font size a wee bit larger as their demographic is aging.
The poetry is a break from the unrelentingly depressing facts that the authors pile on. Thank God for the poetry.
It is not good poetry and it serves no purpose. If you need a break, put it down, get some water, play ping-pong, etc. Its a waste of space and only encourages others to publish more useless poetry. If it was short, to-the-point, and pointed like Calvin Trillin then I could sort of take it but it is completely otherwise.
I read it from cover to cover.. I think it is one of the best publications I receive, very educational and informative. It is unfortunate that the material cannot be emailed to friends who are bombarded by rightwing media.
big jim
Hey big jim, the CCPA does post some of the Monitor articles for free access on their website. I used to get the print edition on occasion through my union, but not lately. And I agree, there's lots of good stuff there.
Just send the CCPA money ever month and they will send you the Monitor as a bonus. As for its gloomy content unfortunately the world we live in is so fucked up that any attempt to analyze the current state of affairs is bound to be depressing.
However I also find some interesting ideas on where to go from here in its pages. The CCPA is a voice that all progressives with a few extra dollars a month should support, IMO.
I often go into the BC CCPA's website and love the partnerships the local office has developed with other left organizations.
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/offices/bc
The Living Wage Campaign is a good example.
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/livingwage2013
When I was free-lancing a lot -- especially in pre-internet days -- and also when I was editor of rabble.ca and oneworld.ca, I used the Monitor as a research tool. I still think of it much more in that way than as something I sit down to read methodically. I skim it the day it arrives and even much later, I might want information on something and I remember where I've seen it!
Don't forget that there are three CCPA blogs hosted by rabble to read while you're waiting for your copy of The Monitor to arrive: Behind The Numbers, Policy Note (BC) and Policyfix (MB).
The CCPA Monitor is now, free, online.
Amazing.
Zippededoodah! Thanks ikosmos.
Indeed!! Thank you!
The Monitor, May/June 2015
CCPA volume 23 no 2 July-August 2016: A Democratic Media is Possible
It's free. Every progressive Canadian activist should be reading this magazine.