This is an unusual and refreshing book for activists told through the unfolding of the ancient Chinese work, the Tao te Ching, as it applies to the work and effectiveness of modern activism. I have never heard of the author, even though he also lives in Victoria. He is an environmental activist, whereas my focus has always been peace and social justice, I am, at best, a passive supportive environmentalist, so I am not too surprised we have not met. But is this a case of the prophet at home being ignored? I wonder if he gets more attention elsewhere. Read more [...] Category Archives: Book Reviews
Legault, Stephen. CARRY TIGER TO MOUNTAIN The Tao of Activism and Leadership. Arsenal Pulp Press. 2006 Vancouver, BC.
This is an unusual and refreshing book for activists told through the unfolding of the ancient Chinese work, the Tao te Ching, as it applies to the work and effectiveness of modern activism. I have never heard of the author, even though he also lives in Victoria. He is an environmental activist, whereas my focus has always been peace and social justice, I am, at best, a passive supportive environmentalist, so I am not too surprised we have not met. But is this a case of the prophet at home being ignored? I wonder if he gets more attention elsewhere. Read more [...] Comments Off on Legault, Stephen. CARRY TIGER TO MOUNTAIN The Tao of Activism and Leadership. Arsenal Pulp Press. 2006 Vancouver, BC.
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LEILA KHALED: Icon of Palestinian Liberation. Sarah Irving. 2012. Pluto Press, UK. ISBN 978-0-7453-2951-2
Review by Theresa Wolfwood
“I believe in my people and I believe that we have people all around the world supporting us.”
While most women in the late sixties worried about the length of their miniskirt, one of their contemporaries was worried about the occupation of her homeland and the forced exile of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including herself. Leila Khaled became famous for her airplane hijacking; famous as a woman and as a Palestinian woman.
The author based her research for the book on records of the past and Khaled’s Read more [...]
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Lindsay-Poland, John. EMPERORS IN THE JUNGLE: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama. 2003. Duke University Press, USA.
“…the book examines the manner in which Panama served as an instrument for grander U.S. aims and the role of ideas about race and the tropic…”
The author of this excellent history is a peace activist and Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean who lived for many years in Panama. He is one of the organizers of the NOUSBASES Network which hosted a panel at the World Peace Forum on ‘Foreign Military Bases: Instruments of Domination’.
As Guillermo Castro, former Deputy Minister of Read more [...] Comments Off on Lindsay-Poland, John. EMPERORS IN THE JUNGLE: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama. 2003. Duke University Press, USA.
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Linn, Susan. Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood. 2004. The New Press, New York, USA and London, UK.
If I had small children, I would want to take them and run for the bush and homestead in the wilderness after reading this terrifying tale of the destruction of our first humanity - childhood. Billions of dollars are being spent to sell everything to children. Linn'concern is that, "The explosion of marketing aimed at kids today is precisely targeted, refined by scientific method and honed by child psychologists..."
The author is a parent, a citizen activist and a lecturer in psychiatry. She researched this subject with passion and professionalism Read more [...] Comments Off on Linn, Susan. Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood. 2004. The New Press, New York, USA and London, UK.
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Litvinoff, Miles and John Madeley. 50 Reasons to Buy Fair Trade. 2007. Pluto Press. UK.
“The mainstream trading system is failing the poor. Fair Trade offers partnership in place of exploitation.”
Beyond the general response when people ask why one should support fair trade – something that I usually sum up as a better life for producers and an opportunity for consumers to challenge the bottom line mentality of ruthless global corporations, this useful volume offers some very specific reasons and specific details of more general reasons.
Fair Trade has been growing spectacularly in both quantity and variety of goods Read more [...]
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Liversedge Ronald. Mac-Pap: Memoir of a Canadian in the Spanish Civil War 2013. edited by David Yorke New Star Books, Vancouver, BC. . ISBN: 9781554200719
Review by Theresa Wolfwood
“We were the direct casualties of the “Non-Intervention Pact, “which was the most open and cynical betrayal of a nation in all of history.”
When I took recent visitors from Europe to see the memorial to the Canadians of the Mac-Pap (Mackenzie–Papineau battalion) who fought in the Spanish Civil War, they were amazed. Why would anyone travel from Canada to voluntarily fight in someone else’s civil war?
This book is one Canadian’s story of why approximately 1600 (1200 in the Mac-Pap by most estimates; Read more [...] Comments Off on Liversedge Ronald. Mac-Pap: Memoir of a Canadian in the Spanish Civil War 2013. edited by David Yorke New Star Books, Vancouver, BC. . ISBN: 9781554200719
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Livesay, Dorothy. THE SELF-COMPLETING TREE. Selected poems. 1992. Press Porcepic. Victoria & Toronto, Canada.
Dorothy Livesay was a friend, an inspiration and a companera for me. We met late in her life, not at a literary event, but at a commemoration of Hiroshima Day on a warm sunny day in a field overlooking the sea, on a small island near Victoria. A few years later when she moved to Victoria, we became friends and co—workers in peace and social justice organizations. Although she never taught me a course in poetry, she passed on a few useful lessons. The most important lesson she taught me was that the engaged life of an artist, involved Read more [...] Comments Off on Livesay, Dorothy. THE SELF-COMPLETING TREE. Selected poems. 1992. Press Porcepic. Victoria & Toronto, Canada.
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Loney, James. CAPTIVITY: 118 days in Iraq and the struggle for a world without war. 2011. Alfred A. Knopf. Canada.
“None of us can know the measure of our lives. None of us can know what our actions might seed.”
James Loney was a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams, (CPT), a group that believes that pacifists should be willing to risk their lives for their principles. A commitment that has taken him and many others to dangerous conflicts in Palestine, Iraq and 1st Nations lands in Canada. The story of his captivity in 2005–6 by a small group determined to revenge the deaths of innocent members of their families by USA military in Iraq is harrowing Read more [...]
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Marjorie Agosín, editor. Stitching Resistance: Women, Creativity, and Fiber Arts 2014. Solis Press. Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England ISBN 978-1-907947-90-2
Review by Theresa Wolfwood
“…female fiber art has often been crafted to explore social issues and inspire change for the benefit of their communities and the world.”
Resistance to violence and injustice is a powerful force in all societies; when that resistance takes the form of art it becomes an even more powerful force to communicate with and to inspire effective resistance. For women in many societies the creative resistance has taken the form of textile art, familiar, almost exclusively female, domestic skills used to express personal Read more [...] Martinez, Carlos & Michael Fox, & Jojo Farrell. VENEZUELA SPEAKS! Voices from the Grassroots. 2010. PM Press, Oakland, CA, USA. ISBN 978-1-60486-108-2
Review by Theresa Wolfwood
“...the failure of neoliberalism combined with the political failure of representative democracy...contributed significantly to the rise of the New Left.”
“...in Venezuela, as a consequence...new urban community associations and political parties emerges that provided an important impetus for the emergence of Hugo Chávez in 1998.”
At a time when Venezuela and its friends are still mourning the loss of President Hugo Chavez, this collection of interviews and insights into the social movements of Venezuela Read more [...] Comments Off on Martinez, Carlos & Michael Fox, & Jojo Farrell. VENEZUELA SPEAKS! Voices from the Grassroots. 2010. PM Press, Oakland, CA, USA. ISBN 978-1-60486-108-2
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Mast, Edward & Haithem El-Zabri. NAKBA: The Ongoing Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. USA, 2008.
“…Take a stone from our house
So that our descendents
Will remember their way home.” Mahmoud Darwish, from the poem Your Eyes.
Described as a concise guide to history and issues, this booklet packs an amazing amount of information into 40 pages. It is firstly a Palestinian history, going back 3000 years and forward to modern times, culminating in the NAKBA, the violent expulsion of 800,000 Palestinians from their homeland in 1948 — while the world stood by, helping the Israelis or completely ignoring this ethnic cleansing. 531 villages Read more [...]
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Mayne, Elizabeth. A Passionate Continuity. Poetry & Illustrations. 2006. Ekstasis Editions. Victoria, BC.
“My tongue tastes pleasure,
The future of change.
My heart aches in the slowness of history.”
This excerpt from “I Speak Again” expresses the many life long passions of Elizabeth Mayne, a Victoria resident and a visual artist who turned to expressing herself in poetry ten years ago.
Her continuity of sensual passion and pleasure is for some, including the publisher, a major focus of this book, both in the poems and the drawings of fragments of men´s bodies as well as poignant renditions of women´s bodies. She loves beauty but Read more [...] Comments Off on Mayne, Elizabeth. A Passionate Continuity. Poetry & Illustrations. 2006. Ekstasis Editions. Victoria, BC.
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