"Chris Kromm" sent the following from the Van. Sun:
> OTTAWA -- A B.C. feminist told a cheering audience here that the United
> States government is more threatening to the world than international
> terrorism.
>
> Sunera Thobani received several standing ovations from about 500 delegates
> attending the Women's Resistance Conference on Monday.
>
> "Today in the world the United States is the most dangerous and the most
> powerful global force unleashing horrific levels of violence," said Thobani,
> a women's studies professor at the University of British Columbia and former
> head of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women.
>
> "From Chile to El Salvador to Nicaragua to Iraq, the path of U.S. foreign
> policy is soaked in blood."
>
> Thobani said she empathizes with the human suffering following the Sept. 11
> terror attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania that left more than
> 6,000 people dead or missing. "But do we feel any pain for the victims of
> U.S. aggression?"
>
> As the outspoken leader of the NAC, Thobani created much controversy when
> she said in 1995 that only white, middle-class women had benefited from the
> feminist movement.
and . . . .
>
>
> New Democratic Party leader Alexa McDonough, whose party was once a close
> ally of NAC's, said Fry should have offered "an unequivocal rejection of the
> kind of cheap sloganeering, of the excessive rhetoric.
>
> "This is a time to be building tolerance, to be building bridges, not to
> create greater divisions," McDonough said.
>
and also . . . .
>
>
> McDonough said Fry doesn't have the credibility to travel across Canada and
> speak publicly against intolerance.
I had no idea that the snivelling McDonough was among those attacking Thobani. McDonough's comments in the House should be circulated as widely as possible given the NDPs current cynical attempts to develop political relevance for itself (and no doubt inject some life into the flagging careers of its mediocre politicians and bureaucrats) by parasitizing the anti globalization movement -- all in the hopes of channelling the extra-parliamentary energy of largely young activists into the Party for the purpose of electoral mobilization and building up its political machinery.
For the record the text of Prof. Thobani's speech is posted here:
http://ontario.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2014&group=webcast
Please read and decide for yourself.
-Pradeep