Sian's Blog and other links

I have added a link to the blog of the new Female Principal Speaker of the Green Party of England and Wales, Sian Berry, to my sidebar. Sian has done a lot of excellent work with the Alliance Against Urban 4X4s. In her latest post she addresses the issue of contrarians and conspiracists that I blogged on here. Huge amounts of money are flowing into the coffers of contrarian and thinly-disguised corporate fronts, now that the scientific, political and economic arguments for real action on things like climate change are gaining widespread acceptance. The contrarians counter this revelation by dragging out allegations of funding streams for the green and left movements from another wing of capital - the Soros/Rockefeller orbit, the so-called "high roaders" who oppose the "low roaders" of Exxon, Halliburton, Carlyle Group et al. But as Sian points out, cash flows from big business are unknown amongst grass roots activists in Britain who run on shoe string budgets to oppose corporate interests. Whilst the nature of politics in America means that the progressive side of the spectrum there may well be encouraged into dubious alliances and funding sources, and some of this may leak out internationally, that is more a reflection of the state of American politics than it is of some global conspiracy from the feverish imaginations of Freepers and right-wing conspiracists. To the rest of the world, official American politics has for a long time looked like a battle between opposing wings of capital. Meanwhile the cultish ex-RCP clique in Britain are holding their latest contrarian shindig, no doubt with generous corporate funding, as recently mentioned on the Harry's Place Blog.

Other links added recently are to Daniel Ketelby's Metaphysics As A Guide To Lunch blog with reflections on green politics, philosophy and religion, and to the website of Ursula K. Le Guin, the Science Fiction writer most famous for the novel "The Dispossessed" set on neighbouring planets running on anarchist and capitalist lines.
I have also added links for the UK organisations of Friends of The Earth and Greenpeace, and the main British Trade Union Centre, the TUC.
Finally, whilst we are on the topic of hidden hands and shady influence, I have added a link to the interesting British parapolitical journal, Lobster.