Mass Demonstration!
Friday, April 1st, 2011
@ 12:00 Noon, Nathan Phillips Square
Toronto, ON

Join the Fightback to Raise the Rates!

By Alex Balch

On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the reclamation of Kanonhstaton (“The Protected Place”) by members of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations, a stand-off occurred between roughly a dozen supporters of self-proclaimed “law and order activist” Gary McHale and a crowd of approximately 100 demonstrators. The larger group had assembled to block McHale from stepping onto the contested area - once envisioned as the future site of the 40 hectare Douglas Creek Estates (DCE) subdivision, but nowadays much more famous for its role as a frontline in the battle for Indigenous rights in Canada.

When Mohammed Bouazizi set himself alight he unwittingly ignited a wave of popular uprisings and rebellions that have spread like wildfire across North Africa and the Middle East, the heat of which can be felt as far afield as Zimbabwe where, on Saturday 19th February, 46 pro-democracy activists including students, workers and trade unionists were arrested in Harare. According to police documents they were arrested for plotting an Egypt-style revolt to overthrow Robert Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, at a meeting to discuss the fall of Hosni Mubarak and events in North Africa and the Middle East. The arrested, who represent the Zimbabwean Federation of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZNSU) and the International Socialist Organisation (ISO), had just watched documentary news footage on the uprising in Egypt and, according to state prosecutors, were there to "organise, strategise and implement the removal of the constitutional government of Zimbabwe ...

By Ajamu Nangwaya

We are now in February and for Africans in North America it is a significant month. It is usually observed as Black History Month.

It is taken as an opportunity to acknowledge African people’s struggles, achievements and commemorate significant moments in the fight against white supremacy, capitalism, sexism and other forms of oppression.

Some of us use this month to reflect and rededicate ourselves to the revolutionary or radical African political tradition.

In the spirit of collective self-criticism, are we at the point where Black History Month is due for a name change and focus?

Names are quite important to resistance. It was no accident that the enslaved Africans who were taken across the Sahara Desert ended up with Arab names and those who went by way of the Atlantic Ocean had European names imposed on them.

“There will Ultimately be a Clash between the Oppressed and Those Who do the Oppressing”

In the U.S., February is Black History Month. This is a good time to review the life of Malcolm X, one of the great leaders of the Black Liberation movement of the 60s. Anarchism, as an overall theory, is well-known to be rather loose and eclectic. Therefore anarchists have taken a great deal from other schools of thought, such as Marxism, feminism, Queer theory, ecology, radical psychoanalysis, post-modernism, etc. In my opinion, revolutionary anarchists also have much to learn from the life and thinking of Malcolm X.

By Wayne Price
Written for www.Anarkismo.net.

On Jan. 29th, 2011, at 1pm, two cities showed that workers' solidarity
cannot be confined by national borders. While the steel workers of
Ontario's Local 1005 and thousands of their supporters held a march and
rally to protest US Steel for locking them out of their jobs, their fellow
workers and allies held a protest at the US Steel Headquarters in
Pittsburgh, PA.

The rally in Downtown Pittsburgh, organized by the Northeastern
Federation of Anarchist-Communists (NEFAC), brought 20-30 people to brave
the cold in front of the U.S. Steel Tower. Those present included union
workers, students, anarchists from various groups, the IWW, and others.
The picketers sipped hot coffee as they held signs, which read "Workers
Unite: Solidarity is our Weapon," "Steelers Fans for Pension Plans," "US
Steel: End the Lockout," "Steel City Supports Steel Workers," "Working
Class Power," and "Springsteen: The Only Boss I Listen to."

By Alex Balch

On the evening of January 11th, the Jewish Defense League (JDL) hosted an event at the Toronto Zionist Centre, at which Stephen Lennon, leader of the English Defense League (EDL) – a far-right extremist organization responsible for a string of violent anti-Muslim rallies in the UK – spoke to supporters via videoconference. Lennon, who goes by the pseudonym “Tommy Robinson”, is a former British Nationalist Party (BNP) member currently facing charges for assaulting a police officer at an anti-Muslim demonstration this past November. For their part, the JDL has painted him as an unjustly persecuted political dissident, targeted by the British government for his brave and courageous stance against Islamic extremism.