Tuesday, October 26, 2010
ANARCHIST HUMOUR:
IS YOUR JOB A BLAST OR A BOMB ?
Labels: anarchism, anarchism humour, anarchist cartoons, cartoons, humour, jokes
Sunday, October 10, 2010
ANARCHIST PUBLICATIONS:
ZABALAZA:
The following notice of a recent publication is from the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front in South Africa.
SASASASASA
Zabalaza No. 11 now available online
We, at the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) are pleased to announce that issue number 11 of our organ Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism is now available online.
Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism
In this issue:
Editorial - by the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front
South Africa:
At the End of the Baton of South African Pretentions - Warren McGregor (ZACF)
Electricity Crisis in Protea South - Lekhetho Mtetwa (ZACF)
Conned by the Courts - Sian Byrne, James Pendlebury (ZACF), Komnas Poziaris
Death and the Mielieboer - Michael Schmidt
The Crisis Hits Home: Strategic Unionism or Revolt? - Lucien van der Walt
Sharpening the Pangas?: Understanding and Preventing future Pogroms - Michael Schmidt
Riding to Work on Empty Promises - Jonathan P. (ZACF)
Africa:
Short-changed: Egyptian Struggle for Democracy Founders on Obama's Stinginess - Michael Schmidt
Massacre as a Tool of the African State - Michael Schmidt
International:
Chile and Haiti after the Earthquakes: so different yet so similar - Jose Antonio Gutierrez D.
Obama's Imperial War: An Anarchist Response - Wayne Price (NEFAC)
Theory:
Anarchism vs Liberalism: Whose Powers are Separate? - James Pendlebury & Sian Byrne (ZACF)
History:
Industrial and Social Foundations of Syndicalism - Michael Schmidt
Counter-Culture
All in the Name of the Beautiful Gain: A ZACF Statement on the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa
Related Link: http://www.zabalaza.net/pdfs/sapams/zab11.pdf
Zabalaza No. 11 now available online
We, at the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) are pleased to announce that issue number 11 of our organ Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism is now available online.
Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism
In this issue:
Editorial - by the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front
South Africa:
At the End of the Baton of South African Pretentions - Warren McGregor (ZACF)
Electricity Crisis in Protea South - Lekhetho Mtetwa (ZACF)
Conned by the Courts - Sian Byrne, James Pendlebury (ZACF), Komnas Poziaris
Death and the Mielieboer - Michael Schmidt
The Crisis Hits Home: Strategic Unionism or Revolt? - Lucien van der Walt
Sharpening the Pangas?: Understanding and Preventing future Pogroms - Michael Schmidt
Riding to Work on Empty Promises - Jonathan P. (ZACF)
Africa:
Short-changed: Egyptian Struggle for Democracy Founders on Obama's Stinginess - Michael Schmidt
Massacre as a Tool of the African State - Michael Schmidt
International:
Chile and Haiti after the Earthquakes: so different yet so similar - Jose Antonio Gutierrez D.
Obama's Imperial War: An Anarchist Response - Wayne Price (NEFAC)
Theory:
Anarchism vs Liberalism: Whose Powers are Separate? - James Pendlebury & Sian Byrne (ZACF)
History:
Industrial and Social Foundations of Syndicalism - Michael Schmidt
Counter-Culture
All in the Name of the Beautiful Gain: A ZACF Statement on the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa
Related Link: http://www.zabalaza.net/pdfs/sapams/zab11.pdf
Labels: anarchism, anarchist publications, international anarchist movement, South Africa, Zabalaza
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT TORONTO:
SPEAKING IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE ?:
The following call for solidarity with an Ontario activist is from the Toronto Community Solidarity Network.
TOTOTOTOTO
Subject:
Subject:
For Immediate Release: G20 defendant Alex Hundert found to have breached ‘no demonstration’ cond
http://www.facebook.com/l/3e8b0K5jQ1YORLPTCh6-rBa8OWQ;g20.torontomobilize.org/node/549
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 08, 2010
G20 defendant Alex Hundert found to have breached ‘no demonstration’ condition for speaking at a university panel event
October 8, 2010 – Toronto, Mississauga New Credit – G20 defendant and alleged ‘ringleader’ Alex Hundert was found to be in breach of his ‘no-demonstration’ bail condition today for speaking as an invited panellist at two recent university events. A new bail hearing is now underway at the Scarborough Courthouse at 1911 Eglinton Avenue East in courtroom 405. This hearing is now expected to drag into next week and continue on Tuesday October 12, and Wednesday, October 13.
According to Yogi Acharya “We are outraged at this ruling. He was speaking at a panel discussion in a university classroom alongside professors, which is clearly not a public demonstration. This is yet another attempt to silence Alex, and is a strong indication of the police's intent to criminalize ideas, dissent, and effective community organizing.”
In a previous media statement, Hundert has stated “They are targeting me and because I am part of communities that are effectively organizing across movements. Whether it is the criminalization of anarchists and community organizers like me, or the daily demonization of Indigenous peoples, poor people and migrant communities, we are living in the midst of an increasingly aggressive and openly racist Harper regime that serves only to protect property and profit, not people. We have to show them that our resolve and our solidarity can be stronger than their intimidation and repression.”
Several other G20 defendants remain behind bars, including Indigenous sovereignty activist Ryan Rainville of the Sackimay Nation, punished by the criminal justice system for being poor and unable to afford exorbitant bail, while others face the possibility of deportation as a means of stifling their dissent.
Hundert is currently facing politically-motivated conspiracy and counselling charges in relation to the Toronto G8/G20 protests. He was arrested pre-emptively at gunpoint in a violent house raid on the morning of June 26th, before the protests began, and is being targeted as a member of the community group AW@L and Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance.
This latest attempt is not the first time the Crown has attempted to send Hundert back to jail. On July 28, 2010 the Ontario Provincial Police warned Hundert that media interviews him and his co-accused Leah Henderson did with CBC radio, Toronto Sun, Vancouver Media Co-op, and Rabble were a violation of the no demonstration bail condition and threatened to re-jail them. A day later at a press conference, Hundert and his supporters decried this media ban as a blatant violation of his right to free speech and of freedom of the press. On August 20, the Crown had appealed Hundert and Henderson’s release from jail in the Ontario Superior Court and was seeking pre-trial incarceration. However Federal Court judge Todd Ducharme dismissed the Crown’s appeal.
-30-
For more information and interview requests:
Yogi Acharya 647-764-0488, Rachel Avery 519 616 5549
http://www.facebook.com/l/3e8b0K5jQ1YORLPTCh6-rBa8OWQ;g20.torontomobilize.org/node/549
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 08, 2010
G20 defendant Alex Hundert found to have breached ‘no demonstration’ condition for speaking at a university panel event
October 8, 2010 – Toronto, Mississauga New Credit – G20 defendant and alleged ‘ringleader’ Alex Hundert was found to be in breach of his ‘no-demonstration’ bail condition today for speaking as an invited panellist at two recent university events. A new bail hearing is now underway at the Scarborough Courthouse at 1911 Eglinton Avenue East in courtroom 405. This hearing is now expected to drag into next week and continue on Tuesday October 12, and Wednesday, October 13.
According to Yogi Acharya “We are outraged at this ruling. He was speaking at a panel discussion in a university classroom alongside professors, which is clearly not a public demonstration. This is yet another attempt to silence Alex, and is a strong indication of the police's intent to criminalize ideas, dissent, and effective community organizing.”
In a previous media statement, Hundert has stated “They are targeting me and because I am part of communities that are effectively organizing across movements. Whether it is the criminalization of anarchists and community organizers like me, or the daily demonization of Indigenous peoples, poor people and migrant communities, we are living in the midst of an increasingly aggressive and openly racist Harper regime that serves only to protect property and profit, not people. We have to show them that our resolve and our solidarity can be stronger than their intimidation and repression.”
Several other G20 defendants remain behind bars, including Indigenous sovereignty activist Ryan Rainville of the Sackimay Nation, punished by the criminal justice system for being poor and unable to afford exorbitant bail, while others face the possibility of deportation as a means of stifling their dissent.
Hundert is currently facing politically-motivated conspiracy and counselling charges in relation to the Toronto G8/G20 protests. He was arrested pre-emptively at gunpoint in a violent house raid on the morning of June 26th, before the protests began, and is being targeted as a member of the community group AW@L and Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance.
This latest attempt is not the first time the Crown has attempted to send Hundert back to jail. On July 28, 2010 the Ontario Provincial Police warned Hundert that media interviews him and his co-accused Leah Henderson did with CBC radio, Toronto Sun, Vancouver Media Co-op, and Rabble were a violation of the no demonstration bail condition and threatened to re-jail them. A day later at a press conference, Hundert and his supporters decried this media ban as a blatant violation of his right to free speech and of freedom of the press. On August 20, the Crown had appealed Hundert and Henderson’s release from jail in the Ontario Superior Court and was seeking pre-trial incarceration. However Federal Court judge Todd Ducharme dismissed the Crown’s appeal.
-30-
For more information and interview requests:
Yogi Acharya 647-764-0488, Rachel Avery 519 616 5549
Labels: anarchism, canadian anarchist movement, community solidarity network, free speech, G20, G20 demonstrations, Ontario, political prisoners, repression, Toronto
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT TORONTO:
FUNDRAISER IN TO FOR G20 LEGAL DEFENSE:
The following item is from the Toronto Community Solidarity Network.
@@@@@@@@@@
"The Chicago Conspiracy" Premier Screening!
A G20 Legal Defense/Mapuche Political Prisoner Fundraiser
200 Years of Genocide – Our People Continue Resisting...
**
A Fundraiser for the Toronto G20 Legal Defence Fund AND the Family Support Group of Mapuche Political Prisoners of Angol and Chol-Chol on Hunger Strike (Familiares de los Presos Politicos Mapuche en Huelga de Hambre de Angol y Chol-Chol)
**
Night of Solidarity for our Mapuche Political Prisoners Dying on a 90+ Day Hunger Strike, and all those who have Suffered the Pain of Physical and Psychological Torture as a Result of the G20 - Kidnapped in the Jails of the Canadian state
NO BICENTENARY ON STOLEN MAPUCHE TERRITORY!
Freedom for All the Mapuche Political Prisoners on a 90+ Day Hunger Strike & All Our
Political Prisoners!
NO ONE IS FREE UNTIL EVERY PERSON IS FREE!
*****
Featuring the EXCLUSIVE Toronto Premier of the Documentary Film:
**THE CHICAGO CONSPIRACY**
Chile. Dictatorship. Legacy. Today. Social War.
The State and its Neo-liberal Agenda are the Real Conspirators!
SPECIAL PERFORMANCE BY ILLOGIC (Hip-hip)
See Trailer: http://www.facebook.com/l/21ebcuJwAcY8ScVWzOyoMINrATQ;vimeo.com/2127661
A Film based on the Anti-Capitalist Struggles in Chile since the Pinochet Dictatorship (the Student Movement, Community Organizing, & the Uprising of Mapuche Indigenous Sovereignty Movement) taking its name from the 25 Chilean economists from
the Chicago School of Economics who assisted the making of the bloody regime in the implementation of Neo-liberal policies.
**
Presenting the Director of the Film of Subversive Action Films in an intimate Discussion/Conversation of the Documentary
**
Speakers Directly from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, WCCC [Toronto ] on the ongoing struggle of the Mapuche Nation in so-called southern Chile], the Toronto 19 Support Group, Live Music, and MUCH MORE.... (MORE UPDATES/ARTISTS TBA!)
$10-20 Sliding Scale
No One Turned Away!
** See Us on Facebook!:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=443069539490#!/event.php?eid=161593357188005&ref=ts
For More Info: http://www.facebook.com/l/21ebcTNXn_Zl2KNGc6TOnPFhJdA;www.nobicentenaryonmapucheterritory.wordpress.com
Friday, October 8th @ 8 PM
Birge Carnegie Reading Room (University of Toronto)
95 Charles Street West (Just East of Museum Station)
Organized by:
The Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallmapu [Toronto]
Email: wccc_98@hotmail.com
Endorsed By:
Equity Studies Program (University of Toronto)
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
Community Solidarity Network
National Council of Latin American and Caribbean Women of Canada - LATIN@S
Latin American Solidarity Network-LASN (Toronto)
Barrio Nuevo
Graduate Student Union (University of Toronto)
Labels: anarchism, canadian anarchist movement, events, films, fundraisers, G20, G20 Toronto Mobilize, solidarity., Toronto
Thursday, September 30, 2010
ANARCHIST PUBLICATIONS:
NEWS FROM 'UPPING THE ANTI':
Yet more news from Toronto, this time from the libertarian socialist magazine Upping The Anti. Book launches and announcing their new issue.
@@@@@@@@@@
Toronto Book Launch
Dear Friends:
On Wednesday October 6th join UPPING THE ANTI as we celebrate the launch of two new books by UTA editors.
Come and check out:
David Hugill's “Missing Women, Missing News: Covering Crisis in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside”
http://www.fernwoodpublishing.ca/Missing-Women-Missing-News-David-Hugill/
and
AK Thompson’s “Black Bloc, White Riot: Anti-Globalization and the Genealogy of Dissent”
http://www.akpress.org/2010/items/blackblocwhiteriot
Both books will be on sale for a special launch price. Refreshments will be served.
Mark your calendars:
Wednesday, October 6 at 7PM - All are welcome
The Imperial Pub
54 Dundas St. E.
Toronto, ON
--
UPPING THE ANTI : http://uppingtheanti.org/
998 Bloor St. West
P.O. Box 10571
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6H 4H9
Toronto Book Launch
Dear Friends:
On Wednesday October 6th join UPPING THE ANTI as we celebrate the launch of two new books by UTA editors.
Come and check out:
David Hugill's “Missing Women, Missing News: Covering Crisis in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside”
http://www.fernwoodpublishing.ca/Missing-Women-Missing-News-David-Hugill/
and
AK Thompson’s “Black Bloc, White Riot: Anti-Globalization and the Genealogy of Dissent”
http://www.akpress.org/2010/items/blackblocwhiteriot
Both books will be on sale for a special launch price. Refreshments will be served.
Mark your calendars:
Wednesday, October 6 at 7PM - All are welcome
The Imperial Pub
54 Dundas St. E.
Toronto, ON
--
UPPING THE ANTI : http://uppingtheanti.org/
998 Bloor St. West
P.O. Box 10571
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6H 4H9
@@@@@@@@@@
Here also is the announcement of the latest issue of their journal.
@@@@@@@@@@
Issue 11 Coming Soon!
Upping the Anti is about to release its 11th issue!
This exciting issue features:
*Raj Patel on the politics of starving*
*Ladelle McWhorter on normalization and its discontents*
*James Scott on the art of not being governed*
*Lesley Wood on Anti-G20 Mobilization*
*John Clarke on opposing austerity today*
*Stacy Douglas on the queering of colonization*
*Roundtable on the 20th anniversary of OKA*
*Roundtable on No One Is Illegal's fight for Solidarity City*
*Book Reviews and more!*
Subscribe or become a monthly sustainer today to make sure that issue 11 hits your mailbox!
http://uppingtheanti.org
Subscribers and sustainers also get access to all our content online!
Are you already a subscriber but have moved? Send your new address to uppigntheantidistro@gmail.com
--
UPPING THE ANTI : http://uppingtheanti.org
998 Bloor St. West
P.O. Box 10571
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6H 4H9
Issue 11 Coming Soon!
Upping the Anti is about to release its 11th issue!
This exciting issue features:
*Raj Patel on the politics of starving*
*Ladelle McWhorter on normalization and its discontents*
*James Scott on the art of not being governed*
*Lesley Wood on Anti-G20 Mobilization*
*John Clarke on opposing austerity today*
*Stacy Douglas on the queering of colonization*
*Roundtable on the 20th anniversary of OKA*
*Roundtable on No One Is Illegal's fight for Solidarity City*
*Book Reviews and more!*
Subscribe or become a monthly sustainer today to make sure that issue 11 hits your mailbox!
http://uppingtheanti.org
Subscribers and sustainers also get access to all our content online!
Are you already a subscriber but have moved? Send your new address to uppigntheantidistro@gmail.com
--
UPPING THE ANTI : http://uppingtheanti.org
998 Bloor St. West
P.O. Box 10571
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6H 4H9
Labels: anarchism, anarchist magazines, Book launches, Canada, canadian anarchist movement, events, Toronto, Upping the Anti
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
ANARCHIST PUBLICATIONS:
PM PRESS HITS THE 100 MARK:
The anarchist publisher PM Press has soared above the 100 titles mark. Here's their announcement and their request to help them to the next 100.
@P@P@P@P@P
CELEBRATING 100 PM PRESS RELEASES IN JUST OVER 2 YEARS
Time Today at 9:00pm - December 31 at 12:00am
------------------------------
Location wherever you read, listen, or view
----------------------------
Created By PM Press
----------------------------
More Info In July we celebrated our 100th PM Press release, and we are inviting you to join the Friends of PM to help us usher in the next 100 releases.
We launched PM Press as a means to impact, amplify, and revitalize the discourse and actions of radical writers, filmmakers, and artists. The Friends of PM program provides us with a stable foundation from which we can build upon our early successes and provides a much-needed subsidy for the materials that can't necessarily pay their own way. You can help make that happen -- and receive every new title automatically delivered to your door once a month-by joining as a Friend of PM Press.
Check out the link below for tons more info and photos:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs053/1102455632475/archive/1103551843100.html
CELEBRATING 100 PM PRESS RELEASES IN JUST OVER 2 YEARS
Time Today at 9:00pm - December 31 at 12:00am
------------------------------
Location wherever you read, listen, or view
----------------------------
Created By PM Press
----------------------------
More Info In July we celebrated our 100th PM Press release, and we are inviting you to join the Friends of PM to help us usher in the next 100 releases.
We launched PM Press as a means to impact, amplify, and revitalize the discourse and actions of radical writers, filmmakers, and artists. The Friends of PM program provides us with a stable foundation from which we can build upon our early successes and provides a much-needed subsidy for the materials that can't necessarily pay their own way. You can help make that happen -- and receive every new title automatically delivered to your door once a month-by joining as a Friend of PM Press.
Check out the link below for tons more info and photos:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs053/1102455632475/archive/1103551843100.html
Labels: anarchism, anarchist books., anarchist publishers, PM Press
Monday, September 27, 2010
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS:
SWEDEN TURNS RIGHT:
Last week's national elections in Sweden returned the present right wing government to power and, most disturbingly, the extreme right made unprecedented gains. The following report from the Swedish anarchosyndicalist website Anarkisterna says it all, and it raises some important points.
Molly would add her two cents worth by noting the following. Despite the antique Marxist fantasy followed by all too many anarchists and non-Marxist socialists the advent of 'hard times' seems to have not led to any resurgence of left wing class based movements that fundamentally challenge the present social order anywhere in at least the developed world. If anything the right seems to be 'on the march' worldwide. Where left wing social movements opposed to further tightening of the screws have arisen the main thrust seems to have been an attempt to hold on to what little the lower classes already have, and a more or less implicit (sometimes quite explicit) endorsement of social democratic policies and parties. This despite the fact that in many countries, Spain and Greece come to mind, it is actually "socialist" parties that are doing the dirty work.
Meanwhile the general electorate remains quite cynical, perhaps rightfully so, and opts to vote in many cases for parties whose desire to shift wealth from the lower classes is explicit rather than implicit. This goes hand in hand with an increase in what may best described as the "political superstition" that somehow "immigrants" are responsible for the difficulties that ordinary people face in these hard times. How this can possibly be true is best left to the fevered imaginations of conspiracy theorists. Even if minorities are not "blamed" it may at least feel satisfying to work up a hate for something that can be so easily identified. The left, in general, offers no such easy fantasy. Its social democratic wing has long since abandoned any pretence to having so crude a thing as "enemies". Its orthodox communist wing has not only been disgraced by its history of being worse than the old order. Its idea of the enemy as the 'top-hatted capitalists' ( excluding government bureaucrats of course ) rings hollow in the modern world.
Too much of the rest of the left beyond the social democrats and commies spends its time tilting at the windmills of "isms" having abandoned all hope of a rational road to a better society. It takes a developed taste for either masochism or the 'one downmanship' of identity politics to find this sort of "politics" satisfying...especially as "the enemy" can easily be defined as something approaching 98% of the population. This is not politics. It is psychology gone cancerous.
The Swedish comrades end their article with some questions rather than with assertions. This is undoubtedly the best way to proceed. As an anarchist I am convinced that the anarchist tradition contains many of the ideas that are necessary to oppose the rightward drift of most of the developed world. I am not, however, so unrealistic as to suppose that either I or any wing of the anarchist movement today have a magic pocketful of 'solutions". What is sure is that the main opposition to the right has no practical plan. For anarchists the balancing act is an age old one, one of walking the fine line between collaboration (leftism under an anarchist name) and irrelevancy( either 'purism' or defining away the concerns of ordinary people to focus on 'psychoboo' ). Where the tightrope is depends upon both time and place. Let's hope there are enough political acrobats in our ranks.
Here's the article from Sweden.
@@@@@@@@@@
Where do we go from here?
On how to challenge rightwing racist class politics
Lördag 25 September
The elections of September 19th in many ways mark a sad turning point in Swedish history. Since of that date, Sweden joins the growing number of EU member states run by rightwing governments with the participation of the extreme right.
For the first time, a rightwing government was re-elected in Sweden. For the first time, a populist racist party, Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats) – with roots in the extreme right scene – entered the Parliament. And for the first time a Nazi party gained entrance into a municipality. The leader of Svenskarnas Parti (Party of the Swedes) – formerly Nationalsocialistisk Front – got a chair in the small town of Grästorp.
The reaction to the election was swift: demonstrations in Malmö, Gothenburg and Stockholm the following day gathered thousands of people, in Stockholm up to ten thousand. Numerous demonstrations have since taken place in different places and many more actions are planned for the coming weeks and especially for the grand opening of the Parliament.
Many people are appalled and outraged at the results of the elections. Bit by bit, the right wing government has been dismantling the welfare state, labour laws and social security systems, replacing them with the freedom of the individual consumer – thereby paving the way for the extreme right. But so have the Social Democrats, the Left and the Greens: By not challenging the politics of the government and putting forward a concrete red and green vision, the stage was set for the racists, posing as the sole alternative to the status quo.
The Sweden Democrats have rather successfully spread the myth of immigration as the one political issue none but them dares to address. This being far from true (quite the opposite, by being tough on immigration any politician comes across as determined and energetic), it nevertheless gained them a lot of attention. And even though being false, it still was a simple answer to a number of important questions: Why is society not as solidaristic as it used to be? Why are so many – especially young – people unemployed? Why is all this downsizing occurring?
Everything was played out to be the fault of “mass immigration”.
These questions are relevant to a lot of people in everyday life today, and so is addressing them. The anxiety is real, it is the result of precarious labour, money that is never enough, climate change that is being neglected, insecurity, frustration, violence and welfare cuts – in other words the results of political decisions. The question radical social movements have to ask themselves is how to address these issues and challenge these politics?
How do we turn protests against the Sweden Democrats into resistance against the racist class politics of the right wing government? And how do we transform our resistance into a constructive force – self organizing local communities and building strong popular movements?
Where do we go from here? Share your experiences with us!
Labels: anarchism, Anarkisterna, communism, conservativism, international politics, leftism, right wing politics, social democracy, Sweden, tactics
Friday, September 24, 2010
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT WINNIPEG:
THE WINNIPEG RADICAL BOOKFAIR:
Speaking of anarchist bookfairs don't forget to join Molly tomorrow at Winnipeg's own Winnipeg Radical Bookfair. The book fair itself will be at the Broadway Neighbourhood Centre, 185 Young St. from 11 am to 6 pm on Saturday September 25 and from 12 noon to 4 pm on Sunday 26. Various other events are also scheduled during the fair. Come out early enough and you just might get one of Molly's ultra chic A-balloons. See you there.
Labels: anarchism, anarchist bookfairs, canadian anarchist movement, events, local events, Winnipeg, Winnipeg Radical Bookfair
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT LONDON ONTARIO:
THE LONDON ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR:
It's another first. Anarchist bookfairs are popping up all over the place, and the latest domino to fall is London Ontario. Here's the announcement of the first anarchist bookfair in that town from Linchpin, the website of the Ontario platformist group Common Cause.
@@@@@@@@@@
London, Ontario Anarchist Bookfair
The London, Ontario Anarchist Bookfair and Gathering is scheduled to take place on Saturday October 23rd. This is our first of what we hope will be many annual bookfairs and your participation would be much appreciated. With the attention focused on anarchists recently it is important to offer folks outside of our communities a chance to see what it really is all about and dispel media myths. It is equally important that we gather to further strengthen and build our movements to carry forward with our agendas of radical transformations.
Calling all anarchist distros and publishers! We are not charging anything for tables, but we ask that a small percentage of profits, after expenses, be donated to the bookfair to allow it to sustain itself and grow.
Present a workshop! We are running workshops throughout the day and are excited to hear from you if you have a workshop you’d like to present. We will do our best to accommodate all workshop requests.
Everybody! We have an interest in helping meet your housing, childcare and transportation needs and the venue is accessible. Food Not Bombs will be providing food and we plan on having a social event in the evening including performances by talented anarchists…
Get in touch if you’d like to table, present a workshop, or simply attend so that we can help meet your needs and answer any questions.
-London (A) Bookfair Collective
londonanarchistbookfair@gmail.com
Labels: anarchism, anarchist bookfairs, canadian anarchist movement, events, Linchpin, London, Ontario
Sunday, September 19, 2010
MOUVEMENT ANARCHISTE DU CANADA CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
LANCEMENT DU CAUSE COMMUNE #29 / LAUNCH OF CAUSE COMMUNE # 29:
Cause Commune est le journal de l'Union Communiste Libertaire du Québec. Voici l'annonce du lancement de numéro 29. Cause Commune is the journal of the Union Communiste of Québec. Here is the announcement of the launch of issue number 29.
@@@@@@@@@@
Lancement du Cause Commune #29 Spécial Budget
Time Wednesday, September 22 · 7:00pm - 11:30pm
--------------------------
Location Cheval Blanc, 809 Ontario Est
-------------------------
More Info
L'Union Communiste Libertaire vous invite au lancement du 29e numéro de son journal Cause Commune à la Brasserie le Cheval Blanc. Ce numéro est spécialement dédié au dernier budget du gouvernement Charest, les fausses et les vraies alternatives ainsi que la lutte qui reste à finir pour contrer les mesures néfastes.
Venez discuter de tout ça avec nous et prendre votre exemplaire du journal.
http://www.causecommune.net/
@@@@@@@@@@
Launch of Common Cause # 29 Budget Special
Time Wednesday, September 22 · 7:00 pm - 11:30 pm
----------------------
Location Cheval Blanc, 809 Ontario East
----------------------
More Info
The Libertarian Communist Union invites you to launch of the 29th edition of its journal Common Cause at the White Horse Tavern. This issue is specially dedicated to the Charest government's last budget, the false and real alternatives and the struggle that remains in the end to counter the adverse measures.
Come discuss everything with us and pick up your copy of the newspaper.
http://www.causecommune.net/
Labels: anarchism, anarchist publications, canadian anarchist movement, Cause Commune, Montreal, Quebec, UCL
Friday, September 17, 2010
AMERICAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT MINNEAPOLIS:
'LAST SUPPER' WITH THE RNC 8:
Two years ago the Republican party of the USA held their national convention in Minneapolis MN ("just across the border" from beautiful Winnipeg). The usual protests, the usual police agents/provocateurs and the usual arrests happened, and now two years later at least a portion (4 ??) of an original 8 charged with conspiracy are finally coming to trial. It would not be surprising, given the way this sort of thing usually develops, that id there were any "guilty" parties that they would not be amongst those charged. Here from the Defend the RNC 8 group is the promo.>>>
@@@@@@@@@@
Free "Last Supper" with the RNC 8
Time Tuesday, September 28 · 6:30pm - 8:00pm
------------------------
Location Walker Church
3104 16th Ave S.
Minneapolis, MN
-----------------------
Created By Defend the RNC 8!
----------------------
More Info Free "Last Supper" at Walker Church, Tuesday, September 28
Join the RNC 8 and Defense Committee for a free meal at Walker Church on Tuesday, September 28. This will be the "Last Supper" at Walker before trial. Come to connect, talk about the recent developments in the case and get plugged in to organizing around the trial. Oh, and for free food!
Tuesday, September 28
6:30-8pm
3104 16th Ave. S., Minneapolis
This won't be the last meal with the 8, however. Watch for information on our upcoming Friday night trial event series and free meals for supporters during trial. Stay tuned to RNC8.org and follow us on Indymedia, Facebook and Twitter to be the first to know.
Defend the RNC 8, Free the 4!
Free "Last Supper" with the RNC 8
Time Tuesday, September 28 · 6:30pm - 8:00pm
------------------------
Location Walker Church
3104 16th Ave S.
Minneapolis, MN
-----------------------
Created By Defend the RNC 8!
----------------------
More Info Free "Last Supper" at Walker Church, Tuesday, September 28
Join the RNC 8 and Defense Committee for a free meal at Walker Church on Tuesday, September 28. This will be the "Last Supper" at Walker before trial. Come to connect, talk about the recent developments in the case and get plugged in to organizing around the trial. Oh, and for free food!
Tuesday, September 28
6:30-8pm
3104 16th Ave. S., Minneapolis
This won't be the last meal with the 8, however. Watch for information on our upcoming Friday night trial event series and free meals for supporters during trial. Stay tuned to RNC8.org and follow us on Indymedia, Facebook and Twitter to be the first to know.
Defend the RNC 8, Free the 4!
Labels: American anarchist movement, anarchism, demonstrations, political prisoners, RNC, trials
Monday, September 13, 2010
ANARCHISM:
THE NATURE OF MODERN ANARCHISM:
Some time ago Molly announced the initiation of the international '2010 Anarchist Survey', carried out by South African comrades. The results are now in in the '2010 Anarchist Survey Report', and what is contained there is quite interesting. The results are skewed by two things. One is that the survey was only available in English. As the authors noted this led to rather unrealistic results because of the small number of respondents from Spain, South America and Italy (and Molly might also add France). The preponderance of North American responses (56.6%) is hardly representative of worldwide anarchism. Never mind Barcelona or the close to 2 million people who have voted for the Spanish CGT as their union reps in Spain. It is entirely possible that there are more anarchists in the city of Madrid than in all the NA continent, and Madrid is hardly a fertile ground. It is also entirely possible that the number of anarchists in Paris equal half of the North American total. the survey is also skewed by the fact that the American "anarcho-capitalists" got wind of the project and "called out the troops" to try and swamp the survey. No matter what its importance in the USA where "libertarians" (of which the anarcho-capitalists are a faction, not necessarily approved of by other libertarians) vastly outnumber "real anarchists" this sort of "anarchism" is even more an American product than fundamentalist Christianity is.
The authors of the survey collected 2,504 responses which is, of course, infinitely better than other efforts in this direction. Given the limitations of the survey which is basically a survey of those who speak or understand English and ignoring the majority of anarchists in the Spanish speaking world, the results are quite interesting, and I highly recommend a visit to the site. Some things that surprised me. 56.6% of anarchists profess an indifference to religion rather than a commitment to atheism. Only 27% of respondents felt that "anarchists should be atheists". Also, to my great delight and the contradiction of the general view of anarchism, almost 2/3rds (63.5%) of respondents identified themselves as "omnivores". What this means is that, despite great propaganda effort (enough effort to give a false impresion to the general public) , the subculturist wing of anarchism has not been able to impose its views on a large number of people who have come to anarchism either totally outside a subculture or via rejecting part of its badges of identity. This bodes well for anarchism in its outreach to ordinary people as the less cultish baggage you carry the better. All matters of dress, diet, music choice, philosophical belief (religion) and a great number of other ephemera have no place in the central concerns of anarchism.
So...have a look at the survey results.
Labels: 2010 anarchist Survey, anarchism
Saturday, September 11, 2010
ANARCHIST LITERATURE:
NEW FROM RED LION PRESS:
Hot off the presses from Larry Gambone of Red Lion Press. New titles to grace your library. Here's the info from Larry's Porkupine Blog.
@@@@@@@@@@
The View From Anarchist MountainIt has been a busy year for me, publishing wise. First The Impossibilists, with my own Red Lion Press, then Nature of Human Brainwork was brought out by PM Press. Now I have two more to offer.
The View From Anarchist Mountain, 199 pages, $16.00 is a collection of my writings over the past 20 years on anarchism, society and history. It is available from AK Press. (For Canadians, order from me at redlionpress@hotmail.com )
Bill Pritchard – Revolutionary Socialist is a 36 page pamphlet that goes for $4.00. Pritchard is best known for being jailed under a bogus conspiracy charge in the aftermath of the Winnipeg General Strike. He was also a militant of the Socialist Party of Canada, the editor of its newspaper, The Western Clarion, and a founder of the OBU. After the demise of the SPC, he was an early member of the CCF and was Reeve of Burnaby for a number of years. Later in life, he returned to the “Impossibilist” socialism of his roots.
“Bill Pritchard – Revolutionary Socialist” - was taken from a talk he gave in 1973. It describes his adventures - and often hilarious misadventures – as a pioneer Socialist on speaking tours of Western Canada more than 90 years ago. He reminisces about a host of fascinating characters and also gives crucial eye-witness evidence about the murder of Ginger Goodwin. It is available so far, only from me.
Labels: anarchism, anarchist books., anarchist literature, Bill Pritchard Revolutionary Socialist, books, Larry Gambone, pamphlets, Porkupine Blog, Red Lion Press, The View From Anarchist Mountain
Friday, September 10, 2010
LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG:
BOOK LAUNCH 'CONTEMPORARY ANARCHIST STUDIES':
Coming up at the end of the month, Sept. 29, at the Mondragon Winnipeg's Infoshop...book launch of 'Contemporary Anarchist Studies' with editor Randall Amster. Here's the promo.>>>
@@@@@@@@@@
Contemporary Anarchist Studies Book Launch
Time September 29 · 7:30pm - 9:30pm
---------------------
Location Mondragon Bookstore & Coffee House
91 Albert St
Winnipeg, MB
--------------------
Created By Viva Mondragon
-------------------
More Info Join us for an evening with author & activist Randall Amster.
The discussion will explore the implications for nonviolent change presented in the recent volume of collected essays, Contemporary Anarchist Studies, which “seeks to bridge the gap between anarchy in the streets and anarchism in the academy.” Focusing on theory, pedagogy, methodologies, praxis, and the future, this interdisciplinary work highlights connections between anarchism and other perspectives such as feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, peace studies, post-modernism and post-structuralism, animal liberation, and environmental justice. The book brings together a wide variety of anarchist voices while stressing anarchism’s tradition of innovation and dissent. This interactive session will discuss the process, substance, and utility of the book – the first academic anthology of anarchism meant for a wide readership to be released in decades – and will apply shared understandings of anarchism to current issues ranging from homelessness and climate change to globalization and social movements.
Labels: anarchism, anarchist books., Book launches, Contemporary Anarchist Studies, local events, Mondragon, Randall Amster, Viva Mondragon, Winnipeg
Monday, September 06, 2010
ANARCHIST THEORY:
ANARCHIST THOUGHTS ON LABOUR DAY:
It's 'Labour Day' in the anglosphere. Elsewhere most of the world ,and many in English speaking countries as well, celebrate May Day as the real Labour Day. Be that as it may here's an interesting and timely article from Linchpin. Linchpin is the site and magazine of the Ontario platformist group Common Cause. Unlike many of the self-congratulatory messages that will be coming forth today this article sees that there are indeed problems with the way labour is organized today, and it points to some possible solutions. I find little to disagree with in what follows though I have to admit that I haven't gone through it with my usual nit-picking comb. What is especially valuable is the suggestion that workers should form organizations seperate from but in sympathy with the unions. Well disposed union leaders may see this as a Godsend as it will "let them off the hook" for actions that are necessary but either outside the scope of unions or perilous for them to undertake. as to those who are not well disposed, well more's the pity. Here's the article.>>>
@@@@@@@@@@
It’s the class struggle, stupid!
Organized labour’s confused response to the McGuinty Liberals' attack on Ontario’s working-class
By Ajamu Nangwaya and Alex Diceanu
Organized labour in Ontario will continue to put forth a weak and ineffective response to attacks from the ruling class as long as it continues to ignore the reality of class struggle. A perfect example is its current response to a proposed two-year wage-freeze that the Dalton McGuinty-led Ontario government plans on imposing on unionized public sector workers. The provincial Liberals would like to save $750 million per year from a wage-freeze, so as to help manage the $19.3 billion budget deficit. Readers need not be reminded that this deficit is the result of the risky financial speculations of the captains of finance, industry and commerce that created the Great Recession of 2008.
But it is the 710,000 unionized members of the working class and 350,000 non-unionized managers and other employees who draw pay cheques from the government[1] and the users of state-provided services (and private sector workers) who are being asked to bear the burden of paying for the actions of the corporate sector. At the same time as this attempt to take income from the pockets of government workers, the McGuinty Liberals’ have granted a $4.6 billion tax-cut to the business sector.
The leader of the Ontario New Democrats, Andrea Howarth, has signaled her support for public sector workers’ acceptance of a pay cut. She asserts, "I'm quite sure when they get to the bargaining table they will do their part like everyone else does ... there is a collective bargaining process that has to be respected."[2] Wow! Who said that the working-class needs enemies with “friends” like the New Democratic Party (NDP) and its leader Andrea Horwarth?
However, it is the tame and even puzzling reaction of some of Ontario’s major labour leaders that should be of concern to workers in the public sector. The government called labour leaders and employers from the broader public sector to “consultation” talks on the wage freeze on July 19, 2010. Coming out of the talks, this was what CUPE-Ontario president Fred Hahn had to say, “This is not like the early ’90s, this is not about sharing the pain. That’s all just not true”.[3] He was referring to former NDP premier Bob Rae’s unilateral opening of public sector workers’ contracts and the imposition of public sector wage-cuts accompanied by tax increases for the corporate sector. Was Brother Hahn implying that a wage-freeze would be tolerable, if accompanied by the cancellation of the $4.6 billion corporate tax-cut?
No credible union or union leader should contemplate a zero-wage increase over two years - even if the government rescinds the $4.6 billion tax-cut. There should not have been a tax-cut for the capitalist class. Restoring the tax should not be used as a bargaining chip to escape a wage-freeze on public sector workers.
Not to be outdone was the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union, Warren (Smokey) Thomas. We will leave it to you to decipher the implicit message in the following statement by Smokey Thomas. “Just because he [Minister of Finance Dwight Duncan] wants something doesn’t mean he’s going to get it. It’s not a social contract. He can propose (a wage-freeze) but he has to bargain it. He can’t legislate it. He’ll lose.”[4] Is it just us or does that sound like a labour leader who is not really in a fighting spirit and just wants to make a deal?
A simple matter of misguided policy?
However, the critical issue for Ontario’s public sector workers is the extent to which many of our labour leaders seem to be completely unaware of the state and employers’ motives for disciplining labour through wage concessions. Ismael Hossein-zaded of Drake University made the following observation, which is quite applicable to the posturing of labour leaders in Ontario:
Quote:
Viewing the savage class war of the ruling kleptocracy on the people's living and working conditions simply as “bad” policy, and hoping to somehow—presumably through smart arguments and sage advice—replace it with the “good” Keynesian policy of deficit spending without a fight, without grassroots‟ involvement and/or pressure, stems from the rather naive supposition that policy making is a simple matter of technical expertise or the benevolence of policy makers, that is, a matter of choice. The presumed choice is said to be between only two alternatives: between the stimulus or Keynesian deficit spending, on the one hand, and the Neoliberal austerity of cutting social spending, on the other.5
Based on some of the statements coming from labour leaders, they may not have gotten the memo that the attack on the working-class (through the slashing of social programme spending, attacks on private sector pensions and wage freezes) is not about good or bad economic policies. Hossein-Zedad must have been inspired to write his paper after reading the following Keynesian-inspired comment by Ontario Federation of Labour president Sid Ryan; “From a policy perspective, it makes no economic sense whatsoever. You’ve got a government saying we need to stimulate the economy. The best way of stimulating the economy is through public-sector workers who spend every single penny of their disposable income in their local communities,”[6] But it’s not about the economy, per se. It’s the class struggle, stupid!
Canada’s economic and political elite have clearly given up the ghost of Keynesian economics, which calls on government to either stimulate or restrict the demand for goods and services based on the state of the economy. In the case of the 2008 crisis in capitalism, these neoliberal players felt forced by the magnitude of the impending financial collapse to pump money into the economy. A not-too-insignificant fact was lost on many observers and commentators who gleefully cheered on the capitalist class’ “Road-to-Damascus” moment. The capitalist state in Canada and other imperialist countries will do everything within their power to maintain a business environment that facilitates the accumulation of capital or profit-making, as well as legitimize the system in the eyes of the people. That is all in a day’s work for the state…no surprise here for class conscious trade unionists and other activists!
Labour’s “Response”
We ought to note that the recent crisis in the economy caught organized labour off-guard and ill-prepared to mobilize the working-class against that monumental failure of capitalism. For decades, Western corporations and governments have been force-feeding the public a steady diet of tax-cuts. Lower taxes on businesses, high-income earners and the wealthy, the widespread slashing of social services and income support programmes, a massive reduction in state oversight and regulation of corporations and the enactment of anti-union policies and legislation have been the all rage since corporations and Western governments abandoned their class-collaborationist pact with organized labour in the 1970s. Yet at the very moment when capitalism experienced a crisis of confidence resulting from a set of policies that had been hailed as perfect ingredients for economic and social progress, organized labour was caught with its pants down. Its leaders didn’t have a class struggle alternative to Keynesian economics – an economic tendency that was never intended to be used as a tool to end wage slavery and the minority rule of bankers, industrialists and the managerial and political elite.
Presently, the labour movement is ideologically and operationally ill-prepared to effectively face down the two-year wage-freeze demand from the McGuinty Liberals. Unfortunately, labour’s leaders have, in the main, focused on narrow economic demands rather than seeking to politically develop union activists and their broader membership behind a class struggle labour movement platform. Union members have been politically deskilled and demobilized in favour of a social service model of trade unionism. These labour leaders have failed to use their unions’ courses, workshops, week-long schools, publications and other educational resources to educate members of the fact that they are a part of a distinct class with economic and political interests that are different from that of the rulers of capitalist society.
Even the most casual of observers understand that organized labour’s raison d’être is to champion the material concerns of the working-class. And yet, ideologically-speaking, most labour leaders in Canada have cast their lot in with capitalism - albeit a more Scandinavian version. This is why a coherent critique of capitalism is notably absent from most union-organized workshops and events. It should therefore not come as a surprise that many union members have swallowed the employers and politicians’ message that Canada is a largely middle-class country and that our collective aspiration should be to remain a member of this class. If the labour leaders, academics and the media say that the majority of Canadians are a part of the middle-class, it must be so. The development of a working-class consciousness becomes very difficult (but not impossible) in this kind of political environment.
The great majority of Canadians are members of the working-class. They sell their labour, exercise little to no control over how their work-life is organized, have no say over how the profit from their labour is distributed and are so alienated from work that the aphorism “Thank god it’s Friday” has its own acronym. One should never define middle-class status as one’s ability to purchase consumer trinkets, live in a mortgaged home or even own a summer cottage. Middle-class status ought to be defined by one’s exercise of power and control and/or the possession of high levels of human capital found among administrative/managerial elites in the private and public sectors, academic elites and independent professionals.
Labour’s Credibility Crisis
The narrow economic obsession of labour leaders was on plain display when Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan revealed the March 2010 Budget. When it became known that the McGuinty Liberals would be seeking a two-year wage-freeze from public sector workers, this news was all that consumed the attention of most labour leaders. Many labour functionaries scrambled around in search of external and internal legal opinions, requesting briefs from senior staff on the impact of a wage-freeze on bargaining in specific sectors and sending out correspondence to members assuring them to “just act as if nothing had happened”, because they’re “already covered by a collective agreement”. Many labour union offices’ and unionized workplaces’ anxiety was centred entirely on the desired wage-freeze by the McGuinty Liberals. Nothing else!
But today we hear labour leaders talking about keeping money in workers’ pockets to stimulate the economy and that their primary concern is maintaining public services at adequate levels. Why didn’t organized labour deploy its resources to educate and mobilize the public against the $4.6 billion corporate tax-cuts, slashing of $4 billion in transportation infrastructure spending from Metrolinx’s $9.3 billion budget7] and the scrapping of the special diet allowance that benefited over 160,000 members of the working-class for the unprincely sum of $250 million per annum and a mere monthly average of $130 per person[8]? The provincial government anticipates that the two-year wage-freeze across the public sector will net a savings of $1.5 billion – yet the previous $8.6 billion effectively stolen from the working class failed to push organized labour into action.
The leaders of organized labour did not have the imagination to energize their members and the broader citizenry in alliance with other social movement organizations over the Budget. They could have exposed the class priorities of the McGuinty Liberals. The government’s main concerns clearly have nothing to do with those of us who are poor, live from pay cheque to pay cheque and do not patronize the golf courses where McGuinty and his friends hang out when they are not screwing the public. Listen up public sector labour leaders: the people will not be fooled by your claims to be advocating for the general interest. The broader working-class just have to simply see where you direct the labour movement’s resources and they will clue into the issues that are being prioritized. Take a look at the poor, working-class and/or racialized areas that are likely to be affected by the $4 billion cut to Metrolinx’s budget:
Quote:
…the austerity moves could affect five planned projects: rapid transit lines for Finch Ave. W., Sheppard Ave. E. and the Scarborough RT, along with the Eglinton Ave. cross-town line and an expansion of York region’s Viva service.[9]
Are we to believe that a class-struggle and anti-oppression informed public education, organizing and mobilization campaign in defense of public services, the social wage and a livable wage would not have had some level of traction with the people of Ontario?
An alternative economic plan or a different labour movement?
In some quarters of the trade union sector, there are talks of presenting an alternative plan to the slash-and-burn neoliberal policies of the provincial government. But, the presentation of Keynesian economic proposals by labour leaders is useless in a climate where the ruling class doesn’t feel threatened by a politically mobilized population, especially without “compelling grassroots pressure on policy makers”.[10] We implied earlier that labour unions have a credibility gap with the broader public if they now assert a desire to “broaden the debate, educate community members and local politicians with a view to engaging in actions that protect public services and build strong communities” as outlined by one union. What would be the purpose of the alternative plans of these labour leaders? The status quo of the 1930s to the 1960s that gave rise to the welfare state is not a transformative option.
There is no such thing as a “contextless” context. Where is the necessary political environment that would force the state to make concessions to the working-class out of fear that they maybe inclined to embrace revolutionary options? When some labour leaders are loosely talking about coming up with an alternative (Keynesian economic plan?) stimulus proposal, they would do well to understand the political implications of the following statement:
Quote:
Keynesian economists seem to be unmindful of this fundamental relationship between economics and politics. Instead, they view economic policies as the outcome of the battle of ideas, not of class forces or interests. And herein lies one of the principal weaknesses of their argument: viewing the Keynesian/New Deal/Social Democratic reforms of the 1930s through the 1960s as the product of Keynes’ or F.D.R.’s genius, or the goodness of their hearts; not of the compelling pressure exerted by the revolutionary movements of that period on the national policy makers to “implement reform in order to prevent revolution,” as F.D.R. famously put it. This explains why economic policy makers of today are not listening to Keynesian arguments—powerful and elegant as they are—because there would be no Keynesian, New Deal, or Social-Democratic economics without revolutionary pressure from the people.[11]
However, when labour leaders shy away from speaking openly about class-struggle and the nature of our economic system, we have a serious problem. It means that they are not in a position to facilitate a class-struggle, democracy-from-below and self-organizing form of trade unionism.
In order fight this attack on the working-class of Ontario, the labour movements’ rank-and-file activists, progressive leaders and principled labour socialists must engage in shop-floor education, organizing and mobilizing that is centred on a class-struggle, anti-racist and anti-oppression campaign. This approach to labour activism must be done in alliance with progressive or radical social movement organizations among women, racialized peoples, indigenous peoples, youth, students, LGBT community, climate/environmental justice, independent and revolutionary labour organizations, anti-authoritarian formations, and radical intellectuals. It must be an alliance based on mutual respect, sharing of approaches to emancipation and resources and a commitment to the value that the oppressed are the architect of and the driving force behind the movement for their emancipation. It is essential that organized labour open up and transform its leadership and decision-making structures to accommodate the full inclusion of its membership, in all their diversity.
In most of our unions and locals, this means starting from the beginning and we can use this current crisis to take those first steps. There is a lot of frustration among union members and community activists over the inaction of labour’s leadership in the face of this attack - and a desire to do something about it. That frustration and desire can be channeled into building cross-union “fight back committees” that bring together trade union and community activists in a city or town, such as members of the Greater Toronto Workers Assembly have already begun to do in that city. The “fight back committees” can give us a capacity to act independently from organized labour’s leadership. And probably our first acts should be to organize general assemblies in our locals and town hall meetings in our communities to promote a working-class view of the economic crisis and to mobilize our fellow workers and neighbours around militant, grassroots resistance to the McGuinty government and all the forces promoting a new round of austerity for the working-class.
Nothing less than a self-organizing, class-struggle approach to trade unionism will put labour in a position to fight in the here-and-now, while building the road we must travel on our way to the classless and stateless society of the future.
Alex Diceanu is a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3906 and a graduate student at McMaster University. Ajamu Nangwaya is a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Locals 3907 and 3902 and a graduate student at the University of Toronto. Both authors are members of the Ontario anarchist organization, Common Cause.
________________________________________
[1] Walkom, T. (2010, March 26). Liberals aim at easy targets. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/ontariobudget/article/785616--walkom...
[2] Brennan, R. J. & Talaga, T. (2010, March 26) Hudak cut wages deeper. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/ontariobudget/article/785343--hudak-cut-wages-deeper
[3] Benzie, R. (2010, July 20). Dwight Duncan’s wage-freeze pitch gets frosty reception. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/837872--dwight-duncan-s-wage-freeze-pitch-gets-frosty-reception
[4] Benzie, July 20
[5] Hossein-zaded, I. (2010, July 23-25). Holes in the Keynesian Arguments against Neoliberal Austerity Policy—Not “Bad” Policy, But Class Policy. Retrieved from http://www.counterpunch.org/zadeh07232010.html
[6] Benzie, July 20.
[7] Hume, C. (2010, March 29). Transit still not a priority. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/ttc/article/787317--transit-still-not-a-...
[8] The Canadian Press. (2010 April 1). Ontario asked to restore special diet allowance. Retrieved fromhttp://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/04/01/diet-allowance.html
9] Goddard, J., Rider, D. & Kalinoski, (2010, March 26). Miller outraged as budget sideswiped GTA transit. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/785573--miller-outraged-as-budget-sideswipes-gta-transit
[10] Hossein-zaded, I, Holes in the Keynesian arguments against neoliberal austerity policy.
[11] ibid
It’s the class struggle, stupid!
Organized labour’s confused response to the McGuinty Liberals' attack on Ontario’s working-class
By Ajamu Nangwaya and Alex Diceanu
Organized labour in Ontario will continue to put forth a weak and ineffective response to attacks from the ruling class as long as it continues to ignore the reality of class struggle. A perfect example is its current response to a proposed two-year wage-freeze that the Dalton McGuinty-led Ontario government plans on imposing on unionized public sector workers. The provincial Liberals would like to save $750 million per year from a wage-freeze, so as to help manage the $19.3 billion budget deficit. Readers need not be reminded that this deficit is the result of the risky financial speculations of the captains of finance, industry and commerce that created the Great Recession of 2008.
But it is the 710,000 unionized members of the working class and 350,000 non-unionized managers and other employees who draw pay cheques from the government[1] and the users of state-provided services (and private sector workers) who are being asked to bear the burden of paying for the actions of the corporate sector. At the same time as this attempt to take income from the pockets of government workers, the McGuinty Liberals’ have granted a $4.6 billion tax-cut to the business sector.
The leader of the Ontario New Democrats, Andrea Howarth, has signaled her support for public sector workers’ acceptance of a pay cut. She asserts, "I'm quite sure when they get to the bargaining table they will do their part like everyone else does ... there is a collective bargaining process that has to be respected."[2] Wow! Who said that the working-class needs enemies with “friends” like the New Democratic Party (NDP) and its leader Andrea Horwarth?
However, it is the tame and even puzzling reaction of some of Ontario’s major labour leaders that should be of concern to workers in the public sector. The government called labour leaders and employers from the broader public sector to “consultation” talks on the wage freeze on July 19, 2010. Coming out of the talks, this was what CUPE-Ontario president Fred Hahn had to say, “This is not like the early ’90s, this is not about sharing the pain. That’s all just not true”.[3] He was referring to former NDP premier Bob Rae’s unilateral opening of public sector workers’ contracts and the imposition of public sector wage-cuts accompanied by tax increases for the corporate sector. Was Brother Hahn implying that a wage-freeze would be tolerable, if accompanied by the cancellation of the $4.6 billion corporate tax-cut?
No credible union or union leader should contemplate a zero-wage increase over two years - even if the government rescinds the $4.6 billion tax-cut. There should not have been a tax-cut for the capitalist class. Restoring the tax should not be used as a bargaining chip to escape a wage-freeze on public sector workers.
Not to be outdone was the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union, Warren (Smokey) Thomas. We will leave it to you to decipher the implicit message in the following statement by Smokey Thomas. “Just because he [Minister of Finance Dwight Duncan] wants something doesn’t mean he’s going to get it. It’s not a social contract. He can propose (a wage-freeze) but he has to bargain it. He can’t legislate it. He’ll lose.”[4] Is it just us or does that sound like a labour leader who is not really in a fighting spirit and just wants to make a deal?
A simple matter of misguided policy?
However, the critical issue for Ontario’s public sector workers is the extent to which many of our labour leaders seem to be completely unaware of the state and employers’ motives for disciplining labour through wage concessions. Ismael Hossein-zaded of Drake University made the following observation, which is quite applicable to the posturing of labour leaders in Ontario:
Quote:
Viewing the savage class war of the ruling kleptocracy on the people's living and working conditions simply as “bad” policy, and hoping to somehow—presumably through smart arguments and sage advice—replace it with the “good” Keynesian policy of deficit spending without a fight, without grassroots‟ involvement and/or pressure, stems from the rather naive supposition that policy making is a simple matter of technical expertise or the benevolence of policy makers, that is, a matter of choice. The presumed choice is said to be between only two alternatives: between the stimulus or Keynesian deficit spending, on the one hand, and the Neoliberal austerity of cutting social spending, on the other.5
Based on some of the statements coming from labour leaders, they may not have gotten the memo that the attack on the working-class (through the slashing of social programme spending, attacks on private sector pensions and wage freezes) is not about good or bad economic policies. Hossein-Zedad must have been inspired to write his paper after reading the following Keynesian-inspired comment by Ontario Federation of Labour president Sid Ryan; “From a policy perspective, it makes no economic sense whatsoever. You’ve got a government saying we need to stimulate the economy. The best way of stimulating the economy is through public-sector workers who spend every single penny of their disposable income in their local communities,”[6] But it’s not about the economy, per se. It’s the class struggle, stupid!
Canada’s economic and political elite have clearly given up the ghost of Keynesian economics, which calls on government to either stimulate or restrict the demand for goods and services based on the state of the economy. In the case of the 2008 crisis in capitalism, these neoliberal players felt forced by the magnitude of the impending financial collapse to pump money into the economy. A not-too-insignificant fact was lost on many observers and commentators who gleefully cheered on the capitalist class’ “Road-to-Damascus” moment. The capitalist state in Canada and other imperialist countries will do everything within their power to maintain a business environment that facilitates the accumulation of capital or profit-making, as well as legitimize the system in the eyes of the people. That is all in a day’s work for the state…no surprise here for class conscious trade unionists and other activists!
Labour’s “Response”
We ought to note that the recent crisis in the economy caught organized labour off-guard and ill-prepared to mobilize the working-class against that monumental failure of capitalism. For decades, Western corporations and governments have been force-feeding the public a steady diet of tax-cuts. Lower taxes on businesses, high-income earners and the wealthy, the widespread slashing of social services and income support programmes, a massive reduction in state oversight and regulation of corporations and the enactment of anti-union policies and legislation have been the all rage since corporations and Western governments abandoned their class-collaborationist pact with organized labour in the 1970s. Yet at the very moment when capitalism experienced a crisis of confidence resulting from a set of policies that had been hailed as perfect ingredients for economic and social progress, organized labour was caught with its pants down. Its leaders didn’t have a class struggle alternative to Keynesian economics – an economic tendency that was never intended to be used as a tool to end wage slavery and the minority rule of bankers, industrialists and the managerial and political elite.
Presently, the labour movement is ideologically and operationally ill-prepared to effectively face down the two-year wage-freeze demand from the McGuinty Liberals. Unfortunately, labour’s leaders have, in the main, focused on narrow economic demands rather than seeking to politically develop union activists and their broader membership behind a class struggle labour movement platform. Union members have been politically deskilled and demobilized in favour of a social service model of trade unionism. These labour leaders have failed to use their unions’ courses, workshops, week-long schools, publications and other educational resources to educate members of the fact that they are a part of a distinct class with economic and political interests that are different from that of the rulers of capitalist society.
Even the most casual of observers understand that organized labour’s raison d’être is to champion the material concerns of the working-class. And yet, ideologically-speaking, most labour leaders in Canada have cast their lot in with capitalism - albeit a more Scandinavian version. This is why a coherent critique of capitalism is notably absent from most union-organized workshops and events. It should therefore not come as a surprise that many union members have swallowed the employers and politicians’ message that Canada is a largely middle-class country and that our collective aspiration should be to remain a member of this class. If the labour leaders, academics and the media say that the majority of Canadians are a part of the middle-class, it must be so. The development of a working-class consciousness becomes very difficult (but not impossible) in this kind of political environment.
The great majority of Canadians are members of the working-class. They sell their labour, exercise little to no control over how their work-life is organized, have no say over how the profit from their labour is distributed and are so alienated from work that the aphorism “Thank god it’s Friday” has its own acronym. One should never define middle-class status as one’s ability to purchase consumer trinkets, live in a mortgaged home or even own a summer cottage. Middle-class status ought to be defined by one’s exercise of power and control and/or the possession of high levels of human capital found among administrative/managerial elites in the private and public sectors, academic elites and independent professionals.
Labour’s Credibility Crisis
The narrow economic obsession of labour leaders was on plain display when Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan revealed the March 2010 Budget. When it became known that the McGuinty Liberals would be seeking a two-year wage-freeze from public sector workers, this news was all that consumed the attention of most labour leaders. Many labour functionaries scrambled around in search of external and internal legal opinions, requesting briefs from senior staff on the impact of a wage-freeze on bargaining in specific sectors and sending out correspondence to members assuring them to “just act as if nothing had happened”, because they’re “already covered by a collective agreement”. Many labour union offices’ and unionized workplaces’ anxiety was centred entirely on the desired wage-freeze by the McGuinty Liberals. Nothing else!
But today we hear labour leaders talking about keeping money in workers’ pockets to stimulate the economy and that their primary concern is maintaining public services at adequate levels. Why didn’t organized labour deploy its resources to educate and mobilize the public against the $4.6 billion corporate tax-cuts, slashing of $4 billion in transportation infrastructure spending from Metrolinx’s $9.3 billion budget7] and the scrapping of the special diet allowance that benefited over 160,000 members of the working-class for the unprincely sum of $250 million per annum and a mere monthly average of $130 per person[8]? The provincial government anticipates that the two-year wage-freeze across the public sector will net a savings of $1.5 billion – yet the previous $8.6 billion effectively stolen from the working class failed to push organized labour into action.
The leaders of organized labour did not have the imagination to energize their members and the broader citizenry in alliance with other social movement organizations over the Budget. They could have exposed the class priorities of the McGuinty Liberals. The government’s main concerns clearly have nothing to do with those of us who are poor, live from pay cheque to pay cheque and do not patronize the golf courses where McGuinty and his friends hang out when they are not screwing the public. Listen up public sector labour leaders: the people will not be fooled by your claims to be advocating for the general interest. The broader working-class just have to simply see where you direct the labour movement’s resources and they will clue into the issues that are being prioritized. Take a look at the poor, working-class and/or racialized areas that are likely to be affected by the $4 billion cut to Metrolinx’s budget:
Quote:
…the austerity moves could affect five planned projects: rapid transit lines for Finch Ave. W., Sheppard Ave. E. and the Scarborough RT, along with the Eglinton Ave. cross-town line and an expansion of York region’s Viva service.[9]
Are we to believe that a class-struggle and anti-oppression informed public education, organizing and mobilization campaign in defense of public services, the social wage and a livable wage would not have had some level of traction with the people of Ontario?
An alternative economic plan or a different labour movement?
In some quarters of the trade union sector, there are talks of presenting an alternative plan to the slash-and-burn neoliberal policies of the provincial government. But, the presentation of Keynesian economic proposals by labour leaders is useless in a climate where the ruling class doesn’t feel threatened by a politically mobilized population, especially without “compelling grassroots pressure on policy makers”.[10] We implied earlier that labour unions have a credibility gap with the broader public if they now assert a desire to “broaden the debate, educate community members and local politicians with a view to engaging in actions that protect public services and build strong communities” as outlined by one union. What would be the purpose of the alternative plans of these labour leaders? The status quo of the 1930s to the 1960s that gave rise to the welfare state is not a transformative option.
There is no such thing as a “contextless” context. Where is the necessary political environment that would force the state to make concessions to the working-class out of fear that they maybe inclined to embrace revolutionary options? When some labour leaders are loosely talking about coming up with an alternative (Keynesian economic plan?) stimulus proposal, they would do well to understand the political implications of the following statement:
Quote:
Keynesian economists seem to be unmindful of this fundamental relationship between economics and politics. Instead, they view economic policies as the outcome of the battle of ideas, not of class forces or interests. And herein lies one of the principal weaknesses of their argument: viewing the Keynesian/New Deal/Social Democratic reforms of the 1930s through the 1960s as the product of Keynes’ or F.D.R.’s genius, or the goodness of their hearts; not of the compelling pressure exerted by the revolutionary movements of that period on the national policy makers to “implement reform in order to prevent revolution,” as F.D.R. famously put it. This explains why economic policy makers of today are not listening to Keynesian arguments—powerful and elegant as they are—because there would be no Keynesian, New Deal, or Social-Democratic economics without revolutionary pressure from the people.[11]
However, when labour leaders shy away from speaking openly about class-struggle and the nature of our economic system, we have a serious problem. It means that they are not in a position to facilitate a class-struggle, democracy-from-below and self-organizing form of trade unionism.
In order fight this attack on the working-class of Ontario, the labour movements’ rank-and-file activists, progressive leaders and principled labour socialists must engage in shop-floor education, organizing and mobilizing that is centred on a class-struggle, anti-racist and anti-oppression campaign. This approach to labour activism must be done in alliance with progressive or radical social movement organizations among women, racialized peoples, indigenous peoples, youth, students, LGBT community, climate/environmental justice, independent and revolutionary labour organizations, anti-authoritarian formations, and radical intellectuals. It must be an alliance based on mutual respect, sharing of approaches to emancipation and resources and a commitment to the value that the oppressed are the architect of and the driving force behind the movement for their emancipation. It is essential that organized labour open up and transform its leadership and decision-making structures to accommodate the full inclusion of its membership, in all their diversity.
In most of our unions and locals, this means starting from the beginning and we can use this current crisis to take those first steps. There is a lot of frustration among union members and community activists over the inaction of labour’s leadership in the face of this attack - and a desire to do something about it. That frustration and desire can be channeled into building cross-union “fight back committees” that bring together trade union and community activists in a city or town, such as members of the Greater Toronto Workers Assembly have already begun to do in that city. The “fight back committees” can give us a capacity to act independently from organized labour’s leadership. And probably our first acts should be to organize general assemblies in our locals and town hall meetings in our communities to promote a working-class view of the economic crisis and to mobilize our fellow workers and neighbours around militant, grassroots resistance to the McGuinty government and all the forces promoting a new round of austerity for the working-class.
Nothing less than a self-organizing, class-struggle approach to trade unionism will put labour in a position to fight in the here-and-now, while building the road we must travel on our way to the classless and stateless society of the future.
Alex Diceanu is a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3906 and a graduate student at McMaster University. Ajamu Nangwaya is a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Locals 3907 and 3902 and a graduate student at the University of Toronto. Both authors are members of the Ontario anarchist organization, Common Cause.
________________________________________
[1] Walkom, T. (2010, March 26). Liberals aim at easy targets. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/ontariobudget/article/785616--walkom...
[2] Brennan, R. J. & Talaga, T. (2010, March 26) Hudak cut wages deeper. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/ontariobudget/article/785343--hudak-cut-wages-deeper
[3] Benzie, R. (2010, July 20). Dwight Duncan’s wage-freeze pitch gets frosty reception. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/837872--dwight-duncan-s-wage-freeze-pitch-gets-frosty-reception
[4] Benzie, July 20
[5] Hossein-zaded, I. (2010, July 23-25). Holes in the Keynesian Arguments against Neoliberal Austerity Policy—Not “Bad” Policy, But Class Policy. Retrieved from http://www.counterpunch.org/zadeh07232010.html
[6] Benzie, July 20.
[7] Hume, C. (2010, March 29). Transit still not a priority. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/ttc/article/787317--transit-still-not-a-...
[8] The Canadian Press. (2010 April 1). Ontario asked to restore special diet allowance. Retrieved fromhttp://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/04/01/diet-allowance.html
9] Goddard, J., Rider, D. & Kalinoski, (2010, March 26). Miller outraged as budget sideswiped GTA transit. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/785573--miller-outraged-as-budget-sideswipes-gta-transit
[10] Hossein-zaded, I, Holes in the Keynesian arguments against neoliberal austerity policy.
[11] ibid
Labels: anarchism, anarchist theory, Canadian labour, Common Cause, labour, Linchpin, Ontario, platformism, tactics
Friday, September 03, 2010
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT VICTORIA:
VICTORIA ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR:
Ah Fall. The changing colours of the leaves. The call of the migrant birds....and the Victoria Anarchist Bookfair. Here's the announcement of that upcoming wonder.
@@@@@@@@@@
September 11th and 12th, 2010
Victoria Anarchist Bookfair dates: September 11th and 12th, 2010
NEW LOCATION! 680 Courtney Street, Songhees & Esquimalt Territories
Festival of Anarchy dates: September 3rd to 12th, 2010
We are happy to announce the fifth year of the Victoria Anarchist Bookfair, located on unceded Songhees Territory in Victoria, British Columbia. The Bookfair is for anarchists and non-anarchists, with participants from all over North America and beyond. We seek to introduce anarchism to the public, to further elaborate upon current and historical anarchist ideals and to foster dialogue between various anarchist tendencies. Participants from different anarchist traditions, visions, and practices are welcome. Events include book and information tables, workshops, readings, films, presentations, and much more. A Festival of Anarchy will take place during the week before the Bookfair, beginning on September 3rd, 2010.
We are proud to have received Monday Magazine's 'M Award' for Victoria's best literary event in 2009.
It's our 5th Birthday and we're going to have a blast!
Volunteers
We need your help! Please consider reading through our Volunteer section to help out behind-the scenes this year.
Activities for Kids
Bring your kids to the bookfair! Of course kids are welcome in all areas of the bookfair, but the kids room is a place where there are toys, games, story time and more! Open all day, for both days of the Bookfair.
Please Note: The Anarchist Kids Activity Room is NOT a child minding space.
We will try to have adults in the kids room at all times, and will definitely have adults present the majority of the time. Parents are welcome to stay with their children and informal child-watching is encouraged (you watch my kids, I'll watch yours kinda thing). Parents must stay at the bookfair.
Anarchist Kids Activities - please consider helping us organize:
* Face-painting
* Kids arts & crafts
* Storytelling & reading
* Games & toys
* Appropriately themed movies
* A resting space for tired tots
September 11th and 12th, 2010
Victoria Anarchist Bookfair dates: September 11th and 12th, 2010
NEW LOCATION! 680 Courtney Street, Songhees & Esquimalt Territories
Festival of Anarchy dates: September 3rd to 12th, 2010
We are happy to announce the fifth year of the Victoria Anarchist Bookfair, located on unceded Songhees Territory in Victoria, British Columbia. The Bookfair is for anarchists and non-anarchists, with participants from all over North America and beyond. We seek to introduce anarchism to the public, to further elaborate upon current and historical anarchist ideals and to foster dialogue between various anarchist tendencies. Participants from different anarchist traditions, visions, and practices are welcome. Events include book and information tables, workshops, readings, films, presentations, and much more. A Festival of Anarchy will take place during the week before the Bookfair, beginning on September 3rd, 2010.
We are proud to have received Monday Magazine's 'M Award' for Victoria's best literary event in 2009.
It's our 5th Birthday and we're going to have a blast!
Volunteers
We need your help! Please consider reading through our Volunteer section to help out behind-the scenes this year.
Activities for Kids
Bring your kids to the bookfair! Of course kids are welcome in all areas of the bookfair, but the kids room is a place where there are toys, games, story time and more! Open all day, for both days of the Bookfair.
Please Note: The Anarchist Kids Activity Room is NOT a child minding space.
We will try to have adults in the kids room at all times, and will definitely have adults present the majority of the time. Parents are welcome to stay with their children and informal child-watching is encouraged (you watch my kids, I'll watch yours kinda thing). Parents must stay at the bookfair.
Anarchist Kids Activities - please consider helping us organize:
* Face-painting
* Kids arts & crafts
* Storytelling & reading
* Games & toys
* Appropriately themed movies
* A resting space for tired tots
@@@@@@@@@@
The Victoria Anarchist Bookfair, like the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair, is actually part of a more extended 'Festival of Anarchy' that starts tonight, September 3. Here's more on these events.
@@@@@@@@@@
Festival of Anarchy Schedule
The Festival of Anarchy starts on September 3rd and builds up the momentum for opening day of the Anarchist Bookfair. This year we are proud to host a wide variety of events featuring many talented artists, musicians, film-makers and activists. Check out the line up!
Friday, September 3rd
PANIC!: FREEDOM IN SOUND 2
Camas Books, 2590 Quadra Street
Sound art, experimental music and performance, plus DIY art gallery
arrive at 5 pm to hang your art
7 pm for PANIC! Freedom in Sound
Saturday, September 4th
WE HAVE NO LEADERS! Benefit show for Kelly Pflug-Back
Mike XVX, Jeff Andrew, Star, Comrade Black, Chase, Sasha n Nedjo & more friends
$5-$15 sliding scale, no one turned away! All money raised goes to Kelly's legal defence
7:30 pm, BCGEU, 2994 Douglas St (PLEASE NOTE NEW ADDRESS)
Kelly Pflug-Back is a long time community organizer, whom has been targeted by the police and scape-goated as "the leader of the black bloc" from the G20. She is facing 13 charges including conspiracy, and mischief. The courts are viewing her charges as "hate crimes" against the police, meaning if she is convicted she will be given a stiffer sentence than normal.
This is a blatant misuse of hate crime legislation originally intended to protect identifiable minorities from racist, homophobic or sexist violence. We believe Kelly is being targeted for her roll as a community organizer doing anti-racist and anti-poverty work in her community.
Sunday, September 5th
URBAN CAPTURE THE FLAG
8:00 pm in Bastion Square
Capture the Flag is a team-based game popularized by the Boy Scouts of America as a way to prepare boys for conscription during the World Wars. Urban Capture the Flag (UCTF) is a 21st Century detournement of this practice, primarily organized by anarchists in North America as a way to build community, reclaim the streets and public space, develop insurrectionary and protest tactics for affinity groups, produce a counter-spectacle for passers-by and build group morale through risk-taking together.
Monday, September 6th
Anarchist ‘day of rest’
Tuesday, September 7th
PRISONS AT THE FRONT LINE OF REVOLUTION
A Victoria Anarchist Reading Circle event with Juliet Belmas
7:30 pm Camas Books, 2590 Quadra Street
After a lengthy prison term for smashing the state, Juliet Belmas has gone on to produce several award-winning short films about women in prison. Her painterly cinematic style and experimental production values have been characterized ‘subtle, yet harrowing.’ This evening she will discuss the politics of incarceration, including recent round-ups at the G-20 summit in Toronto, and why prisons are a “front-line” in the anarchist struggle. ( Sad as it is we have to interrupt this recorded announcement here and now. Julie "fucking" Belmas !!! Now I can die happy because I have indeed seen everything. It's things like this that make me doubt the sanity of some of my presumed "comrades". I have learned over the years that the way they see "reality" is quite different from the way I see it or, more importantly the way that over 99% of the population views it. And I think that a "health warning" should be put on much of their pronouncements insofar as the stated content is quite remote from their actual motivations. If I didn't claim the "anarchist" label I'd perhaps feel pity rather than annoyance. On the other hand I see what I have been doing for almost 40 years as 'politics', and they see it as ???? )
Festival of Anarchy Schedule
The Festival of Anarchy starts on September 3rd and builds up the momentum for opening day of the Anarchist Bookfair. This year we are proud to host a wide variety of events featuring many talented artists, musicians, film-makers and activists. Check out the line up!
Friday, September 3rd
PANIC!: FREEDOM IN SOUND 2
Camas Books, 2590 Quadra Street
Sound art, experimental music and performance, plus DIY art gallery
arrive at 5 pm to hang your art
7 pm for PANIC! Freedom in Sound
Saturday, September 4th
WE HAVE NO LEADERS! Benefit show for Kelly Pflug-Back
Mike XVX, Jeff Andrew, Star, Comrade Black, Chase, Sasha n Nedjo & more friends
$5-$15 sliding scale, no one turned away! All money raised goes to Kelly's legal defence
7:30 pm, BCGEU, 2994 Douglas St (PLEASE NOTE NEW ADDRESS)
Kelly Pflug-Back is a long time community organizer, whom has been targeted by the police and scape-goated as "the leader of the black bloc" from the G20. She is facing 13 charges including conspiracy, and mischief. The courts are viewing her charges as "hate crimes" against the police, meaning if she is convicted she will be given a stiffer sentence than normal.
This is a blatant misuse of hate crime legislation originally intended to protect identifiable minorities from racist, homophobic or sexist violence. We believe Kelly is being targeted for her roll as a community organizer doing anti-racist and anti-poverty work in her community.
Sunday, September 5th
URBAN CAPTURE THE FLAG
8:00 pm in Bastion Square
Capture the Flag is a team-based game popularized by the Boy Scouts of America as a way to prepare boys for conscription during the World Wars. Urban Capture the Flag (UCTF) is a 21st Century detournement of this practice, primarily organized by anarchists in North America as a way to build community, reclaim the streets and public space, develop insurrectionary and protest tactics for affinity groups, produce a counter-spectacle for passers-by and build group morale through risk-taking together.
Monday, September 6th
Anarchist ‘day of rest’
Tuesday, September 7th
PRISONS AT THE FRONT LINE OF REVOLUTION
A Victoria Anarchist Reading Circle event with Juliet Belmas
7:30 pm Camas Books, 2590 Quadra Street
After a lengthy prison term for smashing the state, Juliet Belmas has gone on to produce several award-winning short films about women in prison. Her painterly cinematic style and experimental production values have been characterized ‘subtle, yet harrowing.’ This evening she will discuss the politics of incarceration, including recent round-ups at the G-20 summit in Toronto, and why prisons are a “front-line” in the anarchist struggle. ( Sad as it is we have to interrupt this recorded announcement here and now. Julie "fucking" Belmas !!! Now I can die happy because I have indeed seen everything. It's things like this that make me doubt the sanity of some of my presumed "comrades". I have learned over the years that the way they see "reality" is quite different from the way I see it or, more importantly the way that over 99% of the population views it. And I think that a "health warning" should be put on much of their pronouncements insofar as the stated content is quite remote from their actual motivations. If I didn't claim the "anarchist" label I'd perhaps feel pity rather than annoyance. On the other hand I see what I have been doing for almost 40 years as 'politics', and they see it as ???? )
Wednesday, September 8th
FUCK YOU!
7:30 pm Camas Books, 2590 Quadra Street
An introduction to kink and sex toys with Michelle Powell.
Thursday, September 9th
END:CIV SCREENING
Franklin López--Director/Producer, subMedia
7:30 pm, Camas Books, 2590 Quadra Street
END:CIV examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: "If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?"
Taking the long view: endless economic growth has turned into a global economic crash. What will the next hundred years bring? Students of history know that all civilizations eventually come to an end. The ancient Mayans, the dynasties of China, and the mighty Roman Empire, as long-lived and powerful as they were, could not escape this inevitability. The same goes for the culture we call Western Civilization. The causes underlying the collapse of civilizations are usually traced to overuse of resources. As we write this, the world is reeling from economic chaos, peak oil, climate change, environmental degradation, and political turmoil. Every day the headlines re-hash stories of scandal and betrayal of the public trust. We don't have to make outraged demands for the end of the current global system -- it seems to be coming apart already.
But acts of courage, compassion and altruism abound, even in the most damaged places. By documenting the resilience of the people hit hardest by war and repression, and the heroism of those coming forward to confront the crisis head-on, END:CIV illuminates a way out of this all-consuming madness and into a saner future.
http://endciv.com/
http://submedia.tv/
Twitter http://twitter.com/stimulator
Friday, September 10th
HIP HOP / SPOKEN WORD NIGHT OF DISSENT
Open Space Artist Run Centre: 510 Fort Street, 2nd Floor
You won't wanna miss this show and you have no excuse to miss it cause it's by donation!! (suggested, $5-$15)
7:00 pm sharp
This year's "Night of Dissent" will be the most engaging of the past 4 years! With a new, larger venue (Open Space) and a visual arts show we plan on hitting you hard with positive political message. World War 3 Illustrated artists Seth Tobocman, Rebecca Migdal and Kevin Pyle present visual and spoken word stories of protest and resistance. TESTAMENT, Blank Space & mONKEYwRENCH bring the heat with their Revolutionary Lyricism and Battle Style Beatboxing. While the Revolutionary Cyborg Wedding Band gets you up off your seat for a little electro hip hop, Chase & Zaccheaus Jackson ground you with their stories and slam poetry.
Saturday, September 11th
GRAPHIC RADICALS OPENING
7:30 pm: Legacy Gallery, 630 Yates Street
Graphic Radicals is a “themed” presentation of the work of World War 3 Illustrated, a New York-based artists’ collective, from the 1980s to the present day. The art confronts issues such as anti-war protests, squatting in New York, the tragedies of 9-11, racism, prisons and anarchism. Graphic Radicals includes dozens of works in the form of posters, graphic illustrations, paintings, banners and other media.
Join the artists of World War 3 Illustrated as they celebrate 30 years of activism.
Sunday, September 12th
CAMAS' 3rd FOLKIN' ANNIVERSARY
Camas Books and Infoshop. 2590 Quadra
This event is all ages. No one is turned away at the door, but we suggest a donation of $5-$15 (Pay What You Can)
8:00pm
Camas' 3rd Folkin' Anniversary will be a night to remember!! With local acts like "Ursula" & "Gumshoe & the Banshee" you’re sure not to forget the haunting circus-esque energy of the evening. Without-A-Net will join us with some klezmer, Starla with her folk punk and Buffalo Buffalo (inc Cap'n'Kops from The Rough Sea) is coming from the East (on tour) to start the night off with some ol'timey folk songs (so come early!!)
Being a fundraiser for both Camas Books and the Victoria Anarchist Bookfair, we hope that you come out in droves to celebrate and help the cause.
FUCK YOU!
7:30 pm Camas Books, 2590 Quadra Street
An introduction to kink and sex toys with Michelle Powell.
Thursday, September 9th
END:CIV SCREENING
Franklin López--Director/Producer, subMedia
7:30 pm, Camas Books, 2590 Quadra Street
END:CIV examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations. Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: "If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?"
Taking the long view: endless economic growth has turned into a global economic crash. What will the next hundred years bring? Students of history know that all civilizations eventually come to an end. The ancient Mayans, the dynasties of China, and the mighty Roman Empire, as long-lived and powerful as they were, could not escape this inevitability. The same goes for the culture we call Western Civilization. The causes underlying the collapse of civilizations are usually traced to overuse of resources. As we write this, the world is reeling from economic chaos, peak oil, climate change, environmental degradation, and political turmoil. Every day the headlines re-hash stories of scandal and betrayal of the public trust. We don't have to make outraged demands for the end of the current global system -- it seems to be coming apart already.
But acts of courage, compassion and altruism abound, even in the most damaged places. By documenting the resilience of the people hit hardest by war and repression, and the heroism of those coming forward to confront the crisis head-on, END:CIV illuminates a way out of this all-consuming madness and into a saner future.
http://endciv.com/
http://submedia.tv/
Twitter http://twitter.com/stimulator
Friday, September 10th
HIP HOP / SPOKEN WORD NIGHT OF DISSENT
Open Space Artist Run Centre: 510 Fort Street, 2nd Floor
You won't wanna miss this show and you have no excuse to miss it cause it's by donation!! (suggested, $5-$15)
7:00 pm sharp
This year's "Night of Dissent" will be the most engaging of the past 4 years! With a new, larger venue (Open Space) and a visual arts show we plan on hitting you hard with positive political message. World War 3 Illustrated artists Seth Tobocman, Rebecca Migdal and Kevin Pyle present visual and spoken word stories of protest and resistance. TESTAMENT, Blank Space & mONKEYwRENCH bring the heat with their Revolutionary Lyricism and Battle Style Beatboxing. While the Revolutionary Cyborg Wedding Band gets you up off your seat for a little electro hip hop, Chase & Zaccheaus Jackson ground you with their stories and slam poetry.
Saturday, September 11th
GRAPHIC RADICALS OPENING
7:30 pm: Legacy Gallery, 630 Yates Street
Graphic Radicals is a “themed” presentation of the work of World War 3 Illustrated, a New York-based artists’ collective, from the 1980s to the present day. The art confronts issues such as anti-war protests, squatting in New York, the tragedies of 9-11, racism, prisons and anarchism. Graphic Radicals includes dozens of works in the form of posters, graphic illustrations, paintings, banners and other media.
Join the artists of World War 3 Illustrated as they celebrate 30 years of activism.
Sunday, September 12th
CAMAS' 3rd FOLKIN' ANNIVERSARY
Camas Books and Infoshop. 2590 Quadra
This event is all ages. No one is turned away at the door, but we suggest a donation of $5-$15 (Pay What You Can)
8:00pm
Camas' 3rd Folkin' Anniversary will be a night to remember!! With local acts like "Ursula" & "Gumshoe & the Banshee" you’re sure not to forget the haunting circus-esque energy of the evening. Without-A-Net will join us with some klezmer, Starla with her folk punk and Buffalo Buffalo (inc Cap'n'Kops from The Rough Sea) is coming from the East (on tour) to start the night off with some ol'timey folk songs (so come early!!)
Being a fundraiser for both Camas Books and the Victoria Anarchist Bookfair, we hope that you come out in droves to celebrate and help the cause.
@@@@@@@@@@
Here's more about tonight's event in Victoria, a benefit for those arrested during the G20 demonstrations in Toronto.
@@@@@@@@@@
Kicking off the 2010 Festival of Anarchy!
All donation money raised goes toward G20 legal defence
....
5:00 – Panarchy! @ The People's Gallery 2 - Guerrilla Art Hanging
DiY, open source, guerrilla bring yr own art show! All are welcome to
participate! Bring yr paintings, drawings, photos, sculptures,
installations, found art, interactive art + homegrown fashions.
8:00 – Freedom In Sound 2
Experimental music, sound art, noise and performance art featuring
Ha Ha Terror
Froghat
Wyldechylde
Brian Stubbs
Lotusland Warrior
+ more!
Kicking off the 2010 Festival of Anarchy!
All donation money raised goes toward G20 legal defence
....
5:00 – Panarchy! @ The People's Gallery 2 - Guerrilla Art Hanging
DiY, open source, guerrilla bring yr own art show! All are welcome to
participate! Bring yr paintings, drawings, photos, sculptures,
installations, found art, interactive art + homegrown fashions.
8:00 – Freedom In Sound 2
Experimental music, sound art, noise and performance art featuring
Ha Ha Terror
Froghat
Wyldechylde
Brian Stubbs
Lotusland Warrior
+ more!
Labels: anarchism, anarchist bookfairs, canadian anarchist movement, events, Victoria, Victoria anarchist bookfair
