Saturday, June 05, 2010
CANADIAN HISTORY:
THE 'ON TO OTTAWA TREK' 75 YEARS ON:
Tomorrow, June 6, will be commemorated as the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the 'On To Ottawa Trek' in Vancouver BC (the trek actually began on June 3). At the height of the depression in 1935 unemployed men were housed in "relief camps" in remote areas of western Canada under the aegis of the Department of National Defence. In these camps workers laboured for 20 cents a day on public works, and the conditions were so atrocious that the Relief camp Workers' Union began a strike in April 1935 demanding such basic things as the provision of first aid equipment in the camps and the abolition of Section 98 of the Criminal Code that essentially made being unemployed a crime.
Eventually the strikers decided on travelling to Ottawa en masse to present their grievances to the federal government. This was known as the On To Ottawa Trek, and the hundreds who hopped freight trains in Vancouver to head east had swollen to three thousand after passing through various prairie cities by the time they reached Regina Saskatchewan on June 14. By this time the federal government had become a little nervous especially as the major population centres lay further east from this gathering throng. They invited 8 leaders to travel on to Ottawa to negotiate with the government providing the mass of the trekkers stayed in Regina.
While the protesters remained camped at the Regina Exhibition Grounds the 8 leaders met with Prime Minister R.B. Bennett on June 22. It didn't go well in Ottawa as the meeting degenerated into a shouting match before the 8 strike leaders were evicted from the premises. meanwhile back in Regina the government had chosen its battleground well as the city was the site of the major RCMP training grounds. Not only were the rail lines blocked to the trekkers but roads were also occupied by RCMP roadblocks determined to keep the protesters in Regina. Like most people in Regina to this very day the trekkers were desperate to get out of Regina (hey I used to live there).
The strike leaders arrived back in Regina on June 26. The protesters were essentially imprisoned in that city with no way forward and no way back, living in the open at the Exhibition Grounds. A public meeting was called for July 1 (then Dominion Day and now Canada Day) at the downtown site of what is now the Regina City Police Station. Only about 300 trekkers showed up, but they were supported by up to 2,000 local people. The meeting went peacefully enough until 8:17 pm when hidden squads of RCMP and Regina City Police came out of hiding and charged the crowd. The crowd fought back, and the battle continued for four hours in the downtown area. The police began using live ammunition. The final death toll was one plain clothes policeman and one striker. The striker died in hospital, and the hospital files were deliberately altered to conceal the cause of death, but this was later exposed. The police claimed 39 injuries in addition to their one death, but denied that they were responsible for the death of the striker.
In the aftermath the Exhibition Grounds were surrounded by police officers with machine guns, and a barbed wire stockade was erected around the area. The inmates of what had now become a prison camp were denied any food or water. The provincial government of Saskatchewan meanwhile was none too happy that the feds had chosen their capital city as the battleground. They invited strike leaders to negotiations. The negotiators were briefly arrested by the enraged police but released under pressure from the Province. Premier Gardiner sent a telegraph message to the federal government accusing the police of "precipitating a riot" while the Province had been negotiating with the strikers. In the end the Province got its way, and food was delivered to the strikers and arrangements were made to transport them back west free of charge to whatever destination they chose.
Meanwhile in Ottawa fantasy ruled supreme as the government claimed that the strikers rather than the police had opened fire. Prime Minister Bennett summed up the view of his Conservative government when he stated that the Trek was "not a mere uprising against law and order but a definite revolutionary effort on the part of a group of men to usurp authority and destroy government". It would be nice if this was true, but it wasn't. Because of their actions during the Trek- and for many other reasons of gross mismanagement and callousness during the depression- the federal Conservatives were reduced in the election later that year from 139 seats to a rump of 39, and the Liberals became the new government with a large contingent of the 'Progressive Party' from the west acting s allies on the left. The work camps were soon dismantled and replaced by seasonal camps operated by the provinces who paid more to the men.
For more on the On To Ottawa Trek and the Regina Riot see the website of the On To Ottawa Historical Society and the Wikipedia entry on this episode in Canadian history. Meanwhile from the National Union of Public and General Employees is the following item about how the beginning of the trek will be commemorated out in Vancouver.
CHCHCHCHCHCHCH
Rally Sunday marks the famed ‘On to Ottawa Trek'
Thousands of young men rebelled in 1935 against Depression era relief camps and helped bring about a national unemployment insurance system.
Vancouver (9 June 2010) - Workers will mark one of the most important anniversaries in Canadian labour this Sunday in Vancouver - the 75th anniversary of the On to Ottawa Trek. The British Columbia Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU/NUPGE) is encouraging members to join in the celebration and commemoration.
The 1935 'On to Ottawa Trek'
A rally will be held at 1 p.m. in the city's Crab Park to raise awareness about modern-day poverty and to remember what happened to poor young workers 75 years ago. Crab Park is located at the north foot of Main Street where the trek began in 1935. The rally will feature speakers and the dedication of a plaque to mark the historic site.
Following the ceremony, a delegation will make a modern journey On to Ottawa to talk to the government about homelessness issues and the need for a national housing program.
The original trek began on June 3, 1935, when legions of young men, rebelling against poor working conditions and low wages in Depression era relief camps, boarded boxcars in Vancouver and headed for Ottawa to deliver an historic protest message to the federal government.
Hundreds of 'Trekkers' boarded Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) boxcars near the foot of Main Street and left the city. By the time they reached Regina, their numbers had swelled to more than 3,000.
Sadly, they were met in Regina by a wall of RCMP officers dispatched by R. B. Bennett, the unsympathetic Conservative prime minister of the day. The intervention prevented the Trekkers from continuing onto Ottawa. Only one of their leaders was permitted to travel on and meet with Bennett.
When the meeting proved fruitless, the remaining Trekkers in Regina rebelled on July 1 (then known as Dominion Day) in an uprising that was put down by arguably the most infamous and oppressive police riot in Canadian history.
But there was a price to pay for Bennett in his coldness and indifference to the plight of the working people. His Tory government was crushed in the next election, reduced from its 134-seat majority to a paltry 39 seats in the House of Commons,
The Liberal government that replaced the Conservatives then set about addressing many of the concerns raised by the Trekkers. Relief camps were abolished and the first steps were taken to set up what eventually became a national unemployment insurance system.
Rally Sunday marks the famed ‘On to Ottawa Trek'
Thousands of young men rebelled in 1935 against Depression era relief camps and helped bring about a national unemployment insurance system.
Vancouver (9 June 2010) - Workers will mark one of the most important anniversaries in Canadian labour this Sunday in Vancouver - the 75th anniversary of the On to Ottawa Trek. The British Columbia Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU/NUPGE) is encouraging members to join in the celebration and commemoration.
The 1935 'On to Ottawa Trek'
A rally will be held at 1 p.m. in the city's Crab Park to raise awareness about modern-day poverty and to remember what happened to poor young workers 75 years ago. Crab Park is located at the north foot of Main Street where the trek began in 1935. The rally will feature speakers and the dedication of a plaque to mark the historic site.
Following the ceremony, a delegation will make a modern journey On to Ottawa to talk to the government about homelessness issues and the need for a national housing program.
The original trek began on June 3, 1935, when legions of young men, rebelling against poor working conditions and low wages in Depression era relief camps, boarded boxcars in Vancouver and headed for Ottawa to deliver an historic protest message to the federal government.
Hundreds of 'Trekkers' boarded Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) boxcars near the foot of Main Street and left the city. By the time they reached Regina, their numbers had swelled to more than 3,000.
Sadly, they were met in Regina by a wall of RCMP officers dispatched by R. B. Bennett, the unsympathetic Conservative prime minister of the day. The intervention prevented the Trekkers from continuing onto Ottawa. Only one of their leaders was permitted to travel on and meet with Bennett.
When the meeting proved fruitless, the remaining Trekkers in Regina rebelled on July 1 (then known as Dominion Day) in an uprising that was put down by arguably the most infamous and oppressive police riot in Canadian history.
But there was a price to pay for Bennett in his coldness and indifference to the plight of the working people. His Tory government was crushed in the next election, reduced from its 134-seat majority to a paltry 39 seats in the House of Commons,
The Liberal government that replaced the Conservatives then set about addressing many of the concerns raised by the Trekkers. Relief camps were abolished and the first steps were taken to set up what eventually became a national unemployment insurance system.
Labels: Canada, canadian history, Canadian labour, depression, history, labour, On To Ottawa Trek, Regina, Regina Riot, riots, Vancouver
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
TODAY IN HISTORY:
MARTYR FOR LIBERTY BURNED AT THE STAKE:
Today, February 17, marks the 410th anniversary of when the early rationalist Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake in Rome in 1600. Bruno was born in Campania (1548) entered the Dominican Order at the age of 17 in Naples and became a priest at the age of 24. His free thinking ways and great ability, however, soon got him into trouble, and in 1576 he began a life of wandering across western Europe. As a refugee from the Roman Catholic Church he briefly stayed in Geneva, but soon fell afoul of the Calvinists there. He then went to France where he was protected by powerful patrons and impressed many with his mnemonic abilities.
In 1583 Bruno went to England where he stayed for two years, once more, predictably (Bruno had a habit of sarcastic offense) falling foul of the authorities, this time mainly for advocating the Copernican system that stated that the Earth revolved around the Sun, rather than the other way around. The next few years were spent in wandering in Germany and what is now the Czech Republic. Once more he continued to attract hostility pretty well everywhere he went, managing to be excommunicated by the Lutherans. By this time he had managed to be a bête noir to all three of the feuding religious sects in Europe, Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist-no mean accomplishment.
He then returned to Italy in 1592 and, after a brief stay in Padua made the mistake that cost him his life by relocating to Venice. Now, for hundreds of years Venice was the most blasphemous state that existed in Europe, but its corruption and hypocrisy was such that bribes could easily be given and people could go on trial for the sort of thing that was very much the day-to-day of the nobles of the City. Going to Venice may be proof of the adage that every genius contains at least one aspect of great stupidity within him. Bruno fell foul of his Venetian host-who was even more corrupt than the usual round of office holders in Europe at that time-, and he was denounced to the Inquisition. the Venetians transferred him to Rome, on the request of the Roman Curia.
His trial in Rome lasted a full 8 years, and his many disagreements with Catholic orthodoxy were the repeated subject of his skillful legal defense. In the end, however, he was condemned and burned at the stake on this day in 1600. Some of the things he upheld included "the plurality of worlds" ie that the stars were suns that could have other solar systems just like our own. He also disagreed with such Catholic (and Protestant) dogma as the absurd theories of the Trinity and the Virgin Birth. Whether he actually believed in reincarnation is in dispute.
Bruno later became a hero to many different political currents. To Italian nationalists who fought against the temporal power of the Church he was a forerunner of their struggle. To socialists, rationalists and anarchists he became a shining example of free thought against clerical obscurantism. In a bizarre twist of fate he is now also a hero to the omnivorous "new age" cultists across the world because of his supposed belief in astrology and, to put it at its crudest, the apparently esoteric nature of his mnemonic graphics. Nobody can accuse new agers of excessive attention to the facts, to history or to detail. Can we say "spinning in the grave " ?
Molly's personal connection to Bruno.
It's actually very little. I once had an Italian anarchist song tape that contained one song whose lyrics began ( In English translation);
"When I die I don't want any priests or monks
Nor 'pater nostri' (funeral services)"
The song goes on to condemn the Catholic Church and end by 'vivas' to Garibaldi and Bruno, after saying that the author wants the socialist flag on his coffin and the socialist leader's girlfriend. I always liked that song.
The other connection was way back when I was in Vet School, and we were condemned to writing an historical essay about medicine. I managed to dig up proof that Bruno, in addition to his other merits, had "discovered" the circulation of the blood during his stay in Geneva, long before its presumed first description by William Harvey. To say the least the peckerhead of a professor wasn't pleased, and I didn't get a great grade in that class. Ah, Giordano, I know how you feel, even if I could never equal your lifelong creativity nor offensiveness.
If you want to read more about Giordano Bruno see the wikipedia article linked above. See also what little writings of his that have been translated into English at http://esoteriaarchives.com/bruno/home.htm , and a good biography at http://punkerslut.com/atrticles/giordanobruno.html .
Labels: anarchism, Giordano Bruno, history, liberty., rationalism, religion
Monday, February 15, 2010
TODAY IN HISTORY-FEBRUARY 15:
THE SENTENCE OF SOCRATES:
Today, February 15, is the usually accepted date when it is believed that the Greek philosopher Socrates was sentenced to death in 339 BCE for the crime of "corrupting the youth". Sceptical minds believe that Socrates could not have been guilty of the charge, as it seems that "the old" have accused "the young" of corruption ever since the beginning of recorded history. If this was true the young would have reached an infinite level of corruption long before Socrates lived. In any case it is likely to be a fantasy made up by the old because:
A. They were unaware of the great potential of the young to corrupt themselves, thank you very much, and they had to imagine it being done by someone of their own age. No doubt this may seem satisfying because:
B. If the young were able to achieve greater levels of corruption than they had achieved themselves what exactly would be left to the old to feel superior about ? If another elder had corrupted the youth then the old would be left with at least one example of such superiority. people can indeed be satisfied with very little.
Labels: age. humour, history, Socrates, youth.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
AMATEUR ASTRONOMY:
THE BLUE MOON THAT ENDS THE DECADE:
Tonight, as the decade ends, we will have the unusual event of a "blue moon" to ring out the old year. The term doesn't actually refer to the moon appearing blue in colour, though this can occur given certain atmospheric conditions. If there is sufficient dust in the air then light of a longer wavelength, ie red, is scattered away from the eyes of the observer, and the light that gets through is shifted to the blue end of the spectrum. this sort of lunar colouration was most prominent after the explosion of Krakatoa in 1883, but it also occurred in the 1950s after large forest fires in Canada and Sweden. It was also reported after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, and there were even reports of "blue suns" in that year (see here). I do not recall it being so, and neither do I recall any change in the colour of the Moon after this year's extensive forest fires in BC. I do recall being able to spot the atmospheric haze after the eruption at Mount St. Helen's in 1980. Does anyone else have any memories or references ?
Today's (tonight's) blue Moon takes place at 19:13 UT. Here in the Central time Zone this translates as 13:13. We obviously can't observe the exact instant of the Moon's fullness here in Manitoba at a little after 1:00 in the afternoon. In Australia and East Asia the event doesn't actually occur until tomorrow, January 1, and it is January rather than December that will have a 'blue Moon' there. The actual "blue Moon" will, however, be the second full Moon of January, not the first. The time of an "exact" full Moon is, of course, an instant rather than a night in duration. If you wish to find the exact time of the full moon and to convert it to your own local time consult the Time and Date.Com site where there is a wealth of other information such as sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset data. For those who would like a visual representation of the Moon's phases I could suggest the Moon Phase Calender at the Moon Connection site. A "blue Moon" in the sense of a second full Moon in a month occurs about once every 2.72 years.
There is also a partial eclipse of the Moon visible in Australia, Asia, Europe and Africa tonight, though it is not visible in the western hemisphere. This event has already passed , as maximum totality happened at 19;23 UT.
For those interested in matters lunar a couple of years ago Molly featured a series of articles that were a "leisurely cruise" through the various most prominent visible features of the Moon. If you're interested just type the item that you might want to read about (such as 'Mare Criseum', sea of Tranquility, etc..) in the search function of this blog and read all about it. See you in the New Year. It's been an interesting year and an interesting decade.
Labels: amateur astronomy, astronomy, Blue Moon, history, lunar eclipse, moon
Monday, November 09, 2009
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS:
THE FALL OF THE WALL-20 YEARS ON:
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the end of the Berlin Wall as an effective barrier between East and West Germany. This sudden collapse of one of East Germany's main controls on its citizens was certainly not the first, the last or even the most important event in the relatively fast crumbling of the Soviet Empire and the Marxist Leninist system of rule that underpinned the Empire.
The end of the Empire wasn't necessarily an unalloyed good, and many elderly people in the successor states long for the stability and security that dictatorship provided. Many are also offended by the conspicuous nature of inequality that has grown up. Not that the old communist ruling class wasn't just that- a ruling class with all the perks of same. It's just that they tended to flaunt it far less than the nouveau riche in eastern Europe today. On balance the end of central planning probably has improved the economic situation of the average person, but it certainly hasn't improved it as much as some might have thought it would at the beginning of the transitions.
The end of the Soviet Empire was also either the beginning of the end or the hastening of disintegration for a vast sea of communist parties that existed in countries where they didn't have state control. Most of these are pale shadows of their former selves. Some are certifiably dead. Others have successfully jettisoned their Marxist Leninist ideology to become ordinary social democratic parties. This implosion wasn't confined to the 'Moscow Line' Leninists. While the Maoists were already in a state of decline before the late 80s the fall of their supposed enemy led to a much more rapid decline. People (rightfully) saw that there was little difference between these two forms of Stalinism, except that the Maoists had a far greater potential for brutality in power. Even the Trotskyists saw their decline accelerated. Even though they were not Stalinists their Leninism tarred them with the same brush.
Today Leninist parties are pretty much a dead issue except for some very isolated situations. None, outside of Nepal, have even the remotest chance of becoming the new ruling class. Even being junior partners in coalition with other parties is becoming less and less common. Only North Korea stands as an horrible example of what Stalinism was in its full "glory". Many states (China, Vietnam, Laos and, to a large extent Cuba) maintain a Leninist concept of dictatorship while abandoning more and more of the economic fantasies that underlaid Marxism in power. These states may still be Leninist, but they can hardly be called Marxist anymore.
Not that the corporate managerialism of 'the West' is without its own problems, as citizens of the ex-communist states soon found out. This type of society also generates its own opposition, but the end of the Marxist dreamworld has left others to take up the fight. There have been many different beneficiaries of the disillusionment with Marxism. Anarchism (which was already growing) became even more attractive to radicals and potential radicals as the anarchists definitely had the best "I told you so" record in regards to the communist states. Green/ecology parties also experienced a boost as, for at least awhile, it seemed that their main competitors on the left were totally discredited. After an initial period of confusion and a certain anxiety left social democracy has also made a comeback, especially in South America. It often does this by borrowing/stealing mightily from the rhetoric and rarely the actual programmatic content of the anarchists and the ecologists.
Of course there are illusions and then there are illusions. Right wing commentators who were breaking their arms patting themselves on their backs about their 'great triumph' or 'the end of history' were given only a few years grace before history came back to bite, both politically and economically.
The fall of the Soviet Empire, and all the changes it set in motion, was, on balance, beneficial. Nobody can tell what new forms of class rule and opposition to class rule the future will hold. What is certain is that no grand political theorist or movement even foggily predicted the timing and manner of the end of the Empire. This should give anyone pause when confronted with those who, like the commies of old, claim to have a hidden key to the course of history in some sacred text. Beware of too much certitude.
Labels: Berlin, communism, history, Leninism, Marxism, Soviet Union
Sunday, October 18, 2009
INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR IN SWITZERLAND:
The following item came Molly's way via the A-Infos website. What I found noteworthy about this event, the Biel/Bienne Anarchist Bookfair, is their website which contains a capsule history of the growth of the anarchist bookfair concept. I don't know if is true to reality, but I append it anyways at the end of the article. For now, the announcement...
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Call for the next anarchist bookfair in Switzerland:
Dear activists,
---- Taking place last year in Winterthur and this year in Biel/Bienne, the second anarchist book convention will be held in May 2010. The city being situated on the linguistic border, we, therefore, have more possibilities offered to us when it comes to the organization of this event. More than changing city, the idea is to widen the concept.
---- We are planning, aside from the presentation of dozens of publishers, libraries, distributors and organisations, multiple cultural and political activities in different wonderful places of this small town, located in between the verdant Jura and the glistening lake. What hatched in Winterthur can now grow in Biel/Bienne; a multilingual convention aiming to be a meeting point for anarchists from all over central Europe, and who knows, further.
In addition, Biel/Bienne, located on the grounds of the Fédération Jurassienne, is a town where the libertarian tradition lives on and perpetuates. In spite of its population of over 50,000, there are squats, an autonomous youth center with 40 years of history, « le Chat Noir », one of the only anarchist infokiosks in Switzerland, a self-managed popular kitchen serving hot meals multiple times a day as well as an autonomous printing house in Biel/Bienne. Due to its privileged geographic situation, it is also often a meeting point for anarchists from the whole country.
To guarantee that this edition will be at least as successful as the « Winti » edition where a good 300 visitors came, we are, of course, counting on you, dear activists and exhibitors. In return for your modest contribution to the organization costs, you will not only have the possibility to attend the book convention, the cultural activities as well as meeting different people from here and abroad,you will also have the occasion to present your book house, your library, your newspaper or your organization to a wide public.
The convention will take place on Saturday the 15th and Sunday the 16th of May 2010 at the CAJ/AJZ (Autonomous Youth Center), also known as the Coupole/Kessel. We offer accommodation, as well as press tables.You can register directly by visiting our website (salondulivre.ch)where you will also soon find more detailed information concerning the program, the location and the convention in general.
We are grateful for your future participation in this event!
From one book lover to another, the best greetings!
2010 Biel/Bienne Anarchist Book Convention Organization Committee
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And here's what I was speaking about above, a capsule history of the modern concept of the anarchist bookfair.
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What is a libertarian book convention?:
During the early 1980’s, under the impression of a so-called socialist, yet tedious and expensive book convention that was frequented by many major publishing houses, a desire to realise such an event of their own emerged among a few Londoner anarchists. The attributes –anarchist or – libertarian in the rapidly established bookfair referred on one hand to the publishing programmes offered and on the other hand to a certain notion of how the event should look like. The aim was not only to sell as many books as possible and to awaken peoples interest in anarchism, but to create a platform for activists and a variety of further cultural events. specifically anarchistic conceptions that emphasise on individual freedom should furthermore be lived at the book convention: racism, sexism, homophobia etc. were banned from the event. A great value, however, was set on the do-it-yourself-attitude of the visitors and providers, as well as on solidarity and on structures for grassroots democratic decision-making.
The first anarchist bookfair was not exactly a big success: merely half a dozen offerers attended the event, and since there weren’t scarcely any visitors, the attendees turned the bookfair into a pool-tournament. ( I wonder who won-Molly )But the enthusiasm did not abandon them, the event became more and more prominent year after year, attracted more libertarian publishing houses and visitors and continually increased in size and variety. The book convention became so popular over the years, that it will be taking place for the 28th time this year. The hosts reckon thus free from humility, that it is the largest and most important regularly realised anarchistic event in the world. The numbers are indeed quite impressive. 100 bookstands, 40 programmes and around 3000 visitors on each convention day.
But the times in which the "Anarchist-Bookfair" was the single event of its kind are long forgotten, so that its organisers have started to emphasise on the appendix "of London". In Great Britain alone, numerous anarchistic bookfairs have been launched in recent years. In Canada and the USA, one is spoilt for choice as a literary intrigued anarchist – between springtime and autumn there is barely a weekend on which no anarchistic book convention is taking place. In Latin America too, where anarchistic bookshops and libraries have a long tradition, there have been several attempts in recent years, like for example in Monterrey (Mexico) and Sao Paulo (Brasil).
Eventually there has been a move in this direction on the European Continent too: Since 2003 the "Balkan Anarchist Bookfair" takes place every two years (2003 in Ljubljana (Slowenia), 2005 in Zagreb (Croatia), 2008 in Sofia (Bulgaria); Likewise in Eastern Europe the "Anarchistic ki sajam knijia" in Zagreb and an anarchistic book convention in Poznan (Poland) take place yearly. In Western Europe our Spanish associates, who regularly organise "ferias del libro anarquista" in different cities (Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Valencia), stand out most notably. But also in Paris, Gent, Florence, Lisbon and Dublin, correlative events have taken place. The concepts have hardly changed over the years, although the programmes have broadened massively. Many events are bookfairs, cabarets, course of lectures, culture days, movie cycles and meeting points in one.
You know, I still wonder who won that goddamn pool tournament-Molly.
Labels: anarchism, anarchist bookfairs, anarchist books., books, history, international anarchist movement, Switzerland
Saturday, October 10, 2009
ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS:
SHOW US THE GRAVES:
It's not a good time for the Catholic hierarchy in Canada. Just as it seemed that they were putting the sex abuse and residential schools scandal behind them they have once more had to go into damage control mode as the arrest of the ex-Bishop of Antigonish, Raymond Lahey, on charges of importing child pornography brought all the dirty linen into the open once more. Lahey is presently out on bail and is staying at the priests' residence of the Archbishopric of Ottawa. In the wake of the scandal the clergy are pulling out the "we are all in this together", but a growing tide of revelations about Lahey's time as a Newfoundland priest, his tastes in porn even back then and a possible cover-up on the part of Church's authorities give grounds to suspect that the clergy have an inner and outer "we". The inner 'we" seem to have possibly involved in a cover-up concerning his tastes, as alleged by Billy and Shane Earle who, at the time, were boys who had been abused at the Mount Cashel orphanage. It also turns out that at least one priest suspected Lahey, but that the hierarchy did nothing to investigate his suspicions. Meanwhile yet more people who allege that they were abused by priests when they were young are cropping up. To follow this story go to THIS AGGREGATOR.
In this climate Kevin Annett, author of 'Hidden From History' which documented much of Canada's shameful history of native residential schools, is travelling in Europe where he is showing his film 'Unrepentant'. This Sunday (tomorrow) Annett will be holding a memorial service just outside the Vatican for the victims of Roman Catholic run residential schools. This is right under the nose of Pope Rottweiller I. In Europe, outside of Ireland, this story has been slower to develop than in North America. Perhaps this has been because the Church there has been better at cover-up. See this Wikipedia article for a rundown on the scale of the scandal across the Atlantic. In the case of Italy there is no "supposition". It is a fact that the Vatican has been engaged in efforts to keep any such allegations secret. This is aided by the fact that the Vatican and Italy have treaties that transfer authority over such charges to the Church. In 2001 the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger ordered that all sex abuses cases be transferred to the Vatican. They had previously been handled at the level of the Dioceses. said Cardinal, as the Vatican Secretary of State also ordered that there be total secrecy about the proceedings. This was backed up with the threat of excommunication for anyone privy to such things should they they feel a sudden surge of conscience and speak out. Cardinal Ratzinger is, of course, the present Pope Rottweiller I. This is the man who Kevin Annett will be asking to come clean. Here's the story of Annett's pilgrimage from Larry Gambone's Porkupine Blog.
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Pope Asked To Identify Children's Grave Sites:
Canadian clergyman to ask Pope to identify grave sites and pray with him for those killed by the Catholic church
A clergyman from Canada who helped to force the Pope to issue an apology for the harm suffered by Indian children in Catholic boarding schools will hold a memorial service for those who died in these schools outside the Vatican on the Via Della Conciliazione at 12 noon on Sunday, October 12. He will also be asking the Pope to tell the world where these children are buried.
Canadian clergyman to ask Pope to identify grave sites and pray with him for those killed by the Catholic church
A clergyman from Canada who helped to force the Pope to issue an apology for the harm suffered by Indian children in Catholic boarding schools will hold a memorial service for those who died in these schools outside the Vatican on the Via Della Conciliazione at 12 noon on Sunday, October 12. He will also be asking the Pope to tell the world where these children are buried.
Rev. Kevin Annett, an award-winning film maker and activist from Vancouver, Canada, wrote to the Pope in February of 2008 on behalf of hundreds of aboriginal families whose relatives died or were killed in Catholic Indian schools. Annett asked the Pope to surrender the remains of these children and identify those responsible for their deaths. The Pope did not reply.
Annett will be asking for an official response from the Vatican to the letter and has invited the Pope to attend the memorial service, "in memory of those killed in the name of Christendom" .
Rev. Annett will be on a speaking tour of Italy from October 9 to 19. He will screen his award-winning film UNREPENTANT with Italian subtitles at public meetings in Rome, Genoa, Firenze, Milan and Parma. He has asked Italians to boycott the 2010 Olympics in Canada until the residential school children are given a proper burial.
Rev. Annett will also be speaking in England and Ireland during October and November.
For more information, contact Kevin Annett at http://ca.mc1105.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=hiddenfromhistory@yahoo.ca .
His website is http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/ .
Labels: aboriginal, Canada, Catholicism, demonstrations, films, history, Italy, Kevin Annett, Porkupine Blog, religion, Residential schools
Friday, August 28, 2009
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
THE HISTORY OF NEFAC IN QUÉBEC CITY (PART 9- THE CONCLUSION):
Here it is. Part 9, the concluding chapter of Molly's translation of the History of NEFAC in Québec City. I have to say that I am quite pleased at finally coming to the end of this task. I will later correlate all the pieces into a complete article.
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A balance sheet?
While it is too early to draw a comprehensive balance sheet of NEFAC (in Québec City, and in the province of Québec), one can nevertheless find some items that are food for thought.
In the first place , the presence of an anarchist group active for almost ten years is perhaps not spectacular, but it is in itself an important achievement, at least in our political context. The present libertarian current is not the first in Quebec, but it suffers from a flagrant lack of continuity through time. Through its various mutations, NEFAC has managed to grow and renew itself before, during and after several moments of important social struggle in which we participated, from the Quebec Summit and Youth through the Summit of the Americas to student , trade union and popular struggles in recent years. This continuity has allowed the group and its members to develop, and to gain experience and political maturity.
The commitment of many libertarians, including members of NEFAC, in social movements has acted to demystify anarchism to many activists, particularly in popular groups in the region of Québec. The production of a weekly radio broadcast and website activity, the distribution of tens of thousands of leaflets, newspapers, posters, books and brochures, as well as holding dozens of conferences and workshops have certainly helped raise awareness of anarchism and libertarian principles significantly in different mileaux. Several campaigns took off like that on the issue of theft in the popular neighborhoods or those on the elections (which were particularly numerous!).
But we must face the obvious: such activity is not sufficient to gain the support of many people for a political organization like ours. The "turnover" remains important, even on our (small) scale. Various factors may explain this phenomenon. What is requested of members is rather demanding, we thus plunge into a vicious circle: the less we are numerous the more each and every individual must compensate to achieve the goals we set ourselves. Moreover, our current structure does not facilitate the involvement of many people. The quasi-clandestine and affinity group nature of some of our activities that has characterized our operations for several years is an example. For the rest, reading the texts of Phoebus and Julie will bring out more relevant answers.
And Afterwards?
The least we can say is that the process of refounding NEFAC Quebec aroused great interest and curiosity. We can not fail! We must therefore take the time to do things right, especially since the "failure" of NEFAC has affected the functioning of the regional union in Quebec. After ten years of agitation, propaganda and organization, our current has taken an important place in the landscape of the anti-capitalist left. But these achievements are fragile. The potential is there to us to seize opportunities when they arise!
Notes
1) The process that led to the creation of the NEFAC dates back to 1999. The group Emile Henry (Québec), founded the previous year, was involved. NEFAC was officially founded at a congress held in Boston in 2000 where two delegations from Québec (one from Québec, the other from Montreal) were present.
2) The idea of a infokiosque is not born "spontaneously". Creating a space like that had germinated in the minds of some members of NEFAC several months before. It lacked a space - free - and a good dose of organization to make it a reality.
3) As for example in the demonstration against American intervention in Iraq on November 17, 2002, we set ourselves apart by an internationalist position which rejected the "pacifism" of the official organizing committee. Our leaflet entitled "Quelle connerie que la paix sociale" (Social peace is a con game -?????Molly)was decorated with a beautiful dove clutching a molotov cocktail in its claws...
4) We relayed the word of a general strike against the FTAA in Québec on 32 October 2002 alongside Dada à Faim and the Collectif des Bas-Quartiers.
5) Red and Anarchist Skinheads
6) We returned three more times to the CEGEP Garneau to give lectures on libertarian education, "masculinism" and the Zapatista uprising.
7) We were thus approached by people Jacques-Cartier Community Center to organize a workshop on racism and the extreme right with the trainees. The RASH also published a fanzine ( "class against class") and organized many concerts where music and politics made a good mixture.
8) Consejo Indigena Popular de Oaxaca "Ricardo Flores-Magon"
9) Anarchist Student Network
10) Before "La Voix de Faits", members of la Nuit had hosted several radio programs on CKIA and CKRL (Level with the Daisies, Free Zone ...). But this was the first time a show was "officially" produced and presented by the collective.
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A text excerpted from the special edition of the journal Ruptures (May 2009)
Labels: anarchism, anarchist history, canadian anarchist movement, history, NEFAC, Quebec, Quebec City, Ruptures, The History of NEFAC in Quebec City
Friday, August 21, 2009
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
THE HISTORY OF NEFAC IN QUÉBEC CITY (PART 8):
This is part eight os Molly's translation of an article from the Québecois anarchist journal 'Ruptures'. As previously mentioned the original French can be read in its entirety at THIS LINK on the Anarkismo website.
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The fight against the right:
The fight against the right:
In the month of December 2005, our collective produced two anti-electoral propaganda posters ("Politicians expect nothing from them only the struggle pays. Our power is in the street, not in the ballot box ") in anticipation of the federal election of 23 January 2006. Hundreds were put up in downtown Quebec. The campaign was backed up elsewhere in Quebec by other groups of the federation. Unsurprisingly, Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party took power at the head of a minority government. The Quebec region elected a majority of Conservative MPs . A few months before this, Andrée Boucher had managed to win the municipal elections, without even campaigning. The least we could say is that the populist right had the wind in their sails. Reflection began within our group on the social and political conditions and the rise of right in the Quebec region. New people were joining the group and, quietly, we constructed a theoretical and tactical unity on the subject.
In the month of May 2006, the 6th edition of Ruptures came out. It contained a dossier on the involvement of anarchists in the popular movement, as well as articles on the status of the student movement one year after the strike and a review of the SRTT (Workers Solidarity Network ). On May 16, 2006, we welcomed an anarchist former member of the International Brigades George Sossenko. The conference took place at the premises of the CSN. Forty people were present in a strange atmosphere, where admiration was mixed with some discomfort (when George answers were completely off the subject on some questions ). In spring, we decided to get involved in organizing the 4th Self-Management Day which took place on June 4, 2006 in the Youth Park in the Saint-Roch quarter. The Self-Management Day , as its name indicates, is an annual event dedicated to exploring the concept and practice of self-management. Each year, members of La Nuit delivered workshops and hosted a literature table. But before the predicted demise of the Self-Management Day (because of exhaustion on the part of the organizing committee members), we choose to invest more in planning and organizing the event. Ultimately, the experience was not really conclusive. Workshops and debates attracted relatively few people. A certain feeling of deja vu settled in . There was to be no sequel in 2007.
In fall of 2006, La Nuit took charge of the production of Cause Commune. A new layout and new sections changed the appearance and content of the newspaper. We also organized several public events. On the 23rd of September two members of the collective traveled to the Regional Social Forum 02 (in Métabetchouan, Lac-St-Jean) to present workshops on self management and anarchist ideas at the invitation of a friend who had recently returned to live in the region. We believed we could help form a new collective, without, however, succeeding. On November 4, La Nuit held a conference with two members of the CIPO-RFM (8) at L'Agitée as part of a tour through Quebec coordinated by our Montreal comrades. This public event would serve as an impetus to a coalition which, a few weeks later, organized a demonstration in Quebec City in solidarity with the insurgents in Oaxaca. due to lack of time, we did not participate in its activities, nor with those of other coalitions which would develop later (Guerre à la Guerre, L'Autre 400).
In the winter of 2007, La Nuit took part in the "We won't vote for anybody"campaign . Despite some hiccups, we managed to paste hundreds of posters and stickers in the downtown. In contrast cons, links with the RAME (9) remained non-existent before, during and after the campaign. Unlike what happened in Montreal the RAME remained in an embryonic state in the region of Quebec. Its dissolution didn't affect our group. In May, we organized two public events that gained a certain success. A comrade with whom we had been in contact with since the month of September 2006 invited us to present a lecture on anarchism in Trois-Rivieres on the premises of the UQTR. More than 40 people came out. A group took shape in that city. On May 29 we hosted a launch for the 7th edition of Ruptures at the Agitée. We take this opportunity to present a panel with two members of No Pasaran on the rise of the right in Quebec and France. The objective was to publicly present the conclusions we had arrived at on the political situation and bring libertarians to debate these issues. About 25 people took part in the discussions. On June 22, we participated in the NEFAC contingent in the demonstration of the anti-militarist coalition Guerre à la Guerre. The visibility obtained by the contingent was is excellent. We took the opportunity of the demonstration to distribute hundreds of copies of Cause Commune to bystanders and passersby along the route. Some months later, la Nuit Night attempted to stage another anti-militarist protest in conjunction with Guerre à la Guerre. Substantial differences with some activists of the coalition led us to a cul de sac. We decided to hold the event on our own on March 28, 2008, inviting various "progressive" groups to support our approach. About 300 people answered the call and demonstrated in the downtown to mark the 90th anniversary of the riots against conscription and their opposition to military intervention in Afghanistan. We drew a very positive review by this.
Since the early fall of 2007, our collective had more and more confidence in its abilities. Several projects were relatively successful and resulted in the arrival of new members. In September, we officially launched a blog and a radio program entitled "Voix de faits" (10). In early October 2007, we took the initiative to organize a demonstration for abortion rights in conjunction with the libertarian feminist collective "Ainsi squattent-elles". We came to raise five times more people than the "pro-lifers". We repeated the experiment in October 2008 with better results. These initiatives were part of our "permanent" campaign against the populist right in Quebec.
Labels: anarchism, anarchist history, canadian anarchist movement, history, La Nuit, NEFAC, NEFAC in Quebec, Quebec, Quebec City, The History of NEFAC in Quebec City
Sunday, August 16, 2009
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
THE HISTORY OF NEFAC IN QUÉBEC CITY- PART 7:
This is part seven of our translation of the article 'La NEFAC à Québec', published in the Quebecois anarchist journal 'Ruptures'. The full article in the original French can be seen at THIS LINK.
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FROM STRIKE TO STRIKE:
FROM STRIKE TO STRIKE:
In the fall of 2004, the movement for housing rights in Québec mobilized. The FRAPRU and the RCLALQ decided to organize a major joint action; for two days, dozens of militants will "camp" in downtown Quebec City to demand a major construction of social housing and mandatory rent control. For some years, members of NEFAC were involved in various popular groups in the fight for the right to housing. We proposed to the Regional Union of NEFAC (which included the collectives in Quebec) to mobilize for the "Camp of the badly-housed ". In Montreal, the NEFAC succeeded in securing the support of the CLAC. Some members of Quebec, Montreal and St George participated in the camp. At the closing event (which brought nearly 1,000 people together on 30 October), a "red and black"contingent was formed, distributing a pamphlet on the housing issue and stick up posters along the march.
On 19 November 2004, the employees' union of SAQ(Note 1) launched a general strike across the province. The timing (one month before Christmas) was not insignificant: the goal was to create a balance of power at the time of year when the SAQ realized its best sales. Unfortunately, the conflict was harder than expected. The solidarity was not always met with from the customers and thousands of consumers visited branches that remained open. The various groups of NEFAC organized several actions in support of the strikers. In Quebec, we went to one of the branches operated by scabs took action to "slow down" the tills" (ie having several grocery baskets full of bottles and refusing to pay the bill in solidarity with the strikers ). La Nuit also produced a poster that was massively glued to the stores (open and closed). One afternoon, we went to the store on Boulevard Charest to distribute a leaflet to customers and visit the few pickets who braved the temperature and the bad mood of the consumers.
When the strike at the SAQ ended, we began an extensive tour of conferences with Ashanti Alston, a former member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army who had become an anarchist. From the 9th to the 15th of February 2005, we went to Montreal, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Saint-Georges-de-Beauce, Joliette, Chicoutimi ... This tour, developed during a retreat of NEFAC in the summer of 2004 in the region of the Eastern Townships, was a success across the board.
A week later, on the 21st of February 2005, the longest strike in the history of the student movement began. Some comrades of the student collective at Laval University were fully involved in their association. Other non-student members participated in direct actions at their side. The NEFAC published several texts during the conflict and produced an assessment of the involvement of its members in Cause Commune (No. 6, May-June 2005). At the end of the student strike , La Nuit along with some Quebec libertarians co-organized a day against patriarchy and masculinism on the 10th of April 2005 at the Lucien-Borne Centre. Dozens of people take part in the event, which enrolled itself in the mobilization against the "Man Talk" Congress ", an international masculinist international meeting being held in Montreal from the 21st to the 24th of April.
On May 6 2005, came the launch of the fifth issue of Ruptures. It was a dossier on counter-power and the social movements which were written down as a continuation of the Ashanti Alston tour, but also the struggles in which we are involved in the last year. At the end of May we benefited from the visit to Quebec of two activists of the French libertarian organization No Pasaran to organize a conference on anti-fascism at la Page Noir. Some twenty people were there.
On 1 July 2005, we were moving from words to action by organizing a small counter demonstration to the action that the MLNQ organizes each year to the Hotel de Ville de Quebec. To the amazement of the fifty ultra-nationalists present on the scene, we shared with everyone a tract entitled "fascist pigs(Note 3) out of our streets!" denouncing the positions of their leader, Raymond Villeneuve. This presence made us worthy of a report (unsolicited) on the RDI(Note 2) and criticisms on the part of the Montreal revolutionary left (which never does not understood the threat posed by right-wing extremism ...). Without mistakes, we can say that NEFAC's campaign against the MLNQ (initiated by our colleagues in Montreal in 2002) greatly contributed to the marginalization of this organization and its supporters until its clinical death in 2007.
We ended our summer activities by hosting two anarchists from Mexico City on August 23 2005 as part of the "Spreading Utopia" tour , lectures on free radio and the anarchist movement in Mexico that aimed to raise funds for various projects such as Biblioteca Social Reconstruir, the libertarian radio of the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Carlo Giuliani Caravan.
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MOLLY NOTES:
Note 1: The 'Société des alcools du Québec'(SAQ) is the government liquor monopoly in Québec. Sort of like the Liquor Commissions, Liquor Boards and Liquor Control Boards in other provinces. In Québec the SAQ doesn't have a monopoly over beer, unlike in most other provinces. Québec liquor laws are famously liberal as compared to other provinces (you can pick up beer and wine at corner stores and supermarkets), but the government just cannot forebear from letting such a cash cow go. The strike mentioned above dragged on into February of 2005 when it was settled with a partial victory for the workers involved. Since then the SAQ has been involved in a price fixing scandal in which it pressured its European suppliers to raise their prices in order to maintain a larger profit.
Note 2: The Réseau de lìnformation(RDI) is a French language cable TV news channel operated by the CBC and Radio Canada. It is equivalent to the English language CBC Newsworld.
Note 3: The translation of "fachos" gave me some difficulty. It is has no reference in my Larouse nor in the Google translate system. Using other online translators I found that it has a more disparaging connotation than simply "fascist". I have chosen to translate it as "fascist pigs", as per slang in the English language. My apologies to any porcine readers who may feel that this is directed at them.
Labels: anarchism, anarchist history, canadian anarchist movement, history, NEFAC, NEFAC in Quebec, Quebec, Quebec City, The History of NEFAC in Quebec City
Monday, August 10, 2009
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
THE HISTORY OF NEFAC IN QUÉBEC (CITY) PART 5:
This is another installment of our translation of an article in the Québecois anarchist magazine 'Ruptures'. As previously mentioned, when the full text is translated it will be collated into a complete article. There is a lot to be learned from the experiences of our Québec comrades for all of us who hope to build an organized and effective anarchist movement. The reader will note the change in the title above. A commentator pointed out that what follows is more of a history of NEFAC in Québec City rather than in the whole of Québec. Duly noted.
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The election of Jean Charest:
On 14 April 2003, Jean Charest won the provincial election. The Liberal Party took this momentum to announce a series of measures designed to "modernize" the state (the famous "re engineering") and make the Québec economy more "competitive". Throughout the fall, we would be on the front lines in the many demonstrations against the government. The culmination of this mobilization would be the day of action on 11 December 2003. That day, tens of thousands of people went out on the streets and paralyzed Québec. We were involved in blocking the Port of Quebec where one of our comrades worked along with the the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Something unexpected was happening before our eyes: as if the labor movement finally woke from its sleep? Unfortunately, the general strike promised after the holidays by the union leadership did not materialize, killing in the bud the movement which was radicalizing. However, this upsurge of fighting unionism vividly demonstrated that the working class has the power to undermine the state and the capitalist system .. Of course it wants and decides to act against the advice of its leaders.
Also in December, the 21st issue of the anarchist newspaper "Le Trouble" came out. Produced entirely in Quebec, it was the culmination of a long process that aimed to merge this journal with the NEFAC newspaper. For several months, we wrote texts and distributed the newspaper in Quebec (up to 500 copies per issue). Members of La Nuit were also involved in the editorial committee. A little anecdote: at a demonstration of the popular movement, a "progressive" priest with whom we were discussing on the occasion pulled $50 out of his pocket for so that we could give out copies of Le Trouble to demonstrators ...
The merger process was going to fail for various reasons. There were several people in the " Le Trouble" collective who disagree with the merger. The arrival of a group of former NEFAC activists in collective definitively ended the process. NEFAC needed a newspaper to fulfill a role that Ruptures could not play : making agit-prop on a regular basis. In March of 2004, NEFAC launched its own newspaper, a 4-page publication entitled Cause Commune . The launch of the first issue took place in Quebec in "Le Lieu" gallery on the rue du Pont. We took the opportunity to show a film on the participation of anarchists in the Algerian resistance and anti-colonial struggles. Some forty people were present, including a small group of Maoists from Montreal and some anars from Saint-Georges-de-Beauce who had organized a new NEFAC collective during the summer of 2004. The federation was now present in four cities in Quebec (Montreal, Sherbrooke, St-Georges and Quebec). South of the border, NEFAC developed rapidly, as well as in Ontario. In Quebec, the collective remained the same: the question of our single sex membership(See Molly Note) had remained entirely the same for nearly two years and we failed to break out of this impasse.
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Molly Note:
Occasionally, when doing this sort of translation, I come across a word, local reference or figure of speech that completely mystifies me. This was the case with the word "mixité" in the original French of this article. I'd never heard this word before, and my trusty old Larousse (it's a pocket version) gave me no help. Various online translation services gave either null results or the translations "coeducation" or "mixed". I had to wing it on this one and assume that the term referred to a previous observation that there were no women in NEFAC Québec City at that time. Even so I couldn't find a convenient and succinct English word, or even phrase, that would translate the idea exactly. Hence my rather free translation of the last sentence above. If any francophones could suggest a better alternative, or point out where I have made a mistake, I would be happy to edit the above. Another thing that I have noticed while doing this translation is the writer's habit of using the present tense for events in the past. I presume that this is common usage, but I have taken the liberty of rendering the text using the various English imperfect, preterite and past perfect tenses as was appropriate. No doubt the original is more readable in French, but using the proper tense in English makes it more readable in English.
Labels: anarchism, anarchist history, canadian anarchist movement, grammar, history, NEFAC, Quebec, Ruptures, translation
Sunday, August 09, 2009
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
THE HISTORY OF NEFAC IN QUÉBEC-PART FOUR:
This is part four of Molly's translation of the History of NEFAC in Québec article from the journal 'Ruptures' of the Québecois UCL (see our Links section under 'Platformism' for links to the various UCL locals in Québec). When this task is finally completed I will collate all the translations into one article. Many thanks to the francophone who pointed out a couple of errors in the previous part of this series. They have been corrected. Hopefully I won't make too many more.
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Struggle on Three Fronts:
Struggle on Three Fronts:
The new orientation taken up by NEFAC was to mark the activity of the collective in its second year. While we continued to participate in the mobilization of the political left (3) or the libertarian left (4), our action would take place mainly in the field of anti-fascist struggle and solidarity with workers.
Towards the end of the summer of 2002, a new section of RASH (5) would appear in Quebec, involving several members of La Nuit. We were aware of the Nazification of part of the punk scene of Quebec and decided to intervene in our own way. Meanwhile, increasing evidence suggested that groups of boneheads were active in the western suburbs. Our group was contacted by a group of students from the CEGEP F.X. Garneau. The activists invited us to present a conference on 2 December 2002 on the issue of racism and extreme right within the institution (6). As written by Red Roady a few years later in the pages of Ruptures: "What was our surprise to see arriving at the gates of the conference a dozen neo-Nazis who were obviously going to harm the good running of the event. After a battle, the young racists went stuttering back in their bourgeois suburb. " This was the beginning of a long series of altercations that continued for more than 5 years with different groups of extreme right (Quebec Radical MLNQ, boneheads, NSBM, nationalist skins ...). Such a climate did not favour new members ... The debates with most of the libertarian left who simply could not see the necessity of the anti-fascist fight "in the streets" and / or disapproved of some of the means used were sometimes lively. That which these militants refused to see was that is that we also did popular education in settings where the left is absent (7). But in retrospect, I think we fell several times into a certain machismo, notably during debates about tactics to be used to fight against the fascists.
On 24 January 2003, our group began one of the largest campaigns of its short history. For some weeks weeks, nearly 800 workers of car dealers in the region of Québec were locked out. Their employers wanted to break the union and impose significant new rollbacks in working conditions. This conflict occurred in a climate of general indifference, partly because of the union affiliation to the Centrale des syndicats démocratiques (CSD). We decided to go to the picket lines, and then write a text explaining the causes of conflict and calling for solidarity with those locked out. A worker also contacted our group to obtain copies of the text for distribution to clients and customers of the garages (which remained open despite the conflict). On 15 February 2003, we are organized a libertarian contingent, along with other collectives, in a demonstration against war. Rather than distribute a text on our opposition to imperialist intervention, we choose to distribute our newsletter "La Nuit" with the text on the lockout. Throughout the conflict, we increased our visits to the picket lines. We contributed within our means to publicize the issues of the conflict to the people of Quebec.
The third issue of Ruptures came out in March 2003. In particular it had a history of social class and a debate on revolutionary strategy with Maxim "Tony" Fortin, a Quebec libertarian who a few months earlier published a pamphlet criticizing the analysis and the strategy of NEFAC. The content and tone of this issue of Ruptures reflected the mindset of NEFAC at this time: a certain "siege mentality " in terms of the rest of the anarchist movement and a strong penchant for quite incantatory formulas . A little awkwardly, we tried to emphasize the importance for anarchists of leaving the activist "ghetto" militant popularizing anarchism within the working class. But we were often the only ones who thought that way and criticisms of our so-called "Workerism" were numerous. The relative success of our campaign with workers in their struggles seemed to confirm the correctness of our positions. Over the next two years, we would try again with new experiments in developing other solidarity campaigns (groceries, daycare, etc..) with variable results.
In May, our group organized two events for which we produced a magnificent "colour poster", a first for the NEFAC. On May 1, we held a "red and black" demonstration in which about forty people took part in a pouring rain. A dozen anarchists from Saint-Georges, members of Uraba (Union of self-resistance of the Beauce) walked with us, as well as members of the local Communist Party of Quebec (?????-Molly ). Two days later, we were organizing a conference on the premises of the CSN with two syndicalist NEFAC members from the United States as part of the tour "Anarchy at work" coordinated by our colleagues in Montreal. Barely a dozen people participated in the encounter ... which was a failure. It was far from our successful crowd of the previous year. One fact became obvious: the new direction taken by the NEFAC was not "taking" as easily as topics related to globalization or the mobilizations against the summits.
Labels: anarchism, anarchist history, canadian anarchist movement, history, NEFAC, Quebec, Quebec City, Ruptures
