ROAD Network

OCAP: Stop The Deaths

2008-08-15T00:42:52-04:00

Frank Julian, Carolyn Connolly, Dennis Bowen, Robert Maurice, Biniyam Selleshi

In the last month, two more people in our community have died. We don’t want to have to bury another person from the neighbourhood. People are dying on the street and in shelters. People are dying in their apartments alone in the far corners of the city, with only a few dollars left a month after their rent is paid because they were shipped out of the neighbourhood by Streets to Homes. No more people should have to die because the City has abandoned them to struggle and suffer in poverty. The City has to stop telling the public everything is okay. How can everything be okay when we have already lost four people this summer?!

Why does the mayor and the City remain silent on our deaths?

We Need:
Decent Housing
Adequate Income
Food and Shelter

Callout/Appel :: Resistance 2010!

2008-08-13T11:42:06-04:00

Inspired by the mobilizing on the West Coast, organizers across "Canada" have begun awareness-raising efforts. Building on the call from the West Coast for anti-capitalist and anti-colonial resistance to the Olympics, some organizers affiliated with the "People's Global Action" Bloc (PGA-Bloc) in Ontario and Quebec have begun mobilizing around "Resistance2010", linking anti-Olympics efforts to organizing against the G8 and SPP, and the day-to-day systems and institutions of power and oppression they represent.

----------

D'un bout à l'autre de ce qu'on appelle «le Canada», plusieurs militantEs ont commencé une campagne de sensibilisation. InspiréEs par l'appel de la côte ouest à une résistance anti-capitaliste et anticoloniale aux olympiques, quelques militantEs faisant partie du réseau de l'Action mondiale des peuples (bloc-AMP) au Québec et en Ontario ont commencé à mobiliser autour de la campagne « Résistance 2010 », dans l'optique de relier les mouvements d'opposition au G-8, au PSP et aux Jeux Olympiques en dénonçant les systèmes et institutions de pouvoir et d'oppression qu'ils représentent.

[français ci-dessous]
[please post and forward widely]

*RESISTANCE 2010!
- No Olympics on stolen land!
- Disrupt and abolish the G8 and SPP
- Active support and solidarity for local struggles of self-determination,
justice and dignity*

[August 2008 – OTTAWA]

In the year 2010, three major international events will be taking place in the Canadian state: the Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler (between February 12-28); the G8 Leader's Summit in Huntsville, Ontario (most likely in June or July); and the meeting of the NAFTA leaders as part of the so-called "Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP)" (date and location not yet known).

Already, groups and individuals on the West Coast have come together under the banner of "No Olympics on stolen native land." They have been organizing and raising awareness, from an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist perspective, against the 2010 Olympics, for several years. [More info available at www.no2010.com and http://harrietspirit.blogspot.com/]

Inspired by the mobilizing on the West Coast, organizers across Canada" have begun awareness-raising efforts. Building on the call from the West Coast for anti-capitalist and anti-colonial resistance to the Olympics, some organizers affiliated with the "People's Global Action" Bloc (PGA-Bloc) in Ontario and Quebec have begun mobilizing around "Resistance2010", linking anti-Olympics efforts to organizing against the G8 and SPP, and the day-to-day systems and institutions of power and oppression they represent.

With more than one-year before the Olympics begin, there is a huge opportunity for coordinated and developed campaigns against the Olympics, G-8 and SPP: campaigns that are rooted in our every-day mobilizing, and survival; and campaigns that understand that the institutions of oppression and power function daily in our own communities.

The PGA-Bloc is organizing within the framework of the People's Global Action Hallmarks, which are linked at: www.agp.org

The PGA Hallmarks are a common expression of some of our basic politics, and are linked to a loose international network of grassroots resistance to capitalism that is directly inspired by the Zapatistas. Over the past several years, the "PGA-Bloc" has been used in Ontario and Quebec for various organizing efforts, such as opposing George Bush's visit to Ottawa (2004) and mobilizing against the SPP meeting in Montebello (2007). The PGA network is also linked to numerous groups who organized anti-capitalist resistance to the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City (2001).

Whether groups are organizing within the PGA Hallmarks or not, we would like to communicate and organize with everyone with shared affinities -- anti-capitalist and anti-colonial analysis; support for direct action; confrontation of oppressive systems; opposition to all forms of oppression; autonomous and horizontal organizing; and support of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination -- in a spirit of unity, solidarity and mutual aid.

There have so far been two regional organizing meetings in Ottawa (in January and July 2008) related to the Resistance 2010 campaign, bringing together activists from Ontario and Quebec. Allies have been meeting in Halifax as well. A Resistance 2010 information session was held at the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair this past May, involving participants from Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes as well as the Northeast USA. To date, there have been two visits by Indigenous organizers in "British Columbia" to Ontario and Quebec, and communications between organizers across "Canada".

This callout (our second; the first was made in January 2008) is being made to again encourage networking and communications between groups and individuals who support the Resistance 2010 campaign.

We write this in the hopes that we can re-kindle old networks, encourage and join new ones, and support each other's organizing and struggles towards 2010 and beyond.

In solidarity and in struggle, Members and supporters of the PGA-Bloc in Ontario and Quebec.

www.resistance2010.net (under construction)
info@resistance2010.net

*GET INVOLVED:*

*ENDORSE RESISTANCE 2010:* We encourage groups and organizations to discuss the Resistance 2010 campaign. If your group supports the main demands of Resistance 2010 campaign -- no Olympics on stolen land; disrupt and abolish the G8 and SPP; and active support and solidarity for local struggles of self-determination, justice and dignity –- please get in touch to endorse the campaign at info@resistance2010.net

*SHARE INFORMATION:* Please share any public information about activities and campaigns that you've already begun or discussed in your area that might be related to the Resistance2010 effort. We are compiling the public information at info@resistance2010.net and will send it out on our announcements list to share with everyone.

*POPULAR EDUCATION:* We are particularly interested in sharing research and popular education materials. Members of the PGA-Bloc in Ontario and Quebec are working together in the coming months on a more detailed information package to share with your group, as well as more informational workshops. Please e-mail info@resistance2010.net to share any info.

*ANNOUNCEMENTS LIST:* Get on our announcements-only, low-volume, moderated e-mail list, which will be used to share public information about Resistance 2010 efforts. Just e-mail info@resistance2010.net with your e-mail address, asking to be on the announcements list.

info@resistance2010.net
www.resistance2010.net (under construction)

*::::::::::::::::::::
::::::::::::::::::::*

[svp diffuser largement]

* RESISTANCE 2010!
- Pas de Jeux Olympiques sur des terres volées!
- Pour la perturbation et l'abolition du G8 et du PSP!
- Pour une solidarité active avec les luttes locales pour
l'auto-détermination, la justice sociale et la dignité!**
*
[OTTAWA - août 2008]

En 2010, trois événements internationaux majeurs se tiendront au Canada: les Jeux Olympiques d'hiver de Vancouver/Whisler (du 12 au 28 février), le sommet des chefs d'État du G-8 à Huntsville, Ontario (en juin ou en juillet) et la rencontre des chefs d'État de l'ALÉNA dans la poursuite de l'agenda du «Partenariat pour la sécurité et la prospérité (PSP)» (le lieu et les dates ne sont pas encore connus).

Sur la côte ouest, des groupes et des individus s'organisent déjà depuis plusieurs années pour sensibiliser la population et s'opposer aux jeux olympiques de 2010 dans une perspective anti-colonialiste et anti-capitaliste sous le thème : «Pas d'Olympiques sur des terres autochtones volées». Pour plus d'information, visitez les sites:http://www.no2010.com et http://harrietspirit.blogspot.com

D'un bout à l'autre de ce qu'on appelle «le Canada», plusieurs militantEs ont commencé une campagne de sensibilisation. InspiréEs par l'appel de la côte ouest à une résistance anti-capitaliste et anticoloniale aux olympiques, quelques militantEs faisant partie du réseau de l'Action mondiale des peuples (bloc-AMP) au Québec et en Ontario ont commencé à mobiliser autour de la campagne « Résistance 2010 », dans l'optique de relier les mouvements d'opposition au G-8, au PSP et aux Jeux Olympiques en dénonçant les systèmes et institutions de pouvoir et d'oppression qu'ils représentent.

Avec plus d'un an de délais avant la tenue de ces événements, nous avons la possibilité de développer et de coordonner des campagnes d'envergures contre le G-8, le PSP et les Jeux Olympiques, des campagnes enracinées dans nos luttes quotidiennes et qui permettent de bien comprendre comment les systèmes d'oppression et de pouvoir représentés par ces institutions se manifestent dans nos communautés.

Pour connaître les principes de l'AMP qui rassemblent les groupes et individus impliqués dans la campagne, visitez www.agp.org.

Les principes de l'AMP résument des valeurs partagées et relient les activistes qui les adoptent avec un large réseau international de
résistances locales au capitalisme qui est directement inspiré des Zapatistes. Au cours des dernières années, des collectifs se sont regroupés sur les bases de l'AMP en Ontario et au Québec pour mener à bien différentes mobilisations, comme la résistance à la venue de George Bush à Ottawa (2004) et la résistance au sommet du PSP à Montebello (2007). Le réseau de l'AMP fût également en contact avec de nombreux groupes ayant participé à la résistance anti-capitaliste lors du Sommet des Amériques à Québec (2001).

Résistance 2010! ne s'adresse pas exclusivement aux groupes organisés sur les bases de l'AMP. N'importe qui partageant un minimum d'affinité peut se joindre, soit: une analyse anti-capitaliste et anticoloniale; un support de l'action directe; une attitude de confrontation envers les systèmes d'oppressions; une opposition à toute forme d'oppression; un respect de l'organisation autonome et horizontale et un soutien aux principes de souveraineté autochtone et d'autodétermination, dans une optique d'unité, de solidarité et d'aide mutuelle.

Jusqu'à présent, il y a eu deux rencontres d'organisation reliées à la campagne «Résistance 2010». Elles se sont tenues à Ottawa en janvier et en juillet 2008 et ont rassemblé des activistes de l'Ontario et du Québec. Des militantEs se sont aussi réunis sur ce thème à Halifax. Au Salon du livre anarchiste de Montréal, une séance d'information s'est tenue pour presenter la campagne. Il y a également eu deux visites d'activistes autochtones venus de l'ouest et les communications au sujet de la campagne se développent d'un océan à l'autre.

Cet appel, qui est le deuxième à être diffusé, est fait pour encourager la communication entre les groupes et les individus qui supportent la campagne «Résistance 2010 » dans l'espoir de renouer d'anciens réseaux, d'en encourager et d'en former de nouveaux et de permettre un soutien mutuel des efforts d'organisation partout au pays d'ici 2010 et même après!

En solidarité et en lutte, Des membres et partisanEs de l'AMP en Ontario et au Québec

www.resistance2010.net (en construction)
info@resistance2010.net

* POUR LA SUITE:*

* ENDOSSER RÉSISTANCE 2010:* Votre groupe ou votre organisation est encouragée à discuter de la campagne Résistance 2010. Si votre groupe supporte les trois principales demandes de la campagne -- Pas de Jeux Olympiques sur des terres volées; Pour la perturbation et l'abolition du G8 et du PSP; Pour une solidarité active avec les luttes locales pour l'auto-détermination, la justice sociale et la dignité! – écrivez à info@resistance2010.net pour endosser la campagne.

* PARTAGER TOUTE INFORMATION PUBLIQUE:* Votre groupe ou votre organization organise des activités ou des campagnes qui pourraient s'inscrire dans l'esprit de Résistance 2010 et intéresser les autres groupes? Envoyez un courriel à info@resistance2010.net et l'information sera partagée par le biais d'une liste de diffusion. Nous sommes aussi très intéressés à partager des recherches et du matériel d'éducation populaire.

* ÉDUCATION POPULAIRE:* Un groupe de travail a été formé pour rassembler du matériel éducatif au sujet de la campagne, monter des outils d'information et des ateliers de formation. Merci de partager vos recherches et vos outils au sujet des olympiques, du G-8 et du PSP par courriel àinfo@resistance2010.net
.

* LISTE DE DIFFUSION:* Abonnez-vous à notre liste de diffusion par courriel (liste à faible débit réservée aux annonces et modérée) en en faisant la demande à info@resistance2010.net.

info@resistance2010.net
www.resistance2010.net (en construction)

Linchpin Issue 5 Out Now

2008-08-13T11:22:59-04:00

Common Cause is an Ontario anarchist organization that wants to see anarchists active in every town, neighborhood and workplace across Ontario. We have just published the fifth issue (August / Sept 2008) of our paper, Linchpin, online at http://linchpin.ca.

We publish articles written by our members as well as by others involved in action / movements. Please contact us if you would like to contribute or have any feedback.

http://linchpin.ca/contact

We make copies of this paper available in the Ontario communities in which we have a presence, and are always looking to expand. If you'd like to get involved in helping in our distribution efforts, please contact us.

Copies are available at a number of locations, including: HAMILTON - The Skydragon Centre, 27 King William St. - OTTAWA - Exile Infoshop, 256 Bank St.; Oneness Grassroots Promotions, 430 Rideau St.; - TORONTO - GlobalAware Infoshop, 19 Kensington Ave.; Toronto Women’s Bookstore, 73 Harbord St.

You can download and distribute the PDF version from http://linchpin.ca/files/issue5.pdf or read the articles online below. Consider printing off pages of the PDF file from your computer - read, display, and/or pass on!

Autoworkers – Nothing to Lose

According to the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW), the Canadian auto industry including both assembly and parts has lost a total of nearly 30,000 jobs since 2001. If autoworkers do not respond strongly, even radically, to this blatant attack on their livelihoods, it is likely that these trends will continue in both Canada and the USA, writes Mick S.

http://linchpin.ca/collections+/+Work-workplace+/+Autow...-Lose

Residential School Apology: An Anarchist View

Residential schools were a project to spread capitalism. Residential schools were meant to turn Indigenous peoples into settlers and make them workers and peasants for the capitalist system. Harper will never apologize for the real goals of the residential schools, writes Rev.

http://linchpin.ca/collections+/+Indigenous+/+Residenti...ology

It's the Stupid Economy

Hard as it is to ignore when people walk away from their homes en masse, cannot manage their debts en masse, cannot afford to heat their homes, or drive their cars en masse – and when whole economies contract around the cost of supplying the fuel necessary to bring the goods to market, it would seem inevitable that tough times are ahead, writes Big B.

http://linchpin.ca/collections+/+Economy+/+It039s-stupi...onomy

Against the State and Capital on the High Seas

Thanks to the work of a rare breed of historians (see below) we now know that the pirates of the 17th and 18th centuries, rather than violent thieves, were in fact rebels against the oppression of the young modern state and of a still-emerging capitalism, writes Marley B.

http://linchpin.ca/collections+/+History+/+Against-stat...-seas

Practicing Anarchism

There is a widespread belief that anarchism means chaos and disorganization instead of its true meaning: direct democratic control over all aspects of society including the economy, social and economic equality and liberty. However, at least for one night in Hamilton, those 20 or so people who attended Kim Keyser’s talk, “The Prefigurative Organization,” got a glimpse of what anarchism really means, reports Marley B.

http://linchpin.ca/collections+/+Anarchist-movement+/+P...chism

Updates on Indigenous Activism

A round-up of key developments in the ongoing struggles of Indigenous people in Ontario.

http://linchpin.ca/collections+/+Indigenous+/+Updates-I...ivism

Hamilton's Anarchist Book Fair and Monthly Discussion Groups

Read a brief report on Common Cause Hamilton's successful Anarchist Book Fair held in June and join us for our monthly anarchist discussion groups.

http://linchpin.ca/collections+/+Anarchist-movement+/+H...roups

Toronto Bad Books

If you are in the Toronto area, join Common Cause Toronto's book club held the first Saturday of every month.

http://linchpin.ca/collections+/+Anarchist-movement+/+T...Books

Ottawa Anarchist Discussion Group and Fall Conference

Common Cause Ottawa is keeping busy re-starting Ottawa's long running monthly Anarchist Discussion Group and putting together the Organizing for Justice conference for late fall.

http://linchpin.ca/collections+/+Anarchist-movement+/+O...rence

Bob Rae Buckles over Palestine

2008-08-13T01:49:14-04:00

OTTAWA, ON- Aug 6th, 2008- what began as a fairly balanced description of the historical record of the creation of Israel in Palestine, quickly became yet another bipartisan speech of the Liberal party. Strongly criticizing Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party’s actions in regard to Israel/Palestine, Liberal Party External Affairs critic Bob Rae failed to provide any concrete actions his own party intends to take.

“It was the emergence of modern Zionism that would set the stage for modern conflict,” He began. His proposed solution to this roughly century-long conflict is “recognition of two states, new governance for Jerusalem, limited right of return, and generous funding of a Palestinian state.”
Contradicting himself several times throughout his speech, Rae paid lip service to the social justice movement while adding to the pile of anti-Iran rhetoric.

“Iran’s president is a holocaust denier and refers to Israel by what can only be described as the most hateful of terms."

“Our role should not be of simple neutrality,” he said, adding, “Our friendship with Israel by no means can be indifferent to the Palestinian claim [for self-governance].” When challenged on his proposed plan of action, he reverted back to mediating and perpetuating the aging peace-process. Meanwhile, he admitted, “I don’t think the process today is particularly transparent.”

He further added to the confusion by concluding “it’s the parties themselves that are going to have to resolve the conflict.”
Stating and reiterating that he believes Canada should adhere to international law, principles, and values, he was not so adamant on Canada’s attitude towards the 2004 International Court of Justice ruling on the illegality of the Occupation of the West Bank, the construction of the separation wall, and the building of settlements.

“Obviously there is some ambiguity in the [UN] Resolution 242, which is obviously not accidental, which allows for some flexibility.” Yet, he stated that “a resolution of the conflict has to be dependent on withdrawal from the [Israeli West Bank] settlements. In order for a Palestinian state to be viable in cannot be a jigsaw puzzle.”

When asked to convey concrete description of what this means in practical terms, he elusively answered, “what is it that we’re going to be able to persuade Israelis to do?”

“If you say there is a universal right of return, I don’t think that’s on. It’s contradictory to the UN actually,” said Rae. His comment was in reference to UN Resolution 194 which does not deny the right of return, but actually stipulates that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return.”

Rae’s dodgy flip flopping between identifying as Member of Parliament, external critic, historian, lawyer, and the son of a former Ambassador continued throughout the question and answer period.
The audience clapped as various members asked pointed questions, leaving Rae with a mouthful of stumbles. Asked how he expects the Palestinian people to come to the negotiation table considering the desperate conditions they live in, Rae expressed “I don’t think anyone in the world is looking for a desperate deal. There’s no question the conditions in Gaza have deteriorated.” He added, “I personally do not hold Israel solely responsible for those conditions,” later admitting he did not visit the strip.

When questioned why, he explained “it’s difficult for international leaders to go to Gaza without it looking like a political move.”

Lia Tarachansky and Jesse Freeston are Ottawa based independent journalists, working with the Ottawa IndyMedia, Canadian Dimension, Rabble.ca, and The Dominion.

Lansdowne Park to Host International Arms Exhibition

2008-08-09T16:46:16-04:00

The "U.S. Embassy Defense & Security Exhibition" is one segment of a large military trade show called "Secure Canada 2008" now scheduled for Lansdowne Park (Sept.30 - Oct.1). This whole event flies in the face of a near-unanimous Ottawa Council motion from 1989 stating "that Lansdowne Park and other city facilities not be leased to ARMX or other such arms exhibitions."

ARMX was Canada's largest military trade show. It sparked a public furor in 1989 when Ottawa's Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) was formed to expose this manifestation of the military-industrial complex. COAT organized a large campaign culminating in a protest of some 4,000 citizens at Lansdowne's gates.

COAT is now rallying public support asking the City to honour its promise to bar arms expos from municipal property. If it goes ahead, "Secure Canada" will be the first such show hosted on City property in almost 20 years. Check out the COAT website for more details , sign the online petition and do whatever you can to spread the word.

Although we don't want arms bazaars anywhere, they're certainly not welcome at public facilities subsidized by municipal taxes. Neither should the City's budget buy "security" for these arms dealers who feel they need protection from peaceful public protesters.

Secure Canada 2008

This military trade show is actually three arms expositions in one:

(1) "Secure Canada and the World"

This segment includes the "U.S. Embassy Defense & Security pavilion" and the "UK Trade and Investment Pavilion." Whether the dozens of American and British manufacturers of military and police hardware who plan to descend on Lansdowne will make for a "secure Canada," or a secure world, is debatable. What is certain is that they want to secure a share of the burgeoning military budgets of Canada and the world.

(2) "TechNet North"

Under the theme "National Security in a Coalition Environment," this portion of "Secure Canada" is said to be "Canada's Premier C4ISR Exhibition." C4ISR refers to "Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance." The five dozen war-related industries planning to exhibit at TechNet North want to flog high-tech products that are central to modern warfare. This event is organized by the Ottawa chapter of a US-based, international military-industry grouping called the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.

This event's main corporate backer is General Atomics, which makes the Predator—a drone that does reconnaissance, surveillance, targeting, and fires missiles. It has logged 200,000 miles during combat duties in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

(3) "The Unmanned Systems Canada Expo"

This element of "Secure Canada" is promoted as "Canada’s premier event focusing on the national and international ground, air and maritime unmanned systems marketplace." This military sector is however dominated by makers of drone aircraft. These small Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles do "surveillance and reconnaissance" of the enemy to locate targets for destruction. This exhibition is organized by another US-dominated, international association of military industries, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.

Who is behind "Secure Canada 2008"?

The key organizer hired to pull together "Secure Canada" is a former employee of Ottawa's US Embassy, who specialises in promoting military companies.

Six of the nine sponsors recruited for "Secure Canada" are among America's largest promoters and beneficiaries of the military-industrial complex:

• the US Commercial Service (a government agency promoting exports)

• the National Defense Industrial Association (representing the economic and political interests of America's war-related industries)

• two major US weapons corporations (General Atomics and General Dynamics) and Sun Microsystems, a major global electronics firm doing substantial business with the US military.

• the American Chamber of Commerce in Canada (promoting Canada-US trade).

The show's other sponsors are a UK government entity promoting exports, and two Canadian magazines catering to military and "security" industries.

The Exhibitors

The Exhibitors list of "Secure Canada" is a who's who of the international arms trade. These companies, associations and government agencies provide almost everything required to wage war and are linked to the production of many major weapons systems, including weapons of mass destruction.

The largest known exhibitor is Boeing—the prime contractor for a slew of weapons systems including dozens of fighter and bomber warplanes. One of these, the B-2 Stealth nuclear bomber, is worth mentioning. Each of the first 20 B-2s off the assembly line cost about $2.2 Billion—the equivalent of the City of Ottawa's entire budget for 2007. Surely there is a better way to spend scarce global resources than to fund the world's destruction?

Ottawa City staff have tried to explain why they leased Lansdowne Park to "Secure Canada." Their first line of defence is that it is not really an "arms exhibition." Tell your councillor what you think!

===

This article was submitted to the Peace and Environment News for publication in September 2008.

Anarchists paint bomb statue of John Galt

2008-08-05T16:50:52-04:00

In the wee hours of the morning of August 4 anarchist settlers used a ketchup bottle to apply red metal paint to a statue of John Galt in front of City Hall. August 4 was Guelph’s first ever John Galt Day. The town was awash in festivities and celebrations honouring John Galt and the plan he developed for the founding of the city of Guelph back in 1827. But who is this John Galt character?

John Galt was a Scotsman who worked for the Canada Company. The Canada Company was based in England and was the largest single commercial force active in the colonisation of Upper Canada (more or less present day Ontario). The company purchased 2.5 million acres of land from the illegitimate government of Upper Canada and worked to settle and develop it by providing ships to transport new immigrants, by advertising land for sale in the “new world” to Europeans, and by selling land at an affordable price to those looking to escape the horrors of industrial Europe.

Despite its arrangement with the government of Upper Canada the Canada Company did not have a legitimate claim to the land as it was already owned and used by a number of indigenous nations. This fact is often conveniently overlooked.

John Galt’s job with the Canada Company was to explore the area and asses the possibilities for development. However, in 1827 he devised a plan for an ideal city and on April 23 walked many hours into the undeveloped bush in order to found the city of Guelph by falling a tree at what is now the intersection of Wellington and MacDonnell.

In many ways Galt’s plan for the city of Guelph was remarkable for its time, but how did his plan include the indigenous people of this area. The fact remains that it didn’t.

In fact, although not a particularly pious man himself, Galt made sure that the Catholic Church, an organisation infamous for its attempts to destroy indigenous nations through the use of missionaries and residential schools, received a prominent place in the town. From just about anywhere downtown you can see the spires of the Church of Our Lady towering above you.

Some suggest that the special favour shown towards the Catholic Church had much to do with Bishop MacDonnell, who provided a substantial portion of the funding necessary for the formation of the Canada Company and the purchase of the land in Upper Canada.
The Catholic Church and the Canada Company worked to settle and colonise the “new world,” Upper Canada, and Guelph at the expense of indigenous populations. John Galt was actively engaged in that process and helped lay the foundation for genocide of unimaginable proportions.

John Galt’s own words foretold the horrific consequences of the Canada Companies agenda of genocide on the day he ceremonially fell the first tree in the founding of the city of Guelph. He wrote that “the tree fell with a crash of accumulating thunder, as if ancient nature were alarmed at the entrance of social man into her innocent solitudes with his sorrows, his follies and his crimes” (the Autobiography John Galt, P. 58-59). To celebrate John Galt is to celebrate the foundation of colonisation and genocide among other follies and crimes of European men.

Source: http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=200808051432...18265

Anti-Colonial Resistance on Turtle Island: From Six Nations to 2010

2008-08-05T08:35:32-04:00

THE SIX NATIONS RECLAMATION

what was your first step into conscious solidarity work?

i guess learning from people and participating in the reclamation at six nations, that was when this became a more prominent focus in my life. a community like six nations is a very large community, and there are a lot of different things going on. you'd be working in the kitchen, or helping out at the medic tent, fixing up different sites or whatever. at first we were on the blockades all night long with piles of flaming tires, hanging out and holding it down, being extra bodies there. as the security precautions developed, non-native people we're invited to take part in the blockades on the perimeter. one of the things i was doing a lot was going undercover to non-native caledonia rallies, and getting a feel for what the vibe was of the crowd, if there were a lot of violent instigators. that was some crazy shit. the stuff going on there was obscene.

imagine a teeming throng of people in front of a stage, with a middle-aged hyper-suburban woman going off about how her kids are afraid to go to school, throwing around hate speech, and crowds of people cheering and waving huge canadian flags. there were the odd people there, and i don't know how they had enough courage, they were other caledonians, and were calling them out as hate-mongerers. they would get surrounded by crowds of people who wanted to beat them up, and those people had to be escorted out quickly by cops. so usually it became us trying to defend them, while at the same time trying to collect information. then there would be the occasional guys with big flags that would be yelling 'storm the site! storm the site!' trying to move the crowd. mobile throngs of intense arguments moving throughout the crowd, people screaming at each other, and fistfights almost breaking out. it was pretty intense.

usually the same instigators?

people have done more intel than i have and found out that there are definitely instigators, some neo-nazis coming from the hamilton area, and they were very interested in the site and wanted to stir the pot as much as they could. there was hanging out by the fire, cooking, and doing fund raising in our communities as well. we would try to get people to come out to the site and become personally involved in something like that.

where did you feel that you were getting direction from as to what to do?

it took a while for them to develop a structure. a lot of people have very different opinions. there were people who would be happy with any militant action, and there are some people who just wanted people to hang out and keep the peace, and just be there in case the cops came in. it felt similar to the solidarity work in palestine and israel, where the presence of a white person is sorely needed just to limit the violence of the israeli army. most of the non-native people there had media of some kind, recording devices and cameras, and a lot of people felt it was beneficial for their own safety. as far as getting direction, well basically, anything you wanted to hear you could go find. (laughing)

so what did people do? obviously people seemed to do the same thing, and how did that come about?

it came about in different ways. i heard stories of people making shields out of plastic garbage bins, pepper spray and improvised weapons. other people did more tangible things, site support. it wasn't that long until the [april 20th] raid died down and it wasn't an intense crisis where anything could happen. then it became a public relations strategy. it was asked for voices of support, demonstrations of support, financial support and media.

THE POTENTIAL FOR SOLIDARITY

what do you think solidarity between anarchists, or i guess people in a broad spectrum of autonomous politics, and indigenous people is and should be? what's your philosophy on that? what's going right with the solidarity experiment that we're sort of engaging in right now across the country, and what's going wrong?

it's tough to stay. it's often hard to tell what the worthwhileness is of public education. there's no tangible measurement for the outcomes, although in some cases the broad-based public support for bob lovelace and the ki6 had actually got them out of jail, i think because their stance and message appealed to the liberal crowd. it was less controversial. sometimes you see things that work. often with a solidarity experiment, as you phrased it, it's tough to know what's working. it's hard to find indicators of that. there's a whole gamut of things happening, lots of public support.

there's people who advocate anti-racist work in non-native communities and say people in indigenous communities can take care of themselves. often when non-native people go to offer support to reclamations, they might push people out of the roles they want to do anyways, and there are problems with that. some people advocate conflict resolution and challenging racism in non-native communities to de-escalate conflicts. that has to be done for sure. but it's hard to know.

i guess personally, what i'm hearing and feeling from myself and others, the stuff that's led to the greatest feeling of mutual empowerment has come from personal relationships in different communities, different smaller groups of friends who befriend others in different liberated territories, whether it's sutikalh or ganienkeh in new york state, tyendinaga, kanehsatake, kahnawake, six nations, and in other places across this country called canada. within the whole activist paradigm, there's really good stuff happening on real levels on real people's terms, and that leads to a much greater sense of our lives being intertwined and a greater willingness to further relinquish the comforts that our identity as canadians has.

you seem to be identifying two different streams. one you're calling an activist stream, and the other i would call some kind of want to move towards an anarchist philosophy, like an ontological anarchism meeting indigenous philosophies. what do you think the anarchist thing is, and what are the differences?

yeah that's a great question. i feel a lot of it comes down to identity. how we identify, who we identify as, and i don't feel like being an activist is quite an identity. you have a certain lifestyle, you chill with certain people, you're on the computer a certain number of hours a day, and there's lots of non-native activists. i don't like the idea of being an activist, but i do like being a person who is reactive, and can't take what's going on very well. i feel like with the identity thing in there--this is wordy--the difference between the activist thing and the anarchist thing; i don't know how to describe it, but i can feel it and think i know people when i see them, who's who.

you said something about relationships being key to it.

yeah, relationships beyond identities and labels. i think the anarchist ethic is more about getting beyond being canadian citizens and that kind of stuff. looking hard at what canada is, a weird fictitious corporate entity that has no basis in the real land we live on, the bioregions and the indigenous people, and nothing that was here prior to colonization had any need for borders. you can look at akwesasne, that forms a part of new york state, ontario and quebec, and the borders thing is so ridiculous when you look into it. the idea of canada as a country coming about through a wholly genocidal process, and it's illegitimate and digusting, and when you look at what is canada and what is canadian you go different ways with it. i identify with my bioregion and my watershed and more with wild nature than i do with the domestication that surrounds us, life in the city.

FREEDOM AND RESPECT

how is that relationship to land and geography negotiated with respect to indigenous communities trying to reclaim territorial space? how do you feel the discourse of treaties and sovereignty fits in?

i definitely hear from so many different indigenous people that they're totally in favour of awesome people living for free on land without having to pay taxes or whatever, and as long as there's an ethic of care and love and respect for the land we live on, i've heard that being something strongly advocated by all kinds of people. learn who we are as human beings, get back to living in a respectful way that is more in alignment with the needs of the earth that we live on. i've heard that's an alright thing to do as far as the politic goes, being settlers and living for free. at reclamation sites, lots of [allies] are encouraged to live there or live nearby. it can be done appropriately, those possibilities do exist and they're plentiful if it's done respectfully with the people whose land that actually is. it's also the spirits and ancestors who have been buried in the land over the centuries and millenia. there's a lot in this world that does not fit into the scientific paradigm whatsoever, and a lot of people i know really suggest speaking with the place, laying some tobacco down, and letting the place know of your intentions. it's just as important as getting the agreement of the native people around, being in alignment with other forces as well. it's a bit weird to talk about and that's a whole other topic. non-native people aren't really encouraged to talk about this stuff and i won't go into that.

it's also indigenous people and the land, and you kind of have to break with a hegemonic ideological relationship with european modernist scientific rationalism to some extent to be in solidarity.

that's a really good point. what kind of bugs me sometimes is when a lot of non-native urban solidarity activists are totally willing to support indigenous communities, but a lot of us who came from europe are totally bred from school with rational scientific materialistic worldview that comes from these totally fucked up philosophers who were horrible people, whether it's descartes or socrates or plato or aristotle. they shaped this culture so much and their ideas are totally anti-life. we're taught their anthropocentrism, but when you try to break out of it it gets called 'hippy stuff.' for myself, i feel totally inspired by that part of decolonizing our minds and hearts. my conversations with native people at six nations or other elders talk about profound things, things the wildest adventure movies are based upon, as far as the abilities we have as humans. our connections with energies, and spaces, and animal allies, and i've found for myself getting more in touch with the land i live on and geting to know plants and trees i'm continually shown how deep inter-species communication can go and how much more there is to life that completely confuses me at this point in my life. i think it would be a pretty worthy and welcome task for us to investigate how much our schooling leads to us being anthropocentric and overly materialistic in our worldview.

i can think of two different ways you can do it. one is, you can respectfully, tenuously and contingently adopt an indigenous view of the land, and that is a very tricky position that i can see easily lapsing into romanticism and a form of exoticism that is extremely problematic, but can be done in a way that isn't. the other way is that you can respectfully understand that something may be possible that you don't believe in, but it may be just as possible that you do believe in, and there can be a form of solidarity where knowing anything is possible can bridge the divide between what you believe in, which cannot be a rationalism, but can be your own religious values or indigenous values from other places.

i think i do know what you're saying. it's an interesting discussion, something that's often viewed as not as exciting or important given there is more emphasis on more militant stuff--which is totally great--but i think for our personal stuff, and the thing that keeps me and my closest friends going is knowing that our lives are intertwined, and not just doing things because we should or it's just what activists do. i think our deepest drive comes from--i don't really like the word--a more spiritual connection to the land, something that fills our hearts and not just our minds, the adrenaline that makes us deeply greatful to be alive. it's a powerful thing that leads to a strong desire to fight and protect other stuff. connection with the land is so important, it's why no one gives a shit that the cities are expanding and no one's even noticed what we're missing. when you start to know you start to care, when you start to care you might think about doing something. for me, this kind of transformation of thought came about through hanging out with youth and elders and different sites, and just kind of hanging around the fire. not just talking about what's on the radio or on the news, but these issues as well. it's a major part of colonization, anywhere around the world that you look, that there's a severance and destruction of the spiritual connections people have to the land, whether it's been witch burnings or residential schools and the shift to patriarchy that canadians impose. i'm not saying i'm more connected to land. i was reading about someone who was visiting a zapatista community, and they were doing an important prayer ceremony before a major event, and they were in this high school gym and as the elders started doing the prayer the lights above started to swing. as they stopped, the lights stopped. the friend relaying the story asked her indigenous friend next to her if she saw that, and she did and said 'that's why they want to kill us.' that's a great story to think about, with oka, six nations, and gustafsen lake, people talk about how they couldn't have done it without a strong connection to their ancestors who are watching over them and giving them knowledge. i think that's a really interesting direction to go in and i think it would be really cool if more of us started really playing around with that kind of stuff.

what do you think are some of the risks of playing around with that kind of stuff are? do you think about it?

i think romanticizing things; fucking with stuff you don't know the protocol to; thinking you know what you're doing; i mean i don't know about that kind of world, people have their own special prayers for talking with ancestors, all i know is what i pick up from ceremonies and sweats and being on reclamation sites.

when you go to a reclamation site, people want to know what community are you from. do you have an answer to that?

i usually say what i'm involved in, but i don't identify as a member of this or that organization. we've had enough contact over the years to earn the trust and respect to lay the ground for more. so i think it's just based on prior experiences. i'm not into identifying with organizations.

when you were out at caledonia, did you meet people that didn't want you there, and if you didn't, did you hear about people who didn't want you there?

i've heard more in retrospect. certainly not everyone is very friendly. i don't blame them at all, but not everyone is friendly. i wasn't into just hanging around all the time. people would see us coming in with bottled water and food, and talking with people or whatever, but definitely i've heard about native opinions of groups like [the ontario coalition against poverty (ocap)] having the yankee mentality of trying to run the show.

what's yankee mean?

i think not really being gentle and respectful in one's ways.

it's funny, because i think [ocap] thought they were being so in their way of doing things.

yeah and maybe they probably had the support of some people but pushed others the wrong way. i think a lot of people thought they took too much of a role there, and made the space less empowering for the people there.

RECONNECTING TO LAND

what do you think the future of the solidarity thing is? what would you hope it to be?

people i know from different territories out west are really into getting out of the cities, and i think they have much more wild out there whereas ontario is heavily colonized and agricultural. i know i feel in strong agreement with the idea that we need to get less reliant on all this industrial infrastructure, whether it's the sewage system in the city, or the network of roads that bring us food, or the farm fields, and that's one way people can be more in solidarity is by being more in touch with the land. some people would call it a more indigenous perspective, i'm not in a place where i feel comfortable using that word, but to what degree can we be in solidarity if we're still eating food grown on stolen land and requiring all this industrial infrastructure and its constant maintenance. i know that people i talked to at six nations are pretty darn excited that we're living off the grid, and see it as a good step. the other direction i hope for, is more people standing up and saying no more, stopping developments in tandem with other indigenous people. that would be great, not just leaving it in the hands of indigenous people. this is indigenous territory we're standing on, but at the same time we have a responsibility to stop this as well. we can't let the responsibility fall on the communities that are the most directly affected and don't always have the material ability to respond. there's lots more direct action going on that we have yet to see to what degree it's successful.

there's some critique of the sixties back-to-the-land mentality that happened, and the bizarre cultures that developed in the sixties that led to their demise and the collapse of most of those projects. also from the monocultural predominately european-protestant mentalities that went into that; how do you feel like what you're talking about is different from that?

that's a great question. i think finding as many ways to make it anti-colonial in nature and in support of indigenous struggles for self-determination. i think we can challenge ourselves and reach out, and there are all kinds of ways that we can do that. i've heard of farms that grow food in support of indigenous resistance movements. i've heard of land projects which give back land to native people; people at sharbot lake were willing to sell their land to the local community for a dollar as long as they didn't open up a strip mine. there's lots of examples of how that can be done to maybe lead to mutual empowerment. these projects are few and far between, but i think people can seek to find ways to not become this insular off-the-grid commune kind of thing. you can have safe houses for people who need to escape the law, as a basis for learning all kinds of things towards different kinds of actions. a place to heal yourself as you launch out into the world, do what you want to do, and come back and recharge. look at rod coronado. he's actually indigenous, but while he was pulling off all kinds of crazy shit, he had his one-room shack in the woods by a river where he went to get his guidance and strength. then he went back out and shut down different labs, and the possibilities are pretty huge towards making something pretty anti-colonial in nature that's land-based.

from a spatial perspective, you can be on the fringe of things. you're not totally gone but you're not totally there either. being able to pass back and forth is really important, both for not having something become isolated and die out, but also in terms of being able to support people who can't get out.

yeah, definitely.

what do you think about people who are fully into regionalism, biocentrism, are against the state and colonialism and capitalism, but like urban living?

i don't mean to say there's anything wrong with that. but it would be cool that if when the shit goes down, these people are clamoring to set back up the sewage treatment plant but are going to be building compost toilets.

do you think it's urbanly possible to do all the same things?

i guess i didn't mean to have such an out-of-the-city slant. i think just inevitably this infrastructure is falling apart all the time, and it would be nice if people weren't fighting to set back up river dams. people lived in large settlements with tens of thousands of people not needing electricity or sewage treatment plants or chlorinated drinking water or destruction of habitat.

SETTLER DYNAMICS

did you find that there was a different dynamic between not-white settlers and indigenous people in any of the work you did?

that's a good question. really, my experience went as far as meeting awesome committed people who are clearly not white. i can't really say whether i know what was going on. i think people who i met had an easier time identifying with the struggle against colonialism. that's probably all i can say about that.

did you think there were dynamics between people who were white and not-white within the settler category?

i can't say i picked up enough to really say.

what kind of dynamics between settlers were there along political lines?

some people strongly identify as canadian citizens and believe that the preservation of the canadian state is a good thing, that there's a democracy and these liberal values. there were a lot of people who think that's totally bullshit, and would love to see a turtle island without canada or the united states at all. it would be quite a world. some people get word from the blockades that they're open to any kind of support actions, and they run with it. some people are really against that kind of stuff. there are liberals around in the indigenous movements as well. for the mostpart there was, at least in the community that i live in, a willingness to respect each other, and not a lot of antagonism or conflict that comes about through disagreements over tactics. certainly there are big differences, and a lot of it isn't often talked about enough. there aren't broad discussions of militancy, they just don't happen for obvious security reasons. it was known that things were happening, but it was never addressed in any way other than through personal conversations.

did you interact with union people or marxists?

not really. the one union here is pretty supportive, but i didn't have much interaction with them.

2010

i'm really curious to see what happens with the 2010 olympics too. i think the whole 2010 project, linking the [security and prosperity partnership summit (spp)] and the [group of 8 meeting (g8)] with the olympics is a really interesting form of solidarity, because it includes a strong stance on indigenous sovereignty, but at the same time is intricately connected to forces that are ruining the future for all of us. the massive resource extraction and ramping up of infrastructure has got liberals like the council of canadians really concerned. at the same time, linking these three large events in canada under the same banner is really interesting to see how that will play out. there are different kinds of groups involved, and the international security experts are already writing reports on the growing unmanageable movement of actions against the olympics, and the adoption of shac's tactics. there are also groups that are really into writing letters to the editors and petitions about it, which is really good too. i'm really curious to see where that goes.

do you feel a quebec city vibe about it? how is it different than anti-globalization?

well it's definitely different than quebec city, because the olympics stuff is already being responded to now. no one is waiting for the olympics to come to resist it, and after the olympics come and go, the same problems are still going to be around and people will keep attacking them. i think with more radical indigenous people at the forefront of the anti-2010 movement there's more consideration of ideas like insurgency and stuff like that because of the people who are doing the writing around it. it's not hard to hear well-elucidated thoughts on different tactics. i think it's really different in that regard, and it extends in way more than just the 17-day event, the shit is going down already. if people are as serious as groups out west are saying they are, it will require more than just a quebec city style place-based protest. it would require more guerilla tactics. i'm not saying that i advocate them, i'm saying groups out west are saying they want to shut down the olympics completely. they'll probably be looking to take down highways, or blockade the key access roads, or whatever. i think things are just radicalized in a different way. do you find that too?

i always find when dealing with indigenous militancy it's always difficult to gauge what will or will not happen. i know what i'd like to see happen, but that doesn't mean it will. i'm of the mind that i'm not going to vancouver, i mean that's a waste of money and disgusting. so what are we doing here, you know?

yeah well that's the thing with people connecting 2010 with the g8 and the spp, it's everywhere. corporate executies who are on the [north american competitiveness council] live all across canada. companies that are sponsoring the 2010 olympics live all across canada, and the anarchists have been setting up their own games, like the rbc window smashing, seeing who can smash the most windows of royal bank (laughing). that's one of the sports that's started. i'm not sure who's winning, either ottawa or vancouver. (more laughing) i think people really want to push it beyond a 17 day event, something that can take place all over.

Ontario ARA Shuts Down Fascists in London

2008-07-30T22:00:48-04:00

On Sunday, July 27th, anti-fascists ("antifa") came together from across Southern Ontario to confront and shut down an attempt by long time hate organizers to intimidate the participants of London's 2008 Pride Parade. Acting on information found posted on white supremacist websites, antifa in several cities were able to organize and produce the numbers despite minimal preparation time.

Close to 30 people gathered at Victoria Park at 11:30AM to discuss the plan for the day and create banners that would be used to block out the homophobic and anti-gay signs. As expected, harassment from the London Police Department was heavy from the get-go. Police used several tactics in an unsuccessful attempt to get information from and intimidate those gathered at Victoria Park (i.e. good cop / bad cop, isolating individuals and pressing for answers, intrusive photographs, etc). The group was approached by the cops repeatedly before they even left the park.

At around 12:15PM the 30-person strong crew left Victoria Park with several large banners, flags, and signs, heading down to pay the the fascists a visit at their meeting spot, the corner of Dundas and Colborne. Rumors had circulated earlier that upwards of 20 white supremacists would be present for the hate demonstration. However, in reality an unimpressive 5 people (including Randall Linton, Melissa Guille, Dave Ruud, and Louis Morin), primarily washed up Canadian Heritage Alliance (CHA) members, managed to drag their sorry selves out of bed early enough on a Sunday to wave around bristol board signs with sloppy slogans scrawled across in black sharpie.

During the initial confrontation a minor incident broke out that resulted in one ARA activist being arrested after a bonehead grabbed at a member of ARA. This police action was completely unwarranted and was a weak attempt to discourage those involved in the ARA demonstration. Our comrade was released from detention after we came together and arranged support for him.

Throughout the entirety of the parade, the fascists' signs were completely covered by ARA banners and flags, which was not exactly difficult considering that the homophobes were outnumbered by ARA 6 to 1. It did not take long for the members of the CHA and their supporters to become visibly frustrated and downright embarrassed that their day had been such an obviously miserable failure. On several occasions various boneheads found themselves completely alone and encircled by Rainbow banners, pro-Queer and ARA slogans as they scurried up and down the streets.

Towards the end of the parade the fascists called it quits after having several of their signs torn up, being publicly humiliated, and generally having a terrible Sunday out. They dispersed without incident, enjoying the police protection that they had greatly benefited from all day long.

No Homophobia! No Fascist Canada!

- SOUTHERN ONTARIO A.R.A.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/picard102/sets/72157606408...0321/

Organizing For Justice Call-Out

2008-07-27T07:52:49-04:00

Calling all radicals, anarchists and community organizers! We are in the early stages of organizing a conference and community forum to be held in Ottawa this fall. The tentative date for the conference is Oct 24-26, 2008. The conference will feature workshops, panel discussions, and tables by community groups. It will be an opportunity for community members and those active in social justice and radical movements to network and learn from one another.

This conference represents the next step following the three Anarchist Assemblies held in 2007. We are hoping to build on the momentum and the successes of the Assemblies while becoming more inclusive in bringing in others involved in community development and organizing.

ORGANIZING FOR JUSTICE conference
Social Justice, Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, and Healthy Communities.

Organizing Meeting
Wednesday August 6th, 7:00pm
Exile Infoshop, 256 Bank St. (2nd floor)

----

The aim of the conference is to:
- stimulate meaningful and effective involvement
- foster relationships
- raise consciousness
- create strategy and vision
- build stronger communities working for positive change

~~~~~~~

Organizing a conference is hard work and we can't do it by ourselves! We are looking for organizers and volunteers to be involved in the following capacities:
- direction and coordination
- fundraising
- venue booking
- outreach to groups / organizations
- outreach to speakers / presenters
- website development
- creation of promotional materials
- distribution of promotional materials
- online promotions
- media relations

We are also looking for people to help out at the time of the conference with:
- setup and support
- facilitation of discussions / workshops
- note-taking / reporting
- child care
- food provision
- materials
- billeting

And, we are looking for:
- support from organizations / groups
- ideas for workshop topics and presenters

Basis of Unity

The ORGANIZING FOR JUSTICE conference is a gathering of anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist groups and individuals in the Ottawa-Gatineau area. The purpose of the conference is to build stronger anarchist and radical movements for justice by providing a forum for communication and networking.

We advocate mutual aid, direct democracy, autonomy, solidarity and decentralized grass-roots forms of organization.

We struggle against all forms of domination and oppression including, but not limited to racism, classism, ableism, heterosexism, ageism, sexism, transphobia, and religious intolerance. We reiterate our opposition to capitalism, corporatization, patriarchy, ecocide, imperialism and colonialism.

We support direct action and other forms of resistance in people's struggles against oppression.

~~~~~~~

If you would like to help make this event a success, please come out to our next meeting:
Wednesday August 6th, 7:00pm, at Exile Infoshop, 256 Bank St. (2nd floor)

Or contact us directly: (613) 656-5498 / a_ottawa@mutualaid.org

Sincerely,
Common Cause Ottawa

Youth and Supporters of Indigenous: Beware of Cops in Sheep's Clothing

2008-07-23T19:45:43-04:00

MNN. July 20, 2008. Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino’s fascistic actions against Indigenous people are not new. His illegal dirty tricks to trap Mohawks and Shawn Brant in particular have been developed and practiced in cop training school. He’s following an old pattern. Really old. Cops are basically well-paid thugs. We’ve seen some of the police training videos. Police are trained to instigate violence.

Way back in the Winnipeg Workers Strike in 1917 the police were found to be responsible for the violence. In relations with the Ongwehonwe, it is once again armed state forces, police or military that have caused violence and deaths time and time again. Remember the Mohawk Oka Crisis in Kanehsatake in 1990, Gustafsen Lake in B.C. in 1995, the killing of Dudley George at Ipperwash, and all of the recent confrontations at Six Nations and Tyendinaga! The violence on all occasions was started by the cops and their instigators.

We’re not the only ones targeted for abuse. The 1970 Quebec nationalist movement that wanted to create an independent socialist state was almost completely taken over by the RCMP. Many of the people in the movement were young idealistic students and professors. The police turned their movement into a violent crisis. British Trade Commissioner James Cross was kidnapped and Quebec Labor Minister Pierre Laporte was kidnapped and murdered.

Bombings were threatened. The FLQ was used to provide all the justification that war mongering individuals in the Canadian government needed to launch an All-out offensive. Pierre Trudeau, that sneaky “rat fink” who sold out integrity, instituted the War Measures Act authorizing extraordinary actions by the RCMP. Rule of law was suspended. The armed forces were deployed. Thousands of innocent youth and students were arrested and held without charges for weeks and months. The same kind of tactics are being used against Indigenous today.

Trudeau claimed this use of state force was necessary to protect Canada from the “scourge of terrorism”. There was no terrorism except the terrorism from within that was planned and orchestrated by the RCMP.

The MacDonald Commission of Inquiry into Certain Acts of the RCMP revealed that the FLQ was completely infiltrated by police agents from the very beginning. The 1981 report found police agents were responsible for planning and carrying out terrorist activities within the FLQ. The RCMP used paid agents and other Canadian and Quebec groups to spy on and discredit the youth and student movement. It is very likely that they are doing the same again.

The students who support the Ongwehonwe and human rights, freedom of speech, decency and fair play, are all extremely vulnerable. The so-called forces of law and order have a long history of infiltrating student and popular movements in order to create violence that will enhance the power of the police and military forces.

During the October Crisis the Commission described 11 different types of dubious or outright illegal operations that were carried out by the RCMP. These included:

RCMP agents made secret allegations against tens of thousands of Canadians and shared them with police in other countries including the U.S., India, Pakistan, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Britain and Ireland. They’re still doing that. Remember Arar who was sent on an “extraordinary rendition” flight to be tortured.

RCMP stole membership lists from the Parti Quebecois and looked for people who could be recruited to be their agents.

RCMP burned barns in Quebec as part of training sessions for terrorist activities; they gave weapons, explosives and cash to members of the FLQ and trained them to use them.

Did the public learn anything? The cops have become more secretive. That’s when the Canadian Security Intelligence Service CSIS was formed. They have an “Indigenous sector” and they have classed Mohawks as terrorists and insurgents. This means that our rights have been taken away from us without trial or due process or even notice. Or maybe they have secretly declared war on us without the knowledge or consent of the Canadian people. We must always keep in mind how far these state funded “power freaks” will go to achieve their nefarious ends.

Assuming Hostilities: Towards a Pro-Revolutionary Milieu With Teeth

2008-07-23T12:33:30-04:00

For the milieu of pro-revolutionaries,[1] the last years have certainly not been good. We’ve lost comrades to the state, suicide, forced exiles, anti-social violence, and the weight of time. When we talk with many, there is a great sense of demoralization, or at least a general inability to see a way forward given our current circumstances. From this demoralization has also come a shaking off of the dust of old conceptions and old forms. Many agree that what we currently have at our disposal for opposing this world is completely inadequate, and that for some time, we have lacked the ability to define a particular strategic direction for ourselves that actually builds our power rather than exhausts it.

After confronting deeply held convictions and facing reality, we have put this piece forward as a contribution to defining a strategic direction towards destroying every enemy that stands in our way.
Back on the Summit Train

I’d prefer not to. –Bartleby the Scrivener, Herman Melville

Currently, a huge amount of significance is being placed on the outcome of the mobilizations against the 2008 Republican and Democratic National Conventions. The “success” of summits as the measure of our power is perhaps the most misguided, yet persistent, idea we have taken with us from the “anti-globalization” era. Gauging our strength according to the numbers gathered together, by the dollar amount of damages done, the quantity of media coverage, and so on are not true indicators of anything. The long-term perspectives underlying some of the summit organizing are the only redeeming qualities: people hope to build a network of pro-revolutionaries across the land, reenergize those who have dropped out of the scene in the last several years, and of course feel the empowerment of being amongst hundreds, perhaps thousands of comrades. The question of course is what use will these networks be put to, more of the same? What are we reenergizing people for, more of the same? We aren’t asking these questions in bad faith; we want to know what’s going to be different this time. We don’t want to run in circles anymore.

Undoubtedly, Seattle, Quebec City, and Genoa had real moments of generalized conflicts when residents of many neighborhoods came out on the streets to fight with police or to loot stores and shops. And more than a few of us have cut our street-fighting teeth in these situations and learned a bit about organizing ourselves, but these meetings are nothing more than media events where fools in business suits have their pictures taken alongside other fools in business suits. The World Economic Forum meetings, the G8, the European Union summits, the Republican, Democratic or Green conventions are all false images of reality. Capitalism is not crystallized in conventions centers, government buildings, or corporate offices; it is not a controlling center. Capital is the domination of all life under the reign of value, which permeates our very existence through the structuring of our lives and by commodifying nearly everything on the planet.

We need tactics and strategies that can attack the true face of domination, not the red flag it waves to draw our attention.
Breaking Out of Our Ghetto

Young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit. Everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit. –Guy Debord

Standing side by side with people who we have built friendships with, been romantically involved, or struggled alongside of gives us a feeling of great power. This is what draws many to summits, the need to feel connected –to feel collective strength. We all feel this need, but it must be said that it is a symptom of both the alienation inherent in our daily lives and the isolated ghetto many of us inhabit. We’ve constructed a scene and exist in a subsection of capitalist society from which we are completely incapable of communicating with the outside world, with other realities, and more importantly with others in struggle.

The retreat into a scene arises from a need for affirmation in the face of the apparently monolithic dominant society. This attempt to bring people together only led to further isolation; no one can dispute that truth. No “alternative life” under capitalism can be maintained, thus people fall back on having the moral high ground. Walls of distinction are erected for the sake of purity in order to define who is most contaminated by the outside world, as if reality could somehow be avoided. What matters most is that each individual, standing alone as a consumer or citizen, makes good personal decisions in order to make a difference; this is after all, the best we can do. We have been in this scene, and we have experienced its suffocation; we refuse it, but we also refuse to let ourselves be defined by it.

Whether it’s the division of labor in the workplace or the urban and suburban organization of space, on all levels, isolation weakens us. We need to embed ourselves in social realities, not withdraw from them. A lack of roots and practical links to others beyond a scene, subculture, identity or milieu leaves us in a terribly isolated position and cuts us off from our greatest source of strength: solidarity. But we are also looking for something different than the urban guerillas or islamists who would embed themselves in social networks; we aren’t in search of converts, followers, human shields, or pawns to deploy. We are looking for brothers and sisters in arms, people we can fight alongside of, love deeply, and build a community with against capital. Thus we face an important problem: upon what basis do we meet other people?

We need to move beyond encountering others on the level of issues, opinions, and political identity. Instead a common basis can be built around overlapping needs and inclinations within various realms of contestation, not as perceived, but as directly experienced. Direct implication changes things because you don’t begin from an ideology; you begin from a reality. Thus our starting point is not how we imagine things to be, what an organizer, activist, or politician perceives to be important to his/her constituency; instead it is a relationship of direct experience, of conflict. We think that taking part in this faceless resistance[2] and building solidarity within various social networks gives us a common basis from which to begin, from which to fight, from which to seize what we need. But it is only one step; there is no panacea.
Leaping Into Conflict

Fight fire with fire. –Metallica

There are of course others direction in which we can move, other paths in need of clearing. One that we find promising is intervening in social conflicts so as to fan the flames of revolt. While the United States has not been rocked by the violent upheavals that have taken place in Mexico, France, and Greece in recent years, we have certainly missed many chances to wreak havoc on our enemies. When several prison populations revolted in the Midwest in the summer of 2007, what could have been done in solidarity against the prison system as a whole? Perhaps an effective link could have been drawn between those prisons and the external prisons that the nearby ghettoes constitute. What about the increasing, though mostly cosmetic, roundups of immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, what response has been made beyond purely symbolic demonstrations? Or further back in time, what could we have done in solidarity with the ILWU lockout in 2002 that idled factories across the nation, the truckers’ wildcat strikes in 2003-2005, or the myriad riots that have erupted in ghettos from Cincinnati to Benton Harbor?[3]

There are of course some notable exceptions to this trend of being too disorganized or too late to do much of anything. The fare strikes attempted in Chicago in 2003 and San Francisco in 2005, the less symbolic efforts against the Iraq war, actions to support and build links of solidarity with May Day demonstrations against further criminalization of the undocumented, and some efforts in solidarity with the Six Nations reoccupation in 2006 and against the destruction of the South Central Farm in 2005.

But what does it mean to intervene? It means to take the break and push it further, to act in solidarity, not out of common misery, but out of common refusal to submit. It’s the extension of disturbance and paralysis to other social sectors. It’s the hope of getting to the point of no return, of turning things into a real state of exception.[4]

No one can deny that many situations have predetermined limits, a foreseeable end; others however, have nothing of the sort.

We stated once before that our intention is not to gain converts, but there are many others who go from place to place attempting to do just that or who try to push things into institutional channels. Some of them even claim to be our allies: the friendly NGO worker, the nice socialist from the local college, or the seasoned, professional activist. For us, these events are something different. The potential of these small-scale or intermediate battles lies not only in obtaining whatever goals they have –if there even are any— but more so in the experience of struggle itself. Situations of social conflict allow for a rupture within which people transform themselves and gain a sense of their own power to transform reality. Collective confrontation can both lead to and spring from self-organization that builds ties of mutual aid and solidarity. These experiences can’t merely be measured in wages won, property destroyed, or numbers of participants; it’s something qualitative.

But we don’t want to run from upheaval to upheaval like we have run from summit demo to summit demo in the past. We need something deeper, something more coherent.
Projecting Ourselves into the Future

Everybody get your mother-fucking roll on. –The Big Tymers

Our projects begin from reality, from the global social war going on, and they are based on the recognition of a possibility: that we can change history.

Rather than always responding to the moves our enemy, fighting on their terrain, on the days that they dictate, we can create our own projects that allow us to take the initiative, to move from defense to attack. With foresight we can organize ourselves to attack where our enemy is not looking and provoke winnable confrontations that mock any pretense of total control. We can gather a forward momentum that goes beyond us and contributes to a generalized counterattack on the part of the proletariat as whole.

Many of our comrades tend to see things merely as a game of numbers: more projects, more pro-revolutionaries, more bookstores, more conferences, more protests, and on and on. We think this is the wrong way to think about things. It is not the quantitative growth of more projects; it is their coherent interweaving that has the most promise. It’s a question of exploring how our struggles at work or in our neighborhood function together with our projects outside of that, of how they strengthen one another and how they work together in a coherent project of subversion. We must ask ourselves: what role does something play in our greater revolutionary project, how does it strengthen us?

In recent years we have been forced to ask ourselves repeatedly, when the state hits us, why are we so incapable of hitting back in any substantial way? Or when situations arise in our own areas or in our own lives, why are we also so incapable of acting with any decisiveness, with real force? The answer to these questions is actually quite simple: we haven’t established the minimal necessary criteria to do so, or as some of our comrades put it, we haven’t assembled “the necessary material, affective, and political solidarities.”

We need organization, plain and simple, but organization is not synonymous with acronyms, constitutions, public splits, position papers, and the like. It is at once the bringing together of the means –the tools, the spaces, the cash, and the skills— necessary to accomplish tasks, but also something more. The fundamental basis of organization lies in the relations we build with one another, not simply in the pro-revolutionary milieu, but also in other areas in which we fight. Our strength will ultimately come from the strength of our relations, how willing we are to have one another’s backs.

Unfortunately most of the projects we have taken on have been limited because they lacked the quality of being socially expansive. Some are structured in such a way that we are “active” and others are “passive,” or that one side is going to save the other. Other projects begin from the position that everyone else has been bought off, and that only we are willing to do something. Even worse, some that masquerade under the guise of solidarity are nothing but charity work or voluntary servitude. A true revolutionary project would be one that is inherently social, focused on lived reality, easily reproducible, and that resonates with people and threatens to spread within social networks.

In a way we must start from scratch, a daunting task to say the least, but one that we must meet head on.
The Years Ahead

I bet you’d forgotten me, thought I was dead. –Ghost-Faced Killer

Very few are looking to the future with real hope. We are being fed the lie of a buying our way to a green utopia and the trick of following yet another leader down the path to nowhere. All the while it is becoming harder to survive as the prices of nearly all essential commodities are rising, backed by the distinct possibility of a global economic downturn. New rounds of struggle have already begun, and we must be ready to play a part. New tactics and strategies will emerge, as well as new forms of organization, and we must be on the lookout for these so that we can pair them with the techniques of yesteryear that some have unfortunately forgotten.

We’ve used many words in this essay, some of confusing meaning and some that mean very different things depending on who is speaking. And by continually saying we, there is the presupposition of a commonality that may not really exist, but ultimately it comes down to how we envision revolution. To many it is a program to be put in place or a creed to convince others of that will then be brought to life. We see revolution as the process by which a new world will come into being through the negation of the old. Thus it isn’t a new political order or a more equitable economic arrangement; it will be something completely different, a world completely other in which we will create the content of our daily lives in the way that we see fit alongside a million others.

Survival doesn’t suffice for us; it’s just too pathetic. We want to see the fear in their eyes, and the sweat dripping off their brows. We want to see the emergence of the old class hatred that shows no mercy. We can only take what we want by force because it is ultimately this that we seek: the reappropriation of our very lives.

[1] Pro-revolutionaries is not a commonly used term. Through its use we hope to denote the existence of a group of people who are consciously for revolution in the here and now. Clearly though, throughout history every revolution has been made not simply by those who label themselves with this or that ism.

[2] Faceless resistance is a term we’ve borrowed from some Swedish comrades who define it as, “the various informal and immediate class struggle practices that exist,” which are immediately useful for achieving small ends, but which also serve as a springboard for more widespread conflict.

[3] A massive disruption of international trade resulted from the ILWU lockout, causing a loss of $1 billion per day, which snowballed to $2 billion a day. Not only that, the ripple effect in a prolonged strike or lockout would idle a large percentage of retailers and production facilities across the country. Also the trucker’s strikes are interesting because they are a key link in the process of realizing value, but also because in many places their collective organizing efforts are illegal because they are considered independent contractors.

[4] We are using real state of exception in the sense that Walter Benjamin used it in his essay, “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” by which he means not the state’s suspension of the rule of law, but rather our negation of the rule of law through revolt. Giorgio Agamben delves deeply into this concept in his work State of Exception.
Print Versions Available Soon at:

MadRatz (Atlanta)
Long Haul (Berkeley)
Burnt Book Mobile (Milwaukee)
Arise! (Minneapolis)
MayDay (Minneapolis)
L'Insoumise (Montreal)
Iron Rail (New Orleans)
Bound Together (San Francisco)
One Thousand Emotions (St. Louis)
Pitch Pipe (Tacoma)

U.S. Embassy plans Arms Bazaar in Ottawa (Sep30-Oct1) despite 1989 ban!

2008-07-23T11:44:06-04:00

The U.S. Embassy has scheduled a huge arms bazaar at Lansdowne Park this fall, despite an Ottawa City Council Motion of 1989 that banned all future military trade shows from municipal property. If it goes ahead, the "U.S. Embassy Defense & Security Exhibition" (Sept. 30 - Oct.1) will be the first weapons expo on Ottawa City property since May 23-25, 1989, when ARMX—Canada's largest military exposition of that time—filled Ottawa's Lansdowne Park.

Following a public outcry inspired by a campaign against ARMX
organized by the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT), Ottawa City Council barred the return of "ARMX or other such arms exhibitions" to municipal property. Learn about COAT's opposition to ARMX:
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/disARMX.htm

Read the almost-unanimous City Council Motion (April 19, 1989):
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/bylaw.htm

Secure Canada 2008 — Three Arms Bazaars Rolled into One!
The upcoming U.S.-government sponsored arms bazaar is one part of a much larger military trade event called "Secure Canada 2008." This exhibition is actually three separate arms shows in one. It promises to be the biggest, international war-industry exposition in Ottawa since ARMX '89.
Learn about "Secure Canada 2008": http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/SecureCanada.htm

Sponsors: This gross manifestation of the military-industrial complex is being sponsored by the U.S. government, large U.S. weapons exporters and two Canadian military-industry magazines crammed with government war propaganda and glossy ads for expensive weapons systems.
Learn who is sponsoring Secure Canada:
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/SC2008sponsors.htm

Exhibitors: Secure Canada 2008 has 160 booth spaces for showcasing products and services. Organizers have so far released a list of 50 exhibitors.
View an annotated exhibitors list here: http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/sc-list.htm

What can we do?

Online Petition!
COAT will pressure the City of Ottawa to live up to its 1989 motion banning the use of municipal property for all future military trade shows.
We will soon be launching an online petition telling the City that
arms bazaars still aren't welcome anywhere in Ottawa, least of all at publicly-funded facilities. (A print version of the petition will also be available for those who don't have access to the internet.)

Protest!
If we can't stop this arms bazaar from coming to Ottawa, we will rally to protest it. Please join us!

Spread the word!
Please post this message to websites, list serves, and make
announcements at events and in print publications. The URL for this email is:
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/email1.htm