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The War In Afghanistan by Steve da Silva
A War of Conquest Against the Afghan People respect the Afghan constitution, which is double-speak for respect the occupation.
As the occupiers prepare for a massive escalation of the war, the attempts at reconciliation with certain Taleban elements once again demolishes the propagated myth that fighting the Taleban is the main object of the NATO occupation. The strategy of reaching It’s imagineable to characterize Rahmatullah’s situation as being out to so-called “mod“lucky”. But the 19-year-old was one of the few survivors of the September 5 NATO air strike in the Kunduz Province, where he suf- erates” is intended to fered extreme burns to his entire body. isolate those elements While the debate was playing out this dead-set fighting the occupation – a depast October in the American media mand supported by a growing proporabout the planned “surge” of as many tion of the Afghan population. as 45,000 more American troops into As the Commander of the Canadian Afghanistan, reports were surfacing Forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Joe Paul that certain NATO members – namely, recently said, “It’s not true that all of Canada, Italy, and Germany – were paying off Taleban elements in exchange for those people shooting at us are insurgents.”That might have something to do peace in the areas that they patrol. with the fact that not everyone NATO is For his part, Afghan President Hamid shooting at are “insurgents.” Karzai has said that he would reach out Over 1600 Afghan civilians were killed to the Taleban if they would agree to
Northern Students Stage Walk-Out
between January and August 2009 alone. On September 5, a joint American-German aerial bombing in the Kunduz province left 60-70 children and other civilians dead. In the middle of the night, many children and other civilians had rallied around two tankers stuck in the sand of a shallow river. They were filling their jerrycans with fuel when the two five-hundred pound bombs turned the trucks into twin fireballs, engulfing the civilians in an inferno. Everyday, the occupation of Afghanistan reveals itself more and more to be a war of conquest. The widely-publicized electoral fraud in Afghanistan’s presidential elections is just one of its signs. On November 2, Karzai was declared the winner of the “election” after his only challenger Abdullah Abdullah – previous Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Karzai government - stepped down from participating in the run-off. Genuine democracy under occupation is impossible and the colonial Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has made that point very clear by putting back into power the man so widely hated by Afghans. It was the Karzai government that put into effect for a period of time a law that
Hundreds participate in walk-out after student arrested at Northern S.S.
BASICS #16, Nov/Dec 2009
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Esplanade Youth: “End Police Brutality Now!”
by Solomon Muyoboke, Jessica Luke-Smith, Daniel Mayers and Farshad Azadian On October 8th, 2009, Esplanade youth made a resounding statement to the indignity of police violence, harassment and racism in our community. Some 40 youth made their way to the Youth Forum organized by the Esplanade Community Organization to discuss their issues, experiences and concerns. The event was launched just weeks after the tragic murder of Esplanade youth Kamal Hercules, which left our community reeling with the pain of having lost another young brother. This pattern of violence in our community illuminated a need for change and inspired the forum. The Esplanade Community Organization developed the forum with the aim of creating discussion among youth around the sources of violence in the community and the direction that an Esplanade youth organization might take in addressing violence » continued, pg. 2
Also in this Issue... LOCAL (P.2):
» continued, pg. 4
• 31 Division Police Terrorizes Family w/ Raid • Esplanade Youth Organize Against Police
by Noaman Ali
PROVINCIAL (P.3): • Province Wide Protests Against Poverty and Rising Tuition Fees • UofT Attacks Transitional Year Program • Coroner’s Inquest Into the Police Murder of Alwy Al-Nadhir
INTERNATIONAL (P.4-5): •Obama’s War on Pakistan • India’s Counter-Insurgency is a Land Grab • Canada-Colombian Free Trade Agreement • Haiti’s Struggle for a Minimum Wage Two hundred students gathered on either side of Roehampton St. south of Northern Secondary School at 11:30am on Thursday, October 22 to protest the arrest of a 16-year-old male on October 2 and also to protest the very presence of the police officer in their school. The “School Resource Officer” (SRO) Initiative, started by the Toronto Police Service and the executive of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in 2008-09 and expanded in 2009-10, has led to the presence of uniformed and armed police officers in fifty high schools across Toronto. The demonstrators demanded the immediate removal of the SRO from
Northern and a “fully-open, publicized public community consultation regarding the SRO Initiative at Northern.” The SRO Initiative was implemented in response to issues of safety in schools, but it effectively ignores the recommendations made in actual inquiries into the problem. In January 2008, a report on safety in schools commissioned by the TDSB and led by human rights lawyer Julian Falconer made several recommendations, most specifically increasing the number of youth workers and programmes available for marginalized youth. Since the implementation of the SRO Initia-
tive, Falconer has explicitly stated that police in schools is not the answer. Indeed, it does little to address the marginalization of youth that results from overall social and systemic neglect. But instead of making the funding for proper programmes available, politicians have instead increased funding for the police even as crime rates drop. This has led to the adoption of the SRO Initiative, which doesn’t cost the TDSB a thing. Alok Premjee, an organizer with NOCOPS, the Neighbourhood Organized Coalition Opposed to Police in Schools, argued that putting police in schools is an “intensification » continued, pg. 2
FEDERAL (P.6): •Tamil Refugees Jailed in Canada • Canada’s Cell Phone Monopoly • Questioning Canada’s Terror Convictions
LABOUR (P.7): • Union-Busting at the Hudson’s Bay Company • McMaster TAs go on strike
CULTURAL (P.8): • Fundraiser for Typhoon Victims in the Phillipines • Hood-to-Hood Open-Mic Event
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Local
BASICS #16, Nov/Dec 2009
“Tonight’s Your Lucky Night”
by Wasun «Esplanade Community Organization Launches Its First Event,
31 Division raids Jane/Finch home, terrorizes family, finds nothing continued from PG.1. On Sunday November 1st, 2009, 31 Division conducted a raid at 40 Turfgrass Way, Apartment 113 in a TCHC complex in the Jane and Finch area. That night, 18 year-old Brandon Miller, his 14 year-old sister, Shaquel Miller along with their mother, Dorolee Miller, were brutally assaulted and left feeling terrorized by this unjust search for guns in their home, in which nothing was found and no charges were laid. Shortly after 1 a.m. in the morning, police broke down the door of the Millers while the family slept. Officers first handcuffed the mother, and she adamantly tried to stop them from beating her son in his room, but one of the cops shoved her into her dresser. Dorolee informed police of her various health conditions which they chose to ignore dragging her down the stairs in handcuffs and pointing a gun in her
face. Soon thereafter they brought her 14 year-old daughter down in handcuffs.
– in all its forms. Shocking to some, an overwhelming number of youth recounted their experiences of police brutality and harassment, many of whom were between the ages of 12-14. This reality affected all the participants at the forum and sparked discussions of how the community could move forward in order to address youth-on-youth violence.
While Dorolee and Shaquel were under the gun guarded by police in the living room, 18-year-old Brandon was being beaten upstairs in his room. One officer held Brandon down his boot on his neck. Brandon begged him to remove his boot from his head but the officer replied, “Stop whining”. The raid turned up no guns and no charges were laid. But their house was in shambles, and an innocent family was terrorized by this occupying force in the Jane/Finch community. In the words of Dorolee who was traumatized by this incident: “This shouldn’t happen to nobody at all. They come in my house and didn’t find anything. They didn’t even say sorry, just ‘Tonight’s your lucky night’.”
A central component of the event was a brief legal presentation, to provide youth with the necessary knowledge required to defend themselves against unlawful police procedures and searches. However, as most people who have experienced police harassment and brutality can tell you, knowing your rights is not enough to prevent police abuses, but it is a useful first step in challenging such police power. For this reason, coupled with a series of neighbourhood issues, a group of working class residents in the Esplanade community have come together to formulate a six point program which outlines the needs, desires and concerns of working class people in our community. These fighting demands, based upon formal and informal surveying of the community, include: a commitment to challenging police brutality; attaining access to affordable and well-maintained housing; preventing evictions that are due to economic reasons and to move forward to ensure the accessibility of childcare and recreation services. The Esplanade Community Organization feels very strongly about its program and is committed to fighting for these
Morolee Miller and her son, 18-year-old Brandon Miller, were both the victims of a brutal raid on their home by Toronto Police of 31 Divsion which yielded nothing but terror and a ransacked home.
«TamIl Refugees In canada, continued from PG.6.
casting the asylum-seekers as criminals in the media, and saying that they must be screened for“connections to terrorism” (Tamil Tigers). Yet who will the Canadian government ultimately collaborate with to investigate the refugees? Sri Lanka, a state that has murdered some 370,000 Tamil civilians (and continues to murder) in operations since its independence. And even if some of the men have participated in the Tamil Liberation movement, is it a crime to resist a genocidal regime?
Community support groups, including No One Is Illegal Vancouver and the Canadian Tamil Congress have demanded a release of the refugees and a respect of their right to due process and protection from inhuman treatment. However, the Canadian government has responded by
Canada is a signatory to the international convention for the protection of refugees, and therefore must meet its moral and legal obligation to protect the 76 Tamil men who, if deported, will be thrown back into concentration camps, face torture and perhaps be executed.
Over the last 20 years, communities such as our own have been reeling from the blows of big business and the politicians that represent them. The social safety net, access to good jobs and the possibility of decent housing at an affordable rate are things of the past. The situation is continuing to get worse, with the Provincial Liberal and Federal Conservative Governments expressing their intentions to download the huge deficit (largely due to bailouts and tax cuts to big business) onto the backs of working class people. The reality is that as we fall deeper into this capitalist economic crisis, the kinds of individual solutions (getting a 2nd or 3rd job, sacrificing family or health) will no longer be adequate solutions to rising debt, poverty and bills. We need to realize that we are faced with a systemic problem that individual efforts cannot solve. Hence, to get ourselves out of the mess, there is an urgent need for us to start organizing ourselves, as working class people, on a collective basis. The Esplanade Community Organization and its Youth Wing are committed to being that organization through which the Esplanade’s poor and working class residents can get involved and orient our movement, from buildings to workplaces across this community. All Power to the People! Get involved in your community and email the esplanadegroup@gmail.com about your issues, whether they concern housing, repairs, rents, evictions or police violence.
«STUDENTS WALK OUT, continued from PG.1.
of the police state.” Premjee remarked that it was a way for the government to increase its surveillance of the population at large and to keep them in check, rather than improving people’s lives.
camps in Sri Lanka to B.C.) as victims of genocide and survivors of one of the most violent and chauvinistic regimes in the world, Canadian Border Services tossed all the 76 men back into detention. All the migrants continue to languish in prison, and while some have had preliminary dates of review set with the Immigration and Refugee Board, others without identification have been told they will remain in custody without any hearing for at least another month.
six points to create the necessary changes to improve the conditions in our community.
Protesting students at Northern agree with Premjee, one of them holding up a sign stating, “This school is not a police state.”“This is very much a grassroots movement; students are outraged and our questions are not being answered,” said Max Naylor, a grade eleven student and one of the organiz-
ers of the protest. Safety concerns at the school have been dealt with by installing cameras and requiring all members of the school community to wear lanyards with identification cards, as well as by hiring hall monitors, thus calling into question the need for police officers. “The main issue is that students feel uncomfortable with an armed officer in the school. It makes us feel like the school belongs not to students but to the police,” he said.
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Provincial
BASICS #16, Nov/Dec 2009
Province-Wide Day of Action U of T Continues Attack on Accessible Education for a Poverty Free Ontario Interview by Corrie Sakaluk and Marginalized Programmes byNoamanAli
Since the 1990’s, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) has organized province-wide days of action in Ontario as part of our ongoing struggle for affordable post-secondary education. This year other groups have joined forces with the CFS through the Coalition for a Poverty-Free Ontario to host another mass mobilization on November 5.
According to Shelley Melanson, Ontario Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students, the motivation for bringing groups in different sectors for this day of action is because“the government has already announced that there will be cuts to funding in the 2010 budget”and, in the past, different social justice groups have been pitted against one other and divided. Melanson believes that now more than ever Ontario citizens“need to make it clear to the government that we are united on these issues”. While increased unity on issues that affect all working people in Ontario is a positive step forward, there continue to be disagreements on Toronto campuses between student union organizers who (by the nature of their positions) are more heavily involved in national and provincial decision-making bodies of the CFS, and other radical political organizers. These tensions also filter out into the many communities connected to current students. One major question is whether lobbying the government and pulling media stunts such as the November 5th Day of Action with the aim of swaying public opinion and influencing elections is an effective use of time and resources. In terms of affordable education, there have been few gains on a provincial level since the tuition freeze of 2005 was lifted by Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal party...only to be re-elected in similar numbers shortly afterwards. Achieving unity around a united goal has also been difficult. Another major point of contention on campuses in Toronto and across Ontario remains: should our primary call be“reduce tuition fees”or“eliminate tuition fees, free education for all”. Over the past two years, CFS-member students unions have developed a new CFS campaign slogan“Drop Fees”, which is
meant to bridge the divide between these two different positions with a catch-all phrase that can include both perspectives. This diverges substantially from the very specific“Reduce Tuition Fees”CFS campaign of the early 2000’s.
Huda is a 22-year-old young mother with a disability who intends to study Sexual Diversity Studies, Creative Writing, Visual Arts and French at the University of Toronto. “It’s a lot, but I’m focused because of the support that TYP provides me.” In an educational system and society that repeatedly fails working people, the Transitional Year Programme (TYP) is one initiative that reaches out, usually to people who haven’t finished high school, and gives them support in an intensive one-year programme to transition to a more conventional university education.
Melanson explained to BASICS that“the Federation believes that the best access to education comes from free education and at all times that should always be our goal. At the same time, we recognize that... in Ontario we have the highest tuition fees in the country so it puts us in a good negotiating position with the government...to call for return to the tuition levels of the 2005 freeze and then begin incremental reductions. The Drop Fees campaign has Brandon, 23, grew up in Toronto been designed to encapsulate what our Community Housing in Scarborough end goal is as well as what we are working and was first arrested when he was 14. for in the immediate future”. Caught up in “guns, drugs, and crime,” According to Melanson, after the Day he made an attempt to turn his life of Action CFS representatives will be around at 17. Now in TYP, he wants to devoting their energy towards lobbying be a teacher. days with government representatives throughout the month of December in On Monday, October 19, administrathe hopes that the 2010 provincial budget tors at U of T attempted to pass a prowill show new investment in post-second- posal at a meeting of the Faculty of Arts ary education. and Science Council that would have Given the unsurprising non-responweakened the program, according to siveness of the provincial government students, alumni and faculty who have to lobbying in Ontario since the tuition formed the TYP Preservation Alliance. freeze was lifted in 2005, it is difficult to Over fifty of them –almost all people have faith that these meetings will result of colour from working-class commuin very much in terms of concrete gains for nities – showed up at the meeting to working people. But it’s clear that tactics focused on reforming the system will not protest the move. The proposal sought be abandoned by elected student union to merge TYP, administratively, with Woodsworth College, but the Alliance and CFS representatives anytime soon. This being the case, it is up to other stu- argued that the merger was a costdents to do our own political work along- cutting measure that would result in staff cuts. In addition, Ahmed Ahmed, side these lobbying-based efforts. a recent TYP graduate, noted, “Three No government, regardless of who is faculty members will have retired by office, is truly going to have the interests of working people at heart. Lobbying cannot the end of December, and they are not be our only or even primary way forward. being replaced.” Joe Desloges, Principal of Woodsworth College, effectively confirmed the fears of the TYP Preservation Alliance about funding cuts. The University “can’t guarantee staff positions. TYP faces identical challenges regardless of where it’s located,” he said. Ultimately, the Faculty of Arts and Science Council voted to delay the vote on the proposal after seeing the mobilization of the
Coming together in anti-poverty coalitions to support a Day of Action is definitely positive and constructive. We must also continue to organize ourselves separately, create collectivelydirected revolutionary political education programs, and develop other studentbased mass organizations with different organizing strategies to help protect our education and our livelihoods.
TYP Preservation Alliance and its solid arguments. “Programmes like TYP must be inflation- and recession-proof,” said professor and council-member Harry Fox. U of T Provost Cheryl Misak said in an e-mail sent the next day that because of the Alliance’s organized opposition, the move was “off the table.” In this sense, the TYP Preservation Alliance won a victory, but a partial one. The Alliance will still have to fight further funding cutbacks. Meanwhile, other programmes at the university, particularly in area studies and equity studies, are also facing cuts. On October 29, over forty students and faculty gathered at New College at a town hall meeting held by the Equity Studies Students’ Union in order to organize against the cutting of a faculty member in Disability Studies. There is only one other faculty member at U of T who focuses on disability, even though people with disabilities make up over 15% of the Canadian population and are far more likely to live in poverty. These cuts come after U of T’s administration recently introduced a “flat fees” system for the Faculty of Arts and Science. This means that students who might have taken three courses because they could not afford the full fee now have no option but to take five courses, and they cannot work parttime to fund their studies. This move came after U of T’s administration had fourteen students and activists arrested in 2008 for protesting increased tuition fees—the trumped-up charges were all eventually stayed or withdrawn. There has been a broad pattern to restructure universities to more intensely cater to the needs of private corporations and wars instead of to the needs of public welfare and working people. Students are going to have to continue to organize in order to roll back cuts to programs that are already marginalized, to eliminate all fees for postsecondary education and to make university relevant and accessible to working people in Canada.
Coroner’s Inquest for Police-Murdered Alwy Al-Nadhir to Begin December 2009 by Salma Al-Nadhir and Alok Premjee
against police brutality. The story of Alwy and other cases of police brutality have been echoed over and over again by the campaign and the families of all the victims. One of the main aims of J4A is for our victimized and targeted communities to obtain justice and hold police accountable for their tyrannical actions. Under the current state of affairs, police get away with murder with impunity.
The Justice for Alwy campaign (J4A) was launched in early 2008, just months after Alwy Al-Nadhir was shot and killed by Toronto police on October 31, 2007. This past Halloween marked the second year since his death. Over the past two years, J4A has been raising awareness about the issue of police brutality and helping other victims start their own campaigns
The coroner’s inquest for Alwy AlNadhir’s death is scheduled to begin in December 2009. Even though his death will be investigated again by independent investigators, any wrong doing that is found by the police will still not lead to them being held to account for their actions. The ruling and the final decision as to whether the police should be charged was made in June 2008 by the Special Investigations Unit, a“civilian”agency that is staffed by former police officers. The police were exonerated of any wrong-doing. Police officers are rarely, in fact almost
3
never, held accountable for their excessive force and brutalization. The corporate media, judicial system and investigation process are always labeling the victims of police brutality as criminals, when the real criminals – those who are supposed to be protecting us – continuously get away with murder. There are countless cases of police brutality in our city – just scan through the last two years of BASICS to compare all the cases. But the province does not have the internal mechanisms to address police brutality. Since 2003, the SIU has cleared police of wrongdoing in 31 of 31 fatal shooting cases. When we look to other cases where an inquest into police murders of young individuals was conducted, such as the case of Jeffery Reodica (who was shot in the back by Toronto police), the coroner’s inquest was biased and supportive of the police officers, despite the substantial evidence that implicated the police in his murder. However, no officer was tried and charged
for Reodica’s death. Or more recently, there is the case of Freddy Villanueva, who was an unarmed 18-year-old shot to death by Montreal police while playing a game of dice – an incident that sparked community uproar in Montreal North. Villanueva’s inquest is currently being held and mainstream media reports around the inquest are, not surprisingly, justifying the police’s actions while also criminalizing Freddy and those with him that day. As the inquest into the death of Alwy Al-Nadhir takes place, it is expected that the officer responsible for murdering Alwy will still never be held accountable and will not be charged for killing an unarmed 18 year old that did not have a criminal record. Furthermore, it is likely that the coroner’s inquest will justify the murder of Alwy and the corporate media will happily report and distort the story in favour of the police. Yet the struggle continues until the victims get their justice and such crimes are put to an end.
international
BASICS #16, Nov/Dec 2009
India Launches War Against Tribals by Dhruv Jain Death from Above Counter-insurgency offensive is really a resource and land grab
On June 17, 2009, the Indian state launched a major counter-insurgency offensive, Operation Lalgarh, to “restore law and order” to the West Midnapore district of West Bengal. In the months leading up to the military offensive, the adivasi, or tribal, populations of Lalgarh and surrounding villages in the district had been subject to consistent police harassment, including the torture and detainment of tribals on the slightest suspicion of rebel activity. To protect the autonomy and self-governance of the area, villagers formed the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA). As the people’s movement had support from the Maoist party, the state quickly labeled the organic, self-directed community uprising a Maoist rebellion. Although the Maoist party only played an advisory role and was only one of the progressive forces supporting the movement, the Indian state was able to employ its commonly-used scare tactic of labeling villagers opposed to state intervention as “Maoists”. Paramilitary forces suppressed the movement in twelve days through the recapture of the villages, but did not defeat it. In the months following the June offensive, the people’s movement – under the leadership of the PCAPA – has continued to grow and resist, while the police harassment has escalated. On September 27, 2009, Chhatradhar Mahato, a key leader of the PCAPA, was arrested for sedition and raising funds for the Maoists. In early October 2009, the Central Government of India announced that
they would start preparations for a major anti-Maoist offensive. What they did not announce is that this major offensive would serve as a huge resources and land grab. The government had entered into hundreds of secret memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with companies that include mining corporations and information technology parks. The communities had not been consulted about the business deals and actively resisted the “development projects” the national government was championing for the area. Areas like Lalgarh, largely inhabited with tribal populations, are mineral-rich and the people recognize that the companies that exploit these resources will not contribute to their livelihoods. These so-called ‘development’ projects would effectively dispossess tribal populations from their ancestral lands and allow for greater exploitation of the population, including a highly exploitative labor market. Thus, under the veneer of an anti-Maoist offensive, the Indian state hopes to achieve the final suppression of tribal populations from the area. However, the people of Lalgarh are not alone. A national and international campaign has begun to stop the offensive. A petition signed by luminaries including Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy and several hundred human rights activists and academics was presented to the Indian government calling for the immediate halt to the offensive and to have the MOUs made public to the tribals so that they can decide for themselves how to improve their lives.
by J.D. Benjamin The “Peace” President Obama’s Indiscriminate Bombing of Pakistan
Almost a year after the election of U.S. President Barack Obama, the rhetoric of “hope”and“change”has been dashed against the brutal realities of an escalating campaign of targeted assassinations using remote controlled“predator” drones. During the first ten months of his presidency, Obama authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to launch remote drone attacks on Pakistani territory more than 41 times: as many drone attacks as President Bush carried out during his last three years in office. In a recent report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, criticized the use of drone attacks, saying that“these drones, these predators, are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The onus is really on the government of the United States to reveal more about the ways in which
it makes sure that arbitrary executions, extrajudicial executions, are not in fact being carried out through the use of these weapons.” The United States has ignored Alston’s concerns, claiming that the UN Human Rights Committee or General Assembly have no role regarding killings carried out in an armed conflict. Alston has retorted that the American position is“simply untenable”. Estimates of the death toll resulting from drone attacks are over 700 people in northwest Pakistan alone. This includes not only suspected armed fighters, but also anyone who happens to be nearby, including women and children. In one June 2008 strike, the CIA killed more than 80 people and maimed dozens more in a funeral procession for people who had died in an earlier attack. Such attacks have stirred bitter hatred amongst the local population and pushed many to join the armed resistance against the NATO occupation.
«Afghanistan Elections, continued from PG.1. legalized the rape of women within marriage. This law demonstrated to the world that the principle threat to women today stems from the foreign occupiers and the thoroughly reactionary class alliance they have cobbled together to run the colonial government in Afghanistan. The league of organized criminals, landlords, warlords, and theocrats who administer Afghanistan are not in contradiction with today’s occupation, but rely on it to stay in power in exchange for defending the occupation.
Women from the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) carry axes and bows as they form a road block in protest of widespread police atrocities in Lalgarh. April 2009.
«Nepal, continued from PG.5. parties were colluding to prop up this anti-democratic move. Now the Maoists could show clearly to people the limitations and obstacles of trying to make change purely through electoral and government channels. They proved that a fresh round of struggle was needed to advance the new democratic movement. Fast forward a few months to today, and the Maoists are leading huge numbers of Nepalese in the streets of the capital Kathmandu to demand that “civilian supremacy” (democratic people’s control) over the Army be implemented. The situation is tense, and for good reason. Having balked at civilian supremacy in May, the mainstream parties look unwilling to budge, and have hinted at mobilizing army units to repress the new uprising. The Maoists, who have never disarmed their armed-wing, the People’s Liberation Army, are now mobilizing people in the urban and rural areas, readying
believe that resistance to occupation is equal to extremism and religious fundamentalism, as if the aversion to foreign domination was not a fundamental human instinct. Just as the Ethiopians in the 1930s, the French in the 1940s, the Koreans in the 1950s, and the Vietnamese in the 1960s did not need Islam to teach them about the evils of foreign occupation, neither do the Afghans. Canada has 2800 soldiers in Afghanistan and the Canadian Forces have played a leading role in combat operations, which accounts for Canada having the highest fatality rate of all the occupying forces. Over 25,000 Canadians have participated in at least one tour of occupation in Afghanistan since 2001. If the horrors of this war were not enough to repulse Canadians, then perhaps the economic argument needs to be underscored once again: The working-class, and even middle-class Canadians, have nothing to gain and much to lose from the war in Afghanistan.
The goal of the U.S.-NATO occupation of Afghanistan is to capture geo-strategic control of the region by encircling its challengers to the east, Russia and China, and safeguarding the region for the future Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline that will transport natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and into Pakistan and India. To the extent that the Taleban is a military concern of NATO is only the extent to which Taleban leaders fail to get in line with the occupation. The Taleban, or parts thereof, may soon come to accept the occupation, but the people of On the other hand, Canada’s monopolyAfghanistan will not. capitalist ruling class has everything to gain: Access to cheap resources, desperate As the occupation intensifies its effort labour pools, military and construction to crush any resistance in the coming months, with the planned“surge”, Afghan contracts, geo-political world dominacivilians will bear the greatest brunt of the tion… These are the same monopolies that workers are fighting right here on violence. If it seems like the lines between what is Canadian soil. The fight for the freedom Taleban and what is insurgent is blurred, of Afghanistan is not independent of the it is because the occupiers would have us fight for workers power in Canada.
themselves for a final insurrection that they have long-maintained would be an inevitable component of their revolution. Should this movement succeed, it would be just the beginning of a long road of transformation. The Nepalese revolutionaries have acknowledged that they are a small, undeveloped, and isolated country, and it will be very difficult to sustain their revolution surrounded by powerful enemies. On the other hand, the very existence of the Nepalese movement is proving that it is possible to make revolution in the 21st century. Further advances in Nepal could have an electrifying effect on people and movements opposed to the current world set-up – those who want to break out of the established order but are unable to articulate how. In other words, after a long absence, the idea of“communism”may once again find its way into the thoughts of the oppressed.
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international
BASICS #16, Nov/Dec 2009
Canada-Colombia Free Trade Debate Heats Up While Colombia Burns by Jeremias DeCastro
On September 30th, Liberal MP from Nova Scotia Scott Brison stood up in Parliament and spoke these words: “… [The idea] that paramilitary groups have murdered trade unionists this year [is wrong]… [as] paramilitary groups have been disbanded in Colombia.” When asked to explain why 27 unionists have been killed since January 2009 (and almost 3000 since 1996), his only reply was that it must be because of drugrelated warfare. Part of Colombian President Uribe’s self-serving rhetoric is the lie that his government has disbanded paramilitary death squads in Colombia. However, a simple question must be asked: Why would drug gangs kill unionists? Indeed the only reason for unionists to be killed in such numbers is for political reasons.
being murdered, more of their family Colombia as in Canada, Canadians must members are coming under attack. say no the Canadian Colombian Free What does Canada hope to gain in its Trade Accord! free trade agreement with Colombia? First is access to the rich mineral and other natural resources of Colombia. Second is access to cheap Colombian labour. Finally, the third reason is to block Venezuela and the other ALBA countries from fulfilling the Bolivarian dream of a united Latin America and “Socialism for the 21st century”. On October 30, Venezuelan police arrested 8 Colombian paramilitaries For the sake of work- operating inside Venezuela believed to be involved in the kidnapping and massacre in mid-October. This May 2004 image shows just few of ers and unionists in the 70 paramilitaries captured on the outskirts of Caracas.
Paramilitaries have not been disbanded in Colombia. While for a few years the number of paramilitaries in Colombia was decreasing as many were being sent to the border regions of Venezuela to destabalize the Bolivarian revolution, their numbers are on the rise again. And then there is the question of foreign militarism in Colombia. The Colombian government has just ratified the opening of five Colombian military bases to 800 US military personnel and 600 contractors. Death threats continue to be given to activists, except now the death threats and the accompanying murders are usually against the family members of the activists. This strategy has concealed through statistics the repression unionists face in Colombia. While fewer unionists are
Haiti’s Minimum Wage Struggle by Niraj Joshi
NEPAL REVOLUTION MOVING by Derek Rosin
Choice Between Super-Profitability and Two Meals a Day
building massive street movements may seem confusing at first, but it is consistent with their overall strategic approach. Since the inception of their movement, Maoist tactical considerations have been girded to two key stated beliefs: First, that the success of the social revolution they want to carry out will ultimately rest on the use of armed force; and second, that their revolution must, if it to be truly liberating, be carried out by the Nepalese people themselves.
In November 2006, the UCPN(M) decided to end one phase of the revolution by signing a peace treaty with the country’s mainstream political parties – who for their own particular reasons could no longer tolerate the monarchist system.
In May of this year Prachanda, before he stepped down as Prime Minister, tried to fire the head of the Nepalese Army, General Katawal, for refusing to consider the integration of the state’s armed forces with the Maoist-led People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Katawal refused to step down, and was supported by Nepal’s two biggest mainstream political parties.
As part of this agreement, an election was held for a Constituent Assembly to decide on the new structure of Nepalese government and society. In the April 2008 vote, Maoists emerged as the biggest and most influential party. This shocked nearly everyone except the Maoists themselves, who knew the huge support they had been building throughout Nepal. In May 2008, the
rampant poverty endured by Haitian workers. The last minimum wage raise happened in 2003 under President Aristide, but was immediately revoked by the western-installed dictatorship after Aristide was kidnapped by the joint forces of U.S., Canada, and France.
Haiti has the lowest minimum wage in the hemisphere. In May of this year both chambers of the Haitian parliament voted to increase the minimum wage from the daily 70 gourdes to 200 gourdes ($5.32 Cnd). The current 70 gourdes is not even enough to cover transportation and two meals a day. Even the proposed 200 gourdes is not an actual increase but rather an adjustment, since inflation has soared drastically beyond the purchasing power of the minimum wage. However, it is a small step toward alleviating the
However, the foreign investor’s export zones (where most of the lowest paid jobs exist) will be exempt! Haiti under American, Canadian and UN occupation remains on its neoliberal course despite the moderately contrary efforts of some of its legislators. And if outraged Haitian workers chose to resist with strikes or protests, the MINUSTAH“peacekeeping”forces will be on site to take up their military position and lead the unruly back to their slave-like posts.
But under foreign occupation, President Preval has yielded to the demands of international institutions, foreign governments and the business sector. He has blocked the wage raise arguing it would hurt the country’s maquialdora sector (the tax-exempt plants that assemble products mostly for export and that is slated for expansion – but that produces some of the most exploitive and precarious employment in the Such has been the case in the last country). Foreign factory owners, such months when several thousand work- as Canada’s Gildan Activewear, have ers and students have tirelessly protest- threatened to shut down because they ed President Preval’s failure to raise the cannot afford to pay the higher wages minimum wage in Haiti. The protestors (Gildan cleared 150 million in profits were brutally repressed by MINUSTAH this year and projects a free cash flow and the Haitian police, with at least two of $600 million over the next 3 years). demonstrators killed and several others A compromise of a woefully deficient beaten and arrested. raise to 125 gourdes is likely to be passed.
Leading members of the Unified Communist Party Maoist march with the people during the torch rally of November 1, the first of a series of mass actions planned for the next two weeks. The Maoists are rallying the people to bring down the current government of Nepal, . This November 1st, Nepal’s Maoist monarchy was abolished. Shortly after revolutionaries initiated a new mass that, Prachanda, leader of the UCPN(M), movement aimed at bringing down was elected Prime Minister. the current government in Nepal. This The Maoists’tactics of jumping from potentially history-making movement is the armed to the unarmed movement, unfolding as we go to press. then from working in the government to
The Maoists of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) began their rise to power and influence in 1996 by initiating a decade-long armed rebellion they called the“People’s War”. Starting off small, the Maoist movement was able to strengthen and grow by relying on and leading mostly-poor Nepali peasants to fight and overthrow the forces of government in the countryside, then represented by an absolute monarchy. In their place, they began constructing a new society by taking steps to end gender and caste oppression, introducing forms of popular democratic government, and providing for people’s basics needs like health care and education.
The United Nations Security Council has just voted to extend the UN“peacekeeping”mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) for another year. MINUSTAH will now enter its sixth year of illegal occupation, in violation of both the Haitian constitution and international law. The military force was imposed on Haiti in June 2004 and used to violently contain and repress the popular resistance to the western-backed 2004 coup d’etat against President Aristide. Since the 2006 election of President Preval, it has been used to violently contain and repress popular resistance to the neoliberal and imperialist program imposed on the Haitian government, and which has only worsened poverty and increased misery on the Caribbean island.
As senior Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai has said,“To break with the old mode of production and leap into a new one, you have to break all the relations within the state backed by the army.”
Subsequently, Prachanda immediately resigned as Prime Minister, explaining to the Nepalese people that the Army was illegally refusing a government directive and that the mainstream » continued, pg. 4
Demonstrators rally outside the Haitian Parliament to demand a minimum wage increase to 200 gourdes ($5 dollars / day) - which would still remain the lowest wage in the western hemisphere.
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BASICS #16, Nov/Dec 2009
Federal
by Derek Rosin Guilty Pleas and the “Toronto 18” Canada’ s Cell Phone Monopoly Questioning Canada’s Terror Convictions ...and why you can’t get an affordable cell phone plan in Canada by Kabir Joshi-Vijayan
and collusion. First, there is competition between one another over market share and customers. We all know this – it’s hard to turn on the TV or go to a movie without being clobbered by their various ads.
The Canadian state is working hand-in-hand with Canada’s telecommunications monopolies to ensure that foreign competitors stay out and But second, and your cell phone bills stay high. just as important, On Thursday October 29, regulais their collusion with one another to tors in Canada barred Globalive, an protect their larger interests. None Egyptian-owned cell phone company, of the Big Three would want or allow from operating in Canada. competition to get so fierce that it Globalive was promising to charge would erode their healthy profits. This lower fees for cell phone services, but is why there aren’t many substantial the Canadian Radio-television and differences in the plans offered by the Telecommunications Commission various companies. And be sure that (CRTC) barred them, arguing that the not one of the Big Three would allow degree of foreign ownership makes it a new competitor like Globalive to illegal for them to do business here. come on the scene and drive down The whole Globalive story is worth the price of cell phone plans. taking a look at because it gives us How this fight played out shows us an example of exactly how capitala second aspect of today’s monopoly ism operates in this country, not to capitalism: the role of the state and mention why our cell phone bills are government. The state, and its numerso high. Today, Canada’s economy ous bureaucratic bodies like the CRTC, is controlled by what amounts to play an important role in the current monopolies – massive conglomerates system by regulating capitalism, prior associations of businesses that are marily to serve the interests of the big massive enough to carve up markets monopoly capitalists. amongst themselves and therefore The Big Three all came out in force drive up the price of their commodito the CRTC’s hearings to demand ties to maximize profits. that Globalive be barred from Canada. In the telecommunications and Working together, they argued wireless business world, Canada’s “Big against Globalive’s representatives, Three” monopolies are Rogers, Bell claiming that the upstart’s structure (BCE), and Telus. Together, and with did not constitute Canadian ownerthe brands they control (Solo, Koodo ship. And they won. This victory and Fido are also owned by these Big means that the Big Three will continue Three) they dominate Canada’s $12.7 to make mad cash off Canadian cell billion cell phone market. And it’s not phone users, who currently pay the like Rogers, BCE and Telus are small, highest fees out of any developed weak firms needing government procountry. tection. They are massive enterprises, Now Globalive will have to turn with tens of thousands of employees to government to try and settle this and are collectively worth around 50 inter-ruling-class conflict. They are billion dollars! appealing the CRTC’s ruling directly to As monopoly capitalists, they are Stephen Harper’s cabinet. guided by dynamics of competition
Genocide Washes Up on Canadian Shores 76 Survivors of Sri Lanka’s anti-Tamil ethnic cleansing are now shackled and jailed in Canada by Kabir Joshi-Vijayan Since January 2009, the Sri Lankan state has launched a full-out holocaust on its minority Tamil population. This began with a 5 month indiscriminate shelling and bombing campaign of the north coast (home to a majority of the Tamils) and included the deliberate targeting of safe zones, hospitals and schools. The bloody outcome was the death of over 20,000 Tamil civilians and the decimation of the Tamil Tiger national liberation movement. Civilians that survived the government onslaught were forced into detention, and some 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain imprisoned in state-run concentration camps.
Along with severely limiting accessibility to water, food and other essential supplies, news leaving the camps report of systematic rape, torture, murder, beatings, forced abortions and even child trafficking by the Sri Lankan Army – with death rates in the camps estimated at 1,400 per week. So on October 16, when Canadian Authorities intercepted 76 exhausted and desperate Tamil men on a rusty freighter off the B.C. coast, there should have been little doubt as to why they fled to Canada. Rather than treating the refugees (who are suspected of having paid smugglers for their escape from the concentration
Courtroom sketch of Zakaria Amara from 2006. Last month, twenty-four-year-old Zakaria Amara pled guilty to terrorism charges arising from the 2006 allegations that a radical“homegrown”Islamic terrorist cell was plotting large-scale terrorist attacks in Ontario, including bombing the Toronto Stock Exchange and storming Parliament. Much of the investigation, charges and legal proceedings in the case have been facilitated through the overreaching powers granted under Canada’s Anti-Terror legislation, while the case itself is seen as a major test of these anti-terror laws. Coincidentally the brutal 2006 commando-style raids (involving over 400 heavily armed police and security forces) that ended with the arrest of 13 men and 5 teenagers (dubbed the“Toronto 18”) took place on the eve of a parliamentary vote on whether or not to extend the then soon to expire anti-terrorism laws. This legislation was also crucial to the nonsensical conviction last year of one of the youth in the case - Nishanthan Yogakrishnan (who was 17 at the time of his arrest). While the presiding judge acknowledged that Yogakrishnan may not have known of any terrorist plot, he was nonetheless convicted of participating in activities (shoplifting) that facilitated that plot! As of the writing of this article, 7 of the original 18 men and teenagers have had their charges dropped while six men are still awaiting trial (two of whom are being inhumanely held in solitary confinement). Within the last year and following Yogakrishnan’s conviction, 4 other men (all in their 20s) have plead guilty to knowingly participating in a terrorist group and/or intending to cause an explosion for the benefit of a terrorist group. The response to the five convictions from security officials, media commentators and the wider public has been to rebuke those who expressed doubts about the existence of the terror cell or a viable terror plot. They say that the guilty pleas speak for themselves, and prove
that Canada’s Anti-terrorism legislation is“protecting the safety and security of Canadians”. They also ridiculed those community members who rejected the fear-mongering created from the arrests or who advocated for the protection of the civil liberties of the accused. Canada’s Spy chief, Richard Fadden chastised, “Many … have come to see the fight against terrorism by the government as an overreaction or as an assault on liberty…Terrorism is the ultimate attack on liberties”. Yet the guilty pleas are not in themselves evidence of guilt. Every conviction to date hinges on allegations that have never been tested in court– most significantly the concreteness of a terrorist plot or the existence of an actual terrorist cell. The prosecution will test their evidence only when the remaining six accused have had their trials (and by some accounts most of these men are only charged with participating in camping expeditions characterized as“terror training camps”by the prosecution, yet characterized as a“religious recreational retreats”by the prosecution’s own witness!) The prosecution must also explain the extent of the role played by at least two highly-paid police moles (collectively compensated 4.5 million dollars) brought in only after months of security surveillance had reached an impasse. Were these provocateurs? It has already been revealed in pre-trial testimony that these infiltrators provided the accused money, expertise, training, bomb material and possibly the plot idea itself. Other reasons for pleading guilty could be based on fear of getting full justice after the outrageous ruling against Nishanthan Yogakrishnan, combined with complaints of inadequate funding for their defense through the defective legal aid program and the fear of losing credit for the three years of pre-trial detention already endured. Incidentally, a bill is close to being passed that will prevent judges from granting twice the time already served to be subtracted from final conviction sentences. The reality is that the public has limited information about“Canada’s largest terrorism trial” because many of the details have been withheld due to a publication ban. Even the defense counsel has been denied some critical information related to evidence (kept“secret”on the grounds of national security).
An RCMP-conducted explosion of one tonne of ammonium nitrate and diesel. Though these images were not articles of evidence, they werecirculated in the media in late October 2009 to whip up anti-terrro hysteria and fear.
» continued, pg. 2
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Labour
BASICS #16, Nov/Dec 2009
Crisis of Public Sector Workers McMaster TAs go on strike as UofT Sessionals Set to Walk Out byFarshadAzadianandNoamanAli Hundreds of teaching and research assistants at McMaster University in Hamilton set up picket lines at three different entrances on Monday, November 2, after the university administration tabled an offer that actually was a step backward from an offer they had tabled earlier. The administration thereafter walked away from the table and thus forced the union out on strike. Meanwhile at the University of Toronto, sessional lecturers are getting ready to go on strike next Monday, November 9 as the university administration also drags its feet in negotiations. The tactics used by these administrations echo the ones that forced over 3400 academic workers out on strike at York University in a three month strike that began almost one year ago in November 2008 and ended in January 2009. That strike was ended after Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government legislated the strikers back to work. Although many people were angry at the union for being out on strike so long, it becomes clear from the current labour unrest that the problem is a systemic one and not limited to certain unions. Since so many communities in Ontario rely on the public university system, the provincial government and employers try to set people in communities against the workers. The same pattern was seen in during the inside and outside Toronto city workers strike of summer 2009. That strike was also
caused by the City of Toronto administration looking to gut workers’ wages and benefits. These attacks on workers come just as McGuinty’s government has expressed its intention to attack public sector workers in particular, along with the entire working class through service cuts, as a means of “solving” the government deficit that is supposedly a result of the economic crisis. But the crisis wasn’t caused by workers, it is a built-in feature of the capitalist economic system, that for the last many decades has made a small minority immensely wealthy. Despite this, workers are expected to pay for it, as with the $270 billion bailout to big banks and industries funded by taxpayer money. The huge deficit at the federal and provincial levels – a deficit caused by the bailout – has instead been downloaded on our communities and our workplaces, through expected concessions at the bargaining table and through cuts to services such as housing, childcare and recreation centers that will probably result in increasing user fees. University workers need to be prepared to play hardball against the anti-worker policies of the university administrations, who force workers out on strike by making offers with little substance that they know will be refused. Working class people should take an example from the important stand that university workers are making and be prepared to support them on the picket lines.
The Hudson’s Bay Company
by Michael Red From colonial empire to union-busting and the 2010 Olympics The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was first established in 1670 and effectively became the first colonial government in Canada. The original name of the corporation – The Company of Adventurers of England Trading – foretold what would become a legacy of land expropriation and genocide. For example, when a smallpox epidemic hit the settlement of Victoria in 1862, HBC forced indigenous peoples out of town at gunpoint, knowing very well that the disease would spread to surrounding villages. As a result, 1 in 3 of all indigenous peoples in what is now called British Colombia died that year. The corporation had its own security forces as well as military protection from England. During the North-West “Riel” Rebellion of Métis and Cree warriors in 1885, HBC security forces were the prime agents in suppressing the uprising.
It is fitting that today, HBC is the main sponsor of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. This relationship reveals how the past and present of this country flow into one another with the continued expansion of corporate-sponsored colonialism and the land-theft and marginalization of indigenous peoples. During the 19th century, HBC oversaw executions of Native leaders along the coast of B.C. and invaded communities to facilitate the corporation’s land grab. Due to the overrepresentation of indigenous peoples among the oppressed in the BC today, they will bear the brunt of homelessness and police abuse directly resulting from the Olympics. So how does this legacy impact us in our own communities? For starters, HBC owns Zellers. For anyone who has ever worked at a Zellers store, you have likely experienced bad working conditions, low pay, and no job security. In fact, many women workers at Zellers have actually been fired as a direct result of being pregnant! If you’ve ever attempted to organize a union at your Zellers, you will know that HBC is a sophisticated unionbusting machine. Inside organizers have often experienced threats, intimidation and coercion from a corporate anti-union team flown in from Alberta at the first hint of union activity. Recently, HBC was purchased by an
American investment firm. The new owners have also engaged in union busting at the few facilities that are organized. In the latest round of negotiations at the Zellers warehouse in Scarborough, CAW members were forced to hit the picket line after the company demanded massive concessions. After three months on strike, the workers voted 83% in favour of a new contract with wage increases and protections against further concessions. The success of the strike was largely due to massive support from the labour movement and solidarity pickets at HBC facilities across the country. While this strike was occurring, UFCW successfully unionized an HBC warehouse in Etobicoke. This facility is adjacent to another HBC warehouse that has been unionized with UFCW for more than 20 years. Sure enough, the corporation ran a well-oiled smear campaign against the union leading up to the certification vote. HBC hired one of the richest anti-union law firms in the land – Hicks Morley – a bunch of sophisticated thugs who are paid big bags of cash every time the company attempts to defeat an organizing campaign. However, the workers prevailed and won their vote. However, HBC has currently tied up the certification process for the new union with legal wrangling at the Ontario Labour Relations Board. By flooding the voters’ list with people who have not worked at the warehouse for many years, HBC hopes to defeat the union by tilting the ballots in favour of the company. While it remains clear to a majority of workers that they want their union, it will be government appointees at the Labour Board who will make the final decision in December of this year. There are three decisive actions BASICS readers can take to challenge the corporate-sponsored colonialism of HBC. If you work at a Zellers or HBC location, you can build an inside organizing committee with your co-workers and start fighting for better wages and fair treatment. If you shop at Zellers, you can talk to workers and encourage them to stand up for their rights. Finally, you can join numerous community and Native groups that are resisting the oppression, racism and colonial legacy of the Olympics.
The Struggle of Sessional Lecturers for Job Security at U of Tby Luis Granados Ceja An Interview with Dr. Krista Hunt, member of CUPE 3902 Unit 3 and a BASICS supporter
Sessional Lecturers at UofT have been in bargaining for several months, and could be on strke as of November 9th. Many UofT Students, including supporters of BASICS Free Community Newsletter have been actively building a solidarity network on campus called Students In Support of CUPE 3902.
at all. The third is having some time allocated and funding allocated for sessional lecturers to do research because a key component of teaching is staying current in your field and publishing your research.
BASICS: What are the demands of CUPE 3902-Unit 3?
BASICS: A lot of students don’t seem to know that their professors are not full professors. Can you explain a little bit more what exactly a “sessional lecturer” is?
Krista Hunt: The bargaining team is looking for a wage increase of 3%, which is the same amount of a wage increase that the Teacher Assistants got in our union. It covers basic cost of living increase. In addition to that, the other major thing is job security because currently we have no job security: we have to reapply for courses every 4 months or 8 months. People don’t know if they can afford to pay their rent or their mortgage; they can’t really plan ahead
internalized that myth of meritocracy.
living wage.
BASICS: How would you respond to the accusations that a strike could become prolonged and adversely affect students?
BASICS: Do you feel that the university’s push for underpaid casual labour is indicative of a wider trend in Canada?
KH: The union has been willing to bargain, we actually started bargaining early in the summer to make sure that there was time for negotiations. So from my perspective the university is the one that is putting students in the position of having their classes interrupted. I don’t know if people know this, but the university actually makes money when we’re on strike because they don’t have to pay us. It’s in the best interests of both the workers and the students to have professors who are committed to the university and that the employer recognizes that with job security and a
KH: A sessional lecturer is somebody who has graduated with a PhD and has not been hired in a full time position. The university relies on 30% of its courses to be taught by sessional faculty. There’s this myth that contract faculty are second-rate academics but in fact the system is set up that way. We have
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KH: Definitely, we see that the university is, interestingly enough, producing its own flexible labour pool. You graduate. You have no work... Your loans come due. What do you do? You take the contracts and people end up there terminally in these positions because there aren’t any other options. BASICS: How can students demonstrate their support? KH: I would say make sure we’re not divided. I think that if you’re interested in quality education, I would say strategically, that students need to come out in support of us – and make that support vocally known.
arts and culture
BASICS #16, Nov/Dec 2009
Rock to the Rescue Benefit concert raises more than $700 for disaster relief in the Philippines cover band, Hot Karl’s unique style of 70’s influenced rock added their signature sound to the songs they play. The band was happy to help out for the cause and clearly enjoyed playing for an audience of regular fans that follow them to various venues around the city as well as entertaining new guests that came out for the fundraiser. In between the sets, Diwa Marcelino of BAYAN-Canada, a coalition of progressive Filipino organizations in Canada, spoke about the devestation of Typhoon Ondoy, the slow response of the notoriously corrupt Philippine government and thanked the crowd for their support. Attendees dug deep as the donation jar was passed around and Not My Dog co-owner Russ Fernandes pledged a percentage of the bar take. By the end of the night, over $700 was raised, all of which went to grass roots peoples’organizations in the Philippines.
Oct 24 - Hot Carl and the Cincinatti Bowties pack the house at Not My Dog on Queen St. West to raise money for people’s organizations serving victims of Typhoons Ondoy and Parma in the Philippines. The event was organized by the Philippines Solidairty Oragnizing Group. On October 24, it was standing room only in cozy Parkdale bar Not My Dog, as the Philippine Solidarity Organizing Group and local rock band Hot Karl and the Cincinnati Bowties came together for a benefit concert to raise funds for disaster relief in the Philippines. The band played two blistering 45 minute sets of covers, ranging from The Beatles to The Kinks. Not your typical
Open Mic Advances Work of Hood2Hood in Vaughan & Oakwood by Wasun
On Friday, October 9, 2009 the Hood2Hood movement organized an Open Mic “Less Than A Week’s Notice!” at Ellington’s Jazz Café (805 St. Clair West). The event was hosted by 9-year-old Chairmane “Lucky Charms” AsareChuck representing the northside of Jane. This was Lucky Charms first event and she held the event down from start to finish. The open mic began with spoken word poets Derek Asante, Ebony Prince, Black Rose, Hood2Hood foundation Poet Black Chiney, as well as a special guest appearance by Afua Cooper, who recently published My Phillis Wheatly: A Story of Slavery and Freedom (2009) and Copper Woman (2009), a collection of her poetry. The hip-hop was provided by a series of up-and-coming Westend artists: Priceless, Krymez, Dude Mania,
and Kolumbus K.O., a from the First Class crew; Thesis and Wasun from Hood2Hood; Spawks and Heartless representing Vaughan / Oakwood; and upcoming Weston / St. Clair West female MC Shiki, who more than represented for her ends. At the event, Wasun stated on the mic that Hood2Hood is beginning at home, but the object is to unify revolutionary-oriented Bloods, Crips, Gators, and students into a revolutionary youth movement throughout the city. H2H youth came through from Pelham Park, Southside Jane/Trethewey, Lawrence Heights and Etobicoke, and there was no violence – only positive vibes. The last thirty years of neoliberal capitalism has hit the black community the hardest, leaving our community in perpetual depression. The social effects of this economic situation include high incarceration rates, high unemployment, health issues, and the militarization of black working-class communities with constant police occupation and surveillance. With deindustrialization, the black section of the working-class was hit the hardest. In the wake many black workers losing their jobs, drugs flooded into our communities making black youth the target of the “War on Drugs”.
Hood2Hood is countering the effects of this crisis by mobilizing, organizing, educating, and uniting youth and young artists who are in gangs about the real sources of their oppression in an attempt to try to halt the youth-onyouth violence in our communities and build a movement of revolutionary youth who can unite against their real 9-year-old Charmaine Asare-Chuck, a.k.a. Lucky Charms, was the host of the Hood-2-Hood Open Mic. enemies.
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By J.D. Benjamin
WANT TO DONATE TO FLOOD RELIEF IN THE PHILIPPINES? Write a cheque payable to ‘The United Church of Canada’ with “Donation for Philippine Flood Relief” clearly indicated in the memo and mail it to: The United Church of Canada, Attention: Josie Forcadilla, 3250 Bloor St. West, Suite 30, Toronto, ON M8X 2Y4. Cash donations can be deposited in the Migrante Ontario account at TD Canada Trust, Branch 1968, Account No. 5260423. WANT TO GET INVOLVED IN PHILIPPINES SOLIDARITY WORK? Contact philsog@gmail.com to learn more about our upcoming campaigns and activities.