閑不徹

The Oakland Commune

2012-01-26T19:55:00.000-05:00

A short film by Marianne Maeckelbergh and Brandon Jourdan. Note from the filmmakers: "The text at the end should read January 2012."

"How will we ever get over losing our minds?"

2011-05-28T14:37:00.000-04:00

2011-05-12T07:37:00.000-04:00

強い気持ちで...

2011-03-18T19:05:00.003-04:00

Please check out translations of Tomoyuki Hoshino's tweets, teach-in information, and more (to come) by visiting this website.

Please share, repost, mirror, and use the information posted there wherever and however you like.

Je vais prendre ma retraite.

2009-12-29T13:40:00.004-05:00

I'm "retiring" from this blog and my class blogs (at least for now -- maybe it will make sense to start up again someday), but will still make occasional posts for the PM Press Blog.

The good folks at PM recently published my translation of Tomoyuki Hoshino’s amazing novel Lonely Hearts Killer, which you can get by clicking here. PM also re-released Terry Bisson’s Fire on the Mountain (with a new introduction by Mumia Abu Jamal). I recommend reading those two novels together with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead and Huey P. Newton’s Revolutionary Suicide.

Meanwhile, Tomoyuki Hoshino’s web-based activity is expanding. If you read Japanese, you can now follow him on Twitter in addition to reading his online journal and website.

In case you came here to access my old class blog archives or other blogs/sites, here are some quick and easy links to each for your reference:

The "Japanarchy" Class

Introduction to East Asian Cultures: Japan (formerly Asian Humanities: Japan)

Postwar Japanese Family Fictions

Insurgency & the Globalization of Discontent

Untold Horrors

Short Fiction

こんな小説も読んでみよう (not public)

Advanced Translation (not public)

Long Fiction

The University of Iowa Youth Empowerment Academy (YEA!)

New Nationalisms: A Symposium with Tomoyuki Hoshino, Chizuko Naito, and Su Tong

You can also still access the archives of the brief, but wonderful radio program students in a very special class I taught at the University of Iowa produced a few years ago, "The Insurgency Hour," a student-run radio program on KRUI 89.7 FM. Check out the program index and explore the recorded programs.

Thanks for stopping by!

love,
adrienne

Cali Occupation Solidarity Action in NYC

2009-11-21T00:06:00.003-05:00

Click here to read about it.

Beyond Prisons: Toward Community Strategies

2009-10-10T16:43:00.001-04:00

[English below]

Le Projet de correspondance pour prisonnier(e)s, Action Santé Travesti(e)s et Transsexuel(le)s du Québec (ASTTeQ) et le Centre 2110 présentent:

Au-delà des prisons, vers les stratégies communautaires:
Travail de soutien dans et contre le système carcéral

samedi le 24 octobre à 16 h 00 (jusqu'a 18 h 00)
au 1710 Beaudry au Comité social du centre-sud (metro Beaudry)

Présentations de:

Gisele Dias - Prisoner HIV/AIDS Support Action Network (PASAN), Toronto

Peter Collins - Activiste du VIH/SIDA et prisonnier au Bath Institution en Ontario

Amazon Contreraz - défense des droits des personnes incarcérées, activiste trans et prisonnière à Corcoran, Californie

Sadie Ryanne - DC Trans Coalition (DCTC), Washington DC

Farah Abdill - organisatrice communautaire, Montréal

Ces présentations donnera l'occasion aux organismes communautaires et aux individus de se regrouper le temps d'un après-midi pour discuter de plusieurs manières d'élargir nos modèles présents de soutien et de services, et d'oeuvrer vers un mouvement élargi afin de mettre fin à notre dépendance sur le système carcéral.

Les présentateurs(trices) - des prisonnier(e)s, ex-prisonnier(e)s et allié(e)s - vont présenter leurs projets actuels, qui incluent le soutien des prisonniers gaie et transsexuelle, la prévention du VIH, le plaidoyer pour l'autodétermination des prisonnier(e)s ainsi que des initiatives locales pour soutenir les détenu(e)s. Comment pouvons-nous lutter contre la violence de l'expansion des centres de détention, du taux montant de transmission du VIH dans les prisons, de la négligence médicale et de l'isolation, en tant des organismes communautaires? À travers ces discussions, nous espérons forger des alliances entre différents groupes communautaires et renforcer la lutte quotidienne contre les prisons et à l'intérieur des prisons.

*****
la traduction chuchotée, un service de garderie et des tickets de bus/métro sont disponibles

pour obtenir des directions, des informations sur l'accessibilité des lieux ou si nous pouvons faciliter ta présence de tout autre façon, contacte-nous!

514 848 2424, poste 7431
info(at)prisonercorrespondenceproject.com

www.prisonercorrespondenceproject.com

>>>>>>>>>

The Prisoner Correspondence Project, Action Santé Travesti(e)s et Transsexuel(le)s du Québec (ASTTeQ), and the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy present:

Beyond Prisons, Toward Community Strategies:
Supporting work within and against prisons

Saturday October 24th from 4pm to 6pm
at the Comité Social Centre-Sud at 1710 Beaudry (metro Beaudry)

Featuring:

Gisele Dias - Prisoner HIV/AIDS Support Action Network (PASAN), Toronto

Peter Collins - HIV/AIDS activist and prisoner at Bath Institution, Ontario

Amazon Contreraz - jailhouse lawyer, trans activist and prisoner at Corcoran, California

Sadie Ryanne - DC Trans Coalition (DCTC), Washington DC

Farah Abdill - community organizer, Montreal

Beyond Prisons, Toward Community Strategies will be an afternoon of community organizations and individuals coming together to discuss the ways we can expand our existing models of support and service provision, as prisoners, exprisoners and allies, and work towards a broader movement to end our reliance on prisons.

The presenters--made up of prisoners, ex-prisoners, and allies--will introduce their current projects, which include gay and trans prisoner support, HIV prevention, advocacy for prisoner self-determination, and local initiatives to support folks inside prisons. How can we confront the violence of prison expansion, deepening rates of in-prison HIV transmission, medical negligence and isolation? Through these discussions, we hope to forge coalitions between different community groups and strengthen the day to day struggles both within and against prisons.

*****

whisper translation, childcare, and metro/bus fare available • wheelchair accessible

For directions, information about accessibilty, or if there are other ways we can support your attendance, please contact us:

514-848-2424 x 7431
info(at)prisonercorrespondenceproject.com

www.prisonercorrespondenceproject.com

Decolonize Okinawa and Guam and Everywhere

2009-10-10T12:50:00.013-04:00

If you aren't familiar with bilaterals.org already, I encourage you to check it out. The following comes from the bilaterals.org page on War, geopolitics, and human rights:

Neoliberal globalization and war are two sides of the same coin. Throughout many parts of the world there has been little “hidden” about the links between corporate interests, globalization, and militarization. Under the guise of the war on terror, the war on drugs and “humanitarian” missions, U.S. military forces continue to back U.S. corporate and geopolitical interests from Iraq to Colombia, from Honduras to the Philippines. We can see it in the war on Iraq and how the US Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded “reconstruction” contracts to corporate backers of the Bush Administration. We see it in plans for a U.S. free trade agreement with the Middle East by 2013, based on imposing a network of bilateral FTAs on individual Middle Eastern governments. We can see it in the renewed U.S. military presence in South East Asia, especially in their joint exercises with the Philippine military alongside a continued wave of killings of hundreds of activists linked to movements resisting imperialism. Their mission is to make the world safe for capitalism and the U.S. empire and to crush communities and economies organized around different values and principles. Free trade and free market policies are frequently accompanied by repression of dissent.

This is old news in Okinawa for the many activists and others who have fought US military occupation for decades.
The military occupation of Okinawa begs questions beyond those related to struggles for sovereignty. From 1945 until 1972, twenty years after the US occupation of Japan was supposed to be finished, the USCAR (US Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands) continued, but even after Okinawa reverted to Japanese state administration, the US military presence continued and continues as we all know, as do efforts to liberate Okinawa from US military occupation. In terms of the US military presence in Okinawa, the cost of which is largely underwritten by the Japanese government, there are probably about 40,000 US military employees in Okinawa at any given time if you count Department of Defense employees along with all the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine members. Of course, some of those employees are accompanied by family members. The relocation of 8,000 Marines and their family members might seem like a small victory in the struggle for Okinawan liberation from occupation. However, for folks in Guam, where those Marines are scheduled to be relocated, the impact will be huge.

In 2007, the US Congress approved $193 million (US) in military funding to expand the construction of bases in Guam, where US bases already take up over a quarter of Guam's total land. Like Okinawa, Guam has been subjected to colonial Japanese administration (1941) and US administration (1898) before. If plans proceed, the majority of Guam's population will be US military personnel within a few years.

Yesterday on Democracy Now, Julian Aguon spoke about this relocation process:

The military buildup was first announced in 2005. Basically, the United States had made a bilateral agreement with the Japanese government to transfer some 7,000 US Marines from Okinawa to Guam, in large part due to Okinawan mass protest against military presence, because they shoulder roughly 70 percent of the US military presence in all of Japan in Okinawa. So, that was in 2005. Fast-forward to 2009, we see that the US has recently announced that the number—it keeps ballooning. It’s really unbelievable, because now it’s set to include 8,000 US Marines and their 9,000 dependents, another thousand troops from South Korea, as well as an outside labor—foreign labor workforce estimated upwards of 20,000 people. So we’re talking about a four- to five-year injection of a population increase of 20 percent in five years.

So that’s really—what we’re concerned about, the indigenous Chamoru community of Guam, is that we haven’t exercised self-determination yet. Guam remains one of only sixteen non-self-governing territories, i.e. UN-recognized colonies, of the world. We don’t even vote for the US president. We have no effective, meaningful representation in the US Congress. And the entire buildup was announced, and it was basically—any Chamoru consideration was really de facto. We’re never really at the table. We were just informed by the US that they were going to bring in outside population of these many tens of thousands of people.

And the entire population of Guam is set roughly at 171,000 only, and the Chamoru population makes up roughly 37 percent of that population. So, really, this demographic change will have irreversible consequences, and we don’t even have the infrastructure, and no money has been really—has been, in essence, promised to the government.

...And basically, the way I see it is, the needs of my people are buckling. We’re not going to be able to withstand so much more weight.

Writing for the Washington Post, Blaine Harden characterizes the plans as a "peaceful military incursion," and deflects attention away from the effects of long-term colonization through descriptions like the following:

The Pentagon has chosen Guam, a quirkily American place that marries the beauty of Bali with the banality of Kmart, as the prime location in the western Pacific for projecting U.S. military muscle.

...To lessen chances of conflicts with local people, the Guam government has asked the military to hold special courses in "how to behave" before the Marines arrive and to periodically conduct refresher courses.

For more informed analyses and reprieves from/alternatives to the characteristic distortions of white supremacist official discourse, check out the Decolonize Guam blog.

Listen to or watch this upside down.

2009-10-08T18:44:00.004-04:00

みんなの公園を守る！

2009-10-08T10:41:00.003-04:00

Don't Do It.

Kyler, My Hero

2009-09-13T00:52:00.005-04:00

Not quite three years ago, I made what, to me, is the best post on this blog, "Cousins." My cousin Kyler, who was 11 at the time, wrote a report for school entitled "Ernesto Che Guevara, My Hero." The picture to the left was taken not long after he wrote that report. I'm posting the entire report here again (with the original pictures he used) because it's awesome, and so is Kyler, who is now much, much, much taller.

"Ernesto Che Guevara, My Hero" by Kyler

Ernesto Guevara was a great man. He had a lot of nicknames. One was when he was little his aunt called him Teté. Most of his friends called him Che. One day a miracle was born on May 14, 1928, and that miracle was Che. He was born in Rosario, Argentina. He was not able to start school until the age of seven because he had serious asthma problems. Then it got better and he went to school but since he was still so sick sometimes he went back to home school.

His parents were Ernesto and Celia. Celia was the mom and Ernesto was the dad. He had two sisters and one brother. The older sister was named Celia after the mom and the younger sister was named Ana Maria. His brother was named Roberto. His hobbies were to read and play soccer. And when he was eleven he went on strike to help the electrical workers because he heard they were not getting paid. So he got a bunch of his friends and they threw rocks at the electrical company.

When he was twenty-three Che and his buddy Alberto went on a motorcycle ride all over South America because they wanted an adventure. While they were on the adventure they saw poor people and sick people everywhere. On their way they stopped at a leper colony. Che was very sad when he saw the people. It was sad because they had the Amazon River separate the lepers from the doctors so the doctors would not get leprosy but Che did not care if he got it. He would hug them and not wear gloves. He would treat them like normal people. Leprosy is where somebody loses their body parts and skin and it is contagious.

This is a picture of a woman with leprosy.

After the motorcycle trip Che knew how many sick and poor people there were and he wanted to make everything equal. He finished medical school so he could be a doctor and help people. His parents had split up and he decided to live with his mom during this time. Then he met Fidel Castro and they decided they wanted to start a revolution. They started a revolution in Cuba in 1959 and the rich people did not like that. So Che had to go into the jungle and stayed there for a year. Che and the other revolutionaries were training and making plans in the jungle. Some bad things about being in the jungle were that he always had to watch his back and he was always having asthma attacks. This was not an easy time in his life but then they fought and succeeded in Cuba. He also had good times in his life. The things that were good were that he liked helping people and he liked fighting alongside his friends and he got to travel.

Che also had his own families when he grew up. He had married a woman named Hilda and they had one baby in 1956. They named her Hilda after the mom. Then they broke up and he got married to a woman named Aleida in 1960. They had four children. Their names were Celia, Camilo, Ernesto, and Aliusha. He also had many jobs. He was a doctor. He was a revolutionary and he was a president of the Cuban National Bank. Some of his heroes and friends were Fidel Castro and his Aunt Beatriz. Fidel Castro was the leader of the Cuban revolution. His Aunt Beatriz was someone who always gave him attention.

There are some historical things about the time when Che was a revolutionary in the 1960s. First of all the mambo and tango were popular dances in South America. The boat Che and his buddy rode after they went to the leper colony was called the Mambo-Tango. Second of all they won the revolution in Cuba. And finally rock and roll music was popular all over the world.

After the Cuban revolution Che went to the Congo and other countries. He had to wear disguises. One was as an old man. He had to pluck all of his hair out.

This is a picture of Che’s false passport with the photo of him in disguise.

But he did not succeed in the Congo so he went to Bolivia. He was trying to start another revolution but the CIA and Bolivian army caught him in a church and they put him in an old school house and tied him up by the hands and feet and asked him questions. One question they asked was, “Are you Argentine or Cuban?” He said he was Cuban, Argentine, Bolivian, Peruvian, Equadorian, and etcetera so he was a man of every country. They killed him on October 9, 1967.

The reason I would want to be like Che is because he didn’t just care about himself and he did things not just to help himself but to help others too. Another reason is he always wanted for people to be successful and not to suffer. He was not like the rich people who controlled everything and just cared about themselves and did not give money up to the poor. The reason I would want to do and act like him is because I could help people and also not be greedy.

Fight Back

2009-08-28T12:12:00.003-04:00

The new website will be ready before too long. In the meantime, I wanted to link to this review of this great new book! Check it out!

Abousufian Abdelrazik's return home to Montreal at last!!

2009-06-26T18:28:00.002-04:00

For folks in or near Montréal: I just received the following announcement.

Join us for a late night rally to CELEBRATE his return and welcome him home!

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
late night Saturday, 28 June 2009, starting at midnight
(during the night Saturday to Sunday)
Corner Ste-Catherine and St-Hubert, downtown Montreal
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Abousufian will be returning home to Montreal this Saturday around midnight after a six-year forced exile in Sudan, where he experienced torture, imprisonment without trial, and over one year trapped in the Canadian embassy. All with the involvement of Canadian officials.

Let's give him a warm welcome home. One of the few things that he indicated he would like is to greet some of his supporters upon his arrival. It's the least we can do.

While we await his arrival, there will be an opportunity to make cards, posters, banners and video messages to greet him, as well as friendly conversation and refreshments.

Bring your noise-makers, confetti, coloured flags and festive spirits to celebrate his return and this (small) victory.

****Please note: Check for an update on the website
www.peoplescommission.org/abdelrazik.php at 9:30pm on Saturday. Also, follow his return from Friday morning at http://twitter.com/retouraubercail.

Checking in

2009-06-23T15:03:00.003-04:00

I've slowed down the blogging a lot since January. After 1,000 posts to this blog and well over 1,000 posts to my other Blogger course blogs (linked on the sidebar), I'm making some changes. While I may decide to use course blogs for large courses again in the future, I won't be course-blogging in the 2009-2010 academic year. Later this summer, I will have a new website that will link to all these blogs as archives, so if you use any of this stuff, don't worry. I won't delete anything (although over the years, of course, more than a few links have disappeared).

In the meantime, some new PM Press blogs and pages, while still under construction, are accessible here and also here.

Click here for an update on a story I've mentioned before.

ACTION IN ASIA

2009-06-11T20:38:00.002-04:00

Click here!

Views from the Margins: An Evening Celebrating Community Media!

2009-06-05T10:27:00.002-04:00

This event will also be broadcast on CKUT Radio:
7-10pm, Wed - June 10th
http://www.ckut.ca and 90.3fm in Montreal

Join the host of Radio Sanctuary, Kader Belaoni, for a night celebrating community inspired media.

Wednesday, June 10th
8:00pm, St Gabriel's Church
POTLUCK DINNER at 7pm
2157 rue Centre (Metro Charlevoix)
Childcare available, please confirm 514.448.4041 x6788

5$ suggested donation at the door for the Committee to Support Abdelkader Belaouni

You are invited to an evening of music by Abdelkader "Kader" Belaouni with special guest DJ 23 and brief presentations from media makers on views from the margins. Invited speakers include: Samaa Elibyari (Caravan, CKUT), Rufo Valencia (RCI), Dexter X (Igloolik Isuma Productions), Frederic Dubois (Parole citoyenne), Charlotte Bourne (CJSF/NCRA), Stefan Christoff (The Hour), Blandine (Centre de médias indépendant), Sergio Martinez (Latin Time, CKUT), Dave Austin (The Alfi Roberts Institute), and Jooneed Khan (La Presse).

Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Girls and Women in Canada

2009-06-05T10:10:00.003-04:00

I just received the following announcement. Also, the Critical RACE conference starts today!

No One Is Illegal Radio reports about the frontline struggles for justice, dignity and self-determination by migrants, refugees and indigenous peoples.

On the MAY 2009 edition of No One Is Illegal Radio: We focus on the issue on the issue of more than 500 murdered, missing and disappeared indigenous girls and women in Canada, as well as get an update from the ongoing struggle at Grassy Narrows, where a trapper and clan mother is facing charges for building traditional cabins.

More info below or: http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2009/06/no-one-is-illegal-radio-may-2009.html
The entire show is linked here: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/33758

Mohawk Resistance to Armed Canadian Guards

2009-06-01T17:07:00.003-04:00

The following comes from: No One Is Illegal Montreal

“[The Canadian Border Service Agency] is a foreign oppressive force who occupies our sovereign community and territory. (They are) unwelcome, uninvited and now carrying firearms. For lack of a different description, that is considered by some an act of war.” – Larry King, member of the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory (quoted in Ottawa Citizen, May 29, 2009)

A delegation of three non-native Montreal activists, including a member of No One Is Illegal-Montreal, is currently at the site of protesters at the Kawehnoke Port of Entry (Cornwall Island) on the Mohawk Territory of Akwesasne. Native protesters at Akwesasne are welcoming allies to stand in solidarity, and to witness their efforts to resist the imposition of armed guards on Mohawk territory.

The No One Is Illegal-Montreal website will have updates directly from Akwesasne, as well as maintain a mainstream and alternative news compilation, at the following link: http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2009/06/akwesasne.html ]

Update – 5:35am
Monday, June 1, 2009

Dawn is breaking on the Mohawk Territory of Akwesasne, where local residents have protested for months to oppose the arming of Canadian Borders Services Agency (CBSA) guards on their territory. More than 50 protesters are maintaining a presence near the Canadian customs building on Cornwall Island. There are at least five fires burning to keep demonstrators warm. Many more residents and supporters are expected to be on-site as the morning progresses.

According to residents of Akwesasne (as well as mainstream media reports), CBSA border agents abandoned their posts just before midnight, out of fear of reprisals from the community. CBSA agents were due to be armed at the Port of Cornwall crossing on June 1, a policy universally opposed and condemned by the Akwesasne Mohawk Community.

Vehicular traffic onto the Seaway International Bridge has been shut down by police on both sides of the border, although pedestrians are still being allowed to access the bridge.

The Mohawk territory of Akwesasne straddles the jurisdictions of Ontario, Quebec and New York State, and is a major international border crossing between Canada and the United States. CBSA guards began arming in 2007, and there are currently more than 800 armed CBSA guards across Canada. The entire CBSA aims to be armed, in stages, by 2016. The CBSA announced that their agents at the Port of Cornwall would be armed by June 1 of this year.

SELECTED NEWS & INFORMATION COMPILATION

June 1, 2009

Cornwall Standard-Freeholder: U.S.-Canada border closed by Akwesasne protest of guns at crossing; Border guards leave posts for U.S.
http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1591962

Ottawa Citizen: Armed border guards abandon posts on First Nation
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Armed+border+guards+abandon+posts+First+Nation/1649395/story.html

Radio-Canada: Les Mohawks ne décolèrent pas
http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/ottawa/2009/05/31/002-mohawks_douaniers_armes_colere.shtml

May 30, 2009

Mohawk Nation News (MNN): Akwesasne Unity March
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/news/singlenews.php?lang=en&layout=mnn&category=26&newsnr=716&backurl=%2Fnews%2Fnews4.php%3Flang%3Den%26layout%3Dmnn%26category%3D26%26sortorder%3D0%26start%3D0&srcscript=/news/news4.php

May 29, 2009

Ottawa Citizen: Plan to arm borders guards an “act of war”
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Armed+border+guards/1644877/story.html

Mohawk Nation News (MNN): UN asked to stop guns at Akwesasne border
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/news/singlenews.php?lang=en&layout=mnn&category=26&newsnr=715&backurl=%2Fnews%2Fnews4.php%3Flang%3Den%26layout%3Dmnn%26category%3D26%26sortorder%3D0%26start%3D0&srcscript=/news/news4.php

May 28, 2009

Mohawk Nation News (MNN): There will be no guns! “You are on Indian Land”
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/news/singlenews.php?lang=en&layout=mnn&category=26&newsnr=714&backurl=%2Fnews%2Fnews4.php%3Flang%3Den%26layout%3Dmnn%26category%3D26%26sortorder%3D0%26start%3D0&srcscript=/news/news4.php

Centre Social Autogéré

2009-06-01T16:44:00.004-04:00

I've been quite remiss in posting this flyer.
Infoshop News now reports, "Montreal's first squatted Autonomous Social Center evicted."
See updates, developments, and actions below.

::::::::::::::::::::

FROM: www.centresocialautogere.org

-> Demonstration in front of the southwest borough offices
TUESDAY, JUNE 2 at 6pm
815 Bel-Air, near métro Lionel-Groulx

There will be a demonstration this Tuesday, June 2 at 6pm in front of the southwest borough offices at 815 Bel-Air, near Lionel-Groulx métro. It looks as if the consultations on the luxury condo development at 2985 St-Patrick has been cancelled in the aftermath of our re-appropriation. Let’s not stay silent!

More info, in French, linked here: http://www.centresocialautogere.org/fr/content/manifestation-devant-la-mairie-darrondissement

-> To all groups who support, or would like to support, the Autonomous Social Center:

You are being asked to write letters of support to newspapers, to distribute the link to the recent press release (below), mobilize your members, sign the public declaration of support and more. and more. You are also encouraged to attend the demonstration this coming Tuesday (see details above). Read the original release (in French) here: http://www.centresocialautogere.org/fr/content/%C3%A0-tous-les-groupes-qui-appuient-le-csa-ou-qui-voudraient-nous-appuyer-votre-r%C3%B4le-maintenant

-> Press Release: BRUTAL EVICTION AT THE AUTONOMOUS SOCIAL CENTER: the riot squad pepper sprays the squatters.

Read the complete release here: http://www.centresocialautogere.org/en/content/eviction-brutale-du-centre-social-autog%C3%A9r%C3%A9-l%E2%80%99anti-%C3%A9meute-gaze-les-squatteurs

Andrea Smith in Montreal!!! (Plus even more!)

2009-06-01T16:29:00.003-04:00

The 9th Annual Critical Race and Anti-Colonial Studies Conference
Compassion, Complicity and Conciliation
The Politics, Cultures and Economies of 'Doing Good'
Montreal, June 5-7 2009
Concordia and McGill Universities
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

If you are in Montréal or anywhere nearby, you should try to avail yourself of the chance to attend the above talks and maybe some more of this great conference.

And in case you hadn't heard, Andrea Smith has joined the amazing Setsu Shigematsu in the Department of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Riverside.

"Under Colorado law, children as young as 12 can be tried as adults if they are accused of certain violent crimes such as murder."

2009-05-21T21:35:00.002-04:00

The Denver Post reports "Colorado Springs teen may be tried as an adult."

This story is so painful and heartbreaking.

If you are in So-Cal, check this out!!

2009-05-20T09:55:00.002-04:00

Agents of Repression in Iowa (update)

2009-05-17T23:10:00.002-04:00

Click here.

Montréal FESTIVAL OF ANARCHY and ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR: May, 2009

2009-04-19T18:38:00.004-04:00

THE FESTIVAL OF ANARCHY
MAY 1-31, 2009, MONTREAL

No gods, no masters; no bosses, no borders!
[Full calendar of events below]

* Theatre Festival * Art Exhibitions * Squat! * Films * Poetry Nights * Parties * Benefit Shows * Workshops * BBQ * Book Launch * Demonstrations * Guerilla Gardening * Community Dinners * Discussions and Roundtables * Anarchist Cabaret * Bookfair * Day of Anarchist Workshops & Presentations * and more! *

The entire month of May in Montreal is part of the Festival of Anarchy, with diverse anarchist-themed events occurring at different venues all over the island of Montreal. The Festival of Anarchy is organized as part of the 10th Montreal Anarchist Bookfair. The Festival of Anarchy is the largest anarchist event in North America.

Festival of Anarchy event venues include:
* Comité d’éducation aux adultes de la Petite-Bourgogne et de St-Henri (CEDA) * Parc Cabot * Petit Café Campus * Divan Orange * Quai des Brumes * Carrefour d'éducation populaire de Pointe-St-Charles * Cagibi * Casa del Popolo * Théâtre D.B. Clarke * Alizée * Rhizome * Il Motore * DIRA Anarchist Library * Independent Media Center (IMC) * Maison de l’amitié * Parc Extension Community Center * Jardin de la Liberté * Bar Populaire * and … the (new) Autonomous Social Center (Centre social autogéré)! *

Curious about anarchism?

Check out the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair and the Festival of Anarchy.

Welcome to all!

For more info:
www.anarchistbookfair.ca
514-679-5800
info@anarchistbookfair.ca
----------

FESTIVAL OF ANARCHY SCHEDULE

(updated April 15, 2009)

-> Friday, MAY 1, 5:30pm
Demonstration Against Capitalism
Parc Cabot (corner Atwater and Ste-Catherine – métro Atwater)

As part of the growing worldwide demonstrations against the crisis, a demonstration against capitalism is being organized as part of the May 1st workers holiday. Gathering at 5:30pm, march at 6:30pm. The demonstration will march to the main offices of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec in the heart of the business district (1000, place Jean-Paul-Riopelle, in Vieux-Montréal). We will not pay for their crisis! Info: 1ermai2008@gmail.com

-> Friday, MAY 1, 8:30pm
Spectacle anticapitaliste
Petit Café Campus, 57 Prince-Arthur East

With: Paul Cargnello and the Frontline, Fred Dubonnet, Chaotic insurrection ensemble, members of Nomadic Massive, Micros Armés, Son un poco politicas. Doors at 8:30pm; suggested donation: $5. Info: 1ermai2008@gmail.com

-> Friday, MAY 1 to Sunday, MAY, 31
Exhibition of the art of Tournesol Plante
Divan Orange, 4234 St-Laurent, corner Rachel

Throughout the month of May, during the Festival of Anarchy, local anarchist artist Tournesol Plante’s works will be on exhibit. The vernissage takes place on May 1 from 5-7pm. Info: anartiste1984@yahoo.ca

-> Monday, MAY 4, 7pm
Piracy and the Anarchist Movement: Between Myth and Reality
Carrefour d'éducation populaire, 2356 rue Centre (métro Charlevoix)

Today's anarchist movement often makes reference to the piracy of the17th and 18th centuries, in its discourse, its lifestyle and its symbolism. However, what was the reality of this piracy? Do the egalitarian practices amongst pirates justify the references of today's anarchists? This workshop aims to provide a quick overview of the interesting and less interesting historical elements of piracy for today's anarchists. Organized by the popular education committees of the Autonomous Social Center and the People's Global Action (PGA) Bloc. Info: www.centresocialautogere.org

-> Tuesday, May 5 & Wednesday, May 6, 7pm
Anarchist Poetry Nights
at Quai des Brumes, 4481 rue St-Denis (métro Mt-Royal)

Each evening will have two parts: the first with invited poets, the latter with an open-mic. Free. Info: amouranarchie@live.ca

-> Tuesday, MAY 5 to Sunday, MAY 31
JUSTSEEDS Visual Resistance
Cagibi, 5490 St-Laurent

This month-long print show will cover the walls of Cagibi with over a hundred print works by members of the JUSTSEEDS Visual Resistance Artists' Cooperative. Info: www.justseeds.org

-> Saturday, MAY 9, 5:30pm
Immigrant Workers Center Mayworks Dinner
Parc Extension Community Center, 419 St-Roch (métro Parc)

Join the IWC and allies as they celebrate one year of immigrant worker struggles. Food, performances and presentations. Free. Info: iwc_cti@yahoo.com

-> Sunday, MAY 10, 8pm till late.
Vernissage, Art Appreciation and Dancing
Cagibi, 5490 St-Laurent

The official vernissage of the JUSTSEEDS exhibit at Cagibi. A coming together of artists, anarchists and friends. Welcome to all! Info: http://www.anarchistbookfair.ca/en/node/12

-> Monday, MAY 11, 5-7pm
Book Launch: “Lunch for Insurgents”
Casa del Popolo, 4873 boulevard St-Laurent

Author and performer Norman Nawrocki's newest collection of poetics in his 'Brain Food Trilogy'. Info: www.nothingness.org/music/rhythm

-> Wednesday, MAY 13 & Thursday, MAY 14, 7:30pm
The 4th Annual International Anarchist Theatre Festival
D.B. Clarke Theatre, 1455 de Maisonneuve West (métro Guy-Concordia)

The fourth annual Montreal International Anarchist Theatre Festival proudly presents two nights with New York’s legendary “The Living Theatre”. Wednesday night’s program also includes Maikan, the Innu giant puppet theatre troupe from Mali-Utenam (Québec). Thursday night’s performance includes Geneviève Letarte and La Chorale de la Maison La Virevolte et ses musiciens et musiciennes. Tickets are $15 at the door or in advance at L’Insoumise, 2033 boul St-Laurent (tel: 514- 313-3489). Info: anarchistefestival@yahoo.ca

-> Thursday, MAY 14, from 6pm
"Living as anarchists": From the "free milieux" to current practices
Rhizome, 1800 Létourneux, coin Lafontaine (métro Pie-IX)

At the close of the 19th century anarchists in France -men and women- "individualists", "communists", "naturists", created collective spaces, "free milieux" or anarchist colonies. Putting into practice communism, getting rid of all forms of authority, opting out of work, but also overturning different aspects of daily life: family, love, education, contraception, nutrition. These practices elicited a lot of questions on the ways and possibility of in the immediate, "living as anarchists". Workshop given by Céline, a French anarchist activist. Organized by la Mauvaise Herbe. Info: mauvaisherbe@riseup.net

-> FRIDAY, MAY 15, 8pm
ANARCHIST CABARET
L’Alizée, 900 Ontario est
Featuring anarchist stylin's from Montreal and abroad, including Benoît Tremble, Micros Armés, Testament, the Outspoken Wordsmiths, Willow and Mishka, FIE, and Don’t Put Charles on the Money, and many more still to be confirmed. The space is wheelchair accessible. Info: info@salonanarchiste.ca or 514-679-5800.

-> SATURDAY, MAY 16, 10am-6pm
MONTREAL’s 10th ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR
CEDA, 2515 rue Delisle (métro Lionel-Groulx)

The Bookfair includes: films, art exhibits, introductory workshops, as well as over 100 distributors and tables from all over Montreal, Quebec & North America (and elsewhere). Free and welcome to all! What happens at the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair?: http://www.anarchistbookfair.ca/en/node/3

-> Saturday, MAY 16, 7pm
Party and BBQ after the Bookfair
behind 2033 St-Laurent (métro St-Laurent)

An after-Bookfair gathering for food, discussion and other festivities. In the courtyard of the Independent Media Center and the DIRA Anarchist Library. Info: http://www.cmi-imc.info

-> SUNDAY, MAY 17, 10am-5pm
DAY OF ANARCHIST WORKSHOPS
CEDA, 2515 rue Delisle (métro Lionel-Groulx)

A full day of anarchist-themed workshops, panels and presentations. Confirmed topics and presentations include: The Crisis in Anarchist Publishing * Polinizaciones: Pollinating the North & South (with the Beehive Collective) * Anarchism and Ableism: Moving Towards Inclusion and Accessibility * Strategizing queer insurgency!: Re-centering marginalized queer issues from an anarchist perspective * Women and political violence: Assata Shakur and Ann Hansen

French workshops (with translation towards English): Résistance populaire et autogestion: Une stratégie pour les libertaires * Luttes urbaines et changement social * Économie politique d'un capitalisme en crise * Comprendre la criminalization de la contestation politique à partir des expériences au Canada, en Colombie et ailleurs * Organisation anti-capitaliste en milieu étudiant

Info: www.anarchistbookfair.ca

-> Sunday, MAY 17, 10pm
Glamarchist Lookfair: Q-Team Party and Fundraiser
Il Motore, 179 rue Jean-Talon Ouest
info: qteam@riseup.net

-> Monday, MAY 18, from 9am onwards
Jardin de la Liberté: Guerrilla gardening
Rendez-vous: at the end of rue Island

(beside the Lachine Canal in Point-St-Charles)

Guerrilla gardeners are gathering in Point-St-Charles, for a third direct action. The action will happen from 9am until the evening, with lunch served during the day. Info: http://www.lapointelibertaire.org/jardindelaliberte

-> Monday, MAY 18, 7:30-10pm
JUSTSEEDS Slideshow Presentation
Cagibi, 5490 St-Laurent

A multi-media slideshow presentation of radical and engaged print practices as well as the work of JUSTSEEDS Visual Resistance Artists' Cooperative, with presentations by Josh McPhee, author of Stencil Pirates: A Global Survey of Street Stenciling, and Erik Ruin, member of JustSeeds. Prints will be on sale. Info: http://www.anarchistbookfair.ca/en/node/12

-> Wednesday, MAY 20, 6pm
Roundtable: Research and Resistance
Cagibi, 5490 St-Laurent

A roundtable discussion on grassroots knowledge and struggle. Join us for an evening of short presentations by members of le Collectif de recherche sur l’autonomie collective (CRAC), the Community-University Research Exchange (CURE) and other groups, followed by a group discussion. Info: www.crac-kebec.org

-> Friday, MAY 22, 6pm.
Solidarity Across Borders (SAB) Community Dinner
At the Maison d'amitié, 120 Duluth East (métro Sherbrooke)

Welcome to all friends, allies and supporters of Solidarity Across Borders & migrant justice struggles in Montreal. Our community dinner will include a menu of tasty foods (both meat and vegetarian) prepared by members and supporters of Solidarity Across Borders. Don't hesitate to bring food to share. Dinner is served at 6pm (sharp!). Party and discussion to follow. Bring your kids! Kids activities planned on-site. Free. Info: 514-848-7583, www.solidarityacrossborders.org

-> Saturday, MAY 23, 7pm
Polinizaciones: Pollinating the North and South
Bar Populaire, 6584 St-Laurent (métro Beaubien)

A multimedia workshop on collective struggles in the North and South, with Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie and the Beehive Collective. Info: www.pasc.ca

-> Wednesday, MAY 27, 8pm
Political documentaries under the stars
2033 St-Laurent (métro St-Laurent)

A presentation of two politically charged, locally produced full-length documentaries: “Myths for Profit: Canada's Role in Industries of War and Peace” and a sneak preview of 'H2Oil' about the Alberta Tar Sands. The screening will take place outside under the stars. Bring your blankets and enjoy two brand new critical and engaging films, both of which examine Canadian political and economic policies and realities. Rain or shine. Info: www.wideopenexposure.com , http://h2oildoc.com/home/

-> Friday, MAY 29, 5:30pm
Demonstration in support of the Autonomous Social Center
Rendez-vous: Parc-St-Gabriel, at métro Charlevoix

The Autonomous Social Center (Centre social autogéré) will be occupied and opened in an abandoned building in Pointe-St-Charles. A child-friendly demonstration. Info: www.centresocialautogere.org

-> Saturday, MAY 30, 8pm
Opening Party of the Autonomous Social Center
Location tba!

Various revolutionary musicians and artists will be performing at the newly opened Autonomous Social Center. Come and support the opening of a squat! Info: www.centresocialautogere.org

----------
For more info about the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair and the Festival of Anarchy:

www.anarchistbookfair.ca - 514-679-5800 - info@anarchistbookfair.ca

Fujimori is

2009-04-07T21:17:00.002-04:00

heading to the hoosegow.

Pfizer

2009-04-03T20:20:00.002-04:00

Click here for an update on this story.

Hurray for Vernon Jackson!!!!!! Right on, Vernon!! You did it!! I'm jumping for joy!!

2009-03-29T22:36:00.002-04:00

Questions for Ko Youngran and Naito Chizuko?

2009-03-23T16:55:00.002-04:00

If you attended tonight's lectures, please feel free to leave your questions below (in English and/or Japanese). Please try to keep them as short as possible.

Jodie and I will help with translation, and Professors Naito and Ko will do their best to answer as many of your questions as possible.

In Loving Memory of Richard Aoki

2009-03-17T08:20:00.003-04:00

"I do believe in mass action." - Richard Aoki

If you click here, you can read a memorial tribute to Richard Aoki by Harvey Dong (posted by Cesar Cruz). Angry Asian Man posted about him here.

I'm reposting the trailer for this film, which I'm still anxious to see in its entirety.

The PM Press Blog is Ready for You!

2009-03-03T21:38:00.002-05:00

Click here and enjoy!

shut them down

2009-02-17T08:34:00.004-05:00

Click here to listen to Mumia Abu Jamal's commentary on the PA judges who placed kids in private prisons for money.

Hiatus

2009-01-23T16:28:00.003-05:00

I'm still deciding what to do with this blog and whether to make the hiatus more permanent. I currently have only one active course blog, which you can follow here if you are interested. It's for a large survey course that is organized around the Yasukuni Shrine controversy. I am also planning to do more for my PM Press blog. If you read Japanese, Hoshino Tomoyuki continues to post some really amazing stuff on his online journal.

Meanwhile ....

2009-01-12T23:48:00.002-05:00

Fujimori trial enters final stage

It's been a while since I've posted about him. For those of you who were kids or who don't remember, Fujimori was the president of Peru in the 1990s. On April 22nd of 1997 (the 23rd in Japan), Fujimori's administration ordered Peruvian Special Forces to storm the Japanese Embassy. They shot and killed all fourteen members of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) who had been holding 72 hostages inside the embassy since December. They were reportedly shot execution-style (from behind) after surrendering, and this appears to be part of case against Fujimori now. The Tupac Amaru members were demanding that the government release political prisoners and put a halt to the neoliberal trade policies that were (are) devasting poor and indigenous communities. The Tupac Amaru members entered the embassy during a swanky party celebrating the Japanese emperor's birthday. There were hundreds of people at the party at the time, and all the women and the men who were not connected to Fujimori's government were soon released (including several Canadians, among them the Canadian Ambassador Anthony Vincent). The others were held for four months until the siege.

The Chronicle of Higher Education Refused to Publish this Letter

2009-01-11T00:25:00.000-05:00

An Open Letter to Our American Colleagues in the Midst of the Massacre in Gaza by Marcy Newman and Rania Masri / January 10th, 2009

BART shooting in Oakland

2009-01-07T12:31:00.002-05:00

Joey Calugay of the Centre for Philippine Concerns speaking at McGill next week

2009-01-07T11:16:00.001-05:00

The "Meet the Neighbours!" brown bag series continues this semester.

Cooking up revolutionary storms in the East: International recipes for supporting national liberation movements of oppressed peoples and nations

12pm, Wednesday 14 January, Room 434, Education Building, 3700 McTavish

A “Meet the Neighbours !” Brown Bag Lunch Seminar on Community Education, Research, Knowledge Production and Social Change

With

Joey Calugay, Centre for Philippine Concerns
<http://cap-cpc.blogspot.com>

For several generations up until today’s movement to oust the bloody US-backed Arroyo regime, international solidarity has played a major role in the Philippine people's struggle for genuine freedom and democracy. The Filipino diaspora have contributed to the building of solidarity organizations such as Solidaridad in the late 1800s started by Filipino students in Europe calling for an end to Spanish colonialism in the Philippines. Today, the Centre for Philippine Concerns - founded in the 1980s in Quebec by a university professor forced to flee the Marcos dictatorship - continues this long tradition of solidarity work for the Philippines.

Joey Calugay, an independent filmmaker and community organizer, is a long time member of the Centre for Philippine Concerns. He will talk about the role of international solidarity and the important task of the organizer as public educator in relation to the current issues facing the people's movement in the Philippines.

This series of informal brown bag lunch seminars aims to make connections, join dots, spark debate and reflection, as we hear from community educators, organizers and independent media practitioners about the education, research and action components of their practice.

Faculty, graduate and undergraduate students are all welcome to attend.

For more information, please contact Dr Aziz Choudry, Assistant Professor, International Education, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University. Phone: 514 3982253 or email: aziz.choudry@mcgill.ca

march from hamra to egyptian embassy friday 1/2/09 (photos by Nate George)

2009-01-06T17:14:00.007-05:00

Nate George is a former student and a filmmaker who is in graduate school at AUB in Beirut now. If you click on his name under the label below, you can read more about him. (Scroll down to read about his work as an undergraduate student.) If you click here and look at the 3rd entry, you can download his documentary film, The Patch, which exposes the frequency of false positive results with PharmChem “PharmChek” sweat patches. Trace amounts of cocaine found in the environment in many parts of the U.S. can land someone who hasn't used cocaine in Federal Prison. Nate made this film as an undergraduate student. I really like Nate's dad a whole lot too. He is a very sensitive and gentle person. So Nate's film Chloe From 3 to 5 am, which he also made as an undergraduate, always makes me cry. You can watch it here. But here's Nate's warning:
WARNING: Contains an intense death scene. This video chronicles the last hours of the filmmaker's miniature schnauzer, Chloe. The filmmaker and his father must decide what is best for the dog- whether there is still valuable life yet to be lived or to end it before it gets much worse.

The following are more recent photos Nate sent from Lebanon.

beirut, outside the egyptian embassy 1/4/09 (photos by Nate George)

2009-01-06T17:10:00.004-05:00

Read these instead!

2009-01-05T23:04:00.003-05:00

The hiatus will be continuing and things may be migrating.

In the meantime, please read:

Nate! On the March! (Click on "Nate George" under the labels below for more on Nate.)

An Economy of Love

言ってしまえばよかったのに日記

And the IRA blog, of course.

More to come soon.

2008-12-30T11:05:00.007-05:00

Photo source

I received this announcement and the related links from friends.

2008-12-17T17:49:00.005-05:00

I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about all this. I'm breaking "hiatus" just to post and not to comment right now. I'll come back to the internets in 2009. -ACH

Announcement from my comrades in Iowa:

It has come to our attention through information that we've received that there was a person informing to the FBI about numerous individuals involved in the Wild Rose Rebellion group and University Of Iowa Anti-War Committee. He has since been outed, confronted and ousted from our community. The purpose of this statement is to warn all radical organizations and people with whom we don't have personal ties – across the country – about the following person. Anything identifying or useful pertaining to him we have attempted to include.

Name: Jason Munford, also later went by Valvilis Cormaeril

Age: Late Twenties

From: Michigan, Iowa City

Background: Claimed he served in the Air Force as a MP stationed in Japan, then became a Conscientious Objector.

Interests: Considers self a Platonist, sword fighting, philosophy, informing for FBI

Characteristics: clean cut, dry sense of humor, known to be problematic (overly flirty and pushy) when it comes to female bodied people.

Photos
http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp300/lastoneleft88/1.jpg
http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp300/lastoneleft88/2.jpg
http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp300/lastoneleft88/3.jpg
http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp300/lastoneleft88/4.jpg
http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp300/lastoneleft88/5.jpg
http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp300/lastoneleft88/6.jpg
http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp300/lastoneleft88/7.jpg
http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp300/lastoneleft88/8.jpg
http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp300/lastoneleft88/9.jpg
http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp300/lastoneleft88/10.jpg
http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp300/lastoneleft88/11.jpg
http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp300/lastoneleft88/12.jpg

Video At Rally He Spoke At
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvNqXAMY5OU

Signed,
WRR

P.S.-Don't Get Scared, Get Inspired!

http://wildroserebellion.wikispaces.com/
http://www.uiantiwar.org/

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20081217072004259
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2008/12/917914.shtml

[The following are links to articles on a related subject forwarded to me by another friend who went through similar stuff there. -ACH]

Police anti-terror squad spies on protest groups
The activist who turned police informer

A message from Harvey Arden

2008-12-14T19:22:00.001-05:00

Leonard Peltier's stage play MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE is a soul-transforming theatrical experience that is a living expression of his own words, his own pain, his own dreams --as well as the suffering and dreams of his People. We are seeking patrons, donors, sponsors, theater owners & plain old long-suffering Peltier supporters (Bless'm)--to assist Keith and me in bringing this amazing production starring Lakota actor/singer Doug Good Feather on tour to cities and rez communities around the nation this spring & onwards.

Leonard is now 64; has been in prison since he was 31. I personally ask EACH of you to step forward NOW-and assist us with ideas, theater info, purchases of CDs, Books or any of our Peltier support items, and--yes, please --a modest donation to our just-created In Peace Productions at www.mylifeismysundance.com. Keith Rabin has already gone deeply into debt just to create it so we have a legit professional production company touring the country in 2009. This play can help free Leonard as the film Hurricane helped free Hurricane Carter.

As co-playwright with Leonard, I have given outright my entire co-playwright's share, plus quite a few personal thousands, to In Peace Productions to make MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE a reality. Please reach into your heart and your soul and your pocketbook to help us stage this play and bring Leonard's continuing CRUCIFIXION -- 33 years on the Cross of American Injustice -- to center-stage of AMERICA'S CONSCIENCE.
I know most of us still have a conscience. Let's use it to FREE LEONARD PELTIER!!

Again, please go to www.mylifeismysundance.com and inspire yourself and
others to help us!

Leonard DOES enthusiastically support Keith Rabin and In Peace Productions.
Any suggestions or comments about the play should go to keith(at)mylifeismysundance.com

Alexandros Grigoropoulos

2008-12-10T01:07:00.006-05:00

Start with this one.

Then check out IRA's post (Japanese) and the following in English:

4th night (AP)

During funeral (BBC)

Finally, the FBI or for real?

Just sayin ...

2008-12-08T20:52:00.001-05:00

Big goal.

Little goal.

日本は大変なことになっているみたい

2008-12-04T13:07:00.002-05:00

派遣切り：許すな…法改正訴え集会　東京・日比谷

Photos from 12/4

"Police killings, biased investigations, impunity... NEVER AGAIN!"

2008-12-03T21:12:00.002-05:00

Click here to read more.

This sort of thing is why I turn so often to Hoshino Tomoyuki's writing...

2008-12-03T18:12:00.006-05:00

The other day, I read this article. While I'd vaguely recalled Huey P. Newton had a relative at Jonestown, I hadn't know Jim Jones had used the phrase "revolutionary suicide." While initially bothered (a great deal) by that, I started thinking about the people who went to Jonestown, almost half of whom were black women, and how and in what ways that term might have resonated with them.

San Diego State's Religious Studies Department hosts this site, where you can access a lot of info, such as Bonnie Yates' article about Jones' appropriation of Newton's idea (search for “The Many Meanings of ‘Revolutionary Suicide’”). Yates writes, "[What Jones planned] is nothing like what Huey Newton meant when he defined 'Revolutionary Suicide': the revolutionary does not physically hurt himself, or threaten to do so, in order to get his way; rather, it will be the actions of the oppressor that will cause the death of a revolutionary suicide."

There's much to see, including the Port Kaituma footage and letters like the one Pam Bradshaw, a Jonestown resident, wrote to Jones in which she exclaims, "Again I’m being selfish but it’s not death I fear … it’s living … I do not want to live anymore!"

I looked through some of the files on the people who died. I was ten at the time.

Martin Amos was the same age as me, and his sister Christa was a year older. Above are pictures of Martin and Christa from the SDSU Jonestown site.

There were also women like Luvenia Jackson, who was born in the 1890s.

I was most affected by the most recent recollections of Nell Smart (search for “Then, Now, and In Between” by Nell Smart). Some excerpts:

After receiving all of the calls that I was going to receive, there were still two family members missing. My two youngest children had not been identified – and still to this day have not been identified. For twenty years, I held on to the hope that one day they would show up. I am not sure that I have really put that hope aside.

....

Someone who recently lost a daughter asked me if you ever get over it. I told her, “No, you never get over it, you never really accept it, you just learn to live with it and not break down at the very thought or mention of them.”

....

One of hardest questions to answer has been, “Do you have children?” How do I answer that?

Nasty nasty ugliness

2008-12-03T17:06:00.003-05:00

I've emailed the following links so many times to folks. I really ought to post them, so...

Moles Wanted for the RNC
(Note: informants get "compensation" only if info leads to an arrest)

More Information on RNC-WC Inflitrators

Article on the trailer/basement searches

Article on "Norma Jean"

Canadian spies are trying to recruit Mohawk informants

2008-12-01T19:56:00.002-05:00

[Emphasis mine]

CSIS turning to natives in search of information

JOE FRIESEN
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
November 29, 2008 at 1:58 AM EST
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081129.wmohawk25/BNStory/National/home

Canadian spies are trying to recruit informants on a Quebec Mohawk reserve, telling their targets they're probing the national security threat posed by radical native groups and gathering intelligence on the murky, lucrative trade in contraband tobacco and online gambling.

Over the past 18 months, CSIS agents have approached several people with ties to the Kahnawá:ke Mohawk reserve south of Montreal and invited them to clandestine meetings.

According to the Mohawks who spoke to CSIS, the spies wanted information on native groups leading blockades in Ontario and were trying to assess the strength of political and religious factions within Mohawk communities. The spies said they did similar work in native communities across the country, raising the possibility that dozens of aboriginal groups are being assessed as potential threats to Canada's national security.

Former CSIS director Reid Morden said he was surprised to hear the spy agency is targeting natives. Such an initiative would have to have been approved at the ministerial level or higher, he said.

"If they want to operate in what people would say are sensitive areas like churches or universities or, for that matter, the native community, unless it's changed dramatically since I was around, and I don't think it has, the service would have had to put up to the minister, or higher, the rationale for why they wanted to do this, because it obviously has attendant political risks," Mr. Morden said.

A Mohawk graphic artist said CSIS asked him what he knew about the blockades over land disputes in the Ontario communities of Caledonia and Tyendinaga. A young chief was asked about the possibility of a violent native uprising before last year's national aboriginal day of action. A youth worker was asked to identify a young man photographed in front of a cache of weapons in a Kahnawá:ke longhouse. Each of them spoke to The Globe and Mail because they wanted to make it clear that they were not collaborating with the spy agency. They said that if the federal government wants to know what Mohawks are up to, it should engage in a nation-to-nation dialogue, not secret intelligence gathering.

"The best way to solve issues with native peoples is government to government. You don't have to send your spies after us," said Thomas Deer, 32, the graphic artist who was approached by CSIS this month. "I felt I had a civic responsibility to my community and to my nation to let people know that CSIS is doing this, that CSIS is watching native people."

CSIS said it would not comment on specific cases or operational practices.
"We do not collect information about specific communities in Canada," a spokeswoman said in an e-mail. "We interview individuals to solicit facts, views and opinions in order to become better informed on potential threats to the security of Canada."

Mr. Deer, a frequent contributor to websites that promote indigenous sovereignty, said a CSIS agent telephoned him at work on Nov. 3. The woman said he should not be afraid, but that she would like to meet with him and lay out her mandate at a Montreal café.

Two days later, after consulting with a clan elder, he declined the invitation.
"They expressed their disappointment in me not meeting them, and then they turned to being a little threatening," he said. "They said, 'We've read your writings..How do we know you're not a threat to Canada?'"

The agent then changed tactics, praising him as a level-headed person, someone to whom CSIS felt it could turn for advice, he said.

"After she tried to smooth me over she did say she was interested in talking about Ontario . 'Concerning the protests and blockades by certain people,' she said, 'we don't need to mention any names. You know who we're talking about.'"

"I think she was referring to Shawn Brant," Mr. Deer said. Mr. Deer has never met Mr. Brant, a Mohawk activist from Tyendinaga who led protests that blocked major roads and rail lines in Ontario last year. She also said she wanted to talk about the contraband tobacco trade, and guaranteed that he would leave the meeting with a smile on his face.

"I suppose that meant I would be rewarded for whatever information I gave them. Some kind of payoff," he said.

The experience was unsettling, and Mr. Deer contacted the Kahnawá:ke newspaper, The Eastern Door, to report that CSIS was poking around the community.

Mr. Deer's story is not unique.
In the spring of 2007, when tensions between natives and Ottawa were rising before the national aboriginal day of action, two other young men were contacted by CSIS, and both met with agents.

John Dee Delormier, at 26 the youngest council chief ever elected in Kahnawá:ke, was initially reluctant to talk to CSIS. But after consulting his fellow chiefs, who wanted to know what CSIS was up to, he agreed to meet an agent at a Tim Hortons in suburban Montreal.

She wanted to talk about factions in the Mohawk community, including the three longhouses that act as a kind of parallel form of government to the band council on the reserve, and about the cleavage between supporters and opponents of the band-council system. She also asked about the sectarian differences of Catholics, Protestants and those who follow native spirituality.

CSIS said they wanted to know about contraband tobacco, a subject of long-standing interest to the RCMP, and Internet gambling. Mr. Delormier estimates that two-thirds of the world's Internet gambling sites are hosted by Web servers located in Kahnawá:ke, a practice Ottawa considers illegal but has been reluctant to tackle. He refused to discuss those subjects, he said.

She also asked him whether he thought a violent native uprising was possible.
"I said I don't understand that question. I don't know why you would ask that," he said. "At that point she knew she wasn't going to get much from me and that was it. It's a little scary. Why would the intelligence agency of Canada be so interested in my community? What are they planning?"

In the same period, Katsenhakeron, a former Native Youth Movement organizer who asked to be identified by his Mohawk name, was working at the native friendship centre in Montreal when two women walked in, asked for him, and flashed CSIS identity cards. They wanted a confidential meeting, they said, and he met them later at a St. Hubert restaurant.

"They were both very attractive. I was like, man, you guys are good spies. Playing right into my libido."

They spent most of the meeting asking about threats to Canada, he said.

When they brought out a photograph, taken from the Internet, and asked him to identify a Mohawk man standing in front of more than a dozen automatic weapons and rifles, he refused to say any more.

Biju Mathew calls for skepticism in official responses to what's happened in Mumbai

2008-12-01T19:27:00.003-05:00

The essay is in Samar 31 and was published online December 1st, 2008. You can also see it here.

An excerpt:

The archetypal bourgeois liberal State is over. It never really existed, but what we have at the end of four decades of neo-liberalism bears no resemblance to the ideal formulation whatsoever. What we have instead is a series of hollowed out States with their nooks and crannies, their departments and offices populated with specific neo-conservative ideological interests. The US has its variant. India has its. And Israel its very own. It is incapable of delivering the truth, and not just the truth, it is only capable of producing lies.

Russell Means in Fargo

2008-12-01T15:56:00.002-05:00

Russell Means spoke on Nov. 28th outside the federal courthouse in Fargo, ND where Peltier was convicted.

"I want my freedom."
Yeah!

Dan Tsang interviews Dylan Rodriguez on "Subversity"

2008-11-19T16:24:00.004-05:00

Dan Tsang's radio show, Subversity, is really good -- it has been really good for years. Dan (in the green t-shirt) interviewed Dylan Rodriguez (in the button-down) about the presidential election. Click here to listen to it. After the minor tech glitch, it gets really good!! Prof. Rodriguez discusses the non-profit industrial complex in terms of Obama's background, as well as the need for radical critiques of the administration he's assembling (or that's being assembled). Among the statements Rodriguez makes is the following:

"I've been accused of being cyincal, but that is the height of cynicism when people are so willing to concede a political ethics which is invested in people's liberation, freedom, and protection from state violence, from racist state violence. That is the thing I feel we can't excuse."

Also, a great discussion of Ayers! Check it out!

"Chong it like 'twas a Chron!" Chris E. Vargas is great!

2008-11-19T16:20:00.001-05:00

Click here!! Enjoy!!!

Seashia!!

2008-11-19T03:02:00.002-05:00

Click here to read the great profile Stephanie Crets, a wonderful former student, wrote about Seashia Vang, another wonderful former student. Yay!!

And again...

2008-11-19T02:14:00.003-05:00

U.S. raid kills five in Pakistan.

The U.S. says it fired at "insurgents."

Here's a list of U.S. attacks reported in Pakistan just since October 1st. This is just what I could find. I might be missing some.

Nov. 19th: at least 5 people killed

Nov. 14th: 12 people killed

Nov. 7th: 14 people killed

Oct. 31st: 14 people killed in two separate attacks

Oct. 26th: 8 people were killed

Oct. 23rd: at least 9 people were killed

Oct. 16th: 6 people killed

Oct. 11th: 4 people killed

Oct. 9th: 9 people killed

Oct. 3rd: 28 people killed in two separate attacks

Oct. 1st: at least 4 people were killed

Richard Held (file under "not cool")

2008-11-18T22:52:00.005-05:00

Rad School was great again tonight. You should totally go if you are reading this and live in Montréal. Next week's event will be posted here soon.

So, I got the new PM Press dvd about the Angola 3. Thanks, PM. It is really worth watching. Folks who know me well know that I read stuff by and about the Black Panthers all the time and sometimes wish I could do it all the time. There's always more to learn. Well, Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio is one of the folks interviewed for the new movie. She talks about an FBI agent named Richard Held Jr. (whose father was FBI too). He was the one who framed Geronimo Ji-Jaga Pratt for a murder Pratt couldn't have committed (he was in Oakland when the teacher was killed in Santa Monica). Pratt was eventually released after spending nearly 30 years in prison. Held knew Pratt couldn't have done it. Kamal Hassan writes:

... a special "Get Geronimo Pratt" task force was developed led by infamous FBI official, Richard Held Jr. From this nerve center, Held seems to have directed a coordinated effort between his agency, the LAPD’s Criminal Conspiracy Section, and the LA District Attorney’s Special Investigations Unit to "neutralize" Geronimo.

Hanrahan says Held was also on the Pine Ridge Reservation after Leonard Peltier's arrest to "coordinate informants." He was in Puerto Rico for 8 years to fight the Puerto Rican Independence movement, and he was working in the SF field office when Judy Bari's car was bombed. And he was the one who wrote the nasty letter about Jean Seberg that said it was not her husband (French director and novelist Romain Gary), but a Black Panther with whom she'd conceived the baby she was carrying. This false story was "leaked" to the media to "neutralize" her too. Apparently, Held retired from the FBI and became the head of VISA International's "security."

Now, this story isn't the focus of the documentary. There's lots and lots of important history on the Angola 3, and I hope you all order and watch it (and share it).

I told Nate about all this. (Nate was the one who'd taught me about Jean Seberg, who was from Iowa.) Nate asked if Held was still alive. I don't know.

Here's a 8-min trailer of sorts.

Donate non-perishable food and radios to the Barriere Lake Algonquin community before Wednesday!

2008-11-15T15:59:00.005-05:00

Last month, as I posted here and also here, police attacked Algonquin families who were engaged in a peaceful blockade in Northern Québec. I just received the following appeal (edited just to leave out private contact info). Please let me know if you can help, and I'll get you connected with the folks doing this support work. Food and radio pick-ups can be arranged, so if you live in Montréal and are too busy to deliver stuff, I'm sure we can work out a pick-up before Wednesday. But the best way to do it is to attend the event on Monday (described below) and take your donations there. Thanks!!

Hey everyone,

Hope all is well with you.

Would anyone be able to donate some non-perishable food for the Barriere Lake Algonquin community? Or, even better, does anyone know of any restaurants or bakeries that might be interested in donating excess goods or supplies?

As most of you probably know, the community has been treated horribly by the Quebec and Canadian governments as a result of the community's attempts to see legally-binding agreements with these governments fulfilled.

Some telling government responses: beatings, arrests, verbal abuse, withheld payments, interference with community governance and once going so far as to cut off power to the community for 18 months. (to learn more, please see barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com - if you'd like to ask me any questions, feel free.) As a result, the community is under a lot of financial strain right now and could use some assistance with basic needs like food.

Let me know if you have any food you can donate (even an item or two). - there's going to be a trip up to Barriere Lake on Wednesday and the community has asked if anyone could donate some of the following items:

bread, coffee, tea, butter, cream/milk, powdered milk, potatoes, canned stuff (tomatoes, esp), eggs, flour, sugar, and root vegetables for stew

Also, if you have any portable radios to donate, that would be amazing! We're trying to help establish a community radio station and portable radios would make the station more accessible. There's a special screening of No More Smoke Signals, a Swiss documentary about KILI, "the largest Indian-owned and operated public radio station in America. " It's part of Cinema Politica/RIDM (www.ridm.qc.ca) and takes place on Monday night, with all donated proceeds going to Barriere Lake. Check it out at http://www.ridm.qc.ca/en/_events/seanceEn_2008067.html

Again, more

2008-11-13T23:58:00.000-05:00

'US drone' kills 12 in Pakistan.

And Nate wrote this.

Boo!!!!!!

2008-11-13T23:53:00.000-05:00

"From now on police chiefs who allow their men to smash the heads and the backs of people sleeping peacefully can be sure of impunity and the guarantee of a fine career."

Click here to read the bad news.

"My mother didn't name me a 'faggot' or a 'he-she.'" - Duanna Johnson

2008-11-12T02:00:00.003-05:00

This news breaks my heart. Duanna Johnson was killed in Memphis.

I wrote about Duanna briefly back in June. She inspired an awful lot of us even as we were outraged over what was done to her.

She was arrested on suspicion of prostitution and brutally beaten by police in Memphis. Surveillance camera footage was leaked. Click here to read more.

Duanna objected to one cop's name-calling.

She tried to defend herself – against police.

And she made some noise. It breaks my heart to think she will not make more.

I also can't help thinking about other trans people of color who have been killed recently.

A few months ago, trans sister Ruby Molina was found dead and naked, floating down a river. In July, Angie Zapata was beaten to death in Colorado. Earlier this year, I posted about Simmie Williams and Sanesha Stewart. And the list of murdered trans folks is surely much, much longer than what I know or even what gets reported. According to this blog, 23 trans people have been murdered this year.

Dylan Rodríguez, "Inaugurating Multiculturalist White Supremacy"

2008-11-11T12:19:00.002-05:00

WOW!!!! Please, please read this! Wow!!!!! Most important thing I have read on the Obama election yet!!!

Inaugurating Multiculturalist White Supremacy

Dylan Rodríguez

11-09-08

What happens to the politics of antiracism when the phenotype of white supremacy “changes?” At the risk of being scolded for offending the optimistic spirit of this historical moment, I offer these thoughts with a different kind of hope: that the spectacle and animus of the Obama campaign, election, and presidency fail, and fail decisively, to domesticate, discipline, and contain a politics of radical opposition to a U.S. nation-building project that now insists on the diversity of the American “we,” while leaving so many for dead.

To be clear: the political work of liberation from racist state violence—and everything it sanctions and endorses, from premature death to poverty—becomes more complex, contradictory, and difficult now. The dreadful genius of the multiculturalist Obama moment is that it installs a “new” representative figure of the United States that, in turn, opens “new” possibilities for history’s slaves, savages, and colonized to more fully identify with the same nation-building project that requires the neutralization, domestication, and strategic elimination of declared aliens, enemies, and criminals. In this sense, I am less anxious about the future of the “Obama administration” (whose policy blueprint is and will be relatively unsurprising) than I am about the speed and effectiveness with which it has rallied the sentimentality and political investment (often in terms of actual dollar contributions and voluntary labor) of the purported U.S. “Left.”

Celebratory liberal multiculturalist patriotism, in whatever complex and historically laden form it assumes, is a deadly compromise. I recognize, with all due respect, that millions are moved to tears as they recognize in Obama the promise of a fulfilled democratic (Black/multicultural) citizenship—the national fraud that millions have bled, died, and cried over, before and beyond the Civil Rights Movement—while weeping joyfully at the possibility of (their children and grandchildren) finally becoming human in a place that seems obsessed with destroying, dehumanizing, and humiliating.

Living in a history of racism, genocide, and everyday suffering is a heavy thing, and moments of optimism are preciously rare. This is why the historical burden is multiplied for those who care to address the euphoria with a different kind of urgency: to move against the visceral sentimentality of the moment and insist, over and over again, that optimism endorses terror when its premises are removed from—and therefore unaccountable to—liberation struggle in all its wonderful forms. It is worth restating that the historical point of departure for liberation politics is uncompromising opposition to a racist/colonialist/imperialist state (regardless of who leads it), and a willingness to pursue wild but principled ambitions for the sake of achieving the political fantasy of radical freedom. Herein, the pending inauguration of an authentically multiculturalist white supremacy entails, at best, a change of leadership for a mind-numbing apparatus of normalized repression and mass-based social violence, the one that capably imprisons well over 2.5 million people (most of them poor, Black, and Brown) in cages all over the world and will kill well over 2 million Iraqi, Afghanis and Palestinian civilians (through a combination of blockades, bombs, and “diplomacy”) in the span of less than a generation. This apparatus is the one thing that will not change, even as some entrust the Obama administration with the arrogant hopes of a reduced global body count.

Putting aside, for the moment, the liberal valorization of Obama as the less-bad or (misnamed) “progressive” alternative to the horrible specter of a Bush-McCain national inheritance, we must come to terms with the inevitability of the Obama administration as a refurbishing, not an interruption or abolition, of the normalized violence of the American national project. To the extent that the subjection of indigenous, Black, and Brown people to regimes of displacement and suffering remains the condition of possibility for the reproduction (or even the reinvigoration) of an otherwise eroding American global dominance, the figure of Obama represents a new inhabitation of white supremacy’s structuring logics of violence.

This is to say, Obama’s ascendancy hallmarks the obsolescence of “classical” white supremacy as a model of dominance based on white bodily monopoly, and celebrates the emergence of a sophisticated, flexible, “diverse” (or neoliberal) white supremacy as the heartbeat of the American national form. The signature of the “post-civil rights” period is precisely marked by such changes—compulsory and voluntary—in the comportment, culture, and workforce of white supremacist institutions: selective elements of police and military forces, global corporations, and major research universities are diversely colored, while their marching orders continue to mobilize the familiar labors of death-making (arrest and justifiable homicide, fatal peacekeeping, overfunded weapons research, etc.). While the phenotype of white supremacy changes—and change it must, if it is to remain viable under changed historical conditions—its internal coherence as a socialized logic of violence and dominance is sustained and redeemed.

Candidate Barack Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech, arguably the definitive moment of his campaign for the U.S. presidency, provides a useful elaboration of this change in the political structure of white supremacy. Given that this was one of the few moments in the campaign in which Obama actually addressed “race” as a political issue rather than a descriptive matter-of-fact, a close attention to the oration reveals something about the premises of the new multiculturalist, nationalist optimism. Lifting its title from the opening sentence of the U.S. Constitution, Obama’s denunciation of Chicago pastor and Black liberation theologian Jeremiah Wright begins with a backhanded caricature of racial chattel slavery that replicates the classical liberal denial of the nation’s constitutive—in fact Constitutional—patriarchal white supremacist conditions of possibility:

“The document [the nation’s founders] produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.”

Obama’s condemnation of “original sin” begets the white Christian nation’s perpetual forgiveness and redemption, but also anticipates the pessimism of those who would rightfully allege that white supremacy’s visceral structures of dominance are endemic to American national reproduction. This attempts to erase the indelible: the social and economic system that rests on the subjection of Africans as racial chattel is not a compartmentalized or reconcilable event in the American white racial destiny, but is the foundation of what legal scholar Cheryl Harris has called the ongoing legal consolidation of whiteness as property, a consolidation that can only occur at the expense of those who are dispossessed and/or actually owned by the white nation.

Thus, while Obama’s otherwise stale re-narration of white supremacist nation-building falls back on an allegory of the sinning-forgiven white body politic, his comportment of “electability” proposes an authoritative black/multiracial/multicultural patriotism that rejuvenates the rhetorical matrix of contemporary white supremacy. He is “presidential” precisely because he galvanizes admiration and reverence through a paean to the historical imagination of the white slaveholding nation. Obama fetishizes racist/slave “democracy” as a piece of the American national mythology, a moral tale of vindication that alleviates the white nation’s guilty burdens of the racial present. More importantly, it permanently defers the political obligation of confronting an enduring and present white supremacist social form.

“Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution—a Constitution that had at its very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.”

A vast and deep body of scholarly critique and radical social thought has thoroughly refuted the common sense of the U.S. Constitution as a magical and morally transcendent document that has timelessly valued the “ideal of equal citizenship” within its philosophical architecture. In fact, the most incisive critical race theorists argue that the opposite is closer to the historical truth: it is the ongoing racial-national project of determining which aliens and nominal “citizens” are to be marginalized and excluded from the entitlements of citizenship that sits at the heart of the Constitution. Why, then, does the political integrity of Obama’s “race speech” rest on the foundations of such a flimsy, hackneyed sense of history?

The genius of Obama’s oration is not traceable to its racially marked (and rather overstated) “eloquence” or any substantively original content: rather, its profound resonance with a liberal white/multiculturalist sensibility derives from the fact that it is an authoritative 21^st century doctrine of the “color line,” a deforming of the early 20^th century DuBoisian wisdom that “the problem of the Twentieth century is the problem of the color line,” and “the social problem of the twentieth century is to be the relation of the civilized world to the dark races of mankind.”

“On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.”

While for DuBois, the color line would be understood as a primary site of political antagonism in the emergent “American Century,” Obama posits the contemporary color line—his “racial divide”—as the terrain of the American nation’s neoliberal, post-civil rights perfection, the culmination of its progressive national telos, and the place of fulfillment for an authentic national culture of “unity.” In this context, his disavowal of Rev. Wright not only marked Obama’s electoral phobia of Black liberationist political affinities, it clearly pronounced his solidarity with a liberal racist consensus:

“[Wright’s comments] expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country—a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

“As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems—two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.”

At the risk of some oversimplification, the political logic is clear: some lives and destinies matter dearly, while others must be neutralized, disciplined, or decisively ended; radical antiracism and liberationist struggle are the bane of national unity, and can only disturb the seamless progress of the diverse nation toward resolution of its “monumental problems.”

“This is the political condition of possibility for the opening lines of the victory speech that arrived in storybook fashion just days ago:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

The euphoria of the moment allowed far too many to happily surrender any political and moral revulsion at this invocation of the Founding Fathers, and pushed far too few to seriously consider what, exactly, animated the founders’ nation-building dream and what it might mean for someone like Obama to valorize it. In the end, however, my concern is not with Barack Obama the politician, but rather with the emerging liberal multiculturalist common sense that assembles its points of optimistic compromise and political enthusiasm in alliance with the reforming and re-visioning of classical white supremacy that the Obama campaign and administration represent.

While the historical trajectory and political structure of U.S. white supremacist nation-building will not be substantively altered, its explanatory rhetoric, institutional appearance, and resurfaced racial personage has generated a sweeping political sentimentality and popular cultural narrative of progress, hope, change, and racially marked nationalist optimism. And what do these things mean, really, in the age of Katrina, the prison industrial complex, and the War on Terror?

At best, when the U.S. nation building project is not actually engaged in genocidal, semi-genocidal, and proto-genocidal institutional and military practices against the weakest, poorest, and darkest—at home and abroad—it massages and soothes the worst of its violence with banal gestures of genocide management. As these words are being written, Obama and his advisors are engaged in intensive high-level meetings with the Bush administration’s national security experts. The life chances of millions are literally being classified and encoded in portfolios and flash drives, traded across conference tables as the election night hangover subsides. For those whose political identifications demand an end to this historical conspiracy of violence, and whose social dreams are tied to the abolition of the U.S. nation building project’s changing and shifting (but durable and indelible) attachments to the logic of genocide, this historical moment calls for an amplified, urgent, and radical critical sensibility, not a multiplication of white supremacy’s “hope.”

Rad School Blog!

2008-11-11T11:57:00.000-05:00

Click here!!

Belated Updates on our Comrades in Japan

2008-11-11T11:51:00.003-05:00

Our 3 comrades in Japan were released! Thanks to everyone who voiced their support!

First click here to read the Japan Times Online report from Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008.

The following message is to us from the "Show your face, Aso!! 'reality tour' Solidarity Group."

To All who gave us message or acted in Solidarity protesting the arrest at Japanese Prime minister's house Tour.

We are very sorry to be late on passing information.

The 3 who were arrested at the 'reality tour' were released on November 6th in the morning after 11days of detention.

We think all the people who spreaded the word through Web or emails about this unlawful arrest both internationally and domestically, and who supported the Solidarity group made the 3 coming out. We thank you very much.

On 6th, We had an gathering about this arrest and 250 people came. The three showed themselves to the crowd and we all shared happy moments.

At the gatheing,the arrestee told us about their situation on the day of the arrest and the days inside.
And we all saw the video of the arrest scene which shows the unlawful behavior of police.So we decided to do something to fight back. Also we demanded correction to the press who made the news uncritically from police statements.

The Solidarity group will still work until the 3 are comfirmed to not being charged.

Show your face, Aso!! 'reality tour' Solidarity Group

notes;
Police Harrasment and Violence during detention

One of the 3 arrestee faced extra diffiult time inside with police torturous harrasment.
This includes reading out his personal diaries police got from hishouse, unsulting him on his mentall illness (like "You are not really sick, just pretending") and being on welfare ("How could you live by state money"), police pushing the desk roughly to him.
We demanded the police to stop these acts in front of the police station, but they denied the facts and refused to give the name of the responsible chief of the police station.

*We have non-Japanese resource Page
please see
http://www42.atwiki.jp/asoudetekoiq/?page=nonjapanese

*For information on the use of detention cell as legal substitutes for detention centers, or prisons in Japan, please see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daiyo_kangoku

the illcommonz video response

"Why am I an Anarchist?" by Norman Nawrocki

2008-11-07T00:33:00.003-05:00

The poem and music are by Norman. Someone else made the video. Norman is cool. Click here to learn more about him and get his books and stuff!

Oh, Happy Day!

2008-11-06T23:52:00.001-05:00

One of my very favorite people is back to blogging! Yeah!

Nate! On the March!

"Quitting America"

2008-11-06T03:11:00.005-05:00

Below is my translation of the November 5, 2008 entry from Tomoyuki Hoshino’s online journal, which you can see here. When I talked to my mom after Obama's acceptance speech, she was overcome with emotion and said, "I never thought I would live to see this day." Her elated feelings are so understandable. My family was very active in the campaign, and I appreciate the loving feelings that fueled their work. Seeing a Black family in the White House is something many of us feel has some symbolic significance even when we know, as Manning Marable said yesterday morning:

[Obama's victory] allows, I think, many Americans, many white Americans, to jump to a faulty conclusion that race no longer is significant in the country. That’s not true, as long as there are racial inequalities that can be measured in all kinds of ways, everything from unemployment statistics to inequality in healthcare. And I think—so that’s one of the tensions in having Obama’s victory occur. That is that, what does that mean for an analysis of American racism?

It's with a recognition of all that and more that I want to post what Hoshino wrote.

Quitting America

There are just a few days left until the American presidential elections. While it’s supposedly the election of one country’s leader, the people holding this office have wrought so much damage throughout the world that I’m sure many people in various places feel like they want to vote too even if they aren't Americans.

On the other hand, there are also those like my American friend A who want to renounce this right. An avowed anarchist, A taught at a Midwestern university. However, she was increasingly disgusted with the intellectuals there who routinely brag about how liberal they are while closing their eyes to the poverty and discrimination right in front of them. So from her point of view, not wanting McCain was a no-brainer, but Obama’s candidacy smelled fishy too given the support he had from those same intellectuals. This summer, she found a job in Canada and moved there. “I’m quitting America,” she said.

This expression “to quit America” comes from the title of the book Quitting America by the African American human rights activist Randall Robinson. He moved from America to a small country in the Caribbean.

For A who is an anarchist, the declaration that she was “quitting America” wasn’t about choosing between a Democrat or Republican; it was a fundamental critique of both parties as historical accomplices. It was also a way of expressing her inability to bear any more of the crimes perpetrated by America.

With that kind of feeling, I want to quit Japan too. But since I’m neither an anarchist nor archist*, the best I can do is mutter, “First, let me choose my government.”

(Tokyo Shimbun, October 31, 2008. Evening Edition, partially revised from the front page column entitled “Nuclear Radiation”)

Obama won the American presidential election. This is better than a continuation of Republican administrations. He’s a skillful speaker, so his acceptance speech was moving. But we still don’t know how fundamentally he will change things. It may not matter what I think, but all the same, I don't trust this person yet.

*The original Japanese here warrants mention. He uses the characters for anarchist (無政府主義者), which mean something like “having no government-ist,” and the made-up antonym (有政府主義者), which means something like “having a government-ist.” When laid out like that, it’s pretty funny to me in that he highlights some of the limits of that particular rendering of “anarchist” in Japanese – and also because it’s just funny.

Go York TAs and Contract Faculty!

2008-11-05T23:56:00.000-05:00

Click here for the story about 50% of the York University teachers who are on strike. One line really stood out to me:

"Teaching assistants earn about $17,386 per year, and pay about $3,700 a year in tuition after tuition rebates have been factored in."

You end up with $13,686 after tuition, so you have about $1,140 a month. The cheapest apartments I could find in Toronto online just now were $500 a month. That leaves you with around $640 a month. A Metropass for public transit costs students $84 a month. You're down to about $18 a day for everything else (phone, utilities, food, books, soap, etc., etc).

The official poverty level in Canada is apparently considered half of the median income, which two years ago was $54,000. Half of that would be $27,000.

Click here for the CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) Local 3903 blog, and here for the strike blog.

A Special Election PSA: "Only Queers Should Tell Queers They Can't Get Married"

2008-11-04T19:39:00.001-05:00

This is hilarious.

No to Genocide in California!

2008-11-03T22:18:00.002-05:00

Please click here to read what I wrote about Proposition 6 on Sept. 20th. I'm not exaggerating. It couldn't be more obvious. Nonetheless, I still see keeeeerazzzy-making stuff like this and this!

Asô

2008-11-02T09:02:00.003-05:00

Hoshino Tomoyuki writes, "It seems as though no one is happier about the global financial crisis than Prime Minister Asô." If you read Japanese, click here to read the rest.

And the Yasukuni Shrine Demolition Enterprize has something to say to Asô too. Click here (English and Japanese).

"The Gendered Prison Experience"

2008-11-02T08:41:00.004-05:00

I just learned about this upcoming talk at McGill and found this article.

McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women Seminar Series

Dr Jacqueline Wilson

School of Education, University of Ballarat
Victoria, Australia

The Gendered Prison Experience: Male and Female Inmate Graffiti

Wednesday, November 5, 2008
4:00 – 6:00 pm, Leacock 927

This seminar will focus on significant aspects of the experience of imprisonment for women, via a gendered discussion of inmate graffiti. While the male graffitists were preoccupied chiefly with issues of personal identity, power and vengeance, the women used graffiti to build networks and alliances as vital aspects of coping with life inside.

Dr Jacqueline Wilson is the author of Prison: Dark Tourism and Cultural Memory. Her research interests include deviance, graffiti, prison education, institutional cultures and youth culture. Jacqui teaches Sociology and Cultural studies in the School of Education at the University of Ballarat in regional Victoria, Australia.

When do borders matter and for whom?

2008-11-01T00:00:00.002-04:00

How could anyone still not get it?

U.S. missile attacks on Pakistan (not the first time this month)

U.S. attack on Syria

URGENT: Support our comrades in Japan!

2008-10-31T23:06:00.005-04:00

As my friend who shared the following info with me wrote, "Fortunately, the current japanese prime minister has a good name like 'Asou', which sounds like 'asshole'. So it also would be great if you could make 'asshole' artwork or something with Asou's face."

Like this:

If you read Japanese, click here.

3 comrades were arrested yesterday. Click here for the Indymedia report.

Arrest video ((turn on the English subtitles by clicking button on the bottom right of player):

Video of police before the arrest:

Here's the statement:

Statement denouncing unlawful arrest
Show your face, Aso!! 'reality tour' Solidarity Group

October 26th,"'reality tour2' what is 6200,000,000 Yen like?Let's go and see the Prime minister Aso's House" was held as a pre-event to Anti-war and Resistance Festa happening on the 29th & 30th Nov. During this event, 3 of the tour participants were arrested and are now still being held in police custody. We are making it clear that these arrests are unlawful and denouncing Public Safety Bureau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and Shibuya police for taking away our comrades.

*Why a 'reality tour'?
We did a reality tour to the 'rip off mansion' of a temping agency president and this was another version of it where we decided to go and see the Aso Taro's mansion which is said to costs 6200,000,000 just for the land. There has been some press coverage on Prime Minister's money sense recently, and we wondered what kind of life he has as he is responsible for resolve the poverty and wealth gap. However this tour had to be broken up by police.

*How the unlawful arrest happened
3pm, Chief of security department of Shibuya police said to us "If you want to go the Prime minister's house by walk, that's fine" and"you can go and see the house in group of 5 to 6 people each in turn" when we were gathering in front of Shibuya train station. We did some announcement of the tour for 30 or 40 minutes, then about 50 of us started to walk.We held our signs and balloons, and we never used our speaker just as police told us to do.

Only 5 minutes later,when we were reaching Dogen Zaka Street one of our comrades who was holding a sign to show the way to other participant was held his arm and wrestled to the ground by police. Police officers started to get a full nelson on other 2 participant with the cue saying "go!go!It's KOBO (Short term for "interfering with policemen in the execution of their duties") It's KOBO!" and then took away the 3. On the news report they say police gave us warning many times but there weren't any except when we started walking. The reason for the arrest of the 3 given by police are "breaching public safety ordinance" and "interfering with policemen in the execution of their duties"but it's all clear in recorded film that there were no such act.There are no fact that tour participants conducted violence.

* Custody Visiting blocked and unlawful 10 days detention
Later on same day, we went to Shibuya Police station to denounce the unlawful arrest and demand custody visiting and take necessities (food,cloth,toothbrush etc) to the 3 . But police did not let us visit the 3. Also even when the soliciter/lawyer arrived at 5pm police didn't let him visit the arrestees and blocked the visiting of the soliciter for 2 hours. I was only after 7pm the soliciter could go in to visit the arrestees and the necessities were handed to our comrades. Later on 28th,the 3 were decided to be held for another 10 days and custody visiting by non-soliciters were banned. Police didn't only unjustly repressed us but also openly infringed on arrestee's legal rights by blocking the custody visiting and keeps holding the 3 unlawfully.

We can never condone this outrageousness. Since when do we have no right to walk on the pavement?

Who made the police guard us in large excess when we were only walking the pavement?

Who told the press false information and trying to put a crime on the innocent 3?

Police always do this, make their move first and make us take the blame.
The police fearing people are going to "see"the prime minister's house, never hesitate to trample on our comrades' freedom and lives.
Police protect Aso.
Then we will protect ourselves.

We say this with rage!
Release our 3 comrades immediately!
Apologize for the unlawful arrest!
Taro Aso take the responsibility for your merrymen's misconduct!

October 29th
Show your face,Aso!! 'reality tour' Solidarity Group note) Tokyo Public safety ordinance is unconstitutional as the constitution says in Article 21: "Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press and all other forms of expression are guaranteed." But even this ordinance it should not give police or other public servant power to ban or censor any political publications or signs or gatherings other than march or demonstration.

As Arrest Solidarity group,we strongly protest to this repression and demand the immediate
release of the 3 arrestees. Please support our statement.

If you or your organization decided to support, email to
"asouq(at)sanpal.co.jp" as following (or just post a comment)

******************************

*I Support the statement of Show your face, Aso!! 'reality tour'
Solidarity Group*

Individual
Name ()
title (if you have one and don't mind letting us know. It can be work
industry, organization name, or anything you do.)
Place you are living (county, city or other)

Organization
Name of organization()
Where it is based()

*Please give us solidarity messages*

******************************

Memory, Violence, and Novels

2008-10-31T15:05:00.006-04:00

I don’t suppose the words “Oxford” and “Mars” go together all that often (maybe I'm wrong), but it was in Oxford that I was able to make contact with the Mars Club earlier this autumn.

I’ve been meaning to post about this encounter with half of the Mars Club for quite a while. I’ve written about the Mars Club before (see here) and have followed its development as carefully as possible from a distance.

I participated in a workshop on "Memories of Violence and Novels Today" that was organized by Mars Club member Kô Youngran, who, like me, was in Oxford for the Takiji Symposium. The discussion focused on U.S. empire before and after 9-11 and how novels addressing, for example, the body of the emperor, sexuality, and colonialism (occupation) have engaged questions of memory and violence. The literary content of this encounter focused on 3 novels written in Japanese that, when read together, generate some very troubling and significant questions. I would really urge folks teaching Japanese literature seminars to assign them together.

FUTON by Nakajima Kyôko as discussed by Naitô Chizuko of Otsuma University (right)

Shinsemia by Abe Kazushige as discussed by Kô Youngran of Tokyo University (left)

Lonely Hearts Killer by Hoshino Tomoyuki as discussed by me (middle)

Kô Youngran reported on this encounter on her own blog here (in Japanese).

I was delighted to be able to be part of the first meeting of the Mars Club in the UK, which led to some exciting collaborations that are already underway.

I am also very excited about plans underway to bring these two members of the Mars Club to Montréal in March. (Details to come.)

Nothing "sub" about this culture

2008-10-30T21:32:00.001-04:00

Every now and then when the fact that I'm newly arrived from the U.S. comes up in conversation, someone up here asks me about "the election," and I end up talking about white supremacism and things like California's genocidal Proposition 6. Since 18 yr. old Paul Schlesselman and 20 yr. old Daniel Cowart (pictured here) were arrested, lots of people have been talking about white supremacism in relation to U.S. elections too, but in a much more limited (and, to me, distorted) sense.

These two kids can conveniently be the face of a neo-Nazi white supremacism that gets depicted as atavistic, extreme, and, by extension, limited and marginal. The quick picture we get is of a couple of very dangerous Hitler-loving crazies juxtaposed against a photogenic and popular Black presidential candidate whom, we are told, is poised to assume the presidency. Schlesselman and Cowart can be scary and dangerous in this picture, but only as aberrations, like a spectacle. After all, we are supposed to believe that Obama's success demonstrates we've hit a "post-white supremacist" or "post-racist" age.

That lets us off the hook from looking at what author of Forced Passages Dylan Rodriguez (Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Riverside) has described so much more effectively than I ever could. His essay "The Meaning of Disaster Under the Dominance of White Life" (which appears in What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race, and the State of the Nation) raises precisely the questions that don't get discussed in corporate media reporting on white supremacy. I'd like to hear even Democracy Now take on what Rodriguez calls the "white supremacist animus of the United States of America." That sure shifts the discussion, doesn't it?

I've posted about this before here, but in an interview with C.S. Soong for Against the Grain, Rodriguez (pictured here) uses the phrase "white supremacist animus" to explicate "the social logic of white supremacy as ... absolutely fundamental to the very concept of institutionality in the United States – whether you are talking about something as mundane as electoral politics or corporate mass media ... or things like popular culture and even independent media for that matter." He goes on to explain that we must look at white supremacy as "something that animates, quite literally, everything that we do, something that permeates the institutions and spaces in which we move, and therefore as something which has to be confronted radically; it has to be opposed radically." Again, click here and fast forward to the 2nd half of the show to listen to the whole interview.

Finally, and apropos of almost nothing, immediately after last night's Rad School, I learned about the Obama TV ad from my mom. The timing of that was funny to me.

Rad People

2008-10-29T21:01:00.003-04:00

David Austin of the Alfie Roberts Institute has done precisely what Abby Lippman described in the previous post (see below). Check out this, and definitely at least read this. You can find a lot of other great stuff by David online, such as this essay.

And check out Norman Nawrocki's website! Watch, read, learn, enjoy!

I'll have much more to write about Norman and David and other wonderful people I get to meet through the Rad School. Just wanted to get those links out for now.

Another Rad School Evening

2008-10-29T20:43:00.003-04:00

Abby Lippman (former chair of the Canadian Women’s Health Network) and Jen Auchinleck of Project Genesis conducted a great workshop on "how to get your story in the mainstream media, working with the corporate media, and media messaging." Much of the workshop addressed obstacles, challenges, nightmares, and alternatives, but we also got a lot of great examples of engagement with the media of all sorts that worked. Again, I wish all my activist comrades and pals in the U.S. could have been there. Two points Abby put out at the beginning are short and simple enough to convey here at the end of the day, and they also warrant sharing and remembering.

1. If someone from the mainstream media calls you with questions, buy time if you need it. Say you'll call back in twenty minutes or whenever to give yourself some time to get clear on what you want to say and how you want to say it.

2. Stick to your message. Repeat the same one or two things over and over again.

Of course, both points require that you get really clear about your message. I don't think that can be overstated.

I also wanted to add that learning about some of Abby's work has given me a deeper understanding of what is at stake in promoting HPV vaccinations.

Southeast Asian Studies Film Festival in Riverside, California! And it's free!

2008-10-29T09:43:00.001-04:00

I wish I could be there! It starts this Friday! Click on either image above to see larger versions!

Culture Shock at McGill and Beyond!

2008-10-24T08:48:00.005-04:00

CULTURE SHOCK
Culture Shock October 27-Nov 10, 2008

Culture Shock is two weeks of events aimed at exploring our cultural myths, particularly those surrounding immigrant, refugee, and racialised communities. Through panel discussions, film screenings, workshops, and a keynote speaker, we'll explore the dynamic nature of culture and challenge liberal discourses around multiculturalism.

Culture Shock is a collaborative effort by the McGill Anti-Racist Coalition (MARC), Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG McGill), and Student Society of McGill University (SSMU).

For childcare or translation please call QPIRG (514-398-7432) 48 hours in advance.
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Antiracist Walking Tour of McGill University
Monday October 27, 5pm
Meet at Roddick Gates
This tour aims to uncover McGill's implication in a history of racism– from James McGill as a slave owner and the foundations of the university on Mohawk land, to the refusal of a dedicated prayer space for Muslim students on campus. However, racism has always been accompanied by anti-racist organizing, both on campus and around it, and these intersections will be investigated on a tour of McGill's lesser-known history
Sponsored by MARC

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An Anti-Racist Look at "National Security" and the Insidious Creep of State Secrecy in Canada
Monday October 27, 7pm
Leacock Building, Room 26, 855 Sherbrooke St, McGill University

Speakers: Adil Charkaoui and Gada Mahrouse

ADIL CHARKAOUI was arrested in May 2003 under an immigration security certificate. Since then, he and his family have been trapped in a seemingly endless struggle to have their most basic rights respected. Though he has twice won at the Supreme Court, little has changed. He remains under draconian court orders and faces undergoing a secret trial process this fall.

GADA MAHROUSE is an Assistant Professor at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University. She teaches courses on feminisms, race, and postcolonialisms. She has published in the International Journal of Cultural Studies, the Canadian Journal of Education, & Pedagogy, Culture and Society.

Sponsored by Coalition Justice for Adil and QPIRG McGill

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Food Fair
Tuesday October 28, 12-3pm
Ballroom, Shatner Building, 3480 McTavish
Sick of the Chartwells food covering campus? Tired of samosa sales being the only representation of Indian food? Want a great accompaniment to your Midnight Kitchen meal? Come to Culture Shock's food fair in the Shatner Ballroom to get a taste of delicious food from all over the globe, brought to you from and as a fundraiser for a variety of SSMU groups! CKUT will be there spinning while you eat, so grab some friends and join us for a relaxed, delicious meal, before you feed your brain intellectual thoughts!
Sponsored by SSMU

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Buying Local: Where does your food really come from?
Tuesday October 28, 3pm
Lev Bukhman Room, Shatner Building, 3480 McTavish

Film screening of "LOS MEXICANOS: The Struggle for Justice of Patricia Perez"
Every year, some 4,000 migrant foreign workers coming mostly from Mexico labour in Quebec farms to plant and pick our vegetables. In the summer of 2006, Patricia Perez, a pro-union militant speaking for the United Food and Commercial Workers, launches a major drive to organize the workers in several farms South of Montreal. She informs them of their rights, protects them from abuse, and struggles to bring them together under a union that would extend to them the same rights enjoyed by Canadian agricultural workers. This film is a portrait of a fight against the injustices of globalization not in the Third World, but here at home - in the Canadian farms that provide us with our summer vegetables.
Sponsored by: QPIRG McGill and Centre d'appui aux Travailleurs et
Travailleuses Agricoles
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From the 1968 Montreal Congress of Black Writers to the Grenada Revolution and Beyond: West Indian Exile and the Caribbean Left
Tuesday October 28, 6:30 pm
Ballroom, Shatner Building, 3480 McTavish

Speaker: Brian Meeks, Professor of Social and Political Change, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus (Jamaica)

Brian Meeks' publications include Caribbean Revolutions and Revolutionary Theory, (1993); Radical Caribbean: From Black Power to Abu Bakr, (1996); Narratives of Resistance: Jamaica, Trinidad, the Caribbean, (2000), Envisioning Caribbean Futures (2007), as well as a book of fiction, Paint the Town Red (2003) which exams the theme of rebellion and the existential condition in Jamaica in the 1970s, a profoundly important decade which saw Jamaica approach the frontiers of civil war.

Sponsored by: Alfie Roberts Institute, McGill Dept of Quebec Studies,
McGill Dept of History, McGill Center for Developing Area Studies, and
QPIRG McGill
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Film Screening: Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work
Wednesday October 29, 4pm

Lev Bukhman Room, Shatner Building, 3480 McTavish
dir. Cheikh Djemaï, 2004, 52 min, Martinique/France/Algeria/Tunisia,
French with English Subtitles, Color & B/W)

Frantz Fanon, His Life, His Struggle, His Work reunites testimonies of friends, family and colleagues that he met during the different steps of his life and traces the short and intense life of one of the great thinkers of the 20th century.
Sponsored by: Alfie Roberts Institute and QPIRG McGill
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Walking Tour of Chinatown
Thursday October 30, 4.30pm
Meet at Roddick Gates

Take a Chinatown Project Walking Tour through Montreal's Chinatown.
Explore the Chinese community's changing response to external and internal challenges. We'll jump from immigration to tourism, racism to gentrification. + intermission for bubble tea & buns.
Sponsored by: Anti-Gentrification Group
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LAL live in Montreal
Saturday, November 1st, 9pm 5-10$ sliding scale
Club Lambi (4465 St. laurent)
Chill out to Toronto's own multi-ethnic down-tempo, soul, electronica artists LAL
Proceeds go to the McGill Anti-racist Coalition
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Beats from Beirut: Aks'ser Lebanon's hip-hop ensemble in Montreal with Nomadic Massive
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 2, 8pm, 17$
La Sala Rossa, 4848 St. Laurent
to purchase tickets in advance contact Tadamon!, contact information below.
An evening featuring front-line hip-hop music, representing Beirut to Montreal, featuring Lebanon's celebrated AKS'SER hip-hop ensemble, including RAYESS BEK and IBEN FOULEN, traveling to Montreal from Lebanon for this special concert. A concert aiming to bring together hundreds for a night of artistically unique, critically acclaimed, socially conscious hip-hop representing struggles for social justice and against colonialism from Montreal to the Middle East, also include a performance from the popular multi-lingual hip-hop ensemble NOMADIC
MASSIVE.
web: http://tadamon.resist.ca tel: 514 664 1036 email: tadamon[at]resist.ca
Tadamon! Montreal
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Canada, a Pariah State? Indigenous rights in Domestic and International Law
Monday November 3, 6.30pm
Moot Court, McGill University faculty of Law, 3644 Peel Street
Speaker: Arthur Manuel

How well does Canada live up to its reputation as a human rights champion? When it comes to the situation of Indigenous peoples, it falls dreadfully short. Few people know that the Canadian government is regularly and roundly condemned by the United Nations. Canada doesn't only ignore minimum provisions of international law -- it also thinks little of domestic legal standards set by the Supreme Court. In its determination to retain control over the lands and resources of Indigenous peoples, Canada runs rough-shod over the emerging framework of the international and domestic law supporting the rights of Indigenous peoples to self-determination and ownership of their traditional territories. Few people can speak better to this reality than Arthur Manuel. Former Chief of the Neskonlith Band and chairperson of the Interior Alliance of BC First Nations, Manuel has been a leading voice of opposition to the Canadian government's agenda to "extinguish" Aboriginal and Treaty rights and assimilate Indigenous peoples into the Canadian body politic. Active locally in the defense of Shuswap land (during the expansion of the Sun Peaks resort), and at the national level, he has also taken the struggle "international," following in the path of his father, the late George Manuel, President of the National Indian Brotherhood and founder of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples. Manuel will lay out an alternative agenda for First Nations to achieve, through direct action and independence from government funding, economic empowerment, third order government, and justice.
Sponsored by: McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism,
QPIRG McGill, Barriere Lake Solidarity Collective
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Protectors of the Forest: The Barriere Lake Struggle Continues
Tuesday November 4, 6pm
TBA
Since the Department of Indian Affairs ousted their Customary Chief and Council in March 2008 and used the Surete du Quebec to forcibly impose the authority of a minority community faction, the Barriere Lake Algonquins have been organizing to roll-back the quiet coup d'etat. They are campaigning to make the government honour a number of agreements, including the Trilateral, a internationally praised land co-management and resource-revenue sharing deal the Algonquins signed with Canada and Quebec in 1991. It would significantly protect their forests from clear-cut logging, but it remains unimplemented. They first signed the agreement after a campaign of logging road blockades, which culminated in a one-day blockade of highway 117, a crucial economic vein in Northern Quebec, in 1990. In October, 2008, Barriere Lake once again blockaded the 117, to force the government to respect their agreements and their leadership customs. The SQ brutally put down the peaceful action.
Community representatives will be joined by Arthur Manuel, spokesperson of the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade, and Russell Diabo, a noted aboriginal policy analyst and advisor to Barriere Lake.
Sponsored by: QPIRG McGill, Barriere Lake Solidarity Collective
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KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Homonationalisms
Wednesday November 5, 6.30pm
Leacock Building, Room 232, 855 Sherbrooke St, McGill University

Professor Puar will examine the connections between sexuality, race, gender, nation and class in relation to the construction of terrorist bodies and the logisitics of war machines. Professor Puar is Associate Professor of Women's & Gender Studies at Rutgers University. Puar's research interests include gender, sexuality, globalization; postcolonial and diaspora studies; queer theory; South Asian cultural studies; and tourism studies. Professor Puar is the author of Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (Duke University Press 2007) as well as numerous articles that appear in Gender, Place, and Culture, Social Text, Radical History Review, Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, GLQ, and Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. She has also edited a special issue of GLQ titled, "Queer Tourism: Geographies of Globalization" and co-edited a volume of Society and Space titled "Sexuality and Space".
Sponsored by: Queer McGill, QPIRG McGill, 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy, QPIRG Concordia
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A reading, lecture and book signing by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore from her latest novel So Many Ways to Sleep Badly
Thursday, November 6, 7:00 p.m.
Room S 1/4, Stewart Biology Building, 1205 Dr. Penfield Avenue
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is a writer, editor, activist, critic and troublemaker based in San Francisco. Most recently, she is the editor of the Lambda-nominated Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity (Seal, 2007), and an expanded second edition of That's
Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation (Soft Skull, June 2008).
Sponsored by: Queer McGill
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The Commission on Francophone Affairs (CAF) presents: Maurice "The Rocket" Richard : The movie
Thursday, November 6, 6pm p.m.
Gert's Bar, Shatner Building, 3480 McTavish
Maurice Richard was a francophone hockey player who made his place within an Anglophone hockey world. His ascension represents not only a hockey revolution, but also the revolution of the entire Quebec francophone population.
Sponsored by: Commission on Francophone Affairs
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Pièces de la Résistance: art auction fundraiser for the Tyendinaga
Support Committee
Friday November 7, 8pm
Ste. Emilie Skillshare, 3942, rue Ste-Émilie (Metro Place St. Henri)
Pièces de la Résistance: art auction fundraiser for the Tyendinaga Support Committee This show is a sequel to the highly successful "Shawn Brant Is No Criminal" art auction which took place in Toronto last spring. It contains art that reflects on anti-colonial resistance, decolonization as a way-of-life, Indigenous sovereignty and the abolition of the kanadian state.
Sponsored by: Ste. Emilie Skillshare
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Shades of Gay: We have more colours than the rainbow
Friday November 7, 10.30pm, Tickets 5-10$
Alize, 900 Ontario east
Dance to everything from bhangra to dancehall to hip hop to dubke and much more!
Sponsored by: Queer McGill and QPIRG McGill
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Human Rights Law and Palestine/Israel: Exploring the Apartheid Paradigm
Monday November 10, 6.30pm
Leacock Building, Room 232, 855 Sherbrooke St, McGill University
Speakers: Noura Erakat, Dina Awad, and local organizer from Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) student union
Moderator: Scott Weinstein of Independent Jewish Voices

Noura Erakat is a Palestinian activist and lawyer. Upon graduating from Berkeley law school, she worked as the National Grassroots Organizer and Legal Advocate at the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. While at the US Campaign she also developed and published an Anti-Apartheid Framework Training Curriculum. She has also appeared on national and international television programs including Al Jazeera International, MSNBC, HBO's "Politically Incorrect" and Fox's "The O'Reilly Factor."

Dina Awad is Member of the Arab student laws association, Tadamon! Montreal, recently returned from the occupied territories

Local organizer from Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) student union

As part of the national and international mobilization to mark the 60th year of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) and the 6th international week against the apartheid wall.
Sponsored by: SPHR McGill, Tadamon, QPIRG McGill

Dahr Jamail and Andrew Duffy speaking in Iowa City on Monday night!!

2008-10-23T17:44:00.006-04:00

Hey everyone in or even near Iowa,

If I could be there for this, I would be! I really hope you all can go. Please tell me all about it too.

On MONDAY OCT. 27 at 8pm, Dahr Jamail and Iraq Veterans Against the War member Andrew Duffy will be speaking in the SHAMBAUGH AUDITORIUM OF THE UI MAIN LIBRARY.

This event is organized and sponsored by the University of Iowa Antiwar Committee , which has been doing a lot to bring stories like Duffy's to more people. UIAC is hosting the event in cooperation with Haymarket Books. If you want to support events like these, please support these groups.

For information about IVAW, go to www.ivaw.org. If you like what they are doing, please support them too.

Dahr Jamail has written about the new Winter Soldier book that features Andrew Duffy (inside and third from the left in the 2nd row up from the bottom on the cover image below). You can see what Jamail wrote here.
Also germane is Jamail's recent report on "Vets Transforming Trauma," which you can see here. I really wish I could be there not just to hear Jamail and Duffy, but to hear them talk to each other.

While this is definitely a rare and wonderful opportunity for Iowa folks to hear Jamail speak, I think it's every bit as (if not more) important to hear what Andrew Duffy has to share. He should be someone everyone in Iowa City knows and supports. I will be writing more about the support he deserves in a future post, but for now I'm just hoping folks will take the time to learn about him and go hear him speak on Monday.

If you click here, you can listen to Duffy's testimony for "The War Comes Home," a project of Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley. As the bio there states:

Andrew Duffy was born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa. He joined the Iowa Army National Guard the day the war started, which was two days after his seventeenth birthday. He was a medic at Abu Ghraib and also did convoys and patrols. After his experiences in Iraq, he he became convinced that the war was illegal and immoral.

You can also watch the following video of Duffy.

I would also really encourage you to watch the following video of Duffy speaking on the Winter Soldier panel on "Racism: Dehumanization." He describes the death of a young Iraqi man in diabetic shock and the kind of routine racism of the Occupation and invasion that the US government and military purport so obscenely to disavow.

This video, forwarded to me by a friend today, might be a lot funnier (the part about Bush snapping and saying, "they're all mother fuckers" and people responding to that) if it didn't seem so true in such destructive and horrifying ways.

And please, please click here to check out Shiho Hirasawa's amazing manga based on Dahr Jamail's book Beyond the Green Zone.

All I can say about this

2008-10-22T16:12:00.004-04:00

Lots of people have been forwarding me reports on this story. I understand that some folks want to know what I think. Really, all I can address at this point is small stuff – like what makes me mad about the way the article is written or how the story is told. The reporter writes that the daughter and children are "thought to be learning to resume a normal existence." That is so ignorant. How on earth can you resume something you never had? (Not that I think "normal" itself is a helpful word here, but still ... "resumed" is the word that really bugs me.)

Report by members of the Shame Train Welcoming Committee

2008-10-21T04:34:00.006-04:00

Shame Train ends in Montreal with successful disruption

October 20, 2008 -- Over 100 protesters gathered in Montreal's Old Port this past Saturday to disrupt the CP Spirit Train's final stop. After successful protests and disruptions throughout it's route from the West Coast to Montreal, the Spirit Train – dubbed the "Shame Train" -- was again met with protesters, and had to cancel or alter large parts of their Montreal program.

-> Photos from the Montreal CP Spirit Train disruption are linked here: http://www.mediacoop.ca/photo/138

Among the protesters from the "Shame Train Welcoming Committee" was a large delegation from the Kahnawake Mohawk community, including Stuart Myiow Senior from the Mohawk Traditional Council, and Carol McGregor who spoke about continued resistance to the Highway 30 expansion south of Montreal [A protest report from a resident of Kahnawake is included below].

Protesters were also joined by Norman Matchewan of the Lac Barrière Algonquin Community who addressed the crowd about the current struggle at Lac Barrière, four hours north of Montreal (more information about the struggle at Lac Barrière linked here: www.solidaritelacbarriere.blogspot.com ). Demonstrators also denounced the recent racist comments by Richard Pound, Canada's representative on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Chancellor of McGill University, who referred to 17th century Canada as "a land of savages".

The Shame Train Welcoming Committee – accompanied by a portable sound system, the Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble (Montreal's Anarchist Marching Band) and various noisemakers -- was easily able to access the main Spirit Train site. CP Rail Police, Montreal Police and security staff of the Spirit Train made feeble attempts to block access for the protesters, but the demonstrators manouvered their way around the "security". For a large part of the day the protesters outnumbered actual Spirit Train participants. None of the scheduled speakers or Olympic athletes took the stage, and both the CP Spirit Train Band and the "Québecois de service" band Bottine Souriante were disrupted (or had their tunes turned into anti-Olympics chants). The Olympic mascots systematically were escorted away each time protesters approached. The live media broadcasts by Spirit Train corporate media sponsors – including Q92 and Team990 – were also disrupted.

At least a thousand "No Olympics on Stolen Land" stickers were plastered all over the CP Spirit Train site, and hundreds of flyers outlining "10 Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Olympics" were distributed (but mainly to passers-by, since so few people actually attended the Spirit Train event itself).

In a Canadian Press report, CP claimed that 1500 people attended the Spirit Train event in Montreal, and 35,000 people attended in total at all the stops across the country; but it's evident that those numbers are wildly exaggerated. In fact, the whole Spirit Train spectacle was a grand failure, from the moment the opening ceremony was disrupted in Port Moody, BC, to activists courageously blockading the rail lines in Southern Ontario,to scheduling a Mississauga stop on Thanksgiving Monday (which resulted in a dismally low turnout) right through to the disruption at the last stop in Montreal. All-in-all, networks of grassroots indigenous solidarity activists across the country were able to effectively disrupt and expose the shame of the Spirit Train.

This weekend's Spirit Train mobilization builds on recent awareness raising events in Montreal about anti-Olympics resistance:

-> A video (in five-parts) from the visit of anti-Olympics Indigenous organizers Gord Hill and Angela Sterritt (May 2008) is linked here: http://www.isuma.tv/?site/displayFilm/id/521/webcam//thumbpage/1
-> A photo-report from the visit of anti-Olympics Indigenous organizers Kanahus Pellkey and Dustin Johnson (January 2008) is linked here: http://photos.cmaq.net/v/no2010/
-> Audio and news reports from Kanahus and Dustin's visit are linked here: http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2008/02/2010media.html
-> Previous reports and information in French are linked here: http://contrelesolympiquesde2010.anarkhia.org/
-> The 10 Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Olympics are linked here: http://www.amp-montreal.net/?q=fr/node/28 (click on page 54 of the Montreal PGA-Bloc Zine)

Indigenous solidarity activists in Montreal, working with their Indigenous allies, will continue to raise awareness about resistance to the 2010 Olympics as part of "Resistance 2010".

-- Report by members of the Shame Train Welcoming Committee.
indigenoussolidaritymontreal@gmail.com - www.amp-montreal.net - 514-848-7583

Migrants and Refugees Speak-out!

2008-10-20T10:19:00.001-04:00

(Please circulate)

Migrants and Refugees Speak-out!

This event is part of a world-wide response by migrant workers to counter the UN-sponsored Global Forum on Migration and Development to be held in Manila at the end of this month.
Organized by the International Migrants Alliance - Canada

Sunday, October 26, 2008
3pm - 6pm
6767 Cote-des-Neiges (Cote-des-Neiges Community Centre)

Speakers: Tamil refugees, migrant farm workers, live-in caregivers and immigrant textile workers

With cultural presentations, food and drink

Info: IMA-Canada Tél: 514 342 2111
Blog: http://imacanada.blogspot.com/

IMA members in Montreal: South Asian Women's Community Centre, Comité d'appui aux travailleurs et travailleuses agricoles, PINAY, Centre for Philippine Concerns, Mouvement contre le viol et l'inceste, Women of Diverse Origins for March 8, Immigrant Worker's Centre

Defenders of the Land

2008-10-18T18:49:00.003-04:00

Click here to see more on the Oct. 6th blockade of Highway 117. Québec and Canadian police used tear gas and "pain compliance" measures on the peaceful Algonquin community members who turned out to protest the Québec and Canadian governments' noncompliance with the 1991 treaty that recognized the Barriere Lake community's right to traditional laws and governance. And click here to learn more about the Barriere Lake Solidarity movement. Click here to see photos.

The Rad School/L'École Radicale

2008-10-16T22:55:00.002-04:00

Click on the image above to view a larger version of the flyer. Mostafa Henaway spoke at tonight's session, and it was great. I wished all my activist friends in Iowa, California, and elsewhere could have been there. He walked us through his experiences organizing taxi drivers with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. It was really great! I hope lots of people turn out for future Rad School sessions. Good learnin'!

Just because I need to remember these

2008-10-16T00:03:00.003-04:00

Hoshino's recent journal entries are really interesting, especially this one and this one. And I didn't know about this!

The G8's Financial Reform Summit

2008-10-15T23:29:00.005-04:00

Their Reform Summit. That's what they are calling it. George Jackson wrote about "reform" as follows:

We will never have a complete definition of fascism, because it is in constant motion, showing a new face to fit any particular set of problems that arise to threaten the predominance of the traditionalist, capitalist ruling class. But if one were forced for the sake of clarity to define it in a word simple enough for all to understand, that word would be "reform."

George was right, and this is the neoliberal G8 post-state I was talking about here too.

Source for the following (emphasis mine):

The leaders of the G8 major industrialised nations have agreed to hold a summit to discuss global financial reform and to restart world trade talks that were abandoned earlier this year.

In a joint statement the G8 leaders say that changes have to be made to the regulatory and institutional regimes for the world's financial systems to fix shortcomings exposed by the current crisis.

They have also agreed to reopen world trade negotiations that collapsed earlier this year.

The move follows a call by Britain's prime minister, Gordon Brown, to rebuild the International Monetary Fund to help regulate the world's financial systems.

He also called for the creation of an early warning system for the international economy and for more cross-border supervision of multinational financial companies.

The summit is expected to be held in the next few weeks.

You can access the full and crazy-making text of the G8 announcement here. Particularly stunning is the following:

"We therefore underscore the importance of not turning inward and of continuing efforts to promote trade and investment liberalization, which over the past several decades has significantly raised the global standard of living and lifted millions out of poverty."

Finally:

"...Bush believed it was important not to repeat past mistakes of protectionism and to ensure that countries commit to trade and investment." (Source)

Wow!

2008-10-15T23:15:00.003-04:00

Today's episode of Against the Grain is so cool and exciting! Here's the blurb:

Veteran dissident Staughton Lynd and radical sociologist Andrej Grubacic have written a new book entitled Wobblies and Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History.

This book is out from PM Press!

JUSTICE FOR ANAS :: UPDATE AND CALL FOR SOLIDARITY

2008-10-15T20:20:00.003-04:00

I also just received this announcement:

RALLY TO DEMAND A PUBLIC INQUIRY AND TO DENOUNCE THE MONTREAL POLICE BROTHERHOOD'S MOTION TO PREVENT A CORONER'S INQUEST

:::::
Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 4pm
Offices of the Montreal Police Brotherhood
480 Gilford (Laurier Metro, St Joseph street exit)
:::::

-- Join us in denouncing the heinous actions of the police and to demand a public inquiry into the murder of Anas Bannis –-

::::: UPDATE :::::

On December 1, 2005, Mohamed Anas Bennis, a 25-year old Canadian of Moroccan origin, was killed by Montreal police officer Yannick Bernier after morning prayers in his neighbourhood of Côte-des-Neiges. Since then, there has been a veil of secrecy that has clouded the circumstances that led to his death and many of Anas' family's questions remain unanswered.

For almost two years now, the Bennis family, along with the Justice for Anas Coalition, has been demanding a full, public and independent inquiry to finally shed some light on the circumstances leading up to Anas' death.

In June 2008, Quebec's chief coroner, Louise Nolet, finally ordered an inquest into this shooting. The inquest was to be presided over by coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier, and was supposed to begin on September 29, 2008. Even though it was not a full public inquiry as we have been demanding -- only a conroner's inquest -- it gave some hope of finally shedding some light on this case.

In late August 2008, however, the Montreal Police Brotherhood filed a legal motion against coroner Rudel-Tessier and the Bennis family, to prevent the inquest from taking place, alleging that all of the answers to the family's questions had already been made available. Yet, up until now, the family has not received answers to many of their questions: why has the knife that Anas supposedly used -- according to the police version of the events -- never been produced or undergone forensic evaluation? Why has the video of the scene never been made public? Why have the police officers Bernier and Roy never been cross-examined on their version of the facts as would occur in any criminal investigation in which someone was murdered?

Quebec law stipulates that whenever a police force is involved in a violent incident leading to a murder, another police force is mandated to investigate the matter. This has produced a situation in which the family has had to deal with a non-transparent police investigation and refusals on several levels given that the Crown Prosecutor and the Minister of Public Security have both not provided any useful information – neither to the family nor to the public.

This action by the Police Brotherhood simply adds more questions for the Bennis family, and reveals the Montreal Police Department's bad faith and lack of transparency: if the police have nothing to hide, why are they working so hard to stop a public inquiry from taking place? It is worth noting that this is the same Brotherhood that filed a similar motion to prevent an inquest into the death of Michel Berniquez (killed by a police officer in 2003), and whose president Yves Francoeur has stated that officer Lapointe (who killed Fredy Villanueva this past summer on August 9) "did his job properly."

Join us in denouncing the heinous actions of the police and to demand a public inquiry into the murder of Anas Bennis!

::::: THE JUSTICE FOR ANAS COALITION :::::

The Justice for Anas Coalition demands:

1. The immediate release of all reports, evidence and information concerning the death of Anas Bennis to the Bennis family and to the public;

2. A full, public and independent inquiry into the death of Anas Bennis;

3. An end to police brutality and impunity.

::::: HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN :::::

1. Endorse the campaign's demands (see above)

2. Write letters supporting the campaign's demands to coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier, with specific emphasis on the importance of a public inquiry. Letters can be sent to:

Attn: Catherine Rudel-Tessier
Édifice Wilfrid-Derome
1701, rue Parthenais, 11e étage
Montréal (Québec) H2K 3S7
Fax: 514 873-8943

3. Spread information about the Justice for Anas campaign in your various networks.

4. Get involved in the Justice for Anas Coalition! Contact us if you are interested.

----
Coalition Justice pour Anas
514-342-2111
justicepouranas@gmail.com
http://www.justicepouranas.org

HASSAN ALMREI: SEVEN YEARS

2008-10-15T20:15:00.001-04:00

I just received the following announcement:

Monday, 20 October, High Noon
Corner of Ste-Catherine and McGill College

Join us in a participatory action marking the seventh anniversary of Hassan Almrei's detention without trial in Canada.

Hassan was accepted as a convention refugee by Canada in June 2000. However, on 19 October 2001 he was arrested under an immigration "security certificate". Since then, successive governments have been using the security certificate process to try to deport him to Syria - the country he was given asylum from and the very place where Maher Arar, Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati, Muayyed Nureddin and others were brutally tortured with the complicity of
Canadian officials.

Seven years later, he remains in prison, although he has never had a trial nor even been accused of any crime. Indeed, an internal government memo which emerged during the O'Connor Commission states definitively that "the evidence against [Almrei] does not meet the threshold for criminal charges to be laid against him in Canada." (K. Porter, Action Memorandum for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, 21 November 2003). The security certificate process itself was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in 2007. But still Hassan remains in prison. He now faces undergoing a new secret trial process, all over again, under a slightly modified process which the government enacted in response to the Supreme Court ruling.

Hassan has been the sole detainee at the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre, known as Guantanamo North since the summer of 2007. Before he was transferred to Guantanamo North, he spent four years and two months in solitary confinement in a Toronto prison. Prolonged periods of solitary confinement and indefinite detention are considered forms of torture.

More information on Hassan Almrei: www.homesnotbombs.ca

This is one of a series of creative actions taking place in Montreal throughout the fall of 2008 to expose Canadian complicity in torture in the name of "national security". Inspired by the People's Commission on Immigration "Security" Measures, each action focuses on a different case of Canada's current involvement in torture.

* Photo-reports of previous actions
-- in support of Abousfian Abdelrazik (12 Sept):

-- in support of Ivan Apaolaza Sancho (24 Sept):

-- in support of Omar Khadr (6 Oct):

* No One Is Illegal Radio: Exposing Torture Canada (October 2008)
-- show description:
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2008/10/no-one-is-illegal-radio-
october-2008.html
-- listen: www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/29566

police attack Algonquin families at highway 117 blockade in northern Quebec

2008-10-15T19:52:00.002-04:00

Police attack Algonquin families at peaceful blockade of highway 117 in northern Quebec from Barriere Lake Solidarity on Vimeo.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, October, 7, 2008

Canada and Quebec use riot police, tear gas, and "pain compliance" on peaceful Algonquin families to avoid negotiations: 'pain compliance' perfect description of Conservative's aboriginal policy, say community spokespeople

Kitiganik/Rapid Lake, Algonquin Territory / - Yesterday afternoon, the Conservative government and Quebec used riot police, tear gas, and "pain compliance" techniques to end a peaceful blockade erected by Algonquin families from Barriere Lake, rather than negotiate, as requested by the community. The blockade on Highway 117 in Northern Quebec began at 6:00am Monday, with nearly a hundred community members of all ages and their supporters promising to remain until Canada's Conservative government and Quebec honoured signed agreements and Barriere Lake's leadership customs. Around 4pm, nearly sixty Quebec officers and riot police encircled families after a meal and without warning launched tear gas canisters, one of which hit a child in the chest.

"Our demands are reasonable," said Norman Matchewan, a spokesperson who was racially slurred by Minister Lawrence Cannon's assistant earlier in the election. "We're only asking for the government to uphold the agreements they've signed and to stop illegally interfering in our customary governance. The message we've received today is that Stephen Harper and Jean Charest are unwilling to even play by their rules."

"We will not tolerate these brutal violations of our rights," added Matchewan. "Forestry operations will not be allowed on our Trilateral agreement territory, and we will be doing more non-violent direct action."

Nine people, including an elderly women, a pregnant woman, and two minors, were roughly arrested. While a line of police obscured the view of human rights observers from Christian Peacemaker Teams, officers used severe "pain compliance" techniques on protestors who had secured themselves to concrete-filled barrels, twisting arms, dislocating jaws, leaving them with bruised faces and trouble swallowing.

"In this election alone, the Conservatives have labelled us alcoholics and vilified our community's majority as "dissidents," said Michel Thusky, another community spokesperson, referring to an op-ed published by Minister Lawrence Cannon in regional newspapers. "Now they and Quebec have chosen violence over meeting their most basic obligations to our community. 'Pain compliance' is the perfect description of the Conservative government's aboriginal policies."

Barriere Lake community members had promised to maintain the blockade until the Government of Canada honoured the 1991 Trilateral agreement, a landmark sustainable development and resource co-management agreement praised by the United Nations and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. To end federal interference in their leadership customs, they wanted the Government of Canada to appoint observers to witness a leadership reselection according to their codified customary selection code, respect its outcome, and then cease interfering in their internal governance.

Collectif de Solidarité Lac Barrière
*******************************************
www.solidaritelacbarriere.blogspot.com
barrierelakesolidarity@gmail.com
514.398.7432

Anti-colonial Thanksgiving!

2008-10-15T19:38:00.000-04:00

Anti-colonial Thanksgiving!
Celebrating our cultures of resistance to colonialism
FEAST, FILMS AND SPEAKERS

Friday, OCTOBER 17, 2008
Native Friendship Center of Montreal
2001 boulevard St-Laurent (métro St-Laurent)
Free! Welcome to all!

Free childcare on-site; bring your kids!
Traduction/Translation/Traduccion: français, English & español
Unfortunately, our venue is not wheelchair accessible.

Schedule:
6pm:
- Free Dinner (an "anti-colonial Thanksgiving Feast")
- Excerpts from Wapikoni Mobile
(short films by youth from aboriginal communities all over Quebec)

7pm:
Multi-media presentation by Michel Thusky & Norman Matchewan, members of the Lac Barriere Algonquin Community

Other presentations:
- presentation about land struggles at Kahnawake
- testimony from a farm worker in the seasonal agricultural worker
program, including excerpts from the film
Los Mexicanos: The Struggle for Justice of Patricia Perez
- information about campaigns and protests against the CP Spirit Train
(October 18) and CN Rail (October 31)

presented by Frigo Vert & QPIRG-Concordia with the support of: the Barrière Lake Solidarity Committee-Montreal,
Tyedinaga Support Committee-Montreal, the Shame Train Welcoming Committee, the Indigenous Solidarity Committee of the People's Global Action (PGA) Bloc in Montréal, the Migrant Workers Support Center, Solidarity Across Borders, and others.

INFO:
514-848-7586 – info@qpirgconcordia.org
www.qpirgconcordia.org

A Reminder to Meet Your Neighbours!

2008-10-15T19:03:00.001-04:00

You are invited to the second “Meet the Neighbours !” Brown Bag Lunch Seminar on Community Education, Research, Knowledge Production and Social Change

"Community Radio – A Tool for Change"

12 pm, Monday 20 October, Room 233, Education Building, 3700 McTavish

With

Gretchen King, Community News Coordinator, CKUT Radio

CKUT (90.3FM) is a non-profit, campus-community radio station based at McGill, providing alternative music, news and spoken word programming to the city of Montreal and surrounding areas, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. CKUT’s diverse community news programming provides an "alternative" focus on events, issues and current/public affairs in the greater Montreal community.

"Meet the Neighbours" is a series of informal brown bag lunch seminars aims to make connections, join dots, spark debate and reflection, as we hear from community educators, organizers and independent media practitioners about the education, research and action components of their practice.

Faculty, graduate and undergraduate students are all welcome to attend.

For more information, please contact Dr Aziz Choudry, Assistant Professor, International Education, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University.

Phone: 514 3982253 or email: aziz.choudry@mcgill.ca

Quick Info on Resist 2010 and Justice for Fredy

2008-10-06T08:11:00.003-04:00

1. Check out Resist 2010 to learn more about the movement and an upcoming conference on the Vancouver Olympic Games!!

2. DEMO in Montréal this Saturday!
JUSTICE POUR FREDY!
Manifestation Familiale

CBC article on the police's Villanueva report

14h00 samedi le 11 octobre
Parc Pilon (Pie-IX et Henri-Bourassa)

Revendications:
- Une enquête publique et indépendante sur la morte de Fredy Villanueva
- La fin du profilage racial, des abus et de l'impunité policière
- La reconnaissance du principe selon lequel tant qu'il aura des inégalités économiques, il y aura de l'insécurité sociale

http://www.montrealnordrepublik.blogspot.com/

More here and here and here.

Support Renata Hill of the New Jersey 7!

2008-10-04T19:31:00.004-04:00

Please share the following quickly. If you don't remember, not too long after the killing of Sakia Gunn, seven young Black lesbians from NJ were attacked in NYC in the summer of 2006. They defended themselves. They were charged with attempted murder and "gang" violence and vilified as a "wolf pack" of Black lesbians.

--------------
October 2nd, 2008

(12 days to stop the prosecution)

Friends and Allies,

We hope this call to action finds you well and with a few moments to respond immediately. Enclosed [below] is a sample letter addressed to Robert M. Morgenthau, the District Attorney of New York County, in which we state our goals of ending the prosecution of Renata Hill. Please send your letter immediately.

On Ocober 14th, Renata Hill, one of the New Jersey 7, is scheduled to face her retrial. We are in support of her desire to not have to go back to trial, and demand that the charges against her cease.

Please send this letter, or one similar in your own words, to the address listed. After sending in the letter, please let us know so that we can tally how many letters have been sent. (freenj4@yahoo. com)

Forward widely. We will be in touch to follow up with where we are in pressuring the DA or the possible need to escalate pressure.

To stay up on updates about the case, upcoming fundraisers, and important announcements, subscribe to the wordpress blog for the New Jersey 4.

www.freenj4.wordpress.com

For Our Defense,
Bay Solidarity

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SAMPLE LETTER:

[Your Name]

[Your address]

Robert M. Morgenthau

District Attorney

New York County

1 Hogan Place

New York, NY 10013

[Date]

Re: People vs. Renata Hill

Dear Mr. Morgenthau:

I am writing concerning the case of Renata Hill, who is currently awaiting a retrial on charges stemming from an incident in August 2006. Her conviction for Gang Assault was recently overturned on appeal.

I want to encourage you to stop further prosecution in this case, and to release Ms. Hill so that she may get on with her life. Ms. Hill has already served two years on charges resulting from a street altercation that she did not initiate. While she was incarcerated, she was separated from her young son. She also suffered the death of her mother, whose memorial she was unable to attend. Since their convictions on Gang Assault charges, the felony convictions against both Ms. Hill and one of her co-defendants were overturned by the appellate courts. The two other defendants are currently awaiting their appeal hearings.

Notably, the complainant in this matter has commenced a multi-million dollar lawsuit and runs a website, Dwayne Buckle Foundation for Justice, seeking donations to his cause based on virulent anti-gay and lesbian attacks.

I believe that further prosecution and incarceration of Ms. Hill would be unjust. She has been punished enough for her role in the event – both by actual imprisonment, and in the impact that imprisonment has had upon her life. I appreciate any assistance you can provide in preventing any further injustice.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]

This is brilliant!

2008-10-02T17:52:00.002-04:00

The video below is described here as follows:

This is a clip from the movie The Matrix detourned using reworked excerpts from a Bush - Kerry debate in 2004. I worked with the French overdub of the movie because I've found that subtitles don't work well if they are commenting on the same language.

Demo Reel for Myths for Profit: Canada's Role in Industries of War and Peace

2008-10-01T14:03:00.001-04:00

Click here for more info!

Meet the Neighbours Reminder

2008-10-01T14:00:00.002-04:00

"Popular Education and Public Interest"

1pm, Monday 6 October, Room 233, Education Building, 3700 McTavish

A "Meet the Neighbours !" Brown Bag Lunch Seminar on Community Education, Research, Knowledge Production and Social Change

With Indu Vashist, co-coordinator of QPIRG (Quebec Public Interest Research Group) McGill

QPIRG McGill is a non-profit, student-run organization that conducts research, education, and action on environmental and social justice issues at McGill University and in the Montreal community. With such a broad mandate, QPIRG brings together a wide range of activists interested in many different issues. http://www.qpirgmcgill.org

This series of informal brown bag lunch seminars aims to make connections, join dots, spark debate and reflection, as we hear from community educators, organizers and independent media practitioners about the education, research and action components of their practice.

Faculty, graduate and undergraduate students are all welcome to attend. (Bring a friend from another department or outside of the university altogether!)

For more information, please contact Dr Aziz Choudry, Assistant Professor, International Education, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University.

Phone: 514 3982253 or email: aziz.choudry@mcgill.ca

This is the first in a series of 6 brown bag lunch seminars being held at DISE during fall term.

Feelin' Reserved

2008-10-01T13:55:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Aziz for sending me this War Party video.

TBS Radio does Neoliberalism

2008-10-01T13:52:00.001-04:00

My new Ph.D. student, J, shared this link with me. Thanks, J!!

閑不徹