GOP, Democrats and U.S. Parole Commission United to Gag Ray Luc Levasseur!

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The day started out with good news: a combination of comrades and liberal supporters of academic freedom and freedom of speech had stood up to the right-wing campaign against Ray Luc Levasseur. These folks had taken a stand in the small university town of Amherst, Mass., organizing an event where Levasseur - the former political prisoner who spent twenty years in prison (eighteen years in solitary) for resisting imperialist crimes - could speak on the subject of "The Great Western Massachusetts Sedition Trial: Twenty Years Later". This was after an alliance of cops and right-wing media hacks had had the university administration cancel the talk just last Thursday.

Ray Luc Levasseur is a Vietnam veteran, a former organizer for Vietnam Veterans Against The War, and a revolutionary communist. He was a political prisoner from 1984 to 2004 - twenty years, eighteen of them in solitary - accused of membership in the Sam Melville/Jonathan Jackson Unit and United Freedom Front, two anti-imperialist organizations that carried out armed attacks in the 1970s and 80s in solidarity with national liberation struggles in the U.S. and internationally against apartheid in South Africa, U.S. intervention in Central America and in support of Puerto Rican independence.

Given his track record as a committed opponent of U.S. crimes, it is no wonder that the swine have lined up to try and silence him. At first it was police associations - i.e. the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, Fraternal Order of Police, etc. - and then Mass. governor Deval Patrick chimed in. That's when the university caved, canceling Levasseur's appearance at Fifth Annual Colloquium on Social Change.

But yesterday it was announced that several progressive groups and faculty members concerned about freedom of speech announced an alternate event, to be held at UMass' School of Management, sponsored by a half-dozen academic departments.

This wonderful initiative has pushed the state to take an aggressive stance opposing Levasseur's right to speak. Deval Patrick - a Democrat, and Massachusetts first Black governor - condemned the talk again: "I am more than a little disappointed about this invitation having been extended," Patrick said at a State House news conference. "I fully get the point and respect the idea of free speech. But I think it is a reflection of profound insensitivity to continue to try and have this former terrorist on the campus."

This was followed with a bipartisan motion - passed 33-1 - condemning the planned talk.

Then, late this afternoon, the state played its trump card: the U.S. Parole Commission weighed in, officially denying Levasseur the right to leave Maine in order to attend the Massachusetts event.

Through such a blatant act of political censorship, the Parole Commission has shown itself for what it is - the repressive arm of the state charged with controlling and regimenting survivors of the u.s. prison system. And by adopting such an aggressive posture, the state has created a teaching opportunity for us, a moment where we can intervene and show that this kind of gagging is not exceptional, it is in fact simply one of the top goals of the prison system.

(Indeed, we have seen something much worst for the past several years, as the Parole Commission and the same right-wing police associations have intervened to keep political prisoner Veronza Bowers held in prison for years after his mandatory release date, purely because of his political history as a Black Panther.)

Comrades in Amherst - and of course Ray Luc himself - deserve our gratitude and support for resisting the state's attempt to decide how our movements can communicate. The state has adopted an aggressively repressive stance - if this is not resisted it could further chill the movement on u.s. campuses - but if it is resisted we can turn their arrogance into a vulnerability.

If you're in the Amherst area you are encouraged to attend the event (sadly, without Ray Luc), which will nonetheless take place on Thursday November 12 at 7:15 p.m. at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in School of Management Room 137. Participants will include sedition trial defendant Pat Levasseur, members of the 1989 Springfield sedition trial legal defense team, and a juror from the trial.

For more information contact sedition.trial@gmail.com

Also, people should check out various prison writings by Ray Luc Levasseur, available on the Letters from Exile website.

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Defying Right-Wing Smear Campaign, Ray Luc Levasseur to Speak at UMass!

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From friends involved in organizing to bring Ray Luc Levasseur to Amherst, Mass.:

November 10, 2009

For Immediate Release

A talk and forum on “The Great Western Massachusetts Sedition Trial: Twenty Years Later” will be held on Thursday November 12 at 7:15 p.m. at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in School of Management Room 137. Participants will include Ray Luc Levasseur and members of the 1989 Springfield sedition trial defense team.

The sponsoring UMass departments and organizations do so because of their commitment to free speech and academic freedom.

Sponsoring departments include:

• Communication Department*
• Economics Department
• History Department
• Department of Languages, Literatures, and Culture
• Social Thought and Political Economy Program
• Sociology Department
• Sociology Graduate Student Association
• Student Government Association Executive
• Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Program

The event is also sponsored by the following non-profit community organizations, foundations, and businesses: the Rosenberg Fund for Children, Food for Thought Books, Vermont Action for Political Prisoners, and the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities.

Several UMass departments have added their support to this event in the name of protecting the cherished American values of freedom of speech and academic freedom, which they believed to be threatened by the decision to cancel the event under pressure from a variety of outside organizations. Sponsors’ support for this event should in no way be construed as an endorsement of Levasseur, his political beliefs, or any of his past activities.

For further information, contact sedition.trial@gmail.com.

*In the service of instructing student reporters, the Journalism Program in the Department of Communication does not sponsor political guests and is not co-hosting Levasseur's visit to UMass.

At the same time, worth mentioning that a facebook page has been set up, entitled "Let Ray Have His Say", to protest the event's cancellation. Please join if you are interested.

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Mark your calendars!: Montreal Anarchist Bookfair (May 29 & 30, 2010)

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The 2010 Montreal Anarchist Bookfair will take place on the weekend of May 29-30 at the CEDA (2515 Delisle, metro Lionel Groulx). Please note, the next Bookfair will take place over two days (ie. there will be tabling on BOTH days). As well, please note that the Bookfair is taking place later in May than in previous years.

In the coming weeks and months, we will be sending more updates and callouts on this list, with more information, but for now we wanted to inform everyone about the dates and locations of next year's Bookfair (our second decade!).

-- The Montreal Anarchist Bookfair Collective
info@salonanarchiste.ca

-> Our announcements list:
https://masses.tao.ca/lists/listinfo/salon-annonces
->Our facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=71082453058

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CBC News - Montreal - Natives want PM to screen northern Quebec projects

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CBC News - Montreal - Natives want PM to screen northern Quebec projects

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University of Massachussetts Bows to Right-Wing hysteria

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Bowing to pressure from the New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police, the Boston Police Patrolmen's Union, and assorted right-wing gutter journalists, and the Governor of Massachusetts, the University of Massachusetts has caved, pulling the plug on a talk by Ray Luc Levasseur that was to take place next week.

Ray Luc Levasseur is a revolutionary comrade, but as you all know words are cheap, and saying that about the man does not explain the fuss about this event. Until you realize that Levasseur not only talked the talk, he also walked the walk. As he has wroitten elsewhere:

In 1967 I did a tour of duty in Vietnam where I was deeply affected by the devastation of the war on the Vietnamese people and their country. In 1968 I began my first political activism with the Southern Student Organizing Committee in Tennessee. Our work centered on bringing an end to the war, supporting the formation of labor unions, and support work for Black liberation. Police repression ensued, and from 1969 through 1971 I spent most of my time in segregation cells of the Tennessee State Penitentiary. When released in 1971 I became a state organizer for Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). In 1973 I left VVAW and began working with prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families. I became an organizer with a [Maine] community-based group called SCAR (Statewide Correctional Alliance for Reform)… In 1974 I was involved with the formation of the Red Star North bookstore, which also operated a free books-to-prisoners program. In late 1974 I went underground became of my commitment to building a revolutionary movement that could grow, sustain, and defend itself at each stage of its development. In 1974 police repression had reached intolerable levels.


In 1984 I was captured by agents of the federal government [along with others in a case that became known as the Ohio 7]. In 1985 I was tried and convicted of bombings against U.S. military facilities, military contractors, and corporations doing business in South Africa. I received a 45-year sentence. In 1986, I was indicted with seven others for seditious conspiracy and RICO (Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations). The indictment charged me with membership in the Sam Melville-Jonathan Jackson Unit and the United Freedom Front. These groups carried out a series of actions from 1976 through 1984 in support of Puerto Rican Independence; freedom struggles in Southern Africa; ‘for the Sufferers—the Homeless—the Unemployed—the Hungry—the Imprisoned—those who die in the streets of amerikkka;’ and in opposition to U.S. war crimes in Central America. In what became the longest sedition trial in the history of the U.S., I was acquitted of seditious conspiracy. The jury deadlocked on the rico charges and the government was forced to dismiss them. Following our victory in this trial, I was sent directly to the control unit at Marion, Illinois. In 1995 I was transferred to the government’s highest security prison—Administrative Maximum, Florence, Colorado. I stayed there until 1999, when I was transferred to U.S. Penitentiary, Atlanta.

What many of us only learned following his capture was than Ray Luc is an eloquent writer. His text "Until All Are Free" was turned into a booklet by anarchists in the UK, and became one of the most widely read resistance texts in the 80s anarchist scene. (More of his writings are available online here.)

Ray Luc was finally released in 2004 - by that time he had spent twenty years in prison, fifteen of them in solitary.

Next week's talk had been organized in the framework of the Fifth Annual Colloquium on Social Change, sponsored by UMass Amherst Libraries’ Department of Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA), Food for Thought books, Vermont Action for Political Prisoners, the Rosenberg Fund for Children and the Massachusetts ACLU. The goal of the conference was "to examine how ideas about social justice have shaped American lives with speakers who represent distinctly different radical challenges to American society."

In a series of events reminiscent of the silencing (not!) of Ward Churchill, right-wing media activists combined with political pressure and police lobbying led the University to announce today that they were canceling the event.

It remains to be seen how local activists will respond to this; an email from one organizer does indicate that there may be plans to hold an alternative event, hopefully during the same time slot as the originally planned lecture; possibly a panel discussion on Academic Freedom in the Post-911 era.

Stay tuned for more on this (hopefully).

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[November 5th] Who's the Terrorist? Criminalization of social movements & the anti-terrorism crusade

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WHO'S THE TERRORIST?


Criminalization of social movements & the anti-terrorism crusade

Thursday, November 5th 6:30 pm at
Pavillon J-A-DeSève (DS) UQAM,
Rm DS-1580
320 Sainte-Catherine street E.

As state-sponsored crimes are being increasingly normalized on a global scale, and national security is taking precedence over individual and collective rights, the media often plays a critical role in constructing public opinion by not distinguishing between popular resistance and terrorism. Organizing for social, environmental and human rights is portrayed as engaging in criminal acts, and terrorism. As part of a Canadian tour, a member of the Political Prisoners Solidarity Committee of Colombia, will join Montreal groups - PASC, Tadamon!, Indigenous Solidarity Committee, Certain Days, and the People’s Commission Network - in a public discussion about the consequences that the "War on Terror" security policies and practices have on social movements.

• What impact does the anti-terrorism discourse have on our organizations and the communities in which we work?
• How can social and political organizations resist the injustices perpetuated by repressive regimes in Palestine and Colombia?
• Why do Canadian intelligence agencies identify indigenous organizations as potential terrorist threats when they defend their inherent right to self-determination?
• How does the “War on Terror” discourse serve to justify the implementation of laws which threaten fundamental rights and sanction racial and political profiling?
• How does the 'Witch Hunt', carried out by the West in the name of combating terrorism, justify and normalize practices of state-sponsored terrorism such as torture?

Event organized by:

• Le Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie (Project Accompaniment and Solidarity Colombia) - PASC – is a Montreal-based collective that is working to build a network of direct solidarity with social organizations and peasant communities defending their rights to land, life, self-determination, justice and dignity. INFO : www.pasc.ca
• Tadamon! (Arabic for “solidarity”), is a Montreal-based collective which works in solidarity with struggles for self-determination, equality and justice in the ‘Middle East’ and in diaspora communities in Montreal and beyond. INFO : http://www.tadamon.ca
• The Indigenous Solidarity Committee We work in direct solidarity with indigenous organizers and communities fighting for land, freedom and self-determination, from an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist perspective. INFO: indigenoussolidaritymontreal@gmail.com
• The People’s Commission Network is a Montreal network monitoring and opposing the “national security agenda”. The network is a space for individuals and groups who face oppression in the name of “national security” - such as indigenous people, immigrants, racialized communities, radical political organizations, labour unions - and their allies, to form alliances, share information, and coordinate strategies to defend their full rights and dignity.
• Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar. The calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organizers in Montreal and Toronto, and three political prisoners being held in maximum-security prisons in New York State and California: David Gilbert, Robert Seth Hayes and Herman Bell. We work from an anti-imperialist,anti-racist, anti-capitalist, feminist, queer and trans positive position. INFO : www.certaindays.org

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Pennsylvania Charges Dropped Against Elliot Madison and Michael Wallschlager

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"Tortuga" is the name of the collective house where Elliot Madison and Michael Wallschlager live. Madison and Wallschlager are the two anarchists who were arrested at the G20 protests in Pittsburgh in September, accused of using twitter to help demonstrators avoid the cops. Following their arrest, Tortuga was raided by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, seizing boxes of personal belongings - computers, passports, even stuffed animals.

This just out on the Friends of Tortuga blog:

In the face of a PR nightmare, Pennsylvania authorities have withdrawn all charges against two members of Tortuga accused of using Twitter to aid protesters at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. At a hearing today, instead of oral arguments regarding a defense motion to unseal the secret 18-page affidavit authorizing the arrests of Elliott Madison and Michael Wallschlager at a motel just outside of Pittsburgh, the prosecution immediately moved to withdraw all charges against the two before the defense had a chance to argue its case. Although clear from the beginning that these charges were absurd based on the State’s very own laws, our housemates were incarcerated for 36 hours, had their van towed and belongings confiscated, and one house member was given $30,000 in straight bail.

The District Attorney and his spokesperson were at pains to explain why the State would drop all charges against these dangerous twitterists and of course, refused to admit that these charges were unconstitutional and a heavy-handed attempt to scare anarchists and others from protesting in ways unsanctioned by the government. Instead, the prosecution says they decided that pursuing the charges “would be unwise” after consulting other law enforcement agencies and because of other pending investigations. The secret affidavit authorizing the arrests in Pennsylvania is set to become public on Nov. 23rd. We imagine the Pennsylvania State Police will seek an extension to keep this document sealed—perhaps in order to hide the flimsiness of their secret evidence? However, no matter the reason, we will fight to unseal this document and we will not let the State hide behind sealed evidence, obscure innuendo, and other traditional tactics used by secret police.

Though it is a victory that all the charges against our two housemates were dropped in Pennsylvania, we cannot forget that there is still a mysterious grand jury and other “ongoing investigations” out there. While we may be free from criminal proceedings now, we are still under the threat of future charges/indictments. What these might be, when they might happen, and what cause the State has is, of course, secret. Although our only option is to wait and see, we refuse to let them go about their business ruining our lives in peace and quiet and will continue fighting them every step of the way.

For more information and updates, please go to friendsoftortuga.wordspress.com

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H1N1 Vaccinations: Some Thoughts from an ICU Nurse-Comrade

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Received this email from Scott Weinstein, a friend of mine who is an ICU nurse, and thought it worth sharing for the light (as opposed to just heat) that it shines on the question of the H1N1 vaccine:

This mail is unsolicited, so you may trash it or read it. I am NOT a flu expert, so take my thoughts with skepticism, which you should do with any health advice from someone who is not well educated in the subject. I am an intensive care RN and have been studying on my own the flu and vaccination debate for a month now, and want to share my thoughts that may tamper the emotions and claims on the debate. This month at work on my ICU, two patients had H1N1. Both had other high risk factors. The elderly lady did fine. The 23 year old died. That is not statistically significant, but It forced me to examine this flu more seriously than I have with previous flues.

I am agnostic on the issue, except that my bullshit meter has been in the red-zone for a while, and I desire a more cold-blooded analysis and less dogma.

There are three major problems with the H1N1 flu and vaccination program.

1. People are getting hysterical that there is not enough vaccines to go around.
2. People are getting hysterical that the the vaccines are more deadly than the flu.
3. Accurate information seems harder to access than sensational information.
   

Not surprisingly, there media has sensationalized the problem, and there is a strong odor of conspiracy-theory.

In the middle are those of us who are confused.

People like me in the health care field have to deal with a lot of complexity and unknowns, in a short amount of time, with potentially deadly results.

The US public health agency, the Center for Disease Control CDC is poor when it comes to releasing easy to understand statistics, but they are issuing advice and guidelines, and seem to have the most information compiled from scientists and medical professionals around the U.S. on the subject. I quote them because it is easy, and they have a lot of public health stats. Should we trust them? Well, they are the government, but they are not the people who vote for war, or gave the job of fixing the economy to the bankers who ruined it for the rest of us.

There are four questions that we need to know

1. Who are at most risk of serious illness or death from the H1N1 flu?
We know it is people who are: pregnant, immunocompromised, have asthma, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, diabetes, or obese.. Healthy people with good immune systems are obviously less at risk for the flu, (or any other illness). Except healthy pregnant women and healthy kids are more at risk for serious H1N1 complications than with the regular seasonal flu.

These last three questions wont be known until later, or until after this flu season is over.

2. What percentage of UN-VACCINATED people will get seriously ill or die from the H1N1 flu?
3. What percentage of VACCINATED people will get seriously ill or die from the H1N1 flu?
4. What percentage of VACCINATED people will get seriously ill or die from the H1N1 vaccine?

"CDC estimated that about 36,000 people died of seasonal flu-related causes each year, on average, during the 1990s in the United States."

They report that the seasonal flu vaccine is about 30-90% effective (depending on your other risk factors) in preventing serious illness and death. But they don't have current stats on H1N1 because the vaccination program just got started.

In the worst year for serious illness and deaths from a flu vaccine, 1976, 532 vaccinated people for H1N1 out of 40 million, got Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) in the US. 32 died. Only 13 people contracted and one person died from the H1N1 flu! The U.S. shut down the vaccination program and paid out $millions to the GBS victims.

As of Oct. 24, the CDC reports there are 114 confirmed pediatric deaths in the U.S. from H1N1 and (this web page may be updated weekly). Ignoring the H1N1 effects from April through August, the CDC reports from August 30th - October 24th, 530 flu deaths, and 2,916 pneumonia and flu syndrome-based deaths. The flu is H1N1.

The U.S. H1N1 vaccines do not contain adjuvants like aluminum, for political reasons. Adjuvants supposedly make the vaccine more effective. The Canadian and European vaccines do. A very small study inspired by neuro problems of American Gulf War soldiers, injected the common aluminum hydroxide and the sqalene adjuvants in about 43 mice. It found that aluminum hydroxide adjuvant increased the risk of neuodamage by up to 23% (1). The number of mice tested is way too small to draw a conclusion, other than this might warrant a much larger study. It is also a perfect example against killing animals for studies like these: Why not study people who got the adjuvants? That should be easy because millions do each year. So we could look at a large sample of people who got flu vaccines with the adjuvants, and a large sample of people who got the flu vaccine without adjuvants, and a large sample of people who didn't get a vaccine or adjuvants and see if any group has more neuro deficits or damage. I know, people will say the study would be flawed because Americans didn't get the adjuvants, and so many are brain damaged anyway, but we can control for that.

There have been studies to figure out what part of the vaccine caused GBS in 1976. They are inconclusive according to the CDC. Could it have been the adjuvants, the preparation, the medium, the killed virus or the attenuated virus? Anyway, they predict the new H1N1 vaccine in the US will be a lot safer. Will it be? I can't say for sure, but I assume that the public health experts do NOT want to get burned again by issuing a deadly vaccine. Not only will it cost them their jobs, but it will seriously destroy any confidence the public has in public health efforts.

Lots of problematic internet articles pass my way to prove that the vaccines are harmful. First I look to see if the article is based on statistical research of a good sample size, or is it based on anecdotes, stories or individual examples. I would never base a serious decision solely on anecdotal 'evidence'. I would never solely base a decision only from any person, doctor or pharmaceutical corporation that stood to profit by me following their advice. Although I have serious criticisms of the western medical-industrial-complex, many natural or alternative health practitioners are as unscrupulous, greedy or dogmatic as the Western medical industry they criticize. Dogma is an incurable epidemic I fear.

One interesting source of science geek news and views on the flu & epidemiology is: http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/

There is one troubling aspect of the H1N1 virus that reminds me of the HIV virus. The HIV virus causes AIDS by hijacking the person's immune system, and turning it against them. With H1N1, we are reading about a hypothesis that the reason young healthy people are getting sicker and sometimes dying at a higher rate than they would for the regular seasonal flu, is that much of the lung damage in life-threatening flu infections is caused by a “cytokine storm,” the inflammatory overreaction of the body’s immune system to invasion by the virus that can happen with healthy people.

So, given the knowns and the unknowns, should someone get the flu vaccine?
I personally have never been vaccinated for the flu until I was forced to for H1N1 as a condition for keeping my job.

My simple answer is that if they fall in a high risk category, they should certainly consider it. If they are exposed to the public inside closed spaces and their sneezing and coughing, they should consider it.

Of course, people should wash their hands, cover their cough, and stay home if they have flu-like symptoms.

Finally, people should always pursue a healthy lifestyle and lessen their health risk factors, regardless what illness they are concerned about.

Best wishes and stay healthy!
Scott

Footnote (1): Aluminum hydroxide injections lead to motor deficits and motor
neuron degeneration
Christopher A. Shaw, Michael S. Petrik c
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jinorgbio

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Celebrate Thirty Years of Freedom for Assata Shakur!

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In 1979, fearing that I would be murdered in prison and knowing that I would never receive any justice, I was liberated from prison, aided by committed comrades who understood the depths of the injustices in my case and who were also extremely fearful for my life.

-Assata Shakur

Thirty years ago today three individuals signed in as visitors to see Assata Shakur, who was at that time a prisoner of war, framed by the United States government as part of its vendetta against the Black Liberation Movement.

Only thing was, these “visitors” had other plans… they managed to smuggle in guns, took some guards hostage and managed to break Assata out of jail. Comrades were waiting in a car not far away, and they all made it away.

One of the finest operations ever carried out by "our side" in North America, if you ask me…

None of the guards were harmed, and despite a massive FBI manhunt Shakur managed to disappear without a trace. It was five years later – in 1984 – that Assata made a public statement, letting us know that she was living in Cuba, working on a masters degree in political science, writing her autobiography, and raising her daughter.

As it states in Assata's short biography in Let Freedom Ring:

In May 1973, while Assata and two companions were traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike, state police spotted and identified them as people they believed to be members of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, and proceeded to ambush them. When the smoke cleared, one police officer and one of Assata’s companions, Zayd Shakur, lay dead. Assata, shot with her hands in the air and dragged from the car, lay wounded. Only belatedly taken to the hospital, Assata was then chained to her bed, tortured, and questioned while injured. In fact, she never received adequate medical attention even though she had a broken clavicle and a paralyzed arm. Nonetheless, she was quickly jailed, prosecuted, and incarcerated over the next few years for the series of trumped up cases. In five separate trials, and with majority-white juries, where charges were not dismissed due to lack of evidence, she was repeatedly found not guilty of charges ranging from bank robbery to murder. As the manager of one bank said at trial, “She is just not the one who robbed my bank.” In the final trial in 1977, where she was charged with the Turnpike killings, she was found guilty by an all-white jury. This, even though forensic evidence taken that day showed that she had not fired a weapon. She was sentenced to life plus 33 years in prison. (Sundiata Acoli was tried separately, convicted of killing the policeman, and sentenced to life plus 30 years.)

Sadly, several comrades - Marilyn Buck, Mutulu Shakur and Sekou Odinga and Silvia Baraldini – were arrested in the years following Assata's liberation, and charged with having participated in the action (amongst other things). All but Baraldini remain behind bars today. Black Liberation Army martyr Kuwasi Balagoon – who died of AIDS while in prison in 1986 – was also said to have been a member of the Black Liberation Army unit that participated in the action.

For years the US government has had a bounty on Assata's head - $150,000 for the forcible return of this remarkable woman, this "twentieth century escaped slave". In May of 2005 the federal government upped the bounty, now offering one million dollars for anyone who might kidnap and her and return her to her to the US plantation. All of which, it must be said, is as much about the broader trend towards repression within the United States and that country's war of attrition against Cuba as it is about Assata herself.

As Assata herself has explained:

I am a 20th-century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism, and violence that dominate the U.S. government’s policy toward people of color. I am an ex-political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984.

I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one. In the 1960s, I participated in various struggles: the Black liberation movement, the student rights movement, and the movement to end the war in Vietnam. I joined the Black Panther Party. By 1969 the Black Panther Party had become the number one organization targeted by the fbi’s cointelpro program. Because the Black Panther Party demanded the total liberation of Black people, J. Edgar Hoover called it the ‘greatest threat to the internal security of the country’ and vowed to destroy it and its leaders and activists.

For more information about Assata Shakur – including information about ordering her autobiography Assata – please visit the Assata Shakur Page on the Kersplebedeb Site.

For more information about Kuwasi Balagoon, including information about the incredible book A Soldier’s Story, check out the Kuwasi Balagoon Memorial Page.

For more information about political prisoners and prisoners of war in the United States, check out the Kersplebedeb PP/POW Page.

Assata, Kuwasi Balagoon: A Soldier's Story, and Let Freedom Ring are all available from leftwingbooks.net:

Tags: political prisoners, black liberation army

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Class, Nation, and Health: with some thoughts about H1N1, and building movement capacity

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What follows is a rough version of a talk i gave at Montreal's Native Friendship Center, at the Anti-Colonial Thanksgiving organized by Frigo Vert last night. Many of the articles and documents referenced here are also referenced on the new Kersplebedeb H1N1 page.

I’m here to say just a few words about health inequalities, with particular attention to this new flu, the H1N1 or swine flu, and some concerns around it.

The flu is something I became interested in earlier this year, when my husband caught it and became very sick. He spent two months in the hospital, most of that time on a ventilator in a medically-induced coma, and he probably would have died if not for the fact that he received excellent medical care.

People say that you have to already have a serious health condition to be at risk from H1N1, but my husband’s only relevant health problems were very mild asthma and the fact that he gets migraines. In fact, they’re saying now that a quarter of the people who have died of H1N1 were in perfect health beforehand.

Now luckily my husband didn’t die, though his seven weeks in the ICU did make me realize some things. For one, it gave me an appreciation of the fact that even though not many people were dying of the flu, an unknown number of people were getting very very sick, and it was only the fact that there were enough ventilators and ICU beds that allowed them to survive. (The clearest figure i could find about this was that for every H1N1 death, there were four people critically ill with the virus who had to be kept alive in an ICU.)

And that got me thinking about health inequalities, and how they might play out with the flu.

By “health inequality”, I don’t mean the fact that some of us are more healthy than others, or that some of us see the doctor more often. I don’t even mean just the fact that some of us have more ready access to medical care, though that's getting closer. What I’m talking about is not an individual thing, but a collective phenomenon. The fact that different groups of people face different obstacles and challenges to being healthy. That the family you were raised in, the neighbourhood you grew up in, the job you end up doing and the place where you end up living as an adult, these factors all affect your chances of getting particular illnesses, they affect how readily you’ll have access to treatment if you do get sick, and as a bottom line, these things all affect how long you’re likely to live.

That’s what I mean by health inequality.

Health inequality is normally the result of some other kind of inequality. It’s not just caused by bad luck or genetics. More often than not, it is a result of financial inequality, unequal power relations, your position in society.

There are many useful ways of looking at this, but two that i find particularly helpful are class and nation.



Class and Life Expectancy: Some Examples from Montreal

If you go out this door, walk down to St-Catherine street and then take a left and walk for an hour, you’ll end up in Hochelaga Maisonneuve, Montreal’s working-class east end. Folks there have a life expectancy in their low to mid-seventies. In fact, bucking the general trend in most countries, the life expectancy for older residents of the neighbourhood actually went down between 1998 and 2008. (By life expectancy we don't mean how old most people are dying now - that's referred to as the "average age of death" and is usually significantly younger. Life expectancy is capitalism's forecast as to how old people born today are likely to live - indeed, the fact that there continue to be such discrepancies in life expectancy is a stark indicator that the 21st century is not intended to be any more egalitarian than the last one was.)

If on the other hand, you were to go out this door, walk down to St Catherine street and take a right, and walk for about an hour, you’d be in Westmount, one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in all of Canada. The folks there, just to use the same measure, have a life expectancy in their eighties.

Now what makes a life expectancy? Lots of things, for instance: how common violence is in your community, what kind of food people eat (and what kind is sold at your local supermarket), what opportunities you have for physical exercise, how stressful or dangerous your job is likely to be, and of course how likely you are to get sick with various diseases due to poor sanitation or overcrowding or pollution.

The thing about these various factors, is they all follow the same contours of wealth and political power. When I was doing a bit of research for this talk, I came across a page hidden like a needle in a haystack on the Quebec government website, in which Montreal was divided up into different neighbourhoods and each neighbourhood was listed along with the prevalence of various diseases, various "quality of life" indicators, and also average annual income. These statistics are not completely honest, engaging in a bit of demographic gerrymandering, by including a few blocks where people are poor into the wealthier neighbourhoods, and including a few middle class blocks in with the working-class neighbourhoods, to dilute the impact of the numbers - but even so, a predictable pattern emerges. The same neighbourhoods – places like Hochelaga Maisonneuve, St-Henri, Montreal North – suffer from higher rates of various health problems, and the same places enjoy better than average health, and those are the wealthier and safer areas. (Although lacking the health information, similar socio-economic statistics can be found on this City of Montreal web page.)

It makes sense, after all, this is one of the big reasons people want to be middle class, or upper class, the fact that they can then afford a healthier and longer and safer and more pleasant life, not only for themselves but for their children, too.

This all is one way of thinking about heath inequality.



National Disparities Within Canada

If class is one useful way to look at injustice, another important concept is nation. The two aren’t the same, but they’re closely related.

Different nations, different peoples, live inside what is called Canada, experiencing very different living conditions, and obviously this leads to differences in health. We may live just down the block from each other, but for all that many of us effectively live in different countries.

Again, to use life expectancy as a bottom line, folks in Westmount might be expected to live into their eighties, folks in Hochelaga Maisonneuve into their mid- seventies, well Indigenous people in Canada, on average, have a life expectancy in their low seventies (high sixties for men, mid-seventies for women). That's all the Indigenous folks counted as such by Statistics Canada, including those who have "made it", including those in communities with more resources: a national average just slightly below that of the poorest of Montreal's neighbourhoods.

Canadian colonialism and genocide create this discrepancy - the Indigenous life expectancy results from different health issues and trends than what is found in the settler community. We're not just talking a little more of this disease or slightly less of that vitamin, but tragically high death rates amongst young people, often due to violence and various forms of substance abuse (See pages S54-S55 of the Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique Vol. 96, Supplément 2). That’s a direct result of genocide, Canada's long term assault on the ability of subject nations to reproduce and maintain themselves in a healthy way.



Looking at Communities

Now these statistics are just that, statistics. They’re all about averages and generalities, they deal with large numbers of people, millions in fact. For that reason, while they're useful as an initial tool, they can also trick you into missing some important details. Just as it's misleading to talk in broad generalities about “Canada” without specifying the different classes and nations here, it’s also misleading to talk in generalities about neighbourhoods or broad national categories like “Quebecois” or “settler” or “Indigenous” without keeping in mind that not everyone in these categories is dealing with the same situation. Definitely not all settler communities are the same, definitely not all immigrant communities are the same, definitely not all Indigenous communities are the same. Ignoring this has real political consequences that can screw us up.

Now a community may be geographic, like Hochelaga Maisonneuve or St. Henri or Kanesetake, but it may be more amorphous than that. Not all communities are found on maps, not all communities have a longitude and a latitude. We may not normally think of them as communities, but in terms of health, your job may provide a community, for instance a factory may be a community. A school may be a community. If you're a sex worker, then that may be a community. And if you’re living on the street that’s a particular community, if you’re living at the Y, or staying at a shelter, then that’s a particular community. If you’re in prison, then you'd better believe it: in terms of your health, that's a distinct community.



Locked Up or On the Street

This does not diminish the importance of nations and classes. On the contrary: if you check out these situations, or if you’re forced to live in them, you see that in fact they’re not separate. In fact, it is in specific communities that nations and classes exist in their sharpest, most intense, form. Like on the street: in Hamilton, Ontario, for instance, where Indigenous people represent 2% of the city’s population, but 20% of the homeless population. Or Edmonton, where Indigenous people make up 43% of the homeless population, though only 6% of those who have homes. (Aboriginal Housing Background Paper, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation November 2004)

Or take a look at Canadian prisons and penitentiaries: Indigenous people are locked up over six times as often as anyone else in Canada. A few years back they did a "snapshot" study of all the prisons, penitentiaries and jails in Canada, to see exactly who was locked up: in Saskatchewan Indigenous people were imprisoned at almost ten times the overall provincial rate; they were 76 per cent of that province’s prisoner population. In Manitoba, 61 per cent of prisoners were Indigenous; in Alberta, it was over 35 per cent. (Racial Profiling in Canada, p. 81, quoted in Sketchy Thoughts)

So when we’re talking about communities, even when we don’t mean actual geographic communities that you can find on a map, even when we’re talking about something like being on the street or in prison, it should be clear that we’re still talking about something that has very clear class and national characteristics. Not everyone has an equal chance of ending up in these situations, not everyone has an equal chance of getting out of them.

In terms of health, in terms of well-being, if you’re in a particularly oppressed community, your reality will be a lot more intense than what you see in the broad reassuring national statistics. To give an example: 1 in 125 people in Canada is thought to have Hepatitis C, a potentially fatal illness. According to a study carried out in 2004, the rate is almost one in four (23.6%) for prisoners in the federal system. To give another example: Canada-wide, just over one in a thousand (0.13%) people were HIV positive in 2004, but almost one in twenty women in prison (4.7%) had the virus. (Moulton, Donalee. "Canadian inmates unhealthy and high risk." CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal. 2004) Similar kinds of discrepancies exist if you’re talking about tuberculosis or many other serious health problems.

Prisoners are one such group, people without good housing are another. A study that just came out this week in the British Medical Journal tells us that in Canada, if you're a woman living in a rooming house at age 25, your life expectancy is less than fifty years of age. If you’re a man living on the street at age 25, your overall life expectancy is less than forty. Less than half the national average. (Hwang, Stephen W., Mortality among residents of shelters, rooming houses, and hotels in Canada: 11 year follow-up study, BMJ 2009;339:b4036)

Understand it: nations and classes find their lived reality in communities. Communities with their own vulnerabilities and peculiarities, their own cultures, their own realities. This is important when thinking about health crises, because when disaster strikes, it will normally strike first in a specific community. Partly because germs and pollutants are distributed that way, and partly because social power and wealth are distributed that way. When there's an outbreak of some disease, most communities will probably be mildly affected, if at all. Oftentimes, there will even be big differences within various oppressed and colonized peoples, as only certain subgroups are made to bear the brunt of whatever capitalism is dishing up this season. (At least at first.)

So we have this obscene situation, that as a society, we’re often moaning about possible disasters that aren’t very likely at all, while people around us are actually living the disaster, or living the crisis, right now before our eyes. But most people choose not to see it.

It’s important to keep this in mind, because if you yourself are in a community struck by disaster, then these big reassuring statistics can make you feel like what's happening to you is exceptional and aberrant, perhaps even your fault or your community's fault. But in reality while it may be exceptional, it is also intrinsic to the system, and more often than not your personal hell has been noted and deemed acceptable by those who claim to be in charge.

On the other hand, if you are lucky enough to not be in the line of fire, then those statistics, by lumping people and communities together in these big categories, can give you a false sense that nothing anywhere is really all that bad. Those cases where people are in a serious crisis, where diseases like tuberculosis and Hepatitis C are not only common but are the norm, those situations end up being hidden, camouflaged by the large numbers of cases where people are managing to hold it all together.



H1N1: Parsing Opinions

This new flu, the "swine flu" or H1N1, it's an easy topic to spin bullshit about, and a lot of people are spinning bullshit about it. It’s easy to spin bullshit because this is a new strain of the flu, and it hasn’t been around during a flu season yet, and so no one can really know how serious it will be. According to some people the flu will wipe everyone out, according to some people it’s harmless but the vaccine will kill you – and all these folks seem to contradict themselves and rely on junk science, but they get a hearing because most of us know we can’t trust the government, and we’re often scientifically illiterate ourselves. If you’re bored, you can make up any old end-of-the-world fantasy story, and someone out there is likely to believe you. (If you don't believe me, just try it.)

But just because we don’t know something, that doesn’t mean that we can’t talk intelligently. Just because any crazy idea will get a hearing, doesn’t mean that it’s pointless to try and be logical and reasonable in seeing what might come.

Within the sane range of opinion, there’s two ways of looking at H1N1, and at what is likely to occur. One way is to point out that most people do not get very sick from it. Only 90 people in Canada have died so far from H1N1, while the regular flu kills thousands every year. This is an important point. According to this view, it's not so much a pandemic as a scamdemic, a fabricated excuse for some big pharmaceutical companies to boost their profits.

But it’s worth keeping in mind that the regular flu normally kills hardly anyone in the summertime or spring, and that’s when H1N1’s deaths have occurred so far. To compare the regular flu's winter toll with that of H1N1 over the summer is to make certain assumptions that contradict what years of epidemiology tell us about when flu infections - and serious illnesses, and deaths - will spike.

The bottom line is we just don’t know how serious or how mild the flu will be this winter, and winter is when the vast majority of flu deaths normally occur.

In the meantime though, we do have the experience of the H1N1 this spring. Then the virus played itself out much like other illnesses: people in less wealthy and more oppressed communities were more prone to catching it, and thus formed a larger proportion of those who got very sick. There was a good article in the Globe and Mail a little while back, in the science section, which made exactly this point; its title was “Influenza has a cure: affluence”.

To give one example of how this worked, in June, 14% of people with H1N1 showing up at emergency rooms all across Quebec were showing up at just one hospital, the Montreal Jewish General. This may in part be because it’s just a better hospital and more proficient at diagnosing people, but it may also have something to do with the fact that it’s located in the middle of Cote-des-Neiges, one of the more heavily immigrant neighbourhoods in Montreal. While Cote-des-Neiges is a mixed class neighbourhood, it does contain pockets of real poverty, bad living conditions, and overcrowding. (This statistic, of 14%, was discussed at an information seminar about H1N1 at the Jewish General in June. i am unaware of it having been published to date.)

But there’s something important to grasp beyond the general fact that the flu will be more prevalent in less wealthy neighbourhoods. Like I was saying, no matter what the picture painted by broad statistics, when you look at the specifics you’re going to always find certain communities dealing with much worse situations.

That is precisely what we saw this spring, in a number of communities, where H1N1 became something much much worse. When it became so widespread that a tipping point was reached. To speak in dialectics, one could say the quantitative – the numbers of people sick - became qualitative, meaning it changed the nature of the entire situation. Local resources were overwhelmed, and the crisis entered a different phase. In Garden Hill, St. Theresa’s Point, Sandy Lake – all Indigenous communities – the flu pandemic got completely out of control, local nursing stations were unable to support people’s needs, and over a hundred people had to be medi-vacced to intensive care units in Winnipeg hospitals. Several people died.

Tipping points are like dominos, when one occurs it always risks setting off the next. In terms of what happened this summer, this almost did happen, as ICUs in Winnipeg filled up with critically ill H1N1 patients and there was a real fear that there would not be enough ventilators. Had that occurred (thankfully it didn't) many more people would have died.

While Garden Hill, St. Theresa's Point and Sandy Lake were the only places we know of where things escalated to that level, Indigenous people across Canada were suffering disproportionately from the flu. According to the way the government measures these things, Indigenous people make up less than 4% of the Canadian population – but this summer by the same measure Indigenous people made up 25% of those who got critically ill from H1N1. In Manitoba, where Indigenous people make up roughly 10% of the population, this summer at one point they were over 60% of those who found themselves on ventilators, struggling for life in ICUs.

Nor is it only Indigenous people. Compared to most places, Canada is a fairly “white” country, but according to a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, less than 50% of those who became critically ill with H1N1 in Canada this summer were white; the majority were people of color. It’s perhaps also worth noting that that same report found that almost 70% of those who got critically ill were women, which shows this disease has a gender profile that hasn’t been given enough attention.

We may not be able to predict the future, but given what we do know, we can make some reasonable guesses about the flu this winter. It is clear that the incidence of disease will not be random, and that not all communities will fare the same. No matter what the broad, general, abstract “Canadian” experience this winter, it is guaranteed that in some specific communities the situation will be much much worst. Those hardest hit will almost certainly be Indigenous communities, immigrant communities, working class communities.



A Suggestion to My Comrades

At the height of the outbreak in Garden Hill this spring, Grand Chief David Harper asked Health Canada to set up a field hospital in the community, an idea that the government rejected.

Since then, the Assembly of First Nations asked the federal government to send flu kits to Indigenous households across the country – Health Canada didn't see the point, so instead the AFN had to raise money on its own from the provinces and the private sector.

Just a couple of weeks ago Grand Chief Harper was quoted in the newspaper again, saying “By now, we would have liked to have field hospitals set up so our people don’t have to wait to be airlifted to Winnipeg for treatment.”

This is a reasonable request: for months now everyone from local healthcare providers to the World Health Organization has been saying that if a major crisis occurs in Canada, if a tipping point is reached, if the quantitative becomes qualitative, it will most likely happen in one of the many remote and impoverished Indigenous communities. But the government isn't worried.

So it begs a question for me – which of our movements have things like this on the radar? Which of our movements is poised to respond to a request for a field hospital, or any kind of useful emergency intervention? It reminds me of the ice storm back in 1998, when the whole city of Montreal was paralyzed, many without electricity for weeks, and the army was sent in. Many people were relieved to see the soldiers, we felt we needed rescuing. Why couldn’t any of our movements have played that role?

And why does this question seem silly to some of us? As if the ability to respond to a crisis, the ability to serve the people when the people really need serving, as if all of that was beyond the scope of our responsibilities.

Some of us have the skills, and i know many of us would love to see these capacities developed, but the question is a collective one, not an individual one. We need to explicitly decide as a movement that that’s where we’re going. We need autonomous structures, separate from (and ideally hidden from) the state, in which those with medical skills can frame their work, even if they may be operating within a hospital or a community health organization. We need to become scientifically literate, so that we don’t fall for the latest ridiculous conspiracy theory. Even if not everyone has the interest or the proclivity to get a grasp on "hard sciences", as a movement we need to value that kind of thinking, to appropriate it, to make it our own.

Most importantly, we need to think in terms of filling the role that the state plays, dealing not only with healthcare, but also with everything from garbage disposal to sewage treatment to conflict resolution. If we claim to be against the state, then that becomes our job. If we fail at it, if we fail to do a better job than what's being done now, then even if we do someday drive out the state, even if we do establish no-go areas, sooner or later it will be the people themselves who will demand the enemy's return.

H1N1 may or may not play itself out as a disaster this winter. I certainly don’t believe it will be some Canada-wide cataclysm, but I think it’s likely that in certain specific areas it will be a serious problem, and some people will suffer. If tipping points are reached, if the surge capacity of particular communities is overwhelmed, it won't be pretty. I can tell you from personal experience that the disease can be horrendous.

We know the Harper government is ideologically predisposed to letting poor people die. We know capitalism and colonialism will only make the situation worst. Knowing this, I would argue that our movements have a responsibility to think beyond zines and blogs and lobbying, that we have a responsibility to start doing what we can to build our capacity to offer real help to people whenever and wherever a crisis does occur.

Tags: h1n1 health canada indigenous first-nations poverty prison homelessness

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"I plead guilty, I'm a racist." -- Jason Kenney

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From pals at No One Is Illegal-Montreal:

Jason Kenney confronted and disrupted in Montreal

October 23, 2009 -- Migrant justice activists and organizers, with their McGill allies, confronted and disrupted Jason Kenney -- Canada’s Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism -- before and during a closed function with Conservative McGill.

At least 50 protesters, in an action called by No One Is Illegal-Montreal, were able to surround Kenney in the Arts Building as he tried to enter the private event. For about one-minute, Kenney was asked about the report in today’s Toronto Star that a Mexican woman, who twice tried to apply for refugee status to Canada, was found murdered in Mexico (article is linked below). Kenney brushed off the question and didn’t answer.

Kenney was also asked explicitly about his party’s blocking of a refugee appeals division, and again he didn’t answer.

When Kenney was told by a member of No One Is Illegal that his policies scapegoat migrants and pander to racists, Kenney replied (with a hint of sarcasm): “I plead guilty, I’m a racist.” At that point, Kenney’s handlers and security pushed through protesters to get Kenney inside the venue.

For the next hour and more, protesters chanted and made noise to disrupt the event from outside. The protest was partially a teach-in as demonstrators gave speeches about Kenney’s track-record, highlighting in particular:

- the murder in Mexico of Grise, a woman who twice tried to claim refugee status in Canada but was refused
- the Conservatives continued refusal to implement a refugee appeals division;
- the recent treatment of Sri Lankan migrants who are currently detained in British Columbia;
- Kenney’s introduction of visas for Mexicans and Czechs while falsely misrepresenting their refugee claims as bogus;
- Kenney’s role in US-style mass raids on migrant workers in Ontario this past April;
- Kenney’s unapologetic defense of Israeli war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon;
- Kenney’s attack on free speech by preventing the entry of George Galloway into Canada;
- Kenney’s involvement in cutting the funding of the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF);
- Kenney’s proposed changes to the status of migrant workers, which makes their situation more precarious;
- the trend under Kenney and the Conservatives to push migrants into temporary worker categories;
- Kenney's defense of Conservative policies justifying rendition to torture and security certificates;
- the lifting of the moratorium on deportations to Burundi, Rwanda and Liberia, while making it harder for other migrants to make refugee claims;
- Kenney’s record of comments that pander to racists, by inaccurately portraying migrants as abusive of the immigration and refugee system.
- and more (!).

Members of Solidarity Across Borders, active in support work with local migrants facing removal, also spoke to the day-to-day reality of deportation and detention in Montreal, citing examples of local individuals and families fighting for status, in defiance of removal orders.

At one point, two members of Conservative McGill – Gregory Harris and Derek Beigleman -- began chanting “We love Kenney, we love Kenney.” Protesters stayed silent for at least a minute, and then asked the Conservatives about their view on the murder of Grise, as well as Conservative immigration and refugee policies that allowed the tragedy to happen. The two Conservatives laughed throughout the narration of Grise’s deportation and eventual death.

During the picket, protesters also spoke in solidarity with No One Is Illegal Vancouver’s picket today demanding the release of Sri Lankan migrants who are currently detained after arriving in Canada last Sunday, as well as this evening’s migrant justice assembly by No One Is Illegal-Toronto.

No borders, no nations, stop the deportations!
-- No One Is Illegal-Montreal
---------

The Toronto Star article about the murder of Grise is linked HERE.

A quick selection of photos of the picket (not including, unfortunately, the surrounding of Kenney by protesters before he entered the venue) is available HERE.

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Gord Hill to the Pigs: "Like I give a fuck about going to Babylon..."

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The following from out west, via Mostly Water:

The JIG is up! Gord Hill Threatened with Rendition by Olympic Cops

By Gord Hill; October 20, 2009 - Vancouver Media Co-op
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/1985

[Note: See also Statement by Gord Hill Regarding Visits by Olympic Police Agents.]

Occupied Coast Salish Territory

Yo Weeksus,

I, Gord Hill, am proud to announce yet another encounter with the Olympic police as a result of my 'controversial' statement to CBC News and my views on sabotage. This evening (Tuesday, October 20, 2009), at around 9:30 PM, I was approached by plainclothes officers of the Incredibly Stupid Unit (Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit). I can now confirm that they are, in fact, incredibly stupid.

I was walking westbound on Pender to Columbia Street in the Downtown Eastside, when I saw two males loitering around the corner. One look at their sad faces told me they were pigs. As I waited for the light at the crosswalk (jaywalking being illegal...) they approached me, with one flashing his badge and announcing he was an RCMP officer with 'JIG' (Joint Intelligence Group). He said he wanted a couple of minutes to talk to me and I said no. I crossed the street & began walking north on Columbia to Hastings, with the RCMP agent walking alongside me, the other cop, who said not a word, to our right rear (about 4 feet behind).

The RCMP agent walking with me, a white male in his 50s, maintained a rambling monologue about how my statements to CBC on Oct 13 (the power lines scenario) had hurt a lot of people, about how some of his friends were aboriginals, that he sympathized with my cause about helping the homeless, etc. He told me that from this day until the Olympics, every time I looked over my right shoulder he would be there.

What was most interesting were his comments regarding my attempted entry into the United Snakes of Amerikkka on Oct 17; the RCMP agent told me that because of my statement to CBC I would never again be allowed entry into the US, that their national security would arrest me and put me in a far, far away place, so far away it would be beyond my mind (or something along those lines).

I take this as implying the practice of rendition, where prisoners in US custody (including Canadian citizens) have been transferred to other countries and tortured (i.e., Mahar Arar). It seems odd for an RCMP agent to be delivering such a threat on behalf of another country's security apparatus (but that's how the pigs roll these days, I guess).

As we turned onto Hastings the cop continued his rambling. When we approached a group of Natives I announced that the men walking with me were Olympic cops who were harassing me because I defend the land and the people. The cops immediately stopped and two more plainclothes officers approached from behind (total: four cops). One of the Native women started yelling at the cops, telling them I had the right to an opinion. The cops withdrew & began walking eastbound on Hastings.

As usual, I played it cool, because I believe in the old saying “Love your enemy, for they are the instruments of your destiny.” And like I give a fuck about going to Babylon...

Resist the Olympic Police State!
No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!

Gilakasla!

Gord Hill, Kwakwak'wakw
Editor, No2010.com

FFF - FIGHT FOR FREEDOM!
Check out: www.No2010.com * www.warriorpublications.com

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October 29: Anti-Colonial Thanksgiving

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Next Thursday in Montreal. Click on the image to see the full-size PDF.

ANTI-COLONIAL THANKSGIVING
Films, Speakers & Feast!

Thursday October 29th
6pm @ The Native Friendship Centre
2001 St. Laurent Blvd. (Metro St. Laurent)
Free: Event, Food and Childcare.
Wheelchair Accessible Space.

Speaker: Tracey Deer
Film: Club Native
In Club Native, Deer looks deeply into the history and present-day reality of Aboriginal identity. With moving stories from a range of characters from her Kahnawake Reserve - characters on both sides of the critical blood-quantum line - she reveals the divisive legacy of more than a hundred years of discriminatory and sexist government policy and reveals the lingering “blood quantum” ideals, snobby attitudes and outright racism that threaten to destroy the fabric of her community. Tracey Deer will present her film and be available for discussion/questions after.
Speaker: Billie Pierre NYM/OG

Film: A Quiet Struggle
Update on Indigenous organizing focussed on the resistance to tourism and development as it’s related to the Winter 2010 Olympics in BC.

Speaker: Karl Kersplebedeb
Brief talk about medical apartheid and the politics of the H1N1 epidemic’s effect on low-income communities.



Missing Justice is a grassroots solidarity collective based in Montreal that works to eliminate violence and discrimination against Indigenous women living in Quebec. Our goals are to raise public awareness and create a safer environment for Indigenous women by tackling issues of systemic racism, sexism, classism and negligence that are present in the media, the justice system and police forces. We recognize that the causes of racialized and sexualized violence are linked to Canada’s colonial policies of the past and present.



Presented by:

le frigo vert
2130 rue mackay
514-848-7586
www.lefrigovert.com

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[October 28+29] McGill Used Book Fair

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The best english-language used bookfair in Montreal is just nine days away - tens of thousands of books for just a loony or a toony each (mostly):

Annual McGill Book Fair
Wednesday, October 28, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Thursday, October 29, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Redpath Hall, on the east side of McTavish Street, one block north of Sherbrooke

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[October 24] Beyond Prisons, Toward Community Strategies: Supporting work within and against prisons

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Next Saturday in Montreal, definitely worth checking out:

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 at info@prisonercorrespondenceproject.com
514-848-2424 x 7431 * www.prisonercorrespondenceproject.com

Vous pouvez aussi lire ceci en français ici.

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2010 Slingshots AVAILABLE NOW!

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By far the most popular way for anarchists to stay organized, the Slingshot 2010 organizers are here, complete with mini-calendar, daybook planner, address book section, international radical contact list, and nifty "what happened on this day" notes scattered throughout. The artwork, as ever, is wonderful in a chaotic punk rock way.

available from leftwingbooks.net

The pocket version "classic" is a 176 page pocket planner (4.25 inches x 5.5 inches) with radical dates for every day of the year, space to write your phone numbers, a contact list of radical groups around the globe, menstrual calendar, info on police repression, extra note pages, plus much more. Slingshot has a tough layflat binding and a laminated cover, and comes in 22 cover colors printed with either black or silver ink (depending on how dark the paper stock is) - if you have a preference indicate it when ordering, we'll do our best to accomodate. It costs $8.00 US.

available from leftwingbooks.net

The large-size version is bound with a spiral wire binding and is twice the size of the "classic" pocket organizer (5.5 inches x 8.5 inches) with twice as much space to write all the events in your life. It is 160 pages. It has similar contents to the classic: radical dates for every day of the year, space to write your phone numbers, a contact list of radical groups around the globe, menstrual calendar, info on police repression, extra note pages, plus much more. You get a little bonus stuff in the spiral version. The covers are laminated with heavy duty 3 mil glossy plastic to help it survive the year, and comes in 17 cover colors printed with either black or silver ink (depending on how dark the paper stock is) - if you have a preference indicate it when ordering, we'll do our best to accomodate. It costs $13.50 US.

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October 16th, @ the Maison Norman Bethune: A Look at the Red Army Faction

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click the image to download the flier

The Friday at the Maison Norman Bethune, a talk by yours truly about the Red Army Faction, and about the book i co-published earlier this year, Projectiles for the People, the first volume the The Red Army Faction: A Documentary History.

The talk will be in French, and is scheduled to start at 7pm (though probably not on the dot).

The Maison Norman Bethune is located at 1918 Frontenac, pretty much right across the street from Frontenac metro.

Details at the Maison Norman Bethune website: http://maisonnormanbethune.ca/node/46

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HRC: Quit Leaving Queers Out

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Although i think the problem is deeper than an establishment organization "leaving queers out", it brought a smile to my face this morning to read that the HRC had been graffittied by some self-styled "Queers Against Assimilation" last night.

The HRC, or Human Rights Campaign, is the largest LGBT lobby group in the united states, and made the news when prez Obama addressed their fundraiser (live on CNN) Saturday night. While many might think of the HRC as a force opposed to homophobia, within the queer liberation movement the organization has come to symbolize the shift from oppositional activism to lobbying, and the related mainstreaming of gay america.

Which is a pretty typical movement dynamic.

The HRC and its chosen issues - gay marriage, "don't ask don't tell" and hate crimes legislation - are all part and parcel of the retreat from radicalism that activism around sexual issues has undergone over the past fifteen years. Pretty much since the Clinton presidency - he being the first president to address the HRC, incidentally.

In part this is co-optation, in part it's betrayal, but mostly it's just the result of unprecedented success around many of the demands of the movement of the 80s. Most of the demands of that period were oriented towards acquiring certain minimum legal protections, greater medical resources devoted to HIV/AIDS, and more positive representation in popular culture. While the movement was radical in its methods - think ACT UP, Queer Nation, etc. - its main goals were reformist, and they have largely been met, or else the Democrats have indicated that they are working on it and we'll get there soon...

That these victories are inadequate goes without saying: in large swathes of america it remains dangerous and potentially very nervewracking to be "out" - but for people with the financial means and cultural assets to integrate into their chosen liberal middle class enclave, things really never have been better.

That's why i wonder about the slogan "Quit leaving queers behind" - to be "queer" normally refers to something cultural or sexual, but i think for it to make sense here it has to be taken to also have a class dimension. In this sense "queers" are those on the street, in prison, in jesusland or in the hood, and perhaps not able or at least as likely not wanting to move to "safer" (saw through that lie!) quarters. It's not the normal use of the word "queer", but it's the way a militant segment of the movement is using it.

Here's the "communique" from Queers Against Assimilation, who carried out the paint job, courtesy of Bash Back! News:

Communique from the Forgotton:

Human Rights Campaign HQ Glamdalized By Queers Against Assimilation

HRC headquarters was rocked by an act of glamdalism last night by a crew of radical queer and allied folks armed with pink and black paint and glitter grenades. Beside the front entrance and the inscribed mission statement now reads a tag, “Quit leaving queers behind.”

The HRC is not a democratic or inclusive institution, especially for the people who they claim to represent. Just like society today, the HRC is run by a few wealthy elites who are in bed with corporate sponsors who proliferate militarism, heteronormativity, and capitalist exploitation. The sweatshops (Nike), war crimes (Lockheed Martin), assaults on working class people (Bank of America, Deloitte, Chase Bank, Citi Group, Wachovia Bank) and patriarchy (American Apparel) caused by their sponsors is a hypocrisy for an organization with “human rights” in their name.

The queer liberation movement has been misrepresented and co-opted by the HRC. The HRC marginalizes us into a limited struggle for aspiring homosexual elites to regain the privilege that they’ve lost and climb the social ladder towards becoming bourgeoisie.

Last night, Obama spoke at the HRC fundraising gala and currently the HRC website declares, “President Obama underlines his unwavering support for LGBT Americans.” The vast amount of organizing resources the HRC wastes on their false alliance with the Democratic party leaves radical queers on the margins to fend for themselves. Our struggle has always had to resist the repression of conservative tendencies in government and society to gain liberation in our lives.

The gourmet affair was sponsored by 48 corporations including giants Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, and Wachovia Bank. At $250 dollars a plate the HRC served our movement a rich, white, heternormative atmosphere that purposefully excludes working class queer folks.

REMEMBER THE STONEWALL RIOTS! On the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, pigs raided a queer bar in Texas, arrested and beat our friends, and we looked towards politicians and lawyers to protect us. This mentality is what keeps the money flowing to the HRC and their pet Democrats, and keeps our fists in our pockets.

Most of all we disagree that collective liberation will be granted by the state or its institutions like prisons, marriage, and the military. We need to escalate our struggle, or it will collapse.

~~Love and Solidarity~~

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Comrades at G20

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Because life is better as a music video.

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FTM Teacher Fired: "the teaching of the Catholic Church is that persons cannot change their gender"

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above: Jan Butterman

From xtra.ca, this report on transphobia in Alberta:

When Alberta substitute teacher Jan Buterman told his public school board employer that he had been diagnosed with gender identity disorder, their response was to treat it as a medical issue and file the appropriate paperwork. It did not affect his employment with them in any other way.

So Buterman expected a similar response from the Greater St Albert Catholic school board, where he was employed from March to June 2008. Soon after he told the Catholic school board that his treatment would involve transitioning from female to male, he was fired.

"Since you made a personal choice to change your gender, which is contrary to Catholic teachings, we have had to remove you from the substitute teacher list," wrote deputy superintendent Steve Bayus in an Oct 2008 letter to Buterman. The reason for this decision, which Bayus cites in his letter, is that "the teaching of the Catholic Church is that persons cannot change their gender. One's gender is considered what God created us to be."

Buterman met the response with shock. "It's very difficult to put into words how you feel when you're given something like this, it's pretty overwhelming," he tells Xtra.ca. "It blindsided me quite honestly."

On Oct 1, 2009, Buterman filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission against the Greater St Albert Catholic school board. "I do respect people's right to believe things and this is no different," he says. "I do not respect that they have a right to use that belief as a reason to prevent me from being employed, when their belief has nothing to do with my treatment protocols and that is not, to me, an issue that an employer should be speaking to."

Buterman is supported by the Alberta Teachers' Association and is represented by their lawyers, who fully expect the Human Rights Commission to accept his complaint, a process that takes about 10 business days.

While Buterman considers his firing to be in violation of the standards and policies that Alberta schools must follow, he is also seeking clarification. "I really do, at the end of the day, want clarification if people like me are not in fact accorded the same equality as other people in Canada, I think we would like to know if we're not."

This is not the first time that Edmonton, Alberta has acted as ground zero for minority rights. In 1991, Delwin Vriend was fired from King's College in Edmonton for being gay. He tried to file a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission, but they refused to hear it because the province's human rights legislation didn't protect citizens from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Vriend took Alberta to the Supreme Court of Canada, which ruled in 1998 that provinces could not exclude gays and lesbians from human rights legislation.

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Antifascism and Violence

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These thoughts are provoked by a number of recent incidents: the assault on Sofia Papazoglou in Greece, bricks thrown through the windows of anti-racists in Bridgeland, Alberta, threats from Blood and Honour boneheads against Barricade Books in Australia, an autonomist youth center burned down by neo-nazis in Germany, as well as the successful dwarfing of a four-person (!) neo-nazi "rally" in the Twin Cities ... the list goes on. i don't think it's so much a sign of an upsurge in actual activity - though the combination of a Democrat in the whitest house and the economic crisis has pushed public discourse to the right in the u.s. - as it is a random upsurge in what's been coming into my email inbox.

Still, worth commenting on.

The main thing that sets antifascist work apart is the question of violence. This question is in the background of all our movements, but in the case of antifascism it is front and center right from the get-go. This automatically brings with it the question of how to relate to the state. The state claims a semi-monopoly on violence, so the antifascist terrain leads to a very quick polarization around this question.

Normally when we act we do so with an idea of how we will be allowed to act, and how our opponents will react, which is conditioned by our awareness of the state's monopoly on violence. If police overstep their bounds during a protest, then we protest that - and publicizing and exposing police brutality has in fact become a major axis of activism, especially in the era of the cellphone camera. Likewise, there are certain things that we allow ourselves to do in a lax manner, because we know they are "protected" by law - be it "free speech" or "freedom of assembly" or whatnot.

When we act naughty in other struggles, breaking some petty laws, we do so with a certain advantage, in that it is in the state's interest to not escalate matters at this moment. This may be a sign of our weakness, but in this case (perhaps perversely) weakness has its advantages.

Antifascism is a case apart because we are going up against people who have a plan of their own, and who often are often more willing to put themselves in danger for their beliefs than some of our own allies. Furthermore, many people are attracted to the far right because they feel that it provides a serious challenge to the status quo, and that it's more "for real" than the radical left.

When we oppose the far right we have to be ready to match its escalation and beat it back. We cannot assume that we can spraypaint or trash their hang-outs but that they will leave ours alone. As we organize against them, they will organize against us. We cannot assume that we will be able to choose the time or place or level of confrontation, or that it will happen on our timetable.

Everything i listed in the preceding paragraph also goes for our conflict with the state, of course. However, the difference is that most of the time the state's priority is maintaining hegemony, keeping up appearances, and for that reason it is in its interest to tolerate a certain level of dissent. This is not an eternal truth, and of necessity if we do our work right the struggle with the state will eventually become militarized, but in the meantime it is easy to become lazy and take the leeway the state gives (some of) us for granted.

With the fascists, the opposite hold true. Showing themselves to be a force worth reckoning with is necessary for them to win recruits. Whereas the state maintains its hegemony by denying or posing as outside of social conflict, fascists gain credibility amongst their target base by instigating and taking the lead in confrontation.

Today, when fascists are posed in opposition to some aspects of neocolonialism, there are possibilities for them to benefit from both positive and negative engagements with the state. When antifascists ally themselves with the state against the far right, they almost always hand a propaganda victory to all parties involved - except themselves.

Which is why maintaining independence from the state, and autonomy from liberal antifascists, is a priority for radicals engaged on this terrain.

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