Good Luck Lolo

An article from today's National Post about how the Canadian State tried to capture a former Roma (gypsy) guerilla, who had suffered ten days of torture at the hands of Franco's secret police, and deport him, presumably to Spain where the "post-fascist" State has expressed its desire to prosecute him him...

According to "United Nationa Human Rights Committee" document on the net, Torres lived in Toulouse, France from a very young age. From 1974 to 1977 he served time in prison for acts of sabotage committed against Spanish property in France. In 1979 - when Spain was just beginning it's transition to bourgeois democracy - he returned to Spain. On March 19th 1984 he was arrested by the special ervices of the Spanish Guardia Civil, which was still rife with fascists, and detained for ten days - this is presumably when he was tortured. He then went into exile, first in France,then Finland, and then Canada.

Good luck Lolo. And fuck the RCMP.

Terror suspect lived in B.C. as 'Lolo' the singer
Still At Large
Stewart Bell, National Post
Published: Friday, September 28, 2007

A Spanish man described by Canadian immigration officials as a former left-wing terrorist lived for a decade in B.C. as "Lolo," singer of a flamenco band called Los Canasteros.

Mario Ines Torres was being deported from Canada for terrorism last year when immigration officials in Vancouver lost track of him and issued a warrant for his arrest.

He has still not been found, but before he vanished he was a regular at a Vancouver tapas bar, where he sang and played guitar, and also performed at the Vancouver Folk Festival.

"When I sing, I am just a transport for the voice of my ancestors. I didn't choose to sing, they chose me," Lolo says on the band's Internet page, which says the band is named after the "Gypsies of Southern Spain."

"He's actually a very nice fellow," said Mark Bellini, manager of Kino Cafe, where Mr. Torres performed.

"He's very spiritual and a very down-to-earth kind of guy. Whatever his past was, I don't know.

"I know he hasn't been in Canada for quite a while," Mr. Bellini said.

The biography of Lolo on the Los Canasteros Web page describes how "migrant farm work and long periods of isolation in the mountains increased his empathy of human suffering and emotion, the underlying essence of flamenco music."

But according to Canadian immigration documents, his past also includes many years as a violent leftist and member of GARI, the International Revolutionary Action Group, and other radical groups.

In the 1970s, Mr. Torres allegedly kidnapped a bank director in France, planted two car bombs in Belgium, stole explosives and was caught in a Paris apartment with three handguns as he was preparing to rob a bank.

After being deported from Finland, he entered Canada and worked as a flamenco singer at Kino Cafe, which was then run by Margaret Moon.

He eventually married Ms. Moon, and they moved to an organic farm in remote D'Arcy, B.C.

"The last time I talked to him he had just finished getting his licence to be a butcher," Mr. Bellini said. He raised livestock at the farm and sold it in nearby Whistler. "He was selling to high-end restaurants."

Mr. Torres was returning to B.C. from Mexico in April, 2005, when he was stopped at the border. During an interview at the Pacific Region Enforcement Centre of the Canada Border Services Agency, he admitted he had been involved with GARI.

"He stated he had been a member of the organization known as the Group D'Action Revolutionnaire Internationalist (GARI) from 1974 to 1975," immigration officer Joanne Jesmer wrote in a report dated June 7, 2007.

"He stated that this organization conducted armed bank robberies to 'expropriate money from banks' and used explosives to destroy power lines to immobilize industry."

He also said he was "good friends" with Jean-Marc Rouillan, a former GARI member serving a life sentence for the 1987 murder of the CEO of French automaker Renault.

Mr. Torres has been wanted since he failed to appear for his own deportation hearing in Vancouver in January, 2006. "He's somewhere in Latin America as far as I know," said Robert Lee, a Roma author who met Mr. Torres. "I doubt if he's in Canada."

The RCMP took a renewed interest in Mr. Torres in June, when counterterrorism investigators found a photograph of him with two wanted members of the Basque terror group ETA.

The picture was taken in 2005 at Mr. Torres' isolated B.C. farm. The two suspected ETA members, Victor Bilbao and Ivan Sancho, have been arrested since the photo was taken.

Despite his alleged past as a terrorist, Mr. Torres was well-known in flamenco music circles and was even featured in a National Film Board documentary about ethnic Roma in Canada.

"The Roma were fighting against the fascists," he says in the film.

"I was 10 days and 10 nights under torture. Some people ask me today, 'Why you don't have kids now?' Well, because 10 days and 10 nights with electricity on your genitals makes you sterile."

Former Communist Guerilla Jean-Marc Rouillan Granted Restricted Freedom - the French State Appeals...

Today the Paris sentencing court ruled in favour of Jean-Marc Rouillan's request for "restricted freedom". This qas quickly followed by news that the State was appealing this decision; the courts will rule within the next two months, but in the meantime Rouillan remains in prison. Nevertheless, this is a step forward...

Along with Georges Cipriani (who remains in prison), Nathalie Ménigon (who was granted restricted freedom a month ago) and Joëlle Aubron (who died of cancer in 2006), Rouillan was captured by French anti-terrorist police on February 21st 1987. The four, who had all conducted armed attacks as members of the communist guerilla group Action Directe, subsequently received double life sentences each, with no possibility of release for eighteen years. In prison they were often subjected to severe isolation, conditions crafted to induce psychological stress and traume; in the case of Ménigon these conditions led directly to a suicide attempt.

The Ne Laissons Pas Faire! Collective, a support group for the Action Directe prisoners, issued this short press release today:

Action Directe: Jean-Marc Rouillan Granted "Restricted Freedom"

The "Ne laissons pas faire!" collective notes the court's decision to grant "restricted freedom" to Jean-Marc Rouillan, a member of Action Directe who has been in prison for over twenty years. Under the anti-terrorist legislation [in France] this is the preliminary stage before one can be granted conditional release.

As with Nathalie Ménigon, this restricted freedom is still a form of semi-incarceration, and comes with a number of exceptional restrictions.

It would make no sense if Georges Cipriani did not now also receive restricted liberty.

Amongst the prisoners involved in this case, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, an Arab communist militant who has been in prison since 1984 and eligible for release since 1999, is awaiting a ruling on his seventh application for conditional release on October 10th.

For our comrades' freedom, the struggle continues!

« Ne laissons pas faire ! » Collective
September 26th 2007

Action Directe was a communist guerilla organization which carried out a number of attacks in the 1970s and 80s, and at one point attempted to build a west european guerilla front with the West German Red Army Faction. Nevertheless, according to newspaper reports accompanying Rouillan's release, the former guerilla no longer sees a place for such actions, having told the court that "armed struggle is no longer on the agenda; anybody would consider the idea ridiculous today."

Over the past twenty years Rouillan has remained politically active behind bars. As the Journal Chretien notes:

In prison, Rouillan distinguished himself by his determination: he supported his comrades in Action Directe, he went on hunger strike, and he continued to write... his most recently published book, Lettres à Jules, a series of open letters to Jules Bonnot, the head of the Bonnot Gang of illegal militants who attacked several banks at the beginning of the 20th century, "expropriating" funds for the "anarchist cause." Lettres à Jules was published by Agone, along with Les voyages des enfants de l’extérieur, Rouillan's memoirs of his days in Spain, and Chroniques carcérales, a series of texts describing prison conditions in France. He is a regular contributor to the CQFD monthly publication.

The following is an excerpt from the Collective Biography of Action Directe members, icluded in the pamphlet Three Essays by Action Directe (available from Kersplebedeb or AK Press):

JEAN-MARC ROUILLAN was sixteen years old in 1968. From a left-wing family, he was nevertheless not very political. He has suggested that this might be what enabled him to engage in the revolt against totalitarianism with no hesitation. He was active with the CAL (Comité d’action Lycéen – Student Action Committee) in events in the neighborhoods north of Toulouse. He then joined the anarcho-communist movement, notably the Autonomous Libertarian Groups (translater’s note: Groupes Autonomes Libertaires – it is important to note that in Europe the word “libertarian” is not associated solely with anarcho-capitalism as in the United States, but also with left-wing anarchism and anti-authoritarianism).

These months were a time of intense learning where direct action was a common occurence in the many struggles within the revitalized revolutionary movement. Occupation committees in the factories, rent strikes in the cities, struggle against the police state…

Given that the city was rightly considered the capital of antifrancoist Spain, he then became involved in support work for the revolutionary struggle against Franco’s dictatorship. In 1970 he was a member of the first nucleus of the Movimente Iberico de Liberacion (MIL), the armed organization of the Barcelona (Catalunya) underground workers movement.

The MIL acquired funds for the solidarity chests and lent its political and technical support to the self-organized groups and the different fighting assemblies that were growing on the ground. It functioned as a network of anti-fascist resistance (the GACs, Groupes Autonomes de Combat – Autonomous Fighting Groups) but it also developed an anti-capitalist praxis tailored to this period: political autonomy for the working class, radical critique and anti-revisionism, against all collaboration with the “democratic” forces that only wanted to shepherd Francoism into a new authoritarian bourgeois regime. The MIL-GAC was destroyed by fierce repression. One of its members, Salvador Puig Antich, was the last political prisoner to be sentenced to death by garrotting (March 2nd 1974). Back in France, Jean-Marc worked to bring together many libertarian and autonomist groups willing to carry out international armed struggle against the dictatorship. Out of this came the GARI (Groupes d’Action Revolutionnaire Internationalistes – Internationalist Revolutionary Armed Groups) which were active at this time in many European countries. Jean-Marc was arrested in 1974, but when Franco died he was amnestied and released in Spring 1977.

He then started working to bring together the post-May ‘68 autonomist movement with the new expressions of autonomous working class struggle that came out of ’68 and the battles of the late seventies, and which found most of their inspiration in the various Italian theses. He worked to set up underground groups like the Coordinations Autonomes (trans: Autonomous Coordinations) and to generalize actions and resistance. The fruit of this labor was Action Directe, born in early 1978.

Regarding todays events, and Rouillan's prospects in the immediate future. one can also read the following article from the AFP press service:

PARIS (AFP) — After Nathalie Ménigon this summer, on Wednesday the Paris sentencing court granted restricted freedom to Jean-Marc Rouillan, a former member of Action Directe, a far left armed organization. The parquet court is appealing this decision.

During the September 4th hearing the Paris parquet had requested that Rouillan remain incarcerated. This afternoon it confirmed that it would be appealing the sentencing court's decision, which effectively suspends the restricted freedom decision.

According to his lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset, Jean-Marc Rouillan, who has been in prison for twenty years after having received two life sentences, will have his request examined "within two months" by the Paris sentencing appeals court.

The co-founder of Action Directe was supposed to be transferred on October 22nd from Lannemezan (in the Upper Pyrenees) to a halfway house in Marseille, where he has a job waiting for him at a publishing house. This however has been put on hold by the parquet's appeal.

As in the case of Nathalie Ménigon, another former member of Action Directe who has been in restricted freedom since August in the Toulouse area, Rouillan's new conditions will allow him to work during the day though he will have to return to prison at night.

According to Mr Chalanset, the sentencing court's ruling was the result of "the serious efforts at social rehabilitation" of the Action Directe co-founder, whose "behaviour in prison has evolved satisfactorily."

The court has found that "Armed struggle no longer seems to figure in his idea of political action," according to his lawyer.

Along with three other members of Action Directe - including Ms Ménigon, whom he married in 1999 in the Fleury-Mérogis prison - Mr Rouillan received a double life sentence for a variety fo crimes, including the assassinations of the Renault CEO Georges Besse and the arms engineer René Audran in the 1980s.

In 2005, after having finished the 18 years of his sentence for which there was no possibility of release, Rouillan filed an initial request for conditional release. It was rejected by the sentencing court, and then by the Pau appeals court in February 2006.

According to Alain Pojolat, of the "Ne Laissons Pas Faire" collective which supports former members of Action Directe, this time "the court was able to resist the pressure from the parquet".

He nevertheless remained cautious, and worried that the conditions of restricted freedom might be "very restrictive."

In the framework of restricted freedom, Rouillan "must not give any interviews or publish any documents relating to the acts for which he was condemned," according to Mr Chalanset. "He must also hand over 30% of his salary in restitution to his victims and the public purse."

At the Agone publishing house in Marseille, the possibility that Rouillan will be able to start working as an editor "in charge of preparing copy" was welcomed "with much emotion," according to Thierry Discepolo, the head of the publishing house. "We are already getting ready," he told AFP.

After Ménigon and Rouillan, "It would make no sense if Georges Cipriani did not now also receive restricted liberty," according to a press release from the Ne Laissons Pas Faire collective. According to Mr Pojolat, Cipriani is currently incarcerated in Entsisheim (Upper Rhine) and is supposed to file his request for restricted freedom in November.

This weekend's protest against the August 11th police attack on a communist demonstration in St-Jerome:

-------------------------------
A call from the RCP-Laurentides
-------------------------------

DEMONSTRATION AGAINST POLITICAL REPRESSION
IN SAINT-JÉRÔME
Saturday, September 29 at 1:00 p.m.
Gathering at Parc Curé-Labelle (corner Parent et Curé-Labelle)

On August 11, on the occasion of a demo organized by the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) in Saint-Jérôme (30 kilometers north of Montréal), nine people have been arrested alledgedly because the organizers didn’t requested the police a “permission” to demonstrate.

On that day, some 50 people answered the call from the RCP-Laurentides and gathered to comdemn the work and living conditions of the workers under capitalism and call them to organize in order to change this situation. They were chanting slogans and circulating leaflets while marching in the streets when the cops arrived and arrested nine demonstrators without any warrant.

As it happened during the powerful student strike in 2005, the Saint-Jérôme police have showed their brutality, as they continue to crush any social or political movement they don’t like.

The police are not neutral; they defend the existing order -- the one from the rich and the bourgeois. This is why they are trying to crush all those who oppose the system and suggest an alternative world. But in Canada, in a society that claims to be champion of the democratic rights, we must fight to defend our right to be dissident and to fight the existing order. The August 11 arrests are a direct attack to our democratic rights, and this is why we have to oppose them boldly.

On September 29, we will again take to the streets in Saint-Jérôme. Come support us and say: No to political repression! We have the right to demonstrate where and when we want, without any interference from the police!

For a summary of the August 11 events (in French):
http://www.pcr-rcp.ca/fr/texte?id=67a.

To reach the RCP-Laurentides:
mailto:laurentides@pcr-rcp.ca.

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

Transport available from Montréal:
- Meeting at 11:30 a.m. at the North entrance of the Crémazie metro station (near the FTQ building).
- Reserve your place by e-mail (mailto:info@pcr-rcp.ca) or by phone (514 409-2444).

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

Speaking of St-Jerome...

Immigrants are “buying their way in” to Quebec,
Lise Provencher of St. Jérôme tells Gérard Bouchard and
Charles Taylor at hearings last night,
and Jews are “trampolines of money in the world.”

Well yeah timing is everything...

i haven't been blogging about the Bouchard-Taylor roving racist rendezvous, mainly because i thought i should wait til had time to provide something a little less than sketchy.

This is the "reasonable accommodation" commission, headed by two mildly liberal intellectuals, which was initiated by the provincial Liberal government just before this spring's elections in an effort to take some of the wind out of the sails of the more openly racist ADQ political party. It has started its audiences in the monocultural and conservative regions of Quebec, and so far at least it has fulfilled my expectations of being a forum for people to vent their racist phlegm.

i predict that - regardless of the "liberal" or "progressive" or "inclusive" conclusions Taylor and Bouchard might come up with - the entire exercise will at best amount to one (little) step forward and ten (big) steps back, as it serves to normalize racist discourse all under the guise of letting people "say out loud what everyone is thinking" (who wins the prize of telling me who that quote is from?)

At best racism and anti-racism will appear as two equally valid sets of opinion, at worst this will be one of those circuses where racist comes to be identified with "the people" and anti-racism is associated with snobbish intellectuals. And who loses then? You know who.

In any case, yesterday the commission was in St-Jerome, and here i am finding myself blogging about anti-communist police repression in St-Jerome today. Coincidences coincidences. As i mentioned in my previous entry, towns like St-Jerome have real potential for political organizing, but are neglected by most activists. Even people from these areas generally move to "the city" as soon as they can, with the end result that some towns have a bigger and more visible far right scene than they do a far left. And this suits the cops fine, which is probably a part of why they attacked the communist demo in St-Jerome on August 11th.

In any case, i'm all over the place i know, but here is an article from today's Montreal Gazette to give an idea of why we should be intervening in places like St-Jerome, why we can't surrender them to the right.

Laurentian residents vent anger with Hasidim
St. Jérome session becomes platform for bashing distinctive Orthodox sect
JEFF HEINRICH THE GAZETTE
ST. JÉRÔME –

In the 1st century AD, St. Jerome translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin and pulled a thorn from the paw of a lion.

Two millennia later, a travelling commission on “reasonable accommodation” of religious minorities in Quebec made a stop yesterday in the Laurentian town named after him and tried to interpret the outcry of French Canadians over a new thorn in their side: Jews.

Ultra-orthodox Jews, more precisely – the Hasidim.

In the Laurentians, where more than 500,000 people live, the Hasidim are very much on people’s minds, judging from those who spoke at last night’s open-mike session.

“We’re playing the game of ... the great rabbis, with their archaic values,” resident JeanPierre Bouvrette told a packed hall of 175 people in downtown St. Jérôme, 60 kilometres northwest of Montreal.

“There are a lot of arguments, and we get along less and less,” said Val Morin resident Roger Cuerrier, complaining about the “ever-growing number” of Hasidic Jews in his village – and their “unreasonable” demands.

“The last shot they directed at us, was they set themselves up next to the baseball field and asked us to shut off the lights when they pray on Saturday evenings,” he said.

“It’s really a mentality that’s separate,” St. Hippolyte resident Lise Casavant said of the Hasidism, adding that immigrants should sign a new Quebec citizenship charter “or choose another province,” a sentiment several other speakers also evoked.

John Saywell, of Argenteuil, said when he hears a Hasidic Jewish leader speaking only in English on the TV news, he thinks it’s wrong. The community should make the effort to speak French, he said.

And Lise Provencher, of St. Jérôme, said immigrants are “buying their way in” to Quebec and that Jews are the worst because they’re “the most powerful. ... It’s always been said that the Jews are the trampoline of money in the world.” After she spoke, the crowd applauded.

A rare few last night blamed themselves as French Canadians.

“The main reason we’re here today is that we stopped having children,” said Loyola Leroux, of Prévost.

Listening impassively from the front of the room were the commission’s co-chairmen, historian Gérard Bouchard and philosopher Charles Taylor, with his left arm in a sling. Taylor is recovering from surgery that sidelined him for the first two weeks of the commission’s roadshow. He made his first appearance last night, saying that during his convalescence he’d been “burning” to attend.

The two men knew the Laurentians would be where they’d hear about the Hasidic question. The last few years have been full of Jewish news in the region, none of it good:

In late June, after hearing the Miramont sur le Lac resort in St. Adolphe d’Howard had been sold to a group of Hasidic Jews for $3.5 million, village manager Michel Binette complained he didn’t want to see the Miramont become “ghettoized.” After Jewish groups complained, St. Adolphe mayor Pierre Roy apologized for Binette’s remarks.

In Val David last June, a series of suspicious fires hit the town, particularly in the neighbourhood of Préfontaine, where about 50 families from the Satmar group of Hasidic Jews have cottages. The residents said they have been a frequent target of vandalism.

In 2005, the village of Val Morin spent nearly $100,000 in court against a group of the Belz sect of Hasidic Jews that converted two residences into a religious school and a synagogue. The Quebec Superior Court ruled in favour of the municipality, which said the Hasidim were contravening zoning laws. An appeal was heard last week and a decision is pending.

Hasidic Jews stand out by their separateness – even last night.

There were none in the crowd to defend the community.

The August 11th Police Attack in St-Jerome

On August 11th, one week before the protests against the SPP summit in Montebello, the police attacked a communist demonstration in the town of St-Jerome (population 25,000), about an hour north of Montreal.

The police attack, IMO, was motivated by two factors.

On the one hand St-Jerome is a small town with none of the activist scene you'll find in a big city like Montreal, and the cops are obviously quite happy to keep it that way. Indeed, it's not unusual in such towns to find that neo-nazis and fascists are considered more acceptable than communists or anarchists. While there are real possibilities for political action in places like St-Jerome, this is funneled quite effectively into xenophobic and conservative politics, often with a nationalist tinge. As in most towns, those people who are interested in radical ideas do what they can to move to the city, which further maintains an unhealthy political situation. All of this suits the cops just fine, and keeping things this way is one reason why they would want to show a heavy hand to any radical organizers who might try to set up shop in the area.

The second possible reason for the police attack has to do with timing, as a way to try to demobilize one of the more militant groups in the lead up to the Montebello protests. The RCP in Canada is a separate organization from the u.s. RCP, and promotes militant confrontation with the police. Back in 2001 when the Summit of the Americas was held in Quebec City, police documents were found in which it was revealed that the RCP in particular was considered a possible source of militant resistance. In this context, and also keeping in mind that Ottawa organizers with People's Global Action were arrested or bogus charges just before Montebello, it is possible that the August 11th police action was intended to discourage militant action the next week outside the SPP summit.

i was remiss in blogging about this at the time, but i'm doing so now as there is a demo planned this weekend (see next posting) in St-Jerome to protest this police repression. So read on... the following comes from the RCP website:

Here is a reminder of what happened on August 11th, based on reports in Le Drapeau Rouge-express and the local press:

The demonstration had been called by the RCP-Laurentides several weeks earlier, with the goal of promoting socialism and encouraging workers in St-Jerome to organize themselves for revolution. As planned, at 1pm roughly fifty demonstrators had gathered at Curé-Labelle Square. At which point members of the St-Jerome police force came to warn them that “they would respect their right to demonstrate on condition that they stay in the park or on the sidewalk”: which was to say that they had already made up their minds not to tolerate a demonstration in the streets of St-Jerome.

After a short speech by a comrade from the RCP who pointed out that this was the first time there was a communist demonstration in St-Jerome, and who denounced the harsh living and work conditions for workers in the region, the demonstrators enthusiastically took to the streets. Most of the demonstrators had red flags and chanted slogans against exploitation, for communism and for revolution. People on the street came up to the demo to find out more what it was all about; several seemed interested, and eagerly took the pamphlets and newspapers that were being distributed.

The demonstrators first stopped at the skate park, where another comrade briefly spoke about the conditions for young people in the region, who are faced with a high rate of unemployment, miserable wages and also a lot of repression : as in so many places, the police here target and harass those young people who they consider “marginal”.

The demonstration once again started moving. It was at the point of its second stop, in front of the Muller Forges, that a ton of cops (11 cars) suddenly rush onto the scene; there were cops from St-Jerome, of course, but also from other neighbouring towns like Sainte-Sophie, Saint-Hyppolite, Mirabel and Rivière du- Nord, as well as an agent from the Quebec Provincial Police’s intelligence unit. The cops jumped out of their cars and rushed the demonstrators, making a point of going after those who were holding the banners and loud speakers. Without giving any warning they started arresting people, yelling that everyone was going to be charged with “obstruction” (while in fact they were the ones who had come and obstructed a perfectly legal demonstration).

When a demonstrator – who was standing two meters away – simply asked a cop why they were doing this, the cop replied by dousing them with pepper spray. Another cop, who was doing as he was told but seemed completely confused, was also asked why people were being arrested; he answered that “You didn’t do anything but you did not ask for a permit, so I think that’s a case of obstruction”!

As the first people were arrested the majority of the demonstrators managed to flee through the surrounding streets and parks. In the end nine people were brought to the police station and given court dates to face charges of “obstructing a police officer”.

According to the police “logic”, the demonstrators broke the law by marching in the streets once they had been told not to. It seems that disobeying an order, even an order which is contrary to constitutional law, constitutes “obstruction” to police! It seems certain that such ridiculous charges will not hold up in court.

Politically Targetted Repression
In an article published in the August 24th edition of Saint-Sauveur’s weekly Accès newspaper, sergeant Robin Pouliot of the St-Jerome police confirmed the purely political nature of the police action. The reporter who spoke to him reported that “the banners which read ‘It is right to rebel!’ seemed to shock the police.” She quotes him as saying “When people distribute hateful pamphlets and break the law, they should expect a response…” Sergeant Pouliot doesn’t actually say what “law” the demonstrators broke: the “St Jerome police law” perhaps? or maybe his own private law?

These statements, as well as the presence of an officer from the QPP’s intelligence unit (who subsequently explained that she was there “to monitor the party”), shows that this was a case of deliberate and targeted political repression: the police admits having acted in order to prevent the expression of a communist point of view, which it considers “hateful”.

At the August 16th court appearance, the Crown Prosecutor assigned to the case tried to get additional release conditions imposed on the nine arrested demonstrators – whom she described as “dangerous criminals” – including forbidding them from returning to St-Jerome and most importantly, forbidding them from participating in the Montebello demonstrations against the SPP summit, which was taking place the next week. This request was denied by the court for technical reasons because the accused were not present, seeing as their presence was not required at that point of the legal proceedings. All of which makes the political nature of the August 11th police action even more clear.

A Political Battle Which Concerns Everyone

The RCP has already been active for some time in St-Jerome. Activists in the area are working to mobilize the workers and proletarian youth in the struggle against capitalism. This obviously doesn’t suit the local bourgeois, or the cops who defend them.

In 2005, during the student strike, the communists were there when the police targeted the student activists with repression. On the picket lines at the cegeps [kind of like colleges - translator], some cops acted like real pigs, punching students in the face with their bare fists.

It is clear that the police action of August 11th was no accident, whether it was motivated by a simple desire for “revenge” from the local police, or by a decision taken higher up to criminalize revolutionary communists (or some combination thereof). Regardless of what motivated it, this action should not be allowed to go unanswered.\

It goes without saying that the accused and their lawyers are preparing for a political battle in the trials which the State has imposed on them. The prosecution and the police are going to be made to publicly explain why they are still trying to apply the “padlock law” of Maurice Duplessis, which used to forbid “all communist propaganda in the province of Quebec” and which the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in… 1957!

But this battle does not only concern the accused, or the RCP, or the people who demonstrated on August 11th, and it has to do with a lot more than the courts : this case is of concern to all those who support the right to demonstrate, to resist and to rebel and to express dissident and revolutionary political ideas.

So let’s all go back to St-Jerome on September 29th!

Here is a reminder of what happened on August 11th, based on reports in Le Drapeau Rouge-express and the local press:

The demonstration had been called by the RCP-Laurentides several weeks earlier, with the goal of promoting socialism and encouraging workers in St-Jerome to organize themselves for revolution. As planned, at 1pm roughly fifty demonstrators had gathered at Curé-Labelle Square. At which point members of the St-Jerome police force came to warn them that “they would respect their right to demonstrate on condition that they stay in the park or on the sidewalk”: which was to say that they had already made up their minds not to tolerate a demonstration in the streets of St-Jerome.

After a short speech by a comrade from the RCP who pointed out that this was the first time there was a communist demonstration in St-Jerome, and who denounced the harsh living and work conditions for workers in the region, the demonstrators enthusiastically took to the streets. Most of the demonstrators had red flags and chanted slogans against exploitation, for communism and for revolution. People on the street came up to the demo to find out more what it was all about; several seemed interested, and eagerly took the pamphlets and newspapers that were being distributed.

The demonstrators first stopped at the skate park, where another comrade briefly spoke about the conditions for young people in the region, who are faced with a high rate of unemployment, miserable wages and also a lot of repression : as in so many places, the police here target and harass those young people who they consider “marginal”.

The demonstration once again started moving. It was at the point of its second stop, in front of the Muller Forges, that a ton of cops (11 cars) suddenly rush onto the scene; there were cops from St-Jerome, of course, but also from other neighbouring towns like Sainte-Sophie, Saint-Hyppolite, Mirabel and Rivière du- Nord, as well as an agent from the Quebec Provincial Police’s intelligence unit. The cops jumped out of their cars and rushed the demonstrators, making a point of going after those who were holding the banners and loud speakers. Without giving any warning they started arresting people, yelling that everyone was going to be charged with “obstruction” (while in fact they were the ones who had come and obstructed a perfectly legal demonstration).

When a demonstrator – who was standing two meters away – simply asked a cop why they were doing this, the cop replied by dousing them with pepper spray. Another cop, who was doing as he was told but seemed completely confused, was also asked why people were being arrested; he answered that “You didn’t do anything but you did not ask for a permit, so I think that’s a case of obstruction”!

As the first people were arrested the majority of the demonstrators managed to flee through the surrounding streets and parks. In the end nine people were brought to the police station and given court dates to face charges of “obstructing a police officer”.

According to the police “logic”, the demonstrators broke the law by marching in the streets once they had been told not to. It seems that disobeying an order, even an order which is contrary to constitutional law, constitutes “obstruction” to police! It seems certain that such ridiculous charges will not hold up in court.

Politically Targetted Repression
In an article published in the August 24th edition of Saint-Sauveur’s weekly Accès newspaper, sergeant Robin Pouliot of the St-Jerome police confirmed the purely political nature of the police action. The reporter who spoke to him reported that “the banners which read ‘It is right to rebel!’ seemed to shock the police.” She quotes him as saying “When people distribute hateful pamphlets and break the law, they should expect a response…” Sergeant Pouliot doesn’t actually say what “law” the demonstrators broke: the “St Jerome police law” perhaps? or maybe his own private law?

These statements, as well as the presence of an officer from the QPP’s intelligence unit (who subsequently explained that she was there “to monitor the party”), shows that this was a case of deliberate and targeted political repression: the police admits having acted in order to prevent the expression of a communist point of view, which it considers “hateful”.

At the August 16th court appearance, the Crown Prosecutor assigned to the case tried to get additional release conditions imposed on the nine arrested demonstrators – whom she described as “dangerous criminals” – including forbidding them from returning to St-Jerome and most importantly, forbidding them from participating in the Montebello demonstrations against the SPP summit, which was taking place the next week. This request was denied by the court for technical reasons because the accused were not present, seeing as their presence was not required at that point of the legal proceedings. All of which makes the political nature of the August 11th police action even more clear.

A Political Battle Which Concerns Everyone

The RCP has already been active for some time in St-Jerome. Activists in the area are working to mobilize the workers and proletarian youth in the struggle against capitalism. This obviously doesn’t suit the local bourgeois, or the cops who defend them.

In 2005, during the student strike, the communists were there when the police targeted the student activists with repression. On the picket lines at the cegeps [kind of like colleges - translator], some cops acted like real pigs, punching students in the face with their bare fists.

It is clear that the police action of August 11th was no accident, whether it was motivated by a simple desire for “revenge” from the local police, or by a decision taken higher up to criminalize revolutionary communists (or some combination thereof). Regardless of what motivated it, this action should not be allowed to go unanswered.\

It goes without saying that the accused and their lawyers are preparing for a political battle in the trials which the State has imposed on them. The prosecution and the police are going to be made to publicly explain why they are still trying to apply the “padlock law” of Maurice Duplessis, which used to forbid “all communist propaganda in the province of Quebec” and which the Canadian Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in… 1957!

But this battle does not only concern the accused, or the RCP, or the people who demonstrated on August 11th, and it has to do with a lot more than the courts : this case is of concern to all those who support the right to demonstrate, to resist and to rebel and to express dissident and revolutionary political ideas.

So let’s all go back to St-Jerome on September 29th!

-----------------------------

The Communist Party of Quebec and the North East Federation of Anarchist Communists Denounce the Police Action

The Laurentian section of the Communist Party of Quebec, some of whose members were at the August 11th demonstration, made a point of denouncing this “flagrant example of police repression, which reminds us of what we experiences at our worst moments under the rule of Maurice Duplessis.” : “It is clear that the police will not accept being challenged or called into question… We denounce the police abuse which took place on August 11th.”

Comrades from NEFAC also expressed their support : « We in NEFAC have our differences with the Maoists (sic!) but we are not so sectarian as to remain silent in such an obvious case of police repression… We ourselves have often found ourselves faced with this type of police repression, and so as NEFAC activists we are expressing our solidarity with the activists of the RCP.”

Revisiting Laws, Labels and Liberation

This Friday in Cote-des-Neiges, organized by the Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR) and the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS):

Long-time women human rights activists to speak at a public forum "Revisiting Laws, Labels and Liberation"

For immediate release

September 24, 2007

(Montreal, Quebec) – Member organizations of the Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR) and the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) call on all progressive and anti-imperialist organizations and individuals at a public forum Revisiting Laws, Labels and Liberation: the Case of Professor Jose Maria Sison on Friday, September 28, 2007, 6:00-9:00 p.m. at le centre communautaire 6767, 6767 cote-des-neiges, 6th Floor.

The forum will feature two long-time women and human rights activists Ninotchka Rosca and Luningning Alcuitas-Imperial. Ms. Rosca is an award-winning novelist and the co-author of the book "Jose Maria Sison: At Home in the World - Portrait of a Revolutionary" with Professor Sison. She will share about her long personal collaboration with Professor Sison, including her insights about the impact of the political persecution on Professor Sison and the Filipino people's struggle for national liberation.

A lawyer and the Canadian representative to the International Coordinating Committee of the ILPS, Ms. Alcuitas-Imperial will share her knowledge of Professor Sison's "epic" legal battles, as well as the current deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines and the Canadian campaign to stop the political killings in the Philippines. She will also share her experience in working with Prof. Sison as Canadian representative to the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) that Prof. Sison serves as its current chairperson.

The call to revisit Laws, labels and Liberation: the case of Professor Jose Maria Sison (LLL) is a response to the escalating human rights violations in the Philippines and the continuing political persecution of Professor Jose Maria Sison and other progressive Filipinos by the U.S., Dutch and Philippine governments. Under the U.S.-backed Philippine President Arroyo, more than 1000 people have been summarily killed or forcibly disappeared with another 1 million forcibly displaced. The recent of arrest of Prof. Sison based on fabricated charges that had been dismissed with finality by the Supreme of the Philippines, is a sign of desperation and failure of these governments to repress the heightening clamor to stop the killings and uphold human rights in the Philippines and restart the stalled peace negotiations between the National Democratic Front and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines.

In May 2004, the LLL international conference critically examined the deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines and the impact of the U.S. 'anti-terrorism laws' on the right to national liberation and the future of human rights using the specific case of Professor Sison's unjust labelling as a 'terrorist' by the U.S., Dutch, European Union, Philippine and Canadian governments.

Revisiting Laws, Labels and Liberation is a public forum that will re-examine the intensifying repression of anti-imperialist movements that are waging the struggle for national liberation and democracy, such as the Philippines and the impact of the Prof. Sison's case in our communities.


For more information:
Montreal: (514) 678-3901
pwcofquebec@gmail.com



---Philippine Women Centre of Quebec---
Under the supervision of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), we are an institution of research, education, advocacy, and capacity building by Filipino women for the Filipino community.
Tel: (514) 678-3901

Police Harassment of Immigrants in Cote-des-Neiges: Filipinos Not Allowed To Protest In Their Own Neighbourhood

For immediate release
Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights
September 21, 2007

Filipinos driven away from their own community by Montreal police intimidation

(Montreal, Quebec) During a peaceful demonstration yesterday in front of the Plamondon metro station in Montreal's Cote-des-Neiges area, peace-loving Filipinos and Canadians were driven away from their own community by the Montreal Police.

This rally marked the 35th anniversary of then President Ferdinand Marcos' declaration of Martial law on September 21, 1972, a period of fascist dictatorship and gross human rights violations by the Philippine government.

"The Marcos regime violated every human right imaginable including torture and displacement of communities. In Canada, where we have an international reputation as a defender of human rights, it is inconceivable that the police would disrupt, intimidate, and harass a peaceful demonstration in favour of human rights and against authoritarianism," states Cecilia Diocson, Eastern Co-ordinator for the Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR).

Two officers of Station 25 harassed and intimated the protesters, even following them across the street when the protesters agreed to move away from the metro station. The officers claimed that they had received complaints from the Montreal Transport Commission and from commuters, and instructed them to keep their placards down and the bullhorn off, despite support of nearby community members who readily took flyers and gave encouraging comments to the protestors.

This protest was part of national actions to be held in Vancouver and Toronto later today and an international campaign to stop extra-judicial killings and human rights violations in the Philippines today under current President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. KARAPATAN, a human rights group in the Philippines, has documented 886 extra-judicial killings since the Arroyo presidency in 2001.

A Filipino ghetto, the Cote-des-Neiges district of Montreal has become a hotbed of police intimidation, harrassment, and brutality particularly against newly-arrived Filipino youth. "'Racial profiling' is a common experience in our community, and is part of a growing fascisation around the world. Rather than intimidate us, we see a greater need now to further assert our democratic rights and freedoms." says Neil Castro, member of Kabataang Montreal, a Montreal Filipino youth organization. Nearly 60% of Quebec's Filipino community reside in the Cote-des-Neiges area, a multicultural neighbourhood where 40% of residents live under the poverty live.

The group of activists plan to file a complaint against the Montreal police for the intimidation and harassment during yesterday's action.

-30-

Media contact: Josie Caro (514) 678-3901

Some context: Cote-des-Neiges is a mixed class neighbourhood tucked behind Montreal's "mountain", pretty much the northwest edge before you hit what begin to feel like suburbs. It is also one of the city's most heavily immigrant neighbourhoods, with a majority of people over age fifteen having been born outside of Canada. In recent years most of these people have come from Russia, the Philippines and the Caribbean, but the neighbourhood is home to folks from all around the world.

All across Canada, immigrants' first years after arrival in this country are often filled with hardship, but after then ones fortunes can begin to improve, but more and more this "bounce back" phenomenon is reserved for those who are white. For those who come from the Third World, even those with professional qualifications and middle class aspirations, a variety of factors conspire to proletarianize them, maintaining their communities as sources of cheap and flexible labour for the city's service and manufacturing sectors, normally without any benefit of unionization.

So when the Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights talks about 40% of Cote-des-Neiges residents living beneath the poverty line, you have to understand that while initially this may hit all immigrants hard, in the long term it's hitting people hardest based on the colour of their skin.

One aspect of this racist proletarianization is police harassment, which singles out young Blacks and Asians in the neighbourhood for identity checks, questioning, tickets and arrest. Especially over the past twelve months, Station 25 has repeatedly found itself in the news, its cops charged with racist harassment, arrests and beatings of Black people in the area. Many, though not all, of these cases were attributed to "Project Advance", an anti-gang unit of some sort which has been set up in the area, but about which no real information seems to be available. It led to a situation where the local city councilor said that he had received more complaints about police this summer then in the previous ten years.

It is within this context that members of the Filipino community have also began coming forward, telling of how they are harassed and abused by the local police. Like all immigrant communities, people who come to Canada from the Philippines have there own class and political characteristics. Specifically in Cote-des-Neiges, where over 65% of Montreal 20,000 Filipinos live, these are mainly working class people, and many live in households headed by women who entered Canada as part of the ultra-exploitative Live-In Caregiver Program, whereby each year 2,000 people (mostly women, often with training as nurses or other healthcare providers) are "allowed" into Canada on condition that they work as live-in help for two years, receiving minimum wage for a "forty hour week" while in fact being on call 24 hours a day, week in and week out.

Once these women have worked for the required period of time, they are allowed to stay in Canada and their children from the Philipines are allowed to come and join them; these kids often arrive, having been part of the middle class back home, only to find that here all kinds of mechanisms are working together to push them into a new immigrant proletariat. Often, in order to help make ends meet, they must leave school and take on precarious forms of employment. As they get harassed by police in parks or on the street, there is a real fear that if they lodge a complaint or go to the media that they and their parents will be forced out of the country. When Kabataang-Montreal held a press conference last week about a young Filipino woman who was brutalized by the police, the woman and her family were too intimidated to show up, canceling at the last minute. This is the effect of racism in Montreal, and this is one of the challenges to those hoping to organize against racist police harassment in the area.

So police harassment of Filipino youth in the Cote-des-Neiges area is both part of the police's ongoing racist repression of people of colour, and of the police's ongoing oppression of working class people. An example of how, as my comrade J. Sakai has said, "'Class' without race in North America is an abstraction. And vice-versa. "

It's difficult to say how things will progress from here. While problems with police do seem to have spiked recently, it would be false to point to this as a new phenomenon; it is here that cops from Station 25 killed the young Mohamed Anas Bennis in 2005. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that this problem has been spoken of much more recently, and is much more in the public eye. Aggravating the situation are the hints of gentrification one sees in the area, still at a slow pace, but you can see it happening here and there. As police are agents of class control, the dislocation and dispossession which accompany gentrification are bound to give rise to more incidents over time.

It remains to be seen how the various lefts will respond. While certain groups do have organic ties to the community, the most politicized elements remain separated from each other, and the focus is often, understandably, on struggles in peoples' countries of origin. At the moment, the Filipino left seems exceptional in the degree to which it is focusing on people's local problems with Canadian capitalism. Grounded very quietly in a marxist leninist perspective, groups like Kabataang Montreal, SIKLAB and the Philippine Womens Centre do tie their work around people's oppression here to an anti-imperialist view of people's struggles in the Philippines.

This seems to be a good strategy, but i don't know how far it will be able to go, and how it will relate to the proletariat of tomorrow. For instance, it made me wince to read Cecilia Diocson saying that "In Canada, where we have an international reputation as a defender of human rights, it is inconceivable that the police would disrupt, intimidate, and harass a peaceful demonstration in favour of human rights and against authoritarianism." But this rhetorical strategy of trying to play up Canada ("defender of human rights") in order to win sympathy is a common one for organizations which have a narrow focus on rallying opposition to Regime X elsewhere in the world. Even in a press release protesting against police harassment this kind of ploy can re-appear almost as a knee jerk reaction.

It remains to be seen where all this will lead...

Kahentinetha Horn: Two Six Nations Youth Defend Themselves From Five Thugs

The following from Kahentinetha Horn's Mohawk News Network:

MNN. Sept. 15, 2007. On September 13th at around 4:00 pm. witnesses saw non-native men running out, picking up weapons and going back into the unfinished house. Inside they had ambushed two Indigenous youth. The kids' backs were against the wall. They have a right to self-defense. The two youth had gone into the house. One went one way and the other went in another direction. That's when the older Indigenous boy caught the non-native man beating his younger brother.

The OPP had stopped construction that morning at 9:00 am. Meetings were going on between the Six Nations and the "Crown" that afternoon about the land. Stirling construction was illegally building houses on Six Nations land.

It is worth noting that the Ontario Provincial Police were there throughout the incident "to maintain the peace". They had not verified that all workers had left or that the area was secure. They stood by and watched the non-native men go into the house with clubs. They did not help the two Indigenous youths who were being attacked inside. The OPP admitted, "We were caught off guard". Or they were using their discretion not to intervene!

Apparently two Indigenous youth had entered the "empty" building and surprised the non-natives who were inside. It was the Gualtieri brothers, Sam and Joe, and their three nephews. They started to beat one of the youth, a very young teenager. The older youth walked in and found Sam Gualtieri had his young brother against the wall with a bar pressed across his throat, ready to kill him. He grabbed whatever he could find to save his young brother. Joe Gualtieri watched as his partner in crime Sam took a beating. These burly guys and their nephews were over confident. They had numbers, strength and weight on their side, while the kids were fighting for their lives.

The Gualtieris said they were just checking on the "home" which was behind the Six Nations blockade. They stated they were merely "protecting each other" from the boys.

Then the Gualtieri stated that the two boys invited them "to have a [schoolyard] fight". "When you enter into a fight willingly, it isn't an assault, is it?" What about when a fight is provoked?

The blockade is along the Grand River in southwestern Ontario . The two young boys were part of the group that was defending the land from an illegal housing development by Stirling Construction. It is one and a half kilometers from "Kanonhstaton" which was reclaimed by the Six Nations on February 28, 2006.

Corporate media reported that 52-year old Sam Gualtieri was seriously injured. He was in the nearby Hagersville county hospital and shipped to Hamilton for testing.

The spokesperson for the Confederacy Royaner [Chiefs] immediately distanced himself from the defenders of the land. He issued a statement condemning the boys and apologizing to the Gualtieri family. The Royaner condemned all defenders by saying "they're on their own". He said they will support "peaceful actions" only. His apology for an act of self-defense by the Indigenous boys shows how even our own members can be ensnared by bad press that always presumes that we are guilty before being proven innocent. Even we can get sucked in by the mythology that blames us for all violence.

According to the Two Row Wampum Agreement between independent nations, the Confederacy has the responsibility to investigate the incident before commenting on it. If the five non-natives are at fault, they must be turned over to the colonial authorities to be dealt with. If the Indigenous youth have any culpability, the Confederacy and its people will deal with it.

On the other hand, if any member of the Confederacy wipes their hands of responsibility for its people and turns them over to the colonial authorities, then the Royaner has violated wampum 58. Those indigenous people who follow foreign laws have alienated themselves from their nation. They forfeit their title and the gustowi falls from their brow. The office shall always remain with the people.

Should the Royaner choose to submit himself or his people to foreign laws, they are no longer in but out of the nation. Persons of their class shall be called, "they have alienated themselves". They shall forfeit all birthrights and claims of the Confederacy and to the territory.

These sanctions on the "Royaner" are not imposed without warning. Now that the facts of the situation are known then someone must take the time to warn the "Royaner" of their duties. The clan mothers have the duty to correct any erring Royaner who deviate from their duties according to the Kaianereh'kowa/Great Law of Peace. If the Royaner don't support the youth or the people, then the women have to step in.

On-going talks have put development at a standstill. These non-native developers are intruders, instigators, trespassers and law breakers. Mayor Marie Trainor of Caledonia went later to the construction site. Many have noticed that whenever the Six Nations makes any headway in the talks, a diversion like this sometimes happens.

The Indigenous youth had a right to question these men who were trespassing. The Galtieri family were trying to make a political statement. It ended with our boys getting ambushed inside the house and the boys acting in self-defense as they should.

According to the Kaianerehkowa, each indigenous person has the duty to protect the land. If they could have, these boys could have gotten our own authorities to the site. The indigenous people with the chiefs could have gone there to remove these intruders and the youth could have avoided being ambushed.

Jacqueline House on Recent Events in Six Nations

From Jacqueline House, regarding the September 13th fight which left Sam Gualtieri unconscious in Caledonia:

What has been happening here on Six Nations?

Scano

Tonight, my heart is heavy. However, I thought I would write a little of the past few days. First of all, there have been a few of us gathering on a daily basis discussing Unity for our people, to find a way to come together. We came up with an education march. We feel education is what is lacking and if we could learn to reach out to one another and share knowledge with one another, we can start building some gaps. There are two governing bodies; one is our customs through our traditions. We are born into this; therefore, are our inherent rights. The other has been illegally placed upon us to divide and conquer our existence. We are not saying or trying to convince anybody to believe where we are coming from, but to learn the truth of what has happened to us. We came up with doing three themes, the first one we did on Thursday September 13th, "Where We Were" which consists of who we are. The second we are doing October 19th will focus on, "Where We Are". The third one we not have set a date but will target, "Where We Are Going".

A few of us marched from Polytec into the front yard of the Band Administration Office where we placed our signs all over the front yard. We had a lot of support and quite a few people coming up to us and asking what we were doing and they felt it was a great idea. Other's were giving us information such as the construction in Caledonia and another informed us that Elected Dave General was holding a private meeting of governance and it was his second gathering with other elected officials as far as Rochester New York, and some thought there was a parade of some sort. After spending a little time on the front lawn, we decided to take our sign and mobile ourselves taking us into Mr. General's meeting where we held up our signs so the delegation can see them clearly. We were so nonchalant as we just stood there holding our signs. We did share the mike with Dave; after all, he was the entertainment. He and his elected buddies got to hear the Declaration of Independence for the first time. They got to here our concerns of how they are misusing our money, how they don't care for our elders, how they are arms to the government and how they are a part of committing genocide on their own people.

We then drove over to the development and enforced our stance; which is, no development on the Haldimand Proclamation as we are in a process of a resolution. Everything was fine until one of our young men started putting up our Hiawatha flag and the developer got hostile, so angry that he climbed up the scaffold cussing and then began throwing things such as the board with the cement mix on it and tried ripping down our flag. The developer then gave a press release and after about 10 minutes everyone left. Two and half hours later five men sit and watch waiting for the perfect opportunity to express their anger and hatred for what, a flag? The baseball bat that they carried was an assault weapon as they had every intention on using it to inflict pain. Instead, one of their own was hurt and by no means, do not put words into my mouth, as I am so relieved he is alright because this isn't about hurting one another it is about respect. We have customs and we have laws and we need ours respected just the same as one wants there's. We have shown this all of our lives for hundreds of years and now is the time to show the host the courtesy of having visitors. I also want to stress, there are two sides to a coin, and one does not override the other just because of the color of one's skin.

With this note: I am calling on Marie Trainer of Haldimand County and hold her accountable as she is well aware of a "Notification Agreement" regarding; development, land, water, animals, and most importantly there is an emergency phase where she could have called all parties that are involved to the table, to try defuse the situation. In fact, I have tried to meet with her and talk so that Peace begins to roll off her tongue as it is significant to uphold the Treaty of Peace. The community of friends have requested to meet with her, only to be ignored. Again I hold Mayor Marie Trainer and the OPP accountable for the terror that has been inflicted upon our people as they continue to tarnish Her Honor by not helping to keep the peace by not helping to protect Her Majesty's interest.

This day will be burned in our heads forever as we were forced to stand there and watch our people again being pepper sprayed, hand cuffed and thrown into jail when we have done nothing wrong. We just got thrown back to a time where we are being robbed and molested of our lands. What's next - Residential schools? Oh yeah they have there puppet government working on that as our language was just cutback. Is it me or does it seem we are taking a step back into a dark history where our people were physically attacked and our children kidnapped?

P/S Thanks for modern technology for without camera's and video's, people might not believe what we are saying.

Also I send my best wishes to the family that is involved.

Nya weh
Always Jacqueline

Self-Defense, Political Divisions and State Repression in "Caledonia"

On September 13th there was another violent confrontation in Caledonia between Indigenous people defending their land and settlers defending what they consider their property.

Initially the settler media reported that Sam Gualtieri, a 52-year old man who was "trying to build a house for his daughter" in Caledonia, had been beaten unconscious. The man's brother was quoted talking about "native terrorism", and the story being floated was that this man was violently attacked without provocation. It sounded horrific.

In the immediate aftermath, the Six Nations Confederacy Council issued an apology for the violence, distancing itself the people who had been protesting the ongoing development on Stirling Street in Caledonia. This was echoed by Ontario Regional Chief Angus Toulouse. Progressive Conservative leader John Tory used the occasion to posture, announcing that if elected he would use the courts to sue Indigenous protesters for the costs associated with policing during confrontations like that at Six Nations. Responding in kind, the representatives of Ontario's Liberal government announced that they would be pulling out of this week's negotiations with the Six Nations representatives. This was followed an announcement that the Six Nations Confederacy was repudiating the protesters and approving the continued construction at the "Stirling Woods" site (though the article makes it unclear if this was the neo-colonial band council or the traditional chiefs).

Within a few days another version of events began to come out, though, as Jacqueline House (from the Kanenhstaton Reclamation Site) and Kahentinetha Horn (of Mohawk Nation News) both reported that what had happened was that two Indigenous teenagers were set upon by five men with baseball bats, and it was in defending themselves that Gualteri was injured.

This occurs in a context determined by Canadian colonialism and the resistance to it which had been spearheaded in Six Nations by the reclamation at Kanenhstaton, formerly known as "Douglas Creek Estates". Over a year and a half ago this section of land was occupied by Indigenous people acting to stop ongoing real estate development on unceded native land. This occupation took an important turn on April 20th 2006 when police raided the site, beating and tasering the people, only to be confronted by hundreds of Indigenous people from the surrounding area, who literally drove the cops from the area. It was only with this mass support that the reclamation was able to survive. Barricades went up and were maintained for almost two months.

While the Indigenous people at Kanenhstaton have tried to frame their actions in terms of their own peoples' struggle against dispossession and genocide, and to emphasize that their conflict is with the Canadian State which illegally sold off their land along the Grand River (the so-called "Haldimand Tract"), this has only been partially successful. The deeply ingrained ideology of colonialism, which teaches Canadians that this land is all their land, and that the First Nations were "conquered" in the distant past, has led many settlers in the Caledonia area to react with disbelief and indignation at the idea that their homes may lie on land which belongs to someone else. As a result there were regular and at times rowdy settler rallies against the Indigenous Reclamation throughout 2006, often attracting individuals from outside of the area, including members of the far right.

Although the reclamation at what was then Douglas Creek Estates was initiated by a small number of dedicated women, it soon enjoyed support from large numbers of people not only in Six Nations, but across the continent, becoming for a time emblematic of anti-colonial resistance to Canada. As such, it created space in which other groups could operate, and also which other groups felt they had to fill. It is not a coincidence that the Assembly of First Nations - a neo-colonial organization bringing together elected chiefs from across Canada - felt a need to organize a National Day of Action in 2007, both to maintain its own legitimacy and to try and capture the growing oppositional sentiment amongst the colonized.

Amongst those who support the reclamation there are a variety of views as to what the ultimate goal is, and not a few people may see such land seizures as useful bargaining chips either for cash settlements or increased government investment in their communities. Obviously, this can be a double edged sword, and the people who actually led the reclamation have been unwavering in their position that the land belongs to the people and cannot be sold.

It is within this context that the council of traditional chiefs in Six Nations recently announced that they would be issuing permits to anyone who wanted to build within the disputed Grand River area, through a newly fomed "Haudenosaunee Development Institute". While denying that they would send protesters against those who did not seek such permits, the chiefs also claimed that they would not be relying on Canadian courts.

At the same time, some people have been taking direct action to halt ongoing construction in the area. The logic to this is clear enough: while Indigenous sovereignty may be a bitter pill for people building houses on land they thought was theirs, we know it will be far worst if the houses are built and more settlers move in. It was within this context that a protest stopped construction of a new house in nearby Brantford earlier this month, and it was in this context that the incident with Sam Gualtieri occurred. Another subdivision of unceded land was having houses built upon it, this one at "Stirling Woods", a few kilometers away from the former Douglas Creek Estates.

These two approaches - direct action versus permits, sovereignty versus settlement - form the backdrop to the Confederacy's distancing itself from the ongoing protests in the area. It is only through the direct action of the reclamation that space was created for the Haudenosaunee Development Institute to be able to demand money for permits, and yet it is unlikely that those carrying out such land seizures will control the direction this all will take.

The space between these two approaches had provided room for the Canadian State to reassert its own sovereignty in Caledonia, which it did last night, sending in over a hundred riot cops to clear the "Stirling Woods" protest site. News reports this morning have announced the nine people were arrested, charged with with assaulting a police officer, mischief and trespassing. The Globe and Mail reported that the police raid was carried out with the tacit approval of the Confederacy Council, its anonymous source describing the protesters as a "splinter group that has been giving all the trouble." This could be spin, i don't know.

Police have made it clear that these charges are not related to the fight on the 13th, and that they are continuing their investigation into that matter, having already identified unnamed "persons of interest".

The ongoing anti-colonial resistance in the Six Nations area continues to be a liability for the Canadian State, and also for those sections of the First Nations which seek integration into Canadian capitalism. The settler population is certainly in an unpleasant position, as they realize that there are issues relating to their homes beyond their Canadian State issued property deeds. In this they may share the same rude shock as yuppies trying to gentrify a working class neighbourhood, or Jews who have moved to Israel, or what lies in store for those rich Americans and Europeans who are buying up oceanfront properties throughout the maritimes. Sadly, this class position will lead many of them to side with the State, and take a "reasonable" stand against those who resist. i can understand that, but it doesn't make it less wrong.

As resistance to Canadian colonialism continues, the State will be more and more tempted to resort to provocation and repression. Already Trevor Mills of the Mohawk Nation spent six months in jail last year for defending the reclamation site. This summer Shawn Brant spent fifty six days in jail and still faces 9 charges having to do with two blockades, one that occurred in April 2007 and the other in June 2007, including 6 charges of indictable mischief (for which the maximum penalty is 10 years in prison). Not to mention a SLAPP from CN Rail, potentially for hudnreds of millions of dollars for disrupting the railways that go through Mohawk land.

It is more important than ever to pay attention to what is happening on the ground and in the courts as we continue along the current cycle of anti-colonial resistance.

[Znet] Shawn Brant: Another case of Canada's political persecution of indigenous people

The following is a good article by Justin Podur, posted on the Znet site yesterday, explaining the State's campaign of persecution against Mohawk activist Shawn Brant:

On August 30, about two weeks before Canada became one of only four countries to vote against a UN declaration on indigenous rights, Tyendinaga Mohawk father and activist, Shawn Brant was released from Quinte Detention Centre on bail. Bail had been denied him twice before, when he first turned himself in on July 5th and again after a bail-review hearing on August 10th. The conditions of his bail were restrictive. $50,000 cash bond with another $50,000 surety, 30-day house arrest, curfew, no protests, and above all, no returning to the struggle for the Mohawk territory the government hoped to disrupt by putting him in jail in the first place. His trial will take place some time in 2008. He is to stand trial on 9 charges having to do with two blockades, one that occurred in April 2007 and the other in June 2007, including 6 charges of indictable mischief (for which the maximum penalty is 10 years in prison), and 3 charges of breach of bail. His actual crime, for which he is being persecuted, is being an articulate and militant spokesperson for his community and indigenous struggles in Canada more generally.

The bail hearing also featured massive, militarized security, all for a community activist who had been involved in activities no more violent than blockades of roads and reclamations of sites, and who had turned himself in. It was a disgraceful display by the state, an attempt to generate fear of violence as a diversion from the substantive issues.

Exclusion and Environmental Destruction

The Mohawks of Tyendinaga, and community members from sister Mohawk territories Kahnawake, Akwesasne, and Kanehsatake, are no strangers to repression and persecution by governments. Indeed, with borders transecting Quebec, Canada, and the US, the Mohawks have known three different flavors of violence. The variations, however, are less striking than the similarities. In the 1990s, these communities faced a military occupation, with thousands of Canadian troops besieging the Mohawks, who were protesting that their sacred sites were slated to become condominium developments and golf courses. An all-out invasion was planned for these communities in 1994, called off at the last minute because of concerns that the political fallout from the bloodshed would be too high. More recently, Kanehsatake, for example, has faced tense standoffs with Canada’s federal police and Quebec’s provincial police, including the creation of a privatized police force to invade the community in 2004 (1). Before that, the Canadian police and military presented these sieges of communities as “law-and-order” activities, using force to stamp out the crimes of Canada’s indigenous people. But the massive, ongoing crime is one committed against indigenous people, and the law-and-order posturing, to which we will return, is intended to present an inversion of reality.

The Canadian state and corporations view the country’s economic development in terms of extracting resources from the land and selling them off, mainly to the United States, for profit. In this model, indigenous people, who live on the land and have their own ideas about how to treat it, are an obstacle, and have been treated that way historically. Even though rights to exploit the land were as often won by negotiation and treaties that included mutual obligations by Canada and indigenous nations as by force, Canada has treated indigenous people as a colonizer treats its victim, disrespecting agreements with them, dispossessing and excluding them, and using force with impunity. “Development” on indigenous lands, whether of resources or, in more densely populated areas, of suburban housing construction projects, is a sort of development that provides no benefit at all to them. While indigenous people from the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory neighbouring Caledonia in Ontario watched their historic lands turned into suburban developments, and Mohawks in Tyendinaga watched trucks carting tons of gravel out of their lands, the majority of indigenous communities in Canada (75% in 2001) have substandard, dangerous water quality and inadequate housing.

Beyond merely excluding the indigenous, Canada has destroyed the very basis of their survival through environmental destruction. The Mohawk territory on the Ontario/Quebec/New York border has been thoroughly poisoned. Canadian authorities have been destroying Mohawk fishing grounds since they started manipulating the flow of the St.Lawrence River in the 1830s. When Canada opened the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s, it offered cheap hydro power to industrial investors, and heavy industry, from General Motors to Alcoa and Reynolds, responded, contaminating the rivers and lakes of the region and the groundwater table with PCBs, DDT, mercury, Mirex, and more. Poisoned water killed both the wildlife and the traditional economy. With no more hunting or fishing, there was no more traditional diet and, consequently, a whole set of new health problems (2).

Environmental destruction and exclusion from the economic benefits of their own territories has led to poverty and unemployment in indigenous communities. This has provided the state with another lever of control over the communities – small amounts of money distributed through the welfare system and through institutions of “self-government” that were imposed on indigenous communities, often at gunpoint. These meager and humiliating funds have an additional value to the state besides control: they also enable the state to sow racism by claiming that indigenous people are “lazy” and “don’t work”, living off of “handouts” from the state.

Adaptation of Tobacco

But the indigenous were never excluded quietly or easily, and the Mohawks found a way to adapt even to this narrowing of their options. Taking advantage of their position on the border, they created businesses selling a traditional sacred plant – tobacco cigarettes. Canada’s establishment treated the “native cigarette” trade as a major crime, alleging associations with organized crime and threatening brutal action. Indeed, from 2004-2006, the government threatened the Mohawk communities, repeatedly, on the basis of the tobacco trade. In an interview with the CBC in April 2006, Shawn Brant explained some of what the tobacco trade had meant for Tyendinaga:

“We have approximately 6 to 7 million dollars a month which comes into the community as new revenue from the outside, that we’ve been able to establish infrastructure within our community. We’ve been able to put forward our first institution of government, as we call it, the longhouse. We showed them that we were going to use the proceeds from tobacco in order to recreate ourselves within the society, that we would allow for something greater to come from it than just padding the pockets of a few people.

“So Tyendinaga now sits in a unique situation, where we have this money coming in, where the stores bring it in at retail level, where construction crews and workers are working, people are preparing their roofs and contributing in a way to, not only the local economy, but also to the surrounding economy in a way that we never had. We’re in position now where we are able to have, as a community, some influence in the outside world. When our people go out shopping, because of the availability of revenue within here, they’re not treated like shit anymore, they’re treated like consumers that have access to revenues, that are going out and making purchases. They’re treated in a way and a standard that we’ve never enjoyed before.” (3)

When the interviewer asked him about rumors of a Canadian military raid into Tyendinaga with cigarettes as a pretext, Shawn Brant answered:

“We’ve always known, and we’ve always been told to prepare for this time, when they would stop at nothing to remove us, to have us not exist. We’ve been through the assimilation process and it didn’t work, and now there’s one option that as a nation, a military option is very real. I believe the day will come, and with Kanesatake in 1990, when the people of that community stood up and everything changed, we talked about the transition time.

“Kanestake has got nothing in the 16 years since 1990: they haven’t settled the land claims, their status within the Indian act, they haven’t settled their financial and fiduciary responsibilities with them – it’s a community where schools barely exist, their programs are non-existent. While everything changed in people’s minds across Canada, and maybe the way in which people perceive us as changed, nothing has changed for them and that’s their punishment for 1990. If Tyendinaga can take on that responsibility, and take the brunt of the force and the government’s wrath, and it allows for some peace to exist in Kanesatake, then we’ll gladly shoulder that responsibility. We don’t just see it as being something just around us. It’s time for our sisters and brothers that have fought for so long to have a break and let them turn their attention to us, and we’ll welcome it.” (4)

Resistance to Dispossession

The tobacco trade is not the only indigenous adaptation to legal and economic exclusion and dispossession. The more direct adaptation has been to resist dispossession, using legal arguments and, when Canada ignored these, resorting to the very measured and restrained use of reclamations and blockades.

One such reclamation began in February 2006, at the Douglas Creek Estates bordering the town of Caledonia and the Six Nations reserve. The Douglas Creek Estates were in the process of being converted to a suburban subdivision when members of Six Nations reclaimed it. They wanted the land, which, like so many other pieces of indigenous territory, had been taken from them in a process of very dubious legality, to be returned to them (5). Instead of negotiating in good faith, the provincial police attempted to dislodge the indigenous people from the reclamation site in April 2006, and succeeded for several hours, after which the indigenous reclaimed the site yet again. Six Nations called on people outside the territory to speak up and to mobilize on their behalf. One community that heard the call was Tyendinaga.

The day after the police dislodged the Six Nations reclamation on the Douglas Creek Estates (April 21 2006), Mohawks from Tyendinaga blocked a CN Rail line that runs through their territories, both the Culbertson Tract and Surrender 24 (discussed below) demanding that the government negotiate with Six Nations in good faith. Later that year, the government would force the Mohawks of Tyendinaga to conduct a reclamation on their own behalf. The Culbertson tract, like the Douglas Creek Estates, had been stolen from the indigenous through a dubious swindle (6). When, on November 15 2006, Mohawks went to the site of a proposed subdivision on the Culbertson tract to publicize their claim and their intention to stop the construction of a subdivision there, coincidence had a convoy of Canadian Military vehicles just passing through the reserve. The Mohawks blocked the convoy with cars and trucks and asked them what they were doing. Provincial police eventually escorted the military away. In January 2007, Shawn Brant and another Mohawk activist, Mario Baptiste, were arrested. Shawn was charged with ‘uttering death threats’, Mario with ‘assault’ and ‘mischief’, in conjunction with the November 15 2006 incident (7).

On another part of Tyendinaga territory, a gravel quarry owned by Thurlow Aggregates, the corporation busily strived to make off with as much of the land as possible, while the government of Canada took a decade to even sit down to land claim negotiations. Strikingly, the Mohawks had submitted an official land claim in 1995, after the claims process was finally created by Canada, and in 2003, this claim had been acknowledged as legitimate by the Canadian government - in many land claim disputes, achieving this recognition of legitimacy from the colonial government is in and of itself a huge battle. Negotiations around the Mohawk’s claim did not begin for several years after that, during which time the Government of Ontario continued to renew the license to Thurlow Aggregates to ravage the now-recognized Mohawk land. So, on March 22, 2007, 125 members of Tyendinaga took control of the quarry. Shawn Brant explained the reclamation: “it’s very difficult to have negotiations at a time when they’re taking out 10,000 truckloads of our land. It’s an affront to our process.” (8). The Mohawks announced a campaign of blockades if the quarry’s license was not revoked. On April 20, 2007, they blocked the CN Rail line again. The Mohawks held the line for 30 hours and packed up, having negotiated with the police that no one would be charged. The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Commissioner, an aggressive and militaristic former chief of Toronto’s police named Julian Fantino, ordered the arrest of Shawn Brant for mischief, disobeying a court order, and breach of recognizance – ignoring the agreement made on April 21 2007. On May 9, CN Rail announced a civil suit for damages for the rail stoppage – the authors of the essay “What Landed Shawn Brant in Jail” said the following about CN’s lawsuit:

“The civil case will likely bring to light some of the checkered history of railway construction in Canada, from forced expropriations to illegal seizures of land; CN’s lawyers may find themselves arguing a case that does the company more harm than good.” (9) The rail line CN is suing over runs through both the Culbertson Tract and what is called “Surrender 24”, a 33,000 acre tract that was stolen from the Mohawks in 1820 by force, and despite much resistance (10).

The final set of charges against Shawn Brant stem from June 29, 2007, which was planned as a national aboriginal day of action. Originally conceived and presented as a day of militant action to show that indigenous communities would not be shunted aside or disappeared, the day of action was weakened by Canada’s threats and successful isolation of communities from one another. Tyendinaga took the call to action seriously. Via Rail cancelled its rail service, anticipating a shut down. The Tyendinaga Mohawks blocked Highway 2. The OPP blocked the Highway 401 pre-emptively, and the Tyendinaga Mohawks moved on to the highway and the CN tracks. The blockades were all lifted by the end of the 29th, and no one was hurt. Shawn Brant, however, was charged with mischief and breach of bail, and turned himself in on July 5 (11).

Shawn Brant’s trial, and the civil suit by CN Rail, could indeed prove counterproductive to the Canadian state and corporations. At a public event on August 29, 2007 in support of Shawn Brant, author Naomi Klein suggested that part of why the Canadian establishment, from Ontario’s police commissioner to the mainstream media, seems to be so vindictive against him is because he has had some success raising indigenous issues not only inside, but also outside of native communities. Sue Collis, an activist who has been instrumental in building this bridge between native and non-native activists (and who is also Shawn Brant’s wife), noted that the colonial relationship between settler and indigenous in Canada could not occur without the participation and complicity of the citizens. Racist myths about native people being “lazy” or “lawless” can’t hold up to reality, and the indigenous actions have been about confronting Canadians with the reality. If the myths collapse, could the whole project of dispossessing the indigenous be at risk?

The colonial playbook is a limited one. In 1990 and 1994, Canada used the military and the police against the Mohawks. It also mobilized racist whites to press a counter-claim against indigenous people, and then presented itself as an honest broker between the two extremes, allowing the racists plenty of leeway and persecuting indigenous people whenever possible. This strategy also allowed plausible deniability. The same thing occurred in 2006 on Six Nations land, with “residents of Caledonia” rallying to demand action against the indigenous (12). Other standard plays include attempts to sow divisions in the community, arming some indigenous people against others, offering money in exchange for land, and presenting small sacrifices as immense in order to create obstacles for future negotiations. The repetitiveness of these standard tactics is frustrating, but it could also make them more transparent, for those who wish to see. If there were enough such people (13), Canada would have to back off, and perhaps actually change its relationship with indigenous people.


Notes

1) See my “Kanehsatake”, 2004, ZNet, for a discussion of what was going on at the time: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=5556. See also the following leaflet: http://arab.sa.utoronto.ca/preparing.for.invasion.pdf
2) See chapter 2 of Bruce E. Johansen (1993), “Life and Death in Mohawk Country”, North American Press, Colorado. See also the work of Boyce Richardson, including “The People of Terra Nullius” and “Drumbeat: Anger and Renewal in Indian Country”.
3) CBC Interview, April 23, 2006.
4) CBC Interview, April 23, 2006.
5) For an overview of the Six Nations reclamation, see my “Six Nations Does Not Stand Alone”, 2006, ZNet. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10152
6) See the excellent pamphlet, “In Support of the Mohawks of Tyendinaga”, from which much of this article was drawn. See specifically two essays: “What Landed Shawn Brant in Jail?”, and “Surrender 24 and the Culbertson Tract: How Tyendinaga’s Land Was Stolen”. The PDF of the pamphlet is here: http://www.ocap.ca/files/fsb-rgb-final.pdf
7) “What Landed Shawn Brant in Jail?” - http://www.ocap.ca/files/fsb-rgb-final.pdf
8) “What Landed Shawn Brant in Jail?” - http://www.ocap.ca/files/fsb-rgb-final.pdf
9) “What Landed Shawn Brant in Jail?” - http://www.ocap.ca/files/fsb-rgb-final.pdf
10) “Surrender 24 and the Culbertson Tract: How Tyendinaga’s Land Was Stolen”. http://www.ocap.ca/files/fsb-rgb-final.pdf
11) “What Landed Shawn Brant in Jail?” - http://www.ocap.ca/files/fsb-rgb-final.pdf
12) See my “In whose interests are the ‘residents’ rallies’ in Caledonia?” ZNet, 2006, http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10313
13) There are people working on this, and there should be many more. Join the Tyendinaga support committee, visit their site, sign the petition, work wherever you are on this. http://www.ocap.ca/supporttmt.html

September Update on the San Francisco 8 [by Kiilu Nyasha]

The following is an update on the State's continuing attempt to frame eight veterans of the Black Liberation Movement for the killing of a San Francisco cop over thirty years ago. Similar charges against some of the same men were thrown out in the 1970s when a judge found that the men had "confessed" following days of torture by police: electrical shocks, cattle prods, beatings, sensory deprivation, suffocation with plastic bags and hot, wet blankets... the cops who got their jollies this way back then are the same ones behind this new round of persecution...

This update is written by Kiilu Nyasha, herself a movement elder, a revolutionary artist, and a veteran of the Black Panther Party:

It’s not often the Movement can celebrate a victory. So I’m delighted to report that we’ve won the release on bail of five of our six elders eligible for bail -- with one more expected to be out within days. Richard O’Neal and Richard Brown were first, out August 29 and 30th respectively, followed by Ray Boudreaux and Harold Taylor, September 11 and 12th. Hank Jones was released September 18th and Francisco “Cisco” Torres should be out soon.

The generation gap took a big hit on September 11 when the two Richards, dressed in suits and ties (instead of orange jumpsuits and chains) warmly embraced supporters outside the Department 23 courtroom before the hearing. Joining the largely elder group of supporters for a joyous and spontaneous celebration in the hall were 20 10th-grade students from Met West High School in Oakland.

Surprisingly, Judge Philip Moscone stopped the afternoon proceedings to make sure the necessary documents for Bourdreaux’s bail were signed and delivered by the 3 p.m. deadline so he could be released later that day.

Unfortunately, Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim (aka Anthony Bottom), previously known as the New York 3, are not eligible for bail having spent 34 and 36 years, respectively, in New York prisons. They are eligible for parole and both will go to board again in 2008. Since this case has been partly responsible for their continued incarceration, if it’s thrown out (as it should be for lack of evidence), a significant barrier to their being granted parole would be removed. For more information on the NY3, go to
http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/profiles/ny3.html.

On August 22, to a courtroom filled with supporters and three rows of police and FBI agents including the infamous torturer, Detective Erdelatz, Judge Moscone announced, “No one is going to be pleased by everything that happens.” That said, he reduced the bails of all six brothers, virtually ignoring the Attorney General’s call for the original bails to apply. The prosecution wanted bail raised from $3 to $5 million each!

When I visited Harold following the hearing, he asked me what my reaction was to the judge’s bail reduction. I confessed I was shocked. He said so was he. We never expected the judge to reduce the bails enough for all to get out. And I surely didn’t anticipate his noting the various activities and honors accrued by the defendants or that they posed no danger to “public safety.”

For example, in reducing Harold Taylor’s bail to $350,000, he cited the dismissal of this same charge in 1975; the acquittal in the so-called “L.A. shootout” in 1976 (John Bowman, Ray Boudreaux and Harold were fired on by police and shot back in self-defense); Harold’s employment for 21 years or until his medical condition prevented him from working any longer, as well as his community service.

The judge also noted Hank Jones’ honorable discharge from the U.S. Marines (Jones is a veteran, along with Boudreaux and Torres.), Richard O’Neal’s Commendation from the S.F. Fire Department for rescuing two people from a fire, and Boudreaux’s 30-year marriage and 25 years of employment as an electrician for L.A. County.

The Bail Hearings:

During the bail hearings, defendants’ attorneys described these elders’ community service. Hank and Ray were founders of the Black Student Union at S.F. State University that achieved organizing the first Black studies programs in colleges and universities nationwide. Richard Brown, 66, spent 23 years mentoring countless young people in the Western Addition, worked 20 at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center, has been a good father to his 11 children and raised five more, received awards from the Ca. State Senate and Legislature, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award.

Richard O’Neal, who lost his wife to random homicide in 1979, raised his son and another child alone, was employed by the City for 35 years. The judge received 60 supportive letters from O’Neal’s friends, neighbors and coworkers. One such friend of 45 years, Fannie Sanders, testified that Richard had purchased two burial plots when his wife died; more recently, a friend couldn’t afford one for his deceased loved one so O’Neal gave him his plot.

Francisco Torres’ attorney described how Cisco, father of two, has been the primary caretaker of his severely disabled son who has sickle cell anemia. Having seen the video Exhibit, the judge commented on how his son, 34, “looks 14.” Known for his activism with Vietnam Vets Against the War and his mentoring of troubled youth, Cisco is loved and highly respected in his neighborhood.

More information about all eight defendants is available at www.freethesf8.org.

We must not forget that all these elders were either members of the Black Panther Party or active supporters, committed to serving and defending Black and other oppressed people for life. And their lives are living testimony to that commitment. But it also subjected them to all the dirty tricks of the FBI’s vicious counterintelligence program known as COINTELPRO. Over 37 Panthers were killed and no one has been held accountable! Not to mention countless others still suffering incarcerations of up to 40 years.

Take a good look at Amerikan racism and injustice clearly illustrated by such cases as the Scottsboro 9, Mississippi 11, Wilmington 10, New York 21, Queens 2, New York 3, Angola 3, Soledad 7, The Soledad Brothers (3), Los Siete de la Raza, San Quentin 6, MOVE 9, and now the Cuban 5, San Francisco 8 and Jena 6. You’ll see a historic pattern of the police State blanketing groups of Black/Brown activists with multiple charges in hopes some will stick so they can jail them for life or execute them.

The real criminals are the fascists in power who continue to conduct illegal wars killing thousands of soldiers, committing genocide on civilians, ripping off other nations’ resources as well as our own (At least $9 billion in cash was lost in Iraq and the Pentagon can’t account for trillions of your tax dollars!), sanctioning and encouraging massive and illegal incarceration and torture of its own citizens and immigrants, often denied due process or their constitutional and human rights, the most egregious of which is Guantanamo Bay.

This case is based on the Ingleside shooting of a police officer in August, 1971. Three Panthers, Rubin Scott, John Bowman (deceased), and Harold Taylor were captured, tortured in New Orleans in ’73, and charged with the murder. In 1975, a judge dismissed the case citing inadmissible evidence, namely, confessions exacted under torture (See Legacy of Torture, a 28 minute video available from Freedom Archives’ website: www.freedomarchives.org ).

Discovery issues are yet to be settled by opposing attorneys. The next public hearing will be Monday, September 24, at 9:30 a.m., preceded by a rally at 8:30. This is an important session because the judge will hear arguments about the admissibility of statements made under torture.


With six of the eight out on bail, the Court will hear the collateral estoppel motion for Harold arguing that since a judge excluded coerced statements in Taylor’s 1976 L. A. trial in which he was acquitted, that judge’s rulings should be respected,

The State has no new evidence despite their claims. The murder weapon was “lost.” The DNA taken from all eight prisoners produced no matches, nor did the fingerprints.
Apparently, all the prosecution has is the coerced testimony of Rubin Scott whose past statements were proved perjurious by two courts.

So come to court on September 24 and bring your friends with you for the rally at 8:30 and to pack the courtroom at 9:30.

Free the SF8!
Long live the spirit of John Bowman!
Free em all!