Caravan of Hope raises $1300 to purchase ambulances
Danny Cota – BASICS Issue #19 – May/June 2010
Great music, local talent, drinks-a-plenty, and all for a great cause. On April 1, the Caravan of Hope hosted a fundraiser at Mitzi’s Sister (1554 Queen West), raising over $1300.The Caravan of Hope is currently raising funds to purchase 13 decommissioned ambulances from the City of Toronto. These ambulances will be driven by volunteers to El Salvador, to be used as mobile medical units serving the general public and helping Salvadorians who would otherwise be without access to basic medical care.
International Women’s Conference in Montreal, Canada, August 13-16, 2010
Cynthia Palmaria – BASICS Issue #19 – May/June 2010
This year marks the celebration of the centennial of International Toiling Women’s Day, which will be commemorated by a historic conference initiated by ILPS (International League of People’s Struggle) to strengthen the international global women’s movement. The conference, entitled “For a Militant Global Women’s Movement in the 21st Century,” was conceptualized with the objective of assessing the achievements of the global women’s rights movement during the last 100 years. We will be honouring the pioneers, celebrating the centennial and drawing up an action plan for advancing the women’s rights movement, starting with the formation of an anti-imperialist women’s alliance. The international initiative committee is composed of Gabriela Philippines, the convener of the Women’s Commission of ILPS and Women of Diverse Origins in Montreal, Canada.
Editorial – S. da Silva (BASICS Issue #19 – May/June 2010)
Many Canadians may believe that anti-terrorist legislation, billions of dollars in public funds, and an army of CSIS and RCMP police agents are all necessary measures to guard against fanatical extremists and the threat of terrorism. But a cursory glance at Canada’s foreign relations in the world over the last few years alone reveals that Canada has no against qualms working with and propping up some of the most fanatical regimes in the world today.
Press Release – April 8, 2010
Twenty-two Canadian citizens, including representatives from churches, labour unions, academics, lawyers and a sitting Member of Parliament, Don Davies, are preparing to head to the Philippines as part of an international observers mission during that country’s upcoming presidential elections.
On election day, scheduled for May 10, 2010, more than 17,000 offices will be contested across the country including the key posts of President, Vice President along with representatives to the House of Representatives, the Senate, and a range of provincial, municipal, and local offices.
Yolisa Dalamba – BASICS Issue #19 – May/June 2010
On April 3, the body of Eugene Terre’Blanche, white-supremacist leader of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement, better known as the AWB, was found at his home in Ventersdorp where he was pronounced dead. It is alleged two of his workers killed him over a wage dispute. However, more recent news updates report that Terre’Blanche is being accused of sexual assault, which may have led to the attacks that killed him death.
Terre’Blanche became prominent in the 1980’s when he campaigned for a separate white homeland and the preservation of apartheid where he and his white supremacist movement mounted a bombing campaign to fight for the maintenance of apartheid.
For centuries Afrikans endured unimaginable levels of violence at the hands of white farmers. Later, apartheid policies gave farmers the right to oppress workers, often turning a blind eye to incidences of extreme abuse, even death at the hands of systemic racism and white supremacy. There has always been little regard for workers and trade unions have spoken out about this for decades in Azania (which is the name given to South Africa by the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) in 1959). The PAC rejected the current multiracial neo liberal status quo in South Africa and firmly believed in a liberated socialist Afrika.
Jeremias de Castero – BASICS Issue #19 – May/June 2010
A recent discovery of a mass gravesite in the village of La Macarena, in the Colombian Department of Meta – a region that has been under contestation between the government and the guerrillas – has shed more light on the violence in Colombian society.
Approximately 2,000 bodies are buried in this grave, according to a February 10, 2010 letter issued by Alexandra Valencia Molina, the director of a government agency tasked to investigate government corruption.
John Clarke (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty) – BASICS Issue #19 – May/June 2010
The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty’s “March on the Liberal Government” on April 15 was designed as a means of initiating a Province-wide fight for decent income for people on welfare and disability. This struggle has been taken up as a response to McGuinty’s vicious elimination of the vital Special Diet benefit.
People on social assistance today have an income that is 55% lower than it was in the early 1990s. A single person on Ontario Works would need a $300 a month increase to be back to where he or she would have been in 1993. The only means that was available to people to alleviate this worsening poverty was the Special Diet. After OCAP began fighting for access to it in 2005, it went from a $6 million a year program to being one that was providing $200 million in desperately needed extra income. At the time of the cut, one in five people on assistance were accessing it.
M. Cook and Corrie Sakaluk
“We are dealing with a particularly vicious attack coming down on us from the Liberal government,” said John Clarke, an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), to over a hundred people gathered at the Parkdale Activity and Recreation Centre on April 9th. “The simple reality is that if you’re going to force people into low paying jobs, it is very important to the provincial government that welfare be as low as possible.”
On March 25, Ontario’s Liberal government killed the Special Diet allowance in their 2010 provincial budget. The Special Diet allowance was a provincial program that allowed those living on social assistance, if proven in need of it by a medical professional, to receive additional money each month to help cover the cost of healthier food.
Lucho Granados-Ceja, Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández & Cristina Guerrero – BASICS Issue #19 – May/June 2010
A Toronto District School Board (TDSB) report, released in April 2008, revealed that that roughly 40 percent of Latino students do not complete secondary school. In response, “Proyecto Latino” was launched by a team of researchers at the Centre for Urban Schooling at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, in collaboration with the Office of Student and Community Equity of the Toronto District School Board. Led by Dr. Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández, the team sought to explore the experiences of Latino students, how they define student engagement and what they identify as ways to improve their own educational experience and support their achievement and success.
Community Group Launches Civil Rights Struggle
Kirstyn Whightman, Solomon Muyoboke, & Farshad Azadian – BASICS Issue #19 – May/June 2010
On March 3, some 60 residents of the Esplanade neighborhood came together to address the pressing issue of police brutality. This event, held at a local recreation centre, wasorganized by the Esplanade Community Group in response to several incidences of police brutality and harassment. This turnout, made up of residents of all generations, came together to launch an organized response to defend the community against police violence.
The event featured a presentation on several cases where police had murdered youth in Toronto and Montreal, and the subsequent political responses mounted by those communities. Cathy Crowe, a community member and NDP provincial candidate for Toronto Centre, also spoke about her experience fighting police brutality in her work supporting Toronto’s homeless. Several Esplanade youth, who have since become politically active, gave a presentation on their experiences as well.
