Reposted from: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=373712
Officers were said to have dispersed the gathered young people, who were calling for unity and a return to the Palestinian national project in Tayaran (Aviation) Street in the center of the city.
Activist Ihsan Abu Sharkh said the forces chased and beat demonstrators, spraying what appeared to be pepper spray at their eyes, and injuring at least one young man.
Hamas officials had earlier confirmed that one demonstration, joined by all factions, was given a permit to demonstrate on Land Day.
Teachers in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem devoted their first class Wednesday to the history of Land Day, and the Palestinian struggle to prevent land confiscations, as demonstrations swelled across Palestinian cities. Read more…
By Herman Rosenfeld
The Ford administration has wasted little time in moving towards privatizing, selling off, key city services to the private sector. The president of the outside municipal workers union , CUPE 416, noted that Ford, his brother and their allies have cut the vehicle registration tax and are looking to starve the city of needed revenue. On that basis, Ford can cut services, attack the gains of public sector workers and privatize, “anything that is not nailed down” (in the words of Doug Ford, Rob’s senior advisor and ‘the brains behind the outfit’).
In February, the mayor announced plans to hold a city council vote to privatize garbage collection in the west side of the city in May. This is the first of a number of plans, which are said to include parks cleaners, maintenance, recreation centres, community housing, and possibly others. Three million dollars will be spent on hiring an army of consultants, looking for suggestions of things to cut and privatize.
Ford has begun with the garbage collectors, because they are seen as a relatively easy target. Even though thousands of inside and outside CUPE workers were on strike two summers ago, many people remember the garbage workers, and the inconvenience associated with that experience. Moreover, the propaganda coming from the right-wing, media, business and even the previous Miller administration tended to demonize these workers, with claims that their historic contractual gains somehow constituted “privileges”. Read more…
Reposted from: Barrio Neuvo
(TORONTO) – The WE ARE JOSE TOUR is a campaign to reverse the deportation of 13 year Langley BC resident, Jose Figueroa.
On March 18th Jose Figueroa and his 14-year-old son departed from Vancouver on a cross Canada bus tour. They have had warm receptions in other Canadian cities along the way. The “tour” will stop over in Toronto and area on the way to Ottawa where Jose plans to deliver petitions asking for an exemption.
The tour aims to raise awareness of the problems in immigration law that has led to a wrongful deportation order against him. Many refugees face difficulties because of vague and unfair policies of the Canadian Border Services Agency. Jose Figueroa has been labeled a terrorist because of past affiliations with the FMLN, which is the current ruling body in El Salvador.
The Canadian government’s decision to deport José has serious implications not only for José and his family but for all refugees to Canada who have fought for democracy and against oppressive and violent regimes in their home countries.
PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES
Who:
Jose Figueroa, B.C. Resident and father facing deportation
Jose Ivan Figueroa, 14 year old Canadian son
Local and Federal politicians, Padre Hernan Astudillo and supporters
When/Where:
Friday March 25 (6:15pm) – Arriving in Toronto, via Greyhound Bus 5230 from Regina
Sunday March 27 (2:30pm) – Media event San Lorenzo Church, 22 Wenderly Drive
Info:
Jose Figueroa in the news
For information or to arrange and interview please contact:
English Contact:
Sofia Ramirez
Barrio Nuevo
416-433-9069
Spanish Contact:
Nicolas Lopez
Barrio Nuevo
416-837-9240
Reposted from www.salvaide.ca
“Nobody can kill the voice of justice:” Romero lives!
Today marks 31 years since Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated while giving mass in El Salvador’s capital. And Salvadoreans everywhere do not forget. Joining the throngs of marchers making their way through San Salvador’s main thoroughfares are Salvadoreans in Canada, the US, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Australia and many other places with exile communities, all of us celebrating Romero’s life and courage. Indeed, few Salvadoreans have so singularly captivated the collective consciousness of their people. Few have provided the moral strength to an entire generation to stand up and say ¡ya basta! in the face of state repression.
Archbishop Romero was in many ways quintessentially representative of his people’s struggle for human rights. Like most Salvadoreans, he was reserved, humble, and conservative in his personal and family life. And like many who braved bullets, disappearance, and torture for speaking out, it took being personally touched by state terror to decide finally to “choose sides.” In Romero’s case, it was the shameless murder of his close friend, Father Rutilio Grande, and two parishioners by state-supported death squads, that tipped the scale. This atrocity, one of many during that time, marked Archbishop Romero’s explicit and public preferential option for the poor.
Given a Salvadorean oligarchy that employed the government and military (and death squads, in a cruel attempt at obfuscation) as its private instruments, Romero’s tragic fate and enduring legacy were sealed from the moment he channelled through the pulpit the voice of the voiceless. His unprecedented scathing denunciations of the Salvadorean elite and its military watchdogs shattered the hubris of those in power already busy trying to quell a de facto popular insurgency. That his cold-blooded murder was authored by military men institutionally linked to the state laid bare to the world El Salvador’s dictatorship. It was a defining moment for El Salvador – a moment Salvadoreans and their friends will never forget.
This March 24th (and everyday) let’s remember Archbishop Romero as he would want us to remember him – with the humility and resolve required to continue the struggle for justice everywhere.
—–
SalvAide
219 Argyle Avenue, Suite 411
Ottawa, Ontario K2P 2H4
Canada
Tel: 613-233-6215
Fax: 613-233-7375
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.salvaide.ca
Date: April 15, 2011 at 9pm
Location: Blue Moon Pub, 725 Queen St. East
Link out: Click here
Description: “Since the emergence, disappearance, and resurgence of The Last Poets, no other group of young stanza-kickers have come about and made a significant impact in the music world. Thankfully the ReadNex Poetry Squad has decided to fill this void.”
Life Movement will participate as part of the lead-up to Hip Hop Appreciation Week to take place in the city of Toronto in May. Local artists will take the stage for the opening acts.
April 15, 2011 at 9pm
Blue Moon Pub
725 Queen Street East
Toronto, ON
Reposted statement from the website of the Organizing Committee of the International League of People’s Struggles – Canada.
The ILPS-Canada Organizing Committee strongly condemns Canada’s role in the ongoing imperialist attack against Libya, otherwise known as “imposing a no-fly zone”. Missiles and warplanes have been unleashed on the country on a scale unseen in the Arab world since the Iraq war, and casualties are mounting.
US forces have been the “leading edge” in the opening phase of the attack, with the US navy launching a barrage of missile strikes starting at 2 pm Eastern time, March 19, 2011. A day later, B-2 stealth bombers and F-16 and F-15 fighter jets struck again, with British and French forces also involved in airstrike missions. The US has at least 11 warships near Tripoli, with other ships from Italy, Britain, France and the HMCS Charlottetown from Canada.
Canada’s Harper government has also sent 6 CF-100s to participate in the assault. This is part of a continuing process of unsheathing the sword of war and involving Canada in a front-line role in the US-led global imperialist offensive, undoubtedly to help Canadian companies such as SNC-Lavalin keep building prisons and airports in Libya, and to help Calgary-based Suncor keep pumping at least $5 million daily out of that country’s old fields.
Behind the “humanitarian” rhetoric of the US and its allies is the drive to organize a regime change to replace Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi with a reliable puppet regime which would enable the imperialist forces to once again have total access to Libya’s vast oil fields. They appear intent on not only destroying the military but also the economic and social infrastructure of Libya, as they did in Iraq.
There are obviously double standards at work in Operation Odyssey Dawn when one compares the military assault on Libya with the total impunity granted the governments of Bahrain, home of the US Fifth Fleet, Yemen, Israel and other such states which have gunned down and bombed their citizens. The great humanitarians also turned a blind eye to the repression under Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Ben Ali in Tunisia, as they have always done to “friendly” dictators, agreeing reluctantly to replace them only when the people’s movements are on the verge of victory.
The so-called humanitarian mission to save people’s lives in Iraq resulted in the death of at least 92,000 civilians, even according to US Army figures. That invasion was undertaken supposedly to prevent Saddam Hussein’s use of “weapons of mass destruction,” which it turned out never existed. The humanitarian nightmare in Iraq continues to this day with an estimated 4.7 million Iraqi refugees and some 35% of Iraqi children who are orphaned.
The imperialist powers had Qaddafi in their sights since he nationalized Libya’s oil industry in the early 1970s immediately after overthrowing the monarchy.
While instituting some early internal reforms and social benefits with the oil wealth, Qaddafi further angered Washington and friends by conducting a relatively independent foreign policy. However, in recent years he had begun to reach out to the imperialist powers and institute some neo-liberal structural adjustment-like policies at home. But obviously this was not enough; the imperialists wanted a totally compliant regime.
The popular discontent that has been growing in Libya in the wake of these policies, encouraged by the revolts in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, has now been usurped by reactionary, pro-monarchist and pro-imperialist elements within Libya, who called for the “no fly zone” and plan to profit from the present foreign invasion.
We firmly oppose “humanitarian imperialism,” whether it is in Libya, Kosovo, Iraq or Afghanistan. We believe the Libyan people must be allowed to determine for themselves the sort of democratic reforms they need and to establish the political and economic set-up that will best serve their aspirations and interests. US and NATO bombs cannot bring the Libyan people true freedom, democracy and national liberation.
We must oppose the attempts of Canada, along with the US and other NATO powers, to draw Canadians into support for these bloody interventions behind the cover of “saving” the people. These interventions are carried out only to “save” the planet for further imperialist aggression and plunder.
We do not want and do not need another Iraq.
Canada, withdraw all military forces from Libya; demand an end to the attack!
US, France, Britain, NATO, hands off Libya!
No to the US-led imperialist war of aggression against Libya!
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Maté, MD (2008).
by Susan Rosenthal www.susanrosenthal.com/
first published by -International Health Workers for People Over Profit: www.healthworkersinternational.org
Gabor Maté’s latest book effectively demolishes the belief that addictions arise from chemical imbalances, genetics, or bad choices.
As in his two previous books, Scattered Minds: A New Look at the Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder (1999) and When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress (2003), Maté situates human suffering in a social context, inviting a political discussion of how social relations affect human health. Scattered Minds locates symptoms of ADD in the social neglect of children’s needs and concludes,
“What begins as a problem of society and human development has become almost exclusively defined as a medical ailment.”
When the Body Says No indicts “industrialized society along the capitalist model” as a source of toxic stress that “escalates as the sense of control diminishes” and causes physical and mental breakdown. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts condemns society for depriving human beings of what they need to thrive and then persecuting and punishing them for using drugs to relieve their pain. All three books are well-written, engaging and brilliantly expose the fake science that pushes a pill for every ill.
While Maté situates human distress in the social realm, he seeks solutions in the personal realm. When the Body Says No ignores industrial pollution as a cause of cancer, as well as the impact of social class on one’s exposure to carcinogenic compounds. Instead, the author promotes the myth of “the cancer personality” – people who are more likely to get cancer because they repress their emotions, ignore their needs and put others first. He writes,
“In numerous studies of cancer, the most consistent identified risk factor is the inability to express emotion, particularly the feelings associated with anger.” (p.99)
Repressing emotions and ignoring one’s needs can contribute to health problems. However, these are behaviors that society demands of all women and that employers demand of all workers. The myth of the “cancer personality” is junk science that puts the cart before the horse. As long as the majority is exploited and oppressed, most people will feel angry most of the time, and rightfully so. Efforts to release or eliminate anger, without removing the social conditions that make people angry, is just another form of social control. Hungry Ghosts devotes considerable space to questioning why the war on drugs and drug addicts continues despite its total ineffectiveness and considerable harm. In fact, this “war” is not about drugs; it is the means by which the ruling class effectively justifies its repressive military-prison system at home and abroad.
All three of Maté’s books devote ample space to questioning why policy-makers ignore the solid research linking childhood trauma and deprivation with medical and social problems. The author cannot answer this question because he does not acknowledge the impact of class conflict on human health. In fact, the ruling class can accumulate capital only by robbing the working class of its health and vitality. Maté’s books are commercially successful because they tap into popular awareness of social problems while avoiding the uncomfortable conclusion that social revolution is required to solve them. The result is a liberal version of blaming the victim – society cannot be changed, so the individual must change. This regressive message is more insidious because it is hidden beneath a caring and progressive cover.
For an alternate analysis, read SICK and SICKER: Essays on Class, Health and Health Care.
By Meg M.
On February 27, 2011 Women United Against Imperialism (WUAI) hosted the community forum Confronting Precarious Work in the Era of Imperialism to educate and organize around the theme of precarious work for the upcoming International Women’s Day events that took place in early March.
Petrolina Cleto began the forum by sharing her poem titled “A Place” with the group. Her words set the tone for the discussion ahead; about the sacrifices women make under global imperialism, as they migrate to foreign places for their families’ survival and the love behind migrant women’s work. Cleto explained, “working with the community of women migrant workers in Toronto has deepened my understanding of forced migration and the effects of imperialism on the majority of women in the world today. I now clearly see their courage. I also see what is often taken for granted… the great love with which they do their sacrifices, is also what they give to the people they work for.”
The following speaker, Brigitte Dang-ay, shared with the group that she arrived in Canada in 2006. She has since been separated from her four children in the Philippines while caring for Canadian families as a temporary foreign worker under Canada’s Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP). LCP caregivers are required to complete 24 months of documented, full-time, live-in domestic work within four years of arrival in Canada. On completion of this requirement they become eligible to apply as permanent residents to Canada. Although it takes great courage for caregivers under the LCP to speak out on the vulnerabilities they face at work due to their precarious migration status, Dang-ay gave voice to the difficulties many women migrant workers experience and presented a powerful account of the impact of global imperialism on her life. Read more…
Oppose US and NATO military intervention in the Libyan conflict!
Reposted: Renato M. Reyes, Jr. – Secretary General of Bayan…
As the world remembers the eighth anniversary of US invasion of Iraq today, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) vehemently condemns the latest chapter in the long and bloody history of imperialist intervention, this time in Libya under the guise of imposing a no-fly zone over the beleaguered country.
While claiming that the move is necessary to supposedly prevent additional civilian casualties, the United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1973 will on the contrary create the conditions for a blood bath in Libya. We take note of the said resolutions statement –authorizing all member-states acting nationally or through regional organizations or arrangements, to take all necessary measures to enforce compliance with the ban on flights imposed –as a blanket authority to members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) led by the US to demolish at all costs the military capabilities of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi. We are gravely alarmed that like the US invasion of Iraq, military aggression against Libya will also result in enormous harm to civilian lives and property.
The direct US and NATO military intervention clearly has its main objective the removal from power of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi and the installation of a reliable puppet regime. Bayan reaffirms our stand that the ongoing conflict in Libya must be resolved by the Libyan people themselves and without any form of foreign military intervention. Read more…
Petrolina Cleto shared her poem at the Women United Against Imperialism forum on Confronting Precarious Work in the Era of Imperialism on February 27, 2011. The following poem is inspired by the struggles and courage of women migrant workers.
A woman who toils in any place
Because she has no place
Where she is
Finds that every morning
She grows more unsure
Of this place
A place awash with gestures
Full of movements imbibed from shells
Of other creatures
Living in films,
Filmed as if they lived,
Creatures staring at you
From billboards or magazines,
As if they were alive in another world
Where money had another meaning Read more…
