Brief – S. da Silva (30/May/2011)
On Saturday night, May 28, a NATO airstrike bombed the community of Lashkar Gah in the Helmand Province, killing 14 civilians, all women and children. Five girls, seven boys, and two women were killed while they slept.
The NATO occupiers alleges that the strike came after a nearby base came under attack by small arms.
Brief – S. da Silva (30/May/2011)
On Sunday evening, May 29, Greeks mobilized for the fifth day in a row to protest the latest round of austerity measures being imposed by the Greek government. The latest round of austerity is seeking a sell-off of $50-billion in public assets in order for Greece to qualify for the $12-billion next installment of its bailout package, which it will need to re-finance its debts in July.
International financial institutions are fearing that a Greek default on its debts will lead to the collapse of their own interests. The solution: Make the workers pay for the crisis.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou over the weekend during his G8 trip in Europe, and Harper endorsed the Greek government’s austerity attacks on the people. Harper said: “We have every confidence that our Greek hosts here and that our European friends will continue to deal with these matters so that the global economy can continue moving forward.”
The austerity package is part of the conditions accepted by the Greek government after it took out loans imposed upon it from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF is a financial body made of the 184 member states to stabilize the international capitalist financial system, and has a notorious history of imposing odious debts on its weakest member states as a means to extract painful structural reforms that benefit big capitalists and hurt the vast majority.
It was no surprise that Harper endorsed the austerity measures, not only considering the Federal Conservatives’ own plans to impose austerity measures in Canada, but also because Canada is the 8th largest financial contributor to the IMF and given Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney is seeking the Presidency of the IMF in the wake of the scandal of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Canadian imperialism, based in Canadian monopoly-finance capital, has a direct stake in the austerity measures against Greek workers and all others coming under attack by the IMF.
The Forum Against Police Violence and Impunity took place in Montreal, on January 29-31, 2010. Over the course of the weekend, well over three hundred participants explored a range of themes, including: asserting oneself when dealing with the police, police repression of social movements, youth and profiling, profiling of drug users, campaigns for justice led by family members of people killed by the police, gender and police violence, and working toward justice without police.
The organizing committee of the Forum Against Police Violence and Impunity is pleased to announce that the videos of the panels and workshop-discussions are finally available on-line, thanks to the work of several members of the committee and our allies/friends.
No Justice, No Peace: Why people leave the police
Families speak out against police killings and impunity
To view the videos, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/FAPVI?blend=4&ob=5.
Also, a 5-minute video-documentary about the Forum Against Police Violence and Impunity, by three engaged artists (Emiliano Bazan Monanez, Violaine Brisebois-Lavoie and Ziona Eyob) can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/FAPVI?blend=4&ob=5#p/f/1/0Yiu9IlM0OY. In solidarity, The organizing committee of the Forum Against Police Violence and Impunity
www.forumcontrelaviolencepoliciere.net
by Kabir Joshi-Vijayan, Steve da Silva, and Malcolm Guy
Toronto, Ontario, May 21, 2011 — Seventy delegates and observers representing nearly two dozen organizations from across Canada came together to launch the Canadian chapter of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS). Taking place at the Centre for Spanish Speaking People in Toronto, delegates from Montreal, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto held a daylong conference to discuss future campaigns of the ILPS, finalize a constitution, and elect delegates to a Coordinating Committee.
It was a major step forward for anti-imperialist unity in Canada in the midst of growing popular struggles around the globe from North Africa to the Middle East and from India to the Philippines and beyond and in the face of an aggressive and war-mongering new majority Conservative government at home, the opening declaration stated. Read more…
By M. Cook
On Friday, May 13, a group of Native rights activists began occupying a sacred burial site at the south-east end of High Park.
“For us it’s more than a sacred site, it is also a ceremonial grounds,” Harrison Friesen, a peace keeper from Red Power United, told BASICS.
For several year, bmx riders had begun excavating the mounds to build dirt bike jumps. In response, the Iroquois community have been asking the city of Toronto to protect the burial site for over eleven years.
“This has been an issue that has been going on for eleven years. Trying to get these jumps taken down. Trying to get the city to enforce the by-law and keep the bikers out,” Friesen says.
“It came to a head last week when we had a meeting with city hall and the Toronto police. A decision was made amongst our peace keepers that enough is enough.”
And so on Friday, a group composed of people from Cree, Ojibwe and Seneca communities, as well as non-native people in the surrounding community began to occupy the site.
“we are here as peace keepers from Red Power United, Native Rights movement…to be peace keepers of the site, which we know is a 3,000 year old Iroquois burial site.”
Friesen says that “at first it was very stand-off-ish with the city and the police, they didn’t want us in here.”
“We basically had to let them know that we don’t work for the city, we don’t work for the police. This ain’t nine to five for us, this is part of our culture, part of who we are as native people.”
“We said we’re going in to remove those jumps and we’ll be there 24 hours a day to keep those bikers out if need be.”
“We want to restore it [burial site] to the way it was, to natural mounds in here. We’re asking that the fence be put up to keep people out. The growth and restoration of the area can take place once again.”
Surprisingly, there appeared to be no animosity directed towards the bmx bikers.
“We’ve had bmx riders come up to the fence. We have been very diplomatic, we’ve been educators – educating people on the history and what’s taking place here,” said Friesen.
The group were not against the bmx riders themselves. Instead the group argued that the government should be providing youth with special parks for bmx riders. Just don’t put the park on top of a burial ground.
Seems like a more than reasonable request.
Much of the media has questioned the validity of the groups claim to the site being a burial ground. And the city of Toronto is conducting tests.
Friesen says that he’s not concerned with the cities tests, as “we follow our traditions and oral history – the things that are passed down from generation to generation – tell us that this is our sacred burial site.”
He also puts into question the validity of the city of Toronto’s tests, “we don’t agree that they’ve tested in this area. They say they’ve done 40 tests in here, but it wasn’t in here. It was around various parts [he points outside of the area]. And the guy that did the testing wasn’t licensed. He didn’t have a license to do the testing.”
After eleven years, this Tuesday, the city of Toronto employees were at the site, putting up the requested fence.
One of the native rights activists remarked, that he had never seen a fence go up so quickly. Apparently, the city won’t listen to you, unless you act.
The group has received a lot of support from the community. On Saturday, there was a stream of people who showed up to help out and offer food and water.
The group is inviting families come out to the site this Saturday and help restore the sacred grounds and participate in a feast with elders of the community.
On December 1, 2011 APUS will be evicted by U of T from its home at 100 Devonshire.
In the tradition of Public Enemy, APUS will continue to fight the powers that be to ensure that we are relocated to a suitable space that satisfies our diverse program needs for part-time students, women, and their children. More importantly, APUS must be relocated to a space that is accessible to all students on campus, including low-income, working poor, racialized, and students with a wide range of disabilities.
As a founding member of Woodsworth College, and an equity and student rights advocate for some of the most marginalized students on campus, APUS hopes to reconnect with all of our allies over the past five years to organize a united front of student, disability, women’s, anti-racist, anti-poverty, and anti–gentrification organizations to ensure that U of T provides APUS with a suitable space to continue serving part-time students from diverse communities on the margins of Toronto — a city where the gap is growing between the “haves” and “have nots”.
At a time when the U of T administration is undermining the ability of progressive left student organizations to create open democratic spaces on campus for students to participate in political education, consciousness raising, international solidarity efforts with oppressed peoples across the globe suffering from the global economic crisis of capitalism in the 21st century, APUS is launching “Fight the Power 2011” to continue our space campaign with dignity and justice.
In 2011, APUS will fight to win and continue the ongoing struggle to ensure that U of T student organizations have the type of space that is necessary for us to organize the change we want to see in the world.
On December 1, APUS is scheduled to be evicted from its residency at 100 Devonshire so it can be demolished as a part of U of T’s ongoing redevelopment plans to benefit private interests at the expense of many students who are struggling to get by. This year, APUS is not settling for an inaccessible space in a funeral home.
Inspired by the legacy of Public Enemy, APUS will fight the powers that be who continue to weaken progressive student organizations on campus by jeopardizing their space. APUS takes inspiration from Chuck D on “Fight the Power” when he expresses his will to fight on the side of the oppressed and encourages others to do the same:
I’m ready and hyped plus I’m amped
Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps…
What we got to say
Power to the People no delay
To make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be (Chuck D, 1989)
This year we hope all of our campus and community allies will “Fight the Power” with “no delay” in solidarity with APUS to ensure our space campaign ends in victory.
