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BASICSnews.ca • BASICS #27 (DEC 2011 / JAN 2012) Photo: Steve da Silva / BASICS
FENCED OUT
TDSB Has a Problem
Enrolment projections up, but schools still targeted for closure Errol Young
‘Field of Dreams’ remains just a dream for Rexdale residents Promises of community access to new sports complex go unfulfilled was widely used by the com-
Barry Marsh & Peter D’gama munity for more than a quarRexdale residents ter of a century. On any given When Rexdale residents in the Finch and Martin Grove area first learned in 2009 that Father Henry Carr (FHC) Catholic Secondary School was being “revitalized” with millions of dollars in infrastructural investments – with a new artificial turf multi-purpose field, a six-lane rubberized track, night lighting – the people must have been pleasantly surprised. Surprised, because the investments came with no forewarning or community consultation. So imagine the disappointment in the community now that the ‘Field of Dreams’ sports facility has been completed (June 2011) and is barred from public use and fenced in for paying users only. Prior to renovation, the track
day people could be found running, walking or playing during non-school hours in the early morning, evenings and on weekends. This usage was consistent with community use of school property all throughout the city. The track and field was an important community recreational asset for Rexdale residents. A refurbished track and field facility on the FHC grounds could have been a great opportunity for the community. Rory McGuckin, the Toronto Catholic District School Board Superintendent, expressed as much at the ceremonial shovel-in-ground event in June 2010 when he said “that [the] vision today is a high performance field in an area that is known as a high priority area. I’m glad everybody got it right
this time, because high priority refers to the need to put more resources into a community that can be shared by all.” Yet, this vision has deteriorated into yet another process lacking in transparency and riddled with broken promises. Adding insult to injury, not only are community residents being denied free access to the field when not in use by paying users, the investments for the field were actually secured from higher levels of government under the pretense of broadening out community access. On May 29, 2009, the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) requested federal and provincial funding for the refurbishment of the outdoor athletic facility under the Recreation and Infrastructure Program Canada (RINC). The proposal came forward at a time when the Catholic Dis-
trict School Board was placed under trusteeship by the provincial government because of its mishandling of funds. The province appointed Norbert Hartmann to supervise Board activities, and Hartmann worked alongside then Director of Education Ann Perron in the submission of the funding application. So from day one, the proposal has been able to avoid the scrutiny of a democratically-elected body, an undemocratic process only made worse by the complete lack of notice to the public for input as to the terms of the redevelopment. Yet, in that May 2009 TCDSB report it was explicitly stated that: “The community will benefit because an artificial field can be used all day regardless of weather or season. Therefore, the opportunity is present to let the field >> continued, PG. 2
ocap rallies in moss park to stop the cuts ALSO SEE P.2 FOR ‘TCHC SELL-OFF’
This ‘NOT FOR(D) SALE’ sign posted up on one of the 700+ Toronto Community Housing buildings and houses slated for sale and/or demolition in the City of Toronto.
by Shane Martínez On Saturday, November 26, 2011, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and its allies held a rally and march in Toronto’s Moss Park neighbourhood. The purpose of the event was to mobilize in anticipation for the city’s announcement of its proposed budget, scheduled to take place the following Monday. Approximately 100 people took to Sherbourne Street and marched through Moss Park, one of Canada’s poorest urban communities. The location was chosen because this community, like many other marginalized ones in the city, was anticipated to be hard hit by Mayor Rob Ford’s intended cuts to social services, including libraries, childcare and shelters. While walking behind a
banner reading ‘Fight Rob Ford – Stop City Cuts,’ the group chanted “Stop the war on the poor, make the rich pay!” and visited a number of houses alleged to be sites that the city plans on socially cleansing through gentrification. Organizers vowed that “If they don’t build it [affordable social housing], we will take it! We will occupy houses like this!” The concept of mass occupation was fresh in the minds of many, given the recent activism of the Occupy Movement in countries across the world. Many participants at the march appeared to appreciate that OCAP was developing this concept into direct action to serve the people. One of those participants, Jordan House, commented “I am >> continued, PG. 2
After predicting for years that school enrolments will drop drastically, TDSB staff are now saying that the opposite is true. This according to official TDSB reports projected enrolment numbers through to 2036 (see table, next page). These new statistics pose a serious problem for the TDSB because it still stands by its ‘Big Plan’ for a massive sell-off of schools. The Board (TDSB) has told and will tell many communities that their enrolment >> continued, pg. 3
The Omnibus Crime Bill A Critical Take on the ‘Tough on Crime’ Agenda
Natasha Brien & Sasha Carty Now that the Conservatives have their majority government, they will be forging ahead with the so-called ‘tough-on-crime’ agenda they’ve been pushing for five years. One of the first >> see PG. 6, ‘You do the crime...’
Obama’s Atrocities in Somalia Kabir Joshi-Vijayan
A famished naked child with a swollen belly, too weak to brush the flies from his body or even lift his head. It’s a morbid symbol of Third World poverty. Images like this are ubiquitous in the corporate media’s coverage of impoverished countries. So it becomes an almost expected reality, as if such a scene is a natural feature of the >> continued, pg. 4
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Local
BASICS #27 (DEC 2011 / JAN 2012)
TCHC Sell-Off Worsens Social Housing Wait List by Diamond Wisdom As of October 31, 2011, Housing Connections (a subsidiary of Toronto Community Housing Corporation) had its waiting list at a record of 150,858 names. When the one-man TCHC Board of Case Ootes announced in April 2011 the sale of 22 TCHC homes, the great sell-off of public housing was formally commenced. When Oates left his position, he recommended selling an additional 900 units. On October 21, 2011, Rob Ford’s newly appointed TCHC board members voted on the sale of an additional 706 single-family homes. Most of these homes can house large families that can’t be accommodated in apartments, as suggested as a cost saving measure. Despite hearing deputations against the sale of homes, only the two tenant-appointed board members voted for a more detailed report from staff before they could on vote on a policy that would impact so many families. Residents in the process of the sell-off have flagged two serious concerns. First, there is a repeated and complete lack of communication from TCHC to the tenants who would be impacted by the home sales. One of the few groups
to inform residents about the upcoming sell-off was the organization ‘Tenants for Social Housing: We’re Not for $ale,’ in addition to BASICS Community News Service and Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. The second major concern raised is the chronic underfunding, which is at the root of repair backlogs. Since the sale of homes was justified as necessary to pay for repair backlogs, it is essential to note that the sales would only cover a fraction of what is needed. The aging housing stock will add an additional $100 million in yearly
repair costs, which begs the question: How many more TCHC units will they have to sell to save the rest of the TCHC units? Is this a case of ‘kill the patient to cure the disease?’ TCHC tenants are priced out of the private rental and homeownership markets due to their limited income levels. They are taxpayers too and they also demand respect. Join a community organization near you fighting for affordable housing and better living conditions. Diamond Wisdom is a TCHC tenant. Cartoon, InsideToronto.com
A Reflection on ‘Occupy Toronto’ ‘Middle Class’ Elements Waking Up to the Logic of Capitalism by Megan Kinch When said we were heading to the ‘occupy’ protest, the cab driver turned off the meter. He told us he came here from Iran, that he had three degrees, and that he had to drive a cab every single day to make ends meet. “At least I don’t have a family to support,” he said. “Isn’t that sad, that a man is happy he doesn’t have a family…I don’t want you thinking I’m a communist, because I’m not, but this system is not working.” We offered him money for the fare, and he absolutely refused, saying he could never take money from people like us, and that he wished he could be there. I had tears in my eyes as we left the cab and entered the occupation, which hummed with energy and activity The ‘Occupy Toronto’ encampment at St. James Park lasted 40 days and 40 nights before being evicted. In its slogans – “99% vs. 1%” – and its class composition, the movement was fairly ‘middle class’. But Occupy does represent an awakening of sorts, and it signifies a widening crack in the alliance of middle class elements
(or those with middle class aspirations) from the ruling elites. Over the past 50 years, many working class and poor families placed their faith in the education system and advanced degrees as a means of social mobility, and in these aspirations many lost touch with their class roots and classconsciousness. But many children of the working-class would not be able to obtain the careers that the education system promised them, and even those who ‘made-it’ would be working in increasingly precarious situations. Part of the movement of the 99% is about dropping the façade of success and middle-class respectability and admitting that people can’t pay off their huge student loans with minimum wage jobs and unpaid ‘internships’ that are supposed to build towards a ‘career’ that never comes while living in a basement or on a friend’s couch. Colleen was on the Food Team at Occupy Toronto, and she said it really different from when she used to work at Loblaws: “[At Occupy] we don’t even have a schedule, but yet there is always someone here. A lot of people talk about how people need money to
motivate them to work, but I say that’s bullshit.” The ‘Occupy’ movement has a long way to go, and the reformism and idealism of the movement has been a barrier to participation for people from more oppressed communities and more exploited sections of the working class, where poverty and police violence is matter of everyday life rather something only encountered in a camping trip in the park. For these sections of the working class, unemployment, grinding poverty, and crushing debt are nothing new, and they’ve been protesting and organizing, in their own ways, for decades. But still, it’s a start in breakup up the capitalist logic that pervades our society and in raising the idea that another world is possible. Rather than simply watching the resistance in Egypt or Greece on T.V. many people stepped out of their homes and into the streets for the first time, learning important lessons that won’t soon be forgotten and that we can only hope will lead to them away from the illusions of this system and towards a greater unity with more exploited and oppressed communities.
« OCAP Rally in Moss Park, from PG.1 excited about what people said here today. This is a natural step forward from the Occupy Movement.” On the following Monday, as the city released its proposed 2012 budget, OCAP was present at the council meeting. The group loudly demanded respect for Toronto’s poor and working class people, and vowed to resist
the mayor’s austerity agenda. The proposed budget contained many of the predicted measures, which included terminating 2,300 municipal jobs, increasing TTC fares, closing a number of community pools, and reducing the hours of operation for libraries. Although protesters were removed by City Hall security guards on Monday, spirits
appear to remain high as an organized culture of resistance continues to emerge across Toronto. Indeed, so long as the mayor and his backers continue to cater to the interests of the rich and privileged, we can likely expect to see much more from organizations such as OCAP that are intensifying the fight for economic justice.
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« Rexdale’s ‘Field of Dreams’, from PG. 1 be used by the community and sports groups in the evenings, summer and weekends when school is not in operation.” When these promises of community access were made, nothing was said about user-fees in the funding applications. Paying for the use of a facility previously open to the community has left the community locked out and excluded from the use of and all decisions pertaining to the “Field of Dreams.” The accompanying Letters of Support for the funding application further attest to the lack of consultation and transparency, as the only voices consulted were Ron Tavner, Unit Head of 23 Division of the Toronto Police, Police Chief Bill Blair, and Archbishop Collins of the Archdiocese of Toronto. Instead of relying on the opinion of these funders (the Archdiocese contributed $10,000 and the Police Services Board contributed $50,000), a wider consultation with community organizations and residents using the track should have been sought. Notwithstanding being kept in the dark, the TCDSB’s proposal leveraged the “Priority Neighbourhood” status of the area to obtain the funding, stating in its terms of reference: ”The community has been identified in the Toronto Strong Neighbourhood Strategy as one of the neighbourhoods appropriate for investment where social services are most out of step with need.” As soon as approval for government funding was secured – with the provincial and federal governments each contributing $523,143.00 towards the construction of the facility – and with the ceremonial shovels in the ground, a fence was immediately erected in June 2010 with the community still being kept in the dark as to the purpose of the new construction. The exclusion of the wider community from the facility was made most evident recently when
a group of students from Elmbank Junior Middle Academy were prevented from coming onto FHC property to watch a football game. The ‘Field of Dreams’ now only accessible through the FHC building due to the fencing, after being prevented from entering the school, the Elmbank physical education class, humiliated, literally had to watch the game from outside the fence on Finch Ave. When Barry Marsh (one of the authors of this article) asked FHC Principal Michael Rosetti why the community was not allowed to use the facility, he told Marsh that “We need to protect our investment.” Rosetti’s response sounded like a businessman concerned with turning a profit on his ‘investments.’ Perhaps Rexdale residents are not so much of a ‘priority’ after all. It has been frustrating for residents to see the TCDSB pursue such an exclusionary policy, especially because it contrasts sharply with the aims expressed in the funding application for the ‘Field of Dreams.’ On most days, residents watch, from a distance, as the newly renovated facility lays idle. Community organizers have consulted residents and are circulating a petition asking that the Board live up to its promises made in the funding proposal. The petition asks that the Board make the facility accessible and inclusive to the community. A presentation will be made before the TCDSB on December 15 outlining residents’ concerns and a petition will be presented consisting of over 200 signatures (at the time this issue of BASICS went to print). Those interested in voicing their concerns can also contact TCDSB Trustees Ann Andrachuk (the Board Chair) at 416-512-3402 and Peter Jakovcic at 416-512-3401. Residents interested in assisting with petitioning and community organizing can contact Peter D’gama at peter.dgama@gmail.com.
Provincial
BASICS #27 (DEC 2011 / JAN) 2012)
K.I. First Nation squares off against ‘God’s Lake Resources’ in northern Ontario
Gabriel Sunduda Indigenous leaders from the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (K.I.) First Nation community drew over one hundred attentive listeners on the evening of November 22 for a downtown community event as they presented their case for the defense and future of their lands and environment in the face of their newest adversary, a mining corporation that goes by the name God’s Lake Resources. Located about 600 km north of Thunder Bay, K.I. is a fly-in community of pristine boreal
forests, waters, and wetlands. Big Trout Lake (661 sq. km) is central to the life of these Oji-Cree people. The closest urban centre is Sioux Lookout, hundreds of kilometres to the south. Like so many northern Nations, the population is relatively impoverished, and the community infrastructure largely inadequate or sub-standard. Typical also of such communities, there is a substantial corporate interest exploiting their landbased resources. K.I. Chief Danny Morris opened the community event and K.I. Spokesperon John Cutfeet filled in the history and details for the presentation at
the Ryerson Student Centre as part of the program for Indigenous Sovereignty Week. Chief Morris along with five others (to become known as the K.I. Six) were imprisoned in 2008 for defending their territory from Platinex, a mining company with platinum prospects in the K.I. territory. They were subsequently released when in July of 2008 the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned their sentences. Platinex was found to be in operation on K.I. territory in 2006 without any prior consultation with K.I. representatives. An interim injunction was obtained by the K.I. First Nation with the intention of working out some mutually viable arrangement, but after being worn out bureaucratically and fiscally by the demands of an oppressively lop-sided Ontario-Platinex agenda, K.I. decided it could no longer continue the process. Soon after withdrawing from the process, the courts awarded Platinex “immediate and free access to the territory” and the infamous standoff ensued. Eventually, the Ontario government paid off Platinex to the tune of $5 million plus mediation and legal fees to pack up and end the ordeal. Presumably as some lip-service
to this debacle, the Government of Ontario promised a reform of the Mining Act (which is as yet unavailable) and they introduced the Far North Act, which spelled out the necessary consultation requirements with First Nations for any prospecting or developments on First Nations jurisdiction. One might assume, as Cutfeet suggested, that the Far North Act was developed precisely because the federal government knows that it has no legal jurisdiction on most First Nation territory. In response to the K.I. filing of a land claim, however, the Ontario government stated that the entitlement claim “was tenuous at best…and without merit”. Much of the debate over land entitlement goes back to the James Bay Treaty of 1905, known as Treaty 9. The Crown likes to assert that this Treaty is clearly defined by a notion of “cede and surrender” while in actuality there is not even an equivalent word for “cede” in the Cree native language. As a simultaneous translator by profession, John Cutfeet should know. He said that even today, he is hard-pressed to translate such terminology as “cede and surrender” for there is really no
equivalent terminology in their language, and he insists that the elders of the community, by their oral tradition and life experience, offer no recollection of ever giving up the land. They rather insist that all agreements in fact assumed a continued relationship and steward of their land, in co-existence with the colonial government. By this time the K.I. had had enough of government and corporate agendas challenging their land rights and destabilizing their community. In an impressive surge of sovereignty they conducted a referendum for their nation on July 5, 2011 that overwhelmingly approved their Water Declaration and Consultation Protocol. The referendum was approved by 96% of ballots cast. Under the Water Declaration, thirteen thousand square miles of watershed were announced as being autonomously protected and declared untouchable by industry. The Consultation Protocol established a process by which outside interests must conduct themselves in negotiations with the K.I. for land-use. While groups like the Council of Canadians and Greenpeace signed on to their Declaration, it was virtually ignored by the Canadian >> continued, BACK PAGE
« Enrolment Up, PG.1
numbers are crashing so badly that their local school must close. But the anticipated closure of over 50 community schools and the sale of the land to developers – potentially bringing in several hundred million dollars – is primarily motivated by the need to start addressing a series capital deficit that was created by the province government. This deficit is estimated to be over $2 billion. Oh, by the way, no one calls this the Board’s ‘Big Plan.’ But it’s clear enough to me – and anyone else who is watching closely – that that’s basically what’s going on. And it’s where the Board has been heading for years. But here’s the hitch: According to its own staff, the Board enrolment will actually rise in the next 15 years. When factoring in the rising enrolment due to the mandated all-day kindergarten programs, it will need all the student places that it has. So it’s completely short-sighted for the Board to sell off any assets that it is going to need. Can you imagine the Board trying to buy land back in the city of Toronto to build new schools? The cost? The availability? The crowding? Now, there are some trustees who like school closings. It gives them something serious to do and fulfills their right wing instincts to cut public services. Last year they tried to close over a dozen schools using the Accommodation Review Committee (ARC) process and all but two survived. One of the surviving schools, Shoreham PS, was saved only after the Jane-Finch community completely disrupted the official school closing process. But now even those trustees
are starting to ask questions, questions that they have heard asked by their community members and that they have ignored during numerous school closing ARC meetings. In a way, we should actually pity the senior staff of the TDSB, who work for the Province and who are being pushed to sell off school land because that’s what their true bosses really want. They’re going to have a hard time creating meaningful PowerPoint Elementary enrolment decline stabilized in 2009. Starting in 2010 increase in birth rates and the implePresentations mentation of Full Day Kindergarten will result in elementary projected enrolment increases through 2035. for the next See BASICSnews.ca for more of the graphs from the official TDSB report on enrolment projections. ARC meetings with these new enrolment pro- well, even though its enrolment jections. Someone is bound to numbers are at capacity. raise the point that enrolment If the Board reopens the issue By becoming a subscriber/sustainer of BASICS, not only will you get is projected to increase and they for any school after a successful BASICS at your door, you will also be supporting us in bringing our are going to be hard to refute. ARC process, it would have to free newspaper to communities that need it the most. To date, the board is still do it for the other ten that they Worker/Student: [ ] $15 - 1 Year (6 Issues) focused on closing as many closed last year. [ ] $25 - 2 Years (12 Issues) schools as it can get away with. So the lesson is if the Board Regent Park’s Duke of York is calling for a school to close in Solidarity Rate: [ ] $30 - 1 Year (6 Issues) Junior Public School is one of the your community, you can and [ ] $50 - 2 Years (12 Issues) schools that they will be target- should fight it. The numbers are Send a cheque, with your name and address, to: ing, in spite (or because?) of the on your side, quite literally! The Basics Community Newsletter massive redevelopment in the longer you can keep your school P.O. Box 97001 area. But don’t expect the Board open, the more chance it has of R.P.O. Roncesvalles to reopen the issue. Brooks Road being around for your grandchilToronto, ON M6R 3B3 PS in Scarborough will close as dren.
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International
BASICS #27 (DEC 2011 / JAN 2012)
Untangling Filipino OFWs, Happiness and Coca-Cola
lives of everyday people. The company is renowned across the global south as notorious for using terror tactics to quiet unruly workers trying to organize [see ‘killercoke. org’]. Just ask Ghay Portajada, who has been without her father - former president of the RP Coke worker’s union - since 1987 when he was abducted and never seen again. It’s a combination of these factors that leads to 4000 OFWs leaving the Philippines everyday. The US came to the Philippines to create a cheap supply of raw materials and labour through the hacienda system. By supporting and enlarging the semi-feudal system the US created an economy dependent on exports. This unequal political and economic system required large scale poverty. Widespread poverty and violent union busting drives down the cost of labour. This violence is permissible because both the imperialist corporations and the landowning elite (who happen to also be the political class) share similar interests. Should the foreign imperialists be inconvenienced then the local elites lose the source of their money and power. So with all this being clear, the question that remains is ‘Why?’, why do people (including OFWs themselves) love this advertisement so much? Why are the negative effects of Coca-Cola on Filipinos not picked up, and instead positive attributes are connected to the ad and the product? It began in the 1920s with a man named Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew. He saw
great value in his uncle’s studies into human psychology; he rightly realized that they could be for the benefit of capitalism. It was a time of great unrest. People were calling for greater fairness and social equity. Unions were mobilizing strong opposition to the status quo, and there was a need from the elites for a method to control the restless lower classes resulting from the industrial revolution. Bernays knew that through the use of Freud’s theories you could manipulate thought, As he wrote in Propaganda “If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it?” Out of this would come the political idea of how to control the masses: satisfying inner selfish desires made people happy and thus docile. On the surface the Coke OFW ad is a feel-good tear jerker. Dig deeper and it’s an insult to reality, to the people, and the people and organizations that actually do care about the plight of OFWs. In the end we feel good, but we are demoralized, and we are belittled. If we are to look at this ad and honestly hear its message it would be this: Coke cares enough about what you think of them that they mimed concern for OFWs, because either you, or at least someone you know, is an OFW. And if we think Coke cares, then we will forgive them, or at the very least, maybe we’ll forget their complicity and just go with it, because everyone else is. But this sickly-sweet cola will never be able to cover up the bitter and vile effects of its history in the Philippines.
affected, the most devastated people on the planet face a new calamity: a new military occupation. Shortly after assuming office Obama has been using remote-controlled predator drones to conduct illegal surveillance operations and deadly attacks in Somalia in an attempt to wipe out Al-Shabbab. In late October 2011, 20,000 Kenyan troops swarmed southern Somalia, forcing thousands of famine victims into internal displacement. Rather than condemn the aggression, the 10,000-strong African Union military force also occupying Somalia accepted the Kenyan invaders among their ranks. In
early November, France joined in on the joint assault on Somalia by attacking a number of towns in southern Somalia from its naval vessels off the coast. As of late November, Ethiopian troops have mobilized and deployed for reinvasion. As Obama escalates his next major war in Africa, it should be clear that ultimately UNICEF, the Red Cross, or any other foreign charity will never ‘save’ Somalia. It is not drought or pirates or Islamic rebels, but US imperialism that is strangling the Somali people, a poisonous grip that only Somalis can liberate themselves from.
...Or Why THIS Coca-Cola Ad is Short Circuiting My Brain Rally of Filipino OFWs. Photo credit: Alex Felipe (2010)
by Alex Felipe “Coca-Cola, Where Will Happiness Strike Next: The OFW Project” [available on YouTube.com] is a newly released viral video targeting the Filipino community worldwide—and it’s insulting. In the ad, Coke sends three overseas foreign workers (OFWs) back to the Philippines to reunite with their families. Its central message seems to be: Coke cares about the plight of OFWs. It is a fantastic piece of marketing propaganda. It has a strong emotional pull, high production value, and connects the product to family, struggle, and how hardship can be endured by the simple things, like a Coca-Cola. Well done Coke! [insert ironic soft clap here] Coca-Cola has had a long history in the Republic of the Philippines (RP), its primary economic connection tied to the exploitative feudal
hacienda farming system. Philippine sugar was one of the main reasons for the American invasion in 1899. Then president McKinley was backed by The Sugar Trust, the 6th largest US corporation, which at the time controlled some 98% of sugar refining interests. The RP economy was set up to supply American sugar needs with ‘locally’ produced sugar. Before WWII, sugar made up 60% of the value of all Philippine exports. At that time the industry supported over one million jobs (the total RP population in 1939 was 16 million). Today that number is at best around the 500,000 mark (with the current population standing at 94 million). The sugar industry has been in decline since “independence.” The decline continued through the 1960s with the development of corn syrup (sugar exports down to 20%). The big crash came in the 1980s when Coke switched from sugar to corn syrup in its US product, dropping
« Somalia, from PG. 1
Somali women wait in line to receive emergency food at Badbado IDP camp set up in the capital, Mogadishu [EPA].
African landscape. Even when we share the child’s skin tone or ethnicity we are made to feel distant from him. We are told how lucky we are to not be him, told to be thankful for our lives no matter what struggles we face, grateful for the society we live in no matter how unjust. The solution, according to whatever celebrity or reporter is making the appeal, is to donate to the charities tasked with saving the poor dying African child... because he certainly isn’t going to save himself. It’s tragic because its natural, or so it seems. But in reality, the famine in Somalia is far from natural. There are currently over 350,000 children dying of hunger in southern Somalia, and millions more in the region are facing
starvation if things don’t change. Some 80,000 people, most of them younger than 5, have already died since April 2011, with the UN declaring a famine only belatedly in late July 2011. We are told, by the corporate media and NGOs that this catastrophe’s immediate cause was natural. Two years of failed seasonal rains in East Africa affecting Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya as well - did cause massive crop failure and livestock death in Somalia, devastating the villagers and farmers who only grow enough to feed their families. But the region has experienced repeated droughts without causing such widespread disaster, and famine has only struck Somalia. The only other factor being blamed is the
sugar exports to 7% of total exports. Just this past summer the RP sugar industry proposed a boycott of Coke for bypassing the Philippine sugar market all together. But my gripe isn’t about losses in the sugar industry. Look again at that timeline. The sugar industry began to fall apart in the ‘60s and intensified in the ‘80s to its near collapse today. And those were the decades that gave birth to the unofficial Labour Export Policy of RP, a system that went into full gear in the ‘80s as a way to prop up the government’s budget deficits. A country that was set up to be an export of raw goods was financially desperate, so they became a leading exporter of people instead. In 1984 around 350,000 OFWs left the country. By 2006 over 1 million Filipinos were migrant workers. Coke has also been bottled in the country since 1912, and their presence has done little to improve the Al-Shabbab rebels, the youthled Islamist force that ‘controls’ much of Somalia including the regions where the crisis began. The question as to where this insurgency originated is, however, almost never addressed. There would be no famine in Somalia today if it had a functioning independent state, one that could build up local infrastructure and respond to people’s needs. In 2006 for the first time in 16 years the promise of such stability was brought by the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), defeating a decade and a half of warlord anarchism. In response the US-engineered an Ethiopian invasion that overthrew the fledgling government, killing 20,000 and displacing over two million more. The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) being presented as the legitimate power in the country today is in fact composed of the same hated warlords that the UIC swept away in 2006, installed and funded by the US-Ethiopia occupation forces and kept in power by African Union troops. Al-Shabbab was the youth wing of the UIC, which splintered off from those parts of the movement that joined the TFG occupation government. Now as aid seems to be finally reaching at least a portion of those
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International
BASICS #27 (DEC 2011 / JAN 2012)
Indian state assassinates revolutionary leader, ‘Kishenji’
Mallojula Koteswara Rao or ‘Comrade Kishenji’ 1954-2011
Steve da Silva On November 24, 2011, in “the world’s largest democracy”, the Indian state in collusion with the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, executed a leading voice of the revolutionary movement in India, Mallojula Koteswara Rao, popularly known as ‘Comrade Kishenji’ in the Communist Party of India (Maoist), or CPI(Maoist) for short. Koteswara Rao was reportedly arrested, tortured, and finally killed while dealing with an offer of peace talks from the duplicitous West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. State forces initially tried to pass off the killing as an ‘encounter’. Such extra-judicial killings are routine when dealing with the revolutionary movement, where police capture a revolutionary figure, kill them, and then make it look like a passing military encounter.
The assassination of Comrade Kishenji comes just under a year and a half after the killing of another leading figure in the Maoist movement, Cherukuri Rajkumar, or ‘Comrade Azad’, who was likewise killed in one of the staged ‘encounters’ that have become alltoo-familiar for the revolutionary forces in India. Since 2007, the CPI(Maoist) has lost nearly half its Politburo to such killings or arrests. Yet, the movement manages to surge forth. Born in 1954 in the town of Peddapally in North Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rao hailed from a revolutionary family. His own father was a freedom fighter, and the teenage Rao became involved in the separatist movement of Telengana in 1969. The great peasant uprising of Naxalbari - the birth of the Maoist movement in India - ultimately attracted him to the broader revolutionary movement. Since 1974, Rao been an active Party member in the revolutionary struggle, which at that time was united under the banner of the Communist Party of India
(Marxist-Leninist). To Rao is owed the credit of playing a prominent role in the 1978 peasant upsurge known as ‘Jagityal Jaitrayatra’ (Victory March of Jagityal), and thereafter he continued to build the movement in Andhra Pradesh. In 1986 Rao was transferred to Dandakaranya where he took up high-level responsibilities as a member of the Forest Committee, leading guerilla squads and the people’s struggles in Gadchiroli and Bastar. The Maoist movement in India commonly referred to as ‘Naxals’ or ‘Naxalites’ in the media and known to be the “biggest internal security threat” to India’s ruling classes and their multinational corporate friends - is led by the CPI (Maoist) and its armed-wing, the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army. The revolutionary forces cover a large swathe of the forests of centraleastern India, which are ‘adivasi’ areas of rural tribal peoples whose lands are being shamelessly looted for mineral wealth by multinational corporations and the local elites. In their attempt to contain the
growing revolutionary movement, in 2009 the Indian state unleashed ‘Operation Green Hunt’, a brutal paramilitary offensive consisting of more than 50,000 soldiers deployed to crush the armed peasant movement. The hand of foreign powers benefiting from the plunder of India can be seen in this war on the people through the training that Indian intelligence has received from the CIA and Israel’s Mossad in counter-insurgency tactics. The CPI(Maoist) to which Rao belonged was itself born in 2004 out of the coalescence of a previously fractured Maoist movement in India, which saw the merger of the Communist Party of India (People’s War) and the Maoist Communist Centre (India), a merger that ‘Comrade Kishenji’ played an important role in bringing together. More recently, Rao also provided political guidance to the two major popular upsurges in West Bengal in recent years, the uprising of Nandigram in 2007 and the Lalgarh rebellion against police atrocities throughout 2009. While so many people in the world’s second most populous country mourned the murder of a leading voice of their revolution, barely a word of this crime was mentioned in the international press. And it’s not because the powerful are not paying attention. As you look at the map above of ‘Naxals affected areas in India’, you may be asking yourself why you haven’t heard more about
this struggle? Afterall, we hear so much of the nebulous and elusive Al-Qaida which no one can ever really put their finger on, while the Maoists command a guerrilla force running into the tens of thousands and a support base far beyond that, and yet we hear so little of them. It’s a conspiracy of silence. The powerful know well that any reporting on the vast, revolutionary struggle in India’s countryside runs the risk of conveying both lessons and inspiration for other struggling peoples throughout the world. And if there’s any lesson that’s important for 2011, it’s that a genuine liberation struggle never comes through unscrupulous bands of foreign-backed mercenaries and democracies brought into being by aerial bombing campaigns. Revolution comes from the people and the people alone, and the land poor and dispossessed in India are making revolution.
Looming Wars with Iran, Syria About U.S.-NATO regional supremacy
Editorial
Steve da Silva
The courage and heroism of the peoples struggles that have ruptured the repressive political climates of many Middle Eastern countries cannot be overstated. To turn a phrase against the Orientalist outlook of Western imperialism, a proverbial genie of sorts has come out of the bottle and it looks nothing like what the racist ‘War on Terror’ depictions of the last decade would have had many in ‘the West’ expecting. A politically uncompromising, revolutionary, non-sectarian culture has predominated in the revolts throughout 2011. This revolutionary political culture has defied the containment of fascist paramilitary thugs and the cosmetic changes that have come in the wake of toppled figureheads. And neither political Islam nor Western imperialism, can claim credit for the democratic and revolutionary movements that have struck like lightning in 2011. The inappropriately titled ‘Arab Spring’ (since its not just Arabs in revolt in the region) has developed into open rebellion with no end in sight. But a rebellion is not a revolution: it’s often a defining moment, but just a moment within a wider, protracted, revolutionary social struggle. Those that have been quick to proclaim the finality of the revolution are those looking to send the masses back into their houses so that counter-revolution
(or “democracy”) can work its magic. That said, the western imperialists - namely, the U.S.-NATOIsrael nexus of interests - look set to emerge from 2011 as the greatest beneficiary of the ‘Arab Spring’, even more than the domestic movements of political Islam (such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt). Look what came to pass in Libya in six months time. Twenty six thousand air sorties and 100,000+ civilian deaths later, the Western imperialists tipped the balance against the Gaddafi regime in favour of their own military-intelligence assets of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC). While this change in Libya has greater geopolitical significance for U.S. imperialist interests in Africa than the Middle East, NATO’s investment in the NTC have already begun to pay off in the eastern Mediterranean as well. Libya’s NTC has recently admitted to sending 600+ of its paramilitaries to overthrow the Assad regime. After Libya, the next targets in the region for the Western imperialists are the regimes in Syria and Iran - both with strong backing from rival imperialist powers, China and Russia. While the U.S. has been pursuing regime change in Iran since the early 2000s, it has seen no opportunity as good as the present one to actually realize its aims. With outside forces working furiously to destabilize Syria from along the Turkish border and with international sanctions intensifying on the Assad regime, the geopoliti-
cal situation has improved significantly for an attack on Iran. On Sunday, December 4, Iranian media reported that Iran’s military shot down an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran. The drone incident follows two sets of covert attacks in Iran in recent weeks - one at Isfahan nuclear conversion facility on November 28 and another two weeks earlier at the Bid Ganeh missile base 25 miles west of Tehran, which killed some 30 members of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps. Time magazine described the attack at Isfahan as the work of “of Israel’s external intelligence service, Mossad” - an allegation that Israel has not denied. The two blasts follow allegations made last month in a report filed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran may be seeking to develop nuclear weapons, after which the western imperialists moved by leaps and bounds to pressure and isolate Iran. But the looming war with Iran is less about Iran’s nuclear capabilities than the strategic considerations of the Western imperialists. Iran and Syria remain the only eastward-looking regimes in the region, and it’s unlikely that rivals like Russia and China will sit by and watch NATO warp the region to its liking. NATO powers, including Canada, have dramatically stepped up their sanctions against Syria and Iran throughout November 2011, while China and Russia have repeatedly blocked resolutions
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against the two regimes in the U.N. Security Council. In pursuit of its own defense, Iran recently applied for membership with China-Russia centered Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the military counterblock to NATO. The significance of Iran to the West is that it sits atop the world’s second largest reserves natural gas and third largest oil reserves. But much of the oil exploration projects lie in the hands of Russian, Chinese, and Indian companies. In July 2011, Iran officially inaugurated its own oil bourse, the Kish International Commodity Exchange, thereby vastly strengthening its position in international commodities markets. The greatest threat of Iran’s oil market to the U.S. is that much of the oil is being traded in non-U.S. currencies - another blow to an already weak U.S. dollar. Giving the SCO countries (and also much of Europe) the option of buying oil in non-U.S. currencies weakens U.S. imperialism military and economically. In Iran, Russia and China have a source of oil that is independent of U.S. control. So the toppling of Iran is about much more than Israel’s hopes for the regional supremacy of its apartheid and expansionist regime. As BASICS #27 was going to print (~Dec. 7), a Russian squadron was en route for its base in the eastern Mediterranean port of Tartus, Syria. The Canadian frigate HMCS Vancouver never left the Mediterranean after its attacks on Libya and
is readying itself for the war effort. Without diminishing the significance and independence of sections of the popular struggles in Syria, Iran, and other countries, the ‘Arab Spring’ rebellion has provided the western imperialists with a rare opportunity to destabilize targeted regimes in the region. As NATO moves quickly against Syria and Iran, the world moves ever closer to the precipice of a major regional war that could spiral far beyond its immediate orbit. In the context of a world economic crisis, it may just be what the imperialists need to ‘keep the peace’ at home. I say all this with full appreciation for the point that major historical ruptures do not stem from the likes of these war-mongerers staring each other down from opposite sides of the U.N. Security Council. It’s made by the masses in the fight for their freedom. In recent days, promising news has emerged from Syria that the ‘Organizing Committee’ of the domestic Syrian opposition has refused to join the foreign-sponsored Syrian National Council on the grounds that the latter supports a foreign intervention. If this feeling is shared widely enough amongst the domestic resistance, the NATO imperialists will find it much more difficult to pry open Syria. We can only hope that this emergent resistance, rather than being crushed or subordinated to either the imperialists or domestic reactionaries, will advance both Syria’s independence and domestic social revolution.
FEDERAL
BASICS #27 (DEC 2011 / JAN 2012)
‘You Do the Crime, You Pay the Time’
A Critical Take on the ‘Tough-on-Crime’ Agenda
What is motivating the Conservative push to put more people behind bars in an era when crime is dropping and provincial and federal government’s face unprecedented budgetary challenges?
<< from FRONT PAGE changes came earlier this year with the repeal of accelerated parole (previously available to first-time, non-violent, federal prisoners after serving 1/6th of their sentences). The basis for eliminating this law was the case of Mr. Earl Jones and Mr. Leon Kordzian – two men convicted of extorting large amounts of money from primarily affluent people. What is striking is that the repeal of accelerated parole was applied retroactively. Unless prisoners had an acceptance letter in hand or were already out in the community, they were immediately denied accelerated parole, creating a backlog in the system. This was clearly one strategic move to ensure more bodies remain within Canadian prisons. Building upon this is the omnibus crime bill, which Harper publically promised to pass within 100 sitting days of
being re-elected. Many people have jumped on board with the bills, blinded by the fallacy that tougher laws and longer sentences will ultimately reduce the crime rate (a rate that has been decreasing prior to harsher crime bills) and in return create a safer society. The omnibus bill contains nine previous pieces of legislation rolled up into one, bills that propose changes such as introducing mandatory minimum sentences, thereby removing discretion from judges’ hands and creating lengthier sentences. Custodial sentences (time served in a jail/ prison) will also increase as community and/or conditional sentences (like house arrest) become increasingly rare. Ironically, the Conservatives legislative agenda on crime is patterned from failed systems within some U.S. states, such as California, a state being forced to release tens of thousands of inmates due to overcrowding in
prisons and economic deficits. Within a Canadian context, mandatory minimum sentences will conflict with First Nations’ rights to appear before Gladue Court (a court that evaluates the types of sentencing appropriate due to Aboriginal heritage). Further, what this pro-punitive discourse is not conveying to the general public are the prison conditions, which are volatile, often violent, conducive to the transmission of communicable diseases (HIV, Hepatitis C), and can promote/increase mental illness. In Ontario, when a man is federally sentenced, he must first go to the Millhaven Assessment Unit (MAU), where inmates are locked in their cells (two people to a cell) for twenty-three out of twenty-four hours a day. In addition, there have been numerous in-custody deaths, severe injuries, and abuses of power that continue to occur in federal prisons. Two examples this year alone include
Despite delay feds online surveilance moving forward by Kelsey Mowatt While the Conservative government may have shelved its Internet surveillance legislation for the time-being – thanks in no small part to the 75,000 folks who have signed OpenMedia.ca’s StopOnlineSpying petition – it’s important for Canadians to stay on top of this issue. The legislation received little to no democratic feedback or committee oversight to begin with, and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has gone on record stating that the “legislation will come.” In other dramatic and often stated words, the battle has been won, but the war has just begun…. Despite repeated claims from the government that their proposed “Lawful Access” legislation does not infringe on the privacy rights of Canadians, all of Canada’s Privacy Commissioners, including Federal Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, oppose the agenda. In October, Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian wrote an openletter to Toews himself, and compared the government’s legislation to “enacting a highly intrusive surveillance regime.” The Conservative government’s
online spying agenda would grant authorities warrantless access to Canadians’ personal information, including address, phone number, e-mail address, Internet protocol address, and device identification numbers. While on the surface this may seem innocent enough, many privacy and surveillance experts have warned that authorities could use this information to compile an extensive and invasive record of anyone’s online activities without judicial oversight. In addition, this aggregated data would reflect any and all Internet activity that is tied to these numbers and addresses, meaning the privacy invasion may extend to people who authorities don’t even seek to watch. Now if you, your friend, or coworker, isn’t worried about things like online privacy, the security of your personal and or financial information, then you might be asking, “what’s really the big deal?” After all, if you have “nothing to hide”, then what’s the problem right? Well, aside from the issue of your civil liberties, there is the problem of what the government’s proposed Internet surveillance will cost you the consumer. Several Internet experts and
civil rights advocates, like the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, have publicly acknowledged that the implementation of such legislation will likely cost millions of dollars. Will the cost of enacting and purchasing this online spying technology fall on the public purse? Or will it be passed on to ISPs themselves, which in turn, will be shifted on to you to take yet another bite out of your bank account? And all this during less-than-certain economic times… What will be the financial impact of government-mandated Internet surveillance on smaller ISPs? These are additional costs that, as Tom Copeland, head of chair of the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) has gone onrecord saying, could potentially put some smaller ISPs out of business. Canadian consumers need more competition for Big Telecom, not less. While the Conservative government has put its online spying agenda on the back burner for now, OpenMedia.ca needs your continued support to make sure this legislation doesn’t rear its invasive and costly head again. Kelsey Mowatt is a researcher with OpenMedia.ca
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the apparent suicide of Jamie Bouman on February 21, 2011 who died in MAU, and the fatal shooting (by officers) of 29 yearold Jordan Trudeau on March 20, 2011 in Millhaven’s J-Unit, as he allegedly was stabbing another inmate. While many people are still in the ‘honeymoon’ phase of the ‘tough-on-crime’ agenda, what is not being discussed is that people who go to prison will in most cases be released back into the community. What will this transition look like after enduring such harsh, cold, and inhumane conditions? Instead of investing in a prison industrial complex, we should be focusing resources on systemic changes – eradicating homelessness, increasing access to education, eliminating feminization and racialization of poverty to name a few. Secondly, efforts should be redirected to restorative justice, rehabilitation, and reducing stigma for people who have ‘paid their debt
to society’ by serving time. Just what exactly is motivating the push to throw more people into prison? Liberal-minded commentators in Canada say it is just the Conservatives being ‘ideological,’ as if they are simply blinded to the effects of their own legislation. But maybe they are not blinded by their ideology. Recently released estimates of what the omnibus crime bill will costs stand at approximately $78.6 million dollars over five years. Since coming to power, the Conservatives have doubled annual spending on Canada’s prison system to $2.98 billion. So perhaps the Conservatives can see quite clearly what the legislation will mean: on the one hand, more money for their bigbusiness friends in the prison construction industry and criminal justice bureaucracy, and on the other hand, the perpetual criminalization and containment of indigenous, women, working-class, and racialized peoples.
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ARts & culture
d’bi young’s ‘sankofa trilogy’ - a review
Jamaican-Canadian monodramatist d’bi young plays the fictional character benu sankofa - a young dub poet being interrogated and tortured by police in this scene - in word! sound! powah!, the final play in the sankofa trilogy. The three plays cover a line of African-Jamaican women and how they have negotiated and resisted the effects of colonialism since slavery.
by N. Zahra Editorial note: The proper nouns pertaining to the work of d’bi young have been left in lower case to respect the spelling conventions of the artist. From October 22 to December 4, 2011, the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto staged d’bi young anitafrika’s three plays, the sankofa trilogy. Each play in the trilogy tells the story of a generation – 1972, 1992, and 2002 – in a long line of Jamaican women struggling with the violence of colonialism and neo-colonialism. d’bi tells the stories of these women through a technique called biomyth, an approach to artistic creation and storytelling that embeds one’s personal lived experiences within the broader people’s history. While each play is distinct in its style and specific themes, they all deal with the different ways that the sankofa women have grappled with the violence inflicted upon African women by colonialism. d’bi’s mastery of monodrama reveals itself in these three one-woman shows as she convincingly slips from one character to the next – often accompanied by intense rapid emotional shifts – in a heartbeat. blood.claat, the first of the three monodramas, tells the story of mudgu sankofa, a 15-year-old girl coming of age
in 1972 Jamaica. She is being raised by her granny and her mother is living in Toronto. Although she has many of the same preoccupations associated with a 15-year-old girl such as boys, sports and music, she is also struggling with the feelings of shame projected on to her by the wider society. These feelings re-emerge throughout the whole story as her granny and boyfriend make her feel shame for menstruating. In an attempt to guard her from becoming pregnant, granny sends mudgu to her evangelical aunt, where, tragically, she is raped and impregnated by her uncle. When her granny accuses her of becoming pregnant by her just murdered boyfriend, mudgu finally reveals that it was actually her uncle. Granny, shattered by the news, reveals that she too was impregnated through rape at 15. This powerful revelation of common intergenerational experience is a theme that runs through all three stories. mudgu links her experience of motherhood with the powerful history of the maroons by naming her daughter sekesu, who was the twin sister of Jamaican shero nanny of the maroons. Sekesu, unlike her sister, did not escape slavery, but she did gave birth to a
child named Mudgu who would eventually join nanny in the mountains in the struggle against colonialism. The choice mudgu makes shows her strength and determination to overcome the violence of neo-colonialism and women’s exploitation. The second play in the trilogy, benu, takes us to 1992 Toronto and tells the story of sekesu, who comes to be raised in Canada by mugdu’s mother. When sekesu is 20 years old, her granny returns to Jamaica, leaving sekesu to herself. In benu, we do not come to know what sekesu knows of the circumstances of her birth or why she does not live with her mother, but the scarring of abandonment is evident. After becoming pregnant – and then again abandoned – by a man she is seeing, she gives birth to benu. All alone and trying to navigate an overly-medicalised birthing experience in a Toronto hospital, sekesu is subject to an unwanted epidural. The trauma of the non-consensual medical intervention leads sekesu to experience the common side effect of spinal headaches, and a wave of intense emotional breakdowns that we the audience can only ascribe to the combined effects of the traumatic birthing experience and the repeated abandonments in her life. Wracked by physical and emotional pain, sekesu leaves her 7-month-old daughter benu at home to seek emergency medical attention. Forced to wait hours and hours in the emergency ward without ever being seen, she is eventually arrested for leaving her child at home alone. We stand witness to the overwhelming structural violence of Canadian society from the violent and brutal birthing experience sekesu endures to the eventual criminalization of this emotionally-fragmented woman. Juxtaposed with her tortuous present is a mythical backdrop, where we are told the beautiful >> continued, BACK PAGE
BASICS #27 (DEC 2011 / JAN 2012)
Imperialist Canada a book review by Kevin Edmonds Most Canadians tend to view our country as a force for good in the world — we have even been subjected to beer commercials trying to convince us that we are a nation of peacekeepers, not soldiers. This story would also have us believe that Canada was settled through a process of fair negotiation with Canada’s many indigenous peoples, and is a beacon of enlightened foreign policy and multicultural toleration when compared to our overly aggressive southern neighbour. Todd Gordon’s book Imperialist Canada not only turns this misconception on its head, but shatters it with a sledgehammer of inconvenient but necessary truths about how the relative comfort and security we currently enjoy has come at the continued expense of indigenous peoples at home, and our oppression and exploitation of other peoples across the developing world. A book that Gordon admits is long overdue, Imperialist Canada deals with the legacy and continuation of racist practices, stereotypes and ideologies — topics which do not make the evening news, but should. From Canada’s decade-long war in Afghanistan to the overthrow of a democratically elected government in Haiti in 2004, to our government’s support for an illegitimate pro-business regime in Honduras, our country’s hands are far from clean, and our national consciousness is anything but enlightened. The book is written in an engaging and straightforward manner, with Gordon seamlessly incorporating theory, history and current events into a highly readable and accessible book. Doubters of Canada’s role as an imperial power will unfortunately be met with a host of references which reinforce Gordon’s point. Imperialist Canada gives the reader an important context to understand the current conflict in Northern Ontario, where the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug
Imperialist Canada by Todd Gordon. 432 pages. Arbeiter Ring Publishing. $24.95 ($16.46 from online retailers). First Nation are fighting mining companies from excavating their sacred burial grounds and contaminating their drinking water. This is not an isolated incident, but rather part of a tragic pattern that extends to Canadian mining corporations undermining indigenous peoples across the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Stephen Harper’s statement that, “We also have no history of colonialism. So we have all of the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them” is revealed as a dangerous lie. Canada’s announcement earlier this year to open military bases in Jamaica, South Korea, Senegal, Kenya, Kuwait and Singapore is a sign of a more militant and aggressive Canada with imperial ambitions — a further confirmation of the book’s premise. Todd Gordon skilfully succeeds in “encouraging people to rethink Canada’s role in the world.” For that, this book is highly recommended for all engaged in the struggle for social justice across Canada and beyond. Imperialist Canada importantly points out that being the lesser of two evils in comparison to the United States is not a position Canadians should be proud of — being a lesser evil is still a far cry from being a force for good in the world. We can, and should, work toward ending our exploitation and oppression of indigenous peoples at home and other peoples abroad.
Droppin’ “I Scream Bars for the People”: Interview with BAMBU, Filipino-American MC
On Monday, November 7, BASICS correspondent Steve da Silva linked up with the Filipino-American MC Bambu for an interview after the Blue Scholars show in downtown Toronto. Bambu is from Los Angeles and has been producing for almost a decade with the likes of MC Kiwi, DJ Phatrick, Power Struggle and many others. In the Fall of 2010, Bambu, through Soul Assassins, released the “Los Angeles, Philippines” mixtape with the legendary DJ Muggs (Cypress Hill). Before 2011, the mixtape had already hit over 100,000 downloads. His LPs include ‘self entitled’, ‘exact change’, ‘i scream bars for the people’, and ‘paper cuts’. Here’s what the ‘Kasama’ [comrade in Tagalog] had to say to BASICS… Steve da Silva / BASICS: How does the national liberation movement in the Philippines re-
late to the music you’re producing in America? Bambu: There’s a clear line between the two. Like I said on stage, all my music really does is raise the awareness of the people and the consciousness of the masses. It’s a tool used to organize. The goal is to get those people who like the music to actually go out and organize. That’s where I separate myself from the actual work that’s going on. Now, if you wanna talk about my organizing, then yeah, I am also doing work in organizing and educating folks, especially within the youth sector, basically building a bridge between what’s going on here and what’s going on back in the Philippines. What we like to say is connecting the ‘micro’ to the ‘macro’. We’re trying to get the youth we’re working with – youth of colour, Filipino youth – to bridge what’s going on in the com-
munity with what’s going on back at home and around the globe. BASICS: As a ‘Fil-Am’ – a Filipino-American – I’m just curious about your expectations for the Philippine revolution in the coming years? Bambu: Well in the Philippines we have the longest standing struggle and resistance, especially in that region of the world. I think that victory is the only thing that Filipinos will settle for. The Philippines is a semi-feudal, semi-colonial state and we’re trying to link arms with a capitalist society and it’s just not gonna work. Again, there’s a lot of work that’s being done back home and a lot of work that can be done here in Canada and the U.S. to draw support for the movements going on back home. I’d like to make it clear that I don’t advocate for armed struggle, but I definitely
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support the people’s right to choose armed struggle. BASICS: What you think about the argument ‘art for art’s sake’, art as being something that’s independent of the political sphere and of the struggles developing in our society? Bambu: Man, that’s a conversation we’d best handle over some
coffee, maybe some drinks, because that’s a long conversation. But what I can say is that all art needs to make some social commentary and reflect what’s going on. I’m speaking about visual arts and any other kind of art, be it cinema, music, whatever. It’s got to say something about our cul>> continued, BACK PAGE
The Los Angeles-based MC Bambu opened up for Blue Scholars in Toronto at the Wrong Bar on November 7, 2011.
Community events / Etc.
BASICS #27 (DEC 2011 / JAN 2012)
« K.I. vs. ‘God’s Lake’ Mining, from PG. 3
Government. And then along came God’s Lake Resources. In a surprisingly arrogant insult to the K.I. people they initiated exploration a short crow’s fly from Big Trout Lake in pristine watersheds and threatening the site of a sacred burial ground with at least 31 graves and more in the surrounding area. On November 14, 2011 the K.I. broke talks with the Ontario government after it became clear that there was not a mutual and sincere dedication to a proposed resolution via a KI-Ontario joint panel, as the Ontario government was unwilling to impose an immediate halt to the mining comopany’s explorations while the panel ensued. K.I. issued a press release with the inclusion of the following statement: “We need a reasonable process to protect our sacred areas. That process cannot take place without assurances that GLR will not access the land and where the sites are. We cannot talk with your government while GLR desecrates.” During his introduction, Chief Donny Morris contemplated the scenario with the company: “We don’t know if it’s going down that same
road, where it wants a pay-out from Ontario, …this is something that we have to try and prevent too – that’s a sure way for a company to get a quick pay-out, to use us that way…” And with an election on the horizon at the time, one has to wonder if there wasn’t some deliberate scheming for such a consolation prize. Regardless of motive, the K.I. are faced now with a serious threat from a mining corporation that seems intent on desecrating their territory, clearly in defiance to prior Supreme Court jurisprudence which deemed essential some due “consultation, negotiation, accommodation and reconciliation” with the community (this from the July 2008 Ontario Court of Appeal decision overturning the prison sentences of the K.I. Six). Chief Morris made no bones about his hope and intention of expanding the K.I. cause to activists and others in our region: “We are moving forward, we’re looking for support … we’re looking at all avenues, we’re not going to stop half-way now, we’re going to go all the way … and here in the GTA, that’s where our support is …” For more information on how you can help: http://kilands.org.
« BAMBU, from PG.7 ture. It’s gotta have a time stamp but be timeless at the same time. BASICS: As a revolutionary hip hop artist, what’s your reflections on revolutionary hip hop in relation to what’s developing on our continent? Bambu: While I appreciate the term revolutionary, again all hip hop can really do is raise the consciousness of folks. I can sit there and think that everyone in that room that was chanting and singing along is now a revolutionary and ready to change the world, but that would be (1) arrogant of me and (2) a complete crock of shit. Until all of them show up a
« d’bi young, from PG.7 birth story of humanity that was sekesu’s favourite story growing up. The trilogy ends with the recently produced word! sound! powah!, the story of benu and the fictional poets in solidarity group set in 2012 Jamaica. The poets group plans a poetry slam for the day of the presidential elections to protest the lack of commitment of all the candidates to the people. But when on Election Day the winning presidential candidate
is assassinated, the blame falls onto the poets in solidarity group. benu is taken into police custody, questioned, and brutally tortured as she fearlessly denies her interrogator’s claims and defies his threats. benu’s defiance, and the play as a whole, becomes an interrogation of the past colonialism and present neocolonialism of Jamaican society, which we come to see mocked through the hallow jubilations of presidential hopefuls paying
their lip-service to Jamaica’s nominal independence fifty years prior in 1962. benu is finally murdered for not bowing to the brutality of her torturer, ending her life and the trilogy with the final words ‘death before dishonour.’ In all three plays d’bi young anitafrika illustrates the contradictions and opposing forces within humanity. Death and birth, hate and love, shame and honour, resistance and
rally, begin to organize, and study for true systemic change, all I’ve done is given you something to bob your head to. And that goes for every other MC. So again, while I love the position I’ve been given, I love the opportunity to be a part of something that is part of such a powerful medium, I recognize that it’s not the end. It’s the organizers, it’s the people who actually go out there. All I’m doing is representing them and the work that they do. BASICS: Alright man, thanks for choppin’ it up with BASICS. Bambu: All day, all day.
submission, violence and beauty, although in contradiction with one another, manage to become their opposites at some point throughout the stories. Every contradiction is a unity of opposing forces, with one aspect of the contradiction often destroying the other. The significance of d’bi’s work stretches far beyond the confines of a critical examination
of Jamaica and its diaspora to force its audience to confront the simultaneity of the violence and beauty of our time in a system that brutalizes us and that we continuously resist. The sankofa trilogy is a truly revolutionary work of art that will hopefully inspire the building of a truly revolutionary artists movement. More on d’bi young’s work can be found at www.dbiyoung.net/
ÁCCENTS ON EGLINTON
Áccents on Eglinton is a bookstore in northwest Toronto with publications dedicated to Africa and its diasporas, Latin America, the Caribbean, and more. It’s also a space for workshops, discussions, performances, open-mics, and musical events from a variety of communities.
1790 Eglinton Ave. West, Toronto ON M6E 2H6 • accentsoneglinton@gmail.com • 647-352-8558 • Hours: Tue-Sun 10am-9pm
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