BASICS Free Community Newsletter
IT’S COLD OUTSIDE BUT THE GAS BILL AIN’T TOO HOT •
People’s media: BASICS, five years on Austerity and organized labour in Ontario Filipino migrant organization launched Dead Prez perform in Toronto
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People’s History: The October Crisis and Operation Profunc >> PAGE 7
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BASICS #23, NOV / DEC 2010
(Benji Bilheimer/Flickr)
Development for whom?
Third International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees held in Mexico to counter neoliberal forum on migration
2010: The Year of Police Terror Kabir Joshi-Vijayan The G20 debacle will be remembered, above all else, because for thousands of student organizers, social justice activists, journalists and onlookers, it was their first experience with savage, unrestrained police terror. Even the most liberal observer could not simply dismiss what happened at the G20 Summit: The images of protestors being pepper sprayed and clubbed by fully armored
thugs, grabbed off the street and thrown into unmarked vans; the testimony of people having their basic constitutional rights suspended; the largest mass arrests in Canadian history; the crude and illegal violence enacted against an entirely non-violent group of demonstrators. It made clear for many the lengths to which the Canadian state would go to eliminate and repress a perceived threat. The G20 arrests laid bare for those who hadn’t already real-
ized it the nature and purpose of the Toronto Police Services. And since then, the Toronto police have met with impunity for their conduct. The SIU’s joke of an investigation into a mere 6 incidents (two of which have already been dismissed because the offending officers couldn’t be identified in matching riot gear), and Bill Blair’s ridiculous pledge to mount an ‘internal inquiry’ with the RCMP and OPP, have simply made apparent the non-existence
of independent civilian oversight over police activities. Unfortunately, the vast majority of commentaries on the violations perpetrated during the G20 summit, from the surprisingly blunt condemnations of “police misconduct” in the Toronto Star to the statements being put out by various leftist groups and committees, have failed to mention that for particular communities in this city, this police violence (that many >> continued, pg. 2
Unit that investigates police under friendly fire from The Star Martin Giroux-Cook From October 28 to November 4, the Toronto Star ran several articles criticizing the different standards of justice for police officers. The Star reporters primarily criticized the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the provincial agency responsible for investigating serious injuries and deaths resulting from interactions between police and the public. “In its 20-year history, the SIU has conducted at least 3,400 investigations and laid criminal charges after only 95 of them…only 16 officers have been convicted of a crime. Only three have seen the inside of a jail - as inmates,” wrote David Bruser and Michele Henry of the Toronto Star. The Star reporters also noted that “the virtual immunity police officers enjoy is not the SIU’s fault alone.” “An officer investigated by
the SIU benefits from a presumption of good character by jurors and judges.” In addition, “Officers also enjoy stiff protection from the sturdy blue wall of their police force, insulation by scrappy lawyers working for unions with deep pockets, and typically a close working relationship with prosecutors.” The findings of The Star’s investigation of the SIU are likely to confirm what many people already know and what BASICS has reported consistently – that there is no justice for working class people in this society. For others, these articles may lead them to further question the role of police in our society. Despite exposing the failures of the SIU, The Star is careful not to encourage people to act organize and act on these injustices. Instead, in the last article of the series, The Star’s Kathy
English lets her readers know that the Star will perform its dutiful task to pressure the government for reforms and that people should remain passive. She describes The Star investigation as “watchdog journalism” and writes that its goal “is to serve as a ‘surrogate for the public’ and see to it that people in power are held accountable to the public they serve.” But, why should the public let a newspaper controlled by private corporations with their own interests act as its surrogate? Will The Star really hold the people in power accountable or will it be working class people that end police brutality? Ultimately, The Star can only ever see a few “bad apples” in the police forces, rather than seeing that the problem of the police is systemic. Recent videos showing Ottawa police abusing people
in custody, along with dozens and even hundreds of cases of police abuse across the country, should alert us to the fact that police abuse isn’t just an anomalous series of one-offs. On one hand, police are supposed to “protect and serve” the general public, but on the other, and more fundamentally, they are there to “protect and serve” those who are in power. That’s why it’s so easy for cops to abuse poor, workingclass and racialized people on behalf of the rich and powerful. That’s why the rich and powerful will protect the police. And so it’s up to those who are the victims of police abuse, those who are exploited by the rich and powerful, to rise up and exercise power of their own and to protect themselves and check the cops. The Star’s David Bruser writes that “the SIU was created in 1990 after a series of >> continued, pg. 3
(Marco Luciano)
Marco Luciano The Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) met this year in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on November 10 and 11 to “identify practical and feasible ways to strengthen the mutually beneficial relationship between migration and development.” The GFMD was conceived by UN dialogue in 2005 on migration and development. The main actors at the forum are sending and receiving countries, international financial institutions (IFIs) and organizations such as the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Since the UN decided to hold a permanent GFMD, dollar remittance has been the primary focus of discussion. Available data show that officially recorded remittance flowing to developing countries in 2008 reached $338 billion. The true size of flows, including unrecorded flows through formal and informal channels, is even higher. This growth in remittances has outpaced the growth of Official Development Aid (ODA) and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) to developing countries. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, in his opening address of the 2009 GFMD in Athens, said, “We meet in what I call an age of mobility. An era where people cross borders...Today, the number of international migrants is greater than at any time in history, with 214 million people living outside their country of birth. Thanks to the work of the Forum and others, there is a growing understanding about the good that such mobility can generate. When managed well, international >> continued, pg. 4
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BASICS #23 NOV / DEC 2010
« Police terror, from PG. 1 found so unbelievable in regards to the G20 weekend) is a daily occurrence in Toronto. That is, with regards to marginalized, racialized and criminalized areas and people, the police have always been permitted to act with complete impunity and unfettered aggression. The past year has been a testament to this reality: over the past 5 months alone, six known individuals have been shot or beaten to death by cops in the GTA. Of these victims, at least three have been young black men and two were individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. All were killed in very disturbing circumstances, which at ‘best’ remain unclear, and at ‘worst’ scream police execution. This year should also be noted as a period during which Coroner’s Inquests into the three police murders resulted in a congratulation of the officers involved and defamation and criminalization of the three victims. Eighteen-year old Alwy AlNadhir, 28-year old Byron Debassige and 15-year old Duane Christian were killed by police in 2007, 2008 and 2005 respectively. The Coroner’s Inquests, the culmination of the supposed SIU investigation into each case, resulted in nothing but
The names you see below are simply the latest victims of a continuous and long-running policy.
And it is unfortunate that it is only when this brutality is directed against more privileged people that a more serious examination and critique of policing in this city and province takes place. It is revealing that student organizers languishing in poor detention conditions for a few hours results in calls of a “brutal spectacle” in media outlets; meanwhile seven police officers beating an unarmed 18-year old to death in broad daylight on a university campus – Junior Manon, May 5, 2010, at York University – while he screams for help is almost immediately revised as the youth ‘dying of a heart attack’. This is not to minimize the suffering of the many victims of police aggression during the G20 weekend, but rather it is simply to point out that any honest and
The launch episode of Radio Basics in 2008.
If working people cannot set the terms of the debates that circulate in our society, then we cannot equip ourselves with the frameworks and reference points we need to intervene as an independent class. BASICS Community News Service formally launched on October 23, 2010. BASICS began roughly five years earlier, with the idea of creating a local media project that would “encourage meaningful discussion and organization around the issues facing working class communities.” The young group of workingclass activists who ran issues one to three of BASICS off of photocopiers and distributed them throughout Regent Park, Parkdale, and Lawrence Heights in Toronto did not
organization, Jose Maria Sison the founder of the International League of People’s Struggles). With the formal launch of BASICS Community News Service, we are looking to rapidly expand our membership throughout Toronto, and throughout the country, particularly in working-class neighbourhoods, but also throughout schools and workplaces.
We are appealing to workingclass activists, community organizers and progressives with media skills to link up with our organization and help train people’s journalists and to build a people’s media organization. If you are interested in joining, or for more information, visit our website www.basicsnews.ca, or email at basics.canada@gmail.com
a few feeble recommendations from each jury, and a confirmation that cops are immune from facing punishment or even judgment for their actions. But the police killing unarmed racialized youth, or statesanctioned agencies acting as exonerators and facilitators of police crimes should not come as a surprise to anyone.
Paramedics attend to Junior Manon’s body (Global News) effective movement or campaign against police brutality in this city must have at its forefront the voices and demands of the communities who are the cops’ primary targets. It is to underscore that any change to the murderous and corrupt gangsterism that permeates policing in this city will not come about through lobbying or begging officials or reforms to pre-existing structures and policies. It will instead, and inevitably, be the result of systemic change brought forward by a unified and organized communitybased movement.
Known police killings in 2010
April 19 Wieslaw Duda, 50-year old schizophrenic father of two,
Building the people’s media apparatus: BASICS, five years on
Steve Da Silva
is killed after having 32 pistol rounds and two shot gun shells emptied into his vehicle by police after he allegedly struck an officer with the car.He was killed despite the rule that Toronto Police are not allowed to fire at a driver of a moving car. May 5 Witnesses report Junior Alexander Manon is beaten to death by seven Toronto Police Officers on York University Campus near Founders Road and Steeles. The 18-year old Jane and Finch resident was killed following a random traffic stop that resulted in a foot pursuit. Junior was unarmed, with witnesses report hearing him scream for help and cry, “I am not resisting arrest!” August 25 An 18 year old Brantford youth, Evan Jones, dies after being shot four times by the
police who were called to his townhouse. Witnesses claim he was holding a knife at one point during the encounter, but that he only threatened and never attempted to harm any of the officers. August 29 25 year old Pickering resident, Reyal Jensen JardineDouglas was killed by police at Victoria Park and Lawrence after running off a TTC Bus. Witnesses claim Douglas was shot at least five times after he had already dropped a knife he was carrying. Sadly, the officers had been called by Douglas’s family to help them find him after the schizophrenic man had run away. Police had been fully aware of his condition before deploying. September 29 Eric Osawe, a 26-year old Jane and Finch resident is shot to death by Toronto Police during a raid on his brother’s apartment at Kipling and Bloor. The police officer has been charged with manslaughter. Eric was a father of two and his family is stunned and “hopeless”. October 23 An unidentified 28-year old is shot to death by police at an apartment building at Dufferin and King in Parkdale. The man was killed during a supposed altercation with officers that left one cop in the hospital for non -serious cuts to the face.
necessarily recognize that what they were building was a people’s media organization. The group was aware of the social dislocation that was unfolding in Regent Park due to the “revitalization” scheme, and the first BASICS members sought to communicate the lessons of Regent Park to the doorsteps of the people in Lawrence Heights. We distributed the paper alongside holding public meetings, forums, and carrying out serve the people programs, such as workshops to help folks fight for the basic (legally required) repairs that were being illegally denied to them because the slumlord was preparing for demolition. We also encouraged people to organize themselves against the destruction of social housing. In late 2007, our focus shifted
to the issue of police brutality, with the police murder of 18-year-old Alwy Al-Nadhir, an Arab youth who grew up in Regent Park. The new focus of our work led to the creation of the youthled Justice for Alwy campaign against police brutality, and later supported the creation of the NO COPS campaign against the deployment of police in high schools. From 2008 onwards, the more coverage we provided to police brutality in our city, the more people were coming to us with their stories of harassment and brutalization, filling our columns with stories of their experiences. By 2009, BASICS began to link up with other sectors and ethnic communities in their domestic and international struggles. We expanded our coverage of the struggles of Latinos, Tamils, and Filipinos, domestically in Canada and internationally, focusing on the exploitation and oppression of racialized workers, migrant workers, and the impact of imperialism on people across the world. Through ‘Radio Basics,’ which airs live on 105.5 FM in Toronto on Mondays at 8-9pm, we interviewed numerous musicians (including M1 from Dead Prez, Wise Intelligent from Poor Righteous Teachers) and past and present revolutionary leaders (including Seth Hayes of the Black Liberation Army, Ramona Africa of the MOVE
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Students and communities lose out on access to UofT campus space From UTSU Press Release Despite student resistance, on Oct 18 the University of Toronto’s (U of T) Governing Council approved space use policy revisions that will further restrict student and community access to campus space. The policy revisions include provisions to increase the cost of booking space on campus and restrict external groups
and speakers from participating in on-campus events. “These policy revisions are politically motivated,” says Danielle Sandhu, VP Equity for the U of T Students’ Union. “U of T administrators do not like it when students voice dissent on campus, whether regarding the G20 and police violence or Canadian militarism and the Israel/Palestine conflict.”
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Provincial
BASICS #23, NOV / DEC 2010
Labour chasing fool’s gold Austerity and class struggle Ajamu Nangwaya “Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” – Karl Marx, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte The above quotation could have been referring to the affection for Keynesian economics by the bureaucrats in Ontario’s trade unions (organized labour). Keynesianism is a fiscal policy approach that believes the state’s management of the overall injection of spending into the economy by government, businesses and consumers is critical to achieving full employment and economic prosperity. The government is seen as the key player in encouraging the required level of “aggregate demand.” It does so through its own spending and power over taxation, interest rate and the money supply. Marx also said that “the tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” This quote captures the burden of organized labour’s postwar engagement with Keynesian economics and the way that it tries to resurrect it like old Lazarus, in the face of the current crisis in capitalism. The brain trust at CUPE Ontario has been trumpeting an alternative economic response to the wage freeze proposal of the McGuinty Liberals. I, for one, was looking for a transformative document that would be guided by a workingclass informed position on political economy and the class
struggle. But what we got was the demand management trope that is the core of John Maynard Keynes’s approach to stabilizing the inherent boom and bust features of capitalism’s business cycle. Keynes’ book, General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money was written as a manual for maintaining the vibrancy of capitalism. Why is it that so many labour leaders have this compulsive and inexplicable attachment to Keynesianism? These used-to-be advocates of the working-class should remember that the post-war welfare state was a strategic bargain between organized labour, the state and the capitalist class in the West to weaken the appeal of socialism or radicalism to the working-class. Another reason for the unholy alliance of these partners in crime was to support anti-communism at home and abroad as well as allegiance to imperialist policies in the Third World. The state used its spending and taxation powers and control over the interest rate to manage aggregate demand in the economy. These policy tools facilitated the provision of social programmes as a means to make capitalist political economy legitimate. However, by the mid-1970s, the capitalist class and the state were sufficiently confident that they had hegemony over the working-class and had contained the threat of socialism. So they turned their backs on the welfare state deal with organized labour, and thus began the era of neoliberalism. Looking back at the relentless attack of the elite on workers since the 1970s gives us an insight into the current proposed two-year wage-freeze attack on over 1 million public sector workers by the Ontario
Liberals. Many labour unions’ leaderships are hesitant to define the government’s proposed wage-freeze as part of the class struggle. This political timidity was evident in CUPE Ontario’s presentation to Liberal government’s functionaries on August 30, 2010. It included colourful graphs and Keynesian arguments for investment in the public sector. CUPE Ontario offered Keynesian advice to a government that just recently borrowed from Keynes’ demand management playbook to prevent an economic collapse of the provincial economy. It should have been clear to this labour organization that the Liberals didn’t need to be convinced that pumping money into the provincial economy during the Great Recession was a way to maintain an economic environment that was safe for business and maintain the legitimacy of the system in the eyes of the majority. The preceding state of affairs strengthens our case that the quest to pick over $1.5 billion from the pockets of public sector workers is not about fighting the deficit. It is about the class struggle and taking the fight to those “uppity” little workers who want a liveable wage. Premier McGuinty and his group of neoliberal “bandits” must excuse us for not reading the scouting report, which specifies that only a dog-eatdog economic nightmare befits today’s working-class. Our bad, ‘Premier Dad’! CUPE Ontario’s leadership was dismayed that in spite of taking advantage of the “unprecedented opportunity to share our ideas, in detail, with representatives of many government ministries.... dis>> continued, pg. 8
« France,from PG. 4 « Dead Prez and the importance of hood news, from PG. 8 working-classes a dignified wage and full social security. Their dream for the future economy is our nightmare, and it always has been. Any breathing room the working class has been won through previous rounds of class struggle. Millions of French workers displayed an incredible resolve to defeat the “austerity” measures, and they lost. Workers in all the G20 countries have failed to defend themselves by merely staying on the defensive, that is, by merely fighting against cuts, clawbacks, and privatization. The ruling class has made it clear that they are going to take away from us what we’ve previously won. The offensive against us is international. To me, this signals not the futility of our working class struggle, but the necessity of it — internationally and internationalist.
“We are trained by the media by just watching it. [It has the goal of] communicating a certain idea, construct, concept, or
paradigm,” said Stic Man. We need to establish a media apparatus that represents our interests, and does not just “become
« The Star and cops, from PG. 1 police shootings of black civilians provoked community backlash”. Chris Harris, a long-time organizer in the black community in Toronto, provides a bit more history of the community reaction to the police shootings of black civilians. He says that “organizers... led a number of mass protests involving thousands of black protesters in the late 1970s and early 1980s”. “These mobilizations began in response to the murders of Buddy Evans in 1978 and Albert Johnson in 1979”. After a decade of mobilizing against police brutality in the
city of Toronto, the Black Action Defence Committee (BADC), a militant anti-racist organization, was founded in 1988. “For most of its history, BADC’s main struggle was against police murders of black people”, says Harris. “Because of this work, the number of these murders began to decline in the early 1990s.” In addition to the need for people to organize around the issue of police harassment and brutality, we need to ask ourselves whether reforms are the solution or whether we should fight for solutions grounded in the potentially revolutionary power of mass organizing.
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puppets or slaves to a dogma.” The people need a voice to be able to organize ourselves, build our families, strengthen
our communities, and build a revolutionary movement. Help us build, contact us: basics.canada@gmail.com
Class struggles in Ontario New Democratic Youth Noaman G. Ali Working-class youth from Esplanade Community Organization and progressive group Fightback have recently taken the leadership role in the Toronto Young New Democrats (TYND). Because their message is one of a proper working-class platform, the party brass is unhappy. So the Ontario New Democratic Youth (ONDY) Executive de-chartered TYND from the provincial group in October. But during the annual ONDY convention in Hamilton from November 5-7, the TYND mobilized and not only passed progressive resolutions on free education and opposing police brutality, but
managed to win a majority of ONDY Executive positions. The first act of the new Executive was to re-charter the TYND. Not too long after that, though, the provincial secretary of the Ontario NDP annulled the elections. When elections were held again in Toronto in late November, the TYND was out-mobilized by the traditional elements. The questions remain: Will the NDP ever adopt a platform that reflects working-class interests? Or will it continue to marginalize grassroots activists as it talks left and leans to the right? Should activists continue to organize in and for the NDP, or work to organize the working -class independently instead?
International « International migrant struggles, from PG. 1 migration greatly improves human welfare and development.” But, “the GFMD is dishing out a big lie when it claims that its purpose is to identify practical and feasible ways to strengthen the supposedly mutually beneficial relationship between migration and development” says Jose Maria Sison, the Chairperson of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS). “GFMD is merely an instrument for justifying the massive export of cheap labour to the imperialist countries under the policy of neoliberal globalization.” In fact, much of the GFMD is aimed at providing a venue for labour-receiving and labour-sending countries to trade strategies for instituting temporary labor migration programs (TMLPs). TMLPs are “pegged as a ‘win-winwin’ for both sets of governments and migrants themselves” says Robyn Rodriguez, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University. “TMLPs are being celebrated as the best solution to labour-receiving governments’ demand for cheap foreign workers to whom they are unwilling to extend full citizenship rights; to labour-sending governments that need to address domestic unemployment and to bolster foreign exchange reserves; and to the needs for livable wages among migrants and their families.” The policy frameworks promoted by
the GFMD have been exposed by migrant and people’s organizations through the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR) year after year since 2008. The IAMR was initiated by migrants themselves, through the International Migrants Alliance. We need to further build and consolidate organizations of migrants and refugees to further raise our voices. Right now, the International Migrants Alliance is our global platform. To counter the GFMD and its policies promoting our forced migration, it is important that we link our struggles to other movements: the workers’ movement and their struggles for jobs, decent wages and better working conditions; the peasant movement and their struggles to own the lands that they till; the women’s movement; and the youth and students’ movement. We must link our struggles even with national liberation movements that are struggling for genuine freedom — for the core issues of their struggles are the very issues we are also fighting for. Our struggles as migrants and refugees must link up with the struggle of our peoples in the homeland. We need to push harder to free our peoples and nations from poverty, hunger, unemployment and underdevelopment. We need to take full control of our future if we want to stop being nations of exploited and oppressed migrants.
BASICS #23, NOV / DEC 2010
Fish Lake mine blocked due to native resistance, but Mount Milligan mine approved
November 2 : The Federal gov’t has finally blocked the development of the ‘Prosperity’ Mine by Taseko Mines Ltd., which was planning to turn Fish Lake into a tailings dump, killing 80,000 rainbow trout necessary for the survival of the Tsilhqot’in Nation. The B.C. provincial government was pressing ahead with the project until the Feds blocked it in early November, likely in response to the threat of fierce resistance by the Tsilhqot’in First Nation in the face of the lake’s destruction. However, on the same day, the Federal gov’t announced the approval of another gold and copper mine at Mount Milligan in northern B.C., to which members of the Nakazdli First Nation immediately launched their opposition with road blockades and legal actions.
Fish Lake (Tetzan Biny), B.C. (Occupied Tsilhqot’in Territory)
Harper extends Afghanistan occupation to 2014
French pension cutbacks imposed, despite largest strikes in 40 years Steve Da Silva September and October 2010 saw the largest mobilizations in French society in 40 years. The union activity and independent actions of working people and the masses brought the economy to a near halt. The immediate target of the people’s fury: President Nicolas Sarkozy and his anti-worker pension reforms, which sought to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, and delay the receipt of a full state pension from 65 to 67. Some 3.5 million people, mostly public sector workers, took to the streets on October 19 alone. Air transit strikes had 50 percent of flights cancelled at Paris Orly airport and an additional 30 percent at remaining metropolitan airports. Workers at the national railway company (SNCF) and the Paris railway system (RATP) also walked out at one point. According to company figures, four in ten regional trains did not run. At another point, striking workers at France’s electricity monopoly cut energy production by roughly 6,250 megawatts. At the height of the strikes, 11 of France’s 12 oil refineries were affected by strikes. At one point, nearly a hundred ships and oil tankers were anchored offshore at the port of Marseille. This is what the working class is capable of when their livelihoods are threatened by capitalists hell-bent on stacking up those profits. We make society work, and we can shut it down. To the ruling class this was chaos, to the workers, it was an incredible expression of order, self-discipline, and organization. Despite the inconveniences of the strikes, opinion polls consistently revealed support for the strikers at about 70% of the population, with Sarkozy’s approval rating falling to below 30%. Further, the strikes hit capitalists where it hurt the most: lost profits. The French Finance Minister announced that the strike cost as much as €400 million to the ‘national economy’ each day,
amounting to billions of euros in all. But the French workers ultimately lost the battle. On November 10, the law was signed and came into effect. Despite significant sections of the working class still out on strike and taking action throughout the country, union ‘leaders’ (bureaucrats) began to throw cold water on the hundreds of thousands of mobilized strikers, telling them to back down with the reforms set to pass into law. While the French working class may not have been prepared for a broader, revolutionary offensive, we must identify the role and position of the union bureaucracy, or ‘labour aristocracy,’ which has more of a class interest in negotiating away the lives of workers with the bosses and the government than taking the fight further, which could jeopardize their own positions. The imposition of the law may have seemed extreme in light of the militant working-class response, but the unbending resolve with which Sarkozy imposed the widely unpopular pension reforms needs to be understood by looking to the international context of global capitalism. We are living in the so-called “Era of Austerity,” or at least this is what G20 leaders promised us from Toronto at their June 2010 summit. After two years of state bailouts to the most powerful financial corporations in the world, workers are now being made to pay for the debt and deficit crises that have followed. The consensus among the big capitalists is clear: unrelenting attack on workers, everywhere. This “austerity” agenda is not new; it’s just more naked than in recent decades. The “Era of Austerity” is a way for capitalists to intensify their competition with one another, ensuring their own mutual salvation by other means, by intensifying their exploitation of our labour, which is the source of their wealth. There’s no capitalist class in any of the strongest capitalist economies that is willing to let their own capital become “uncompetitive” by affording their
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November 14 : The Canadian government once again broke its promises of withdrawing from Afghanistan, now extending its occupation from 2011 to 2014. Canada assured NATO leaders that Canada would not leave until the Afghan National Army could take over its military operations and that it would provide at least 1000 personnel to “train” the Afghan Army.
U.S.-backed Kagame regime blackmails U.N. over genocide report
U. U.
In September, Rwandan President Paul Kagame threatened the U.N. that it would pull its ‘peacekeeping’ troops out of Darfur if a planned Genocide Report was published implicating his government. The Western-backed Kagame is celebrated in the Western press for supposedly ending the Rwandan genocide. But it was the backing of Western imperialism that allowed Kagame and his army to invade Rwanda from Uganda in 1990, trigger the Rwandan civil war, seize power in 1994, and involve itself in the resource wars of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1995, killing at least 5 million people. The resource wars in the Congo, the deadliest conflict since WWII, have benefited Western mining companies the most, so the U.N. report could have implicated forces above Kagame.
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U.S. “apologizes” for STD experiments on Guatemalans -- U.S. veterans also suing for secret experiments
Wi Aid
On October 1, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered her “apologies” to the people of Guatemala for secret experiments from 1946-48, where American doctors intentionally infected Guatemalan patients with gonorrhea and syphilis and were never adequately treated afterwards. In November 2010, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Larson ordered the CIA to produce specific records and testimony about the human experiments the government allegedly conducted on thousands of soldiers from 1950 through 1975. Three veterans groups are claiming that 7,800 soldiers were used as guinea pigs in research on biological, chemical and psychological weapons.
International
BASICS #23, NOV / DEC 2010
Ireland’s massive protest against EUIMF “bailout” package
British students rise against attacks on education
Dublin, Ireland Nov. 27: Over 100,000 took to the streets of Dublin, Ireland on Nov. 27 to protest the joint European Union-International Monetary Fund imposed “bailout” package of €85 billion. The “rescue” will shore up the country’s banking system and impose the strictest austerity measures yet to be seen in Europe, including a decrease of the minimum wage, public sector job cuts of 25,000, $20 billion in tax increases, and very deep cuts to public spending.
London, U.K.
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Nov. 10: 50,000 students and professors took to the streets of London on Nov. 10 to protest govt. plans to triple university tuition fees up to £9,000 (or about $14,000) per year, as well as cut education spending by 40 %. The attack on education was part of the ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition’s “austerity cuts”, provoking the largest response in Britain to date. A sizeable block of students attacked and occupied the Conservative Party’s headquarters, Milibank Towers. On November 25, tens of thousands of protestors demonstrated once again, this time all across Britain.
Turkey’s show trials of 151 Kurdish activists condemned worldwide Diyarbakir, Turkey
Hundreds of independent observers from around the world have condemned Turkey’s show trial of 151 Kurdish activists and civil society leaders, among whom are included lawyers, politicians and mayors. The trial that began on October 18 has alleged the accused of having connections to the illegal Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), an organization that fought for the self-determination of Kurdistan for decades. The manner of gathering evidence and procedures in the courtroom breach all international and European standards on human rights and fair trials.
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ovember 2010: October vember 2010: OnOn October 20,20, ama secured bama secured aa $60-bn $60-bnsale saleofofmilitary milicraft to Saudi ArabiaArabia including 84 F-15 y aircraft to Saudi including hter 70 Apache helicopters, F-15jets, fighter jets, 70attack Apache attack tactical Black Hawk helicopters 36 icopters, 72 tactical Black Hawkand helit helicopters, as well as other uppters and 36 light helicopters, as well des. The militarization of Saudi Arabia other upgrades. The militarization of elieved to isbebelieved targetedtoagainst Iran. udi Arabia be targeted November ainst Iran. 16, Secretary of State ary Clinton asked Congress to up its nitary November 16, Secretary of State aid to Israel to over $3bn annuary Clinton asked Congress to extra up its , while Obama offered Israel an itary aid to Israel to over $3bn F-35 fighter jets on the same day.annuy, while Obama offered Israel an extra anwhile, Obama’s visitthe tosame India day. in early F-35 fighter jets on vember secured Boeing aircraft a $6anwhile, Obama’s visit to Indiaaircraft, in contract for military transport rly November secured Boeing aircraft ely to be used in moving India’s milicontract for against militarythe transport y6-bn between its war Maoists craft, surely to be used in moving d its occupation of Kashmir. ia’s military between its military cupation of Kashmir and its brutal unter-insurgency offensive against the oists in central India.
Poll says Majority in Andhra Pradesh districts support rural Maoist rebels /“Naxalites”
ikileaks pulls the curtain on U.S. empire de to Harper calls for Julian Assange’s assassination Nov. 28: State officials and corporate media from all around the world worked frantically to deflect attention from the damning information contained in the hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks on November 28, 2010. Top Canadian aide to Stephen Harper Tom Flanagan called for the assassination of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on CBC Television on December 1, 2010, while U.S. politicians called for Assange to be treated like an Al Qaida terrorist, INTERPOL has listed Assange on their world’s most wanted list, and Sweden is alleging Assange to be guilty of sex-related criminal acts.
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Andhra Pradesh, India In late September, a poll conducted by the Times of India revealed that about 58% of respondents in five districts of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh had a sympathetic view of the Maoists, or ‘Naxalites’ as they are called in India. Majority support for the Maoists shows that the government’s brutal counter-insurgency campaign in the remote rural regions, known as ‘Operation Green Hunt’, has turned the “hearts and minds” of the people further against the Indian government and swelled the base of support for the rural armed communist forces.
federal
BASICS #23, NOV / DEC 2010
Migrante Canada launched
(Alex Felipe/Migrante)
Christopher Sorio, Migrante Canada Filipino migrant organizations from coast to coast gathered in Ottawa, Ontario on November 21 to be part of the Founding Congress of Migrante Canada. With the theme “Advance the struggle for genuine change: Fight for the rights and welfare of Filipino migrants and their families,” delegates and observers from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, Eastern Ontario, Western Ontario and the Atlantic Region approved and ratified the constitution and
by-laws of Migrante Canada. The delegates also agreed on a two-year General Plan of Action and united on their position, critique and recommendations on Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Migrante Canada believes that Filipino migrants deserve the greatest promotion and protection of their rights wherever they are. It recognizes that any meaningful work of arousing, organizing and mobilizing must be part and parcel of the Filipino people’s struggle for national freedom and democracy. “It is illusory for us to expect
that the Philippine or the Canadian government, or any government for that matter, will hand us our rights on a silver platter. “To be able to enjoy our rights and ensure our well being, we need to unite and fight for these. And fight we will!” said Maru Maesa in her acceptance speech as Chair of the newly founded Migrante Canada. For further information please contact: Christopher Sorio, Secretary General Migrante Canada Tel: 416-828-0441 Email: secgenmigrantecanada@gmail.com Website: www.migrante.ca
Applying for a pardon is becoming harder Natalia Zhornyak, CLASP A criminal record poses a significant barrier to finding employment. Receiving a pardon is one step towards breaking down that barrier. Getting a pardon, however, is becoming more difficult in Canada. On May 11, 2010 Bill C-23 (the Eliminating Pardons for Serious Crimes Act) was introduced to Parliament. The passing of the Bill was divided in two parts, Bill C23(A) and Bill C-23(B). The first stage, Bill C-23(A), came into force on June 30, 2010. With the passage of Bill C23(A), the length of time a person has to wait after completing a sentence to apply for a pardon has changed to: • 10 years if you were convicted of (1) a serious personal injury offence (within the meaning of s. 752) and were sentenced to 2+ years in prison; or, (2) a sexual offence prosecuted by indictment. • 5 years if you were convicted of (1) an indictable offence; or, (2) a sexual offence prosecuted summarily; or, (3) a certain service offence under the National Defence Act. • 3 years if you were convicted of (1) a summary offence; or, (2) all other service offences under the National Defence Act.
The second part of the pardons reform legislation, Bill C-23(B), is currently in its second reading and is likely to be passed soon. Bill C-23 (B) will completely revamp eligibility requirements for pardon applications and the application process itself, including having to wait • 10 years if you were convicted of (1) an indictable offence; or, (2) certain service offences under the National Defence Act. • 5 years if you were convicted of (1) a summary offence; or, (2) all other service offences under the National Defence Act. In addition, certain applicants will have to show that the pardon would provide a measurable benefit to him/her and sustain his/her rehabilitation in society as a law-abiding citizen. The Community Legal Aid and Services Programme (CLASP) want to ensure that prospective applicants are well informed of legislative changes
Calgary family attacked by fascists C. Meda & M. Cook On November 7, 2010 five attackers broke into the Devine home in Calgary, Alberta and savagely beat Jason Devine and a friend, Jonathan Trautman. The attackers fractured several of Jason Devine’s ribs and gave Jonathan two skull fractures and a broken arm. Luckily both individuals survived this ordeal. The police originally reported that the incident had been “a home invasion and robbery,” said Jason Devine, even though “nothing was stolen.” Shortly after, as a result of “the outcry of the people within the city and across Canada, who have been helping us bring this issue forward, the police [were] compelled to say that it wasn’t a robbery” and that the Devine family had been “targeted for their activism,” said Jason. Jason and Bonnie Devine have been organizing against neo-Nazi groups like the Aryan Guard in Calgary for a number of years. The Devines work with an organization called Anti-Racist Action (ARA) that monitors and actively tries to prevent the rise of hate groups throughout North America. Why would they risk their lives to organize against hate groups? Jason Devine told BASICS that “you can’t rely on the state to do anything for you.” He may not be far from the truth, given the reaction he got from the state after this horrific incident. So, what has the state done to help? Jason says that despite being the victim of several attacks, “our house has been fire bombed. Our house has been grafittied. They [neo-Nazis] threw a cinder block through our front window. They shot a projectile through our children’s window…no one has ever been apprehended for any of this. No one has ever been charged. ..And certainly no one has ever been convicted”. “Our main focus has been organizing the community, working
with different groups and people because the police would just ignore it [the attacks]. They basically said that we were ‘poking a rabid dog,’ we were bringing it on ourselves.” What about the media and politicians? Jason says that “certain people in the media have tried to play down that these people [neo-Nazis] aren’t that serious.” In fact, the Devines “were attacked by certain people at City council, saying that ARA are giving the city and province a black eye.” “The racist policies and statements from political leaders, whether from the federal, provincial and even municipal level, it builds that environment that they [neo-Nazis] can feed into and grow out of.” Ok, so the police, the media and politicians are of no help in fighting fascism; what about social services? Shortly after being attacked, social services arrived at the Devines’ door and began comparing the Devines to gang members putting their children at risk. Social services went so far as to prevent the Devines from seeing their children. “Some one just tried to kill me and now you tell me I can’t see my kids!” Jason Devine remembers telling the social workers. Luckily, after a few days and by soliciting support from family, friends and the community, the Devines were able to put enough pressure on social services to get their kids back. So again, why do they continue to organize against fascism in Canada? “There’s a lot of other people who face their [neo-Nazis] violence,” said Jason. “And when it comes down to it, if we can’t unify and bring people together, this problem is just going to continue to get out of hand.” For more information about anti-fascist organizing, check out anti-racistcanada.blogspot. com.
Stop proposed immigration bill No One is Illegal
and the impact of these changes on their pardon applications. They are conducting public legal education workshops and offering free legal assistance to eligible applicants in order to ensure this happens. Feel free to contact CLASP for more information at 416736-5029. Natalia Zhornyak is a Law Student of Osgoode Hall at York University and works with the Community and Legal Aid Services Programme (CLASP).
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Stephen Harper and Jason Kenney have proposed a new Immigration Act, Bill C-49. It would allow the Minister of Public Safety to declare any group of migrants coming in to Canada, a ‘smuggling incident’. There is no definition of a ‘smuggler’ in this Act. For the asylum seekers who are declared part of an incident (which could be anyone making a refugee claim in a group of two or more), the Conservative government wants to: • Jail them for a minimum of one year • Deny access to health services • Deny monthly detention reviews, allowing migrants in jail a chance to gain freedom only once every 6 months • Be able to revoke people’s refugee status after it has been granted by the refugee determination process • Ban applications for permanent
residence for five years after gaining refugee status • Bar people from reuniting with their families for five years after gaining refugee status • Stop people from leaving Canada for five years after gaining refugee status • Deny the right of appeal to a rejected refugee claim • Put in an ex-CSIS director and the man responsible for police brutality during the G20 as a special advisor on human migration This is an absolute outrage. This Act is now at second reading in Parliament and must be stopped. It is imperative that people across Canada are aware of this bill and its implications, and that we organize and mobilize against it. To start: Please call, fax and email your Member of Parliament (details on http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org) and ask your friends and colleagues to do the same.
PEOPLE’S HISTORY
BASICS #23, NOV / DEC 2010
40th anniversary of the October Crisis: martial law in Canada J. Benjamin
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the invocation of the War Measures Act during the October Crisis of 1970; the largest mass detention in Canadian history, only surpassed by the arrests during the G20 protests of this year. Although the October Crisis began with the kidnapping of James Cross by the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ), the federal government had been considering using the War Measures Act against the left and nationalist movements in Quebec since at least May 1970. With the passage of the Act, the FLQ was declared an unlawful association and being a mem-
ber or supporter could be punished with a five year jail term. While the FLQ was a small organization with never more than 35 members, “member or supporter” was very loosely defined by the government. Unless you could produce evidence otherwise, merely attending an FLQ meeting, speaking publicly “in advocacy” of the FLQ or passing on its statements was considered proof of membership in the organization. It was immediately apparent that the government was not just going after the FLQ, but intended to crush the entire left wing opposition and nationalist movement in Quebec, whether or not they had any
Quebec sovereigntists take to the streets even as cops try to restrict them in 1969. (La Presse/ Canadian Press)
Students at McGill demonstrate in favour of a progressive but sovereign Quebec in 1969. (Boris Spremo, Toronto Star/Canadian Press)
violent inclinations. Within 48 hours, over 250 people were rounded up, including well known labour leaders, artists, intellectuals and members of the Parti Québécois. As the late Trudeau-era cabinet minister Eric Kierans wrote in his 2001 memoirs: “None of the secret police raids turned up the guns, rifles, machine guns, bombs or dynamite, although they did sweep up Pauline Julien, who sang separatist songs.” The police also targeted various socialist organizations, including ones that had been long-standing critics of the FLQ. Their offices were raided, members arrested for the “crime” of selling newspapers, and books and other materials were confiscated or vandalized. In all, 3,068 police raids took place, 468 people were arrested without charges and only two were ever charged. Those arrested were held incommunicado and denied access to legal advice for days on end, with their families unable to contact them. Other state authorities tried to seize the opportunity to abuse their new powers. The mayor of Vancouver (hardly an FLQ stronghold) attempted to use the new security legislation to clear city beaches of hippies. There was also a broad campaign of censorship directed at
the media and various stuSoldiers with semi-automatic rifles dent newspapers, including pass Montreal City Hall during the in English Canada at the October Crisis in 1970. (La Presse/ University of Guelph, the Canadian Press) University of Lethbridge, St. Mary’s University, and Memorial University. However, several student newspapers defied the censors and published the FLQ manifesto anyway. In addition to their expanded legal powers, the RCMP and police escalated their campaign of “dirty tricks.” It was later revealed at various official inquiries that the RCMP and police had staged break-ins at press offices sympathetic to Quebec nationalism, entered over 400 premises without a warrant and held people illegally. Not only that, they also The authorities had been burned down a barn, stole dyna- more interested in mass remite and then blamed the FLQ pression than in solving any for the theft, issued fake FLQ crimes or going after the FLQ. statements advocating violence Indeed, the FLQ was so heavand stole lists of names of mem- ily controlled by police agents bers of the Parti Québécois. that one Montreal police intelliIt was also revealed that po- gence agent later admitted that lice had allowed FLQ actions by 1972 “we were the FLQ.” to proceed despite information The War Measures Act is from an informant, and that another example of how little from the beginning they had a respect the Canadian state has small list of suspects to the kid- for basic human rights. napping that included actual Ultimately, its commitment FLQ members and could have is to maintaining order, no had all the kidnappers under matter how unjust that order arrest within the year. may be.
OPERATION ‘PROFUNC’: Canada’s plans to intern 16,000 communists, 50,000 sympathizers Steve Da Silva To many, the unprecedented crackdown and detention of over 1000 activists, dissidents, even regular people, at the G20 Summit in Toronto seemed to express the emergence of a ‘police state’ in Canada. For others, it was unbelievable that this could happen ‘here,’ that things like this only happened elsewhere, in ‘other’ places, like in third world countries or under military dictatorships. Some Canadians may recall the internment of over 9000 ‘enemy aliens’ during World War I – mostly the Ukrainians who were reduced to slave-like labour, working under the barrel of a gun, clearing, draining, and cultivating new lands for more worthy settlers. Many more will also remember the dispossession and internment of some 22,000 Japanese Canadians during World War II.
However, ceremonial apologies have rendered these events regrettable things of the past and have nothing to do with today, right? Wrong. Most Canadians would not likely believe that for 33 years a highly secret Cold War-era program existed that not only spied on tens of thousands of political dissidents and activists in Canada but had a fully operational plan in effect to indefinitely intern 16,000 suspected Canadian communists in camps, and further, to neutralize up to an additional 50,000 sus-
pected sympathizers. The program was known as Operation Profunc, ‘Profunc’ being shorthand for ‘Prominent Functionaries of Groups with Communist Affiliations,’ who were to be the target of neutralization in the event of an emergency. Many of the details of Profunc were released for the first time to the public on October 15, 2010 on the CBC program Fifth Estate, in its documentary ‘Enemies of the State’, (which can be freely viewed online from CBC’s website). In 1950, in the early years of the Cold War, the Canadian government signed off on a domestic surveillance program of frightening proportions. Wrapped in the Cold War discourse of fighting the foreign communist bogeyman and their spies, the program was directed at everything but a foreign threat. It was domestic dissidents that the program was after: com-
munists, radicals, even social reformers like Tommy Douglas, a founder of the Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation, the forerunner to the NDP. The same man, Douglas, who was popularly elected ‘The Greatest Canadian’ on the CBC’s 2004 television program by the same name was spied upon for 30 years by the RCMP, the details of which will never be released to the public for reasons of ‘national security.’ Each of the 16,000 people who had a regular file maintained on them had special apprehension orders pre-signed, with detailed instructions of what was to be done to them in the event of a national emergency. On ‘M-Day’, or Mobilization Day, all these people would be simultaneously rounded up in midnight raids conducted by all levels of law enforcement, passed through local processing facilities, and prepared for
Japanese citizens being forcibly relocated to internment camps c. World War II (National Archives)
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the internment camps. Once interned in their concentration camp-like facilities, internees would be under strict military control and would be fired upon if they attempted to escape. What is perhaps most frightening about Profunc is that it was fully operational at a time when communists in Canada posed little threat to national security. Notwithstanding, the RCMP, in a peacetime liberal democracy, had fully operational plans to impose an order that could only be compared to fascist or military dictatorships. Although the full breadth of the program was never actually executed, Operation Profunc files were in fact used to arrest hundreds of Marxist dissidents during the 1970 ‘October Crisis.’ On October 16, 1970 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau imposed the War Measures Act to sweepingly crush the Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ). Most of those arrested were in fact communists tracked by Operation Profunc, and the RCMP knew that they had nothing to do with the FLQ. But the mere presence of critics and dissidents free to roam society in a time of military rule in Quebec was enough to lead to their arrest and detention. In 1983, the program would be silently put to sleep after then Solicitor General Robert Kaplan received a few too many complaints from senior citizens who couldn’t cross the border – now harmless targets of the
decades-old Cold War program. Kaplan, himself Solicitor General, the Minister responsible for the RCMP, apparently had no awareness of the program’s scope or content. The repression experienced by activists and regular people at G20 Summit and in its aftermath suggests that little has changed in Canada. To anyone willing to honestly examine the role of Canadian policing, intelligence, and military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Palestine today, the existence of Operation Profunc may only confirm what many of us already expected. The ‘security’ apparatus that gave rise to Operation Profunc has spawned the ‘War on Terror’ and many a bogus show trial against alleged ‘terrorists.’ Today, more than 20 agencies and departments in Canada perform national security functions and intelligence gathering. It’s doubtful that the repressive intentions that drove the construction of concentration camps in World War I and II or that managed Operation Profunc from the 1950s-80s are any different than those behind the ‘War on Terror.’ In fact, as Canada intensifies its wars and occupations abroad and against indigenous peoples and their land within Canada’s borders, domestic repression is sure to intensify, as we have already seen in relation to anti-Olympics and antiG20 activist groups.
ARTS AND CULTURE
BASICS #23, NOV / DEC 2010
Play review: Not By Our Tears by R. Cheran Nayani Thiyagarajah I was looking for something more. For the stories of my people to be examined outside general conversation, to be talked about somewhere other than the television screen, and truthfully, to look at them from beyond the confines of my own mind. With Not By Our Tears, I was able to finally find what I had sought for so long. I found our stories, the stories of the Sri Lankan Tamil community, shared in a seemingly new yet actually reclaimed space: the stage. Written by poet and playwright, R. Cheran, the play is based on the poems of three prominent Tamil poets: V.I.S Jayapalan, Puthuvai Rathnathura, and R. Cheran himself. The play was produced by Asylum Theatre Group, a collective of Tamil artists dedicated to addressing the political and cultural necessities of the Tamil diaspora in Canada. With a company comprised of both former refugees and
asylum seekers, and their descendents, they understand full well the content they are sharing and are able to bring their own personal connection to their characters. This is clear in their performances: in the emotions they share, the voices with which they speak, and their interactions with each other. It was strong to see two seemingly different generations of the same community on stage together, working side-by-side to tell a multi-generational narrative. So often, the experiences of elders in different communities are viewed as different or far-removed from youth growing up here, but this play managed to unite the two groups in a way that demonstrated the ability of both to connect with each other and produce collectively. When watching the play, it is clear that the style is not necessarily ‘traditional’ by western standards. Instead of having one concrete story, with defined characters, this play focuses on prose and poetry, interweav-
ing the words of many different characters, often nameless, but giving face to the varied narratives of a collective story. Not By Our Tears follows the traditional Tamil structure of storytelling known as paa nadakum (verse play). As R. Cheran says, “[Paa nadakam] combines different kinds of poems to make a staged performance. This is where it takes on a different dimension. This is where it becomes verse play.” In many ways, Cheran likens paa nadakum to another popular style of poetry, which may be why so many youth connect with the play. “In a sense it is very similar to spoken word poetry, which is largely performed in this part of the world,” he says, when describing paa nadakum’s style, delivery, and storytelling aspects. And director Dushy Gnanapragasm adds, there is another key reason why Cheran’s writing is so impactful and effective. “His poems were written at that time that things were ac-
tually happening,” he says. “There’s no way of re-creating the intensity and power of those poems, because they were written at that moment in time when everything was happening [back home].” First mounted last year, the play has enjoyed success both here in Toronto and across the border. Touring to New York, Illinois, and New Jersey, the group has interacted with many different audiences and share the stories of the Tamil community more widely. From these opportunities, Gnanapragasm says they’ve received very helpful reactions. “Depending on who the audience members were, we’ve had a lot of different questions posed at us,” he explains. And for them, the feedback supports the continued development of the play. Moving forward, the group
(Dushy Gnanapragasam) hopes to continue to showcase the play and introduce it to new audiences. But as the play develops, there is one thing that Gnanapragasm says will remain constant: their message. Making no mistake about the intent of the group, he says, “We are trying to do political theatre. We all understand and accept that this is political work through art.”
Dead Prez play in Toronto, talk to BASICS « Austerity and labour, from PG. 3
Dead Prez’s Stic Man (left) with BASICS writer Shafiqullah Aziz.
Shafiqullah Aziz On October 28, the revolutionary hip hop group, Dead Prez, brought the house down at the Great Hall in Toronto. It was the first time since 1996 that both M-1 and Stic Man had performed together in Toronto. They have been going strong for more than a decade now, with two commercially released albums and four mixtapes available for free to download at deadprez.com. Local Toronto rap collective, Freedom Writers, opened with some conscious and revolutionary tracks. Next up, Dead Prez, support-
ed by DJ/MC Mike Flow, took the house over; starting with “Turn Off the Radio.” What’s on the radio, propaganda, mind control And turnin’ it on is like puttin’ on a blindfold ’Cause when you bringin’ the real you don’t get rotation Unless you take over the station Near the end of the show, the crowd exploded when Dead Prez dropped their classic “Hip Hop.” You would rather have a Lexus or justice A dream or some substance A Beamer, a necklace or freedom! During their set, Dead Prez briefly interrupted the music for a segment of “hood news,” where
they spoke about the police murder of Oscar Grant in California and the lack of justice. BASICS caught up with M-1 and Stic Man before the show to discuss the importance of having a people’s media. “The [mainstream] media is not unbiased or innocent... it has been a weapon, a strategy that has been enamoured by the US government,” said M-1. As working class people we need to understand that media propaganda has been used effectively by the state, in conjunction with major media corporations, to keep our people complacent in their oppression. >> continued, pg. 3
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cussions did not result in any substantive response from the government to our proposals about better ways to improve and protect public services.” It may not have dawned on the brain trust of that labour organization that the Ontario Liberals were quite familiar with the required mix of government spending, taxation and interest rate and money supply manipulation to move the economy in the desired direction. Evidence of how conventional CUPE Ontario’s alternative plan was may be gleaned from the manner in which its recommendation on the taxing certain levels of income dovetails with the anti-taxation message of the right. In the presentation to the emergency meeting of its affiliated locals in August 2010, CUPE Ontario’s leadership pandered to the political right’s aversion to the taxation of income with the following statement: “High income earner taxes: new top bracket for $130K plus.” Based on 2004 tax data, only 5 per cent of Canadians earned $89,000 and above so why is CUPE Ontario proposing such a high tax threshold? Could it be that labour leaders and some workers are now earning over $100,000 and are just interested in having others pay any tax increase? It may not be clear to some labour organizations that a decent social wage through access to universal social programmes is very much dependent on taxation. An anti-taxation mindset is not in the best interest of the working-class whose access to generous levels of unemploy-
ment benefits, public transportation, publicly-funded and operated childcare facilities, public education, a public pension plan and a whole host of public services is only possible when businesses and the general citizenry contribute to the tax base. Our fight as workers and residents of Ontario against the wage-freeze, attacks on the special diet programme, rollback of spending on Metrolinx transportation programme and billions of dollars in tax cut to the business sector will not be won through Keynesian-inspired fancy power-point presentations to the Ontario Liberals. It will be won through consistent economic and political education (from a working-class perspective) of public sectors workers and the broader working-class in this province. It will be won through abandoning the bread-and-butter trade unionism that saw most of Ontario’s public sector unions obsessively focused on the proposed wage-freeze and not the array of policy proposals in the March 2010 budget that assaulted the economic interest of the working-class. It will be won by working in principled alliances with social movement groups to mobilize and self-organize the workingclass to challenge the government in the streets and all available political spaces. Sucking up to the Ontario Liberals and trying to appear reasonable will not win the struggle for economic justice. Ajamu Nangwaya is a trade union activist, member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and former vicepresident of CUPE Ontario.