September 1, 2010, carnegie newsletter

NEWSLETTER 401 Main Street, Vancouver. V6A 2T7 (604)665-2289 [Index)

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''.The .way I see it, once you start treating them as human beings, you've had it."

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~i . pQQRJUDICE, KEEPS WELFARERS GROUNDED 'W h at purpose is served by L ibera l government' s ins isten ce th a t welfare recipients pa y full fare fo r tra nsit - as mu ch as one q ua r ter of th eir cheq ue fo r some?

In the past 20 to 30 years great strides have been made fighting racism, homophobia and prejudice against the physically disabled, among others. Some groups, however, have made no progress in public understanding and empathy. These include d rug users, sex workers and the poor- certain types of poor in particular.

Let me rephrase that - there is enduring antipathy for poor drug users and poor sex workers. Even among some social outcast groups, having money can almost earn total redemption in public opinion.

Extremely beautiful women who are "high classescorts" arc almost fas hionable and widely admired.

Rock star Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones has been a heavy heroin and cocai ne user fo r decades, but because of his fame/fort une he gets to be featured in full page ads for luxury brand Louis Vuitton.

But not having mo ney is inexcusable. Being out of pocket is out o f line, and whil e this is nothi ng new, it's actually getting worse. I call it "poorjudice" to make the point.

O ne o f the reasons the first three groups have made progress is because being an ethnic minority, ho mosexual or physically d isabled is natural born, and thus unavoidable. But most people blame the poor for

their lot. Our weak characters, lack of self-discipline and irresponsibility have led to our sorry fate - and having made our beds, they sho uld lie in them and not ask for "handouts" from those who have made self sacrifices to avoid that end.

In time 1 am almost certain that the heavy consumption of natural resources by the affluent and, conversely, the far lighter carbon footprint of the nonaffluent, including people who choose voluntary sim plicity, wi ll play a key ro le in correcting this monstrously misguided and unfair distribution of social esteem. But that is in the future.

Of all classes o f poorj udice, dislike of welfare recipients ranks right up there, a step do"':n from revu lsion for crack dealers. When any party m government wants a boost in the polls, it can pretty much rely on being tougher on crime and harder on welfare recipients. NDP premier Mike llarcourt could not resist, calling us "deadbeats and varmints'路 and th~ Campbell Liberals have outdone themselves - ?omg further in their welfare thrott ling than even thctr ultra-right mentors of the Fraser Institute recommend.

Th is deeply entrenched hosti lity might be e~C:d a tiny bit if it was well known that welfare rec1p1ents Expected To W ork (ETW- of whom I am one) m ust check in with a case coordinato r every week, showing evidence of attempting to find work, or else we arc cut off. l was cut o ff welfare once because my case coordinator was so busy she cancelled two appointments in a row, and as a result the system showed 1 had not complied. It was soon corrected, but it j ust goes to show that welfa re recipients do have our feet very firm ly held to the fire.

Anyone who thinks people voluntarily opt to live on $6 10 monthly is misguided. The percentage of fo lk who make welfare a lifestyle choice must be tiny.

Under the BC Liberal Party legislation, welfare recipients cannot earn a single dollar without it being taken off the monthly allowance.

In my own year on welfare I have already racked up debt of thousands of dollars to friends and family paying my own way to study for an extremely difficult qualification that got me off welfare for three

months but did not lead to long-term employment. I am now preparing to undertake more study, of a year or more, to qualify for yet another new career - one that almost guarantees me full-time work for theremaining I 5 to 20 years of my working life. I never want to be on welfare again.

For the record, I ended up on welfare because I got so sick I could no longer work, in a country where I had no medical insurance - Vietnam. That little oversight cost a fair penny I can assure you. Once I recovered I could not find work in an economy where every job in my field is contested by 200 applicants.

Then I gambled my life sav ings on a business that did not work out. as indeed the vast majority of new businesses do not. I mention this as it is helpful to know why some people end up on welfare, which is only temporary. before concluding they are lazy, irresponsible slackers.

Surely as a Canadian citizen and BC registered voter I am entitled. as we all are, to my one 4.5 millionth share of the natural bounty and common wealth invested in the infrastructure of this prosperous province no?

Do you know how many ETW welfarers there are now in BC? About 33,000. That is 0.73% of the province's 4.5 million population. The unemployment rate is 7.5 percent, so fewer than one in I 0 people out of work arc on welfare- the rest are on Employment Insurance, disabled or living on savings.

On average BC welfare recipients get $550 a month each- as people in couples get less than the $6 10 for singles. This is a cost of about $18 million a month to the BC economy, which is about 0.13 percent of the

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province's monthly GOP of 14 billion. So all of the::> hullabaloo and crying blue murder is over one-tenth of one percent- meaning it can be covered by a tiny miniscule fraction of the income that comes from our common heritage, such as forests or fisheries, mining or tourism.

Yes, society does owe everyone a living. If nobody did any work and we had robots to harvest our resources. sustainably, and we doled out the proceeds exactly equally, do you think we' d each get more than $20 a day? Probably I 00 times that.

Oh, by the way in that profligate socialist paradise of Australia welfare recipients get just over $1,000 a month, in New Zealand $750 and even in Britain it is far more generous. BC has one of the most punitive welfare regimes of any OECD country, comparable with the USA and even harsher in some key respects.

The aspect of life on welfare that bothers me most is the current government's insistence that we ETWs pay the same as everyone else to travel on buses and the SkyTrain. For me this would be $81 monthly for a one-zone pass in Metro Vancouver. Pity poor Surreyites or Coquitlam residents needing to travel into downtown Vancouver for job interviews. For them the monthly cost of travel is $155 - about a quarter

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of their tota ¡ s fares arc the highest in Canada by the way, and among the highest anywhere.

We ETWs get a few bus tickets doled out to us by our magnanimous case coordinators, but at most about 20 a month. This is obviously too little for all the traveling that a normal person undertakes.

Even if you feel that life on welfare should be un-

bearably uncomfortable, to ensure that we ETWs find untapped reserves of motivation to get off it, I challenge you to make a case for limiting our mobil ity on public transportation. It is this kind of unnecessary and excessive suffering on behalf of us poor dole bludgers that I protest - it is meanness just for the sake of appeasing unfai r dislike and poorj udice against welfarers.

If we could ride transit free or for a fair fare, say about five percent of our income (average for BC workers) which is $30 a month or $ 1 a day, do you imagine that we would abuse the system? Would we ride the buses and SkyTrain train up and dovm all day just for the sheer exhilaration of it? Would this special treatment prompt more people to leave their jobs frivolously because on welfare they could get a big break on bus fare? Oh please.

Only people classified as disabled or PPMB - Persons with Persistent Multiple Barriers, can get $45 annual passes.

Together with a number of other activists I am planning a civil disobedience campaign to bring attention to this injustice and to force the government's hand. Called Don' t Move BC, the campaign will consist of welfare recipients and supporters taking transit and refusing to pay the fare. When security is called, the idea is to refuse to pay or leave, and to passively resist arrest if it comes.

The disruption to the transit system will be so severe it will draw corporate media attention (and condemnation no doubt) but widespread public support once the particulars are made clear. I low Mr Campbell's government responds will be most instructive.

This is not damaging property remember, or hurting anyone, j ust jamming an aspect of the system that is punitive, discriminatory and counter-productive.

Look out for notices of the campaign when we are ready, and there' ll be a Facebook page titled "Don't Move BC." We hope you get on board.

By Dave

News fTOtn -the Library New Books Those crazy rock stars. A few new books uncover the lives and music of some musical icons. Did you know that Karen Carpenter was a frustrated drummer? Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter (92 1 CAR), by Randy L Schmidt, tells the stor) of the mellow voice and troubled life of the singer who died aged 32. In Just Kids (921 SMI), Pat1y Smith writes the story of the summer of 1969 in Nev. York City, where she and Robert Mapplethorpe visited the court of Andy Warhol, set up camp at the Hotel Chelsea, and immersed themselves in the worlds of poetry, counterculture, rock and roll, art and sexual pol it ics. 1 Slept with Joey Ramone (92 1 RAM) IS the story of the icon ic punk legend by his brother, Mickey Leigh. An intimate look at the life of Joey Ramone? A man cashing in on his brother's fame and notoriety? A book about Joey Ramone, or a book about Mickey Leigh? Read it and decide for yourse lf.

Love them or hate them, the Idiot 's Guide series are immensely popular. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creative Writing , by Laurie E Rozakis (808.02) contains writing tips and techniques, advice on agents and publishers, and advice on how to find your writing niche.

We've also got a few new self-help books. Boundaries: Wh ere You End and I Begin , by Anne Katherine (302) talks about how boundaries protect our well-being and define us as unique and individual.

Fear and Other Uninvited Guests ( 152.46) is llarriet Lerner's look at how unhappiness is fuelled by three key emotions: anxiety, fear, and shame. I' m always a bit sceptical of books that claim to have fou nd "~he" cure to mental illness or addiction. Oli vier Ame1sen, a cardiologist and acute alcoholic, claims that a muscle relaxant is the one-way ticket out of alcohol cravings. Read more in The End of My Addiction (6 16.86). Also on the addiction theme is Freedom from Addiction , a book by Deepak Chopra an_d Chopra Center founder David Simon (362.29~. _W1th a mix of Western research and Eastern trad1t1ons, they claim to '"give anyone the tools to uncover the true cause of their addiction and provide comprehensive steps to end it for good."

All of these books are in the library display case. and will be avai lable to request on Wednesday, September 1.

Beth, your librarian

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Change in Timing of C~feteria Price Increases

NOTICE OF NEW PRICES at the Carnegie Concession

Starting Wednesday, May

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ote: Volunteer ticket values will be increased to .40 cents effective this date.

Beverages: • Coffee • Juice • Tea Milk • Soy Drink Sandwich

.50 or l volunteer ticket

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Oatmeal Cereal Toast Muffin Cookie Cake/Pie Fruit Crisp Scone Fruit Yogurt Pop Eggs Pizza Burrito Hamburger Breakfast Lunch Dinner Soup Fruit Salad Potato Salad Chili I Stew

1.00 or 2 volunteer tickets .55 .80 .35 .50 .40 .80 .80 .80 .40 .85 .95 .25 1.00 1.00 1.25 1.75 1.75 3.00 .75 .75 .75 1.35

If you have questions or comments, please speak to Catriona or Dan.

Thank you for your patronage.

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Dear Camegie and Community members, After some reOection on our part and input from Carnegie members we have decided to delay the in· creases in Cafeteria prices to Sept. 22. The staff of the Carnegie Centre are aware that the additional cost of food at the Carnegie Centre wi II have a major effect on the budget of some residents and members .

Delaying to Sept. 22 gives people a chance to plan for this increase by making whatever changes are possible to their budget. We regret that we can no longer support the old pri ces but must make this change if the cafeteria is going to continue to be viable .

Thank you all for your understanding and patience.

Sincerely,

Ethel Whitty Director Carnegie Community Centre 401 Main Street Vancouver, V6A 2T7 phone: 604 665 3301 email: ethel.whitttl®vancouver.ca

GOING HOME Gradually or suddenly, things change and Why? gets asked. Ask anyone you wish: what's the deal? Everyone has a story, whether good or bad, and changes are taking place in all of our lives realising distances, new boundaries and fateful destinies.

Oh the wonder of it all; to be newly enthralled, entranced, with no warning or advance notice- maybe just a bright premonition or a dark foreboding- and whatever way it breaks we have to deal with it, no denial, no distress, never fear the worst only hope for the best with no time wasted on hazard ing a guess.

Love is the answer, sharing and sacri fice, knowing whom to turn to with mind a mess clothes in tatters keep the faith don't give up 'cause you're so precious ... ain't that enough?!

Roll with the punches, soft or hard; goodness matters and above all else bro.thers & sisters just be yourself.

Imagine worlds afar, an endless uni verse, where in the end we're just dust scattered back to mother earth to oceans and nature. Spirits rise up to the heavens when ours go home to where they belong. Breathe!

ROBYN LIVINGSTONE

Community Voice Mail Gets You Connected ... For FREE! Have a Goal in Mind? Take a Number!

How do you get a job without a phone? A place to live? Safety from domestic abuse? You don't.

Access to a telephone is a basic survival tool. .. and one we oflen don't think o f. Lu'ma Native Housing Society is proud to coordinate a remarkable program that has been changing lives and connecting homeless and/or phoneless people elsewhere for almost 20 years.

Comm unity Voice Mail (CYM) is a simple and effective solution to a complex problem - how to help people in crisis and transition stay connected to the very tool they need most: a constant, reliable telephone number.

The roll-out for this program started in February 20 I 0 when 30 service providers of housing, employment, healthcare and social services in and around the DTES began receiving their banks of DID (directinward-dial) phone numbers with personal voice greeting and voice mail. These numbers are passed on to clients by the people who help them ... helping them identify and achieve goals (health care, social services, fami ly contact, employment, housing etc.).

CYM has some unique features: "Broadcast messaging" allows an organi zation to send out important info to all clients using CYM at once; "Email notification" lets a client know via emai l if there is a voice路 message waiting in their box and "Re-set by phone" allows a case worker to recycle an unused CYM number on to a c lient who will usc it.

DERA 's Call'n'Post has recently been rebranded "Lifeline Yoiccmail" and is a low-cost way for someone to stay connected. Lifeline Voiccma il is provided at a nominal cost of $3/month to users. There is no need to be in a crisis. Sometimes these arc sold to relevant charities/non-profits who then give them to clients in need for free.

CYM is meant for people in crisis with a goal in mind, so yes, ALL are required to fill out the "Intake Form" (the name on the form can be Mickey Mouse .... what I need is to collect data which proves

these numbers are for our most vulnerable and "at risk" citizens--85% of CYM clients are homeless, living in a shelter or transitional housing--the average monthly income for all is $676/month while 9% report "no financial resources" whatsoever. This data that is collected is shared with ALL CYM Partner Agencies to help them better understand their clientbase, and help them make cases for future funding too! It's by the community, for the community.

Interested? The following places offer FREE CYM numbers to clients with goals who need them:

ACCESS ATIRA Women's Resource Society BCPWA Broadway Youth Resource Centre Coast Mental Health Downtown Community Courts Elizabeth Fry Society First United Church Helping Spirit Lodge John Howard Society London Hotel newSTART Bridging Employment Program for Women PACE Pathways Information Centre PEERS Pivot Legal Society Positive Outlook Program (POP) Raincity Housing Sheway The Lookout Emergency Aid Society Urban Youth Project VACFSS Vancouver Aboriginal Transformative Justice Services Vancouver Coastal Health Pender Clinic Vancouver Coastal Health Housing First Placement Team Vancouver Coastal Health Clinical Support Team Vancouver Native Health Society Vivian House Wish Drop-in Centre YWCA Career Zone There are 4 things that make this program accessible and successful: I) it is provided to the people who need it by the people that help them--whether you're fleeing abuse and talking to a counsellor at A Tl RA, or looking for a job at Pathways ... your caseworker provides it at a crucial time of need. 2) there is no "Poverty Stigma" attached to using CYM

- the number looks like any local number and the greeting is the client's own voice; so the person calling you has no idea if you are in crisis or transition ... especially vital for job-seekers. 3) "Broadcast Messaging" allows everyone using CVM to be reached in one call with important communitybuilding news, opportunities and health/weather alerts. 4) it's FREE. Lu'ma Native Housing Society is proud to "build bridges" in Vancouver's Community of Caring- providing CVM to organizations for free who care about our most impoverished citizens, regardless of ancestry. It would be nice if at least this point were made when you run the article. Aboriginals still make up a disproportionate number of Vancouver's homeless (30-40%), and I think it's encouraging for people to know we're tackling the issue as a community. I am regularly gratified to hear about people who've been estranged from fa111i ly for years, using CVM to get in touch and re-connect...can you even imagine the value of this? Check out www.cvm.org if you want to learn more.

James Foster Community Voice Mail @ Lu'ma Native Housing Society 604-876-08 11 ext 232

Siberi a Was a Start Like 492 people jumping the queue or 20 I " -degree murder charges stayed & all in one day, now that you know how it's done the Canadian way how can you j ust stand there when tomorrow's yesterday already here what have you to say?! Like the new skystain being the International Space Station's next stop... severe isolation but a good place for slumber when bad路guys start laying the lumber- get their number but remember I can run faster scared than you can

mad so put your pitiful goodbye note in the shredder/ & let's find one better as I pull another from my bag. 路 I'm learning new meanings of things as I move my life & sanity 76 blocks away was it Jesus who created 3000 new cars then gave them all away? as thes ever-increasing immortal speedsters some aimed at the stars driving has never been my scene that's just me, now that you are that star (at least for today) all newspapers parading your picture (Before, definitely not after) same with no laughter but you' re on every 40-foot screen what a scream .. you are a celebrity yet your lights are quite dim .. I'll leave out any war 'cause I've written off more than !路can chew ..in the past month I've seen over a dozen of my pens die; now a lot of my shirtpockets have their own Minnesota Rohrshach test but thank you so much for staining in touch. Honestly and contentiously I've served my interpretation of time - a time-honoured tradition - Guzzleaholics don't fret it's not another Prohibition it's worse this eerie invention from mankind, from sundials to brain tumour machines with all the accessories encrusted between at least their hand isn't nailed to the side of their face all the time; the dormant doonnan has watches up his sleeve on the hour of every hour like proper Egyptian pyramid schemes give anything to anyone at any time & some are born to be deceived straight from the start but this must be stopped.

PhDs on your wall are good for covering up domestic abuse (When asked: it's all your fault!)

Siberia has so many secrets but so little time guzzle back that Martini as I've added a little Iyme and just a dash of lemon-fl avoured Pledge why I could get the pope himself on top of hi s celestial ledge (doG Damn those Vatican gardeners with their rosebush hedges)) I span the map with choked eyes & once again there isn' t a single surprise: Africa is about to join the Billion +country c lub, China & India have already arrived so savour that tiny bit it may be all you're gonna git, moving is like fate: just when you think you've found yourself there you are with the good hands people "ALLSTATE" is there in d' middle of d' road at times like this you'll never be late - like walking into a paint store and urinating on their white wall 'n exclaiming "That's great! That's the colour for me!!

I'll take a gallon or three!! !" always the subtle touch is fate.

By ROBERT McGrLLIVRA Y

Tho\.4 Shalt N ot Rat Ol1 Th'i N~i$hbot4r It does not help you when others get investigated or charged with fraud: it actually hanns you by giving the go\'ernment more ammunition to do such things as cut benefits and fingerprint those receiving social assistance. All the research and studies have shovm fraud to be about 3%. Tax fraud, on the other hand. is around 25%. Breaking the welfa re " rules" usually means the person is trying to provide a little more for their family--they a rc not "vacationing in the Bahamas· witl1 any additional money. We a rc not suggesting it is a good idea to "break'' the rules . We are suggesting to you that. instead of calling the fraud line on your neighbours, family or friends, that you talk to tl1em to convince them that what they arc doing could land them in jail. It would be to your benefit instead to help them find oilier ways of coping with tl1cir poverty.

Tho'-4 Sha lt Not Cov~t Th'i N~i$hbot4rs' Mat~nal Poss~ssiot-ts People will sometimes call the fraud line because a neighbour has acquired new possessions or ilicir children get new bicycles. We know it is a difficult struggle to survive with such an inadequate income, we know it is difficu lt to sec otl1er people's children with tile "coor · toys while having a hard time even feeding your own.

The real villains, tl10ugh, are not your neighbours who might have more possessions ilian you: they are the corporate elite who take mi ll ions of dollars a year out of our economy in personal profit.

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Too often people will say, ' Tm on welfare, but I'm not one of those lazy welfare bums. I want to get a job and get off tl1e system.'' Of course you do! You know what it· s like to survive on assistance. Can you honestly believe tl1at anyone enjoys dealing with the welfare system: having their personal business open to a stranger: having no money by the middle of the monili to buy tile most basic necessities? The vast majority of people receiving welfare want employment with an adequate wage so tl1ey can eat well all month, pay the bills on time. and buy those "extras" for thei r kids like Christmas and birthday presents. Those who want to oppress us. those corporate elite witl1 tile millions. have us fighting amongst ourselves, blaming each oilier for our situation instead offocusing on the inequity that they have created for their O\'v11 financial gain.

Tho\.4 Shalt Not Dlaf11~

Th'is~lf For

Th'i £cot10J11ic Siruatiot-t

Adequately paying jobs do not exist. That is not your fault . We may hear that we have come out of tile recession as we did in the ·go·s. HO\\ Cver. it was, again. a jobless recovery. This means that technology, such as automation, has rep laced tl1e need for workers . Tllis also means that big business makes more profit, as their labou r costs arc reduced due to the competition for fewer jobs.

Thou Shalt Seek Kt1owlet>se Of Th'i Rishts Too man~ times people are not receiving assistance they should be eligible to receive. or don't kno\\ of add1tional benefits they may be entitled to_Additionally. people survive within this system without actually kno\\ ing what the rules arc. It is difficult to access infom1ation about your rights and sometimes even harder to understand them, but do some research and ask questions.

Thou Shalt Speak Out A5ait1st Those Who Ovvress Others As" ith any fight for social justice, it is important to speak out and have your voice heard . Do not let a situation go b) where the oppressor's , -oicc is heard but not your 0\\11 _

Thou Shalt Vt1iot1ise If f'orcet> To Participate lt1 Workfare People ''ho are forced to participate in a workfare program should Unionisc. Organising a collective provides the tool to ensu re )OU have a \-Oicc and some power to resist the violation of your human rights_ lfthe

\ ( municipality forces you to work for minimum wages that equal the amount of your assistance. they become your employer. You should demand the same employment standards and Health & Safety protections that arc legal rights of all workers in Canada.

Thou Shalt Dr5at1isc With Others To Resist Those Who Seck To OptWcss There is power in numbers_Only with the collective masses of people who a re stereotyped, blan1ed, and kept in poverty fighting back wi ll change occur and social justice be reached.

Thou Shalt Not Kt1ed. Thou Shalt Appeal The social assistance system is complicated and confusing. Many of the ..rules" do not have specific definitions __ they are most often 路open to interpretation.' If your benefits have been denied_ cancelled, suspended or reduced you have the right to appeal. Use that right.

Thou Shalt Keep All Ori5it1al Documet1ts Set1t>it15 Dl11'i Copies To Th'i W orkcr Each welfare office has over 12,000 active files . Family Benefits has about tl1c same_ All these people are sending information into these offices. and of course some of these pieces of paper are going to be lost or misplaced. ever send an original. If it gets lost it is your responsibility to replace it This can often mean your benefits are delayed _ -Produced by People for Economic Justice

W ho knows who I am?

Not wrapped in belief in a mosque nor caught in anyone' s rituals not someone pure amongst the impure

HUM 101 DOCUMENTARIES

neither Moses

Sept. - Oct. 2010 Carnegie Theatre Saturdays at 6:00

nor Pharaoh

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Bullah?

Zero 9-11 and Loose Change -Some DVD's and Bumper stickers for door prizes.

Sept 18 Dying to Have KnoiVn and Food Matters as well as A question of Eligibility (Each 80 Minutes.)

Seot25 Mac Libel (85 Min) and Tobacco Conspiracy (80 Min)

Oct9 CIA Part I (2Y, hours) and In Debt We Trust (1 hour).

Oct 16 CIA Part II (2Y, hours) & Death in th e Bunker? (2hr) Oct23 Beautiful Truth (92 Min) and Dirt (87 Min) Oct30 638 Ways to Kill Castro (History of Attempts on his life) (2hr) and Martha INC. (1Y, hours)

Who knows who I am?

Bullah Shah -Sufi poet

Life is Real Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes or something they did, know, failed. You might be disappointed if you fail, but you're doomed if you don't try again. Not everything we face can be changed but nothing can be changed until it's faced.

So be like a postage stamp and stick to one thing that you love or like until you get it.

R.ll.

THURSDAYS \"/RlTlNG. COLLÂŁCTLYE. On Thursday, September 16 creati ve writing classes with Thursdays Writing Collective start up for the fall. Join Elee Kraljii Gardiner and Anne Hopkinson every Thursday from 2-4 pm in the third flood classroom in the Carnegie Centre for writing prompts and discussion. This fall we will discuss revision and experiment with diffe rent ways of pushing our work past the first draft. Please check our website for info on our schedule of visits from writers Fiona Lam. Cathleen With, George McWhirter and Michael Turner.

Class runs until December 9 when we break for winter. Classes are free and everyone is welcome. www.thursdays poemsandprose.ca

Without fear young one Without hate young one Without ignorance young one Without pain young one Without extreme behaviour young one, Without running young one Without faith and selfless love you have a hole in your heart and it aches for luscious waters ever pouring fo rth -Nora Rickman

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THE MYTH OF A ClASSLESS SOC IHY The myth that Canada is a classless society helps to make working class people invisible. It also helps to make the very richest Canadians invi sible - the Canadian Establi shment- the richest one percent of Canadians who own 25% of the wealth of Canada, as compared to the poorest twenty percent of Canadians who own minus 0.3 percent of wealth. Establishment writer Peter Newman says that the economy of Canada is controlled by a junta of I 000 business barons.

The myth that Canada is a classless society helps to maintain the illusion that equality o f opportunity exists in our country. There is as much equality of opportunity in Canada as there is compassion in a transnational boardroom, because laisez-faire (free enterprise) economics has no place for

human values .

The myth that Canada is a classless society also makes it difficult for poor unemployed people and working people to join together to act on their own behalf. Their interest in a decent life and the employers' interest in maximum profit are not the same, Ordinary Canadians are citizens who do not own the factories, financia l institutions, media, and so on. If they are lucky enough to have a job in these times of high unemployment, they work for an hourly wage or a modest salary. Today they are frightened. The bills keep coming, and the decent jobs and wages keep diminishing. Ftightened families mean angry people, but because Canadians have so little sense of class conflict (between the owners of Canada and the rest of us), this anger is directed at those below rather than those above. ln other words, although ordinary Canadians have become increasingly vulnerable, class consciousness has not increased. Instead of class anger we see racial anger, and random anger against the unempl oyed, people on welfare (many Canadians are only one job away from welfare), gays, immigrants, and women .

A central problem for working/middle class famili es today is government and an economy that long ago stopped working for all but the most privileged citizens. Take APEC for example. An international economic and political elite is forcing the global economy on the world 's people, and it has to use an anny of guns to make sure its conferences go smoothly.

In this global econom y, transnational corporations are constantly pitting working people against each other in a downward spiral of competitive impoverishment. That's what APEC is about - the rights of money over the human rights of citizens for which working p eople have fought for two hundred years.

By SANDY CAMERO with help from "Families On The Fault Line America 's Working Class Speaks Out A bout The Family, Th e Economy, Race, and Ethnicity," by Lillian Rubin, publi shed by Harper Collins, 1994.

Inequality, Democracy, & Class Warfare (Part 3)

By Rolf Auer Written out of respect for Sandra Pronteau, Adrienne Macallum, Phoenix Winter, Priscillia Tait, Stephen.Lytton and all the fine citizens of the Downtown Easts1de.

I was talking to Sandy Cameron about Pan 2 of this series. and he had these words of advice for me: "Always remember when writing: what is the organizing principle?" So, yes. I admit. that last article was like. in Sandy's words, trying to jam too many things into a suitcase.

So I'm keeping to one subject in this one: the law and class war. On the cover of Sandy's book (Taking Another Look At Class, avail able from the CCPA. 604-801-5 121, $3) is a photo of a mural that was painted by the famous Downtown Eastside social justice activist Bruce Eriksen in the 1970s, which features a quote from Anatole France. a French poet, journalist, and novelist from the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. It reads: "The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges to beg in the streets and to steal bread.''

In his chapter titled "The Law and Class War'' in his book (p.22), Sandy goes into much detail about how the poor are betrayed over and over again by the law, and by government policies which virtually forces them to break it in order to survive (such as abysmally low income assistance rates, for example).

According to a statistic in this chapter, Canada (as of 1999) had the fourth highest incarceration rate in the western world, at 130 inmates per I00,000 population, behind the US, Russia, and South Africa.

That's class war, too.

And what of BC? What we do know is that 4 percent of BC's population is Aboriginal, while 20 percent of its prison population is Aboriginal. That's also class war (as well as cultural war, as Sandy pointed out to me.) I pulled that stat off the 'Net from Prison Justice Day. I also found this article in The Province on August 17,2010 by Janice Tibbetts, "FAS 'a huge problem' in jails." telling how both federally and provincially, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome sufferers shouldn't be held responsible in the same way as other prisoners because of their affliction.

And yet at the beginning of August, we have Con-

servati ve MP Stockwell Day publicly announcing Canada is going to spend $13 billion building more prisons, based purely on an unsubstantiated claim that "more and more often, crimes are going unreported.'' StatsCan quickly shot that down: "StatsCan refutes minister over crime numbers;路 Mike De Souza, Vancouver Sun, August 4, 2010, wherein the agency takes Day to task for using numbers of theirs incorrectly.

I lUGE class war! Think of all the daycares, social programs, national social housing that money could fund. Who are they building these prisons for? Not the well off, that's for sure. That's the irony of France's quote at the beginning of this article.

I'm reminded of this also famous quote by a Downtown Eastside old-timer sometime after Expo '86:

STRALEN

路路someday, they're going to come in here with a . bunch of army trucks and ship us all out to the slicks like POWS!'' Like I said, it's not the well off (who' ll be shipped out), that's for sure.

"Never doubt that a small group of thou ghtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.'"' -Marg~eiMeadc

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··i have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, dignity, equafrty and justi:e for their spirits. 1believe that what self-centred men have tom down, other-centred men can build up."

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The Mind is a Haunted Clinic When fearing that this city might become a desolate, unpopulated museum of what we believed we owned, when we populated it. that this city might become a museum as l step out into its frenzied, litigious morning, and that the little bit of it I know, which has become, I have to admit, a sort of visually unstable representation of what is developing everywhere in the world, since what I know of the rest of the world must find its embodiment here, if it is to have anything more than a dreary, conjectural relevance to me. or perhaps because I know of such occurrences all over the world, it is impossible not to see their

relevance to what's occurring here, impossible for what is here not to resonate with what happens elsewhere, I recall, or try to recall, that which is unlegislated. unlitigious, and unschematic, indescribable Little moments or action over which the druly haste, waste and whatnot flows, like a river over stones. ("A mind is like a leaf fallen into the river," I think.)

Palimpsest place, thjs, both in time (as when the forest wavers among the buildings downtown momentarily on a late afternoon) and place (as when the city in which I lived 30 years suddenly appears beyond the window and suddenly disappears when Tcross the room for a better look) (or when., a couple afternoons into October, this

architectural monstrosity, this institutionalized criminality called Vancouver, on the west coast of this riiliculous. downward-looking so-called country Canada, which is ARONE spelled bloodwise. where crazed, existence-despising acquisitors praise the art of murdered (by them and their sort) cultures. while pissing on real live representatives of such cultures, representatives whose existence is an affront to the acqillsitors theoretical prruse of dead, theoretical (to them) cultures, where to fuck up in the sleaziest way or to act with the utmost incompetence is to earn a prime ministership, this self-righteously imbecilic country in which facts are the most nightmarish horror of all, the facts of its arms trade, its support of fascist regimes wherever they are found, its grotesquely brutal and ilishonest hatred of the poor, its constipated and inanely rosy view of itself, its gross negligence toward its people, this Canada, which is ARONE spelled blood-wise. where the so-called activists are either middleclass, theory-addled and snjde, or barely sentient, incoherent thugs (birkenstocks or billyclubs), and the real activists slave away thanklessly for nothing, or next to nothing, without recognition and without getting credit for anything, except rarely, without any coverage in those bloodsmeared rags of hatred and cynicism and corporate boot-Licking, those worthless wastes of resources and energy, newspapers, which long ago became storm-troopers for the drug-dealing. weaponsrunning governments of this world, newspapers falling over themselves to be the first to get behind the latest austerity measure, tbe latest backwards, reactionary, almost always deadly policy that the increasingly fascistic governments of the world, Canada among the leaders ofth.is reactionary movement, implement, becomes Dunhuang, at the eastern edge of the Takla Makan desert. which is about as far away from here as anyone can go in this world). ("This haunted clinic," I think.)

Dan Feeney

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