Praxis Politics News Feed Vol. 1.

Praxis Politics Presents

News Feed Volume 1 | October 2011

Contents 2. Declaration of the Occupation of New York City 3. An Open Letter to the Occupy Wall Street Activist 4. #OccupyTogether in the age of conspiracy 5. G20 conspiracy prosecution and the criminalisation of mass organising.

6. Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world 7. Report back on Foodstock: Protect the land that feeds us 8. Right to Protest

9. Self-Care for Activists: Sustaining Your Most Valuable Resource 10. FAQ: Rape Culture 101 11. Consent is Sexy 12. Five Falsehoods About 'Ethical Oil' 13. Can Oil Be Ethical?

14. Texas conservatives reject Harper's crime plan 15. (Un)Lawful Access 16. The Real Meaning of Halloween (Samhain)

About Praxis Politics: News Feed is a collection of articles that filtered through various social media feeds over the past month or so, or are articles relating to issues and trends that were present during this time.

Praxis is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, practised, embodied, or realized. "Praxis" may also refer to the act of engaging, applying, exercising, realizing, or practising ideas. Paulo Freire defines praxis in Pedagogy of the Oppressed as "reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it." Through praxis, people can acquire a critical awareness of their own condition, and, with their allies, struggle for liberation.

Printed in Occupied Haudenosaunee Territory, Grand River Watershed.

Comments, submissions, etc., welcomed: praxis.politics@gmail.com 1

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on September 29, 2011 http://www.nycga.net/resources/declaration/

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

  

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one‘s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.  They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.  They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.  They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.  They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.  They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers‘ healthcare and pay.  They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.  They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.  They have sold our privacy as a commodity.  They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.  They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.  They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.  They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.  They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.  They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people‘s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.  They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.  They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.  They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.  They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.  They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.  They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.* To the people of the world, We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard! *These grievances are not all-inclusive.

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An Open Letter to the Occupy Wall Street Activist:

By JohnPaul

Montano | October 03, 2011

http://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/decolonize-wall-street/

Thank you for your courage. Thank you for making an attempt to improve the situation in what is now called the United States.

Thank you for your commitment to peace and non-violence. Thank you for the sacrifices you are making. Thank you.

There‘s just one thing. I am not one of the 99 percent that you refer to. And, that saddens me. Please don‘t misunderstand me. I would like to be one of the 99 percent… but you‘ve chosen to exclude me. Perhaps it was unintentional, but, I‘ve been excluded by you. In fact, there are millions of us indigenous people who have been excluded from the Occupy Wall Street protest. Please know that I suspect that it was an unintentional exclusion on your part. That is why I‘m writing to you. I believe that you can make this right. (I hope you‘re still smiling.)

It seems that ever since we indigenous people have discovered Europeans and invited them to visit with us here on our land, we‘ve had to endure countless ‗-isms‘ and religions and programs and social engineering that would ―fix‖ us. Protestantism, Socialism, Communism, American Democracy, Christianity, Boarding Schools, Residential Schools,… well, you get the idea. And, it seems that these so-called enlightened strategies were nearly always enacted and implemented and pushed upon us without our consent. And, I‘ll assume that you‘re aware of how it turned out for us. Yes. Terribly.

Which brings me back to your mostly-inspiring Occupy Wall Street activities. On September 22nd, with great excitement, I eagerly read your ―one demand‖ statement. Hoping and believing that you enlightened folks fighting for justice and equality and an end to imperialism, etc., etc., would make mention of the fact that the very land upon which you are protesting does not belong to you – that you are guests upon that stolen indigenous land. I had hoped mention would be made of the indigenous nation whose land that is. I had hoped that you would address the centuries-long history that we indigenous peoples of this continent have endured being subject to the countless ‗-isms‘ of do-gooders claiming to be building a ―more just society,‖ a ―better world,‖ a ―land of freedom‖ on top of our indigenous societies, on our indigenous lands, while destroying and/or ignoring our ways of life.

I had hoped that you would acknowledge that, since you are settlers on indigenous land, you need and want our indigenous consent to your building anything on our land – never mind an entire society. See where I‘m going with this? I hope you‘re still smiling. We‘re still friends, so don‘t sweat it. I believe your hearts are in the right place. I know that this whole genocide and colonization thing causes all of us lots of confusion sometimes. It just seems to me that you‘re unknowingly doing the same thing to us that all the colonizers before you have done: you want to do stuff on our land without asking our permission.

But, fear not my friends. We indigenous people have a sense of humor. So, I thought I might make a few friendly suggestions which may help to ―fix‖ the pro-colonialism position in which you now (hopefully, unintentionally) find yourselves. (Please note my use of the word ―fix‖ in the previous sentence. That‘s an attempt at a joke. You can refer to the third paragraph if you‘d like an explanation.)

By the way, I‘m just one indigenous person. I represent no one except myself. I‘m acting alone in writing this letter. Perhaps none of my own Nishnaabe people will support me in having written this. Perhaps some will. I respect their opinions either way. I love my Nishnaabe people always. I am simply trying to do something good – same as all of you at the Occupy Wall Street protest in what is now called New York.

So, here goes. (You‘re still smiling, right?)

1) Acknowledge that the United States of America is a colonial country, a country of settlers, built upon the land of indigenous nations; and/or…

2) Demand immediate freedom for indigenous political prisoner Leonard Peltier; and/or…

3) Demand that the colonial government of the United States of America honor all treaties signed with all indigenous nations whose lands are now collectively referred to as the “United States of America”; and/or…

4) Make some kind of mention that you are indeed aware that you are settlers and that you are not intending to repeat the mistakes of all of the settler do-gooders that have come before you. In other words, that you are willing to obtain the consent of indigenous people before you do anything on indigenous land.

I hope you find this list useful. I eagerly await your response, my friends.

Miigwech! ( ~‖Thank you!‖ ) JohnPaul Montano http://twitter.com/jpmontano 3

#OccupyTogether in the age of conspiracy

By Syed Hussan | October 13, 2011 http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/hussan/2011/10/occupytogether-age-conspiracy

Let us speak truthfully about what many of you are about to enter in to -- a crime. You are deciding that your beliefs are more important then the law. And that when laws are unjust, they must be resisted.

Conspiracy charges are thought crime. I have lived in a state of limbo, without being able to work, without being able to leave my house alone for most of the last year, not for allegedly carrying out a criminal action but for allegedly thinking about one. Thinking, Hundreds of people are meeting in Toronto to talking, agreeing to do anything illegal is plan an unpermitted public action. Facebook illegal. and Twitter are abuzz. Money is being raised, tents gathered, and food being cooked. There And just to be clear, almost everything is are news stories every day. Activists are illegal. An unpermitted march and occupation, asked about a single, simple demand, and like #OccupyToronto, is illegal. Sleeping in a they refuse to answer. "Our dreams and public park in Toronto, past 11 p.m., is illegal. hopes are too many to fit in a single Standing on an intersection, interfering with soundbite." The police is on high alert. Bill the flow of traffic is illegal. Having open Blair, the Chief of Police, promises to protect general assemblies, trainings where illegal the protesters (from who?) but keeps talking actions are discussed are illegal. Indigenous about a crackdown against undefined people asserting control over their own lands "trouble-makers." Progressives and activists is illegal. And as we learned during the G20, argue about strategy and messaging, and with the secret powers of search and seizure, blog post after blog post appears that existed near the fence and than didn't condemning the organizing or cheering them. (the so-called G20 Fence Law), laws can be made and unmade at the whim of the 1 per cent.

No, this is not #OccupyToronto beginning on Oct 15. This is June 2010. A massive sevenday spectacle of resistance against the G20 In other words, the thousands of people who believe that one should not have to ask is about to begin. permission to protest, and are willing to join There are many similarities (and differences) online or in real-life planning sessions to make these unpermitted actions possible are between the anti-G20 protests, other antiengaging in a conspiracy. An open austerity actions and the upcoming conspiracy, but an illegal action nonetheless. #OccupyTogether actions. I am going to be This is not meant to elicit fear in the seasoned writing about them in the days to come.

But first, I want to write about the police, law and new activists gathering around the #OccupyToronto movement. It is to speak and our ideas of justice. #Occupy activists, truthfully about what many of you are about especially #OccupyToronto, this is for you. to enter in to -- a crime. You are deciding that your beliefs are more important then the law.

Well-known fact: Police forces from across And that when laws are unjust, they must be Canada descended on Toronto in a billionresisted. dollar debacle in June 2010, beat up, pepper sprayed, and assaulted hundreds, arresting 1,100 people. Charges against most You are deciding to break the law because were withdrawn and no police officer has yet you know that it is these laws that allow and celebrate the power of the 1 per cent over been convicted of these crimes. the rest of us. You are deciding to break the law, because so much of what you oppose is Less-known fact: Nearly 3 dozen activists, legal, so much of what you desire is illegal. community organizers, and others were You are breaking the law, because these laws charged with conspiracy. Though many have had their charges withdrawn, 17 are part of were made broken, made to break you. one conspiracy trial and a few others on #Occupy movements, the government and conspiracy trials by themselves. police are not your friends. Laws do not exist I am one of the 17. We were initially 20 co- to protect you, they exist to control you. The only thing that stops the police from attacking, defendants, but two had their conspiracy charges dropped, and one pleaded guilty to arresting and locking everyone up is the balance of social forces. If you are organized a lower charge. As an alleged conspirator, I and prepared to defend yourself, if there are am not allowed to participate or assisting in organizing public demonstrations. If I could, I thousands of people with you, and the public opinion to match, you may just stay free(er) would say all this to you in person, but for a day longer. If not, expect immense, attending a General Assembly has been made criminal for me. So this article is about instant repression.

Expect it and prepare for it. "you" and not "us."

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Prepare to go to jail.

Prepare to support those in jail.

Prepare to be unduly criticized in the media.

Prepare for the police to name ringleaders, even when you are a horizontal movement.

Prepare for the police to divide you. To tell you that some protest is good, and others are bad.

Prepare to be infiltrated by sociopaths, by police agents that will pretend to be your friends and lie to you.

Prepare to spend time in jail, or under onerous bail conditions for years even before going to trial.

Prepare for the police to offer you "deals" -either live under immense and unbearable bail conditions or plead guilty for a crime you may not have done.

Prepare for the immense legal costs that will occur, and know that sometimes you won't fight in court because you are simply too poor.

Prepare to face house arrest, hefty fines, to be banned from cities, to be separated from your friends Understand that though you may not have been harassed by police or immigration enforcement, many are every day.

Understand that, though the one time you called the police, and it worked for you, for many it never does. Understand that though cops are always the good guys on TV and in movies, they almost never are in real life.

Understand that the police and laws are part of a system that is anti-poor, anti-women, anti -people of colour, anti-queer, and antipeople with disabilities. Understand that to truly be free, to truly do what you are trying to do, which is resisting the laws that allow some to be rich and powerful and for the rest to live at their mercy, you must resist racism, sexism, classism, homophobia and disableism.

You must resist the very structure every one of these laws is based on -- you must resist colonialism.

Understand that to truly be free, to truly include the entire 99 per cent, you have to say today, and say every day: We will leave no one behind. We will leave no one in jail.

We will leave no one in the clutches of immigration enforcement. We will leave no one when they are strong. We will leave no one when they are weak. We will support the decisions people make, to do whatever they feel necessary to survive and to resist. We will support those that fight in the courts, and we will support those that fight in the streets.

G20 conspiracy prosecution and the criminalisation of mass organising.

By Alex Hundert | October 11, 2011 http://alexhundert.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/g20-conspiracy-prosecution-and-the-criminalisation-of-mass-organising/

LEGAL UPDATE (6:30PM): apparently the last round of redaction and edits didn’t cut it for the crown, [REDACTED-7PM]. hopefully this will be cleared up soon; my sincerest apologies. ******************************************* LEGAL UPDATE (1:30PM): This post was temporarily pulled from the internet. I have hesitantly made the edits necessary to make re-posting this possible. Thanks to everyone. [Edit, 7:30PM] *******************************************

There is tremendous amount of space already devoted to critiquing the tactics employed in these two very different actions—the marches and the accompanying black bloc tactics in Toronto, the staged arrests in Washington and Ottawa—but what I‘m interested in here is the organising and the threats posed to this kind of organising by the type of prosecution that the Ontario Crown Attorney‘s office is perpetrating against me and 16 others in the ―G20 Main Conspiracy Group Prosecution‖.

G20 Charges in Toronto, Tar Sands Arrests in Ottawa, and Occupy Wall Street

[REDACTED-7PM].

And there is more. In addition to the ―conspiracy‖ charges that all 17 of us have, I have an additional six counts of ―counselling‖ to commit various indictable offences. [REDACTED].

[REDACTED-7PM]. If this is enough for ―conspiracy‖ charges to stick to organisers, the future of protest organising is actually in jeopardy.

[REDACTED] And for the record, what we told people to expect was pretty much exactly what happened. Maybe they‘re just mad at us because we were right.

Conspiracy law is inherently confusing; that‘s part of the problem. In Canada, the current conspiracy laws exist on the books mostly for the purpose of prosecuting gangsters, such as mobs and biker gangs. However, occasionally, the state has tried to used these charges against activists; there was a case in Quebec after the 2001 FTAA summit in Quebec City, and another one right here in Ontario after the so-called ―OCAP riot‖ in the same year. Ten years later, they are trying again.

Most of the workshops that I am talking about here were nearly identical to the ―Direct Action 101‖ workshops that I and many others have been conducting for years with student groups, grassroots organisations, activist groups, NGOs, unions, etc. [Edited,October 11,1:30pm]. They are likely very similar, in fact, to the trainings that more than one thousand people received before the Washington actions and more than 200 before the Ottawa actions. I feel that I can safely make that assumption because several of the trainers/coordinators for these actions were some of the very same people who trained me.

On Monday September 26, more than 100 people were arrested when they engaged in an act of mass civil disobedience on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. They were there to protest against the Keystone XL pipeline, and to send this message to the Harper Government: The Alberta tarsands are environmentally destructive and socially irresponsible, and the extraction project there should be understood as ―ecocide‖.

Some reports indicate that as many as 1000+ people rallied in Ottawa to protest, listen to speeches, and to support almost 200 people who risked arrest.

The Ottawa action followed a prolonged action earlier last month in Washington, where, in a two week period, more than 1000 people were arrested out front of the White House, in an attempt to urge President Obama not to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline when he has the opportunity in November.

In the United States, conspiracy charges have been used similarly, however there they also get conflated with pseudo-fascistic domestic terrorism laws. The RNC 8 and the SHAC 7 are two examples of cases where counter-terrorism laws have been conflated with the application of Both of these actions were highly coordinated by conspiracy law against protest organisers. professional activists, with the backing of large NGOs including Greenpeace, 350.org, In Canada, the application of laws designed for Indigenous Environmental Network, and others. the Hell‘s Angels and the Mafia against political The arrestees in both actions included a number organisers and community activists is the same of celebrity activists. In both places, most of the type of dangerous slide towards fascism that we arrestees and many others attended have seen in the US with the types of cases professionally facilitated trainings and mentioned (and unfortunately, many others as workshops to prepare themselves for the actions well). and the arrests. The organisers met and planned for months in advance.

The G20 Main Conspiracy Group Prosecution is yet another attempt by the Canadian In many ways, minus the celebrities and the NGO government to manipulate the laws so that they funding, much of the work that went into planning can use the so-called criminal justice system as a the week long convergence against the G20 weapon against political organisers. This is a summit in Toronto in 2010 was very similar; very dangerous road to travel. months of meetings and workshops were held, as *** well as training series conducted in several The meetings to plan the g20 protests happened different cities. Unfortunately, unlike in Ottawa over the course of 2009 and 2010. Now flash and Washington, many of the over 1000 people forward to 2011, and imagine the planning arrested in Toronto during the G20 had not meetings for the recent Ottawa and Washington prepared for the experience of being arrested, anti-tarsands actions. What do you imagine nor did not they volunteer for it. In Toronto, those meetings to have looked like? Obviously in people also had a much more real version of the meetings to plan these acts of mass civil what being arrested more often feels like: disobedience and pre-arranged arrests, violent, scary and uncertain. In staged acts of organisers put forward a plan that included civil disobedience like the ones in Ottawa and coordinated unlawfulness.

Washington, the experience of arrest tends to be more, well, ―civil‖.

According to the precedent being set in our case, if we lose on the conspiracy charges, the 5

implication will be that organising for mass civil disobedience will be similarly criminalised alongside more ―confrontational‖ mass actions.

The crime that could be alleged against such organisers would likely be conspiracy to commit mischief and conspiracy to obstruct justice, potentially indictable offenses that carry potential serious prison time.

These types of trainings and workshops are incredibly important at this current political moment in history. There are thousands of people across North America who are engaging in street activism for the very first time, as they are inspired by the incredible #OccupyWallStreet movement (also not without some very serious and necessary critiques).

Trainings demystify protest tactics and strategies, teach people the skills necessary to participate effectively in consensus processes such as the general assemblies that are the cornerstone of this new ―occupation‖ movement, prepare people for the experience of potential arrest and other forms of police violence as well as their strategies and tactics, teach people skills to talk and interact with media, help people develop and hone political messaging and analysis, and many other really important things that are crucial to developing effective social movements.

The state wants to prevent us from developing these movements.

The state is going to try to conceal what is really going on here by making their case against us all about the inflammatory comments made about tactics that the broader movement is not in consensus around. But disagreement about appropriate diversity of tactics has nothing to do with this case; it is a smoke screen. The important fact here is that they are trying to develop a structural weapon to criminalise organising in general.

Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world

by Andy Coghlan and Debora MacKenzie | 19 October 2011 | New Scientist Magazine issue 2835. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354.500-revealed--the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html

AS PROTESTS against financial power sweep the world this week, science may have confirmed the protesters' worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.

The study's assumptions have attracted some criticism, but complex systems analysts contacted by New Scientist say it is a unique effort to untangle control in the global economy. Pushing the analysis further, they say, could help to identify ways of making global capitalism more stable.

The idea that a few bankers control a large chunk of the global economy might not seem like news to New York's Occupy Wall Street movement and protesters elsewhere (see photo). But the study, by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power. It combines the mathematics long used to model natural systems with comprehensive corporate data to map ownership among the world's transnational corporations (TNCs).

"Reality is so complex, we must move away from dogma, whether it's conspiracy theories or free-market," says James Glattfelder. "Our analysis is reality -based." Previous studies have found that a few TNCs own large chunks of the world's economy, but they included only a limited number of companies and omitted indirect ownerships, so could not say how this affected the global economy whether it made it more or less stable, for instance.

The Zurich team can. From Orbis 2007, a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide, they pulled out all 43,060 TNCs and the share ownerships linking them. Then they constructed a model of which companies controlled others through shareholding networks, coupled with each company's operating revenues, to map the structure of

economic power.

ownership equates to control, which is not always true. Most company shares are The work, to be published in PloS One, held by fund managers who may or may revealed a core of 1318 companies with not control what the companies they partinterlocking ownerships (see image). Each own actually do. The impact of this on the of the 1318 had ties to two or more other system's behaviour, he says, requires more companies, and on average they were analysis. connected to 20. What's more, although they represented 20 per cent of global Crucially, by identifying the architecture operating revenues, the 1318 appeared of global economic power, the analysis to collectively own through their shares could help make it more stable. By finding the majority of the world's large blue chip the vulnerable aspects of the system, and manufacturing firms - the "real" economists can suggest measures to economy - representing a further 60 per prevent future collapses spreading cent of global revenues. through the entire economy. Glattfelder says we may need global anti-trust rules, When the team further untangled the web which now exist only at national level, to of ownership, it found much of it tracked limit over-connection among TNCs. Barback to a "super-entity" of 147 even Yam says the analysis suggests one more tightly knit companies - all of their possible solution: firms should be taxed ownership was held by other members of for excess interconnectivity to discourage the super-entity - that controlled 40 per this risk. cent of the total wealth in the network. "In effect, less than 1 per cent of the One thing won't chime with some of the companies were able to control 40 per protesters' claims: the super-entity is cent of the entire network," says unlikely to be the intentional result of a Glattfelder. Most were financial conspiracy to rule the world. "Such institutions. The top 20 included Barclays structures are common in nature," says Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and The Sugihara.

Goldman Sachs Group.

Newcomers to any network connect John Driffill of the University of London, a preferentially to highly connected macroeconomics expert, says the value of members. TNCs buy shares in each other the analysis is not just to see if a small for business reasons, not for world number of people controls the global domination. If connectedness clusters, so economy, but rather its insights into does wealth, says Dan Braha of NECSI: in economic stability. similar models, money flows towards the most highly connected members. The Concentration of power is not good or Zurich study, says Sugihara, "is strong bad in itself, says the Zurich team, but the evidence that simple rules governing TNCs core's tight interconnections could be. As give rise spontaneously to highly the world learned in 2008, such networks connected groups". Or as Braha puts it: are unstable. "If one [company] suffers "The Occupy Wall Street claim that 1 per distress," says Glattfelder, "this cent of people have most of the wealth propagates." reflects a logical phase of the selforganising economy."

"It's disconcerting to see how connected things really are," agrees George So, the super-entity may not result from Sugihara of the Scripps Institution of conspiracy. The real question, says the Oceanography in La Jolla, California, a Zurich team, is whether it can exert complex systems expert who has advised concerted political power. Driffill feels Deutsche Bank.

147 is too many to sustain collusion. Braha suspects they will compete in the market Yaneer Bar-Yam, head of the New but act together on common interests.

England Complex Systems Institute Resisting changes to the network structure (NECSI), warns that the analysis assumes may be one such common interest.

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Reportback on Foodstock: Protect the land that feeds us

By Knowing the Land is Resistance | October 18, 2011 http://knowingtheland.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/reportback-on-foodstock-protect-the-land-that-feeds-us/

We first heard of the Mega Quarry years ago, while traveling in the Collingwood area.

Local environmentalists were talking about a proposed quarry just to the south, a quarry larger than any ever dug in this country, so large it could swallow much of downtown Toronto and so deep that it would be taller than Niagara Falls. It was a nightmare vision – beyond the smog of thousands of trucks, across the polluted springs fed by poisoned aquifers, a devastating wound in the earth would extend past the horizon.

On Sunday October 16th we hopped on a bus from Hamilton to Foodstock, organized by a new group called Stop the Mega QuarryHamilton. Foodstock was organized by the Canadian Chefs Congress and local activists fighting the quarry. Over a hundred chefs prepared food grown on the lands threatened by the quarry. Billed as a day to ‗stop the mega quarry‘ and ‗save the land that feeds us‘, by best estimates it attracted 28-30,000 people to one of the adjacent farmlands that has refused to sell.

Our goal for the day was to meet and connect with other people who are organizing or who want to organize around stopping the Mega Quarry. This struggle could likely intensify in the coming years, and it‘s useful to be able to build up a strong, regional network before the pressure is really on.

Sam, a member of Stop the Mega QuarryHamilton, explained the group‘s focus to be ―bringing an anti-colonial analysis to the organizing against the quarry, and to emphasize the need for a watershed scale resistance not just to this particular quarry, but to the whole agregate industry and the runaway culture of endless growth that depends on it‖.

When seeking to defend a piece of land, one of our first responsibilities is to understand its history and our place in it – without that bigger picture, we risk making serious mistakes while rushing towards some seeming solution. Sam explains what this has meant for No Mega Quarry-Hamilton : ―In order to bring our strengths as a group to the process of resisting the quarry, we laid out three priorities our group is best suited to focus on, as you can see in the handbill we are sharing around today‖.

One of the key lessons from past land defense struggles is that getting people out onto the land is the single most powerful tool in building a movement in its defense.

Foodstock casts its net wide, aiming both at political activists and at folks more interested in the local and slow food movements. Their

goal seems to be to get as many people as successfully intervene in an ecological possible out onto the land to directly assessment or an Ontario Municipal Board experience the way they are dependent on it. hearing is unbelievably large. It typically takes all the energy that community groups The event itself had something quite magical have to raise these sums, and the gains at the about it – imagine walking along a muddy end are seldom more that some token road through a dense woodlot of Sugar ―greening‖ concessions from the developers.

Maples all glowing yellow for the season, However, there have been enough important pausing to sample tasty bites of food from successes and crucial delays gained through campfires around the way, while music filters this route that we fully support communities in from all sides. pursuing it if they want to.

However, once we had made our donation At the end of the day, we heard Sarah and entered the site, all political content Harmer play the anti-quarry classic, vanished. There was no one leafleting the Escarpment Blues, before running through the lineups, no one canvassing with a clipboard. mud to catch the bus home. We met a few There were interesting art pieces, but no more volunteers from NDACT on the way out, posters discussing the effects of the quarry, no and they seemed confident that in this one information tables among the food. day they‘d made enough money to battle this Although the food was delicious, having come quarry through the legal system for some time to come. This is an important success, but we with the goal of networking, we felt at a bit of a loss. We heard from someone beside us can‘t help but feel that there was a missed opportunity. There were 30,000 people there in line that there were political tables out in that day, and little effort seems to have been the field, and that some local organizers made to engage them about the issue. would be speaking soon. We headed out towards the field and stage to find out more. To be clear, we do not offer this criticism to put this movement down. Several people we As the afternoon advanced, the wind picked up sharply, and a cold steady rain began to spoke with rightly noticed the absence of an anti-colonial analysis (whose home and native fall. Mostly, everyone took this in stride and land?), and criticized the way the event enjoyed themselves anyway. The political tables were more than fifty metres away from catered mostly to consuming cuisine. The community there clearly cares deeply about the large group gathered around the stage protecting the land they live on. They are and further still from the food booths. leading this struggle right now, but they can Perhaps it was that weather was just cold only benefit from working with other groups enough to keep people away from these with different perspectives. When we notice three booths way out in the middle of the organizing around an important goal like this field. Compared to the cheery crowdedness lacking an analysis that we value, it is a of the rest of the festival, these three booths reason to engage with that organizing, not looked quite lonely. There were two distance ourselves from it. organizations promoting local food, Sustain After all, almost everyone living in this great Ontario and Slow Food Ontario, and one promoting the organizing against the quarry, watershed feels something unsettling about the North Dufferin Agricultural and Community the idea of the Mega Quarry poisoning the many lakes and rivers which flow north and Taskforce (NDACT). south from the headwaters region. Foodstock NDACT has been on the forefront of this brought thirty thousand people out to organizing since the Mega Quarry was experience this region for themselves, and announced, and they recently scored an clearly demonstrated that this is the land that important victory when the provincial feeds us. There is a powerful significance to government ordered a full ecological this simple fact. Even without much additional assesment of it. The NDACT organizers hope messaging, Foodstock made our connection to this will establish a precedent for anti-quarry this land clear and we believe it has laid solid struggles elsewhere in the province. Although groundwork for a growing opposition to the the organizers are extremely knowledgeable Mega Quarry. and keen to meet other activists, the tables were mostly geared towards selling Foodstock http://nomegaquarry.ca/ merchandise rather than educating or http://www.ndact.com/ engaging the people in attendance. http:// canadianchefscongress.com/2011/07/07/ It‘s clear that the purpose of Foodstock was to foodstock-in-melancthon-township-october-16raise money. The amount of money needed to 2011/ 7

Right to Protest End the Criminalization of Dissent In this age of economic injustice, our right to protest is being taken away.

Show that you care about our communities by posting your photos and stories.

Protest is a RIGHT. Let's keep it that way.

What’s Going On...

Something scary is happening in Canada. There is a new trend taking our country by storm called the criminalization of dissent, and it was showcased on the world stage with the summer 2010 season, at the Toronto G20 Summit.

That violent crackdown on activists and other concerned community members was a shock to many. But the consequences of that infamous weekend go beyond what we saw in the news. Far before the police beatings took place, and long after the tear gas had settled, a government conspiracy planned behind closed doors was in motion. A conspiracy that aimed to undermine the ability to protest by disrupting communities and by targeting effective organizers. It involved the infiltration of social justice groups by undercover police for over 14 months, which has resulted in an ongoing legal battle against 17 community organizers.

As one of the co-accused activists has written that the charges amount to ―thought crime‖. They have been under bail conditions more severe than many rapists and murderers have faced, ―not for allegedly carrying out a criminal action but for allegedly thinking about one. Thinking, talking, agreeing to do anything illegal is illegal.‖

We have witnessed the corporatocracy (corporate-state complex) actively: 1.

Criminalize dissent by arresting and charging protesters for exercising their right to protest – or even talking about it

2.

Disrupt communities by infiltrating activist groups and restricting the lives of organizers through punitive bail conditions (For example: not being able to talk to your friends or partner, leave the house without a parent, or participate in anything remotely political)

3.

Poison public opinion through selective media coverage that casts protest in a negative light and by intimidating people from attending demonstrations

This true story is not meant to scare, but to inspire you to act.

Yes, it is becoming illegal to protest—at least without asking permission first—illegal to organize and to think for ourselves. But why? you might wonder. Because ―the authorities‖, the government and their police, are afraid. Because they believe we can be effective. So let‘s believe in ourselves too!

What we need to understand is that the G20 conspiracy case is only one recent example of the Canadian government‘s plan to criminalize dissent—to make our ideas illegal. And it will continue unless we resist such repression by exercising our collective rights to dissent.* We can stop the criminalization of dissent. Whenever we think for ourselves and put our ideas into action to create a better world, we protect our right to protest. Post your own photos and stories on RightToProtest.ca to inspire others to do the same! *Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Section 2, Fundamental Freedoms: Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: (a) freedom of conscience and religion; (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication; (c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and (d) freedom of association. http://www.righttoprotest.ca/ 8

Self-Care for Activists: Sustaining Your Most Valuable Resource http://www.newtactOctober 18th 2011.

Defining self-care and its importance Self-care - ability to engage in [social justice] work without sacrificing other important parts of one life. The ability to maintain a positive attitude towards the work despite challenges. Self-care can also be understood as a practitioner‘s right to be well, safe, and fulfilled.

Burn-out – a state of emotional and often physical exhaustion; often resembles acute stress disorder, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Burn-out does not refer to spending too much time on a task, but rather to an activist‘s stress response stemming from the perception that the energy they have invested into a task has yielded insufficient returns. Although popular understanding of activism dictate a self-less image, it is vital for activists and their work to avoid burn-out.

Unavailability of self-care resources – many [communities and ] organizations do not have self-care resources readily available. This can be countered by creating a culture of self-care.

Creating a Culture of Self-Care Promoting self-care in the activist community is not up to the individual alone. Successful self-care is promoted both by changes in practitioners‘ approach to their work, as well as through intentional efforts on the side of the organization. The way an organization operates influences the way activists conceive of the goal of their work and their own well-being. It is important that organizations do not adopt a narrow focus on ―containing‖ crises, but that they proactively invest in ―growth‖ of their staff.

Placing self-care at the core of our work Challenging the idea of activism as selflessness – the assumption that a good activist is one that dedicates all of their energy to others often causes burn-out. The idea of a ―wellness activist‖ suggests that in order to be an effective activist, one ought to attend to their own needs.

Understanding self-care as a collective goal – self-care is not simply an individual‘s concern for their own well-being, it is in organizations‘ best interest to take care of activists. Hence, self-care of activists is best achieved by adopting a systems-oriented approach that integrates personal, professional, organizational and community techniques.

What can an individual do?

Think long-term Take care of your body Follow a sustainable lifestyle, develop personal coping strategies What can an organization do to provide self-care? Build trust and confidence within the organization Focus on prevention Organize group meetings Create a vision, do not focus on listing problems Create a ripple effect Holding the organization accountable for their staff‘s self-care Where can an organization start? – 4 steps on how to prevent burnout in your organization!

Challenges to providing & performing self-care Self-care “not a virtue” – when talking about activism, the cultural assumption that self-care is an expression of egocentrism looms large.

One of the biggest challenges to providing self-care is [building awareness] that to be a good activist does not mean that one has to suffer. An inspiring way of thinking about self-care is to position ourselves as models of healthy behaviors and working habits, or as one dialogue participant mentioned ―making the means by which we work consistent with the ends we wanted to create.‖

9

FAQ: Rape Culture 101 by shakesville | October 19, 2009 http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/rape-culture-101/

[Trigger warning.]

Frequently, I receive requests to provide a definition of the term “rape culture.” I’ve referred people to the Wikipedia entry on rape culture, which is pretty good, and I like the definition provided in Transforming a Rape Culture:

A rape culture is a complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm.

In a rape culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable as death or taxes. This violence, however, is neither biologically nor divinely ordained. Much of what we accept as inevitable is in fact the expression of values and attitudes that can change.

But my correspondents—whether they are dewy noobs just coming to feminism, advanced feminists looking for a source, or disbelievers in the existence of the rape culture—always seem to be looking for something more comprehensive and less abstract: What is the rape culture? What are its borders?

What does it look like and sound like and feel like?

It is not a definition for which they’re looking; not really. It’s a description. It’s something substantive enough to reach out and touch, in all its ugly, heaving, menacing grotesquery.

Rape culture is encouraging male sexual aggression. Rape culture is regarding violence as sexy and sexuality as violent.

Rape culture is treating rape as a compliment, as the unbridled passion stirred in a healthy man by a beautiful woman, making irresistible the urge to rip open her bodice or slam her against a wall, or a wrought-iron fence, or a car hood, or pull her by her hair, or shove her onto a bed, or any one of a million other images of fight-fucking in movies and television shows and on the covers of romance novels that convey violent urges are inextricably linked with (straight) sexuality.

ubiquitous part of male-exclusive bonding. Rape culture is ignoring the cavernous need for men’s prison reform in part because the threat of being raped in prison is considered an acceptable deterrent to committing crime, and the threat only works if actual men are actually being raped.

Rape culture is 1 in 6 women being sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. Rape culture is not even talking about the reality that many women are sexually assaulted multiple times in their lives. Rape culture is the way in which the constant threat of sexual assault affects women’s daily movements. Rape culture is telling girls and women to be careful about what you wear, how you wear it, how you carry yourself, where you walk, when you walk there, with whom you walk, whom you trust, what you do, where you do it, with whom you do it, what you drink, how much you drink, whether you make eye contact, if you’re alone, if you’re with a stranger, if you’re in a group, if you’re in a group of strangers, if it’s dark, if the area is unfamiliar, if you’re carrying something, how you carry it, what kind of shoes you’re wearing in case you have to run, what kind of purse you carry, what jewelry you wear, what time it is, what street it is, what environment it is, how many people you sleep with, what kind of people you sleep with, who your friends are, to whom you give your number, who’s around when the delivery guy comes, to get an apartment where you can see who’s at the door before they can see you, to check before you open the door to the delivery guy, to own a dog or a dog-sound-making machine, to get a roommate, to take self -defense, to always be alert always pay attention always watch your back always be aware of your surroundings and never let your guard down for a moment lest you be sexually assaulted and if you are and didn’t follow all the rules it’s your fault.

Rape culture is victim-blaming. Rape culture is a judge blaming a child for her own rape. Rape culture is a minister blaming his child victims. Rape culture is accusing a child of enjoying being held hostage, raped, and tortured. Rape culture is spending enormous amounts of time finding any reason at all that a victim can be blamed for hir own rape.

Rape culture is judges banning the use of the word rape in the courtroom. Rape culture is the media using euphemisms Rape culture is treating straight sexuality as the norm. Rape for sexual assault. Rape culture is stories about rape being culture is lumping queer sexuality into nonconsensual sexual featured in the Odd News. practices like pedophilia and bestiality. Rape culture is privileging heterosexuality because ubiquitous imagery of Rape culture is tasking victims with the burden of rape two adults of the same-sex engaging in egalitarian prevention. Rape culture is encouraging women to take selfpartnerships without gender-based dominance and defense as though that is the only solution required to submission undermines (erroneous) biological rationales for preventing rape. Rape culture is admonishing women to the rape culture’s existence. “learn common sense” or “be more responsible” or “be aware of barroom risks” or “avoid these places” or “don’t Rape culture is rape being used as a weapon, a tool of war dress this way,” and failing to admonish men to not rape. and genocide and oppression. Rape culture is rape being used Rape culture is “nothing” being the most frequent answer to as a corrective to “cure” queer women. Rape culture is a a question about what people have been formally taught militarized culture and “the natural product of all wars, about rape. everywhere, at all times, in all forms.”

Rape culture is boys under 10 years old knowing how to rape.

Rape culture is 1 in 33 men being sexually assaulted in their Rape culture is the idea that only certain people rape—and lifetimes. Rape culture is encouraging men to use the only certain people get raped. Rape culture is ignoring that language of rape to establish dominance over one another the thing about rapists is that they rape people. They rape (“I’ll make you my bitch”). Rape culture is making rape a people who are strong and people who are weak, people who 10

are smart and people who are dumb, people who fight back and people who submit just to get it over with, people who are sluts and people who are prudes, people who rich and people who are poor, people who are tall and people who are short, people who are fat and people who are thin, people who are blind and people who are sighted, people who are deaf and people who can hear, people of every race and shape and size and ability and circumstance.

Rape culture is the narrative that sex workers can’t be raped.

Rape culture is the assertion that wives can’t be raped. Rape culture is the contention that only nice girls can be raped.

Rape culture is refusing to acknowledge that the only thing that the victim of every rapist shares in common is bad fucking luck. Rape culture is refusing to acknowledge that the only thing a person can do to avoid being raped is never be in the same room as a rapist. Rape culture is avoiding talking about what an absurdly unreasonable expectation that is, since rapists don’t announce themselves or wear signs or glow purple.

Rape culture is people meant to protect you raping you instead—like parents, teachers, doctors, ministers, cops, soldiers, self-defense instructors.

Rape culture is a serial rapist being appointed to a federal panel that makes decisions regarding women’s health.

Rape culture is a ruling that says women cannot withdraw consent once sex commences.

Rape culture is a collective understanding about classifications of rapists: The “normal” rapist (whose crime is most likely to be dismissed with a “boys will be boys” sort of jocular apologia) is the man who forces himself on attractive women, women his age in fine health and form, whose crime is disturbingly understandable to his male defenders. The “real sickos” are the men who go after children, old ladies, the disabled, accident victims languishing in comas—the sort of people who can’t fight back, whose rape is difficult to imagine as titillating, unlike the rape of “pretty girls,” so easily cast in a fight-fuck fantasy of squealing and squirming and eventual relenting to the “flattery” of being raped.

Rape culture is the insistence on trying to distinguish between different kinds of rape via the use of terms like “gray rape” or “date rape.”

Rape culture is pervasive narratives about rape that exist despite evidence to the contrary. Rape culture is pervasive imagery of stranger rape, even though women are three times more likely to be raped by someone they know than a stranger, and nine times more likely to be raped in their home, the home of someone they know, or anywhere else than being raped on the street, making what is commonly referred to as “date rape” by far the most prevalent type of rape. Rape culture is pervasive insistence that false reports are common, although they are less common (1.6%) than false reports of auto theft (2.6%). Rape culture is pervasive claims that women make rape accusations willy-nilly, when 61% of rapes remain unreported.

Rape culture is the pervasive narrative that there is a “typical” way to behave after being raped, instead of the acknowledgment that responses to rape are as varied as its

Consent is Sexy http://www.uhs.uga.edu/consent/index.html

“Never assume. Ask before you proceed. A good lover is a good listener. A bad listener is a best a bad lover and at worst a rapist.”

What is consent?

 Consent is a voluntary, sober, imaginative, enthusiastic, creative, wanted, informed, mutual, honest, and verbal agreement  Consent is an active agreement: Consent cannot be coerced  Consent is a process, which must be asked for every step of the way; if you want to move to the next level of sexual intimacy, just ask  Consent is never implied and cannot be assumed, even in the context of a relationship. Just because you are in a relationship does not mean that you have permission to have sex with your partner  A person who is intoxicated cannot legally give consent. If you‘re too drunk to make decisions and communicate with your partner, you‘re too drunk to consent  The absence of a ―no‖ doesn‘t mean ―yes‖  Both people should be involved in the decision to have sex  Consent is an important part of healthy sexuality  It is not sexy to have sex without consent!!

What is sexy?

 Challenging myths about sex and consent, such as the stud vs. slut stereotype  Communicating with your partner about sex  To know and be able to communicate the type of sexual relationship you want  Knowing how to protect yourself and your partner against pregnancy and STIs  Acknowledging that you and your partner(s) have sexual needs and desires: Yes, it is okay for women and men to both want and enjoy sex  Knowing your personal beliefs and values and respecting your partner‘s personal beliefs and values  Confidence and self-esteem  Challenges stereotypes that rape is a women‘s issue  Challenging sexism

 Positive views on sex and sexuality are empowering  Questions traditional views about gender and sexuality  Eliminates the entitlement that one partner feels over the other. Neither your body nor your sexuality belongs to someone else  It is normal and healthy for women to expect to be included in the consent process  What do you think makes consent sexy?

How can you make consent sexy?

Show your partner that you respect her/him enough to ask about her/his sexual needs and desires. If you are not accustomed to communicating with your partner about sex and sexual activity the first few times may feel awkward. But, practice makes perfect. Be creative and spontaneous. Don‘t give up. The more times you have these conversations with your partner, the more comfortable you will Why is consent sexy? become communicating about sex and sexual  Communication, respect, and honesty make activity. Your partner may also find the sex and relationships better situation awkward at first, but over time you  Asking for and obtaining consent shows that will both be more secure in yourselves and you have respect for both yourself and your your relationship. partner

FAQ: Rape Culture 101 Continued...

victims, that, immediately following a rape, some women go into shock; some are lucid; some are angry; some are ashamed; some are stoic; some are erratic; some want to report it; some don’t; some will act out; some will crawl inside themselves; some will have healthy sex lives; some never will again.

subjected to a sexual assault.

Rape culture is Amazon offering to locate “rape” products for you.

Rape culture is treating 13-year-old girls like trophies for Rape culture is rape jokes. Rape culture is rape jokes on tmen regarded as great artists. shirts, rape jokes in college newspapers, rape jokes in soldiers’ home videos, rape jokes on the radio, rape jokes on Rape culture is ignoring the way in which professional news broadcasts, rape jokes in magazines, rape jokes in viral environments that treat sexual access to female subordinates videos, rape jokes in promotions for children’s movies, rape Rape culture is the pervasive narrative that a rape victim as entitlements of successful men can be coercive and jokes on Page Six (and again!), rape jokes on the funny who reports hir rape is readily believed and well-supported, compromise enthusiastic consent. pages, rape jokes on TV shows, rape jokes on the campaign instead of acknowledging that reporting a rape is a huge trail, rape jokes on Halloween, rape jokes in online content personal investment, a difficult process that can be Rape culture is a convicted rapist getting a standing ovation by famous people, rape jokes in online content by nonembarrassing, shameful, hurtful, frustrating, and too often at Cannes, a cameo in a hit movie, and a career resurgence in famous people, rape jokes in headlines, rape jokes onstage unfulfilling. Rape culture is ignoring that there is very little which he can joke about how he hates seeing people get hurt. at clubs, rape jokes in politics, rape jokes in one-woman incentive to report a rape; it’s a terrible experience with a Rape culture is when running dogfights is said to elicit more shows, rape jokes in print campaigns, rape jokes in movies, small likelihood of seeing justice served. outrage than raping a woman would. rape jokes in cartoons, rape jokes in nightclubs, rape jokes on MTV, rape jokes on late-night chat shows, rape jokes in Rape culture is hospitals that won’t do rape kits, disbelieving Rape culture is blurred lines between persistence and tattoos, rape jokes in stand-up comedy, rape jokes on law enforcement, unmotivated prosecutors, hostile judges, coercion. Rape culture is treating diminished capacity to websites, rape jokes at awards shows, rape jokes in online victim-blaming juries, and paltry sentencing. consent as the natural path to sexual activity. contests, rape jokes in movie trailers, rape jokes on the sides of buses, rape jokes on cultural institutions…

Rape culture is the fact that higher incidents of rape tend to Rape culture is pretending that non-physical sexual assaults, correlate with lower conviction rates. like peeping tomming, is totally unrelated to brutal and Rape culture is people objecting to the detritus of the rape physical sexual assaults, rather than viewing them on a culture being called oversensitive, rather than people who Rape culture is silence around rape in the national discourse, continuum of sexual assault. perpetuate the rape culture being regarded as not sensitive and in rape victims’ homes. Rape culture is treating surviving enough. rape as something of which to be ashamed. Rape culture is Rape culture is diminishing the gravity of any sexual assault, families torn apart because of rape allegations that are attempted sexual assault, or culture of actual or potential Rape culture is the myriad ways in which rape is tacitly and disbelieved or ignored or sunk to the bottom of a deep, dark coercion in any way. overtly abetted and encouraged having saturated every sea in an iron vault of secrecy and silence. corner of our culture so thoroughly that people can’t easily Rape culture is using the word “rape” to describe something wrap their heads around what the rape culture actually is.

Rape culture is the objectification of women, which is part of that has been done to you other than a forced or coerced sex That’s hardly everything. It’s merely the tip of an a dehumanizing process that renders consent irrelevant. act. Rape culture is saying things like “That ATM raped me unfathomable iceberg.

Rape culture is treating women’s bodies like public property. with a huge fee” or “The IRS raped me on my taxes.”

Rape culture is street harassment and groping on public transportation and equating raped women’s bodies to a man Rape culture is rape being used as entertainment, in movies walking around with valuables hanging out of his pockets. and television shows and books and in video games.

Rape culture is most men being so far removed from the Rape culture is television shows and movies leaving rape out threat of rape that invoking property theft is evidently the of situations where it would be a present and significant closest thing many of them can imagine to being forcibly threat in real life.

11

Five Falsehoods About 'Ethical Oil' ENERGY & EQUITY: Morality doesn't guide the crude brotherhood, never did.

By Andrew Nikiforuk | 29 Sep 2011 | TheTyee.ca http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/09/29/Ethical-Oil-Falsehoods/

Oil and ethics have never mixed. And never will. The world's black gold (seven of the globe's wealthiest corporations are oil firms) has financed both left-wing and right-wing revolutions (from Hugo Chavez to Margaret Thatcher) polluted major watersheds from the Niger to the Mississippi, and undermined the role of government from Saudi Arabia to Louisiana.

during elections. For the record, Levant is a former tobacco lobbyist and a convicted libeler. He is also a political extremist who has demanded the jailing of Greenpeace leaders.

(Greenpeace, a civic organization with 3 million members, has poked fun of Alberta's one party petro state. The Saudis, by the way, fear transparency and accountability and don't like Greenpeace either.)

The Big Rich from Texas' oil fields even bankrolled Senator Joe McCarthy's witchhunts in the United States. The Wisconsin extremist was known as "the third senator from Texas." And that was before the Koch brothers and their oil wealth funded the "drill, baby, drill" Tea Party movement.

Governments that run on petro dollars (whether Christian or Muslim, democratic or tribal) also become obsessed with the resource and its pathological power arrangements. In the end they represent oil and its sweat-free revenues instead of ordinary citizens.

Levant has a Venezuelan peer: U.S. lawyer Eva Golinger. She attacks critics of Hugo Chavez's dysfunctional regime as decadent agents of U.S. imperialism just as Levant slanders environmentalists as demonic forces.

Although the two lawyers represent different ends of the political spectrum, they play the same hysterical role in a petro state -deflecting criticism away their inept rulers.

Now Levant's basic argument on ethical oil reads like a grade two primer: Canada is a good petro state and therefore heavy crude is good. Saudi Arabia is a bad petro state and therefore its light oil is conflicted. Buy Canadian crude.

This fact partly explains Canada's carefully orchestrated campaign to rebrand its controversial bitumen as some kind of ethical product. Even though most oil sands companies produce oil from troubled petro states, the Canadian government is now attacking the globe's oil infrastructure to deflect attention away from its own dirt.

Levant's time as a tobacco lobbyist makes him a compromised candidate to advance the ethical oil line. But Alykhan Velshi, another lawyer, resigned from government to push the ethical oil argument. Leaving government to promote Big Oil is now a Tory tradition. A couple of years ago Bruce Carson, Harper's top advisor, left Ottawa to coordinate pro oil Canada's bombing campaign in Libya is also sands propaganda with the Canadian part of this crazy strategy. The destabilization Association of Petroleum Producers and the of Libya will keep the global price of oil high Alberta government. (Carson is now under and therefore improve the outlook for bitumen investigation for unethical lobbying.) production, a marginal crude highly sensitive to oil price shocks. Canada's intervention has Five falsehoods nothing to do with freedom and everything to Whether one supports rapid bitumen do with money. development or not (and the key issue is pace and scale) there are some big moral problems Immigration Minister Jason Kenney along with with ethical oil propaganda. Not only is the his former communications director, Tory argument a Big Fat Lie, but these falsehoods activist Alykhan Velshi, have also attacked sorely undermine the country's reputation Saudi Arabia for its record on women. The abroad. It could also bring more trouble to Saudis, who got corrupted by oil long ago by the oil sands industry than its environmental U.S. oil companies, make an easy target. But critics. Saudi Arabia, for example, is well when one group of Canadian petroleum known for its lies and propaganda. But when extremists attacks another bunch of petroleum Tory activists attack other oil exporters to extremists and all to protect oil revenue for a defend a resource with true issues, well, highly secretive prime minister and a religious Canada looks more and more like another fundamentalist to boot, every Canadian pathetic petro state. should fear for the future of this country.

Furthermore, the so-called ethical oil argument is based on five bold falsehoods which bear Petro state propagandists some scrutiny: The ethical oil campaign began with Ezra Levant, a political activist and lawyer with Falsehood 1: Your local oil company. For close ties to government. He even works in starters, oil is a global commodity and every Prime Minister Stephen Harper's war room barrel is conflicted with blood, corruption or 12

environmental degradation. As Daniel Yergin notes in The Prize, a lengthy history of oil, greed, power and money have always walked hand in hand with oil. (Ethics was never part of the crude brotherhood.) In addition every major oil sands producer pumps oil in petro states because of the money. Nexen produces in bloody Yemen.

Suncor has billion-dollar investments in battle scarred Libya. Shell's oil interests literally turned Nigeria into a corrupt and polluted landscape. Total does business with Burmese dictators. The Chinese National Oil Company drills for gangsters in the Sudan. And on it goes.

Given Ottawa's new definition of ethics, there isn't a moral player in the tar sands. Should Canada do the moral thing and expel these firms so our oil can be produced by some nonexistent race of pure oil companies? Perhaps when Levant, Velshi and Kenney call for the expulsion of these firms, we'll know they are really serious about ethics and not concerned about money for Tory coffers.

Falsehood 2: Oil island Canada. Half of Canada now depends on so-called conflict oil.

It's more dependent on foreign oil than the United States. Every day Quebec and Atlantic Canada get their oil from places like Algeria, Venezuela, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The production of bitumen has not lessened eastern Canada's dependence on foreign oil by one barrel. If the world's most expensive hydrocarbon can't even displace so-called conflict oil in Canada, what difference can it make in global markets? But let's follow the extremist's advice, and boldly shut down half the country's energy supply in the name of petro ethics.

Falsehood 3: Ours is untainted by conflict.

Bitumen is so damn thick that it won't move through a pipeline without being diluted with light oil. Much of this condensate comes either from the U.S. or the Middle East. EnCana has even imported conflict oil from Pakistan to dilute its bitumen. But condensate is in such short supply on the continent that most future supplies will come from the Middle East. The National Energy Board estimates that Canada will have to import 346,000 barrels a day from conflicted places by 2020 just to move the so-called ethical stuff. Perhaps Canadian philosophers will soon debate what happens when a nation mixes ethical oil with conflict oil? And what bloated Saudi-like bureaucracy should we create to discern these differences?

Can Oil Be Ethical?

by David Suzuki | Oct 10 2011 10:03 AM http://www.themarknews.com/articles/6992-can-oil-be-ethical

Despite overwhelming evidence that use of fossil fuels is causing a crisis of climate change, wealthy countries like Canada and the U.S. are unwilling to reduce their emissions.

In his book Ethical Oil, Ezra Levant raises an important point about the moral implications of products and activities in the global economy. I applaud the move to raise ethics to greater prominence in discussions around trade and economics. Questions around social justice, poverty, environment, and violence have propelled movements leading to action against sweatshops and child labour in the garment industry, to fair trade and shadegrown coffee products, to boycotts of California grapes and trade with apartheid South Africa.

as a Liberal but as the prime minister of Canada. This meant that, as a nation, we were committed to achieving the targets set by the agreement. On becoming leader of a minority government, Stephen Harper declared his intention to ignore Canada‘s commitment. Is it ethical to ignore an internationally binding legal commitment? This is even more astonishing in light of Prime Minister Harper‘s outspoken commitment to law and order.

across central Africa, and extreme heat in India are killing people who did little or nothing to contribute to the climate crisis.

These deaths may not be as grisly or violent as those in Nigeria or Saudi Arabia, but that shouldn‘t matter in ethical debates.

Despite the Kyoto agreement and international efforts at Copenhagen, this unrelenting rise in greenhouse-gas emissions means countries around the world intend to continue contributing to the enormous Canada is one of the highest per capita problems of unpredictable climate extremes emitters of greenhouse gases. Our rapidly and fluctuations that people for generations melting permafrost releases massive amounts to come will have to live with. This is the most of the potent greenhouse gas methane, unethical practice I can imagine. In the face of amplifying our contribution to the global crisis overwhelming evidence that human use of of climate change. Alberta‘s tar sands require fossil fuels is creating an incredible crisis of enormous amounts of energy and water to climate change, wealthy countries like Canada extract, further compounding Canada‘s and the U.S., whose use of these fuels created already excessive emissions. Is there not an the massive economic expansion that brought Two days after he was appointed federal ethical component to our demand for a about the climate crisis, are now unwilling to environment minister, Peter Kent took up greater share of the Earth‘s atmosphere than reduce their emissions. It‘s all in the name of Levant‘s slogan, trumpeting Alberta‘s tar most other nations? Rapid exploitation of economic growth, not survival or the future for sands as ―ethical oil.‖ We rightly criticize oilCanada‘s tar sands – by companies from our children and grandchildren. That is not just producing countries that support or indulge in countries including the U.S., Korea, and China unethical, it‘s criminal. violence, murder, oppression of minority – is not crucial for our nation‘s survival or even groups and women, and so on. But because well-being, yet we ignore the impact on the In today‘s world, all fossil fuels are unethical.

Canada does not overtly support or indulge in rest of the world. If that isn‘t unethical, I don‘t such practices, does that mean our oil is more There is no such thing as ethical oil. People ethical? Levant acknowledges that exploiting know what is. like Ezra Levant, who say they care about and using fossil fuels has environmental ethics, should press for rapid transition from Climate change is already causing more impacts. Does that mean there is a hierarchy these unethical energy sources to more ethical, extreme fires and weather events, melting of ethical practices or that one ethical practice glaciers and ice caps, rising sea levels, equitable, and sustainable sources, such as cancels out other unethical activities? drought, floods, altered plant and animal renewable solar, wind, and geothermal distribution, spread of disease, and killer heat energy.

The application of ethical standards in our waves, to cite just a few impacts. Canada‘s purchase and use of products should be vast resources and space confer greater applied universally and not selectively. resilience than most nations, but the world‘s Canada signed the Kyoto Protocol, which poorest areas are especially vulnerable. became international law. When Jean Floods in Pakistan‘s great river delta, drought Chrétien signed the document, he did so not

Texas Conservatives reject Harper’s Crime Plan Continued...

Falsehood 4: Perfectly Canadian. The idea that Canada walks the global stage without ethical problems is a grand right-wing Tory fiction and more petro hubris. (The Saudis say they are faultless too.) In plain truth we are a mining people with a lousy environmental record at home and a damn poor human rights record abroad. Our so-called ethical Canadian government even objected to a health-warning label for asbestos (how Saudilike). Nor could they stomach a Responsible Mining Act. When the Canadian government takes up the stoning of foreign oil exporters, don't be surprised when global stones pass through our economic windows.

Every oil-exporting nation has to confront a raft of difficult ethical challenges that invariably come with oil wealth. They include fiscal accountability and saving one-time oil revenue for future generations. But Canada hasn't done that. Nor has Alberta. Battling the Dutch Disease and protecting the manufacturing and agricultural sectors from a high petro currency is another critical concern.

Yet Canada just watches as oil exports hollow out the economy.

Falsehood 5: Oil profits make Canada stronger and better. Last but least, comes the corrosive influence of oil revenue on 13

government policy and statecraft. Given our Saudi-like record on climate change (the Sheiks don't believe in global warming either) and the Harper government's ethical oil campaign, the money has already corrupted Canada's political institutions.

So oil and ethics don't mix. But Canadians will celebrate the day they do.

At that blissful moment the government of Canada will challenge the ethical record of oil sand investors such as totalitarian Communist China instead of its marginal oil competitors.

Just follow the money.

Texas conservatives reject Harper's crime plan 'Been there; done that; didn't work,' say Texas crime-fighters

By Terry Milewski, CBC News | Posted: Oct 17, 2011 6:11 PM ET http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/10/17/pol-vp-milewski-texas-crime.html

Conservatives in the United States' toughest billion to build new prisons for a predicted crime-fighting jurisdiction — Texas — say the influx of new prisoners.

Harper government's crime strategy won't They told Madden to find a way out. He and work. his committee dug into the facts. Did all those "You will spend billions and billions and new prisoners really need to go to jail? And billions on locking people up," says Judge did all of those already behind bars really John Creuzot of the Dallas County Court. "And need to be there? there will come a point in time where the 'We can't ignore the fact that public says, 'Enough!' And you'll wind up our "tough on crime" stance letting them out." that puts a person in prison Adds Representative Jerry Madden, a and assumes that their drug conservative Republican who heads the Texas problem will somehow House Committee on Corrections, "It's a very magically disappear while expensive thing to build new prisons and, if they're incarcerated and you build 'em, I guarantee you they will come. they'll never get out again They'll be filled, OK? Because people will and offend, is ridiculous!'— Dr. Teresa May-Williams, send them there. forensic psychologist "But, if you don't build 'em, they will come up with very creative things to do that keep the Madden's answer was, no. He found that community safe and yet still do the Texas had diverted money from treatment and probation services to building prisons. But incarceration necessary." sending people to prison was costing 10 times These comments are in line with a coalition of as much as putting them on probation, on experts in Washington, D.C., who attacked the parole, or in treatment.

Harper government's omnibus crime package, "It was kinda silly, what we were doing," says Bill C-10, in a statement Monday.

Madden. Then, he discovered that drug "Republican governors and state legislators in treatment wasn't just cheaper — it cut crime such states of Texas, South Carolina, and Ohio much more effectively than prison. are repealing mandatory minimum sentences, increasing opportunities for effective That was the moment, he says, when he knew: community supervision, and funding drug "My colleagues are gonna understand this. treatment because they know it will improve The public is gonna understand this.…The public safety and reduce taxpayer costs," public will be safer and we will spend less said Tracy Velázquez, executive director of money!" the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute.

His colleagues agreed. Texas just said no to "If passed, C-10 will take Canadian justice the new prisons. policies 180 degrees in the wrong direction, Instead, over the next few years, it spent a and Canadian citizens will bear the costs." fraction of the $2 billion those prisons would have cost — about $300 million — to beef A state with a record up drug treatment programs, mental health On a recent trip to Texas, an array of centres, probation services and community conservative voices told CBC News that Texas supervision for prisoners out on parole. tried what Canada plans to do – and it It worked. Costs fell and crime fell, too. Now, failed. word of the Canadian government's crime As recently as 2004, Texas had the highest plan is filtering down to Texas and it's getting incarceration rate in the world, with fully one bad reviews. in 20 of its adult residents behind bars, on parole or on probation. The Lone Star state Marc Levin, a lawyer with an anti-tax group still has the death penalty, with more than called Right on Crime, argues that building 300 prisoners on death row today. But for more prisons is a waste of taxpayers' money. three decades, as crime rates fell all over the "We've see a double-digit decline in the last U.S., the rate in Texas fell at only half the few years in Texas, both in our prison national average. incarceration rate and, most importantly in our That didn't change the policy — but its cost crime rate," says Levin. did.

"And the way we've done it is by Faced with a budget crisis in 2005, the Texas strengthening some of the alternatives to statehouse was handed an estimate of $2 prison."

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The statistics bear him out. According to the Texas Department of Corrections, the rate of incarceration fell 9 per cent between 2005 and 2010. In the same period, according to the FBI, the crime rate in Texas fell by 12.8 per cent.

By contrast, Levin says, the Canadian government has increased the prison budget sharply, even though crime in Canada is down to its lowest level since 1973.

In fact, federal spending on corrections in Canada has gone up from $1.6 billion in 2005-06, when Stephen Harper's Conservatives took power, to $2.98 billion in 2010-11. That's an increase of 86 per cent.

Soon, it will double.

Federal corrections budget: Canada   

2005–06 $1.6 billion 2010–11 $2.98 billion 2012–13 $3.13 billion

The Harper government has already increased prison sentences by scrapping the two-for-one credit for time served waiting for trial. Bill C-10 would add new and longer sentences for drug offences, increase mandatory minimums and cut the use of conditional sentences such as house arrest.

In each case, Texas is doing the opposite.

So are several other states — egged on by a group of hardline conservatives who have joined the Right on Crime movement. These include Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, the tax-fighter Grover Norquist and the former attorney general for President Ronald Reagan, Ed Meese.

That's not a list of liberals. Marc Levin says Canada is out of step with the best conservative thinking south of the border.

"We've seen in the United States, states and conservative leaders moving in a much different direction than the Conservative Party is saying in Canada," he says.

"I think the conservative thing to do is to be cost-effective and to hold offenders accountable. And, frankly, for many of them, they go to prison, they don't pay child support, they don't have to work in the private sector, they don't pay restitution — I don't believe that's holding people accountable."

Hugging criminals? In Texas?

What Levin means by accountability is what

(Un)Lawful Access

by Open Media, Safeguarding an open internet. | First Posted: Oct 02 2011 23:47 PM http://www.themarknews.com/articles/6930-un-lawful-access

In an exclusive new video, Canada's leading privacy experts speak out against the federal government's proposed cyber surveillance laws.

OpenMedia.ca has been working with a coalition of organizations to raise awareness about the federal government‘s impending ―Lawful Access‖ legislation – dubbed ―Online Spying‖ by its critics. As part of this effort, OpenMedia.ca has launched the following documentary featuring Canada‘s leading privacy experts explaining the dangers of the proposed legislation – namely, that these new electronic surveillance laws allow authorities to access the private information of any Canadian, at any time, without a warrant.

If the legislation is passed, OpenMedia.ca believes it will lead to internet surveillance that is:  Warrantless: In which a range of ―authorities‖ will be able to collect private information from law-abiding Canadians using wired internet and mobile devices without having to provide any justification for doing so.  Invasive: Showing a radical break from existing safeguards, and leaving personal and financial information less secure and more susceptible to cybercrime.  Costly: As internet service providers will be forced to install millions of dollars‘ worth of spying technology, the costs of which will be passed down to the consumer.

To find out more, and to check out OpenMedia.ca‘s Stop Online Spying petition, go to: http://StopSpying.ca. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyHnOCDewuQ&feature=player_embedded Texas Conservatives reject Harper’s Crime Plan Continued...

happens at Judge John Creuzot's drug court in before you make a sentencing decision … and you fund programs that will deal with Dallas. that on a long-term basis, that you avoid Thieves, drug addicts and drunk drivers must sending thousands of people to prison." file into Creuzot's courtroom each week as a condition of their sentences. They're on But isn't all the treatment expensive? probation with the threat of prison hanging over them. They must prove they are keeping "It's less expensive!" Creuzot snaps. "We had a university do a cost-benefit analysis. And up with their drug treatment. every dollar we spend is worth $9 and 34 Creuzot cajoles, threatens and lectures them cents in avoided criminal justice costs." to stick with the program — but he also Other studies in Texas agree that treatment rewards them when they succeed. If they graduate from treatment, clean and sober, he and probation services cost about one-tenth of what it costs to build and run prisons. holds an awards ceremony in his courtroom.

Besides that, offenders emerge much less Then, he gives them a big, back-slapping likely to commit fresh crimes than those with Texas hug. similar records who go to prison.

"Congratulations, bro!" he says as he wraps Getting results his arms around a hulking ex-addict. "Proud of ya!" he says as he hugs another and places At Phoenix House, a drug treatment centre in a medal around her neck.

Wilmer, just south of Dallas, Dr. Teresa MayHugs? From a judge in the state that gave us Williams is a forensic psychologist, paid to assess the risk of letting offenders out on chain gangs? parole or in treatment. She's found that prison It's not your father's Texas. But Creuzot isn't all is even riskier. hugs. He renders a blunt verdict when he is "We can't ignore the fact that our ‗tough on asked what's wrong with the Harper crime' stance that puts a person in prison and government's plan to get criminals off assumes that their drug problem will somehow Canadian streets. magically disappear while they're "Nothing, if you don't mind spending a lot of incarcerated and they'll never get out again money locking people up and seeing your and offend, is ridiculous!" she says. crime rate go up! Nothing wrong with it at May-Williams says most offenders with drug all!" or alcohol problems quickly resume their Creuzot says prison just doesn't work as well criminal lifestyle when they get out of prison. as the less expensive methods he uses — "The data showed that 60 per cent of those because, one way or another, drugs and individuals will be out and committing a new alcohol lie at the root of 80 per cent of crime in, on average, about 11 months." crimes.

"What we've learned," he says, "is that if you That's four times the rate of those who go through her six-month program instead. deal with those underlying issues with the proper assessments up front, doing that

under control," she says, "and then beginning to work on education, job training, getting them employed, getting them focused on becoming a tax payer rather than a tax user.

The recidivism rate for probation, the same kind of offender, is somewhere around 15-16 per cent."

A 'hopeless' case Equally striking is that even the hardest cases can respond to court-ordered treatment.

Kathryn Griffin, by her own account, was a "hopeless" case.

Loquacious, loud and candid, Griffin had six felonies on her record — for drug possession and prostitution — so she was facing 35 years to life in jail when she came to court in Houston, yet again.

"I'm a person who had a $30,000-a-month cocaine habit for 22 years!" she says. But, "I am totally clean and sober today."

And she's stayed clean for eight years — because, she says, she was a "guinea pig" in what was, back then, a new experiment: drug court.

The judge gave her a choice: get clean in drug treatment or flunk out — and die in prison.

She made it. Now, she has a job counselling street prostitutes, pays taxes and tells anyone who will listen that Texas, too, has changed its ways.

"What I like about this state and our government is they are willing to listen, look, study, learn and see results."

Left, right and middle-of-the-road Texans are recommending that Canada do the same — "A big focus of it is getting their drug problem and the conservatives most of all.

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The Real Meaning of Halloween (Samhain)

by Starhawk http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/starhawk/ Ghosts and goblins, witches on broomsticks, pumpkins, candy and spiderwebs…it‘s that time of year again. Halloween—probably every child‘s favorite holiday, combining the irresistible attractions of dressing up in costume and gorging on candy.

food and drink for their loved ones, and set out candles to light their way home. Those traditions gave us many of our present day customs. Now we set out jack-o-lanterns and give offerings of candy to children—who are, after all, the ancestors returning in new forms.

But there‘s a deeper spiritual meaning that underlies the holiday for Pagans and real Witches—those who follow earth-based Goddess traditions that predate Christianity.

As we in the northern hemisphere move into the time of cold and the dark of winter, we celebrate our New Year, and honor both death and regeneration.

Death and regeneration are always linked in Goddess theology. Birth, growth, death and renewal are a cycle that plays over and over again through natural systems and human lives. Embracing this cycle, we don‘t need to fear death, but instead can see it as a stage of life and a gateway to some new form of being.

In Northern Europe, Samhain (the Celtic term for Halloween, pronounced sow-in as in ‗sour‘) was the time when the cattle were moved from the summer pastures to winter shelter. It was the end of the growing season, the end of harvest, a time of thanksgiving, when the ancestors and the spirits of the beloved dead would return home to share in the feast. Death did not sever one‘s connections with the community. People would leave offerings of

So Samhain is a time to remember and honor those who have died, to celebrate their lives and appreciate their gifts, to tell stories about them to the next generation so their memory will not be lost. In Latino cultures, Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead on November 2, is a time to visit the graves of loved ones, to feast there and honor their memory with altars and prayers. We set up altars in our homes, with pictures and mementos, and in my

house, we like to invite friends and family to an ancestor dinner, where we cook traditional foods and share our family stories.

Samhain is also a time for deep spiritual work. At this time of year, we say, ―the veil is thin that divides the worlds, the seen from the unseen, the day to day from the mysteries.‖ In San Francisco, the Reclaiming tradition of Wicca sponsors a big public ritual, where we celebrate the renewal and creativity that emerges from the dark, with elaborate altars, dance, music, culminating in a spiral danced by more than a thousand people that honors the energies of rebirth and renewal.

Halloween, and our traditions, are much misunderstood. This year, when you hand out candy or shepherd your children through the streets, we invite you to remember the deeper meaning of the holiday: that death is no barrier to love, and every ending brings a new beginning.

The old saying goes:

―Give a person a fish and that person is fed for a day.

Teach a person to fish, and they are fed for their lifetime.‖ Now, let us add the next line...

―Help someone understand their relationship with their food, and there will be people and fish forever.‖ - Dr. Dan Longboat at Bring Food Home Conference, Peterborough, Ontario, October 26, 2011

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