Vol. 5, Is. 1: Students Rise Up

NEWS (2-5)

FEATURES (6-12)

COMMENTS (13-15)

ARTS & CULTURE (16-18)

Disability March 3 Quebec Victory 4 International Student Strike 5

Black Bloc 6 Students vs. ‘Plan Nord’ 7 United Mass Student Movement 9

Mad Students Psyching Up for School 13

Filipino Hip-Hop 16 Aussie University Occupy 17 Dance Dance Party Party 17

Jane Finch Action Against Poverty and York 14

STUDENTS, RISE UP!

Fall Issue 1, 2012

Your Alternative News Magazine at York

Volume 5, Issue 1

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FALL ISSUE 1 2012

Editorial

STUDENTS, RISE UP! W

e publish this issue at a controversial and interesting time in our nation. Canada has bore witness to the extraordinary organizational and tactical talents of our brothers, sisters and friends in Quebec as they headed a movement that toppled the ruling class in Quebec. Their stories, lessons, and journey has inspired us here at the YU Free Press to dedicate our first issue of the semester to deconstructing capitalist education paradigms, retaliating with the literary prowess of our students and comrades alike, and re-imagining a rhetoric of freedom, accessibility, and resistance for students across the occupied land of Turtle Island.

In our News Section, editors Amelia Saunders and Max Chewinski provide brief reports on municipal, provincial, national and international news. The news brief covers issues such as the destruction of a local community garden, the most recent omnibus budget bill and its effects on water regulation, and the rise of fascist politics in Greece. In his article “Marxists of Iran and Canada condemn shutting down of Iranian embassy by Canada’s government”, Farshad Azadian criticizes the escalating level of aggression the Canadian government is exercising over Iran. Melissa Graham, in “People with Disabilities March and Roll on the Streets of Toronto” comments and reflects on the position of people with disabilities both within society as a whole and social movements in particular, and the response to this marginalization through The Toronto Disability Pride March. In her analysis of the results of the Quebec elections

in September, Deborah Murray highlights the increasing support of progressive party Quebec Solidaire and the need for unions to organize rank-and-file workers in upcoming struggles. We have also included two documents submitted by the International Student Movement: one detailing a joint statement on the purpose of student struggles and the need for international solidarity and action and the other, a call for an ambitious global student strike.

Our features section plays host to a variety of interpretations of the unfolding of the Quebec student movement and the ways in which it exists in different contexts. It also details how the movement has impacted social spaces in Quebec, in Ontario, and across different issues. Padriac O’Brien broadens the debate by appropriately identifying the gaps within the Quebec student movement wherein racialized and First Nations students are on the periphery, rather than in the centre, of the movement in For A United Mass Movement. UQAM professor Francis Dupuis-Deri helps us move away from the misconception of Black Bloc as a roving gang of troublemakers to “the greatest political philosophers of our time”. Dupuis-Deri offers a different perspective of the Black Block, taking strides against the mainstream model which demonizes our frontline warriors in Black Bloc, Red Square. Nadim Feitah leaves us inspired with a call to action as we, as students in Ontario, have been left awestruck in witnessing the capacity for change our comrades have exemplified. Feitah suggests we remain realistic and hopeful,

News in Brief October 1, 2012 – No Garden Is Illegal On September 28, the City of Toronto dismantled a community garden in Queen’s Park that was a project of the well-known activist group, Occupy Gardens. The garden was in a public space and the activists and gardeners involved did not file for a permit to use the space. This is claimed to be the greatest grievance the City of Toronto has over the free garden issue. Known as the People’s Peas Garden, the Queen’s Park free garden had been in place for over five months, having first been planted in early May 2012.

Over the course of its growth, the garden freely fed over 500 community residents and was a source of nutrition for lower-income families. City workers without warning or communication removed the garden, which was home to kale, asparagus, eggplant, tomato, peas, thyme, basil and cucumbers. In response, Occupy Gardens organized a march on Monday, October 1 of 2012 to raise awareness about community gardens under the banner ‘No Garden Is Illegal’.

October 15, 2012 - Occuversary: October 15 marked the one-year anniversary of Occupy Toronto. Converging once again in St. James Park in downtown Toronto, Occupiers old and new enjoyed a day discussing what they have learned thus far in their Occupy journey. The event did not receive much press or promotion as it was a spontaneous and open event, created through Occupy Toronto’s online forum on Facebook. The mood was light and celebratory, with news cameras and reporters at the scene ready for action. The evening of October 15 ended with a theatrical treat: Occupiers, having worked with reporters who had gathered conversations via soundbites over the 40 day occupation of St. James Park in 2011, shared their findings with artists of the Occupy community, who then created a play compiled strictly of words shared during the Toronto occupation.

become proactive rather than reactionary, and most of all change our legacy of laziness and entitlement in order to prove our worth, strength and determination.

Our Comments section includes “We’re not all crazy! But some of us are. Mad students psyching up for school” by Tarah deBie. In this article, Tarah reflects on her previous experiences with peers and their inability to understand the complexities involved in the discourse surrounding madness and offers her analysis of mad politics, as well as suggestions for strengthening mad communities. In their open letter to York University, the Jane Finch Action Against Poverty coalition calls out Excalibur’s Michael Sholars for an editorial he wrote containing misinformation and harmful, prejudicial stereotypes of the Jane and Finch community.

What better way than through artifice to disrupt the degree factory? This is just what Canberra Space Invaders did in May 2012, as they now invade the pages of our publication to bring you the transformational art of Disrupting the Degree Factory in our Arts section. Canberra Space Invaders literally

reclaimed the space of an old Food Co-op in the spirit of celebration, riot and culture jamming. Spray painting the walls with ‘R is for Revolution’ and ‘Q is for Queer’ the Canberra Space Invaders give us colourful imagination where listless word begins to fail, as we see ourselves, as students, protestors, artists and comrades reflected in the their quest for love, union and freedom.

Lastly, we wish to thank you for holding a few pieces of paper that come dear from our hearts. We have felt the flame of revolution in Quebec, and discussed with, and read about our comrades who continue a brave and trying fight in Quebec, and increasingly across Canada. Within these pages, you will find wild-running imaginations and our rallying cries for justice and equal access to education at York University, in Toronto, in Ontario, across Canada and across the world, worded boldly and fearlessly from our friends from all over the world. We ask of you to not only read this paper, but also feel the fire as it may burn your fingertips with every page you turn, and over every word you may read.

YUFP Editorial Collective

COVER IMAGE

Title: “La Bravoure” (Bravery)

Entitled “La Bravoure” (Bravery), this digital painting by Artact QC is an expression of the artist’s admiration for the youth of Quebec and their spirited resilience in the face of state repression. The artist, whom likes to remain anonymous, has created many images pertaining to the struggles in Quebec around the issue of education, government, and capital. For more digital paintings and information, visit http://artactqc.com/

Controversy at Queen’s Park Monday, October 15 was a troubling day for democracy in Ontario. Dalton McGuinty resigned from his nine-year post as Liberal Premier. This in itself is not problematic, but the fact that McGuinty effectively prorogued the legislature until a new Liberal leader is chosen. Citing the need for a new leadership with new ideas, and the inability to pass bills due to the “opposition’s political games,” McGuinty cancelled all current bills in the legislature. Some of these bills include amendments to the Endangered Species Act, measures for assisting workers with post-traumatic stress, an anti-bullying bill for the inclusion of bullying prevention and accountability in school curricula, and the repeal of the controversial public works protection act – an act used during the 2010 G20 weekend which extended police power and facilitated state repression of protestors. It has been speculated that this announcement is an attempt to deflect public concern over the cancellation of two gas-fired generating plants, which have cost the province at least $230 million. Perhaps the most troubling consequence of proroguing the legislature is that the government not only bypasses the opposition’s criticism regarding wage-freeze agreements with public-sector workers, but also effectively circumscribes this entire process, allowing the Liberal government to negotiate wage freezes with labour partners behind closed doors.

Bill C-45 & the Navigable Waters Protection Act Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced Bill C-45, The Jobs and Growth Act, on Thursday October 18 as a means of implementing the federal budget. Like the first piece, Bill C-38, this bill is massive – clocking in at 443 pages and including a number of provisions, which critics argue have nothing to do with the federal budget. Some of the provisions in Bill C-45 include reform of pensions for Members of Parliament (saving $2.6 billion over 5 years), amendments to the Indian act (which would, for instance, centralize authority over land designation decisions in the hands of the Aboriginal Affairs Minister), and amendments to the Navigable Waters Protection Act. In terms of the latter,

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FALL ISSUE 1 2012

News People with Disabilities March and Roll on the Streets of Toronto

The YU Free Press is a free alternative newspaper at York University. Our principal objectives are to challenge the mainstream corporate media model and provide a fundamental space for critical analysis at York University and wider community.

Melissa Graham

O

n October 13, 2012 the disability community once again made their voices heard on the streets of Toronto. They marched with a goal: to bring recognition of the struggles and value of people with disabilities fighting against ableism and other forms of oppression. They also marched to celebrate and take pride in themselves as part of a community of people with disabilities.

This year we are noticing this oppression in the form of cuts by stealth, and a political scene that not only divides us by our various disabilities, but also by other forms of oppression such as race, class, gender, etc.

In September, the provincial government put forth a draft standard to make parks and the outdoor environment accessible. This sounds great until you consider that the same government is eliminating Community Start Up and Maintenance funding to people living on social assistance, which many people rely on to find and keep their homes. They might

movements in the disability community are something they are not ready to build. We need to work on that. For too long, the rights and oppression of people with disabilities have been discussed behind closed doors, or not at all. Through actions like the Toronto Disability Pride March we find our voice and make ourselves heard in the chorus of movements.

It is no mistake that the Toronto Disability The Toronto Disability Pride March began Pride March is a call to build connections in the fall of 2011, inspired by the events of within the disability movement. It is a Occupy Toronto, and the marches against call for equal access and cuts to disability services equal rights for everyone that were happening in “It is no mistake that the Toronto regardless of their race, the UK. The March was Disability Pride March is a call to build class, gender, sexuality, or also intended to raise disability they have. awareness to cuts and connections within the disability movement. what This is something that events that were affecting It is a call for equal access and equal rights for seems to be lacking from the disability community organizations locally, such as cuts everyone regardless of their race, class, gender, mainstream and movements, and is why to social housing and sexuality, or what disability they have.” the March will continue to incidents with the Toronto forge its own path.

Police. In that first year, one hundred people gathered at Nathan as well call making these parks accessible We call on our allies, people of every ability Phillips Square and marched down to St. the new Home Modification Program. from the labour movement, the student James Park.

The UN has noted that people with disabilities The way the March was built also changed movement, and beyond. We call on those are largely excluded from civil and political this year. Without a solid Occupy Toronto whose struggles have long been supported processes and are overwhelmingly voiceless base to build from, we were starting from by people with disabilities to join our in matters that affect them and their scratch. We discovered some of the perils struggle and prove that we are stronger society. Many people with disabilities are and perks of grassroots group organizing. united. For more information, you can find unemployed or underemployed against their We came up with a new route, and made new us on Facebook, or check out our website will. People with disabilities are seen as less allies that helped make our March a success. http://torontodisabilitypride.wordpress.com.

– or not at all - exploitable by the owners We also discovered that for some people of the means of production and are further in our community the concept of disability We look forward to seeing you next year! oppressed by being left out of it. To put it pride is scary, the concept of the oppression in terms of the occupy movement they are of people with disabilities is still too hard to face, and connections between different often the lowest 1% of the 99%.

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ADDRESS STUDENT CENTRE 434

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TORONTO, CANADA EMAIL info@yufreepress.org

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EDITORIAL COLLECTIVE Max Chewinski Ashley Grover Canova Kutuk Michelle Liu Alexandria MacLachlan Daniela Mastrocola Nathan Nun Sabah Tasneem Rahman Jen Rinaldi Amy Saunders

CONTRIBUTORS Farshad Azadian, Victoria Barnett, Canberra Space Invaders, Max Chewinski, Tarah deBie, Catherine Duchastel, Francis Dupuis-Deri, Lorna Erwin, Nadim Feitah, Melissa Graham, Ryan Hay, International Student Movement, Jane and Finch Action Against Poverty, Megan Kinch, Stefan Lazov, Deborah Murray, Padriac O’ Brien, Jen Rinaldi, Amy Saunders

PUBLISHER

News in Brief

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

the Navigable Waters Protection Act would be renamed to the Navigation Protection Act and would only cover 97 lakes and 62 rivers and 3 oceans as opposed to every waterway in Canada.

This change has been criticized in light of the state’s ongoing domestic and international promotion of Tar Sands production and consumption, which will be easier to achieve in light of this new bill since proposals for big pipelines will no longer have to provide evidence suggesting that they will not damage or destroy navigable waterways in Canada. This continuous assault on environmental protections will leave investors happy and communities – such as the York community with the proposed Line 9 reversal project – at risk of yet another imminent pipeline spill.

October 18, 2012: Athens erupts in riots during 24-hour national strike Protesting yet another round of austerity measures, residents of Athens took to the streets during a 24-hour national strike.

Over 17, 000 residents peacefully protested the austerity measures designed to keep the country out of bankruptcy and in the European Union. Similar to many of the recent protests Athens has seen, the march turned violent as police tear-gassed the crowd in aims to control and disperse the march. The crowd responded throwing rocks, cement and petrol bombs during the second national general strike of the month of October.

Greece and the Rise of Fascism Since the start of the capitalist crisis, the Greek state – in an effort to set back complete collapse – has accepted, to date, a €240 billion bailout program. The most recent €31.5 billion bailout package (requiring €13.5 billion in austerity measures) has been put on hold as of October 24, due to on-going negotiations with the troika. This draconian cut to public spending would catapult Greece into further uncertainty, with its youth already facing an unemployment rate of 55%. Furthermore, it would serve as a continuing attack on society’s most vulnerable – pensioners and low-income Greeks – who face the burden of the capitalist crisis and have to endure the largest sacrifices. The effects of this crisis do not only include, for example, declining quality of life, socioeconomic status, and high unemployment, but also radical shifts in the very fabric of social relations and the ideologies that frame them. With public frustration over the handling of economic and political matters mounting, Greeks are seeking alternatives.

One such alternative is increasing support (currently at 12%) of fascist parties such as Golden Dawn, who chime ultra-nationalist tunes that are incredibly xenophobic, homophobic, and racist and are enforced through violence. Examples of Golden Dawn’s violence include: MP Ilias Kasidiaris hitting a left-leaning female MP, MP Ilias Panagiotaros beating journalists documenting his verbal and homophobic assaults on a local theatre group, and party supporters policing street markets, assaulting immigrant workers, and destroying their property. Panagiotaros and his party are weaving together a narrative of impending civil war with nationalists on one side, and anarchists and “illegal” immigrants on the other, with the police in an ambiguous position considering an alleged 50-60% of the police allow Golden Dawn impunity and support. The crisis of capitalism continues.

The YU Free Press Collective The opinions expressed in the YU Free Press are not necessarily those of the editors or publishers. Individual editors are not responsible for the views and opinions expressed herein.

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News

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Quebec Election 2012: A Major Victory for Students and the Left

Deborah Murray

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n September 4, the Quebec Liberals were tossed out of government. The next day, Liberal leader Jean Charest resigned from politics after 28 years in office.

Ousting the Liberals was a huge victory for students and the left in Québec. Fed up with government corruption, declining social services, the demonizing of student protesters and criminalization of demonstrations (Bill 78), Quebecers had simply had enough.

Voters did not overwhelmingly vote for the separatist Parti Québecois (PQ) either. The PQ won a minority with 54 seats in the 125-seat assembly, just ahead of the Liberals with 50 seats. The PQ did not win a majority government because they want a referendum on independence, tighter language legislation, stronger citizenship laws, and a ban on the hijab in public service jobs.

Pre-election, PQ leader Pauline Marois wore the red square of the student movement, denounced Charest`s mishandling of the student strike and demanded a freeze on tuition to win the youth vote. During the election campaign, Marois took off her red square and recruited one of the student strike leaders, Léo Bureau-Blouin, who got elected in a Laval riding.

One of Premier Marois’ first tasks was to quash Charest’s tuition increase and draconian Bill 78.

Even so, militant students were critical of the PQ’s plan to index tuition to the cost of living.

Even if disappointed that the Liberals won official opposition,

voters had felt uneasy with the CAQ (Coalition for the Future of Quebec), a right-wing mix of Canadian federalists and Quebec separatists that formed a year ago.

CAQ came in third with 19 seats.

The Liberals have no power and

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the riding for 12 years. QS showed impressive promise in three other Montreal ridings (Laurier-Dorion, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and St. Marie/St. Jacques) and grew deep roots in many ridings across Quebec.

“While the other parties in the media overshadowed the left wing – Québec Solidaire (QS) – their presence on the political scene grew significantly.”

the PQ must court the CAQ to pass anything through the assembly if they survive a non-confidence vote and another election is not called.

Québec Solidaire While the other parties in the media overshadowed the left wing – Québec Solidaire (QS) – their presence on the political scene grew significantly.

QS fought for a place in the RDI televised debate for Françoise David (one of the national cospokespeople for QS), who emerged the debate’s winner.

She will join QS’s other national co-spokesperson, Amir Khadir, in the national assembly this time. Amir Khadir, elected for a second time, won an easy victory in Montreal`s Mercier riding, over 7,000 votes ahead of the PQ candidate. CAQ came in third and the Liberals trailed in fourth place. Françoise David (15,096 votes), after three elections, took Montreal’s Gouin riding from the PQ (10,723 votes), which had held

QS officially supported the student strikes from the beginning, taking up student demands for free accessible post-secondary education, joining citizen potclanging marches (les casseroles) and proudly wearing the red square.

It’s interesting to note that progressive Anglophones voted for QS in greater numbers despite the party’s programme for an independent Quebec.

QS’s internationalist approach to an independence sensitive to the needs of other language and cultural groups and a proposed democratic constituent assembly process seems to be opening up Anglophones to a new view on the national question.

venue where a sound technician was killed. This amazing response spoke volumes about the solidarity the two language groups achieved throughout the student strike and election. To prevent the media from playing up tensions between the French and English, this solidarity must continue to be built upon in the student and broader social movements as well as in the QS. The battle against tuition increases radicalized a generation. The “printemps Québécois” (Quebec Spring), led by militant, democratic student strikes, was infused with the language of the Occupy movement. In their turn, Quebec students inspired a mass social movement bringing in demands for change: for the environment, against shale gas drilling, against

Plan Nord (Charest’s plan to draw in multi-nationals to mine the North), to protect aboriginal lands, to vote out the Liberals, and for Charest to resign.

Students and locked out Rio Tinto Alcan workers, visibly supported each other’s struggles on the ground. Despite supporting students financially, the major unions infrequently mobilized actions with students. As the working class was the key to change in Quebec in the 1970s, unions will have to mobilize rankand-file members in upcoming struggles.

With the right-wing parties in disarray and many of the demands still unmet, CLASSE has called for a mass demonstration at 2 pm on September 22 at the Assemblée Nationale du Québec.

In the tradition of the mass demonstrations on the 22nd every month during the student strike, CLASSE want to remind the government that battle is not over.

Deborah Murray is a member of the International Socialists in Montreal. This article originally appeared in Socialist Worker.

Upcoming struggles Tragically, during Pauline Marois’ victory speech the night of the election, an English-speaking man shot three people, one fatally, at the PQ gathering. Anglophones and Francophones united at a vigil held the next night outside the

Marie Berne (Flickr) August 11, 2012 – PQ leader Pauline Marois (right) with Leo BureauBlouin (left) at his first political rally as candidate for the Laval-desRapides riding.

Marxists of Iran and Canada Condemn Shutting Down of Iranian Embassy by Canada’s Government Farshad Azadian

O

n September 7, Canada’s Conservative government announced that Canada has closed its embassy in Iran and expelled Iranian diplomats from Canada.

The Marxists of Iran and Canada are issuing this joint statement to condemn this latest round of aggression by the Canadian government.

This act by the Canadian government, rightly described as “bizarre” by many commentators, comes after a recent history of aggressive behaviour towards Iran.

It can be safely stated that no other government on Earth, with the possible exception of the current Israeli government, has fanned the flames of sanctions and aggressions against Iran as much as Canada’s Conservative government under Stephen Harper.

The Harper government has called Iran the “largest threat to the world’s security,” has stepped up economic sanctions that hurt everyday Iranians, and has been

the most “hawkish” of imperialist countries in its stances against Iran.

This latest action – the severing of all diplomatic ties with Iran – is so extreme and “bizarre” that it has left in shock many establishment

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of both of our countries.

There is no doubt that the dictatorship ruling over Iran is no friend of the masses in Iran, or anywhere else. We fight for its revolutionary overthrow. As

When an imperialist government like that of Stephen Harper takes such actions, it will be rightly seen as an aggression against Iran and a further step on the path of sanctions and warmongering. It will not embolden the movement, but only strengthen the regime itself, which can then act as a “victim.”

It will hurt tens of thousands of Iranians living in Canada, mostly opposed to the regime.

“In many countries, we have already seen an independent movement against war in Iran begin to flourish, including in Israel which was the starting point of one of the largest of recent attempts.”

commentators. Just to put this in perspective, since the beginning of Iran’s nuclear crisis, no other Western country has taken the step of severing all diplomatic ties and closing down embassies. This action is a continuation of Canada’s imperialist and aggressive behaviour towards Iran, and is a step on the path of sanctions and warmongering.

We, the Marxists of Canada and Iran, condemn this action from the standpoint of the working people

part of this fight, the solidarity movement abroad has, from timeto-time, attacked the embassies of the reactionary regime, an act supported by us. But, it is important who does this and what repercussions it will have. If the embassies of Iranian regime were closed down as a result of actions of the solidarity movement with the Iranian masses, that would help further delegitimize the regime and embolden the revolutionary movement.

Therefore, we condemn this action and denounce Canada’s right-wing government for its aggressive behaviour towards Iran. It is the job of working-class people of Canada, the USA, Israel and other countries, to fight against their own government for their warmongering policy, and to stop the threat of war on Iran. It is also the job of the working people of Iran to continue their fight for the overthrow of their “own” regime.

In many countries, we have already seen an independent movement against war in Iran begin to flourish, including in Israel which was the starting point of one of the largest of recent attempts.

While we believe the pacifist tendency that currently rules over these movements is not sufficient to stop the war, these actions are steps in the right direction. Such grandstanding extreme acts on the part of Canada’s government are intended to cut through such an independent movement, which is a threat to the interest of capitalist governments in both Canada and Iran.

September 8, 2012 Mobareze Tabaqati: Marxist voice of workers and youth in Iran (www. mobareze.org) Fightback: The Marxist voice of labour and youth in Canada (www. marxist.ca)

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News

FALL ISSUE 1 2012

Global Education Strike

payment by participants and any kind of discrimination and exclusion and therefore freely accessible to all individuals → sufficient funding for all public educational institutions, whether they are deemed profitable or not STRUCTURE: → all educational entities/institutions should be democratically structured, meaning direct participation from below as a basis for decision making processes Why on the local and global level?

International Student Movement

International Joint Statement O

ver the past decade students, pupils, teachers, parents, and employees around the world have been protesting against the increasing commercialization and privatization of public education, and fighting for free and emancipatory education.

Many of us use the International Student Movement [website] as a self-managed platform initiated to exchange information, network and co-ordinate protests at both the national and the international level. Since the ISM platform was initiated in November 2008, various global days and weeks of action have been coordinated.

We strive for structures based on direct participation and non-hierarchical organization through collective discussion and action. Anyone who identifies with the struggle against the privatization of public education, and for free and emancipatory education can join and participate in as well as shape the platform!

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The following aims unite us worldwide:

What are we struggling against?

The effects of the current economic system on people and education systems: → tuition fees or any form of fees which exclude people from accessing and equally participating in education → student debt → public education aligned to serve the (labour) market; The so called Bologna-Process (as with its counterparts around the world) is aimed at implementing education systems that primarily train people in skills serving the labour market. It promotes the reduction of costs for training a person, shortens the length of time spent studying, and produces under qualified workforces. → turning education into a commodity as part of the commodification of all aspects of life → the significant and increasing influence of business interests on basic budgets for public education → the significant and increasing budget cuts on public education worldwide → the privatization of public funds through the subsidization of private educational institutions → the commodification and exploitation of labor within educational institutions We stand against discrimination and exclusion within any educational institution based on: → socio-economic background, for instance by charging fees so that people with less money can’t participate → nationality → performance and academic record → political ideologies and activities → gender → sexual orientation → religion → ethnic background → race We stand against the prioritization of research towards commercially valuable patents rather than open knowledge freely available to all → Public educational institutions are increasingly forced to compete for private

sponsorships to do (basic) research; at the same time private funds tend to be invested into research promising to be profitable, leading to a decline in funding for areas of research which may be important but not deemed economically lucrative. Educational institutions and participants are evaluated on

Activities for the army within educational institutions: → no research specifically for military purposes → no recruiting and advertising activities for the army

What are we struggling for?

CONTENT: → free and emancipatory education as a human right. Education should primarily work for the emancipation “Short-term changes of the individual. This means: being may be achieved on the local enabled to critically reflect on and level, but great change will only understand the power structures and environment surrounding them. happen if we unite globally.”

Education must not only enable the emancipation of the individual but the basis of economic profitability and often society as a whole compete to receive additional public funding → education as a public good serving public interests based on this criterion. → academic freedom and choice: freedom We stand against the prioritization of to pursue any educational discipline income-generating research grants ahead of ACCESS: education and basic research → free from monetary mechanisms of

GLOBAL EDUCATION STRIKE Oct.18th & Nov.14-22nd 2012

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e are calling for a Global Education Strike. It is the first time that an education strike is being coordinated worldwide.

We will UNITE in solidarity, because no matter where we live, we face the same struggle against national state and profit driven interests, and their hold on education. Increasing tuition fees, budget cuts, outsourcing, school closures, as well as other phenomena are linked to an increasing commercialization and privatization of education. Only by uniting globally will we be able to overcome these and enable free emancipatory education for all.

We are all struggling against cuts in education.

Most of us are drowning in student debt. The increasing pressure to perform just makes us sick and the restrictions on education and ever-increasing tuition fees, among other barriers, make us angry! Everyone must have access to education, no matter their monetary or social status.

We have had enough of the pressure to measure everything - even the immeasurable!

We are sick and tired of competitiveness being the only criteria dictating everything!

It is about time that we do something about

this together – UNITED! We are all people affected by the increasing commodification and commercialization of education. This is vividly portrayed by the symptoms affecting us, such as schools and universities being de-democratized and the further implementation of more hierarchical structures. The education market and competition between institutions is being facilitated by governments around the world, which are increasingly privatizing education, health care, and all other social needs.

In June 2012 alone, we recorded 45 protests in more than 40 cities in connection with the struggle for free, emancipatory education. Governments have chronically underfunded the institutions, often using the current economic crisis as pretext. They promote ‘solutions’ such as rankings encouraging competition; closing schools that ‘underperform’; increasing student enrollment without increasing faculty, staff, and student resources; outsourcing everything that can be outsourced; promoting elite institutions. All these ‘solutions’ are steps towards an increasing commodification and privatization of education, which also

The impacts of the current global economic system create struggles worldwide. While applying pressure to influence our local/ regional politics and legislation, we must always be aware of the global and structural nature of our problems and learn from each other’s tactics, experiences in organizing, and theoretical knowledge. Short-term changes may be achieved on the local level, but great change will only happen if we unite globally.

Education systems worldwide do what they are intended to do within the economic and state system(s): select for, train and create ignorance and submission. We unite for a different education system and a different life.

We stand united against any sort of repression by governments worldwide directed at people involved in the struggle for free and emancipatory education.

Wish to support this statement by having your (group) name listed? Just send an e-mail to: united.for.education@gmail.com has negative impacts on the conditions for teaching and learning.

The education market and national states require that profits take priority over developing the capabilities for emancipatory thinking; both need obeying ‘citizens,’ consumers and cheap labour, not emancipated individuals living self-determined lives.

We are being mechanized to function as cogs in the capitalist machine. We are socialized to compete with our fellow beings on every level. The educational institution is actively crushing our creativity, our energy, and our free spirits.

The education system within capitalism consists mainly of training factories, which are supposed to produce human capital for exploitation on the labour market, as well as knowledge that will be commodified. To point out these links and interrupt this mode of production we call for the closing down of educational institutions worldwide during the Global Education Strike.

Fight back! Join in EDUCATION STRIKE.

the

GLOBAL

All justice begins with knowledge. Stand with us as one this October and November, and the whole world will hear our call to reclaim education.

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Features

Black Bloc and

Red Square

Francis Dupuis-Déri

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or weeks now, debates have been raging over “Black Blocs,” described as “Anarchist groups,” “vandals,” “masked, hooded, black clad and waving black flags.” I have witnessed several incidents during demonstrations where demonstrators have insulted and physically attacked Black Bloc members in the name of nonviolence.

Black Blocs can also, of course, simply march in the demonstration as union, NGO, and political party contingents do, crammed together behind their banners, following their leaders. I have seen Black Blocs in Montréal and elsewhere do just that, marching calmly, an expression of their radical critique of capitalism or of the State through their mere presence. But it is usually when Black Blocs use direct action that the media notice their existence. And yet Black Blocs are not a new phenomenon.

A look back on an eventful history…

Their Origin The Black Bloc tactic first appeared in West Germany around 1980, in the “autonomous” (Autonomen) movement, whose Far-Left politics and quest for autonomy from all institutions (States, parties, unions) set them apart. The autonomous movement was made up of hundreds of squats which were true spaces for collective living and experiments in counterculture.

Whenever there was an attempt by authorities to evict squats, Black Blocs, sometimes made up of over 1,000 activists, would confront the police and defend the squat.

The Black Bloc tactic then spread throughout punk, anarchist, and anti-fascist scenes. It seems that the first Black Blocs to appear in North-America were in the 1990s in the radical anti-racist scene and in mobilizations against the first Iraq war. The Black Bloc phenomenon has been getting more attention over the last ten years or so in the mass mobilizations against international institutions associated with neoliberalism and the spread of global capitalism

(Seattle in 1999, The Summit of the Americas in Québec in 2001, etc.). More recently, Black Blocs have done direct actions during the G20 Summit in Toronto (2010) and in “Occupy” movement demonstrations, particularly in Oakland and in Rome.

It is clear that the Black Bloc is not a permanent organization and that it is therefore more logical to refer to Black Blocs (plural). Before and after a demonstration, the Black Bloc does not exist.

Polemic We are often told that Black Blocs “infiltrate” demonstrations. Black Blocs have even been referred to as the “cancer” of the Occupy movement. Through making such condemnations, social movement spokespeople are able to remain respectable in the eyes of the elite at the risk of undermining solidarity and condoning police repression and the criminalization of dissent. But such statements are also confounding in that it is unclear on what basis it can be claimed that members of Black Blocs don’t participate in social movements. In order to do so, you would have to determine to whom movements belong to, and what right those people have to claim such ownership.

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“We are students. We are workers. We are the unemployed. We are angry. We are not co-opting the strike. We have been part of the movement from the beginning… We don’t infiltrate demonstrations, we help organize them, and we bring them to life.” (“Manifeste du Carré Noir,” March 2012)

us not forget how many politicians work for political parties not out of conviction, but rather to seek personal profit or the glory of power.

The Target is the Message It seems that members of Black Blocs are actually generally individuals with activist experience and political awareness. Members of Black Blocs do not believe that it is always necessary to resort to force in demonstrations, nor do they believe that using force is the purest form of activism.

This being said, on certain occasions, they do find it useful and justifiable to disturb social

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mass media, the State (especially the police) and, sometimes, patriarchy (during the G20 summit in Toronto an American Apparel shop and a strip club were targeted by a Black Bloc, which counted many women in its ranks).

in 2001, Black Bloc members declared: “We are not seeking a place at the table in discussions between the rulers of the world; we want there to no longer be any rulers of the world.”

Black Blocs seem, in this way, to be reiterating a statement made in the early 20th century in Britain

by Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the suffragette movement, for whom “the argument of the broken pane of glass is the most valuable argument in modern politics.” She thus justified the collective action of hundreds of activists who, in March 1911, had smashed dozens of windows in London commercial districts. After their mass arrest, one of the prisoners would say: “We

Remaining Critical I do not claim to have revealed the whole truth about Black Blocs here, nor do I claim to know all there is to know about them, and their spokespeople. Black Blocs can also be criticized on moral grounds: “Peaceful protest!” (but who gets to decide what is good and what is evil?), on legal grounds: “It’s against the law!” (but who judges which laws are just?), on strategic grounds: “They’re hurting the movement!” (but who decides which tactics are “efficient” and which aren’t?)

“I have witnessed several incidents during demonstrations where demonstrators have insulted and physically attacked Black Bloc members in the name of non-violence.”

peace and express legitimate rage, not to mention that liberal “social peace” is itself inherently violent: war and police brutality, various inequalities, isolation and poverty. Who in Quebec knows that between Westmount and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, there is about a ten year gap in lifeexpectancy? Smashing a window?

That’s not violence, then, they say, or at least it’s nothing compared to the violence of the system.

Besides a few rare communiqués, it is through their graffiti and their choices of targets that we are best able to grasp the political thought of Black Blocs. It is never – or rarely – “senseless violence.”

Their targets are associated with capitalism (banks, multinational corporations), private and public

tried everything—demonstrations and mass meetings—but those didn’t work.”

“Black Blocs are the best political philosophers of our time,” according to political scientist Nicolas Tavaglione, because they ask societies to decide whether the protection of material goods is worth police brutality, or whether the maintenance of social order is worth sacrificing liberty and equality.

Black Blocs are certainly anarchist, communist, ecologist or radical feminist and most of the time – according to their communiqués – against all authorities and hierarchies. In the communiqué “Pourquoi étions-nous à Gênes,” sent out after the G8 summit

This being said, it is important to know that hundreds or thousands of protestors are also in favour of Black Blocs. What’s more, “violence” at demonstrations is not exclusively perpetrated by Black Blocs, as police violence is always more brutal.

Seeking to truly understand the history and actions of Black Blocs and taking the time to read the communiqués they release over the course of mobilizations may allow us to remain critical of the simplistic discourse of opinionmakers, politicians, and police, who delight in making all sorts of false and gratuitous statements about them – although I find “gratuité” to be an admirable principle.

Francis Dupuis-Déri is a political science professor at UQAM and the author of the book Les Black Blocs (Lux, 2007).

To respond to this critique, “anarchists, amongst others” who participated in Black Blocs and who wrote the “Manifeste du Carré Noir,” published in March 2012 in the context of student mobilizations in Quebec, declared: “We are students. We are workers.

We are the unemployed. We are angry. We are not co-opting the strike. We have been part of the movement from the beginning…

We don’t infiltrate demonstrations, we help organize them, and we bring them to life.”

Their detractors also accuse members of Black Blocs of having no political cause to defend, since all they want to do is “break everything.” There are obviously some who join Black Blocs without strong political convictions, but let

The Daily Reed (Wikicommons)

Students Strike Against Mining and Extraction:

Quebec Students Lead way with Fight Against ‘Plan Nord’ Megan Kinch

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pril 2012, Montreal: I am standing in the middle of a street.

Tear gas fills the air as cops with batons advance down the street.

There are more cops around the corner, and they are hammering their shields with their batons. I remember this building from a small protest of maybe a hundred people last year, when Plan Nord announced a resource extraction plan for even more mining, hydroelectric dams and logging in Quebec’s north on native lands.

A year later, this protest has a new face. I pull my scarf over my face because of the tear gas, and I follow the remnants of the crowd as it melts away from the cop lines, filters through multiple alleyways and reassembles. The cops have lost control of the streets and the crowd coming from all directions.

This is the Quebec student strike but this is also an economic blockade.

The impressive Plan Nord protest, involving more than 2000 people, was actually multiple protests at once (to the confusion of the police) by students and green anarchists. A third group included families who had shown up in solidarity with Innu indigenous women who had walked approximately 900 miles from their reserve to Montreal.

The Innu indigenous women had previously done a blockade on their land against a hydroelectric project and many were arrested. I spoke to one of the Innu women, Annie Elyse Vollant, through a translator: “I decided [that] I have to stand up and do something.

I cannot be quiet. I decided to organize something. The walk after the blockade was to denounce Plan Nord, and of course [to earn] the recognition of our ancestral rights, and to protect the land, the mother earth.”

I asked Annie how her march related to the student movement.

She told me: “The idea for the march came from the students.

I was watching [the protest] on the news and I noticed that the students were protesting every day.

[In] that moment, [I decided] we should do something and be a part of this movement. All first nations, Quebecois and everyone else [were welcomed to join us] and fight together to protect the land and to denounce Plan Nord.”

In a photo that went viral on the internet, yellow-vested cops ended up running from protesters (fully clad riot cops did as well), as the balance of forces in the streets changed. I interviewed Claude, a 41-year old veteran protestor present as this unfolded and he commented, “I don’t know exactly what was the turning point, what made the police turn and run. Actually, I was running

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from the policeman! Then I saw people all around me turn and start running the other way. So I turned as well, and started running after the police….the energy was so strong from our side that we could beat the police. But it lasted like 30 seconds (laughter), and then tear gas came in and we ran from the police (more laughter).”

That Sunday, the April 22nd Earth Day protests, some 200,000 to 300,000 people gathered in downtown Montreal for a massive

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Well, as the popular slogan goes “La grève est étudiantes, la lutte est populaire!” (The Strike is Students, but the Struggle is the People’s). The economic demands of the student strike went beyond lowering tuition. The red squares on every jacket started originally as part of an anti-poverty movement and the fight against Plan Nord represented demands for a different kind of economy altogether, one not based on extraction and dispossession.

won through electoral struggles, but will through solidarity in the streets.

It is doubtful that all components of Plan Nord will be scrapped. The PQ generally goes along economic nationalist (minerals for Quebec) lines rather than indigenous sovereignty lines. Ending abusive extraction in the north is going to require a profound change in economic policy that can only be brought about through more massive social mobilization and organization.

The Quebec student strike was about far more than just tuition increases and anglophone youth have a lot to learn. Katie Nelson is an Alberta student who has been in Quebec taking part in demonstrations since this earlier this summer. She said: “The success of the strike not only affected the educational trend of Quebec but province-wide political climate. It introduced students to alternative political identity and to anticapitalism, leading youth masses into boycotts far larger than simply tuition, but as well Plan Nord and the questioning of democracy and the use of violence against political dissent.”

Lessons for Environmental Justice Struggles in Ontario

“The red squares on every jacket started originally as part of an anti-poverty movement and the fight against Plan Nord represented demands for a different kind of economy altogether, one not based on extraction and dispossession.”

family-friendly protest.

The Montreal Gazette reported, “Many before had never attended an Earth Day event…Earth Day organizers themselves were stunned.” The NGOs that organized Earth Day were floored, not quite realizing that the massive showing was in solidarity with the student strike as well as for the environment. Even the CBC reported the large nonmilitant Earth Day protest separate from the student strike, “The focus Sunday was on environmental issues, highlighted every year during Earth Day events around the world.”

These kinds of broader demands have not come through in the English language press and for a reason – they are too dangerous.

Since the provincial election where Charest was booted from office, the PQ government has cancelled the tuition hikes and even approved the shut down of Quebec’s only nuclear power station, and the new minister of natural resources has said that ‘fracking’ (a toxic method of extracting natural gas) is not safe. They finally admitted that asbestos is harmful and that shipping it to developing countries is not okay.

Were these protests really separate from each other? Although there were a number of people who were clearly at the protest for Earth Day, there were also enormous contingents of students and unionized workers, including people wearing the symbolic red square everywhere. There were also people from leftist political parties, as well as sovereigntists opposed to Charest’s Liberal government.

Somehow they all became part of the same movement: anger against Plan Nord, corporate corruption and the lack of democracy. Because one was a family-friendly march with massive attendance, and the other was economic disruption, the commonalities became obscured. The student strike showed that environmentalism has to be political, and the selfappointed organizers of Earth Day (like the organizers of the mainstream environmental movement in general) has not even realized yet that they have been bypassed.

This is a testament to the power of the environmental demands of the student movement and the power among street protests, strikes and economic disruption. Broader environmental demands to shift the economy away from mining, and respect indigenous land rights isn’t going to be something that can be

A people’s strike: environment and justice

Right here in Ontario, extraction plans similar to Plan Nord are being implemented. Ramsey Hart, from Mining Watch Canada, follows mining development in Northern Ontario. He said: “While both Ontario and Quebec have looked to mining in the north as a solution to economic woes, Ontario has not been as ambitious in developing a region-wide approach. Ontario is betting on developments in the area dubbed the “Ring of Fire” by the industry while negotiating major infrastructure to support the ring behind closed doors with the lead proponent, Cliffs Natural Resources. While flawed in many respects, at least the process of developing the Plan Nord has generated increased interest and awareness of proposed developments in the north of Quebec. Most southern Ontarians are not aware of the massive projects and proposal for hundreds of millions of subsidies to the “Ring of Fire.”

Étudiants, economic

Why would students risk so much in their fight against mining and extraction? Wasn’t the Quebec student strike against tuition?

Pei-Ju Wang Indigenous People’s Solidarity Movement, Ottawa, www.ipsmo.org

The “Ring of Fire” project has 20 mining companies making claims on the mineral resources, and is being opposed by First Nations, including the Matawa First Nations Council in the area. They announced an “immediate moratorium on all mining exploration and development” as they are not being consulted regarding the mining plans. Indigenous land defenders are being politically persecuted all around the province: the KI in the north and Ardoch Algonquin First Nation near Ottawa have faced arrests for trying to protect their land from logging and mining projects, and the 6 Nations have also been targeted for protests against encroaching suburban development. Jaime Knee, also from Mining Watch Canada said: “I’d venture to say that while the policy objectives are no different between Charest and McGuinty, Ontario doesn’t have a concrete grand plan, possibly hoping to attract less criticism by preferring to throw money at proponents -and ignore indigenous land rights -- on an opportunistic basis rather than a systematic one.”

Student unions in Quebec of course, function more like workers unions than what we call ‘student unions’ in Ontario. At York University, the closest equivalent in some ways is CUPE 3903, which is organized as a worker union of graduate students and adjunct faculty with the general membership meeting as the highest decision making body.

One of their working groups, the First Nations Solidarity Working Group, has been a key organization against racism in solidarity with 6 Nations land defenders. There is not any equivalent fighting organization like this at York University for undergrads as of yet. In Quebec, department by department organizing has been key to building strong fighting organizing. There are now efforts to start departmental general assemblies at Ryerson University.

As a democratic organization with meetings and assemblies, they connect university worker and graduate student struggles.

Democratic participatory assemblies have been critical in organizing the Quebec student strike. Benoit Marson, who was involved in the founding ASEE (which became CLASSE, the left wing student union coalition in

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The Ontario Student Strike Nadim Feitah

This idea was also springing up in much of Quebec. Many activists would set up conferences, trainings, and workshops not just in Ontario, but other provinces as well, in order to spread the means upon which the mass mobilization took place. Three main points were stressed.

First, general assemblies are the only way to ensure that the masses are behind the strike. The unions cannot push the student strike.

Direct democracy is the only way to build a bottom-up strike mentality.

This ensures participation of all the students and the inclusion of every idea.

Second, the initial goal cannot be entirely revolutionary or radical.

It must be a simple one: one that seems easily achievable and can rally the students together. For example, free tuition as a primary goal from the onset may not get students behind a movement if it is deemed too radical. Radical sentiments will organically grow within the student population.

There needs to be instead, a plausible and overarching goal upon which the students can rally around.

Finally, the strike cannot be the goal – it is a means to the end.

The end is the final goal and must always be fought for. Any actions, strikes, economic disruptions, etc. must be coordinated in order to ensure that the goal is nearing.

There are a few differences though, that separate Ontario from Quebec’s circumstances. The most notable of which is the massive tuition hike that was imposed by Charest’s Liberal government.

Most movements around the globe are reactionary. The Quebec Student strike is no different. It reacted to an implementation of two decisions: the tuition hike (75 per cent in five years) and the implementation of Bill 78. The emergency law, Bill 78 (or “the special law”), was implemented as a means to ensure that the strike could not “impede” with students wanting to go into their school. It stated that no protest/ demonstration could be on or near university campuses and that, any demonstrations that

By the time any strike will be implemented, there will already be a necessity for general assembly occurring in every faculty in the university, allowing for “A proactive movement every voice to cannot be as easily appeased. As be heard while for it continues to grow in numbers allowing separate needs and power, so too will to be fulfilled the goals grow.” for each faculty.

Then, why Can we not implement such a not have the general assemblies tactic within our own student discuss how a new educational movement? It only seems rational. model could be created within each To stand up and fight with the faculty as a means to ensure that idea that education is a right, then new techniques are used to help implement that right being given educate the students? And since to anyone and everyone within the the entire movement is founded community is not only economic upon participatory democracy, disruption but also solidifying the why not create a faculty-specific public’s view of how much the model to ensure democratic classes students care for education (“we are conducted? There are already believe in free education so much a growing number of cases of that we created it!”). It would democratic classrooms around the be as simple as taking over a world. Studies have shown that university/college campus, holding within these classrooms, there are picket lines or blockades to stop higher student attendance, higher achievement, greater administration from coming in, student and literally setting up free classes creativity and conceptual learning, as well as an increase in motivation open to the public. for further learning.

But why stop there?

What we would have then, is a The educational model that movement fighting for the right to is pushed onto its students is education for all, giving education incredibly limiting and forces a to all, and in a means that everyone model of conformity onto young can learn with. It seems only fitting minds. This inevitably leaks not for students to show the reality of only into their social lives but also education – the corporatization in their careers as well. One could of education not only limits who even go as far as saying that the can study, but how they do so.

2008 economic collapse was due to Yes, it is a radical notion and one this conformity – an employee who that will take a long time before simply followed orders or a CEO needing real consideration, but denying ethical ramifications in it is an idea that needs to be said. order to appease the shareholders. Much of the criticism against the The educational model we Quebec student strike was that the currently have is cold, sterile, students were all “a bunch of lazy, and submissive. People learn at white, middle-class kids who don’t different rates, in different ways, care about education” (actual quote and with different understanding. from someone I met). This seems This is a fact that no one can deny – to be about the only way to prove so, with the student movement we the critics wrong.

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ctivists outside of Quebec have been closely watching the student movement that struck with full force against the tuition hikes earlier this year. Many of us were in awe at the Quebec students’ capability of rallying so much support in the streets – not just with the student populace, but with the general population as well. Of course, a romanticization of the movement occurred in our hearts, and who could blame us? For the first time in a generation, we have witnessed a mobilization en masse in Canada, one unlike any before witnessed in our country. We would wear our carré rouge proudly in the streets en route to our weekly casseroles, banging pots and pans yelling “Solidarité”. As we walked, as we chanted, as we watched, read, and heard stories, we began to think a very simple and powerful notion – that we can do the same thing right here in Ontario.

hope to start, why not change it all?

Justin Ling Demonstrator wearing a Guy Fawkes mask during the May 22, 2012 national demonstration, part of the 2012 Quebec student protests. consisted of 50 or more people needed to submit their route to the police for approval. This law, widely considered a restriction of human rights, radicalized a larger population of the students than ever before. Hundreds of thousands would take the streets in protest of this law within the coming months, including a group of lawyers from Montreal.

We however, have a very difficult time ahead of us. Our movement is not reactionary, but rather a proactive one in execution. This is a very difficult task for a number of reasons. How many people are willing to fight against something that has been a status quo for sometime? If there is not action that instigates our rage and a movement growing from the pangs of our discontent, then a proactive movement must grow. This is not to say that this task is impossible, but rather that it is an incredibly difficult one.

What we do have on our side however, is a simple poll expressing that the number one concern of every student going to school this year is the debt that will be imposed. This will be the fuel to the fire, which we all must be helping to create. We need to connect to every student who is worrying about their future, who is studying for a better one, and instead are being suppressed through burden of debt This coupled with Canada’s ever growing youth unemployment and a diminishing prospect for a decent job after graduation, can theoretically ignite a student movement here in Canada.

The difference then will be massive. Consider this: when fighting in reply to a governmental decision, is it not easier to appease the general populace by reneging on the original decision? This may have been the reason why the student strike in Quebec slowed down: due to the brilliantly placed election, they were appeased by the possibility that the tuition hike would be dismantled. This is not to say that the movement is over, but rather that it is slowing down until further notice.

A proactive movement cannot be as easily appeased. As it continues to grow in numbers and power, so too will the goals grow. As the goals grow to a more radical sentiment (like free tuition), so too will the resolve of the students to ensure it is followed through. A reactionary movement like Quebec’s though,

has the initial spine of fighting the tuition hike, which implemented the spark to the fury that occurred within the past few months in Quebec.

This gives us an advantage (albeit a tough one to achieve) by creating a proactive student movement. The other advantage we could create is simply by learning from anything that may have gone wrong in the Quebec student strike. This is not to say that we must focus on the failures, as there were many victories. Mobilization en masse was one of them – but we do need to learn from mistakes, of which there were few.

After spending some time in Montreal throughout this summer, a single question seemed to always linger in the air for me: Why is it that it is necessary for a student’s education to be jeopardized while fighting for the right of education?

This seems a little hypocritical for a movement whose fundamental message is that education is a right and not a privilege. I of course, understand the necessity for economic disruption, but how does alienating the students who are needed within the movement help by any means? Within the past two years, we have seen a revival of the “occupation” tactic, but with a lovely twist: the people of the occupation would live the world they wanted to see. This tactic does two things.

First, it shows to occupants or outsiders that another world is possible – as was the case in Tahrir Square (Egypt), Puerto del Sol (Spain), and all throughout the “occupy movement” which spread around the globe. Second, it showed the elite that we do not need them in order to achieve our goals. Our world, a world we have been told non-stop by every authority in our lives, is not only possible, it is possible without those whose corruption, greed, and misguided actions have made our radical actions necessary. All those who were lucky enough to witness the society in these squares/parks were witness to a beautiful and incredibly powerful time. These occupations created solidarity, destroyed barriers, and sent a message. So, while dissecting the Quebec student strike, would it not be necessary to do the same of other movements/revolutions whose tactics helped implement change or at the very least created mass mobility?

Strike Against Mining CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 Quebec during the strike), told me, “All the structures, the decisionmaking process, the means of action that are usually taken, is a copy of what is done in the worker unions.” This includes calling enforceable strike votes at general assemblies just like workers unions do in their workplaces.

They use an adapted version of the decision making process that Quebec worker’s union the CSN uses, involving 50% majority voting for strike. Part of the power of the Quebec student movement is that its more than just protests – students organized in unions can actually shut down the university or individual departments in the form of economic disruption.

I asked Sakura Saunders, who organizes in part with Torontobased Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN), about the relationship between student movements and mining activism.

MISN has worked with the ‘Munk Out of U of T’ campaign against corporatization and mining money at the University of Toronto, through the U of T General Assembly. Sakura told me: “I appreciated that the Quebec student strike educated their

assemblies not only on student fees, but also on the corporatization of the university…there are direct links between the university and extractive industries. I think that the more people are engaged in political decisions that impact their life, the more control they feel over other things like the future of their environment and natural resources.”

Quebec students lead the way in linking up student movements with environmental justice and solidarity and indigenous communities.

They are not perfect; there are many issues to be resolved including an overrepresentation of white Quebecois students and corresponding underrepresentation of immigrant youth, and the continuing presence of sovereigtists economic nationalism.

Even still, the environmental justice victories of the student movement so far have been impressive and they are not ending.

CLASSE is still out protesting for free tuition, and others have called out a new demonstration against Plan Nord for September, 2012.

Ontario students can learn from the more advanced movement in Quebec and self-organize to beat our own province’s abusive extractive plans. The surprising victories of the Quebec student movement point to the possibility of other ones: another world is still possible.

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For a United Mass Student Movement

Padraic O’Brien

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f anything, the student protests in Québec and massive social mobilization they generated should make student activists elsewhere in Canada reflect on the approaches of student activism on their campuses.

In English Canada, student activists tend to join numerous, relatively small campus clubs centered on raising awareness around issues such as the environment and identity politics.

Whereas, in Québec, it is the issue of accessibility to education, central to the identity of students as a group, that draws the majority of radical students into a single, broad movement capable of mobilizing large numbers of students in campuses across the province.

This singularity is at the roots of the wide gap in terms of student mobilization that exists between the two distinct student bodies, and results in the comparatively more accessible education found in Québec due to its rich history of student struggles. In Ontario, militancy efforts are spread across different organizations that are able to create safe spaces for the social groups they represent and give a certain visibility to those issues, but at the same time fall short of reaching and instilling a sense of student politics in the general student population.

Québec student movements have been criticised meanwhile by certain English Canadian observers for failing to draw sufficient attention and reserving space to issues that specifically target marginalized groups like women, First Nations, racialized and LGBTQ people. But the success in terms of mass mobilization and generating a society-wide debate brought by the Québec student movement forces us to reflect on which approach is more efficient at challenging the unjust status quo, which remains the core objective of radical student activists across the country.

What has been perhaps most interesting of the Québec student strike is that it opened up a space to debate widely about issues that had been previously perceived to be overshadowed by the central question of accessibility to education. Students who had previously not been exposed to those issues and who would only mobilise when it came to fighting against tuition hikes were able to witness the connections between them and the cause they were fighting for along with their connections to state repression which they were experiencing firsthand. Through the course of the strike, a series of events catalyzed these processes. I will outline a few of them here.

The first such incident perhaps was the clumsy comment made by student spokesperson Gabriel

Nadeau-Dubois, on the set of a popular TV show, when he suggested the opening of Northern Québec to large-scale extractive resource investments, under the

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an unprecedented opportunity to reach out to a wider audience, particularly following the infamous participation of blackface protesters at the March 22nd demo.

large numbers to seize the event as a platform and denounce the outrageous practices associated to it, such as environmental destruction, the promotion of the sex industry and the extravagant consumerist lifestyle of the elite. In this case, the mobilization against tuition fees evolved into an action against the capitalist system, targeting one of its ostensibly popular “cultural” manifestations. This would have been unimaginable even a year ago in Québec. In face of this escalation, it can be said that anticolonialism, anti-racism and antipatriarchy have made dents in the collective mind of Québec’s youth, like militants could never have hoped before.

“...students in Québec are now at the forefront of social resistance against austerity policies in North America; English Canadian students interested in joining them there should at least take a page or two from their book”

controversial government policy called Plan Nord, could serve to fund free tuition, attracting heavy criticism from the left, including from within student ranks. The spokesperson was called out not only for failing to represent his association’s viewpoint, but also for implicitly lending his support to a colonial policy that was perpetuating and extending the exploitation of First Nations and their land and resources by the government and mining corporations.

Rank-and-file militants quickly and successfully agitated for the CLASSE, the radical student association, to take a stand against the Plan Nord and the spokesperson had to retract his statement.

Plan Nord then became a favourite target of student protesters, especially following the incidents of April 20th, when the students fuelled a protest initially launched

by Innu women against a trade fair where Premier Jean Charest was giving a presentation on the plan.

The protest gave way to one of the most riotous scenes of the student strike, and both Charest and his Plan Nord did not win any more supporters after the premier made his infamous joke about offering jobs in the North to those people “knocking at the doors” of the conference.

The involvement of the student movement inflated coverage of criticism of the Plan Nord, while allowing discussion of colonialism to be disseminated within the mass body of students.

As a result of the militancy from groups like Students of Colour, the CLASSE adopted anti-racism as one of its principles.

The participation of members of these groups no doubt contributed to enlarging the tuition debate, by stressing the necessity to tackle the broader issues, namely the neocolonial, patriarchal, racist structure in which policies like tuition fees are disproportionately affecting minority groups. These groups have been struggling against those measures and other issues, such as police brutality, for decades. While the moreprivileged white students were going through this struggle, it became a lot easier for them to relate with the experiences of people from marginalized groups who they literally found on the same side of the barricade.

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It is no surprise that mobilization around accessibility to education

access to education lends itself perfectly for a broader discussion on the theme of discrimination, allowing it to be brought to the fore in the context of mass student mobilization, as happened in Québec.

Meanwhile, through their struggle and involvement in a wider societal debate, more-privileged students are able to make connections with those other phenomena which they are not necessarily proximately connected to, such as discrimination and social inequality. There are lessons to be learned here for student activists in Ontario, who for years have worked tirelessly to raise awareness about issues such as tar sands development and discrimination against marginalized groups, but so far failed to generate sustained interest among the general student population.

And so, it appears that participating in mobilization around issues that students can immediately relate to, and that also falls under the umbrella of social justice, such as the ballooning student debt and outrageous tuition fees, may be a more effective way of finally raising social consciousness and political action on a massive scale among students.

Through tireless grassroots organizing efforts and months of intense, street struggles against the forces of the state, the students in Québec are now at the forefront of

“What has been perhaps most interesting of the Québec student strike is that it opened up a space to debate widely about issues that had been previously perceived to be overshadowed by the central question of accessibility to education.”

The culmination of student action showcasing interconnectivity of issues was probably the movement against the F-1 Grand Prix last June, which saw students joined by environmental, feminist and other militants to mobilize in

was able to generate such radicalization of people’s consciousness. While, on the one hand, education may constitute a means of empowerment for marginalized groups, on the other hand, reducing access to it affects these groups disproportionately.

Women, Indigenous people, racialized groups and people from rural areas have lower incomes than the average, which means that uniform tuition hikes represent a harsher setback for them. As such,

The student strike has also created a space to discuss issues of race, class and gender.

While the Québec student movement continues to be white maledominated, over the course of the strike the situation of marginalized groups has been an important topic of discussion, being brought up by groups such as Students of Colour Montréal which found in the strike In protest against rising tuition fees in Quebec June 22, 2012.

social resistance against austerity policies in North America; English Canadian students interested in joining them there should at least take a page or two from their book.

So, whether you are interested in defending migrant workers’ rights, fighting for racial and gender equality, checking tar sands development or resisting corporate control over our food system – you should look into the effort to build a student movement for a Free, Accessible and Public Education!

Antoine Letarte

10

FEATU

e k a T r u o Y k c Ba s u p Cam This past August (and many times throughout 2011), students in Chile’s high schools occupied their buildings in protest of facing among the highest post-secondary tuition fees in the world. Students, both high school and postsecondary, have been protesting for a complete overhaul of the state’s administration of education for more than a year. Their demands include free, quality, democratic, autonomous, pluralistic and accessible education. One tactic seen in the Chilean student movement is that of occupying their campuses in order to reclaim student space and protest expensive, inaccessible post-secondary education.

Pictured above, The University of Chile is occupied during the 2006 student protests, with all windows covered in banners.

The banner at the top of the school reads “the struggle is for all of society - everyone for free education”

This past summer in Toronto, the Graduate Student Union of the University of Toronto organized and sponsored an Ontario Student Strike Training Camp. Over the course of a weekend, student organizers from Montreal’s CEGEPS and Universities worked with Ontario students to suggest and develop ideas around campaigns, tactics (strikes, rallies, etc.), and decision-making structures (general assemblies) focusing on the issue of rising tuition fees.

Working with your friends, peers, professors and comrades is a great way to share skills and ideas that can promote central issues such as tuition fee reductions or free, accessible education. In addition, creating alternative sources of information that don’t rely on a corporate media model can prove effective for the diffusion of ideas that are accurate, reliable, and free of distortions. Host your own educational event to discuss higher tuitions fees and how to fight them, hand out flyers that list facts about tuition fees and student loans in Ontario, write an article, or blog about your experience - get creative!

EDUCATE!

OCCUPY!

BUILDING SOL

Cymru.lass (Wikimedia)

PROTEST!

Farfahinne (Flickr)

Although protests take different forms, they are always “sites of contestation in which bodies, symbols, identities, practices, and discourses are used to pursue or prevent changes in institutionalized power relations” (Taylor and van Dyke 2004: 268). Protests are oppositional, often the result of discord between groups of people and larger structural forces. Protests are often unorthodox means of making claims, ranging from letter writing, marches or escalating to strikes. In 2009, students and teachers at universities in France went on an unlimited strike. In this photo, dated February 10, 2009, 50,000 students and professors were in the streets, protesting Nicolas Sarkozy’s new education policy, which - among other measures would have resulted in the defunding of public universities under the banner of “autonomy”, effectively allowing for the commercialization of public institutions.

Students and teachers across the political spectrum went on strike to protest the proposed plans for the privatization of post-secondary education. Protests can be successful in facilitating social change from below, and are an effective means of creating ongoing dialogue, demands, and actions that challenge the status quo.

DIREC

11

URES The student movement, which exploded into the streets of Quebec with militant actions and mass mobilizations this past winter, has received international attention. One large factor contributing to this – as well as the movement’s success for cancelling the proposed tuition hike – was the nature of one of the three unions involved, CLASSE. Unlike many of today’s unions, which are conceding to the logic of the market, “practical” goals, and directed by the political will of a bureaucratic elite, CLASSE operates according to innovative and truly democratic principles representative of combative unions. Such unions operate according to the principles of direct democracy, combativity, and autonomy. Combative unions practice direct democracy when individual associations organize General Assemblies, governing spaces in which each member of the association is able to deliberate politics, propose actions, and engage in a collective decision making process. This model allows for power to be decentralized, and a leadership that is not rigid and the seat of all decision making authority, but operating according to the wishes of the members below it. Combative unions are also, as the name suggests, combative. This means that the union acts as a source of counter-power via mass mobilization, direct action, and mass demonstrations. Combative unions move beyond letter writing campaigns, favouring more confrontational and militant projects such as occupations, disrupting the economy (blocking strategic sites of the flow of capital), or developing a constant and relatively stable form of critical mass which propels the struggle into the streets. Finally, combative unions are autonomous and independent from any political parties or powerful bodies that can hijack a movement. Creating autonomous and independent unions provides, for example, a space for the expression of diverse tactics as well as the institutionalization of concerns as expressed by marginalized identities, such as the case when feminist and anti-racist analyses are cultivated and promoted. If your student union does not contain these elements, agitate it until it does, or organize with your peers to establish combative unions that get the job done!

LIDARITY!

SoyPublica (twitter)

Young students in Mali send a message to student protestors and organizers in Chile: “The kids from Mali support the students in Chile.”

Building solidarity across cities, countries, continents and cultures is key to the success of a global student movement. While organizing on our campuses, we must remember we are a part of a global struggle; the Student Movement is not solely about us, as current students, working under our current political and economic paradigms- students everywhere are fighting for each other and the generations to come, recognizing that success in one city can mean success elsewhere and across the globe. Build relationships of solidarity between members in your community, or across different communities in your city in an effort to engage in dialogue about issues that effect us all: education and austerity. Reaching out to different communities across your city can help build a foundation for working together to combat the various injustices that affect us currently, and will effect and shape our futures.

COMBATIVE UNIONISM!

Justin Ling (Wikimedia)

The fight for access to our education extends beyond the ideal of free tuition: we must take back our campus and truly make it ours. In this sense, we must work towards building a local economy within our campus, by our campus, for our campus. York has two initiatives that work under the principle of Co-operatives: the Absinthe pub and Lunik Co-op at Glendon. These co-ops are managed by elected students, run by student workers and volunteers and financially managed by colleges and elected board members. They are known for their chilled out atmosphere and affordability. Furthermore, cooperatives build a sustainable economy that works with and for students to create a community that is involved in the processes of governance for student space. In stark contradiction, our campus is becoming increasingly corporatized, with contracts with large soda companies, and the introduction of more franchises for student eats. Wouldn’t it be great to chill out, eat, and drink with friends in a space that was benefitting your community? Wouldn’t it be great knowing that every dollar you spend is going towards this space and the people who work within it? Lunik Co-op also works with organic and ethical farmers for their coffee, and often holds events in which students are invited to meet the farmers and discuss ethical farming and trade with them. Visit these spaces on your campus and imagine ways you can contribute and build your own!

LOCALIZE!

CT ACTION! Lunik Co-op Direct action can take many forms. Though many of us assume direct action only means ‘protesting’, there are various ways we can create direct action projects that transform a public space. If you are not one to take to the streets (or even if you are), there are a variety of ways in which you can infiltrate space, whether through art, installation, spray paint, graffiti, wheat grass pasting, banner drops, or flash mobs - all require you to get a little creative. The carré rouge symbol a number of us have been sporting in support of the Quebec student movement is in itself an act of protest. Sporting your carré rouge to work, when out with friends, on the subway, and to community events is in itself a difficult and defiant act – a simple symbol, such as a piece of red felt pinned to our jackets and backpacks, politicizes spaces that may not have been read as political. This sentiment extends to street art and installation, as graffiti can be done anywhere at anytime, and can transform a public or private space in a simple act.

Guelph Young Communist League

Max Chewinski and Amy Saunders

12

FEATURES

FALL ISSUE 1 2012

Disabled People’s Rights Are Under Attack!

What Do We Do?

FIGHT BACK!

Catherine Duchastel

Imasters am a Quebec student doing my at York. I have watched and

supported my friends in Montreal who have worked tirelessly in the student movement over the past few months. I have seen them organize demonstrations, raise awareness in their departments, and educate themselves and others about democracy. I have offered as much solidarity as I can from Toronto, and I have also wished I could go back to Montreal and be directly part of the student movement many times since last February.

But, my desire has been tempered by my awareness that I need to be here, because I need the knowledge and experience in disability rights activism and scholarship that I am gaining here at York. I am in Critical Disability Studies, a field that does not exist as such in Quebec, yet. I need to do this because the student movement in Quebec and everywhere else in Canada is ableist. This can be said of all student activism. In fact, it can also be said of social movements everywhere. This needs to change.

In Quebec, if you are a disabled student that can medically prove your disability, you receive bursaries instead of loans. This can seem like a really good deal, and a reason not to include disabled students as part of a student movement that is fighting for lower tuition. After all, you do not end up with the same crushing debt that nondisabled students have at the end of their studies. You also do not end with a job afterwards. But, surely, that’s a social problem, not one that student activism should be faulted for failing to address, right?

Well, we receive the same amounts nondisabled students do, but also incur extra costs, and often take longer to finish our degrees. And of course, in order to get bursaries, we have to qualify. (I qualified my first year of undergraduate studies, but not the following 5 years.) We have to contend with inaccessible campuses, classrooms, and course material, as well as inaccessible student events and groups. We deal with isolation, poverty, discrimination and inaccessibility every day, yet our experience is neither valued nor acknowledged by other students.

When nondisabled students discuss issues of inequality and discrimination, they are about inaccessibility in education, but when disabled students bring them up as part of their reality, which are being compounded by student groups themselves, they are treated as only disability related and outside the scope of the student movement.

But, really, who do you think knows more about inaccessibility than disabled folks?

I spoke with Laurence Parent about ableism in student and activist communities. Laurence is an alumnus of York who

completed her Masters in Critical Disability Studies, and her major research paper won the Critical Disability Studies Program Human Rights Prize. She is now completing her PhD at Concordia in the Humanities department.

She is the vice-president and a co-founding member of RAPLIQ (le regroupement des activists pour l’inclusion au Québec), an activist disability rights group, for and by disabled people. She also participated in the student strike in Quebec.

Laurence Parent: RAPLIQ is a disability rights group, I would like it to be more like a visibility justice group, but it’s hard. Our goal is to eradicate discrimination based on disability, and that kind of discrimination is not well-known in Quebec. It’s not understood, you know, and there’s no concept to talk about it. I would say that this is the biggest obstacle that we are facing right now: to let [people] know that

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knew where the protest would go, and stuff like that.

Did you feel that there was an awareness on the part of nondisabled students or organizers, as to why the demos would be dangerous for disabled people? In part because of how aggressive the police were, and also not knowing when or where the march would end?

I think that they didn’t understand, but it [the student strike] was like a war, a real war, and the organizers themselves didn’t know where the march would end. It was like a state secret, so it was really hard to know who was really in charge. I guess it was because students with disabilities were not there at the higher levels of student organizing.

What do you think contributes to the fact that the disability rights movement has not worked in Quebec?

The [disability rights] movement

collaboration between disabled activists and nondisabled activists?

Maybe to make them [nondisabled activists] realize that disability is not something far, far, away. That it’s everywhere that we don’t see it, but it’s there.

Even though the student movement was opposing the system, it got so big that it started to reproduce how society was organized and those that were marginal were, you know, ignored. It was like a generation protesting, but we haven’t heard that much about racism either, for example, in that strike.

And it’s too bad because there are many links to be made about disability oppression and what happened, like the fact that they would prohibit protest near the university campuses.

Like blocking access. This is something people with disabilities experience every day - being denied

“[Accessibility] means to stop expecting disabled people to be included in your struggle, and to become part of theirs, as well as to include their struggle as part of yours.”

this thing exists [discrimination based on disability]. So it’s hard to connect with other social justice groups.

I feel like we are just at the beginning and just fighting for basic, basic things, like access to public transit which is one of our big, big issues, and access to housing and accessibility in general.

As a student with a disability and an organizer and activist, how were you involved with the student strike?

I was more involved through AEAIPS (l’Association des Étudiants ayant des incapacitées au post-secondaire). For example, we wrote a press release to talk about how the tuition hike would affect people and students with disabilities because it wasn’t included or talked about at all. […] Getting attention for us was impossible but we tried. We were at every monthly mass protest. I know that in Quebec people with visible disabilities are still not visible, so despite not being a huge number of disabled people on the streets, we were enough for people to be aware that we, we were there.

Also the strike started in winter so it’s very difficult [for people with disabilities] to get around because it’s not accessible, and then the strike got very dangerous very quickly for people with disabilities [who may not be able] to run away fast. So it’s not really welcoming for people with different abilities to join the protest and we never

[in Quebec] is really apolitical.

People want to advocate for disability rights, but they want to be neutral. How can you be neutral when you fight for human rights?

You cannot be neutral. You cannot be neutral.

I think there have been some people who have tried to build bridges but they have been excluded.

Like disabled women, I don’t know if you know [the] group, Action Femmes Handicapées de Montreal? Well, when they founded [the group], the first thing that they tried to do was to be included in women’s groups but they faced discrimination, or they were included but in a paternalistic way. They founded that group [Action Femmes Handicapées de Montreal], and still today, they are excluded by other women’s groups. 25 years later.

It’s a trauma that I guess we have. When you are rejected and excluded, it has an impact on you.

You know, you don’t feel like going back to a place where someone has excluded you.

I also think that the people who are working in disability rights groups are often the people who have been able to go to school and get diplomas, and so they are like in the upper class of disabled people.

So the system worked for them, so then some disabled people don’t really feel any need to change the system.

So what do you think would need to change for there to be

access. And, all those metaphors about access to education; I feel disabled people have more in common [with the student strike] but not metaphorically, concretely.

And the problem that we have, when we talk about education, is that it’s pretty new to have disabled people go to university. And, for many disabled students I don’t think they see this as a right. It’s more like, “I’m the lucky one who has been able to make it. I receive services, and I should be grateful.”

And some people who are recognized as having a permanent disability, then all the government aid you get is transformed into bursaries. So we don’t have loans, and a big issue of that strike was students getting [into] debt and that the government would increase the amount of loans. So I felt that a lot of students with disabilities felt that it was not their fight. Because they were not affected by that measure, but in fact, they are already the poorest.

The thing that we don’t say is that they will have so much trouble to get a job after their education.

Most people that I know, I explain to people how it works, most of them would be, “Oh! You’re lucky. You’re lucky that you don’t have loans and debts.” And, I’m like, that’s not what I want you to understand.

For disabled people rights are privileges, not entitlements. So that [a] citizenship right, like education ends up being a privilege, not a right, if you are a person with a

disability.

What would you like to see for the disability rights movement in Canada?

I think that one of the problems that we had, and that we have, is that students with disabilities are not well organized on campus.

It’s much better at York. I mean, I know it’s not perfect, but I can compare [it] with Concordia and UQAM – we are not organized, we don’t know each other, we are not proud of who we are, there’s just no solidarity. … So, what do I wish for the disability rights movement in Canada? Well, yeah, to fight back.

Universities are great places to foster activism, and more and more disabled students are joining, but when you bring up accessibility issues, you get this pained look of contrition from students politicians and activists: “We know we’re not accessible, but we don’t have the money to be, we feel really, really bad about it, but there’s just no way. It’s just impossible.”

The thing is, no one understands more about how lack of resources, monetary and otherwise, affects the activities you can or cannot do, than someone who has to negotiate how much pain or energy it is going to cost them to participate, or whether or not there’s a bathroom they can use wherever they want to go. So I am going to say this once, but I am going to say it loud, because you need to hear it, think about it and act on it: YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT ACCESSIBILITY IS! Accessibility is having all the documents on your website in both Pdf and Word so that people who use screen readers can access them. Accessibility is having half your printed material available in large print and half in smaller print. Accessibility is typing the discussion in your meetings and presentations if you can’t afford an ASL interpreter. Accessibility is asking yourself why you don’t have money for ASL interpreters.

It means giving a full description of the space you’re holding events in so disabled people can decide for themselves whether they want to go or not. It means having a no-scent policy, and an acknowledgement that 5 hour meetings are just not productive. It means removing the phrase, “We regret that this event is not wheel-chair accessible” from your vocabulary and instead starting to ask disabled people not only what their accessibility needs are, but what they think could be done to remedy this lack of accessibility in your organizations.

None of these cost money. It also means to stop expecting disabled people to be included in your struggle, and to become part of theirs, as well as to include their struggle as part of yours. It means understanding that accessibility to education means much more than having the money and time to go to school, it means being able to get in the school, and be included in the society that getting a degree is supposed to give you access to.

Catherine Duchastel is an M.A. candidate in Critical Disability Studies, a member of RAPLIQ, and a student activist.

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FALL ISSUE 1 2012

COMMENTS

We’re Not All Crazy!

But Some of Us Are: Mad Students Psyching Up For School Tarah deBie

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ast year:

It took a fellow student two months to clarify that by ‘mad’ I do not mean Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

perceived as ‘mentally ill’. We are not all surveyed by psychiatrists, substitute decision makers, community treatment orders, police, family members, professors, campus crisis teams and disability offices. We do not all have our judgments and insights questioned, our choices disrespected, our rights removed,

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Madness is an aspect of my identity – who I am and how I experience the world – not an ‘illness’ that is separate from me or a collection of ‘symptoms’ I want cured.

While backward social systems and oppression have played their role and need to be challenged, I want a world that enjoys and honours me for being different – not just in response to bad things. Mad people reclaim the language that describes us in negative ways (like ‘mad’, ‘crazy’, ‘nuts’) and use it to celebrate the positive aspects of our Mad lives and communities.

A different classmate repeatedly attempted solidarity by claiming “We’re all crazy.” I continued to tell her “No. We’re not.” She later suggested “No one’s crazy.” I disagree.

Seriously? We do not all experience extreme states, but some of us do and these are frequently pathologized or devalued. We do not all live through periods of significant disability – whether caused by social attitudes or physical realities. We do not all encounter discrimination related to being labelled or

our ‘courage’ or whatever. No researchers, counsellors, professionals, allies, voyeurs, psycho-curious people allowed. You can support us in different ways, at our discretion.

In a campus context such as this, how can we as Mad Students psych up for school?

This makes ‘crazy’ sound nearly almost negative – primarily because that is how

Most Mad people are not born into Mad communities. We discover, learn, and build our social movement by being in it! We are often prevented from finding these communities because people do not know about them or tell us they exist. This limits opportunities to discover and practice alternatives to medical perspectives on madness (eg. the biological explanation of ‘mental illness’ and related medical interventions such as psychotropic medications).

“To me, ‘crazy’ represents the beautiful ways my friends and I accommodate each other, the creative ideas we have for new communitybuilding projects, the unusual and clever strategies we develop to navigate the world.”

our drivers licenses suspended, our attempts to leave the country denied.

We do not all belong in ‘peer’ spaces if we do not all identify as peers.

Stress, temporary nervousness, a little bit of sadness, grief – is not the same as ‘crazy’.

It diminishes our experiences when folks claim faux affiliation that is based on not really seeing themselves as one of us. It is damn annoying when people want to ‘help us’ with pitying, patronizing attitudes in play or desire to ‘learn’ from or ‘be inspired’ by

society generally talks about and reacts to it and us. Mad people and communities have come to understand and celebrate crazy in many different ways such as through annual Mad Pride arts, culture, and heritage festivities in Toronto and around the world, the Hearing Voices movement, peer support groups, and activism. To me, ‘crazy’ represents the beautiful ways my friends and I accommodate each other, the creative ideas we have for new community-building projects, the unusual and clever strategies we develop to navigate the world.

While there is a need to think critically about how society marks and manages people as sane or mad and the power-laden, political basis to this, I do think there is an important place for Mad community and organizing. If ‘crazy’ does not exist, then what happens to our culture?

One of my ‘helpers’ tried to reassure me that some of my experiences are normal, average, status quo. In essence, “You’re not crazy.”

I am. Proudly - most of the time. Sometimes with a touch of shame or an overwhelming sense of disablement. It does not ‘help’ me to deny my experience, my identity, my friends, my community, my movement, my people.

A member of a student club wanted to know my labels. I explained I don’t do labels. I said I was crazy. He asked, “Are you okay?”

No, actually, I’m a bit hungry. And you’re pissing me off! Beware of campus cogs who want to practice their QPR / ASIST / SafeTALK / Mental Health First Aid / Mental Illness Awareness trainings on you or refer you to treatment services.

A professor repeatedly singled me out for the crazy person perspective.

Tokenization? Yup, you bet. A common occurrence for Mad students who identify themselves and those who speak without disclosing.

A fellow student later thanked me for this perspective by expressing how much she learned. She shared a story where she stopped herself from using ‘drive me crazy’ and chose ‘out of my mind’. The professor tried to suggest ‘euphemism’ but was cut off.

It can be incredibly draining and difficult to address mentalist attitudes in our classrooms, particularly if we’re on our own.

Silence is often strategic.

Don’t do it alone!

In an effort to address this information gap, here are some ways to connect with the Mad Movement:

1.

Subscribe to the Consumer/Survivor Information Bulletin at www.csinfo.ca. Mad people in Toronto have our own newsletter!

It’s free, comes out every two weeks, and can be sent to you by email or mail. Stay informed about what’s happening in Mad communities as well as the economic, political, legal, and social context that affects our lives.

2. Visit www.madprideto.com to read about

Mad Pride Toronto, an annual arts, culture, and heritage festival created and celebrated by Mad people. You’ve missed the events for this year (July 10-15, 2012), but there’s tons of time to plan for 2013. Perhaps you’d like to organize, present, or attend?

3. Find the consumer/survivor initiatives or peer

support groups in your area. For a place to start, go to http://opdi.org/index.php/ourmembers.

Get involved with your local patient council by contacting The Ontario Association of Patient Councils at oapc@sympatico.ca or by telephone at 416-633-9420 ext. 6969.

4. Check out Mad Students Society (MSS) at

www.madstudentsociety.com. MSS is a peer support and advocacy group of and for students with personal experiences of psychiatric systems, madness, and/or mental health disabilities. Students (or people planning to return to school) from any college, university, or adult education course/program are welcome to join. Membership is free and confidential.

MSS hosts monthly peer support meetings in downtown Toronto, North York, and Hamilton and moderates an active, private, email discussion listserv open to members living anywhere in the world.

5.

Look up the Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto (PSAT) at www. psychiatricsurvivorarchives.com for more information on Mad people’s history. PSAT has numerous resources online as well as opportunities to review archival material in person.

This year: I will continue to archive my campus encounters.

I suggest you do the same.

COMMENTS

14

FALL ISSUE 1 2012

York University, the Excalibur and Jane Finch Action Against Poverty Victoria Barnett, Jane and Finch Action Against Poverty

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here has been a flurry of activity between the Jane-Finch community, York University, Excalibur Newspaper and Jane Finch Action Against Poverty (JFAAP) in the past few months, starting from Mar. 28, 2012.

Most of this activity has been York University and Excalibur’s misrepresentation of the JaneFinch community, and the continued fight back against this

by Jane Finch Action Against Poverty, and community allies.

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neighbourhood. And we hope that we can continue to work together to build on programs like the YorkU–TD Engagement Centre and the Westview Partnership to create a healthier community for all of us.

“At the same time, I should note that the Excalibur is an independent newspaper that is in no way under the control or direction

JFAAP’s demands for respect from Excalibur and York University.

The rally was held with the same demands as were requested in the open letter. The rally was a large success for the community; York students, faculty, and community members alike came out to support, and then attended a JFAAP meeting after the rally.

The same day as the rally, the Sept. 19 edition of Excalibur was

board… So, why assume the current editorial board holds this opinion about safety on campus?

Or any opinion of the previous editorial board?…

“This opinion may have been an oversimplification of a complex social issue which continues to be a problem throughout Toronto with no concrete solutions as of yet...

“To address the letter, which demanded an apology and an active attempt at creating good ties between the Jane and Finch community and York U n i v e r s i t y, I must make it clear that Excalibur cannot, as an organization, issue an apology for the opinions of other writers, but we can, and most certainly will, work toward bridging any perceived gap between ourselves and the Jane and Finch community.”

“Sholars was not just an “other writer” – he was the Editor-in-Chief at the time the article was written.

Further, regardless if it is just Sholars’s opinion, he was a, if not the, main representative of the newspaper at the time, and therefore defined the paper as one that was against the Jane-Finch community.”

On March 28, 2012, an editorial was published in Excalibur by the outgoing Editor-inChief, Michael Sholars, entitled, ‘The strange case of York University’. In the editorial, Sholars writes, “I don’t care what statistics are brought up to argue that the York

campus is just as safe as any other city; the problems are coming from the area immediately surrounding our campus, one of the most infamous high-crime areas in the country. The further [sic] you live in the Village, the more palpable a risk you take by walking home at night. This problem is compounded several times over if you happen to be female, because this past year has seen a string of attacks against women that defy rational explanation.”

Jane and Finch Action Against Poverty responded on May 8, with an open letter to York University and the Excalibur editorial board (reprinted here in YU Free Press).

No response was ever issued from Excalibur, and the only response from the University was from VP of Advancement, Jeff O’Hagan, on May 29: “I want to assure you that we truly value the strong relationships we have been able to build with the Jane-Finch neighbourhood over the last 50 years. Moreover, we are proud of the many partnerships and joint projects the University has with members of the Jane-Finch community where we are working closely together to create a strong

of the University. As a matter of policy the University does not comment, positively or negatively, on editorials in the Excalibur, and we will adhere to that policy in the current instance. I would urge you

released and in it, was an editorial by the current Editor-in-Chief, Leslie Armstrong, entitled, ‘Re. jfaap open letter’. Some of that editorial read: “If JFAAP wanted a simple explanation, their representatives should have called me up. I have an extension in my office, and I’m more than willing to talk. I didn’t get a phone call. I didn’t get an email addressed to me…

“A key feature of Excalibur is that every year, the editorial board changes.

Every position is held by one person from the beginning of May until the end of March. This means the opinions expressed by anyone on previous editorial boards are not necessarily Photo courtesy of Errol Young held by any current editorial board members. to pursue your concerns directly “It’s unfortunate that JFAAP does with the Excalibur. not know Excalibur’s editorial structure, and that this individual “In closing, let me reiterate no longer sits on the editorial that creating strong, vibrant and positive environments requires good collaboration with community members both on and off campus. York is committed to building on the many positive initiatives that are underway.”

Some key things are provided here. The new Editor-in-Chief is downplaying the effect of an Editorin-Chief of a newspaper. To quote from CLASP’s response letter, “An editorial by its definition is an opinion that reflects the sentiment of the writer and in some cases the newspaper itself. The Editor-inChief often carries the privilege to define the meaning and content of the newspaper, and synthesize this meaning in the thoughts they share with the readers.”

Furthermore, Armstrong goes on to say that JFAAP does not know how Excalibur’s board works, and therefore should not assume that the new editorial holds the same opinion of safety on campus, but goes on to say that Excalibur cannot issue and apology for the opinions of “other writers.” Sholars

was not just an “other writer” – he was the Editor-in-Chief at the time the article was written. Further, regardless if it is just Sholars’s opinion, he was a, if not the, main representative of the newspaper at the time, and therefore defined the paper as one that was anti the JaneFinch community. And based on the continued lack of any response from Excalibur (other than Armstrong’s editorial), and still no apology, Excalibur remains a “community newspaper” that is not in support of its own community – York University (students, staff, and faculty), and the Jane and Finch community.

A quote from, Ama Amponsah, a Jane-Finch community member and worker, at the time of the rally was, “For those living and working in this community, this is just one more irresponsible jab at their lives.

The constant stereotyping and false accusations have detrimental effects on the health and well-being of individuals and the community as a whole. We are protesting at York University to show that we live in a vibrant community, and that these stereotypes are wrong and need to stop!”

It’s a fitting way to end this article, other than to mention that if you’d like to get involved in JFAAP, please take a look at their website: jfaap.wordpress. com, and contact them by email at janefinchactionagainstpoverty@ gmail.com.

JFAAP meets at 6pm on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month at the Black Creek Community Health Centre in Yorkgate Mall.

New members are always welcome – please get in touch if you are interested. Jane Finch Action Against Poverty (JFAAP) is a resident-led grassroots coalition of community residents, activists, workers, and organizations working to eliminate poverty in our community and in the world.

Open Letter Protests Excalibur Editorial

During that time, community allies were also writing letters of support, and working with JFAAP on developing plans of action around the University and Excalibur’s lack of response. Support letters were received by the York University Faculty Association (YUFA), CUPE 3903, Community and Legal Aid Services Program (CLASP), and the Graduate Students Association at York.

These groups, and additionally OPIRG York, continued working with JFAAP, and developed a plan for a demonstration at York University, on September 19th, 2012, to address the lack of response from Excalibur and York University, as part of OPIRG York’s DisOrientation week.

On September 19, about 100 people turned out in support of

To: York University, The Board of Governors; Community Affairs Committee; York University Faculty Association; CUPE 3903, York University allies, Black Creek Community groups, York University Community Engagement Centre

CC: Excalibur‘s Editorial Board May 8, 2012 It was with real revulsion that we noticed, on newspaper stands, the editorial that appeared in the last edition of “Excalibur” by Michael Sholars, the paper’s Editor-In-Chief, which contained misinformation and prejudicial stereotype of our community. We were a large number of Jane-Finch community activists including youths, members of Nomanzland and members of JFAAP, who attended a public forum on Community Engagement as Social Action hosted by The York University Faculty Association on April 20, 2012 at York University.

In his statement, Scholar states, “I don’t care what statistics are brought up to argue that the York campus is just as safe as any other city; the problems are coming from the area immediately surrounding our campus, one of the most infamous high-crime areas in the country.”

We all know which “surrounding” area he is referring to. This is the same community that York University and a number of groups within York have claimed to be working collaboratively with. Blaming the neighbouring Jane and Finch and Black Creek communities for sexual assaults and other forms of violence that have happened on the York University campus is inaccurate, outrageous and prejudicial. This closed minded attitude demonstrates the worst example of journalistic and academic excellence.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

FALL ISSUE 1 2012 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 You and Mr. Scholar know that most, if not all, campus crimes have nothing to do with the Jane and Finch Community. Sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, and stalking as well as racism are serious problems on college and university campuses that have not been fully addressed. These acts of violence have historically been generated out of the chauvinistic and misogynistic cultures still dominating many universities and the society at large. Only when York and all levels of government start to take responsibility for this will there be some progress in addressing the problem. Doing so will lead to a safer campus and community.

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COMMENTS

“The Jane and Finch Community has been struggling fervently for social and economic justice through addressing systemic issues facing the community, including a very high rate of unemployment and underemployment...with all the public funding and community support that the University gets, our neighbourhood gets a very few benefits, so some respect would be nice.”

The Jane and Finch Community has been struggling fervently for social and economic justice through addressing systemic issues facing the community, including a very high rate of unemployment and underemployment; racialization of poverty, targeted policing and the criminalization of youth among others; all of these are the worst forms of systemic violence that need to be addressed and eliminated in order to create a much healthier community.

You and Mr. Scholar know that many York and Seneca @ York students come from Jane and Finch. We are the diverse community that safely houses thousands of your students each year. York staff and its students have been given access to Jane and Finch community regularly for their academic pursuits (i.e. student work experience, research, meeting spaces, funding, etc.).

However with all the public funding and community support that the University gets, our neighbourhood gets a very few benefits, so some respect would be nice.

Photo courtesy of Errol Young

This student funded newspaper should be serving a higher purpose; not spreading ignorance and hatred.

YUFA COMMUNITY PROJECTS

The editorial was completely blind to the vibrancy and values of our community and ignores the links that we and organizations within York are trying to forge with.

Long standing committee of the York University Faculty Association* (YUFA) 31 May 2012

Therefore, JFAAP demands • A formal apology from Excalibur‘s Editorial Board • A formal apology from York University.

The inclusion of an op ed on this subject in the next Excaliber written by JFAAP addressing this issue and rejecting these prejudices.

We believe that this could serve to start a dialogue based on respect and not the prejudices that Excalibur’s Editorial has promulgated.

We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Sincerely, Jane-Finch Action Against Poverty (JFAAP)

In an open letter to York University, Jane-Finch Action Against Poverty (JFAAP) express their “revulsion” over a 28 March Excalibur editorial on risks posed by “the other” to safety on campus. In “The Strange Story of York University” outgoing Editor-in-Chief Michael Sholars writes, something is very wrong with our little city [the York University Campus]. I don’t care what statistics are brought up to argue that the York campus is just as safe as any other city; the problems are coming from the area immediately surrounding our campus, one of the most infamous high-crime areas in the country. The further you live in the Village, the more palpable a risk you take by walking home at night. This problem is compounded several times over if you happen to be female, because this past year has seen a string of attacks against women that defy rational explanation.

As an independent newspaper, Excalibur has a mandate to explore issues of concern to the campus community.

Unfortunately, the manner in which safety issues are raised here is deeply problematic. Sholars’ assertion that he doesn’t care about statistics suggests a strong anti-intellectual bias that seems out-of-place coming from a senior staff member of a major university paper. The implication is that facts don’t matter.

This is particularly ironic given Sholars’ claim that “the problems are coming from the area immediately surrounding our campus” is not only unsubstantiated, but contradicts the findings of widely publicized reports on assaults at York.

Unfortunately, there have been several high-profile incidents on campus over the past couple of years. Female students were sexually assaulted in their residence rooms during frosh week, an international student was sexually assaulted and murdered in the village, a shotgun was fired through a female student’s dorm door, to mention but a few. However, all of these incidents originated on campus and were initiated by students or former students.

Sholars’ lament that “we’re alone up here” is indicative of a fortress mentality that conceptually and geographically separates the University from our local neighbourhoods. It displays an alarming ignorance of the vibrant, dynamic communities surrounding our campus and of the efforts of Jane Finch and Black Creek community members and of York faculty, librarians, and students to overcome the barriers that have historically prevented respectful and authentic engagement.

The Community Engagement as Social Action Forum, organized by the York University Faculty Association’s Community Projects Committee (YUFA CP) on 20 April, was one such effort. One of our objectives was to explore opportunities to combat the pervasive stigmatization and marginalization of the Jane and Finch and Black Creek communities.

Over eighty community members of attended. That many of these participants first became aware of the Excalibur editorial at this event is a sad and poignant reminder that much work needs to be done to effectively challenge the institutional dynamics of racialization and social exclusion.

YUFA CP denounces the racist and classist implications embedded in this editorial. We are appalled that our campus newspaper would publish such an uncorroborated, inflammatory, and stereotypical assault. We urge the Excalibur Editorial Board to respond to the JFAAP’s demands in a timely fashion.

Universities have a responsibility to take proactive steps to ensure that they are not engaging in, condoning, or allowing racism to occur. In this connection, obligations include heightening awareness of the many ways racism is manifested; reviewing policies, practices and decision-making processes for adverse impact; creating an inclusive environment which respects the dignity of all groups; providing different activities to engage the various constituencies on campus and in the larger community; and enforcing anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies and education programs, to name just a few. The open letter from Jane-Finch Action Against Poverty merits a response that from York that reflects its commitment to fulfilling such obligations.

Lorna Erwin, Co-Chair, YUFA Community Projects Committee

*YUFA represents 1400 Faculty and Librarians at York University Photo courtesy of Errol Young

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FALL ISSUE 1 2012

Arts & Culture

BRAP: Flip Dot and the Dialectics of Conceit

Ysh Cabana

T

he parking lane along Progress Ave. was wide enough to congregate local Hip-Hop artists of Filipino descent from different parts of Toronto. Dance crews walked it out with beats by the DJ. Graphic t-shirts that stood along the walls of the garage bombed with stickers nascent of contemporary cultural identities. Emcees took to the front of the garage their verbal front while the youthful crowd matched to the rhythms with hand gestures, almost as if they were scratching their own records.

That was the scene at last summer’s block party organized by Filipinas Clothing Co. (FCC), an apparel brand owned by brothers Corwin, Harvey, Nikki, and Gino Agra.

The one-off event succeeded in bringing together fans, HipHop artists, and even passersby to experience Filipino talent and collectivity.

Amongst some of the artists present was the Toronto based HipHop artist, Fenaxiz, who beyond the exterior of his signature cigar hazed and bling-pimped videos, rhymes with a profundity deeply grounded in reality. In “White Man’s Burden,” from his 2012 album Vintage, Fenaxiz references the Rudyard Kipling poem of the same title as he shares and reflects upon the critical aspect of his people’s history and reclaims his personal story in Hip-Hop space: “I was lost ‘til I found my inheritance / Now I know my worth, I control the world / And this rap ain’t even scratching the surface / Of our collective experience, my peoples / We gotta match our path with our purpose…”

For some time now, FilipinoCanadians’ “knowledge of self” has come from Hip-Hop. It is arguably part of a long standing Filipino culture, which can be traced to the Ilonggos’ romantic “Binalaybay,” the Tagalogs’ “Balagtasan,” and the Cebuanos’ “Balak.” Its productive grammatical process is vernacular yet stemming to the Filipino diaspora.

end of the 1970s, Hip-Hop culture was specialized into five expressive elements; breakdancing, beatboxing, DJ-ing, graffiti art, and emceeing.

By the 1980s, Los Angeles witnessed the growth of West Bay Hip-Hop. For many of the working-class Filipinos who were being driven to resettle in the outer Western districts of the city,

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For Toronto-based emcee Scott Ramirez, Filipino Hip-Hop in Toronto has started to experience its brighter days. As a part of his university senior thesis, he went on a mission to record the impact of Hip-Hop culture as a channel of representation and a tool to facilitate knowledge of self. In his 2011 documentary “Flip Hop: Bridging the Gap,” the emcee posited that with the growing

“To many artists, HipHop has a certain appeal as an alternative space for transformation.”

Hip-Hop functioned as a platform of resistance. Many Emcees of Filipino descent, among whom Bambu and Kiwi are the most recognized, initially engaged in gangster rap and later immersed themselves in a culture of resistance. Filipino artists who were at the forefront of the development of the LA Hip-Hop scene proved to be part of a thriving Hip-Hop generation, sharing histories fundamentally parallel to Afrodiasporic narratives.

In fact, many second-generation Filipinos have been labelled ‘Black Asians.’ This social-cultural homogenization and racialization in a way emphasizes the affinities that Filipinos have with Blacks, especially in the context of Hip-Hop culture. However, the diversity of Filipino culture can hardly be narrowed down into a homogenous stereotype. Such diversity affords an individual to associate themselves to another identity with either pride or selfdenial.

visibility of Filipino Hip-Hop, solid community outlook is somehow achieved while its members are “instilled with a sense of cultural pride and confidence.”

Tales from the Flipside Winding back to the early 2000s, young Filipinos in Toronto were generalized and skewed as ‘Bolshies’ as tensions increased between new immigrants and assimilated youth who were born and raised in Canada. The beef defined the map between a misrepresented Scarborough in the East and Mississauga at the other end. These suburbs grew as preferred residential turfs of immigrants, who were diversely clustered. Figures from statistical research found a downward trend of success for second generation Filipinos, who categorized under visible ethnic minority, were shown as more likely to consistently underperform in academics.

Seeds of Counterculture The social justice impassioned roots of Hip-Hop have been much discussed. Its origins, localized in the racialized low-income neighborhoods of Bronx, New York in the 1970s were ignited by a confrontation with urban renewal policies that divided the peoples of colour from the dominant white ethnicity. The tensions that sprung up in resistance to the ‘projects’ would later materialize into an ‘authentic’ Hip-Hop culture, belonging to the racialized communities of the area. Until the

“Makibaka! Huwag Matakot! ... Dare to struggle! Never be afraid!”

However, regardless of the deplorable environment, Filipino youth were able to adapt Hip-Hop culture. From the university-based Superskillz talent show, the lone Filipino Hip-Hop radio station Jump Off (now defunct), to Bucc N Flvr representing Canada in a recent international dance showdown, Filipino youth were active in the struggle for self-representation and their own mode of expression. To many artists, Hip-Hop has a certain appeal as an alternative space for transformation.

This was, in part, why the newcomers Agra brothers jumpstarted Filipinas Clothing Co (FCC). However, doing more than just rounds in the local events scene, FCC/For Continuous Change, asserts its potential by developing a critical lens that can be utilized to not only understand the composition of the world, but more significantly to re-create it.

In 2011, the first Flip Dot Battle Grounds took place in Toronto – “Flip” is a play on Filipino, while “Dot” references the city – as an outgrowth of a rap battles burgeoning all over the world. In the current cycle, the Philippines had a representative in Canada’s King of the Dot league. Only then, Flip Dot is decidedly worth more than watching.

Word Up The unity that is espoused by FCC is probably best embodied by the supergroup Southeast Cartel, which has become the preferred brand by arguably the most popular emcees in Toronto, including Tagalog-rapping Franchizze and

Abstrakt of Dos Amardos, Pipoy, Dagamuffin, Biggz, Raygee and Bustarr of Sundaloz, Rydeen, and Mississauga-based Da Barkadaz.

Southeast Cartel combined conventional views of Filipino with improvisation of language, whether native, second or both.

However, if the emergent Flip Dot culture is any indication, organizing Filipino youth still has a long way to go. As Fenaxiz sincerely speaks in “The Real Toronto”: “The success, the hustle, the stress, the struggle / It is what it is and this the real Toronto.”

This however, in the end, lures us to a calm compromise with “what it is,” instead of challenging the norm with what is to be done. The challenge to forge unity among the Filipino youth through Hip-Hop is to bring forth new materials circumventing resistance against the standard notions of culture.

While the more popular analyses on Hip-Hop’s origins date it back to the rhetoric of oppression caused by racial segregation, it is the understanding the axis of classes that strengthens it as a tool to deepen the lyrics and facilitate real human relations between different identities.

Perhaps the FCC block party was a swarm of Flip Dot’s finest.

But for it to be a more durable performance, it needs to spit back from Hip Hop principled roots of resistance. To put the cipher into plain text: “Makibaka! Huwag Matakot!” (Dare to struggle! Never be afraid!).

Arts & Culture

FALL ISSUE 1 2012

17

Disrupting the Degree Factory: Australia National University, the School of Music and their Future The Canberra Space Invaders

L

ooking around the vacant demountable as strangers danced freely with painted hands, it was clear that political manifestos and subversive art smeared across its walls were the residue of a collective’s liberation; of a society and all its dominations being dissolved.

Almost two months have passed since students occupied the old ANU Food Co-op in order to reclaim the vacant building as a space for music, art, and emancipation.

The second of two events held there in midMarch hosted a jazz trio, DJs, and graffiti artists – not to mention everyone else who showed up. In fact, the latter group contributed more than any to the evening’s events. Rather than reproducing the banal social dynamics of a commercial venue (a.k.a standing around while an artist deposits their culture commodity in your brain), the crowd actively took part in the creative process, each producing their own experience through paint, dance, or song.

Conservatives and moderates write off this sort of activity as senseless destruction. To them we ask: what is senseless and destructive but a world which condemns us to a lifetime of boredom, passivity, and alienation? The only thing destroyed by occupying and transforming its space is that very world itself. Let it rot.

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The recent experiences of student movements around the world demonstrate that occupations – and occu-parties – are an excellent means by which the control of university administrations over our lives can be challenged. Students in Chile barricade themselves in to protect the classrooms from counter-revolution. Their schools are run democratically, by students and staff who have developed a curriculum in the interests of

the struggle against the cuts to the music department must find itself. As inspiring as the recent protest jam was, University Council’s decision to radically restructure the school despite widespread community dissent demonstrates that its position has not been determined by a failure to understand the incredible talent of the music department’s staff and students. Nor does it reflect an incomprehension of their contribution to artistic and community life in Canberra.

Rather, it is a reflection of ANU’s inability – shared by universities across the world – to express a language other than that of profit and loss.

‘In the dim light of this bleak horizon, it is important to remember that human beings, not bricks and mortar make up the university.’ all. There are no grades, fees, or assessment; no hoops to jump through on the way to a lifetime of subservience. In California, dance parties outside the 2009 occupations formed the basis of resistance to redundancies, exorbitant capital expenditure, and a 32% fee increase at UC campuses across the state. They were not only a strategy for the reclamation of what already belonged to the students – buildings built with their debt – but a tactic of mass defense against police malfeasance.

Under the pressure of up to 2,000 supportive onlookers, cops released student occupiers without pressing the trumped up charges that have dogged other forms of protest.

It is within this tradition that

This reality is borne out by the fact that the changes to the music school have been imposed amidst some of the highest earnings and capital expenditure the university has ever seen. In fact, such economic success is itself a rationale for the job cuts; according to management, the high depreciation rate of shiny new buildings is partly to blame for ANU’s current ‘financial crisis.’ One product of the university’s recent spending spree is the latest addition to the Crawford school of economics and government complex. The new building boasts some of the most sustainable design features on the market, and has attracted support from the federal government. So,

Underground Dance Jen Rinaldi

I

love dancing. I try to anyway.

I own a large apartment for the sole purpose of having space to dance through every life victory. I crank the music loud and I lose myself in the movement. I find my inner maenad and I come the closest to religious ecstasy that a grumpy, dispirited atheist can ever hope to achieve.

To be clear, I am not good at dancing. My skill best belongs on a wedding reception hall floor, when the sappy music has died down and the Chicken Dance in all its folksy, cheesy glory is blaring. It’s too bad I hate weddings.

Friends used to take me dancing, with conditions that incidentally, compromise fluid (okay, frenzied) movement. They would paint a face on me that sweat could tarnish.

They would pin my hair up in elaborate styles that were anathema

to energetic twirling. They would dress me in high heels meant for sitting. I struggled walking to the clubs, much less dancing in them.

In fairness to friends, they were not the ones who ruined dance.

Club dancing cannot be accomplished without an audience. There is no wild abandon when one is conscious of being watched, and judged. Favourable judgment results in strangers grinding against you from behind, without consent – a courtship ritual best explained on The Discovery Channel. If you’re really lucky, your body might be explored by eager hands.

Public dancing taught me the pitfalls to wearing a miniskirt.

Public dancing taught me I’m fat.

Public dancing ruined dancing for me.

This past summer, I was invited to a girls-only dance. The Dance Dance Party Party, or DDPP, a movement begun in New York City in 2006,

has chapters in Korea, London, and Vienna. DDPP found a home in Toronto, organized by Suzie Gardner and Hanna Wheeler. The group convenes twice a month for a 90-minute underground dance

The Canberra Space Invaders (edufactoryblog) Student occupation at Australia National University Food-Co-op in May 2012, to ‘reclaim the vacant building as a space for art, music and emancipation’

‘What is a University?’ from EduFactory!Disassembling the Neoliberal University Conference at ANU, October 1, 2012 as the music faculty is ejected from one end of the university, state of the art buildings go up at the other. We can only assume that glossy promotional material and greenwash are little consolation for the people whose lives are to be ruined by the restructure.

In the dim light of this bleak horizon, it is important to remember that human beings, not bricks and mortar, make up the university. The production line of human capital is populated by us. As Mario Savio pointed out in 1964: staff at the modern university are “a bunch of employees, and [students] are the raw materials.” Our power is situated within this reality. If not for our attendance in classes, marking of assessment, competition for party – a dance workout with, according to their website, “no instructors, no fitness goals, and nothing to prove. There are only three rules in the room—no boys, no booze, and no judgment.”

The rules are simple, perhaps oversimplified. How the club defines woman and whether transgendered persons are welcome is unclear. But I allow for the possibility that new movements are capable of growth because I understand the gist of their initiative. Indeed, the goal is humble, but has some political resonance. Dancing is so often an experiment in quantum mechanics, where observation alters reality, where being watched affects the purpose and execution of the activity.

Especially for women, dancing in public comes with a strict vocabulary of movement, an element of performance, and a loss of comfort, even of safety. The activity has been taken up as a mechanism of objectification, with the focus and fetishization of select body parts, and the implicit understanding

marks and performance metrics, or completion of exams the degree factory could not produce its product. Further, if its offices are occupied, management can’t turn the profit upon which it seems so fixated. Such economic losses speak to the university’s monolingual autocrats in terms they can understand.

ANU campus abounds with opportunities for occupation. As the campaign against the cuts to the music school and elsewhere mounts, keep your eyes open and your ear to the ground. The party is just beginning.

For more on EduFactory! and ANU see: www.edufactoryblog. wordpress.com. that you are never dancing for yourself. There is thus value in creating spaces where dance can be reclaimed.

The day I danced with DDPP Toronto, unlearning old habits initially induced vertigo. It took a few counts of that first song to remember that no one was watching me gyrate my hips. I swayed on my feet for a minute more, at a loss for what to do. I was embarrassed to find that I had overdressed, that the dress code consisted in sweats and sneakers.

Then I realized I need not feel shame, nor embarrassment, for, no one was watching me. They were busy, nay, absorbed doing their own thing. So, I just danced. And I danced through the playlist, for the full hour and a half, unconscious of time, of people, of the amount of space I needed to occupy to flail my limbs so enthusiastically.

And, it turned out, that day, I loved dancing.

The DDPP Toronto meets at the studio Mad for Dance, at Adelaide.

Participants pay $8 to cover the cost of the studio rental. See their website for more information: http://ddpptoronto.wordpress.com.

Arts & Culture

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FALL ISSUE 1 2012

Burning the Flag Ryan Hay

O

n my first day of school, I remember being introduced to my teacher, Ms. Witch, dressed in all black. When music started playing from the ceiling and everyone froze, I was mystified. What sorcery was this?

Some of my teachers expected us to sing this song, or to faintly mouth the words, but we always had to observe the anthem obediently, if only in silence.

Hearing the music confirmed that you were late, that your body was not where it should be. Watchful figures guarding hallways stopped us in our tracks, holding us with their stares, adding to our delays, to make sure we observed the anthem.

Why was it so important to them? What did it mean?

Even images that engage with (some might say co-opt) indigenous art and identity can fail to do this. Perhaps intended as an inclusive gesture, or as a powerful corrective, my concern is that this is actually a form of assimilation, of subsuming indigenous nations under Canada in order to extinguish land and treaty rights that are rooted in nation-to-nation relationships.

While some images use the maple leaf instead of the whole flag, others use a distinctive land mass that clearly signifies Canada. This image may seem less politically charged because it is not an iconic nationalist symbol, but space is contested and geography is political.

Ultimately, the Canadian flag is part of an ambitious re-branding exercise. The goal is to consolidate the emotional pull of nationalism to avoid the unsightly reality of Canada’s colonialism.

So just because you use the Canadian flag in your design, does that mean you are supporting colonialism?

Aren’t there good reasons to use the Canadian flag? The flag is an instantly recognizable symbol. It provides political and geographic specificity. It helps us name power so people can understand what we’re trying to say.

500 Years of Indigenous Resistance, cover This piece, unedited and with all images included, can be found at Ryan Hay’s blog, ‘Art & Social Movements’: www.blog. ryanhay.es/burning-the-flag/

Let’s look at some examples.

For one thing, respecting the anthem is part of upholding respect for “the rules” and rulers who govern schools. Otherwise, anarchy would break out.

And then there’s the national part of the anthem. There’s a reason why they make 4-year-olds rise at attention and profess “true patriot love” before we even know what that means.

No Borders & Occupy: The Game of Colonialism by Erin Marie Konsmo, Métis/Cree Indigenous feminist and artist.

We can see different political geographies in the work of indigenous artists like Erin Marie Konsmo and Gord Hill. Konsmo and Hill push back colonial borders by centering a different conceptualization of the land from Turtle Island to Abya Yala.

Playing the national anthem in schools is part of nation-building, or upholding respect for “the rules” and rulers who govern Canada.

As activists and designers working with social movements, many of our struggles require us to challenge “the rules” and rulers who govern Canada.

Switching formats from audio to visual, I’d like to look at a different nationalist symbol – the Canadian flag – and the way it gets used in graphic design.

Instead of proposing a cut-and-dry answer or formula, my suggestion is to think carefully about the choices we make, and the delicate Occupy Toronto poster; Keep It Public image With the flag graphics, the flag was the statement. Here, the symbol of the flag is just one part of the picture, helping to provide context and convey particular values and ideas.

When I look at simple graphics that riff on the flag, I notice two kinds of dynamics: seeking inclusion by wrapping yourself or your subject in the flag; and raising critical ideas by showing the flag in a new light.

In the first pair of images (top left + right), the association with the flag is viewed as benign, while with the second pair (bottom left + right) the image of Canada is visibly tarnished.

These communication strategies range from appealing to a sense of nationalism in the Occupy Toronto poster, which uses the maple leaf and red-on-white colour scheme to suggest that the values of Occupy reflect “Canadian values”, to critiquing the nationalist idea that Canada plays a benign (or subservient) role in the world with the cover of Imperialist Canada, [not depicted] which uses the maple leaf to map the oppressive actions of the Canadian state at home and abroad.

However, all of these images share a common limitation. Not one grasps at the root of things. How can we talk about nationbuilding without acknowledging the colonial history and present of Canada?

So-called “Native Canadian” flag, unknown origin; 2010 Canadian Olympic hockey jersey logo by Debra Sparrow (Musqueam) with Nike (not a flag, but may as well be one).

balance between naming oppression and reenforcing it.

Illustration from Briarpatch March/ April 2011

1292 Bloor St W, Toronto b i k e p i r at e s . com

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Events NOVEMBER NOVEMBER 7 What: Linked Oppressions: Tour of the Village Where: ESSU Office, Wilson Hall basement 500-A, 40 Willcocks St. When: 2:30pm Contact: uoftessu.com Cost: Free Details: Tour of the gay village focusing on the connections between racism, homophobia and transphobia.

What: Assembling Nature & Citizenship in Latin America Where: 280A York Lanes, Keele Campus When: 1:30pm-3:00pm Contact: http://www.yorku.ca/cerlac/events12-13.htm#latta Cost: Free Details: To mark the release of the book, Environment and Citizenship in Latin America: Natures, Subjects and Struggles, York University is hosting one of the book’s editors Alex Latta. Drawing on contributions to the book, Latta will explore the ways nature becomes constituted as a resource, an object of knowledge, a target of governance and a focus for political struggle in Latin America.

NOVEMBER 8 What: Beautiful Girl Initiative Where: Polycultural Immigrant and Community Svs, 3363 Bloor Street W. When: 4:00pm Contact: beautifulgirltoronto.wordpress.com Cost: Free Details: Teenage girls meet in a safe and friendly environment to discuss issues and challenges.

What: Imperialism and People’s Struggle Where: OISE, 252 Bloor Street W. When: 6:00pm Contact: right2resistconference.wordpress.com Cost: Free Details: Part of the “Right to Exist, Right to Resist!” conference, it will respond to the criminalization of resistance and attacks on the people. It is an action-oriented conference, which aims to increase awareness, develop solidarity, and unify networks for collective action amongst those targeted by the Canadian state, its intelligence, its police forces, and its military, and exploited by its socio-economic system – capitalism.

What: Warren Kinsella Reading Where: Runnymede Library, 2178 Bloor W. When: 7:00pm Contact: 416-393-7697 Cost: Free Details: Reading from “Fight The Right: A Manual For Surviving The Coming Conservative Apocalypse.”

NOVEMBER 9 What: Film Screening - Exile in Buyukada Where: OISE, rm 2-212, 252 Bloor W. When: 7:00pm-9:00pm Contact: socialistaction.ca Cost: $4 Details: Until his death in 1940, Trotsky spent his time in exile searching for a safe place to write and plan new political strategies. One of the first places he settled was Buyukada, Istanbul where he lived from 1929 to 1933. Exile in Buyukada is a documentary, which examines this littleknown chapter in Trotsky’s life.

What: Queer Art Showcase Exhibit Where: New College, DG Ivey Library, 20 Willcocks Street When: 6:00pm-9:00pm.

Contact: uoftessu.com Cost: Free Details: Exhibit of art focusing on the connections between racism, homophobia and transphobia.

NOVEMBER 10 What: Inequality Matters: Social Justice and the Economy Where: United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St. When: 7:30pm Contact: 1-866-563-4801 or info@interpares.ca Cost: Free Details: Jean Symes from Inter Pares, Armine Yalnizyan, one of Canada’s leading progressive economists, and Dr. Yao Graham, renowned African activist and coordinator of Third World Network-Africa, will speak about examples of deepening economic inequality they see in communities worldwide, and what we can do about it.

What: Totally outRIGHT

Where: see website for details and registration When: see website for details and registration Contact: http://www.actoronto.org/to or call 416-340-8484 ext. 264 Cost: Free Details: Sexual health leadership events for young queer guys (ages 18-29) who are interested in being leaders in their communities.

NOVEMBER 13 What: Mad Students Society Meeting Where: email for details When: email for details Contact: outreach@madstudentsociety.com or visit www. madstudentsociety.com Cost: Free Details: Mad Students Society (MSS), created in 2005, is a peer support and advocacy group of/for students with personal experiences within psychiatric/mental health systems. MSS hosts monthly meetings and moderates an active, private, email discussion listserv.

What: Amnesty International Discussion Where: St John’s Norway Anglican Church, 470 Woodbine When: 7:00pm Contact: 416-691-4560 Cost: Free Details: Members of the human rights group Amnesty International meet for discussion the second Tuesday of every month. Non-members always welcomed.

What: The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People In North America.

Where: Ben McNally Books, 366 Bay Street When: 6:30pm-8:30pm Contact: 416-361-0032.

Cost: Free Details: Join author Thomas King for the launchof his new book. The Inconvenient Indian is at once a “history” and the complete subversion of a history. In short, it is a critical and personal meditation that the author has conducted over the past 50 years about what it means to be “Indian” in North America.

NOVEMBER 14 What: Book Launch: Raising the Workers’ Flag Where: Ben McNally Bookstore, 366 Bay Street When: 6:00pm-8:00pm Contact: www.utppublishing.com/Raise-the-Workers-Flag Cost: Free Details: During the Great Depression, the conflicting interests of capital and labour became clearer than ever before. Radical Canadian workers, encouraged by the Red International of Labour Unions, responded by building the Workers’ Unity League. In Raising the Workers’ Flag, the first full-length study of this robust group, Stephen L. Endicott brings its passionate efforts to light in memorable detail.

What: Conscious Activism Documentary Series 2012 – Toxic Trespass Where: Hart House Library, 7 Hart House Circle When: 6:30pm Contact: Day Milman @ 416-946-7323 Cost: Free Details: The film gives voice to passionate activists working for positive change, along with doctors and scientists who see evidence of links between environmental pollution and health problems. The film documents how quickly barriers can go up when people question the connection between toxins and serious health problems.

NOVEMBER 15 What: New Strategies for Dealing with Global Problems Where: University College, rm. 144, 15 King’s College Circle When: 7:00pm-9:00pm Contact: scienceforpeace.ca Cost: Free Details: Public Lecture by communications professor Ron Craig, the co-inventor of a system for recycling tires, which recycles 100% of the tire.

NOVEMBER 16 What: Rebuilding Bridges Conference Where: TBA When: November 16-November 18, times TBA Contact: rebuildingbridgestoronto@gmail.com Cost: Free Details: Rebuilding Bridges is a convergence of community organizers, educators, radicals, and activists intent on engaging in conversations and discussions about their political work. How have our movements lost out on valuable cross-movement collaborations in the past? What can we learn from each other?

NOVEMBER 16 - NOVEMBER 17 What: Education for Activists Socialist Action Conference Where: OISE, rm 2-214, 252 Bloor St. W. When: Nov 16 at 7pm; Nov 17 from 10am-10pm Contact: pre-register at socialistaction.ca Cost: $4/session, weekend $10 Details: Panel discussions and workshops with talks on the naure of capitalism, the origins of Zionism and more.

NOVEMBER 17 What: Indie Literary Market Where: Tranzac, 292 Brunswick Ave. When: 12:00pm-4:30pm Contact: meetthepresses.wordpress.com Cost: Free Details: Small-press books, zines, chapbooks, broadsides, leaflets and more.

NOVEMBER 19 What: Be it Resolved the Democratic Process in Canada is in Crisis Where: Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W. When: 7:30pm-9:30pm Contact: departmentofunusualcertainties.wordpress.com Cost: Free Details: A special series of debates hosted by long-term guest creators, the Department of Unusual Certainties. Over the course of this series, 16 illuminated young voices, coming from a range of disciplines and from across South Western Ontario, will explore the contemporary Canadian political landscape.

NOVEMBER 22 What: Haiti’s New Dictatorship Where: Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street When: 1:00pm-2:30pm Contact: 416-395-5577 Cost: Free Details: Author Justin Podur talks about Haiti’s recent history, revealing a shocking story of abuse and indifference by international forces. Podur unmasks the grim reality of a supposedly benign international occupation, arguing that the denial of sovereignty is the fundamental cause of Haiti’s problems.

NOVEMBER 23 What: Be it Resolved the Future is Hope-less Where: Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St. W. When: 7:30pm-9:30pm Contact: http://www.gladstonehotel.com/events/newdiscourses-for-a-tired-century/ Cost: Free Details: A special series of debates hosted by long-term guest creators, the Department of Unusual Certainties. Over the course of this series, 16 illuminated young voices, coming from a range of disciplines and from across South Western Ontario, will explore the contemporary Canadian political landscape.

NOVEMBER 26 What: Ontario Police Complaints System Forum Where: Metro Hall, 55 John Street When: 9:00am-5:00pm Contact: lisa@scaddingcourt.org Cost: Free Details: This forum will engage stakeholders and diverse community groups from across Ontario in examining the 3-year-old police complaints system.

NOVEMBER 27 What: Preservation as Subversion: Do grassroots archives have a future?

Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham Street When: 7:00pm Contact: Uli Diemer @ 416-964-1511 or visit http://www. connexions.org/CxLibrary/Docs/PreservationSubversion. htm Cost: Free Details: CONNEXIONS is inviting people interested in the future of grassroots archive to participate in a discussion and brainstorming session with Ulli Diemer and other keepers of the radical past.

Compiled by Stefan Lazov SEND YOUR EVENTS TO: info@yufreepress.org