"we've got to come together" The Anarchives Volume 3 Issue 13 The Anarchives Published By The Anarchives The Anarchy Organization The Anarchives tao@lglobal.com Send your e-mail address to get on the list Spread The Word Pass This On... --/\-- Daze of / / \ \ Action ---|--/----\--|--- \/ \/ by /\______/\ pj@tao.ca -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ Editors Note: Toronto Canada just had a general strike on Oct 25th and 26th. What follows is pj's post-event narrative. The Anarchives have been *extremely* busy during the months of late. Look for activity to increase... -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ ------------ The whole weekend (even the weeks leading up to it) was a daze of action for me. Overall, I had a great time, but I think it's going to take a lot more direct action to bring change. Okay, this is long, personal and sometimes passionate, so indulge me. It is through the collection of these individual stories that we build a better picture of what really happened October 25th & 26th 1996. Another part of the reason I am writing, and taking up so much space about it, is that I was one of those "black-clad" "punks" "anarchists" "kids" and other worse things I've heard us called. I think it's sad, but almost hilarious, that people (even participators) frown on the overall mainstream media coverage of the event, but are then willing to completely swallow the media representation of the black brigade. Until the Catholic Teacher's union starts seeing some solidarity with squeege punks and vice versa, this movement will continue to reinforce the elitist establishment and protect those with power while isolating and alienating those on the outside. I arrived in Toronto at Ryerson on Thursday night, on a bus full of excited Guelph students. Early friday morning, we picketed Robarts Library as part of the shut down of the University of Toronto. Surprisingly, some students and suits were violently determined to cross our picket lines. ("No one in, No one out; That's what picket lines are all about!") Guess their library book just HAD to get back that day. Some got through, others decided not to try. (Some even listened to reason, and decided to help!) For the most part, we had some good solidarity going between different student and political groups from Toronto and surrounding areas. Judy D'Arcy of CUPE showed up for a hit and run photo op; she and her 'media crew' were somewhat patronizing, but nice enough. She informed us that it was at a picket at UofT 20 years ago that she and her friends came up with one of our most popular chants: "They say cutback; We say fightback!" (I should also mention that it has been modified by some of our most disenfranchised protestors to go, "We say fuck that!") and check out our new chant 'specially for UofT on Friday... "Mike Harris is a tool, of corporate rule; Unless you are a silly fool, shut down the school!" Around 10:30am, I left with some friends to head over to the Anti-Racist Action picket of Ernst Zundel's house. There were police all over, and at least 6-10 lined up in front of the gate 'protecting' Zundel's house, which was completely covered in black plastic. Zundel and his neo-nazi followers run Samizdat press out of the house at 206 Carlton Street. This house is one of the main sources of hate literature for North America, and Zundel uses every loophole and evasion to keep from being deported out of Canada and back to Germany, where he would be shut down. ARA activists called the demo to draw neighborhood attention to the hate-mongering of Zundel, and more broadly, to the effects of the dismantling of employment equity, and the scapegoating of people on welfare, and people of colour. (I agree with Liz, Harris' harping on about Middle Eastern people marching with us is racist.) The protest was lively, and even entertaining-- once you got over being videotaped and photographed by nazis. Marc Lemire, webmaster for the White Power website, was on the roof videotaping and taking pictures of demonstrators and passersby. I am sick of all the badmouthing about "punkers" dressed in black with faces covered. People cover their faces for safety, when being swarmed by hostile media. I see a threat from Zundel, and I also consider CITY TV hostile. It is also out of solidarity with Zapatistas, and out of remembrance that some of us white folk who were there have a lot more privelege in the face of racists AND police than our brothers and sisters of colour. Suburbia may not think there is a problem, but I have been harrassed by nazis on the street, and I know, also from talking to kids who live on the street, that the rise of the extreme right is a problem, one that grows in an era of support for more systemically racist policies. How about the privelege of doing direct action, in a time when I, as a white woman, would get a LOT different treatment from the cops if I was arrested than a black male friend of mine doing the same thing? So, ARA provided music, and people chanted and marched, as well as chatting with other people, young and old, who came out to ask questions or show their support. I was there for a speech from a holocaust survivor, and later on in the day was some great street theatre, from the Counter-Clockwise folks, a play on the SnoWhite and Seven Dwarfs theme. and my fave chant for this event... "Racist, sexist, anti-gay; White man's law, go away!" Next, I headed down to the Toronto Stock Exchange rally, and hooked up with friends from all over the province! Many people made it inside, and the people that I talked to said that it would have been a peaceful occupation. Too bad that the marshals were so insistent that protestors leave the building. It is my understanding that marshals are there to protect and represent the PEOPLE, not the police, so it was most disappointing when they were more eager than the police to kick people out. (There was a lot more pink hat power-tripping on Saturday at Queen's Park.) My friend, Stefan, is a bike courier downtown, so the streets around Bay are his usual workplace. On other days, we have sat isolated despite being in a crowd (of suits) and stared up at those imposing black buildings, with their bleak and monolithic architecture and wondered at how little of ourselves we saw represented in the urban jungle. Last Friday though, we danced for joy, reclaimed the streets, and found hope that thousands of little people at the foot of those towers could find so much power and happiness in each other. a chant for that moment...(somewhat divided along class & ideological lines...) "Cuts, no thanks; It's time to tax the banks!" or "Cuts, no thanks; Tax the fucking banks!" or "Cuts, no thanks; Expropriate the banks!" Next, it was back up Bay Street to the Education Rally... taking over the streets all the way. The Education Rally was said to be 20 ,000 (for those who care about numbers), but all know was that I was swept along in a sea of people filling the square in front of the Ministry office, and the surrounding streets. Rows of police in riot gear stayed about a block away, and the line of cops inside the building also stayed put. Guess they decided that since we were all speeches, smiles, and singing there was no need for an attack. Despite the spirit, I can't help but be disappointed-- the combined students of York, Ryerson, and UofT are more than 80,000... plus all the elementary and secondary school students, etc. The Student Activist Network of which I am part, has a great deal of work to do in building a real fight for access to education. It has been my experience that students in university are not apathetic, so much as they are convinced by the media that there is nothing they can do to change the system. I've also seen countless situations where the people who have the MOST reason to protest, are also the busiest... doing school full-time and working one or two part-time jobs besides. That's why I see the S.A.N. listserv as so cool... it's a way for the average crazy-busy student to find out what's going down on other campuses, realize they're not alone, and then mobilize to do something about their rights. So, after the speeches (teacher's, kids, union leaders, etc), there was some music (word out to the Dope Poet Society, and the sweet-but-tough rhymes of D, voice of the people!) and the crowd dispersed. (A drumming circle coalesced on the steps of the CIBC across the street!) After that, was the joyous Critical Mass, but after walking all over town, I opted to rest for a bit. Check out pictures of the 'People's Cavalry' at http://www.lglobal.com/TAO/gspics/ Friday evening was a throwdown at the 360 club on Queen West. I caught part of Guelph's own Black Cabbage shaking down the house... 'twas fun! Then I went to a special rave that was in celebration of the general strike. Very beautiful, peaceful... they had transformed their apartment into an immediatist Temporary Autonomous Zone, even created a 'zine for the event! I did a reading of the chaotic-poetic words of Hakim Bey, with DJ Ben laying down an ambient groove and I then retreated to talk politics with new friends until the wee hours of the morning. It was quite an eclectic circle. Exhilarating! Here, instead of a chant, I give you the words of Guy Debord as quoted in this little 'zine (for everyone who became more aware of the media in our lives last weekend)... "In the Society of the Spectacle we live in a world of carefully constructed illusions -- about ourselves, each other, about power, authority, justice and daily life. These illusions are both constructed and reflected by education, advertising, propaganda, television, newspapers, speeches, elections, politics, religion, business transactions and the courts. They are perpetuated by us from the moment we accept this as a valid view of the world. We don't have to agree with every detail -- in fact we are positively encouraged to argue and take sides over a host of prefabricated trifles -- we simply have to accept this view of the world; to view life from the perspective of Power." Saturday... biggest political rally in Canadian history, and nice weather, too! I joined up with many friends old and new, in with a broad, funky and rhythmic section, (some OCAP, ARA, Media Collective, Food Not Bombs, reds, blacks, and greens of all shades, etc.) It was, as many have said here, absolutely wonderful to see the unending mass of happy, empowered people. Too bad we were going to a picnic at the closed Queen's Park, instead of directly to the source, the Tory convention at the Metro Convention centre. Many people wanted to protest at the Convention Centre, as a more physical and less symbolic expression. The anarchist group, like many of the union leaders, stopped in front to chant and surge forward. There was tension between kids and cops and someone was pushed down in the melee. For the most part, though, we were only chanting. The most disgusting moment was when some of the pink hatted marshals (in front of the cops) began chanting "shame, shame" AT the kids, instead of at the Tories!! Now, one of my personal favourite moments of the day was over-hearing a well-dressed middle aged guy saying to his friend, "You know, this is my first protest. I don't usually do this kind of thing -- go so far as to march in the street. I'm the letter writing type. I do my lobbying behind the scenes. But I've written letters for months to this government and gotten not one single response! I'm out here to be heard!" I think the whole event, controlled as it was (and staged for mainstream media) was an excellent first step for thousands of people. I tried to explain this to one of my more militant anarchist friends, in his impatience with the music and self-congratulatory union leader speeches when we arrived at Queen's Park. That demonstration was only the beginning of a movement. We have so much more work to do. Petitions, letter-writing, picnics, etc.... are fine, but as the Wobbly cat says, "When the bosses give no satisfaction, try a little direct action!" So, for all you tired, stressed out organizers in Toronto (who've read this far), take heart and keep going! Reinforcements have arrived, and we need you to keep at it! Harris and his corporate advisors have the PR money to do whatever spin on the day's events they want... but if workers unite with students unite with the unemployed unite with unpaid working women, environmental activists, and so on AND cause a general strike, organize civil disobedience and other creative forms of resistance, then it doesn't matter what spin they put on it, they will be have to be affected. My friend Mandy is the most peaceful, justice-seeking woman I know. (She was the one whose sweet grin was in the Sun and Star after her arrest last Wednesday for planting winter wheat on Queen's Park.) I liked her sign best. It was a black flag, attached to a small sturdy tree branch, and sewn in white letters, quite simply, "PEOPLE UNITE". Another highlight was when someone climbed the statue in front of the stage and placed a First Nations flag and a black flag under the old-white-ontario-politician's arm. yaaay! Unfortunately, police were very wary of us. They built up all along the gate near where we stood, in addition to taking pictures and video tape of us. It looked tense during billy bragg's set, but nothing happened. Because of harrassment during the march and on friday, we decided that it was unsafe to leave alone or in one's and two's. Police constantly harrass punks, just for the way they look, and carrying flags or protest placards would be asking for trouble. (Freedom of assembly is only protected when you don't threaten the system.) We organized to leave as a group and drop off our materials at a nearby anarchist book/record shop. We were followed and harrassed by at least 3 cops (including videocameras), who were particularly harsh on the ARA people. Since they had no cause for arrest, we walked away, and they stopped following about a block away from the Park. went to the media collective rave on saturday night, and made it up in the morning on sunday for the international media collective gathering. So there ya have it... what I did last weekend. :) -------------------- the other thing that's got me excited is the upcoming Student Activist Network conference. we're hosting it here in Guelph on November 29 - December 1st. hopefully people will be coming in from across this province for this one. i will send you the sked as soon as we confirm some things. (hopefully monday or tuesday.) if you could make it, that would be wicked... but i know it'll be mostly about the ontario shituation. -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ The TAO Media Collective http://www.lglobal.com/TAO/ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -------------------------------------------------------------- To receive the Anarchives via email send a note to Majordomo@lglobal.com with the message in the body: subscribe anarchives To get off the list, send to the same address but write: unsubscribe anarchives Also check out: http://www.lglobal.com/TAO/