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People still ask me why I’m vegetarian. I like to tell the stories of when I was a young child discovering my reasons to become one in a family where no one had directly opened my eyes to the possibility. And then explain that I am not fundamentally opposed to eating meat.

No, I tell them, because if I was, I would have to start pickets near fox dens and rally against lions and wolves. Further, and many see this as a stretch, I think we have to respect all life whether or not we can prove that plants have any degree of consciousness, feeling, or suffering. My vegetarianism comes out of an animal rights consciousness directly born out of my anti-capitalism, so that just as humans should not be exploited and tortured and conquered neither should animals or the Earth.

Animals not noble savages

Now I am smart enough to know not to fetishize animal societies and behaviors, which is often used to prove human nature is basically good or basically bad. Some species live incredibly non-authoritarian collective lifestyles, and others live based upon some pretty (I do argue) unethical behaviors. There are species that exist through matriarchy and through patriarchy, and others whose societies are neither or can be either.

Many social mammals especially are known to live through patriarchy, at least as far as human researchers have come to understand. Gorillas, kangaroos, and lions are among the many whose communities are led by alpha males. Many whales have matriarchal societies, where young males exist, but become solitary after a certain age.

A number of scientists claim to have observed rape among a number of species, including chimpanzees and lions, and other violence that we would consider criminal, like torture, unprovoked beatings, and infanticide. It is important to note that in most of the species that I have ever heard of, these types of acts have not been witnessed, but that they exist proves that some animals are just as capable of brutality and malice as humans. Many more species have much more often been witnessed in acts of altruism, loyalty, collectivism, and solidarity. Animal societies, it is clear, should not necessarily operate as a model for our societies, either in positive ways or negative ones.

But that entire species, and thousands of them, necessitate the consumption of other animal life, usually through the killing of prey, is indisputable. And while I subscribe to an interpretation of ethics that universalizes much of those I hold, this last fact proves to me that the killing and eating of another animal cannot be unethical.

Plants

And briefly, on that other point, I wish that I could offer you the facts of a case I read about as a child. In a book about female scientists, I read of a mid-20th Century scientist (named either Baxter or Stockman, but as a Ninja Turtles fan at the time, I’m not sure which) who conducted a study possibly proving consciousness, fear and the ability to identify specific humans amongst plants. Now, this may seem out there to our feeble minds, but it shouldn’t really.

After all, there are untold numbers of spiritualities, faiths, and religions that insist that their followers respect all of nature, biotic and abiotic, and philosophers who have spent lifetimes trying to figure out life (though usually they stuck to humans or animals as a whole). With all our intellect and technology, humans still haven’t figured out exactly what life is, and what constitutes an individual life form. We have no way of adequately researching the consciousness of another being, particularly one which we cannot even fathom the intricacies of.

In any event, whether or not this theory has any basis, life is life and it should all be respected. That goes for plants and fungi, and capitalism certainly exploits and abuses them too. But just as many animals cannot live without meat, we humans cannot live without something living or formerly living to eat. It is certainly not equally unethical to eat plants than to eat meat. So, with some consciousness and respect for forms of life that we still don’t really understand, this leads to no dilemma over whether to eat plant life or not.

Anti-capitalist vegetarianism

I do not claim to know if humans need to eat meat or not. There are strong arguments are both sides, though I lean to believe there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the consumption of animal life by human animals. I do not stand to blame someone who, using rudimentary tools, kills and consumes a non-human animal.

That is not, however, how meat is produced structurally exploitative societies. We mass produce genetically altered species, torture and brutalize them, enforcing a life based upon what we believe will produce the most value from each individual. We devastate local environments and species to introduce invasive mutants that we then abuse and slaughter in a centuries-old holocaust that has created more pain and suffering than even any by humans against other humans. This is not right.

I am not sure that it is completely wrong to breed animals at all, something humans have been doing for thousands of years. But for most of our existence cultivating certain species, we at least treated them with great degrees of respect and admiration. They were led lives that were at least far less harsh than each exploitative society has successively made them, and capitalism has brought out the worst treatment of animals that could ever exist, certainly on scales no past period can compare with.

The effects of vegetarianism

Vegetarianism, I firmly believe, has led to a reduction in the suffering of animals. The larger the number of vegetarians and vegans, the more potential market is chopped off for animal exploiting industries, leading to fewer animals being bred, tortured and slaughtered. In this way, it doesn’t necessarily challenge the system structurally, but it certainly does limit its size.

There is much dispute about whether it betters the conditions of the animals under the control of meat producers. Most labeling has been proven to be illusory veils, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, letting some consumer purchase highly abused animals for higher prices and in (falsely) good conscience. Not all meat, egg, and dairy producers lie about positive conditions, however, and even that thin number of those who don’t could be called a victory.

The jury is out on whether or not it makes humans completely healthier, though there are plenty to try to prove either argument. But it does cut down on many diseases and chronic problems for me and many others individually, and so it becomes a positive personal choice as well. I likely do not need to worry about many of the diseases that have taken my ancestors. But this is not why I am a vegetarian at all.

So, there you have it. Why go vegetarian? Because animals suffer. But while we need not debate if humans should eat animals, we should all agree that their exploitation under capitalism brings about a level of suffering no animal has wrought on another.

According to the Panama News, the caciques (leaders) of the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca (Ngobe-Bugle semi-autonomous region) has asked that the United States Peace Corps leave their land. The US Peace Corps is there at the end of a five year agreement with the Ngoble-Bugle people, but the caciques say that their people have seen little benefit from the presence of the volunteers.

Pop quiz for regular readers: Anyone remember who the most famous person is to have been assigned to the United States Peace Corps in Panama in recent years?

That's right! Jenna Bush!

In Chicago, we have an abysmally weak consumer activism periodical, Conscious Choice. Under one editorship the covers could pass for eco-porn, and as long as I’ve seen it, they’ve had articles pondering if conscious consumerism should mean buying from Wal-Mart or other big businesses. Most recently, a cover story wonders aloud, “Capitalists: The New Environmentalists?” Nope, the article doesn’t contradict that outrageous assertion.

Okay, so we’ve established there are a lot of blatant contradictions in so-called consumer activism. From the weak laws and regulations that cover labels like ‘Organic’ and ‘Free Range’, to the disparate access to ‘ethical consumerism’ between the upper middle class and the working class, to the new age-y assholes who most promote this form of guilt reduction. Even one of the great slogans of consumer activism pronounces the dead end we’ll find: “Vote with your wallet.” Vote with my wallet? But if I’ve long since realized this electoral system is a sham (though I still vote and occasionally campaign), that slogan doesn’t speak to me. Worse yet, I can’t afford to vote with my wallet. Go deliver that pick-up to someone with a trust fund and a LEED-certified condo. Or to someone who can afford to invest in one of the hundreds of cottage industries that have for decades sprung up around ‘conscious consumerism’.

But I’m not completely against consumer activism. Fuck the capitalist lifestylists who proclaim it the only legitimate form of social change, and then step into their 450h to drive to the fluorescent light bulbed yoga class. But as well, it should be respected that it has some kind of impact. That anti-capitalist purists, both those who are more moderate and still engage with elections or established unions, and those more puritanical folks who think they are too pure to let their principles invade every aspect of their life, completely shun it is a mistake.

My History with Consumer Activism

When I was young, I became a vegetarian with no one around to influence me as such. And by my teen years, my argument for that had developed into one that does not see humans eating other animals as unethical. It is an attack on capitalism and Eurocentric practices of meat production and consumption. So, my vegetarianism is, in some ways, a form of consumer activism. And with as many vegetarians and vegans in the world as there are, there are significantly fewer animals being bred, tortured, and slaughtered for profit. A result, in part, of something that is sort of consumer activism. The same can be said of anti-car bicyclists, so that whether or not it is their primary reason, it is one of the main causes that they broadcast.

And, especially in my teen years, and later as well, I participated in a lot of anti-corporate and anti-sweatshop campaigns, calling for universities or other institutions to cut contracts with Killer Coke or Marriot-Sodexho and to sign on with credible workers rights watchdog groups, or picketing Taco Bell. These, too, overlap with the sphere of consumer activism, though they required much more traditionally obvious forms of activism.
But the rhetorical point was still the same- sack some businesses for practices that are even more impactful than these other businesses.

So, on principle, I can’t simply wade past consumer activism as if I’m too righteous for it.

Now, the fact remains, I can’t afford to shop at places like Trader Joes or Whole Foods (though their dumpsters are a different matter), and my kitchens have often been a who’s who of generic labels in huge portions. But where I can, I do use my dollar on principle. Even most of the most fervently anti-CA leftists do this sometimes. Buying gifts from a fair trade fair. Passing on Israeli products. Going fregan. Perusing our local bookstore or café while leaving Borders and Starbucks to expropriators. Or, preferring the fair trade coffee at the café. Generally, the left CA opponents do SOMETHING that falls under the rubric of consumer activism.

Does it have an impact?

Well, there are different types of consumer activism. There are organized boycotts, personal boycotts, preferences for local businesses, searching for labels like ‘Organic’ or ‘Fair Trade’, green consumption, buying as fundraising. None of these has a huge impact. But some can make capitalism a little less horrendous. Let’s take some of these as examples.

A personal boycott (i.e. ‘I know their business practices, so even if no one else is boycotting, I don’t want to be participating’) do nothing. Organized boycotts do something. Some evil capitalists actually do things less evilly when confronted with successful boycotts. Most just try to pull a sheet over people’s eyes with fancy PR campaigns, but some are actually pushed to do some things not as vile. This can actually make things easier for coffee growers somewhere far away, or mean fewer killings of unionists, or higher wages for tomato pickers. The workers are still exploited and their organizations are still repressed, but less so, and that translates to breathing room for more, perhaps radical, social struggle.

Big businesses are simply worse than local businesses. Not in every case, but they just have the power to do more evil, while many local businesses are at least run by people who care more about what their company provides than the bottom line. On the other hand, some big businesses provide better wages and benefits to workers, usually as a means of staving off any union organizing, while local businesses can’t afford to. And bosses in a small business can be just as humiliating or exploitative as their big business counterparts. Nevertheless, going to local cafes and restaurants can mean support for communities, tips for workers, and less cultural homogenization by the big brands. Again, negatively, buying Oberweis products in Illinois means sponsoring a xenophobically racist and exploitative millionaire’s constant electoral attempts, so bigger brands aren’t always worse. On the balance, I take this as sometimes effective.

You can rarely trust labels. This we know. Some labels are more reliable than others. Doing the research on either the label or the company doesn’t always require too much work, and if you can afford to pay for items with ethical-sounding labels that they have justifiably earned, there’s really no excuse not to. Many eggs with the nice labels don’t come from places that live up to those standards, but very few others do, and in those cases you might be sponsoring smaller farmers who don’t mistreat (nearly as much) their poultry proletariat. With the right research, and depending upon your access to this as an option, it can have a small impact.

Buying as fundraising, if you know and like where the money’s going (buy some infoshop.org merch) is a more obviously positive one. People should be buying their t-shirts from infoshop or indymedia or a million other places, not from Target. You can buy mugs, scarves, DIY crafts, buttons, or all sorts of useful or not-at-all useful items from activist groups, and this is clearly a better option than getting it anywhere else.

There is arguably some overlap here with genuinely purchasing from fair trade options, which is an area that also overlaps with the problem of labels. Sometimes fair trade means workers who control their situation, while other times it simply means they are paid more fairly than they had been in the past. I cannot usually afford Palestinian olive oil, fair trade coffee from Panama, Fat Tire beer, or Chiapas honey, but those who can really and have the access really have no excuse. Again, being sure of the claims of the seller or packaging requires research.

Green consumerism, meanwhile, depends greatly on a degree of access which most of us just don’t have for one reason or another. And it brings us right back to labeling. It is usually a trick. Most ‘green’ products still use environmentally harmful packaging, are barely produced by recycled goods, and are otherwise mired in fallacies sold to us by PR campaigns. But where something is relatively better for the environment than something else and you have the access, there is no argument why not.

But critiques are valid and necessary

Most consumer activism campaigns don’t include the most important aspect of radical (and would-be revolutionary) activism: the organizing part. Radical activism should, ideally, expand and further the movement. Student anti-corporate campaigns often do just that, increasing their groups’ memberships, giving them activist practice and experience, and politicizing or radicalizing people’s points of view. Most consumer activism does nothing of the sort. It makes yuppies act self-righteous and rids them of the guilt they got from what they saw on Oprah or in Conscious Choice. They’re barely more conscious about how the world works, and there is little degree of ‘membership’ in or commitment to any movement for real social change.

Some of these points, like that last one, can also relate to dumpster diving, which can have no politicizing or organizing effect unless it’s part of a Food Not Bombs/Bosses/Business project. Or here’s a rhetorical one. The consumer activist says “I don’t wanna participate in ____.” Well, that’s the same argument of the privileged ‘society drop-out’ dumpster diver. And both are still participating in ____. Not only by their other practices, but by their complacency. You aren’t righteous by want of a certain kind of participation. That just makes you self-righteous.

And there’s another focal critique, equally relatable to the more self-righteous practitioners of dumpster diving as to consumer activism, which is that they concentrate at the point of consumption, not at the point of production. For reds (anti-authoritarian, Leninist, or other), any of us with firmer Marxist analysis, the latter is where the organizing and action should be concentrated. After all, it isn’t really the consumer who is the target of most of the forms of exploitation and alienation that anti-capitalists organize or theorize against, it is the worker. And though a consumer might be a worker, they are typically neither in their workplace nor relating to their product or service when doing the purchasing or consuming.

Radical change cannot mean focusing on the point of consumption. It is about going to the root of the problem, which is in the workplaces, be they mines or malls, factories or farms.
And the dogmatism of conscious consumerism is often so blinding for most of the participants, and hostile to other forms of struggle, that this becomes another point in and of itself to critique. Where any set of tactics antagonizes other tactics that are seeking some or all of the same goals, there is a serious problem. That can be taken as much as a defense of consumer activism as a critique of its rhetoric.

Conclusion

But we are fighting a huge juggernaut, and the daily death tolls and misery reaches Holocaust proportions. People have direct needs, and those needs must be met. Those with any privilege should use those privileges to counteract the effects of the system, respecting that they might want the same if the situation was reversed. It is a point of privilege to refuse to use that privilege to help make some people’s (or the environment’s or animal’s) lives easier, though it might not fundamentally challenge the system.

One of the things I tell people a lot, is that I’m willing to do anything for change, and that goes for both short-term social change and long-term revolutionary change. If we feel too righteous or pure to try to use every means available, without regard to strategy or a short-term impact that we can’t necessarily see, than we are deluding ourselves, about both our chosen path and our privileges that give us greater access to this or that.

North Chicago - Suburban police have killed unarmed Waukegan native 21-year old Aaren Gwinn yesterday afternoon as he was attempting to flee in a car. Gwinn, who is Black, has already been ripped into by local police as having possessed drugs on his person, as if that can in anyway justify his slaying.

"That was murder. It was plain and simple," Gwinn's aunt told the Lake County News-Sun. "Police are just trying to cover themselves with (the drugs)... They shot him, and then they rammed him. They didn't even yell a warning."

Learning perhaps from Chicago Police Department methods, North Chicago is not releasing the names of the officers involved. The department has also released statements that Gwinn was "armed with an automobile."

White Cops can drive drunk

Chicago - Last Thanksgiving day, 22-year-old Miguel Flores and 21-year-old Erick Lagunas were killed in their car by a drunk driver. State legislatures and news media consistently call for harsh sentences to drunk drivers, particularly those involved in accidents where other people are harmed or killed. The drunk driver had spent hours at a bar nearby, and was speeding down the wrong side of the street, paying no heed to traffic signs. His vehicle rammed into the side of their car, killing them both.

But a Cook County judge decided today that drunk driver John Ardelean will not be subjected to the criminal courts (meaning no possibility of any jail time) and threw out the two felony aggravated DUI charges against him. Ardelean is an off-duty white cop, and when his brothers arrived on the scene, they opted not to give him a breathalyzer test for eight hours, more than long enough for enough alcohol to leave his system so that he could pass. That the breathalyzer was delayed so long and that he had just come from hours at a bar were not in dispute. No one needed to mention that he is white and the young men that are now dead are Latino. Their families vowed to fight on.

Looptopia. What a stupid word. And it doesn't even have a laser light show. Last year, some folks correctly re-christened it Coptopia after their experiences. This year, that was joined by nicknames like Pigtopia or Cagetopia, where the Loop becomes a zip cuff.

I missed last year, but from what I understand, what I saw this year was evidence that to a large degree, the city hadn't learned from serious mistakes. Officially sold as Chicago's "white Night" (modeled after something in real 'Global Cities', but with horrifying connotations), Chicago's downtown Loop, normally almost dead on a Friday night, is supposed to come alive with music, theater, performance, and revellers, a cultural spectacular from dawn to dusk. That's the PR campaign, which is all the capitalist news media pays attention to. But nearly all of the events are indoors and thus get 'sold out' (though they're free). So an overwhelmingly youthful thousands of people, mostly local and largely drunk but otherwise diverse, roam around the Loop, looking for things to do or, in rare moments, creating their own entertainment and community.

Some artists and hipsters criticize Coptopia largely over what they see as the bureaucratizing of art, but most people in the streets begin to feel the more obvious than usual police state falling upon them, and this is why I went this year. The police are everywhere, in groups of four or more, in cars in the middle of the streets or curbside, and they become an ever present threat for the thousands out flouting open container laws, or the fact that all of these thousands who are locked out of the events are loitering. So the most beautiful moments of spontaneous art, like the corner free-style battles I witnessed, or the song and dance moments, are broken up by pigs.

Actually, the cops break up anything. Even the hipsters standing around on the corner too long looking at the tastelessly spiffy official brochure/schedule/map get moved along by the police. In some cases, police attacked very aggressively, hitting people who were obeying their orders with police bicycles and no provocation, or challenging and threatening people. For me, it get's a little hot being too well known by the CPD for my own good, but everyone feels the heat at Pigtopia.

In most cases, this groups people together. Black, Latino, Asian, and white, middle class, working class, and working poor young people all get rowdy or angry or paranoid about the ever present thuggish repression. Some break into the typical chants (Fuck the Police; Fuck Daley), some even start sidewalk speeches. And some are arrested, in plenty of cases for nothing more than to intimidate a crowd. But Google News only reveals to us the official version (try google newsing Looptopia arrests).

The Chicago Transit Authority offered revellers an unexpected reminder of Daley's villainy and ineptness as well. For some reason, the entire elevated train system was closed, the very loop of trains that gives the Loop it's name. Only the two underground trains were operating downtown. To make matters worse, there was no forewarning, not on the news, publicity materials, or the official brochure/schedule/map (which included the elevated track stations as if they would be open). Wow, what a great idea. Offer tens of thousands of drunken young people a downtown, don't let them in the indoor events, have police harass them into rowdiness, and offer them little or no escape. Seriously great idea, Mayor Daley. Really, a Global City thing to do. Dare I say it? An Olympic idea!

A really Olympic idea would be for plenty of pre-planned subversion and exploitation of Pigtopia by theatrically minded activists or activist-minded theater folk and musicians. Massive guerrilla theater and planned guerrilla radical messaging, largely around the ineptitude of Da Mare and the villainy of the police state- coming soon to Looptopia 2009?

Thousands of people marched for the third May Day in a row as a part of the national immigrants rights movement, and though the numbers were much smaller, the spirit was just as high.

Police estimated five thousand, but I got some views that proved to me it was much more than that. The much lower numbers can be understood within the context of the organizing. The three previous huge marches were organized as general strikes, while this one was not. The route was identical to most of the rest, ending in Federal Plaza thanks to our manageable (to the police) numbers. There were several waves, like the much larger ones last year, where everyone would sat down or kneeled only to hurl themselves up again. And the downtown workers, mostly white collar ones, along the route were out to observe and sometimes support our throngs.

There were a lot fewer non-Mexican Latin Americans present, but there were still large organized groups of immigrants from the Philippines, Korea, Nepal, Honduras, Guatemala, and a number from Poland. A student walk-out from Juarez in the Pilsen community met up with the Rudy Lozano leadership Institute for a feeder march, and others cames from the North and the Haymarket statue to the East. And a large united contingent from the LGBTQ communities was organized by the Gay Liberation Network, Amigas Latinas, Orgullo en Accion, and other groups.

Near the Haymarket monument, a white racist entered our c`rowd. He was hurled out with a collective howl of Cuuuulerooo, though many of the rowdier youth clearly wanted to take their anger at the police or ICE out on him. Several sticks were thrown, but the police made sure he was protected, one who offered sympathy with his racist cause.

The rally at Federal Plaza was still unnecessarily long, with some communities still marginalized to the end of the roster. Celebrities flooded the stage, from Tom Morello to Boots Riley, and Ben Harper to Perry Farrell. And, unfortunately, some bullshit politicians took the stage as well, which leads us to...

Criticisms

Now, I missed this part, but when people told me what happened, it nearly ruined both my day and reintroduced us to my breakfast. Somehow, someone got Morello to introduce scumfuck Mayor Richard M. Daley II, who came on bobbing up and down in some bizarre effort to dance to the beat. I heard that Boots (from the Coup) walked off the stage to the regrettable scene. Daley was joined by other politicians, including Governor Rod Blowjobavich, and some Aldermen, all to bullshit their bullshittiest bullshit on a crowd undeserving of such public relations bullshit.

There were again attempts at the kind of symbols that us leftists gagged on, including a small preponderance of United States flags, and an effort to get people in white t-shirts. On the other hand, the smaller march meant a larger proportion of (predominantly) white leftist groups, some of whom unwisely try to exploit these marches for recruitment more than as an effort at solidarity.

It was a good day, though, but evidence that the immigrant workers rights movement needs to grow, and not in an electoral vein, which was proven by the 2006 elections, which got the call for reforms no where. And it is also evidence that perhaps, at least for a while to come, Chicago will continue to celebrate International Workers Day the right way, rather than ignoring it as was done for so many decades.

Five twenty-somethings were found shot to death in a Chicago house, which itself was wrecked. They included professionals, like the bank computer technician, the party planner, or the one in real estate. But the many sound-bites from relatives and neighbors that were broadcast by local news stations were bizarrely defensive: they weren’t criminals; they didn’t have criminal backgrounds; they weren’t in gangs. Well, bizarre unless you know that these murdered young people were Black people on Chicago’s South Side.

These five people were victims, but everyone in the neighborhood seems to be rushing to their defense. There’s the obvious question, why do they need a defense? Because lurking in nearly every reporter or viewer’s head would be the sneaking preconception that this must have been gang-related, the question if any of these victims were in a gang themselves, and stereotypes about young Black men and women and prostitution or drug rings. It’s possible, of course, that the local news producers simply chopped out every other piece of the sound-bites, but that there was such a collective urgency toward this kind of defensiveness, from different interviews with people who may not even all know each other, says so much.

Another boy was interviewed about his recent conviction. He had brought a knife to his high school with a plan to take out a bully. The bully was absent, so he followed a girl home, and put a knife to her throat in an alley. After idle threats, he let her go, and is now facing sentencing. The reporters, lawyers and parents all seem to consense that this was a cry for help, that he must have mental health issues, that he needs help, and that he’s not a monster. He is a working class white kid.

Ryan Schallenberger purchased the ammonium nitrate for an Oklahoma City-style explosive that could have killed everyone in his entire South Carolina school. Caught before he could carry out these plans, he is facing sentencing. And the analysis is the same. He has mental health issues, this was a cry for help, and he’s not a monster. ++++ is a working class white kid.

In a small white town, nine (9) eight and nine year olds concocted an elaborate scheme to torture their teacher, bringing handcuffs and weapons to class for retribution against the teacher’s disciplining of another student. They will not be prosecuted, and they are spoken about as troubled, and not understanding the difference between right and wrong. They were all white.

But Chicago has seen more than three dozen shootings since this week began, and these were overwhelmingly Black-on-Black crimes in predominantly Black neighborhoods. The shooters, few of whom have been caught, are roundly called monsters, bad guys, and gang members by the capitalist news media. No one wonder’s about their mental health, except to blame a lack of parenting in the community. Nobody rushes to defend them, to call these episodes of reactionary violence ‘calls for help’.

It reminds me of the sentiments of many Black and Latino high schoolers during that period in the late 1990s when Columbine and all of the other white school shootings happened. It was true that Columbine was a massacre, but before and after, the bourgeois press scurried to any moment where a white student even just brought a gun to school, or made a threat. But ‘inner-city’ school shootings occurred too, receiving no national news attention at all. ‘That’s just what they’re like, but when our kids do it, it’s a cry for help.’ When white kids do it, there were bullies at school. When Black kids do it, it’s because of a (perceived) epidemic of broken families.

Also in Illinois, an appellate court has ruled that it is within one suburban student’s first amendment rights to go to school with an anti-gay t-shirt. Never mind in-school censorships of leftist students or websites, let’s look at this in the context of the usual ‘I don’t agree with them, but they’re allowed to say it’ patriotic line. The line where the ACLU defends white nationalists’ plans to march or rally, and white supremacists are protected by law. Because schools almost uniformly ban anything that could remotely be perceived as gang related in many areas and districts. They ban certain colors, certain patterns, certain clothing items, certain symbols, sports paraphanelia, (and I don’t say all together wrongfully) in the name of keeping gangs out of the schools. Where are first amendment rights here? If one set of people can wear clothes attacking gays or Arabs, why can’t another set wear an outfit where one article of clothing is black? In prisons, white nationalists are considered gang members. Why is there a distinction out here?

Montreal Riots post-Canadiens game

So as it turns out, following game seven of the first round in Stanley Cup playoffs, a riot ensued in downtown Montreal on Monday night. As people were in the downtown core, mostly on Ste-Catherine’s Street, a small group went after unoccupied police cruisers and lit them on fire. Sixteen (count ‘em, 16) police cars are burnt toast and there is about half a million dollars in damage, including the store fronts that were knocked in and then looted.

So this leaves me wondering. Who and why? The mainstream media has been reporting that a small organized group went after the cars, taking advantage of the crowd and the post-Canadiens victory celebrations. If you look at the videos that have been uploaded on good ole youtube.com you’ll notice that they certainly seem organized. No one (as far as I know) has claimed this as their own direct action.

Twenty-three people have been arrested and the cops have gone to the mainstream media demanding video footage of the scuffle to start identifying participants. The cops have also gone public asking for any personal video footage to be sent in. You can also see stills from the videos asking for help identifying the people in the videos. Troubling.

What really makes me wonder is why there were so many unoccupied police cars lying about the downtown area. Very suspicious. The cops claim that it’s a new tactic to increase their visibility, blah blah blah, and be friendly with rowdy hockey fans, blah blah blah. But why so many unattended cars? Seems to me that the coppers are looking for a little more public support to increase the number of them and keep on harassing people downtown. Convince the average law-abiding citizen that violent hooligans run rampant and are spurred on by wins/losses in hockey games, reinforce it with dramatic images of cars on fire and people breaking windows, and you just might get a little more support for an increased police budget. Worrisome really.

What do you think??

- e.

to be updated

I must admit that I missed an unfortunate amount of this conference, despite that most of the organizers were longtime comrades and it was in my hometown. That is, I missed most of Sunday of a two-day conference. Nevertheless, here are some of my impressions.

Differences from Last Year

This second annual Finding Our Roots conference was organized around the theme of Organizing, where last year's focused on Theory, and though the wand occasionally dipped into theory, there were plenty of workshops either about concrete struggles or organizing methodologies. There were fewer workshops at the same time, usually two rather than three, and they met for longer, not including guerrilla workshops, which cut down workshop slots from twelve last year to eight this time around, plus meals and plenaries. As for location, one comrade opined that next year it should perhaps be held on the far South Side, but I think Roosevelt was a great choice, far more accessible from the whole city than either Loyola (where it was last year), or a far South Side option. The organizers should be commended for the location. One sad note on which I am partly responsible is that, last year, we audio recorded nearly every workshop, and I don't know that any were captured this time.

This year

The usual crises shuttered at least a couple of workshops and led to many schedule shifts, and while attendance seemed weaker than last year, there were probably more out-of-towners, and most or all workshops were well attended. The first day's workshops, after a Food Not Bombs style breakfast, leaned on specific struggles, including local ones like those around public transit, the Tamms Supermax Prison, the Queer anarchist Bash Back! network, the Animal Defense League, anarchist unionists in Chicago from a Change To Win perspective, and the AREA activist periodical (see link on right panel) waxed conceptual about urban organizing. Minneapolis activists presented on the RNC protest plans, and Irish anarchist Andrew Flood gave a popular presentation on the growth of anarchism in Ireland (part of a North American tour he's on), and there were other workshops on law, the legal system, and know your rights trainings.

Spectacularly, the organizers received a shipment of cheap vegetarian (and mostly vegan) Indian food for lunch, which was unsurprisingly popular. That almost made up for the closing plenary, which riled a lot of people (of every race and gender identity), when it was made up of five white men. My personal understanding is that a trans person of color had been invited, but rejected the offer for fear of tokenization, but this could be idle rumor, and I present to you just so that you might know the full story. Nevertheless, it was a very (or exclusively?) white group of organizers for the conference who then chose a completely white, male first day plenary.

That evening, I came late and drunk with friends to the Black Flag/Black Tie party, which was sufficiently a blast, but was apparently dozens of attendees short of making the fiscal goal. Still, people came 'dressed to impress' and danced like Emma would've wanted.

So it was with headaches and sore legs that a packed room assembled the next morning to a successful Chicago APOC guerrilla workshop on Power, Privilege and Oppression. Also meeting were workshops on Radical Health Care and Precarity, a strange themed movement whose root word is precarious if that helps you understand it (check wiki). And I am still seeking notes from friends on workshops ranging from art activism to anti-war organizing to those on mutual aid and anarcho-communist collectives, which I think are all great workshop ideas. No caucuses were organized ahead of schedule, so Bash Back! turned its workshop partially into one, and Chicago APOC initiated the call for a POC caucus at Sunday's lunch, which I hear went really well though I still await the notes.

The closing plenary was also a really good idea, as it focused on the lessons younger and middle aged activists can learn from more aged comrades. This time the five person panel had one white woman and one Black man, so there was still some lack of representation as with the vast majority of the weekend, but I think the focus on the stories and experiences of older comrades is something far too often missing from some radical circles, which tend to lose that kind of village integrity.

April 17, 2008

Yesterday Lubicon Chief Bernard Ominayak wrote to the Chief and Council of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation at the prison in which they are being held. His letter is reproduced below.

On March 17, 2008, an Ontario Superior Court judge sentenced 6 Aboriginal protesters to six months of jail for peacefully defying a court order that would allow Platinex, a mining-exploration company, to drill for minerals on their traditional lands in northern Ontario , Canada . The Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation fears that mining activity will jeopardize hunting and burial grounds and argues that the Ontario government awarded the mining permits without consulting and accommodating their people, a violation of aboriginal rights and Canadian law.

The individuals jailed include the Chief and four Councilors of the (KI) First Nation.
KI First Nation continues to recognize its Chief and Councilors as leaders in exile and as prisoners of conscience. It has also declared that a 2001 community declared moratorium on exploration and development will continue to be enforced in KI traditional territory, pending resolution of a treaty land entitlement claim and fulfillment of the Government of Ontario's legal obligation to consult and accommodate.
We are encouraging Lubicon supporters to also lend their support to the KI First Nation and its leaders. More information on how you can help is included below Chief Ominayak's letter.

* * * * * * *


April 16, 2008

Chief Donny Morris
Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation
C/O Thunder Bay Correctional Centre
Highway 61 South
PO Box 1900
Thunder Bay ON
P7C 4Y4

Dear Chief Morris;

We have been following closely the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation's efforts to protect your land from the onset of mineral exploitation, both in the courts and on the ground.

When Platinex took your Nation to Court for opposing their proposed exploratory drilling project, we asked our supporters to join in protesting this attempt to use the courts to silence your leaders and lay claim to your lands, because we saw parallels with our own peoples' struggle to survive and the attempted use of the courts to keep us quiet while they stole everything of value from our lands.

When the Court told Platinex to meet with your Nation to determine how mineral exploration should be allowed to proceed, lawyers across the country trumpeted the decision as a victory for aboriginal rights because it demonstrated that consultation is a requirement under Canadian law. We knew, as I'm sure you did too, that this was not a real victory for our people, because we knew from our own hard experience that having the right to be consulted is not the same as having the right to say no. And we knew from our own hard experience that without the right to refuse a project that will destroy our lands and damage our communities, we will be unable to meet our responsibility to protect our lands and people.

When the company later returned to Court - aided and abetted by the provincial government and its lawyers - to argue that it should be allowed to proceed because it had already met the "duty to consult", it was no surprise to us or to you that the Courts agreed, and instructed your people to stay out of their way.

When you and your Council stood in the way of Platinex regardless of what the Courts and the provincial government said, we took heart that there are leaders like yourselves who are willing to stand up and demonstrate that we, as aboriginal people, will not sit idly by while outside governments and companies destroy everything we value - the land, the air, the water, and our way of life.

When you were offered the chance to apologize and accept the exploitation of your lands in exchange for your freedom, we took heart that, as real leaders, you and your Council refused. And now this letter finds you in jail, where they hope to destroy your spirit and that of your community by taking you away from your people and your land, and threatening others that they will face the same fate if they don't allow Platinex to proceed.

If there were any way to turn back the clock and stop the very first oil and gas companies from entering our lands - before the hundreds that followed made it all but impossible to reverse the environmental destruction they brought to our lands - I believe our people would gladly do so. For that reason, I'm sending this message now to encourage you and express our support for the principled stand you are taking, so that the lands of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation don't have to suffer the same fate our lands suffered after the first resource exploitation companies opened the door for the many that followed.

We hope you keep close to your families, your people and your lands in spirit, despite being taken away to a remote jail, and that you continue the struggle from inside with the same devotion and courage you have shown so far. There may be many forces allied against us as aboriginal people, and those who want to take everything from the land have a great deal of power and influence, but there are some things they can never take away from us. One of those is our spirit, our courage, and our determination to carry out our responsibility to protect the lands the Creator gave to us.

Sincerely,


Bernard Ominayak
Chief, Lubicon Lake Indian Nation


cc
Deputy Chief Jack McKay
Councillor Samuel McKay
Councillor Darryl Sainnawap
Bruce Sakakeep, Lands & Environment Director
Head Councillor Cecilia Begg


* * * * * * *

Take action

Please write to the Premier of Ontario, demanding the release of the jailed First Nation Chief and Councilors and a halt to mining exploration in KI First Nation lands.

Write letters to the Premier of Ontario:

Dalton McGuinty, Premier
Legislative Building
Queen's Park
Toronto ON
M7A 1A1
dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Sample letter

Dear Premier McGuinty;

I am writing regarding the incarceration of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation Chief Donny Morris, Council members Samuel McKay, Jack McKay, Darryl Sainnawap Cecilia Begg, and community member Bruce Sakakeep.

They have recently been convicted of civil contempt charges and jailed for 6 months for peacefully opposing mineral exploration on their traditional territory.

I understand that Ontario continues to grant exploration permits to mining companies without fulfilling its legal obligation to consult with and accommodate Aboriginal peoples. It is disgraceful that these six people are serving time for upholding their community's rights while Ontario continues to flout the law.

I ask that the Province change its antiquated Mining Act to ensure real consultation and accommodation of aboriginal rights before granting mineral leases. I also ask that the Ontario Government take action to release the six KI First Nation prisoners of conscience currently being punished for protecting their lands and community.

Sincerely,

---


Please also write letters of support to the jailed leaders

Here are the names and addresses where you can send individual letters of solidarity and encouragement:

Chief Donny Morris
Deputy Chief Jack McKay
Councillor Samuel McKay
Councillor Darryl Sainnawap
Bruce Sakakeep, Lands & Environment Director

C/O Thunder Bay Correctional Centre
Highway 61 South
PO Box 1900
Thunder Bay ON P7C 4Y4

Head Councillor Cecilia Begg
c/o Kenora Jail
1430 River St .
Kenora ON P9N 1K5

More information

http://kitchenuhmaykoosib.com/