Direct Action For Climate Justice

Breaking news on a direct action in support of climate justice by this group:

10 people are currently occupying Labour Minister's Rona Ambrose's edmonton constituency office to push for climate justice. I am sure they would love your help and support. (more info below)

How you can help:
1.Go down to the office: 6801-170th Street, Edmonton. We need folks especially around 4:30 pm. Food and warm drinks also lovely.

2.Phone the office and demand that Ambrose commit to a just, ambitious and binding climate treaty in Copenhagen that listens to science and is led by those most directly affected by the climate crisis: (780) 495-7705

3.Email Ambrose: AmbroR@parl.gc.ca

4.Go to the Blog: www.canadaclimatejustice.wordpress.com for updates.

5.Email canadaclimatejustice@gmail.com and find out an action is being organized in your area or organize your own today.

6. Post this to your facebook and change your status to Climate Justice

7. Donate to the legal fund - write a check to: Greenspiration, 214 Macdonell Ave, Toronto, ON, M6R 2A8 and write Citizens for Climate Justice Legal Fund in the memo section or donate online at https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=EgsKlO6-krdxN43nu1b3bRxFMhyEBsy5A2_vEOOWyixXoVY11lLQAXk8hJO&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1ffc45dc241d84e953d0e88f8d71535079b246201019c8adab

8. Send them warm messages on the facebook group Canada Climate Justice - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=100000496309666#/group.php?gid=188529654240&ref=ts

CITIZENS FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Citizens Occupy Rona Ambrose's Edmonton Office: call for climate justice in lead-up to Copenhagen talks

November 25, 2009 (Edmonton, Alberta) --- The second of a series of peaceful sit-ins targeting elected officials, tar sands financiers, and the coal and tar sands industries began at 11:00 am at Labour Minister Rona Ambrose's Edmonton constituency office (6801 170 St.) today. 10 people entered the office and have staged a peaceful sit-in - refusing to leave until the federal government commits to combating the climate crisis and stems the deaths and displacements of millions that will result from further inaction. The occupation follows a similar occupation that was held on Monday at Environment Minister Jim Prentice's office in Calgary.

"While our government delays millions of people will die or become displaced due to the climate crisis. By stalling and blocking progress the Canadian government is saying it doesn't care about the lives of those currently and most affected by the climate crisis,” said Martin Tweedale, one of the people occupying the office. “Rona Ambrose must put pressure on the Government to act and push for a just, ambitious, and binding deal that listens to the science, and is led by those most directly impacted by the climate crisis."

Inaction on climate change is already displacing and killing millions, and sending many into poverty. The UN estimates there will be 150 million climate refugees by 2050.

“Canada's economy is being left behind, our environment is being decimated and we are telling those most vulnerable that their lives don't matter. Rona Ambrose should be investing in green jobs not carbon intensive industries like the tar sands. The US government invested 14 times more per person in renewable energy than Canada last year,” said Keely Kidner. “We’ve held rallies, phone-ins, flash mobs, we’ve written and talked to our MP’s and nothing has changed. Now we are taking the next step, in the tradition of Gandhi and the Civil Rights Movement to do our part to solve the greatest environmental threat of our time."

The sit-in is still ongoing. The police have been called and there is potential for arrest.

Information about the call for civil disobedience for climate justice, as well as updates on actions set to take place across Canada in the coming weeks is online at:
http://canadaclimatejustice.wordpress.com/

-30-

For More Information Contact:

Keely Kidner: 780 695 9057
Martin Tweedale: 780 490 8015

Remembering for the Future: The 1999 Seattle Protests that Rocked the World Trade Organization

On November 30th, 2009 -- the tenth anniversary of the start of the direct action protests in Seattle that shook the World Trade Organization and brought global justice organizing to a new level of visibility and vitality in the global North -- come and remember for the future. Watch an important film about the events and hear in person from one of the core organizers of the Seattle protests, while also celebrating the launch of two publications containing material that critically marks that anniversary.

The details:

Remembering for the Future: The 1999 Seattle Protests that Rocked the World Trade Organization

--> Come watch the film *This is What Democracy Looks Like* about the historic events in Seattle

--> Join the discussion with Chris Dixon, a core organizer of the WTO protests and a contributor to the new book *The Battle of the Story of the "Battle in Seattle"*

Monday, November 30, 6:00-8:00PM
Room C-101, Classroom Building at Laurentian University

On November 30, 1999, more than 50,000 people converged on the ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle. They were ordinary people - labor unionists, environmentalists, students, indigenous people, community organizers, and peasants from the global south, among many others. They gathered to challenge the WTO as an institution of neoliberalism, putting profit over the well-being of communities and ecosystems. By the end of the week, the ministerial talks had collapsed thanks to a combination of street disruptions and courageous stands by delegates from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The Seattle protests helped to spur the global justice movement and to launch widespread public discussion about "globalization."

Ten years later, we will remember and reflect on this important victory for people's movements worldwide.

This is a launch event for two new publications:

*The Battle of the Story of the "Battle in Seattle"*

*Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action* Issue 9

The Classroom Building is located between the Library and the Arts Building at Laurentian University. This is a wheelchair accessible location.

For more information, call 705 675-8479 or email chrisd@resist.ca.

***

About *This is What Democracy Looks Like*:

*This Is What Democracy Looks Like*, a co-production of the IMC and Big Noise Films, weaves the footage of over 100 videographers into a gripping document of what really happened on Seattle's streets. The film cuts through the confusion and tear gas to paint an intimate, passionate portrait of a week that changed the world. With narration by SUSAN SARANDON and SPEARHEAD's MICHAEL FRANTI, and with a driving soundtrack including RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, DJ SHADOW, DJ MUSAKA, and COMPANY OF PROPHETS, *This Is What Democracy Looks Like* is the first documentary to capture the raw energy of the WTO protests, while clarifying their global and historic significance.


About *The Battle of the Story of the "Battle in Seattle"*:

THE BATTLE OF THE STORY OF THE BATTLE OF SEATTLE
By David Solnit & Rebecca Solnit
with Anuradha Mittal, Chris Dixon, Stephanie Guilloud, and Chris Borte

>From dawn to dusk on November 30, 1999, tens of thousands of people shut down the World Trade Organization meeting, facing cops firing tear gas and rubber bullets, the National Guard, and the suspension of civil liberties. An unexpected history was launched from the streets of Seattle, one in which popular power would matter as much as corporate power, in which economics assumed center-stage, and people began envisioning who else they could be and what else their economies and societies might look like.

*The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle* explores how that history itself has become a battleground and how our perception of it shapes today's movements against corporate capitalism and for a better world. David Solnit recounts activist efforts to intervene in the Hollywood star-studded movie, "Battle in Seattle," and pulls lessons from a decade ago for today. Rebecca Solnit writes of challenging mainstream misrepresentation of the Seattle protests and reflects on
official history and popular power. Core organizer Chris Dixon tells the real story of what happened during those five days in the streets of Seattle.

Profusely illustrated, with a reprint of the original 1999 Direct Action Network's "Call to Action" broadsheet, including key articles by Stephanie Guilloud, Chris Borte, and Chris Dixon, and a powerful introduction from Anuradha Mittal, *The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle* is a tribute to the scores of activists struggling for a better world around the globe. It's also a highly-charged attack on media mythmaking in all its forms, from Rebecca Solnit's battle with the New York Times to David Solnit's intervention in the "Battle in Seattle" film, and beyond. Every essay in this book sets the record straight about what really happened in Seattle, and more importantly why it happened. This is the real story.

About *Upping the Anti* issue 9:

Upping the Anti is a radical journal of theory and action which provides a space to address and discuss unresolved questions and dynamics within the anti-capitalist, anti-oppression, and anti-imperialist politics of today's radical left in Canada.

UPPING THE ANTI NUMBER NINE includes:

- Interview with Eli Clare on disability and trans activism

- Interview with Sherene Razack on Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims from Western Law and Politics

- Chris Hurl and Kevin Walby on the Canadian Union of Students, 1965-69

- Ben Saifer on campus Palestine solidarity activism and Israel-advocacy "dialogue" initiatives

- Kate Milley on anti-Native organizing and the "Caledonia Crisis"

- Roundtable retrospective on the tenth anniversary of anti-WTO mobilizations in Seattle, 1999

- Roundtable on anti-Olympics organizing

- And More...

If you are in Sudbury, please check this event out!

Email Campaign in Support of Striking Vale Inco Workers

This is an email campaign in support of striking Vale Inco workers in Canada and expressing solidarity with Vale workers in Brazil. I signed on when it first circulated -- last week or the week before I think -- but I didn't post it. A labour activist left a comment encouraging people to sign on at the bottom of an earlier post of mine, so I thought I would make a post of it.

Here is the explanatory text from the campaign's page:

Canada/Brazil: Tell Vale that divide-and-conquer won't work
Since being privatized in 1997, the global mining giant Vale has unleashed a vicious attack on workers. The company undermined health and safety standards in Brazil and now it's set its sights on Canada. In 2009 negotiations with the United Steelworkers (USW), Vale claimed it needed deep concessions - despite making over $13 billion (USD) in 2008 net profits. The company’s strategy is to divide and conquer by undermining seniority and providing lesser benefits to new employees. 3,500 members of the USW rejected Vale’s demands and went on strike in mid-July. Vale has since announced it will hire replacement workers and force other union members to do the work of the striking miners. Meanwhile Vale workers throughout Brazil are struggling to hold on to jobs, earn a living wage, achieve minimum standards for safe working conditions, and guarantee basic labor rights. Vale employees and their unions in Brazil and Canada are fighting back together, reaching out to workers in a global campaign for fair treatment at Vale.

Reliable, enduring relations of solidarity across such great physical and social distances are not built overnight, and I would not be surprised to learn that much work remains to be done on that front by Vale employees and the organizations that represent them. Nonetheless, I think it is important to send a pro-worker message to the company, and to show support for those forces within the USW and in the broader labour movement that are working to build global solidarity among workers. Send your email!

Hallowe'en Costumes, Partying, and Oppression

The piece that I am linking to in this post was produced in the context of queer spaces in Vancouver and talks about specific things that have happened there. I'm posting it because some folks in Sudbury are circulating it in response to a recent instance in a queer space here of a white person coming to a Hallowe'en party dressed in Blackface and then a bunch of other white people being silent about it and/or actively defending it after the fact. I am certainly at a remove from where this took place and from where the primary post-event processing has been happening. I also am not sure there are really too many local folks who read this blog, other than friends. Nonetheless, I think it is pretty broadly relevant across North America wherever dress-up, costumes, or theme parties are to be found.

A few highlites:

What’s important to remember in all this is that we are not criticizing people, we are criticizing the behaviour. We realize that in all likelihood, the [Vancouver party] organizers and the costume-wearers did not intend to offend or exclude. They probably just didn’t think about the implications of their themes or costumes, and how that might affect people. It seems that most of the time, people don’t mean to offend when they say something inadvertently racist or sexist or homophobic. But that’s the thing: when you come from a place of privilege (i.e. being a white person, being heterosexual, being a man), you often don’t think about how your actions might be offensive to others (i.e. people of colour, queers, women), because you’ve never had to think about that. That is your privilege! But this is why intention is not the issue. The issue is that the behaviour was offensive, and people are (understandably) angry, frustrated, and feel marginalized and excluded.

...

One of the most fun things about costume parties is that people can dress up like something different from their everyday life or identity. But more often than not, this “difference” is demonstrated through gender, culture, race, class etc. Especially during Halloween, we see what people around us consider to be “different,” “funny,” “abnormal” or “scary” and this reminds us what is considered to be “normal.” Just stop and think… In your life, how many guys do you know who have dressed up as girls, how many people from one racial background dressed up as members of another, how many people from middle or upper class backgrounds dressed up as “trailer trash” or “hobos”? From hyper-sexualized costumes to “cross-dressing” to costumes of cultural & racial stereotypes (geishas, gypsies, Native head dresses, etc.), we can see what is considered “different” and thus we can see what is considered acceptable, normal & idealized in our society. For people of colour, trans and genderqueer folk, disAbled folk, folk from poor/working class backgrounds who are already made to feel “different” and excluded from today’s society, seeing people wearing a costume that simplifies or mocks their identity will further exclude them and make them feel even more “different” or “abnormal.” And that’s not something that we think the queer community should support.

Read the whole thing!

My Article on the Student Day of Action in Sudbury

This is a news article written by yours truly about the Sudbury contribution to the provincial Student Day of Action. It was written for and originally published by a web-based (and sometimes-but-not-this-time print) publication called Linchpin, which is produced by the Ontario anarchist group Common Cause. I am not a member of that group but I have written for them before, and starting with this article I will be writing for them more regularly.

Students and Steelworkers march against poverty
by Scott Neigh

SUDBURY, Ont. — 150 post-secondary students, joined by dozens of striking members of Steelworkers Local 6500 and community supporters, marched in Sudbury Nov. 5 demanding a poverty-free Ontario and reduced tuition fees. The march was part of a provincial “day of action” organized by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).

Ontario has the highest post-secondary tuition fees in the country. CFS publications state that more than 70% of all new jobs require post-secondary education while the youth unemployment rate has topped 18%.

Rafiq Rahemtulla, vice president of the Graduate Student Association at Laurentian University, said Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government is reviewing tuition with the intent of introducing a new comprehensive policy in 2010.

Rahemtulla said students have the goal of "Making it political suicide for any member of the provincial legislature to vote for a plan that includes a tuition increase." He also called for a living wage for all Ontarians and a broad poverty reduction strategy.

Laurentian Labour Studies teacher John Peters spoke for the Sudbury and District Labour Council saying that 90% of jobs typically held by workers under age 25 in Sudbury pay less than $20,000 a year.

The protest was supported by a number of groups in the broader Sudbury community, including the City of Greater Sudbury — the first municipality to endorse the day of action. Also present were dozens of Steelworkers who have been on strike against giant mining company Vale Inco since July.

Tod McGee is an undergraduate student in Environmental Earth Science. His brother is currently on the Vale Inco picket line and his father is a Steelworker retiree. For him it is a matter of course for workers and students to support each other. He said, "It's the spirit of the community to band together and demand what you think is right. There are certain rights that people have — education should be free."

Speakers often raised the infamous case of Sudbury resident Kimberly Rogers, who committed suicide while under house arrest for "welfare fraud" in 2001. When Rogers began attending community college students were permitted to receive both a student loan and social assistance. The rules were changed by the Conservatives in 1996 and it was made illegal. Rogers was not informed of this change and was arrested when it was discovered that she was still receiving both. Very few recommendations made by the official inquest into Rogers' death on reforms to social welfare policy have been implemented.

Amanda Laroque, an undergraduate student in Women's Studies and English, said she was participating in the march because, "I'm really in debt. And I care about everybody else behind me [in the march] who is in debt." She noted the march was smaller than last year, perhaps because of the cold weather, but said, "I'm hoping it'll cause waves so eventually it will lead to change."

Post-secondary education is increasingly important to get a job, but is difficult to complete without incurring significant debt. According to Sociology and Labour Studies professor Kaili Beck this means that in the journey towards building financially secure futures. "We're starting our youth off in this society about twenty miles back from where our parents started.”

Beck says that some people will be kept out of the classroom entirely, "High tuition fees means students that would have been great contributors, great thinkers, won't be there." She notes the impact is particularly harsh for groups who are more likely to experience poverty and discrimination in employment, such as indigenous people, people of colour, people with disabilities, and women.


Scott Neigh is a writer, activist, and parent who lives in Sudbury, Ontario. For more of his writing, visit http://scottneigh.blogspot.com