Common Cause is an Ontario anarchist organization that wants to see anarchists active in every town, neighborhood and workplace across Ontario.
A major focus of our activity is work at those crucial points where working class people are organizing together for control over their lives, the decisions affecting them and against oppression Our general approach is to involve ourselves with mass movements and work within these movements, in order to promote anarchist methods of organization involving direct democracy and direct action.
The methods of struggle that we promote are a preparation for the running of society along anarchist and communist lines after the revolution.
Common Cause was founded last September in Toronto by anarchists from several Ontario cities. Since then we have constructed our website at linchpin.ca, taken part in demonstrations and held public discussion about topics of interest to anarchism. We'd like to hear from any anarchist in Ontario, or moving to Ontario who wants to work with us.
Please download the PDF of the paper
and print out and distribute copies of it. If you let us know how many you have done and where you are via the contact form at http://linchpin.ca/contact you'll make us very happy!
(Road)Block Capitalism!
By the Disgruntled Crossing-Guards Collective
How do we resist? How do we resist capitalism, this system based on a logic that reduces human bodies, nature and life itself to mere economic inputs to be bought, put to work and then sold for profit? How do we resist its exploitation in our homes, in our workplaces, in our schools, in our communities?
This question is about how we organize ourselves and what tactics we use. It has always been the key question and all of our struggles, past and present, are dedicated to answering it. And it is through struggle, not some sort of so-called intellectual activity separate from struggle, that we come up with our answers.
The struggles of French workers that was the Paris Commune (1871) gave the radicals of Mikhail Bakunin's and Karl Marx's days a vision of participatory democracy and of an economy run by those who actually do the work. The sit-down strikes of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and of American auto-workers in the 1930s showed how the newly-emerging assembly line, itself meant to weaken the power of skilled or craft workers, could be brought to a standstill by workers siting down at their machines and refusing to work. Beginning in the 1960s campus strikes and occupations showed how students too could resist by refusing an education meant only to turn them into obedient workers.
Today it seems that our various struggles are coming up with another “answer” or rather part of an answer as no single form of organization or tactic is ever enough on its own. The struggles I have in mind include most loudly the piqueteros or the unemployed workers movement of Argentina that began in the mid-1990s.
How do workers who no longer have jobs and therefor can no longer strike or shut down production at its immediate site, resist? Their answer has been to occupy and block, even in the face of brutal and sometimes deadly police attacks, Argentina's major highways and bridges. Using this tactic they are able to prevent the circulation of goods and people (or inputs and outputs of production from a capitalist point of view) and in general prevent business as usual. And they have won victories that seemed impossible only a few years ago including an employment insurance-like program whose funding they have used to build an autonomous network of worker-run shops and stores.
Closer to home, the leading practitioners of this tactic have been indigenous peoples who, like the piqueteros, have repeatedly occupied land, roads and railways in their struggles against Canadian colonialism. This recent wave of struggle includes the Six Nations occupation of land and of Highway 6 near Caledonia, Ontario, several occupations of railways across the country in solidarity with the Six Nations and most recently, the occupation (using an old school bus) of the major Toronto - Montreal railway line as well as the blockade of the major 401 highway by the Mohawk of Tyendinaga near Belleville.
Of course throwing a wrench in capitalism's movement of products and people is not “new” especially when talking about strikes by transportation workers including the summer 2006 strike wave that included strikes by Montreal public transit workers, Greyhound drivers in Western Canada and Canadian Pacific Railways and Canadian National Railways conductors and maintenance workers. However two things stand out about these recent struggles.
First, capitalism has changed in a crucial way. While capitalism has always depended on the smooth flow of products and people, this dependence has today reached new heights. In response to the factory-based struggles of the industrial worker, capitalism has exploded the large factory or workplace into an infinite number of fragments kept together through networks of high technologies and transportation infrastructure. This is not the capitalism of the factory town but rather of the network where a car is made up of parts produced in 100 small factories, in 10 different countries and then delivered to thousands of dealers to be sold to millions of consumers all over the globe. In the service sector, think of the thousands of McDonald's and Starbucks stores spread out over the world yet linked by information technologies and rail, highway, ship and plane.
From the point of view of those who struggle, the ability to disrupt the smooth flows of capitalism thus becomes an important source of power, perhaps as important as was disrupting production in the factory in the era of the factory town. The fact that the two-week CN workers' strike alone caused hundreds of millions of dollars in profit losses leading to such headlines as the Toronto Star's “Companies alarmed by CN strike” is a testament to the potential power that we can gain from this tactic.
Second, and even more important, is the potential that this tactic may spread to the struggles of people not only outside of the transportation sector but excluded from or on the margins of the economy as a whole. It is hard to think of people more excluded from the economy and society (and thus disempowered) than unemployed workers in the South or indigenous nations in Canada/Turtle Island. But, by disrupting capitalism's flows of products and workers, these two groups have been able to gain tremendous victories (as in the case of the piqueteros) and attract more attention and force more movement on the issues than decades of so-called peaceful negotiations ever have (as in the case of the Six Nations).
These two struggles are showing something very important to us, to the unemployed factory worker whose job has been moved to where workers are more intensely exploited, to the young worker making minimum wage at a multinational chainstore, to all the people and communities that have been the target of the neoliberal onslaught (think run-away factories, cuts to social programs, police oppression, land grabs, etc.). They are showing that, despite our marginalization and apparent powerlessness, we too can organize our communities and disrupt this insane economic system by clogging its channels, by disrupting the smooth flows of goods and people it so depends upon. They are showing that we too can resist and resist effectively.
Of course the state and corporations will defend capitalism from our attempts to disrupt its circulation. The Six Nations blockade at Caledonia was raided by OPP forces and the Canadian government sent Canadian soldiers to the Tyendinaga Mohawk nation's blockade. Both groups face numerous legal charges and the Tyendinaga Mohawk nation is being sued by CN Railway for millions of dollars in lost profits. Blocking a railway line or a highway is illegal. In this sense, this tactic is similar to the strike before it was legalized in the early 20th century. During that time striking workers were thrown in jail and far too often killed in cold blood on the picket lines by police.
But by organizing themselves and their communities, they were able to continue resisting until governments all over the world recognized the right to form a union and to strike. Today, the Piqueteros and the Six Nations (and other indigenous groups) are also showing that an organized community, one that has the solidarity of other communities, can effectively use tactics considered illegal by the state and stand up to the oppression of the state and billion-dollar corporations.
So now that we have these examples what do we do, we who are not directly involved in these struggles? It seems that a good place to start is by learning even more. One article will not due. Learning more may also lead to finding out how we may show some real solidarity with these struggles. Most importantly however, is to go back to and organize our own communities whether this be the workplace, the school, the local punk scene or whatever. Resisting and eventually doing away with capitalism is going to require all our efforts. Just like a local music scene thrives off the interactions and connections it makes with other scenes our struggles need to multiply and connect if they are to resist and eventually do away with the exploitation and oppression that we face everyday.
Resources:
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), http://ocap.ca/taxonomy_menu/1/11
Autonomy and Solidarity, http://auto_sol.tao.ca/node/view/2012
Turtle Island Native Network, http://www.turtleisland.org/news/news-sixnations.htm
ZNet's Argentina Watch, http://www.zmag.org/lam/argentina_watch.cfm
Against the War Machine
Direct Action against CANSEC in Ottawa
by Sarah Claudette (PGA Bloc)
Photo by Ryan Davies, http://www.ottawa.indymedia.org/images/2008/04/7296.jpg
Background
CANSEC is Canada's largest weapons fair, held annually in Ottawa during the month of April. The two day event brings together weapons and security systems manufacturers, brokers, lobbyists, military personnel, and government officials to showcase new technological developments and to schmooze. This year's gathering of war profiteers, including Boeing, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, General Electric, and Blackwater, was held on April 9th-10th at the Ottawa Congress Centre. The event is closed to the public.
The Network to Oppose War and Racism - Pacte Contre l'Agression, l'Intolerence et la Xenophobie (NOWAR-PAIX) and the People's Global Action Bloc (PGA Bloc) organized a number of lead-up events and two days of protest and resistance to oppose CANSEC, the war machine and the brutal occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Palestine and Turtle Island.
The Call-out to Shut Down the War Machine
The Solidarity & Action Committee of PGA Bloc began organizing resistance to CANSEC in late February. Educational events and active resistance were both on the menu. Call-out for autonomous actions, media interviews, and a youtube animation video set the tone for the confrontational style endorsed by the PGA Bloc.
In collaboration with NOWAR-PAIX, efforts were made to ensure that resistance to CANSEC was both well-informed and inclusive. Educational materials and events were planned out for the weeks leading up to the death market. The panel discussion, in particular, brought out over 45 folks from many activists circles. Common Cause's Anarchist Discussion Group also hosted a CANSEC-focused session.
Stand up – Fight Back!
Active and Direct action against the corporate profiteering began early – on the evening of the April 8th during CANSEC's set-up and first wine-and-dine. A fire alarm was pulled by "a group of nefarious anarchists" acting in response to the PGA Bloc's call-out for autonomous actions. This effective action saw the Ottawa Congress Centre evacuated and overtly disrupted evening activities. The action was claimed by "sexy anti-authoritarians " on Ottawa's Indymedia website.
Wednesday April 9th, the official opening of CANSEC, was designated as family friendly. Two marches, organized by NOWAR-PAIX and PGA Bloc, were accompanied by an overwhelming police presence. The lunch hour tour of War Profiteers in Ottawa had police outnumber demonstrators at least 3 to 1. The brief march followed a specific route past such war mongering enterprises and exploitation specialists as Mincom & Fleetway. The march made special stops at the Canadian Association of Defense and Security Industries (the lobby group that organizes CANSEC and represents over 500 weapons and surveillance manufactures) as well as the Canadian Forces Recruitment Centre.
The evening picket of 60 or so aimed to disrupt the Black Tie social, an event described to attendees as being "designed to optimize your interactions with current and potential contacts, clients and stakeholders." The rally stood out clearly as a co-organized event between PGA Bloc and NOWAR-PAIX, with homemade red & black flags flying above the crowd next to psychedelic peace sign flags. Speakers took the stage between "sounds of war" blasting on a portable sound system and lively condemnations and chanting. The picket came complete with a banner drop from the National Arts Centre, and another outnumbering by security forces. Despite the police presence, rather than disperse after the rally at the Congress Centre, a spontaneous snake march took to the rush-hour downtown streets – angry and boisterous – to demonstrate in the busy Market area, making it's final stop at the US Embassy.
Shut down CANSEC! Shut down the War Machine!
A crowd of about 70 gathered quickly at Dundonald Park, near Chinatown, at 11am the following morning. Following two very brief statements from organizers - on legal support and on the politics of opposing CANSEC - the march took to the streets with banners and chants. Cops were everywhere, as usual. Reaching the Ottawa Congress Centre, part of the crowd attacked and rattled barricades surrounding the OCC and a solid line of cops. Switching the focus to the Westin hotel, the protest continued for a short time before snake marching back downtown. Taking advantage of the police's confusion and inability to keep up with the front of the march – a small crew of militants successfully smashed the window of the Recruitment Centre. A scuffle ensued – no successful arrests were made.
Despite the dispersal of many who were targeted by police at the Recruitment Centre the march raged on to SNC-Lavelin. One arrest was made – solidarity and confrontation sparked in the crowd, as the car holding the captured comrade was blocked and unable to escape until riot cops cleared the entire block by pushing the rowdy crowd onto the adjoining intersection. The march eventually rerouted itself to the cop shop and devoted itself to jail solidarity.
At 3pm, about 15 people, nearly all of whom were clad in black, regrouped at the war monument at the northend of Elgin for a strategic meeting which led to a second jail solidarity march down Elgin. This march coincided with the concluding events at CANSEC.
Retaliation Under the Cover of Darkness & the Call to Continue the Fight
As CANSEC came and went, Ottawa anti-imperialists found themselves with only one solid attack and one direct action against CANSEC under their belts, and the arrest of an innocent comrade. According to two separate communiqués posted on Indymedia Ottawa and Infoshop News, windows at the downtown Recruitment Centre, a Scotiabank and the Somerset West police station were smashed in retaliation to the police presence and the earlier arrest. These autonomous actions of love, rage and solidarity brought resistance against CANSEC to a close, while opening a call to all who fight capitalist exploitation, imperialism, and authoritarianism to strike blows against the system that is killing us all and the planet that sustains us. Over the next year, confrontations with the capitalist system will only grow stronger -- when CANSEC returns in April 2009 we will be ready to stand up once again and take action.
CONTACT:
pgabloc@gmail.com
www.nowar-paix.ca
An Anarchist FAQ
FAQ stands for “Frequently Asked Questions” and An Anarchist FAQ is a collection of answers to questions related to anarchism, hosted in different places on the Internet. Its aim is to present what anarchism really stands for and indicate why you should become an anarchist. It is produced by a small collective of people who work on the FAQ when they can (mostly in their free time, after work). They are not a corporate funded think-tank or full-time members of a party apparatus.
An Anarchist FAQ is due to be published by AK Press (www.akpress.org) later in 2008. Volume one (sections A to F, plus the introductions and appendix on the symbols of anarchy) is now ready for publication.
There are 10 sections (A through J). These are: A) What is anarchism?; B) Why do anarchists oppose the current system?; C) What are the myths of capitalist economics?; D) How does statism and capitalism affect society?; E) What do anarchists think causes ecological problems?; F) Is “anarcho”-capitalism a type of anarchism?; G) Is individualist anarchism capitalistic?; H) Why do anarchists oppose state socialism?; I) What would an anarchist society look like?; J) What do anarchists do?. There are also four appendices, and a bibliography.
Here are some samples of what you can find in this comprehensive FAQ:
A) What does anarchism stand for?
“... anarchists consider it essential to create a society based on three principles: liberty, equality and solidarity. These principles are shared by all anarchists.”
A) What is the essence of anarchism?
“Anarchists are anti-authoritarians because they believe that no human being should dominate another. ”
J) What is direct action?
“... in a nutshell, direct action is any form of activity which people themselves decide upon and organise themselves which is based on their own collective strength and does not involve getting intermediates to act for them ... It is clear that by acting for yourself you are expressing the ability to govern yourself. Thus it’s a means by which people can take control of their own lives. It is a means of self-empowerment and self-liberation ...”
J) Why is social struggle a good sign?
“... it shows that people are unhappy with the existing society and, more importantly, are trying to change at least some part of it. It suggests that certain parts of the population have reflected on their situation and, potentially at least, seen that by their own actions they can influence and change it for the better.”
ONLINE:
www.anarchistfaq.org
www.infoshop.org/faq
www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1931/
June 14: Hamilton Anarchist Book Fair
The Common Cause Hamilton local will soon be hosting our first Anarchist Book Fair. In a city with a vibrant history of working-class struggle, the Book Fair presents a unique opportunity for people coming together to network, learn and build community.
The Book Fair is a one day event being held at Westdale Secondary School at 700 Main St. West, just outside downtown. The day will kick off at 10am and go until 4pm. Radical bookstores, publishers and organizations will fill the cafeteria space of the school while the Hamilton Food Not Bombs chapter will be providing free vegetarian meals.
There are workshops and speaker panels planned featuring a number of experienced organizers/activists from a wide range of struggles. Anyone interested in anarchism and radical politics, or just curious, should not miss this opportunity to learn more and meet others who want to fight for a new world.
CONTACT:
HamiltonAnarchistBookfair@gmail.com
HamiltonAnarchistBookfair.wordpress.com
In recent months, Native leaders in both eastern and northern Ontario have been jailed for standing up for their rights to due consultation and consent, with respect to prospecting and mining on their traditional territory. The ongoing “Six Nations” Haudenosaunee land dispute continues (where Caledonia `squats`, near Brantford). Most recently, the location was Tyendinaga (near Belleville), site of on ongoing land occupation and also of last year’s rail and highway blockades. Here are some reports:
Taken from MNN Mohawk Nation News, www.mohawknationnews.com
April 25:
... On Sunday, April 20, the Mohawk had set up an encampment to resist the development [$35 million condominiums on the Bay of Quinte in Deseronto on Mohawk Territory] that was to start on Monday morning. They did not come in. On Monday night rowdy non-natives roamed the streets of Deseronto carrying signs and shouting racist threats at the Mohawks. They looked pretty organized.
On Tuesday morning over 900 troops swarmed onto Mohawk Territory in a military style “shock and awe” tactic. Fully armed SWAT Teams, cops, choppers, police boats in the Bay and a lot of undercover swooped in at 9:45 am. They spared no expenses. They closed the perimeter on the encampment to start kicking heads, beating up people and arresting us. They arrived and were disappointed to find there wasn’t a Mohawk in sight. It was a traditional disappearing act. There was no evidence that any Mohawks had ever been there. Not one was touched or arrested...
Tyendinaga Mohawk Aserakowa [War Chief] speaks from the front line, April 26:
... [On Friday April 25] Shawn Brant was doing a media interview with APTN News ... Ontario Provincial Police came along with an outstanding [fake] assault charge. They arrested Shawn. They hauled him off to jail. Then the OPP closed both ends of Deseronto Road. The Aserakowa came down to see what was going on. Steve Flynn of Aboriginal Response Team of the OPP showed up ... By then we had men at both ends of the road. He talked about opening the road. Flynn said, “You walk away and we’ll walk away. Okay?” Both Flynn and the Aserakowa agreed.
“We will get in our cars and you’ll get in yours”, said Flynn. It turned out to be a set up. The Rotiskenreketeh started moving off the road. Suddenly about 10 OPP jumped about 5 of our guys, threw them in the ditch, beat them up and arrested them. They hauled them off to jail. No reasons were given for the arrests or assaults. The OPP is certainly not operating on an honorable nation to nation model. It is not even offering the kind of fiduciary protection for indigenous rights as it is supposed to, according to the Supreme Court of Canada.
... After behaving like thugs and beating up our guys, the OPP pulled out their weapons and pointed them at us. For our safety, we retreated back to the quarry. We didn’t want to get shot. Once we got there cops swarmed us from every direction. They were everywhere as far as we could see, armed to the teeth with their guns pointed directly at us all the time. Then they came over with loud speakers, told us to come away from the quarry, down the hill, with our hands up in the air “where we can see them”.
We told them, “Fuck you. This is Mohawk land. We’re not leaving”.
They raised their weapons and aimed at us again. “You’re going to have to shoot us”, we told them. Then there was more build up. They told us they are coming in at dark to take us out. They are moving Mohawk people off Mohawk lands at the end of a gun barrel.
The Mohawks are unarmed. The OPP have SWAT Teams, ambulances, dogs and we can’t see if they have ships in the water.
Arrested are Clint Brant, Steve Hill, Dan Doreen, Shawn Brant and Mac Kunkel ...
Taken from www.dominionpaper.ca – Lia Tarachansky`s blog
April 29:
After a week of tension the police services have declared withdrawal from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory ...
The Mohawk defenders of the Quarry have declared victory … They are requesting monetary assistance with legal fees ... Non-native allies have been assembling and delivering supplies from various Ontario cities...
CONTACT:
Jason Maracle, Aserakowa: 613-243-4993
The history of May Day
by David Brons (Ottawa)
May 1 has a special significance for the labour and anarchist movements. In almost every country of the world, except for Canada and the U.S., it is observed as International Workers’ Day. Ironically, the observance of May 1 has its origins in the struggle for the eight-hour day in Canada and the US.
On May 1, 1886 there was a general strike in support of workers’ demand for an eight-hour day. Most factory workers of the day were immigrants who faced discrimination both on and off the job. It was normal for them to work fourteen-hour days seven days a week. The strike was organized by the major radical labor organization of the time, an anarchist group called the International Working Peoples Association. Prominent organizers with this group were Albert Parsons, Lucy Parsons, and August Spies.
Between 300,000 and 500,000 workers went on strike, including 90,000 in Chicago alone. The police and militia were mobilized but the first day passed peacefully enough. On the third day of the strike, there was a confrontation between strikers and strikebreakers at the McCormick Reaper Works in Chicago. Police opened fire on the crowd, killing four and wounding many others including several children. The people of Chicago were outraged and some were calling for revenge against the police.
A protest rally was called for the evening of May 4 in Haymarket Square. As people listened to speeches by August Spies and other organizers of the strike, the heavily armed police marched into the square, pushing back the crowd and demanding that the rally disperse. As police confronted the strikers, an explosion occurred in police lines, killing one officer. In the darkness and confusion, police opened fire, killing six more of their own and an unknown number of strikers. The Chicago Herald described the scene as “wild carnage” and reported that there were at least 50 dead or wounded civilians lying on the street.
Organizers of the general strike were rounded up and eight of them were charged with “conspiracy” in connection with the events in the Haymarket. There was no pretense of a fair trial. The jury was stacked with businessmen and even included a relative of an injured police officer. No evidence was presented at trial that any of the defendants were involved in the bombing. Instead the prosecutor argued that they should be found guilty simply because they were organizers. In his address to the jury he said, “These men have been selected, picked out by the Grand Jury because they were leaders. They are no more guilty than the thousands who follow them. Gentlemen of the jury: convict these men, make examples of them, hang them and you save our institutions, our society.”
Despite their obvious innocence, all eight were found guilty. Seven were sentenced to death and one was sentenced to fifteen years. The case became an international scandal and there was a worldwide campaign for a new trial. All appeals were rejected although two had their sentences commuted to life in prison. Louis Lingg committed suicide the day before he was scheduled to hang. On November 11 1887, Albert Parsons, George Engel, August Spies and Adolph Fischer were hung. Over 500,000 people attended their funerals.
On June 26, 1893 Illinois Governor Altgeld pardoned the three survivors. He also exonerated the executed men because “the trial was not fair.”
In 1889 the American delegation to an international labour convention proposed that May 1 be adopted as a workers’ holiday to commemorate class struggle and the “martyrdom of the Chicago Eight.” The observance quickly spread around the world. It was also initially observed in Canada and the U.S., until the governments designated a less politically-charged Labour Day in September.
May Day is a time to remember past struggles and demonstrate our hope for a better future. It has its origins as a day of solidarity among workers around the world and solidarity with class-war prisoners. In North America we need to reclaim May Day as a day of solidarity and direct action in struggle for the rights of workers and migrants
The state can’t stop rape
by Rev (Sudbury)
We need to stop imagining the government and police as being able to prevent women from being sexually assaulted. The police operate as an organized force to punish crimes and investigate other possible crimes. Very rarely do they prevent crimes or assaults from happening. Common statistics that come across the Canadian media proclaim that between 1 in 5 and 1 in 3 women experience sexual assault in their lifetime. Obviously the government, through the police service, is choosing or not able to investigate or prosecute all of these offences. Often people who are forced into sex or are drugged without witnesses are left without legal recourse to pursue. Often the police will actually tell women what happened to them was morally wrong but not legally wrong, leaving them to deal with their pain themselves.
Similarly, sexual assault crisis centres are left with marginal funding and limited counsellors, forcing women who show progress to be denied further support so that more recent victims can get priority. Often this can cause a blockage in the healing process as a trustful relationship is broken. The centres are also restricted by government-controlled funding. Rape Crisis Centres are unable to conduct public wide campaigns because of funding limits or go beyond the law to make assaulters accountable for their actions.
Often our society is hesitant to believe women when they insist they have been assaulted, abused, or raped, forcing victims to live with doubt and self-loathing because others are unwilling to support them, and possibly even blaming the victims for what happened to them. We all hold responsibility for what happens. Women who allow or seek out the sexual attention of men and encourage objectification are lending to the dehumanization/victimization of other women. Men who do not directly confront and socially ostracize male perpetrators of sexual violence lend to the conscious and unconscious acceptability of sexual violence. Further, men and others need to challenge lesser expressions of sexism to make sure people know that no level of sexism is acceptable. So on and so forth.
Incite! Women of Color against Violence, a grassroots women of colour anti-violence movement, have been articulating anti-state analysis and community-based solutions to sexual violence in their recent works. They have taken strong stances against state funding; they see it as a form of co-optation and regulation. Further, they see the state and the people who enforce its existence as using sexual violence as a strategy, a way of expressing power. Incite! along with their ally organizations have been developing an anti-state feminist analysis that intersects dynamically with anarchist-communism. Incite! is based in the U.S. with chapters all over the country. Incite! was intiated in part by former Black Panther Angela Davis and Indigenous feminist Andrea Smith.
According to many feminists and activists, stopping sexual violence does and will continue to require a community-based response that goes beyond the legal barriers of the criminal system. It requires self-organization by a whole community to prevent and enact justice on perpetrators of sexual violence. It is up to you to get involved.
WEBSITE:
www.incite-national.org
Upsurge in Student Activism met with Repression
by anonymous
Over the past month, the University of Toronto has experienced an upsurge of student activism. This recent upturn began with a rally and sit-in, organized against the New College residence rent increases. With supporters outside, over 40 students entered Simcoe Hall, where the administrative offices are located, demanding to speak to President Naylor and to have rent increases stopped. Student concerns were met with police aggression on order from the administration, indicative of the administration's illegitimacy, unaccountability, and undemocratic nature.
Students remained undeterred, forming the Ad-hoc Committee for Just Education and organizing a second rally on March 25 in response to the actions of the administration and, once again, to oppose rent and other fee increases. The second rally drew over a hundred students, workers, and community members, but again, our voices were ignored and the rent increase passed. An assembly on the inaccessibility of education was organized on April 7th, where three demands were formulated:
1. An end to all fees.
2. Student, worker, and faculty parity on University decision-making bodies, including the Governing Council.
3. An immediate end to repression against student dissent.
With these demands, a third rally was organized on April 10th, when Governing Council was to vote on tuition fee increases. In an unprecedented move, the speaking times of student union representatives were both reduced and removed, in a decision-making body where students and workers are already vastly underrepresented. During attempts by students to have a petition opposing the fee increases read out, the meeting was quickly recessed and moved behind closed doors. As expected, tuition fee increases up to 23 per cent carried.
Student mobilization has unfortunately, though expectedly, been met with criminalization and repression, consistent with recent trends towards the policing of dissent, especially on university campuses - other examples including the censoring of the term "Israeli Apartheid" at McMaster University, and police aggression at an anti-corporatization demonstration in UBC. In response to the peaceful March 20th sit-in, President Naylor released a defamatory five-page letter with usage of heavily charged language, describing the mostly racialized participants of the action as a "thuggish mob" who "hijacked" the cause of another group and took "violent actions". In addition, over the proceeding weeks, campus police have used a number of intimidation tactics, including vehicles following students at late hours and plainclothes police infiltrating meetings, photographing students. Students now face criminal charges as well as investigations under the Code of Student Conduct, which could result in expulsions.
Students have refused to succumb to scare tactics, however, and will continue to stand opposed to inaccessible education and the suppression of dissent. The movement, encompassing workers, students, and community members, continues to grow and refuses to have its convictions stymied by the heels of the police and administration.
To lend your support, contact the Committe for Just Education at fightfees@gmail.com www.fightfees.ca
