LOCAL NEWS:

UPCOMING EVENTS IN WINNIPEG:

Winnipeg may not be the throbbing, pulsing heart of the universe, but things other than murders do occasionally happen here. For those of you here in the Peg' with a bent for radical culture and protest here are a few upcomings....

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14: Down at the Drag, Winnipeg's local infoshop and coffee house the good folks of Mondragon(91 Albert St.) are holding a 'Valentine's Day Gourmet Dinner' . as they say, "Join us for an evening of mouthwatering dlectable delights made with love, compassion and organic and fair trade ingredients". This Valentine's Day will also be the kick-off of Fair Trade Manitoba's "One-Month Challenge". Get it off to a good start with a five course meal, inspired by Thai-Fusion. Dine by candlelight at two sittings: 6 pm and 8 pm. Book now at 946-5241 or by email at mondragon@mondragon.ca . Please leave a contact phone # and any special dietary requests.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16: Another day, another protest. This time it is the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) that will be denounced at a protest march starting at City hall at 12:30 pm and proceeding on a march to the legislative buildings at 1:00 pm. The yap, yap starts there at 1:30. Afterwards there will be a screening of the documentary 'Houdwinked: The Myth of Free Trade' and a concert with the group Entre Parenthesis. See Wake Up Winnipeg for more details.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17: A benefit for Winnipeg's upcoming DIY festival (see below) will happen at the Rudolf Rocker Cultural Centre on the third floor of 91 Albert St.. Bands, karokee, food; it'll all be there. Come out and support Winnipeg's second annual DIY Festival and have a good time as well.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28: It's back to the Drag for this one as the Mondragon holds its monthly 'Jamming the Drag' presentation of Electronic and Experimental Music, from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Hosted by Prof. Gordon Fitzell of the U. of M..

MARCH 10 TO 16: The second annual Winnipeg DIY festival will happen for a full week. From Monday to Friday 2 workshops per day will be held at the University of Winnipeg. On saturday and Sunday the venue will change over to the Red Road Lodge on Main and Logan . Lots of info on how to DIY on subjects from beer making, bike repair, books and paper making, personal health,etc.. The organizers are looking for those who might want to hold workshops. There will also be a "free store" where the prices are, of course, as reasonable as can be imagined ie free. Got anything you want to give away ? "Sell" it at the free store. More info at http://wpgdiyfest.org .

That's it for now. Don't forget to keep up with local radical events by downloading the local Info Usurpa Winnipeg bulletin, produced every Tuesday.

LOCAL EVENTS:

INFO FROM INFO USURPA WINNIPEG:

Molly would like to take the opportunity to remind her readers of the availability of our local Info-Usurpa which presents local radical events here in Winnipeg on a weekly basis (published every Tuesday). Always available for download. A modest effort, but despite its disparagement by the now infamous Winnipeg Indymedia (which is now nothing but a forum for Nazis and Zionists to trade insults and whose idea of "events" is, for some bizarre reason, reproducing an events board from Vancouver) continues to present things here in Winnipeg on a weekly basis. Coming up soon...at the Mondragon at 91 Albert St., a fund-raising brunch for the Anarchist Black Cross this Sunday, January 27th.

Also, very unfortunately, coming up on the same date is the local "Radical Reading Group" discussion on Peter Gelderloos' ''How Nonviolence Protects the State'. For those unfamiliar with this goof I refer them to his "support" site at http://www.myspace.com/supportpetergelderloos . This guy is quite sickening. He has distilled every Stalinist prejudice of the American left from "white privilege" onwards into his little, tiny effort to have an "identity". The result he calls "anarchism", no matter how remote it is from the reality of that word. For two years now, since he was arrested in Barcelona when he was on his "rich boys' tour" of Europe, he has lived without visible means of support while awaiting charges that he could easily have avoided by simply not appearing as a "flashing neon sign of idiocy". One only wonders how long mommy and daddy will put up with this nonsense. His previous efforts included a visit to Greece from where he spread his American leftist ideological miasma over the very serious struggle of real anarchists against the terrorist tactics of a Maoist influenced wing of the Greek movement, usually referred to as the autonomists.

Gelderlloos has decided to promote mindless violence, under the ideological cover of "insurrectionism", as some sort of rational set of tactics for anarchism today. Molly now throws up a great hairball...blaah,blaah.blaah. This little piece of stupidity came to my attention on the same day that I read an article in the daily press about how some internet star of the Neo-Nazis who encouraged violence was, all along, a mole for the FBI. Oh....surprise,surprise,surprise !!! The role of the agent-provocateur extends way back beyond the Okhrana actually agreeing to an assassination of a member of the Cabinet to further entrap the radicals. It is as old as the dinosaurs. Not that Genderlloos is actually being paid by either the CIA or the FBI. It is far more likely that he is simply a rich kid whom his parents have too much sympathy for. Yet... when he finally returns to the USA you can depend that his circles will be well infiltrated by various American secret police, all of them very happy to short-circuit radical protest via the stupidity that this fool advocates, and all of them gathering evidence for new trials.

Holy fucking Jesus. Speaking of reinventing the wheel. This history of provacateurs is so long and so obvious that is a standing testimony to human stupidity that so many young people today don't make the slightest effort to learn it and govern themselves accordingly. It can also be seen from simple common sense...if you intend to "get" someone who is presently more powerful than you then you don't start by announcing your intentions from a position of weakness. Of course, common sense may be a "bad word" when you are operating from the guilt -ridden swamp of American identity politics that disguises itself as "anarchism". Actually doing something to advance society is very much beside the point to such a religious delirium.

Yeah, it's pretty obvious that this idiot inspires, at best, contempt in me. When I was in Spain the wife and I had our own little confrontation with La Guardia Civil, and I managed to talk our way out of it (the suspicion was that we were making a drug deal with a Turk we had met on the street). The buggers didn't even steal any of our money. Neither did we get beat up. On the other hand we didn't have to declare our "identity" as rebels and anarchists (like almost all real Spanish anarchists don't have to do because in Spain anarchism is now part of the everyday life of ordinary, non-show-off people) by wearing some sort of silly costume, down to "radical flip-flops"-the thing that was highlighted in Gederloos' arrest(he paints slogans on his shoes-literally!!!). Not that I think that the police should persecute people who "look weird", but still....is this really the image that we want to present to the world concerning what "anarchism is all about". And do we want to encourage the delusions of grandeur that lead some people into thinking that tiny set-piece riots are some sort of great and overarching threat to the way that society is organized ? Delusions like this are great barriers to actually trying to find ways by which a movement that is still very tiny can grow. They discourage critical thinking, or actually any thinking at all. This is an example of the worst of identity politics, right down to the shoes on your feet.

LOCAL EVENTS:

HAPPENING IN WINNIPEG THE NEXT WEEK:

As Molly has blogged on this board before the Winnipeg Info-Usurpa mailing list provides at least minimal coverage of upcoming local radical events here in 'Winterpeg'. Unlike the incredibly useless Winnipeg Indymedia which is nothing but a forum for Nazis and those who wish to argue with them- whose "events" calender, when it is nothing more than reposts from the Nazis, is borrowed from Vancouver for a reason I cannot comprehend. Once before Winnipeg Indymedia got snotty with the local Info-Usurpa, saying that they merely "duplicated" their own events calender and refusing to put their posts up (while, of course, leaving up all the distressing Nazi posts- those bugger(s ?) have a weird idea of of "freedom of speech"). In any case Winnipeg Info-Usurpa has at least minimal local weekly coverage. Their latest bulletin (produced every Tuesday gives events upcoming at the Emma Goldman Grassroots Centre, Mondragon and their own spot, the Bike Dump. Check it out. Of particular interest is the upcoming Open House at Mondragon, 91 Albert St, this Sunday from 12 to 5 pm. Drop on down to celebrate Winnipeg's anarchist info-centre. Info-Usurpa also includes a few brief news items in each of their bulletins. Check it out at http://usurpa.bike-dump.ca

WINNIPEG:

FUN TIMES DOWN AT THE DRAG:

UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE MONDRAGON BOOKSTORE:

The leaves are falling. The weather is getting cooler. But things are still hot down at Mondragon, Winnipeg's anarchist coffeehouse and bookstore at 91 Albert St. Here's a few of the upcoming events for the autumn season:

MONDRAGON BOOK CLUB:

The Radical Reading Group meets the last Sunday of every month at 7:00 pm down at the Drag. This month's book is 'Wasasa' by Taiaiake Alfred. Next meeting is September 30th. To join the mailing list send an email to radical-reading-group-request@mondragon.ca

OPEN STAGE NIGHT:

On Wednesday, September 25th,7pm to 9pm, Mondragon will be hosting its first "open Stage Night'. Hopefully to become a monthly event. Comedy, Poetry, Acoustic (or practice amp), theatre, dance, whatever. For more details or to register contact Brock at mondragon@mondragon.ca

BEHIND 'TWO WORLDS COLLIDING':

On Thursday, September 27th, 7pm join the crowd down at the drag for a public discussion with filmmaker Tasha Hubbard about issues raised by her award-winning film 'Two Worlds Colliding'. This is the story of Saskatoon's "freezing deaths". The "starlight tours" of that city's police force involved driving young native men outside of the city in winter and leaving them to make their way back in the cold. Or sometimes not to get back. One man, Darrell Night, was dumped at -20 C temperatures in January, 2000. He survived, but is stunned to hear that the body of another native man was discovered in the same area. Only days later yet another corpse, also native is found. Night comes forth with his story and sets in motion a chain of events leading to the conviction of two Saskatoon police officers. These, however, only serve four months for "unlawful confinement". A judicial inquiry follows, and the wounds of the case are still open.

ONE COUNTRY: A BOLD PROPOSAL TO END THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN IMPASSE:

As previously reported on Molly's Blog the Palestinian-American author Ali Abunimah will be giving a lecture as part of his tour to promote his new book of the above name. The event will be held upstairs at the Rudolf Rocker Cultural Centre at 7pm. Book signing and mingling will happen downstairs at Mondragon after the event.

JAMMING THE DRAG:

On Thursday, October 11, from 7pm to 9pm Mondragon will host an ongoing series of electronic and experimental music by Professor Gordon Fitzell of the University of Manitoba. Gordon teaches music theory and composition and leads the 'Experimental Improv Ensemble (XIE). He has received many national and international awards including first place in the CBC Radio National Competition for Young Composers.

Stay tuned to Molly's Blog for more announcements as they come in.

News From the Link Front:
A few more links have been added to this blog. Two are local. One, Info Usurpa Winnipeg, is under the general links section. It's a weekly listing of progressive events here in Winnipeg. The other is a blog called Ecology and Participatory Democracy produced by a local graduate student at the U. of M. . The title explains it all.
Finally, there's the promised "The Quote Garden' mentioned previously. It's a ball of fun. to close with a few flowers from the garden:
"Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river."
Nikita Khrushchev
"Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason"
Author Unknown
And now that my favourite holiday of the year is over....
"I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween"
Author Unknown
"Bda,bda,bda; that's all folks"
For Now
Porky