CANADIAN POLITICS:

RALLIES IN SUPPORT OF TAMIL REFUGEES:

Beginning today and into next week there will be a number of rallies across the country in support of the right of the recently arrived Tamil refugees on the west coast to stay in Canada. These are being organized by No One is Illegal. Here is the story from No One Is Illegal Vancouver.

NOIINOIINOII
Canada: Stop Jailing and Deporting Refugees, Let The Tamil Refugees Stay!
Time

August 21 at 3:30pm - August 26 at 6:00pm

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Location Various cities and communities - check description for details
across Canada / Indigenous lands
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Created By No One Is Illegal - Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories
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More Info

CANADA: STOP JAILING AND DEPORTING REFUGEES, LET THEM STAY!
SUPPORT THE TAMIL MIGRANTS! SAY NO TO RACISM!

==> In VANCOUVER, Unceded Coast Salish Territories:
Saturday August 21 @ 3:30 pm
...Gather at Vancouver Art Gallery, Robson Side
* Download poster PDF http://bit.ly/aq9HWI or JPG: http://bit.ly/c0VN60

==> In UNSURRENDERED WET'SUWET'EN TERRITORY:
Saturday August 21
Solidarity with the Tamil Refugees and No One Is Illegal. Moricetown Canyon, noon.
Contact gitksanmanoct6@hotmail.com

==> In VICTORIA:
Saturday August 21st 12:00pm - 4:00pm
Victoria Information Booth, Government and Belville
Organized by Victoria Anti-Racism Network (VARN)
RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143826562315624

==> In OTTAWA:
Monday August 23 @ Noon.
Gather at corner of Kent and Laurier
(Citizenship and Immigration Canada)
RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=119285261456467

==> In MONTREAL:
Thursday August 26th from noon to 2 pm
Front of Immigration and Refugee Board offices, 200 Boul. René Levesque. Organized by Friends of Tamil Refugees/ Les Amies des Réfugiées Tamils.
Contact 514-668-4751 or 514-449-9370.

==> In KITCHENER-WATERLOO:
Monday August 23.
Press Conference and gathering, details tbc.
Contact rachel@peaceculture.org

==> In TORONTO:
Saturday August 21st
Toronto Welcomes Tamil Migrants!
Follow www.twitter.com/noii_ to to see images of creative actions that we will be taking.

(more TBC)

Join No One is Illegal to call for the immediate release of detained Tamil asylum seekers, and an end to racist and restrictive refugee policies. Justice, Freedom, and Status for All!

Surviving a dangerous journey, 500 Tamil refugees, including women and children, arrived in BC after fleeing war and persecution in Sri Lanka. When the ship first neared Esquimault, territories of the Songhees First Nation, it was immediately boarded by the Armed Forces, Border Services, and RCMP. Families are now being separated, with many children being taken by the Ministry of Child and Family Development. The refugees now face the threat of incarceration and eventual deportation.

Canadian government officials and media outlets are perpetuating false and dehumanizing stereotypes of 'illegals', 'terrorists', and so-called queue-jumpers. The earlier arrival of 76 Tamil migrants on Ocean Lady was similarly sensationalized. This deliberately created hysteria appeals to prejudices of refugees as undesirable. Well-known neo-Nazis, like Paul Fromm and the Aryan Guard, also known as the Canada First Immigration Reform Committee, are openly organizing rallies for the ship to be sent back.

This fear-mongering is just another tactic used to disguise the racist policies that define Canada’s immigration and refugee system. The Canadian government was recently forced to apologize for its “keep Canada white” measures, such as the Komagata Maru incident. Yet Minister of Censorship and Deportation Jason Kenney continues to increase detentions and deportation of refugees and undocumented migrants, while bringing in more temporary exploitable migrant labour. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews recently declared that Cabinet is drafting new policies to clamp down on migrants and “make this country less welcoming for future shipments of human cargo.”

No One is Illegal-Vancouver asserts the basic human right to safety, mobility, and protection. It is well known that Tamils in Sri Lanka are fleeing military atrocities and mass displacement. The only crime the migrants have committed is transgressing this imposed settler-colonial border. We encourage you to join us in rejecting repressive, racist, and exclusionary ideologies and policies, and instead encourage compassion, solidarity, respect for life, and justice for all refugees. Release Detained Asylum-Seekers! Let the Boat Stay! Status for All!

*** HOW ELSE CAN I SUPPORT? ***
THERE ARE 10 THINGS YOU COULD DO!

1) Join other cities and communities for nation-wide actions. Wherever you maybe, whatever you can organize (delegation to a Minister’s office, street theatre, leafleting, community speak-out), will help build this movement. Please email noii-van@resist.ca and let us know how you can participate.

2) Engage in dialogue and widely circulate the factsheet on the 6 most popular myths about the 490 Tamil Refugees, available here: http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=2167

3) Sign the online petition here: http://www.petitiononline.com/16082010/petition.html . Join the Facebook group Uphold the Rights of the MV Sun Sea Migrants here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=106719212717437

4) Put up posters in your neighbourhood, workplace, and campus, and as your social media profile. We have ‘Let them Stay’ and ‘Anti Neo Nazi, Fight Racism’ posters available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nooneisillegal/ . PDF’s: http://bit.ly/9HBtGa and http://bit.ly/cgM3gK

5) Participate in the Call/Email/Fax Campaign to the Government and your MP. State your support for the refugees to stay in Canada and denounce the government for spreading unsubstantiated racist lies. This is easy to do and you can tell others to do the same!

Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
Phone 613-992-2235 or 403-225-3480. Fax 403-225-3504 or 613-992-1920.
Email: Minister@cic.gc.ca and kennej@parl.gc.ca

Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety
Phone: (204) 326-9889 or (204)345-9762 or (613) 992-3128.
Fax: (204) 346-9874 or (204) 345-9768 or (613) 995-1049
Email: toewsv1@mts.net and Toews.V@parl.gc.ca

To find out who your MP is and where to write them:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC

6) Always take a minute to write letters to the editor and comment on news stories - make a difference in public discourse! Reinforce your support for the migrants and condemn irresponsible reporting including repeating unsubstantiated lies and giving white supremacists like Paul Fromm a platform. All letters must be short (100 words), include name, mailing address and daytime phone number of the writer; state “Letter to the Editor” in subject; and content should be in the body of the email.

Globe and Mail: letters@globeandmail.com
Vancouver Sun: sunletters@png.canwest.com
Vancouver Province: provletters@png.canwest.com
24 Hours: news@sunmedia.ca
Metro News: http://www.metronews.ca/Vancouver/comment/lettereditor
National Post: letters@nationalpost.com
Toronto Star: lettertoed@thestar.ca

7) Take your own initiative. This issue is not just the Tamil communities’ or for migrant justice organizers. The growing racist backlash that is taking root should concern all of us. Think of creative ways to disrupt this xenophobic climate (do a banner drop, host a community picnic, take some friends postering, organize a forum or press conference, distribute anti-racist zines, take action at the prison).

8) Consider inviting a speaker to your next meeting. Email noii-van@resist.ca and we would be happy to attend or suggest speakers, as well as provide educational materials.

9) Have your organization, traditional council, union, community group, or artist collective write a short public statement of support for the Tamil migrants. Please email us a copy at noii-van@resist.ca .

10) Join our low-traffic email announcement list to receive news and events. You can subscribe yourself https://lists.resist.ca/mailman/listinfo/noii-l . Our Facebook group is: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6252584281&ref=ts . Visit our website regularly for articles: http://noii-van.resist.ca/

www.nooneisillegal.org

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-KITCHENER WATERLOO:

AGAINST THE OLYMPICS IN ONTARIO:

As the Olympic flame continues to sputter its way across Canada it is net with protests in every region. When it comes to Kitchener on Dec. 27 it will be no exception. The following is originally from the Anti War at Laurier group. It came to Molly's attention via the Common Cause/Linchpin site.

☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺
A public mobilization against the Olympic Torch Relay:
Kitchener-Waterloo Rally, Dec 27th 2009.
Please forward widely!
“No Olympics on Stolen Native Land”
A public mobilization against the Olympic Torch Relay
AW@L and friends from across the region are sending an open invitation for a participatory public event to coincide with the arrival of the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay in Kitchener on Sunday, December 27.
WHAT:
A family friendly rally, march and demonstration against the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Olympics. We intend to create a festive atmosphere that is safe and inviting for activists as well as families. Our goal is to educate and to deliver a message. We will start with interactive events, free hot coffee and food at a rally at the entrance to Victoria Park in downtown Kitchener featuring speakers from the Olympic Resistance Network-Ontario (ORNO) as well as prominent Six Nations youth activists. Then we will all march to City Hall for a public demonstration during the Olympic Torch Celebration.
WHEN:
Sunday December 27, 4-8pm.
WHERE:
Rally at the Victoria Park Clock Tower, downtown Kitchener, off Gaukel Street.
WHY:
In response to callouts from the Olympic Resistance Network (ORN) and the Native Youth Movement (NYM), AW@L—a community-based direct action group, along with some of our allies are teaming up to co-host a peaceful rally during the Olympic Torch Celebration. We invite all of our friends and allies from across the region to converge in Kitchener in order to send the message to VANOC and to Canada that they can neither whitewash the ongoing colonization of First Nations, nor can they greenwash this country’s abysmal environmental record. We will use their Olympic circus as an opportunity to shine the international spotlight where it belongs, on the truth.





We are calling for this gathering because VANOC, Canada and the Olympics’ sponsors are trying to use the Olympics and the world media spotlight they bring to cast Canada’s international image in a certain light; as a “post-apology” country where the State’s relationship with First Nations is positive and progressive. But this official presentation is a tragic farce. The truth is that this country’s relationship with Indigenous Peoples is shameful. Canada is one of only three countries that has not signed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission collapsed. Our land claims process is so backed up that at the current rate active claims will not be solved for more than another two centuries. Canada and the provinces have repeatedly and endemically violated treaty after treaty. The Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Winter Olympic Games are taking place on unceded Territories of the Coast Salish people. Kitchener is on the Haldimand Tract, which is part of the Grand River Territory, which is Six Nations Land. Kitchener-Waterloo, like Vancouver-Whistler, is stolen land.





VANOC, Canada and Olympics’ sponsors are trying to use the Olympics to cast themselves as “green” global citizens, when in fact that is a sham. Canada as well as the Royal Bank of Canada (one of the Olympics’ and the Torch Relay’s primary sponsors) have been identified by major Environmental NGO’s as among the world’s worst climate change offenders. Canada has made the least progress of all developed countries on our Kyoto Protocol commitments, and Canada has been one of the most disruptive and uncooperative countries when it comes to international climate change talks. Canada’s Tar Sands collectively comprise one of the most environmentally destructive projects on earth, and RBC is the leading financier of Tar Sands projects, which like many environmentally destructive projects has a disproportionate impact on Indigenous communities. In the Vancouver-Whistler corridor, the environmental impact of the 2010 Games is incalculable.





VANOC, the City of Vancouver, Torch Relay host cities and Olympic sponsors are trying to use the Olympics to make themselves appear socially responsible to their constituent communities. This is yet another lie. In Vancouver, in preparation for the 2010 Games, neighbourhoods have been brutally gentrified, drastically increasing homelessness and the marginalization of the urban poor. And to make matters worse, new bylaws have been passed in Vancouver that essentially criminalize homelessness and poverty. In Torch Relay host cities, as on the West Coast, public funds are being diverted to pay for a corporate party; while in Kitchener the City’s New Years eve budget is being redirected to pay for VANOC’s Torch Celebration at City Hall, in Vancouver over six billion dollars of tax payer money is being used to pay for the 2010 Corporate Circus.





The 2010 Olympics are ushering in a new era of militarization and police repression. Activists across the country have been routinely harassed by CSIS and the RCMP in the lead up to the Olympic Games. During the games, new high-tech weaponry has been purchased for use against protesters and American military personnel are being brought in to help police the crowds. The security budget for the games is going to total over 1 billion dollars — during a financial crisis, no less.





So, as long as you are willing to abide by reasonable standards of “family friendly” behaviour, we urge everyone to attend this educational and festive public rally, march and demonstration against the 2010 Olympics. Bring warm clothes and things like banners, placards, costumes, noise makers, and oh yeah... lots of energy.





This event is less than a month a way, so there is much to do. If you would like to help out in any way, please contact No2010@peaceculture.org. That’s the same email to query if you want more info. We will have point people in Six Nations, Hamilton, Brantford, Guelph, Stratford, Toronto and London to coordinate carpooling, so if you need a ride, or have room for people in one, please let us know.
See you in the streets!
AW@L Olympic Resistance Committee
AW@L’s website is http://peaceculture.org
Contact for more info: No2010@peaceculture.org
For more info on the Olympics visit
No2010.com
OlympicResistance.net
No2010Victoria.net
Peaceculture.org

CANADIAN LABOUR:

PLANT OCCUPATION IN KITCHENER ENDS:

How fast things move in galaxies far, far away. Despite vows to "stay as long as it takes", just as Molly was writing yesterday's article on the occupation of the Ledco Ltd. plant in Kitchener Ontario a court injunction was being passed declaring the factory occupation illegal. Workers occupying the plant decided to obey the injunction, and filed out from the plant yesterday afternoon. They were later allowed back in, accompanied by police, to retrieve tools and other personal effects from their lockers.

Not that this was a totally senseless decision. The occupation gained the support of perhaps 100s of community members over the days that it took place, but this is hardly reassuring when you have to look at the blunt alternatives of "losing by agreeing" and "losing by not agreeing while at the same time being beat up and criminally charged- all the way to assaulting a police officer's fist with your face, known in the legal trade as "resisting arrest". Hundreds are fine and comforting. Thousands are more effective. No doubt there were, as well, a few subtle hints dropped by the union reps that legal support from the union executive would not be overly generous. Very few people except the "summit-hoppers" amongst my mad comrades think that fighting with the police is "fun", and even fewer are under any delusions that losing such battles (as the summit-hoppers always do)actually accomplishes something.

The Canadian Auto Workers have maintained a picket outside the plant gate where they hope to talk to truck drivers contracted by the receivers to empty the premises of anything valuable. The union has said that the drivers will not be physically prevented from entering the plant, though there will be no help given in locating products presently stockpiled inside. Union head honcho Buzz Hargrove showed up at the factory gates the other day to try and offer some consolation and hope. He argued that big customers of Ledco such as GM, Ford and Chrysler have a moral obligation to cover the cost of the $1.2 million in severance pay that the company owes to the workers. In Canadian bankruptcy law such obligations take a distant place behind other creditors of a bankrupt. In at least one other case of a plant shutdown the CAW did indeed negotiate payment of severance on the part of the clients of the plant.

As Molly remarked in her previous blog on this occupation the takeover of plants is an important tactic in a long term struggle to change public perception of who actually "owns" a factory. In manager-speak those may be referred to as "stakeholders" even if they don't have legally protected property rights at this time. Law follows custom. Plant occupations may not always, or even usually, win their demands, particularly as they are too often taken as last ditch methods in the face of such things as closure of an operation. Carried out in other, less dramatic, situations they may prove even more effective than they have to date. They will be most effective, in the beginning at least, in the proverbial "company towns" where the average person in the community can see their own role as a "stakeholder", along with the workers at an enterprise, in a clearer fashion than many in larger centres can see it. Yet it is important that such actions be imitated, not because each and every one will result in success but because they build a climate of opinion where such things are increasingly seen as legitimate. Build this climate and the law will tail along behind it.

In many European countries such occupations are quite commonplace. Even in Germany the recent 'Strike Bike' takeover(see articles in this Blog's archives for Jan 6, 2008, and Oct. 20, Oct. 4 and Sept. 21 of 2007 for more info on 'Strike Bike')inspired such international solidarity that many others will be likely to imitate it in the future. Here in Canada there have been a number of such actions. The oldest that Molly can find, in the last two decades, is the occupation of the offices of PC World in Toronto in 1997. The most dramatic was the occupation of the Alcan plant in Arvida, Quebec in 2004. this was notable because the workers at that plant, like the Germans at Strike Bike, resumed production under self-management. Just last year there were numerous instances of such occupations, including the First Ontario Credit Union, the Colins and Aikman plant in Scarborough, Ontario, the Masonite Manufacturing premises in Mississauga and the Hamilton Speciality Bar (a metal working plant). These were initiated by various unions, and none of them went so far as the people in Arvida did in resuming production without bosses.

So why do these actions if they aren't guaranteed to win ? First of all because they raise the "threat level" in union/management negotiations, and their very possibility strengthens the hand of workers vis-a-vis the boss. It is also the case that, if played right, they can be virtually "costless" to the workers involved. They may not win, but neither do they contribute to a loss. They also serve to bind the people involved together in a much more obvious community than taking shifts on a picket line does. There is also the matter of the "long view". Though factory occupations are almost unknown in the USA today the time when "sit-down strikes", factory occupations in all but name, were common (the 30s, for instance) led in the long term to building the sort of unionism that won many of the gains for American labour that have been slowly eroding over the past two decades. Perhaps it's time to learn from the grandfathers and grandmothers.

CANADIAN LABOUR:

KITCHENER WORKERS OCCUPY FACTORY:

Ledco, a tool and die maker in Kitchener Ontario, has had a long history in that community since 1932, having once manufactured parts for the Avro Arrow project in the 1950s. Lately, however, due to the rising Canadian dollar and outsourcing of production to low wage countries, the company has fallen on hard times. Employment at the plant has fallen from over 100 to about 65 people in recent years. Rather than innovate, management opted to try and squeeze the workers at the plant- much easier than actually being creative in either one's production or one's sales. The management demanded a pay cut of 25% in wages and a 20% cut in benefits from its employees, an offer that the workers, represented by Canadian Auto Workers' Local 1524, rejected. The company's next move was to close its doors last Wednesday (Jan. 23) and declare bankruptcy the next day (Jan. 24). A note was taped to the door of the plant stating, :The employment of all employees of Ledco Limited is hereby terminated effective immediately".

The response of the workers affected was rapid. On the day of the bankruptcy declaration many employees of the plant moved to occupy the premises, bypassing two security guards who elected to do nothing. They were bolstered by people from other nearby Canadian Auto Workers locals. Contingents were split up between people inside the plant and those outside who succeeded in blocking trucks coming to pick up recent production (yes, the owners, the Arends family of Ottawa, continue to make money despite their putative bankruptcy). The union plans to have at least 100 people present at the site at all times, split between the inside and outside contingents. Those outside moved in a trailer and built fires in barrels to keep warm (see above photo). It ain't as bad as out here in the west, but it's still bloody cold. The Kitchener police parked a van across the street, along with two cruisers and began to take video of the strikers.

The workers have vowed to stay as long as it takes to get the severance pay that they are entitled to by law. As one worker said, "We own the building now. It's the only thing we can do to leverage for severance pay and other benefits". On Friday the union allowed representatives from Deloitte & Touche into the plant to conduct an inventory of remaining assets. Deloitte & Touche are the accounting firm appointed as bankruptcy trustees. Ledco had claimed total liabilities of $14.5 million and total assets of $ 7 million. No effort is being made to investigate possible transfer of liquid assets prior to the declaration of bankruptcy. Rather typical of many bankruptcy events actually. Deloitte & Touche have so far refused to issue any comment to the media. The CAW has also begun talks with customers of Ledco who are awaiting orders yet to be shipped.

Typically in bankruptcy cases in Canada workers come well down the list of preference in terms of creditors. The CAW has used plant occupations in previous closure cases. In 2005 workers occupied the VSA plant in Kitchener over the company's refusal to pay severance pay. this occupation lasted only 14 hours due to a court injunction that the workers decided to obey. The plant closed a month later, and the issue was lost. Last April, however, members of the CAW took over the Collins & Aikman auto parts plant in Scarborough. After two days, Daimler Chrysler, a major customer of the plant, agreed to provide the severance pay owed to the workers in order to obtain release of the parts that it had ordered from the plant. The pressure on the plant was increased by solidarity strikes across the province of Ontario. Soon afterwards a steel smelter in Hamilton announced that it would be closing its doors and not honouring severance agreement. The workers responded by occupying the plant, and within a day the company backed down.

A lot of this history and more can be found in an article by Julian Benson and Alex Grant entitled 'High Strike Rate and Factory Occupations in Canada'. Just a little public health warning here. The authors are unreconstructed commies, of which flavour Molly is unsure. As such anything they say should be considered as "provisional" until otherwise verified- commies being the most notorious liars that human history has ever produced. When checking the "strike rate" that they cite from their original reference, the 'UK Office for National Statistics', Molly found out, to her joy that they were only "partly bullshitting". Their main point was that strike activity was higher in Canada than in any other OECD country other than Iceland (I kid you not !). That is at least partially true, as averages from 1996 to 2005 show that "working days not worked per 1,000 employees" due to strikes and lockouts were quite high for Canada. Iceland came in at 401. Canada rated 208. The next highest numbers were Spain at 186 and Denmark at 165. What the authors of the report ignored during the process of grinding their axes was that these averages conceiled some very largen year to year fluctuations. They also ignored the effect of population on the statisgtics they cited. large strikes in small countries such as Denmark or Iceland can skew the numbers tremendously, as can large strikes in Canada when compared to countries with larger populations such as France or Italy.

This is hardly the place to argue how Marxists cherry pick their "facts" to support some already determined conclusion., What is interesting about the original reference is that, taken as a whole, it shows a remarkable consistancy in painting the Canadian industrial scene (and even more so the "service sector") as relatively militant even in comparison with countries such as France and Italy where labour militancy and factory occupations are pretty well standard fare. What it fails to prove, because it doesn't eneter into such territory at all, is that factory occupations in Canada are occuring at a higher rate than in other OECD countries, and that their rate is increasing.

That's too bad beacuse the subject is important. If you are not deluded enough to imagine, as the authors of the above report are, that all of this is some sort of "dialectical buildup" that will inevitably produce a revolution that will raise them up as a new ruling class, the subject of factory occupations is important because it relects on the subject of "property rights". In a realistic approach to socialism, without the grand drama of repeating the storming of the Winter Palace, cetain sets of "rights" are gradually transformed due to social struggle. "Property Rights" are often complete legal fictions. Nobody in their right mind believes, for instance, that "Crown Lands" are actually the property of the Queen of England to do with as she will. Constant battles are found out in boardrooms and the courts over "corporate governance" over whether assets of a corporation are the property of the managers who really control them or the stockholders who nominally own them. Ownership means control. factory occupations are important because they are small skirmishes in a long term battle to embody the concept that workers have "property rights" over their jobs. Just as communities should have "property rights" over the enterprises that are in their locality. The reform whereby workers would count much higher on the list of preffered creditors would be one milestone in the move to such an expansion of the idea of "property". Eventually social practice should make it plain that the "equity" of workers who have worked for a long time in a given enterprise would have firm legal (which depend upon customary) rights. Factory occupations are battles where such rights can be established. Political parties will only repond to enough "boots on the ground". They will not legislate such rights out of the kindness of their social-democratic hearts. they react. they don't initiate. It is useless to vote for the NDP because they exude a warm and cozy odour of "being friendly to labour".

For further updates on this occupation see the website of the CAW. The website of Local 1524 is, unfortuntately in great need of updating. The platformist site Linchpin, from Ontario, has reported on this occupation, and they promise further updates. See that site for further references as well.