CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:

THE HISTORY OF NEFAC IN QUÉBEC CITY (PART 8):

This is part eight os Molly's translation of an article from the Québecois anarchist journal 'Ruptures'. As previously mentioned the original French can be read in its entirety at THIS LINK on the Anarkismo website.

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The fight against the right:

In the month of December 2005, our collective produced two anti-electoral propaganda posters ("Politicians expect nothing from them only the struggle pays. Our power is in the street, not in the ballot box ") in anticipation of the federal election of 23 January 2006. Hundreds were put up in downtown Quebec. The campaign was backed up elsewhere in Quebec by other groups of the federation. Unsurprisingly, Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party took power at the head of a minority government. The Quebec region elected a majority of Conservative MPs . A few months before this, Andrée Boucher had managed to win the municipal elections, without even campaigning. The least we could say is that the populist right had the wind in their sails. Reflection began within our group on the social and political conditions and the rise of right in the Quebec region. New people were joining the group and, quietly, we constructed a theoretical and tactical unity on the subject.

In the month of May 2006, the 6th edition of Ruptures came out. It contained a dossier on the involvement of anarchists in the popular movement, as well as articles on the status of the student movement one year after the strike and a review of the SRTT (Workers Solidarity Network ). On May 16, 2006, we welcomed an anarchist former member of the International Brigades George Sossenko. The conference took place at the premises of the CSN. Forty people were present in a strange atmosphere, where admiration was mixed with some discomfort (when George answers were completely off the subject on some questions ). In spring, we decided to get involved in organizing the 4th Self-Management Day which took place on June 4, 2006 in the Youth Park in the Saint-Roch quarter. The Self-Management Day , as its name indicates, is an annual event dedicated to exploring the concept and practice of self-management. Each year, members of La Nuit delivered workshops and hosted a literature table. But before the predicted demise of the Self-Management Day (because of exhaustion on the part of the organizing committee members), we choose to invest more in planning and organizing the event. Ultimately, the experience was not really conclusive. Workshops and debates attracted relatively few people. A certain feeling of deja vu settled in . There was to be no sequel in 2007.

In fall of 2006, La Nuit took charge of the production of Cause Commune. A new layout and new sections changed the appearance and content of the newspaper. We also organized several public events. On the 23rd of September two members of the collective traveled to the Regional Social Forum 02 (in Métabetchouan, Lac-St-Jean) to present workshops on self management and anarchist ideas at the invitation of a friend who had recently returned to live in the region. We believed we could help form a new collective, without, however, succeeding. On November 4, La Nuit held a conference with two members of the CIPO-RFM (8) at L'Agitée as part of a tour through Quebec coordinated by our Montreal comrades. This public event would serve as an impetus to a coalition which, a few weeks later, organized a demonstration in Quebec City in solidarity with the insurgents in Oaxaca. due to lack of time, we did not participate in its activities, nor with those of other coalitions which would develop later (Guerre à la Guerre, L'Autre 400).

In the winter of 2007, La Nuit took part in the "We won't vote for anybody"campaign . Despite some hiccups, we managed to paste hundreds of posters and stickers in the downtown. In contrast cons, links with the RAME (9) remained non-existent before, during and after the campaign. Unlike what happened in Montreal the RAME remained in an embryonic state in the region of Quebec. Its dissolution didn't affect our group. In May, we organized two public events that gained a certain success. A comrade with whom we had been in contact with since the month of September 2006 invited us to present a lecture on anarchism in Trois-Rivieres on the premises of the UQTR. More than 40 people came out. A group took shape in that city. On May 29 we hosted a launch for the 7th edition of Ruptures at the Agitée. We take this opportunity to present a panel with two members of No Pasaran on the rise of the right in Quebec and France. The objective was to publicly present the conclusions we had arrived at on the political situation and bring libertarians to debate these issues. About 25 people took part in the discussions. On June 22, we participated in the NEFAC contingent in the demonstration of the anti-militarist coalition Guerre à la Guerre. The visibility obtained by the contingent was is excellent. We took the opportunity of the demonstration to distribute hundreds of copies of Cause Commune to bystanders and passersby along the route. Some months later, la Nuit Night attempted to stage another anti-militarist protest in conjunction with Guerre à la Guerre. Substantial differences with some activists of the coalition led us to a cul de sac. We decided to hold the event on our own on March 28, 2008, inviting various "progressive" groups to support our approach. About 300 people answered the call and demonstrated in the downtown to mark the 90th anniversary of the riots against conscription and their opposition to military intervention in Afghanistan. We drew a very positive review by this.

Since the early fall of 2007, our collective had more and more confidence in its abilities. Several projects were relatively successful and resulted in the arrival of new members. In September, we officially launched a blog and a radio program entitled "Voix de faits" (10). In early October 2007, we took the initiative to organize a demonstration for abortion rights in conjunction with the libertarian feminist collective "Ainsi squattent-elles". We came to raise five times more people than the "pro-lifers". We repeated the experiment in October 2008 with better results. These initiatives were part of our "permanent" campaign against the populist right in Quebec.

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:

THE HISTORY OF NEFAC IN QUÉBEC CITY- PART 7:

This is part seven of our translation of the article 'La NEFAC à Québec', published in the Quebecois anarchist journal 'Ruptures'. The full article in the original French can be seen at THIS LINK.

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FROM STRIKE TO STRIKE:

In the fall of 2004, the movement for housing rights in Québec mobilized. The FRAPRU and the RCLALQ decided to organize a major joint action; for two days, dozens of militants will "camp" in downtown Quebec City to demand a major construction of social housing and mandatory rent control. For some years, members of NEFAC were involved in various popular groups in the fight for the right to housing. We proposed to the Regional Union of NEFAC (which included the collectives in Quebec) to mobilize for the "Camp of the badly-housed ". In Montreal, the NEFAC succeeded in securing the support of the CLAC. Some members of Quebec, Montreal and St George participated in the camp. At the closing event (which brought nearly 1,000 people together on 30 October), a "red and black"contingent was formed, distributing a pamphlet on the housing issue and stick up posters along the march.

On 19 November 2004, the employees' union of SAQ(Note 1) launched a general strike across the province. The timing (one month before Christmas) was not insignificant: the goal was to create a balance of power at the time of year when the SAQ realized its best sales. Unfortunately, the conflict was harder than expected. The solidarity was not always met with from the customers and thousands of consumers visited branches that remained open. The various groups of NEFAC organized several actions in support of the strikers. In Quebec, we went to one of the branches operated by scabs took action to "slow down" the tills" (ie having several grocery baskets full of bottles and refusing to pay the bill in solidarity with the strikers ). La Nuit also produced a poster that was massively glued to the stores (open and closed). One afternoon, we went to the store on Boulevard Charest to distribute a leaflet to customers and visit the few pickets who braved the temperature and the bad mood of the consumers.

When the strike at the SAQ ended, we began an extensive tour of conferences with Ashanti Alston, a former member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army who had become an anarchist. From the 9th to the 15th of February 2005, we went to Montreal, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Saint-Georges-de-Beauce, Joliette, Chicoutimi ... This tour, developed during a retreat of NEFAC in the summer of 2004 in the region of the Eastern Townships, was a success across the board.

A week later, on the 21st of February 2005, the longest strike in the history of the student movement began. Some comrades of the student collective at Laval University were fully involved in their association. Other non-student members participated in direct actions at their side. The NEFAC published several texts during the conflict and produced an assessment of the involvement of its members in Cause Commune (No. 6, May-June 2005). At the end of the student strike , La Nuit along with some Quebec libertarians co-organized a day against patriarchy and masculinism on the 10th of April 2005 at the Lucien-Borne Centre. Dozens of people take part in the event, which enrolled itself in the mobilization against the "Man Talk" Congress ", an international masculinist international meeting being held in Montreal from the 21st to the 24th of April.

On May 6 2005, came the launch of the fifth issue of Ruptures. It was a dossier on counter-power and the social movements which were written down as a continuation of the Ashanti Alston tour, but also the struggles in which we are involved in the last year. At the end of May we benefited from the visit to Quebec of two activists of the French libertarian organization No Pasaran to organize a conference on anti-fascism at la Page Noir. Some twenty people were there.

On 1 July 2005, we were moving from words to action by organizing a small counter demonstration to the action that the MLNQ organizes each year to the Hotel de Ville de Quebec. To the amazement of the fifty ultra-nationalists present on the scene, we shared with everyone a tract entitled "fascist pigs(Note 3) out of our streets!" denouncing the positions of their leader, Raymond Villeneuve. This presence made us worthy of a report (unsolicited) on the RDI(Note 2) and criticisms on the part of the Montreal revolutionary left (which never does not understood the threat posed by right-wing extremism ...). Without mistakes, we can say that NEFAC's campaign against the MLNQ (initiated by our colleagues in Montreal in 2002) greatly contributed to the marginalization of this organization and its supporters until its clinical death in 2007.

We ended our summer activities by hosting two anarchists from Mexico City on August 23 2005 as part of the "Spreading Utopia" tour , lectures on free radio and the anarchist movement in Mexico that aimed to raise funds for various projects such as Biblioteca Social Reconstruir, the libertarian radio of the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Carlo Giuliani Caravan.

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MOLLY NOTES:

Note 1: The 'Société des alcools du Québec'(SAQ) is the government liquor monopoly in Québec. Sort of like the Liquor Commissions, Liquor Boards and Liquor Control Boards in other provinces. In Québec the SAQ doesn't have a monopoly over beer, unlike in most other provinces. Québec liquor laws are famously liberal as compared to other provinces (you can pick up beer and wine at corner stores and supermarkets), but the government just cannot forebear from letting such a cash cow go. The strike mentioned above dragged on into February of 2005 when it was settled with a partial victory for the workers involved. Since then the SAQ has been involved in a price fixing scandal in which it pressured its European suppliers to raise their prices in order to maintain a larger profit.

Note 2: The Réseau de lìnformation(RDI) is a French language cable TV news channel operated by the CBC and Radio Canada. It is equivalent to the English language CBC Newsworld.

Note 3: The translation of "fachos" gave me some difficulty. It is has no reference in my Larouse nor in the Google translate system. Using other online translators I found that it has a more disparaging connotation than simply "fascist". I have chosen to translate it as "fascist pigs", as per slang in the English language. My apologies to any porcine readers who may feel that this is directed at them.

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
THE HISTORY OF NEFAC IN QUÉBEC CITY (PART 6):
The following is part six of Molly's translation of the article in the Québecois anarchist journal Ruptures on the history of NEFAC (now the UCL) in Québec City. As before you can read the full article in French at THIS LINK. The following section takes us into the spring of 2004 when tensions with other Québec libertarians were cooling and joint projects became possible.
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Joint mobilizations:
In the spring of 2004, La Nuit organized several actions with other Québec libertarian collectives . After two years during which tensions with other anarchists were sometimes been strong , our group made its "self criticism" and changed its attitude. We launched the idea of holding regular meetings bringing together members of different groups to develop common action. An internet list ("Intercollectif ") was set up for members of the "Assembly of Quebec Libertarians". On 14 April, on the first anniversary of the coming to power of Jean Charest, we broadcast a call to mobilization ( "generalize the resistance") along with La Rixe, Dada is hungryr and other "Québec libertarians". " We announced our participation in the "Block Charest " action organized by the REPAC at the corner of Charest(No, it's an old name; the bugger doesn't yet have streets named after him-Molly) and Langelier streets. The appeal was also signed by a half-dozen groups in Montreal.







The Assembly of Quebec Libertarians also mobilized for the mass demonstration on 1 May 2004 in Montreal, which brought tens of thousands of workers (close to 100,000) against the anti-social Charest governement . At the initiative of the CLAC (including the NEFAC-Montreal) and the Assembly of Quebec Libertarians, an anarchist contingent of several hundred people formed the tail of the event. Without waiting for the union march to begin (which was nearly four hours late!), we took to the streets, preceded by a PCR contingent, to assemble at Parc Jarry . On that site, the riot squad charged the anarchists and Maoists, but we had to retreat because of pressure from protesters .







In parallel, we continued to develop our contacts in the 'region' by participating in lectures on anarchism in Joliette and sending, on a regular basis, the journal Common Cause to a contact in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, who distributed them in Rivière-du-Loup and Cabano. On the 28th of June 2004, the 4th issue of Ruptures (a special issue on nationalism and the extreme right) was launched at the Dorchester Tavern on the evening of the federal election. The article on the extreme right in Quebec aroused many reactions. The PCR reacted strongly to the fact that its members were associated ,in the article, with a National-Bolshevik group and with the MLNQ, which was nevertheless the case. A few months after the release of this issue of Ruptures, it was the turn of Pierre Falardeau to attack us in the pages of Quebecers and Du Couac. Falardeau claimed that NEFAC was being paid by the RCMP, especially because we were associated collectives in the United States and Ontario and that we were against nationalism. This charge is so outrageous that many people take upon themselves to shut him up without our being obliged to do it ourselves!
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Molly Notes:

The item above teems with local references that would be hard for an outsider to understand. I'll do my best to explain them here, but I hope that Québecois comrades will lend a hand where my ignorance is obvious.

First of all, the CLAC (Convergence des Luttes Anti-Capitalist) was a Montréal general assembly of various activist and other anarchist groups which attempted to coordinate actions in the Montréal area. To my knowledge it is defunct, but I have little idea of when it was formed and when it died.

"National-Bolsheviks" are a bizarre recruiting tool of fascists and Neo-Nazis desperate for recruits. They are most prominent in the USA (where pretty well every other weird thing is most prominent as well). Today they are minor compared to the oxymoron "national anarchism". There are, after all, more anarchists and therefore more weak minded anarchists today than there are Leninists(outside of Québec where the Leninist live off an historical inheritance). Molly's Blog was recently visited by one of these fascists crying the blues about how I didn't give his so-called "ideology" the dignity of a "critique". Quite frankly, aside from the cynical manipulations of the leaders I find little to "critique" in the political expression of personal inferiorities. One can hardly take this sort of thing seriously.

The Mouvement de Liberation Nationale du Québec (MLNQ) is an ultra-nationalist group founded by ex-FLQer and convicted murderer Raymond Villeneuve. One can easily imagine that the whole operation is a scam to enable Villeneuve to avoid actually having to take shit jobs-the only ones a convicted murderer could get- to survive. Whatever the above article may imply the MLNQ is a "left-wing"sect rather than a fascist group. In that it is similar to its occasional supporter Pierre Falardeau, also mentioned above. Falardeau is a Québecois film directer and general commentator. His "style" is such that he is best compared to someone like Rush Limbaugh with socialist pretentions. For long term anarchists another analogy would be "like a Bob Black with talent and ambition". To say the least such a personality who thrives on being outrageous for his income is hardly worried about being refuted. On to the next target in his schedule. It was actually a coup for NEFAC to be denounced by him, with his bizarre accusations. That's publicity you could never buy.

Here is where I get a bit hazy. I presume that the "PCR" refers to the "Parti Communiste Révolutionaire". The group that bears this name, however, was only founded in January of 2007. I do seem to have a memory of a previous group bearing this moniker, but aside from the fact that it was Maoist, and annoying, I cannot remember any details. One thing I will say for sure, the world of the left wing sects is an ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly (did I mention it was ugly ?) miniscule world composed of tiny gangs of generals without an army who substitute for their actual lack of effect with grandiose pretentions to having some grand overarching theory of both how society is, how it should be and the way to get there. In the "anarchist world" the picture is even more stark as the ambitions of some who are detached from reality extend to such crackpot dreams as "abolishing civilization". But the commie world is ugly enough. One thing I can guarantee for certain. There is an infallible guideline to the success of any left-wing organization, anarchist or otherwise. The more effort is devoted to either attacking (or "cozying up to") real political actors (such as the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québecois in a Canadian context)and the less to the nuts(anarchism) or the sectarians(Leninists) the more succesful such an anarchist organization is. The first requirement of any small aspiring political group is realism, and this means recognizing one's actual small size and not trying to pretend to have all the answers in one's pocket. Fail to do this and you will never progress beyond the level of a sect.
I hate to disagree with my Québecois comrades on this, but I suspect (never having read the original article) that they were rather wide-ranging in describing some commies as "right wing". I say this as someone who knows that communist tyrannies have a far worse historical record than fascist ones. In terms of mass murder Hitler was retail to Stalin's wholsesale, and Stalin in turn was a minor player compared to Mao. In sheer per capita murder the Kymer Rouge of Cambodia outperformed any example known in history. Québec had the unique historical chance of Maoism actually achieving significant numbers in a developed country. As such it is not surprising that one should meet the strange example of Maoists willing to associate with others (such as the MLNQ). Given enough penetration you can develop something as strange as a "friendly Maoist" (sorta like a polite wolverine to the rest of us). I don't think it is fair to describe the commies in the same way as nut-jobs such as the "National Bolsheviks" nor such outfits as the MLNQ who, only occasionally, let their racism slip by with off the cuff comments. If nothing else it is a sweeping generalization that obscures reality rather than illuminates it.
Be that as it may I stand ready to be corrected by others in Québec who have a better knowledge of its local politics than I do.

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-QUÉBEC:

THE HISTORY OF NEFAC IN QUÉBEC-PART 3:

This is the third part of the translation of NEFAC's history in Québec. As before you can read the full text in French at THIS LINK.

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The Summer of the Squat:

On the 17th of May, about 200 people, mobilized by the Popular Committee of Saint-Jean-Baptiste and other members of FRAPRU demonstrated in the streets of Quebec to demand social housing. The event finished in fron of 920, de la Chevrotière a small triplex abandoned three years ago that belonged to the City of Quebec. Fifteen militants and activists (including two members of NEFAC) barricaded themselves on the inside. Thus begins the Chevrotière squat. The occupation, which was supposed to last 48 hours, continued for almost four months. The "920" becomes the focus of struggles in Quebec throughout the summer. This was going to emerge as the La Page Noire, the self managed bookstore, in which several members of NEFAC were involved from the start (2). Our collective went to organize two activities. On 8 June, during the Congress FRAPRU in Quebec, we are launched, at the squat, a pamphlet on the housing issue written by Phoebus. Many of the delegates participating in the FRAPRU took part in the discussion. On 10 August, we showed a film with two members of the Anarchist Federation (France) passing through Quebec on the self management experiences in Senegal.

From 13 to 15 September, the NEFAC met in convention in Montreal. This was the first time I met face to face my friends in the United States and Ontario. The meeting was very rough, but ended with the adoption of a common strategy. For now, the NEFAC collectives members would work on three areas of intervention, either anti-racism / anti-fascism, the struggles in our communities and workplaces.

Less than a week after this congress, the squatters of 920 de la Chevrotière were evicted by the police. In retrospect, we can say that the squat was vitally important in the journey of many activists in Quebec. Two new groups formed themselves in its premises: the Lower Town Collective and Dada is Hungry. Both were composed mostly of former members of the CASA, especially women. As for La Nuit, weakened the collective was weakened by this adventure. We were unable to develop a collective vision of what our response should be within the occupation. We thoroughly involved ourselves, but in an uncoordinated and individual manner . Several members, and sympathizers left our collective in the coming months to join Dada is Hungry or the Lower Town Collective. The last year had siphoned a lot of time and energy. If the number of members had increased rapidly, the group was now reduced to its simplest expression. There were only a few active members, all guys. We revolved around a core of supporters and sympathizers that we had difficulty in maintaining.

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT:
NEFAC IN QUÉBEC PART TWO:
Here is part two of my translation of Rupture's article on the history of NEFAC in Québec from 2001 to 2008. The full text in French can be seen at THIS LINK.
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All-out activism:
My first year as a member of NEFAC was at least as loaded! By the end of summer, we produced the first issue of a newsletter of the Local NEFAC Union called "La Nuit" (in homage to the anarchist newspaper of the same name produced in Montreal from 1976 to 1986). This bulletin prefigured the "Cause Commun" of a few years later : a newsletter that appears on a regular basis and which is distributed in demonstrations and in public places. "The Local Union group replaced the Emile Henry collective of NEFAC in Quebec, following the departure of several people and the arrival of others. The first issue of "La Nuit" addressed the issue of patriarchy and wage slavery , two themes that will recur periodically in our publications.

As with almost all the radical left, the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 took us by surprise. The Local Union, nevertheless, issued a NEFAC communique, written by our comrades in the United States, during a protest in Quebec City at the end of September. We took this opportunity to announce a series of upcoming events, including the upcoming release of a new NEFAC publication ... in French. On the 13th of October the first number of Ruptures finally came out. Published in 1000 copies, it was all produced in Quebec, thanks to the collaboration of a few supporters and sympathizers. The launch took place in the basement of the Church of St. John the Baptist, in the presence of a hundred people. Ruptures has not gone unnoticed, especially the text "We are platformists," which raised many reactions and taunts on the part of the anarchist "mileau". Among "exs" of CASA, many turned their backs on the NEFAC and some unhealthy competition developed between the "organized" (that's us) and the "unorganized" (the others) militants and activists . It was also a time of schism with two friends who soon increased (for a time) the ranks of the "ultra-left" in Montreal, with various texts and pamphlets denouncing their former comrades.

The Fall was marked by several other public activities, some organized under the People's University of the Popular Committee of Saint-Jean-Baptiste, others independently. The weekend of November 23, we presented not one but two public lectures: on Friday with Gaetan Heroux, of the OCAP (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty), and Sunday with Nivardo Juan Rodriguez, of Juventudes Libertarias (Bolivia) , at Lucien-Borne. Despite a limited mobilization, the room was full! The Summit of the Americas is making itself felt ...

On the 1st and 2nd of December 2001, NEFAC organized a weekend of reflection on patriarchy in Montreal on the Loyola campus, west of the city. This was the first public event jointly organized by various groups since the Quebec Summit of the Americas. The program, somewhat charged, was developed by groups in Quebec City and Montreal. Several former members of CASA were present, and present also, were a large number of supporters and sympathizers of the Montreal region and the United States. Despite numerous logistical problems and a lack of political preparation, the event was a success in terms of participation. It l prepared the ground for the second issue of Ruptures which came out in April 2002.

In the winter, the NEFAC began the first tour "of the region." The invitation was launched for anarchists living outside Montreal and Quebec City to organize events with us in their corner of the country. Members of the Local Union of Quebec went to Sorel on 25 March 2002 for a conference to present an introduction to anarchism at the Café-Bistro Le Cinoche. On 24 April, we went to Saint-Georges-de-Beauce at the invitation of students of the college to conduct a workshop on globalization. Nearly forty people were present. On 6 May, I went to Sherbrooke to present a conference on education to a small libertarian group of cégépiens and cégépiennes(CGEP students-Molly).

These activities did not prevent us from holding more public events in Quebec. On 2 April, we were mobilizing a caravan to the G8 meeting in Kananaskis (Alberta). A large crowd rushing to listen to various speakers and presenters, including Jaggi Singh. Three weeks later, on 20 and 21 April, the NEFAC held another weekend of debate in Quebec on this time on social class and class struggle. People from everywhere attended this meeting, including a group of students from St. Jerome. On 5 May, we returned with an "internationalist" conference in Quebec. Chekov Feeney of the Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland), Laurent Scapin of Alternative Libertaire (France) and Phoebus (for our group) presented the different realities of the anarchist movement and the different horizons that were opening for organization. It was during this period that the Local Union of Quebec became the anarchist La Nuit Collectif . The name change reflected a desire to clarify our method of organization and our goals and to break the vicious "activist" circle" in which we had plunged . The idea of "closed" affinity groups "closed" (such as Émile-Henry) was set aside. From the moment a person shares our political views, a formal process of integration is set in motion, leading to the membership (or not) of the person after three meetings. The group's objective is to participate and create a libertarian "pole" in Quebec, to develop a strategy to implement in our living, work and study and to support social struggles. The collective's action is based on an analysis of the situation in the short, medium and long term. We also want to alternate the meetings between theoretical ones and ones of more technical stuff. (Molly Note- I had a little trouble translating the figure of speech "poutine plus technique". I went with the rather neutral "stuff", even though my imagination began to run away with me at the possible implications, some them quite hilarious. Til the next installment)