INTERNATIONAL LABOUR UZBEKISTAN:

STOP CHILD LABOUR IN UZBEKISTAN:

The following appeal to pressure clothing retailer Gymboree to stop stocking items made by child labour in the country of Uzbekistan comes from the International Labour Rights Forum.

CLCLCLCLCL
Call Gymboree About Forced Child Labor TODAY!‏

Give Gymboree a Call TODAY about Forced Child Labor!
Call Gymboree at 1-800-222-7758 extension 7264 and leave a message saying:


"As a consumer, I want to be sure that workers are respected in the production of my clothes. Gymboree is one of a handful of major clothing companies that has not taken any action to address forced child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry. This inaction is unacceptable and I expect your company to do more to stop this abuse today. Will you issue a statement opposing forced child labor and commit to stop sourcing Uzbek cotton today?"

Let us know how your call went here!

THANK YOU to everyone who took action last week to tell Abercrombie & Fitch and Gymboree to speak out about forced child labor in Uzbekistan's cotton industry. Your actions are definitely making a difference!

Many of you may have received a response from Abercrombie stating that the company has a policy to not source cotton from Uzbekistan due to the government's practice of removing millions of children from school and forcing them to pick cotton. It's clear that when consumers speak up, companies will listen and this commitment is an important first step. We are working to get more details from Abercrombie on how it implements this policy, especially as the government of Uzbekistan is holding a cotton fair to sell it's cotton to international traders RIGHT NOW even as children are continuing to be forced to pick cotton.

On the other hand, Gymboree, the children's clothing store, continues to be silent on the ongoing exploitation of children in the cotton industry. Gymboree needs to hear your voice TODAY. Please take a minute to call Gymboree and tell them the time for remaining silent about forced child labor is over! Check out the call-in information and sample script in the box to the right. After you make your call, let us know how it went here.

After you call Gymboree, take action on Facebook by visiting Gymboree's Facebook page and posting this message: Gymboree: Time to break the silence on forced child labor in Uzbekistan's cotton industry! Commit to stop sourcing Uzbek cotton today. Take action on Twitter by posting this message: @Gymboree: Break the silence! Commit to stop sourcing cotton made by forced child labor in Uzbekistan today!


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This message you brought to you by the International Labor Rights Forum.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS GREECE:

ALEXIS' MURDERER GETS LIFE:

In December of 2008 the police killing of 15 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos set off a month of riots, strikes and occupations in that country. Despite the naive optimism of many across the world this rebellion hardly led to any change to the socio-economic system in Greece let alone in any other country. To say the least this was hardly unexpected. There is a great difference between rioting and building a new world.

Yet almost two years later discontent still simmers even if there is no coherent plan that has any wide support amongst the opposition to the "socialist" government and its austerity. In light of this discontent it was perhaps necessary for a conviction to be registered against the policeman who shot Grigoropoulos. Indeed this has happened as the following from the Occupied London Blog says, but the conviction may be less significant than it appears on the surface.

First of all the conviction came about with a split jury, only 4 out of 7 judges and jurors agreeing to convict the policeman of murder. The others felt that manslaughter would be more appropriate. Most importantly the conviction is still subject to appeal, a process that is likely to take years. By that time it is entirely possible that political pressures will not be as heated as they are now.

Besides what follows you can read more about this case from Kathimerini and the Associated Press.

AGAGAGAGAG

Both policemen murderers of Alexandros Grigoropoulos have been found guilty
A few minutes ago the court in the remote town of Amfissa reached a verdict for the two murderers of Alexandros; both have been found guilty. Korkoneas was actually found guilty for charges even heavier than the original (manslaughter with possible malice turned into manslaughter with direct malice). The course decided not to recognise any mitigating factors for Korkoneas.

Saraliotis, the second cop, was also found guilty for accomplice to the manslaughter. At this moment the court is deciding whether to recognise any mitigating factors for him.

ANARCHIST PUBLICATIONS:

ZABALAZA:

The following notice of a recent publication is from the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front in South Africa.

SASASASASA
Zabalaza No. 11 now available online
We, at the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) are pleased to announce that issue number 11 of our organ Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism is now available online.

Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism


In this issue:

Editorial - by the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front
South Africa:
At the End of the Baton of South African Pretentions - Warren McGregor (ZACF)
Electricity Crisis in Protea South - Lekhetho Mtetwa (ZACF)
Conned by the Courts - Sian Byrne, James Pendlebury (ZACF), Komnas Poziaris
Death and the Mielieboer - Michael Schmidt
The Crisis Hits Home: Strategic Unionism or Revolt? - Lucien van der Walt
Sharpening the Pangas?: Understanding and Preventing future Pogroms - Michael Schmidt
Riding to Work on Empty Promises - Jonathan P. (ZACF)
Africa:
Short-changed: Egyptian Struggle for Democracy Founders on Obama's Stinginess - Michael Schmidt
Massacre as a Tool of the African State - Michael Schmidt
International:
Chile and Haiti after the Earthquakes: so different yet so similar - Jose Antonio Gutierrez D.
Obama's Imperial War: An Anarchist Response - Wayne Price (NEFAC)
Theory:
Anarchism vs Liberalism: Whose Powers are Separate? - James Pendlebury & Sian Byrne (ZACF)
History:
Industrial and Social Foundations of Syndicalism - Michael Schmidt
Counter-Culture
All in the Name of the Beautiful Gain: A ZACF Statement on the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa



Related Link: http://www.zabalaza.net/pdfs/sapams/zab11.pdf

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT TORONTO:

SPEAKING IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE ?:

The following call for solidarity with an Ontario activist is from the Toronto Community Solidarity Network.

TOTOTOTOTO
Subject:

For Immediate Release: G20 defendant Alex Hundert found to have breached ‘no demonstration’ cond
http://www.facebook.com/l/3e8b0K5jQ1YORLPTCh6-rBa8OWQ;g20.torontomobilize.org/node/549

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 08, 2010

G20 defendant Alex Hundert found to have breached ‘no demonstration’ condition for speaking at a university panel event

October 8, 2010 – Toronto, Mississauga New Credit – G20 defendant and alleged ‘ringleader’ Alex Hundert was found to be in breach of his ‘no-demonstration’ bail condition today for speaking as an invited panellist at two recent university events. A new bail hearing is now underway at the Scarborough Courthouse at 1911 Eglinton Avenue East in courtroom 405. This hearing is now expected to drag into next week and continue on Tuesday October 12, and Wednesday, October 13.

According to Yogi Acharya “We are outraged at this ruling. He was speaking at a panel discussion in a university classroom alongside professors, which is clearly not a public demonstration. This is yet another attempt to silence Alex, and is a strong indication of the police's intent to criminalize ideas, dissent, and effective community organizing.”

In a previous media statement, Hundert has stated “They are targeting me and because I am part of communities that are effectively organizing across movements. Whether it is the criminalization of anarchists and community organizers like me, or the daily demonization of Indigenous peoples, poor people and migrant communities, we are living in the midst of an increasingly aggressive and openly racist Harper regime that serves only to protect property and profit, not people. We have to show them that our resolve and our solidarity can be stronger than their intimidation and repression.”

Several other G20 defendants remain behind bars, including Indigenous sovereignty activist Ryan Rainville of the Sackimay Nation, punished by the criminal justice system for being poor and unable to afford exorbitant bail, while others face the possibility of deportation as a means of stifling their dissent.

Hundert is currently facing politically-motivated conspiracy and counselling charges in relation to the Toronto G8/G20 protests. He was arrested pre-emptively at gunpoint in a violent house raid on the morning of June 26th, before the protests began, and is being targeted as a member of the community group AW@L and Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance.

This latest attempt is not the first time the Crown has attempted to send Hundert back to jail. On July 28, 2010 the Ontario Provincial Police warned Hundert that media interviews him and his co-accused Leah Henderson did with CBC radio, Toronto Sun, Vancouver Media Co-op, and Rabble were a violation of the no demonstration bail condition and threatened to re-jail them. A day later at a press conference, Hundert and his supporters decried this media ban as a blatant violation of his right to free speech and of freedom of the press. On August 20, the Crown had appealed Hundert and Henderson’s release from jail in the Ontario Superior Court and was seeking pre-trial incarceration. However Federal Court judge Todd Ducharme dismissed the Crown’s appeal.
-30-

For more information and interview requests:

Yogi Acharya 647-764-0488, Rachel Avery 519 616 5549

LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG:

NO TO VIC TOEWS:

Vic Toews is one (of many) local conservative luminaries, luminous enough for some to think that he should be recognized for his "stellar" career. Others disagree. The following is a notice for a planning meeting for a protest against this award.

WWWWWWWWWW
Planning Meeting for Vic Toews Honorary Degree Protest
Time Wednesday, October 13 · 7:30pm - 9:00pm

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Location Rainbow Resource Centre
170 Scott Street
Winnipeg, MB

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More Info

On Sunday, October 17th at 2:00pm, the University of Winnipeg will be giving Vic Toews an honorary Doctorate of Laws during the autumn convocation ceremony. Throughout his career, Vic Toews has consistently represented the worst that Canadian conservatism has to offer. Here are some of his heinous positions: he is against same-sex marriage, he is against hate-speech laws protecting gay people, and he is against the legal right t...o abortion. He also wants to put as many Canadians in jail as possible: he is in favour of ramping up the war on drugs, he is in favour of allowing 10 year olds to be sent to jail, and he fought to end the two-for-one sentencing credit. Recently, Toews got in trouble for referring to the passengers aboard the Tamil refugee ship (MV Sun Sea) as "terrorists". In response, the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) charged that Toews incited "distrust and anger" towards members of the Sri Lankan community.

For all these reasons and more, we believe that Vic Toews should not be granted an honorary degree by the U of W. Doing so would tarnish the value of degrees given to all of its students. Toews' positions are based on ignorance and are in direct opposition to the notions of compassion and justice that should be idealized by institutions of higher learning and the Canadian justice system.

Join us at the planning meeting that will be held on Wed. Oct. 13th at 7:30pm at the Rainbow Resource Centre located at 170 Scott Street (corner of Scott and Wardlaw). At that meeting we will plan the protest that will occur during the convocation ceremony on October 17th.

CANADIAN LABOUR GATINEAU QUÉBEC:

SECOND ORGANIZED WAL-MART IN NORTH AMERICA:

A recent Labour Board decision has certified a Wal-Mart in Gatineau Québec as the second unionized Wal-Mart on the North American continent. The only other location now represented by a union is also in Québec in St. Hyacinthe. Previous attempts to unionize Wal-Mart in Québec and in locations as far afield as Texas and Weyburn Saskatchewan have been beaten back either legally or by the expedient of simply closing the outlet affected.

The latter is both a favoured threat and a favoured action on the part of Wal-Mart management. The largest example of this was when Wal-Mart decided to withdraw from the whole German market rather than tolerate unions in its stores in that country. The only country where Wal-Mart is happy to coexist with a unionized workforce is...China. In China's case the "union" is, of course, the official government controlled federation which takes its marching orders from the Communist Party. Nothing could be plainer in pointing out the ideological affinity of neo-conservative managerialism and it communist counterpart. Two sides of one coin.

This Board decision may benefit the workers involved only marginally as the wage increases stipulated were only minimal, and the biggest issue, the use and abuse of the part time system, remained outside the Board's decision. Still it shows that even the Wal-Mart colossus is not invulnerable. It is a shame that the unions involved in Wal-Mart organizing are not imbued with at least a minimum of the internationalism and industrial unionism of the anarcho-syndicalist unions or revolutionary syndicalist unions such as the IWW. Things would go much better then.

Be that as it may if you want to follow the misdeeds of Wal-Mart in more detail Molly can suggest the following sites: Wake Up Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart Watch. It`s almost a classic 'Perils of Pauline' series complete with evil top-hatted capitalist. A refreshing old fashioned morality play in an age when the corporate rulers more often than not adopt fuzzy "progressive" and "new age" public personae. Here`s the story from the CBC.

WMWMWMWMWM
Quebec Wal-Mart workers get rare union deal
Only one other North American Wal-Mart has a collective agreement

CBC News
The contract covers more than 150 employees at the store on Boulevard du Plateau in Gatineau. (CBC) Workers at a Wal-Mart store in Gatineau, Que., have won a new collective agreement, only the second at any Wal-Mart store in North America — but not everyone is celebrating.

A government arbitrator imposed the agreement, after negotiations between the union and retailer were judged to be going nowhere.

The contract covers more than 150 employees at the store on Boulevard du Plateau. It took three years for the United Food and Commercial Workers to unionize the store, and another two years to get the contract.

"We had a first assembly last night to present the first collective agreement that was imposed by the Labour Board of Quebec," said union member Matthieu Allard.

He said the collective agreement gives employees a grievance process, recognizes statutory holidays and considers seniority in determining working hours.

Wages will go up 30 cents an hour this year, and another 30 cents next year. None of the employees, however, would say how much an hour they make now.

The arbitrator modeled it on the contract at the Wal-Mart in St-Hyacinthe, Que., the only other store with such an agreement.

"It might not have been as much as we could have gained in a normal negotiation process, but it's a definite step forward," Allard said.

Some employees at the store think otherwise.

In the parking lot outside the store, Denise Barre said she and her coworkers are disappointed with a 30-cent-an-hour raise, especially when it means paying union dues.

She said only 13 of the 150 employees went to Wednesday night's meeting with the union, which she says shows employees aren't interested.

Barre said she doesn't need this contract.

She said Wal-Mart treats her well and gives her benefits.

In a statement, the company also pointed out that the arbitrator found its wages competitive with other retailers, and adopted the wage scale Wal-Mart proposed.

The union said employees at the store were concerned by Wal-Mart's previous actions at unionized stores, but the Gatineau location is busy, and they hope Wal-Mart will not close it

In 2005, Wal-Mart closed a store in Jonquiere, Que., days before an arbitrator imposed a contract for its employees. The employees took Wal-Mart to court over the closure but lost their case.

In 2008, Wal-Mart also closed a tire shop on Maloney Boulevard in Gatineau after its employees received union certification.

The new agreement has a start date back in 2008, which means the union will be back to negotiating next year.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/10/08/ottawa-wal-mart-deal.html#ixzz11vWkUx1U

LOCAL POLITICS WINNIPEG:

WINNIPEGERS OPPOSE SECRET CORPORATE GIVE-AWAY:

The following news item from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is about a recent poll that says that 80% of Winnipegers think that the secret deal with Veolia for "consulting services" in relation to upgrades to Winnipeg's sewer system should be made public.

There are a huge amount of questions that flow from this issue. The first that comes to my mind is "why" present city employees are not capable of laying out plans for such upgrades. They may or may not be capable, but it has never been made plain why such plans could not be done on the present city payroll. Either our present city employees are capable or they are not, especially the more highly paid managers amongst them. Who knows, and if they are not we will never know why.

The second question comes from an observation. The secrecy of the contract with Veolia is merely one more outrageous example of a persistent culture of secrecy surrounding City Hall and its relations to consultants. Our present Mayor Sam Katz may be a particularly arrogant defender of this culture, but he is hardly unique. He can also hardly be suspected of benefiting personally from this deal. Katz is the dinky little Mayor of a dinky little city in the middle of nowhere, and his personal wheelings and dealings are several levels of magnitude below those of an international company such as Veolia. It would take some serious creative accounting for Sam to be bribed on this matter. The Mayor's unyielding defense of this rather unique form of civic contracting is more related to his desire to preserve secrecy in other matters than from anything related to this particular deal.

It should also be noted that the public opposition to this secrecy on the part of the other mayoral candidate for Mayor Judy Wasylycia-Leiss lacks substance. Like most political promises it lacks enforceability ie a written commitment to either carry through with exposing the deal or cancelling it altogether. This means a "no-escape" provision to her promise such that it cannot be reneged on "in light of new information" if she wins. Put it in writing before a notary public Judy !

Even more importantly it lacks generality. While the present contract may be particularly large, and may have options for yet another billion dollars attached to it such things are hardly unique to the Katz administration. Neither are they a particularly "right wing" invention, even though it may be argued that public defenders of traditional "morality" are generally more corrupt than their opponents. The leech-like behavior of "consultants" was as much a feature of the Mayoralty of that darling of the left Glenn Murray as it was of any right wing administration. The only difference is in the sums involved.

Let the reader note that Judy has not made any promise to have all city contracts open to public scrutiny ie available of the City of Winnipeg website. The only contract that she has more or less promised to open to public scrutiny is the Veolia one. Cough up with the rest Judy, including others that might be undertaken in an administration of your own. No generality in democracy from Judy.

The other salient fact about Judy's promise is that it lacks "enforceability". If her promise were connected with another promising to set up a process for both recall and generalized public referenda about major capital projects she would be much more believable. That, however, is something quite remote from the ideological commitments of our so-called "left" these days. In general our "left" has evolved into an elitist position of distrust of ordinary people whose only difference from the elitism of the "right" is that it has an academic brown shirt squad in the post modernists. But realistic social democratic politician hardly call on such things in "real time". Mostly they act by evasion, a more traditional and less rhetorical way of coming to power.

So...if Judy were to couple her promise to put this item into public view with a)a written guarantee, b)a similar guarantee to put any give-aways to her own friends into public view and c)a similar written guarantee that the public could block such actions and also remove the politicians who go back on such promises then I'd be inclined to vote for her.

Well pigs don't fly and Judy will do such thing. Therefore Molly will do what she has always done ie not vote. This is for the purpose of making it plain that there is another way of doing politics that is considerably different from the habit of many of merely "kicking the bastards out" whether they be right wing bastards or left wing ones. This is, of course, a long range point of view, but it is better than taking a short term view of the "lesser of two evils" and accomplishing nothing. That's what voting in this election will do.

Here's the item from CUPE. While it has to be admitted that the poll in question was a politically motivated poll this fact is both obvious and trivial. I would be utterly surprised that the number who think this contract should remain secret is less than 80%. In actual fact the 20% who said they preferred secrecy are probably people who recognized the poll for what it was and answered this way just to be difficult. Here's the story.

WWWWWWWWWW

Winnipeg residents reject secret sewage contract—poll
Survey shows eight in ten want Veolia contract details made public

A Probe Research survey shows that 78 per cent of Winnipeg residents believe that all the details of the 30-year contract the City of Winnipeg entered into with the private contractor Veolia Canada should be made public before the October 27 municipal election.

Meanwhile, the poll—commissioned by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)—shows overall opposition to the Veolia deal is also strong as 61 per cent of Winnipeggers oppose it, with 39 per cent in support.

“Clearly Winnipeggers have serious concerns with the mayor and council’s decision to enter into a 30-year deal with a private company to maintain and operate Winnipeg’s wastewater treatment plants,” says CUPE National President Paul Moist.

“For the past two years, concerned citizens have called for the city to be open and transparent about contracting out our wastewater plants,” says Moist. “And for two years the city has ignored these calls.”

“Winnipeg voters deserve to know the scope of this deal,” he says. “They deserve to know how much this deal will cost them and their children 30 years from now. They deserve answers to these questions before they go to the polls on October 27.”

Moist says keeping water and wastewater services in public hands is a key priority for CUPE and its members. CUPE has mounted campaigns opposed to water privatization across Canada and the world. CUPE has also worked with other community organizations in opposition to Winnipeg’s decision to seek out a private partner to operate and maintain its wastewater services since 2008.

Probe Research conducted the citywide telephone survey of 601 Winnipeg residents between September 16 and September 30. The margin of error is ±4.0, 19 times out of 20. Full results of the survey can be downloaded from the electronic version of this release at cupe.ca.

CUPE is Canada’s largest union representing more than 600,000 workers, including 26,000 in Manitoba.


For more information, contact:

Liam Martin
CUPE Communications Representative
Tel: (201) 612-0901
Heather Fraser
Senior Communications Officer, CUPE
Tel: (613) 237-1590



Read the poll by Probe Research
(271 kB)

Read the Veolia fact sheet
(34 kB)

LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG:
GRIPPEN GRAIN AT THE ROYAL ALBERT:





WWWWWWWWWW
GRIPPIN GRAIN #8 - One Year Anniversary!
Time Tomorrow at 10:00pm - Sunday at 2:00am

--------------------
Location
The Royal Albert Arms Hotel
48 Albert Street
Winnipeg, MB

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More Info
GRIPPIN GRAIN #8:
THE ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY BEER PARTY!

STRICTLY CLUB RAP ALL NIGHT
with:
Lonnie Ce
Footwerk
Co-op

Saturday, October 9th
Royal Albert Arms
48 Albert St
Doors 10
Cover $5
18+

featuring:
Gentlemen
Ladies
Bass ass outta control babies
Grownups
In-betweens
People with jobs
People without jobs
Middle class
Upper class
High class
Cats
Snakes
Chickens
Ducks
Elderly people
Twerkers

CANADIAN LABOUR PETERBOROUGH:
PROTEST AGAINST HOSPITAL LAYOFFS:



You have to admire our political and economic system. Our beloved rulers always have a fine sense of priorities, and they would never let such a trivial thing as patient safety interfere with finding the money for corporate tax cuts and give-aways. It is, after all, more productive to stimulate a live corporation than a dead patient. Here's a story from the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) via the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) about some who oppose such "short-sightedness".
CLCLCLCLCL

Hospital staff hold rally to fight cuts in Peterborough
Oct 5, 2010 03:33 PM


Hospital staff from across Ontario rally against the deep cuts to services at Peterborough Regional Health Centre

On October 4, more than 500 workers were in attendance at a rally to show their support to the 252 layoff notices to CUPE members issued by the Peterborough Community Hospital.

In addition to the staff layoffs, the proposed cuts include:

♣Closing the downtown women’s health centre.
♣Dozens of hospital beds to be closed and an untold number of beds to remain unusable because they will not be staffed.
♣Cuts to ICU, medical and surgical beds, infection control and housekeeping.

OCHU president Michael Hurley said, “This is just the beginning, we won’t let this government close community hospital and we will have many other rallies like this one with more and more people.”


Watch the video of the rally and read the article entitled Hundreds protest hospital cuts during union rally from The Peterborough Examiner.

Read more about the struggle to save the hospital on the OCHU Website.

ANARCHIST MUSIC VANCOUVER:

ANNE FEENEY BENEFIT CONCERT RESCHEDULED:

Hey folks if you're out Vancouver way this weekend try and check out anarchist musician Joey Only's benefit concert for singer Anne Feeney. Here's Joey's empathic appeal.

♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪
Anne Feeney Fundraiser Date Changed=October 9th‏

DATE CHANGED FOR MY ANNE FEENEY FUNDRAISER!!!!

TO HELP COVER HER CANCEROUS CANCER BILLS!!

NOW SATURDAY OCTOBER 9th AT CAFE RHIZOMENEAR MAIN STREET AND BROADWAY IN VANCOUVER

8:30PM, $5-25 donation, for Anne Feeney

with Jeff Andrew, Joey Only and comrades

Howdy friends...many of you know my good friend and folk singer from Pittsburgh Painsylvania known as Anne Feeney. You ought to know her, she's been croonin songs for more than 35 years and doing it for the working class. She and I traveled around last year touring after being friends for much of the last decade and she'd never miss a chance to stop at a picket line for striking workers and sing em some songs to cheer em up...

...it was as dreary as an April hell could be when we stopped into that rainy picket outside the big steel mill in Hamilton Ontario where she lit faces up with songs against the goons and ginks and company finks. Those guys had been wanderin around in circles for weeks striking while the big bosses sez the economy's no good anymore so all these guys have to get fired so that rich pigs can stay rich pigs

...in all that time only Anne and I came to sing em some good old fashioned fighting songs and they sure did like it. Even fed us afterward. Lately she fell ill with some cancer, a big tumor in her lung nearly half a foot big? Imagine having half a cancerous foot in your lung? Down in Pittsburgh the system doesn't care if you can afford to live or not, so it's up to me and my friends to raise a few bucks to ease the burden on her lungs, brains and hearts because Obama won't do it for her. Hell, when I was sick with tuberculosis and dying she went out of her way for me

...so I would be an ungrateful bastard if I didn't do something back. All her beautiful curly Irish hair fell out and she looks sorta funny now, which is all the more reason to have pity on her and send her some money so she can pay her hospital bills or at least buy a wig...or a hat. And you know, us Irish folk are like Samson..when we're sober all our power comes from our hair!

So the date has changed from the 8th to the 9th...or maybe it didn't change and I was just wrong all a long. At any rate, I hope that wouldn't hold you back from coming out to the cafe, having some soup or beer or beer-soup and having a good old time with us there. And if we can send Anne $5 or $500 it would be something she didn't have already

...I guess I mean to say I am hoping more than one person comes cause five bucks sucks when you're in the hole ten grand! How bout it friends...let's party like it's 1999. If you want to know more about my radical folk singing comrade Anne Feeney, who Utah Philips once called the greatest labor singer in North America...go to her website and lookie for yourself. (www.annefeeney.com ). She's one of those IWW (Industrial Workers of the World types..she gave everything to everyone else and has nothing left for herself. Anyway, there's no room for sectarian crap at this event..just room to sing a few Feeney songs and have a good old time...and if you don't have any plans and you don't like hockey but decide not to come anyway, you must be a heartless capitalist pig, why else would you sit at home doing nothing but facebookin people who don't even care about you

...come out and see some real people instead. till then my friends

...joeyonly

---

DR.JOEY ONLY

---

NEW ALBUM: TRANSGRESSION TRAIL available through Scratch Records. (http://radio3.cbc.ca/bands/Joey-Only-Outlaw-Band )(www.myspace.com/xjoeyonlyx )(www.reverbnation.com/xjoeyonlyx )(http://www.imradio.com/xjoeyonlyx )(http://twitter.com/joeyonly )

DAILY BLOG: www.joeyonly.wordpress.com www.JOEYONLY.com

CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT TORONTO:
FUNDRAISER IN TO FOR G20 LEGAL DEFENSE:

The following item is from the Toronto Community Solidarity Network.
@@@@@@@@@@



"The Chicago Conspiracy" Premier Screening!
A G20 Legal Defense/Mapuche Political Prisoner Fundraiser
200 Years of Genocide – Our People Continue Resisting...

**
A Fundraiser for the Toronto G20 Legal Defence Fund AND the Family Support Group of Mapuche Political Prisoners of Angol and Chol-Chol on Hunger Strike (Familiares de los Presos Politicos Mapuche en Huelga de Hambre de Angol y Chol-Chol)
**
Night of Solidarity for our Mapuche Political Prisoners Dying on a 90+ Day Hunger Strike, and all those who have Suffered the Pain of Physical and Psychological Torture as a Result of the G20 - Kidnapped in the Jails of the Canadian state

NO BICENTENARY ON STOLEN MAPUCHE TERRITORY!

Freedom for All the Mapuche Political Prisoners on a 90+ Day Hunger Strike & All Our
Political Prisoners!

NO ONE IS FREE UNTIL EVERY PERSON IS FREE!

*****

Featuring the EXCLUSIVE Toronto Premier of the Documentary Film:

**THE CHICAGO CONSPIRACY**

Chile. Dictatorship. Legacy. Today. Social War.

The State and its Neo-liberal Agenda are the Real Conspirators!
SPECIAL PERFORMANCE BY ILLOGIC (Hip-hip)

See Trailer: http://www.facebook.com/l/21ebcuJwAcY8ScVWzOyoMINrATQ;vimeo.com/2127661

A Film based on the Anti-Capitalist Struggles in Chile since the Pinochet Dictatorship (the Student Movement, Community Organizing, & the Uprising of Mapuche Indigenous Sovereignty Movement) taking its name from the 25 Chilean economists from
the Chicago School of Economics who assisted the making of the bloody regime in the implementation of Neo-liberal policies.

**
Presenting the Director of the Film of Subversive Action Films in an intimate Discussion/Conversation of the Documentary
**

Speakers Directly from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, WCCC [Toronto ] on the ongoing struggle of the Mapuche Nation in so-called southern Chile], the Toronto 19 Support Group, Live Music, and MUCH MORE.... (MORE UPDATES/ARTISTS TBA!)

$10-20 Sliding Scale
No One Turned Away!

** See Us on Facebook!:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=443069539490#!/event.php?eid=161593357188005&ref=ts


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Friday, October 8th @ 8 PM
Birge Carnegie Reading Room (University of Toronto)
95 Charles Street West (Just East of Museum Station)

Organized by:
The Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallmapu [Toronto]

Email: wccc_98@hotmail.com

Endorsed By:

Equity Studies Program (University of Toronto)
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
Community Solidarity Network
National Council of Latin American and Caribbean Women of Canada - LATIN@S
Latin American Solidarity Network-LASN (Toronto)
Barrio Nuevo
Graduate Student Union (University of Toronto)

PERSONAL MOLLY'S TRIP TALES:

FUN AT THE AIRPORT WITH GOD BOY AND GOD GIRL:

We're off and running, or at least hanging around in a lineup waiting for boarding at the airport. Putter, putter, putter, eavesdrop, eavesdrop, eavesdrop.The plane will be flying from the wilds of Winnipeg to a gentle civilized land of milder weather...with an unfortunate stop over in that northern extension of Alabama known as Alberta. Or at least that is what is believed by those that think Noah's Flood deposited it there. The pair in front of us are, appropriately enough, two evangelicals just returning from praying up a storm down east somewhere, and they are in full Jesus mode.

My nose starts twitching when God Boy opens his mouth to launch into his Muslim conspiracy spiel connected with the Cordoba Islamic Centre in New York which he, of course, calls a mosque. Now understand that Molly grew up out in the country on the Canadian prairies. I have also spent over 40 years listening to leftist hogwash of various sorts from 'dialectics' to 'abolishing civilization' with all the nonsense in between. What I can say is that my nose is so good that I can smell the excrement from the hind end of a male animal of the bovine persuasion from 5 miles away...upwind.

The old nostril hairs stand erect as God Boy jumps from the North America continent to (I think) Europe with his concern that "10 years ago there were only 800 mosques and now there are 80,000". He is, of course, off by a factor of about 10. Yet he goes on about how this is true for everywhere in Europe "except Russia".Uh Yeah ! This is prefaced with what really set the old nose hairs tingling. He was "there on a security job for the American government". All that I can say is if the US Empire has been reduced to hiring idiots who brag about such things in public lineups then it is in even more trouble than I could imagine or even want. Sorta reminds me of some of my braggart would-be revolutionist anarchist "comrades".

The conversation goes on, and God Boy has the floor. To my horror he says what may be the only true part of his monologue...he's apparently a "teacher". That I can believe. It doesn't take much smarts to bullshit in front of a bunch of kids at the 'Holy TV Hour Bible School' in Constipation, Alberta. Then we're off into the ozone again about the dastardly Islamic plot concerning the naming of the 'Cordoba House' in New York.

A little aside and a small history lesson here. The Moors invaded Spain in 711 AD, overthrowing the ruling Visigoth kingdom who were not a great source of fun for the average downtrodden peasant. The new rulers were a slight improvement over the Visigoths, particularly the Emirate of Cordoba who set some sort of standard for the day of enlightened rule and tolerance to other religions (Christian and Jewish). The Emirate, however, ceased to be in 1031.Muslim rulers who followed this emirate were at least half as nasty as the Christians. I have a sneaking suspicion that the example of this emirate was high in the minds of those who decided to set up the centre in NYC, in more than childish ignorance of what country they lived in and the equally childish innocence of their belief that Americans would "get the message" of tolerance and living peaceably together. This in a country in which the majority of its citizens can't identify their own states, let alone tell that 'Bahrain" is not a weather condition.

But back to God Boy. He's on a roll. What according to him is the "reason" for naming the centre (mosque-sic) after Cordoba. Well, it's because "in the Second Crusade the Moslems took Cordoba". The Second Crusade (another boring history lesson) by the way was from 1145 to 1149, and its object was the recovery of Edessa which had been recaptured subsequent to its capture in the First Crusade. Let Molly remind you that the Emirate of Cordoba was overthrown by another Muslim power in 1031. Lest you think that God Boy simply is not only about 3,000 kilometers and 100 years out to lunch (or is it 400 years out to lunch) consider the following.

I've already spoken about the naivete of the Muslims who set in motion the idea of the Cordoba Centre. Their ignorance might be compared to that of say a Canadian immigrant to Greece or Turkey ignorant of history who was to praise the wrong country in public company. One could adduce other examples as well. There is what may be described as "honest ignorance", but then there is something that might best be described as "deliberate ignorance with malevolent intent". In such cases one believes a rather treacherous "authority" because the statements of said authority accord with what one wants to believe. If the reader has some slight knowledge of either medicine or anthropology he or she can find great and grievous examples of such malevolent evil and deliberate ignorance amongst the American perversion of anarchism called "primitivism", and their bizarre idea that their fantasy of "traditional healing" can more than replace modern medicine (a great evil in their pretty well religious point of view). But that is certainly another subject.

Where the Holy Rollers of Alberta get their perversion of history is from a peripheral event in the Second Crusade. The crusaders had already acquired a well deserved reputation for treachery, brutality and thievery in the First Crusade. The main efforts of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel during the Second Crusade were to get the armies through Byzantine territory with the minimum of pillage on other Christians. The greatest effort of "fighting for God" of the crusaders, of course, occurred in the Fourth Crusade when the armies of God sacked Constantinople. But during the Second Crusade a number of those bound for the so-called 'Holy Land' saw an opportunity for profit in hiring themselves out to the King of Portugal in his campaign to conquer what is now Lisbon. They were, of course, promised the opportunity of looting. They succeeded, and the inevitable happened.

Sometime, somehow some ill intentioned "authority" amongst the Evangelists got hold of this peripheral factoid, and through great distortion, both deliberate and inadvertent it got worked up into the nonsense that God Boy believes. Somehow Cordoba got thrown into the mix, particularly as it was ideologically useful in present day America. God Boy is, of course, just as unlikely to check his facts as a true believer in the great wisdom of so-called "primitive" people is.

Well let's just say that I was "hot to trot" to get at this guy. The wife told me that I had "the look" on my face that signals that I am about to attack either verbally or physically. It's the same look that I use to deal with street demons in Winnipeg. God knows that I hate to leave gross bullshit uncorrected. On the other hand the self preservation instinct was operating as well. It actually DID go through my mind to call out to security when the argument got too heated and they gathered around that I suspected God Boy of being some sort of "fundamentalist terrorist" who planned to blow the plane up. All that would have accomplished, however, would be for BOTH of us to be in the back rooms. So I shut my face.

Hooray for self control because I would have missed the best part. God Boy was doing his best to be impressive to God Girl, all the way from his "secret agent man" pose to his "intellectual" lectures. God Girl, however, was not to be outdone, and she pulled one of what I assume is a great trump card in such circles...healing. While she was down in Ontario she went traipsing down to a revival meeting at about the same time the rest of us would be heading to the bar. Her problem according to her own view of her condition was that she had had years of "bleeding in the knee" whatever that means. YET...when she prayed and went before "Brother X" (I forget the name) she was "healed". Better than that EVERYBODY, her doctors, her relatives, her friends, strangers, EVERYBODY had always told her that it was her right leg that was the problem. Brother X, however, "discovered" that it was her LEFT leg that was lame. He prayed for its healing, and YES it was healed. Praise God !

At this point the line started to move. God Girl moved forward with the rest of us limping severely ON THE RIGHT LEG. We boarded the plane. God Girl sat forward from us. As we tried to get past God Boy was saying his goodbyes to God Girl. I couldn't escape the impression that I had witnessed some sort of primitive and crude sexual display behavior gone seriously wrong.

Ah well, that was my adventure in anthropology during this trip.

Just as a note to the wise...I have as little sympathy for Isalamic loonies as I do for evil "Christian" loonies. It's just that THEY would NEVER spew their bullshit in a public lineup AND MOST IMPORTANTLY nobody with knowledge would ever suffer consequences for correcting them. Unless, of course, they lived in one of the theocracies that mirror the USA in the Middle East. Consider what you have to fear the next time you travel.

ANARCHIST THEORY:

TO VOTE OR NOT TO VOTE THAT IS THE QUESTION:

Elections in the USA (and the City of Winnipeg) come at an interesting time of
year. Near enough to Halloween to compete in scariness, and near enough to Christmas to remind one that an actual gift is more than a promise. While it hasn't been an invariable tenet of anarchist thought to refuse participation in all elections (whatever some anarchists may think) it is a fact that anarchists have always been critical of the electoral process. Here's one thought provoking example from the Bureau of Public Secrets.

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THE LIMITS OF ELECTORAL POLITICS
http://www.bopsecrets.org/recent/beyond-voting.htm
Roughly speaking we can distinguish five degrees of "government":
(1) Unrestricted freedom
(2) Direct democracy
(3) Delegate democracy
(4) Representative democracy
(5) Overt minority dictatorship

The present society oscillates between (4) and (5), i.e. between overt minority rule and covert minority rule camouflaged by a facade of token democracy. A liberated society would eliminate (4) and (5) and would
progressively reduce the need for (2) and (3). . . .

In representative democracy people abdicate their power to elected officials. The candidates' stated policies are limited to a few vague generalities, and once they are elected there is little control over their actual decisions on hundreds of issues -- apart from the feeble threat of changing one's vote, a few years later, to some equally uncontrollable rival politician. Representatives are dependent on the wealthy for bribes and campaign contributions; they are subordinate to the owners of the mass media, who decide which issues get the publicity; and they are almost as ignorant and powerless as the general public regarding many important matters that are determined by unelected bureaucrats and independent secret agencies.

Overt dictators may sometimes be overthrown, but the real rulers in "democratic" regimes, the tiny minority who own or control virtually everything, are never voted in and never voted out. Most people don't even know who they are. . . . In itself, voting is of no great significance one way or the other (those who make a big deal about refusing to vote are only revealing their own fetishism). The problem is that it tends to lull people into relying on others to act for them, distracting them from more significant possibilities.

A few people who take some creative initiative (think of the first civil rights sit-ins) may ultimately have a far greater effect than if they had put their energy into campaigning for lesser-evil politicians. At best, legislators rarely do more than what they have been forced to do by popular movements. A conservative regime under pressure from independent radical movements often concedes more than a liberal regime that knows it can count on radical support. (The Vietnam war, for example, was not ended by electing antiwar politicians, but because there was so much pressure from so many different directions that the prowar president Nixon was forced to withdraw.)

If people invariably rally to lesser evils, all the rulers have to do in any situation that threatens their power is to conjure up a threat of some greater evil. Even in the rare case when a "radical" politician has a realistic chance of winning an election, all the tedious campaign efforts of thousands of people may go down the drain in one day because of some trivial scandal discovered in his (or her) personal life, or because he inadvertently says something intelligent. If he manages to avoid these pitfalls and it looks like he might win, he tends to evade controversial issues for fear of antagonizing swing voters. If he actually gets elected he is almost never in a position to implement the reforms he has promised, except perhaps after years of wheeling and dealing with his new colleagues; which gives him a good excuse to see his first priority as making whatever compromises are necessary to keep himself in office indefinitely.

Hobnobbing with the rich and powerful,he develops new interests and new tastes, which he justifies by telling himself that he deserves a few perks after all his years of working for good causes. Worst of all, if he does eventually manage to get a few "progressive" measures passed, this exceptional and usually trivial success is held up as evidence of the value of relying on electoral politics, luring many more people into wasting their energy on similar campaigns to come. As one of the May 1968 graffiti put it, "It's painful to submit to our bosses; it's even more stupid to choose them!"

--Excerpts from Ken Knabb's "The Joy of Revolution."
The complete text is online at http://www.bopsecrets.org/PS/joyrev.htm
* * *
SOME CLARIFICATIONS
My intention in circulating these observations is not to discourage you from voting or campaigning, but to encourage you to go further. Two years ago, I wrote: "Like many other people, I am delighted to see the Republicans collapsing into well-deserved ignominy, with the likelihood of the Democrats recapturing the presidency and increasing their majorities in Congress. Hopefully the latter will discontinue or at least mitigate some of the more insane policies of the current administration (some of which, such as climate change and ecological devastation, threaten to become irreversible).

Beyond that, I do not expect the Democratic politicians to accomplish anything very significant. Most of them are just as corrupt and compromised as the Republicans. Even if a few of them are honest and well-intentioned,they are all loyal servants of the ruling economic system, and they all ultimately function as cogwheels in the murderous political machine that serves to defend that system."

I don't think I need to take back any of my words. The Democrats did indeed recapture the presidency and increase their majorities in Congress, but their accomplishments since then have been as pathetic as could be imagined. Some people will say that they are still better than the Republicans. But being better than a party of sociopathic demagogues and gullible ignoramuses is hardly much of an achievement. And being so lame that you risk getting defeated by such a party is an achievement of a wholly different order.

During the last two years we have seen the consequences of relying on political representatives to act for us. If the antiwar movement and other more or less progressive currents had put even a fraction of the immense amount of time and energy they invested in election campaigns into more directly radical agitation, the situation would be very different today. As a side effect, such agitation would actually have resulted in more liberals being elected. But more importantly, it would have shifted the momentum and the terrain of the struggle. The liberal politicians would have been under pressure to actually implement some significant changes (such as ending the wars and inaugurating free universal health care), which would have invigorated their base while putting the reactionary forces increasingly on the defensive.

And that momentum shift might well have inspired even more radical actions and aspirations -- not just protesting against this or that particular outrage, but calling into question the whole absurd and anachronistic social system. The side that takes the initiative usually wins because it defines the terms of the struggle. If we accept the system's own terms and confine ourselves to defensively reacting to each new mess produced by it, we will never overcome it.

We have to keep resisting particular evils, but we also have to recognize that the system will keep generating new ones until we put an end to it. By all means vote if you feel like it. But don't stop there. Real social change requires participation, not representation.
BUREAU OF PUBLIC SECRETS
P.O. Box 1044, Berkeley CA 94701, USA
http://www.bopsecrets.org/

PERSONAL:

MOLLY GOES ON VACATION:

Well, as promised (threatened ?) before Molly is now off on vacation. I'll be checking in here every once in awhile while on the road, but nowhere near as frequently. We will return to our regular schedule in about 2 weeks.

HUMOUR:

POLITICS IN A THEOCRATIC STATE:

Click the graphic for better viewing.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR SPAIN:

THE CGT SUMS UP THE GENERAL STRIKE:

The pieces are falling down from the sky, and both sides in the dispute about government austerity (the government and the popular organizations) are taking stock of what happened two days ago. Much ink is being spilled about how "neither side won". The claims of the larger union federations (the CCOO and the UGT) about either 70% adherence or 10 million strikers are unrealistic in addition to being contradictory to each other (10 million strikers would equal about 42% of Spain's workforce). The government, on the other hand, has been so humbled by the actually large and unexpected turnout that they haven't even been willing to counter such exaggerations with their own lies as most governments in such situations do. they mumble about "minimal disruption", obviously shell shocked by what actually happened.

Whatever the actual figures, something that will probably never be properly estimated, there is little doubt that the numbers participating were large, much larger than the government had been prepared to see and much larger than similar strikes in France. The UGT and CCOO are no doubt pleased as in gives them 'bargaining power' in trying to extract minimal concessions from the ruling Socialist Party and thereby giving them the appearance of "usefulness".

Unlike in most countries, however, we anarchists and anarchosyndicalists actually have "a dog in the fight" in Spain in the form of the various anarchosyndicalist unions (CGT, Solidaridad Obrera, CNT-AIT, CNT-JC) who have a no means tiny following. Here is the statement of the Spanish CGT summing up the strike. To my deep pleasure my own comrades don't engage in the triumphalist making up of statistics that the UGT and CCOO do. This is despite the fact that places where anarchosyndicalism is well represented in Spain had some of the best turnouts, just as was true in the public sector general strike earlier this summer. This may be very much a chicken and egg puzzle. Are the anarchosyndicalist unions 'responsible' for the greater militancy in such places or do the more militant workers naturally gravitate to anarchosyndicalism ? Your guess is as good as mine. The English translation of this was done by the Italian FdCA and posted recently on the Anarkismo site.

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CGT statement on the General Strike of 29 September
The outcome of the strike

These are our initial impressions of the outcome of today's General Strike. In certain key sectors, there was mass participation in the strike in almost the entire country. By way of example: food markets in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Valladolid, Seville and Zaragoza; the (Seat) Ford, Renault, Opel and Volkswagen car factories; petro-chemical and steel factories and plants, minerals sector, gas distribution, public services such as waste disposal and post offices, large-scale construction, port workers in Barcelona, Valencia, Algeciras and so on.

It is important to note that the demand for electricity dropped by over 20% compared to normal days.

Another sector with a very high percentage of participation was that of audio-visual communications, with the complete closure of Canale Sur and Telemadrid, and remaining public media running with minimum levels of service.

Public transport is running with the standard 25% of minimum services, while large areas of the private transport sector (airlines, road transport and marine transport of both cargo and passengers) are participating in the strike.

The CGT wishes to underline that this success has been achieved in spite of the long media campaign by authorities and industrialists against the trade union organizations and the criminalization of labour and social activities.

Similarly, the CGT wishes to express its gratitude to over one hundred labour and social organizations from all over the world who supported the General Strike.

We should also mention the numerous information pickets that were set up at the principal labour centres, something that demonstrates the enormous sense of resentment felt by the workers as a result of the unbearable situation we are being to live through because of the attack under way by politicians and industrialists.

The CGT also wishes to denounce in the strongest possible terms the brutality of the police attacks against workers who were simply exercising their freely-held right to strike and the right to provide information at factory gates.

As a consequence of the indiscriminate police charges, there have been several arrests and dozens of injured workers, some of whom (CGT members) are currently being held without charge.

The CGT also denounces the harassing and arrest of a group of cyclists in the Atoch zone of Madrid, which is a grave offence to their rights and freedom.

Finally, the CGT condemns the injury of a union comrade who was struck by a van belonging to the Boyaca company at the gates of the Bermont factory in Coslada (Madrid). Her injuries, though not severe, required hospital treatment.

Permanent Secretary of the CGT Confederal Committee
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Translation by FdCA - International Relations Office



Related Link: http://www.cgt.es

LOCAL EVENTS WINNIPEG:
HIP HOP TO DROP THE CHARGES:


Happening next Tuesday, October 5, a hip hop benefit for the legal defence of those arrested in Toronto at the recent G20 summit.
♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫


DROP THE CHARGES
- hip hop show to support G20 legal defendants
Time Tuesday, October 5 at 8:00pm - October 6 at 1:00am

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Location Rudolf Rocker Cultural Centre
91 Albert St.
Winnipeg, MB

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More Info
Drop The Charges is a hip hop benefit show to support the G20 legal defendants.

featuring:

Testament (political rap on tour from London, Ontario)
http://www.myspace.com/testamenthiphop

The Gumshoe Strut
http://www.myspace.com/thegumshoestrut

Jenny Bojangles

Theo Tzu

Doors at 8, show at 9
$7 or pay what you can


http://www.g20.torontomobilize.org/support