WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN • BASICSnews.ca • BASICS #24, FEB / MAR 2011

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Ashley M.

“It’s a day to celebrate soli-darity and difference among women.”

–Jeevini Sivarajah

“International Women’s Day becomes a canvas for our past and current struggles and as such, it becomes an opportunity to learn about our struggle from other perspec-tives and meet other women allies.”

–Tzazna Leal

“It’s a time to celebrate women’s victories and to learn

from women’s struggles.”– Nadeen el-Kassem

“Even though challenging systemic norms and oppression is a day to day thing, IWD is a day when we can really bring our issues to the forefront while highlighting our strengths and celebrating one of the longest and biggest movements of resistance in herstory worldwide.”

–Keerthy

In talking to sisters, Inter-national Women’s Day (IWD) means a lot of things, but the resounding message is unified:

Mobilize and continue to fight! The Revolutionary Women’s

Collective (now Women United Against Imperialism), a work-ing class women’s collective, will focus on confronting pre-carious work and standing in solidarity with our sisters (and brothers) against imperialism.

The focus is important to the RWC/WUAI because so many lives are affected by the uncertainty of living and working precariously in a country like Canada.

Many women live and work in very poor conditions and face sexual harassment, unstable incomes, and threats

of deportation. Our sisters, who are here

through the temporary foreign work programs, struggle for better conditions here and back home, wherever home may be.

International Women’s Day is not the one day a year that women come together. It is a movement that continues year round. It pushes us to continue working and mobiliz-ing in our communities.

Will you join the fight?Contact us for more infor-

mation on our plans for IWD and more:womynanti.imperialists@gmail.com.

Surkh Musafir

“After thirty years of corruption, poverty and injustice, we’re telling Mubarak to get out of Egypt now,” says 21-year old Rana.

She is holding a sign condemning Egypt’s unelected president Hosni Mubarak at a rally held in Toronto’s Dundas Square on Saturday, January 29, 2011. Up to 700 Egyptians and allies came out to demonstrate solidarity with the millions of Egyptians rising up against dictatorial rule.

“They are demanding an end to Mubarak’s thirty years of power, of the National Democratic Party and his ruling elite,” says Mostafa Henaway, when reached over the phone.

Henaway is an activist with Tadamon! (Solidarity! in Arabic) in Montreal, where hundreds have been demonstrating outside the Egyptian consulate for several days.

“It’s time for them to go and to create a new constitution and political reform.”

The U.S.-backed Hosni Mubarak has staged rigged elections and used an extensive police apparatus to cement his control over the country since 1981.

>> continued, pg. 5

UPRISINGS IN EGPYT & TUNISIA

Hundreds rally in solidarity in Canada

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Martin Giroux-Cook

“It’s not just about U.S. Steel, it’s every company. They’re doing all the same thing,” a worker from the United Steelworkers told BASICS.

On Saturday, January 29, thousands of working class people from Quebec and Ontario marched through the streets of downtown Hamil-ton.

They came to show solidar-ity with United Steelworkers (USW) in Hamilton who have been locked out by U.S. Steel for over 11 weeks.

When asked how the fight was going, one USW worker replied, “It’s getting better. We had a lot of support from the community and other locals; they donate money. People are donating food, money, everything... Every-body’s helping out.”

Unlike many other unions,

USW 1005 has spent the last several years focusing on mobilizing its members and community.

Through regular leafleting and weekly public strategiz-ing meetings, the local has

>> continued, pg. 7

THE PEOPLE vs. U.S. STEEL

Thousands of workers from across Ontario rallied in support of locked out USW Local 1005 in Hamilton

(Photo: Luis Granados Ceja)

Kabir Joshi-Vijayan

On the evening of May 5, 2010, a horrific crime was com-mitted in this city. The terror took place in what was more or

less broad daylight, in front of numerous onlookers, off a major street and on the campus of a well-known university.

At around 6:30 pm, a victim fled two assailants who had

been harassing him without any provocation at the Keele and Steeles intersection.

He made it to Founders Rd. just off Steeles when his attack-ers caught up with him. They knocked him to the ground and began to beat him mercilessly in the face and chest.

Despite the victim’s clear dis-advantage and cries for help, the attackers called for five of their buddies to join in the frenzy.

When it was all over, Junior Manon lay collapsed on the ground with no vital signs, his blood splattered across the scene.

Members of his family arrived to see him in a stretcher and a neck brace being handled by EMS. He was pronounced dead in hospital the same day.

Most would point out that kill-ings—perhaps not this brazen or horrific as Junior’s—but kill-ings nonetheless, occur all too

100th InternatIonal Women’s Day: Join the movement

>> continued, pg. 2

SIU CLEARS KILLER COPS

Members of the Revolutionary Women’s Collective meet in December, 2010.

READ REACTIONS TO SIU RULING FROM COMMUNITY MEMBERS >>PAGE 2

NO JUSTICE FOR JUNIOR

• SpEAKINg OF AFRICAN LIBERATION...THE POSTER >>pg. 3, THE MONTH >> pg. 8

• NEpAL REVOLUTION >>pg. 4• MIgRANT WORKERS DEPORTED WITHOUT BACK PAY >>pg. 6

ART + News of International Women’s Alliance >>PG. 3‘Remembering the Forgotten’ >>PG. 2100th IWD Poster >>Back page

LoCAL BASICS #24 FEB / MAR 2011

2

Herman Rosenfeld

Hundreds of people have attended public meetings to complain about right-wing Toronto mayor Rob Ford and his political allies and their plans to eliminate 48 so-called “underused” bus routes.

The plans are part of the new municipal regime’s at-tacks on public programs and spending, and to move in the direction of selling off important public services to private businesses to run on a for-profit basis.

This will hit users of public transit especially hard.

In order to accommodate the cuts in revenue, the Ford regime called for an increase to the already ridiculously expensive transit fares.

In the face of resistance to fare hikes from across the city, the mayor – in cahoots with his hand-picked TTC

and budget chiefs – called for the cancellation of the bus routes.

These routes are used by many lower-income working class people, and particular-ly people of colour.

People who have no other way to get to and from pre-carious jobs on odd shifts—often late at night.

It also dramatically reduc-es their opportunity to visit friends, relatives and enjoy leisure activities.

Most of the late-night and weekend hours now on the chopping block were added in 2008, when the former city administration expand-ed bus hours to allow people to deal with the subway’s re-stricted 6:00 AM to 1:00 AM schedule.

People must organize to resist these unequal and op-pressive attacks on the rights of working people to mobility in their home city.

Bus route cuts will hurt working people

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BASICS Contributor

The SIU has cleared the Toronto police of any wrongdoing in 18-year-old Junior Alexander Manon’s death last May. We sought reactions from people in Junior’s community.

We interviewed four residents of the Jane-Finch community, ranging from age 18 to 40, all of whom have been recognized for serving their community in positive mentorship roles and in positive community-based projects and initiatives for youth.

They will all remain anonymous.

“It’s the police investigating the police, what do you expect?

“...It’s like sending a child to their room and having them decide what the punishment should be....

“We need an external group investigating this. There’s no explanation as to why this kid had bumps, bruises and concussions, and yet the police are free to go.

“They were the last ones to see him before he died, and yet they know nothing.

“The whole idea of police officers is [problematic]. Give power to people who haven’t earned it.... Who gave you that power? Can I have some?

“You come to my community terrorizing who you’re terrorizing, you’re not from the community, you don’t care about their wellbeing, you bring all your thoughts and feelings about who I am and what I am.”

“I knew Junior from when I was about 12 years old. So I’ve known him for many years.

“When I first found out, I was in

disbelief. I was really in disbelief… like, that’s not true....

“I don’t even know what to say.... Everything that happened is so wrong.

“It should have been in the headlines, an innocent person being killed by a whole bunch of police is wrong, y’know?

“I thought that the family got to have their justice served, the police has to go to jail for that.

“If a black youth was to beat somebody up and kill them, they would go to jail for murder. If the police beat someone up and they die, they should go to jail for that. Justice should be served....

“They are not police officers, they are gang members. They ganged up on my friend and killed him.

“If you’re a cop, that doesn’t give you the right to kill somebody. You have to use your training to disarm a person, that’s it.

“Somebody needs to police the police, that would make the community more safe.”

“It was pretty big – everybody was talking about it, and everyone I came in contact with already knew the story.

“It just makes your head turn… it’s just like, ‘Wow’! It’s really pathetic how anybody could let anyone take someone’s life like that so easily....

“So it’s really, ‘who’s protecting who?’ Who is really protecting who? When you see the cops with their police cars saying ‘serve and protect.’ Protect and serve who?”

“This kid Junior didn’t deserve to be attacked by 8 or more cops, he didn’t deserve to be chased out of a vehicle in front of York

University.“He deserved to have York

University open their mouth and say something was wrong, but they chose not to say anything because they didn’t want to be ‘implicated’ any way but, somebody just got killed on your property, you don’t think that’s something you’d want to talk about?

“Are cops doing you such a favour that you can turn a blind eye to the death of another black child at the hands of the cops?

“And, they stomped on him.... they stomped in his chest and collapsed his heart. His lungs, his heart… death.

“I wouldn’t expect the SIU to go after their own and say, ‘well, you know, you did wrong.’

“They just want to make sure they don’t have to write up any reports or do something extra to get themselves acquitted.

“...We don’t need you [i.e. police]. For anything. We’ll police ourselves…. When we call you, you either don’t come or take your time. And when you get there, you wanna turn around and blame us like, dude, we’re the ones who called you to come for help.

“And it comes down to the point of, the only time cops get up to save is when their precious white people are being attacked.

“...If the black community were to [stand up to] the cops, it would be hell to pay.

“Right now, Rob Ford is having that issue with the police chief. And he’s a white guy going after a white guy and realizing, the police chief ain’t afraid of him at all…

“Basically, [Blair] is like, ‘I don’t have to answer to you. You’re outside your pay grade if you’re dealing with me.’”

Ashley M.

On December 4, 2010, a group of women, men and children gathered in a circle around the Tree of Hope Sculpture at Ryerson University to remember the names of women who died and who have fought against violence.

To commemorate the Montreal Massacre (December 6) and International Day to End Violence Against Women (November 25), the Revolutionary Women’s Collective (now Women United Against Imperialism, WUAI) organized an event to share women’s struggles in Toronto and abroad.

It was important for the group to remember not only the 14 women that were killed at the L’Ecole Polytechnique, but also remembering all the women that have been ignored and CONTINUE to be forgotten by mainstream society: • Our Aboriginal sisters who go

missing and murdered on a daily basis, yet governments and media remain silent;

• Our migrant sisters who are exploited as temporary foreign workers used by States to further their interests

• Our sex worker sisters who are condemned by Canadian

law and society, but still violently used to satisfy the needs of those in power;

• Our sisters who are discarded and imprisoned by the Canadian judicial system and used as cheap labour and sexual objects

• Our international sisters who fall victim to imperialistic wars.Women are survivors of

colonialism, police brutality, domestic violence, slavery, poverty, the prison-industrial complex, racism, Zionism, imperialism and many other forms of violence, which benefit countries like Canada because it furthers their imperialist agenda to control land, people, resources and power.

Many individuals and groups, including the WUAI are continuing to organize and resist. Formerly known as the Migrant Women’s Coordinating Body, the WUAI is a collective of feminists of diverse origins from various organizations in the city who organize around an anti-imperialist lens.

“These kinds of events are an important platform for establishing respectful dialogue” said Sofia Ramirez, from Barrio Nuevo.

“We learned about the diverse issues faced by women in our

Remembering the forgottenThose who fought to end violence against women

>> continued, pg. 6

often in the GTA.Many would correctly identify

the victims of such violence as disproportionately being young racialized men, particularly Africans, as was the case for Junior, an 18-year old Afro-Dominican teenager.

But what sets his killing apart—what should make it a tragedy of particular disgust and outrage for working people in this city is that this was a crime without the possibility of justice.

The institutions and systems that claim to uphold the rule of law offered nothing but insult and injury to Junior’s family, and assistance and protection to his murderers.

Because, Junior’s killers were not other young black or brown men coming from the same social conditions as him; they were seven armed and well-paid paid employees of the state.

Junior was killed by seven police officers.

In cases of deaths or serious injury caused by Toronto Police, there is a body called the Spe-cial Investigations Unit (SIU), set up by the province to inves-tigate and put forward officers for criminal charges if any laws were violated.

We as community members

are often told, as were the friends and family of Junior and his neighbourhood of Jane and Finch, (who in the months after his execution held a number of actions, statements and rallies), to hold our judgment and let the SIU do its job.

On January 13 of this year, this SIU concluded its investi-gation, and all officers involved were cleared of any possible charges.

No mention of blood on the scene. No mention of seven offi-cers beating Junior. No mention of his cries for help or the many witnesses that attested to this (see BASICS article issue #20).

Instead, the SIU claims offi-cers had the right to randomly pull him and a friend over at Keele and Steeles, had the right to arrest him for a probation violation and had the right to use force when he fled arrest.

The cause of death was not a broken neck, but what the SIU calls “positional asphyxiation”—that the position Junior was put in at the time of his take down caused him to suffocate.

On January 27, the SIU cleared another police officer in the killing of another young black man: Reyal Jardine Doug-las, a schizophrenic 25-year old gunned down by Toronto police

last summer.Witnesses reported Reyal

being shot as he fled, and that several shots were fired after he had already hit the ground.

These decisions by the SIU are in some ways more horrific and barbaric, and bigger crimes than the killings themselves.

If police brutality (violence that culminates in outright killing, but that takes the daily form of harassments, insults, assaults and arrests) was just the result of actions by a few rogue officers, would it be as big of an issue?

If cops who broke the law and violated human rights were, for the most part, prosecuted and punished by the courts and the government, wouldn’t it be logi-cal for people to forget mobiliz-ing and turn to the legal system for help?

If all impoverished/black/brown communities faced were a few hostile policemen, that wouldn’t be a big hurdle to over-come at all.

But the SIU’s deliberate manipulation and covering up of evidence, its lies and its final decisions show everyone, as clear as day, that what poor working-class and racialized people and communities face in

« SIU clears killer cops, from PG. 1

Justice for Junior: Reactions from the community

3

Editorial Note: On the occasion of the 100th Annual International Women’s Day, and also for ‘Black History Month’, we reproduce here the artpiece ‘New Afrikan Wimyn’ to remind us that the struggles and leadership of colonized and oppressed women in revolution is as old as class society, and that the patriarchal oppression of women cannot be overthrown until class society is overthrown. In the history of North Amerika, Afrikan women have played a role in resisting slavey, colonialism, and capitalism. This piece features some of these sheroes / heroines.

‘New Afrikan Wimyn’ is one of the many revolutionary artistic masterpieces forged by Kevin ‘Rashid’ Johnson from the abyss of Amerika’s concentration camps. While Rashid landed in prison for being a young gangster like a million other young men in Amerika, facing the most brutal and scientifically-refined forms of oppres-sion at Red Onion State Penitentiary and other facilities, Rashid has defied all odds and resisted at all costs to develop into brilliant revolutionary theorist, artist, and leader of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party-Prison Chapter (NABPP-PC).

With one-half of the entire world’s prisoners being in Amerika’s prison system and with most of these prisoners being young black or racialized men - colonized subjects of Amerikan imperialism - Amerika’s prisons must be understood as concentration camps. This is why the NABPP-PC views turning the “iron houses of oppression” into “schools of liberation”, training and educating all colonized and oppressed peoples - black, white, indigenous, Latino - to resist and overthrow Amerikan imperialism. Rashid’s many art pieces, incisive social commentaries, and brilliant political tracts are part of this project and can be found at RashidMOD.com.

BASICS #24, FEB / MAR 2011F o r I n t e r n at I o n a l wo m e n ’ s day & a F r I k a n l I b e r at I o n m o n t h

‘New AfrikAN wimyN’ By kevIN ‘rAShId’ JohNSoN

The birth of the International Women’s Alliance: Advancing women’s power to greater heights

Petronila G. Cleto

Difficult as it has been for women to awaken and believe that power is also rightfully theirs, it is amazing that two things happened to the women’s movement in the 20th and the 21st century.

First, a global assembly of women workers at the turn of the 20th century came up with International Women’s Day (IWD); “a day of international solidarity, and a day for reviewing the strength and organization of proletarian women,” as Alexandra Kollontai, a major figure in the Russian socialist movement, explained in 1920.

Second, an international conference of women from all sectors established a global alliance of women, the International Women’s Alliance (IWA) in Montreal last September. The IWA is set to further women’s militancy

regarding their rights and unity for women’s freedom from their chains.

“Chains” is not some “feminist propaganda.” You can ask any temporary woman worker today, who has felt the chains in her country of origin, and often, in the country wherein she now works.

Today, the effects of the worst economic, financial and ecological crisis of capitalist countries and the global capitalist system (more properly called imperialism) continue to cause more suffering to people all over the world.

“Relief measures” have only been given to the wealthy elite, to “microfinance” projects, and have only worsened an already desperate condition for the rest, plunging the poor into deeper debt and poverty.

The wars waged by these same systems “have not only created further suffering but

>> continued, pg. 4

is a classic method of coloniza-tion and cultural imperialism. It is used to weaken collective consciousness, which is critical to building a resistance culture.

Black History Month started out as Negro History and Litera-ture Week in 1920 by the frater-nity Omega Psi Phi.

Carter G. Woodson was the guiding influence behind this de-velopment and he changed the name to Negro History Week in 1926. That year is generally ac-knowledged as the official start of this political observance.

In 1976, Negro History Week was transformed into a month-long celebration and reborn as Black History Month.

Black History Month has since become more about cultural puff-ery than the politics of emancipa-tion.

Trade unions, school boards, corporations and even govern-ment agencies are, for the most part, comfortable with the cur-rent toothless, non-challenging

thrust of this month. Essentially, they have been

allowed to co-opt it and chan-nel its potential for radical con-sciousness-raising and political involvement into celebrating “Black firsts” and “Black nota-bles.”

Further, it serves as a platform to sell the virtues of integrating Africans into this racist, sexist and capitalist optical illusion that is the Canadian Dream.

One of the things that we have observed about the forces of ex-ploitation is their wily manipula-tion and transformation of acts of resistance into harmless and empty symbols.

That state of affairs is not pos-sible without the participation of the oppressed.

Norman Otis Richmond, a Toronto-based journalist, is one of the main advocates in Canada for renaming of “Black History Month” to “African Liberation Month.”

I couldn’t agree more with this

suggestion. African Liberation Month

would assert the name of the people whose struggle is being affirmed, while clearly communi-cating to the people that the mis-sion of this celebration is the cul-tivation of a culture of resistance and liberation.

Let’s make the commitment to consistently use African Lib-eration Month and not the other outdated name.

Of equal importance is doing the work to make African libera-tion and social transformation central issues on our activism agenda in Canada and beyond.

The radical political tradition of the Angela Davis, Walter Rod-neys, Dionne Brands, George Jacksons, Assata Shakur, C.L.R. James, Claudia Jones, Amilcar Cabrals, Paul Bogles, Ella Bak-ers, Mumia Abu Jamals, Mal-colm Xs, Sherona Halls among many others may serve as a guide in our fight for the just, good and free society.

« Liberation tradition of African history, from PG. 8

Noaman G. Ali

“We are ready to convert academic institutions into barracks. And ourselves into soldiers,” says Ramil Bhum, a student leader from Nepal’s far-west region of Seti Mahakali.

It’s a cool December day. Sitting on the grass outside a large hall of Tribhuvan University on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Bhum is surrounded by a group of international observers.

We’ve been invited to observe the 18th national convention of the All-Nepal National Students’ Union (Revolutionary), or ANNISU-R.

With 1.4 to 1.8 million members, there is no doubt that ANNISU-R is the largest, best-organized and most

militant of students’ unions in this poor, land-locked country of 30 million.

The students’ union is a mass organization of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the country’s largest political party.

“A big storm is imminent in Nepal,” says Krishna Bahadur Mahara, a Maoist leader, sitting with us now in the large conference room on the roof of his party’s headquarters.

“Our party is not confused about our immediate and ultimate goals. Our immediate goal is the people’s federal republic, then socialism, then communism.”

Communism?Conventional wisdom in

the West is that communism means tyranny, mass murder,

inefficient economies, and perpetually grey skies. It’s good in theory, bad in practice.

If anyone speaks seriously of communism, it’s usually a member of a small and marginal group.

Yet, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and its associated mass organizations count millions of farmers, workers, students, small-business owners and many more as members. Millions more support the party indirectly. Why?

Bache Lal Sardar, another student leader in ANNISU-R from Saptari district in the east, explains one of the reasons: “I am from a marginalized, indigenous dalit (untouchable) community. I have observed the exploitation of dalits from close up. I began thinking of revolution, and how to make it a success.”

Feudalism, backed by a caste system, is widespread in Nepal. Landless peasants or peasants with small landholdings are dominated by rich landlords with vast holdings. The most exploited and oppressed segment is that of the dalits, the untouchables. Inequality is the order of the day.

When the Maoists began a People’s War in 1996, one of their goals was to weaken the feudal system and abolish the institution of untouchability.

They would do so in many instances when they took over an area by force of arms. Structural inequalities die hard, but the Maoists would not tolerate discriminatory practices. Dalits and peasants flocked to the party.

In Chaimale, a village in the hills twenty kilometers southwest of Kathmandu, local Maoist cadres show us the house of a landlord. “During the People’s War, it was the party office in the area,” chuckles Shambhu Maharjan, a party cadre for thirty-three years....

Check out BASICSnews.ca to read the rest of the article.

INterNAtIoNAL BASICS #24 FEB / MAR 2011

4

Anti-imperialists in Canadaforming chapter of ILPS

Delegates stand outside a Tribhuvan University meeting hall being used for the 18th national convention of the All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union (Revolutionary) in Kathmandu, Nepal, on December 11, 2010, the second day of the convention.

(Photo: Noaman G. Ali)

“A big storm is imminent”: 21st century communism in Nepal

Mike Brito

This past December, government officials in Afghanistan approved a multimillion dollar gold mining contract to Western investors.

This will be the first mining project financed by private investors from the West, although both U.S. and Afghan officials are hoping that this will lead to more deals.

“This project…represents a turning point in the history of international investment into Afghanistan” stated Paul A. Brinkley, the director of the U.S. defense department’s Task Force for Business and Stability.

He also said that this gold mine deal signals the confidence of Western investors in Afghanistan’s economic future.

A group of 10 investors, mostly from the U.S. and Britain, are investing in the gold projects; most were recruited by international financial services firm J.P Morgan.

Over half of the world’s mining companies are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Critics say that Canada has lax mining legislation.

Afghan government officials hope that this deal will send a strong message to global mining companies that Afghanistan is open for business, particularly in the mining sector.

Geologists have known for decades about the country’s large deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and other important minerals.

Last June the U.S. Defense Department estimated that reserves value over $1 trillion dollars, while Afghanistan’s minister of mines argues that it’s actually closer to $3 trillion or more.

This comes after 10 years of war. Just this past December, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that spreading violence is preventing aid organizations from providing help to those in need across the country.

In particular, the once peaceful north of Afghanistan where many of the gold mines will be located, are now inaccessible to the Red Cross as well as local Afghan aid organizations.

Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were overthrown 9 years ago, according to the Red Cross, with high casualties on every side of the conflict.

The largest numbers of deaths are amongst civilian Afghans; in the first half of 2010 over 1,200 civilians were killed.

The Red Cross also reported an increase in the number of patients admitted to the hospital with war related wounds.

After 10 years of war, Afghanistan is open for business

Afghanistan’s gold reserves may value several trillion dollars. In this photograph, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper drinks Tim Hortons beverages in Afghanistan in 2009.

(Photo: PMO)

Steve Da Silva

On December 4, 2010, a Montreal meeting, featuring delegates from people’s organizations from Ontario and Quebec, moved towards unifying the anti-imperialist movement in Canada and internationally.

Among the attendees were representatives of Barrio Nuevo, BASICS Community News Service, BAYAN Canada, Centre for Philippine Concerns, Immigrant Workers Centre, International Migrants Alliance, the Movement Against Rape and Incest, Women United Against Imperialism, PINAY Filipino Women’s Organization in Quebec, South Asian Women’s Community Centre, Tadamon! and Women of Diverse Origins.

Our agenda was to discuss the International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS) – its history, structure, and

the prospects of organizing a Canadian chapter.

The ILPS’s objective is “to realize the unity, cooperation, and coordination of anti-imperialist and democratic struggles throughout the world” on the basis of its 18 concerns, which include the causes of national liberation, women’s liberation, workers struggles, the rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination, the rights of the aged, children and many more.

The ILPS is an international formation of more than 350 organizations from 40 countries promoting, supporting and developing anti-imperialist struggles of the peoples of the world.

What distinguishes the ILPS from many other international formations is that its participant organizations are genuine people’s organizations.

>> continued, pg. 7

« International Women’s Alliance, from PG. 3also exacerbated the world’s ecological crisis” states the IWA’s draft Basis of Unity.

The IWA’s Basis of Unity document goes on to state that the vast majority of the world’s women, both in the ‘underdeveloped’ regions and in the wealthy countries, suffer exploitation and oppression.

Still under the yoke of old feudal patriarchal relations, women in ‘underdeveloped’ or non-imperialist countries, who include the indigenous and rural women, are constantly degraded and threatened.

Their other sisters in wealthy or imperialist countries, already in conditions created by systems fraught with joblessness, homelessness, and limited social safety nets, are now more vulnerable with the rise of new forms of women’s labour, such as home-based women’s work, where women are paid piece rate wages.

“The beauty of [the IWA] is that the women recognize that they have a common foundation for this unity: that the main root of the exploitation and oppression of women, particularly grassroots women, is imperialism,” commented Liza Maza, Filipino congresswoman of the GABRIELA political party. Maza is also a member of the IWA Secretariat.

“It is highly important that women all over the world know the true conditions of women and project that to the public and to the various governments, in order for something to be done to change and improve their situation,” said Maza.

“Though the government very well know these conditions, it is important for women to insist and demand reform and change.

“More important... is for [women] to realize that they need to take action, if they are to free themselves.”

The 300 delegates to the Montreal conference established their solidarity in 2010 and will plan for a new century of consolidated power for women.

As described in the IWA draft constitution, the delegates will work towards building “a society that will guarantee women’s rights and ensure women’s meaningful participation and development as equals.”

On July 5 and 6 of this year, the IWA will hold its First General Assembly in the Philippines, and its task will be to adopt a constitution and by-laws, a program of action and elect a leading body of officers to set the foundation for effective functioning and coordination of the International Women’s Alliance.

The IWA’s First General Assembly has a tentative theme: Building a Militant Women’s Alliance for the 21st Century!

5

INterNAtIoNAL BASICS #24 FEB / MAR 2011

BASICS Contributor

On November 28, 2010, the website Wikileaks, in partner-ship with some of the world’s leading newspapers, began publishing the first of over 250,000 leaked U.S. govern-ment documents.

Never before has such a mas-sive amount of secret informa-tion been released to the public.

The documents are so-called “cables” – dispatches from U.S. diplomats stationed around the world reporting on and giving their opinions on various mat-ters of political importance.

One of the great values of the Wikileaks revelations has been to give us a picture of how the world actually works.

So far, among thousands of bits of info, we’ve learned that U.S. diplomats at the United Nations are ordered to spy on foreign delegates, that Saudi Arabia wants the U.S. to bomb Iran, and that America has floated the idea of cutting juicy business contracts to China to secure their support for a uni-fied Korea allied to the U.S.

The U.S. has been stung and embarrassed by the leaks, and

has lashed out to punish any-one associated with them.

Bradley Manning, the young army private accused of leak-ing the cables to Wikileaks, is currently being held in strict isolation, despite not having been convicted of anything.

He is kept indoors and denied human contact for 23 hours a day, and only let out one hour a day for ‘exercise’ during which he remains shackled. Guards are permitted to wake him at any moment and he is denied basic items such as a pillow.

According to Amnesty Inter-national, a human rights group, these conditions “amount to in-humane treatment.”

The impact of the leaked ca-bles has not been confined to the U.S., as the following ex-amples show:

IndiaCables revealed that Indian

security forces have engaged in systematic torture and abuse of civilians in the region of Kash-mir. The U.S. has known about these practices carried out by their ally since at least 2005.

The revelations are particu-larly brutal, exposing torture

such as crushing prisoner’s legs, suspending them for long periods from ceilings and sexual humiliation.

The cables point out that these crimes are not isolated events, but in fact are or-dered by officers as part of regular policy.

Tunisia

Following a month of escalat-ing protests, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia’s President, abandoned power and fled the country this January 14.

The protests were mainly sparked by dissatisfied youth, high unemployment, and an extremely repressive political atmosphere which Tunisians could no longer tolerate.

Added to this mix, though, were Wikileaks cables that la-beled the Ben Ali regime as a corrupt quasi-mafia. The leaks were widely read in Tunisia, which has greater access to the internet than any other coun-try in North Africa.

SpainRecently, Spanish prosecu-

tors have been investigating numerous cases of interest to

the U.S.They include the

death of a Span-ish journalist killed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq, the possibil-ity of a

Span-ish airport being used to transit prisoners to the U.S.-run prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, and, most explo-sive, a war crimes and torture investigation into Bush-era U.S. government officials.

The leaked cables cre-ated outrage in Spain when they showed evi-dence that some Spanish government officials conspired with U.S. diplomats to smother these investigations.

Former dictator returns to HaitiNiraj Joshi

The bewildering appearance in Haiti of the country’s former dictators, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, on an expired diplomatic passport and aboard an Air France flight is only the latest assault on the dignity of the Haitian people.

Jean-Claude Duvalier pre-sided over the second half of a brutal 29 year father-son dicta-torship (upheld by the U.S. and France), until a mass popular uprising forced “Baby Doc” to flee in 1986 on board an Ameri-can plane (along with hun-dreds of millions of embezzled fortune) for a life of luxurious

impunity in the South of France.

His reap-pearance 25 years later comes at a critical time, when the Hai-tian people are grappling with the failed re-covery from a catastrophic earthquake, a cholera epidemic, an election crisis and the directly associat-ed foreign takeover by the U.S., its allies and their institutions.

In fact, like many of the re-

cent crises in Haiti, Duvalier’s reappearance is linked to the 2004 foreign-assisted coup against the democratic govern-ment of Jean Bertrand Aristide

and the subsequent U.S./Cana-dian/French and UN imposed

dictatorship of Gérard Lator-tue.

The ille-gal Latortue regime was stacked with D u v a l i e r i s t s who had set the stage for Duvalier’s re-turn by issu-ing his current d i p l o m a t i c passport.

Speculation over Duvalier’s renewed haunting ranges from a bold gamble to recover some 5.6 million dollars in a frozen Swiss bank account

to contemptible ambitions for Haiti’s presidency; what is indisputable is that Jean-Claude Duva-lier could never have returned without the aid of powerful in-ternational and local Haitian supporters. Foreign intervention

has led to considerable destabilization in Haiti for centuries, including a Canada-backed coup against the elected president in 2004.

“Information should be free”: The Wikileaks story so far

The power of the police was seen when, in massive clashes, hundreds of protesters died on Friday, January 28. Ultimately, however, the protesters prevailed and occupied Tahrir Square in central Cairo.

According to 41-year old Ghada, holding a flag of Egypt with the cross and crescent drawn on it at the Toronto rally, Mubarak also manipulated sectarianism to “divide and conquer.”

“When I was in school there was no difference between Christians and Muslims, nobody asked about religion.

“We were neighbours, friends, colleagues,” says Ghada. “But now there is discrimination against Christians and this hurts them—and Mubarak allowed it to happen.”

“Economically, protesters are demanding a raise in the minimum wage, an end to price hikes on basic foods,” says Henaway.

Mubarak’s application of neoliberal capitalist policies has ensured that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

“One must consider the protests in Tunisia and Egypt as part of the global fight-back against the economic crisis,” notes Henaway.

“Although many people are looking at Greece and other countries in Europe, what is happening in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen and Lebanon is part of the first large wave of struggle against ‘austerity’ in the Middle East.”

Mubarak has also acted as a tool of U.S. foreign policy in the region, strongly supporting Israel’s apartheid rule over Palestinians.

“We want to support the Palestinian people who have had their lands illegally occupied,” says Rana.

Ghada concurs, “Egyptians are very angry about Mubarak’s policies toward Israel. They

want peace, nobody wants war, but the way he has been handling everything has been obscene. We support Gaza.”

Among the roaring crowd are many Tunisians, celebrating Tunisians’ expulsion of dictator Zinedine Ben Ali, who had been in power for 23 years, and expressing solidarity with Egyptians.

“The old regime did a lot of crime, they did not manage the resources of the country,” says 51-year old Tunisian Abdel Majid. “We don’t want the old regime in government, we want transparency, democracy and freedom.”

“In Tunisia, they simply replaced one figure [Ben Ali] with another of the same ruling party,” explains Henaway. Thus, many Tunisians are still engaged in protest against the new government, despite the departure of Ben Ali. “This is beginning to take place in Egypt.”

Henaway argues that in order

for the uprising in Egypt to be successful, the new movement of the youth must build bridges with the recently-formed independent labour movement “to make an explosive mix.”

What is necessary is not just a rejection of the dictatorial regimes, but the economic policies that Mubarak and Ben Ali imposed under Western tutelage.

“Hopefully, [the labour movement] joining in with these demonstrations will turn the tide, maintain the pressure and end the regime,” says Henaway.

If the economic policies of Western-backed, neoliberal capitalism are not challenged, people may not see real changes in their living standards.

“People will have to surpass all this to win a real people’s revolution,” Henaway argues.

“Revolution across Egypt. Revolution until victory.”

« Uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, from PG. 1

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FederAL BASICS #24 FEB / MAR 2011

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Justicia 4 Migrant Workers

“No work, no pay, I fed up of the broken promises, and I don’t work for no one for free!!!”

Over a hundred migrant workers employed under the auspices of the Canadian Sea-sonal Agricultural Workers pro-gram (CSAWP) were recently deported for demanding thou-sands of dollars in back wages.

The migrant workers had not been paid for several weeks.

Meanwhile, the employer kept telling its workers that their pay was coming and that they should continue to work.

As the employer continued to break its promises, the solidar-ity between Mexican, Trinida-dian, Barbadian, and Jamai-can workers strengthened and they began a wildcat strike in November 2010.

The workers stayed in their bunkhouses demanding that their employer meet their basic needs and they get their back pay — the employer owed an estimated $650,000 in unpaid wages.

News of the wildcat strike spread quickly and religious groups, community groups, local organizations and busi-nesses provided the workers with support.

On November 23, 2010, a busload of migrant workers descended onto the property of Carl Ghesquiere, owner and employer of Ghesquiere

Plants Ltd in Simcoe, Ontario, to demand answers regarding their wages.

Shortly after the workers had arrived at Carl Ghesquiere property, so too did the police.

When the workers asked the police officers to press criminal charges against the employer, the police claimed that this dis-pute was a civil and not a crimi-nal matter.

It was evident whose side the police was on.

The workers were informed by a representative of Ghesqui-ere Plants Ltd that the company had filed for bankruptcy protec-tion in September 2010.

This was news to the workers.Ghesquiere Plants Ltd is one

of the world’s largest vendors of strawberry and raspberry cultivars.

In Ontario, the employer’s operation spreads across 300 acres. The company had invest-ed $6 million in a similar opera-tion in California.

However the once promising investment turned out to be a bust for the company tilting both the California and Ontar-ian operation into financial despair.

The employer had decided to hire additional migrant work-ers in October 2010, almost a month after the company had filed for bankruptcy protection.

The migrant workers sought the assistance of the Minister of Human Resources and Develop-

ment Canada and the Member of Parliament for the area, Diane Finley’s office.

Here, the workers were told by a staff person of the office that “they are temporary foreign workers and are not counted as members of the constituency.”

One government official, the government sanctioned labour representatives of the migrant workers, finally did intervene.

But, rather than discussing strategies for enforcing rights that were violated and under-taking steps to address the deplorable housing conditions, the liaison officers made plans to repatriate the men as soon as flights became available.

Despite being deported with-out their back pay, the workers remained defiant.

“We are not silent, our voices will be heard, and our sacrifices that are undertaken to put food on your table will not be forgot-ten.”

And their actions will con-tinue to inspire others to fight for their rights.

Justicia for Migrant Work-ers (J4MW) formed in 2001, responding to another wildcat strike that none of us could ever forget where workers were front and centre. J4MW con-tinues to fight for justice, work-ing with the migrant workers in their communities so that they will receive the com-pensation they deserve. See: justicia4migrantworkers.org

Sakura Saunders

Two large Canadian min-ing companies, Barrick Gold and Banro Corporation, are suing Écosociété, a small publishing house in Québec, and Montreal-based academ-ics Alain Deneault, Delphine Abadie, and William Sacher.

The mining companies claim that Écosociété is delib-erately publishing falsehoods about their operations.

These suits are criticized as being SLAPP suits, or Stra-tegic Lawsuits Against Pub-lic Participation, as the book in question, Noir Canada, merely analyses national and international documents al-ready available to the public about Canadian companies operating in Africa.

The combined sum of the lawsuit is $11 million, amounting to 45 times Écoso-ciété’s annual revenue.

In addition, the cases were filed in separate jurisdic-tions, Barrick filing their suit in Quebec and Banro fil-ing in Ontario, a hurdle that could prove insurmountable for the small publishing house.

Last year Barrick issued a threat of legal action against Vancouver publisher Talon-books before the book was even published.

The Talonbooks website nevertheless indicates that the book will still be pub-lished in May 2011.

So, while Peter Munk is branding the International Studies and Global Policy program at the University of Toronto, his company, Bar-rick Gold, is, amongst other unspeakable things, threat-ening free speech.

For more information on the cases, visit: www.freespeechatrisk.ca.

Canadian government stands on the side of agri-business and deports migrant workers

Canadian mining companies SLAPP independent publishers and academics

Mike Brito

A recent report from the Ca-nadian Centre for Policy Alter-natives (CCPA) has shown that the richest Canadians are get-ting richer than ever before.

The report, “The Rise of Canada’s Richest 1%,” stud-ies income trends over the past 90 years and indicates that the richest 1% of Cana-dians took close to 1/3 of all growth in incomes between 1997 and 2007.

“The last time Canada’s elite held so much of the nation’s income in their hands was in the 1920s.” said Armine Yalni-zyan, Senior CCPA economist and author of the report.

“Even then, their incomes didn’t soar as fast as they are today.”

After World War 2, Canada was becoming more equal, with a growing middle class, but since the late 1970s, the richest 1% have almost dou-bled their share of total in-come in Canada.

This “underscores a dramatic reversal of long term trends.”

Over the past 35 years in To-ronto, the city has become fur-ther divided into rich and poor neighbourhoods.

The “Three Cities research” report, from the University of Toronto, states that there is growing segregation in Toronto based on class, and projects that by 2025 the middle class will shrink to 9% of the city, while poor neigh-borhoods will grow, and make up 60% of Toronto.

This growing gap between rich and poor is also triggering a health crisis.

A 2008 report from Toronto Public Health concluded that lung cancer is 150% higher among the poor in Toronto, and that income and health inequality contribute to 1,100 premature deaths and 1,300 low weight babies being born per year in the city.

Other research has shown that poor Canadians suffer from Diabetes and heart dis-ease at rates more than dou-ble than the rich.

The report is available at: www.policyalternatives.ca

The rich are getting richer… at whose expense?

Migrant workers and allies prepare to walk 50km to Windsor from Leamington, Ontario to fight for their rights in October 2010.

(Photo: Gerardo Correa)

community, their historical and global context, and most importantly, about common barriers that are designed to isolate us but instead unite us.”

The speakers shared their experiences of actively working with women that have faced and are facing violence.

They also shared personal struggles and histories of violence that have made them the resilient women that they are.

Anna Willats, from the Shelter /Sanctuary/Status Campaign (SSS) spoke to the success of their campaign to keep immigration officials out of

violence against women (VAW) spaces (shelters and agencies that provide resources for women fleeing violence).

Connie Sorio from Gabriela-Ontario and KAIROS spoke of seeking justice for economic and state violence against undocumented migrant workers.

Wendy Babcock, from Maggies, talked about violence that is inflicted on sex workers because of their criminalized identities.

Faith Nolan inspired all of us through her music. Her songs spoke of the thousands of women that live within the

walls of a prison.We heard stories of violence

that women experience and the overarching effects of the prison-industrial complex system that criminalizes marginalized communities for the many needs of a system that benefits from racist, colonial and imperialistic ideals.

The fight and struggle still continues.

To get on the Women United Against Imperialisms’s Listserve for updates of WUAI, community events, and community information please send an email to womynanti.imperialists@gmail.com

« Remembering the forgotten, from PG. 2

Alain Deneault, William Sacher, and Delphine Abadie, authors of Noir Canada demonstrate their gagged status outside a Montreal courthouse in March 2008. The authors are being sued by mining companies to prevent their book, which highlights mining companies’ abuses, from reaching the public.

FederAL BASICS #24 FEB / MAR 2011

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“Prisoners like Clifford Olson”: How law & order hysteria eliminated pensions for elderly inmates

been able to not only mobi-lize its members, but also over 9,000 pensioners and a large part of the Hamilton community.

As one pensioner put it, “I figured I fought for it so I’d be here to fight for it again!”

USW has also framed the fight in a broader context. It’s not just about U.S. Steel’s attack on the work-ers’ pensions.

“We are one working class and people and the global monopolies have no right to divide us and trample our rights.

“The great tradition and spirit of ‘46 is to Break New Ground in the fight in defence of the rights of all!” according to one of USW’s weekly information updates.

One sister at the march who had come up from the U.S. for the Greater Toronto

Worker’s Assembly, Brenda Stokley, posed a question that’s on a lot of people’s minds:

“How do we rebuild a strong working class move-ment?

“To build a militancy and principled unity... led by rank and file; not bureau-crats, who either were never rank and file or don’t have any real political con-nection to the rank and file and have really betrayed the class.”

Stokley told BASICS, “It’s about time that work-ers take over their unions if they’re being sold out. If they don’t have a union, you organize one and you join ranks with other work-ing people.”

“We need to get together... and we need to stay together because we’re dealing with

« The People vs. U.S. Steel, from PG. 1This is in contrast with the government-sponsored and corporate-funded NGOs and the like that make up the bulk of participants in many other international formations.

In addition, the ILPS rejects subordination to or affiliation with any political party, government, or religious institution.

The ILPS was formed in 2001 at its first International Assembly in the Netherlands, where its current Chairperson, revolutionary Filipino leader Jose Maria Sison, has been exiled since the late 1980s.

Within the ten years of its founding, the ILPS has developed into an impressive and expanding international alliance of organizations.

The ILPS can count among its achievements spearheading the creation of new international anti-imperialist alliances on the migrants’ and women’s fronts.

In 2008, the International

Migrants Alliance was formed in Manila, Philippines with its founding International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees. Its annual assembly has provided a venue for migrants and refugees to challenge the positions of the concurrently held U.N. Global Forum on Migration and Development.

In August 2010, hundreds of delegates from around the world gathered for the Montreal International Women’s Conference, which concluded with the founding of the International Women’s Alliance.

While the formidable people’s struggles of the Philippines have served as a centre of gravity for the development of the international united-front that is the ILPS, the more than 350 organizations that now populate its ranks attest to the growing realization of the necessity to unite anti-imperialists on an

international level.The rebellions that have

rocked the Middle East in past few weeks are only the most recent signs of a world struggling to break with imperialist globalization.

The Montreal delegates to the December 4 meeting constituted a Coordinating Committee (CC) and committed to a six month timeline for launching ILPS-Canada and to prepare member organizations for the 4th International Assembly of the ILPS in the Philippines in July 2011.

The CC has published an Interim Unity Statement to unite Canadian organizations to build ILPS-Canada.

All those interested in learning more about the ILPS can visit www.ilps.info or www.BASICSnews.ca.

Shane Martínez

With the arrival of 2011, life became much more uncertain for senior citizens behind bars in Canada.

On June 1, 2010, Bill C-31, An Act to amend the Old Age Security Act (also known as the Eliminating Entitlements for Prisoners Act), was introduced in the House of Commons by the Conservatives. It has since received Royal Assent and come into force as law.

The amendments made by the Act effectively prevent seniors who are incarcerated for two years or more in federal institu-tions from receiving their pen-sions while on the inside (except during the first month).

The new law also includes a provision that allows provincial governments to collaborate with the Conservatives to similarly deny pensions to persons while they are serving sentences of 90 days or longer in provincial institutions.

Bill C-31 enjoyed widespread support from Members of Par-liament of all political stripes, and was passed with an expedi-ence uncharacteristic of Ottawa.

Even the zealously right-wing Canadian Taxpayers Federation – a major backer of the proposed amendments – seemed surprised by how easily prisoners’ pensions were rescinded.

When examined in detail, however, the formula used to

pass Bill C-31 is no mystery. In the spring of 2010, it came

to the attention of the national press that serial murderer Clif-ford Olson was receiving pen-sion funds through Old-Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement.

Needless to say, more than a few people were upset by the news that someone serving eleven life sentences was receiv-ing such payments.

Stephen Harper and his crew quickly responded to this public angst. In this instance that exploitation came through Bill C-31.

Similar tactics of putting sensationalism over substance have been used since they first took power five years ago, and has facilitated the elimination of the two-for-one time served credit, cutting rehabilitative programs from penitentiaries, and introducing more manda-tory minimum sentences.

By relying on retributive politics and sufficiently nar-rowing the debate on the issue, the Conservatives drummed up support to halt pension pay-ments to those they said were “prisoners like Clifford Olson.”

Since “prisoners like Clifford Olson” had committed heinous offences, and would probably never be released into society again, then they shouldn’t be collecting monthly pensions.

Furthermore, “prisoners like Clifford Olson” have their needs tended to on the inside

and therefore have no reason to amass public money.

However, the Conservatives failed to remind Canadians that only one of the approximately 400 elderly prisoners affected by the amendments is Clifford Olson. In fact, very few – if any – are anything even remotely “like Clifford Olson.”

Thus, largely lost in this pro-cess was any consideration for the reality that, unlike Clifford Olson, most elderly prisoners will eventually be released from prison and need to collect their pension funds while on the inside in order to support their re-entry into society.

Many are unable to work a full-time job and rely on the approximately $1,200 a month they get under Old-Age Secu-rity and the Guaranteed Income Supplement to make their rent and pay off debts

The passage of Bill C-31 puts elderly prisoners in an even more disadvantaged position than they were in to begin with, and potentially increases the likelihood that they will be forced to engage in criminal activity after they are released.

With these considerations in mind we must reflect on wheth-er this attack on hundreds of incarcerated seniors really has to do with Clifford Olson, or whether it has much more to do with an ongoing Conserva-tive agenda to run roughshod over the rights of prisoners in this country.

« ILPS Canada chapter forming, from PG. 4

(Photo: CBC) Meditations on Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth

New Afrikan Revolutionary Writings by James Yaki Sayles

“This exercise is about more than our desire to read and understand Wretched (as if it were about some abstract world, and not our own); it’s about more than our need to understand (the failures of) the anti-colonial struggles on the African continent. This exercise is also about us, and about some of the things that We need to understand and to change in ourselves and our world.” (James Yaki Sayles)

$20.00

co-published in 2010 by Kersplebedeb and Spear & Shield Publications

iSbN 9781894946322

paperback

399 pages

“When We started receiving these Meditations i was so grateful that the Comrad had taken the time to break down Wretched from a New Afrikan Communist perspective. … it is a true weapon for Our struggle & should be read, studied, discussed, meditated upon & practiced in order to realize a better world than that in which We now live.”

Sanyika Shakurauthor of the best-selling book,

MONSTER: Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member

“With a non-exclusive focus on anti-patriarchal and anti-imperialist politics, framed within an anti-capitalist perspective. A special priority is given to writings regarding armed struggle in the metropole, and the

continuing struggles of political prisoners and prisoners of war.”

kersplebedeb, cp 63560, cccp van horne, montreal, quebec, canada h3w 3h8

Meditations on Frantz Fanon’sWretched of the EarthNew Afrikan Revolutionary Writings

by James Yaki Sayles

www.leftwingbooks.net

KersplebedebPublishing and distribution

the same enemy.”

ArtS & CULtUre BASICS #24 FEB / MAR 2011

8

Shafiqullah Aziz

Rebel Diaz, the revolutionary hip hop group originating out of Chicago, performed a four city concert tour from January 19 to 22 which was organized by Barrio Nuevo and BASICS Community News Service.

They hit up Waterloo, Toronto, Ottawa and finally Montréal to cap off the weekend.

Rod Starz, G1, and Lah Tere performed songs from their Otra Guerrillera Mixtape Vol. 1 and 2, along with a couple tracks from their upcoming album.

The crowd in every city would always go crazy when Rebel Diaz performed “Which Side Are You On”:

I rock hard like Palestinian chil-dren holdin’ slingshots/I’m with

every single kid that’s down for hip-hop/For the culture, the life, what it really stands for/This music is resistance, it’s the voice of the poor.Lah Tere had the crowd jumping

when she would perform her single “Crush”:

So now I make a move but I move at my own pace/ Before me there were teachers, speakers, moth-ers with more face/ They were building on a theme they believed they could dream free/ To justify their lives they believed they could bring me/ So now I stand here, heat-spitta/ Set to change minds while the enemy surrounds and threatens to take mine/ I’ll never give it to them my story is just un-folding/ Realer than real cuz I’m chosen.The members of Rebel Diaz re-

side in the Bronx, New York, and do much more than just make music. They have organized a com-munity art centre called the “Rebel Diaz Arts Collective” which they have been operating since March 2009.

At the centre, they provide South Bronx youth with a performing space, computer lab, multimedia studio and an art gallery in an at-tempt to build up the community and make Bronx youth more politi-cally active and involved in their neighbourhoods.

Artists, organizers, and youth can learn a lot from Rebel Diaz, and they are definitely a group to watch out for. Their new album The Radical Dilemma will be re-leased this March. You can check them out and download their mu-sic at www.rebeldiaz.com.

Rebel Diaz: “Which side are you on?”

Defying the TombBook launch brings prison writings to the people

Ajamu Nangwaya

We are now in February and for Africans in North America it is a significant month. It is usu-ally observed as Black History Month.

February is taken as an op-portunity to acknowledge African people’s struggles and achievements and commemo-rate significant moments in the fight against white suprem-acy, capitalism, sexism and oth-er forms of oppression.

Some of us use this month to reflect and rededicate ourselves to the revolutionary or radical Af-rican political tradition.

In the spirit of collective self-criticism, are we at the point where Black History Month is due for a name change and focus?

Names are quite important to

resistance.It was no accident that the en-

slaved Africans who were taken across the Sahara Desert ended up with Arab names and those who went by way of the Atlantic Ocean had European names im-posed on them.

Denying a people their name

Karen Emily Suurtamm

On January 27, Torontonians gathered to celebrate the launch of revolutionary prisoner Kevin ‘Rashid’ Johnson’s new book, Defying the Tomb: Selected Pris-on Writings and Art of Kevin “Rashid” Johnson Featuring Ex-changes with Outlaw.

Defying the Tomb includes ar-ticles by Rashid, as well as the correspondence between himself and “Outlaw,” another revolu-tionary prisoner. Rashid discuss-es the role of today’s Black en-tertainment media, the current state of ‘the left,’ the challenges of organizing within prison, and the lessons to be learned from past struggles, including the original Black Panther Party.

“Like so many young Blacks, I was involved in the street level drug trade,” Rashid writes.

And like so many, he was ar-rested and received a lengthy prison sentence. Rashid has been held captive in Virginia’s prison system for more than 20 years, 18 of which have been in solitary confinement.

“Even though I was under il-legitimate capitalist influences before and during much of my im-prisonment, I’ve always been en-gaged in something of a running battle with the establishment,” Rashid explains in his book.

Rashid has become a jailhouse lawyer, revolutionary artist, theorist and leader in the New Afrikan Black Panther Party - Prison Chapter (NABPP-PC).

The NABPP seeks to organize the Black proletarian mass-

es and urban poor, alongside other oppressed nationalities and classes. Its Prison Chap-ter serves as the nucleus of the United Panther Movement, and its guiding mission is to turn U.S. concentration camps (pris-ons) into schools of liberation.

Rashid has faced violent re-pression from prison guards as a result of his effective prison organizing, relentless litigating against the prison regime and the threat his knowledge poses to the prison industrial complex.

The Toronto book launch was jointly organized by BASICS Com-munity News Service and Toronto Anarchist Black Cross (ABC).

The evening kicked off with a panel featuring Dr. Chris Harris (a.k.a. revolutionary rapper Wa-sun), Sara Falconer and Steve da Silva.

The panel discussed the history and influence of the Black Panther Party and other Black revolution-ary organizations; the repression faced by Rashid and the impor-tance of supporting imprisoned revolutionaries; and the theory and practice of the NABPP-PC and its application to current contexts.

The presentation was followed by a lively discussion, with audi-ence members going deeper into the lessons learned from past struggles.

Afterward, Wasun dropped tracks from his new album, Pris-on Notebooks, and Revolution-ary Love spun tracks the rest of the night.

To check out more on Rashid’s art and writings, and to order the book, visit rashidmod.com

(Photo: Shafiqullah Aziz)

Affirming the liberation tradition in African history

Illustration: Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, NABPP-PC

>> continued, pg. 3

Confronting Precarious WorkIn The Era of IMPERIALISM

join us in celebrating women’s cultures of resistance

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100th ANNIVERSARY OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAYWomen United Against Imperialism

FORUM: ConfrontingPrecarious Work in the

Era of ImperialismSunday, Feb. 27,

1PM-4PM U of T OISE252 Bloor St. Rm.5150

(St Geoge Subway)(St Geoge Subway)

CULTURAL EVENINGwith local artists

Friday, Mar. 11, 6PM-9PM519 Church St

519 Community Centre(5 minutes from Wellesley Subway)

WOMEN’S DAY MARCHSaturday, Mar 12 @ 12PM

From OISE to Ryerson Meeting place: Bedford and Bloor

(In front of Tim Hortons)

Basics Community News Service - CUPE 4308 - GABRIELA Ontario - MIGRANTE CanadaUFCW Local 1000A - Barrio Nuevo

For More information emailwomynanti.imperialist@gmail.com