Punching Out Collective writes
"Strike!" Sept. 2005
Anarchist News and Commentary
Vol.1, Issue 3
(Ontario Edition)
Contents:
-CBC Workers Locked Out — J.Shantz
-Community Power vs. Fire-power: Getting to the Root of Gun Violence in Toronto — G.Sweetman
-Anarchy in New Orleans? — P.Lilley
-Labour Day: From Parades to Pickets — J.Shantz
-Bad Boss of the month: Amato Pizza
+ Community Events Listings
Download and distribute!
http://users.resist.ca/~gidget/nefac/strike/strike 3.pdfCBC Workers Locked Out
by Jeff Shantz
On August 15 management at the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) locked out 5 500
of its workers, including technical, support and editorial
staff as well as on-air hosts, reporters and
commentators. The CBC bosses are using the lockout
to attack workers' job security and impose a contract
that allows the corporation to hire more workers on a
part-time and contract basis. As most media
commentators have suggested this is a potentially
devastating move by the CBC, one that has already
led to a substantial loss of viewers and listeners in a
competitive market.
So why would the public broadcaster turn to
such an aggressive and risky tactic as a lockout?
Perhaps the CBC's taking a cue from one of their main
clients, the National Hockey League, which only
recently locked out its players for over a year -
costing the loss of an entire season - in a successful
attempt to win a series of major concessions from the
Player's Association. Defeats of labour organizations,
especially high profile ones, always embolden other
bosses to go after unions in their own industry. It is
crucial that workers come together to support the
locked out CBC workers. To find out more, contact
the Candian Media Guild at: http://www.cmgtoronto.ca.
Nearly 30% of CBC employees already have non-permanent status.
CBC management wants to make that number grow. Their plan is as bad
for public broadcasting as it is for the people who make CBC work.
-------------------------------------------------- ----
Community Power vs. Fire-power: Getting to the Root of Gun Violence in
T.O.
by George Sweetman
As Toronto's gun-related homicide rate climbs,
the media sensationalizes, the politicians bluster, and
the police 'crack down' on poor communities we need
to take a fresh look at the problem of shootings and
anti-social crime in general.
Let's be blunt, having shootings, muggings, rapes,
and assaults happen on a regular basis in our
neighborhoods is scary. You're concerned for your
friends and family's safety. People are pissed off at the
situation, but feel that it's too big a job and too dangerous
to be able to contribute to the solution.
The state's solution to this problem is to send
more police into neighborhoods that already bear the
brunt of racist 'targeted policing'. The right-wing media
is clamoring for tougher sentences, more cops, in
short - establishing a police state.
The liberal left generally agrees with the right
but also ask for more social programs and stringent
enforcement of laws regarding illegal importation of
firearms. They generally say that poverty is the root
cause of anti-social crime.
One's the stick and the other's the carrot, but
the drivers of the overall policy are the same - they're
rich and want to protect the status quo. Neither addresses
the roots of the problems we face in our society because
the problems are fundamental to its functioning. The drug
and gun trade at the street level - to take the two most
cited examples - are basically the same as any other business.
The difference is that, unlike Bay Street CEOs, street level
criminals can't call in the police or military when their
investments are threatened. It's the gangsterism of the
capitalist system laid bare.
The main part of the problem is the systematic
disruption of collective life. The state wants to isolate
us from each other because when we know each other
on a daily basis we start to form networks of mutual
support that can be turned against our class enemies:
bosses, landlords, cops, and gangsters. That's why
we face an ongoing removal of public spaces, such as
community and recreation centers, swimming pools,
public squares, parks, right down to the benches on
street corners and bus stops. We live in some of the
most densely populated places in the country, yet
barely know our neighbors.
What we really need are strong, organized com-
munities of working class people who can take back
our streets from both the criminals and the cops. The
way to build such communities is a dual strategy of
participation in existing public spaces, as well as
organizing around local issues: be it food, housing,
transit, or safety. We need more co-operative kitchens,
daycares, laundromats, recreation centers, community
radio stations, union halls, tenant unions, and youth
groups -- not more cops.
Lately there's been talk of 'town hall meetings'
organized by the city, corporations, and the police.
They are a sham. They're meetings where a panel of
so-called experts, most who don't even live in our
neighborhoods, will give long speeches telling us what
their all-seeing solution is for us peasants. Real public
meetings, where we come together to solve our
neighborhoods' problems, can be powerful spaces,
but they must be controlled by regular working people who
live there, not hi-jacked by politicians, bosses,and cops
out for a public relations spectacle.
We need to take control, of our neighborhoods,
of our workplaces, of our city, of our world. For it is
only with this grassroots power- shared by all, invested
in none - that we can truly take responsibility and start
to solve the problems we're facing.
-------------------------------------------------- ----
"Anarchy" in New Orleans?
by pj lilley - Sept. 2, 2005
Death and devastation. A chemical factory explosion.
Fires rage & tempers rise. Capitalist media
around the world screamed the headline "ANARCHY"
today. Days without food, water, medical supplies.
It's very important to the war-makers, law-
makers, and oil investors to submerge the real definition
of anarchy: mutual aid without government, co-
operation in solidarity, and ORDER. Their authoritarian
control is deeply threatened by their own complete
failure to meet basic needs. Their authority has rested
on the divides of class, on misogyny and racism.
Capital's media pitches images of black men with bags
as "looters", while a lighter-skinned man is carrying
"something he found". They didn't get pictures of the
corrupt police, allowed into WalMart for "relief
measures" instead loading their car trunk with DVD's
and dogfood. The rulers have no humanity, only profit
interests. They continue madly pouring billions into
war, while expecting "charities" will bail out New
Orleans.
Law is not order. Bush knew that levee would
fail in at least 2001. Those who "chose not to
evacuate" were the poor, black, elderly... while the rich
had long left for their second homes, safe hotels and
elsewhere. But it doesn't stop there, as the ruling
class seem determined to make things even worse.
Now the Governor of Louisiana brings in the National
Guard - many young shell-shocked soldiers freshly
returned from Iraq - "M-16's locked and loaded,"
she says about their killing capacity, "and I expect they
will". They are sent in like so many other mercenaries,
first to protect private property. [Remember that
through the poverty draft, the south has already suffered
among the heaviest casualties in Iraq, where doubtless
many boys sit tonight wondering why they can't just
come home to help their families and neighbours,
whether they themselves will make it out alive.] A decent
journalist from Toronto is nearly shot on sight for taking
pictures of flagrant police brutality.
If this was anarchy, there would be
neighborhood bases established much earlier to co-
ordinate relief. Direct action toward liberation. Many
people actually said it was the looters that first
distributed food and water. Perhaps capital will not
be able to recuperate. Possibly, finally, the bosses
and their media lap-dogs may not escape the peoples'
wrath on this one. Will it become widely understood
that another world is possible? "Disasters like this
can only be met when ordinary people begin to work
together on a human level, to the best of their abilities
helping each other to get through, instead of relying on
highly bureaucratic and irrational social abstractions
to save them..." as 'Shevek' put it to Indymedia.
"Then there will actually be anarchy in New Orleans".
Justice? Just us. Get organized.
See also: demands & call for solidarity from the
Capital Terminus anarchist collective in Atlanta:
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=126 9
-------------------------------------------------- ----
Labour Day:
From Parades to Pickets!
by Jeff Shantz
Labour Day in Canada began on April 15, 1872
when the Toronto Trades Assembly organized a mass
workers' demonstration, in part to demand the release
of 24 leaders of the Toronto Typographical
Union who had been imprisoned for striking to
gain a nine-hour workday. This was a time when
unions were illegal and organizers could face
charges of "criminal conspiracy". The march, which
saw 10 000 people take to the streets, was an important
show of defiance and determination in the face
of stiff repression.
What began, in the heat of struggle, as a
celebration of the dignity and honour of working
people has become little more than a parade or picnic.
In Toronto thousands of rank-and-file workers march
to the CNE grounds where we are subjected to
flyovers by military jets - a reminder of the firepower
the bosses have at their disposal to make sure we
stay in our place.
Labour Day could be so much more than it is,
however. It's still the one time each year when
thousands of members of different unions and different
locals come together to stand in solidarity with one
another. It's an opportunity to share information and
ideas about organizing and our common struggles
against the bosses. More than a chance to
communicate, however, Labour Day could be a day
of action. In Toronto, this Labour Day there are
several workplaces where our fellow workers could
benefit from the appearance of a lively assembly of
trade unionists. In fact some workers are already
planning to picket Amato's Pizza (Queen West and
Bathurst), a previously popular stop for hungry Labour
Day marchers, in support of unorganized workers
who've been shafted on thousands of dollars pay.
Labour Day was born of organizing and resistance
- we need to remember our roots. We've got the
equivalent of a mobile mass picket each Labour Day,
why not use it?
-------------------------------------------------- ----
Amato Pizza, the popular pizza chain with locations
on Queen West,College, and St. Clair West,owes a
former worker almost $8,000 in unpaid wages.
After 6 years working at Amato, Michelle
Spencer was fired for asking for months of unpaid
wages. Many other Amato workers are also owed wages,
paid irregularly, or forced to quit when they are
not paid.
Amato's refusal to pay workers' wages is one
more example of ineffective enforcement by the Ministry
of Labour which allows deadbeat bosses to continually
break employment laws and abuse workers without consequence
or penalty.
We will continue to demand that Amato pay Ms.
Spencer's wages and we will inform Amato customers
about this employer's illegal practices.
For more info:
Workers' Action Centre 416-531-0778 ext 223
Parkdale Legal Clinic 416-531-2411 ext 255 :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: PHONE BLITZ :: PHONE BLITZ :: PHONE BLITZ :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::
* * EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT**
from 6:30 to 7:30 PM,
call Amato Pizza's delivery line: 416-703-8989
Let's jam their phone lines and let them know that
you won't order pizza until the owners
pay the workers their owed wages !!
CALL as many times as you can during Friday's dinner
hour to help us make the message strong and clear.
BE SURE to let the phone line workers know that you want
to make sure that they are getting paid properly too!
Every Friday, we will phone
blitz Amato's pizza delivery line, until they pay up!
Save the date for our upcoming rally:
September 13, 2005. Location and time to be announced.
-------------------------------------------------- ----
Community Event Listings
Tues, Sept 6: Just Say No To War. 12noon - 1pm
- Office of War Minister Bill Graham, 365 Bloor St.E.
Thur, Sept 8: International Demonstration
against Sharia Court in Canada - Queen's Park,
12:00noon - 2:00pm
Thur, Sept 8: Limp fist meeting - OISE 7th Floor
South Peace Lounge, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Sun, Sept 11: Anarchist Free University Dis-
orientation Anti-frosh Picnic, 2:00pm-6:00pm
Trinity Bellwoods Park
Wed, Sept 14 Punching Out (NEFAC) meeting
6:30pm - 8:30pm, Toronto Hip-Hop Cultural Arts
Centre, 2842 Dundas West
Sat, Sept 24: Anti-war demonstration,
1:00pm, US Consulate, 360 University Ave.
Sun, Sept 25: Limp Fist meeting, 3:00pm-5:00pm,
OISE 7th Floor South Peace Lounge.
Tue, Sept 27 Punching Out (NEFAC) meeting
6:30pm - 8:30pm, Toronto Hip-Hop Cultural Arts
Centre, 2842 Dundas West
-------------------------------------------------- ----
Strike!
anarchist news and commentary
vol.1, issue 3
a publication of:
Punching Out,
an autonomous member collective of
NEFAC: Northeastern Federation of
Anarchist-Communists an organization
of revolutionaries comingfrom different
movements of resistance who identify
with the communist tradition within
anarchism. The federation's activities
are organized around theoretical development,
anarchist propaganda, and intervention
in the struggle of our class, be it
autonomously or by direct involvement
in social movements.
For more info, to help distribute, or contribute,
contact:
Punching Out
P.O. Box 79538
1995 Weston Rd
Toronto, ON
M9N 3W9
Labour donated
