The Movement for Justice in El Barrio was founded by immigrants and low-income people of color of East Harlem to fight for dignity and against neoliberal displacement.

Movement operates on a commitment to self-determination, autonomy, and participatory democracy.

Driven by multi-national corporations and profit-seeking landlords,and facilitated by city officials, gentrification has swept New York City, causing the wholesale displacement of low-income people of color and immigrants from their communities. East Harlem is experiencing a wave of harassment, abuse, and intimidation as greedy landlords attempt to evict the community from their homes in order to raise rents and increase profits. With over 750 members, Movement has gone door-to-door, building-to-building, and block-to-block to organize with their fellow neighbors to build a neighborhood-wide movement for dignity and justice.

Its history, Combative unionism and anarchist involvement

Since the start of the Quebec student general strike, members of the Prairie Struggle Organization along with the collaboration of Common Cause, Union Communist Libertaire and the IWW, have been in the process of putting together a cross-Canada speaking tour on the Quebec student general strike. This strike, which has demonstrated once more the power of mass, combative and democratic social movements, is something that does not come often in Canadian history and expresses politics and strategies that are greatly needed in the rest of Canada. The struggles, and organizational principles demonstrated in this strike are examples that anarchists across Canada should aim to share and educate ourselves on, as our comrades in Quebec have done, due to the fact that its core principles are in fact close to our principles.

Republished from Ideas and Action:

Julio Rodriguez, a stalwart comrade of ours from Los Angeles, has been held in prison since Saturday under threat of immediate deportation. We will not let another one of our brothers be kidnapped from us by the racist state!

Julio is an anarchist youth organizer with the Youth Justice Coalition and RiseUp LA, radical groups that run out of Chuco’s Justice Center in Inglewood, CA. He is a student at Free LA High School at Chuco’s where he is studying to get his GED. Julio is prominent in the LA punk scene, organizing and promoting DIY shows, and encouraging the politicization and education of kids in the scene.

It’s a Student Strike, a People’s Struggle

Statement by CLASSE
Translated by Richard Fidler

Hike in tuition fees is part of “the cultural revolution”

For several weeks now a student revolt has shaken the neoliberal consensus imposed for many years by the Quebec and Canadian governments. It was sparked by the announcement of a new, 75 per cent increase in university tuition fees.

The following is a translation of the lead story in the Ultimatum, the newspaper of the Quebec student union CLASSE, the 80,000 strong and leading student union behind the current student strike in Quebec. In response to a Quebec government that continues to ignore the strike, it calls for a week of direct actions aimed at disrupting economic and government activity.

The original article in French was written by Julien Royal and can be read here

Translated by Linchpin.ca

March 22, the beginning of a long fight

March 22nd is often seen as the climax of our strike. With more than 300,000 strikers and a massive demonstration, we can for sure say that March 22 is of crucial importance. Nevertheless this day is not the last chapter in our struggle. On the contrary, March 22 is the catalyst of a long fight against the government.

Common Cause supports the locked out workers of CAW Local 27 in their struggle for a living wage. The year of 2012 has begun with a blatant attack on the working class. Electromotive Canada (EMC), owned by Caterpillar, has demanded a 50 per cent wage cut and major pension and benefit concessions. When the workers refused to accept that offer the company locked them out at the start of the year. This shows that the capitalist class, aka the 1%, is only interested in their own profits and will stop at nothing to meet this goal.

The events at EMC will set the tone for the struggle against exploitation in London, Canada, and beyond. Whether this ends in victory or defeat, this struggle is important for all working people, but we must do everything we can to win. If mobilized, the power of the labour movement can stop the bosses in their tracks.

Following the June 2010 G20 summit in Toronto, a wave of repression came down on anarchists and anti-authoritarians in Southern Ontario. Ryan Rainville was one of those arrested and held in jail for three months before being released into house arrest at a Native men's residence in Toronto called Sagatay.

Throughout his court proceedings, Ryan proudly proclaimed his anarchist values and defended the use of property destruction during anti-capitalist protests that weekend to disrupt the economy.

Ryan eventually plead guilty to three counts of Mischief Over $5000 and Breach of Peace. On October 31st, 2011 with at least a dozen supporters present, Ryan made the following statement to the court.

- Guelph Anarchist Black Cross (http://guelphprisonersolidarity.wordpress.com)

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Common Cause wishes to extend our solidarity to the six defendants of the so-called “G20 Main Conspiracy Group” who made the difficult decision to plead guilty to trumped up counseling charges in an effort to see the charges of eleven of their co-defendants dropped, and in order to help bring their shared year and a half-long judicial farce to a close. These eleven community organizers now join the ranks of the dozens of individuals who have already seen their bogus G20 conspiracy charges dropped. They will once again be able to associate with one another, and will once again be granted the right to plan and attend public demonstrations. This is a welcome and long over-due occasion for celebration – though their exoneration has come at a heavy price.

On the weekend 19-20th a new wave of mass protest all over Egypt broke out because of the systematic violence of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) against the Egyptian masses. People are tired of its dictatorial behaviour, the use of extreme force against protesters, the military trials that in 10 months have ended up with 12,000 comrades rotting in jail, their censorship, the torture, kidnappings and selective murder of activists. People are tired of the military council hijacking the banners of our revolution to continue the same old dictatorship through other means. People are tired of the sectarianism they promote to divert us from our real fight for justice, equality and freedom.

On strike, locked out, and legislated back to work, postal workers have experienced first hand the bosses’ agenda of taking away rights workers fought for decades ago. Because postal workers are not alone in facing cutbacks, exploitation, greedy bosses, and the like, we have a lot in common with other workers, and we stand to learn a lot from each others’ struggles. The rules of the game are changing, and workers will have to start taking matters into our own hands instead of relying on elected officials in our unions or governments to make wise decisions for us.