Opinion

Mon corps, mes règles:

Karine — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 09:59:24 -0800

Un argument pour que les survivantes(s) de viol et de violence domestique deviennent des militantes(s) syndicalistes

Liberté Locke, une militante au syndicat des travailleurs de Starbuck, écrit dans cet article la similarité entre la violence au travail et la violence sexuelle. Elle explique en effet que les agresseurs sexuels et les patrons utilisent les mêmes techniques de contrôle et qu’il nous est nécessaire de se battre contre ces deux formes d’oppression.

AVERTISSEMENT: Cet article parle du sujet de la violence sexuelle.

J’ai été violée par mon chum le 18 Août, 2006. La journée suivante, je retenais mes larmes pendant que je mentais à un inconnu au téléphone expliquant pourquoi je devais manquer ma 2e entrevue pour un emploi que j’avais besoin désespérément. Quand j’ai finalement raccroché, je reçu un nouveau message texte. ‘’ Ce n’est pas terminé. Ce ne sera jamais terminé entre nous...’’

Consenting to Consensus?

Linchpin — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:53:51 -0700

By Owen Sheppard [Republished from the Dominion]

Interviews with Occupy Toronto participants have revealed a wide range of opinion on the effectiveness of the movement’s process for making group decisions.

According to Brandon Gray of Occupy Toronto, decisions are made through a consensus system where possible, with a 90% “supermajority” vote if consensus proves impossible.

Orange Isn't Red: On the Logic of Radicalizing Reformist Organizations

Linchpin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:39:03 -0700

By Alan Wai Kiat Tang

On September 3 2011, the Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP) rescinded the candidacy of Barry Weisleder, who had won the provincial nomination for the riding of Thornhill.

This action generated ripples of controversy amongst left-leaning New Democrats. Weisleder, a party member for over forty years and current chair of the self-styled NDP “Socialist Caucus” has a long and storied reputation as an agitator for state-socialist policies within the NDP, and has often served as a thorn in the side of the party's increasingly centrist leadership.

Cops and Condominiums: Poverty and Gentrification in Toronto's Downtown Eastside

Linchpin — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:48:22 -0700

By Alex Balch

According to the Toronto Star, I live in the worst neighbourhood in the city.

This past April, in an innocuously titled article “Dundas-Sherbourne poised for a surprising rebirth”, The Star's Robyn Doolittle pointed out that Toronto's downtown eastside “consistently tops every major Toronto police crime indictor list” — routinely beating the more notorious neighbourhoods of Jane and Finch, Rogers and Keele and Weston and Lawrence.

In the article Doolittle rightly — albeit disingenuously — attributes the area's high levels of criminality to its heavy concentration of poverty:

Fighting for the Right to Strike

Linchpin — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:05:04 -0700

By Mick Sweetman

This past year has witnessed a renewed assault on unionized workers that should be seen for what it is: a co-ordinated attack on the right of workers to collectively bargain with their employers.

One of the opening salvos in this new wave of class warfare occurred immediately after the far-right ideologue Rob Ford was elected Mayor of Toronto on a platform of “stopping the gravy train”—none-too-subtle code words for attacking public sector workers and the services they provide.

Dead on Arrival: A Critical Assessment of the Days of Action Against Harris, 1995-1998

Linchpin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 16:26:39 -0700

By Gerard Lefebvre

In 1995, Mike Harris was elected Premier of Ontario, bringing an end to Bob Rae's five year NDP government. The province was ailing under a deep recession, which had seen many manufacturing and public service jobs threatened by what the governing NDP had referred to as “a new economic reality”. Elected into office by a population thoroughly dissatisfied with status quo responses to these economic maladies, the NDPs crafted a wholly inadequate response to the situation: a meld of traditional Keynesian anti-recession spending mechanisms and hard-line cuts to programs and services; Rae instituted a "welfare fraud" policing task force and new policies on student loans that ensured students would be saddled with debt years after completing their education. They also began what amounted to an attack on unionized public sector workers, demanding rollbacks and wage freezes.

Stories from the CUPW Lock Out: or how to create a story that can reshape who we are and how we act

Linchpin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:18:04 -0700

by Bruce 'the Bruiser' Darden

Before the Lockout

In the spring of 2011, during the rotating strikes and subsequent lockout of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), anarchists living in southern Ontario attempted to organize support and solidarity for their working class brothers and sisters. Specifically, members of Common Cause took an active role organizing community solidarity and fightback in Toronto and Hamilton. These members did not organize under the banner of Common Cause, but participated in the activities planned by the mass organizations that these members are a part of—especially Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP); the Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly (GTWA); Steel City Solidarity (a solidarity network in Hamilton); and CUPE Locals 3902 & 3907.

Race, class struggle and organized labour in the “Age of Wisconsin”

Linchpin — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 10:14:47 -0700

By Ajamu Nangwaya

Madison, Wisconsin, may have given organized labour - or the labouring classes - a hint at the possibility of resistance in the streets of America. Or should the credit go to the children of Caliban [1] in the streets and squares of Egypt? Can you imagine the role reversal implied by the prospect of the children of Caliban’s teaching those of Prospero, the great civilizer, the art of being human or striving for moral autonomy…collective personhood?

African Liberation Month

Linchpin — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 12:00:53 -0800

By Ajamu Nangwaya

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

It is taken as an opportunity to acknowledge African people’s struggles, achievements and commemorate significant moments in the fight against white supremacy, capitalism, sexism and other forms of oppression.

Some of us use this month to reflect and rededicate ourselves to the revolutionary or radical African 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 enslaved 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 imposed on them.

Malcolm X and Anarchism: For Black History Month

Linchpin — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:15:18 -0800

“There will Ultimately be a Clash between the Oppressed and Those Who do the Oppressing”

In the U.S., February is Black History Month. This is a good time to review the life of Malcolm X, one of the great leaders of the Black Liberation movement of the 60s. Anarchism, as an overall theory, is well-known to be rather loose and eclectic. Therefore anarchists have taken a great deal from other schools of thought, such as Marxism, feminism, Queer theory, ecology, radical psychoanalysis, post-modernism, etc. In my opinion, revolutionary anarchists also have much to learn from the life and thinking of Malcolm X.

By Wayne Price
Written for www.Anarkismo.net.