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Call for Presentations: The North American Anarchist Studies Network (NAASN) Conference

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Jan 142018

From the North American Anarchist Studies Network (NAASN)

June 1, 2, 3, 2018 in Tiotia:ke, “Montreal, Canada”

The North American Anarchist Studies Network (NAASN) is currently seeking presentations for our ninth conference to be held June 1, 2, and 3 (2018) in Tiotia:ke, also known as “Montreal, Canada.”

In keeping with the open and fluid spirit of anarchism, we do not limit the call for specific topics of discussion, but rather encourage presentations on broad and diverse historical, contemporary, and utopian matters.

NAASN welcomes works that examine issues of indigeneity, ethnicity, gender, dis/ability, sexuality, youth and urban cultures; and scholarship that crosscuts disciplines and fields including but not limited to: philosophy, political theory, psychology, musicology, literary studies, anthropology, sociology, geography, critical race studies, critical Indigenous studies, queer and trans studies, gender studies, labour studies, disability studies, graphic design and plastic arts. We also encourage scholars in the hard sciences and other fields who find anarchist influences or relevance in their work.

Previous presentations have included grassroots struggles; social and peasant movements; decolonisation and Indigenous resurgence, border/imperialism, racism, police violence, torture, surveillance, technology, as well as biography, oral histories, historiography, and anarchist subcultures.

We seek to include voices of activists, militants, artists and academics; NAASN is a network engaged with the production of knowledge both within and without institutional walls. We are particularly interested in including marginalised voices and perspectives, and encourage the breaking down of barriers between disciplines as well as between the academic and non-academic or even Anti-academic. From the streets to the lectern, we encourage all those interested in the praxis of anarchism or anarchists to submit a proposal.

NAASN is intended to be a space where disciplinarity and resistance can converge on Turtle Island/”North America”. Submissions of panels, individual papers, workshops, book presentations, and alternative formats will be gladly considered!

PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS + QUESTIONS

Conference proposal submissions, or questions, should be addressed to the NAASN 2018 organising committee: naasn2018@riseup.net

Please include in your submission:

Summary of your proposal (no more than 300 words)
A short (150 words) biography.
Languages you can present in. (This helps us plan interpreters; NAASN will be supporting live interpretation for French<->English; Spanish<->English; Spanish<->French; ASL/QSL.)

Attendance: We are cognisant of the barriers raised by distance and borders. If you anticipate you will be unable to attend in person, please indicate this in your submission; if your proposal is accepted we may invite you to submit a pre-recorded presentation that can be aired at the conference. We will also probably ask you to be available during to conference for a remote Q & A, technology permitting.

If you have an idea of the length of your presentation, feel free to include (for example, 20mins vs 40 mins). We will try to accommodate, but lengths of presentations will be affected by the number of sessions/speakers.

Please submit your proposal no later than January 31, 2018, and we will respond to all submissions by February 28th, 2018.

NAASN 2018 will take place on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka. The Kanien’kehá:ka are the keepers of the Eastern Door of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. In the language of the Kanien’kehá:ka, Tiotia:ke is the name of the island later dubbed “Montreal”, a site which has long been a meeting place for other Indigenous peoples, including the Algonquin.

MAKING CONTACT WITH NAASN

All inquiries about the 2018 conference should be sent to naasn2018@riseup.net . If you are able to assist during the conference, particularly with translation/interpretation please let us know — we need you! NB: Accessibility and/or safety inquiries are encouraged and welcome from attendees whether they are presenting are not. Inclusion is important to us.

For further information about the North American Anarchist Studies Network, or to subscribe to the network mailing list, we invite you to visit our website at www.naasn.org.

Please spread the word.

Hudson Valley Earth First! Ends Tree Sit, Announces Action Camp

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Jan 062018

From Hudson Valley Earth First! You can read previous updates from the tree sit and learn about the context of the struggle here.

Hudson Valley Earth First! has decided to end the tree sit against the Valley Lateral Pipeline. The tree sit lasted a full 23 days, and was effective in causing the pipeline company to reroute their project around the protest.

Due to these circumstances and others, the brave individual(s) who occupied it have left for the time being. No one was arrested. Too often these types of protests have no time line other than when the forces of repression decide to intervene. By keeping our comrades warm and free, we can ensure that they might be (a)effective in the continued fight to defend the wild.

Our goal has not been to fight an arrest in court as if this is a civil rights or civil disobedience issue. We already know the law and the court system does not side with the health of every day people, the wild, or this planet. Millennium pipeline, the FERC agency, and New York State have already proven this. This project has a 6 month time line, there is still forest and other habitats to be defended, and things are heating up (metaphorically) here in the North as this fight continues. Email us if you would like to attend our upcoming action camp and climb training or plug in more generally.

We do not rely upon a series of court dates and permit grantings to dictate when we should or should not put up a fight. A granted permit does not mean the fight is over. Even the eagles abandoning their nest does not mean an end to this fight. Eagles nests and other fragile habitats are still being threatened because of this project, and because of the many other projects coming to the North East such as the Cricket Valley Power Plant and the Pilgrim Pipeline, just to name a few.

Our goal is to network and connect with inspired folks in this region to build a culture of resistance against this project and the many others. We believe in a diversity of tactics. A lot of work has been done by various groups on the ground for years against this project, ranging from direct actions with folks from Protect Orange County locking themselves together to block the entrance to the CPV Power Plant, to petitions and court hearings, to pressuring the DEC to do their job, to the most recent tree sit. All of these tactics combined have caused a lot of trouble for Millennium and CPV. We can continue to build strength through this fight, and network to create a strong basis for future fights.

Repression of Activists: Millennium Pipeline’s Restraining Order Against Earth First!

Protect Orange County made a call for folks to show up as court support for one of their members. Millennium pipeline attempted to place a restraining order on this person for their actions of recording Millennium’s work on the pipeline right of way and staging grounds. Luckily, this restraining order was dropped. Unfortunately a restraining order was in fact placed that day against “John and Jane Doe” of the tree sit, and our media spokesperson, Rudy Tacos. This was clearly a move to intimidate.

The restraining order was read to the tree, and left at its base where it proceeded to decompose under snowfall until a cop walked away with it. The restraining order against Rudy Tacos of course had no basis, as our media spokesperson did not even know the location of the sit, nor had ever set foot on the public street near by. While this action taken by Millennium seems harmless, the truth is that there is a serious problem when a corporation can take legal actions against people whose identity they don’t even know.

When a corporation can take legal action against unknown people – then they can pick and choose whoever they want to take action against whether or not that person has done anything or not. When corporations can pick people off the street and lock them into court battles, and even saddle them with charges and eventual punishment, no one is safe. This is a tactic of repression aimed to cause fear and self policing among activist communities. Many news stations refused to interview us because we would not reveal our real names. This is exactly why. We would rather keep ourselves safe from repression such as this, than land an interview that plasters our names in a newspaper when really, our names our not important.

Upcoming Action Camp in the Hudson Valley from January 19-22!

We need all hands on deck in the so called “Hudson Valley.” Come join Hudson Valley Earth First! for a climb/action camp as we continue the fight against the Valley Lateral Pipeline and the Corporate Power Ventures Power Plant in Orange County, New York. We are looking for folks to come join us for this campaign in order to help build capacity for this fight, and for the fight against future infrastructure projects in this region. Feel free to join us at any time- just email us to let us know when you can come through. Otherwise, we’ll see you at camp from January 19- 22.

When: January 19- 22

Where: Location TBA

What: Climb training, campaign updates, direct action training. Come learn about the fight against the Valley Lateral Pipeline, and future projects like the Cricket Valley Power Plant, the Pilgrim Pipeline, Spectra’s Pipeline, etc.

Why: For the wild!

RSVP and ask questions by emailing hudsonvalleyearthfirst@riseup.net

Work Stoppage on Enbridge Line 10

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Jan 032018

From The Hamilton Institute

With the rise of Donald Trump’s malignant right wing troll army and the extension of Toronto’s tentacles into every cavern of our cities, the anti-pipeline movement in Southern Ontario has been spread a little thin this year. We’ve pulled off a couple work-stoppages, some night-time sabotage, and made our best effort at storming the closed-door meetings of the NEB, but on the whole we’ve lacked a coordinated strategy. But we felt it appropriate that on the eve of 2017 and at the tail end of Enbridge’s Line 10 pipeline expansion plan, we deliver one more message to the shareholders, architects and cheerleaders of this cross-continent calamity.

In the wee hours of December 13th, a crew of 30 activists and land defenders crashed the central staging grounds of the Line 10 construction crew. Working on some hard-won intel, we were able to blockade the driveway of S/A Energy before they dispatched their workers to the few remaining construction sites along Line 10. While the company scrambled to figure out what was happening, we quickly built a fire, turned on our sound system, and made contact with workers to let them know we were giving them the day off and that non-work vehicles would be allowed to eventually leave.

They weren’t universally pleased with this pronouncement and we were soon forced to face down the grills of moving trucks. Complications arose when we learned that Enbridge had prematurely laid off several of the workers and we had to figure out strategies that would allow those folks to get home without being tricked into letting workers sneak out. We tried to stay sympathetic to their situation, though the consistent misogyny and transphobia were tough to stomach. We were quick to remind them that our battle is not with the working class grunts of this project, but with the sociopathic slimeballs who orchestrate these atrocities.

Enbridge’s plan for line 10 is to replace 35 kilometers of pipeline running between Hamilton and Binbrook. The line is 55 years old and has been the source of many “smaller” leaks in the area, each of which wreak irreversible damage on the surrounding ecosystem. Enbridge of course has no concern for the watershed or communities around the pipeline, and wants only to increase profits and so they are nearly doubling the diameter of the pipeline in order to accommodate more oil. The expansion of this pipeline means an increase in Tar Sands extraction. It’s important to remember that even when pipelines aren’t actively spilling, the oil trudging through them poisoned millions of gallons of water an hour in its production. The Line 10 project is part of Enbridge’s larger pipeline expansion plan which (as predicted) has been rubber-stamped by Canada’s farcical National Energy Board. The only meaningful accommodations that Enbridge has been forced to make have nothing to do with conservation of life or land, but rather preserving the integrity of two upper class golf courses which Enbridge has agreed to build around so as not to disturb any games this summer. These are the values reflected by Canada’s only environmental oversight on this project – protect wealth at all costs, disregard anything that stands in the way.

Enbridge’s pipelines have been sites of Indigenous resistance across Turtle Island, and Line 10 has been spared no opposition. Earlier this year, Haudenosaunee land defender Todd Williams effectively stopped work on the pipeline for 3 months. Although Enbridge has informed Indigenous communities about the project, they haven’t actually been given consent – luckily for them the “consultation process” with First Nations has recently been decided in the Supreme Court to not include the necessity of consent. Essentially, telling Indigenous people about the plan is good enough, no need to wait for an answer. As we have learned in so many other battles there is no legal option for resisting this project, no reason to ask for permission – taking direct action to shut down pipelines is the only avenue of solidarity left.

Our occupation of S/A Energy’s headquarters lasted from about 6am until 2pm. Spirits stayed high throughout the day as we warmed our toes by the fire, showed off some slick dance moves, and enjoyed a hot homecooked taco buffet out of the back of a pickup truck. We were kept on our toes by the perpetual shenanigans of the police and S/A managers who were desperate to see the work day continue as planned. One of the most dramatic moments came when a line of S/A work trucks attempted to make a back-door escape across a snowy field and over a roadside ditch. Though one truck made it out, some fast moving bloackaders were able to head-off the second truck, and watched as it oafishly rolled back into the ditch. A loud crack let us know that the axle of the truck wasn’t happy, and the spinning of the tires let us know that the truck wouldn’t be moving anywhere without a tow. We laughed and celebrated the thought of S/A sabotaging their own work trucks in such a cunning plot.

Throughout the day we negotiated the gradual exit of off-duty workers, but managed to successfully prevent any work from happening. At one point we were confronted by an irate and dramatic landowner who was leasing his property to S/A – we held our ground and advised that he consider leasing his lot to people who are not actively destroying the land on which we all live. Yes, we are all just trying to make a living, but for those capitalists who are invested in the exploitation of the land and those who live on it, don’t be surprised when people try to get in your way. The time has past for “I’m just doing my job” to fly in the face of injustice.

Solidarity Demo Outside Laval Prisons for the New Year!

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Jan 032018

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

On New Year’s Eve, for the sixth year in a row, a noise demonstration was held in front of the Laval prisons. Despite the freezing cold, this year was marked by the greatest participation since the beginning of this tradition. More than a hundred people walked chanting “Everybody hates the police!” and “For a world without prisons or detention centers!”, the whole thing accompanied by percussion, banners, whistles and fireworks in large quantities.

The group arrived in front of Montée Saint-François Institution (B-16), where the minimum security allowed us to be in direct contact with the detainees. Thanks to the windows directly facing the street, they could wave to us, see the banners and hear us. The second institution we visited was Leclerc, the former and outdated federal prison that was converted to a provincial prison for in 2015 and was a provincial prison for men and women until this summer, when it became just a provincial prison for women. The prison is very far from the road and access to it is usually prevented by the police, but the large number of people this year made it possible to get through and around the police lines with joy, everyone engaging in a rather funny race in the snow, during which several policemen were able to intimately appreciate the coolness of the powder. The inefficacy of the police allowed us to set off many fireworks in close proximity to the prison. At the same time, another group of people slipped to the opposite side of the prison to fire fireworks near the buildings where the prisoners are housed.

All this continued in front of the Laval Immigration Detention Centre, where we recalled the importance of opposing the Federal Government’s project to replace the existing building with a new immigration detention centre in Laval. This project is part of a broader effort to expand the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)’s capacity to imprison and deport migrants. We want to see a world without borders, where everyone has access to the things they need to live with dignity. Imprisoning migrants, denying them a place to stay, and deporting them to situations of extreme danger are things we directly oppose.

The big charivari ended at the Federal Training Center, a multi level, medium and minimum security prison. When our group finally decided to split in two for the return to the bus, the police chose to take advantage of the reduced number of people to make an arrest. Fortunately, the arrested person was released the same evening, but has judicial charges.

Prisons were created to isolate people from their communities. Noise demonstrations at prisons are a concrete way to fight against repression and isolation. We want to extend a message of solidarity to folks inside and wish them a happy new year- although a truly happy new year would be one without prisons or borders and the world that needs them!

“Unis pour les Démunis” Flares Out

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Jan 012018

From Montréal-Antifasciste

When the first dozen or so of us arrived at the far-right charity event, Unis pour les Démunis, at Place Émilie-Gamelin, on Saturday the December 9, at around 10:00 a.m., the clothing giveaway, accompanied by coffee and snacks, was underway. Although by this point Storm Alliance had withdrawn its support, apparently the result of a pissing contest between Seana Lee Roy, the SA Montréal president, and her vice president. Posts on Roy’s Facebook page suggest that she has left Storm Alliances taking Unis pour les Démunis with her—charity is her passion, she tells us. Whatever the truth may be, tensions cannot be running all that high, as Roy’s event drew a fair number of volunteers from Storm Alliance and La Meute.

Shortly after 10:00, the good people of SOS Itinérance arrived and began setting up tables of clothing and a generous spread of tasty and healthy food options, with the comrades from Food Against Fascism also contributing. A little later, a church group—from Lachine apparently—arrived with more food and some cake for desert. Another group of people showed up with yet more food and some coffee, accompanied by a hairdresser ready if anyone wanted a haircut; I saw one young man take the opportunity.

By 10:45, we were completely set up, and our crowd of supporters had grown to about at least 50 persons, substantially outnumbering the Unis pour les Démunis’s group. Given that the multi-course buffet was served by long-time street workers who knew many of the homeless and marginalized people who circulate around the park by name, who often knew their stories and their specific problems, and who could take the time to talk a bit, the Unis pour les Démunis event promptly fell apart. Pretty soon we had a line-up of people winding around the park for the food on offer, and it stayed that way until nothing but the slim pickings remained. Several hundred people joined us for a meal that day, and a lot of clothing was given away.

While the food was being served, local antifascist militants circulated in the crowd handing out literature about the actual nature of Munis pour les Démunis and its effective sponsors, Storm Alliance and La Meute. This led to a little pushing and shoving, but nothing that escalated beyond that, and it was specific to a small group of people on each side. The only other clash between the groups resulted from Pat Wolf, an officer of La Meute’s Montérégie clan, charging into the crowd gathered around the SOS Itinéraire tables swinging. He was restrained by an antifascist militant, and the situation was quickly defused, as Unis pour les Démunis organizer Kat Baws moved quickly to collect the wolf that had strayed from the pack. Other then that there was the usual trolling in both directions, the occasional posturing, and even a few attempts at constructive debate that didn’t seem to work out that well.

The police presence was minimal: three bicycle cops and the odd car that drove by and stopped for a minute or two. The cops stepped in on three occasions when there was a little bit of back and forth shouting. As has become typical, what policing they did was of the antifascist militants. As has also become typical, members of Storm Alliance and La Meute and the cops stood around shooting the shit, making jokes, and just generally acting like old friends sharing a good time. No soccer handshake line-up this time, though.

By 11:00, it was clear that whatever Unis pour les Démunis had imagined, this event was now our event. We had the food, there were more of us, and the crowds were coming to us. At 1:00 p.m., a full two hours early, Unis pour les Démunis hoisted the white flag, quietly deposited what remained of their clothing next to the SOS Itinérance table (having not even given away all of their first load, not to mention whatever was in the two mid-sized cube trucks they had parked down the street), and went away to make some weak attempts to spin this into their victory.

In an odd footnote, Dave Tregget took to the “airwaves” that evening to, out of one side of his mouth, distance Storm Alliance from Unis pour les Démunis (while fully supporting the important charity work, blah, blah, blah) and, out of the other, to denounce the turn events as another example the evil cabal of Sorosists from Concordia at work. While I certainly saw some Concordia students there, no Concordia student group was involved in the organizing nor was QPIRG. Thing is, Dave, lots of people don’t like you and your increasingly far-right rhetoric, you silly “con.”

No way to look at this one except as a great day. New friends made, new contacts developed, and a right-wing charade deflated.

***

Lest anyone actually fell for Seana Lee Roy and Kat Baws’s repeated insistence that they weren’t racist or Islamophobic—they’re just, you know, nice ladies at the service of the of the “démunis”—they decided to clear that up for us only a few days later. By Tuesday, Kat Baws had joined Sue Elle, the latter of whom is your basic fascist, in spinning a fake and debunked news story into a call to march on two mosques in Côte-des-Neiges on December 15, specifically to disrupt Friday prayers. Seanna Lee Roy didn’t waste any time signing on, and the usual collection of idiots from Storm Alliance and La Meute bumped into each other dashing to get on board. You can find more about that at: https://montreal-antifasciste.info/en/2017/12/14/tvas-fake-news-is-whipping-up-islamophobic-frenzy-on-the-far-right/.

Fuck you, Fuck your Court, Fuck the Crown and the Queen you serve: Response to Sentencing of Line 9 Valve Turners

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Dec 272017

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info. Link to fundraiser at bottom.

On December 18th, 2017, two anarchist comrades were sentenced for their role in a 2015 direct action in which a Enbridge’s Line 9 was physically shut down. Their affinity group accomplished this by physically closing a manual valve, thus proving that it was possible to safely shut down pipelines. This action, the first of its kind, inspired a wave of similar actions, including one in which 5 pipelines in 4 different states were shut down simultaneously.

At the sentencing of Fred and Will, the judge found it suiting to give the defendants a lecture. “You were convinced”, he said, “that it was correct”. He went on to compare the activists action, in which no physical entity was harmed, with terrorist attacks such as Boston Marathon bombing and the Bataclan massacre in Paris. The commonality between these actions was the fact that they were all ideologically motivated. The judge went on to reference a man in Germany in the 1930s who believed that he had a righteous cause.

Well, two can play at this game. If the condemnation that follows seems overly scathing, keep in mind that this fucking judge compared our comrade to Adolf fucking Hilter.

This judge is a representative of the very same Crown that has been responsible for atrocities much worse than the Boston Marathon bombing or the acts of the Bataclan shooters. The genocidal residential school system was presided over by many judges, and the human cost of this system was much greater than the terrorist acts the judge cites. How dare you chastise our comrades, as if they were errant children, for disobeying your Law, when much greater atrocities have been committed by people using the Law as their weapon? It is your moral code, not ours, which is ill-conceived and naive.

You are old, and will not live to see the full extent of the coming cataclysm wrought by climate change and the economic and political crises it will precipitate. For those of us who must live with the consequences of your generations failure to address the ecological crisis, we cannot tolerate the rape of Mother Earth that Enbridge and their malignant ilk daily engage in. How dare you scold us for taking action in defence of our future? It is our future that state-sanctioned ecocide has been systemically impoverishing for centuries. Would you chastise us for desiring to pass along a liveable world to those who come after us? Would you rather that we wallow hopelessly and helplessly, watching the web of life upon which our survival depends deteriorate further and further? The political channels you would have us believe in have clearly proven their inability to address the planetary crisis. Would you rather that we shrug and say “Fuck it”? Or waste our lives pursuing state-sanctioned “solutions” that are sure to fail? How dare you claim the moral high ground, you who lives in luxury while the sixth mass extinction rapidly accelerates? What have you done to reverse the damage that this civilization, year after year, inflicts on the Earth?

Fuck you, you old fuck. We are trying to repair the damage that your generation has done. We are trying to staunch the world’s wounds before it is too late. How dare you reproach us for our actions? In your inane lecture, you compared Frederick Brabant to Hitler, for the reason that they both believed in a cause. It insults my intelligence to even dignify this with a response, but since I must stoop to your level, here goes: The election of Hitler was legal, the actions of those who protected Jews and other undesirables from the Holocaust was illegal. The actions of slave-owners whipping slaves was legal, the Underground Railroad was outlaw shit. The residential school system was legal, traditional indigenous ceremonies were forbidden. It is an idiotic abasement of the human faculty for reasoning to equate lawful with right, and unlawful with wrong. The law, in every country, is created by the ruling class of that country, according to the interests and inclinations of that class. That you cannot see this obvious fact demonstrates a poverty of imagination that you should be ashamed to display in public. What you are saying is, in effect, Might makes Right, and in doing so you place yourself in the spiritual company of the judges of countless oppressive regimes, who have legitimized terror and torture by upholding the Law. So I say unto you: in condemning our comrades, you were convinced that you were right, but so was the judge that condemned the Tsilqotin chiefs to death. Or the state toadies who ordered the eviction of Africville and the deportation of the Acadians. Or they who enacted the War Measures Act during the October Crisis. Or they who demanded that Chinese migrant workers pay a head tax or be deported. Or they who ordered that people of Japanese descent be interned in concentration camps during World War Two. Each of these men, we can suppose, believed that what he was doing was right. But this was not the case.

We believe that there will come a day when the actions of water protectors will be seen in the same light as those who fought against slavery and imperial conquest in earlier generations. Moreover, although we are grateful that our activism has enjoyed popular support, we do not need the approval of mainstream society. We acknowledge no authority higher than ourselves, and we will continue to act in accordance with the aspirations of our spirits for freedom and dignity. We will continue to fight in defense of Mother Earth, on behalf of future generations and all our relations, consequences be damned.

And make no mistake – our movement is growing. Those with their fingers on the pulse already know this – the rest of you will soon enough.

May the sun set on all you represent, and as your generation dies, may the asinine ideology you have so shamelessly espoused die along with you. Fuck you, fuck your court, fuck the Crown and the Queen you serve. May the day soon come where all belief in their sanctity fades from memory, and human beings once again honour what is living instead of your dead abstractions. Only then will we as a people to be able to speak meaningfully of justice.

In the name of our fallen comrade, the praiseworthy and beloved Jean Leger, we declare: ON LACHE RIEN – we are not giving up.

for the wild,

the Pukulatamuj brigade of the Imaginary Anarchist Federation

Our comrades are currently fundraising to pay for costs related to this case. Please visit their crowd-funding page, found here:

https://www.youcaring.com/frederickbrabantwill-1047438

Explosion of solidarity for former Antidote worker

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Dec 242017

From SITT-IWW

In my two years with the communications committee of the IWW, I have never seen anything like this. The little story of Sarah, who was fired from the vegan restaurant Antidote a few days before Christmas, after experiencing intimidation and abuse of power, has gone viral.

Within less than 24 hours, the words of hope and acts of solidarity have been flowing from everywhere. Tens of thousands of views on our blog, I almost had the impression that I worked for Vice or Ton Petit Look, the only difference was that in the comment section it was a breathtaking expression of love that Sarah received, instead of the traditional hate mail.

We are witnessing a modern version of Scrooge’s Christmas Carol. In 2017, a few days before Christmas Eve, a young entrepreneur dynamic enough to make herself the owner of a trendy restaurant in a gentrifying neighborhood, fires her employee.

Before going any further, let’s be clear that to fire a restaurant worker in the middle of December, in addition to wishing her a Christmas without gifts to offer or food to bring to Christmas eve, is to wish her a happy three or four months’ unemployment, with no unemployment (EI), until industry hiring reopens with the arrival of spring.

Through a friend, Sarah came into contact with the ghost of Combative Syndicalism which agreed to share her story. You know what followed, the story went viral and social media blew up. If we were in a Christmas story, at the end of the third act the boss would repent, but the reality of the boss-worker relationship being what it is, she instead published a tearful text to explain that from the depths of her professional success, she was in fact the real victim.

It had a bit of everything: she’s young and has so much to learn, she didn’t know that one couldn’t ethically fire someone over text message, because giving her two weeks’ notice and some time to prepare herself (like bosses ask of us) just didn’t fit among her priorities. Almost like a caricature taken straight out of the management reactions module of the IWW’s Organizing 101 training.

In parallel with the crocodile tears of the boss which, judging from what we can see on Facebook did not affect anyone except two or three owners in similar situations or close friends, it was former employees who contacted us to inform us of similar experiences: the story came up of a small producer in Gaspésie who had difficulty being paid, and numerous other workers in the restaurant industry who explained that they found themselves in this kind of situation all too frequently. But maybe even more importantly, people all around Montreal wrote to us to share their sympathy and offer their solidarity with Sarah.

Between the words of encouragement, one who wrote had an open room, another a couch available if necessary, yet another had food for the dog, another had heard of a job available and others had temporary contracts or even permanent job contracts to offer. Class consciousness, fed up with the terrible working conditions of the restaurant industry, or simply Christmas spirit? It doesn’t matter for the moment, the solidarity has surpassed all our expectations and for that, on Sarah’s behalf, but also from all of the members of the IWW, we want to offer our most sincere thanks and wish you all an excellent holiday season.

Christmas at the vegan restaurant Antidote: Abuse of power and a firing over text message

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Dec 232017

From SITT-IWW

Christmas may be quickly approaching, but that doesn’t mean that our bosses will stop treating us like shit. Sarah sent us the following text following her firing, and it is with our full solidarity that we publish it, because, as she says: “We have to stick together.”

Hello, my name is Sarah and I am a student. It is one week before Christmas and instead of letting me enjoy the holidays, I’m worried about ending up on the street for the winter.

Up until last Wednesday, December 13th 2017, I worked as a dishwasher at “Antidote Bouffe Végane” and I loved it. I did my job well and I got along well with all of my coworkers. When I was hired on September 18th, 2017, I was so happy about the fact that I would no longer have to live in my car with my dog and to be able finally to pay rent, even if i was being paid minimum wage. My former boss, Élise Bellerose, manages the restaurant with the help of her right hand, Arielle La Jardinière. About a month before being fired, this same Arielle was put in charge of the restaurant by Élise when the latter was absent or at the spa. I believe that she saw this as a way to gain power and a good reputation in the eyes of the boss.

Quietly, Arielle began to institute a climate of intimidation in the restaurant, essentially all the employees started to receive threats of being fired for reasons that were not valid or even true. Everything we did or said could be used against us. When Élise came to talk to us, it was to scold us for things that she had no knowledge of aside from hearsay from Arielle. We were walking on eggshells. Some of us were going so far as to make it seem that we agreed with Arielle, for fear of losing our jobs, even if on multiple occasions, my coworkers and myself (once) were called “sluts” by her, under the pretext that it was a joke. Another dishwasher who everyone loved quit because he refused to be spoken to like he was less than nothing. We tried to talk about it with Élise, but she didn’t want to know anything.

About a week before I was fired, I left the kitchen to see if there were dirty dishes at the front as well as to go put toilet paper in the bathroom, because that was my job. That day, Élise was absent, but Arielle was there. While I was heading towards the bathroom, she said to me, “Come here Sarah.” Already, I knew that this was a bad sign. She then said the following in an arrogant tone: “Go wash your little corner in the back! You have no business in the front!”

I was really insulted and I responded to her that I was not okay with the way that she spoke to me; especially that she had no idea which tasks I had to do. Around two hours later the same night, three friends of mine came to eat at the restaurant and while returning to the front to look for dirty glasses, I passed in front of them and they asked me what was good on the menu. I stopped for a moment to offer my advice and a server came to see me right away to tell me not to do that, and that I should be careful because Arielle had told her that she had an eye on me and was going to tell Élise that I was wasting my time.

I returned to the kitchen, I was angry and exasperated at the climate of fear in the restaurant. I decided to text my boss. A cook advised me against it so that I didn’t lose my job. But I knew that Arielle was going to tell my boss that I was a bad worker, so I needed to defend myself. I sent her a message saying that I did not understand why Arielle had this attitude toward me and that if they hated my work so much, I would like to be aware. She never responded, but the next morning she posted a note in the employee room that said that Arielle had just as many rights as her regarding what happened in the restaurant during her absence and that it was necessary that we, the employees, “deal” with that. So I had my response… Élise, who was the boss, never asked to speak with me or anything. When we crossed paths, it was as if I had never even texted her. I said to myself that it was just going to stay like that.

But last Wednesday, December 13th 2017, at 1:14pm just before my 5:00pm shift, I received a text message from Élise saying the following:

“Hello Sarah, sorry to tell you this by text but Antidote will no longer need your services. I thank you for your understanding, if you have any questions, text me. Good luck in the future. Élise.”

I never thought I was going to come to lose my job like this, at the tap of fingers. I obviously texted in response to try to understand the reasons, but she never responded. I contacted the Normes du travail, to know if I had the right to at least 2 weeks notice or remuneration. They said I did not, because it had not been three months…I was only 5 days short of three months. The employees at Antidote are now watching their every move and fear losing their jobs like me. Arielle is still there. I’m also scared that she will fire other employees.

I made a request for employment insurance but I already know that I don’t have enough hours. I sold my car as scrap, this will allow me to have at least the month of January where I know I will have a roof over my head for me and my little dog. For what follows, I don’t know and I admit that I am scared. I hope I will quickly find another job. Thank you for reading this and please share widely, in solidarity with those who experience intimidation at work.

We have to stick together. Goodbye.

Redecorating the Cegep

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Dec 222017

From subMedia

After the school decided to erase graffiti, local writers and students took action. They tagged lockers, wrote messages, and sprayed cameras until the security arrived.

December 5th and 8th in MTL

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Dec 202017

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Guillaume Beauchamp and Maxime Morin (aka “DMS”) publicly declared war on antifascists in Quebec, and in Montreal.

These far-right fanboys have threatened to find us and destroy us. Big mistake.

On December 5th, we had a friendly run-in with you in the streets. Judging by how fast you ran away from us, we thought you had understood our warning the first time.

On the night of December 8th we paid you a visit at your home, 2440 Chambly street, apartment #1, in Hochelaga. We had the pleasure of putting up a few posters around your place, just to let your neighbours know that they live next to some neo-fascist rats.

This was your second and last warning. If you don’t learn to shut up and behave yourself, it’s going to cost you. Feel free to spread the word to your fashy chums: y’all are never, ever safe in this city.

AFC (Antifa af Collective)

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