Reportback from Montreal’s May Day Against Borders

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May 142019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

On May Day 2019 in Montreal there were four different demonstrations at different times and locations across the city. The CLAC (Convergence des Luttes Anti-Capitalistes) called for their annual anti-capitalist May Day demonstration to be held in the theme of “No borders”, in the context of the rise of the xenophobic far right in Quebec and the ongoing attept to construct a new migrant prison in Laval, QC. We attended the CLAC’s No Borders May Day, which gathered at 6:30pm at Square Cabot in the west end of downtown Montreal.

Shortly after the few-hundred strong group left the square, heading south on Atwater towards St Henri, a small black bloc at the rear of the demo took shape, shielded by a rear-facing banner reading “All Bosses are Bastards”. Construction fencing, pylons, and other materials were dragged into the street, creating distance between the demo and the cops following behind. Flyers had been passed out at the departure point encouraging people to take both sides of the street and the sidewalks as an attempt to prevent cops from using the sidewalks to flank the demo. This largely worked, no side cops were able to take position.

The demo turned west on Notre-Dame and then north on Greene, heading towards the headquarters of Lemay, an architecture firm designing the proposed migrant prison. As the demo approached the building, a dumpster was lit on fire at the back of the demo and rolled backwards towards the bike cops trailing the demo, creating a bit of a buffer in the lead up to what was to come. At Lemay, people attacked the building, breaking the large windows at the front and side of the building with rocks, billiard balls, and improvised battering rams. Paint bombs covered the facade on two sides of the building as well. Flyers were distributed explaining Lemay’s role in the construction of the migrant prison.

Riot cops deployed, too late, in front of the Lemay building, and were met with rocks. They responded to the escalating situation with tear gas, and the demo turned north off of St-Jacques. Though the demo split and some people scattered due to the tear gas, minutes later two large groups met up on St-Antoine, a major artery leading to a highway on-ramp — the dispersal attempt was unsuccessful! Marching against already backed-up traffic, the raucous group dragged garbage and recycling bins into the street, lighting some on fire. Though the group continued to thin out over the next 15 minutes, a sizable demo marched east on Notre-Dame, leaving graffiti in its wake, and defending itself with fireworks shot at the cops.

This May Day was a marked improvement from last year, when a confrontation between flanking sidewalk cops and a black bloc at the front of the demo two minutes after departure isolated most of the bloc from the rest of the demo, leading the demonstration to continue but without most of the bloc. Since that confrontation, the cops have consistently kept their distance at major demos, testifying to the success of a combative demo culture. However, they are positioning themselves to go on the offensive very quickly after attacks have taken place, and we will need to continue responding to this change in strategy.

This year, the distribution of groups of anonymous and confrontational people throughout the demo appears to have prevented the isolation of the bloc from the rest of the demo. It also helped to mitigate the negative effects of dispersal attempts — having groups of people throughout the demo that are prepared to stick it out after tear gas and charges means that many others can build the confidence to do this as well. This year’s successful regroupment and the long continuation of the demo even after it had wreaked havoc on Lemay are testaments to this.

****This year, we noticed a lot of people in the demo with cameras or filming with their phones. Filming and taking pictures puts people at risk, whether or not you’re the mass media. Even if you don’t intend to hand your footage to the cops or have the intention to blur out identifying features before you post your pictures, you might get arrested with information that incriminates others. A reminder: don’t film in a demo, and don’t be surprised if you get pushed out of the demo if you do.

The success of the demo’s attack on Lemay was also an exciting development in the struggle against the migrant prison. Lemay has already been attacked multiple times in the past year (its condo projects have been attacked, and the building it is headquartered in had crickets released into it and all its locks destroyed as well), but these attacks have not been as public as this demonstration, and have presumably involved smaller groups of people. We are heartened by the strength and solidity of hundreds of people who stood and stayed together while this abhorrent architecture firm had its building fucked with in broad daylight. It’s this kind of collective strength and daring that will continue to be necessary as the fight to prevent the construction of the prison heats up in the coming months.

Long live the uncontrollable demo! Long live the struggle against the migrant prison! Against borders and against prisons!

Fuck Lemay, happy May Day!

Call to Disrupt the Nature Champions Summit

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Apr 012019

From Printemps tout le temps [Facebook page]

April 24th and 25th, Montreal will host a “Nature Champions Summit” bringing together “major philanthropists, business leaders, non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies, Indigenous leaders and environment ministers from around the world”.

While the planet burns, the poorest populations suffer the violent consequences of ecological disasters, and animal species rapidly disappear, politicians hope to gather peacefully for one more congress. We don’t need yet another summit organized by the Canadian state, known for its extractivist economy, and which just bought a pipeline for 4.5 billion dollars, telling us that a “new partnership” between a handful of ministers and major capitalists will save us from the climate crisis. These “Nature Champions” are responsible for the catastrophe in progress. There is no way we can let them continue to administer disaster with their hollow promises.

April 24 and 25, 2019, let’s disrupt their summit! Let’s multiply actions and demonstrations to show that the “Nature Championship” will be won by those who defend the water, the land, and all that lives on it, not by those that exploit them.

Anticapitalist MayDay 2019 – Cabot Square – 6:30PM

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Mar 262019

From the Convergence des luttes anti-capitalistes

On Wednesday May 1st, at 6:30pm, in Square Cabot, the anticapitalist caravan is back at it again to say fuck your borders and fuck your prisons!

For people fleeing miserable living conditions, what are borders if not fences around prisons? After all, what’s the difference between forcing people to live inside arbitrary perimeters against their will and imprisoning them?

Being forced to work for a Canadian company in Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, or elsewhere isn’t much better than being detained. These companies produce all of the useless junk that forms the basis of our modern comfort. The fact that the factories are so far away from Canada makes the exploitation less visible for westerners, though it is clear that slavery has not vanished; it’s only been given a different label. Exploited people pick our fruits, sew our clothes, catch our fish, and die for the rich to get richer, day after day, after day, after day…

When those exploited try to rebel, imperialist states are always happy to sell corrupt governments, armed groups, local prison guards all the weapons and tools to repress anyone who wishes to change the system. Police officers in Central America, guns in Africa, funds in Asia… everything needed to keep local populations under control. Everything needed to support the shaky pyramid of capitalism.

Under these circumstances, how can we not see migrant caravans as people fleeing prisons of poverty and misery? Escaping endless exploitation? This escape is however unacceptable for an imperialist state. States finance complex networks to kidnap freedom seekers and take them back to their original cells where they can waste away working; a network made up of border agents, prisons for migrant families, and immigration police. An entire chain running from Canada to international neo-colonies. A chain made up of imprisoned children, families torn apart, abused women, dead men, and assassinated hopes.

Capitalism is the accumulation of wealth up North at the expense of the global South. It’s the construction of a padded fortress destined for a privileged handful, at the expense of all human decency. Capitalism is the eternal exploitation of three quarters of humanity. This Mayday, let’s attack the sinister agents of capital, the bloodied hands of slave masters: the border infrastructure, the companies gaining wealth building prisons, the inhuman deportation machine. This Mayday, we say fuck borders, prisons, and all who continue to build fences between peoples.

This Mayday, let’s march for freedom! Let’s march for the death of a system that spits on humanity! Let’s march against Capital!

Main Starting Point

Meetup at 6:30 in Cabot square (Atwater metro station).
To follow the state of the protests on Twitter
Legal Support (in French)

Other Demonstrations and Starting Points

IWW demonstration (détails to come soon)

Owner at the beach, workers on the street: Former workers at M. Mme claim over $20,000 in unpaid wages

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Mar 062019

From the Montreal IWW

In addition to our organizing campaigns, the Montreal IWW also organizes Claim Your Pay campaigns, where our members help workers who have been robbed of their wage after being fired. These campaigns mostly happen in the restaurant business and involve a few hundred dollars. When a worker came into contact with us about some unpaid wages in a restaurant that had just closed, we were not expecting such an important case.

Currently, the Montreal IWW is on a huge Claim Your Pay case: more than $20,000 in unpaid wages and tips and 11 people remain unpaid since at least December, more for some. Some of the workers were unable to pay their rent, others had to ask for help from food banks or had accumulated debt because of bounced cheques from the bosses. All of these people worked at the M.Mme wine bar located at 244 Laurier West in Montreal, which closed suddenly on January 26th.

The bosses and what happened:

The owners are John Hovannes Kalanjian, Asbed (or Aspid) Istanboulian and Sevan Istanboulian. The last two are also owners of Café Mystique, a distributor of coffee products around the world and present in several stores in Quebec. They also own the Toi, moi & café coffee chain, which is trying to set up shop in several subway stations in Montreal. Based on the workers’ testimonies, we would like to tell you more about how Asbed works with his employees. Asbed was the most present boss of the two brothers at the M.Mme and Toi, moi & café nearby.

As these two businesses share a back hall connecting them, it was easy for employees to learn more about the bad habits of Asbed Istanboulian: other stories of wage theft, tip theft, late pay cheques and bounced cheques… Asbed would also take advantage of the precarious working conditions of migrants by underpaying or simply not paying them.

In addition, Asbed Istanboulian has a history of negligence in the management of his businesses. In order to save on health-related costs, he preferred to use cheap mouse traps instead of using an exterminator, which is not in compliance with regulations. Employees and clients would end up hearing the dying mice. He sometimes did not pay suppliers and bills which meant several bailiffs even came to the restaurant. The inability of employees to reach him meant they did not have the necessary means to run the restaurant smoothly. He, for example, neglected to place orders at important moments of the restaurant (such as high booking times and office parties). He was also used to accusing employees of being the cause of the restaurant’s financial problems.

It is not the first time Asbed Istanboulian steals wages. We found out that a former team member of the M.Mme restaurant had filed complaints. We found a 4-year old testimony on the Toi, moi & café on Laurier’s Facebook page stating that a worker had their wages stolen. We also learned that other employees of Toi, moi & café had not been paid.

The present situation:

The union has already taken action against the owners of the M.Mme. Two out of 11 workers were paid! The kicker? We also learned that Asbed is off on a trip to the South for the week! The happiness of the few is evidently at the cost of the misery of the many. The union does not intend to let the boss get away with it.

To conclude, know that the Mystique Coffe, owned by Asbed Istanboulian, prides itself on being the largest fair trade coffee distributor in Canada, while it is not at all equitable with its employees. Also know that he and his partners are planning to open 26 new Toi, moi & cafés in metro stations and at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. We urge you to boycott Toi, moi & café and Mystique Coffe products and to denounce the actions – especially wage and tip thefts – of the owners on the businesses’ Facebook pages and other promotional sites.

We are appealing to everyone: if you too have worked for Asbed Istanboulian in the past – at Toi, moi & Café, at the restaurant M.Mme or another one – and you have been the victim of wage theft, contact the Montreal IWW. We offer you our solidarity and are ready to help you.

An injury to one is an injury to all!

IWW Pickets Continue Postal Strike Blockades

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Dec 172018

From the No Borders Media Network

Montreal, December 10th – Protesters are currently blocking all the main entrances to the main Canada Post International Mail Processing Center near Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport (at 555 McArthur in Ville St-Laurent). At present, dozens of trucks are backed up at the main entrances, where three groups of protesters are using banners to block entrances. No trucks are able to leave the facility.

The direct action is in support of postal workers, and in opposition to the repressive ‘back-to-work’ legislation passed by the Canadian government on November 26, 2018. The anti-worker law effectively prevents the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) from continuing their strike.

Today’s protest is the first direct action in support of postal workers in Quebec since the “back-to-work” law passed, joining protests that have already happened across Canada, including in Halifax, Sydney, Fredericton, Ottawa, Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton,Edmonton, Whitehorse and Vancouver. Recently, picketers were arrested in both Halifax and Ottawa for their blockades. Comrades in Montreal were expressing solidarity with similar pickets and blockades that have happened elsewhere, including for arrested protesters.

Today’s action is organized by IWW Montreal, with the support of retired postal workers and community members. The public press release for the action is available here: www.facebook.com/…/phot…/a.1521183491427251/2263430937202499 (check the Iww Montréal facebook page for more updates).

Discover Westmount: An Up-and-Coming Hub of Anarchist Activity

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Oct 282018

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

When you hear the word “Westmount”, temporary autonomous zones, dumpster barricades, and flaming effigies of Trudeau aren’t exactly what pops to mind. People often think of this drab neighborhood looming over St. Henri as purgatory where the absurdly wealthy listlessly drift between a loveless marriage, resentful children, and a soul-crushing job… But not anymore!

Westmount is undergoing revitalization!

Anarchists are transforming it into a mixed-attack neighborhood that offers many opportunities for comrades of every tendency. In desolate Westmount, there’s an activity for anarchists of any stripe—regardless if your flag flies black, half-red, or purple glitterbomb.

Read Buzzfeed’s list of Five Cool Facts You Didn’t Know About Westmount (or, as we like to call it: Nouvelle-Exarchia)

1) Every other home is empty.

While most of those South of Maisonneuve can’t afford their rising rent–let alone buy a home—the tyrannical trillionaires of Westmount can own 2, 3, and sometimes 4 properties! They may be property owners, but not necessarily residents. Perfectly good houses are just sitting there, with empty bedrooms—and stocked fridges! It’s the cheapest Air BnB in the city-breakfast included! Think about it: Second home or…Squatted Social Centre?

2) Westmount pigs are literally the same as Montreal Pigs.

The Scumbag Protectors of the Very Moneyed (S.P.V.M) aren’t good enough for the affluent assholes of Westmount – these burdensome billionaires have –get this– brought in their very own smarmy army.

The only difference is that they aren’t in full-body armour—their soft, supple skin is vulnerable to the many elements (and projectiles). The way we see it: Two Birds; One Molotov.

3) It’s full of artisinale barricade material.

Have you ever been in a rowdy street party and the police just aren’t taking the many “hints” that their invitation wasn’t simply “lost in the mail”? You run to grab a newspaper box, only to realize it’s been bolted to the ground! You look around, but you are bereft of barricade material! This would never happen in Revolutionary Westmount!™ Here, the streets are peppered with grade-A barricade material, and all of it free for the taking. Newspaper Boxes, Dumpsters, and Patio Furniture—Oh my!

4) The walls are a primed canvas.

Did you know that these wealthy whiners haven’t yet heard of public art? It’s true! The many beautiful, blank walls in this tax-shelter territory present a desirable development opportunity. In this beige borough, you’ll never run into the problem of spending the night hanging out with your “squad”, getting ready to “throw up” an “ACAB” only to find another “tagger” has already “1312”-ed your “sick spot”. The walls are waiting for you to “Bank”-sy it up!

5) Last but not least: Banks, and lots of them!

‘Nuf said. (We already made a good bank joke in #4.)

Jokes aside, on the beautiful fall evening, we slashed the tires of two cars parked in the driveway of 3140 rue Jean-Girard, in Westmount. This is the address of Brandon Shiller. Brandon Shiller is a prominent slumlord who buys up properties in low-income areas with the sole purpose of evicting tenants and hiking up the rent. His daddy’s real-estate firm is Shiller Lavy, which is also heavily-involved in gentrifying many neighborhoods in Montreal.

We encourage anyone else concerned with the rising rents and attacks on the poor to let these scumbags, who hide in the wealthiest neighbourhood in Montreal, know how you feel.

Attack on the Canadian embassy in Athens

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Oct 242018

From Liveleak.com

The Canadian state through its embassy in Athens constantly support the mining corporation Eldorado Gold, responsible for mass destruction of the natural habitat at Chalkidiki region and other places in north Greece. The mining activities destroy aging forests and pollute the earth and water.

The mining industry, and in particular mining operations around the world, are one of the most profitable and at the same time shadow industries. Mining companies are by nature two levels on the scale of exploitation by joint ventures, because in addition to gaining surplus value from the workers, public wealth is harvested from the subsoil of the sites that are active to sell it as theirs, leaving behind dead land. There are many examples of mining companies that left behind huge environmental disasters, dissolved local societies and irreparable damage to human health. For example, the chemical contamination in the Baia Mare mine in Romania by AURUL or the enormous environmental disaster caused by MARCOPPER in the Philippines. In this context, an extraction could not be an exception in Greece. It is no coincidence that economically weak and corrupt countries are a good ground for such investments as they are more vulnerable to the elasticisation of their environmental legislation and the need for work makes workers easy prey to identify themselves with the interests of companies and to turn into their defenders by forgetting their class position.

In the 2000s, Bobolas and the PASOK government took part in one of the biggest scandals of recent years, that of the mines of Halkidiki. In 2003, the Greek state buys Cassandra mines from Canadian TVX and on the same day it transfers them without the planned open tender to Hellenic Gold SA for 11 million euros. Ellinikos Xrysos was founded 3 days before the acquisition of TVX and with a share capital of 60,000 euros (the smallest possible for AE), with the main shareholders also the Canadian European Goldfields and the Hellenic interests of Bobola. This dark contract transferred a mountain of ores worth 22 billion euros, mines, industrial buildings, offices, factories, mechanical equipment, homes, mining of ores and exemption from any responsibility for the protection of the environment. Interesting in the case is that a few years after the transfer, the commission found that this agreement was granted unlawful State aid of EUR 15,400,000 in favor of Hellenic Gold and forced it to repay this amount plus interest to the state. The even more interesting thing is that the then Minister, G. Papaconstantinou, denied this amount and, together with Bhopal, appealed to the European Court against the decision. In 2011, with the licensing of mining, a third Canadian company, Eldorado gold, absorbs European goldfields and acquires 95% of Greek gold. Unlawful state aid of € 15,400,000 was granted to Hellenic Gold and forced it to repay this amount plus interest to the state. The even more interesting thing is that the then Minister, G. Papaconstantinou, denied this amount and, together with Bhopal, appealed to the European Court against the decision.

It is worth mentioning that while in other countries states are taxing mining companies very high and in some cases sometimes demanding a proportion of the mined metals, Greek Gold is taxed on net profits, even from the production stage of pure metals, which the company from the beginning was not meant to do because the proposed method cannot be applied. As expected, the company declares a minus fund and is therefore not taxed. It is also known how the profits of the company through labyrinthine routes end up in companies in the Netherlands and enjoy Barbey island taxes.

Mining in Chalkidiki is a huge project, at the level of investment, spatial and social size and profit for the company. At the same time, it is one of the biggest scandals in recent years, and it has not taken on the proportions it has, such as Vatopedi, SIEMENS or the armaments, although it has nothing to envy, neither in sums nor in the interplay of politicians, contractors, international business giants.

We were particularly pleased with MEGA’s Hollywood reports, which incidentally belonged to Bhopal, for hours to play the protest of 300 metal miners while in Thessaloniki 10,000 people demonstrated against mining. But apart from interweaving, bots and contracts, the epitome of exploitation and looting is the destruction of the environment. Only about 500,000 dusts per hour will be emitted from the rock drilling and explosion areas. This powder contains arsenic, asbestos, lead and other heavy metals and moves from area to area at great speeds through the air, polluting the atmosphere, water, and plants.

Gold is only a stock market value, with no usability, with only 10% of the mined product being used in technology. Its extraction could be avoided, since recycling of already mined gold could cover global needs for many years without even altering the properties of the metal. With the predatory agreement of selling the mines to Hellenic gold, it was public mineral wealth, without any kind of benefit to society, while the state reiterated its consistent practice of exempting companies from established damages and unlawful acts. We have been monitoring the state, over the last 15 years, in co-operation with the Supreme Courts, to facilitate the company with photographic laws and licensing, and to keep a viewer on the continuing illegality. We have watched the company lose any credibility to comply with its approved studies and obligations, especially since it has been released in advance for the environmental damage it will cause. All this, coupled with the inability of control mechanisms, makes the last of the natives aware of the upcoming huge catastrophe that will change the map of the entire region.

The “tradition” of the people in the mining has “delivered tradition” and the movement against it. For the last 40 years, since the Bodossakis era, a multiform movement has called for mobilization and conflict, has endured persecution and imprisonment and has reached academic writing and scientific studies against media propaganda. The radicalization of these societies shows that when capital pillages nature and hence our own lives it will find them in front of it “from the bottom”. Capital is plundering workers, nature and animals. The state is always there to lay back, money and brush. The duty of our class is to send them to the crutch.

Many of the mining companies operating worldwide are based in Canada and three of them are involved in gold mining in Halkidiki. Canadian embassies around the world systematically defend the Canadian mines to blackmail governments to accept mining threatening to disrupt relations between countries. The examples are many. From Chiapas to Mexico and Guatemala, where the embassies supported companies that had their activist killings in their resume, to Honduras, where the Canadian embassy forcibly pressed the government to pass a bill favorable to miners despite the opposite public opinion.

State and capital will always be mutually supportive and will always find us opposite.

Anarchist collectivity of Rubikon

The Ballot Box, the Street, the Strike

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Sep 252018

From Dissident.es

[Editorial of the CUTE magazine, Fall 2018]

The election period brings its own complications for those who wish to directly take part in a campaign like the one for paid internships and for the recognition of studies as a job. For many months now, interventions have burst forth from all sides, intentional or not, to hijack, divert or neutralize the organizational ability of interns in struggle, towards partisan or corporatist ends. These initiatives, in combination with manoeuvres by the government, come from partisan committees rather than national student associations.

The first example – At the end of March, the Minister of Finance brought down the provincial budget, in which $15 million per year has been announced, earmarked for a financial compensation package during the final internship in teaching. After years of cutbacks in public services^[1], no one is fooled: It is indeed an electoral budget in which gifts are being distributed. Financial compensation for final teaching internships has been demanded for more than a dozen years by local and national associations, whose involvement has gone up and down without seeming to lead to any concrete gains. Why has the government decided to move now? The strike! A little more than a year of sustained struggle for the payment of all internships and a serious threat of a stoppage of classes and internships in many programs and many regions was sufficient to make those in power see the need to act. While pressing the demands of CRAIES^[2], and completely aware that the most combative elements in the struggle could be found in large part within the education programs, the measures announced serve, no more no less, to divide the movement and cut off it’s ability to organize. It must be said that the strike days are starting to accumulate and administrations like the one at UQAM are showing some openness to paid internships in every program. The Minister of Higher Education herself has publicly announced, following a high profile action by CUTE UQAM, within the framework of the Summit on higher education, that a major project to explore the possibility of paid internships in many programs would be put in place. In short, if the weakening of the movement seems real following the budget, it is however a knife that cuts both ways: this concession also indicates that the days of the stoppage gave concrete results and it is foreseeable that an unlimited general strike could lead to all interns receiving a salary. It is however necessary to avoid dividing the movement and give the government other escape routes of the same sort.

This is what brings us to the second example. Following this “victory” half-heartedly demanded by CRAIES and UEQ^[3], it was tempting to want to reproduce this recipe. That is the idea held by the Quebec Association of Student Midwives (AESFQ), who have undertaken to imitate the campaign of CRAIES, in an accelerated fashion, within an electoral context, thinking that in this way they can obtain payment for their internships. Thus begins the speeches and photos with politicians, like Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and Jean-François Lisée, press conferences at the National Assembly, memes on social media, all of it only to demand paid final internships for midwife practice. The FAECUM^[4] is of the same opinion. It encourages the executive of the Social Services Student Association at the Université de Montréal (AESSUM), where the struggle for the payment of all internships is well rooted, to organize a campaign for their discipline only, while sharing with them their worries about seeing this association participate in the strike movement. However, such corporatist concessions would have resulted in weakening the movement as a whole even more and to make all campaigns by program or field of study stagnate. The movement for the payment of all internships has helped reinvigorate the campaigns for the payment of the final teaching internships and for the payment of internships in the study of midwifery, by linking them to a general movement that is rooted in the recognition of the interns’ work and, more broadly, of the work of women, both at the local level and on a global scale. The last thing that is needed right now is to split the movement into specific struggles.

The third and last example. During last winter and spring, activists of Québec Solidaire (QS) from almost everywhere, took it upon themselves to circulate a petition around campuses in favour of paid internships that are mandatory for receiving a diploma. That is notably the case of the QS Campus Association at the Université de Montréal and the QS Sympathizers Group at the Université de Sherbrooke. Rather than being destined to be tabled in the National Assembly, this petition is part and parcel of the new QS strategy that permits the organization to collect voters’ data in view of involving them in the electoral campaign^[5]. Rather than use the pre-election period to invite students to mobilize for paid internships on the campuses, they divert this struggle towards recruitment and to promote voting for a party. But the equation that “a vote for QS = a vote for paid internships” is misleading. Firstly, because the campus committees of QS are not involved in the struggle for paid internships and don’t participate in the activities and meetings in the educational institutions nor within the regional coalitions for paid internships, though everyone is welcome. However it is above all because, even if the position of QS indicates that the party is in favour of the payment of all stages, its electoral programme is itself not specific about the theme of the payment of the final stage in teaching^[6]. It would therefore be better advised for QS activists on the campuses to rally around the movement and organize the strike rather than to re-route the movement from the street towards the ballot box; a strategy that has never been proven effective.

Minister David has put in place a round table with the national student associations to extinguish the fires that we have lit. It is important now to respond in a judicious way. It doesn’t matter which party will take power, we will organize the strike and we will lead it until the end. Let us not be distracted by the elections. That is the watchword that the groups and associations united within the Montreal and Outaouais coalitions have given themselves, for paid internships.It is only in this way that the government will give in.

According to IRIS, there has been more than $4 billion in cuts to public services between 2014 and 2016. Observatoire des conséquences des mesures d’austérité du Québec: https://austerite.iris-recherche.qc.ca/.
Inter-university campaign concerning demands and action for teaching internships.
Student Union of Quebec
Federation of Student Associations of the Université de Montréal Campus.
This declared strategy of Quebec Solidaire is been used equally by the Coalition Avenir Québec: http://journaldequebec.com/2018/02/15/quebec-solidaire-lance-une-petition-pour-demettre-barrette
QS leaflet on the payment of internships: https://quebecsolidaire.net/nouvelle/tract-remunerer-les-stages-ca-presse

Bill 25 on Welfare: a War on the Poor

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Aug 102018

From the SITT-IWW

On April 1 came into force the law 25 – “An Act to provide a better match between training and employment and to promote employment integration” – which was integrated with the current law on social assistance. We believe it is the early termination of welfare because the founding principles behind it, the right to live decently and access to income regardless of the cause of need, no longer considered. Its implementation will jeopardize people’s lives by imposing attempt to survive them with crumbs, and taking in the great objective employment project, whose purpose is to provide a cheap labor business.

With the law 25, anyone who came to welfare after April 1 2018 must now must enter the Target employment program. This is also the case for those already on welfare before that date but which are part of a family where one member of the couple is now first-time applicant or first-time applicant *.

The law 25 implies that, when you find yourself in these categories, if one misses a meeting with our officer or social welfare officer, she or he can retain completely our check. Furthermore, in case of breach of any of our obligations without cause “valid” (according to the plan set by the welfare officer-e corresponding to our situation : making employment initiatives, to training or to “develop social skills”), Agent-e will have the right to cut our check in the following month or the following month.

56 $ for the first breach ;
112 $ for the 2nd violation ;
224 $ for the 3rd failure.

Basically, if we refuse to comply with employment integration program, we are forced to live with a check 409$ per month. It is therefore clear that the objective of the law 25 is to require persons found no compulsion to work to find one, according to the priorities of private enterprise and according to labor market needs (and conditions established by the welfare officer-e). But we know that the work is not the only way to achieve in life ! And we claim the right to live decently no matter how it is done. In the facts, this law reinforces the notion of “good and bad poor” and prejudice against people who do not have jobs. The government amplifies voluntarily. It is to his advantage to do so, breaking the solidarity among the population, sparking discontent against welfare recipients who have “easy”, that are “hard fat, parasites, fraudsters, profiteers “who deserve to live in misery.

The irony is that even the Employers Council has expressed reservations about the punitive measures Objective employment program. By parliamentary committee, M. Yves-Thomas Dorval, CEO of the Quebec Employers Council, said : « […] That said, I’ll be honest with you, M. The Minister : The amount of social assistance, was, it’s not much either, […]. That’s why I was very happy to see that enhances Russia welfare for those who want to participate. And with that I can assure you of our full support in that direction. Now, it is difficult for a government to make measurements without consideration. And that, I do not know if this is the best, we are not experts in it, but I can just tell you : For sure this is already not high, was, the level of social assistance.» (27 January 2016).

The government’s goal is clear : He wishes discipline the poor world to make it a slave labor and captive, no alternative but to actively participate in programs imposed by the Ministry not to starve. What is announced, this is not a fight against poverty, it is a war to the poor! Keeping us in abject conditions, stirring a core in the form of possible adjustments on their check and a stick in the form of large denomination check or file closure, the Liberal party is a cheap labor, Gift for the company, and long-term, the end of welfare.

Au SITT-IWW, we will continue to oppose any project that creates a class of workers and precarious-e-s workers and that is why we are in solidarity with the struggle against Lens employment project!

* A first-time applicant or a primary applicant is a person who makes an application for social assistance for the first time.

Small gift for the G7 – It was what it seemed like

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Jun 252018

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

While the police and their para-military weapons invaded the old city’s streets, looking for some obscure threat; some shadows slid out of their lair. They attacked the telecommunications system recently updated in Charlevoix by some generous and powerful people. The need for a good fiber-optic connection for the G7 festival relies on a few thousands poles and some big black wires. And no, it’s not the kind of thing that can ignite by itself… We also want to cheer the beaver who broke the fiber-optic network in 2013 and the ice which did the same in April of this year. We hope that by testing your network, we helped you miss a few tweets…

We refuse to be bound by your tentaculary networks. For us, every technological advancement comes at the price of another regression in our liberty.

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