Beansprout Collective

A Day Denouncing War – 10th Anniversary of the Invasion of Afghanistan

When:  Friday October 7, 2011  – events throughout the day (see below)

Where: Various locations in Kitchener and Waterloo

Why:    10th Anniversary of the Western invasion of Afghanistan,  “Operation Enduring Freedom”, led by the US and the UK.
Canada has asserted itself as an international military presence, with Canadian military personnel still in Afghanistan and a recently extended mission in Libya. These are Imperial wars, seeking to control resources.
Our politicians fan the flames of Islamophobia and our media lies to protect the capitalists.
Untold numbers are murdered by our military.

Join us throughout the day of action!

(8:30-9:30am) – Banners/placards/presence. Kitchener. Corner of Lancaster and Victoria, in front of MP Woodworth’s office.  Bring signs and noise makers!

(12- 1pm) – Distributing info, anti-recruitment material and Canadian Peace Alliance postcards.

October 7, 2001, Chretien publicly commits to joining war at the request of George W Bush.
October 8, Canada pledges 6 Naval ships, 6 planes, Special Forces and 2000 troops.
October 17, Canadian ships leave for Arabian Sea
December 19, Canadian Commandos land.  UN resolution was yet to be passed.
January 14, 2002, 20 members of Canadian military enter Afghanistan.
February 2, first major wave of Canadian troops land

See full(er) timeline of the Canadian Military in Afghanistan at:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/afghanistan/timeline.html

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20050804/afghanistan_timeline_050804/

Also visit:
http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/AfghanistanResources.htm

In the middle of the night we crawled out before Hamilton’s James St. Art Crawl and wheatpasted our friends pictures and our opinions about the refugee system on plywood boards of empty buildings. The Spectator called us the next day and we quickly called our friends from Hamilton’s Gypsi Church to help translate for Sylvia. Roma people are being deported at an accelerated rate in Canada under the Conservative government. Like Jews, these are a poor people that have been historically oppressed in Europe for ages, including concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Where Silvia is from, even the Slovakian churches want nothing to do with the Roma people, just like the segregation that has occurred here in North America between black and white Christians. This is the shameful racist world we live in. This is why after Canada and many other countries refused to accept Jews fleeing persecution before WWII the United Nations refugee act was created and agreed upon. Unfortunately those ideals are quickly lost admist economic rhetoric and policy that allows only the productive human being with the fortune of a good lawyer the dignity of being human enough to deserve being sheltered from racist violence. That leaves our friends Silvia and her young family, who are also trying to escape domestic violence without a case to stand on.

Check out what the Spectator had to say.

We are trying to raise money for lawyer or funds to sustain them if they are forced to return to Slovakia.

This year at the Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair there will be a Spirituality round table!

Saturday June 4th, 10-5
Workers Arts and Heritage Centre (51 Stuart St, Hamilton)
Accessible venue, free lunch, free childcare
Facebook: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=182478331801794

We need to talk. We need to talk about our past: the HSR strike of 1906, the steelworkers’ strike of ’46, the fight for the Red Hill Valley, the fact that this city is on stolen Native land. We need to talk about what we are facing today: attacks on workers and the poor, gentrification, the total destruction of our landbase, and the same deception and oppression from those in power we’ve always seen. Finally, let’s talk about our future. Let’s talk about a world without classes, bosses, borders or boredom. Let’s talk about freedom, and how we’re gonna get there.

On June 4th, join us in the historic Worker’s Arts and Heritage Centre for the 4th annual Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair. There will be books and literature, workshops and discussions, free food and childcare. This venue is wheelchair accessible, please feel free to contact us about accessibility concerns: hamiltonbookfair@gmail.com
We’ll see you there!
Love,

Abousfian Abdelrazik Fundraiser

Saturday June 11th 2011

Kitchener, Victoria Park Picnic Area (near playground)
1:00 pm – 3 pm

Rain or Shine!  We’ll be under the shelter if it’s raining.

Join us for a pay-what-you-can barbecue picnic in support of Abousfian Abdelrazik.  Delicious veggie and Halal meat bbq fare by donation.  Bring your own reusable dishes if you can.

“Abousfian Abdelrazik – like Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati, Muayyed Nureddin and Maher Arar, other victims of a Canadian programme of outsourcing torture – was, according to documents released by the Department of Foreign Affairs, jailed on the recommendation of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) while on a visit to Sudan.

Never charged, he was beaten, threatened and tortured during two periods of detention. In this context, Abdelrazik was interrogated by CSIS officials, and separately by Sudanese and French intelligence agents and the FBI. The Canadian embassy was instructed by the Canadian government that: “Mission staff should not accompany Abdelrazik to his interview with the FBI.”

Eventually released and cleared of all suspicion by Sudan, and even by the RCMP and CSIS in late 2007, his many attempts to return home to Montreal were repeatedly blocked.” From People’s Commission Website

Accessibility:  The picnic area is accessible by wheelchair from the Park parking lots.  Washrooms are wheelchair accessible.  Please contact us if you have any questions.

We will be accepting donations in active defiance of the UN 1267 sanctions regime.  According to federal law, anyone who contributes money to Mr Abdelrazik risks prosecution. Join the hundreds of individuals and labour unions who have decided to openly defy the unjust sanctions by making a donation to Mr. Abdelrazik (see full list of supporters)
http://www.peoplescommission.org/en/abdelrazik/supporters.php

Donations will go directly to support Mr Abdelrazik as well as his delisting delegation.  Community members will be traveling to the UN in New York this June to demand his removal from the UN 1267 list.

For more information about the event contact: nlawji@gmail.com

Learn more about the UN 1267 sanctions and Abdelrazik’s delisting campaign: http://www.peoplescommission.org/en/abdelrazik/

Midwives Are Worth It!

Rally at Queen’s Park Lawn

Wednesday June 1st, 2011,
12 noon

Join us, learn more about pay equity issues and support midwifes.

This is a kid friendly event.

Visit www.aom.on.ca for more background info.

To friends and supporters of my Manila internship. Thank you all so, so much for your prayers, support, and words of encouragement to me while I’ve been preparing for and entering into this internship. This is now the fifth morning that I’ve been in the city, and a week since I left home. I’m staying in a squatter community called Botocan, a baranga (community) in Metro Manila, a city combined of 21 million people. It is right here:  Botocan is made up largely of illegally built buildings on previously unused (and undesirable) land. Large nubers of 2 or 3 story homes are built very close together. Although the settlements are technically illegal, the government turns a blind eye to these neighbourhoods, even courting them for votes by offering civic improvements; that is, until the land is needed somewhere else. I watched on the news a violent clash between dwellers in another community and police over the expulsion of people in that neighbourhood. In fact, the neighbourhood where our church’s pastor used to work, Balik Balik, was destroyed by the governent to make wayu for rail expansion.

The city is breathtakingly beautiful; over tin shack roofs there are huge tropical palm and jackfruit trees, and far in the distance a mountain with a thin white cap on the top. The air is thick with diesel, cooking smoke, and other things I’m sure. The streets are full and narrow in Botocan; at my own place there is an alley about 4 feet wide that motorcycles still go through. I live on the third floor of a well-built cement building — the church is on the second floor, and the pastor’s home is on the first. I share the floor with the building ‘owner’, Dennis, a really nice guy in I think his mid-thirties. He’s very friendly, but also very shy.

Every day so far, I’ve been connected with a local family from the church, who has had me over for lunch and for dinner. The communication gap has been difficult although most people speak some broken English, it’s tiring to always be straining for comprehension. The food and hospitlaity have both been very, very good. I only got sick once, and that was from eating…. bad french fries :S (serves me right!). The church, Botocan Bible Christian Fellowship (BBCF) has been around for about 4 years; they are very well-respected in the community. They were described to me by one lady in the community as a ‘church that’s disruptive only in a [subtle, but] good way like osmosis. Lots of teens attest to their lives being changed while in BBCF; they have a solid weekly curriculum of Bible teaching and prayer; the pastor, Aaron Smith, is a soft-spoken but wise leader. As far as the work that I’m doing; there is lots of work to be done, but I think I’ll write about that in my next email; my primary goals while here are learning about church and community, and as I’m only one of a number of interns that have been and will continue to come into the neighbourhood, I am here only as a contributing member of an established community. That being said, two things in the works right now are i) beginner’s guitar lessons for the community, and ii) teaching sermon preparation to one particular young adult who shows a lot of promise as a church leader. It’s a small world. The internet cafe I’m right now is owned by a man who has a daughter in Brampton, and attends Humber College. Probably every third person I speak with has a family member overseas, many of them in Canada. Again, thanks all for your prayerful support; I will send updates periodically while I’m over here. Love to you all,

Steve Dykstra

“The NDP is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in the affairs of men.

This party believes not just in large government and in massive redistributive programs, it’s explicitly socialist. On social value issues, it believes the opposite on just about everything that anybody in this room believes. I think that’s a pretty safe bet on all social-value kinds of questions.

Some people point out that there is a small element of clergy in the NDP. Yes, this is true. But these are clergy who, while very committed to the church, believe that it made a historic error in adopting Christian theology.”

Wow.

See full text: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SpecialEvent7/20051213/elxn_harper_speech_text_051214/

The Bean Zine is seeking a solid team to increase sustainability and frequency of publication. The proposed roles include:

Outreach Motivator – Jared Both
- Find relevant contributors (art, articles, photographs)
- Network with other communities
- Raise awareness/build enthusiasm about the zine
- Fundraise $20 for cost of printing/mailing for each issue

Content Manager - Jessie Golem
- Review/Collect/Assign content to/from contributors
- Work closely with contributors to ensure relevance of content
- Choose themes for issues, brainstorm potential topics
- Gather and get permission to use relevant photographs or art
- Fundraise $20 for cost of printing/mailing for each issue

Pre-design Editor – Bethany Tulloch
- Edit articles for grammar, content and length
- Submit articles to designer
- Fundraise $20 for cost of printing/mailing for each issue

Design/Layout Person – Michelle Drew
- Compile articles/images into zine layout
- Send to print once the final editor approves
- Fundraise $20 for cost of printing/mailing for each issue

Final Editor - Kristen Ciccarelli
- Read final draft over for grammatical errors
- Send back to designer for fixing mistakes
- Fundraise $20 for cost of printing/mailing for each issue

Mailing/Stamp Enthusiast - L’Arche Mortimer House/Hillary Moore
- Purchase stamps with communal money, label envelopes
- Mail zines to our listserve of communities
- Fundraise $20 for cost of printing/mailing for each issue

Blogger/Web Content – To be Filled
- Update PDF of zine to Beansprout Collective Website
- Post weekly updates about social justice happenings/new/events in Southern Ontario
- Keep web content fresh

* Fundraising money is to ensure the financial weight of the publication is shared amongst the community so can remain pay what you can.
* Positions may overlap and change according to group consensus.

If you are interested in fulfilling any of these roles or contributing in another way, email Jared at jared [dot] both [atta] gmail.com or Michelle at beansforeverymeal [atta] gmail.com.

Ryan Rainville appears in court for trial on Tuesday April 12 on a number
of G20-related charges including allegations of mischief, obstruction, and
assault. Join his family, friends and supporters in the courthouse to show
your support. Please note this is not a demonstration but a call for
appropriate court support.

Ryan has been targeted as a young Indigenous man from Sackimay Nation, and
charged with allegations stemming from June demonstrations against the G20
in Toronto. He was held at Maplehurst Correctional Complex for over three
months, and finally released in November 2010 into the Sagatay First
Nations Bail Program on strict bail conditions with a number of
non-associations.

Says Ryan Rainville “I continue to be committed to speaking out against
the daily injustices perpetrated by capitalist exploitation and colonial
assimilation. As an Indigenous man, it is my responsibility to continue to
use my voice to speak the truth and to contribute to the cause of justice
and freedom for all peoples. While criminalizing voices of dissent is part
of the ongoing post-G20 crackdown, the repression of Indigenous resistance
is part of the ongoing legacy of colonization for 500 years across Turtle
Island.”

Read an extensive interview with Ryan here:
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/3804

According to Indigenous supporters of Ryan: “As native people, our bodies
and our minds are constantly under attack from the state. Their power
rests on our degradation. Their violent exploitation of the land and water
feeds and profits the colonization of every poor and oppressed person. We
denounce the ongoing state repression of all people resisting the
austerity measures which are designed to force our relations, friends and
allies into enslavement to a faltering system, to assimilate us into
submission, and exterminate those of us who refuse to bend to colonial
terms.”

For more information please contact: thesheelephant@yahoo.com or
hwalia8@gmail.com

For courtroom updates please contact: (416) 708 3195 or follow
twitter.com/g20mobilize

If the fact that 3 million Canadians currently live in poverty really matters, why is the media more concerned about the number of questions Steven Harper is willing to answer each day?

Media coverage of the current election campaign reveals, as usual, that journalists and candidates don’t believe that justice for people who are poor and excluded is really a priority for Canadians.

We need to show our political candidates that it is, in fact, a top-of-mind issue, if we want them to address our concerns in this area. If you think that reduction of poverty, and care of our most vulnerable citizens, ought to be a very high priority for our government, there’s a simple way to deliver this message.

1. find your local MP at this link:  http://www2.parl.gc.ca/parlinfo/compilations/houseofcommons/memberbypostalcode.aspx?menu=hoc

2. Send a short email, like the one below, to your MP. (Later, if you can, do the same for the rest of your local candidates.) I did that , got an almost immediate response from my MP’s assistant, and a couple of hours later, a phone call from the MP herself.

Dear [Candidate/MP's name]:

I am wondering what you personally and the [Conservative/Liberal/NDP/Green/Bloc] party corporately intend to do about rising rates of poverty in Canada, should you be able to form a government.

It saddens and frustrates me that this central issue gets such short shrift in every federal and provincial election campaign.

Looking forward to your response -

{your name}

3. Send similar emails to journalists, editors and electronic media outlets asking them to press candidates about their plans for poverty reduction.