Changing Face of Activism

Summer 2002

Also: Youth Week 2002 Fair wage Anti-postering bylaw

FORUMyouth action

action jeunesse

Activism’schAnging fAce

The world has changed --and so have the approaches to activism

Youth Action FORUM . SUMMER 2002

TTTTT

EditorialEditorial

2

activist that it’s become an assignment for a universitycourse...?

It must be. The big corporations say so. While their win-dows were being smashed downtown, the bigwigs were busyconjuring up their latest large-scale marketing campaign. Oneof the GAP’s campaigns featured mannequins decked out inactivist gear, complete with bandanas over the faces. The win-dows were artistically spray-painted ... just like at a demo. Yes,now you can get your stylin’ activist outfit from the GAP. Needshoes? There was no way that Nike would miss out on this hottrend. They launched a campaign complete with hired “activ-ists” standing on corners handing out flyers protesting the un-fair advantage Nike shoes give wearers in competition. Thoseshoes could be ordered from the fictional activist group’swebsite.

Activists are everywhere: News documentaries, their ownTV show, newspapers and magazines. Some activists are be-coming celebrities, and not just in activist circles.

The increase of young people in activism may be due inlarge part to all this attention. But is the passion there? Thedesire to change things? The realization that so muchunglamorous work must go on before and after the demonstra-tion on the international stage? That organizing, educating,following-up, networking, and campaigning are such essentialelements of activism, which are so inspiring, yet ignored bythe producers and editors that give the public the “Battle ofSeattle” and Activist TV.

While all the media attention given to the lives of activ-ists/protestors may be drawing more young people towardsactivism, the glaring failure to adequately cover the issues thatthese figures are fighting for (or against) or the hard work thatgoes on behind the scenes is possibly misleading the motivesfor becoming an “activist.” The ranks of activists have changed,and it seems that the media has had much to do with it.

Tia Dafnos

This revolution is beingtelevisedtelevisedtelevisedtelevisedtelevised

THIS MORNING I READ AN ARTICLE IN THE NEWSPAPER ABOUT

an activist. The entertainment and human-interest section con-tained a piece about this individual preparing for the Johan-nesburg summit taking place this month. The article highlightedthis individual’s journey into the world of activism. I read abouther family history, what high school she went to, the type ofstudent she was, all the degrees she attained... interestingstuff... if you are fascinated by other people’s lives- not if youwant to know more about the Johannesburg summit, KyotoProtocol, or Agenda 21 - all mentioned briefly in the article.

I suppose activists are interesting people. It seems thatall of the mainstream media’s coverage of activists and theirwork is served to the public with more emphasis on the activ-ist rather than his or her passion or work. It also seems thatthe words “activist” and “protestor” have become interchange-able. The image of the young anti-globalization protestor,decked out in hooded sweatshirt and bandana is everywhere.It is cool to be an activist today. Going to cities around theworld (if you can afford it) and being surrounded by othersthat share your passion. Check out those rave-like parties atnight, bonfires, the singing, dancing, music, rhythmic drum-ming, and hell, even getting sprayed by police water cannons.Undoubtedly there is a romanticism associated with the life ofan protestor - the excitement, energy, the media’s eye... hey,go to a protest, and who knows, you could be on television ...

Flipping through the channels on TV one day, I cameacross something that momentarily both stunned and excitedme. An in-your-face logo splashed across the screen proclaim-ing “Activist TV.” A television series about activists? Aboutpeople doing things to make a difference in their communitiesand bettering the world? An insight into the passions andstruggles of ordinary people acting on their conscience andconvictions? Had TVO broken from the mainstream, givingmaligned activists a favourable showcase to educate away fromthe photogenic front lines facing riot police and their batons?Not quite.

This was a documentary following a group of univer-sity students as they embarked on a school assignment to pro-mote awareness about a cause. Hmm. They organized a cam-paign and staged a media stunt on the school grounds. I sup-pose this is activism - I could not tell just how passionate thesestudents were about their particular cause (something aboutinfectious bacteria, I believe). This was definitely not the im-age of menacing anarchists hurling rocks through Starbucksthat the media loves so much. Wow. Is it so cool to be an


FORUM notesFORUM notes

Thanks for reading FORUM magazine. This page is reserved for notes about the projectsand happenings involving Youth Action Network. If you would like to get involved,

please contact us. Submissions can be sent directly to the office at(please note new address)

176 John Street, Suite 307, Toronto Ontario, M5T 1X5

e-mail us at [email protected];visit our website at www.youthactionnetwork.org

fax us at (416) 368-8354;phone us at (416) 368-2277 or toll-free at 1-800-718-LINK

3

Youth Action Forum constantly seeks to ensure that weare fulfilling our mandate of being a medium through whichyoung people from all over Canada can express their views,concerns, and opinions. Because of financial considerations,a decision was made in the past to discontinue the use of Frenchtranslators.

We are now making an effort to return to a fully bilingualpublication. This will be a gradual process, beginning withthis issue in which one article has been translated. Youth Ac-tion Forum depends on volunteers to be published, and weneed you to participate. We need volunteers to translate ma-terial as well as Francophone writers in order to obtain our goalof bilingualism.

Bilingual ForumYouth Action Network Board of Directors

Next IssueThe next issue of Forum will feature a special section on

mainstream media. These outlets have exposed the wider publicto alternative media in special features or investigative reports-- lets turn the tables and take a look at the huge machines thatso heavily influence public opinion.

Submit articles, rants, poetry, or artwork to Youth ActionForum at the above address/email/fax. Contact us if you wantto bounce ideas off our editors.

Volunteer!Youth Action Forum is run fully by young volunteers.

We need people to write, edit, create artwork, design layout,translate articles, develop a website, and raise funds!

Contact our office for more information about YAN (orvisit the website) and the opportunities for volunteering withForum or other YAN projects! Also, take a look at pages 6 & 7.

Youth Action Network would like to introduce our twonew staff members. Michelle Dagnino is YAN’s program co-ordinator and is organizing the Ruckus! conference this year.For information about the conference and how to register, turnto page 37. Brian Sharpe, our projects co-ordinator, organizeda successful International Youth Week 2002. Check out pages26-32 for some of the highlights of the week.

Welcome Aboard

Ruckus! is a one-day forum addressing the lack of rolemodels for youth of colour. Check out page 37 for more de-tailed information and a sign-up form.

Ruckus! 2002

Youth Action Network invites anyone interested in mak-ing an impact to apply to become a member of the YAN boardof directors. Contact us for more information about the posi-tions and for nomination forms.

Youth Action Network Merit Award

Annual General MeetingThe Youth Action Network Annual General Meeting will

be held in early September. The AGM is open to anyone inter-ested in the happenings at YAN. If you are interested in at-tending, please contact the office. New Board members areelected at the AGM.

YAN has established a merit award for youth demonstrat-ing an extraordinary commitment to their communities at large.The award is open to youth across Canada. Please turn topage 7 for more information.

Youth Action ManualThis summer, an exciting project was initiated as part of

the revitalization of the Resource Action Centre. The YouthAction Manual is a compilation of resources that are essentialfor youth to take action. The Manual will be available online.In the meantime, check out a sample of what you will find in theYouth Action Manual on page 21. For more information aboutthe project, contact Beenash Jafri.


FORUMYOUTH ACTION

Action Jeunesse

Editors-in-ChiefWei-Jia Zhou, Tia Dafnos

Editing CrewWei-Jia Zhou, Vinca Chow, Adrienne Lee, Aleha Aziz,

Clara Chow, Andrea Tsang,Andrew Ng, James Kwok,

Jenny Yeung

ArtVinca Chow, Adrienne Lee,

Stephanie Siu

Cover ArtAdrienne Lee

DesignTia Dafnos, Adrienne Lee,

Vinca Chow

Translation Darien Abbey, Aleha Aziz,

Dwain Richardson

ContributorsAdam, Jordan Bell,

K.C. Burden, Bree Cheang,Alison Chick, Helen Choi,

Vinca Chow, Michelle Dagnino, Emily Gordon, Tyson Hay,

James Kwok, Beenash Jafri,Anthony James, Adrienne Lee,

Jae-Yeon Lim, Andrew Ng,Brian Sharpe, Stephanie Siu,Devon Ostrom, Liam Thurston

Anti-postering bylawEmily Gordon33-34

The tongue and then the earsJae-Yeon Lim35-36

Getting a fair wageJordan Bell36

4

That’s a wrap!Check out the many events organized by andfor young people that happened during YouthWeek 2002.

Youth Week 2002

Submission guidelines Share yourarticles, artwork, photographs, poetry,and letters. All original art and photo-

graphs will be returned. Articles shouldbe accompanied by art or photographs,as well as some very brief information

about the author. Send your submissionsto “FORUM Submissions” at YOUTH ACTION

NETWORK.

Ruckus! 200237

Art vs. AdsDevon Ostrom & Liam Thurston

38

Map: free trade?39

-26 to 32-

-35-

-38-


Youth Action Network 176 JohnStreet, Suite 307, Toronto Ontario,Canada M5T 1X5 te lephone416.368.2277 fax [email protected]

charitable registration136303195RR0002

ISSN 1188-6870

YOUTH ACTION NETWORK is a non-profitorganization dedicated to providing toyouth the resources and information theyneed to take action on issues importantto them. Views and opinions expressedin YOUTH ACTION FORUM are not neces-sarily those of its editors nor of the Boardof Directors of YOUTH ACTION NETWORK.Every effort will be made to preservethe content and style of all submissionsto FORUM. However, the editors re-serve the right to edit articles for clarityor length.

5

Board of DirectorsChair Tia Dafnos

Finance Director Karen LauFundraising Director

Clara ChowVolunteer Coordinator

Andrea TsangSecretary, Forum Liaison

Wei-Jia ZhouCommunications Director

James KwokOutreach Director Janet Kwok

Equity DirectorFarrah Byckalo-Khan

Regional DirectorsAngely Pacis, Erika Fenner

Program CoordinatorMichelle Dagnino

Projects CoordinatorBrian Sharpe

Special ThanksDon & Mary Lucy McGregor

(Delta Bingo)

Youth ActionNetwork a FORUM

special section

Activism’s attractionAlison Chick

9-10

Commodification of protestBree Cheang

11

Lacking experienceTyson Hay

english 12-13francais 14-15

Changing face of activism James Kwok

16-17

Liberation or terrorism?Anthony James

18-20

Activist skillsResource Action Centre

21

So I went to this protest...Brian Sharpe

22-23

Protesting: what’s the use?CounterPoint

24-25

-16-

-9-

-18-

-24-


FORUMYOUTH ACTION

Action Jeunesse

your next moveYOUTH ACTION NETWORK

176 John Street, Suite 307Toronto, ONM5T 1X5

Phone: 416.368.2277Fax: 416.368.8354Email: [email protected]

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Do something.

Ever wondered how you could make a difference?Had a plan to improve your community or country?Volunteering or activism is for you if you want to:

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o meet new peopleo have funo gain useful skillso get an advantage in the job marketo realize a goalo inspire more dreams

YOUTH ACTION NETWORK (YAN) was established by a group of enthusiasticyoung people in 1989. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to motivat-ing and empowering youth to take action on social justice and environmen-tal issues. As a fully independent youth-run organization, YAN is committedto ensuring that young people play an integral role in their communities.

YAN acts as a catalyst by stimulating youth to become socially aware. Tothis end, the organization operates four projects: Youth Action FORUM, YouthWeek, the Resource Action Centre and Youth Action Connection.

Youth Action FORUM . SUMMER 2002 7

Youth Action ConnectionKeep you eyes peeled in the coming months. Youth

Action Network is working on building it’s network and get-ting you connected to exciting and useful events, actions,projects, and organizations all across the country.

Our web page www.youthactionnetwork.org will fea-ture a section for YAC which will be your first stop on theway to connecting with other youth working on the issuesyou care about.

We will have listserves from across the country thatyou can sign up for to keep you updated on what’s going on.We’ll also be creating our own listserv for YAC which willfeature national events and information for Youth Action Net-work. Send us an email at [email protected] you want to join.

We also encourage youth to start up their own YACnewsletters or listserves in their area. Get in touch with us formore information on how to do this.

Get connected with Youth Action Connection!

R A Cesource ction entre

The RAC is an extensive resource library which aims topromote constructive, informed action by providing informa-tion that represents and helps Canada’s diverse youth to achievetheir goals. Look out for the Youth Action Manual...coming soon.

1-800-718-LINKRAC’s toll free number is accessible across Canada.

Call or e-mail us with your request and we will call you back and fax or mail you the information you require.A project of Youth Action Network

is your first stop for action.

416-368-2277

Youth Action NetworkMerit Award

Youth Action Network (YAN) has established a fund toaward young people who have demonstrated an extraordinarycommitment to their communities at large. This is a merit awardand may be used for any purpose deemed suitable by therecipient. The applicant’s financial need will be given dueconsideration, but will not be the primary criteria for selection.Youth Action Network’s Merit Award Program is administeredby a committee of experienced YAN volunteers and staff.Applications will be considered according to a list of publishedcriteria, and one to two awards will be presented in mid-Fall ofeach year. Deadline for applications is August 31. Pleasecontact us for an application and more detailed criteria.

Amount of award: $500 CADDeadline for applications: August 31

QUESTIONS? If you have questions about the Merit AwardProgram or would like an Application Form, please contactMichelle Dagnino by email at [email protected](with “Award Program” in the subject field), or by phone at416-368-2277.


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ute over 66 hours of their time to devoteto activism, according to StatisticsCanada. Nor that activism is a growingtrend. Over the course of a decade, therehas been a 17.6% increase in volunteersin Canada. Growth among youth aged 15

9

Alison Chick

Activism’s attraction

SOCIETY HAS

GREATLY EVOLVED IN THE

last decade and thesechanges have directlyand indirectly affectedactivism in the world. Fac-tors that have led to thisprogress include an ex-plosive growth in newtechnology that has cre-ated new solutions andnew problems. Businessand economic sectorshave experienced greatchange due to globaliza-tion. Many psychologistshave noted shifts in socialstructures, rangingchange in what is consid-ered to be a ‘typical’ fam-ily, rising secularism andgreat diversity in race andsexual orientation. Topicsthat were once consid-ered taboo have evolvedinto mainstream conver-sation. Statistics Canada alsonotes that there has beensignificant change “in struc-ture and functioning of insti-tutions, especially govern-ment and other public insti-tutions”1. All of these factors have di-rectly and indirectly affected activism inthe world.

It should be no surprise that over7.5 billion Canadian volunteers contrib-

to 24 is astonishing, at83.3% increase in participa-tion as compared to 1987.The hours that youth arevolunteering is also increas-ing, from 28.9 hours in 1987to 41.0, an increase of41.9%. A survey was alsoconducted on the sectorsfor which Canadians volun-teered in. Environment,health care and cultural or-ganizations have all seenreasonable growth in par-ticipation. However, partici-pation growth in non-main-stream organizations has ex-ploded, increasing by1700%. On a daily basis,new groups are formed andnew need is discovered.Times are changing, and soare our attitudes.

Technology has digi-talized the world and cre-ated new methods of solv-

ing problems. Statistics arecompelling - 1 billion peoplelack access to potable water,an estimated 100 millionlandmines are scattered world-wide, the United Nations rec-

ognizes 39 million refugees, and almost2 billion people live without electricity -but these statistics fail to effectively con-vey the magnitude of the problem, count-less individuals suffering unnecessarily,

Technology, volunteerism, organizations and a cool imageare drawing more youth towards activism

Art by Adrienne Lee

Technology has digitalized the worldand created new methods of

solving problems.


men, women and children without food,water, security, sanitation, or medicalcare. An innovative organization infus-ing technology to solve these problemsis “Engineers Without Borders”. Engi-neers Without Borders (EWB) was initi-ated by students who really wanted tomake a difference in the quality of lifearound the world. Engineers, scientistsand students were a wealth of knowledgeand volunteer power that could help, andup until a decade ago, were not the fo-cus of activism. Today, EWB is a globalorganization, working with many othernon-governmental organizations to bringsustainable technology to developingcountries. From installing a well, waterpurification systems, affordable housing,portable generators and websites to al-low small merchants in developing na-tions to sell their wares, EWB is combin-ing wonderful new technology and ap-plying it to the less fortunate around theworld. EWB has also coordinated re-search, professionals, academia and stu-dents on a crusade to bring technologi-cal solutions around the world.

The Internet has also increasedmodes of communication around theworld. As a result, youth are more awareof their surroundings and ways in whichthey can help. As a high schooler ob-served, “A year ago, I didn’t know of somany of the problems which affect myworld, and I didn’t know how to help.Now, I have found causes that I can bepassionate about, and organizations thatI can join to really be involved in the so-lution.” Many others share the senti-ment. As our world because borderless,Canadians can access information aboutthe plight of developing nations, newsin the world and also databases of vol-

unteer opportunities. People are not onlylearning of what can be improved in theworld, but also how they can apply theirskills to a solution. Growing activism isno wonder with this trend. Finally, soci-ety is eager to learn about global condi-tions and finding it an easy task to ac-complish. Information is accessible to allyouths, and in return, youth are learningto empower themselves. Volunteering isno longer something that is boring, infact, when youth are paired with organi-zations that spark their interest and rolesthat promote growth, activism is down-right fun and life altering! Among the ex-emplary organizations that increasecommunications, the Web-basedJournal for Young Scientists(JoYS), advocates thepopularization ofscience amongy o u t h .

JoYS’ Glo-bal Alliance

Program, is dedi-cated to increasing

c o l l a b o r a t i o namongst young scien-

tists from 30 countriesaround the world. Inadvert-

ently, it is also helping aspir-i n g researchers to use their hopes,dreams and talent to become an activistin the world. Being able to do what welove, means that youth will be willing todo more of it.

It would be an understatement tosay that activism is cool, it is downrightastounding. Polling several youth, therewas a general consensus that being avolunteer and standing for a cause is a

trait that makes a person interesting. Asone student noted, there is even positivepeer pressure to become involved in theworld. Everyone is still trying to be anindividual in this world and to stand outas someone unique. For the ambitiousyouth, a great method of accomplishingindividuality is to find a passion in theworld and devote time to volunteering.Activism garners great respect as well.People who are our age, making a differ-ence in the world, challenging the stand-ards and putting optimism to work are ad-mirable. Youth are becoming more ambi-tious than ever and gravitate towards

their peers who share the same opti-mism about the world.

Volunteering

continued on page 23

It would be anunderstatement tosay that activism iscool, it is downright

astounding.

h a sevolved to

become a fun wayof meeting people,

sharing ideas and pursuecommon goals. As the world

recognizes the power of youths, volun-teer roles with greater responsibility havealso become available. Some positions al-low for travelling to foreign countries, ini-tiating projects and organizations them-selves. These tasks are nothing short ofamazing.

Charitable organizations havehelped to fill holes that the governmenthas left in our social fabric. With societybecoming more aware, youths have be-gun to empower themselves, initiatingnew organizations when the need calls.Youth Action Network (YAN) is aCanada-wide for youth by youth chari-table organization that promotes civic en-

Image by Stephanie Siu


FFFFF

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…FLIPPING CHANNELS I SEE A TECHNO MUSIC VIDEO BLENDING A ROMANTIC

riot story with images of recent protests and advertising for a mythicalrevolutionary cola tm. The two heroes of the story use a mixture of sexappeal and rioting to battle the police. In the end both sides are unitedby drinking cola tm. Images of real life protestors breaking windowsand smashing cola machines intertwine with the story. A final shot of aprotestor breaking a tv airing the cola story and then zooming out tohim appearing on another tv and so on, raises some questions aboutthe commodification of dissent, while glorifying one aspect of activism.

Not only are there overwhelming reasons driving us to protest, butdemonstrations have become cool! It’s hip to be an anarchist whetheryou know what that means or not. But what does that mean to otheractivists who put a lot of their energy and time into changing the world?Will people only come to a demonstration or will they see the need tobecome community activists and do work which can be very importantbut not so exciting? What happens when protesting isn’t cool anymore?What about people who see activism as only the 3-minute media clipof police roughing it up?

…then I flip the channels and see people running through the streets.Police in riot gear are chasing them and firing large rubber bullets. Thecamera zooms out and an athlete is playing tennis by hitting all therubber bullets and tear gas back over a net. The camera shows hisshoes and then a Nike swoosh appears.

Around the same time I found a swatch ad in a magazine that advertisesa watch on a surfer who is standing in front of a water cannon policeare using to disperse protestors.

As I write this Presto, a shoe company owned by Nike, has opened updowntown hip music clubs with a graffiti campaign to promote it.

The companies that are being targeted by protestors for their terrible

Bree Cheang

The commodification

Corporations capitalizing on activism trends

of protest….

labour practices and support of free trade, are using the image of the protestors to sell their products. In many ways thiseffect has a way of trivialising the protests that people are a part of. As if being an activist is a choice anyone makes thesame as being a downhill skier, a fisherman, or card player. As if going to a protest were the same as seeing a concert andwas something that someone else organised. How appealing does it become for someone to get really involved in protestingNike’s labour practices when you see yourself displayed as the background of a joke selling their product?

Some food for thought.


AAAAA

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ACTIVISM, AS FAR AS IT CONCERNS

THE protests at meetings of interna-tional organizations (such as theWorld Trade Organization in Seattleand the Summit of the Americas inQuebec City), is currently without abroad base of public support. Moreo-ver, it will lack this support as long asit keeps using the same strategies ithas been using recently - that is, acombination of harsh verbal rants byintellectuals and peaceful demonstra-tions, which often climax in battleswith riot police.

All these tactics are aimed, gen-erally, at disrupting the respectivemeeting, or at least providing someopposition to the theories of ‘globali-zation’ put forth by many of theworld’s most powerful politicians andbusinesspeople. The demonstratorsand intellectuals intend to turn thespotlight away from the current con-ference and its’ policies, and on to theprotestors and their policies’ - be-cause although there are many differ-ent factions in the ‘anti-globalization’movement, they all have a generalgoal. There seems to be a three-fold planto complete this mission. First, to dem-onstrate, rant, and battle - to draw mediacoverage. Second, to use this media cov-erage to espouse the movement’s ideas,show the faulty sections of the globali-zation plan, and eventually win publicsupport. Third, to use this public senti-

ment to stop, slow, or at least change thedirection of globalization.

But, despite the completion of thefirst part of the plan, the protest move-ment remains stalled in second gear. Aswe explore the reasons for this, perhapswe should look at successful, popular

public figures throughout history andtheir common traits, since it’s likely thatthese traits are also the ones that theprotestors can use to turn public opin-ion in their favour. In the 20th century,there are a few names that stand out;Churchill, Roosevelt, Kennedy, and

Tyson Hay

Lacking experienceexperienceexperienceexperienceexperienceA key ingredient is missing from today’santi-globalization protest movement

Art by Adrienne Lee


Trudeau, among others. These menshared many common characteristics, butwe can probably isolate four main distin-guishing traits: Intelligence, passion, thedesire to make the world better, and ex-perience.

I believe that the protest movementhas three out of four. Intelligence, cer-tainly, is evident in the well-constructedarguments put forth by the movement’sleaders. Passion is certainly not lacking,what with protestors willing to risk be-ing gassed, beaten, and hauled away toprison in order to accomplish their goals.The desire to make the world a betterplace certainly seems apparent in themovement, especially in comparisonwith its’ archenemies, global corpora-tions, whose major goal is, always hasbeen, and always will be greed.

But experience? Experience isnot so apparent on the part of themovement. Churchill was a trav-eller, soldier, journalist, adven-turer, and politician for decadesbefore he became Prime Min-ister. Roosevelt learned tocope with a debilitating ill-ness that left him confinedto a wheelchair. Kennedy’sPT boat was blown up dur-ing the Second World War.Trudeau, fluent in three languages, wasthrown in jail twice for being thought aspy during a solo trip around the worldin the uncertain late 1940s.

In what areas are the protestorsexperienced in? The average protestorsare quite adept at organizing demonstra-tions, destroying fences, and provokingpolice. The leaders of the movement have

a lot of experience in making speeches,debating philosophical and politicaltheories regarding globalization, andquoting studies and essays on the sub-

... as a movement, the protestors areexperienced only in protesting.

How many of the Seattle brawlers had seensix-person families living in single roomshacks? And even more importantly,

what have they done to help?

ject. But above all, as a movement, theprotestors are experienced only in pro-testing.

As I watch the street fighting onthe news and listen to the rhetoric, I can’thelp but think of the Third World chil-

dren with which the movementis supposedly so

con-

cerned. How manyof those Quebec fence- wreckershad actually been to Bolivia and Haiti andthe other poor countries for which theywept? How many of the Seattle brawlershad seen six-person families living in sin-gle room shacks? And even more impor-tantly, what have they done to help? I

suppose that if I were a starving child inAIDS-ridden Central Africa, knowingthat thousands of middle-class Westernstudents were being gassed and beaten

with truncheons on my behalf might notbe so inspiring, or helping. I imagine thatI’d be much happier and certainly muchbetter off if those protestors were doingsomething a little less theoretical, news-worthy, and ‘cool’, but a little closer tohome. Things like helping with food andmedicine distribution, or teaching, or justpitching in and helping to build roads,

wells, and homes in the poor re-gions of the world.

OF COURSE, I CAN’T BE

sure how everyone feels onthis issue. It seems to me that

a lot of people - the people thatthe protest movement needs on

its’ side - are wary of globalization,but can’t bring themselves to side

with a bunch of angry intellectualsand anarchist street fighters. Maybe

it will take something different to getthese kinds of people off of the fence.

Maybe the new apprenticeship forprotestors should be increased from thecurrent diet of Chomsky and second-hand accounts of Third World problemsto something a little more real, a little morepersonal. And maybe, if some of theseconcerned individuals in the movementwent to Bangladesh and Colombia andZaire and put their considerable energiestowards helping, teaching, building, andperhaps most importantly, learning, theycould improve real human lives in a realhuman way. The countries they visited,the people they helped, they themselves,and the world as a whole would be muchricher for it. And then, if they come backand still want to protest, they can do soin a knowledgeable, experienced manner,which will eventually attract the supportnecessary to fulfill their desire to makeour world a better place.

Tyson Mc-Neil Hay, 19, is a first-year student at the University of BritishColumbia.


L

14

Mais l’expérience?

L’ACTIVISME, JUSQU’À CE QUI

concerne les protestes aux réunions desorganisations internationaux (commel’Oragnisation Mondiale du Commerce àSeattle et le Sommet des Amériques enVille de Quebec), est aujourd’hui sansune base suffisament large de supportpublique. En plus, elle va en manquertandis qu’elle continue d’utiliser lesmêmes straégies qu’elle a employérecemment - c’est à dire, unecombinaison d’invectives sévères etverboses par des intellectuels et desdémonstrations paisibles qui, climaxent

souvent en battailes avec la police.Toutes ces tactiques sont

disposées, généralement, interrompre leréunion visé ou bien au moins donner unpeu d’opposition aux théories du venant

de plusieurs des plus puissantespolitiques et commerçantes du monde.Les intellectuels et démonstrateursveulent détourner l’attention du publiquedu conférence courant et ses politiques,à leurs démonstrateurs et leurs - parce-que bien qu’il y a plusieurs groupesdifférents dans le mouvement contre le,ils partagent un but générale. Il sembleavoir un plan en trois étapes pouraccomplir cet mission. Première étape -protester, fulminer et combattre - toutpour attirer les médias. Deuxième étape -supporter les idées du mouvement,

démontrer les parties erronées du plan duglobalisation et en utilisant les médias,ils pourront projeter tout celà au publiquepour gagner leur support. Troisièmeétape - utiliser le sentiment du publique

pour arrêter, ralentir ou au moins changerle direction du globalisation.

Mais, même si la première étape duplan est complétée, le mouvement sem-ble être coincé à la deuxième. En explorantles raisons pour celà, peut-être devrait-on regarder les personnages populairesqui ont eu de la succès à travers l’histoireet leurs traits communs, puisque c’estprobable que ces traits pourront aider aux

démonstrateurs à tourner l’opinionpublique en leur faveur. Au 20ième siècle,il y a quelques noms qui ressortent;Churchill, Roosevelt, Kennedy, etTrudeau, parmi d’autres. Ces hommes ontpartagé plusieurs caractéristiques, maison pourrait isoler quatre traits importants:L’intelligence, la passion, l’expérience, etle désir d’améliorer le monde.

Je crois que le mouvement desdémonstrations en a trois sur quatre.L’intelligence, certainement, est évidentdans les arguments bien construits etstructurés fournis par les dirigéants dumouvement. La passion ne manquecertainement pas, avec lesdémonstrateurs qui sont volontiers derisquer de se faire battre, gazés et jetésen prison pour accomplir leurs buts. Ledésir d’améliorer le monde semblecertainement être apparent dans lemouvement, especiallement encomparaison avec ses ennemis, les cor-porations globales, qui ont et en auronttoujours un but de cupidité.

Mais l’expérience? L’expériencen’est pas tellement apparent dans lemouvement. Churchill était un voyageur,soldat, journaliste, adventurier, et hommepolitique pour des décennies avant qu’ildevint Premier Ministre. Roosevelt a du

Tyson HayTranslation: Darien Abbey

Mais après tout, comme mouvement, lesdémonstrateurs ne savent que protester.


apprendre à vivre avec une maladiedéblilitante qui l’a laissé confiné dansune fauteil roulante. Le bateau PT deKennedy a été détruit pendant leDeuxième Guerre Mondiale. Trudeau, quimaitrisait trois langues a été emmené enprison deux fois parce-qu’on croyait qu’ilétait un espion pendant un voyage soloautour du monde dans les années

incertaines des 1940s tardes.En quels domaines les

démonstrateurs ont de l’expérience? Lesdémonstrateurs normales sontcompétents lorsqu’ils doivent organiserles protestes, détruire des pallisades etprovoquer la police. Les dirigéants dumouvement ont beaucoup d’expériencelorsqu’il s’agit de faire des discours,d’avoir des débats sur des théoriesphilosophiques et politiques concernantla globalisation, et de citer des disserta-tions et des études. Mais après tout,comme mouvement, les démonstrateursne savent que protester.

En regardant les battailes sur lesnouvelles et en écoutant le rhétorique,je ne peux que penser des enfants duTierce Monde avec qui le mouvement estsupposément si concerné. Combien desdestructeurs de palissades en Quebecont visité la Bolivie et le Haiti et les autres

15

Combien des combattantsde Seattle ont vules familles à six membres vivant dans deshuttes à une chambre? Plus important que

ça, quesqu’ils ont fait pour aider?

pays pauvres pour qui ils ont pleuré?Combien des combattantsde Seattle ontvu les familles à six membres vivant dansdes huttes à une chambre? Plus impor-tant que ça, quesqu’ils ont fait pouraider? Je suppose que si j’étais un en-fant affamé au milieu de l’AfriqueCentrale qu’est envahi par le SIDA,sachant que des milles d’étudiants

Américains de classe moyen étaient entrain d’être gazés et battus avec desmatraques pour moi ne serait pas trèsinspirant ou aidant. J’imagine que je seraibeaucoup plus content et certainementplus en sécurité si ces démonstrateursétaient en train de faire quelque chose unpeu moins théâtral, attirant pour lesmédias et mais un peu plus prôche de lamaison. Des choses comme aidant avecle distribution de la nourriture et lesmédicaments, enseignant ou just aidantà construire des routes, des puits et desmaisons dans les régions pauvres dumonde. Bien sur, je ne peux pas être surcomment le reste du monde ressent surce sujet. Il me semble que beaucoup desgens - les gens que le mouvement en abesoin pour les supporter - sontconscients de la globalisation, mais neveulent pas s’allier avec une grouped’intellectuels furieuses et des

combattants anarchistes. Peut-être ilfaudra quelque chose de différent pourattirer ce type de gens. Peut-êtrel’apprentisage de démonstrateurs devraitêtre augmenté du diète courante deChomsky et des comptes rendus d’autrespersonnes sur les problèmes du TierceMonde à quelque chose un peu plus réel,

un peu plus personel. Et peut-être, siquelques uns de ces individus concernésdans le mouvement iraient à Bangledeshet la Colombie et le Zaire et appliqueraientleurs énergies considérables pour aider,enseigner, construire, et, peut-être le plusimportant de toutes, apprendre, ilspourront améliorer des vies humainesdans une manière humaine. Les paysqu’ils ont visités, les gens qu’ils ontaidés, eux eux-mêmes et le monde enseraient enrichis. Et puis, s’ils reviennentet veulent démonstrer toujours, ilspourront le faire dans une manièreexpériencé et savante qu’attireraeventuellement le support nécéssairepour achever leur désir d’améliorer lemonde.

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16

WHAT ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF ac-tivism? We hear about protests in thenews and even on the streets. In termsof concept, activism has remained muchthe same. However, the style of govern-ance, management, and ideology in agiven society changes. In turn, themeans by which activism aims to ad-vance the opinions and objectives of itscampaigners must inevitably change aswell. The activists themselves will bedrawn from different cultural or socialgroups. Not only does large-scale activ-ism have an effect in our local communi-ties, but is starting to have relevance ina global sense.

Activism at its most basic level isessentially to inform, encourage, and to

bring about some sort of change. By ex-tension, activism in some form or anotherhas been present throughout history. Asa matter of fact, it is a very natural re-sponse to government establishments inmost countries around the world today.While this article is not in any way meantto spurn the governments of any coun-try, activism is an almost inevitable as-pect of a country’s decision process.During the time of the Roman Republicfor example, a Greek statesman namedPolybius defined the three most impor-tant aspects of Rome’s government asthe senate, the consuls, and the people.He argued that despite the relative pow-ers of the senate and the consuls, it wasthe common people who provided con-trol to government policies. Should thepeople not approve of given policies set

forth by the government, they wouldunite in their respective assemblies in anattempt to right a particular injustice. Putinto a contemporary context, activismfundamentally is, and has been, an inexo-rable part of the governance of our soci-ety.

The feminist movement in the 19thand 20th century, or Women’s Suffrage,was primarily used as a means to assertthe rightful role of women as equalsamong men in society. Figures such asEmmeline Pankhurst, Susan B. Anthony,and a slew of other feminist activistsspearheaded these movements. Theirgoals were accomplished in part by theimpassioned rhetoric of suffragiststhroughout Western society, as well as

James Kwok

of activism changingchangingchangingchangingchangingThe changing changing changing changing changing face

Art by Vinca Chow

A timeline of activist movementsfrom the past to today’s anti-globalization phemomenon


marches, protests and demonstrations.The endgame of this first wave of femi-nism gave women the right to vote, aswell as a voice in the governance of theircountry.

Similarly, Martin Luther King Jr.,more than sixty years after this initialwave of 20th century activism, had a se-ries of Marches. During these marches,he would travel from area to area advo-cating the equality of African Americans,Caucasians, and other minorities in theUnited States. His famous “I Have aDream” speech was given during hisMarch on Washington. His work, span-ning almost 20 years, helped pave theway for The Civil Rights Act of 1964,which barred racial segregation in theUnited States.

Gradually however, activism is be-ing transformed once again. Primarilywith the issue of anti-globalization, cen-tral illustrious figures like Dr. King andMs. Anthony are almost non-existent.Quite simply, the style of campaigninghas undergone a metamorphosis. Nolonger is there a single man or womanwho is identified with a certain movementor campaign. Some protesters in theWTO demonstrations even wore masks,wishing for anonymity. However, most

people realize that many of the protest-ers at Seattle were also at summits inGenoa and Quebec City. These summit-hoppers are the new breed of activistsand are well equipped: they are armedwith walkie-talkies to co-ordinate theirprotest, as well as gortex jackets to shieldthemselves from riot police water hoses.The occasional protestor will even weara gas mask of some sort. To an onlooker,they seem like professionals. There areeven instructors and courses that showyouth and adults of any age how to suc-cessfully manage a protest. Thesegroups refer to themselves collectivelyas “The New New Left”. This term de-scribes dissimilar radical groups that,while having agendas unique to theirmovement, harbour a common dislike forglobalization.

However not all activism comesfrom demonstrations or protests. Litera-ture and media are also providing an op-portunity for activists to voice their opin-ions. With advancements in communi-cation, the voices of activists and theirmovements are becoming more and morepronounced.

With global resources teachingpeople how to become increasingly ac-tive, it is harder for the people to be ig-

nored. It seems as if almost all of us havecome across, or at least heard of, protest-ers or activists with some shred of expe-rience: an anecdote about what hap-pened in Seattle, or perhaps even storiesabout police riot methods. However,most will find in activists a passion fornot just speaking out for one movement,but being strong advocates of many.

What Snehal Shingavi told theHarvard Current in an interview capturesthis sentiment: “There is a sense that thisone will be a more long-term fight. Viet-nam was a one-shot thing where peoplejust wanted to end the war. But here, glo-balization isn’t just any one thing. It’s aset of all kinds of problems.”

Nations and their respective affairsare becoming more and more intertwined.The issues of one country, or one nation,can and will affect that of another. I hesi-tate to use the cliché of a “global village”,but I am quickly finding out how diffi-cult it is to ignore the fact that we arepotentially in such a state. In this sense,it is important that people are representedproperly. True, while governments doprofess to act in the best interests of thepeople, the system is not foolproof. Andaccording to Polybius, activists mustfulfill their role as the people of the meta-phorical Republic.

... most will find in activists [today] a passion for not just speaking outfor one movement, but being strong advocates of many.


GGGGG

18

Liberation or terrorism:

GOVERNMENTS AND CORPORATE MEDIA IN THE WESTERN WORLD OFTEN PORTRAY ACTIVISM TODAY AS A HALF-CRAZED, self-indulgent, ill-informed, idealistic rant, that destroys the peace and hinders society’s (economic) progress. This officialline is primarily presented to us in news clips that focus on the most sensational aspects of a given protest, speech, strikeor uprising, instead of exploring the issues giving rise to the discontent; the why, not just the what.

Such analysis would run the risk of encouraging more discontent and hindering further “progress”. In fact, themere “stalling” to analyse would hinder “progress”, within an economic framework where time is money and money isapparently everything.

Before submitting ourselves meekly to this official line the next time we are encouraged to feel “disrupted” by someform of activism, we would do well to consider a few activists that have shown the way to crucial social change in recenttimes.

Each was condemned as a terrorist by their respective governments. However, the greater struggle was against thesupport (active or passive) of these governments by their constituents, successfully manipulated for too many years toaccept the judgments and (often false) information of the authorities.

(Please note that the following passages are written in the words of the author, drawing from their respective auto-biographies and various speeches and interviews.)

NELSON MANDELA

HAVING LEFT MY VILLAGE, studied and begun to work, I realisedthat I was a prisoner in my own land. My people, the indigenous ofSouth Africa, majority of the population, were suffering as slaves, im-poverished and brutalised by an oppressive system of government.

I became politically active and joined the African National Con-gress (ANC). When the party was subsequently banned, I founded aguerrilla army with ANC colleagues to take up an armed struggle as theonly remaining means of combating the violence of the oppressive gov-ernment. It is the oppressor who dictates the nature of the struggle.

We used bombs and other armed means and, while we tried toavoid it, many innocent people died as a result. I was vilified as a terror-ist, conspiring to violently overthrow an elected government. As such,I was imprisoned for life.

While I was in prison, the armed struggle continued, culminatingin the weakening of the government’s position. As a result, in 1990, Iwas released from prison in the midst of negotiations with the minoritywhite government. This process culminated, in 1994, with my electionas President of South Africa. In the year 2001, I was awarded honorarycitizenship of Canada and was further acclaimed by political leaders theworld over as a shining example of tolerance and humanity.

I still believe that violence is a valid form of resistance, howeverundesirable, if the circumstances call for it.

Anthony James

I was vilified as a terrorist,conspiring to violentlyoverthrow an elected

government.

Who decides?Who decides?Who decides?Who decides?Who decides?


CEFERINO DE PAZ GONZALEZ

AT THE AGE OF 10, I witnessed thebrutal torture and subsequent death ofmy father at the hands of the Guatema-lan army. This was in 1954, the year theUnited States attacked Guatemala in or-der to depose the freely-elected Social-ist President of the time.

For the next 6 years, I witnessedthe violent oppression of my people,the indigenous of Guatemala, majorityof the population, at the hands of theUS-sponsored military dictatorship.The killing was to become more randomand widespread as the war became anattempt at genocide on the part of themilitary. I had no choice but to take uparms and join the guerrilla, later becom-ing a commander within its forces.

By 1996, after 36 years of resist-ance against oppression, the guerrillasigned Peace Accords with the govern-ment, subsequently realising the firstfree elections since the US-sponsoredcoup in 1954. In the year 2000, I waselected Mayor of Fray Bartolomé de lasCasas, a 90% indigenous rural Guate-malan municipality, as leader of thenow-legitimised political party of the

guerrilla, the UnidadRevolucionaria NacionalGuatemalteca (URNG).

Despite the similar na-ture and time-frame of ourstruggle I, unlike NelsonMandela, am not portrayedas an international symbolfor peace and racial har-mony, nor have I beenawarded honorary citizen-ship of another country. Infact, I am almost certainlystill regarded by certain sec-tors of society as a terroristfrom a terrorist organisation.

This is despite the factthat the Guatemalan militaryis reported to be responsiblefor upwards of 90% of themassacres that occurred dur-ing the war, as well as ongoing assassi-nations, kidnappings and death threats.Further, the government against which Iwas fighting all these years was neverelected by the people.

Today, the elected federal govern-ment is the same political party respon-sible for the majority of atrocities duringthe war, illustrating how power structures

MALCOLM X

NOT LONG AFTER MR MANDELA WAS IMPRISONED for life in SouthAfrica, and Don Ceferino joined the armed struggle as barely achild in Guatemala, I founded the Organization of Afro-AmericanUnity (OAAU) in the United States.

In my eyes, the US was a worse colonial exploiter than thewhite minority government in South Africa, or the ladino minoritygovernment in Guatemala, because it preached itself as the corner-stone of freedom and democracy, yet was directly responsible forthe situation in Guatemala, and maintained its own system of apart-heid at home - whites only bars, restaurants, schools and so on.

This hypocrisy led me to inspire in my people a self-belief,to cease looking to hypocritical authorities for their liberation, andto begin looking to themselves. As such, the thousands of pagesof FBI files about me obtained after my death refer to the need to“prevent the rise of a ‘messiah’ who could unify, and electrify, themilitant black nationalist movement”.

In 1965, within a year of forming the OAAU, I was assassi-nated, and since then have been systematically discredited by thegovernment and its security agencies as a militant hate-monger.My direct manner of speaking made it relatively easy for me to bediscredited in such a way, to those who did not understand thereasons for my opinions and vision for the future.

do not change with the mere signing ofPeace Accords and holding of elections.Part of this power structure is the ongo-ing complicity of US and other govern-ments (now more economic than military)with Guatemala’s central militarised gov-ernment. It is business as usual for them,while for my people and I, the strugglehas changed, but not ended.

... I was assassinated,and since then have been

systematically discredited bythe government...

I am almost certainly stillregarded by certain

sectors of societyas a terrorist...


WHO MAKES OUR DECISIONS?

IN THE CASE OF EACH OF THESE ACTIVISTS, the outright or partial liberation oftheir people was achieved.

Ultimately, who was the villain in each case? Who gave rise to the violence?Who contributed to the context from which it was born? And who is to judge themethods of those oppressed for whom few options remain? The source of oppres-sion is the birthplace of violence, hatred, and desperation.

Today, the same questions are asked of us. How are the heroes and villainschosen for us by our governments and corporate media? Will we, at the time of itspassing, be part of the complicity of mainstream society that creates in its igno-rance the mandate of the powerful oppressors? Only to then, years later in retro-spect, revere those we previously condemned or ignored? In both cases, follow-ing “dictated” public opinion on the basis of the information of government au-thorities?

In a democracy, when we encounter activism, the task is not to strive to clearthe streets and revert to “normal” as soon as possible. Rather, it is to look for the“why” of the action being taken. What message has the next liberation hero wewill potentially revere in a few decades, while today she or he struggles amidstthose who try to silence or misrepresent her or him?

Simply trusting authority has and continues to consistently cost us as asociety, socially, environmentally, and economically. Our democracy, freedom, and,ultimately, humanity, depends upon the question why. Ask it, encourage others toask it, and then ask it some more.

__________________________________________________________________________Anthony James is a freelance writer specialising in issues of economic,

social and environmental justice relating to globalisation and international de-velopment. The author may be contacted by emailing [email protected]

___________________________________________________________________________

MOHANDAS GANDHI

BY THE TIME MALCOLM X WAS as-sassinated, I had been dead for 17 years,also assassinated at the hands of a gun-man. I began my struggle for the free-dom of the people of India against Brit-ish colonial oppression in South Africatowards the end of the 19th century. Ilater returned to my homeland to strivefor the independence of India as a na-tion from the same colonial oppressor.

At the time I was assassinated in1948, the year following India’s inde-pendence, the US, Great Britain, and itsallies had recently won the SecondWorld War. The “good guys” hadbeaten the “bad guys”. Yet, throughoutthis period, the British government wereresponsible for the brutal oppression ofmy people, including massacres of in-nocent civilians. Meanwhile, the USgovernment was about to inflict thesame upon the indigenous Maya ofGuatemala, and were maintaining theirown system of apartheid at home.

I was alwaysfirmly dedicated totruth and non-violence,lest we became just asour oppressors. So I ledmy people towards un-armed resistance; non-cooperation with au-thorities such that theywould be ultimatelyforced to leave a situa-tion they could notpossibly govern.

For my efforts,despite the fact I neverdeviated from the prin-cipal of non-violence, Iwas imprisoned manytimes, for periods ofyears, for conspiringto incite the people to-wards the violentoverthrow of the Brit-ish government.

Today, similarly to NelsonMandela, I am revered almost universallyas a symbol of peace and tolerance. I am

I was imprisoned manytimes, for periods of years ...

honored with monuments across theglobe, from almost every city in Indiato Washington DC.

Donations should be directed to theFray Bartolome Library Appeal.

Fray Bartolome LibraryAppeal -- support the buildingof a library and other projects

in GuatemalaA Montreal-based non-govern-

mental organization, Alternatives, isoperating as a fund administrator forthese projects. It can issue tax re-ceipts for donations from the Cana-dian public.

The fund will be used to estab-lish a library, as well as developingpopular education workshops, andthe creation of a media centre withyouth.

For more information about theproject, contact Anthony James [email protected].

To make a donation, contact Alternatives

3720 Parc Ave #300 Monteral, Quebec Canada H2X 2J1

www.alternatives.ca


So...you’re tired of trying to fit into the school clubs and teams that don’t interest you a heck of a lot.So...why not kick-start your own group and take some action on issues that are important to YOU?Here are some helpful hints on getting started:

GET A GLIMPSE OF WHAT YOU MIGHT BE SEEING IN YAN’S UPCOMING YOUTH ACTION MANUAL...

FROM THE YOUTH ACTION MANUAL:Taking Group Action!!

A G E N D A

1. check in: Welcome everyone and let them know what you have plannedfor the evening. Pass around a sign-in sheet to get names, phone num-bers & emails. If people don’t know each other, go around the room andask people to introduce themselves & why they’re here. If they know eachother already, this can be a time to share what ideas they have to bring tothe meeting & what they want to discuss. Ask someone to be a ‘minute-taker’ and make notes about everything being said.

2. Set some group rules that everyone should try to follow. Examples:Do not interrupt people when speaking; Make sure people from marginalizedbackgrounds have time to speak.

3. Brainstorm some ideas for a project the group could take on. Someexamples: video, film screening, guest speaker, food drive, etc. It’s goodto have a project so that you have a clear goal to work towards.

4. Make an action plan! Make a list of everything that needs to get done,and when it has to be done by. Have different people responsible for differ-ent tasks. Decide what you want to have done for the next meeting.

5. Set a time & place for your next meeting.

6. Check out: Go around the room again & ask people if they had any-thing else to say, any questions or comments.

1.1.1.1.1. Organize a school or community meeting to get otherpeople interested and involved. Pick a place: it could beyour house, at school, a public library, or a communitycentre. Make sure it is wheelchair accessible, in a well-lit area, close to public transit (if you have public transitin your area).

2.2.2.2.2. Set a time when most people can probably come -e.g. after school, after work, lunchtime or a weekend.

3.3.3.3.3. Get the word out! Send a notice over email lists andto your friends, put up posters, make an announcementover the P.A., phone up people.

4. Set an agenda. Make a list of items you need todiscuss and take action on. If possible, make copies ofthe agenda and/or post it up somewhere in the meetingroom. It might look something like this:

You will probably act as facilitator for this firstmeeting. That doesn’t mean you’ll be orderingpeople around, but you will be making sure thateveryone sticks to the agenda & doesn’t go offtopic, and that you stick to a time limit.

You should also make sure that people in domi-nant roles -e.g. white males - don’t dominatethe whole discussion, so that people inmarginalized positions -e.g. women of colour -feel safe and are able to speak.

Youth Action Network is revital-izing its resource centre by puttingtogether a youth action manual andwebsite with EVERYTHING youthneed to start up their own projects,events and activities, from facilita-tion skills and fundraising to anti-oppression and popular education.

YAN is committed to ensuring thatthe resource has an anti-oppression focus so that it isaccessible and relevant to: youthof colour, First Nations youth,young women, queer youth,immigrant/refugee youth, youthwith ESL/FSL, youth withdisabilities, low-income youth,young parents/single parents,youth from marginalized faiths andrural youth.

If you have resources you want toinclude in the manual, or for moreinfo, [email protected],phone 1-800-718-LINK, or mail to:Youth Action Network, 176 JohnSt. Suite 307, Toronto ON M5T 1X5.


SSSSS

What is the purpose of the demonstration?

Many of these larger demonstra-tions have a number of goals, the mostcommon of which include: ·The prevention of big business/gov-ernment leaders from meeting ·Exposure in the media to raise aware-ness

When evaluating a demonstration,the public often judges its success (orfailure) based on the above criteria, butdetermining whether a demonstration isa success or not is not a yes or no an-swer, there is much, much more!

How many people attended thedemonstration? Were there new partici-pants? How much organization and re-sources were involved? Were theregood opportunities for activists to meetwith one another, to share ideas and ex-change contacts? Did the demonstra-tion drain resources from the commu-nity of organizers or did it bring peopletogether and teach them new skills? Didthe demonstration cause the big cor-

22

ing once a year or the G8 leaders get to-gether, much of what they are workingon has already been decided. These as-semblies are held mostly for symbolicpurposes (photo shoots, handshaking,expensive food) and some final agree-ments and persuasion. Preventing theWTO from meeting once, while it maycause some delays, does not mean thathealth care or education will not be pri-vatized. It is important that we take thistime to challenge their right to make thesedecisions against our will. Results comemuch farther down the road, with a lotmore work. Direct actions taken to actu-

ally stop the summit from happeningcan have varying levels of being sym-bolic, but often aim to stop the prob-lems much more directly (hence thename).

A part of herstory

Think of yourself on the day ofthe demonstration and what you ac-complished. How did your life change

Brian Sharpe

So you went to this big protest...why?

porations enough anxiety to increasetheir caution regarding their operations?What networks and groups were built?

In most cases, demonstrationsbring about some good. Some betterquestions may be: Were the costs worththe gains? Did we expand the movementfor social and environmental change, andget new people involved? Ask yourselfthese questions when you are or youhear people discussing demonstrations.

Summits are symbolic.

When the WTO has its large meet-

Why do we go to protests?

SO YOU WENT TO THIS BIG PROTEST; MAYBE YOU’VE GONE TO A FEW OF THEM. Maybe you helped to organize onein your area. Maybe you were really excited about it, and met a lot of people who thought the same way you did, or felt like youwere using your voice to change something. Maybe it was a frightening experience; the cops may have been very violent, ormaybe some of the protestors were a bit too militant for you. Maybe you felt really empowered and wanted to do it again.Maybe you felt excluded or that you didn’t belong. Maybe it was boring, physically draining, you didn’t see the point, or feltlike it didn’t make a difference. Or maybe you only saw it on TV and wanted to know more.

Recently, there have been a number of large-scale demonstrations, including an anti-WTO protest in Seattle, the FTAAin Quebec, and the G8 in Genoa, Italy. The media attention and hype these campaigns created sparked great interest amongmany who may not have thought of themselves as activists before, but now wanted to act and could see the effects ofcapitalism and globalization and wanted to participate. But it’s important to remember that protest and resistance is not just arecent North American phenomenon but has and continues to exist for centuries by people all over the world.

If you’ve been thinking and talking about these protests similar to those thoughts above take a look these and talk toyour friends about it. If you have ideas or opinions, please write back to us.

WWWWWWhy protest?


in the weeks leading up to the big event,and the weeks following? What was yourpart in the social movement for the pastyear? For the past decade? Century? 500years? Don’t let this be overwhelming,but think about how you are only oneperson and that you play only a reallysmall part in all this history. Think aboutthe people who fought bitterly to get aminimum wage, an end to slavery, or toliberate their land. The world is full ofpeople struggling together for a just ex-istence. Then think about how importantit is that you are involved in these strug-gles, and how every action you take willinspire others to do the same and collec-tively move forward. Looking at a pro-test as a small part of history can giveyou a good perspective on it.

Organization as a form of outreach.

Leading up to the protest there isa lot of work that gets done in prepara-tion. A big part of this is the outreach,and in some ways this is one of the big-gest gains of protesting these largeevents. Teaching people about the ill ef-fects of the FTAA or how the G8’s aideprogram for Africa is all about control bycorporations, happens for months lead-ing up to a big demo. This is where theorganizers do all their real work. It is alsowhere activists have a chance to teacheach other and get more involved withlocal community activists.

Leading up to the Quebec protests,many groups developed in small townsthroughout eastern Canada. Doingoutreach to these areas not only got peo-ple to organize and come to the demo butthey learned skills and began organizingin their own areas.

Remember who you areand where you stand.

With so much attention focused onthese large-scale demonstrations, it hasbecome increasingly clear that many ofthe activists involved tend to belong tothe white middle class. A number of menoften end up dominating leadership po-sitions. While the reasons people protestare often for issues such as standing insolidarity with indigenous people in LatinAmerica or fighting against the use of

sweatshops in third world countries, theability to move across continents to theselarge protests is overwhelmingly a privi-lege that must be addressed.

Every activist, especially if you’rewhite, should spend time thinking abouthow privilege plays out in the protestswe go to. Who’s issues get addressed?Who gets the credit? Who feels comfort-able attending and being in control? Agood place to start is an amazing resourcedone by young people called Colours ofResistance, at www.tao.ca/~colours.

What do you do before going tothe protest? What do you do after?

Going to a big demonstration is agreat opportunity for you to learn skillsand meet new people. There are manyamazing activists who come together toshare ideas and skills. Make use of theseexperiences and learn all that you can.Getting involved in the organizing is agreat way to learn and practice.

Being involved in activism meansworking on issues and campaigns on along-term basis. Our world needs a lot ofwork to fix it up, not just the week of thesummit protest. When you are planningto go to a big demonstration, think aboutwhat work you can be involved in yourown neighborhood. What will you do af-terwards? Are you part of a group thateducates people about sexuality? Or doyou try and protect the environment inyour area? Coming to the demonstrationis a good place to find others with similarideas and make contacts.

If you weren’t involved in any ac-tivism before you went to the demonstra-tion think about how you would like tocontinue working to make this a ‘betterworld’. You can get in touch with groupslike the Youth Action Network and wecan help you get connected with otherorganizations with similar interests toyours. Or maybe we can help you startup your own group. Give us a call ifyou’re itching to get active.

For more thoughts and discussionon protesting at these big summits checkout the website www.tao.ca/~ridefree/summithop .

gagement and youth participation in civilsociety and within the state, operatingwith an anti-oppressive framework. YANtakes on various projects throughout theyear including International Youth Week,Ruckus!, an anti-racist action conferencefor high-school aged students of colour,the ECHO conference of environmentalforum and provides financial and organi-zational support for individual projectthat activists from across Canadapresent. For more information, check outwww.youthactionnetwork.org. There isalso the World Youth Centre, a conceptthat is a cultural legacy of the Toronto2008 Olympic Bid. It will be a place byyouth for youth and will tackle suchproblems as poverty, racism, violenceand inequality - problems that haveevaded solution. WYC is intended togather and apply the knowledge and ex-perience, of a diverse group of youngpeople, to common global concerns in or-der to effect significant positive changethrough innovative and original commu-nity projects. With so many youth initi-ated programs and great ideas, it is nosurprise that non-traditional organiza-tions are exploding with interest.

Activism has evolved greatly, of-ten due to changing demands on soci-ety and growing maturity among youths.It can be said without a doubt, that youthof today are more informed and eager tomake a difference in the world. They areambitious, with high hopes for a betterplace tomorrow. Society is learning moreabout the different roles that are avail-able to volunteer, and now know thattheir skills and interests can be appliedto improve conditions faced by human-ity. New technologies have been intro-duced to the world, and humans havenow come to a point when they under-stand how it can be used for good. Withthe growing trend in activism throughincreased participants devoting morehours to a passionate cause, the dreamof making a world a better place becomescloser to reality.

continued from page 11


PPPPP

24

ProtestingProtestingProtestingProtestingProtesting: Does itPROTESTING HAS BECOME A FORM OF MODERN ART IN WESTERN

society. Privileged young people seem to take it upon them-selves to become martyrs for the developing world and thedowntrodden everywhere. Though the intentions of said con-cerned citizens are most noble, I am forced to question the ra-tionality of their modus operandi. Reasonably, how can puttingoneself in the centre of a torrent of rubber ammunition and riotpolice have any real bearing on decisions made inside a halltwo security perimeters and multiple brick walls away? I disa-gree with the increase in rashness with which police have ap-proached “peaceful” protests, though when I see or read aboutprotesters clashing with riotpolice, then complaining abouttheir supposed ‘mistreatment’,it is not only a stunning dis-play of hypocrisy, but, to putit flatly, is plain irritating. As-suming there is reason enoughfor protest, then is puttingoneself in danger marching ina crowd really going to accom-plish anything significant?One’s political views are oftenbest expressed in ways thatcannot even possibly be per-ceived as confrontational.

Think of how much morepersuasive these concernedpeople would be if they floodednewspapers with letters to theeditor and made concerted ef-forts to win the populace overwith reason and rationality. Ilaud their commitment to theirbeliefs and the courage they display when you take a stand forwhat they believe to be just and right, but I have to questionthe feasibility of ever getting the majority of voters on the pro-testers’ side, and even if they were to do so, what possiblycould come from such a shift? Say every Canadian, that’s 100%,thought exactly as these protesters did, and a government withthose same beliefs came to power, winning all 301 seats in thehouse of commons (I refuse to call this party the NDP, as it ishardly a leap of reasoning that that confused entity will neverform the Canadian government) . Logically, can we really thinkit possible that such a government would have the wherewithalto end corporate injustices in the developing world? Whatwould we do? Banish Nike shoes from our midst? Eat only Ca-nadian wheat? Buy only cars COMPLETELY assembled in

Canada with completely Canadian parts? Such a situation wouldnot only bankrupt the country, but would make some goodsso hard to come by, that some Canadians would be left withoutthe means to own a car, buy food, or wear shoes. Like it or not,we are all selfishly benefiting from globalization and the exploi-tation-cum-rape of the developing world.

It’s all well and good to criticize major multi-national cor-porations for their selfish greed, but really, is making a fool ofoneself while the world is watching really going to win over amajority of Canadians? Will the average citizen, working hisjob in a factory somewhere, really be swayed by brash displays

of ethical bravado? Will compa-nies who exploit cheap laboursuddenly find themselves onthe brink of bankruptcy? Ihighly doubt it.

Speaking about cheap la-bour, what would be the resultif those millions of jobs in thethird world were terminated in asudden corporate move to themorally sound? The millions ofpeople making pennies a daywould be making nothing, andthe consumers buying theirproducts would be stuck with

massive price inflation and arapid decrease in real buyingpower of just about every worldcurrency. Is this what protestersmarch for? Do they put them-selves at risk to try to defeat an‘evil’ system that provides work,any work, to some of the world’s

poorest people? I congratulate these individuals for their cour-age and morality, but I have to question their beliefs. I con-sider myself to be liberal-mined enough to philosophically op-pose the actions of the G8, but as an INFORMED liberal, I can’thelp but see the fundamental differences between the altruis-tic ideals of a world without globalization and the real world,and to understand that the dream world for which some marchwill never exist in all it’s sugar-coated, candy-flavoured glory.

The world in which we live is not an easy place to havevalues, but for those who have the determination and thestrength of character to not only have a strong moral fibre butto be proud of it, perhaps it is best to take a moment to con-sider the fundamental redundancies of modern protest, and toremember that the pen is mightier than the sword.

C o u n t e r P o i n t

Adam

... is making a fool of oneselfwhile the world is watchingreally going to win over a

majority of Canadians?


FFFFF

25

C o u n t e r P o i n t have a purpose?????FORGIVE MY IGNORANT INTRUSION INTO THE WORLD OF ANTI-

protesting wisdom, but perhaps, I just haven’t seen the light.No, wait. Perhaps it is because I’m swimming in self-righteous-ness and ever willing to put ona show and save the world withmy own two hands. Gag me.I’m not a fan of sarcasm, espe-cially in writing, but I think thisone really begs a good dose ofit. Although I do agreethat some of modern protesthas lost its purpose to thesummit-hoppers and lack ofgood follow-up work, I mustexpress that to make a gener-alization about all modern pro-test, is simply ignorant. Eitherthat, or someone is feeling alittle guilty for sitting on acomfy couch while thousandsof her/his peers are freezingand losing their voices on thestreets fighting against the bu-reaucratic world that con-stantly presses against the lib-erty that everyone shouldpossess. Shall I expand? DareI expand?

In my humble, and per-haps naïve opinion, the victoryin protest is not being able tochange the decisions beingmade behind those infamous, indifferent brick walls. It is not afailure that social movements have not been able to end cor-porate injustice overnight. It isn’t feasible by any means, nomatter how dedicated the people are, and no matter how hardthey try. The victory lies in the protest itself. They victory liesthe maintaining of the movement. Perhaps making a fool ofourselves in protest won’t magically win over the minds andmorals of the so-called leaders of the world, but perhaps, inprotest, we’re sending an important message. Perhaps we’retelling the people and governments and the corporations thatwe’re not going to stand quietly by and watch them turn theworld into a disgusting mesh of injustice, discrimination andprivate greed. And maybe, just maybe, we’re keeping the veryimportant social movements alive while we’re alive, while we’restill here on this planet that we call our own, because that’s all

K.C. Burden

... to make a generalization aboutall modern protest, is simply

ignorant.

Either that, or someone is feelinga little guilty for sitting on a comfy

couch...

we can do. And maybe our protesting, and local activism ef-forts in general won’t make a difference to someone miles awaywho is struggling for her freedom, but perhaps local efforts

will lead to a joint movementthat will stimulate changeand awareness all over theworld.

In this crazy, mixed upworld in which we live, thereis no doubt that social move-ments have changed. And Iagree that sometimes thesechanges can lead to impres-sions of untidiness, point-less ranting and raving anddiscouraged faces. But, ifthere is a point in existing atall, we should give credit toall the different kinds ofmovements, the differentkinds of action, that existwithin our communities. So,protesting is not for you?Big deal! Writing petitions,attempting to flood the me-dia, education your friends -that’s all activism. But let’snot put down a type of ac-tivism just because it’s notour style. Why, that wouldbe close-minded and dis-criminating, the exact senti-

ments against which we are trying to fight.Again, forgive my invasiveness into the world of neatly

poised pens and big fluffy words. I’m just a person, wishingto acknowledge that the world we live in does not make sense,and the only way we can fight against the injustice that sur-rounds so many lives is to keep the existing momentum, en-ergy alive, so that in the future, the fight won’t be so hard.

COUNTERPOINT makes a return to FORUM. In this section, twowriters take opposite sides, and try to convince our readers oftheir point of view on the chosen topic. Pieces can be writtenin a rant-style format. If you have an idea for a COUNTERPOINT

topic, and would like to submit your point of view, contact us.We also welcome your responses to either or both of the

viewpoints featured in this issue.


International

Youth Week2002

Across the globe, young people are busting out and making a difference. We’re notsitting around waiting for a future moment when we will be allowed or able to changethe world. We know what we want, we’ve got the power, and we’re moving forwardwith positive ideas and action to make our visions come true!

That’s what International Youth Week is all about. In many ways it’s a celebration ofall the amazing work youth are doing for our communities and environment. Youthweek events always include fun parties and activities such as concerts, skateparks,movie nights, and potlachs. But there’s so much more…

It’s also a week where we get the attention of the world to show them what we can do.Collective actions are often taken at this time to raise our voice on a common issue.The weeks profile makes it a perfect time to hold a public debate, or to perform andshow off your talents and ideas.

Youth week is also the time to network and plan things together. Many events duringyouth week this year were conferences aimed at bringing youth together to discussissues and decide on a plan of action together. YAN organizes youth week so thatpeople can see the different groups out there and get involved with them.

Most importantly youth week is meant to inspire youth to take action! Not just duringthe week but throughout the whole year. Many people find youth week an excellenttime to launch their projects and campaigns. Youth week is just the beginning!

Youth are not the leaders of the future!future!future!future!future!

sustainable planet today!today!today!today!today!

We’re leading the struggle for a just and

OK…sounds exciting, but gimmethe details…

• International Youth Weekhappens every year in May.This year was the 6th-12th.

• Youth Action Networkinitiated the project 9 yearsago and it went international in2000.

• It’s grassroots and diverse.Everyone interprets andorganizes the week differentlyin their own areas.

• YAN only coordinates andpublicizes the events. You dothe organizing!

• Many towns or countries havetheir own youth weekcommittees.

26


Les jeunes ne sont pas les dirigeants de l’avenir!l’avenir!l’avenir!l’avenir!l’avenir!

Nous menons une lutte pour une

planète juste et durable aujourd’hui!aujourd’hui!aujourd’hui!aujourd’hui!aujourd’hui!

2002

La semaine

de jeunesseinternationale

Aux quatre coins du monde, les jeunes se font la malle et font une différence.Nous n’attendons pas le moment dans l’avenir quand on sera permis ou capable dechanger le monde. Nous savons ce que nous voulons, nous avons le pouvoir, et onavance avec des idées et actions positives pour réaliser nos visions!

Ça c’est le but de la semaine internationale de jeunesse. Dans beaucoup defaçons c’est une célébration de tout le travail excellent accompli par les jeunes pournos communautés et notre environnement. Les événements de la semaine dejeunesse incluent toujours les activités amusantes telles que les concerts, les parcsdu patinage, une nuit au cinéma, et les fêtes où l’on échange des cadeaux. Il y en aplus...

C’est aussi une semaine où nous attirons l’attention mondiale pour les montrerce que nous pouvons faire. À ce point, nous avons des actions collectives pourprésenter nos avis basés sur une question commune. Le profil hebdomadaire estune occasion parfaite pour tenir un débat public, ou exécuter vos talents et idées.

La semaine de jeunesse est aussi le temps de connecter avec eux et planifierensemble. La plupart des événements pendant la semaine cette année étaient lesconférences visées pour rassembler les jeunes à discuter les questions et déciderd’un plan d’action ensemble. Le RAJ organise la semaine de jeunesse afin que lespersonnes puissent voir les groupes différents et participer.

La chose la plus importante, c’est d’inspirer le jeunes d’agir non seulementpendant la semaine mais pendant l’année. La majorité des personnes croient que lasemaine de jeunesse est une occasion excellente de mettre en action leurs projets etcampagnes. Ce n’est que le début!

D’accord, c’est passionnant, maisdonne-moi les détails...

• La semaine internationale dejeunesse est annuelle et a lieu aumois de mai. Elle s’est passée le 6 à12 mai dernier.

• Ça fait une dizaine d’années que leRAJ a inauguré le projet. Il estdevenu un événement internationalen 2000.

• C’est la base et divers. Chacun etchacune interprète et organise lasemaine dans une façon différente,n’importe leur région.

• Le RAJ ne coordonne et ne rendpublic que les événements.

• Beaucoup des villes ou pays ontleurs propres comités basés sur lasemaine de jeunesse.

28

Youth week inspires youth to take actionyouth to take actionyouth to take actionyouth to take actionyouth to take actionthroughout the whole year!

Action online!Think, Act, Get Connected! Youth taking charge of the Media.

This year many youth organizations and groups used the energy of the week to launch some of their new projects!Check out these groups to get involved in some of their ongoing initiatives.

Mediawatchyouth.ca andCatchthaflava.com used Catch da Flava’sRegent Park Focus community centre in Torontoto host a hot, hi-tech media event. For and by youthin the community!

So what happened?The event started off with some food andentertainment and soon got into the launch of twonew websites with the help of takingitgobal.comfor technical support.

Mediawatchyouth.ca opened up with a projectionof their site. It featured reports and discussionabout the media, especially about how youngwomen are represented in the media. While thelaunch was happening, youth were encouragedto participate from across the country in the onlinediscussion forums, which by the way, they are stillup and running so get connected!

Catchdaflava.com followed up with a website launchof their local newspaper which has just gone online.The paper is done entirely by youth from the regentpark area in downtown Toronto and has many insightfularticles and opinion columns. Check it out to see what’sup downtown in this part of the country.The event finished off with a live to air broadcast in abrand new radio studio built for catch da flava’s radioshow on CKLN. A panel of five speakers from the youthorganizations Catch Da Flava, MediaWatch youth,Youth Action Network, Venus zine, and the AfghanisWomen’s Association spoke to a crowded house aboutyouth making their own media and how the mainstreammedia represents us.

www.mediawatchyouth.cawww.catchdaflava.com

Catch the Flava Radio, on CKLN

Call to Freedom NetworkDuring Youth Week, anti-racist youth groupsforming a coalition called Call to Freedom cametogether at the Youth Week Party to launch thenetwork....

The Urban Alliance on RaceRelations (UARR), Council of AgenciesServing South Asians (CASSA), OntarioYoung People’s Alliance (OYPA),Chinese Canadian National Council(CCNC) and Youth Action Network(YAN) share a common mandate andhave come together to promote antiracism so that interested youth, youthgroups and organizations can beprovided with a voice and space tocreate effective change.

For more information, contact:UARR (416) 703-6607OYPA (416) 703-5488

CASSA (416) 979-8611YAN (416) 368-2277

CCNC (416) 596-0833

29

Helen ChoiStudent Council Executive, Central Technical School

I am a recent graduate of Central Technical School and I mustsay it is the greatest high school in the world! The school is not likeany other schools that I have been to. Having been an at-risk-youthall my life I have been fortunate enough to have been able to connectwith so many wonderful teachers, caring principals and organizations.This year, I got the opportunity of a life time to speak on the radio forthe Ontario Public Interest Research Group on behalf of Central Techon the current state of education. Through this I met an organizer forInternational Youth Week. He helped and greatly inspired me to start ayouth rally at my school. I love Central Tech and it saddened me tosee that the lack of funding and resources were damaging the qualityof our education. Not to mention the escalating issues of graffitivandalism, cut-backs, and at-risk youths. I have been there, I haveseen it and lived through it and it sucks!

Through the support and encouragement in one week Ibecame the project coordinator a huge media youth rally involving 12different organization such as; Toronto Youth Cabinet, Vervemagazine, Yonge Street Mission, Youth Action Network, and ….CITYTV! It was a success beyond my hopes. I was able to speak out tothe youths at my school and speak passionately about issues ofageism, discrimination against class and raising awareness of at-

risk youths and connecting them with these organizations whoare able to help them out if they are not happy at home or atschool. I was surprised to find out that the day before the eventthat there was going to be an 80% chance of a thunder storm.But, our strong determination and will power did not let us losehope because on the day of the event it was bright with greatfilled with sunshine. I was thrilled to see that I was given thechance of a life time to broadcast the event LIVE as the featurejournalist of the day for CITY PULSE at noon. Not to mention havingbeen able to write this and share it all with you here at forum. Ihope that my message of hope, determination and most importantlyyouth-empowerment will be able to inspire you to do what I havedone at my school. Good luck in your future endeavours andInternational Youth Week was a blast! Way to Go!

Oh wait-there’s more, the event was so successful thatit managed to inspire and create a chain reaction effect. How?Well, the week after the event the students and teachers at ourschool, even before the month of exams. We created a positive-graffiti-art campaign, made a music CD and held a media launch,a teacher’s rock festival, various anti-racism workshops, atriathlon challenge, a prom at SKYDOME and many, many more! Iknow this sounds pretty amazing but miracles do exist andthrough international youth week Central Technical Schoolprobably will capture you in awe. I know I am.

Youth Action Day a success!

Serve Canada

Healthy Lifestyles Fair

Ontario Young Peoples Alliance

Keeping it R.E.A.L. Launch

Resources to the Rescue...Culturelink’s program which deals with newcomer youthreleased a number of newly created resources whichincluded a Cross Cultural Conflict management Manual, Howto Form an Anti-Violence Youth Group - Handbook, and ANewcomers Story - a book created by Newcomer Youth. Thelaunch party was a great success and the Cross Culturalconflict management has been turned into a train the trainercourse which Culturelink is offering to local youth. For moreinfo Contact: Claire Naranjo, CultureLink NYC YouthWorker, 416-588-6288, [email protected]

Youth Assisting Youth...In Midland, Ontario, the YAY youth group de-cided to have an opening launch of their newcolumn in the local newspaper. Having thelaunch happen during Youth Week provided thatextra hook for the media to pick it up and makeit into a bigger story. [email protected] for more info.

youth

week

snapshots


Having lived and attended demos for the most part in Toronto,my first demo in Kitchener was a very deferent experience. Therewere reports from the KW Youth Collective thatpolice in KW regularly used intimidation andtargeted violence. For this particular demo, thepolice had tried to intimidate the May Dayconference organisers into not holding themeeting, as well as articulating that they “havepermission to use live ammunition”.

During the day the conference location(an autonomous youth space called The Spot),was watched by police. Later when thedemonstration began at city hall, the police madetheir presence known but did not indicate thatthe demo would be threatened. We ategenerously and danced to music, occupying thepublic space as rightfully ours. After somespeeches, the march left city hall and windedaround downtown Kitchener, taking up at least onelane of traffic, but mostly two the whole way. Musicwas playing during the march and we stopped atvarious “Urban Evolution” spots along theway(areas the city was in the process ofgentrifying). The cops merely blocked traffic forus and watched the march.When it got close to 11pm, the police threatened that the march wouldhave to stop. The crowd marched on and only minutes later as weturned a corner, one and possibly two people were jumped andarrested by a group of enforcers that included local private security

(bouncers who were over a block away from their club) and KWpolice. People were beaten with police billy clubs and the fists ofboth groups of enforcers. When asked what they were doing here,the private security responded “helping the cops”. The police wereasked if the private security were working with them and theyresponded no at first, but when presented with the bouncer’s replyof “helping the cops” one of the cops commented that it was a good

thing the bouncers were assisting.Another demonstrator, completely unprovoked,was assaulted by a bouncer (shoved in theshoulders with a fairly high amount of force).Police saw the assault as they were standing 2feet away, yet denied it taking place by forcingpeople to leave and return to the sidewalk andstating “no body was hit here.” When pressedfurther the cops said “well, he was getting in theguy’s face”. The cops involved in this altercationwere badges 886 and 375.The march was forced off the streets and thecrowd regrouped at city hall deciding what to do.There were a few angry people who wanted to

take the streets again, risking arrest, but most peopleeither dispersed or went back to The Spot to calmdown and be in a safer space. As we left city hall,one of the lead organisers, Julian was rounded upand arrested.At The Spot, there were fears that the space wouldbe searched and that more people would be taken.Some talked about the possibility of jail solidarity. Thegroup I was with needed to be back in Guelph that

night, and with many tired and one sick member, we left after makingsure that there was nothing else we could do.The night was the kick-off for a year-long campaign to oppose UrbanEvolution and push for Urban Revolution.

k-w youth collectivemay day action

Youth Week is a week for Simultaneous Action...Around the world young people choose youth week to initiate actions to get attention for issues they work on.

In Peru...young people came together during the week for

workshops, musical fun, and a large demonstration for

peace and disarmament.

In Lahore, Pakistan...

a youth group called YAFHR started a project to provide basic

education to juvenile prisoners and termed this project as “Juvenile

Prisoners Education Program (JPEP)”. They wrote that “according

to last year prison survey of Pakistan every year almost 900-

1000 children are bringing up in the jails of the country. The majority

of these children came to jails with their mothers who were

sentenced for various crimes. Remember that a number of

children borne in the jails. Despite these many youngsters are

also in prison for the minor crimes they done, normally this ratio

is 15% to 20% of the total.” YAFHIR decided to spend a day in

prison with these children in accordance with International Youth

Week. They ate lunch with them and had some recreational

activities for them. For more information, [email protected].

From Accra, Ghana....From: members, staff and board of directors of Youth Action NetworkClub of Ghana

To: members, staff and board of directors of Youth Action Network:Dear friends,

We have the greated pleasure to write to you this letter. We are alldoing well here and we hope you are doing well as we are.We were very grateful in celebrating Youth Week 2002 here in Ghana,every thing went on well. We undertake this programmes: Clean-upactivity, talk show, HIV and AIDS is Real awareness show for juniorsecondary school students, a soccer match between two youthclubs, public speech on youth week celebration.

We invited 25 youth club organisations to take part in the activities.


ECHO bounces back once again....This year the youths at ECHO put on another wicked camp for youngpeople across Ontario wanting to learn more about the environmentand how to organize to protect it. During the camp, participants getanti-oppression training, learn how to live lightly, cook themselvesvegan meals, .... The pictures can speak for themselves ...

Throughout the year many of us are putting a lot of effort into the causes we care about, and sometimes it seems like we need someinspiration, need to learn more about the issue or project and how to work on it, or we just want to meet more people and have othershelp us out. Often during youth week, many youth come together and put on conferences and networking events to share their skillsand knowledge. Here’s a list of a few events that took place this past youth week.

Youth Networking and Sharing Ideas....

Rainbow Youth Conference....Queer youth in the Guelph, Ontario region put on a weekend conferencethis year during Youth Week. The gathering took place in a scenic camp halfan hour away in the countryside where participants came together to ...“LEARN about social, environmental, and queer issues through workshopsand social activities. SHARE experiences, knowledge, fears, successesand plans for the future. CREATE an accessible and safe environment thatis free of judgment and encourages sharing and respect. BUILD a networkof queer youth to promote solidarity and achieve common goals.”

Workshops over the weekend included Doing anti-homophobia work forman anti-racist perspective, Reusable menstrual pad making, Discussion onhigh school experiences, and Health and Activism. The weekend alsoincluded lots of fun activities such as theatre, dancing, and yoga.

For more info on how this conference went [email protected]

Grassy Narrows Environmental Youth Gathering...First Nations youth came together in northern Ontario for a gathering to learnabout pollution in their area and it’s effect on the health of the people and thelocal environment. Environmental damage and pollution has overwhelminglyaffected first nations communities throughout Canada but this has been givenlittle attention in the past. It is important for youth to see this as a priority foraction. Grassy Narrows people have been especially hit hard with diseasescaused by the industrial mercury poisoning of the land.

The gathering lasted three days followed by a two-day pow wow and bigfeast to honour ‘mothers earths day’. This was followed up by ‘Emily’s Walk ofHope’ which was a long walk to raise awareness about serious health issuesin her community caused by pollution. For more information on this eventcontact Judy Da Silva at [email protected] or 1 807 925-9914.

Stop the War!Anti-War conference in Montreal...

While not explicitly for youth, the Anti-Warconference hosted by students at ConcordiaUniversity in Montreal was a very exciting eventto attend for many during Youth Week. This wasa great example of youth who know that theycan have a large impact on the world and areorganizing themselves to do it. After the eventsof Sept 11th and escalating war by the US inAfghanistan and local region, the students atConcordia University voted to use their funds toput on this large conference and invited peopleto speak on“*Imperialism, Globalization, and the MilitaryIndustrial Complex;*The War at Home: Attacks on Indigenous Nations;Anti-Immigration Measures; the Loss of CivilLiberties; and the Attacks against People ofColour, Arabs, and Muslims;*Gender and Militarism*and Organizing Against the War”

The 4 day conference was packed with speakersand workshops and also included scheduledtimes for people to have their own networkingmeetings and share information on how they arestruggling to stop the war.

For more information [email protected]


...and of course it’s a timeto congratulate ourselvesduring the week for all thehard work we’ve beendoing over the past year ona daily basis. Many youthweek organizers choose tohave their event be acelebration and a good timefor all. This year many of theproject launches wereparties in themselves withgood food, music, andentertainment. Battle of thebands, street hockeytournaments, andskateboarding competitions,graffiti exhibitions are allpart of the week.... Checkout some of these pictures.

In these pages we’ve focused mostly on activities and projects organized by grassroots groups. But there is so muchmore happening. Many communities see a real value in organizing youth week activities and have come together to coordi-nate youth weeks for their area. Here’s a listing of some of the Youth Week organizing committees and their contact info.Many of these coordinators help organize over 50 events during the week.

It wouldn’t be Youth Week without a Party!Party!Party!Party!Party!

Youth Week Is Spreading!!!!

Youth Week in Australia www.youthweek.comBritish Columbia Youth Week www.bcyouthweek.comAbbotsford Youth Week www.abbyyouth.comBurnaby Youth Week www.geocities.com/burnabyyouthweekCalgary Youth Week www.childfriendly.ab.ca/youthweekMarkham Youth Week www.city.markham.on.ca/markhamyouthMississauga Youth Week www.city.mississauga.on.ca/youthweekVancouver Youth Week www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/parks/youthweekVictoria Youth Week www.youth.city.victoria.bc.ca

Successful events were alsoheld in these areas:

Phillipines Youth WeekCambridge Youth WeekHamilton Youth Week

Sarnia-Lambton Youth WeekPeru Youth Week

Accra, Ghana Youth Week

It’s never too early to startstartstartstartstart.To become a regional coordinator of Youth Week contact us:

176 John Street, Suite 307, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5T 1X5tel/tél: (416) 368-2277 / 1-800-718-LINK (in Canada)

fax/télécopieur: (416) [email protected]

... and stay tuned to youthweek.org

Links to all these sites can be found on the

International Youth Week website:

www.youthweek.org


I

33

Emily Gordon

IN AN ATTEMPT TO CLEAN UP OUR

GRUBBY STREETS, the city’s planning andtransportation committee has proposedan anti-postering bylaw to the city coun-cil. They have tried this before but havebeen unsuccessful due to a violation inThe Charter of Rights & Freedoms. If im-plemented, the bylaw would forbidpostering on 98% of the city’s 160,000poles. Some stipulations of the by-lawinclude:

1.Identical posters must be at least100 meters apart

roots organizations, and everyday peo-ple for advertising concerts, communityevents, garage sales, and babysittingservices. Public space belongs to thepeople, not the government.

Take a hypothetical situation: sup-pose an indie band is having a concert.They post 500 posters all over the city,using only wheat paste (proven to be en-vironmentally-friendly) while posting onpublic space only. Without the bylaw,they would have no problem posting anynumber of posters, of any size and con-

Anti-postering bylawembezzles frfrfrfrfree speecee speecee speecee speecee speechhhhh

2. Only clear tape or staples-no glue or wheat paste- may be usedas adhesives.

3. Only posters in special plas-tic collars installed on 2,000 of thepoles will be allowed, each collarholding eight posters.

4. Posters can be no larger thana letter-sized sheet of paper, and mustbear the date posted.

5. Owners must also displaytheir name and phone number onevery poster and are responsible forremoving posters after a maximum of30 days. Refusal to do so could re-sult in fines of a minimum of $60 (nomaximum) per poster.

If approved, the bylaw wouldnot take effect until next year: the citydoes not have the required $120,000in this year’s budget to fund the en-forcement of the bylaw.

Is the government interferingwith free speech? Postering is usedas an inexpensive means of commu-nication by musicians, artists, grass-

tent, anywhere they choose.If the new bylaw is approved,

the band would be legally respon-sible for finding free space in a plas-tic “collar” somewhere in the city,which would be virtually impossibledue to the high demand for space.They would have to clearly displaytheir names and phone numbers onevery poster, allowing any crazedfan, person who hates the band orfreak on the street access to theirprivate information. They could nolonger use their wheat paste. In-stead, the band would have to useclear tape or staples (staples beingdangerous, tape being ineffective,and both having the potential to lit-ter the streets) for their posters.Who’s ever heard of taping or sta-pling to plastic anyway? This onlyincreases the probability that atleast a few of the posters will falldown, making a mess and defeatingthe purpose of the bylaw in the firstplace. What if they forget to take the

The bylaw wouldmake advertising and

communicationvirtually impossible toeveryone who can’t

afford billboards.


posters down? Suppose they put dates more than 30 days inthe future on the posters, so they can save time and posters,with the intention of keeping them up to advertise futureshows? With a minimum fine of $60 per poster, the band couldface a total fine of at least $30,000, an absolutely ridiculousexpense.

The city has made an obvious impact on our independ-ent sector. The bylaw would make advertising and communi-cation virtually impossible to everyone who can’t afford bill-boards. If they are trying to make a seemingly pristine city byattempting to reduce litter, they will definitely fail: it’s not theamount of litter that defines a city, it’s the people. Real citiesare anything but pristine... they’re dirty and smelly with post-ers several layers thick plastering every pole in sight. And that’sthe way it should be. I could never imagine Toronto any otherway. Posters add character and are a sign of a healthy democ-racy. They show we have a community deeper than our curbappeal. If tourists come to our city, do you think posters wouldreally bother them as much as our stuffy, polluted air? If thecity wants to help our environment, they should start with thepollution situation. Or, perhaps they should concentrate onhelping the homeless sleeping on the streets. What about the

video-billboards around the highway thatblind drivers with their lights? Those arethe only “posters” that the city should beconcerned about.

Is it right to limit advertising to com-mercial companies that can afford bill-boards? Do we want to see mile-high Gapbillboards all over our downtown core, in-stead of ads for community events? Thebylaw would allow only these companiesto influence us through advertising. Do wewant to allow the media to turn our cityinto a brand-name clad, materialistic soci-ety?

On April 16, 2002, a group of activ-ists gathered at city hall to protest the by-law. Among the supporters were BillyBratt, a British folk musician who wore an“I Love Posters” sign, and Avi Lewis,former host of CBC’s Counterspin. TheToronto Public Space Committee—thegroup who organized the postering bylawcampaign—has already been endorsed byseveral organizations: Artists Against Rac-ism, The Green Party of Ontario, RocketRiders Transit Unit Group, Three GutRecords, The Toronto Buddhist Peace Fel-lowship, and many others. It’s rare for sucha wide spectrum of organizations to openlysupport such a specific cause. One wouldbe led to believe that this issue appears so

insignificant: it’s only posters, who cares, right? But postersare much more then pieces of paper stuck to a pole. They aremessages, as illustrated by the list of endorsers. These mes-sages are used by people of all races, religions, and walks oflife, and they all have something to say. It seems as if the deci-sion as to whether the open use of posters should be quiteobvious. However, it’s not so simple for our city’s government.The messages of these people are much more important thanany trash. By attempting to pass this bylaw, the city is sayingthat our messages are no more important than the garbage thatlitters our streets, and they’ve even said as much.

They may see our messages as trash, but they must benoticing the coming-together of all these organizations. Thisnew kind of activism is rare. On May 23, 2002, it was announcedthat, in an 18 to 16 vote, Councillors voted in favour of havinga public forum to discuss how the bylaw will affect these or-ganizations. Maybe then we can convince them that our post-ers have some value and are part of what binds our city to-gether as a whole.

Emily Gordon is 15 and is a student at Marc GarneauCollegiate Institute in Toronto.

Is it right to limit advertising to commercialcompanies that can afford billboards?


IT SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY WHEN I STOOD SHIVERING OUTSIDE

the Pearson’s Airport, clutching a Barbie trunk full of all mybelongings in one hand and a Korean-English dictionary inthe other. I arrived to this city called Toronto, full of hopesand anxiety and along with them, a frozen tongue and stuffedears.

I still remember feeling a deep unavoidable anguish aswell as some “English-o-phobia” which caused me to refrainfrom picking up the phone when it rang. When I saw people inthe hallway and when they approached me to talk, even to sayhello, my tongue felt glued to the top of my mouth, partiallyparalyzed by my lack of skill in speaking English language. Iwas hesitant to speak to people in English, and when I didmanage to utter some syllables from my uncompromisingmouth, it was not out of my own will but out of absolute need.The first few months after my arrival were the times I lived likeRobinson Crusoe, stranded on an island, surrounded by hu-man contact, yet, deaf and mute. I was afraid of making mis-takes, afraid that I would make a big fool out of myself.

My first class in Canada remains to be my first grand,embarrassing part in my history. The first class, the first ofeverything for the Sixth graders, was an introductory step foreveryone. All students in the class were partnered up and weretold to speak to one another about the summer and themselves.After a given amount of time, we were told to present our part-ners to the class. This was supposed to be the most basic taskour teacher could possibly have assigned, but it was the hard-est thing for me.

My partner, poor soul, was a good-looking and a verypatient boy named Brad. He talked at great length about hislearning yachting during the summer break. I managed only toget the word “yacht” out of his great discourse. While he wasenthusiastically talking about his summer, I did the best I couldto be an active listener - a constant chorus of “yes” and a vig-orous bobbing of my head like crazy (he would have thought Iwas either having a seizure or doing an intensive neck exer-cise). When it became my turn to speak to the class about thisperson, I could only remember the words “Brad” and “yacht”.I said, “This boy’s name is good. He is bread. Like what weeat. He likes yacht.” The poor boy buried his reddening face

I

The tonguetonguetonguetonguetongue

Jae-Yeon Lim

One girl’s journey toward learning theEnglish language

with his arms on the desk while everyone got a good laugh outof my introduction. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed themoment when people laughed “at” me (maybe I was laughingalong “with” them). Call me a disillusioned optimist if you must,but I liked the fact that people laughed because I felt that I dida good job of “entertaining” them (without intending to do so).In fact, my first embarrassing moment was the spark for me tomake more mistakes and eventually learn to speak English flu-ently.

My teacher wrote “Bread” and “Brad” on the board andpointing to each word, after pronouncing it a few times, saidthat the two were distinct words. At that time, I did not under-stand the difference between “Bread” and “Brad” because theysounded the same to my untrained ears. Now that I do see andhear the difference, I look back at the two words while I try tosuppress an uncontrollable fit of chuckling.

My life in South Korea did not prepare me for the lan-guage barrier in English. I had to start everything from scratch,

and thenthe earearearearearsssss

35


T

watching the Sesame Street (from where I obtained a major crushon the Cookie Monster), learning the Alphabet, reading chil-dren’s books day and night in order to immerse myself in theworld of the English language. The process I was undergoingwas a major installation of an English ear and mouth whereKorean ones used to be. I became adapted to speaking, writ-ing and listening in English. This whole new acquisition of“peripherals” could not have been possible without the helpof my classmates, teachers, and the learning-friendly atmos-phere they created for me as well as the support from my par-

ents who lavished their attention and concern on me (and whowent through the same language difficulty with me).

So now that I have crawled past the danger sign in thelanguage barrier, what do I do? English is still as foreign to meas wearing a corset is to a modern day woman. Perhaps I am ata half-way point of acquiring the English language; I still needto fix up numerous glitches I make, such as constantly forget-ting to put “the” or “a” in front of a noun (In Korean, we don’t

“This boy’s name is good.He is bread. Like what we eat.”

use articles). Though I am not quite there yet, I am alreadyfeeling good about this journey. And I guess having somerosy, fond memories from words is a sign that this has beenworthwhile after all.

If you are in the beginning stage of a journey like mine,welcome aboard! It certainly is difficult to adjust to the newlanguage and environment for the first couple weeks of yourstay, but you will shine through the barriers gracefully. One ofthe most fruitful rewards you will achieve will be another switchin your head, which you will turn on/off to converse in Englishor in another language(s). Before then, I think the most impor-tant thing to keep in mind is to abandon the fear of makingmistakes. Speaking the language will be new to your tongueand hearing it will be fuzzy to your ears. One day, when youwake up and encounter the same language again, your mouthand tongue will coordinate wonderfully, as if you’ve alwaysknown English as your first language.

So have fun with your installation kit, which is your in-nate nature to learn new things, and plunge into the unknown!Meanwhile, do remember to indulge your hard-working tonguewith some tasty treats (do try Canadian cuisine), pamper yourvaluable ears with music of your taste, and feel good aboutyour progress, at whatever stage period.

Getting a fair minimum wageJordan Bell

THE PREMIER OF BRITISH COLUMBIA ANNOUNCED A FEW weeksago that there would be a new training wage of six dollars anhour. The current minimum wage in BC is eight dollars, whichis the highest in the country, and was fixed at that rate by theold NDP government. BC workers are leading a campaign, called“Six Bucks Sucks,” against this wage cut. Six bucks does suck,and the minimum wage in Ontario is just as unfair. Right now itis $6.40 for young workers and $6.85 for adults. It is difficult tolive on such a meagre wage, let alone raisea family or have an education.

What right-wing politicians likeGordon Campbell in British Columbia andMike Harris in Ontario fail to understandis that people who work for minimum wagespend the money they get. The economicbenefit of putting a dollar in the hands ofa minimum wage worker is much greaterthan having it go to a wealthy person inthe form of tax incentives. Most workersspend their money in Canada, and do notput it outside of our economy. Thus, rais-ing wages is healthy for our economy andthe dollar as it puts money back into oursystem.

In addition, minimum wage has not

kept up our economy. For instance, inflation since 1976 trans-lates into $8.08 today, which means young workers are gettingripped off by $1.68 each hour, and $1.23 for other workers.Corporations have made certain that their profits keep up withthe times, and the government has similarly ensured that theirsalaries are a good 30% above inflation; but a person workingfor minimum wage has had their wages fall behind for more thana decade. It is because of this that the NDP is pushing a bill toincrease the minimum wage to $7.50 an hour for everyone, whichwould be similar to the United States’ minimum wage at $5.15

(US) an hour.This is about fairness; it shouldn’t be

that the least privileged people lose out onan economy that has helped almost every-one else prosper. The most effective way tohelp stabilize Canada’s economy is to giveworkers more money to spend in their com-munities, which is exactly what raising theminimum wage will do. This ideology bringsback Henry Ford’s piece of wisdom thatworkers need to be paid enough to buy whatthey make. The NDP is doing it’s best toget people who don’t care to participate indemocracy by fighting for something noother party bothers to mention, and in all,it’s a good plan.

Art by Vinca Chow

36


For as much as we claim to be a multi-cultural country (but not a melting pot!), young people of colour in ourcountry often lack strong role models. In an effort to address this, YAN will be sponsoring a one-day forum calledRuckus! Ruckus will bring together Ontario high-school aged youths of colour, to discuss the current issues relevantto them - issues of representation in the media, civic engagement, targeted policing, ableism and sexism. Youngpeople share common concerns across race lines, however; “minorities” also face problems that are uniquelyrelated to the colour of their skin. Rather than push these issues aside, or unite under the umbrella of multi-culturalism we have to take a critical view of what young people face today.

An important aspect of this project comes from the realization that youth of colour lack real role models thatshare their cultural histories, particularly within the social and environmental justice community. The social justicemovement continues to posit itself as being representative of an entire generation of disenfranchised young people,but this same movement often excludes or is not sensitive to differences that arise due to different ethnicities.Although Ruckus! is only a small step in addressing these issues, it is an important step. What grows out ofRuckus! will be up to the participants, but it’s best achievement would be to continue as a grassroots project overthe years to come, run by people like you. We hope you will join us and become a part of this vision.

Ruckus! will take place on September 21, 2002 in downtown Toronto. The day will begin at 9:30 and end at5:30. Workshop topics include: Critical Multiculturalism, Civic Journalism, Creating Linkages, Anti-Racist MediaEducation, Building a Movement and others. Lunch will be provided and public transportation expenses reimbursedif coming from outside the Greater Toronto Area (within Ontario). If you are interested in participating please fill outthe form below and return it to:

Youth Action Network176 John Street, Suite 307Toronto, ONM5T 1X5RE: Ruckus!

For further information please contact us at 416-368-2277 or at [email protected]

snip it out fill it out!!! form can also be faxed back:RE: Ruckus! (416) 368-8354

Name: _______________________________________________________ Age: _____________

Address: _____________________________________________________________________

City/Town: ___________________________________

Phone number: ______________________________________ E-mail: ___________________________________________

Are you a person of colour (y/n)? ______________________________________

Do you have any special needs that need to be accommodated? _____________________________________________________

...youth of colour lack realrole models that share their

cultural histories,particularly within the socialand environmental justice

community...RUCKUS!

!?


Art by Liam Thurston

DDDDD Liam Thurston & Devon Ostrom

DURING THE COURSE OF A DAY, YOU ARE BOMBARDED BY MORE

than 600 independent pieces of visual communication. Mostof this clutter falls prey to the in-one-eye, out-the-other syn-drome, but how is it effecting you subconsciously and shouldthere be a price to pay?

While graffiti is shunned and criminalized, billboards arewell funded and coveted venues of visual marketing that oftengo unquestioned and under criticized. Why should their mes-sages, fueled by the generation of monetary profit and materi-alistic\ emotionally exploitative brain washing, reach a wideraudience?

Seen as the illegitimate child of the beautiful graffiti mu-rals Toronto is world renowned for, tagging has been a waythat people make the city belong to them, rather than vice versa;to see a piece of themselves in a sea of oversized, glossy pinups and eye sore advertising. Vandalism and hate crime areone thing, but blaming graffiti for social corrosion? If anythingthe latter actions are symptoms of social and civic decay in themacro organism that is the city. Perhaps, if more were done toimprove the feel of the city for the humans that live in it ratherthan appeasing the interests of big business, we would see a

AAAAArt vs. AAAAAds

“Economics are determining what is a valid form of public expression,it seems corporations have as much access to public space as they want,

while independent expression is repressed.”Dave Meslin, Toronto Public Space Committee

38

lot less vandalism.Enter The Visual Pollution Initiative. This is a new tactic

initiated by Toronto’s T.H.E.M, flagship of the Foundation forthe Advancement of Young Urban Artists. In the battle againstrampant consumerism and redundant visual noise, the VisualPollution Initiative would see the City of Toronto collect fundsfrom the businesses responsible for advertising on billboards,and use these funds to counteract visual pollution by increas-ing funding to public art initiatives such as murals and greenprojects. The Visual Pollution Fee would be collected throughexisting collection structures, thereby minimizing the cost ofimplementation.

The specific details of the Visual Pollution Initiative wouldbe decided through consultation with Toronto’s citizens andpublic planning committees. Issues to be solved include thetreatment of well-meaning non-profit billboards, the responseof the advertising industry and the effect of such a tax on theconsumer economy. “We are not saying that [commercial] bill-boards cannot exist- that would be wrong, or that vandalism isokay, a compromise must be reached.” Devon Ostrom, co-founder of T.H.E.M.

T.H.E.M. - the flagship division of the Foundation forthe Advancement of Young Urban Artists - is composed of 20

emerging visual artists fromToronto, Montreal, Ottawaand Pittsburgh. They con-tinue the Visual PollutionTax initiative by asking fora show of public supportand input for this experi-ment in democracy byclicking the petition buttonon their website atwww.them-art.com.

See the back coverfor more information aboutthe Visual Pollution Initia-tive.

“The vision of the Graffiti Eradicationprogram is for urban beautification, graffiti

sub-culture erosion, stakeholdercollaboration, reduction in crime, fear and

disorder, increased property values,employment opportunities and tourism.”

Toronto Police Service Graffiti Eradication Program

http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/graffiti/index.htm

Graffiti battle billboards in our cities


Map

“Free” tradeMap

39

Andrew Ng

JAMAICA After openingup its borders to foreignimports, the local dairyindustry was destroyedby the dumping of milkpowder, subsidized byover 100% by Americanand Europeangovernments. Manyfarmers were forced tojettison thousands of litresof milk into the streets.

U.S. 30% steel importtariff over 3 years,27% tax on Canadiansoftwood lumber andincreased subsidiesfor local wheat, cotton,peanuts, and cornproducers by 80%.The agriculturalsubsidies will cost$180 billion over thenext ten years, buteven more in criticism inthe international arena.

BRAZIL The Minister ofAgriculture in Brazildenounced the recentannouncement of Americanagricultural subsidies inCongress and declared inresponse, “In that case,Brazil is not interested indiscussing free trade” as apart of the FTAA. The U.S.has proposed the exemptionof “sensitive” products suchas orange juice, sugar, andtextiles from the FTAA.

Sources...Julian Borger. “What protectionism

fails to protect.” The Guardian M

ay 15, 2002 ...“Real Lives.” O

xfam cam

paign: Make Trade Fair. http://w

ww

.maketradefair.com

/...IsabelaAbdala. “Fast-track’ m

ay result in Brazil’s withdraw

al from the FTAA.” The Brazilian D

ecember 12, 2001...G

eorge Hagan, “Bush plays free-trade gam

e,” USA Today, M

ay 2, 2002.

MOZAMBIQUE Thanks tothe dumping of subsidizedEU beet sugar, priced at halfthe cost it takes to cultivate,Mozambique’s sugar beetindustry-one of the mostefficient in the world-is stillsuffering after decades ofwar and floods. To makematters worse, the EU taxesany “processed” imports, soMozambique is trappedselling raw sugar, unable toreap thousands of jobs inrefining.

PAKISTAN The Bushadministration increasedthe Pakistani textile quotamarginally, rewarding thecountry for cooperation inthe U.S. coalition againstterrorism. Not enough sayPakistani officials, whoseek a lifting of the quota.Textiles comprise two-thirds of Pakistani exports,$1.5 billion of which headto American markets.

VIETNAM The EuropeanUnion, which heavilysubsidizes its own fishingfleets to harvest seas indeveloping countries, raisedthe tariff on frozen prawns, aluxury fish, from 4.5 to 10.9%.The protectionist measure willdevastate many impoverishedprawns farmers. Furthermore,the country was barred fromlabeling a fish that closelyresembles catfish as “catfish”in the U.S. after pressure fromAmerican catfish farmers.

MEXICO 3 million Mexicancorn farmers haveresorted to extrememeasures includingexpanding farms toecologically-sensitive landto compete with theonslaught of heavilysubsidized industrially-grown corn from the U.S.Many traditional farmers,tending smaller farms,have been forced to moveinto cities.

BURKINA FASO TheWorld Bank released areport which calculatedthe consequences of theagricultural subsidiespassed in Congress lastMay. The reportconcluded that the numberof people in Burkina Fasoliving in poverty would behalved if the price ofcotton was not distortedby American subsidies.

YOUTH ACTION FORUM

176 John Street, Suite 307Toronto, ONM5T 1X5Canada

Founda

tion for the Ad

vancem

ent of Young Urban A

rtists www.them

-art.co

m

“We are at least 50% a product of our environment. More has to be done to ensure that the ridiculouslydegrading/exploitative portrayal of women and men, as well as the direction toward excessive consumption,is well balanced with green spaces and public art which is kind to the eye and soul.”

Devon Ostrom Co-Founder of T.H.E.M

During the course of a day, you are bombarded by more than 600 independentpieces of visual communication. Most of this clutter falls prey to the in-one-eye, out-the-other syndrome,but how is it affecting you subconsciously and should there be a price to pay?

The Visual Pollution Initiative is the latest tactic initiated by T.H.E.M in the battle against rampantconsumerism and redundant visual noise. The project would see the City of Toronto collect funds from thebusinesses responsible for advertising on billboards, and use these funds to counteract visual pollutionby increasing funding to public art and green projects. The Visual Pollution Fee would be collected via theexisting process of billboard registration, thereby minimizing the cost of implementation.

T.H.E.M. - the flagship division of the Foundation for the Advancement of Young Urban Artists - iscomposed of 20 emerging visual artists from Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Pittsburgh. They continue theVisual Pollution Initiative by asking for a show of public support and input by clicking the VPI Petition buttonon their website at: www.them-art.com.

The Visual Pollution Initiative

Art b

y Li

am T

hurs

ton

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