AW@l Radio - Smash The State Report: Jan 18, 2013
From the January 18th 2013 edition of AW@L Radio - The new office of religious freedom, that harper's government has created based on the american model is ready to start. As a piece from rabble.ca explains, this office may be a bit Orweillan - muslims were not invited to a visioning session for the office, and others who presented at the meeting called christians the most persecuted people in the world.
In a second piece of Now Fear This - the national post headlined a piece on the radicalisation of muslims outside of the mosques... they failed to report on the obvious that everyone everywhere is being radicalised by bullshit policies which hurt all but the rich, and that canadian agents are pretty racist.
Next up is a demand from rabble.ca blogger and labour activist David Climenhaga for sun news commentator and general super-douche ezra levant to apologise or explain his hateful and racist commentary on the Roma community, which SunTV has tried to hide as they apply for funding from the canadian public. Climenhaga notes that unless levant and sun news respond, it will be impossible to deny certain things about levant and the so-called news organsisation (that they spew colonial and racist propaganda which works to divide possible allies who would otherwise come together in common causes).
Next up is the exciting final drive to get the Secret Trial 5 documentary funded by the hot docs - doc ignite project. This doc is in post-production and looking for some cash to finish off an important piece of media looking into canada's imprisonment and abusive treatment of 5 muslim men detained through the ultra-shady security certificates program.
We then go to an update from embedded AW@L Radio host Alex Hundert, who has been put back into the hole in the central north correctional centre in penetang ontario. Alex, an anti-colonial anti-capitalist has now been considered a security threat by the head of security and is reporting that he expects to spend the remaining time on his sentence in 24hour a day isolation, except an every other day shower, up to 20 minutes daily in the concrete yard, and spotty access to a muffled phone.
And a reason to question another myth of canada - that we are green... in a recent study, only the US and australia produced more garbage and scored lower on a bevy of indicators designed to understand a countries efforts at "being green". The clear connection here is that all 3 of the bottom countries are colonial powers who clearly have no respect for indigenous rights, or the inherently connected earth on which we all live.
Another thing who has no respect for the rights of others is john holer, the owner of marineland near Niagara Falls. The ongoing and longterm abuse and mistreatment of imprisoned animals in the so-called amusement park has been highlighted by Marineland Animal Defense and in recent exposé by the toronto star. Niagra Falls mayor - Jim Diodati has been having a PR nightmare as he tries to protect the corporate image of his city so tourists will still give it a reason to exist.
With sad news we mark the apparent suicide of internet freedom fighter Aaron Schwartz who was being persecuted by the us government for his mad h4xor skills and for trying to build a better interweb for us all. We call out to all academics to stop publishing papers in journals which do not give free access to those articles to everyone. Knowledge is public domain!
Continuing on with the Smash the State Report we go to a piece from the Grand River Media Collective - an interview from an action in Hamilton ontario where community members held an info and support picket at a highschool in support of the struggle of the teachers against the anti-labour rights attacks of the mcGunity (and harper) government. The action was organised by Common Cause and will be mirrored in other cities, though it was so easy, folks are encouraged to do it within their own communities.
The Idle no More update starts with a reading of a piece from Warrior Publications which reminds us that peaceful protests have profited from a history of militant resistance, then mention another one from the same author, which was highlighted on the Daily GRRR!, which exposed the tactics of the black bloc at a recent anti-pipeline march in vancouver as focusing on helping to create the space necessary for an effective demonstration to take place. They did this by being a magnet for police attention and numbers, and by later creating a physical barrier between police and the rest of the protest while at the same time getting the cops up against the wall (literally...).
In the 3rd story of the segment we note the OPPs recognition that violent repression of well organised (or at least well supported) social movements, such as Idle No More, is not always the best way to do things - admitting that Killing Dudley George or raiding Kanonhstaton were not have been the right way to solve disputes. We shall see how this continues...
Moving forward we highlight recent actions around Six Nations where the highway leading to Kanonhstaton was blocked for a while on an INM day of action, and this event was followed up with the visit of Haudenosaunee and their settler allies to 5 sites of development to stop work and demand proper consultation. check @tworowsociety and @mohawkWorkers on twitter for updates from Brantford, Caledonia, Cayuga, Oshweken and area!
Closing INM updates we read a letter from Defenders of the Land spokesperson Arthur Manuel on the recent meeting with PM harper and the habit of AFN chief to consolidate around the weakest position. We also note that people can listen the an Al Jazeera piece with Pam Palmater and Derek Nepinak who destroy a conservative hack around Indigenous Rights! the Al Jazeera commentator knows more about the impacts of colonisation in canada more than any so-called canadian journo...
Dan then reads to and comments on a piece calling for solidarity in the environmental justice movement. The piece is a great plea but misses that solidarity with the Indigenous Rights movement will bring environmental justice, even if the author thinks we don't have time for that (which we don't, but that's okay :)
Ruben George of the Tseil Watuth nation on the west coast gave a speech at a recent anti-pipeline protest in vancouver - fighting both the kinder-morgan pipeline and the pacific trails pipeline - Ruben George's powerful words remind us that this is not just "A First Nations Problem". On the same theme but focusing on the southern route for tar sands crude, we play a piece called Why We Blockade - prepared after actions to disrupt Keystone XL developments - Stop the Flows!!!
We close the show with an update from the fight in Grassy Narrows - In a shameful move, Ontario has appealed a previous decision which affirmed the rights that the people of Grassy Narrows and other communities in treaty 3land have when it comes to land development sovereignty. Check Freegrassy.org for more details and updates.
No Thanks! From the Rebel Spell to close it out musically
The Smash the State the Report is a segment on the weekly 2 hour AW@L radio (16:00-18:00est) on CKMS 100.3FM CKMS * Community * Co-op * Campus * Radio - Waterloo - http://soundfm.ca