Haiti’s reconstruction must be shaped by Haitian hands

Statement of the Canada Haiti Action Network

In the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, genuine solidarity for the people of Haiti has become even more critical. The loss of lives, the hundreds of thousands of sick and injured, the destruction of housing and infrastructure, all of these enormous problems constitute an unprecedented disaster in a country whose population is among the most vulnerable on the planet. This tragedy has provoked a strong reaction of compassion among millions of people around the world, all sharing a desire to help and to offer support for the urgent needs of the Haitian people.

In particular, we note the remarkable contributions made by medical and emergency assistance agencies, including Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante, Médecins Sans Frontières, and the many medical brigades provided by the Government of Cuba. Throughout this crisis, the Haitian people have responded with great dignity and solidarity – though the international media has all too rarely reported on this. Such dignity is especially impressive given the unspeakable neglect they have suffered since the earthquake.
In contrast to this powerful human response within Haiti and around the globe, the group described in the mainstream media as the “Friends of Haiti” – including the governments of Canada, the US, France, and Brazil – has been anything but. The failure of the aid effort has been due in large part to its militarization.

The “Friends” group appears to operate with an irrational fear and disdain for the Haitian people. They are preparing a coordinated “reconstruction” process for Haiti that will once again see powerful, non-Haitian decision-makers setting the course, within a context structured by military occupation and a “charity” model of assistance.

This neglect follows a pattern. An embargo on financial assistance to Haiti’s elected government from 2000 to 2004 was followed by its violent overthrow on February 29, 2004.  This coup d’état was carried out by a paramilitary uprising with political and military backing from the U.S., Canada and France. A two-year regime characterized by its grave human rights violations was appointed by foreign powers, with the blessing of the UN Security Council. A Security Council-authorized police and military mission has played a preponderant role in Haiti’s affairs ever since.

The aid and financial embargo continues to this day. Haiti’s president René Préval has remarked on this to foreign media since the earthquake. He has complained that the aid money flowing into the country is not being directed either towards existing Haitian institutions or to creating the new ones that will be required.

The Canada Haiti Action Network is deeply concerned about the observable trends in Haiti since the earthquake. We are expressing our concerns to the appropriate authorities. We will continue to urge upon them the following principles to guide the aid and reconstruction effort in Haiti. We invite readers of this statement to do likewise.

1.  Respect for Haiti’s sovereignty and a Haitian-led crisis response and reconstruction – While the January 25 Montreal Reconstruction Conference saw many leaders of the “Friends of Haiti” governments paying lip service to these concepts, it is nonetheless clear that Haitian voices, and most significantly the Government of Haiti itself, have been consistently sidelined in these discussions. Clearly, any meaningful reconstruction and development process in Haiti will require a central, decision-making role for its government and social organizations, and a dedicated and well resourced effort to build, re-build, and greatly expand Haiti’s public sector and governmental capacity. All pressures on the Haitian government from the Government of Canada and other “Friends” to further privatize Haiti’s public enterprises must be firmly rejected.

2.  Opposition to militarization of relief and humanitarian assistance – The fact that Haiti was already occupied by a 9,000 strong Security Council-sanctioned military force (known by its acronym MINUSTAH) did not stop the United States government from quickly dispatching 20,000 marines of their own and seizing the Port-au-Prince airport. The Government of Canada followed this by sending 2,000 troops of its own. As is now widely known, this military control has been a major contributor to the failure to reach vast numbers of earthquake victims with urgently needed relief supplies and medical aid. The obsessive foreign concern about “looting” and “security” has proven to be inaccurate and an impediment to the relief effort. Relief activities must be de-militarized and they must be fully coordinated and overseen by the Haitian government and its agencies. All foreign NGOs and agencies should be put at the service of these local authorities and should assist them to build the appropriate structures, as needed.

3.  Demand for absolute and unconditional debt cancellation for Haiti – While more and more national and international agencies have come to recognize that Haiti’s debt is not only odious but also a choking obstacle to its recovery and development, the International Monetary Fund and other key multilateral lenders continue to resist efforts to cancel it.  Under the circumstances of the earthquake crisis, there can be no justification for Haiti sending vitally-needed funds to foreign banks.

4.  Support for the settlement of the international debts owed to Haiti – Another major contributor to the serious inadequacy of Haiti’s infrastructure and its dire economic circumstances is the odious “debt” imposed on Haiti by France in the early nineteenth century under direct military threat and as a condition of establishing diplomatic and economic ties to the newly-independent republic. From 1825 to 1947, Haiti paid some $21 billion in current dollars to France as compensation for the loss of “property” of French slave plantation owners. The immorality of this extortionate debt has always been clear to the people of Haiti.  Natural justice requires that these extorted funds be returned.

5.  An appeal for immediate adaptation measures by Immigration Canada – The federal government must immediately recognize the dramatically changed circumstances faced by the Haitian community in Canada and those in Haiti needing access to family, support, and medical care. Such measures must include the extension of eligibility for family sponsorship to siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and adult children and temporary waiver of sponsorship application fees (as has been applied in comparable emergency situations). The admissibility rules for family reunification must also include the issuing of temporary-resident permits to allow the processing of such cases in Canada rather than in Haiti, as has been established in Haiti’s tiny Caribbean neighbour state of Antigua.

For more information, please see: www.canadahaitiaction.ca, www.haitianalysis.com and http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/.

This opinion piece was originally published by the Canadian Haiti Action Network (CHAN) on February 28, 2010: http://canadahaitiaction.ca/. CHAN is an information and action network that coordinates the work of Haiti solidarity committees in cities across Canada.

Bursary or Bribe?

Anti-choice organizations are offering money to single parents at some Canadian universities. Is this coming soon to a campus near you?

Nora Loreto, Editor-in-Chief

Helping single mothers can give any organization positive press, and a great photo opportunity, too.
The anti-choice movement, not normally associated with the struggle against the systemic barriers facing many low-income single parents, has recently caught on to this. Single mothers can now benefit from bursaries offered by anti-choice groups at some universities.

But many are concerned that this is simply a way of “guilting” women into not having an abortion. These bursaries, ranging from $400 to $500, amount to ten per cent of one year’s average tuition fees, or a month’s rent.

Jaqueline Bergen is a student in critical disability studies at York University and a mother of a nine-year-old.

“[These bursaries are] sending out a message to young women who may consider having a child while being a student that you will be financially supported…this is an illusion,” she said in an email. “There are still very limited amounts of funding available for women or men who choose to parent while doing their education.”

Laura Collison, an alumna of the University of Alberta and a volunteer for the feminist collective campus news radio show Adament Eve, called these bursaries manipulative. “I appreciate that they’re supporting women with education, but this is not a feminist act. It seems like they’re paying women to keep their pregnancies.

“If these groups were really concerned about how women could afford university, they’d be involved in advocating for lower tuition, child care…and a higher minimum wage,” she said.

For Bergen, “Getting subsidized daycare was the big one that really gave me the oppurtunity to form a life…attend school, and have some time to clean the house…there were many times where the rent was behind several months, my tuition is rarely fully paid…My biggest source of ‘help’ has been from my mother who is my daughter’s ‘other‘ parent and the greatest source of love and support.”
At Collison’s alma mater, the anti-choice club offers the Charlotte Denman Lozier Bursary for Single Mothers, for women with “born or unborn children.” The club’s website advertizes the award as being funded through club fundraising, and the Archdiocese of Edmonton’s Go Life Extravaganza seems to be its primary funding source.

On Saturday, March 6, the Extravaganza will feature a semi-formal with “cocktails, musical performances, dinner, dance, silent auction, and an address from Archbishop Richard Smith.” A portion of the $60 ticket ($40 for students/youth) will be donated to the Charlotte Denman Lozier Bursary.

Similar awards are available at other schools. Just below the UNBC Math & Physics Society Scholarship on the awards and bursaries website for the University of Northern British Columbia, is an award for single parents. Donated by the local Knights of Columbus, the Catholic men’s organization, the UNBC Students for Life Bursary has been given away for the past two years.

At St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, a Students for Life Bursary is given annually to single parents with demonstrated need.

“If you’re opposed to abortion, you should be very for this [award],” said Anne Cooke, Administrative Assistant at St. Francis Xavier’s financial aid department.

“It encourages young mothers to carry their children to term,” she said, adding that the community there is very welcoming, and that people are available to help women whether their pregnancies were planned or unplanned.

“It’s not trying to influence women or anyone about abortion; it’s just for people who’ve already made their decision,” she added.

Joyce Arthur, from the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, said that she has noticed an increase in the number of groups seeking funding and status from student unions for clubs that are specifically anti-choice. While she thought providing money to help single parents was important, she questioned the motives of the groups.

In early February, the Senate at the University of Victoria rejected the proposal of Youth Protecting Youth (YPY), the local pro-life group, for a similar bursary. YPY has been engaged in a public fight against the University of Victoria Student Society (UVSS) for club recognition and funding from the pro-choice students’ union.

Through e-mail, Theresa Gilbert from the National Campus Life Network (NCLN) said that she was disappointed to hear that the YPY bursary was denied. “Many people and organizations claim to be pro-choice… However, when universities steadfastly refuse to offer any additional support to single mothers, it becomes very difficult for a woman to choose to raise her child, complete her education and manage the costs that are involved with both endeavours.

“Universities across Canada need to recognize the additional difficulties that these student parents face and provide some additional support (bursaries, on campus day-care, rest/nursing facilities etc.) before universities can truly claim to be ‘pro-choice’ when it comes to unplanned pregnancies.”

Abortion has proven to be a tough issue to take on for students’ unions and university administrations alike. Those students’ unions that take a pro-choice position have found themselves up against an onslaught of an organized anti-choice movement. A year ago, the University of Calgary charged students from the local anti-choice group with trespassing for demonstrating how abortion can be compared to the Holocaust and other genocides. Their charges were stayed in November, 2009.

At Ryerson, student clubs can form for just about any reason. Campus clubs, however, must operate within a framework that is determined by decision-making bodies of the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) or the Continuing Education Students’ Association of Ryerson (CESAR). Similar to other campuses, student unions set policies, and clubs either operate within the scope of these policies, or exist without official recognition.
Clubs policies allow students to self-organize. In some cases, like Hillel @ Ryerson and the Catholic Student Association, external funding and resources are available from organizations within the broader Jewish and Catholic communities respectively. For most clubs, such supports don’t exist, and students rely on the funding of the students’ union.

This is where controversy exists: on many campuses across Canada, student clubs dedicated to only advocating for so-called life issues – no abortion, no euthanasia and no stem cell research – have been popping up. This poses a real dilemma for those students’ unions that are progressive and brave enough to take pro-choice stands.

The NCLN support students who form pro-life clubs on campus. They provide posters, newspaper inserts and a list of speakers for campus events. They offer sample constitutions, a sample budget, sign-up sheets for volunteers and ads that promote the next meeting. They offer templates for press releases, letters to the editor to refute anti-choice positions, and fundraising letters. They also employ full-time staff (including organizers in western and eastern Canada), organize national leadership training events, and provide clubs with a sample of activities to undertake in each month from August to March.

Despite this organizational capacity, and the apparent financial resources to sustain bursaries, pro-life clubs still seek official recognition from local student unions. Ryerson doesn’t have a pro-life club; the most recent attempt of one forming was in 2003.

NCLN does not appear to be centrally coordinating these bursaries, but pro-choice activists should be prepared for the expansion of these awards. The Charlotte Denman Lozier Bursary for Single Mothers at the U of A was established just last October.

Bergen’s daughter was three when she started school again, and she continues to struggle to finish her Master’s. “I have had an extremely difficult time financially getting through school. I am always broke, she said. “Tuition eats up about 25 to 30 percent of my annual income. I have been mostly dependent on social assistance, which I am not that ashamed of. I was unable to get OSAP…I got some special bursaries from York because I have a disability. I get the Canada Child Tax Benefit.

“It’s great if single mothers can graduate and have support to do that,” said Arthur. “It’s not great to make them feel guilty.”

The fight for Insite

Nicole Brewer

Imagine saving 700 lives. Or, maybe, first imagine taking them. That’s like wiping out 35 hockey teams, or two average-sized elementary schools. Insite, North America’s first supervised injection site, averted almost 700 deaths by overdose in only three years thanks to the onsite staff of medical professionals and supervisors.

A supervised (safe) injection site is a location for drug users to inject their own drugs in a clean, safe environment while under the supervision of trained medical staff. First aid and wound care is available on site for users, as well as nurses and councillors to provide referrals to other medical services such as addiction treatment, primary health care and mental health providers.

Located in downtown Vancouver, Insite was established in September 2003 to serve four overlapping purposes. According to its web page on the Vancouver Coastal Health website, the safe injection site hoped to improve public order and reduce the number of injections taking place in public, thus stabilising the community. It aims to stop the spread of infectious diseases such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS.

Through education and attention to hygiene, the site also aimed to stabilise drug users’ health. Finally, Insite wanted to form relationships with its clients and encourage them to access healthcare services such as addiction treatment.

In 2001, the Canadian Medical Association found that about 100,000 Canadians were injection drug users, with approximately one-third of those people living in Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal. In 2007, an informational brochure circulated by Vancouver Coastal Health stated that Vancouver is home to about 12,000 injection drug users – that’s half the number of students at Ryerson. Of Vancouver’s drug users, more than 4,000 of them are living in the downtown eastside: the poorest neighbourhood in the city and one of the poorest in Canada.

Unlike Vancouver, Toronto’s drug users are not concentrated in one area. This observation has led to doubts as to whether a safe injection site would have the same positive effect in Toronto as it did in Vancouver’s downtown eastside. Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, a clinician scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital, is a principal investigator in a study currently being conducted to determine whether there is a need for a supervised injection site in Toronto. The study is being conducted by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health at St. Michael’s Hospital, and Bayoumi says that results are expected to be out in the spring of this year.

Eric Single, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse’s director of policy and research, defines harm reduction as “a policy or program directed towards decreasing adverse health, social and economi consequences of drug use even though the user continues to use psychoactive drugs at the present time.”  Safe injection sites have been started up all around the world to focus on harm reduction, and for as long as they have been in place, they have been studied. Since its opening, Insite has been subjected to vigorous third-party evaluation by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS: one of the world’s leading research organisations.

Substance Abuse and Treatment writes that Insite has not led to an increase in drug-related crime, and that in fact vehicle break-ins and thefts have significantly decreased. The Canadian Medical Association Journal states that the safe injection site has also been found to have reduced the number of people injecting in public and the amount of injection-related litter in the community. According to The Lancet, 70 per cent of those who used the safe injection site were less likely to share syringes, thus reducing the risk of spreading blood-borne diseases.

Comprehensive community support was needed in order to open the safe injection site in Vancouver.

Partners included Vancouver Coastal Health, the Vancouver Police Department, the City of Vancouver, and the Office of the Provincial Health Officer. Similarly, a safe injection site in Toronto would need public, governmental and legal support. But Detective Lawrence Ratchford of the Toronto Drug Squad says that “the Service does not support a safe injection site.” Instead, it supports harm prevention and reduction “through education, direct contact in the community [and] enforcement.”

In 2003, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published an article outlining a study performed in 2000 by the Vancouver Injection Drug User Study (VIDUS). This study observed the effectiveness of one of Canada’s largest heroin seizures, and found it to have no difference in the amount of drug use or the availability of drugs. The price of heroin actually went down after the seizure, suggesting that other shipments had compensated for the seizure. The seizure was also found to have no impact on the amount of deaths from overdose.

Elsewhere in the world, cities have tackled their drug problems by installing supervised injection sites. In 2003, the Drug and Alcohol Review published an article regarding safe injection sites across Europe. It was found that 59 sites were operating in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Australia, up from 45 in 2000. Clients of a facility in Hamburg, Germany reported being more conscious of hygiene and cleanliness since visiting, injecting less often in public, and taking more time when doing so. Positive feedback also came from the Rotterdam facility in the Netherlands, with over three-quarters of clients reporting a decrease of using in public, and more than half paying more attention to cleanliness and injecting in a safer, calmer way.

Vince Cain, once British Columbia’s chief coroners, said it best: “We have to disabuse ourselves of the notion that jail is the answer for users. Neither short sentences [nor] long sentences…mean anything to the user. We have to establish alternatives to imprisonment. The cyclical process must end… The money spent on policing, sentencing, and serving time would be much better spent on curing the causes, rather than labouring over the symptoms.”

Mortgages and Harper’s ‘pre-emptive’ bank bailout

P.R. Wright

For months, a chorus of voices has been warning Ottawa that Canada is in the midst of a housing bubble, not unlike the housing bubble that preceded the US mortgage meltdown, and triggered the near-collapse of the global financial system.

In response, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced new measures to “prevent Canadian households from getting overextended and to prevent some lenders from facilitating it.” But some critics argue that the measures are akin to splashing a glass of water onto a fire after you poured gasoline over tinder and set it ablaze.

Worries about a housing bubble stem from the seemingly unstoppable rise in housing prices, coupled with record low interest rates where growing numbers of home-buyers and speculators are purchasing homes with as little as five per cent down, variable interests rates, and mortgage payments spread out  over 35 years. As the buyers surpass sellers, home prices are bid upward.

Rising home prices are prompting cash-strapped households to refinance—with banks lending up to 95 per cent of the now inflated value of the property. Given the current period of jobless recovery, wage stagnation, and widely expected interest rate hikes, some analysts worry that the risk of mortgage-defaults is growing. Others worry that once the housing bubble bursts, prices will fall, leaving borrowers with debt-loads much greater than the dropping value of their home.

Flaherty’s three basic modifications—to take effect April 19 this year—are nothing, if not modest.
First, to be eligible for a 35-year mortgage, borrowers must be able to qualify for a more standard, five-year fixed-rate loan. If borrowers qualify, they can still opt for the 35-year, variable-rate mortgage.
Second, those re-financing can borrow 90 per cent of the appraised value of their home—down from 95 per cent.

And finally, if the residence being purchased is not a primary dwelling (meaning you don’t actually plan on living in it), then the down payment must be 20 per cent. Ostensibly, this latter measure is to temper speculation—or flipping.

The real estate industry and the banks all breathed a sigh of relief when Flaherty unveiled his changes, finding them to be “about right.”

But this isn’t the whole story.

In 2006, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC, a Crown corporation) was the first to insure loans with extended amortization periods of up to 30 years. Within months, it announced it would insure mortgages paid over 35 years. And by 2007, CMHC was insuring 40-year mortgages.

Extending the amortization period means borrowers pay less on a monthly basis, but pay for a longer period of time. Some say extending the repayment period from 25 to 40 years triples the amount of interest a paid to the bank. (This is the same phenomenon that students decry when it comes to income-contingent student loan repayment schemes—those with the most modest incomes pay the most in interest.)

And while the monthly payment is lower, banks can still maintain—and expand—their monthly revenue stream by getting even more people into the scheme. The drive to increase the numbers of borrowers explains why the CMHC also introduced a new “mortgage product” in mid-2006: the interest-only loan.
In this scheme, borrowers pay only interest on their loan for the first ten years, at which point the payments on the principal kicks in.

As a result, more and more people flooded to home-ownership as a more affordable alternative to renting. New entrants to the housing market kept housing prices soaring at a rate of nearly 10 per cent per year. According to Canadian Business Online, house prices increased nearly three times faster than did income and nearly five times faster than employment increased.

The Canadian Real Estate Association predicts that in 2010 house prices will hit a record average price of $337,500.

Total mortgage debts swelled from $431 billion in 2000 to $871 billion in 2008—just as the waves of the global financial crisis were lapping at Canadian shores. Nervous Canadian banks reduced the maximum mortgage-repayment period from 40 to 35 years.

And in the fall of 2008—just as Harper was proclaiming that “Canada’s fundamentals were solid”—Flaherty was quietly helping Canadian banks unload billions of dollars worth of risky mortgages from their books under Canada’s new “Insured Mortgage Purchase Program” (IMPP).

Under this scheme, Canadian banks could choose to auction their risky mortgage packages to the CMHC in exchange for cash, proffered up by the public purse. Simply put: Harper and Flaherty engineered a pre-emptive bank bailout.

Here’s how a March 2009 parliamentary research paper (International Affairs, Trade and Finance Division) explained the IMPP:

“Under the IMPP, the government proposes to purchase these mortgages from financial institutions. More specifically, through CMHC, the government intends to buy National Housing Act Mortgage-Backed Securities (NHA MBS), a kind of bond for which the underlying asset is a pool of mortgage loans guaranteed by CMHC. In exchange, financial institutions will receive a cash payment that they may use to make new loans to consumers and businesses…

“The NHA MBS bonds purchased by the CMHC consist of pools of mortgages already guaranteed by CMHC against default. As a result, the risk of default by a mortgage holder is already borne by CMHC, whether the mortgage appears on the balance sheet of a financial institution or that of the government of Canada.”
In other words, the debt no longer appears on the banks’ balance sheets—but rather, the government of Canada’s. It makes the banks’ financial statements look better, and the public’s financial situation worse.

This slight of hand allowed Canadian banks to reward themselves with hefty bonuses and continue with reckless lending practices without fear.

When Flaherty first announced the IMPP in October 2008, the “program envelope” was $25 billion. In November, it was $75 billion. By the time the 2009 Federal Budget was tabled, the funding envelope had ballooned to $125 billion and the program was expanded until March 31, 2010.

Thanks to such business acumen, Canada’s top six banks reported record profits in each of the years 2005, 2006, and 2007. And while records weren’t set in 2008, Canada’s top six banks still reported total profit in excess of $14 billion—despite the global recession. Already in 2010, so great were the first quarter profits for the Royal Bank of Canada that president and CEO Gordon M. Nixon was prompted to state: “These results reflect the strength of our Canadian businesses and demonstrate the value of our diversified business model. We earned over $1 billion this quarter for our shareholders, notwithstanding market impacts.”
In the meantime, a new report by the Vanier Institute on Family Finances shows Canada’s families have been hit hard by the economic crisis and jobless recovery. According to the report, aggregate wages shrank in 2009 and bankruptcies climbed. The debt-to-income ratio (which includes mortgage and credit card debt) hit an all-time high of 145 per cent. In other words, people owe nearly fifty per cent more than what they bring in, suggesting that 1.3 million households could have a vulnerable or dangerously high debt service load by the end of 2011.

To make matters worse, Andrew Jackson, an economist with the Canadian Labour Congress, predicts that half a million workers will exhaust their Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in 2010.

And while workers have contributed at least $57 billion more in EI contributions than they have received in benefits, the Harper government has refused to make meaningful changes in the system that would extend the duration of benefits and improve access to the program, claiming Canada’s finances could ill afford such expenditure.

No wonder. Harper and Flaherty have given it all to the banks!

Finance department data shows that so far, the Harper government has handed the banks $66 billion under the Insured Mortgage Purchasing Program between October 2008 and February 2010. As we go to press, the financial sector is lobbying intensively for the government to extend the life of the IMPP until March 2011, just to be sure the banks will be “okay.”

After the Games: B.C. hangover begins

Am Johal

Budget Day in B.C. hit like a brick yesterday. After all the empty patriotism and uncritical headlines in Vancouver mainstream media that glossed over eight years of democratic distortion, which approached neo-authoritarianism at times, the sad reality of Olympic opportunity costs are about to hit daylight.

Axe to the arts

After unpacking the numbers, it looked like the arts and cultural sector is facing a 50 per cent cut which will result in job losses, less cultural events and the demise of several organizations which have decades of history in the province. After seeing the bloated presentations of the opening and closing ceremonies, the axe to the arts is devastating precisely at a time when the sector was reaching a new level of maturity and organizational excellence. These cuts will completely undermine long term organizational planning in the sector and push many organizations in to triage. The sad reality on the ground is that many of our most important voices will simply be forced to move elsewhere.

Increase in public debt and decrease in public services—reality check
Provincial debt will be boosted to $56 billion from the current $41 billion over the next three years - a whopping increase of 35.4 per cent since 2001 when provincial debt was $36.1 billion. The carrying costs of the debt will increase with higher interest rates and be a futher drain on operating funding in future years. The inability of government or financial analysts to look at opportunity costs for the games was completely irrational from the outset.

We have yet to see a proper cost/benefit analysis for the Olympics. In fact, it’s never been done - not even by the $2 million Pricewaterhouse Coopers report. The initial estimates of between 118,000 to 228,000 jobs created by the 2010 Olympics and the economic impact of between $5.7 billion and $10 billion that was released during the bid process are one of the great works of fiction in BC economic history.
Incidentally, the bid boosters wanted to say that the Trade and Convention Centre should not be included in the costs of the Olympics, but wanted to include the economic benefits that were associated with the project. Under the economic model used by bid boosters, cost-overruns were viewed as a contribution to GDP.

There will be an 11 per cent reduction in the provincial public service over the next three years which will see 4,142 fewer employees by 2013. There will be a 9.11 per cent rate hike for BC Hydro. Taxes will be downloaded to citizens, disproportionately impacting low and middle income people, particularly with the HST, the carbon tax and hikes to medical premiums. There will be a $198 million cut to the Ministry of Forests. This year alone, there will be a $1.7 billion deficit.

Was the $40 million price tag for the Opening and Closing ceremonies worth it? Was the $1 billion cost of the Sea-to-Sky Highway worth it? How about the luge tracks and the sliding centre?

This year, BC will be forced to pay $252.5 million as its share of the Olympic security costs. The provincial government covered $20 million of the $40 million cost of the Opening ceremonies that included a faulty hydraulic system and an unlit torch.

Social housing units under threat

At the Athletes Village, the promised 252 units of social housing may never materialize due to the mismanagement of the project under the City of Vancouver’s previous government. It is possible that the City of Vancouver may sell the units and build them on a future site, if at all. It is possible that no affordable housing on Southeast False Creek may be available until 2015. Once again, the Inner City Inclusive Commitment Statement has been a total and unequivocal failure due to the active marginalization of civil society by VANOC and its government partners. The promise of a funded watchdog group never materialized.

Furthermore, the City of Vancouver will be eliminating 158 full-time jobs this year to make up for a $28.1 million budget shortfall.

Venezuela’s Revolution faces crucial battles

Federico Fuentes

Decisive battles between the forces of revolution and counter-revolution loom on the horizon in Venezuela.
The campaign for the September 26 National Assembly elections will be a crucial battle between the supporters of socialist President Hugo Chavez and the U.S.-backed right-wing opposition. But these battles, part of the class struggle between the poor majority and the capitalist elite, will be fought more in the streets than at the ballot box.

So far this year, there has been an escalation of fascist demonstrations by violent opposition student groups; the continued selective assassination of union and peasant leaders by right-wing paramilitaries; and an intensified private media campaign presenting a picture of a debilitated government in crisis – and on its way out.

Chavez warned on January 29: “If they initiate an extremely violent offensive, that obliges us to take firm action – something I do not recommend they do – our response will wipe them out.” The comment came the day after two students were killed and 21 police suffered bullet wounds in confrontations that rocked the city of Merida.

Chavez challenged the opposition to follow the constitutional road and a recall referendum on his presidential mandate if they truly believe people no longer support him. Under the democratic constitution adopted in 1999, a recall referendum can be called on any elected official if 20 per cent of the electorate sign a petition calling for one. He said if the capitalists continued down the road of confrontation, he would “accelerate the revolution,” which has declared “21st century socialism” as its goal.

Empire on the Offensive

The stepped-up campaign of destabilisation is part of the regional offensive launched by the opposition’s masters in Washington. Last year, the U.S. installed new military bases in Colombia and Panama, reactivated the U.S. Navy Fourth Fleet to patrol Latin American waters, and helped organize a military coup that toppled the left-wing Manuel Zelaya government in Honduras.

This year, the U.S. has occupied Haiti with 15,000 soldiers after the January 12 earthquake and U.S. warplanes have been caught violating Venezuela’s airspace.

A February 2 report from U.S. National Director of Intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, labelled Venezuela the “leading anti-U.S. regional force” – placing the Chavez government in Washington’s crosshairs.

The opposition hopes to fracture Chavez’s support base – the poor majority and the armed forces – and win a majority in the National Assembly (with which it is likely to move to impeach Chavez). At the very least, the opposition is seeking to stop pro-revolution forces from winning a two-thirds majority in the assembly, which would restrict the ease with which the Chavistas could pass legislation. The current assembly has a large pro-Chavez majority as a result of the opposition boycotting the 2005 poll.

Revolution Advances

The global economic crisis is hitting Venezuela harder than the government initially hoped. Problems in the electricity sector, among others, are also causing strain. The government’s campaign to raise awareness about the effects of climate change and wasteful usage has minimised the impact of the opposition and private media campaign to blame the government for the problems in the electricity and water sectors.

Far from fulfilling right-wing predictions that falling oil prices would result in a fall of the government’s fortunes, Chavez has continued his push to redistribute wealth to the poor – and increased moves against capital and corruption. This is occurring alongside important street mobilisations supporting the government (ignored by the international media, which gave prominent coverage to small opposition student riots).

There are new steps to increase the transfer of power to the people, such as incorporating the grassroots communal councils further into governing structures.

In November, Chavez announced interventions into eight banks found to be involved in corrupt dealings. A majority were nationalised and merged with a state bank to form the Bicentenary Bank. Together with the Bank of Venezuela, nationalised in 2007, the state now controls 25 per cent of the banking sector – the largest single bloc. Nearly 30 bankers were charged and face trial over the corruption allegations.

Significantly, a number of these had been closely aligned with the government. One of them, Ricardo Fernandez Barrueco, was a relatively unknown entrepreneur in the food sector who rose up the ranks of the business elite to own four banks and 29 Venezuelan companies.

Much of this meteoric rise was due to his ties with a section of the Chavez government, which provided him with generous contracts to supply government-subsidised Mercal food stores with produce and transportation. This earned Fernandez the nickname the “Czar of Mercal.”
The arrest of another banker over corruption allegations, Arne Chacon, led to the resignation of his brother Jessie Chacon as Chavez’s science minister.

State institutions, militants of the Chavez-led United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), and the National Guard have also moved to tackle price speculation following the January 8 decision to devalue the local currency, the bolivar. More than 1000 shops were temporarily shutdown for price speculation in the first week after the announcement.

The bolivar devaluation means imported goods have become more expensive, lowering workers’ purchasing power. To compensate, the government decreed in January a 25 per cent increase in the minimum wage.

Grassroots Organizing

Despite the violent protests and slander campaign, a January poll by the Venezuelan Institute of Data Analysis (IVAD – generally accepted as one of Venezuela’s least biased polling companies) found more than 58 per cent of Venezuelans continue to approve of Chavez’s presidency. The same poll also found 41.5 per cent believed the opposition should have a National Assembly majority, compared to 49.5 per cent who didn’t.

Some 32.6 per cent said they would vote for pro-revolution candidates, 20.8 per cent for the opposition and an important 33.1 per cent for “independents.”

That 33.1 per cent will undoubtedly shrink by September. The question is whether this section will abstain (as in the 2007 constitutional referendum) or the revolutionary forces can organize themselves to win them over and deal a decisive blow to the right.

Three massive pro-revolution demonstrations have been held already this year, dwarfing the small, but violent, opposition protests.

A new grouping of revolutionary youth organzations, the Bicentenary National Youth Front, has also been created to organize the pro-revolution majority of youth and students. The injection of organized youth into the revolution is vital for its future. This is needed, as Chavez noted in his February 12 speech to a mass demonstration of students in Caracas, to tackle the serious problems of reformism and bureaucratism that hamper the revolution.

Chavez has argued against those sectors of the revolutionary camp that insist it is possible to advance by strengthening the private sector and wooing capitalists. Chavez has repeatedly said the “national bourgeoisie” has no interest in advancing the process of change. Chavez has emphasised the “class struggle” is at the heart of this process.

He said it was vital to combat the inefficiency and bureaucracy of the state structures inherited from previous governments that hold back and sabotage the process. “We have to finish off demolishing the old structures of the bourgeois state and create the new structures of the proletarian state.” To help achieve this, the government has encouraged the creation of 184 communes across Venezuela. Communes are made up of a number of communal councils and other social organizations, bodies directly run and controlled by local communities. Chavez has referred to the communes as the “building blocks” of the new state, in which power is intended to be progressively transferred to the organized people.

The recent creation of peasant militias, organized for self-defence by poor farmers against large landowner violence, is also important.

However, the biggest challenge is the continued construction of the PSUV, a mass party with millions of still largely passive members, as a revolutionary instrument of the masses. In its extraordinary congress, which began in November and continues meeting on weekends until April, debates are occurring among the 772 elected delegates. Differences have arisen between those who support a more moderate reformist approach and those arguing for a revolutionary path.

The debates also included whether party members will elect National Assembly candidates, or whether this important decision would be left in the hands of a select committee (as more conservative forces preferred).
After the decision to hold primary elections for candidates was announced, Chavez said on February 11: “I have confidence in the people, I have confidence in the grassroots, they will not defraud us.”

Federico Fuentes is a member of the Green Left Weekly Caracas bureau. This article first published at Green Left Weekly website.

This is an edited version of a feature was originally published as “Venezuela’s Revolution Faces Crucial Battles” by Federico Fuentes in the Bullet on February 22, 2010. The Bullet is the official publication of the Socialist Project: http://www.socialistproject.ca.

The art of winter cycling

Wisdom from the Ryerson Bicycle Club

Jessica Finch

For many Torontonians cycling is a welcome alternative to commuting by car or public transit. It’s a cost effective means of travel and it’s a great way to exercise. And although cycling is often thought to be an exclusively spring or summer activity, there are many people in Toronto who bike year round. Winter biking is not as difficult as it’s made out to be, and if proper precautions are taken prior to riding, it can be just as enjoyable as a summer cycle. The Ryerson Bicycle Club organizes a number of group rides throughout the season, and they recently held a winter workshop on safety measures for effective winter cycling.
The best piece of advice for winter cyclists is to get a cheap bike or, as it’s often referred to, a beater bike. As Ryerson Bicycle club’s executive Benedict San Juan explained, “The salt, the grime, [and] the snow will just eat away at your bike and you don’t want that happening if you have a really nice one, so it’s usually good to find a cheap, used one.”

Before riding, it’s important to prepare your bike and yourself for the cold. Layers are key in winter cycling and it’s important to dress in materials that are both waterproof and absorbent, to keep you warm and soak up sweat as you ride. Tights, for instance, that have a fleece interior and quick dry outer layer, are perfect for winter riding and can be worn underneath everyday clothing. Above all, it’s important to protect your extremities; hands, feet and head as they’ll be most vulnerable in cold conditions. For hands and feet, wool is the best material. San Juan speaks from experience, “Wool is just amazing [for] keeping your feet warm … when cotton gets wet its stays soggy … for a long time [but] wool can … keep you warm and it dries up a bit faster.” It’s always important to overdress rather than under-dress, and if it gets too hot during a ride layers can be removed as needed.

Next, it’s crucial to check your bike and ensure that it is in good working order. This should be done prior to any ride, but winter conditions make bike maintenance even more important. “Make sure you don’t have any problems, because it would suck to have to do road side repairs in winter,” cautioned San Juan. Bike maintenance begins with the ABCs, that’s ‘A’ for air in your tires, ‘B’ for brakes, and ‘C’ for cranks, chains and driver chain. Air and tire pressure are important for a good ride, but different tires require different pressure. The appropriate level of pressure, or PSI, needed in particular tires can be found on the tires themselves. In winter, however, San Juan suggests putting slightly less air in your tires, as this may help with traction on snowy roads. Brakes must be working well and it’s also important to clean off any grime that has accumulated. The chains and cranks must also be clean for a bike to move efficiently, thus wiping down trouble areas after a ride is always recommended.

Some fundamental do’s and don’ts were also discussed during the club’s workshop. For instance, many cyclists have a tendency to lean into turns while biking, but in winter this can lead to skidding. Thus, winter cyclists should try and ride upright at all times and remain aware of their surroundings. A top priority is visibility, as winter weather can mean overcast days and adverse conditions. Thus, wearing reflective gear, and having all your lights and bells working makes for a safer ride. If riding in bad conditions, it is recommended you lock up your bike and find other means of travel.

Cycling can be fun year round, and in the GTA bicycle friendly businesses are catching onto the trend. Several companies have set up bike rooms and facilities in their workspace and are keeping them open in the winter months. On campus the Ryerson Bicycle Club hosts events such as the Inside Ride, which raises money for children’s cancer charities, in every season. The next ride will be January 30th along the Martin Goodman trail. Check out Ryerson Bicycle Club on Facebook for more information.

Fred Hampton’s Canadian connection

Black Panther Chairman gave one of his last speeches in Regina

Norman Otis Richmond

Shortly before his assassination, Fred Hampton prophetically said: “I believe I’m going to die doing the things I was born to do. I believe I’m going to die high off the people. I believe I’m going to die a revolutionary in the international revolutionary proletarian struggle.”

December 4, 2009 marked the fortieth anniversary of the assassinations of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and Mark Clark, chairman of the Peoria chapter.
Unfortunately, Hampton’s predication came true.

The story of the murders of Hampton and Clark is now available in a new volume of works by Jeffrey Haas called, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther. The book is published by Lawrence Hill Books and is available at A Different Book List, Knowledge and other progressive book-sellers.

Hampton made one of his last speeches in Regina, Saskatchewan – only one week before his assassination. This was Hampton’s only visit outside the United States. He visited the University of Regina where he spoke to students and trade unionists in the labour movement.

Ironically, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) also made only one visit to Canada. He did an interview with the CBC and visited the home of Betty and Austin Clarke on Asquith Street.

Hampton came to Canada to garner support for Chairman Bobby Seale, a founding member of the Black Panthers Party, and spoke about the involvement of Canadians in common struggles. Hampton said: “I think also that we’ll see a lot more repression here in Canada. I think that with a lot more people waking up, there’ll be more repression – of Indians and of all progressive forces in Canada.”

Hampton’s words were quoted in Prairie Fire, a progressive weekly newspaper based in Regina that was printed from 1969 until 1971. Prairie Fire devoted a great deal of ink to Hampton. The November 25, 1969 issue ran an editorial about how Hampton and two other Black Panther Party members were harassed by Canadian immigration officials, condemned in the House of Commons and attacked by the Leader-Post, a conservative Regina daily. In the same issue, Prairie Fire ran an exclusive article called “Panthers Outline Program.”

But later, readers got another story. “Don’t Mourn. Organize!” – the famous quotation by the great Joe Hill, a leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) – jumped out at you from the pages of Prairie Fire. The editorial ended with this: “Chairman Fred Hampton’s name now joins the list of the many people who have died in fighting for the rights of their people.”

Its last article, “In Memory of Fred Hampton”, described a memorial torchlight parade for Hampton. The story ended with support from the labour movement: “George Smith, president of the Regina Labour Council, expressed his solidarity with the Panthers, especially their efforts to put socialism into practice with hot breakfast programs and free medical clinics.

“He said many people in Canada and US are left to die slow deaths by malnutrition and poverty, and that these deaths are just as much the result of our social system as deaths by gunfire which Blacks and Indians meet every day.

“Many more will die before the fight is won, but the struggle for a more progressive social system will continue.”

Ten years ago, the African Liberation Month Coalition and CKLN-FM 88.1 FM organized a screening of the 1971 film The Murder of Fred Hampton at the Bloor Cinema. The inspiration came from Barry Lipton, who made a tape of Hampton’s last speech available to me. The tape was played on CKLN. Lipton was one of the organizers of the Saskatchewan event over 40 years ago. Friends rallied together – Carm, Paul and their father, Corrado – and secured the Bloor Cinema for more than a reasonable price. My old friend Liam Lacey wrote a half-page article about the event in the Globe and Mail. As a result, the place was packed. My friend Akua Njeri supplied the film. We were in business.

It was Hampton who first came up with the idea of the Rainbow Coalition. It was later picked up and popularized by Rev. Jesse Jackson. Njeri pointed out in her book, My Life with the Black Panther Party, that “Fred Hampton was the originator of the concept of the Rainbow Coalition. He was the first person to come up with that concept in 1969.

“That was an effort to educate and politicize other poor and oppressed people throughout this world. He worked with and attempted to politicize the young patriots organization, which was a group of Appalachian Whites in the near north area of Chicago, politicizing them and organizing them to recognize the leadership of the Black revolution, the vanguard party, the Black Panther Party, and to work in their communities against this huge monster we had to deal with, which is racism.”

Hampton continues to inspire many today, including singers, musicians and hip hop artists. Ernest Dawkins recorded “A Black Opera” live in Paris on January 13, 2006. He dedicated the performance to Fred Hampton. Contemporary musicians such as Dead Prez borrow heavily from Hampton, and sample him on their debut album Let’s Get Free. M1 and Stick Man are currently working with Fred Hampton, Jr.

Hampton once opined: “If you’re afraid of socialism, you’re afraid of yourself.” The vision of Hampton and Clark, and of the progressive forces around the world, is alive and well in today’s struggles for peace, justice, equality and freedom.

Watch The Murder of Fred Hampton online: http://bit.ly/FredHampton

Congo Bleeds Coltan

Salmaan Abdul Hamid Khan

A “geological miracle,” the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is stuffed full of valuable minerals. It should be one of the richest nations on earth, yet this vast country, centred at the heart of Africa, remains impoverished and plagued with conflict. It has been seven years since the end of the “Second Congo War,” a conflict involving eight African nations and approximately 25 rebel groups. Dubbed “Africa’s first World War,” the Second Congo War would last five years (1998-2003) and claim over four million lives. It is hard to believe that such an event would be so underreported by Western media outlets, seeing as it has been the deadliest conflict since World War Two.

However, the end of the war would not bring peace for the nation, especially for its eastern regions, which just so happen to sit above the country’s highest concentration of precious minerals. The tailspin of violence, which would only intensify the already ongoing conflicts in the east of the DRC, would claim another 1.4 million lives by 2008. Till this date, as a result of either direct conflict, or the lack of food and medicines, the death rate in the Congo sits at a staggering 45,000 people a month.

So what exactly is going on in the Congo? To answer this question, it is first necessary to begin with the nation’s history.

The area constituting the present day DRC was first carved out by Belgium’s King Leopold II, following the conference of Berlin, also known as the “Scramble for Africa,” where other European powers would also carve out their own slices of the continent. Known as the “Congo free state,” King Leopold would treat this land as his own private property and would enslave and brutalize its inhabitants, forcing them to extract and gather natural resources such as rubber and ivory. It is estimated that the Belgians murdered as many as 20 million Congolese in the first 30 years of their rule.

After 75 years of Belgian rule, the Congolese would finally gain independence in June of 1960, and the people would see their first democratically elected leader in the form of Patrice Lumumba, then head of the Mouvement National Congolais. Lumumba, known as one of the fathers of African independence, advocated greater control of the nation’s natural resources by and for the people, and opposed control of the country by western economic interests.

Readily portrayed as a “communist” by then U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, it is no surprise that only three months after his election, the CIA, along with the Belgians, would aid in the overthrow and murder of the Congo’s first Black leader.

Four years later, the U.S. would back a military coup that would place Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, better known as “Mobutu Sese Seko,” in power. The Dictator Mobutu, a staunch anti-communist who would play a vital ally in the cold war, would rule the nation for 32 years with an Iron Fist. Under his rule, the Congo, then re-named “Zaire,” would open up its markets to foreign mining companies who would rape the nation of its natural resources, leaving little or no profit to the local inhabitants. However, this Tyrant of Zaire, a man who was once described by George Bush Sr. as “one of Americas most valued friends” and as a leader who was respected for his “dedication to fairness and reason,” would prove too hard to control anymore. Much like Saddam in Iraq, the Western powers found little or no need for the costly dictator anymore and in 1997 Mobutu and his crumbling administration were overthrown by rebel forces in the “First Congo War.” This conflict would give birth to the newly designated, “Democratic Republic of Congo” (DRC).

Contrary to its name, there was nothing really democratic about the new Congo state as the new, self installed president Laurent-Désiré Kabila, would prove to be just as much of an authoritarian as his predecessor. The new Kabila government would fail to unite the nation, and in 1998, a multiple of rebel groups, along with eighth other neighbouring nations, would begin the Second Congo War.
Africa’s World War has left its mark in the hearts and minds of the Congolese, and for those living in the North and South Kivu provinces in the east, the conflict is still very much alive.

So why is the war still raging on in the North and South Kivu provinces? The answers can be found beneath the ground, within the soil, and around the dozens of mines scattered across the jungle. The DRC is a miracle when it comes to mineral deposits and no other region is as “blessed” as these two provinces in the east.

Apart from the vast deposits of gold, copper, and diamonds, one of the more precious and coveted minerals in the area is Coltan. Coltan, once refined, is capable of holding a high electrical charge. This makes it a vital element in creating capacitors, the electronic elements that control current flow inside circuit boards. Thus, Coltan is an important element in almost all electronics from cellphones, laptop computers, digital cameras, video game consoles, to ignition systems and even hearing aids.

In our increasingly technological world, as demand for electronics increases, so does the demand for Coltan. This is an astonishing fact when one realizes that upto 82% of the worlds coltan reserves are found in the forests of eastern Congo.

Within these mineral rich regions exist a number of militia groups. Some of which are made up of Congolese who claim to be fighting against an unjust government; others made up Rwandan Hutus who had taken part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and subsequently fled the country out of fear of persecution. The Rwandan genocide in 1994 resulted in the deaths of nearly one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The militia groups in these regions are accused of gross human rights violations, countless incidences of rape, kidnappings, and of mass murder. What is keeping them alive and functioning is the bulk of their income which they generate off the mineral trade.  Local villagers are enslaved and forced to work at gunpoint in the Coltan mines in order to fund the very militias that are destroying their communities. Also reaping the benefits of the mineral trade are neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda; two Western allies who directly fund and arm warring militias in the region in an attempt to gain from some of the resource theft.

So what is the DRC government doing about this? The newly formed Congolese government is barely able to control areas outside the nations capital. Furthermore, the Congolese military, much like the Afghan military that’s in the works, is a disfunctional and destabilized force. Further undermining the Congolese army are foreign institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which have set up financial rules that restrict the Congolese government from spending on the army which has led to officers going for months without pay. As a result, many soldiers within the DRC army, which is supposed to be protecting the civilians, take part in the lucrative mineral trade, often forcing local villagers to mine for Coltan at gunpoint.

To add more fuel to the fire, the DRC military, which is in part supported by the UN mission in the Congo (MONUC), has been accused of human rights violations and of carrying out crimes such as rape. In response, to distance itself from the decrepit fighting force, the UN has recently made major cutbacks in its support of the army. In my opinion, this will not really solve the problem as the increased withdrawl of UN support could ony work to further destabilize the armed government soldiers.

The solution to this problem lies in the mineral trade. So long as the local militias and the corrupt Congolese miltary can profit off the trade of a mineral such as Coltan, the longer the conflict will rage on in the eastern Congo. Thousands will die each month at the expense of the electronics industry and the technology that we have come to depend so much on in this society. Complicit in these crimes are the western corporations that more than willingly turn a blind eye to the conflicts surrounding these minerals. A 2003 UN report on the illegal exploitation of minerals in the Congo listed a number of American and Canadian companies whose purchase of conflict minerals are indirectly fueling one of the worlds worst conflicts. In total, eight Canadian mining companies were implicated in the report. These included Banro, First Quantum, Hrambee Mining, International Panorama Resources, Kinross Gold, Melkior Resources, Tenke, and American Mineral Fields. Furthermore, there are reports that  that there are upto ten small Canadian mining companies in the DRC today.

One Asutralian-Canadian company, Anvil Mining Ltd., has even been accused of “helping government soldiers in quelling a village uprising near an Anvil mine… in an assault that killed more than 80 rebels and villagers.”

Thus far, the Canadian government has refused to implement recommendations regarding increased monitoring of Canada’s mining firms abroad.

Congo’s curse remains our prize. Little has changed since the time of the Belgian colonists as foreign corporations continue to loot the nation and reap all the benefits. One can only imagine what this great African nation may have looked like had the country been allowed to develop without foreign disruption.

Capitalism strikes again

Toronto may lose another beloved independent bookstore, slain by the hands of Indigo

Nicole Brewer

For over 30 years, the Toronto Women’s Bookstore (TWB) has been empowering women and building community through the books it sells, the courses it offers, and its strong sense of community. Now, though, a short five months after the closure of another beloved Toronto independent bookstore, Pages, the Women’s Bookstore may also be forced to close its doors forever.

The Bookstore’s letter to the community explains that despite all of the events, courses, workshops, community resources and additional services they offer they receive no other funding that what they make through sales, since they are a store. “Over the past few years, our sales have not been enough to sustain us and this is why we are coming to you, our community, for help,” the letter says. If every customer made a donation of just $10, though, they would be able to keep their doors open for another three months; $30 per customer could be enough to save the store for good.

And yet this independent bookstore is still fighting for its life, and fighting against the giants of Chapters, Indigo, and Coles, who seem to be monopolising the bookstore corner of the economy. This is just another way in which the importance of community is seemingly being forgotten, and in fact sacrificing it for the beautiful convenience of consumerism. Not only a bookstore will be lost if this business closes its doors: the TWB offers courses and workshops that focus on subjects from the art of practical dreaming to embodied activism, and are one organisation still striving to promote the importance of feminism and anti-oppression politics.

The TWB carries books that reflect its feminist, anti-oppression view such as books on feminist and anti-racist theories, transgender rights, health, and books by women of all kinds – Jewish, lesbian, First Nations, marginalised women, and many more. This bookstore offers support for many members of the community in many ways, and in turn the community has been able to help it to survive a firebomb in 1984 and keep its doors open thus far. Now, though, the ever-growing Indigo organisation is making it difficult for independent bookstores of any kind to stay open.

The number of feminist bookstores worldwide has shrunk to only 21 from 125 in 1994, says a December 2009 article on the CBC News website. The article reports that it is not feminism that is declining, though, and the decreasing number of feminist bookstores is due to the battle between chain and independent bookstores.

Bookstore giants like Indigo have their place in our city, just as clothing giants like American Eagle and Le Château do. However, there always needs to be a balance maintained. Queen Street West is dotted with independent designers’ stores, offering a unique variety of clothing for a much-needed change of scenery from, say, the Eaton Centre. Toronto’s independent bookstores exist to offset the impersonal nature of the Chapters scene, but with such stores placed so frequently throughout the GTA, book lovers seem to be favouring the flashy convenience of the giants to the comfortable, community-friendly independent bookstore.

What does this say about us? Are we so willing to succumb to the consumerist nature of the business world without a second thought about the businesses, communities, families, people who may suffer as a result of that decision? Now on the brink of having to close for good, the TWB has turned to the community it has been giving to for years for a little bit of giving back. The letter to the community voices a graceful plea for support:

“In the past, when feminist bookstores were closing down all across North America, the support of the community is what kept TWB alive. You are the reason that we are still here today, and we believe that with your help we can once again work together to save this organization where so many of us as readers, writers, feminists, artists, and activists have found a home.”

The full letter can be found on the TWB website, www.womensbookstore.com/communityletter.html

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