Public Inteterest Research and Community
OPIRG, PAGE 11
Rally Against Corporate Greed, London DAYS OF ACTION, PAGE 6
Editorial: My Real Palestine GLOBAL, PAGE 4
THE STUDENT MOVEMENT
Issue 14 - Windsor’s Independent, Student Newspaper
February 2012 | FREE
Students demand accessible education UWindsor students and allies participate in national day of action for post-secondary education
By Darryl Gallinger
In the last provincial election students were promised a 30% tuition rebate if the Liberal party won, but it was not until the Liberals took office that many students learned they would not be eligible. This, coupled with sky-rocketing tuition fees and chronic government underfunding of post-secondary education, drove over 200 students and their supporters – plus one fourteenfoot tall puppet – to gather for a day of action at the University of Windsor. “Not only are graduate students ineligible for the Liberal grant, but $44 million has been cut in research funding,” says Ahmed Abou Gharib, a graduate student at the University of Windsor in engineering and president of the Graduate Students Society. “Students who had been working hard on applications for months just got a phone call one day to tell them their funding had been cancelled. This is a huge blow to many projects at UWindsor.” Representatives from the University of Windsor Student Alliance, the Organization of Part-time University Students, and the Graduate Students Society - the university’s three student unions - each spoke to the gathered crowd about the exclusivity of the rebate and other issues plaguing postsecondary education. International, graduate, part-time, and mature students are excluded from receiving the grant, and so are out of province students and students on academic probation. Students whose parents make over $160,000 a year or who are in second-entry programs like education, law or medicine are also ineligible.
“International students pay about three to four times more tuition fees than domestic students,” says Tapas Biswas, an international student, taking Engineering at the University of Windsor. “Students are calling on the Ontario government to turn their rebate into a 13% across-the-board tuition fee cut for all students. This way, those who are most in need can receive the funding to attend university and contribute to the Canadian society.” Worse, many of the supports that students had previously relied on – such as the Textbook and Technology Grant, the Trust for Student Support and the Queen Elizabeth II Aiming for the Top Scholarships – are going to be cut in order to fund the rebate. Over $100 million in grants have been lost.
Ontario’s universities have the highest tuition fees when compared to the rest of Canada, and the second-lowest per student funding in all of North America. The University of Windsor joined students all over Canada in a national day of action to call on their federal and respective provincial governments to make a serious commitment to education. The event was organized by the Canadian Federation of Students who are demanding that the 30% tuition rebate be made a 13% rebate available to all students without exclusion. The Windsor University Faculty Association, Canadian Union of Public Employees local 1001 – the University’s staff union, the Windsor District Labour Council, and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers voiced their support to students in their struggle for highquality, accessible education. For more coverage, turn to page 7.
Students march down Sunset Ave. on the Feb. 1st Day of Action. Photo by Michael Ngo. More photos from the rally on page 7.
Muhammad Ali at 70: What he meant, what he means
By Dave Zirin
Muhammad Ali turned 70 last month, and the three-time heavyweight champion who doubled as the most famous draft resistor in U.S. history remains larger than life in the American mind, despite being ravaged by Parkinson’s disease. Two years ago, on a visit to Louisville, Ky., I was reminded why.
In a cab on the way to the Muhammad Ali Center downtown, I saw that my driver had a Vietnam Veterans of America patch on display by his license. I asked him about his experience in Southeast Asia, and he started talking a mile a minute about his time “in country,” how his “happiest days” were being a sniper in Vietnam. He even said: “You might not know
this, being from Washington, D.C., but the most dangerous animal to hunt is man.” He then described the task in detail. He wanted to make sure I left his cab fully aware of his pride, patriotism and unwavering belief in the duty of going to war when country called. I didn’t engage the driver in a debate about Vietnam or U.S. imperialism, but given my reason for being in Louisville, I couldn’t resist one question. I asked: “What do you think about Muhammad Ali? He opposed the war in Vietnam. He called it an illegal war aimed at increasing oppression throughout the globe. Continued on page 9.
Photo by Michael Ngo
2 | NEWS & EDITORIALS
Information on The Student Movement Current Editorial Committee Ian Clough Maaya Hitomi Tracy Huynh
Mission Statement The Student Movement is Windsor’s grassroots, student newspaper. Founded to inform and empower, TSM reports on political issues that affect the youth of Windsor, especially education and campus issues. The newspaper prides itself on critical and empowering journalism that encourages political participation and discussion. Contact Our office is in the OPIRG house at 372 California Ave. (behind the Neal Education Building) and you can email us at movement@tsmwindsor.ca
Organizational Structure The Editorial Committee of The Student Movement meets weekly to produce each edition of the newspaper. All decisions are made through consensus and the newspaper is accountable to the general membership at general meetings which are held following the release of each edition. There is no editor-in-chief or leader: we pride ourselves on the democratic structure of the newspaper. For more information, please visit tsmwindsor.ca/info TSM Online Website: tsmwindsor.ca Email: movement@tsmwindsor.ca Youtube channel: youtube.com/tsmwindsor Facebook page: facebook.com/tsmwindsor Twitter feed: twitter.com/tsmwindsor Flickr photostream: flickr.com/tsmwindsor
Get involved! TSM is currently looking for writers, volunteers, photographers, copy-editors, distributers, editors, coordinators, and general members. To get involved, email us at movement@tsmwindsor.ca
Support Through Donations TSM is a not-for-profit organization and our printing is funded entirely through donations and fundraising. If you’d like to show your support through donations, you can email us at movement@tsmwindsor.ca or make a donation during one of our tabling sessions (watch our twitter for times and locations).
Submission Guidelines The direction of each edition of TSM is decided at each month’s general meeting, so that’s the best time to pitch an article (these meetings are open to anyone). Articles should be submitted to movement@tsmwindsor.ca–check our website for each issue’s deadline. Word count should be 300750 words. All major edits will be returned to the author for approval. We encourage you to include photos, but you MUST have permission to use them (preferably just use your own). Please indicate the author of any and all pictures. For more info, visit tsmwindsor.ca/info Letters to the Editorial Committee Please submit letters at movement@tsmwindsor.ca and specify that it’s a letter in the subject line. Check our website for each issue’s deadline. We reserve the right to refuse to print any letter, as well as to edit for spelling, grammar, length, and clarity. Letters should be less than 300 words.
Advertising Policy TSM provides free advertising for not-for-profit events and organizations, as well as paid advertising for ethical businesses. Please submit advertisements by the third Wednesday of the month. We reserve the right to refuse to advertise for an event, organization or business. For more information, visit tsmwindsor.ca/info or email us at movement@tsmwindsor.ca Front page skybox photos: left by Tracy Huynh, middle and right by Ian Clough.
The Student Movement | February 2012
Editorial: Town halls must be organized by students, not admin By Ian Clough
On January 12 , University of Windsor President Dr. Alan Wildeman held a “community address” where he spoke to attendees about his perceptions and plans for the University. He highlighted successful programs, past and present funding problems, and future projects and buildings. th
This presentation is an evolution of his previous town hall meetings, the main difference being the cancellation of the open microphone at the end. Dr. Wildeman said because “address is personal in nature, I will not be having an open mic session at the end, but you are all encouraged to send me or anyone else in the administration your comments or questions about anything you wish.” Dr. Wildeman can be emailed at president@uwindsor.ca. Personally, I’m not that bothered that the question period has been removed. At previous town hall meetings, the open mic segment was limited to about 20 minutes and speakers had been cut-off, refused follow-up questions, and staff and faculty have been disallowed from speaking. More often than not, Dr. Wildeman did not know the answers to questions, twisted the truth, or did not follow up on problems. For example, at a town hall meeting in March 2010, a student asked a question about how graduate assistantships were allocated; ten months later, when graduate students occupied the president’s office, the same question was asked and he still didn’t know the answer.
meetings. I’ve also attended most, if not all, of his town hall meetings, and every time,he brings up the Maclean’s rankings or the Globe and Mail survey. He’ll often mention that he is on a search for the students who have participated in these.
Reputation is part of recruiting new students, but I would be far less concerned if Dr. Wildeman spoke about improving the quality of education as much as he did about rankings and surveys.
The amount of resources that have gone into marketing this school is astounding, especially considering we’ve seen a $34 million reduction in our operating budget since Dr. Wildeman became president. The Strategic Plan – in part, a marketing tool – is a perfect example of resources being allocated away from programs to flashy gimmicks. For example, last May, $75 000 was allocated by the Strategic Priority Fund to unnecessary landscaping, while another $5 000 was allocated to jackets for UWindsor tour guides. I believe that if you want to improve the school’s reputation the administration should prioritize the quality of education over marketing. Also, students should be organizing town hall meetings and inviting the administration to attend, as the Drop Fees Coalition has done in the past. At more than one town hall meeting, students have brought up the issue of parking: why doesn’t the UWSA hold a forum on the issue to discuss solutions and invite members of the administration to contribute?
What is of concern to me is Dr. Wildeman’s continuing obsession with UWindsor’s reputation. As a former student senator, I’ve heard him bring it up time and again at senate
The last town hall meeting held by Dr. Wildeman was over a year ago and specifically targeted for community members instead of students. I encourage students to create a space for discourse because Dr. Wildeman’s town halls have failed to address real campus issues
By Paul Chislett
and contacts.
The Windsor Workers Action Centre advocates for workers
It has become more evident that workers are consistently ripped off for wages owed to them. Workers feel isolated and for the most part seem determined to stick it out with an unfair employer, seeing little hope for change on their own. The Windsor Workers Action Centre (WWAC) is seeking ways to help workers organize more effectively across the retail and restaurant sector. This could be a start in building a movement leading to stronger labour laws and enforcement, and ideally, to a general sense of worker empowerment. To do this, more workers in the retail and restaurant sector need to come forward.
Yet, as one worker related to me, most in the restaurant and retail industry are not in a long term career and the jobs they have are a stepping stone to pay for school tuition and/or a better job. Therefore, a worker will ask if the fight is worth the effort. Yet, if workers do not take the lead as they did in the past, how will things change for the better? To organize is not just to think in terms of unionization and of a waged job. To organize is to fight for meaningful work and something more than a living wage. Organizing is as natural as working for a living. For example, restaurant associations exist to help owners thrive. All industries organize themselves to secure their interests so why not workers? One alternative model is worker-owned enterprises. The Restaurant Opportunity Centers (ROC) in the US may provide a workable alternative. WWAC can act as a facilitator in efforts to organize by providing a meeting space, organizational help
The Windsor Workers’ Action Centre has been in operation since 2008 at 328 Pelissier St. in downtown Windsor. The centre exists to advocate for workers in disputes over wages, benefits, vacation pay, and so on. Many workers are from a cross-section of non-union workplaces including the restaurant and retail industries. The centre has helped workers in precarious workplaces such as Global Fiber Recovery where the employer refused to pay wages for hours worked. There, and in the numerous agricultural packaging plants in the Windsor/Essex area, many workers are newer Canadians unsure of their rights in this province. As well, the centre has assisted workers with Workplace Safety Insurance Board and health and safety issues. As well as direct advocacy on behalf of workers, the centre seeks to lobby for better labour laws (which are notoriously weak) and provides programs to high school students on workplace safety and workers’ rights. The current campaign is a Wage Theft campaign aimed at employers and workers so they can understand their rights and obligations under current labour law in Ontario. University students make up a large proportion of retail and restaurant workers. If you are being ripped off for wages, vacation time, overtime, and so on, drop by the centre any weekday between 10 AM and 2PM, or call 519-252-1212. The website is www.wwac.ca. Paul Chislett is the president of the Windsor Worker’s Action Centre. He also hosts The ShakeUp on CJAM 99.1FM on Fridays from 4-5pm.
328 Pelissier St. Walk-in: Mon-Fri 10am-2pm Call 519-252-1212 info@wwac.ca
The Student Movement | February 2012
Minister Glen Murray presents in the CAW Centre
NEWS & EDITORIALS | 3 By Darryl Gallinger
Students demand answers from Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities
By Ian Clough
On February 2nd, the day after the national day of action for education, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Glen Murray came to the University of Windsor to speak about the Liberal tuition rebate. While the University of Windsor Student Alliance (UWSA) and President Alan Wildeman welcomed the minister, students unfurled a banner from the CAW Centre balcony demanding to know how the many students ineligible for the rebate would receive financial assistance.
The banner was maintained by students throughout the minister’s presentation while he defended the Ontario government’s funding decisions. Near the beginning of his presentation, he asserted that “Healthcare, post-secondary education, and public education will not be cut back.” Since the advertised question period had been cancelled, TSM reporter Darryl Gallinger, using a megaphone, asked the minister about the $44 million in cuts to the Ontario Research Fund, to which the minister admitted that “there will be reductions.”
Rather than addressing why the government had not worked with the graduate students being affected by the cuts, the minister then began attacking the Harper Government’s spending on prisons.
Earlier, the minister said the tuition rebate was planned in consultation with the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) and the College Student Alliance, but did not mention any consultation with the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). OUSA represents nine student associations, none of them representing graduate students, where CFS Ontario represents 36 student associations. In
Students deploy a banner during Minister Murray’s presentation in the CAW Centre. Photo by Ian Clough. fact, graduate students are largely ignored by the minister. “Stop calling it 900 000: you’re causing problems,” he said to the students holding the banner, referring to the number of postsecondary students in Ontario. The minister believes that 600 000 is a better figure, as it does not include graduate students and some other groups excluded from the grant. Continued on page 5.
“Chicken Little” routine in the auto sector
By Enver Villamizar
Students should stand with autoworkers in the face of the broad campaign being waged against the Windsor community to try and create fear about plant closures in order to justify the auto monopolies demands for concessions from autoworkers. Claiming that the sky is going to fall if workers don't accept the dictate of the monopolies has become the method of choice to block workers from discussing their options in a calm atmosphere and organizing to defend their interests. This "Chicken Little" routine is also being played out in the auto industry. However, workers are gaining experience in recognizing and opposing it.
On January 5, Windsor Star auto columnist Chris Vander Doelen wrote an editorial entitled “CAW playing chicken, sleepwalking to disaster.” In it he claimed that some members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) are “concerned”
that the union is “playing chicken” with the possibility of plant closures. According to Vander Doelen, they are “concerned” the CAW is being “hardline” because it is not immediately accepting the dictate by Caterpillar at the Electro-Motive plant in London, and that it has publicly opposed statements by Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne calling for autoworkers’ wages in Canada to be tied to “company performance.” Vander Doelen backs up his claims about plant closures sourcing “rumours,” “observers” and “cynics,” so as to create the impression that these claims are not just his own threats. “Rumours have been circulating for months among the automotive engineering fraternity that one of Chrysler’s two Canadian plants will be on the chopping block this summer if the CAW refuses to give up the cost reductions Marchionne says Chrysler still needs to survive,” he wrote. Continued on page 10.
4 | GLOBAL
Global
Why Canadians should care about SOPA
By Maaya Hitomi
In a massive coordinated action, hundreds of websites voluntarily blacked-out their content on January 18th in opposition to legislation which, if passed, would irreversibly change the infrastructure of the internet. These bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its sibling, the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), proposed in the US, would give American law enforcement agencies the power to seize the domains and block the content of websites suspected of stealing intellectual property. For those who own or create content on the internet, this sounds good in theory; however, the way that SOPA and PIPA would go about this would be unbelievably scary. One of the main reasons that these laws are so widely criticized and protested is because no one is safe from prosecution under the wording of these bills. In fact, according to SOPA, as it was posted on the webpage of The Library of Congress: “[if] through due diligence the Attorney General is unable to find a person ... or no person found has an address within a judicial district of the United States, the Attorney General may commence an in rem action against a foreign infringing site or the foreign domain name used by such site.”
This means that even those who have never been to, and have no plan to ever visit, any judicial district of the United States are subject to the law of the United States, and are able to have legal action brought against them and/ or their website. This is just one of the recent, and extremely troubling, laws to come out of the American political system which attempt to legislate shared global resources, such as the Internet, and effectively expand the jurisdiction of American laws to include the rest of the world. In the case of SOPA and PIPA, this inclusion of the rest of the world raises the very real possibility of websites the world over being shut down, at the whim of the US government. This possibility is made all the more likely by the extremely broad definition of intellectual property theft and copyright infringement outlined in these laws. In their current form, SOPA and PIPA would give American law enforcement agencies, Internet Service Providers, and online funding agencies (such as PayPal) the ability to block access to, funding of, and advertizing on an entire website for a single instance of linking to (what the bills call “facilitating”), or posting copyrighted content. Perhaps worse still, as these laws are currently written a website and its owner are liable to legal action even if this link or posting of copyrighted content is not made by any owner or administrator of the website.
As a practical example of the sheer breadth of these bills, consider a simple video on YouTube. If a user, whether they are affiliated with Google or not, were to post a video of their wedding in which a copyrighted song were playing in the background, then, under SOPA and PIPA, it would be within the power of the US government to block access to, advertizing on, and funding of, not only the video in question, but the entirety of YouTube. Likewise, if an original video were to be posted, and one of the comments on the video contained a link to a copyrighted work, the same power to effectively destroy YouTube would be granted to the US government.
Although unlikely considering its power, size, and ability to afford lawyers, it is easy to see how an action such as this against YouTube or Google (its parent company) would irrevocably change the landscape of the Internet as it exists at the moment. However, this only scratches the destructive surface of the bills. As these bills are currently proposed, the burden of proof would not fall with the accuser, but, instead, fall completely on the website that is facing legal action. This means that there is no concept of “innocent until proven guilty” with this law. Instead, without any form of trial, any site could be effectively removed from the Internet. If this doesn’t make you worry about the state and infrastructure of the Internet, please take a moment to consider your favourite sites: do they contain any copyrighted works, or works that could be construed as such? If you are thinking of any website that allows for interpersonal interaction, the answer almost certainly is “yes.” That is to say that websites such as The Student Movement, Wikipedia, Facebook, Google, YouTube, Reddit, The Pirate Bay, Amazon, eBay, and just about every blog in existence could potentially disappear from the Internet should these bills pass in the United States. This is exactly the reason why the entire world should be watching these bills right now, because they have the very real potential of killing some of the most popular and important content on the Internet.
Since the blackouts on January 18th, a large number of those politicians who once supported these bills have changed their position to oppose them. As of January 20th, both SOPA and PIPA have been postponed until a consensus can be reached on their contents. It is possible that these bills will be forgotten, in time; however, it is far more likely that these bills will be diluted and/or changed before being reintroduced. Either way, these bills need to be closely watched until a final decision is made.
The Student Movement | February 2012
Hoa Sen Dancers ties youth back to Vietnamese roots By Tracy Huynh
Monday January 23rd 2012 marks the first day of the Lunar New Year, Year of the Dragon. Those who follow the lunar calendar celebrate the Lunar New Year as one of the biggest days of the year with many costumes and traditions. This year, a group of six girls—four of which are currently attending the University of Windsor—got together and choreographed a fan dance according to the traditional Vietnamese fan dance, and performed at the Caboto Club on Saturday, January 21st, and again
on campus at Assumption University on Monday, January 23rd for Campus Ministry’s Lunar New Year dinner.
These dancers plan on soon choreographing many more, both traditional and modern, dances to perform and share the Vietnamese traditions to the Windsor community. They are currently called Hoa Sen Dancers, but hope to become an independent non-profit organization to provide youth of Windsor a program to better understand or reconnect to Vietnamese heritage.
Photo by Tracy Huynh
Editorial: My real Palestine
By Ayham Salameh
The concept of the ‘imagined community’ is known very well among Palestinians. Though it may not be as close to the term coined by Benedict Anderson, an anthropologist and theorist of nationalism calls it, it is what drives the contention of the Middle East. Religiously, politically, and even intellectually, the freedom of Palestine from the hands of the occupiers, is seen to be the only thing which will bring peace to the region. This idea, however, may seem to the reader an abrasive one, but it is the motivator of all of the political and social movements in the Middle East. It is this romantic motivator that drives the Arab World. In the summer of 2008, my father and I went to visit the West Bank. The last time I had been there was when I was seven years old. Before that summer, my familiarity with Palestine, and the occupation was at a very shallow level only covering the basics. What I knew was what I have been taught: the issue was black and white - the Israelis took our land; the Arabs betrayed us and we were the victims of greed and ignorance; we were the Children of the Nekba, the great catastrophe. I was taught that there was a dichotomy between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ I was taught about the colours of the Palestinian flag, or the black and white ‘koofia’ (the traditional scarf worn by men), or even the smell of the countryside, perfumed with fresh thyme and sage. All of these things were symbols, which I have seen and experienced and they were linked to my idea of Palestine, my Palestine, and my forbidden country.
Reaching the border between Jordan and Israel, everything changed. My entire perception of the world around me became real: no more was it romantic, or visionary, or even poetic. All these things had dissolved, and what was left was the harsh reality of the region. The air was not perfumed, the flags were blue and white, and the wall of separation was the only inspiration that I had known. Not because of the politics, but rather the graffiti on it, which showed the resilience and the agency of the people. What I have seen was the reality of the long lines of people trying to get to their jobs, or the ever-creeping settlements over the horizon. I had seen how farmers couldn’t get to land, or the ‘Mostawteneen’ who are the colonizers, the ones who claim nationhood from out of thin air. It is for these reasons why I cannot stomach the imagined Palestine as it is the wrong perception of a region fighting for its freedom.
The Student Movement | February 2012
GLOBAL | 5
Editorial: The controversy over Israeli Apartheid Week
By Mohammed Almoayad
Israeli Apartheid Week is a phenomenon which started in Toronto in 2005 and has spread all over the world. According to the official founding organization, “Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events held in cities and campuses across the globe. The aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement.” Social hegemony in the West, specifically in the U.S. and Canada, is largely on the side of Israeli policy. This means Israel's harsh military occupation, deplorable treatment of Palestinians and globally condemned illegal policies all seem to be overwhelmingly defended by the media, governments, and intellectual opinion, fuelled by the various and powerful Israeli lobby groups. It’s no surprise that controversy and outrage follow wherever Israeli Apartheid Week is organized in North America. The controversy comes mainly through the title: the apparent labelling of Israel as an apartheid state seems “false and offensive” to many supporters of Israeli policy, so they are quick to condemn it. Some make the case that Israel’s internal policies even constitute apartheid, but it is clear that the accusations of apartheid come from the policies of Israeli’s military occupation over the Palestinians, which easily constitute the definition of apartheid: a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race. Both Continued from Glen Murray. “Graduate students and PhD students get paid. Some don’t. If you’re in humanities or a master’s degree, it’s kinda tough. But there’s a lot of people who get paid to be TAs [Teaching Assistants],” he continued.
Of course, graduate assistantships are not guaranteed and, with department cutbacks at UWindsor, their number is shrinking. Many of the grants and scholarships available to graduate students—such as those offered by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS), the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and others—limit students to 10 hours of work a week. Those lucky enough to be graduate assistants get a decent hourly wage, but are still below the poverty line. However, those working 10 hours a week at minimum wage are left in dire need of financial assistance. CBC Radio interviewed the minister for their show The Early Shift, during which the minister was asked if he felt that the government was “up front with students during the [September election] campaign?”
The minister said that “the premier laid out the conditions, the $160 000 cap,” referring to the exclusion of students whose parents make more than $160 000 a year. This was the only exclusion that was publicized during the Liberal
Palestinians and Israeli settlers live in the occupied territories, and it should not be up for debate what separate set of policies Israel enforces for each group: one just has to look.
I had grown up with images of the occupation, hearing about it and studying it, but nothing prepared me for actually going back to the West Bank. I saw the underdeveloped conditions my family lives in, and saw the guarded Israeli settlements a few miles away with swimming pools and every modern luxury while we struggled to get water. The apartheid begins at basic legal rights and extends to having separate roads, access to resources and land, and even being physically separated by the West Bank barrier.
Many South Africans themselves have become some of the biggest condemners of the Israeli apartheid. As Willie Madisha, president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, wrote to the president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, "As someone who lived in apartheid South Africa and who has visited Palestine I say with confidence that Israel is an apartheid state. In fact, I believe that some of the atrocities committed against the South Africans by the erstwhile apartheid regime in South Africa pale in comparison to those committed against the Palestinians." The Ontario CUPE has formally passed a resolution in support of campaign against Israeli apartheid. South African Anglican Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmund Tutu wrote, "I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated
campaign: there was no mention that part-time students, international students, graduate students, students in professional programs, students who have been out of high school for more than four years, and others would not be eligible.
Near the end of his presentation, talking faster and louder, the minister discussed his thoughts about solutions. “I’m a Liberal,” he proclaimed. “I like practical solutions. I don’t like people who tell you the market can solve any problem or people on the Left who say you have to have a huge public program which costs billions of dollars to solve every problem.”
More than once he addressed the students holding the banner. “I need student associations to put the placards down,” he told them. “I appreciate that you protested yesterday. I want to tell you how important it is to me that we have student activists that keep on raising the issues and took time to paint a banner like that. But we now need you to roll up your sleeves and take on the fourth big challenge which is the students that are still left behind.” The banner specifically addressed students left behind by the rebate, reading “30 off = 30 cut. Not eligible: Part Time, International, Graduate, Professional, Mature. Where is our reduction?”
roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid. I have witnessed the humiliation of Palestinian men, women, and children made to wait hours at Israeli military checkpoints routinely when trying to make the most basic of trips to visit relatives or attend school or college, and this humiliation is familiar to me and the many black South Africans who were corralled and regularly insulted by the security forces of the Apartheid government." Despite the blatant reality in Palestine, the powerful Israeli lobby groups in North America have succeeded in creating as much controversy as possible around anyone who appropriately refers to what’s going on as apartheid. Some have claimed it is simply anti-Semitic, similarly to how virtually any criticism of Israeli policy seems to be quickly labelled anti-Semitic, meaning they’re made up
accusations that really have nothing to do with Israeli policy. It’s a ridiculous, shameless way to try to simply dismiss any discussion of Israeli policy. We can imagine how absurd it would be for those criticizing policies of Apartheid South Africa simply being labelled racists, and the same goes for all criticisms of all oppressive policies by any country.
Apartheid in South Africa did not get such a strong defence in the Western world. But this should not deter us from following the amazing example South Africa gave us for what strong international condemnation and pressure can accomplish. As Nelson Mandela said, “The UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
Palestinian Human Rights Week The University of Windsor Palestinian Solidarity Group will be holding the first ever Palestinian Human Rights Week, which will include prominent speakers, movies and a workshop. The purpose of the week will be to present and discuss the plight of Palestinians facing unbearable oppression and constant human rights violations and what we can do to affect change.
Schedule:
Monday, March 5 6pm, film “Occupation 101” Tuesday, March 6 5pm, film “Peace, Propaganda, & the Promised Land” 7pm, speaker Richard Forer Wednesday, March 7 5pm, film “The Iron Wall” 7pm, speaker Yves Engler Thursday, March 8 5pm, film “Defamation” 7pm, speaker Norman Finkelstien Friday, March 9 3pm, BDS Workshop
End the Occupation!
The Student Movement | February 2012
6 | DAYS OF ACTION
Thousands stand with CAW workers in London
By Ian Clough
Despite freezing temperatures, thousands of people showed up in London on January 21st to support locked out locomotive workers at a rally organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL). Workers at ElectroMotive Diesel, a subsidiary of the giant manufacturing company Caterpillar, have been locked out of their factory since January 1st of this year.
“Workers across Ontario are standing together today to call for an end to the kind of corporate greed from companies like Caterpillar that is putting at risk these 500 jobs in London,” said Canadian Autoworkers (CAW) President Ken Lewenza in a press release from the OFL. On Friday, February 3rd, Caterpillar announced the closure of the London plant, which will put 450 Electro-Motive employees out of work and will affect the employment of countless others whose jobs rely on the plant. “The decision announced today that US Caterpillar Corporation will close its Electro-Motive plant in London instead of negotiating with the Canadian Autoworkers Union requires an immediate response from the Canadian and Ontario governments,” said Dave Coles, President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. “This decision is a slap in the face to Canada which gave Electro-Motive tax breaks to protect jobs,” continued Coles.
“Caterpillar had no intention of keeping this plant open,” said Lewenza, regarding the closure. “From day one, we believed that Caterpillar was trying to provoke a crisis, by forcing deep cuts that were not possible. Our members would have happily continued working under the previous conditions, but that wasn’t enough for this incredibly profitable company.” Caterpillar was demanding $30 million in concessions from the locked out workers, including over a 50% wage cut and major cuts to pensions and benefits. The workers, who are a part of CAW Local 27, have not had a wage increase for their past two contracts. Caterpillar’s projected revenue for 2011 is $44 billion, and its top 10 executives collectively make $70 million a year. Canadian jobs under foreign countries are meant to be protected by the
Investment Canada Act. The purchase of a company such as Electro-Motive by a foreign corporation like Caterpillar is meant to ensure a net benefit to Canada under the Act. The Harper Government also provided millions to Caterpillar in tax cuts for buying the London plant.
“The Harper Conservatives must stand up for Canadian jobs,” said Lewenza. “A first step is a complete overhaul of the Investment Canada Act to ensure more Canadian jobs aren’t lost when foreign companies buy businesses in Canada.”
“People are fed up Demonstrators gather in Victoria park, downtown London, to support of Electro-Motive workers, protest with profit-rich foreign corporate greed, and demand that the government protects working Canadians. Photos by Ian Clough corporations destroying Canadian jobs, our economy, and our communities. For workers across the province, Caterpillar has become the poster child of the greedy one percent,” said OFL President Sid Ryan. “Caterpillar represents everything that is wrong with a Harper government that rewards greedy corporations with public tax dollars while they exploit their own workers in pursuit of obscene profits.” Following the speeches at the London rally, most of the participants reboarded their buses and left. Fortunately, Occupy London marched down Oxford St. to the CAW picket lines. When TSM reporters joined the march there were about 50 people in the street, but as we neared the picket line the numbers swelled close to 100. A strong police presence followed the Occupy march including several police cruisers and a number of unmarked vehicles full of officers. The demonstrators were spread across both eastbound lanes with the traffic behind them backed up as far as could be seen.
Demonstrators chanted as they marched,
including the chant “One two three four; this is fucking class war! Five six seven eight; organize, retaliate!” These sorts of chants are part of a reaction to the corporate violence of Caterpillar destroying the income of hundreds of families while the company makes billions of dollars in profits. London currently has one of the highest unemployment rates in Canada, second only to Windsor. With the closure of the plant, the London community will no doubt be further impoverished. “The Ontario and federal governments should take the same action in this situation as former Premier Danny
Williams did at AbitiBowater in Newfoundland—they should seize the Caterpillar assets in London and ensure that all community and worker obligations are fully met,” said Coles.
The old forms of resistance are clearly failing. Rallying to call the government to stand up for Canadians is not working— the politicians have already taken sides. The workers, the students, the middle class: we must all band together to take back and build our society. Today we struggle for good-paying unionized jobs, but a generation from now we may be struggling for food to feed our families. Many already are.
Occupy London marches from Victoria Park to the picket line on Oxford Ave. Photo by Ian Clough.
The Student Movement | February 2012
DAYS OF ACTION | 7
Photo by Michael Ngo
Photo by Tracy Huynh
Photo by Tracy Huynh
Editorial: Tuition grants for some does not recognize education as a right for all
By Dan Cerri
On January 5, the McGuinty government announced a new tuition grant of 30 percent for some, but not all, university and college students. The grant excludes graduate students and those in parttime programs, those out of high school more than four years and international students. The Globe and Mail report on the government announcement informed that the grant would be funded by
cutting expenditures in other areas, and not with new money. The cuts will include the elimination of the Textbook and Technology Grant, the Trust for Student Support and the Queen Elizabeth II Aiming for the Top Scholarships. According to the Globe and Mail article, for those students not eligible for the new grant, cuts to other programs will mean a real loss. For example, the elimination of the Textbook and Technology Grant will mean a real loss for some students in the amount of $150 less per academic year to pay for textbooks and computer costs, according to the article. The government has also recently announced cuts in the amount of $42 million to research grants at universities, although they have not indicated whether
these cuts will be used directly to fund the new grants. How are we to make sense of this? Should we applaud the tuition grant which is tied to cuts in other areas of education spending? We don’t even know what the full impact is on other aspects of students’ lives or on education in general because nothing is transparent. Rather, the announcement is totally arbitrary and continues to create a chaotic situation in which post-secondary education in the province is not planned in any coherent way and, instead, money is allocated at one time in one area and simultaneously taken away from others. This is particularly true for those students who now do not qualify for grants under the new system. It is disruptive for everyone at post-secondary institutions who rely on guaranteed funding for their work and studies.
Photo by Tracy Huynh Workers at Ontario colleges have discussed and expressed their concerns with arbitrary decisions which impact their abilities to deliver quality education. Continued on last page.
Photo by Tracy Huynh
8 | ARTS
The Student Movement | February 2012
Arts Time Drips
Short story by Walter Petrichyn
I was at the Cabaret Du Mile-End and I met you. Fast forward a couple months later, I am drinking a tall can and you were smoking a cigarette in a parking lot in the Atwater neighbourhood of Montreal. We were awaiting a concert that I bought tickets five months in advance for.
Fast forward days later. I found out, while waiting for my flight, that Osama Bin Laden died, but I was more interested in who was going to form the next Canadian government. The night before was more interesting since I had a meal with more strangers than friends, and understood the full meaning of hospitality. I have left a good amount of people in one part of my life and I am deciding to continue this path with more division and exploration. I am too young to waste opportunities and too old to thrive in an environment of
continuous repetition. People stay in their routines because they’re afraid to break it, not to take a chance and improve their surroundings.
Bob Rae is discussing the XL Pipeline currently on television and I am against the environmental impacts of this project, and for the expansion of oil trade with the United States. I am more troubled however with the atrocious amounts of water that are used to extract oil in Alberta. This echoed to a similar experience years back where I stressed the importance of conserving water in high school. I was rewarded a glossy aluminium green water bottle for my efforts in water preservation. Resources that are not appreciated in use will be wasted, as they are in the oil sands. Go backwards to last winter. I was sharing a cigar with a colleague, watching traffic pass us by. There was a nice park on Rene-Levesque that overlooked some
of the major highways, and watching an assortment of motion passing makes you feel frozen. I am frozen in that memory, and I don’t feel as cold as I was that night. Its almost like a photograph, except you can’t stop the flow of transportation. Unless a radical shift of machinery will wipe out automobiles in my lifetime, transportation will never stop. That is a nice idea to think about. Long exposures of cars, ultimately to create an endless
path of light.
Photo by Walter Petrichyn
Back to the parking lot. We skip the concert since we didn’t talk for the duration of the show. We’re walking back downtown, and it rains hard. If there was ever a sensation of drowning and walking, that night would have been the standard.
Thinking now about that night, it doesn’t seem as drenched as it was.
Live Music in Windsor - February Monday, Feb 6
Open Mic Surgery w/ James O-L Phog Lounge 10pm
Open Mic w/ Clinton Hammond Manchester Pub 10pm Windsor Canadian Music Festival: Robert Aitken, Flutist University of Windsor School of Music Daniyal Malik Manchester Pub 10pm
Tuesday, Feb 7
V.O.M.I.T. Night Villains Open Mic & Instrumental Talent w/ Eric Welton Band Villains Beastro 10pm Jamie Reaume’s Tuesday Night Music Club Manchester Pub 9pm Open Mic w/ Alec Lauziere Dominion House 9pm Windsor Canadian Music Festival: Robert Aitken, Flutist University of Windsor School of Music
Wednesday, Feb 8
Phog Phunk Phest VI Phog Lounge, 8pm Live Music w/ Dusty Manchester Pub, 10pm
Chris Barrette The Dugout, 10pm
P.U.K.E People Using Karaoke Equipment Villains Beastro 10pm Long & McQuade Jam Night FM Lounge 10pm
Windsor Canadian Music Festival: Robert Aitken, Flutist University of Windsor School of Music
Thursday, Feb 9
Vice Aerial Manchester Pub 9pm
Mellow Shelf The Dugout 10pm
Casa’s Thursday Open Mic Comedy Night Casa’s Restaurant & Night Club 8pm Toast & Jam Mick’s Irish Pub 10pm
Friday, Feb 10
Ron Sexsmith w/ Pat Robitaille The Loop 8pm
Shringara Belly Dancing Taloola Café 8pm
Ron Leary Great Aunt Ida Henry Svec Phog Lounge 10pm
Saturday Feb 11
Jackie Robitaille Taloola Café 9pm
Acoustic Fire Open Mic FM Lounge 10pm
Pat Robitaille Efan! Mike Hargreaves Phog Lounge 10pm Windsor Canadian Music Festival: School of Music Faculty Concert Assumption University Chapel
Smokin’ Purple Monkey Gang Canusa Bar 9:30pm
Sunday, Feb 12
Film Night Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song Phog Lounge 10pm
Monday, Feb 13
Open Mic Surgery w/ James O-L Phog Lounge 10pm
Open Mic w/ Clinton Hammond Manchester Pub 10pm
Tuesday, Feb 14
V.O.M.I.T. Night Villains Open Mic & Instrumental Talent w/ Eric Welton Band Villains Beastro 10pm Jamie Reaume’s Tuesday Night Music Club Manchester Pub 9pm Open Mic w/ Alec Lauziere Dominion House 9pm
Wednesday, Feb 15
Live Music w/ Dusty Manchester Pub 10pm Chris Barrette The Dugout 10pm
P.U.K.E People Using Karaoke Equipment Villains Beastro Long & McQuade Jam Night FM Lounge 10pm TOAST Open Mic Poetry Phog Lounge 10pm
Thursday, Feb 16
Vice Aerial Manchester Pub 9pm
Mellow Shelf The Dugout 10pm Toast & Jam Mick’s Irish Pub 10pm
Friday, Feb 17
Nefidovs ASK FM Lounge 10pm Erin Gignac Taloola Café 8pm
Mark Bragg Wax Mannequin Kara Kaufmann Phog Lounge 10pm
MLSF Free Live Show MicLordz & Sauce Funky Class X & Central Slang The Room 9pm
Saturday, Feb 18
Acoustic Fire Open Mic FM Lounge 10pm
Monique Belanger Taloola Café 9pm
Awake to a Dream Diesel Junkies Stone River Phog Lounge 10pm
Monday, Feb 20
Open Mic Surgery w/ James O-L Phog Lounge 10pm
Open Mic w/ Clinton Hammond Manchester Pub 10pm
Tuesday, Feb 21
V.O.M.I.T. Night Villains Open Mic & Instrumental Talent w/ Eric Welton Band Villains Beastro 10pm Jamie Reaume’s Tuesday Night Music Club Manchester Pub 9pm Open Mic w/ Alec Lauziere Dominion House 9pm
Wednesday, Feb 22
Live Music w/ Dusty Manchester Pub 10pm Chris Barrette The Dugout 10pm
P.U.K.E People Using Karaoke Equipment Villains Beastro Long & McQuade Jam Night FM Lounge 10pm
Comic Book Syndicate live filming Phog Lounge 10pm
Thursday, Feb 23
Vice Aerial Manchester Pub 9pm
Mellow Shelf The Dugout 10pm Toast & Jame Mick’s Irish Pub 10pm
Friday, Feb 24
Fleece Elves Eric Welton Band FM Lounge 10pm Glen MacNeil Taloola Café 8pm
David Essig – Rolling Fork Tour Mackenzie Hall 8pm
Saturday, Feb 25
Acoustic Fire Open Mic FM Lounge 10pm Ron Ouellette Taloola Café 9pm
Little City Crissi Cochrane Phog Lounge 10pm
Sunday, Feb 26
Film Night The Untouchables Phog Lounge 10pm Monday, Feb 27 Open Mic Surgery w/ James O-L Phog Lounge 10pm
Open Mic w/ Clinton Hammond Manchester Pub 10pm
Tuesday, Feb 28
V.O.M.I.T. Night Villains Open Mic & Instrumental Talent w/ Eric Welton Band Villains Beastro 10pm Jamie Reaume’s Tuesday Night Music Club Manchester Pub 9pm Open Mic w/ Alec Lauziere Dominion House 9pm
Wednesday, Feb 29
Live Music w/ Dusty Manchester Pub 10pm Chris Barrette The Dugout 10pm
P.U.K.E People Using Karaoke Equipment Villains Beastro Long & McQuade Jam Night FM Lounge 10pm
Thursday, Mar 1
Vice Aerial Manchester Pub 9pm
Mellow Shelf The Dugout 10pm
Friday, Mar 2
SixtyFirstSecond Leighton Bain Phog Lounge 10pm
Saturday, Mar 3
Ravenscode FM Lounge 10pm
Speakeasies Phog Lounge 10pm
The Student Movement | February 2012
A Super Bowl of Struggle? The NFLPA’s Demaurice Smith on opposing Indiana’s “Right to Work” agenda
By Dave Zirin
The Super Bowl is supposed to bring attention and even glory to its host city. But thanks to an anti-worker, anti-union assault by Indiana’s Governor Mitch Daniels and the Republican controlled legislature, the big game, to be held this year in Indianapolis, is bringing a different kind of attention altogether. The NFL Players Association joined the ranks of unions across the state last week in opposing efforts to make Indiana join the ranks of so-called “Right to Work” states. “Right to Work” laws have also been called “Right to Beg” or “Right to Starve” since they undercut wages, benefits and the most basic workplace protections. Coming off their own labour battle, the NFLPA released a statement where they promised that they would not be silent on these laws during the buildup to the Super Bowl. I interviewed NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith about why they felt it was important to take a stand against this legislation. Dave Zirin: Why did the NFLPA, feel compelled to release that statement against Indiana’s proposed Right to Work laws?
DeMaurice Smith: First and foremost, it’s important that our young men understand that they are just like every man and woman in America who works for a living. The minute that any sports player believes for whatever reason that they are outside the managementlabour paradigm, I guarantee you that the minute you start thinking that way is the day you will start to lose ground. Our guys get their fingers broken, their backs broken, their heads concussed, and their knees torn up because they actually put their hands into the ground and work for a living, and I would much rather have them understand and appreciate and frankly embrace the beauty of what it is to work and provide for their family. [On this issue] we are in lock-step with organized labour. I’m proud to sit on the executive council of the AFL-CIO. Why? Because we share all the same issues that the American people share. We want decent wages. We want a fair pension. We want to be taken care of when you get hurt. We want a decent and safe working environment. So when you look at proposed legislation in a place like Indiana that wants to call it something like “Right to Work,” I mean, let’s just put the hammer on the nail. It’s untrue. This bill has nothing to do with a “right to work.” If folks in Indiana and that great legislature want to pass a bill that really is something called “Right to Work”, have a constitutional amendment that guarantees every citizen a job. That’s a “right to work”. What this is instead is a right to ensure that ordinary working citizens can’t get together as a team, can’t organize, can’t stand together, and can’t fight management on an even playing field. From a sports union, our union, our men and their families understand the power of management and understand how much power management can wield over an individual person. So don’t call it a “right to work.” If you want to have an intelligent discussion about what the bill is, call it what it is. Call it an antiorganizing bill. Fine. If that’s what the people want to do in order to put a bill out there, let’s cast a vote on whether or
not ordinary workers can get together and represent themselves, and let’s have a real referendum.
DZ: What would you say to someone who says, ‘Well, people who support this type of right to work legislation, they are just doing it to protect unions. They don’t care about the majority of workers who aren’t in unions.’? DS: Well take a look over the last 100 years. I used to say that we have forgotten a lot of the lessons from organized labour over the last 100 years, but I’m now convinced that we never learned them. Whether you’re talking about fire escapes outside of buildings or sprinkler systems inside of buildings, fair wages for a day’s work, laws that prevent child labour, things that led to the abolishing of sweatshops in America, let alone management contributing to healthcare plans or a decent pension…. All those things over the last 100 years were not gifts from management. Someone in a corporate suite didn’t decide one day that they would bestow that wonderful right upon a working person. The way those rights were achieved was through the collective will of a group of workers who stood together and said, ‘This is what we believe is fair, and we are all going to stand together and demand that those things be provided to us. We’ll do it as a collective group. You may be able to pick off one of us or two of us or five of us, but you will not be able to pick off all of us.’ When you look at legislation that is designed to tear apart that ability to work as a team…. that is not just antiunion. That is anti working man and woman, and that’s why we weighed in on this one. DZ: When you put out a statement like this, does it also goes out to every player so they’re aware of this campaign? Continued on last page.
Continued from Muhammad Ali.
“Now you’re in a city where there is a Muhammad Ali Street and you’re taking me to the Muhammad Ali Center. Does that bother you?” Without skipping a beat, my cabdriver said, “Well, you have to love Ali.”
I asked why, and this produced a pause. “He believed what he believed and no one could tell him different. He stuck to his own guns and, well, you gotta love Ali.”
In recent years there has been a cottage industry in Ali revisionism that has been aimed at diminishing his relevance, courage and impact. Ali has been made safe for public consumption. When appearing in public, he’s presented as little more than a muted symbol of a troubled past. But in the answer I heard from the cabdriver, I think we can see why it’s been so difficult to erase his real legacy.
Muhammad Ali’s brilliance was not that he was an antiwar prophet. He wasn’t Malcolm X in boxing gloves, debating foreign policy between rounds, jabbing his hands and then saying, “So how about that Cuban missile crisis.” But unlike the Ivy League advisors who made up the “best and the brightest” in power in those days, Ali understood that there was justice and injustice, right
SPORTS | 9
Sports
Ring of Honor explodes into Primetime
By “Komrad”Mohammad Akbar
Ring of Honor(ROH); most wrestling fans have never heard of this delightfully fresh indie promotion. Ring of Honor was founded in 2002, following the buy-out of Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
However, it was in 2011 that ROH was bought by the Sinclair Broadcasting Group, and began airing on their stations across America. This brings a third contender to the national stage, against WWE – known as the World Wrestling Federation at the time - and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Recently, ROH debuted its first “Internet Pay Per View” with much success, changing the dynamic of the wrestling industry greatly. Ever since Vince McMahon drove out the “Territory system” of wrestling, where a single wrestling promotion had its own territory and each promotion allowed talent to travel to different promotions to work, the wrestling world has seen at most two or three promotions provide regular content to a national audience. With the closure of both World Championship Wrestling and Extreme Championship Wrestling in 2001, McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment had at one time succeeded in monopolizing the Wrestling industry, its’ closest competitor being TNA, trailing in a distant second.
ROH changes things. With ROH, wrestling fans are finally being exposed to new content, and a different direction
and wrong. He knew that not taking a stand could be as political a statement as taking one.
Ali, strictly in boxing alone, was an all-time great. He was an Olympic gold medalist at 18, the sport’s first three-time heavyweight champion and the participant in multiple matches that contend for the title of Fight of the Century. But it was his highly improvisational political courage that transformed him into a legend. Ali’s refusal to fight in Vietnam was front-page news all over the world. In June 1967, he was found guilty of draft evasion by an all-white jury in Houston. The typical sentence was 18 months. Ali received five years and the confiscation of his passport. He immediately appealed, and his sentence was eventually overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Ali, undefeated and untouched at this point in his career, was stripped of his title for refusing to serve in the military, beginning a 3 1/2-year exile from the ring. One group that deeply understood the significance of Ali’s stand was Congress. The day of his conviction, the House voted 337 to 29 to extend the draft four more years. It also voted 385 to 19 to make it a federal crime to desecrate the flag. By 1968, Ali was out on bail — with no boxing ring to call home. But he
when it comes to wrestling content, while still being in fairly comfortable territory.
For those who are unfamiliar, ROH is a traditional wrestling promotion with one exception: it features a set of rules and guidelines called the “Code of Honor.” The goal of the Code is to establish a set of guidelines for behavior of wrestlers. The personality of the wrestlers is determined by how closely they follow the Code. A heel wrestler will ignore the code, refuse to shake their opponent’s hand, and break other rules while a face will stick to the code as much as possible. ROH also has for some time employed notable young performers that were abandoned largely by the WWE and TNA, such as Jay Lethal, formerly “Black Machismo”, the team of Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, and even the “First Lady”, Maria Kanellis.
By working with local ROH talent and combining their efforts with new young talents ROH has created a lasting impression as they now broadcast on the networks of the Sinclair Broadcasting Group. While some have criticized the limitations of Sinclair’s networks, this is the perfect deal for ROH. The exposure could possibly bring back a territorial system because Sinclair’s coverage is very limited outside of the North East, and success with ROH could lead to other territories striking deals with other network groups to get more coverage. As WWE’s shows are all on cable channels, it is possible that a new prime time revolution in the wrestling world could occur. was never more active, because a young generation of blacks and whites wanted to hear what he had to say. And Ali obliged. In 1968, he spoke at 200 campuses. In one speech, brimming with confidence — as if the might of the U.S. government were no more menacing than a club fighter — Ali said, “I’m expected to go overseas to help free people in South Vietnam and at the same time my people here are being brutalized; hell no! I would like to say to those of you who think I have lost so much: I have gained everything. I have peace of heart; I have a clear, free conscience. And I am proud. I wake up happy, I go to bed happy, and if I go to jail, I’ll go to jail happy.”
The significance of what this meant to people around the globe cannot be overstated. Even in extreme isolation in an island prison, Ali’s courage reached a former boxer turned political prisoner named Nelson Mandela. After his release, Mandela said: “Ali’s struggle made him an international hero. His stand against racism and war could not be kept outside the prison walls.”
The power to knock down prison walls. This is the power of Ali’s legacy and history. It’s a history worth knowing, not least of all because questions of racism and war, tragically, aren’t questions resigned to history.
10 |
Continued from Chicken Little. “Most observers believe Brampton is the plant most vulnerable because its huge GTA site is worth millions to developers, while Toronto traffic is beginning to strangle just-in-time delivery schedules. “But cynics (or mischief makers) also point to the mothballed St. Louis minivan plant as an easy way to replace Windsor Assembly, should talks with the CAW go as sour as those at ElectroMotive.” The workers immediately called Vander Doelen’s bluff using the comments section of the Windsor Star website to point out that both St. Louis Assembly plants are completely shutdown (the plant property has been sold and the facilities dismantled). In an effort to save face, so as to keep up his the-skyis-falling threats, Vander Doelen issued a “correction” at the very end of an editorial one week later. “Correction: I had a brain spasm in last week’s column about the CAW’s bargaining challenges. Minivan production could never be started in St. Louis again because both of those plants, which both once built minivans, have been demolished. “It’s Saltillo, Mexico, which could build the vans now, sources say.”
What Vander Doelen exposed in his “correction” is that he is the “cynic” or “mischief maker” that he cites as the source for his false claim that production could be moved to St. Louis. Is he also the source who believes the Brampton plant is vulnerable to closure, as well as the source of “current and former CAW members” who he claims in his editorial are “concerned” about the union’s “hardline.” Lack of journalistic integrity aside, Vander Doelen has now been exposed as an agent of the “Chicken Little” routine and the ongoing attempts to create panic and confusion in the community. It is yet to be seen whether his threats about
Chrysler moving minivan production to Saltillo, Mexico are also part of the routine. Autoworkers are sure to put the “Chicken Little” attempt to panic them in the barnyard where it belongs. Here is information that relates you may want to use as well to show what is happening to the workers. Auto Workers on Front Line of Resistance to Assaults on Labour Changes at Windsor Minivan Assembly Plant The contracts for the “Big 3” automakers (Chrysler, General Motors and Ford) in Canada will expire on September 17. Workers in Windsor at Chrysler’s minivan assembly plant report that in the last year there has been increasing pressure so as to disorient and destabilize them. The increased pressure in the last year is on top of changes which were put in place to increase exploitation when Fiat took control of Chrysler in 2009. When Fiat took over Chrysler, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne became Chrysler’s CEO. Marchionne holds both Canadian and Italian citizenship. His postsecondary education includes a Master of Business Administration from the University of Windsor in 1980. At the time of the last negotiations with Chrysler workers in 2009, his studies in Windsor were used to present him as being in touch with and concerned about local realities. During these negotiations, the workers were forced to give up a reported $19 per hour, per worker in concessions in order to pave the way for the provincial and federal governments’ bailout of Chrysler. Since Fiat took over, in addition to the massive concessions, there have been a number of developments in working conditions that workers are starting to recognize as part of a pattern. Chrysler produces all of its minivan
The Student Movement | February 2012
models, as well as the Volkswagen Routan minivan at its Windsor Assembly Plant (WAP). The minivans assembled by the workers in Windsor are Chrysler’s most popular products. As a result of this popularity Chrysler’s Big 3 competitors have stopped producing rival minivans. This means the WAP is the only facility producing minivans in Canada and the U.S. for the Big 3. The plant currently employs 4,607 hourly employees and 181 salaried employees on three shifts. Production Slowdowns
In the last year there has been more than a month of unscheduled “downtime,” including entire weeks at a time. The company claims the down-time is due to “parts shortages” or “inventory adjustments.” The workers point out that “parts shortages” is a straw man. They explain that the just-in-time production model where parts are shipped as needed by various tiers of parts suppliers in Canada, the U.S., Mexico or Asia results in the shortages, and that by stocking parts or making them “in-house” this problem could easily be sorted out. Overtime Work
The company has scheduled overtime work on every Saturday for the last year. However in all but a few cases it has cancelled the shift a few days prior, or in one case, a few hours before the workers were set to arrive. These workers are kept waiting for the company to decide, constantly unsure if they are going to work or not. Increased exploitation
There has also been intensified exploitation of workers along with increasing attempts to divide the union. Under the ownership of Cerberus Capital Management (2007-2009) workers were organized into “cells.” Each cell was made up of four to five workers
and assigned a cell leader who would coordinate the cell’s work as well as look out for any issues that might arise in production. Cell leaders are union members who are paid slightly more than a regular line worker. They are overseen by a head cell leader called a super leader who is also a union member. Under Cerberus the cell leaders would work with a company supervisor to deal with any issues arising on the line. At the time, Chrysler also had personnel to fill in for absent employees, as well as relief personnel to fill in if a lineworker had to leave the line for any reason. Under Fiat, many supervisors were let go, and the number of people in some cells has risen to eight with cell leaders being given an increased work load, including a substantial amount of paperwork such as logging downtime, reporting issues on the line and proposing new “efficiencies.” The fill-in personnel have also been eliminated and filling in has become the responsibility of the cell leader. Workers report that this arrangement into cells leads to divisions amongst the workers as “cell leaders” are encouraged to work with management to “deal with” certain employees. Workers note that the lines between management and the union are being blurred by the restructuring imposed by the company. The amount of rest during a shift has also decreased under Fiat. Previously, on a 7.5-hour shift workers had two breaks: 12 and 9 minutes respectively, along with a 24-minute lunch for a total of 45 minutes of rest. Now they get two 9-minute breaks and a 22-minute lunch; a total of 40 minutes rest. Workers explain that the breaks are not enough time for them to leave their job and get back in time in order to go to the washroom, let alone to have a short rest or eat a snack. Reprinted from The Marxist-Lennist Daily
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OPIRG - WINDSOR | February 2012
| 11
Is Common Courtesy Dead? Canadians have always been known as “nice” people by other countries. How do you know you’re in Canada? Because people smile when they give you your coffee or the bus driver wishes you a good morning when you get on the bus. But is niceness towards people who are not your paying customers disappearing? Every day I get on the bus with 50-60 other people. Some of them have walkers, some use canes, and some are elderly. Yet it is only once in a blue moon that the young and able will actually give up a seat for someone who needs it more. So an elderly man with a cane is left to lurch back and forth with the moving bus as other riders, often students and young professionals, cling steadfastly to their seats refusing to give them up. Or maybe they just don’t notice anymore. With iPhones and iPods helping us to block out the real world around us maybe we just don’t see those who need help around us. We are so busy checking our emails while rushing in and out of stores that we don’t see that there is someone behind us with their hands full as the door slams in their face. Maybe it’s time we all looked up from our cell phones, iPads, and MP4s, and notice the mother holding a baby in front of us and offer her our seat, hold the door open for the next person coming into a store, or actually wish our bus driver good morning right back instead of moving through life zombie-like in our self-absorption. Many of us support good causes locally and internationally, but sometimes it’s necessary to look at the cause standing right beside you fighting to keep their balance in a world that doesn’t seem to acknowledge common courtesy anymore. So let’s promote a cause right under our noses and give our seats to those who need them, or hold a door open for someone else. As Gandhi said “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” So be the change you want to see in others starting right here on the Windsor bus and revive common courtesy for the good of us all. —-Kristina Nikolova
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Soy Milk and the Sanitarium I spilled a glass of milk. Organic soy milk, fair trade of course, in a recyclable container, to be exact. I know I shouldn't cry over spilled milk, but fussing over soy seems understandable. You see, I couldn't clean it up. Instinctively, I reached for a paper towel (made from non-bleached recycled materials, collected by homeless sherpas in the Andes), but stopped. Even with all of its eco-friendly attributes, this paper towel would still end up in a landfill somewhere. So, I reached for a towel instead (non-bleached organic hemp weave, of course). Not having to dispose of this afterwards, it seemed like the most sensible cleaning solution.......... until I remembered that I would have to wash it afterwards. Even thought I used completely chemical-free biodegradable cleaning products, there was still the matter of water. Just how much water would be needed to wash a simple dish cloth? Seeing as it was the middle of a snowless winter, my outdoor rain barrel was bone dry. I tried to think of other options to solve my dishrag dilemma, all the while my soy milk drying and crusting to the floor. I could always wait until my next laundry day and wash it with my dirty clothes..... but seeing as I was conserving water, my next laundry day was weeks away. Surely the dried soy milk would be producing some sort of noxious odors by then. Perhaps I could wait until my next shower and then throw it in the bottom of the tub while I cleanse. As luck would have it, I had showered that morning, meaning I wouldn't shower again for at least a week. My nerves slightly frazzled by my soy conundrum, I retreated to the kitchen for a snack to clear my head. Of course, this only compounded my problems. My strawberries were organic, but there was no guarantee they hadn't somehow been altered genetically with salmon genes to give them their red, rosy hue. I had potatoes, homegrown in a stack of tires in my yard, completely organic and watered by only stored rainwater. Of course, the dirt they were grown in may have contained leeched chemicals from the neighbour's fertilizers, and there was no telling what chemical compounds were leeching into that soil right now from those discarded tired. Homemade bread? There were no wheat farms in the area, meaning the chosen mode of transportation to import the wheat to the market had polluted the air and used precious fossil fuels. A glass of soy milk? No, that's how I got into this mess to begin with! maybe just a nice glass of water would help...... until I remembered recent news reports on flouride in the water system harming children's teeth. Bottled water was out, seeing as the majority of plastic water bottles end up clogging landfills, sandwiched between soiled diapers and paper towels (even those made of non-bleached recycled materials, collected by homeless sherpas in the Andes). No, water was out of the picture. But wait! Farmers used water to grow my vegetables. The floridation could alter the genes of my peppers! In a panic, I grabbed my produce and ran to the compost heap, where a new horror set in. GMOs, flouride, run-off chemicals..... this had all been breaking down into my compost! The same compost I used in my garden! Without realizing it, I had been growing mutant food in my own backyard. Horrified, I dropped the vegetables on the patio and ran screaming into the house, where even more horrors waited to great me. The quilt I had liberated from the dumpster next door..... were there bleached fibers in it? And the denim patches..... made from jeans stitched by 10 year olds in a sweatshop? The couch I had received from my neighbours when they re-modeled their house...... could it contain toxic flame-retardant materials? I didn't know where the wood for my coffee table came from, or the stuffing from my pillow. My fridge was plugged in! Without even thinking, I was contributing to my carbon footprint. Don't panic, I told myself. I could always buy some carbon offsets. Buy? Eeep! In an effort to reduce my part in the slow and painful death of Mother Earth, I was feeding the same corporate machine that was killing her in the first place! For all I knew, the same company that I had purchased my carbon offsets from could also own giant smoke stacks, or coal mines, or even....... it was almost too much for my mind to process..... my carbon offsets could inadvertently be funding a slaughterhouse! After years of protesting in front of fast food restaurants in lettuce bikinis, I could have been funding animal slaughter all along! Wait, I thought. Those bikinis weren't really made of lettuce. What were they made from? Were they organic? Fair trade? Child labour free? Overwhelmed, I curled up under my blanket on the couch, hoping to block out the world. Eeep! Toxic couch! Child labour quilt! And then...... I stepped in the spilled soy milk. The doctors later told me that it was my neighbours who called the police when they heard me scream. When they arrived, they say I was in my back yard naked, screaming at my discarded produce, pouring soy milk on it, and burning a quilt. The paramedics sedated me, and I woke up here. The doctors says I'm making real progress. Why, just yesterday I was able to eat my breakfast after asking only 14 questions about the origins on my food. They've assured me that my straight jacket is 100% organic, unbleached cotton fibers, although they're not sure if these fibers were picked by homeless sherpas in the Andes. I'm allowed to grow vegetables, and tend to my compost heap, and even keep a rain barrel in the yard. For some reason, though, I'm not allowed to have a simple glass of soy milk. —-Stephanie Oneschuk
The Student Movement | February 2012
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Continued from NFLPA. ContDS: It goes out to the players, the board, and the executive committee, and here in this case, we actually reached out to former Indianapolis Colts, former players who went to college in Indiana, and those players who live in Indiana, and asked them if they’d want to sign on. So we have a very impressive list of players. Rex Grossman is a local player who signed on. Jeff George, former quarterback for [among other teams] the Indianapolis Colts, also signed on. I’m proud of our guys who signed off on this because I do think that they appreciate and understand that in the same way that those things that we were talking about things that have been changes for good for ordinary workers in America, there isn’t a player in the National Football League who shouldn’t understand that every benefit that we have in the collective bargaining agreement is one that was negotiated by a collective of players standing together. Coming out of this lockout, perhaps it was the first time some of our young men understood what the collective bargaining agreement is all about. [Author’s note. De Smith said after the interview that Tim Tebow was behind the NFLPA 100% during the lockout. Given some of my own critique’s of Tebow’s politics, I felt obliged to include that nugget.] DZ: The news this week was that this bill was rammed through committee so it is advancing through the Indiana State House. Has there been any talk about what else the NFLPA might do? Any
By Darryl Gallinger
follow up to the statement that you put out?
DS: I wrote an op-ed that has been placed in the main Indianapolis newspaper. If the issue is still percolating by the time of Super Bowl, I can promise you that the players of the National Football League and their union will be up front about what we think about this and why. Look, we have players who played in Indianapolis obviously, but I made no secret coming into this fight that the lockout, organized and implemented by a group of owners, was not only designed to hurt players, but all of the people who work in and around our stadium: the hospitality network, the network of restaurants, bars; all of those things that are connected and touch our business were affected by the lockout that we frankly did not want to happen. So there is never going to be a day where players are going to divorce themselves from the ordinary people who work around their sports, and we’re sure as heck not going to divorce ourselves from the fans who dig our game. DZ: If the legislation is still percolating, there will be people who will be doing legal, non-violent protests around the Super Bowl game to try to leverage the spotlight of the Super Bowl to raise the issue for a national audience, and I know that they’re getting various union endorsements to do so. Is that something the NFLPA would support, the idea of a demonstration, a legal, nonviolent demonstration outside the Super Bowl?
DS: Yeah, possibly. We’ve been on picket
Continued from Education is a right. The lack of guaranteed funding from one year to the next impacts budgeting plans in different programs, contributes to larger class sizes, lack of space, less full-time faculty positions and overall threats to existing programs. This unplanned and arbitrary approach creates instability for workers and students at post-secondary institutions and definitely cannot be described as a way to build a consistent system over time so that it contributes to building a modern society.
The new grants focus only on tuition fees (and then only of those who qualify) rather than the overall postsecondary system which requires adequate funding at all levels. College workers in Ontario have called on the government to increase investments as Ontario continues to be the lowest lines in Indianapolis already with hotel workers who were basically pushed to the point of breaking on the hotel rooms that they had to clean because they were not union workers. We’ve been on picket lines in Boston and San Antonio. So, the idea of participating in a legal protest is something that we’ve done before. We’ll have to see what is going to go on when we’re there, but issues like this are incredibly important to us. If we can be in a position just to make sure that we raise the level of the debate to the point where it is a fair and balanced discussion about the issues, I think that is something that our players can
funded college system in all of Canada. The consequence is that students and workers at the colleges face deteriorating conditions. The exclusion of some individuals from the new grants also demonstrates its fraudulent character.
The crux of the matter is that the rights of people to be educated in a modern society are not guaranteed in the current economic, political or educational system. College and university education must be adequately funded without exception. Education is a right to which every member of society should have equal access, regardless of ability to pay, or how much debt they are able to incur. Governments have a responsibility towards the collective as they are in place to look out for the general interests of society, not just some individuals now and then. help do. Obviously, players have a very high profile, and I think its important for them to take on issues which are important to them and be in a position to talk about them, raise the level of consciousness about them.
If we do one thing by making this statement, and it is raising the level of the debate, and to have real people ask real questions about it, we’ve served our purpose. Dave Zirin is the author of “The John Carlos Story” (Haymarket). Visit the website edgeofsports.com for his most recent columns.
Photo by Michael Ngo