In an inspiring bit of news amid so much horror and bloodshed in Gaza, a group of brave women activists have just been arrested for staging an old-fashioned sit-in.

As part of ongoing protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza, a group of Jewish women have occupied the Israeli consulate in Toronto to protest the violence and destruction that is being waged in their name.

The group– which includes social justice activist and professor Judy Rebick, filmmaker Cathy Gulkin, psychoanalyst and president of Science for Peace Judith Deutsch, fimmaker B.H. Yael, and Canadian-Israeli peace activist Smadar Carmon – is being arrested by the RCMP for staging a sit-in.

They are demanding that Israel stop its military assault, lift its 18-month siege on the Gaza Strip, and allow desperately-needed humanitarian aid into the territory. According to their press statement, “Israel has been carrying out a full-scale military assault on the Gaza Strip since December 27, 2008. At least 660 people have been killed and 3000 injured in the air strikes and in the ground invasion that began on January 3, 2009. Israel has ignored international calls for a ceasefire and is refusing to allow food, adequate medical supplies and other necessities of life into the Gaza Strip.”

“There are Jews that do not follow the Israeli line and are sickened by what is happening in Gaza,” Cathy Gulkin told the Toronto Star.

With the constant media barrage of disasters, injustices, and assorted international atrocities, it can often be hard to focus on just one cause. In a world of 24-hour news tickers and 30 second segments, it seems like there’s never the time or space for follow up. One minute the news will leave me enraged over one particular case, and the next minute it will have moved on to the next reprehensible act, and sadly, so will I. So for 2009, instead of my typical resolutions to go to the gym more often or eat fewer chemical-laced and possibly radioactive meat byproducts, I resolve not to let the 24-hour news cycle get me down, and not to forget the injustices of the world five minutes after they happen.

Number one on my list is the New Jersey Four. In 2006, a group of young black lesbians were walking on Sixth Avenue in New York City’s Greenwich Village, a neighborhood that has long been a safe haven for queer youth. A man selling DVDs on the sidewalk propositioned them. When he was met with a rejection, he called them dykes, threw his lit cigarette at them, and threatened to “fuck them straight.” A fight broke out, and he was caught on camera trying to strangle one of the women. The women fought back, along with several other men who stepped in to defend them.

(more inside…)

Big Foot Memorial Ride arriving in Porcupine, South Dakota 2007

Amidst all the holiday hub-bub nonsense what with all the rampant shopping, grotesque overspending, power eating, and under-the-weather feelings many of us encounter, I cast my eyes to my brothers and sisters who use the holiday season to do something remarkably different.

Two rides take place in the United States every December to commemorate some of the largest massacres in Native American history, where communities, families, Elders, and youth alike gather from all across Turtle Island to ride in the footsteps of our ancestors who put their lives down so our peoples could carry on the very culture that sustains us today.

On December 10th, the Dakota 38 Ride started on the Lower Brule reservation in South Dakota, and will end up in Mankato, Minnesota on December 26th. It commemorates the result of a federal policy and a newly formed state to remove the Dakota people from their lands and led to the largest mass hanging in US history on December 26, 1862.

(more inside…)

UNITE HERE, a union that represents workers in the apparel, textile, hotel, and restaurant industries, has just launched a campaign against clothing chain Zara. Zara workers in a downtown Montreal store joined UNITE HERE in 2007 to fight bad working conditions at their store, including unpredictable schedules, short staffing, favouritism by bosses, and disregard for seniority.

According to UNITE HERE, however, Zara has fought back, using tactics that may have violated the Quebec labour code: four workers who supported the union at Zara’s Rockland Mall store were fired in April and May 2008; two workers who led a union drive at Zara’s downtown Montreal store were demoted in August 2007; and management held anti-union meetings at three of their Montreal stores, telling workers that joining a union would be “treason” – in fact, it’s their legal right.

These are old, dirty, anti-labour tricks that need to be stopped, especially in the retail sector, which employs a disproportionate number of young women in low-wage work (see graph below). It takes a lot of guts to fight back against an employer that’s being a bully (I should know, I’ve been on strike against York University for the past six weeks), and these workers need our support.

You can read about the situation here, and take action here. For insight into the retail industry and why unions can make a difference, read this.

Thought I ought to draw your attention to this project being organized by a group of Montreal-based queer activists:

The PRISONER CORRESPONDENCE PROJECT coordinates a direct letter-writing program for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, gendervariant, queer, 2spirit & intersexed inmates in Canada and the US, linking these communities with people who identify similarly who are outside of prison.

The project also coordinates a resource library of harm reduction practice (safer sex, safer drug use, clean needle care, safer tattooing, etc), HIV and HepC prevention, homophobia, transphobia, etc. The idea of the project is not to match people up romantically, but create accountable friendships where those involved can support and learn from one another.

As an organization, we try to be allies to prisoner struggle, and reject the ways that people a part of these communities are targeted and criminalized.

THE PROJECT IS ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NON-INCARCERATED FOLKS TO ACT AS PENPALS WITH INCARCERATED FOLKS IN CANADA AND THE US! Please get in touch if you want more info on becoming a penpal!

** Though the organizing collective is Montreal-based, you can still become a penpal if you’re not living in Montreal. We’re also currently trying to distribute promo materials in other cities, so please please get in touch if you want to do some out-of-town outreach (even putting up a few flyers or asking a few friends would be helpful!) **

For more information, or to otherwise get involved, please contact
queertrans.prisonersolidarity@gmail.com

In conjunction with a few other activist groups here in Montreal, the PCP (uh, too bad about the acronym) organized a screening of film responses to the AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s earlier this week. (more inside…)

A not-to-be-missed opportunity from Catherine Hernandez at Native Earth, about A Very Polite Genocide or The Girl Who Fell to Earth, currently playing at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in the TDOT.

I’ll be writing about it over at Racialicious, and will be sure to post it here too!

Act now! Act fast!

Native Earth wants YOU to blog about our show, A Very Polite Genocide or The Girl Who Fell to Earth. Uncovering the emotional truths behind the Residential School System, this is obviously a show that sparks discussion. And we think YOU, the bloggers, are the ones to get it started.

Here’s your chance to see the show for FREE and get VIP Blogger seats for this Saturday’s performance at 8pm.

Just e-mail me a link to your blog (doesn’t matter how small, or what your blog covers) and your full name and we can reserve 2 tickets for you to attend the Dec 13th, 8pm show of A Very Polite Genocide or The Girl Who Fell to Earth at Buddies in Bad Times.

The one caveat: We wanna hear your honest-to-blog truth about how the show made you feel and any other insights you may have about the production.

E-mail me before 4:30pm Dec 12 to be part of Blogger’s Night.

Blog on!
Catherine Hernandez
Catherine@nativeearth.ca

Watch the preview of the show that’s guaranteed to make you think after the jump:

(more inside…)

It’s been 19 years since a man walked into École Polytechnique and killed fourteen women, making a statement of hatred against women and against feminists. It’s easy to remember the name of someone who commits such an act, but not as easy always to remember the names of those who died.

It’s also easy to forget that the attack was not just some crazy individual losing control, but a man acting in a context of institutionalized sexism. In his note, the gunman blamed feminists for ruining his life, and vowed to take them down with him. In the near twenty years that has passed since the Montreal Massacre, have Canadian society’s attitudes towards feminism and feminists changed for the better? Or the worse?

(more inside…)

At the Sisters in Spirit rally on Parliament Hill, we hold the names of our fallen sisters, mothers, aunties, daughters, cousins, partners, and loved ones. We have to continue to hold this rally every year.

“If there were 18,000 white women missing and murdered, it would be headlines,” she said. “There would be something done immediately.”

From December 1-7, Advocates for Youth, the International Youth Leadership Council and the International Youth Speak Out Project are hosting a Blog-a-thon to honor World AIDS Week.

Through this initiative, young people from all over the world will join together in solidarity to discuss the impact of HIV and AIDS and how they have affected their lives and communities. In facilitating this global dialogue, we are encouraging young people to post blogs, poems, images, art work, videos and anything else they can imagine to express their feelings about HIV and AIDS.

This is an entirely new Advocates’ initiative, and it all depends on young people like you to make it work!

Speak up, fight AIDS and blog here.

And be sure to join our Facebook Event!