Hundreds of anarchists block the Olympic torch route and forced torch bearer Carrie Serwetnyk out of Commercial Drive.

What happens when the political becomes personal? Then who has the power?

Does Stephen Harper because he’s our prime minister? For sure. Does Oprah Winfrey because she’s a multi-million media celebrity who likes to share her political views and ideas? Yep, she’s got some sway. How about ordinary citizens who come together to champion certain causes, or try to tackle certain socio-economic problems? Do they have any political power? Darn right they do. And they’re what MakerCulture politics is all about. People, united in cause, working together to spread a message and set changes in action.

Whether at the local, provincial, national or global level, examples of MakerCulture politics are everywhere. And in this episode we’ll open your eyes to just some of these movements. We’ll show you that political power is not limited to a select few with high profile positions. Rather, it’s everywhere there’s people coming together to make change happen.

London activism: Empowerment Infoshop

There’s an American and Canadian flag that says “United We Fall” right above the dining room table, and a Barack Obama poster above the door with the words “You won’t make change” scratched across it.

This is the headquarters of Empowerment Infoshop, a radical information centre in London, Ontario. And those are just two signs among many that show the political views of the shop.

It’s not that the members dislike Americans, but they are frustrated with capitalist systems and mainstream governments. According to Anthony Verberckmoes, the facilitator of Empowerment Infoshop, he and his activist friends aren’t the only ones unhappy with the current government.

“There was just a poll that came out… and 20-something per cent of the Canadians in this poll were against the capitalist system,” said Verberckmoes. “I mean, that’s a fifth of the Canadian population. That’s an enormous number.” In London, Ontario there is a growing number of activists who are taking action to make political change.

Verberckmoes is one of those activists. Common Cause is an Ontario-wide federated anarchist organization that recently added a London chapter. Verberckmoes is a member of the group as well as Alex Balch, a Fanshawe College student.

Balch says Common Cause members are putting their political plans into action. “We’re trying to get a free school organized now,” said Balch. “Also a lot of members are active within unions and trying to push for anarchist organizing methods and we have workshops and educational and stuff like that for the public.”

Another up-and-coming organization in town is the London Activist Assembly which was created in September by a group of the University of Western Ontario Students. Heather Graham, a founding member, says the assembly, is also against capitalism and large corporations.

“The fact that everything is being turned into a business and it’s very hard for individuals to promote their own skills, their own services and their own needs, separated from the consumer culture that we live in — that’s been a very big issue of ours,” said Graham.

She says the assembly is largely into guerrilla campaigning which involves things like posting stickers around the city to promote their political views. Both Common Cause and the London Activist Assembly agree that with the growing number of Canadians getting frustrated with government bodies, Canadian activism is sure to increase in the coming years.

from ‘How MakerCulture Is Reinventing Politics’ -thetyee.ca

Perfect for anti-prorogation rallies, this flier asks some probing questions about the nature of our so-called “democracy.” Click on image to download printable PDF. Feel free to print and distribute widely.

Click on image to view online PDF.

For printer-friendly PDF, please click here. Feel free to print and distribute to your heart’s content.

Nationalism involves the identification of an ethnic identity with a state. When nationalism is pushed to an extreme, it not only justifies wars against other nations, but it is also used to justify attacks against ones fellow citizens. National flags, national anthems, and other symbols of national identity are often considered sacred, as if they were religious rather than political symbols. Deep emotions are aroused. Fascism is a form of authoritarian ultra-nationalism.

“Nationalism is an infantile disease… It is the measles of mankind.” -Albert Einstein

Anarchism has developed a critique of nationalism that focuses on its role in justifying and consolidating state power and domination. Through its unifying goal it strives for centralization both in specific territories and in a ruling elite of individuals while it prepares a population for capitalist exploitation.

Colonialism is the building and maintaining of the colonies in one territory by people from another territory. Anarchists see colonialism as a form of capitalism, enforcing exploitation and social change. Working within the global capitalist system, colonialism is closely associated with uneven development.

Corporatization refers to the transformation of state assets or agencies into state owned corporations in order to introduce corporate management techniques to their administration. Also refers to non-corporate entities like universities or hospitals becoming corporations, or taking up management structures or other features and behaviors employed by corporations.

Jingoism is defined as “extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy.” In practice, it refers to advocating of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what somone perceives as their country’s national interests, and colloquially to excessive bias in judging one’s own country as superior to others – an extreme type of nationalism.

Editor’s Note:

The following is a copy of a communique released by the Olympic Resistance Network (ORN) prior to the start of the RBC and Coca-Cola sponsored Olympic Torch Relay, which called on activists across Canada to mobilize and organize protests as the torch passed through their towns, cities and communities. As the following pages will show, the call was answered by people all across this country - with many of the grievances outlined in this document echoed in cities from Victoria to Montreal. Iconoclast congratulates all those who took the time to organize and participate in these protests, which were often maligned or ignored by the country’s corporate media outlets, led by CTVglobemedia (owners of the Globe and Mail and a large number of Canadian television stations) - themselves an important Olympic sponsor.

CALL FOR CROSS-CANADA MOBILIZING:

EXTINGUISH THE OLYMPIC TORCH!

From October 31 2009 - February 12 2010, the Olympic Torch Relay “A Path of Northern Lights” will be traveling across Canada. The Olympic Resistance Network, based in Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territories, is calling on and encouraging our allies to coordinate efforts in over 2000 communities to oppose and resist the Torch Relay.

The origins of the Torch Relay lie in the dark history of the 1936 Games in Berlin, where it was devised as a means to spread Nazi fascism and to promote the Third Reich. The Royal Bank of Canada and Coca Cola are the main sponsors of the 2010 Torch relay. RBC is the top financier of the environmentally devastating Alberta Tar Sands, while Coca Cola has been responsible for health degradation as part of the junk food industry, massive depletion of groundwater and toxic waste pollution in India, and involved in hiring paramilitary groups to violently repress union organizers in Colombia.

It is becoming increasingly evident that far from being simply about sport, the 2010 Olympics is rooted in displacement, corporate greed, militarization, and repression. While Olympic corporate sponsors are getting bailed out, Indigenous lands are being stolen, more people are becoming homeless, thousands are losing their jobs and access to public services, the environment is being destroyed, and civil liberties are being eroded as over a billion dollars are being sunk into security and surveillance measures.

This Torch Relay will be the longest in-country relay in Olympic history, giving us the chance to make some anti-Olympic history! No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!

VICTORIA, BC

Over 400 people gathered to oppose the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay in Victoria on Friday, October 30th at an “Anti-Olympics Festival” and “Zombie March” organized by No2010 Victoria. The march succeeded in disrupting the relay, and security per­sonnel were forced to extinguish the torch, load it in a van, and reroute it in order to reach the Legislature.

“Our events were a victory for rights and justice,” said No2010 spokesperson Zoe Blunt. “We took a strong stand on respect­ing indigenous rights to land, defending civil rights, and ending poverty, and people across the country are thanking us for our dedication.”

The day of action against Torch Relay celebrations began with a “Five Ring Circus” featuring speakers, performance art, pup­pets and satirical competitions such as the “Binners’ Olympics,” the “Tour de Misplaced Finance” and “Queer Wrestling.”

“It was a lot of fun!” said Bitey the Bed Bug, one of the anti-Olympics mascots.

Later in the afternoon, a “Zombie March” replete with stilt walkers, a marching band and a giant “Ghost Salmon” puppet wove through city streets and blocked a major intersection outside an RBC bank for over 30 minutes. RBC is one of the Vancouver Winter Olympics’ most important sponsors and a major investor in the tar sands, the most environmentally destructive project in Canada.

“We wanted to expose the empty rhetoric of a Green Games,” said No2010 organizer Kim Croswell. “Parading a giant Ghost Salmon was our way of pointing out how wrong-headed government priorities are in the midst of global warming and the collapse of salmon runs on the West Coast.”

Continuing along the relay route, hundreds of marchers braving rain and cold weather cheered loudly when it was announced that the Torch had been diverted in order [to] avoid the procession. Marchers ended at the site of the corporate-sponsored Torch Relay Celebration, where they infiltrated the crowd chanting “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land” and “Homes Before Games.”

“Disrupting the Torch sends a strong message that blowing $6 billion on a sports extravaganza is far from popular,” said No2010 Victoria spokesperson Tamara Herman. “The people profiting from the Olympics are not the people most affected by cuts to sectors such as welfare, affordable housing, harm reduction, health care, education, the arts and- ironically - amateur sports.”

“The day of action was a day of solidarity uniting a broach spectrum of people,” added No2010 spokesperson Danielle Hagel. “It sent a strong message that the Olympic Torch Relay will face opposition right across the country.”

“This action demonstrates how effective we can be when we act together, even in the face of police aggression and unwarrant­ed surveillance”, said Blunt. “The group was strong, and showed remarkable self-control and commitment to the cause. We want to congratulate everyone who joined in.”

Montreal, QC

In response to a call sent out by the Olympics Resistance Network in Vancouver, more than two hundred anti-Olympics protestors noisily disrupted the celebration of the passage of the Olympic Torch Relay in Montreal. The group, made up of indigenous solidarity activists and other groups and individuals affiliated with the Montreal chapter of Peoples Global Action (PGA), an international anti-capitalist movement, heckled and disrupted for several hours the planned activities of the cele­bration, despite a massive police presence and a tense atmo­sphere at Place Jacques-Cartier, in Old Montreal.

The protestors held many banners and placards, and chanted the slogans “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!,” “Shame the Flame!”, and “Homes not Games.” They also threw thousands of pieces of confetti into the crowd – the confetti had the words: “Why celebrate colonization of native land, gentrification, and corporate subsidies? Shame the flame!” They had a sound sys­tem and a marching band played. Before the flame arrived (an hour late), the police brutally attacked the protestors, forcibly cordoning them off in order continue the official spectacle.

Several protesters were thrown to the ground and insulted, while others were pushed and hit with batons. The Nazi-era Leni Riefenstahl film was shown on the big screen, and the cordoned-off demonstrators were forced to watch while they had shields and batons pointed at them by the police. Despite the police brutality, the disruption was a success.

“There is no shortage of reasons to oppose the Torch relay”, said Pat Cadorette, one of the organizers. “The Olympics are first and foremost a nationalist and capitalist power play. It is an opportunity for the political and financial elites to capital­ize on people’s patriotic fiber and competitive drive. They are always organized by and for rich people, and it is always the more oppressed segments of the population who are nega­tively impacted by it: indigenous people, the poor, the migrant workers, etc. It is a colonial tradition of forced displacement, social cleansing, environmental devastation and repression. In fact, with regards to the Torch relay itself, it is often forgotten that it was first introduced by the Nazis to promote the Third Reich! The IOC and Olympic sponsors like Coca-Cola and the Royal Bank won’t brag about this, but it is nonetheless a historic fact!”

“At the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, the only ones who will profit are the already rich developers and sponsors”, explains a sympathizer of the Olympics Resistance Network. “At the same time, it is $6 billion of public funds that are shoveled into this. They chase the poor from the downtown area to make room for the tourists, they pass new laws to crimi­nalize poverty, they install cameras everywhere, they spend at least a billion on security. At this point, it is illegal to post anti-olympics signs in Vancouver! This is insanity!”

Toronto, ON

Over 250 people took to the streets on December 17th to welcome the Olympic Torch with a resounding: “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!”

Enthusiastic folks met up at 5:15 at College & University, gath­ering around a 15 foot homemade torch of their own, banners reading “Resist 2010 for the land”, “No 2010 Torch” and shar­ing in some homemade food. Organizers from Six Nations read the Declaration of the Onkwehonwe of Grand River Territory on the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay, Doreen Silversmith (also from Six Nations) spoke about how attacks on women are attacks on the land, and Mark C. from ARA spoke of Indigenous Youth rising up and taking power. Messages of Solidarity were delivered by No One Is Illegal-Toronto, No Games Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo’s own Torch Welcoming Committee.

Grounding the crowd in the reasons they were there: to decry Canada’s colonial violence and expose the lies of Olympics Circus, chants began that would ring through Toronto all night. While the cold seeped, the MC got the crowd jumping and amped to go meet the torch.

Anticipating the torch taking a lil’ streetcar ride, people took to College Street. The first line of bike cops at College and Eliza­beth set up as the protesters began a fluid game of cat and mouse. The protesters took some surprise routes towards Yonge and Gerrard where they regrouped and faced a row of riot cops, holding the intersection. The protesters gathered at the line of cops and turned back suddenly, going north, walking up Yonge St. to meet the torch. At Yonge and College they ran into the crowds there to cheer on the torch - some of whom started booing and hissing. Undeterred, activists handed out thousands of pieces of ORN and No2010 literature and some onlookers even joined the action. One spectator pushed over the protest­ers’ speaker. The horses arrived and tried to split the group in two but failed. Then a small group stayed back at Yonge and College, while the rest of the street party walked north, slowing to regroup and coming closer to the torch. At Yonge and Mait­land, they decided to stop and hold the intersection, as people from the back rushed to join in. With messages streaming in that the media were reporting they had blocked the torch and having chased the torch around the city for nearly two hours (it was now 7:30), the protesters euphorically declared vic­tory! They had forced VANOC to split the torch in to two, and brought their message right to the centre of the Olympic Circus.

While all of this was going on, the March in Honour of Harriet Nahanee, led by indigenous women, had split off to follow the torch into Nathan Phillips Square, where an activist free-climbed an arch directly opposite the stage and hung a banner reading “Gego Olympics Da-Te-Snoon Nishnaabe-Giing Ga-Gmooding” (“No Olympics on Stolen Native Land” in Anishinaabemowin). Anti-Olympic protesters had infiltrated the crowd, holding up banners and handing out flyers, and booing the flame as it left Nathan Phillips Square at around 9:30pm. The banner stayed up till the end of the festivities and the climber only got a $100 ticket.

Six Nations/Oneida First Nation

Six Nations community activists succeeded in diverting the Olym­pic Torch from the heart of the Grand River territory. Instead, torchbearers took turns running it around a parking lot. “It’s the first time where any person who has stood up against these torch and Olympics has actually had a success in being able to move the celebration,’’ protest spokeswoman Missy Elliott said. A Declaration stated “This land is not conquered. We are not Canadian… We hereby affirm our peaceful opposition to the entry and progression of the 2010 Olympic Torch into and through our territory.”

A day later, a blockade in Oneida First Nation, near London, forced the torch to re-route off the reserve entirely. Citing so-called safety concerns, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games said they would not be visiting Oneida, as there were members pledging to disrupt the relay and prohibit the flame from entering their community.

London, ON

This Christmas Eve more than 40 people gathered at the main gate to Victoria Park in London to protest the Olympic torch relay. Large banners were held up, free food was provided by ‘Food Not Games’, and speakers from several community groups chanted and delivered their message to the crowds as the torch was about to arrive for a celebration.

During this protest hundreds of flyers from the Olympic Resistance Network and NO2010 were handed out to people as they arrived to see the torch. Several people stopped to learn more and some joined us, including a few ‘Torch Relay’ volunteers who put NO2010 stickers over their name tags and started handing out our flyers instead of Coke-branded Canadian flags.

After speaking out at the gate, folks marched into the park chanting ‘No Olympics on Stolen Native Land’. After ‘welcom­ing’ the torch with boos and chants, people regrouped at the main gate.

‘Food not Games’ was a central message, and during the over-financed ‘celebration’ not a single free meal was given out in the entire city - except ours. ‘Food not Games’ served a healthy holiday meal to anyone who thought free food was a better deal than an overpriced flame. Chants of ‘Food Not Games, Homes Not Games’ were heard clearly by the hundreds who left the ‘celebration’ midway through.

A roll of stickers was also distributed to hundreds of spectators, and the stickers made their way onto numerous relay vehicles, infrastructure, and corporate propaganda and advertising while children spoke of the need for ‘education not games’ and

mothers spoke of fighting for a future for the next generation.

Minus the ignorant patriots, classless classists, and preposterous police presence, it was a formidable family friendly protest.

Stratford, ON

At noon, December 27th, a group of people assembled on the front steps of Stratford’s city hall to voice their opposition to the Olympic Torch’s passage through the town.

Carrying banners and signs painted with messages of Indigenous sovereignty, en­vironmental preservation and anti-poverty advocacy, they were successful in informing many crowd-goers of the detrimental effects of the 2010 games. A large percentage of people that came out to see the torch were receptive to the group’s mes­sages, stopping to listen to their speeches or giving a passing thumbs up.

Consisting of a handful of Stratford residents and a few allies from Guelph, the group demonstrated outside City Hall for about an hour before moving into the pro-Olympic crowd with their banners and signs, shouting anti-Olympic slogans and statistics. When the city’s PA system started blasting the national anthem, the small group drowned it out with their chant of “No Olympics On Stolen Native Land.” They continued to disrupt the national anthem despite being physically and verbally assault­ed by crowd-goers. It was clear that the protesters were more vulnerable to pro-Olympics animosity because they were so few in number. The crowd was much more violent and confrontational towards them than they would have been towards a larger group of demonstrators.

They then marched down Ontario Street, along the route that had been cleared and blocked off to allow the torch runners passage. Flanked by police officers, they proceeded down Stratford’s main drag, chanting and calling out for the crowd to question Canada’s 6-billion dollar Olympic expenditure when their own community is lacking in affordable housing, adequate social programming and suffers from epidemic rates of poverty, crime and drug abuse.

Kitchener, ON

On Saturday December 27th, in Kitchener Ontario over 200 people headed the call out for a public mobilization against the 2010 Olympic Torch and acted in solidarity with those on the west coast of this country who are being negatively impacted because of the upcoming winter games.

“The Olympic games are not about sport, culture, and interna­tional co-operation and understanding, as our government, the IOC and VANOC, and the corporate sponsors portray with their well-funded propaganda” said AW@L media representative for the event, Dan Kellar. He continued, “They are about priva­tizing indigenous land, transferring public wealth to develop­ers and corporations, destroying ecosystems for unsustainable and irresponsible developments, implementing the integrated police state, and a program of social warfare on those deemed undesirable to the Olympic whitewashing and greenwashing campaigns.”

The demonstration consisted of 3 parts, starting with a rally with speakers including David Eby of the British Columbia Civil Liber­ties Association (BCCLA), Mark Corbiere from KW Anti-Racist Action, and Six Nations youth Melissa Elliot and Jon Henhawk - who fired up the crowd with messages of resistance to coloniza­tion and on-the-ground impacts of the Olympics and the system it represents.

The early evening gathering in Victoria Park was under heavy police surveillance as allies from across Ontario and the north­eastern states assembled themselves to start the second portion of the event - the march.

AW@L’s Climate Change Containment Unit (CCCU) led the march, carrying a 5m “torch” ahead of the crowd which had 12 large and colourfully messaged banners and placards reading, among other things “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land”, “Fas­cist Colonial Past, Corporate Colonial Present”, and “From Tibet to Turtle Island, Resist Colonial Occupation.”

As the march snaked through the streets chanting confidently along the way, two banners were dropped across from the Royal Bank of Canada calling for a boycott of this premiere Olympic sponsor. The government of Canada and the RBC were then publicly shamed for their role in the ongoing genocide of indigenous people and their support for the criminal develop­ments of Alberta’s tar sands - a project that has fast become the single largest point source for future-destroying pollution on the planet. Canada was further shamed for their refusal to sign the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Eventually, the march reached City Hall, where the publicly-funded advertisement for the RBC and Coca-Cola was under­way. After a declaration of resistance was issued over the loud speakers, the marchers peacefully erected their banners around the crowd - wherever you turned your head, you could see the messages they held. Thousands of sheets of information were welcomingly received by the general public as the Olympic veil was lifted from their eyes, and the true meaning of the Olym­pics were revealed.

Guelph, ON

In Guelph, a torch bearer fell to the ground, dropping the torch after the protest and torch had a collision. As protesters neared the intersection of Macdonnell and Wyndham, some Torch Relay vans passed them going the other way, and then to their surprise the group of runners turned as well. The torch route was sup­posed to be along Carden Street, but instead they basically ran right into the protest one street to the north. In the confusion, one of the torch bearers fell and protester Brittney Simpson was arrested. Although she was charged with Assault, people who witnessed what happened said the only physical contact they saw was a protester being hit by one of the RCMP security runners.

According to Leslie Wilson, a community organizer who attend­ed the protest: “There seemed to be miscommunication about which route the torch should take. The whole thing escalated because the torch security was ill-prepared and the police over-reacted.”

Winnipeg, MB

In Winnipeg, the torch parade was blockaded for fifteen minutes, forcing the relay team to extinguish the torch and trans­port it forward in a truck. While passing through Treaty One territory, Roseau River Anishnabe First Nation Chief Terry Nelson made clear “we cannot allow those athletes to go home believ­ing that Canada is a bastion of human rights. We, as indigenous people, are not terrorists. There is no list of over 500 murdered and missing white women killed by indigenous men, there is however a list of over 500 murdered and missing indigenous women, most of those women were killed by white men.”

Edmonton, AB

In Edmonton, dozens of people protested the official Olympics ceremony, while drawing a link between the Games and the Tar Sands in Alberta. Three people were handcuffed and detained on the torch route for allegedly swearing at the torch. They were later released without charge.

[Reports collected and modified from a variety of sources, includ­ing (but not limited to) NO2010 Victoria, AW@L, ORN-O and the Vancouver Media Co-Op. Our apologies to those protests we did not include reports on, such as those in Sept-Iles, Kanahwake First Nations, Quebec City, Barrie, Saskatoon, Prince George and any others we may have missed.]

By Michael Truscello

The Olympic torch relay was invented by the Nazis at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, to demonstrate an ancient Aryan lineage with the Third Reich, proof of a warrior culture and foreshadow of the domination of Europe. The contemporary “Olympic Movement” trots out a similar set of symbols, but now backed by corporate logos and the promise of a portable “state of exception,” to use the term articulated by Nazi political theorist Carl Schmitt.

Anarchists in Canada, especially those whose primary concern is class struggle, may not see much value in protesting the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Why so much fanfare for the Olympics, a one-off event, while barely a whimper from radical groups over the installation of the HST in Ontario and BC — a tax grab that punishes the poor forever?

The Olympics are a corporate affair that invades host cities such as Vancouver causing gentrification, environmental devastation, and the repeal of civil liberties. The mechanism by which the Olympics accomplish these deeds is akin to what Schmitt, and later Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, called the “state of exception.”

Agamben writes,

Quote:

“The entire Third Reich can be considered a state of exception that lasted twelve years. In this sense, modern totalitarianism can be defined as the establishment, by means of the state of exception, of a legal civil war that allows for the physical elimination not only of political adversaries but of entire categories of citizens who for some reason cannot be integrated into the political system.”

The Olympics do not require a specific regime for the imposition of their particular state of exception. The Olympics make this state (in both senses of the word, as a form of being and as an entity of governance) a portable affair, mobile authoritarianism and branded nationalism in the guise of goodwill and amateur competition.

The Olympics produce in host cities, especially after 9-11, the impetus for exceptionalism: developers are handed blank cheques by politicians, to ensure dormant projects are completed in time for the Games; homeless people are ushered into buses or fined for panhandling or simply lying on the street, to improve the city’s image before the Games; natural settings previously protected by municipal or provincial laws are gutted, to provide services and infrastructure such as rails and roads for the Games; civil liberties are repealed and surveillance apparatuses installed, to provide security and an image of unanimous support for the Games.

The Olympics become the excuse for imposing authoritarian excesses that would not be tolerated, or at least would be subjected to greater scrutiny, under normal circumstances. Of course, one might argue these impositions are fairly localized. However, even localized changes of this kind can become precedents for other cities, provinces, or countries.

Consider the impact the Olympics have on the “hearts and minds” of people around the world, the propaganda value of trumpeting corporate-sponsored “amateur” competition that represents international goodwill by inspiring breathless nationalism.

Consider the fortress mentality that arises in the host city and spreads throughout the country, as Canadians hold their breath in anticipation of the ghost of terrorism. One border guard in BC tried to protect the fortress by interrogating Amy Goodman, a journalist with Democracy Now!, as she tried to enter Canada to give a talk that, much to the guard’s chagrin, was not about the Olympics. The lunacy spread to Burnaby-Lougheed Liberal MLA Harry Bloy, who referred to Olympic protesters as “terrorists” with “limited intelligence.”

Will the dozens of closed-circuit video cameras being installed in Vancouver be removed when the Games are over? How about the intelligence gathered on activists by CSIS? Will it be destroyed with one final application of the torch? How about the cost overruns, already estimated in the billions? Will Canadians, especially British Columbians, receive a rebate from corporations? What about the abuses of Aboriginal Peoples’ rights?

Sadly, the state of exception rarely relinquishes that which was obtained during its exceptional moment. Those excluded by the Olympic Games are the same “categories of citizens” on whose behalf anarchists must continue to struggle — even after the five ring circus leaves town.

Michael Truscello is an assistant professor in the department of communication studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. His fields of expertise include: Software Studies, Rhetoric of Science and Technology, Alternative Media, and Postanarchism. His publications have appeared in journals such as Postmodern Culture, Technical Communication Quarterly, and Text Technology. His forthcoming publications include a contribution to The Postanarchism Reader from Pluto Press, to be published in 2010. He is currently developing a book-length study of science and technology in the anarchist tradition.

By Darius Mirshahi

Welcome to 2010: Shit’s about to hit the fan. This year will be a defining year for people living in the colonized
territories of so-called “Canada.” This will be the year the comfortable, neutral, liberal, middle ground evaporates and we all choose which side we are on.

Do we support our corrupt colonial governments, or indigenous peoples fighting for their land? Do we support workers struggling for better conditions, or the bosses who get rich on their backs? Do we want to preserve what is left of the natural world, or shall we keep clear-cutting and paving in the name of “progress?”

You will need to answer these questions this year because the lines are drawn. It’s time to pick sides and fight. Literally. As the whole world shifts its attention to Canada, as we host several international events, the clash of ideas will lead to clashes in the streets.

For several years now the writing has been on the wall: “RIOT 2010.” This tiny phrase has become a rallying cry for resistance movements across North America and beyond. It goes without saying that social war will intensify.
But “Canada” will be ground zero in this struggle. Our streets will be the battlefield that the war for the future is fought over.

“Canada” will host the 2010 Olympics in February on stolen native land. These games are an assault on us by the world’s elite. Seven billion dollars of Canadian tax dollars will fund this two-week party for the rich while thousands are made homeless, the environment is trampled on, and our rights and freedoms taken away in the name of security.

Resistance to these games has been fierce including mass demonstrations, sabotage, arson, blockades, the taking of squats, disruption of public events, etc. Unlike 2008 when the mainstream media glamorized and inflated
the resistance to Beijing’s games, this time around they are silencing the resistance movement.

In June, the riots will move from Vancouver to Ontario as Huntsville will be hosting the G8 summit, followed by Toronto hosting the G20 summit June 26-27. G8 and G20 summits have always been met with rage throughout
the world. These summits are where a few dozen tyrants representing the richest nations and corporations of the world decide the fates of the rest of us. They set the agenda, and make decisions that help contribute to the deaths of millions of people. This past September the G20 met in Pittsburgh where thousands of well-organized anarchists and locals crashed their party.

After these three events there will also be a North American leaders summit at which the three North American heads of state will meet in Canada to decide how to further integrate the three countries in order to maximize profits for their corporate masters.

The police, heroic protectors of private property and the ruling class, and enforcers of the status quo, will be doing just that. The police will become militarized and the military will turn their guns inward at Canadian citizens engaged in resistance movements. There will be state repression of political activity, free speech will be curtailed, and the media will be censored in order to preserve the illusion of “Canada” being a free, peaceful society. But they will fail.

This year will shatter the stereotypes of Canada. We will show the world some truth. The world will learn about the genocide of residential schools, the rampant poverty and gap between the haves and have-nots, the destruction of the Earth carried out by Canadian corporations, and the fascist nature of our government. But the world will also see the strength and resilience of our movements. The world will see that we are not afraid to confront our government, fight the police, and disrupt the social order. It will be evident that resistance to capitalism and colonialism is alive and well in “Canada.”