Photos and video published today by activists at the North American Leader's Summit in Montebello, Quebec, have revealed what protesters have known for a long time: Canada's police are paid to go "undercover," dressed as activists, in order to provoke protesters into acts of violence. Three (alleged) police officers are seen in the video posted on YouTube (below) to be inciting confrontation with union leaders and riot cops. One is holding a rock, and the three push union leaders as members of CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) shout "You're a cop! Take off your mask!"
Posted by Ezra Winton on August 22, 2007 in
CUPE Photo Gallery | Police Disguised as Protesters at Montebello | This photo, taken on August 20th at the North American Leaders Summit in Montebello, Quebec, clearly shows the soles of three "protesters" to be identical to those worn by riot police.
From the editors at JOAAP:
Issue #5 of the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest
now available!!!
Contents
1. Issue #5 release! On Speech and talking
2. Upcoming Atlas of Radical Cartography- Journal Press book
Our fifth print issue is a 122 page book edited by Cara Baldwin, Marc Herbst and Christina Ulke. It was designed by Jessica Fleischmann and contains a section of color photos!
From the forward:
“Arguably, today the act of social networking is commodified more visibly and materially than ever before…This commodification shoudn't hinder us to work in relationship to one another and in a social and political context. Social memory with a sense of history and political demands seems to have undergone an accelerated and profound erasure. This rapid memory loss is facilitated by media consolidation and the plundering of public education programs to fund global mercenary actions.”
With this issue, we look at how cultural production (in art, music, speech, writing, interventions, video, and everyday life) attempt to create culturally based alternatives to oppression and war. Within the context of community and grassroots movements creating meaning for their participants and for broader society, again The Journal looks for ways to create counter-narratives and progressive social movements from the bottom up. From the bottom up- often meaning from a position of people having to do-it-themselves (outside traditional governmental or cultural institutions). This act involves trying to remember shared history, discuss potentially shared values, perform immediately shared ideals, and publicly debate or interrupt suspect truths, and on how it is to be together.
This issue is a collection of transcripts, performance transcripts, speeches, analytical essays, campaign critiques, interviews, email conversations and projects. We are not only presenting critical theory, we are also present to you documents and voices for you to critically investigate.
To order a copy, contact editors(at)joaap(dot)org.
Copies will be mailed in early September 2007.
Online version is available here.
Posted by Ezra Winton on August 21, 2007 in
According to Yoko Ono's small army of lawyers, she emphatically did not eat corgi meatballs with the performance artist Mark McGowan, as reported here and across the web last month. McGowan engaged in the PETA-approved stunt to protest the Royal family's alleged cruelty to animals. Corgis are the Queen's favourite breed of dog.
I must admit that I am disappointed that Yoko didn't partake in the political stunt. To make matters worse, according to her lawyers the allegation that she was involved was "highly defamatory", "offensive" and "extremely distressing to her". When I heard the news that Yoko had participated in McGowan's latest political intervention, her credibility as an agent of social change shot way as far as I was concerned. Now that I know this is not the case, she is once again irrelevant in my eyes, or, in her own words, little more than "the wife of an ex-Beatle."
So if Yoko isn't eating Corgis what is she actually up to? A brief news search will find that she has recently broken the silence over John Lennon's last words before his murder. (Yoko: "Shall we go and have dinner before we go home?" John: "No, let’s go home because I want to see Sean before he goes to sleep.") She also admitted in the same interview that she almost aborted their son Sean, but was convinced otherwise by John.
Posted by Rob Maguire on June 26, 2007 in
Political comedian Mark Thomas is taking Britain's anti-protest laws seriously...well, kind of. Thomas has been organizing people to challenge the UK law that prohibits unsanctioned demonstrations, where organizers and protesters are required to register their planned demo six days in advance and fill out the proper paperwork. Failure to do such means a hefty fine.
Posted by Ezra Winton on May 18, 2007 in
HUGES LEGLISE-BATAILLE | Welcome to Sarkoland | Demonstrators took to the streets of Paris Sunday night, protesting the election of right-wing Nicolas Sarkozy as French president. Police used pepper spray, water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowd, some of whom had gathered in the Opéra Bastille (pictured here). View the full photo set here.
STEVEN JONES | Rally I | A May Day demonstrator in Chicago.
It appears that anti-free speech Zionists have chalked up another point for fanaticism against art - at least in Canada, where a new theatre production has been recently censored. The one-woman play "My Name is Rachel Corrie" was conceived by actor/director Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner, an editor at the UK news publication The Guardian. The 90 minute play is based on the journals and emails of American anti-imperialist activist Rachel Corrie, who, frustrated with protesting her own government's involvement in the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, joined with International Solidarity Movement volunteers in the Gaza Strip to activate change. On March 16th, 2003, she stood between an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bulldozer and a Palestinian's dwelling, in order to save it from becoming one of hundreds of piles of rubble that were once called "homes." The driver of the bulldozer proceeded to run over Corrie with the blade of the machine, dragging it over her forward, then -- not lifting it until it had finished the job -- dragging it back over her. Corrie suffered severely broken limbs and a crushed skull and died in hospital shortly after. She was 23 years old.
It is a tragedy that this young activist was brutally murdered by the Israeli government, and it is a sad fact that scores of young people continually die in the illegal occupation of Palestine, both Israeli and Palestinian. And while it is also sad that it often takes an American losing her or his life for others north of Mexico to take a closer look at the occupation it is just downright (predictably) disappointing that when Corrie's life, politics, and murder are turned into art, it is vehemently censored in both Canada and America...
FULL STORY + COMMENTS
Posted by Ezra Winton on April 16, 2007 in
ANDRÉ MANTELLI | Dia Internacional da Mulher | Brazilian police line the streets of São Paulo as large demonstrations take place, protesting the presence of U.S. President George W. Bush.
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