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NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 15, 2007 - -

401 Main Str eet, Vancouver V6A 2T7 (604) 665-2209

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1 We recognize the inconvenience the civic strike has caused you and your family.

' 2 We all want to be working on the many services and programs

we provide b~t we are waiting for our employer to talk to us.

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3 It's not just about the money and it sure isn't about disrupting the - Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games .

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4 We want to negotiate a fair contract and maintain .. the high qu "ty public services you have come to expect as delivered by a qu · ed and stable workforce.

5 You can help us get back to work more quickly by telling your Mayor and City Councillors to get back to the negotiating table. Contact inforn1ation is on the back of this flyer.

6 We all appreciate your patience during this difficult time for all of us .

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Fmd out more about our issues and concerns at:

Write, call or e-mail your Mayor and Council get back to the negotiating table.

City of Vancouver 453 West 12th Avenue Vancouver V5Y 1V4

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E-mail: mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca Phone:604-873-7621

District ofNorth Vancouver 355 West. Qyeens Road North Vancouver V7N 4N5 dnvcouncil@dnv.org p04-990-2208

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Vancouver Public Library Board 350 West Georgia Streef Vancouver V6B 6B1 E-mail: board@vpLca Phone:604-331-4000

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FALL RAINSTORMS sung to Spanish Bombs by The Clash

Fall rainstorms - I can't wait to see ya The fungal sights and the forays will be fine Oh please leave the forests open Or many species will be dead and gone Gaping holes in the forests of B.C. The black scars of the politicians' will Fall rain falls in the coastal forest I'm flying on an anticipation high

Fall rainstorms, yo las quiero eternamente Yo las quiero siempre, oh mycorrhiza Fungal forms, yo los quiero siempre Los quiero eternamente, oh mycorrhiza

Fungi freaks in slickers and merino Comb the forest, the hi llside and the rill To find the red list-ed, we found a black one But these reside upon a flagged-off hill Inland the forests, reduced to ashes The morels harvested are drenched in wine Fall rainstorms quench the flames But cannot staunch the wounds

from the beetles in the pine

Fall rainstorms, yo las quiero eternamente Yo las quiero siempre, oh mycorrhiza Fungal forms, yo los quiero siempre Los quiero etemamente, oh mycorrhiza

Fairy rings attract the people Stepping round the echo of forgotten pagan rites Ditches rimmed with mycoflora The micro-armies' fallen mark the place with

barrage lines Fall rainstorms soak the province I'm seeing lifeforms born in another time Fall rainstorms soak the balaclavas Supplies are flying in

for those who stand and fight Fall rainstorms in the Taku River Valley, Elaho, oh mycorrhiza

Fall rainstorms in the Walbran, oh mycorrhiza

-Juliet Pendray

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Celebrating the Woodward's Squat

On Friday, September 14, from noon to about Spm, there will be I is I was the 5 Year Anniversary celebration & party to mark the ongoing squat of homeless and poor people outside the Woodward's building on Hastings Street in 2002.

The people who lived on that particular stretch

of sidewalk for over 3 months brought local, provincial and even national attention to the situation of those with the gold once again thinking they make all the rules.

Many of the squatters were housed due the Portland Hotel Society's championing and working hard to get a nearby hotel re-ope;-ted and the different levels of government succumbed to public pressure to fund it. On the 14th the event takes place at the Stanley

. and includes homemade music, free food courtesy of the East End Food Co-op, and features an artistic graffiti project. All ex-squatters are welcome, even those who have been banned from the Stanley as it is outside and during the day. Fun is to be had by all!

Inf~ submitted by Bruce

Happy Birthday Sheila Baxter A heart so big, arms held wide Sharing all the love inside A vice so soft, words so strong Such a sense of right and wrong The world's been blessed and so have we To share this life with a friend like she So on your birthday and your whole life through Many blessings back to you.

From Miss Kelly

MAKE STORYEUM A SHELTER \3 !

On Friday, September 7th DERA deposited a proposal into the office of Real Estate at Vancouver' s City Hall. The proposal was in answer to the City's RFP and was done on behalf of the residents of the DTES to see that City­owned Story-eum on Water Street in Gastown be made into a temporary shelter for the homeless. Hopefully, a decision will be made by City Council prior to October 31st before weather becomes inclement. As winter approaches; the DTES is desperate for

more shelters. The City's quota of 545 all-weather shelters does not satisfy the demand. The street homeless will not disappear. We have to tell the City to provide at least a roof for those that have indicated that they would supply their own sleeping bags if they could just sleep on those floors . The visible homeless are just 20% of the actual

homeless population. We also have to consider those who are invisible like those who are sleeping in their cars or are sleeping temporarily with acquaintances (couch surfing) or are sleeping in unsafe or illegal places. .

With Storyeum the homeless will have a dry and safe place to sleep.

For more information and to sign a petition in support of MAKE STORYEUM A SHELTER, see: http://storyeumgooglepages.com. The petition is also available at DERA (12 East

Hastings). Donations to MAKE STOR YEUM. A SHELTER a reality can be left at DERA.

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On the scale of forced evictions around the globe, the current situation in Edmonton, Alberta would rank as relatively minor. But for 100 or so people living in make-shift shelters in a homeless encam­pment who will be forced out of their tent city on September 15, 2007, the situation is urge~t.

Edmonton is the capital city of the Provmce of Alberta which has a booming economy based on

' . oil and natural gas. A "ris ing t ide lifts all boats" 1s the favourite line of private market ideologues, but the robust Alberta economy has not delivered affordable housing for low, moder2te and increa­singly middle-income households. Massi.ve cuts in social housing investment were made m the 1990s along with cancellation of funding for new ' . affordable homes. A thin patchwork of housmg funding and programmes has emerged in recent years, but homelessness remains a national and local disaster. The most recent homeless count in Edmonton,

from the fall of2006, reports 2,618 homeless people (844 in shelters, and 1,774 sleeping rough). Edmonton experiences extremely cold. winter weather from the late fall to the late spnng, with temperatures falling to minus-30 Celsius in the middle of the winter - which can be deadly.

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Photograph' by Arlene GottJried.

Mass homelessness has grown throughout Canada in the past two decades, including the economic­ally buoyant Alberta. Homeless shelters are over­crowded and tens ofthousands of women, men and children are forced to sleep rough. Many thousands more are in the ranks of the "hidden homeless" - staying temporari ly with family or friends in overcrowded conditions. In a number of parts of the country> visible encampments of homeless people (often called " tent cities") have sprouted. These are typically small compared to the informal settlements in the urban areas of many other countries, but the gathering of 100 or more homeless people is usually seen as politic­ally embarrassing and the residents are often harassed and forced to move on to less visible settlements. Toronto's "tent city" was shut down in the fall of 2002 by a small army of private security guards who rousted the 150 or so residents. Most were not even a llowed collect identification or medication that was in their makeshift housing. Homeless advocates launched a major advocacy effort and the municipal government responded with a plan to provide rent subsidies so that the formerl y homeless people could move into vacant

private rental apartments. Two years later, the program was reviewed and declared a success for the residents and the government. Rent subsidies for private landlords are not the preferred option for many housing advocates (most want Canada to reinvest in a permanent, national social housing programme), but the subsidies have provided permanent homes to the residents, so they can be considered one part of a re-housing strategy. At thi s point, there is no housing plan for Edmon­ton's "tent city" residents when they are forcibly evicted on September 15. In one of the richest cities in one of the richest countries of the world, this is not only a gross violation of the housing

rights of the "tent city" residents to force them out 5 of their meagre settlement without offer ina

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adequate and affordable housing, but it is also a shame and an indictment of politicians involved. Canadian politicians tend to be very sensitive to international pressure, so every e-mai I

wi II be extremely helpful in building pressure towards a housing strategy for Edmon­ton 's "tent city" residents. Thanks! Michael < michael@wellesleyinstitute.com> Michael Shapcott, Senior Fellow The Wellesley Institute 45 Charles Street East, # I 0 I Toronto, ON., Canada M4Y 1S2

SOLIDARITY FOREVER

When the union 's inspiration through the workers ' blood shall run. There can be no power greater an~ ·where beneath the sun, , Yet what force on earth is v.-eaker than the feeble strength of one~ But the union makes us strong.

CHORUS: Solidarity forever! SolidaritY forever!

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Solidarity forever! For the union makes us strong.

Is there aught we hold in common \Yith the greedy parasite Who would lash us into serfdom and would emsh us with his might? Is there anything left for us to do but organize and fight? For the wlion makes us strong

All the world that's o~·11ed bY idle drones. is ours and ours alone . ' . We ha,·e laid the w ide foundations~ built it skyward stone by stone It is ours, not to slaYe in, but to master and to ow11, While the union makes us strong.

H is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade; Dug the mines and built the workshops: endless miles of railroad laid; Now we stand, outcast and starving, ' midst the wonders we have made; But the union makes us strong.

They have taken untold millions that thev neYer toiled to earn . '

But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel would tum. We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn That the union makes us strong.

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold; Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold; We can bring to earth a nev.- world from the ashes of the old

' For the wlion makes us strong.

(Tune- John Brown' s Body)

Back to the Land?! Have you ever wondered about the state of

nutrition around the world? Or how good old fashioned values seem to be pushed further to the back burner? Have you ever just thought about how you as a person or a group of friends could change things for the better?

Well, one group of Christian people thought just that and decided to make their communi tv a better

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place. ln 2005 some members of Jacob's Well , a non -profit organization, located in the heart of the DTES that is dedicated to loving and serving people and to being caretakers of nature's crea­tions, decided to become Guerrilla Gardeners. Jacob' s Well farmer, Tom Wuest and some mem­bers located a piece of land on Pender Street and decided to clean up the abandoned site.

"When we first saw the property it was full of garbage and it really was abandoned. We thought it would make a great site for a communi ty garden and we could help peopl e get healthy food. This is how we love God through loving people," he said

Wuest and a few other members of Jacob's Well cut off the locks and went ri ght to work cleaning up the garbage and stm1ed to create their garden. Since the prope11y \vas run-over with blackberry bushes, the farmers decided to leave some fo r future use. Tomatoes were planted, as was corn, squash, onions and potatoes. The garden is even home to urban bees. "We have a bee-keeper who comes here and

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harvests the honey every September," said Wuest. According to him the bees can travel up to three kilometers a day, which help to pollinate the community at large .

It wasn ' t until eight months after the gardeners and farmers cut off the locks and began gardening that the actual owners showed up to inspect their property. "Well we actually did try to locate the owners when we first started to garden but we were unsuccessful", said Wuest. The owners were very obliging and agreed to lease the land to the group for three years for free. According to Wuest each shareholder pays $360

a year and that is for 14 weeks of harvesting and having good nutritional food to eat and share with thei r friends . Farmers get together each Wednes­day and sit down and have some of their home -grown food together. "We I ike to sit here at this table that was made with a recycled door from the Orwel l Hotel and eat as a fam ily. It' s a good community feeling. There is a nice rhythm when we eat together."

Also some of the food is used in the Community Kitchen that is run by Jacob's Well. On Tuesday even ing, the community kitchen prepares meals for members and residents of the ... ubi lee Hotel. Wuest explained that the residents take pa11 in planning and preparing the meals together with members from Jacob 's Well. This past summer the farmers named their garden Red Clover Farms because when they first squatted on the land it had red clover growing everywhere. "When we deci­ded on the name it was also because red clover actuall y is good for the land. It heals the land."

So, the nex t time you drive by a piece of run­down , garbage -polluted land, remember what the members from Jacob's Wel l created. World­renowned Anthropologist Margaret Meade, who also served as the Executi ve Secretary of the Nationa l Council's Committee on Food I labits during WW2, must have been referring to great citizens like the members of Jacob' s Well when she said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfu l committed ci tizens car. change the world. Indeed it is the only thing t~1at ever has."

By JACK IE 1-l UMBER

More C\assic Insu\ts "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway) . . " I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a ntce letter saytng I approved of it."-Mark Twain . . . . " He has no enemies, but is intensely dtsltked by hts friends."- Oscar Wilde "Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it? " - Mark Twain "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West " I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend ... If you have one." -George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill. .. followed by Churchill's response "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second, if there is one." -Winston Churchill " I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop · " He is a self-made man and worships his creator." -J ohn Bright "I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices admire." -Winston Churchill "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."- Groucho Marx "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituar­ies with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow

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The History Lesson

Alienation, admiration & retaliation are all accounted for but do not count on me. All the faces I' ve lifted off the floor and into a car will do. If you're not cheating you're not trying hard enough but l will wait eager for the silence to knock me off my feet .. the search party's been partying all night thank you sunlight for coming out during the daylight hours, otherwise we'd all be dead meat, dying with nice big smiling faces ­life and children what a shame I finally heard from Saint Minus who again refuses to take the blame (but can you blame him?) Since I have rights I have the right to flaunt all of my shining shame, check your statistics as my bipolaristic has gone ballistic I'm not sure what I then became?

The final lesson is almost u;on us wouldn't you agree with my limited vision I will pull up a chair and watch the world end for once seeing what I want to see: the entire planet one gigantic black sea, oh well. ..

Life is none of my business nor yours yet we are characters of habit and will grab it whatever it is you have to offer the time has come to flush this floating planet dammit Now the search party has just arrived why, WHY even bother now? Please do as you 're told and hit the liquid road! Bye Bye

"The Past is s foreign country,· they do things . differently there. " L.P. Hartly

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Souls Where can we find one's soul? To be untold is our path, by rights To be on the good road. Or, is our soul going to be lost In the midst of nowhere?

Trying to make things right Ask for forgiveness of all the bad things And not to forget all the people we've abused and hurt - lost in the twilight. Everything to order, too little too late (?) but not forgotten.

Our dear friends wi ll forget all the wrong doings Say good things, knowing what is wrong, And your Spirit will wander on and on finding peace within your soul.

Our Great Creator has patience, so you' II find peace if it takes an eternity. So find peace one day at a t ime.

All my relations, Bonnie E Stevens

Choices

What choice can a person have? We Downtown Eastside people < re being

labelled. We are getting pushed ot~t from a11 directions. Condos and businesse~ are eating all the housing. Where is all this going to?

Mayor Sullivan, is this one of your excuses? Are we j ust garbage to you? What were people who voted for you thinking: at worst it was out of pity, at best a hope for change; but either way, you fooled us.

We as people voting must look out for our own future before making a hasty decision and not be conned by you again.

Beautiful British Columbia looks like a waste­land- full of garbage (especially coming from these kind of politicians) I hope to have an honest

person in office. Wishfu l thinking ..... ?

All My Relations, Bonnie E Stevens

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September at Rhizome Cafe* Community Space* Arts Venue 317 East Broadway, Vancouver

Dear Friends of Rhizome-

During the month of September (and beyond, if it works out) we're conducting a social and econom­ic experiment-and you're invited to participate! We've added an item to our menu called "Lentils are Everything Stew.". It's the same (but even better) lentil stew we served at our anniversary event in July: French green lentils, potatoes, spinach and sundried tomatoes in a mint and lemon-scented stew; either vegan or sprinkled with feta cheese, and served with toasted bread.

The interesting thing about Lentils are Everything Stew is that we're serving it on a "pay as you feel" basis. We're inspired by several small cafes in Australia

called Lentil as Anything, where customers pay whatever they feel is fair for everything on the menu. The "pay as you feel" system is slightly different than just "pay as you can." In deciding what to pay for your lentils, you can ask yourself: What is the value of Rhizome Cafe and the exper­ience of eating here? What is the value of these ingredients, and the labour that produced, prepar-

ed and served them? How much do your financial circumstances allow you to pay? How does it feel to be part of a system that could make this food available to everyone, regardless of ability to pay?

Once you've decided what you should pay, put that in a box by the till. Come try it and together we'll see what happens.

And, while our lentil experiment goes on, we hope you'll join us for the following events-and also for lunch, dinner, weekend brunch or just a coffee or a drink. Here's what's happening in September:

Our Own Voices, Of Pain and Hope Thursday, September 13th, 7:30pm

The Power of Women Group invites you to an inspiring evening of storytelling, pnetry, reflect­ion, and resistance. The Power of Women is a group at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre dedicated to rais ing awareness on social issues. They are women from all walks of life who are either on social assistance, working poor or home­less. All are Jiving in extreme poverty and it is crucial that they share their experiences and tell their own stories.

Free, donations accepted The BC Latin American Collective Presents:

International Documentary Series Friday, September 14th, welcome at 7:30pm,

film at 8:00pm BCLAC presents a screening of the Robert Green-

: wald film Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. The film takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who ve been chang­ed forever as a result of corporate profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. For more info email: bclac 1998@gmail.com. Free

VDLC Labour Cabaret Friday, September 28th, 7:30pm

Join the VDLC and friends for an evening of performance by and for members of the labour

movement and fellow activists. The theme is work and struggle, and performances will take many forms! If you have a skit to perform, a song to sing or a story to tell, contact earlepeach (at) yahoo.com. $0-$10 sliding scale, no one turned away. [There is much more going on at this place for patrons

but contact them directly. <lisa@rhizomccafc.ca> Ed.]

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RAISE MINIMUM WAGE to $10/hr. VICTORIA -- Emboldened by support from more than two dozen municipal governments and even some businesses, the B.C. Federation of Labour vowed yesterday to ramp up its campaign to raise B.C.'s minimum wage by 25 per cent. Six years ago, the province's Liberal government created a new lower class for wage earners, the $6-an-hour training wage, while the regular minimum wage has remained frozen at $8 an hour.

Jim Sinclair, president ofthc province's biggest labour organization, said BC's governing Liberals inadvertently boosted support for a new $ 10 min­imum wage when they gave themselves a pay raise of at least 29 per cent this year.

"We're going after cabinet minis.ers in their ridings: They gave themselves a raise last spring, but they fo rgot about the bottom half again," Mr. Sinclair said in an interview. Throughout the afternoon on Labour Day, the federation paid to have an aerial banner promoting "$1 0 now" towed through the skies above the Lower Mainland. Mr. Sinclair noted that 27 municipal governments have endorsed the proposal to increase the hourly minimum wage to $10, and a resolution is on the table when the pol itically influential Union of British Columbia Muni cipalities meets for its an­nual convention three weeks from now. Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba all have

an $8 minimum wage, according to recent labour statistics. There are an estimated 115,000 British Columbians \Norking at those rates, while a fUither 135,000 earn less than $10.

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Attention V ANDU Members

VANDU's Annual General Meeting to be held on

Saturday, Sept 22 2:00PM at 380 East Hastings St

-To attend the V AN DU AGM and to vote please ensure that your name is on the V ANDU members list and that you are ·'a member in good standing."

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-To run for the V ANDU Board of Directors, fi ll out a nomination form so we can ensure that the nom inating committee processes it for the ballot. -Come to VANDU office at 380 East Hastings St. between 1 Oam & 4pm to get on the members li st or to get a board application. -You must at1end theY ANDU AGM in person to run for the VANDU board of directors and must be "in good standing" to vote or ru11 for the board.

VANDL~ the Vancouver Area Network ofDrug _[hers, is a group of users and former users l-t' /70

work to improve the li\'eS of p eople who use iLlicit drugs through user-to-user support and education. For info call 604 683-6061 or 60-f. 719 5313 or 60-1 720 9735.

' 'We have approved the steri li zatir1n of patients although there is no clear evidence that their conditions are hereditary, and without clear evidence of mental defect."

''We have al lowed the castration of already sterile pat ients so their tissue can be used for research.''

"We have allowed the removal of young women's ovaries so that staff at the Provincial Training School wi II not have to cope with the mess of menstruation.''

Quotes from staff reports of the Provincial Training School , Red Deer, Alberta, during the period 1938-1965. (More than 8,600 people, a high proportion of them aboriginal and Metis, were i 1vol untari ly stcril zied across Alberta under eugeni cs laws from 1928-1972)

For more see lfitltlen {rom Historv: The Canadiuu /lolocaust c/o www.h iddcnfronlhistory ~rg

Boycott Coca-cola products, support the Colombian people struggling for democracy and freedom. by Joseph Betz

(member of July 2007 CPT delegation), translated by Suzanna Collerd

[Note: "Presente," Spanish for "present" or "here,'' is a phrase often chanted in public witness to proclaim that those who have died, or who have been murdered, are still present and still witnesses against the people or systems that killed them.]

On Monday 23 July 2007, the Colombia Christian Peacemaker Team delegation participated in a demonstration at the Barrancabermeja Coca Cola pla!lt along with members of the Coca-Cola union USO oil-workers union, Catholic nuns, local organizers, and concerned community member~ ~"''"""~~

The event kicked off the new campaign agaiw . Coca-Cola by the union workers of the Coca- ···:: . . Cola bottling plants in Colombia.

Eight Coca-Cola union members in Colombia · have been assassinated in the past nine years. After a vocal international campaign (see www.killercoke.org for more information) and major pressure from the international community for truth, justice and reparations for the victim's families, Coca-Cola entered negotiations with the food and beverage worker's union SINALTRAINAL. As part of a written agreement, union members did not publish further information about the atrocities they had suffered and discontinued their campaign against the company for a year.

The union asked the company for Holistic Rep­arations that would include a public document that recognized Coca-Cola's guilt in the deaths of unionists at the hands of paramilitaries both inside and outside the company.

A year later, negotiations did not advance and were only focused on economic reparations; never theless Coca-Cola continued to violate worker's rights through firings and threats and therefore the victims' families and union co-workers again are lifting up the memory of their killed loved ones:

Presente! Presente! Presente!

The decision to end negotiations puts the union organizers in Colombia (and those who publicly support them) at great physical risk. Additionally,

since Ivfarch of2007, Coca-Cola has fired union workers in Bogota, Bucamaranga, Villavicencio and Barrancabermeja for no explicit reason. The workers told CPT that they are "very worried now for our lives, the legal actions against us are based in false claims, and the 'Bla .:k Eagles', or rather the paramilitaries constant!) threaten us." Coca-Cola Union Workers req11est members of

the international community to boycott all Coca­Cola products (including Dasani bottled water and Powerade sports drink) until the company publicly recognizes its violations.

For all workers assassinated by hired hands of the Coca-Cola Company in Colombia:

Presente!

Donuts, Pigs and Owls

1f I were a donut my worst fear would be a pig Because pigs spend sll day hunting donuts. Making fools do as they bid And they stuff up all day on donuts Minding business under the thumb Double-.chocolate candy-coated fried ones Uncomfortably under the gun

Were racked up on display behind the countertop Duchies, fritters, crullers and of course the donuts At the mercy of every rat and cop And we all got baked and fried Just before the morning sun They know just who we are Still, here we are: Under their gun.

Who is an owl, and who eats rats Who stays up all night long With his buddy the vampire bat They search the forests and the caverns Looking for something to eat And the vultures all come out at sun-up To scavenge all the rotting meat.

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The Golden Rule: "Them who have the gold make the rules."

And most people nod heads, make agreeing sounds and try to add the right amount of sarcasm to this seeming truism, but rules and laws are only as valid as the majority of people make them.

Or is that wishful thinking? A th1ef makes stealing okay in his or her mind, but the vast majority of people who are victims of theft feel wronged.

If someone you know is murdered, the predator

must be caught and punished. Similarly, if a child of yours or a friend is kidnapped or violated by a pedophile, that person's upbringing or life experi­ences can, in no way, justify the abuse and years­long traumatisation. Ask then how such crimes in the world of busi­

ness are justified? Theft of land by unfair financ­ial strictures, obscene interest rates, lawyer's fees and lending institution-distorted contracts that Must Be Signed - all leading to what is euphem­istically called foreclosure but is just theft from the beginning. A prime example is the small farmer who is in debt so deep that every waking moment is tinged with worry. The seed, fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide producers charge too much Uustified by half-truths and outright lies in adver­tising), banks make borrowing a ilO-win exercise, and corporate buyers pay a pittance of what the farmer's work is worth.

It is wrong that the ingredients to make bread-· cost from 1/lOth to 1/SOthofwhat it costs to buy a loaf and the farmer gets the lowest end of that price while all the middlemen get more and more. The merging and amalgamation of corporations into fewer and fewer giant conglomerates leaves anyone but the richest at their mercy. The really outrageous part is that we are made to

feel guilty, to be the ones causing this enormous disparity by wanting things cheap- but that's due

. to these same corporations and conglomerates paying such piddling wages and seeking every kind of advantage over their mirror companies in the race to the bottom .

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War on Terror or. - .

·War of Terror?

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Their Golden Rule is: Do unto others before they do unto you. And at every turn in every field the built-in exploitation of this relationship between those with too much and the vast majority with too little is nakedly apparent.

What to do? Be conscious and aware of how our minds are

made up with constant advertis ing and subtle mind-control to make the exploitation of the little guy seem okay, or at least something that nothing

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can be done about. Never shop at Walmart. The same people who move their manufacturing

and factories and agribusinesses to progressively poorer nations do so for cheaper wages, lax env­ironmental regulations and tax breaks - all wel­comed by the same minority of people who have stolen much of that nation's wealth for themselves and their friends.

Yeah, so? Well, it is the owners of newspapers, radio and

TV that also print stories and perpetuate the myth that panhandlers are making a killing, that "being aggressive" is a behavioural nightmare inherent in every person so poor that they hope for the kind­ness of strangers to get them through the day. As an old, 80+ woman replied, "I give money to

panhandlers because the government won't take care of them. It seems that megaprojects and con­sultants and expense accounts make up for a huge part of government spending while people who need nutritious food and decent, safe places to live and opportunities are treated like second- -class citizens." She was irate that anyone would even question her motives!

What else? Those who fit in their self-described "enjoying

the good life" category aren't going to just see the light (all at the same time!?) and make maximum utilisation and rational distribution a fact oflife. But the other side has much wisdom as this strug­gle goes on. A good example here is food. With so many people poor, on income assistance or working poor, there is vast knowledge in how to

feed a family nutritious meals while still having little money to do it.

One brilliant idea is to have a central distribution place, with proper storage and freezers and up-to­date equipment. Research can be done for what ingredients are needed to make different kinds of meals, then buying in bulk, and notifying local communities what kinds of classes are going to be held. Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, Jamaican, Lati­no, African food can all be made with minimal cost and others can learn how whtle sharing knowledge and social interaction with each other. Families and single people can all get involved in a project that doesn't have to be run by hold-their­nose charities or religions. The kind of community here can have gardens,

bulk buying clubs, shared child-rearing and many other aspects of stuff that class-snobs take for granted or just pay someone to do for them (be­cause such mundane, normal things are beneath

· them ... ?). There is a lot that people all over the world have

done and are doping to cope and thrive in present circumstances, but the powers-that-be keep trying to keep their ideas and ideals perceived as isolated and ' no one else is doing this.'

. . Alternative press, alternative wajs of living and growing, all this is too irrepressible, too dynamic to shut down. Their golden rule is obsolete and they're too stubborn or just vicious to accept it.

Vague, general terms in much writing today is "the decline of elitist capitalism"; 'the bubble of totalitarian greed is bursting"; "the inherent hypocrisy of Imperialism ( money talks/money shuts everybody else up) is breaking down everywhere.

We cannot create a new world with the same kind of thinking and being that has helped per­petuate the old world. We can dream of better.

"Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, to all the people you can, for as long as ever you ~an."

ByPAULR TAYLOR

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Articles represent the views of individual contributors and not ofthe Association.

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Would You Like to SING?! You're welcome to join lnChoiring Minds, a

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We're starting up again on ThursJay September 13 at 7:30, at Mount Pleasant Nei&hbourhood House, 800 E Broadway. The se~sion is 13 weeks long, and at the end we perform for friends and family. Cost is $72.

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Stop Publication of the Carnegie Newsletter

Following is an article that may explain the title. It is about the Carnegie Newsletter and the seeming intent of a motion passed at the most recent Pu bl ic­ations Committee meeting. It was the 3rd one in about a month, which is mentioned because prior to the last month, the committee had met once in the previous 18 months . There was just no agenda. Not to keep anyone in suspense:

Motion: THAT an Editorial Team be estab­lished and that Newsletter publication be stopped until this team is functioning.

Moved by Rachel Davis The motion was amended after some discussion to add the word "temporarily" between "be" and "stopped."

While the motion was being heard, one person said, either independently or as an assigned line, "There has to be a new editor!"

For regular readers, there was an editorial in the August 1, 2007 issue. It had accusatory language and was, for all intents & purposes, not very obj­ective. It was, however, the first instance in 21 years of libel in the Carnegie Newsletter.

The first Publications Committee meeting was called. According to the Publications Policy, the atticle had gone against a point concern ing making disparaging remarks about a member. It was agreed that the editor was required to write a retraction and an apology and that, prior to publication, the Board members on the committee would review it.

The final draft of this was published in the August 15, 2007 issue, incidentally the 21st Anniversary issue of the twice-monthly Carnegie Newsletter.

Prior to August 15, a member who attended a previous Board meeting had written a letter angrily complaimng; about the way sa, id meeting was run­

complaints that were patently ignorant, rather than

.

malicious or vindictive. I responded to this letter in the September 1 issue but didn't publish it. That was a mistaken process. The 3rd Publications Committee meeting happened

on the 121h of September. The first motion to be

passed stipulated that the editor could not respond to a Letter-to-the-Editor unless it was publisheck. : /. The only other motion passed - in bold above ­goes before the Board of Directors on Thursday, October 4 at 5:30 in C~rnegie's Theatre. I believe the background j ust given is objective

enough. The reason for writing this is to ask several

questions of you, gentle reader. 1. Should the Carnegie Newsletter be shut down for however long it may take until this 'editorial team' (that ' s nothing but its suggested title; no substance at all as of this writing) is complete with mandate and a working model? 2. Who and how will a workable 'editorial team' be formed and, if the mover and supporters of the original motion are somehow given this suspension of publication as a ' push ' to get the idea made practical a.s.a.p. will they seek tc keep the paper 'on ice' and on ly agree to start again when they are completely satisfied? 3. Do you as a reader of the Carnegie Newsletter agre~ that any suspension of publication is wrong or that It must be killed until its procedures are ?

To conclude w ith an appeal for support is only just. As the volunteer editor for the entire 21 years of the Newsletter's existence, I am asking for opinions of this idea (stop unt il..) & of the newsletter in general. It would also be helpful and appreciated if anyone

having time would come to the October Board meeting to partic ipate in the discussion of whether the original motion is adopted by the Directors or defeated. It was first made to completely stop publication unti l. .. whatever or whenever.

Is this something you support o~ a sentiment that should not have seen the light of day?

Respectfully submitted, PauiR Taylor, Editor.