Mobilization Against War + Occupation

[fable]

Yes thats right - THIS SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24 the MOBILIZATION AGAINST WAR AND OCCUPATION alongside the ENTIRE LOWER MAINLAND will be joining the rest of this province/this country/this continent/this world for the INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ANTIWAR/OCCUPATION!

@ the VANCOUVER ART GALLERY ROBSON ST. SIDE @ 3:00PM

SPEAKERS : including city municipal members, representatives from the Aboriginal communities, representatives from the Muslim community, representatives from the Students Anti-war coilition, speakers from the Cuban and Haitian solidarity coilitions, representatives from the Mobilization Against War and Occupation group, and last but mosdef NOT least,

KYLE a 22 year old US WAR RESISTOR :: who initially joined the US military as a bid to further get funding for his engineering career. He joined up under the assumption he was going to be a US MILITARY ENGINEER He was initially places into demolitions and then almost immedietly into regular military patrol! He will speaking on the reality of the US occupation of Iraq, and about how he is currently trying to seek refuge in Canada, as if he is forced to return to the US he will be facing courtmarshal, and an excessive amount of prison time at the very least!

POETS : Including Bud Osborne an activist and poet who has for quite some time fought for the rights of residents of the downtown east side, spent an amazing amount of his energy helping drug addicts, find a better quality of life that was both safe and fulfilling!

MUSIC : Including the hiphop stylings of INFLUENCE/ a crew of talented mcs and activists who will also be having a show @ the MARINE CLUB later that night!!!

please note* that this will be an oppurtunity for various activist groups to come together in solidarity and communicate with our city, our country our government and the rest of the world our demands for better representation of our causes, to network and find other socially conscious members of the community, to inform and be informed - we will also have an extensive amount of literature(free) including the MAWO newsletter and THE FIRE THIS TIME NEWSPAPER

any visual artists who feel that this would be a type of event to showcase any art style with a anti-war/occuaption sentiment, or any underlying message of social consciousness or spirtuality please contact me - and if we have enough support/material we can integrate your work into the rally (call asap!)

**this is a fully legal endorsed event - that will end off with a city march**

peace+'spect
shakeel lochan
M.A.W.O
S.A.N

http://mawovancouver.org
http://firethistime.net
http://www.rawa.org


MAWO/Colloborative members/this event does NOT in any way, shape or form condone, or allow any violence, racism, sexism, or any predjudiced behaviours, and ask all who attend, to come with an open mind, an accepting heart, receptive ears and eyes and a clear voice!

[fable]

one more thing::feel free to post this anywhere you feel it would be relevent.

thx

[esoter1c]

Is this more of the same old Banner waving.

Or is there more of an Zerzan urgency ?

[djmarkpaul]

^ I can answer that for ya. I was in MAWO myself for about a year but decided it wasn't my bag as there was too much talk about occupation abroad and not enough focus in local happenings. I still support the cause as MAWO is against UN occupations, not like stopwar, so I may still go to some of their protests. However, I think a local focus is needed that is still lacking, it's always the same damn thing at the events "Isreal out of Palestine" "US out of Iraq" "Canada out of Afganistan" which I may agree with, but is quite redundant and doesn't grow the understanding of the big picture. Literally no other members I knew there were aware of or interested in the agenda of a new world order, which may be redunant of me to say, but atleast it focuses on the bigger picture.

[esoter1c]

Originally Posted by djmarkpaul

^ I can answer that for ya. I was in MAWO myself for about a year but decided it wasn't my bag as there was too much talk about occupation abroad and not enough focus in local happenings. I still support the cause as MAWO is against UN occupations, not like stopwar, so I may still go to some of their protests. However, I think a local focus is needed that is still lacking, it's always the same damn thing at the events "Isreal out of Palestine" "US out of Iraq" "Canada out of Afganistan" which I may agree with, but is quite redundant and doesn't grow the understanding of the big picture. Literally no other members I knew there were aware of or interested in the agenda of a new world order, which may be redunant of me to say, but atleast it focuses on the bigger picture.

Foot in mouth disease.
lols.....

[fable]

As much as ive pondered the possibility of marching into parliment with 15 kgs of kemtex and a detonator, I and any of the current members of MAWO are NOT going to be adopting a "unibombers" aproach to direct action any time in the near future. (thanks for mentioning zerzan, ive yet to thoroughly read much of his work!)

Activism and public awareness is definetly not where is was two years ago, and compound the situation with a growing cynisism, materialistic based apathy, confusion, dissention amongst leftist groups and an overall feeling of hoplessness and or sheer ignorance, and you have a recipe for...well absolutely no action! Hence our current drive towards injecting education, awareness, and pure energy into the population one demonstration/tabling event/post secondary campus event/workshop at a time. Ultimately we are working towards a public enquiry in the next several months, and in lieu of the international day of protest on the 24th, we are working our asses off to garner support.

We are NOT currently in a position to effect any positive change in the political climate, nationally and internationally immedietley-thats the harsh truth of the matter, but large unilateral support has been gathered in short periods time, as to, then take direct action, historically, and I believe it will happen again.

We are currently in a time that reeks of WWI, with superpower nations hanging over the economic possibilties of plundering smaller nations like some uber-imperialistic vultures, and its high time once again for the general populace to awake from a ipod/electo-punk/myspace/ induced capitalist driven slumber, and understand that the situation is indeed desperate. With the US govt planning to occupy Irag for atleast the next several years, and no end in sight for our troops in Afghanistan, the death toll of innocents in both nations is high and rising fast. We can see from the change of "our" own military's rhetoric, that we are no longer the innocent, good ol peacekeeping canucks.

But i belive its more tangible work that your seeking from me to illustrate, and in a nutshell our work has revolved around awareness campaigns, petition signings and research. SInce the begining of the summer we have undertaken four major rallys including one in congruence with the Islamic Expo. We have had three workshops, the first two revolving around native rights-more specifically the chiam(im sorry for the incorrect spelling if this isnt right) nation, and the last workshop revolving around the issue of growing tuition, lessening of subsidization, and the most recent recruiting campaign taken by the canadian military that has gone so far as to actaully setting up an office @ the Newton Kwantlen Campus, and has hit UBC, Langara and several senior classes of highschools in northern BC! Our on going literature development is always growing including graphic design elements contributed by yours truly. We have expanded our newsletters, as well our reach. At the end of the day, we are still a ways from where we want to be, in order to affect some substantial change, but it is still integral for grassroots mobilization and although we have been critisized for being overtly agressive, i belive this is overstated, as we are compared to other organizations that have done absolutely nothing substantial.

I invite you to our weekly meetings, first hand self experience counts the greatest, and it wasnt until i myself attended several meetings, a workshop and a few rallys until i was convinced that this is a group of active, hardworking, ever self learning, dynamic individuals whos interest is more creative/flexible than "progresive" more grounded than "tapped into the pulse" and far more influential than some may perceive.

As for not being tapped into the local pulse, i offer the following, we have consistently beem in solidarity with multiple native rights associations, alongside tribe leaders such as the chiam nation, we have worked side by side with anti-poverty associations and their campaigns, we have included, and are forging relationships with current striking Telus and Cbc employees, we have worked side by side, and are ever strengthing bonds with womens rights movements, and this is to name just a few. To work on numerous cmapiagns is neccesary, but we must only undertake new campaigns only after planning and consideration. The dillution of inherent energies in any message is a major risk. We have six international campaigns, several national, and various provincial/local projects running!!

Thankyou for the expressed interest, but instead of taking fellow board members word for it, or even my own, just drop by this wednesday, and hear for yourself, what we are currently working hard at accomplishing, and will continue to work at.

it aint about our egos, our own demons, or even furthering our own personal reputastions, its about giving a voice to oppressed peoples at home and abroad, and bring working class/poor communties together, to struggle for rights, and ultimately (and perhaps idealistically) for a government that represents our interest in connection with more involvement of civilians in the running of our economy. Sometimes we must struggle first, and wait for belief and faith to catch up!

As for mr mark paul, if its local organizations struggling for local change your looking for, and you truly believe we are not working towards this goal, then gimme a call, and ill point you in some other directions you may find feasable. This aint about what group your supporting in specific struggle, its the fact that your are supporting a movement for positive honest change that is important!

once again, hit me up on nwdnb, as its rather difficult to remember to check this board periodically due to an insane scheduele.

peace+respect
shakeel

[esoter1c]

Originally Posted by fable

As much as ive pondered the possibility of marching into parliment with 15 kgs of kemtex and a detonator, I and any of the current members of MAWO are NOT going to be adopting a "unibombers" aproach to direct action any time in the near future. (thanks for mentioning zerzan, ive yet to thoroughly read much of his work!)

Clearly not because Zerzan doesn't promote violence in any way.

Only property damage, the destruction of corporate entities ie:Banks, Starbux, McDix.

"To me property damage isn't violent, you can't violate a building or a window, to me that's just not violent." Zerzan.

http://www.primitivism.com/zerzan.htm

[fable]

no, your right zerzan most definetly does not push an agenda that includes violence upon the person!

but the unibomber sure thought so, or then again maybe its igonorance on the part of the people that believed that the unibomber was working under some perceived zerzan induced condition.

thanks for the link yo

once again, if you get a chance, and aint super busy check out a meeting or at the very least come by and say hello on the 24th @ the VAG starting around 3:00.

I like that quote, im currently trying to ponder if this quote and the idea of contemporary graffiti and stenciling can coincide? Sadly i aint bombing like when i was a kid, but my own personal work a la digital has definetly taken on a much more political undertone that is as far from as subltle as it used to be.- can graffiti be similair to an instrument of restructuring corporate property into a form that is acceptable to the general working/poor masses-is it not so much a claiming of property, a snatching away from the riich elite, but more of a covert "robbery' brick by brick, burner, by burner?

peace+respect
fable

[onefour]

haha, ive seen you say the word ponder too many times, if you spend to much time thinking, you dont have enough time doing ;)

[BongMan]

I can deffinatly say I will not be there

[fable]

Originally Posted by BongMan

I can deffinatly say I will not be there

since you actaully took the time to write a post announcing you will not be in attendance, care to state why?

[fable]

Originally Posted by onefour

haha, ive seen you say the word ponder too many times, if you spend to much time thinking, you dont have enough time doing ;)

seen my say, eh? Thats talent! Id say my time "pondering" and "doing" are about equal, its the SLEEPING im depriving!

Pondering is alright (i know a few government officials that could benefit from doing more of it) its obsessing that gets me in trouble

[fable]

Just wanted to let everyone know that the STUDENT ACTIVIST WEEK is and has been going AMAZING!!

We have been at : UBC, SFU, Capillano, Langara, Kwantlen (Newton, Langley, Surrey and Richmond campuses!) Douglas (NewWest and Coquitlum!) and the events have GONE OFF!!

We were flyering, petioning, hosting forumn/discussion groups, having hiphop shows, showing films, had speaker from a variety of communities, including a women who had just got back from Iraq, and a war resistor, and most imortantly we were having a serious amount of personal conversations. We have had the opportunity to both inform and be informed!

We thank any and all of you that participated, including the repsective Student Networks, and want everyone to know that we will be back before the year is up.!


On a personal note - The emotion, energy, anger, frustration, hope and love that was echoed by everyone i had the pleasure of meeting over the last two weeks still resides in my soul, and although i may have a few more scars, and few more nightmares, a greater sense of urgency and intensity, i have great respect for not only the students and teachers (and occasional security force ) who understood our work, but those who called us out as well - for it only made us research harder and deeper, and we came out the more informed people because of it.

Some recovering addicts/alcoholics choose god, some choose career, whatever the case. this movement is in a state of growth and evolution, and that makes me a better person for have being part of it- no ounce of a lie yo!

peace+'spect
shak