By Basics Editorial Committee “Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.” – Assata Shakur On Saturday March 26th, over a thousand people gathered for #BlackOut Against Police Brutality to demand justice for Andrew Loku and Alex Wettlaufer …
By: Saeed Mohammed The opening of the 2016 Grammy Awards shows Kendrick Lamar stepping to the stage to receive his award for Rap Album of the Year. While up there, he states his win was a win for real hip-hop. This year Kendrick Lamar received 11 Grammy nominations, just short of Michael Jackson’s historic 12 …
By: Nooria Alam It has been over five months since the victory of Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau in the Canadian federal elections, ending Stephen Harper’s nine-year rule of tyranny in Parliament. Canadians rejoiced, thinking that there has finally been an end to the racist fear-mongering tactics of the Conservative party leader. But what has …
By Liam Fox On December 9th, taxi drivers from across Toronto staged a series of protests against the rival company Uber. Protesters shut down four high traffic areas before finishing with a demonstration at City Hall, calling upon the mayor to ‘bring justice’ to drivers by stopping Uber from operating illegally. These disruptions reverberated throughout …
By: Noaman G. Ali “I’ve been living here for three years, and last night was the first time I’ve seen anyone come to fix the laundry room,” says a 33-year old resident of 3400 Eglinton Avenue East. The laundry room in the basement of the Markham and Eglinton area building is full of washing machines …
Grassroots Women picket elite private school to protest education privatization By: Aiyanas Ormond On Tuesday, September 16, about 30 people picketed St. George’s, an elite private school in Vancouver. The picket, organized by Grassroots Women comes after more than 2 weeks of school closures as teachers in B.C. have been on strike. St. George’s is …
Your rights, the reality, and building a struggle against police terror in our communities By an anonymous contributor The following contribution comes from someone who BASICS knows to be quite knowledgeable about how police raids are conducted. This person asked to remain anonymous. Please note that this article, though it touches on issues relating to …
by Aiyanas Ormond Reproduced with permission from author and The Mainlander: Vancouver’s Place for Progressive Politics AUTHOR’S NOTE | This article emerges from 5 years of working as a community organizer for the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU). Thank you to the VANDU Board for allowing me to lean on their community organizing work and …
A discussion document on strategy for advancing the organization of people’s struggles in Toronto By BASICS Community News Service We in BASICS Community News Service advance this discussion document in this same spirit of unity and struggle that has built a movement to reclaim May Day since 2009 with our allies both within the May …
by Noaman G. Ali “I just want to help children,” a voice called out in English from a clothing store in Thamel, a tourist area of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital city. I saw a young white woman walking out of the store, and my curiosity got the better of me. “You want to help children?” …
