AW@L Radio: from the archives

March 20, 2009
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AW@L Radio hosts Alex Hundert and Dan Kellar discuss Israeli Apartheid Week with in studio guests from Students for Palestinian Rights at the Universtiy of Waterloo who organized several events to disscuss the issue of Apartheid in Palestine and Canada's support for Apartheid policies abroad and at home.

Props to Harsha (and No One Is Illegal) and Dave (and Streams of Justice) for throwing down at Tent City.
Its been real. -alex

Chronicles of the Olympic Tent Village

From Vancouver Media Coop Feb 28, 2010
By Harsha Walia

This started out as an attempt to update you all about the important developments that have transpired over the past 48-72 hours at the Tent Village. However it is impossible for one person or even a group of people to provide you with a complete picture of what has taken place, what will take place, or how we have arrived here together. So instead, this is a (hasty) letter of sorts; an attempt to document and share with you the birthing of the Village over the past two weeks, with those critical updates buried somewhere in there.

A Response to Judy Rebick

From Narrative Resistance, by alex hundert
Feb. 27, 2010

Judy Rebick, from her office in downtown Toronto, complained that “when a spontaneous anger against the Black Bloc emerged on social media, people berated us for ‘dividing the movement.’” She says that, in fact, “it is the Black Bloc that is dividing the movement.”

She is wrong.

I have been involved in a wide array of coalitions on various issues over the past half-decade, and never have I witnessed cross-movement solidarity like I have in the anti-Olympics campaign. In southern Ontario, as in Vancouver, radical groups from a variety of locations in the broader movement have come together to start to develop a shared anti-colonial analysis. This solidarity and unity, on the anti-colonial front, is deeper and stronger now than it has been at any point in the last ten years.

Read More

With the eyes of the world on Vancouver, residents of the Downtown Eastside and our supporters of the Olympic Tent Village want:
1. Real action to end homelessness now
2. End condo development and displacement in the Downtown Eastside
3. End discriminatory ticketing, police harassment, and all forms of criminalization of poverty.

Since Feb 15, 2010 the Olympic Tent Village has been set up at 58 West Hastings, an empty lot owned by notorious condo developer Concord Pacific, currently being leased by VANOC as a parking lot for the Olympics. The first few days at the Olympic Tent Village have gone strongly and smoothly, thanks to the community effort to support and defend it. Hundreds have gathered during the evening and through the night, especially DTES residents, homeless people, and youth.

* Read Issue 1 of Tent Village Voice:
http://olympictentvillage.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/tent-village-voice-issue-1/

From Narrative Resistance by Alex Hundert, February 13 2010

"...Today’s “protest turned violent” was part of a larger convergence–5 days of organized protest and direct action against the Olympics. Activists across the country have already stated that the No2010 Olympics movement is, in its own right, a watershed moment for the Canadian social/environmental justice movement.

For one thing, as Harjap Grewal from the Olympic Resistance Network (ORN) said, “It’s a unique moment in history, because a call for a convergence normally happens at the G8, WTO and World Bank summits that happen around the world, and this time organizers have actually called for a demonstration against the Olympics industry. We don’t see the Olympics industry as being that much different from these other institutions that are unaccountable to the people of the world. The IOC is like the WTO. The IOC is like the IMF, is like the World Bank. And it encourages the transfer of wealth from public hands to private pockets.”

In an article for The Dominion by Shailagh Keaney, I was quoted as saying that organizing across the country against the Olympics has been “a major step where various forms of anti-colonial and anti-capitalist resistance that were rooted in very different places and different issues along those common themes have come together physically in several places.”

Today in Vancouver, the anti-capitalist and anarchist militants of the movement had their moment..."

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After the Opening Ceremony:
The Resistance is Alive and Well in Vancouver

from Narrative Resistance, by Alex Hundert, February 13

"...Yesterday was a tremendous way to end the torch relay, and an awesome way to “welcome” the Games to Vancouver.

Two separate communities in East Vancouver successfully kept the torch out of their neighbourhoods, causing two separate re-routes..."

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AW@L's Dan Kellar and IEN's Clayton Thomas Muller speak in Vancouver, Feb.11 2010

Olympic protesters mobilize in Vancouver

By Carlito Pablo, Georgia Straight

After years of preparation, it’s all coming down to this.

B.C. Place opens its doors at 2 p.m. on Friday (February 12). Last-minute checks will be made for the extravaganza that starts four hours later. The show doesn’t come cheap; the federal government kicked in $20 million for its share. Around the world, huge numbers of people will be waiting in anticipation in front of their TV screens.

This is the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Several blocks away, people gather on the north lawn of the Vancouver Art Gallery. They too have waited a long time for the Games. They also want the world’s attention, although for another purpose. They want to show that Canada has a dark underside: poverty, homelessness, missing and murdered women, poor treatment of aboriginal people, and a military presence in Afghanistan. By 4:30 p.m., the crowd will surge toward B.C. Place. At a certain point, police will have to stop them so that they don’t disturb the party inside.

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Lets get this party started

Crashing the 2010 Winter Games: Anti-Olympics Convergence in Vancouver
from Narrative Resistance by Alex Hundert, Feb. 8

"...The other day, Bud Mercer--top cop with VISU--reported that, they "have information that there is at least one group from Eastern Canada that’s here, that’s looking to participate on the 12th and 13th.”

Thats right, Bud. We are here. And just like I told The Tyee, we are here to support the ORN and its associated groups that are defending their rights, their neighbourhoods, their lands, their nations, and indeed, their lives. As was reported, we have signed onto the ORN's Statement on Solidarity and Unity, and that includes an endorsement of a full diversity of tactics..."

->Read Full Post<-

Stay tuned for more from AW@L at the Olympics, and check out http://2010.mediacoop.ca for in depth and up to date coverage of the Convergence.

Laurier students challenge “Campus Clubs Goes for Gold”, encourage a critical look at the Olympics

PRESS RELEASE
Jan 19, 2009
AW@L presents the “dark side” of the Vancouver Olympic Games

WATERLOO—Today, beginning at 10:00am, AW@L will be in the concourse distributing information about the Vancouver Olympic Games in response to the “Campus Clubs Goes for Gold” outreach event. AW@L’s presence is intended to counter myths about the Olympics and present the realities of environmental destruction, stolen native land, security culture, and corporate cooption tied to preparation for the Games.

"No Olympics on Stolen Native Land"

No2010@peaceculture.org
AW@L's No2010 Campaign:

AW@L against the Olympics

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games and the No2010 Convergence in Vancouver are finally underway. In anticipation, we have completely rebuilt the No2010 section of our webpage (and there is more work underway). We are trying a new hyper-linked "web book" format; so find what you're interested in and follow the links. There is a shit tonne of info here, so get learned.

See below for updates from AW@L in Vancouver throughout the Games.

-link-

Anti-Olympic Torch Demonstration in Kitchener Ontario
No Olympics on Stolen Native Land

AW@L's new Youtube channel, Peaceculture2010, now has posted a three part video from our massive anti-Olympic rally, march and demonstration in Kitchener on December 27. Don't forget to follow AW@L at the No2010 Convergence in Vancouver next month.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

UPDATE: Indigenous youth demonstrate that 2010 Olympics are opposed by grassroots First Nations people.

M’Chigeeng, Ontario—Today, a group of Indigenous youth and allies were arrested by OPP while setting up a blockade of the Olympic Torch Relay on the Trans Canada Hwy as it travelled from Sudbury to Sault Ste Marie. Algonquin, Anishnabe and Haudenosaunee youth united today to confront VANOC’s 2010 Torch Relay, a symbol of colonial injustice. All who attended the blockade were arrested during the process of setting up an elaborate ‘lockdown’ blockade that was to include a climber scaling the bridge over the Spanish River to ‘drop’ an anti-Olympic banner. The activists were released without charges, and all the blockade gear was returned by police.

Reflections on the Torch Relay through Southern Ontario

Dec 30, from Narrative Resistance

"With the Vancouver convergence less than two months away, now is the time to prepare for an intensification of the fight. This is the battle of the story of the 2010 Olympic Games."

[read more]

“No Olympics on Stolen Native Land”

Jan.2-ORN-O Blockades Olympic Torch Relay, 8 Arrested During Shut Down of Trans Canada Hwy
Dec.29- Olympic Resistance at Barrie Torch Celebration
Dec.28- Torch goes Down in Guelph
Dec.27- Torch Ignites Resistance in Kitchener
Dec.27- Stratford Torch Disruption
Dec.24- London Protests Olympic Torch
Dec.22- Torch Relay Blocked at Oneida
Dec.21- Olympic Torch Relay Stopped at Six Nations
Dec.17- Toronto Extinguish the Torch
Dec.13- Declaration of Onkwehonwe of Grand River Territory on 2010 Olympic Torch Relay