On Tuesday May 18th, an anarchist group called themselves FFFC – Ottawa fire bombed an RBC in the early morning.  No one was hurt, except maybe the very cause they were fighting for.

They released a video claiming responsibility explaining their actions.

I agree with almost all the points, for those of you who recall my various rants on the Olympics.

This is their manifesto: (c&p from here)

Royal Bank Canada was a major sponsor of the recently concluded 2010 Olympics on stolen indigenous land. This land was never legally ceded to colonial British Columbia. This hasn’t stopped the government from assuming full ownership of the land and its resources for the benefit of its corporate masters and to the detriment of aboriginal peoples, workers and the poor of the province. The 2010 Winter Olympics increased the homelessness crisis in Vancouver, especially the Downtown Eastside, Kanada’s poorest urban area. Since the Olympics bid, homelessness in Vancouver has nearly tripled while condominium development in the Downtown Eastside is outpacing social housing by a rate of 3:1. The further criminalization and displacement of those living in extreme poverty continues apace.

“Royal Bank Canada is one of the planet’s greenest companies” according to one of its own brochures. Coporate Kanada saw fit to include RBC as one of the top 50 in a competition dubbed Canada’s Greenest Employers, which purports to recognize organizations that have created “a culture of environmental awareness.” Yet RBC is now the major financier of Alberta’s tar sands, one of the largest industrial projects in human history and perhaps the most destructive. The tar sands, now the cause of the second fastest rate of deforestation on the planet, are slated to expand several times its current size.

The games in Vancouver are now over, but resistance continues. An RBC branch can be found in every corner of Kanada.

On June 25-27 2010, the G8/G20 ‘leaders’ and bankers are meeting in Huntsville and Toronto to make decisions that will further their policies of exploitation of people and the environment. We will be there.

We pass the torch to all those who would resist the trampling of native rights, of the rights of us all, and resist the ongoing destruction of our planet. We say: The Fire This Time.

FFFC – Ottawa
at the corner of Bank Street and First Avenue

But i cannot agree with their methods.  Violence only begets more violence!  And what they are doing, is undermining the hard work of those of us who are deeply concerned with the state of Canada and are looking for peaceful solutions.

I remember here in Victoria, a few months back, there was a protest outside of one of the RBC’s here.  I wrote about it briefly in my Crumpled Paper blog.  What they did was inflate a 20ft polar bear that was covered in oil (not real), and hand out information about the tar sands and RBC’s role in that.

If we are to win a revolution in Canada, it must be with information. People need to care, and caring starts with knowing, and knowing comes from speaking out.

Please, let us use words in place of bombs.

EDIT: I’ve been reading a few articles about the said topic, and there are some who think we should not disapprove of the actions this group took.

In this Rabble article, someone replied with some good points from an opposite stance.

Why does everyone have such a knee-jerk reaction to dismiss violent political actions as inappropriate? And why does destruction of private property constitute a violent action?
Why is it that every time the criminal negligence of CEO’s results in multiple fatalities, the corporations they control are given a financial slap on the wrist instead of being held accountable as the murderers they are.

(I have to add that I agree with this point, one has only to look at the BP oil spill and their history for a shining example of this…. but should we lower ourselves to their standard?)

Does anyone ACTUALLY believe that we will be able to get rid of capitalism, usher in an era of social justice, or save the environment by working within the framework of the established order of things?
I truly hope that this firebombing will ignite the tinderbox of anger and dissent that I know we all have been building up. There is nothing wrong with revolution. There is nothing wrong with fighting back against police brutality. There is nothing wrong with destroying corrupt financial institutions.

My thoughts on this are… for those of us who try really hard to engage in conversation about what needs to change in Canada, we know how hard it can be to try and communicate our points. We know that there are forces we cannot control that will use this act to set us back, to deflect from the points, and to shift the focus.

It’s these actions that make the evening headlines, not the petitions and endless work of the people behind the scenes who are organizing protests and sit ins. Who are going before councils with their concerns. Who take the path of non-violence.

I agree that we need to fight back, but if violence in the streets and fighting back like that worked, would we still be at the mercy of capitalism? And if were going to talk about police brutality? Because of this, I can just see the police stepping up in their violent actions when the G8/G20 summits occur, and the protests begin.

I don’t know how we’re going to win this fight. But I have hope that we will.

I feel that I’ve over dosed on news in the last week.

I’m over whelmed by all the stories I’ve come across that show so many points of “wrongness” in the world.   Everything from racism, sexism, homophobia, politic policy, war… you name it, it’s out there.

And while on most days I can find that center where i have hope enough to balance the scope of it.  Today i feel like there is nothing I can do to help.

>>insert lunch break and long phone call w/ sister<<

Alright! I’m fired up again!

My sister is a nurse and so she feels the cuts to health care funding most deeply.  She also feels the heavy weight of how much money it costs to become a nurse while being a single mum of 2 growing boys.  Our conversation turned to world concerns (by accident, i swear! ~_~), and she said something like… “There’s nothing we can do about it”.   And hearing someone so defeated by the system hit me.

That is what they want us to think! (they being the politicians/institutions on control)

When women didn’t have the right to vote, and their path of struggle was still before them, did they say, “oh well, that’s just the way it is”?

NO!

When people of color could not attend certain schools and eat in popular restaurants, did they just say, “oh, well, OK, good to know”.

NO!

We all have a voice.

But the key to change, is being involved. And life has become such a struggle for so many of us, that thinking about social injustice is that last thing anyone wants to think about.  But being involved doesn’t mean jumping straight to protesting in rallies.   It can start as easily as being more aware of what’s going on in the world.  This greater knowledge leads to greater understanding.  And if everyone in the world had a greater understanding of what’s going on… doesn’t that thought give you hope?

I post frequently in my face book, links to this blog as well as random articles I come across that I feel are worth reading.  And I’ve received feedback that Facebook is for mindless games and time wasters.

Says who?

As long as there is breath in my body. As long as my hands are able to type. As long as my voice is able to speak. As long as my ears are able to hear what is really happening.

I’ll stand for what i believe in.

And that is a sustainable earth community built on equality and social justice world wide.

I’m not settling for anything less.

./nod

Should be sleeping, but just squeezing in a bit of news before i go…

Came across this article on Al Jazeera.

The Dutch government has collapsed over differences concerning the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

Wouter Bos, leader of the opposition party says this:

“A plan was agreed to when our soldiers went to Afghanistan. Our partners in the government didn’t want to stick to that plan, and on the basis of their refusal we have decided to resign from this government.”

The article further reads that…

The political collapse all but guarantees the Dutch troops will be withdrawn at the end of their mandate in August.

Well, that’s pretty exciting. Will the Dutch be the first in hopefully many countries who rethink Afghanistan? If it can with stand the international pressure to continue this fruitless war, we might see the beginning of some real change.

There’s always hope for peace.