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Blog entries by Kaley

Prisons and Struggles Against Capitalism

posted by Kaley

In April, I gave a talk on prisons for a monthly series of political discussions on issues from an anti-capitalist approach called Living Theory. Here is an excerpt from the talk. The full text can be found here.

Hi Everyone,

To introduce myself, my name is Kaley Kennedy and I am part of a collective that brings books into the women’s unit at the Central Nova Correctional Centre in Burnside. We also do other programming, including a read aloud program, where we record women reading children’s books and send the recording and the book to their children, grand children, or other children they care about on the outside. Each day, there are about 25 000 children whose mothers are in either federal prisons or provincial jails in Canada.

I think it is important to acknowledge that while my personal background and experience has been essential to my own questioning of the prison system, I acknowledge that as a white woman who has never been incarcerated, my understanding of the effects and far-reaching implications of the criminal justice system in communities, especially communities of colour, is limited. I am, therefore, greatly indebted to activists and scholars from aboriginal communities and communities of colour and others who have faced imprisonment that have taken up questions of the prison system, and actual justice.

As of 2005/2006, there were a total of 192 correctional facilities across Canada, with 76 under federal jurisdiction, including 18 community correctional institutions and 58 federal institutions/prisons, and 116 facilities under provincial/territorial jurisdiction. Only 16 of the 116 provincial/territorial prisons were classified as minimum security. In total, over 252,000 people were admitted into custody in 2005/2006, but only 34 percent of those were serving sentences. Almost 60 per cent of people admitted to prisons were on remand, meaning they are waiting to go to court or serving time for probation violations. In terms of demographics, 12 per cent of those admitted were women, and, though aboriginal people only make up 4 percent of the total population in Canada, they represent almost 25 percent of all those admitted to prisons in the country. In Nova Scotia, there are 5 provincial prisons and...

Chronicling and Heralding Employer Interests: Corporate media should have to make their interests as employers clear

posted by Kaley

Last week, the Chronicle Herald published an editorial espousing the paper’s opinion on first contract arbitration (FCA). The Herald’s editorial team doesn’t like FCA, which should not be surprising, seeing as editorial staff is also part of the paper’s management structure.

The Herald editorial claims that there are “widespread warnings” that the policy (which exists in 7 other provinces), would make “an already tough situation worse,” and calls the policy “irresponsible.” Later, it becomes clear that so-called widespread warnings are coming exclusively from employers. The unsigned editorial goes on firmly to state “We strongly oppose this bill.”

Who strongly opposes it? The editorial team, whose names are not published on the editorial, nor easily accessible on the Herald’s website.

The Herald fails to mention that unions support the bill. While the Herald has accepted the myths propagated by businesses about FCA, the editorial does not mention that labour unions and other progressive organizations have presented research and data showing that FCA has no impact on business.

I am sure some might argue that workers have a stake in FCA – which they do. But for the life of me, I cannot understand what the logic would be for workers to support a policy that would hurt jobs. There’s a pretty blatant contradiction there.

When it comes down to it, besides being a newspaper, the Herald is also an employer, and this Herald editorial should raise significant questions as to what role the corporate media has in producing editorial positions on labour issues, without being open and transparent about their own stake in the debate as employers/management.

Disputes between workers and the Herald are no secret. In 2009, the Herald cut one quarter of its newsroom. Gone are the paper’s beat reporters – reporters who stick to certain sectors or...

Choosing Our Battles: Why the feminist movement needs to stop arguing and support the decriminalisation of sex work

posted by Kaley

In May, as part of our zine project go it alone (together), Emily Davidson and I gave a workshop at the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair: “The Struggle for Reproductive Autonomy: From underground abortion collectives to the fight to decriminalize sex work.” Before we had even left our home city of Halifax, we received a phone call from one of the bookfair’s organisers to discuss some of the conflict that had arisen in the feminist movement in Quebec around the decriminalisation of sex work. The organiser explained that there was a strong movement in support of the abolition of sex work in Montreal and Quebec.

Later, Emily and I spoke at length about strategies for addressing possible disruptions at the workshop, as well as a number of ways to ensure an effective discussion could be had recognising and respecting divergent views. There was no vocal presence from the “sex work abolitionists” at the workshop and largely the discussion was focused on the need for more inclusive, accessible, queer- and trans-positive health care providers focused on a model of informed consent with regards to care.

But we also had to ask ourselves – what does “abolishing” sex work mean?

Abolition v. Prohibition

Abolish, in my understanding of the word, means to eliminate, to end, maybe even to destroy. This is the way I use the word when I speak with my political allies about abolishing the prison system. I mean there should be no more prisons. I also know that this is a long and difficult process – one that involves struggle in many forms, and one that posits social revolution.

Near the end of her book, Are Prisons Obsolete, Angela Davis explains:

“[P]ositing decarceration as our overarching strategy, we would try to envision a continuum of alternatives to imprisonment–demilitarization of schools, revitalization of education at all levels, a health system that provides free physical and mental care to all, and a justice system based on reparation and reconciliation rather than retribution and vengeance.

The creation of new institutions that lay claim to the space now occupied by the prison can eventually start to crowd out the prison so that it would inhabit increasingly smaller areas of our social and psychic landscape. Schools can therefore be seen as the most powerful alternative to jails and prisons.” (...

Canadian Media Fails to Deliver: Media Coverage of Canada Post Labour Dispute Uncritical, Inaccurate

posted by Kaley

Locked out CUPW members in Halifax. Photo by Lesley Thompson.

On the morning of Tuesday, June 14, letter carriers across the country showed up to go to work as per usual but Canada Post told them to go home; no mail was to be delivered that day. Those workers are full-time letter carriers who deliver mail in our communities Monday to Friday.

While Canada Post claimed there was no work for the letter carriers, mail sat in the Halifax Canada Post plant, undelivered. Not even priority packages, which should be delivered by noon the day after they are shipped, were able to leave the facility. Indoor workers, who process and sort the mail were working – suggesting that there was mail that could have been delivered that day.

According to a twitter update from Ella Henry, a student activist in Fredericton, indoor workers were sent home after three hours of work, even though there was still mail to process. Fredericton workers had just come off a strike rotation, so the implication from Canada Post that there was no work for Fredericton workers, both indoor workers and letter carriers is difficult to understand.

Despite these circumstances, the local hourly CBC radio broadcast in Halifax told listeners that Canada Post workers “consider themselves to be locked out” all day. A CBC News headline online reads, “Union calls postal service reduction 'partial lockout.'”

The Canadian Labour Code states that a “lockout” “includes the closing of a place of employment, a suspension of work by an employer or a refusal by an employer to continue to employ a number of their employees, done to compel their employees, or to aid another employer to compel that other employer’s employees, to agree to terms or conditions of employment.”

Letter carriers showed up to work on Tuesday, and were told to go home because Canada Post decided no mail, not even mail that Canada Post guarantees delivery times on such as priority service, was to be delivered. This is very clearly a “suspension of work by the employer” and in the context of a rotating strike, very much “done to compel their employees… to agree to terms or conditions of employment.”

The workers were locked out by their employer, plain and simple. The addition of the caveat “consider themselves” casts doubt on a clear situation, and works in favour of the employer’s spin on the situation.

There...

Halifax Media Co-op Policy!

posted by Kaley

Below you will find draft policies that have been developed by several people involved in the Halifax Media Co-op. Please share any thoughts you might have on the below draft. Also, what other policies would you like to see? Some ideas have been a hiring policy (for when the HMC hires staff like summer students) and policy about the Tide.

Membership in the Co-op.

Members of the Dominion Newspaper Cooperative who live in the Halifax region are members of the Halifax Media Co-op.

Contributor Members:

Any person who has contributes four editor-reviewed posts to the Halifax Media Co-op is a contributor member of the Halifax Media Co-op.

Editorial Collective:

Employees of the Halifax Media Co-op automatically become members of the Editorial Collective.

Other people may join the editorial.

The Editorial Collective should have no more than eight (8) people. Some members of the editorial collective may be members on a rotating basis, based on their ability to participate.

To apply to be part of the Editorial Collective, a member must be an existing contributor member of the Co-op. At least five (5) members of the collective should have some experience with journalism.

Duties of the Editorial Collective

The Editorial Collective is responsible for reviewing and featuring content, reviewing pitches for monthly paid features, engaging in an active editorial process with contributors, generating story ideas, promotion, fundraising, recruiting and coaching contributors.

Contributors are encouraged to send contributions to editors before publishing when practical (i.e. not time sensitive), but then to post the edited articles themselves.

Editors and contributors are strongly encouraged to send a link to their story to people or groups that may be interested, in order to raise the profile of the Media Co-op.

The Editorial Collective will strive for consensus when making decisions.

Annual General Meeting

The Halifax Media Co-op will hold at least one general meeting per year. The Editorial Collective will set the date for a general meeting, with input from active members.

A minimum of four (4) weeks notice of a general meeting will be given. Notice of the meeting must include the time, date, and location of the meeting.

General meeting will have a...

An open letter from feminists who support sex workers

posted by Kaley

Current laws mean that sex workers are often forced to work under dangerous conditions, and unable to ensure their protection by screening potential clients, working indoors, and working with other sex workers. Photo by <a href = "http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewbain/"> andrewbain</a>, used under a Creative Commons license.

As young feminists in Halifax committed to struggling against all forms of oppression, we stand in solidarity with sex workers. We proudly applaud Judge Himel’s ruling to decriminalize sex work, and would like to take this opportunity to comment on the press release sent out by Concertation des luttes contre l’exploitation sexuelle and The Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centers on Sept. 28, 2010. While we respect the work done by the women’s groups included in this press release, we would like to make it clear that not all feminists were “stupefied” and “angry” upon learning of this ruling.

We, as feminists, support all people who face systemic oppression. Women, men, and trans people who do sex work face oppression from the police state, the legal system and from those who see their work as immoral, illegal and illegitimate. Sex workers are workers. They may also experience other forms of oppression based on aspects of their identity, including race, sexual identity, gender presentation, class, dis/ability, and so on. In particular, Indigenous sex workers across Canada face extremely high rates of assault and murder.

The press release states that the decriminalization ruling is counter to work done to end violence against women. However, the atrocious violence committed against sex workers in Canada is common and widespread. Striking down the current law that makes it illegal for sex workers to communicate with and screen potentially dangerous clients in a public space or a relatively safe private space before getting into a car with them decreases the risk of assault against workers. The decriminalization of common bawdy houses allows sex workers to ensure their own safety by working together indoors. Striking down the law prohibiting bawdy houses also means sex workers can report violence to authorities without fear of arrest or eviction.

While the law against living off the avails of prostitution seems to target people who exploit the labour of sex workers, it also criminalizes sex workers’ non-work related relationships. This law hurts sex workers by stripping away the supportive networks of friends and family. It makes sex workers’ live-in partners, roommates, and even elderly parents susceptible to being charged for living off the avails. Striking down this law acknowledges that sex workers are people with families and loved ones who deserve to...

Who really lives in creative cities: An interview with Max Haiven on anti-capitalist critiques of the marketing of creativity.

posted by Kaley

According to Max Haiven, large corporate events like Nocturne, "[enshrine] a really limited notion of creativity, which is that creativity is a thing that you see once a year at Nocturne or you go to a gallery to see. This comes at a time when our actually ability to be creative in terms of our ability to change our society is more and more constrained because we lack political power." Photo by Justin Ling.

On October 17, Max Haiven, a post-doctoral fellow at Mount Saint Vincent University, led a critical anti-capitalist discussion on the marketing of creativity and the idea of “creative cities” in light of this weekend’s Nocturne events. Increasingly, governments, policy-makers, and corporations, claim that events like Nocturne contribute to the creative economy and attract a “creative class,” leading to improvements in our communities.

The discussion, which took place at the Roberts Street Social Centre, addressed the way that events like Nocturne and the co-option of art in the interest of corporations contribute to community displacement, and is part of a broader process through which capitalism increasingly commodifies social relations. Comments at the discussion looked at how communities, including artists and activists, both contribute and resist displacement and commodification.

Below is an interview I did with Max about some of the themes addressed in his talk. You can also check out some photos of Nocturne here.

KK: Could you give a summary of what you discussed in your talk?

MH: I was trying to do two things. The first was that I tried to give a bit of a history of the role of the idea of the arts and the artist in the history of western capitalism. The second thing was to give a few anti-capitalist concerns about this celebration of creativity, creative cities, and creative mega events like Nocturne.

KK: What are some of the anti-capitalist concerns with large events like Nocturne and the marketing of art in that way?

MH: The one thing I wanted to get away from, in terms of all the concerns, is an opposition we make that is way too easy – that art is always completely opposed to capitalism. On one hand you have business, which is only concerned with making money, and on the other hand you have art, which is only concerned with the expression of the soul or the heart or the mind. This is a really ahistorical and bad way of looking at [art and creativity] because it allows us to uncritically celebrate art and creativity for their own sake without looking at the way that they play or are made to play certain political and economic roles. Specifically, new roles in a time when global...

Minutes from HMC organising meeting - July 15, 2010

posted by Kaley

Present: Ben, Kaley, Dave, Hillary

Facilitator: Kaley, Minutes: Ben

Agenda:
- Stories
- The Tide
- Alt 101 (alternative frosh week on campuses)
- Fundraising
- Addition to agenda – Mediacoop structure – Dru’s post

Stories that have been assigned and are coming in soon:

•    Dave – Chaudry family (long-term)
•    Mary and Georgia – Fuller lecture series – Kaley will check in
•    Ben – Herring Cove bike path
•    Stories coming in for Pride:
o    Kaley – trans health/trans family organization
o    Katie T. – queer acts theatre festival
o    Marie D. – Dyke march
•    Cole – NS Power hike analysis/backgrounder
•    Steven W. – story on farmland in the Valley
•    Angela D. – migrant workers (long-term)
•    Heather W. – article and photos at Shout Out camp for girls
•    No One is Illegal event on Tuesday the 27th (yet to be assigned – does anyone want to cover this?)

Kaley has a new google spreadsheet for stories.

Discussion on the Tide:
•    Judging from written feedback, people are stoked about the Tide.
•    We need to determine:
•    How to pay for it: people are talking about ads. E.g. from NSPIRG, Labour Council. We have some potential interested advertisers.
•    Frequency once a month was suggested.
•    Themes – It was discussed that it may be much easier to condense content from the website to put in the Tide, rather than having a theme for each issue.
•    Numbers (how many to print) – first issue was a run of 2,000, which ended up being a lot. Suggestions of 500 to 1000.
•    Distribution – should formulate a distro plan. Kaley has contacts from another newspaper and is working on a library strategy. Also would like to distribute off the peninsula. We need to be strategic with distribution, especially if we only print 500 copies.
•    The Tide could be as promo material, as in Toronto...

Haligonians resist the G8/G20 in Toronto

posted by Kaley

FLAP members participate in Tuesday's march. Photo: Hillary Lindsay

Resistance to the G8/G20 is now well underway in Toronto, and several Haligonians are participating in interesting and exciting ways.

Here is a brief synopsis of what has been happening:

Halifax Activist Dave Bush Blogs for the G8/G20

Over the course of the week, Halifax activist Dave Bush will be blogging about his experiences with resistance to the G20 in Toronto, providing a source for on-the-ground perspective of G8/G20 summit..

Dave’s blog, titled The Leftovers: Reminders for the Remainders is focused on providing “a salient analysis of the issues concerning grassroots resistance to the summits.”

Read his first two posts here and here.

Halifax Journalists Participate in the Alternative Media Centre

Several journalists from Halifax are participating in the Alternative Media Centre and producing grassroots, independent media all week.

See the first two Alternative Media Centre podcasts produced by the Halifax Media Co-op volunteer David Parker here and here.

No One Is Illegal-Halifax at the G8/G20 Mobilizations in Toronto

NOII-Halifax along with other chapters of NOII from across the country released a statement on the G8/G20. Read the statement here.

Halifax group Feminist League for Agitation Propaganda participates in “Queering the G20”

At yesterday's "Queering the G20" march, members of the Halifax group Feminist League for Agitation Propaganda marched with a banner that said, "Off our backs: stop policing queer and trans bodies" and led chants about childcare, trans health services, police brutality and homophobia. Read the entire article here and listen to FLAP members in the Alternative Media Centre podcast here.

Curious as to why tens of thousands are protesting the G8/G20 summits? Go to...

Callout for Haligonians Going to Toronto!

posted by Kaley

The Halifax Media Co-op is trying to compile a list of local Halifax activists who will be in Toronto for the G20 summit to help cover any actions or news related to the actions of local activists in Toronto.

If you are going to be in Toronto over the next few weeks and want to be in touch with other Halifax Media Co-op volunteers during the summit, please email your contact information to Kaley.