julianichim

Support Kelly Pflug Back Call For Court Support!!!!

julian ichim — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:37:47 +0000

All Out in Support of Kelly Friday Feb 24th 9:00am Superior Court 361 University ave. Toronto

On Friday Feb. 24th a solid comrade and important member of our community must stand in front of her majesty feel the attacks of the state on her person. Let us show her that she does not stand alone. Kelly Pflug Back, a solid member of our community has made so many sacrifices for the people. Let us show her that we have not forgotten her and that we stand with her. Her demonization by the system and in the media is a state attack on someone who has started free food programs, fought for harm reduction and defended peoples basic rights by virtue of them being human.

She is labeled as a criminal not because of any “crime” that she has committed but rather for her politics and work that she has done in our community.

Since her arrest the state has done everything possible to isolate and break her will, her conditions were among the most barbaric of all those arrested at the g20 and had nothing to do with stopping her from “committing crime” but rather were aimed at stopping her from being political and punishing her for who she is. These conditions have ripped her out of a community that she has given so much for and attempted to isolate her. This Friday let us show her that she is not isolated and does not stand alone. We stand with Kelly because Kelly has stood with us and we must not forget our comrades. So come out and show the state that Kelly does not stand alone and no matter what the state says or does to her we will stand with her.

Ties of friendship forged in struggle cannot be broken!!!

julian ichim — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:24:51 +0000

So last night, i crashed at a friends place due to the fact that there is lots of asbestos, drywall etc. at the place where im living and my lungs hurt. My one boy is like dont be all crazy cause b’s girl hates you. I go outside and have a smoke with B and ask him whats up with that and he starts laughing, hes like she doesnt hate, she actually thinks your nice but really thinks your a slob and it annoys the shit out of her. We start laughing and start talking about organizing what is what etc. Our boy Dopeys in jail, as is lots of other people but my other friend went to see him yesterday and was denied a visit, given the fact you cant drop money off if your not visiting for canteen, dopeys preety much fucked. We agreed to tryu to set up another visit and call ourt gutemalan mamacitta to come with cause her brother is in the same jail. Later my friend and his partner (i think thats politically correct term) and we start joking around about back in the day and earlier in the day, where they came to visit and we were like we need to drop off a letter and they are like ok cool, then we are like like its to the minister of social services, and they are like is julian and crew dragging us out to an action, and we are like its just a letter drop, and they are like cool, then im like lets all get our balaclavas on, and then they start laughing. The joke that my friend and his partner said was you can never visit julian without getting dragged into some form or other of madness. So we are kicking it and my boys partner is like you can come over whenever you want and my boy is like you need to put some stipulations on that or he will call at 4 in the morning on a tuesday night to discuss the role of the Soviet Union and US imperialism in the Viet Khmer conflict, or show up with many people at some god forsaken hour and be guess what we are doing tonight? DRINKING!!!! TAKE A SHOT!!!!” Shes like thats ok, it sounds like fun!!!! My boy is like trust me, Julians an amazing guy and definatly gives meaning to life, and will help you when no one else will but trust me after 4 40′s of rum and all sorts of political discussion, someone eventually gets bottlled, we both start laughing, and my boy is like laugh all you want cause when that incident happenned it was me, which makes us laugh harder. Im like how is T. doing (our anarcho crazy friend from the urals), hes like i think he left back to mother russia, Canada got on his nerves. We then started talking about all the fucked up shit friends have done to me and how many times through sheer patience, disipline and yelling many problems have been escalated and then solved. We started talking about youth collective and spot collective actions and the amazing results, and how this was solved through strugglle, we joked around that our slogan was we dont care what bad shit happenneds for us to get to where we are going, because at the end of the day we get shit done. We then start talking about our various allies and how to weather the latest shit storm. The question at the end of the day is is person A. solid, or are they like other allies who come and go? I argued that Person A. is solid and gave many examples of how they are solid including that they put up with my shit. We start laughing, and im like no serious, like straight up we have a base of support and all sorts of attacks have been levelled at us but at the end of the day no matter what the state or our so called allies throw at us we are around and fighting because people know us, support us and stand by us because even if we are doing shit in another city we are here and due to the attacks we may be losly organized, but organized we are. We may depend on allies for this and that but at the end of the day we dont do shit cause its cool we do shit to survive. Person A. has stuck by us and whatever shit people are talking about person A. I gots there back cause in many ways they are similar to us and roll like us in there own fucked up way (this does not mean that there is anything wrong or fucked up about the way they roll, its just a figure of speach). My friend comes home and sees that Im feeding there dogs all sorts of good treats and is like fuck julian stop feeding my dogs, did i tell you guys about the time that I really wanted to kill julian cause of one of his antics (i believe it was a late night phone call to discuss the political significance of the split in the bolivarian movement between those who think that Chavez should have taken a harder stand in support of The FARC). I then talked about crazy antics his boys have pulled and how both of us deal with and deal alot of shit. I then decided to go to bed and started to dream that there was this very smart and intelligent woman whom i wanted to have some private time to talk about mathematics (read between the lines) and a bunch of my friends started to come into the room with all there drama so we could not discuss mathematics. At this point in my dream the police came to arrest me which really sucked esp. since the pig was smoking ciggerrettes and not letting me have one. I end up in jail and Kelly is in the cell next to me. Im like this is boring wanna break out? shes like sure, so we broke out of jail, freed some of our friends and then we were surrounded. I decided to pull a julian so my friends could get away. At that point in time i wake up with my friends three dogs kissing my and expanding on the bed which was cute. My friend is like you ass you fed the dogs again in your sleep (i sleep eat at night and dogs usually follow me) and smoked in the washroom. I told him my dream and hes like you cant blog about that they will arrest you and if not they will fuck with me which is what they do after every demo etc. you pull and get away. I swear to god between our friends and hanging out with juniour Bin Laden here its a miricle im still on the street. We start talking a little more and I come to two realizations, friendships like our put up with alot of shit because our bonds are forged in strugglle, both the struggle to survive day to day and the political struggle which is an extension of this.Our bonds are not the type of bonds that can easily be discarded because our bonds are forged in strugglle. You cant stand toe to toe against the state, and have your friends have your back only to walk away from that. These ties cant be broken because these are the ties that bind. Regardless of whether julian is sloppy or dopey annoying or the dogs magically consume food they shouldnt, a comrade is a comrade because strugglle unifys. If the street, the statre and the system havent broken you yet, you become something else you become a fighting machine that still has compassion to put there comrades and the strugglle first. Many of my friends have done time when they could have walked by simply repeating the cops lies against me. They did not because our friendship isnt based on gossip girls and going to the mall or coffee shop politics but rather is based on identifying the problems we face and coming up with solutions. In the process it is strugglle anmd you must be there for them and them for you no matter what. The ties that bind us are ties of strugglle, and while it is true some have fell to the wayside we honor our fallen comrades and despise those who chose comfort, because those people come and go. Yet we will always stick by our comrades no matter what bridges we burn, cause tourist activists come and go but we will always be here.

Masked members of Spot Collective visit minister of social services

julian ichim — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:00:33 +0000

On Tuesday Feb 21st at around 3:20 in the afternoon, masked members of The Spot Collective visited Liberal Minister of Social services John Milloy and publicly read a statement around the upcoming Liberal budget. The purpose of wearing disguises was not to intimidate peop;le but rather to show solidarity with g20 activists who are targetted by the state and all others who resist. In the words of one member, “you have your uniform, well this is mine”. Below is the statement.

We members of the Spot Collective are appaulled at the anti poor people attacks initiated by your government. We see these attacks as part and parcel of the Mcguinty agenda of Austerity and repression. It was after all your government that spentover 1.2 billion on targetting political activists to stop dissent before and after the g20 in toronto, while at the same time money for social programs like the Special Diets are cut. In March your government is passing another provincial budget. We demand that you as minister of social services make sure that this budget is not another slap in the face of poor people, but rather serves the needy not the greedy!!!!

my moms poem to me years ago when i was in jail

julian ichim — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:51:16 +0000

Ijust descovered this poem which was published in Romanian, i was in jail during st. Nicholas day and she was very sick, my translation will suck but i hope i get the spirit of the poem, i cried yesterday when i read it.

Kind St. Nicholas

Kind St. Nicholas
My soul is so heavy
please to jail
to look after my son

He didnt hang the stockings by the chimney
they even took his shoes
his hands and feet are in shackles
his hair is shorn

He has no candle or holy image
or place where he can pray
he stand meek as a sheep
led to the slaughter like christ in the prayers

Please go St. Nicholas
to my darling son
and remind him of the love of God
In a place full of hate

Go in like a kind devoted saint
meek and caring
in those dark walls
await for you the wrteched of the earth
with eyes red from crying and suffering

warm there souls
when there body is beaten and cold
give them there eternal bread
when there starvation yells for justice

I am old and sick
like a setting sun
I feel i the dark sleep overcoming me
watch over my son holy one
until he comes home

Tell him stories of hope
and prayers pure as easter lilies
I am going to sleep….please watch over my son
kind, holy one
amen

Class Solidarity

julian ichim — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:34:59 +0000

So today im sitting at a friends house, with no cigarettes or money trying to figure stuff out, i go outside to roll a cigarette out of buts when other poor people have the same idea, so i start arguing about my cigarette butts (which tecqunicly arent even mine, when my friend walks out with a smoke. I explain to him the situation and he starts laughing, hes like “when it come to smoking your class solidarity goes out the window”, my other friend joins in and is like” gut away from my cigarette butts you crazy fuckers, by the way do you want a flyer foir our anti gentrification demo? we will be serving hotdogs, ” a joke on the fact that whenever we organize free food at demos etc. it always ends up being hot dogs and most of the time no ketchup etc. My friend splitts a smoke with me and we are laughing a joking around about my latest ideas, which to the simple person who may not know me and what im about may seem out there, but if explained makes alot of sense. We start joking around about how im an extremist not just in my politics but in everything i do, in other words i dont do things half ass, if im convinced that something needs doing (other then dishes, cleaning etc) I will put my heart and soul into it.
I walk upstairs and put on some oldschool political hip hop and contemplate the issue of not having smokes not from the position of damn i need a smoke (which i do) but rather from the position of inner class conflict over resources. poor people, and workers by there very nature of working in a collective setting or relying on each other to survive develop community, in other words the whole idea of being a self made man is seen as bullshit because you depend on your coworkers to get the job done, or support and depend on your friends for food, smokes etc., so by that very nature the image that society wants to present, of the individual against everyone else is crap, cause even the hardest mother fucker takes care of his boys and friends. These bonds of class solidarity rely on honesty and if you like someone you tell him that whereas if you think someone is a peace of shit, you also let them know that. Still the way society is set up, due to the nature of capital;ist commodity scarcity, we are pitted against one another, eg. workers in canada vs workers in the third world, gangs, unionized workers vs non unionized migrant workers vs local workers. These contradictions created by the capitalist class present the issue as us vs them as opposed to letting people see the bigger picture that we all have one thing in common which is that at the end of the day we have a common exploiter, the capitalist class which exploits our labour and uses the unemployed as a cheap pool of labour to replace workers for demanding there basic rights, which is ownership of the labour that they produce. The ruling class benifits from these contradictions and by creating this disunity has managed to maintain power and control. By obscuring the fundamental question which is who really has the power and making it a question of which group benifits at the expense of someone else, the capitalist class promotes this myth that the issue is the economy, or that the issue is scarcity of resources which they themselves have created through production for the sake of production or destroying the manufacturing base. So they obscure the main issue which is that we create the wealth of society but dont even have a pot to piss in because they steal the surplus value that we produce. By intensifying the contradiction between the people they aim to stop us, as a unit to have the discussions that we need to have the solve the crisis we are in, in other words what kind of society to we want , what type of economy do we want and how are the problems that we face going to be solved. In this light, class solidarity on the basis of discussion, action discussion is the only way forward cause at the end of the day things always divide on class lines, so if we are to win, we must recognize that and refuse to let them set our agenda, refuse to participate in inner class and horizontal attacks and instead move forward, setting our own agenda and marching forward.

Celebrate Cuban Cultre and History

julian ichim — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:01:13 +0000

Celebrate Cuban Culture and History
University of Waterloo, Student Life Centre, meet up at the WPIRG Office
Thursday Feb. 23rd 7 pm
*
Come out and learn about Cuba’s history of Culture and its advancements in the fields of education, art and sports. Learn about the Romeria De Mayo Festival that is taking place in Cuba in May and what you can do to support and attend. Then enjoy some Cuban music, dance and Culture.

Rum and Cigar Raffle, Speakers And Salsa Lessons

Refundable tax credit, once again the state screws us!!!!

julian ichim — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:13:36 +0000

If its not bad enough that the state through the process of de industrialization is selling out and destroying the manufacturing basis meaning poor people have no jobs, they cut welfare to such low levels that no one can survive, they take away the special diets so sick people cant get the nutrition they need, now they dont want to give us our income tax money!!!!!!What the fuck is that!!!!!!Under a stupid innocuace sounding name called “refundable tax credit”, the state in all its brilliance has decided that poor people cant manage there money and has decided to do it for them!!!

Instead of getting a lump sum every year like you use to the government in all its wisdom has decided that poor people cant manage there money and has decided to instead give it to them on a monthly basis. To many poor people this lump sum which on average works out to about $300, is the diffrence between paying rent or not paying rent, eating or not eating buying new clothing or not buying new clothing. Given that this month is usually the coldest and heating bills go up this could be the diffrence between having your hydro cut off and freezing or having electricity and heat.

Now they are instead going to give is about and extra thirty dollars a month and hope we spend it well!!!!What the fuck can you buy for $30 these days!!!!!! thats barly enough for a pair of pants if you get them at walmart!!!!!!!!
This kind of social darwinistic thinking is part of the Harper agenda of paternalism and degrdation of poor people!!!!What it means is that the state feels that poor people deserve what they get and are too “feable minded” to take care of themselves. The whole ideology of neo liberal social darwinism is that poor people are defective and as a result have to be controlled by the state and the solution to poverty is the slow eradication of poor people. Well if one really examines things its not the poor people who destroyed the economy, its not the poor people that allows corporations to plunder the resources of this territory, only to leave when they have sucked everything like the vampires they are and its not poor people who have and are profiting from the destruction of the enviroment. If anything its the rich who are not to be trusted with money because from what I can see they are the ones who got us into this mess. Maybe what needs to be done is they should have there wealth seized and every month, after they get $56o and have to pay at least $500 in rent, we may , if they fill out all the proper forms and pay us what we pay to money mart to cash our checks, give them $30 a month and see how well they live off of dented cans of tuna, expired food bank food and all the filth we have to eat!!!!
After all they are the real social parasites!!!!!

Our love for the people is stronger then there system!!!!

julian ichim — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:52:06 +0000

The state, in its infinite wisdom, has recently called the indigenous people of this land, environmentalists and there allies “enemies of the state”. To many liberals and people who want to reach some sort of reasonable accommodation with the state , this comment is seen as shocking and horrible. How could a government that is both “democratic” and has some many “good programs” to help aka assimilate indigenous peoples consider them enemies of the state. To the people who have been a victim of a genocidal war since 1492 when Columbus invaded this territory, this label comes as no surprise. Of course the indigenous peoples of this territory are enemies of the state because the existence of the settler state by its very nature demands the destruction, murder and assimilation of the peoples of this territory. Reservations were no accident, smallpox didn’t happened because the settlers were stupid, residential schools werent the result of a few bad apples, all of these acts were and are part of a systemic plan of genocide that is still being carried out today at gustofsan lake, stoney point, what settlers call Caledonia etc. For the government to call the indigenous peoples of this territory enemies of the state is settler society, for once being honest and stating that its existence is predicated on the murder and destruction of all who cant be accommodated in the present framework, first and formost those fighting for there hereditary rights to exist and soveriengh peoples on there territory.

The states attacks on indigenous people is not by itself the only attacks that are being carried out. The state, by its very nature is targeting environmentalists, anti poverty activists and members of the settler society who also cant be accommodated in the present framework. To poor people and those who are racialized and marginalized by the state this is nothing new, but to those who are allies who come from the middle strata, these attacks are shocking and scary. To be honest, the fact that the state is now going after environmentalists, student activists and those that speak out with a vengence is pretty scary in the sense that the present regime does what it wants and has thrown the facade of legitimacy out the window. There rule of law no longer matters and there checks and balances are shown to be a fraud. International law goes out the window and they have no problem sending the police to deal with any decent as they see fit. There philosophy, as can be seen both here and abroad is might makes right, in other words, we can use brutal force and there is nothing you can do about it because we have the power to impose our will.Any act that interferes with there agenda is met with force and even torture is now sanctified in the name of “saving lives”.
What this shows is not the strength of the state but is weakness. Politically the state is bankrupt and has no solutions to the political social and economic problems that the peoples in this territory are facing. The political crisis of lack of legitimacy is so deep that they cant even come but with an excuse for the present situation and just use there porogative powers to do as they wish. The political parties are run like criminal cartels based on payoffs as we saw in the sponsorship scandal, brutality and out and out dictatorial parties where even the party membership has no say in the road ahead. Riding association are now shams, especially when the party leadership has even taken away the power for them to elect there own representatives. And people dont even bother to vote because the idea of the lesser of the evils is so sickening the people that they see no point in participating in this sham.

The system is desperate, and in there despair is moving the nation to war and fascism. There rule of law has been exposed to only bind those without power with harper at the hight of his arrogance, telling the supreme court to fuck off.

The attacks on those who are political is part of this barbarous machinery. They think that by attacking arresting and brutalize us they will break our will and that by imposing there criminalization of dissent they will terrify us into submission. Through there attacks on those who fight there message to all is that to be political is now a crime and if you act politically, you will be declared an enemy of the state. This is backfiring on them as more and more people are being outraged at what is going on, and the fear that they think they can impose is turning into anger and strengthening our will to resist and fight back. For every one of us that they imprison more and more people are willing to stand up and take there place. For everyone of us that they demonize and brutalize more and more people are standing up and saying an attack on them is an attack on me. For every person thrown in the street or out of a job because of there economic policy more and more workers are standing behind them and refusing to back down. Our motivation is not brutality but love for our communities and defense of our rights that we have by virtue of being human. Through its actions the state is not solidifying its power but rather undermining there right to rule and showing the people that they are unfit to govern, and in the process creating the peoples opposition that has no desire to have a seat at the table but rather is demanding there basic right to run shit. Yes the system is brutal and the blows that it inflicts cause us to bleed, but in the process it strengthens our will to fight because our love for the people is stronger then there system.

No to Gentrification, Spend Money on the People, Not The Police!!!!

julian ichim — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:55:26 +0000

No To Gentrification, Spend money on the People, not The Police!!!!!!!

Thursday March 15th 5pm Kitchener City Hall

Downtown Kitchener is under attack by those that want to chase the people who live there out to make room for yippes and Condos. To make matters worst, The Provincial Liberal Government is increasing funding for cops etc. while cutting the special diets and other social services that poor people need. This March 15th, International Day of Police Brutality, Join The KW Spot Collective in demanding an end to the economic assault and gentrification of our communities. Fund the People, Not The State!!!!

Thursday March 15th, 5:00 pm Kitchener City Hall

It time we stopped being pawns and determined our own destiny

julian ichim — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:00:05 +0000

Today I gave a talk about poor people and street youth organizing themselves, given the place it was held, the room itself, from no fault of my own was not condusive to discusion, simply by the way it was set up, it was me at the front and chairs rising up, sort of like a school lecture hall, and this would have worked for a rally or something, but didnt suit the purpose of the workshop that i wanted to hold, because the way it was desighned it demarked a clear constrast between those who are presenting and those that present. So i changed my whole aprouch and tallked about my experiance organizing my peers. Now i never write a speech cause i feel that if i have something to say i want to say it because i believe in it not cause its on a peace of paper, thats how I roll, and many times this works to my advantage and sometimes i fall flat on my face, i ended my speech by saying I forget what I was talking about any questions? And then a discussion occured. The question of social workers came up and many people who had experiance with the system had very negative views , not because they are bad people or exploiters of labour but rather because the way the system is desighned the role of the social worker is not one of peer support but rather one of someone else coming from outside and “fixing” the problems that someone else faces. In other words, the role is disghned to make the individual the problem and if only we correct there negative behaviour, then everything is fixed. This view is problematic not only because it ignores the systemic problems that people face making the individual the issue but also because the people directly affected by the systemic injustices that they face are cut out of the equation. In other words, professionals who are told not to view the person as human, through rules such as no contact outside of work, not to empathize with your client etc. are put in a place where they have all the power to make decisions that affect peoples lifes, with drastic consequences, yet they have no understanding of the reality that the person life whom they have power over. The person then becomes another case, a statistic, a pawn in the ideological beliefs and values of a society whose interests do not reflect there own interests because they have no power to determine there own destiny. Another example of this is lawyers, who due to the constraints placed on them by the system stop serving the interests of people but rather serve the interests of there client above all else or whomever is paying them. Poor people who go through the legal system have no say in how there legal matters are persued and are at the mercy of the legal professional system where a group of professionals have every say in there lives, through backroom deals etc. with no concern for the person dirrectly affected as human. Workers who go and fight the battle for a strike or better wages face the same problems due to the Rand Formula where deels are worked out by professionals and the workers are all cut out of the process. The issue is not that professionalism is bad and that these are bad people but rather there is no mechanism in place to hold them accountable and by the very nature of the system there is no accountablity because the people are cut out of the desision making process. In other words the people become pawns in the games of the rich and the intermediary, the professional is the one who has all the say without having an understanding of the material conditions that the people whom they are “helping” face. When we started organizing our view was that we as a collective should determine our own destiny and if the state will not provide the outlet to meet our needs then we ourselves will take up social responsability and do what must be done. This is not because we are the best and smartest of all stratas of society but rather because we ourselves understand our reality and by fighting our fight we are calling on other groups and collectives to set there own agenda and stop being used as pawns in asystem that is based on cutting the people out of the equation. Given the fact that today under the present admininstration and pretext of giving people a say is being stripped away and harper uses his porgative to do what he pleases its obvious that our analysis was correct and that the only way to move forward is to unify with other people who are also interested in setting there own agenda and determining there own destiny. Yes, the strugglle has not been easy but we have achieved results due to the fact that we took our stand, held our principles and fought in defense of our rights that we have by virtue of being human. To us, the status quo was never an option because it hinders us and stops us from determining our own destiny leaving our fate in the hands of do gooders and professionals, who care not what we think, and good or bad that leaves us at the mercy of others stopping us from setting an agenda that is in our interests. We still hold our grounds and despite what problems we face we have raised our flag and defend it. By this act in and of itself we have took the first steps in creating a new society where the people themselves are the desision makers, and due to this we will withstand the violent attacks dirrected at us by the security appartus not for any other reason then that we dirive our stength from our principles and the fact that we will no longer be pawn in a system but will be sentient beings who have the right to determine there own destiny, marching forward defending our banner in the face of all repression and attacks. Thus we will fight, thus we will win!!!!!!