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Intoxication culture and radical unionism

To read this article in French, click here. 

The opinions stated in this article aren't necessarily those of the SITT-IWW and shouldn't be considered as such.

For those who know me, it’ll be no surprise to hear that I consume a lot of marijuana, I am what people call a high functioning user. My consumption and use is intertwined with my self image issues, my social anxiety, and my PTSD. I feel like I need to use before going out and talking to focus my thoughts and not end up being a rambling idiot. I feel like I need to use to make my body acceptable, or at least in my mind, acceptable to society. I spend a lot of money on my self-medication, and I freak out when my means to self medicate is low or gone. This means I have the choice to stop self-medicating and plunge into a plethora of stress and internal anxiety, or forking over the money to keep up my line.

This is a facet of intoxication culture; it is a self-consuming beast that ingests social interactions and forces them to develop under the guise of consuming drugs. In our union, which is mostly conveyed through drinking alcohol, after a meeting we’ll go out for a drink, after a GMB we’ll go out for a drink, after a demo we’ll go out for a drink, we drink a lot, we drink an alarming amount. We spend a lot of money, collectively falling into the pit of intoxication culture, and there isn’t much we do socially that doesn’t include alcohol. Read more →

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Culture of intoxication and radical unionism 

Note: Les views expressed in this article are those of the author-e and should not be considered as official statements of the IWW-SITT.

Ceux et celles qui me connaissent ne seront pas surpris et surprises d’apprendre que je consomme beaucoup de marijuana, je suis ce qu’on appelle un utilisateur fonctionnel élevé. Ma consommation est liée à mes problèmes d’image personnelle, mon anxiété sociale et mon trouble de stress post-traumatique. Je sens que j’ai besoin d’en consommer avant de sortir et de parler pour concentrer mes pensées et ne pas être un imbécile incohérent. Je sens que j’ai besoin de consommer pour rendre mon corps acceptable —du moins dans ma tête— pour la société. Je dépense beaucoup d’argent sur mon automédication et je panique lorsque mes moyens d’automédication sont bas ou épuisés. Ça veut dire que j’ai le choix entre arrêter de m’automédiquer et plonger dans une profusion de stress et d’anxiété interne, ou alors de casquer pour continuer.

Ceci est une facette de la culture de l’intoxication; c’est une bête qui se consume elle-même et qui avale les interactions sociales et les force à se développer dans le contexte de consommation de drogues. Dans notre syndicat, c’est principalement porté par l’alcool; nous allons prendre un verre après une réunion, nous allons prendre un verre après une réunion de branche, nous allons prendre un verre après une manif, nous buvons beaucoup, nous buvons une quantité alarmante d’alcool. Nous dépensons beaucoup d’argent, ce qui nous plonge collectivement dans le trou de la culture de l’intoxication, et nous faisons peu socialement qui n’inclut pas d’alcool.

Non seulement cela crée des espaces très peu sécuritaires, mais ça rend aussi inaccessible à ceux et celles qui ont fait le choix de ne pas boire ou qui ne le peuvent pas de sympathiser avec nous.

Écoutez, je n’essaie pas de casser le party. Parmi tous, je suis le premier à prendre quelques pintes après une longue réunion. Je suis le premier à consommer. Je fais partie de ce cycle, je vis dans la bête, j’ai eu un long passé à tourner les coins ronds pour me geler, j’ai séché le travail, planté des ami-e-s, laissé tomber des responsabilités pour continuer à consommer, en partie à cause de tout ce que j’ai mentionné, mais aussi parce que je me sentirais seul et incapable de faire face à mes responsabilités une fois sobre. C’est quelque chose avec quoi je lutte toujours, et j’ai tourné tellement de coins ronds que le gros de mon travail finit par ressembler à un cercle.

Lorsqu’une organisation de personnes nourrit cette machine, nous changeons, nous avons des standards plus bas, nous nous abandonnons à la bête et tout ce que nous faisons deviens assujetti à l’intoxication. C’est la différence entre accomplir quelque chose et accomplir quelque chose pour pouvoir aller boire. In my opinion, nous sommes meilleur-e-s que ça. Ça veut dire qu’aussi forts et fortes que nous sommes, aussi critiques que nous sommes, nous sommes toujours des esclaves à la boissons et au pot, et je crois que nous sommes bien meilleur-e-s que ça. Je n’ai pas les réponses à ce problème, j’ai mes propres démons, mais ensemble, y’a rien qu’on puisse pas faire.

– Harvest.

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A 7 very busy in September!


This 7 September, history of thumbing its nose at employers, on the occasion of the "Day" of work, Montreal branch of the IWW held a colloquium under the theme "Make the fight ! ». Under a blazing sun and the watchful eye (read harassing) for SPVM patrol, a few tables occupied the Parc des Faubourgs and this, from noon. On schedule : music, food, workshops, info tables and merchandise, and to conclude, popular demonstration. Read more →

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letter of support to six suspendu.e.s comrades in Rosemont

comrades,

We pay tribute to all the actors and actresses from all over Quebec for the colossal mobilization held on May 1 : only real day of workers'. It is the fruit of our labor and sacrifice of time in our lives that the entire operation of the company is possible and that wealth is created and nothing else. Without us , nothing would. So a huge thank you for all the work done on a daily basis, recognized or not, all sectors combined.

Sadly, if this day had the happy consequence of forging bonds of friendship and exercising our balance of power against the patronage, which is one of the objectives of direct action so dear to our union, on the other hand, six of our fellow Rosemont College teachers were suspended for enforcing their strike mandate, which was adopted by a very large majority of members.: only legitimate authority in a union.

Hereby , we would first like to show our deep solidarity as well as our unconditional support towards all the dissident people who exist within the company, you are not alone, but especially towards these six teachers who are unfairly subjected to these measures. We congratulate you on your courage and determination to uphold your "right" to strike.; is it still possible to name it that way?!? You are examples to follow and we hope that more people will stand up like you through this long struggle against austerity that your unions and students have rightly praised..

We strongly condemn these purely arbitrary suspensions and demand that these workers be reinstated in their shifts on Monday.. These teachers did absolutely nothing wrong. They used their inalienable right to strike when the attempt at dialogue failed between the parties, which is very clearly the case with the current government which passes the chainsaw in the little social safety net that we have left. What good use is a right when you have to ask permission from any commission to make use of it?? Does a right have real value only when it is exercised freely and independently? And in the event that you have to wait for permission from any authority to use it, Doesn't this sound more like a privilege than a right? And optionally , since when did we collectively decide that it was up to the master to decide where and when we could challenge him?

An illegal strike, it does not exist. Or rather , it only exists in the minds of those who benefit from such a legalistic system, who let's face it, offers us a striking example of its limits.

We also reiterate our position that workers have absolutely nothing to do with the bosses and reaffirm the importance of combat unionism in order to arm ourselves with an adequate balance of power in the face of disproportionate power. that admistrators of all kinds take over our lives. The strategic partnership between employees and bosses is an illusion regardless of the cognitive dissonance that sentimalism may provoke towards them over the years spent in their proximity.. In the event that you decide to exercise your rights, they would turn against you and betray you without scruple and this example is a concrete proof of that. “

Solidarity and may the struggle continue!

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Radicalization of the May 1st 2015 Strike

To read this article in French, click here.

A phantom haunts the province of Quebec. It is the phantom of the General Strike. Since 2012, our elites have known that the working class, the students, and all those who continue to decry injustice and repression have the power to take to the streets and impose their legitimacy in the face of the State. Despite this dread, the high-priests of capitalism, and especially those preaching its liberal vision, can not hold back from waging an open war against everything that isn’t merchandise, against everything that isn’t financially valuable. From budget cuts to over-arming police forces, and from underpaid jobs to public insults against the poor and the exploited, everything leads one to believe that Quebec is now the foreground of unbridled capitalism. This neo-liberal paradise, protected by the State and its minions, ruins our lives and those of our families and friends, quashes what little is left of our liberty, spits in the faces of those most hard on their luck and on the misery of its own creation.

We have long ceased to believe in the regulatory capacity of this system. By destroying itself, it will destroy us too. Each new day we are reminded of this programmed failure: environmental disasters, increased inequality, the deterioration of working conditions, institutional racism, systemic corruption of our political system, and harassment of women in their workplaces or at school. Generally speaking, it is all forms of domination that are dangerously increasing, pushing the most exploited and dominated to the breaking point, all in order to install our elites on a too-comfortable pedestal.

This is why we call the rebellious among us to insurrection. We hope that the spring will bring out the most angry, those who are disgusted at the system, in the streets and in actions. Because apathy just isn’t enough, we firmly believe in our common capacity to create a better world. More than a simple timely struggle against austerity, we see on the horizon the premises of a social war, of which the 2012 strike was only a beginning. Each government, left or right, has tried time and again to impose their rotten economic and societal concepts upon us. A single day of strikes is not enough to push back a government which dearly protects the financial assets of the most dominant in society. We believe that a global revolt of all society must emerge during the spring. This revolt must be planned on the long term: in Quebec as in Europe, there are too many recent examples that demonstrate the futility of punctual and singular actions against governments that are now used to and prepared for social discontent.

Against capitalism and liberalism, we reaffirm our right to manage our own lives, whether the people who rule us like it or not. Our daily lives belong to us, our cities too. We firmly believe that capitalism must be erased from Quebec. In this goal, we will always be in solidarity with those who struggle, and always at odds with those who remain resigned and prostrate. We will be alongside workers and students in their struggles, and we will oppose all police brutality with working class solidarity. In the streets, in our workplaces and schools, in our neighborhoods, we are here to struggle and help.

Let us not fear our utopias!

Let us dare to overthrow the established order!

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founding meeting of the ISTC-IWW Sherbrooke

To read this article in English, click here. 10306167_1819959058228201_421577575073620815_n

Section SITT-IWW Sherbrooke goes ahead and founded his local! We will hold a founding meeting on Thursday 26 March, the 187 Laurier, Alphonse Desjardins room, from 19 hours.

The objective of this meeting is to inform the SITT-IWW in Sherbrooke, de formaliser la création de notre branche (adoption des règlements du syndicat, élections), d’annoncer et de définir nos actions futures, et bien entendu de recruter tout-e nouveau ou nouvelle membre intéressé-e à se joindre au combat!

Le SITT-IWW est un syndicat inclusif, who, par le réseautage et la solidarité, souhaite créer un véritable réseau de travailleurs et de travailleuses capables de se défendre les un-e-s et les autres pour, ensuite, viser un meilleur contrôle de leur milieu de travail.

Que tu sois travailleur ou travailleuse, que tu sois étudiant-e ou bien chômeur, chômeuse, viens nous rencontrer le jeudi 26 March!

Solidarity!

La section locale de Sherbrooke du SITT-IWW.

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Montreal Police – Capitalism’s Milita

With the week against police brutality coming up fast, as well as an important social movement emerging, it is important to remind ourselves of what role the police plays. More precisely, we would like to enumerate several reasons for which we oppose the police, wherever it is, wherever it’s from, and in every and all situations.

1458432_476650485809226_4102247111885098979_nIn our rotten societies, not a single week or day goes by without lengthening the list of injustices committed by members of the police. They have never hesitated to humiliate us, hurt us, play with our lives and those of our families and friends, and even to assassinate us if need be.

Strangely, we find that the people most repeatedly affected by these police ‘errors’ belong vastly to the working class, whether employed or not. Bosses, bankers, traders, and other living blight are spared from these problems. If wage-work dispossesses us each moment of our lives, the police reminds us that even our own lives no longer belong to us, since they have the right to take them away forever.

Whoever has even slightly participated in a social movement during their lifetime has very likely been confronted with the repressive force of the police, at one time or another. Riot police, tactical intervention teams, provincial police, and other forces of repression have the sole purpose of breaking strikes, preventing protests against the status quo, and repressing more or less violently all political opposition. This violence – that of the State – by constantly arming the police, by equipping them with military technology and ‘non-lethal’ weaponry, has given them the full ability to ‘control crowds’ almost entirely independently. There are jobs, and entire teams, whose social utility consists only in ‘breaking protesters’ more efficiently, more rapidly, and always more inhumanely.

To ensure the reproduction and the maintenance of its own domination, the ruling class has two tools at its disposal: ideology and violence. If ideology is diffused throughout society, and demands that everybody stay in line, then the role of violence is to bring deviants and dissenters back in line. The State, guarantor of class reproduction, ensures the monopoly of violence by means of the police. In other words, the social function of the police in its entirety is to ensure the maintenance of a class’s domination over another, whether ‘softly’ by applying the law, or by direct repression. As a revolutionary union, we wish to overthrow the dominant class, and as such are fundamentally opposed to its dominant ideology, and to its police.

Let us build solidarity with one another against the police.

No Justice, No Peace!

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Montreal Police, Militia capital !

To read this article in English, click here.

As the week against police brutality is coming and that a significant social movement approach, it seems important to recall some elements of analysis needed to understand the role of the police, of all body. More precisely, we wish to mention here the various reasons that lead us to oppose the police, whoever she is, from any source, and in all situations.

1458432_476650485809226_4102247111885098979_n

Every week, every day spent in this company deadly extension further the list of injustices by a member of a police force. They are and they are private-are never to humiliate us, hurt us, we amputate, playing with our lives and those of our loved ones and our fellow-nes, even murder us if this is their pleasure.

Strangely, we find that the individual-e-s-e-s touched by these "blunders" repeatedly belong overwhelmingly to the working class, employé-e-s or not. bosses, bankers, traders and other dominant gangrene are spared this scourge. If the wage robs us every moment of our time, Police reminds us that even our own lives longer belong to us, and since they have the right to permanently deprive us.

Anyone who has participated so slightly in a social movement during its existence has probably faced-e, at one time or another, to police forces of repression. The riot police, groups tactical interventions, police stations and other law enforcement groups have sole vocation to break strikes, prevent contestation of the established order, suppress more or less violently political opponents. this violence, that of the State, still more arming police, equipping it with a neo-military technology and weapons "non-lethal", gives it the full capacity of "crowd control" virtually autonomously. There are trades, and trades, whose social utility is only to "break the protester", increasingly effective, ever faster, ever more inhumanity.

To ensure its reproduction and maintenance of its own domination, the ruling class uses two tools : ideology and violence. If ideology is diffused throughout society, and invites us to e-remain in the rank which is his, violence must bring in the right way deviant and opponents. The State, guarantor of this class of reproduction, ensures the monopoly of violence through its police. In other words, the social function of any police force is to ensure the continued domination of one class over another, or so 'soft' by simply applying the law, either by repression properly speaking. As a revolutionary union, we want to overthrow the ruling class, and therefore we strongly oppose to its dominant ideology, and its police.

Against police, build solidarity among each-e.

No justice, no peace.

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Call for strike on May 1 2015

A specter is haunting Quebec. this spectrum, it is the general strike. Since that time 2012, our elites know that the working class, the students, and all those that injustice and repression are not indifferent yet, may take to the streets and impose their legitimacy facing the State. But despite this dread, the apostles of capitalism, and particularly his liberal vision, cannot help but wage an open war against everything that is not a commodity, against anything that is not financially valuable. From budget cuts to police over-arming, from our underpaid jobs to public insults against the poor and the exploited, everything leads us to believe that Quebec has been blighted by unbridled capitalism. This neo-liberal paradise, protected by the state and its henchmen, ruin our daily life and that of our loved ones, willfully tramples on the remnants of our freedom, spits in the faces of the most destitute and of a misery that he himself has engendered. We long ago stopped believing in the regulatory capacity of this system. By self-destructing, he will lead us all simultaneously in his wake. Every day we experience new reminders of this planned failure: environmental disasters, rising inequalities, deterioration of working conditions, institutional racism, systemic corruption of our political system, harassment of women in their workplaces or at university ... In general, these are all forms of dominations that are increasing dangerously, pushing the exploited and dominated of our society to their limits, to install our elites on a pedestal far too comfortable.

This is why we call the rebels to the insurgency. We hope this spring will see all the rabid ones, all those who dislike this system, in the streets and in action. Because apathy is not for us, we strongly believe in our common ability to create a better world. Beyond a simple one-off fight against austerity, we see in the distance the premises of a social war, including the strike of 2012 was just the beginning. Successive and repetitive governments, from right to left, have been trying for too long to impose on us their deadly conception of the economy, and more broadly from society. A single day of strike is not enough to roll back a government that protects the financial interests of the dominant. We believe that a global revolt of the whole of society must emerge this spring. This revolt must take place on the long term : in Quebec as in Europe, too many examples of recent social movements have proven the uselessness of ad hoc actions against governments now accustomed and prepared for social discontent.

Against capitalism and liberalism, we reaffirm our right to manage our own lives, whether or not it suits those who lead us. Our daily life is ours, our cities are ours. We firmly believe that capitalism must be banned from Quebec. For that, we will always show solidarity with those who fight, but forever unsympathetic in the eyes of the resigned and prostrate. We will be alongside workers and students in struggle, and we will oppose police brutality with proletarian solidarity. In the street, in the workplace and study, in our neighborhoods, we are here to support and help you.

Let’s not be afraid of our utopias.

Dare to fight to overthrow the established order.

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Towards the strike May 1 2015!

To read this article in English, click here.

La lutte est déjà amorcée. Trade unions, les étudiant-e-s et les différents groupes sociaux sont sur un pied d’alerte. Ce printemps, nous aurons besoin d’être unis. La grève générale du 1er mai 2015 ne sera possible que si nous sommes solidaires les uns envers les autres.

Rappelons-nous que le code du travail limite le droit de grève et l’action syndicale dans le but de restreindre les effets des luttes de la classe ouvrière. Il oblige les patrons et les travailleurs et travailleuses à négocier «avec diligence et bonne foi», jusqu’à adoption d’une convention collective. Mais le patronat et l’État utilisent en tout temps les lois spéciales et les lock-out pour nous bâillonner. Mais bien sûr, cela n’est pas considéré comme des négociations de mauvaise foi…

Ce même code du travail qui fait en sorte, qu’entre deux ententes, c’est la paix sociale. Pas de possibilité de grève, pas de possibilité de revendiquer. Les grèves politiques, les grèves dans les milieux de travail, ou même encore, les grèves de solidarité, sont interdites et lourdement sanctionnées. Et si le patronat consent à offrir quelques maigres concessions, c’est au prix du silence et de la soumission des salarié-e-s pour toute la durée de l’entente.

Il faut donc se réapproprier nos moyens de luttes afin de créer un rapport de force solide et ainsi obtenir ce qui nous revient. These laws, ces droits, qu’on semble vouloir nous donner, sont dûment réfléchis. C’est pour nous berner, c’est pour nous empêcher de nous solidariser, c’est pour nous empêcher de nous unir, c’est pour nous empêcher de lutter et de gagner!

Ne nous laissons pas dicter nos moyens de lutter par nos exploiteurs.

Soyons tous et toutes solidaires.

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