Guelph Anarchist Black Cross

Letter Writing Night for Prisoners

Tuesday Jan 31st, 2012 @ 5:30-7PM

UC, Room 107, MAP

Guelph Resource Centre for Gender Empowerment and Diversity (GRCGED)
University of Guelph

Featured Prisoners:

Queer/Trans: Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald is a young African American transgender woman who is charged with two counts of “second degree murder” after an incident that began when she was violently assaulted because of her gender and race.

G20: Robin Henry was the first G20 defendant to be convicted of Two counts of Mischief Over $5000 and One count of Masking with Intent for breaking windows at a Starbucks and Bell Store. Robin served 9 months under strict bail conditions before his sentencing.

In March 2011, Robin was sentenced to one year house arrest, followed by two years probation, a $5000 fine and 300+ community service hours. Robin is currently serving his sentence in London, Ont.

You can get a copy today by ordering from our deviant comrades, Kersplebedeb: https://www.leftwingbooks.net/ who are distroing our shit.

Or if you have been waiting for awesome looking zines that people are dying to pick up, and trust us, these are hard to ignore, then drop us a line e-mail: fierce.n.fabulous1969@gmail.com. We are looking for queers who are interested in getting bulk orders 20+ to distro in your cities, we can offer whole sale prices, we just want people to read them.

Stay tuned in the future for our zine series on Queer Riots in North America, another great way of showing our crews just what queers can do.

Queers Read This

Size: 8 X 6.5″, Colour cover/insert, full bleed, 20 Pages

From the back cover:

“Queers Read This is for you when your pissed that our voices are only heard when talking in the “Gay Marriage Debate”. That our only representation on Television is dressing up fashion disasters or planning straight weddings.

Queers Read This is for when you hear chilling statistics like 100% of trans women in U.S. Prisons are sexually assaulted or raped, often by the prison staff. When your furious that the AIDS crisis didn’t “end” in the 90’s and people (read queers) are dying preventable deaths, or that way to many trans folk wind up in jail for “possession of illegal street drugs” when those drugs are the same drugs that a doctor wont prescribe them to help them transition.

Queers Read This is for you when your hoppin’ mad, or when you don’t get why those Queers are so pissed off…

Queers read this is for you…

Queers Read This was distributed originally as a leaflet at the June, 1990 Pride march in New York City.

For the 20th Anniversary of this leaflet, we offer you this piece of our history. The cultural references in this pamphlet are, at times, outdated and U.S. Centric, but the rage is timeless.”

Men Against Sexism

Size: 8 X 4″, Colour cover/insert, full bleed, 20 Pages

From the back cover:

“Men Against Sexism was made up of almost entirely queer and trans prisoners. They successfully changed a whole culture within Walla Walla prison where rape and ownership over queer/ trans prisoners went from being a power and status symbol to a reason to fear for your life.

Their work had a ripple effect to all the other prisons in the North West and 10 years later, according to MAS member Ed Mead, there were no more instances of rape within Walla Walla.

Men Against Sexism was a revolutionary queer and trans, poor and racialized group arming themselves with a solid class, gender and race analysis, along with guns, to make prisons safer for queer and trans prisoners from the inside out.

This is their story.“

Fierce n’ Fabulous Presents:

Guelph ABC’s Coming Out Brunch/Spandex Wrestling Fundraiser

in case it wasn’t clear enough, we are queer!

Sunday September 25th, 2011
From 10am till 2PM

In the front yard of 64 Alice St.

Meaty breakfast with Vegan & Gluten Free Options

Tickets before Sunday: E-mail: robinbees(a)riseup.net

Pay As Much As You Can/Sliding Scale $6-UP donation

At Brunch on Sunday:

Pay As Much As You Can/Sliding Scale $8-UP donation

Facebook Event!

Where does my donation go?

the brunch is fundraising to support members of our community who have to pay $1000 to the courts after volunteering to be sureties to get a friend out of jail. This is the latest in a chain of events targeting Queer/Trans folks in Guelph, Ont. Previously, 3 members of the Fierce & Fabulous Krew were attacked and arrested by University of Guelph police outside of an annual drag show in March 2010. These were targeted arrests of queers. Going after their sureties has been a continued attempt at criminalizing queers.

Menu for the Brunch:

Coffee!

Meaty
Sausage & eggs with home fries

Vegan/Gluten Free
Scrambled tofu & peppers with home fries

Vegetarian
Homemade pancakes with Maple Syrup

Brought to you by:

Fierce n’ Fabulous – http://queers519.wordpress.com

Guelph Anarchist Black Cross – http://guelphprisonersolidarity.wordpress.com/

The Fierce N’ Fabulous Krew will be at the Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair this Saturday distroin’ our new zines and chatting up the cuties at our table. Stop by to pick up our new release on Revolutionary Queer/Trans Prison Gangs and a re-release of Queers Read This, the classic 90′s text from some fierce angry queers. We will also have a selection of queer interviews on CD and an Audio Zine of Towards the Queerest Insurrection. Click the link to read the bookfairs call out and find out the workshops.

The 4th annual Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair is right around the corner — are you coming? It’s happening this Saturday, June 4th!

We want you all to come. It’ll be fun, promise! Together, we’ll talk all about what’s terrible, and how we might wanna fix it. We’ll sit side by side, and be glad to share our intensity, our dreams, and our relentless passion — I’m sure we’ll find that we have a lot to learn from each other! There will be over 27 vendors with books and literature, 8 workshops and discussions; and of course, free lunch and all-day childcare. For more details about the workshops, look under the ‘Workshops’ tab for an updated list.

See you Saturday!
big love, The Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair Collective

////

Finalized Schedule!

10 to 11am: Welcome! (and coffee)

11 to 12:30: Workshops!
+ Solidaity Networks // with Steel City Solidarity – JCC Rm. 9
+ Deepening Our Strength: Radical Spirituality Discussion – JCC Rm. 3
+ Tech Security // with ATS (Anarchist Tech Support) – WAHC Rm. 1

12:30 to 1:30: LUNCH!

1:30 to 3:00: Workshops!
+ Film Screening: “CopWatch: These Streets Are Watching.” // with Hamilton Copwatch – WAHC Rm. 1
+ Anarchist-Indigenous Solidarity // With the Six Nations Solidarity Network – JCC Rm. 3

3:15 to 4:45: Workshops!
+ Intro to Anarchism – WAHC Rm. 1
+ Knowing the Land is Resistance // with the KLR Collective – JCC Rm. 3
+ Anti-Gentrification Radical Walking Tour – WAHC Rm. tba

This Sunday, A member of the Fierce n’ Fabulous krew will be talking at a discussion about why us queers, and others, need a social space in this city to meet up and organize out of. Come check out the talk, it will be followed by a discussion where people can share why they would be interested in a radical social space and find out how to support a project like this. Details below

What: Guelph Social Space Discussion

Where: Unitarian Congregation(corner of York Rd. & Harris St.)

When: Sunday, May 29th @ 7PM

FREE

For years downtown Guelph has needed a space where radicals, queers, anarchists, youth and marginalized communities could meet face to face, organize resistance, and celebrate our diversity and victories.

On Sunday May 29 we are planning a discussion on how we can bring to life a Guelph Social Space @ the Unitarian Congregation on the corner of York Road and Harris Street.
The event starts at 7:00 P.M with short speeches followed by an open discussion.

We envision a space that can be used for political and social events, workshops, meetings, and small concerts. A space that can be for diverse communities and individuals who want to be involved in social resistance. We want our space to be accessible and inviting to many people while maintaining a radical intention behind the projects that spring from it. Most of all we want a space where we can be open about our desires, meet, plan, plot, collude, conspire, inspire, kindle, organize, create, stimulate, provoke, celebrate and agitate out of.

We want your help bringing the social space to life.

Individuals can be constructive when we realize our potential to affect our reality. A social space provides individuals with a collective reference point to organize from. It extends the capacities of individuals, collectives and networks in resistance. The social space we desire for Guelph can foster relationships out of a common ground. It is these relationships that have the potential power within them to make tyrants the world over tremble and to make us capable of realizing the responsibility and joy of freedom.

So come out to the Guelph Social Space discussion at the Unitarian Congregation on the Corner of York Road and Harris Street, on Sunday May 29 at 7:00 P.M

Email us at
guelphsocialspace@gmail.com

Pop Music & Zombies & Queers,

Oh My!

Fierce & Fabulous Presents:

A Queer Zombie Dance Party in Kitchener

Friday, February 18th @ 9PM

That is right Queermos, we are throwing another dance party, and this time we will be throwing down so hard it will wake the dead. Cum on out to dance under videos of zombie porn, Bring out your Stiletto’s, your best to die for outfits and all your friends to party.

We’ll be fundraising to support our fellow F n’ F er’s top surgery. If you can kick down to help out, that’s great, but don’t let an empty pocket turn you away, everyone is welcome.

hosted by: The Spot 63 Courtland Avenue E. Kitchener

suggested $5 Donation to go towards our efforts to help a trans friend and loved one within our community pay for their top surgery.

If your coming from Guelph, contact fierce.n.fabulous1969@gmail.com if you want to ride share.

Just before midnight Friday, the York Regional Police’s drugs and vice enforcement unit executed a search warrant at Delux Club on Denison St. in Markham. The pigs say their investigation revealed that sexual acts were being performed in exchange for money.

After the raid, four other residences — one in Aurora and three in Toronto — were searched by the pigs. They seized cash and documents connected to the Delux Club operation.

Included in the 27 arrests were five bawdy house keepers, 15 workers and seven other people found inside. Charges include exercising control, keeping a common bawdy house, living on the avails of prostitution, possession of the proceeds of crime and being an inmate of a common bawdy house

The raid is believed to be the largest in the province since an Ontario Superior Court judge struck down canada’s prostitution laws last month, ruling provisions meant to protect women and residential neighbourhoods are endangering sex workers’ lives.

The judge suspended her ruling from taking effect for 30 days to give governments time to respond. The federal and provincial governments are appealing the ruling.

York Regional Police say they are still laying prostitution-related charges despite the ruling. “We’re under an obligation to enforce the current laws,’’ said Const. Rebecca Boyd, a spokesperson for the force.

Status on our Constitutional Challenge for Decriminalization

From: Sex Professionals of CanadaRe: Ontario Superior Court decision Tuesday, September 28, 2010 Sex Professionals of Canada is delighted by Justice Susan Himel’s decision to acknowledge our right to legally practice our chosen profession. This important victory gives us hope that sex work will one day be fully regarded as the legitimate occupation it is. The invalidation of Section 210 of the Criminal Code, which prohibits bawdy houses, will mean that we can ensure our safety by working together indoors. We can now report abuses of anyone in our occupation to the appropriate authorities, without fear of arrest. Ontario sex workers will no longer be vulnerable to eviction or arrest on our business premises. The invalidation of Section 212 (1j) of the Criminal Code, that prohibits living wholly or in part on the avails of prostitution was developed to protect us from ‘pimps’. In practice, it makes us and our live-in partners, and even elderly parents we support, susceptible to being charged, and serving up to ten years in jail. The invalidation of Section 212 (1j), will allow our families to finally stop fearing arrest. Our employees, such as receptionists, drivers, etc. will no longer fear criminal prosecution. Section 212 (1j) has stigmatized and punished us and denied that our work is a form of gainful employment for too long. The invalidation of Section 213 (1c) of the Criminal Code prohibited “communication for the purposes of prostitution”, that means soliciting clients in any public place, including the use of cell phones, the Internet, hotel lobbies, bars, and even rooms with an open door or window. We are liable to being arrested for stopping or even attempting in any manner to stop a person or motor vehicle. Subject to the communication law, we are forced to limit our negotiating time with clients, preventing us from having enough time to determine if the client is trustworthy or potentially dangerous. All over Canada, sex workers are calling for an end to criminalization. We have developed workable plans to increase the safety of ALL community members. Our plans are detailed and could be developed to fit communities from coast to coast. We believe in having a process in place to combat youth exploitation and human trafficking, specialized policing services, sex consumer education, municipal bylaw revisions and a system of professional accreditation to ensure all workers are given access to resources and help should we need it. The tools to make safe decisions about our occupation will help combat exploitation in the sex industry, while respecting the choices of adult sex workers. Inclusion is key. Consensual adult sex workers must be included in decisions that will affect our occupation. Business owners and residents must be heard also. The only way this will truly work is if all people’s concerns and experiences are respected. Our opposition’s strategy is to eliminate prostitution, including all consensual adult prostitution. This is unrealistic and unworkable. We do not wish to be further criminalized and driven underground by anti-sex work policies. Under the guise of saving youth and trafficking victims, our opposition is willing to compromise the human rights of thousands of adult consensual sex workers. Compromising the rights of one group to “save” another is prohibited by the International Declaration of Human Rights, which explicitly states that no part of the declaration may be used to justify the removal of an individual’s rights and SPOC questions the motives of any person willing to harm a woman to save a woman. It is time to put the voices of sex workers at the forefront. It is time to move away from punishment, toward protection. We do not need to inherit other nations’ mistakes. We will be working diligently to develop a Canadian model. We would like to thank Justice Susan Himel, the legal team, all our witnesses, Alan Young , Ron Marzel, and Stacey Nichols. We would also like to thank Terri Jean Bedford, Amy Lebovitch, Valerie Scott and all the fine sex workers in Canada who have been working towards this victory. We will be keeping you posted as more information comes in. Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC) With special thanks to the British Columbia Coalition of Experiential Communities. (BCCEC) We are available for interviews regarding our current constitutional challenge to the Canadian Criminal Code (CCC) sections, 210 (bawdy house), 212(1)(j) (living on the avails) and 213(1)(c) (communicating for the purpose of prostitution)We are happy to provide you with: The reasons why we are challenging the above laws. How these laws have affected sex workers. How these sections of the CCC have directly resulted in the robberies, beatings, rapes and murders of our colleagues. Analysis of this challenge. Our contact information can be found HERE

Mission & Principles:

1. SPOC operates on the principle that all forms of consensual adult sex work are legitimate and valid. We provide a public voice that promotes the validity of our occupation.

2. We assert that one’s decision to be a sex worker is equally and unequivocally as valid of a choice as is the decision to be in any other legal occupation.

3. We maintain that sex workers deserve genuine labour rights, with industry-wide standards defined by sex workers themselves.

4. Our members, supporting members and our allies oppose those who seek to rescue sex workers via court imposed or otherwise forced or coerced re-education/exit programs, jails or camps.

5. SPOC does not affiliate itself with any political party. If an individual politician truly and publicly endorses the above four principles, SPOC will consider supporting that particular politician, but not the party as a whole.

6. We are not a social service organization.

7. We respect the privacy of all members, and no SPOC member may disclose any ‘personal’ or ‘professional’ information about any other member without expressed {written} consent from that particular member.

8. We are a volunteer run, social and political group.

Goals:

We stand for the decriminalization of all forms of sex work in Canada. We oppose legalization because it is always exploitive toward sex workers.

Decrease the isolation experienced by many sex workers by organizing sex worker-friendly social events and functions.

Publishing a bad date list so that our colleagues can communicate information about violent and dangerous clients with each other.

Media and Public Awareness:

SPOC members are available for interviews with media and students. We are also available to speak at universities, colleges and conferences. Click here to contact us.

Membership:

If you are a current or former sex worker, or an ally interested working toward the decriminalization of sex work while having fun and connecting with others, please do not hesitate to contact us. We encourage membership from all communities, sexual orientations and genders.

Donations:

As an entirely volunteer run organization, we rely on the generous support of our community and supporters. SPOC gratefully accepts donations to assist us in our work.

Donations can be made via Pay Pal by clicking the button below

or by cheque/money order payable to:

Sex Professionals of Canada.  P.O. Box # 305, 400 Parliament St., Toronto, ON,  M5A-2Z7

Time: September, 18th, 2010  12:00PM- 2:00PM

Location: Outside the 519 Community Centre- 519 Church Street. Toronto, ON.

Call-Out for Queers and Community Members to participate in a “NO QUEERS IN UNIFORM” pink bloc rally on September 18th!

Resist OPP efforts to pink-wash police at their “Serving with Pride in Policing” symposium (see detailed information below).
…Saturday, September 18th
Rally Outside the 519, 12 pm (noon)
519 Church St. Community Centre

A public demonstration will be held outside the 519 on September 18th to draw public attention to our resistance to the OPP recruitment symposium occurring inside (info below). Demonstrators are encouraged to dress as pink bloc or glam bloc. Wear your best magenta bandanas, your salmon t-shirts, your hot pink sequins, your fuchsia feather boas, and your rose stilettos and combat boots. Wear your sparkly hats, your leopard print spandex, your shiny hot pants! Coat yourself in glitter or spray paint yourself gold!

We invite you to bring noisemakers, musical instruments, boom boxes and loud speakers. Write your messages for the police on signs or on your bodies. Most importantly, bring your voices of resistance!

No queers in uniform!

On September 18, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) will be hosting a one-day Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Symposium at the 519 that will focus on “Serving with Pride in Policing – Dispelling the Myths and Breaking Down the Barriers”. (http://www.pridetoronto.com/news/opp-lgbt-symposium/) The purpose of this symposium is to recruit queers to serve as part of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

The OPP has a long history of colonialism, racism, brutality, bashing and murder in our communities across the province.

Most recently, the OPP, along with the Toronto Police, the Peel Region Police, the RCMP, and other policing and security forces made up the Integrated Security Unit (ISU) during the G20 week in June. The ISU was responsible for the arrests of over 1100 protesters and organizers during and after the G20. They were also responsible for the assault and violence suffered by countless others, who were harassed, kettled, beaten, pepper-sprayed, tear-gassed and intimidated all over the city. As we all know, the wounds left by police during the G20 and by other actions by the OPP and other police forces in this province run deep in our communities.

This rally is for those who do not wish to see more queers disappear behind a blue uniform to serve the interests of the state, further splintering our community. It is for those who are tired of seeing members of our communities targeted, harassed, assaulted, abused and discriminated against by supposedly “queer-friendly” police. It is for those who oppose the racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism displayed by the police of this province, and who wish to resist efforts to erase the violence our communities suffer at the hands of the police. Most of all, it is for all who oppose police brutality and the brutality of the OPP.

We (No Queers in Uniform) are a small team of community organizers in Toronto and Kingston. We oppose the OPP’s attempts to recruit new police officers from inside our queer communities. But on September 18, we need your help!

Resist the pink-wash! No more queers in uniform!

If you are interested in getting involved as an organizer, or if you have any questions or comments, please contact us at noqueersinuniform@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you to resist the pink-wash.

Your friends in solidarity,
No Queers in Uniform

——

No Queers in Uniform acknowledges that the OPP symposium and the rally falls on the day of Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days for the Jewish religion. We regret the necessity to hold a community action on this day, and want to acknowledge those in our communities who will be unable to attend for this reason.