This post is not intended to be a blind celebration of the police. Let’s not pretend as though the police are not largely representative of white male power and authority. But that does not mean I am anti-criminalization or anti-state. As feminists and as women, we need the state on our side.

Occupy "Greenwashing" (tar sands ≠ sustainability) in Vancouver

The Deets:

Wednesday March 14, 2012
8:00 pm start
Vancouver Convention Centre
1055 Canada Place,
Vancouver, BC

The Call Out:

Join together to shame two hypocrites - Christy Clark and Peter Kent - and prevent them from ‘greenwashing' their image when it comes to sustainability. Let them hear the voice of local opposition to pipelines and tanker traffic on BC's coast.

Today is Martin Luther King Day in the United States. Of all the commemorations and activities, among the most interesting and significant are those relating to Occupy Wall Street. The official histories do not adequately explain the extent to which King had taken up the struggle of poor and working people, his attempts to bring together a mass movement for racial and economic justice. Closely related to that was King's increasingly outspoken opposition to the brutal U.S. war against Vietnam.

If Time magazine is permitted to be generic with "The Protester" as Person of the Year, I would award a Concept of the Year for 2011: "Love and courage."

This coming week marks one year since the death of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 27-year old Tunisian fruit vendor who lit himself on fire on the local government steps, after trying in vain to stop constant constant harassment by police. He died January 4, just over two weeks after his act of self-immolation.

Occupy Vancouver demonstrators briefly blocked two gates at Port Metro Vancouver on Monday, in conjunction with a larger Occupy Strikes Back-West Coast Port Shutdown action across North America.

A few hundred activists gathered at noon at Callister Park near the Pacific National Exhibition and then marched to the Metro Port of Vancouver for the afternoon action that briefly shut down two of the port's entrances in the middle of the afternoon.