it's so wierd how fucked up the world is lately: empire invading forces, environmental distruction, global aparthied....... yet at the same time it seems like more and more people are waking up to things. this week was the first time in awhile since i've felt like i was part of a movement. every week i'm finding out about new cool projects and meeting new cool activists. every day it seems that resistance is growing and i feel like as powerful as the opposition seems that we do have a chance. we do have a chance to stop this war, we do have a chance to throw georgebush/ernieeves/tonyblair......... all these old white guys out of office. not that i have anything against old white guys, it's just that patriarchy and racism really fucking get on my nerves. i used to think that capitalism was the root of all evil. lately i've been reevaluating the symplicity of that view--- it seems that capitalism is just a symptom of a larger paradigm. it's all these intertwining values of hate, fear and greed. a system based of selfishness and fear of those who are different. and i look this system straight in the eyes and realise that the only thing i can do is dance. i can't fight it, i just have to go on like it doesn't exist and try not to be influenced by it and try to build structures outside of it and help other people to see it for what it is. all this is really abstract ranting but maybe a few of you know where i'm coming from. it's that beautiful feeling that you get when the whole downtown core is free of cars and full of people drumming and chanting and dancing. i guess i should tell you guys a little bit of what is happening lately and maybe you'll get inspired to do something in your community because to beat this thing we need as many people as possible and we're going to have to hold hands.

thursday over 1000 students took the intercection of yonge and bloor (one of the bussiest in toronto) and lay on the ground stopping traffic and gathering much media attention. the majority of students were from high schools. i had been organizing this emergency action for the past few weeks in order to oppose the united states bombing iraq; we all new it was coming. i did not expect many people to show up.... we said the day that the bombs drop and fliers were distributed just days before the action. i expected maybe 50 people on the corner when i walked out of the subway exit and when i came out i saw the whole intersection already blocked off. people were drumming singing and chanting. we handed out thousands of fliers with information on why we opposed the war to passers by and cars. it was one of the most successful energetic actions i have ever participated in and i have so much admiration for everyone who came out. snake marches branched out across the city as we visited the u.s. and british consolates and things were going strong from around 4pm untill 9pm, we even marched through the eaton center!!!!!! saturday was equally large and more actions are being planned tonight.

another inspiring thing was going to the global citizens conference were i got to meet some of the awesome takingitglobal peeps. i'm not sure if i did a good job speaking seeing as we had prepared NOTHING but i feel like we got our message out and made some really awesome contacts. all the pannelists were so awesome and we met some cool kids from kitchener waterloo.

i wonder if anyone will read this? oh well, i really needed to rant and i feel like the mainstream media is not doing a good job in covering the resistance to this war. i've been getting interviewed by the canadian press and the toronto star but i haven't seen any actual articles on high school students opposing the war. i mean for god sakes! etobicoke school of the arts had a die in at their school with 500 students blocking the hallways... in scarbro entire schools were shut down from protests against the war. where is the press? where is now magazine? eye?

oh well. i feel like these actions i'm taking right now in my life are so lifeaffirming. i am meeting so many amazing people and i feel like i really am doing my best to stop this insanity. remember folks--

::: RESISTANCE IS FURTILE :::::::


if you are in toronto and you want to get involved with the high school student anti-war efforts please email stir_it_up@post.com !
also check out our upcoming conference

www.hungry4change.ca

.