ON THE LINE
Mitchell, Chip & SLAUGHTER, JANE & Jacklet, Ben & McKissack, Fred & Sadtler, Carol & METZ, HOLLY & Ness, Erik
ON THE General Strike in Ontario London, Ontario Battered by a Gingrich-stvle provincial government, the union movement in Ontario. Canada, is striking back—liter-7^a">'- A one-day. citv-\ wide...
...One vas that my oldest son was get-ing to be school age...
...This whole scenario is a lot like a David Lynch movie," adds Cathie Currie of the Washington Wilderness Coalition...
...It's a way to bring light to a country that seems to be perpetually in the dark about its problems...
...The trial stemmed from a campus scuffle during a 1993 anti-Nazi demonstration...
...Don Mills...
...Now that the uranium boom years have passed, tribal members and rural residents are left with two large pits of radioactive waste: one a defunct mine, the other a former mill...
...Welfare grants were cut 22 percent...
...For further information, contact Women's Educational Media...
...Why is confronting this issue so important in our schools...
...His self-titled debut album is Speech's first project since the breakup of Arrested Development, perhaps the most influential rap group of the last five years...
...15 Gervais Drive...
...MARK FISHER Q N_T_H F_L I_M__E New Poisons Bury Old Ones Spokane Indian Reservation, Washington Members of the Spokane Indian Tribe are joining environmental activists throughout Washington state in protest of a questionable plan for cleaning up two radioactive waste sites northwest of Spokane...
...says Ferdinand...
...Ames, who repeatedly vowed to serve jail time instead of releasing the photos, says the Minnesota Daily is considering an appeal to the U.S...
...this is not a vacaECON COMICS Activists battling the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund face another deadly enemy: boredom...
...December 11...
...In response, the Ontario Federation of Labour's November convention called for the strike, and it happened seventeen days later, endorsed by a slew of social-justice groups...
...It sounds as though he hasn't forsaken that mission...
...But Ford is suing the union, and General Motors is at the labor board asking for damages...
...got an injunction against the strike, but workers ignored it...
...Born and raised in the city, the thirty-six-year-old African-American artist sketches from memory recurrent scenes of people shot to death on the street, haggard streetwalkers turning tricks, and crack addicts crowding into ruined housing...
...On January 19...
...strip away what they needed, leave the land completely annihilated, and make their own rules about how to clean up the mess...
...For Speech, the son of journalists, rap is more than just singing about the streets or making money...
...Although both disasters were part of the same uranium project and were funded by the same mining giant the fact that the mine is on In-dian land and the mill is not makes the cleanup process even more difficult than usual...
...In Windsor, a hundred miles away, union members held an "Embarrass Harris" rally the same day in front of the chamber of commerce Ford Motor Co...
...Chasnoff hopes her work will be part of a fundamental shitt in how people address homophobia with young children...
...It's just incredible how much that company has gotten away with and continues to get away with," says Abrahamson...
...A lot of our people worked out at that mine when it was open," she charges, "and they were often put in the most hazardous positions, unknowingly...
...Her new project is aimed at preventing homophobia among dementary-school students...
...They're getting input rom the media and on the playground, but no adults are sitting hem down and telling them the ruth—that gay people exist and hey are entitled to respect as nuch as anyone else," she says...
...Chasnoff caught the attention of the lation on the Academy Awards a ew years ago, accepting Best ihort Documentary honors for ler expose of General Electric, vhile publicly thanking her esbian partner and their son...
...In some places...
...There are some things that are just so incredibly graphic, and so unbelievable, its hard to picture something that going on, on a daily basis...
...It's been far too easy for them to come in...
...The minimum wage was fro/en until the states on Ontario's southern border catch up to the Ontario level—which could be a long, long time...
...This project emerged for two easons," Chasnoff says...
...A lot of songs out now are the equivalent of a two-second sound blurb on the news, instead of a full-length film that reflects who we really are," says Speech...
...Ferdinand says he tries to "cover most every phase of everyday life," and so his drawings include churchgoers as well as crack addicts, working people as well as gang-bangers...
...Knutson says he acted in self-defense after Simmer brandished brass knuckles, a claim that county prosecutors say the photos might have refuted...
...For three decades...
...Chip Mitchell...
...and we're doing that," says C h a s n o f f. "But w e r a n across scores of gay and straight educators who said, 'You're absolutely right, this is a really crucial issue, but there's no way I can say the word "lesbian" in my classroom, or I'll be fired.' "So we decided to take a bis step backward and produce a documentary that demystifies what it means to do anti-bias education that's inclusive of lesbian and gay people...
...e-mail: wemdhe@aol.com...
...Abrahamson does...
...We're speaking to heterosexual parents and teachers...
...For more information, call Konopacki at (608) 256-0025 or e-mail huckkono@peacenet.org...
...Ferdinand says he hopes to provide gallery-goers with a glimpse of the real world...
...Someone like Pat Robertson s a lost cause, but what about people who are just forming their ittitudes...
...The Cold War was at its peak, environmental regulations were practically nonexistent, and the Spokane tribe was poor enough to try almost anything...
...For more information, contact Cathie Currie, Washing' ton Wilderness Coalition, (206) 633-1992...
...ERIK NESS tion...
...Although the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, the Canadian Auto Workers, and others pulled out all stops for London, some unions were decidedly lukewarm...
...Dawn Mining pleaded poverty...
...But things just don't work like that...
...Ten thousand braved a windchill of thirty below zero for two marches and a rally...
...They have friends: they have families they care about...
...His disquieting images, rendered on poster board with ink, colored pencils, and tempera paint, have brought him the street name Picture Man...
...If people must have a definition of what it is that they can work with, that's it...
...Journalists cannot be independent when they are called on to collect evidence for police officers...
...Sometimes I will come across something that's so incredibly powerful that I have to reproduce it," he says...
...I was never able to categorize my sound, so I just call it Life Music to, like life, show that it's a mixture of everything," Speech says...
...Harris also went after workers: the workplace health and safety agency was disbanded, and the "card-check" system of union certification was abolished in favor of the American system—this will make it much harder tor workers to organize new unions...
...It blends hip-hop, funk, soul, jazz, and folk elements into one thing...
...The next target will be Hamilton, on Februarv 23...
...Our union didn't get built in the early days by being nice and honoring a bunch of laws...
...enue...
...Energy, and PaperWorkers told members to go to work unless employers gave them the day off...
...savs Hargrove...
...She was, he says, "Down with that Ramen Noodle show...
...Officials of the United Food and Commercial Workers and of the Communications...
...I'm not worried about it...
...It's a luge undertaking, but the mix-ure of talent and compassion Thasnoff brings to her work nakes her the right person for he job...
...The series, called "Respect for All," includes the documentary with a resource guide for educators, and three fifteen-minute, age-appropriate videos for the classroom: "My Family Is Special...
...she says...
...Jim Kneeland, a spokesman for Dawn Mining, calls the plan "the safest, best common-sense option that's out there...
...The film also includes the comments of teachers and administrators, as they grapple with their own concerns over addressing this issue with children...
...Union President Buzz Hargrove said...
...sources "not destructive of press freedom," including four police reports and the statements of eleven witnesses...
...It basically started as a documentary project, like a war artist or photographer," says Ferdinand...
...Some things it takes a while to do, because it's so strong and overwhelming—like kids being killed...
...The state's proposal came first fill the pit at the mill with uncon-taminated dirt, and close the site...
...I honestly don't see why people are making such a big deal out of this...
...The Ontario Federation of Labour noted...
...I was want-ng to do something for him and ill the other kids about influenc-ng the messages they're getting about different kinds of families uid gay people...
...As an involved parent at her on's school...
...Dawn extracted earth from a mine on tribal land, transported it to the mill, and processed it into materials useful for the construction of nuclear bombs...
...It's alliance-building...
...S.Ei, Minneapolis, MN 55414-3070...
...shut down industry and government in London, a city of 325.000...
...The company insisted on a funding mechanism: the commercial import of low-level, radioactive waste from various toxic sites across the country...
...I get the opportunity to observe them doing whatever it is they do," he says...
...Newmont Mining, the largest producer of gold in North America, took up uranium mining on Spokane land during the 1950s...
...Ben Jackie FREE SPEECH When the right pounces on rap as contributing to the downfall of America, you have to wonder if it's because of people like Speech...
...it's a day of protest—we'll take it without pay.' " No member was disciplined for the illegal strike...
...He noted that prosecutors had alternative The Minnesota Daily published the photo of a fight that occurred at an anti-Nazi rally, but has withheld unpublished photos from the state...
...We set oft to produce a series of videos that would be for classroom use...
...it would be a war crime under the Geneva Convention...
...Carol Sadtler A teacher instructs elementary students in Debra Chasnoffs documentary on anti-bias education, Don't Look the Other Way...
...Viewers come away from his exhibitions, held in a local art gallery, overwhelmed by the multitude of murders the artist has depicted...
...FRED McKISSACK Tackling Homophobia at School .'an Francisco 'There were grown men in the mdience with tears in their ¦yes," says a previewer of Debra Thasnoff's new documentary...
...The film clarifies what it looks like to talk to kids in kindergarten through eighth grade in age-appropriate lessons...
...Newmont established the Midnite uranium mine on tribal land and set up the Dawn Mining Company mill site eighteen miles away...
...Holly Metz Student Editor Fights the Courts Minneapolis A judge reluctantly found a University of Minnesota student newspaper editor in contempt of court on January 25...
...The cost of cleaning the two sites was estimated at $40 million...
...It's very simple," she says...
...along with parents and students, to protest the cuts to education...
...For more information, contact Sheila Keenan, Ontario Federation of Labour...
...they won't have much...
...If we don't take a stand soon, we'll have nothing left but a barren piled rocks...
...A clause in the lease between the tribe and Dawn Mining exempted the company from all liability for environmental damage...
...and "Shattering Stereotypes...
...If this was a diet for prisoners of war...
...I try to show that these are people who are just like anybody else, any place else in the world...
...BARRISTERS GALLERY Picture Man New Orleans For the past ten years, Roy Ferdinand Jr., a former Black Tiger gang member, has been making mixed-media drawings to portray the harsh reality of everyday life in the poorest neighborhoods of New Orleans...
...There are no superheroes here—just ordinary people struggling against the abstract economics that lays waste to so many parts of the Third World...
...Medicare, schools, child care, provincial grants to municipalities, aid to the disabled, workers" compensation— all hacked...
...Because it's kind of on the same level, documenting battle zones...
...The state bought it...
...The lyrics are simple, fresh, and to the point, as with the song, "Ask Somebody Who Ain't (If You Think the System's Workin...
...Don't Look the Other Why...
...It begins with Speech getting out of the car at a fast-food restaurant...
...He notices a woman, about thirty-five, with three kids, applying for a job...
...In another scene, an energetic soccer coach demonstrates to older kids—using a soccer ball—that concealing his gay identity would handicap him as certainly as trying to play soccer while hiding one of his legs behind him...
...On January 28, the jury acquitted protester Kiernan Knutson, twenty-four, of two felony assault charges for clobbering admitted "white-power" advocate Daniel Simmer, twenty-four, with a heavy, police-style flashlight...
...She links weak health and environmental regulations to the inordinately high rate of cancer on the reservation...
...Sorta like a college student...
...The state is responsible for the mil], and federal agencies are responsible for the mine...
...415) 641-4616...
...The judge originally backed the Daily's First Amendment claim on December 29...
...Many teachers marched on the legislature in Toronto January 13...
...They just turn their heads and close their eyes, and figure if they do, it'll go away...
...says Dave Robertson of the Canadian Auto Workers, "management went to the work force and said, "How about if we give you a vacation day?' Our members said...
...If you look too closely, you see that everything's just coated with slime...
...It would allow the Dawn Mining Company to import some thirty-five million cubic feet of radioactive waste into an area already permanently altered from uranium projects...
...Women's Educational Media, has been fraught with complications due to the touchy subject matter...
...At 37.000 people, it was the largest demonstration Ontario has seen in twenty years...
...Chasnoff has made irst-hand observations of chil-Iren's budding attitudes...
...This album picks up where Arrested Development left off, with Speech singing about the state of black folks...
...community and social-services minister David Tsubouchi issued a welfare diet of three dollars a day, suggesting that recipients should buy tuna in bulk and haggle with shopkeepers...
...Kids orm their attitudes about gay people while they're in elemen-ary school...
...Leo Wain-house of the Division of Radiation Detection says, "There's so much stuff out there that's far more hazardous...
...TTieec are images that exist all around us, but most of the time, people choose to ignore them...
...A second strike will target the city of Hamilton...
...The project Chasnoff under-ook with co-producer Helen Co-len and Chasnoff's nonprofit film ompany...
...I don't know why people don't go back to their roots...
...But the other thing that did it or me was watching the Repub-ican Convention in 1992...
...Far from the gun-toting, gangsta-leaning, jock-grabbing stereotypes the mainstream media hype when discussing rap, Speech combines dope beats with politically aware lyrics...
...Health department officials downplaj the danger of the material that would be brought in...
...More important, thirty-five factories organized bv the Canadian Auto Workers were shut down tight, as were the bus system, the post office, a Kellogg's plant, a Labatt's brewery, government offices, a community college, and some schools...
...Debbie Abrahamson, a member of the Spokane Tribe, says that Dawn Mining's proposal takes a deplorable situation and makes it worse...
...This album, in many ways, illustrates my frustrations with the current environment...
...Jane Si u'ch itk Union members protest government cutbacks during the December 11 general strike in London, Ontario...
...Abrahamson would like to see more awareness on the reservation of the history of the mines "It's really sad to see oppression pushing us to such a desperate level where we'll take what* can get," she says, "even if it's table scraps—even if it's contaminated table scraps...
...Start talking about structural-adjustment programs at your next social gathering and watch people's eyes glaze over...
...When kids are allowed to use anti-gay names, that sends a very powerful message about what group in society is allowed to be demeaned," Chasnoff says...
...I feel like we're opening up the possibilities of changing what the next generations of kids are taught in school...
...His next show will feature portraits of the many people he's known who have died, "not as a result of chemical reactions from drugs, but as a result of chemical reactions from gunpowder...
...Hennepin County Judge John Stanoch cited Ames, and slapped the newspaper with a $250 daily fine that accrued for two days...
...And when the state supreme court refused to hear an appeal, Judge Stanoch cracked down...
...Arrested Development, he said, was about bringing political and spiritual awareness together with music...
...We knew going into it there would be some of these charges...
...Supreme Court...
...Writer Alec Dubro and artist Mike Konopacki have finally broken through the ennui with The World Bank: A Tale of Power, Plunder and Resistance, a color comic book that lays out the history of the bank and its abuses in compelling and accessible style...
...She pulled her boot strapslBut her boots were torn/And her feet were worn out from all the bull crap/This country promised her the pursuit of happiness...
...Pat Robertson was running on this platform of blatant homophobia ind I thought, 'Where have we :ome as a country that someone :an run for President and his ba-¦ic platform is that gay people ¦hould be locked up?' It terrified ne...
...Hanging out with the guys on the street, playing basketball and talking...
...In a "friend of the court" brief to the appeals court, they said forced disclosure encourages readers and viewers "to consider journalists as investigators for the government...
...In one sequence, a kindergarten teacher reads her class a picture book about a child with two lesbian parents, then gently leads a discussion about the child's feelings...
...Ontario Premier Mike Harris's Conservative Party was elected last June on a platform that would make Republicans green with envy...
...citv-\ wide strike on MonL^JC'IJ&fl day...
...We only have so much money, and bv the time they divide it all up...
...however, the state appeals court ordered (he Daily to cough up the shots...
...F01 more information, contact Mm-nesotu Daily, 2301 University At...
...Don't Call Me That...
...The newspaper's fight has attracted support from two dozen Minnesota and national newsor ganizations...
...Her documentary shows parents and teachers that discussions about lesbians and gays don't have to be awkward and uncomfortable...
...Government employees will be laid off by the thousands...
...Plans are to strike city by citv, culminating in a province-wide protest...
...Ontario M3C 1Y8: (416) 441-2731...
...The editor, Michele Ames, twenty-six, refused to release some unpublished newspaper photographs that were sought in an assault trial...
Vol. 60 • March 1996 • No. 3
