Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Start 2012 with the Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar

Start the year off with the 2012 Certain Days:

Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar, featuring 12 months of inspiring full-colour artwork and writing dedicated to shining a light on the struggles of political prisoners and their ongoing involvement in social justice movements from behind prison walls.

Order now at
www.certaindays.org.
See below for holiday shipping deadlines

Our collective will be happy to mail calendars
anywhere in the world on your behalf, and we can
even include a personalized message.

Featuring 42 gorgeous pages of full-colour art
and writings, the calendar is a thoughtful gift
and also makes an important financial
contribution supporting grassroots groups (The
New York State Task Force on Political Prisoners,
Addameer, and the Freedom Archives).

Sincerely,
The Certain Days collective
certaindays.org
_________________________________________________________________

ORDER NOW at www.certaindays.org
Join us on Facebook
(http://facebook.com/certaindays)
and help spread the word.
_________________________________________________________________

42 GORGEOUS FULL-COLOUR PAGES OF ART AND WRITINGS! A GREAT FUNDRAISER
FOR GROUPS, AN IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING, AND A
MEANINGFUL GIFT!

FEATURING amazing artwork and writings from Aric
McBay, The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid,
Claude Marks, David Gilbert, The Denver Anarchist
Black Cross, Emily Kantar, Favianna Rodriguez,
Fireworks Graphic Collective, Gerald and Maas,
Herman Bell, Jesus Barraza, Jihad Abdulmumit,
Josh MacPhee, Kara Sievewright, Kevin "Rashid"
Johnson, Lynne Stewart, Ojore Lutalo, We Are The
Crisis Collective, the RNC 8, Safiya Bukhari,
Santiago Armengod, Shannon Willmott, Supporters
of John Graham, Tim Groves and Tom Manning.

WHERE TO GET 2012 CALENDARS
Calendars can be ordered online at
www.certaindays.org
and purchased at local bookstores, distros and
community events. Calendars cost $12 (plus
shipping) and $5 for prisoners. We encourage
groups to buy in bulk ($8 each when purchasing 10
or more) and to sell them as a fundraiser. Visit
our website for more info - www.certaindays.org.

Funds raised from the sale of this calendar will
be divided between the New York State Task Force
on Political Prisoners, the Palestinian NGO Addameer, and the Freedom Archives.

__________________________________________

COINTELPRO: Repression & Resistance, Then & Now
__________________________________________

The term COINTELPRO has become synonymous with
the "tricks of the trade" of state repression:
surveillance of organizations and individuals,
the use of infiltrators and informants,
frame-ups, harassing or disproportionate use of
the legal system, and outright physical attacks.
While the term is widely used to describe
repression of liberation movements, at least in
North America, the history of the actual
COINTELPRO program its details and the lessons
to be learned from it remain relatively unknown.

Recently, we have witnessed growing awareness of
state repression of radical organizing in North
America, although it is difficult to judge to
what extent repression is actually increasing,
and to what extent this reflects the success of
the work to expose it. Certainly since September
11, 2001, the state has new tools and new
social license to go after social movements and
marginalized sectors of the population alike,
perhaps comparable to the Red Scare climate of
the 1950s, when COINTELPRO was conceived of.

In some ways, this is to be expected. Effective
movements beget repression. That being said,
resisting this backlash directly fighting back
(rhetorically, legally, physically, but also via
a more general resilience) is fundamental to
the survival of liberation movements.

In the wake of the repression associated with the
summer 2010 G20 meeting Toronto, with several
cases of infiltration in both the US and Canada
coming to light in recent years, and with ongoing
legislative changes giving government increasing
power to surveil and disrupt us, the time seemed
ripe to remind ourselves of the legacy of COINTELPRO,
and resistance to it.

In putting together the Certain Days calendar, we
always aim for a realistic balance between
bringing to light social injustice and the
challenges we face, and the inspiring work done
to meet these challenges. It is important to
speak of repression to share examples so that
we might learn from each others experiences, and
see the patterns and trends in the state's
approach. But it is impossible to do so without
also being struck by the many contemporary and
historical examples of resistance. We hope that
the information gathered in this years calendar
can help teach the difficult lessons we need to
learn to weather the storm and also provide the
inspiration we need to do so.

The Certain Days Collective
www.certaindays.org
QPIRG Concordia
1500 de Maisonneuve Ouest, suite 204
514-848-7583 fax: 514-848-7584
qpirgconcordia.org
qpirg@qpirgconcordia.org

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