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Halloween and Freedom School events– this weekend!

Monday, October 27th, 2008

There are 2 great events affiliated with EXILE happening this weekend!

1) Freedom School Day: Saturday, November 1, 2008

EXILE doesn’t like getting up early any more than you do, but we’d love if you did it this once and came out to make the first Day of Free School a success!

When: Saturday, November 1st, 9AM-1PM
Where: Ottawa Public Library, Main Branch, bottom floor in the Meeting Room
Why: Because school CAN be fun! We promise!

Here is the workshop schedule:

9AM-10AM: Queer Zine Making
Hosts: Patrick and Elke
Description: Learn about the history of zines, their relevance to queer culture, and how to make ‘em, then try it out yourself from the materials and inspiration supplied!!

10AM-11AM: IPSMO and the Struggle for Barriere Lake
Host: Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa
See what’s been going on lately at Kanehsatake Indian Reservation and how you can help.

11AM-11:45PM: Internet Security
Host: Krishna
Krishna will show you some basics to keeping your Internet browsing safe and secure from organizations prowling for private information.

11:34-12:00PM: BREAK! COMPLIMENTARY COFFEE AND SNACKS plus goodies for sale at the library cafe.

12:00PM-1:00PM: Guitar Skillzzzz
Host: And
Bring your guitar or guitar related questions or your own knowledge to make this bad-ass workshop a success.

1:00PM GO HOME AND HAVE A NAP BECAUSE YOU NEED TO REST BEFORE THE ROCKY HORROR PUNK SHOW TOMORROW AT EXILE!!

2) Rocky Horror Punk Rock Show: Sunday, November 2, 2008

Halloween comes but once a year, and when it does it’s always good to stretch it out for as long as possible and milk it for all it’s worth. That’s why, two days later, Exile Infoshop will be hosting a screening of The Rocky Horror Punk Rock Show, a punk rock version of the musical classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Bands like Pansy Division, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Tsunami Bomb and Swingin’ Utters will satisfy your post-Halloween withdrawal in this version of the original Rocky Horror Picture Show, dubbed over with punk rock covers of the film’s original songs.

It’s all happening on Sunday, November 2nd, at Exile. Doors at 7:30pm, show starts at 8pm. Cheap vegan snacks! Popcorn! Etc! Cover: pay-what-you-can.

For more info, contact us!

…and stay tuned for info regarding an EXILE poster callout coming your way soon!

major EXILE clean-up session!

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Hello dear EXILE Infoshop friends and lovers!

Some news that we’re sure you’ll all be thrilled to hear: EXILE is going to be CLOSED during our regular 12-5pm business hours on Sunday, September 14th, for a major clean-up and de-clutter session.

This means that the space will be looking a lot better in a few weeks. It also means that if you or your activist group has items stored in our space, it all has got to GO! Everything that should not be there, no matter how cool it may be, will be tossed/given away/recycled.

RESIST THE POLICE STATE - Event

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

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RESIST THE POLICE STATE
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Members of Vancouver’s Anti-Poverty Committee (APC) and Toronto’s Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) discuss their organizing in opposition to the 2010 Olympics and prisoner justice work.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<>>
Saturday, June 28, 2008
7PM - FREE
@ EXILE Infoshop (256 Bank St. - Second floor)
<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<>>

Featuring:

*Dave Cunningham - APC*
Dave is an organizer with Vancouver’s Anti-Poverty Committee and writes for Direct Action. DA is an autonomous group of political saboteurs who militantly agitate for the disruption of the 2010 Corporate Police State.

Alongside actively participating in acts of aggression against the 2010 infrastructure and corporate sponsorship, we have taken on the re-distribution of information and communiques from the escalating campaign of property destruction targeting 2010.

They operate with the utmost respect for the grassroots organizing happening against 2010. They believe that the organic conditions of today’s social movements are not yet capable of conducting acts of aggression without being destroyed by the State. So with this acceptance we have organized our selves autonomously and taken up direct action to destabilize 2010 by utilizing all means available and striking by any means necessary.

*Sara Falconer - ABC*
Sara is a member of the Toronto Anarchist Black Cross Federation (ABCF), a group that provides support to political prisoners in North America. She works on the Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar, and www.4strugglemag.org, a zine of writings by and for prisoners and their supporters. Toronto ABCF is committed to acting in solidarity with First Nations prisoners.

MORE INFO:
bones[at]exilebooks.org

EXILE IS MOVING AND FUNDRAISING

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

Some exciting news from the Infoshop: We’re moving!!! Ok, it’s only
across the hall to a larger, brighter, and relatively (given the dominance of “markets”) affordable space.

The new space will be located in Suite 200 (formally A & H Records) of our current building, 256 Bank St. It has three large windows that can be seen from Bank St., and the floor space is more than double our current room.

In this new space we will be able to provide a larger and more serene lending/reading library, expanded books/zines/accessories selection, we will be adding a commercial music section, and we will also provide more free computers, free wire-less internet, and fairly traded Zapatista coffee. It will have a large, decorated, launching-pad for the revolution. Militants with heart-conditions, please be advised. Unfortunately, due to the fact we are remaining in the same building, we are still not fully accessible. We should note that we still believe this location is temporary (and the best from limited options) and will continue to plan for an accessible, permanent, move in the nearish future.

Nonetheless, WE WILL BE RE-OPENING MAYDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In our efforts to prepare the new space for coffee, intellectual romance, and summer of fire and rage, we are launching a funding blitzkrieg. We aim to collect 2000 bucks by Mayday and we are hoping that YOU can help reach our goal. Please consider making a donation. Cash received will go directly into preparations for the new space.

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TO DONATE:
*drop by and give cash in person
*mail to address (http://www.exilebooks.org/en/contact-us/)
*email paperpusher(at)exilebooks.org
*call 613.237.9270

PLEASE SUPPORT THE INFOSHOP!!!!
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Please note we will be closed Wednesday April 30th, 2008. The following day, please drop by for our re-opening. Please stay tuned for more delicious details.

*Toward a life without drudgery — for a holiday without beginning or end*

Upcoming Event:
Own Your Media! Building a Grassroots News Cooperative

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

Dear EXILE Infoshop friends and lovers,

Some information regarding an upcoming EXILE-sponsored event:

Own Your Media!
Building a Grassroots News Cooperative

Thursday, MARCH 6th @ 7pm
Jack Purcell Community Centre, RM 201
Refreshments provided

“The media is the place where we have a discussion with each other. We can’t know everyone individually. We do it through the media. When the kitchen table that we all sit around is controlled by a very few, they are deciding who comes to the table, and that can determine the decisions that are made, when we go to war and when we don’t.”
- Amy Goodman, journalist

Do you know more about American Idol’s Top 24 than about the people in Fort Chipewyan dying of rare cancers? Are you aware that peep toe shoes are the hottest thing this spring, and oblivious of the fact that the minimum wage in oil-rich Alberta is actually the lowest in Canada? Did you hear plenty from American and Israeli politicians when the border between Gaza and Egypt was broken in January, and nothing from the Palestinian women who made it happen?

Corporate-owned media serves its own interests by reporting stories that benefit its owners, shareholders and advertisers. If media is to serve the people – to report stories that are important to our lives – it needs to be controlled by the people.

The Dominion (dominonpaper.ca) provides accurate, critical news coverage on events, policies and movements in Canada. It is also a multi-stakeholder coop, owned and operated by its readers and journalists.

The Dominion is now taking Canadian media to the next level. With a comprehensive five-year plan, The Dominion aims to build an independent news cooperative that will challenge the corporate press in Canada – and publish the stories you need to know about.

You are invited to attend a presentation, where you will be given the opportunity to Own Your Media!

Find out what Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky and John Pilger say about The Dominion! dominionpaper.ca/coop/endorsements

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
Indymedia - Ottawa, EXILE INFOSHOP, OPIRG-Carleton, CKCU 93.1FM, CHUO 89.1FM

In solidarity,

The EXILE Infoshop collective

Protesters disrupt VANOC ceremony in Ottawa

Thursday, February 7th, 2008

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

Anti-Olympics protesters disrupted a VANOC event today in Ottawa. The event was meant to celebrate the unveiling of the Omega Countdown Clock, a clock counting down to the 2010 Olympic Games.

Roughly 25 protesters, many affiliated with the People’s Global Action group, stormed the event with banners saying “no Olympics on stolen native land” and “occupation anywhere resistance everywhere”. The group made their way to the front of the stage where they proceeded to disrupt the whole event, chanting “no Olympics on stolen native land” and “homes not games”.

No arrests were made. A larger anti-Olympics, anti-SPP and anti-G8 march is planned for February 12th.

For more info on the Olympics, visit http://no2010.com.

RESISTANCE 2010
RIOT 2010

http://ottawa.indymedia.org/en/2008/02/6807.shtml

CSIS and the Olympic Police State

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

-Press release sent in response to artical below-

CSIS and the Olympic Police State:

The Anti-Poverty Committee, and others, have been publicly targeted by Canadian Security and Intelligence Services (CSIS), again.

Over the weekend, news outlets released a document from CSIS that outlined their intention to surveil and neutralize anti-Olympic protest groups.

This news comes as no surprise to most groups. Following last February’s disruption of the countdown clock VANOC made a joint statement vowing to utilize all forces and affiliated security agencies, which include the RCMP, the VPD, the Canadian Armed Forces and CISIS, to ‘target specific protesters and protest groups’.

Mary Claremont of the APC said, “This is what we have been protesting. Not just the Olympic lies and the millions of wasted dollars, but the coming Olympic police state. People thought we were nuts, but look, from 40 kilometers of electric fence, surveillance cameras, civil city, CSIS, add this and every thing else up- and its here.”

Mary pointed out that the APC has already been targeted with mass arrests, mis-information campaigns and the incident that had an organizer arrested by police posing as a journalist. As well organizations associated with the APC, like the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, have been targeted.

“We echo the concerns of the BC Civil Liberties Association. We also fear police intervention, surveillance and undercover operations. In fact we are certain that we have been and continue to be subject to all these things.”

“But this is all part of the Olympic package. It states very clearly in the rules of the IOC that there shall be no protests or strikes allowed. We want to know how far they are prepared to go. CSIS does not just look into things. The history of covert intelligence agencies and their relationship with protest organizations, especially direct action groups like ours, has been one of state sponsored disruption and violence.

Mainstream media article:
‘CSIS on lookout for violent protests at 2010 games’

EXILE Freedom School ***Sign Up Now!!!***

Monday, December 10th, 2007

Education is freedom! We seek to provide a space for community-based
learning in order to empower and inspire each other to take control of our
lives and minds. We are launching the EXILE Freedom School in mid-January
2008 and we want all of you to get involved!

The school will have two ongoing components: regular weekly courses running for
at least 2 months, and a weekly skill-share that changes from week to week.

The topics we have brainstormed for the weekly courses include: Women’s
Health Action Collective, prisoner solidarity/support, combat training,
food issues/cooking, radical art and a reading group. The direction of
each course would depend entirely on the interests of those involved. All
courses will be fully participatory and each group will decide its
direction, space and schedule collectively. Sign up sheets are at Exile
for each of these classes.

If you have other ideas for weekly classes, talk to us! All ideas are
welcome, this project is for the broader Ottawa community and we want as
much diverse participation as possible.

Skill-share courses would vary week to week and topics will be determined
based on what the community desires to learn or offer. A skill-share sign
up sheet is also in the shop.

The EXILE Freedom School can use the space while it is closed (all day
Mondays and Tuesdays, after 8pm any other day). If you know of a larger,
more versatile and accessible space that could be used please let us know.

Against a life of drudgery and for a holiday without beginning or end.

NOW AVAILABLE: Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

This year’s CERTAIN DAYS calendars are available at the shop.  They cost 15$ and this year’s theme is the legacy of the BPP. The calendar is a joint fundraising and educational project between outside organisers in Montreal, and three Political Prisoners being held in maximum-security prisons in New York state: Herman Bell, David Gilbert and Robert Seth Hayes. The initial project was suggested by Herman, and has been shaped throughout the process by all of our ideas, discussions, and analysis. All of the members of the outside collective are involved in day-to-day organising work other than the calendar, on issues ranging from refugee and immigrant solidarity to community media to prisoner justice. We work from an anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, feminist, queer and trans positive position.

The proceeds from Certain Days 2008 will be divided among these groups:

Free all Political Prisoners!
Free all Prisoners of War!

for more info go to: certaindays.org

Haymarket Remembered

Monday, November 12th, 2007

Nov. 11th marks the 120th anniversary of the Haymarket Tragedy. Actions took place around the world to mark this significant date in Anarchist and labour history. In Ottawa, the Anarchist Discussion Group hosted a talk on Anarchy and the Anarchist tradition with Cindy Milstein.

The Rise-UP! on CKCU featured an interview with Nicolas Lampert, author of Struggles at Haymarket: Embattled History of Static Monuments and Public Interventions, published AK’s Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority reader. Nicolas talks about the history of Black Friday and the ongoing battle over the public presentation of the events between Anarchists, organised labour, and the state. Nicolas also discusses the importance of keeping radical histories alive, efforts to confront state-friendly “safe” history, and urges individuals to take an active role in participating in these monuments – wherever you happen to be located, because there is no shortage of state-friendly historical tributes - by altering them.

Listen to the interview on A-Infos:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=25476

Visit Nicolas Lampert’s website:
machineanimalcollages.com