Rabble Rants: Events Cancelled for Palestine
Direct actions work. The past two weeks have seen multiple Palestinian solidarity actions shut down Liberal fundraisers and galas with fascists. They have drawn attention to illegal land sales, Canadian companies arming Israel, and the racist violence of Zionists here in Canada.
Our hosts go over some of these actions, the tactics they used, the responses and the results.
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Resources:
- CIA Handbook on Sabotage
- Referenced Episode: Courage Needed: Advocating for Palestine
- Referenced Episode: We Keep Us Safe - Blueprints of Disruption
- World Beyond War: Kraken Technology Action Statement
- Independent Jewish Voices Response Letter to Selina Robinson
- UPDATE: Aid Funding Restored
- CBC: Real Estate Events in Thornhill
- CBC: Trudeau Meloni Event Cancelled
Transcript
Welcome to Rabble Rants. I'm Santiago Gelo Quintero and alongside Jess McLean, we're going to unpack
Speaker:the stories that have us most riled up and challenge the narratives around them. If you're listening
Speaker:to this rant on the Blueprints of Disruption feed, we're happy to announce that these rabble
Speaker:rants now have their own feed under that very name. We've linked it in the show notes to
Speaker:make it easier for you to find. So we have a call to action for us. Can you subscribe to
Speaker:us there, but also share us? Share us with a friend, a comrade, another agitator, maybe
Speaker:someone who needs a little encouragement to disrupt. Point them our way, will you? Let's
Speaker:get to today's episode. We've got some good news. A lot of victories to share, a lot of
Speaker:actions over the past week or two that have yielded tangible results for the pro-Palestinian
Speaker:movement in Canada. We're gonna start with two in Toronto, where protesters managed to shut
Speaker:the events down, as well as draw some really interesting attention to the movement. And
Speaker:possibly movement in terms of... the Canadian federal government's positions. So let's get
Speaker:to them. Outside the AGO on March 2nd, protesters, they were successful. There was supposed to
Speaker:be a big gala there. It was Prime Minister Trudeau was welcoming the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia
Speaker:Maloney. I feel like that was like a twofer, because I mean, anywhere Trudeau goes obviously
Speaker:is fair game, but then you throw a whole fascist. prime minister and it's just you don't really
Speaker:need any more excuses to shut this one down and they did such a good job. Yeah, I cannot
Speaker:believe that we had. Well, you know what? That's not true. I can't say that. I can't believe
Speaker:it. It's more that I'm incredibly fucking frustrated at the reception that we give to a literal
Speaker:fucking fascist.
Speaker:That obviously should not be surprising. You know, we applauded a fascist in parliament.
Speaker:We're supporting a fascist regime in Israel. At the same time, there was something about,
Speaker:you know, I quite like the AGO. That's the art gallery of Ontario. We're always so- I go there
Speaker:when it's free sometimes. Yeah, I, bringing the Italian Prime Minister there felt very
Speaker:just like- Ick. Fuck you. Yeah, like very ick, very icky. Seeing that it got shut down, but
Speaker:also seeing all of the discourse online afterwards was so funny. Like, I don't know how many times
Speaker:we've mentioned him on the show that MP Marco Mendicino, he tried to get all the Italians
Speaker:really riled up about this, like feeling like they were victimized. And I obviously it was
Speaker:framed as anti-Semitic. You know, I want to talk a little bit about the tactics, though.
Speaker:I was watching it. I was not there. I was watching it on the live stream. Kudos to whoever was
Speaker:hosting it. I the art gallery of Ontario has many, many entrances. Obviously, it's like
Speaker:main entrance. And ideally, these folks would have been photographed kind of going in, standing
Speaker:tall in their pretty outfits through the main entrance, their chosen entrance. And so that
Speaker:was where. protesters seem to start. You know, at the beginning of every action, you don't
Speaker:quite have the numbers that you do, maybe half hour, 45 minutes in, once people know that
Speaker:it's on or get down there. And so they had one entrance blocked, but it quickly became apparent
Speaker:that security for the attendees were going to bypass that entrance and use one of the many,
Speaker:many back doors, side doors that the AGO had. And the response of the activists on site there.
Speaker:was impressive. They quickly realized what was happening, saved the proper amount of numbers
Speaker:for one entrance, and then quickly moved participants around the building, stopping at each entrance,
Speaker:stationing enough people there, and then continuing on. And they just continued to kind of bolster
Speaker:these numbers strategically in places that made it almost impossible for the guests. to get
Speaker:in. And then when security really tried to push the issue, when the big guns came out, when
Speaker:Hamad Hussein showed up, they tried to clear a path through the one entrance and then the
Speaker:protesters used an excessive amount of noise. I shouldn't say excessive because it was successive.
Speaker:It was just really, you could see it was really jarring for the MP, even for their security
Speaker:detail and the cops, they were just flinching and just like... They just wanted to turn away
Speaker:from it. And in the end, that's exactly what they did. People got great footage of the MP
Speaker:of, now this is the Minister of International Development. This is the man responsible for
Speaker:cutting the funding to UNRWA, to the UN Refugee Funds for people of Palestine. And they were
Speaker:all turned away. And in the end, it was canceled. They canceled the event. And I guess Marco
Speaker:Mendicino didn't get his chance to rub elbows with his favorite fascist. He got particularly
Speaker:worked up, but yeah, like you said, a lot of people, the Sun was using its typical pro-Hamas
Speaker:language to describe the protesters. You know, this is one of those, those occasions where,
Speaker:you know, how everyone likes to bring up the, what would you have done during, you know,
Speaker:Nazi times and stuff. Here we have a literal OG Italian fascist. It can't be more clear
Speaker:than that about whose side people are on. And can I just say like the whole Marco Mancino
Speaker:thing? I mean, first of all, I lived for a long time in an Italian neighborhood. My Italian,
Speaker:my partner's Italian, and every Italian that I've talked to has found this incredibly funny
Speaker:because Italy does have the fascist history. It also has a very rich anti-fascist history.
Speaker:And to assume that Italians are just gonna go along with the pro-fascism is... incredibly
Speaker:misguided and we saw a ton of that on Twitter. You're going to play Bella Ciao? Oh, yeah,
Speaker:absolutely. I was a big fan of some good, you know, anti-fascist. That's been waiting in
Speaker:the wings. Yeah. So that was that was really funny. It's also one of the things that this
Speaker:shows, you know, is the disruption of events when you have the right numbers and there's
Speaker:actual politicians there. who have images that they need to preserve. Yeah. Those are a recipe
Speaker:for success. Right? They are. Like, that was really bad press for Trudeau, for MP Hussein.
Speaker:It was an embarrassment for the Toronto police. Uh, another funny story. So, obviously, the
Speaker:event got shut down. They couldn't control the situation, thankfully. At some point, they
Speaker:even had... many of their horses, all the king's horses and all the king's men seemed to be
Speaker:out there trying to push the crowd back. And after the event was shut down and the protesters
Speaker:dispersed, the police lined up at the main entrance for a photo. So it was just them, no one around
Speaker:them. They were holding down the situation and that image was taken after the protests. So
Speaker:They were trying their best to improve their PR around that because all the money that they're
Speaker:given and they still couldn't make way for PM Trudeau to get through to his gala dinner.
Speaker:And I don't imagine that went over well for them. So I hope some cop somewhere is really
Speaker:upset. And that makes me happy. I think that's a I think that's the funniest part, too. Right.
Speaker:I wonder what impression is left on, you know, Georgia Maloney. Like, I hope he's like, oh,
Speaker:you know. They can't even control a small little uprising at an art gallery? What is this? Rookies.
Speaker:Like, you know...
Speaker:Another successful shutdown though, just the other day. Krista Freeland, we never need any...
Speaker:That's all you need to know. She was showing up somewhere, so you can shut it down. That
Speaker:is a green light. But she was also with Yara Sachs, that's the MP for York Center. And she's
Speaker:been a particular treat during all of this. And they were planning a $750 a plate fundraiser
Speaker:that I think a lot of folks might want their money back, or not. I mean, they're just throwing
Speaker:their money at liberals anyway. So their conscience is not an issue. But protesters, again, you
Speaker:know, used the amount of numbers that they had, formed a human chain, linked arms, they were
Speaker:singing. They attempted to block the entrance, but police apparently were there to enforce
Speaker:the bylaw of the amount of clearance you need to give a business if there even is one. I'm
Speaker:not sure what their justification there was, but they cleared a space so pedestrians could
Speaker:get by. Some folks did get in, but in the end, Christopher Eland did not show up. And when
Speaker:the folks at, I believe it was Eglinton Lawrence, Don Valley for Palestine, our friends over
Speaker:there. asked police if Yara Sacks had made it in the MP for York Center, and the cop didn't
Speaker:know who she was. And so that was a fun little moment for everyone to just shit on her a little
Speaker:bit. Yeah, I thought, again, I was watching that on the live stream and one, not only were
Speaker:they successful in shutting it down, but they had the forethought or what not, a planning
Speaker:of having banners, clear banners that describe the purpose of the event. And those people
Speaker:were outward facing to the public, and the rest of people's energies were focused on the restaurant
Speaker:and the attendees in there. But then anyone passing by, driving by, taking photos, knew
Speaker:exactly why everyone was there. The messaging was kind of facing out, right? So yeah, it
Speaker:was this tiny entrance. I think just like one entrance, Yorkville's pretty small. So it was,
Speaker:I think, a little bit easier to shut down than the ADO, but nonetheless. I think it's becoming
Speaker:clear to these liberals that they are not going to be able to fundraise as usual. There is
Speaker:no business as usual at all for these MPs, especially if they've got public events that have been
Speaker:broadcast in any way. So kudos to those folks there that move quickly on that one. This is
Speaker:exactly what we like to see, right? People like Garcia Freeland shouldn't be able to go absolutely
Speaker:anywhere without being met by a crowd, much less a schmancy dinner. in the middle of the
Speaker:city. No, you know, like I hope that if they want to be able to successfully fund their
Speaker:fundraisers, they're gonna have to go into the middle of nowhere where no, you know, a town
Speaker:of 50 people with a singular restaurant and bring in some private chefs or something to
Speaker:be able to pull that off because in the city, no, they should never ever be able to do that.
Speaker:And they're not, right? At least not here, not Vancouver. There's a lot of core places that
Speaker:are doing a great job of pretty much making those folks persona non grata On top of other
Speaker:institutions that are really fucking around. Uh, so to our next action Uh, it's part of
Speaker:a larger action That is in new jersey and new york as well because there are real estate
Speaker:agents Endorsed by keller williams. They're called my home in israel Here in Ontario, there's
Speaker:a realtor, Darren Rich, who is using spaces at synagogues to hold sales, real estate sales
Speaker:of illegally occupied Palestinian land. These are Zionist settlements that have been deemed
Speaker:illegal. And the receipts are all over. I'll link you to folks that have taken screenshots
Speaker:of the real estate listings as they were up. Because of the amount of attention that this
Speaker:has gotten, they've been taken down. Keller Williams, the real estate investment company
Speaker:there, is trying to distance themselves from the people actually holding this. Either way,
Speaker:it was part of their network and their listings. And this, I imagine, is a fucking crime. So
Speaker:you have folks in Canada buying illegally occupied land. And... During this fucking genocide,
Speaker:the fact that they'd have the gall to have these events right now makes me so fucking angry.
Speaker:Like I'm starting to shake talking about this one. Also because I was there in Thornhill
Speaker:when an action organized by Gada Sasa, we've had her on our show before, we called it Courage
Speaker:Needed to Advocate for Palestine, that episode actually dropped on October 5th. And it's so
Speaker:ironic that like a few days later, it was like, became so obvious how much courage it would
Speaker:actually take. This was a hard one to organize for Gata because it was inside a synagogue.
Speaker:It had originally been planned for a community center, but the city got with of it was like,
Speaker:hell no, that is way too hot potato. You got to move it. And so the realtor was managed
Speaker:to secure space at the BAYT synagogue in Thornhill. And obviously. with the movement being painted
Speaker:as anti-Semitic with everything they do, the idea of advertising a protest outside a synagogue
Speaker:was a hard one. People are trying to manage image and I'll admit, when it was at the community
Speaker:center, you know, I told Gata I would be there. And then I did second guess for a moment, going
Speaker:when it was moved outside the synagogue. And then I asked myself, What the fuck am I worried
Speaker:about? Am I worried about like image? Am I worried about the anti-Semitic label? Because I get
Speaker:that every time I post about anything anyway. And I felt really silly and it was not a good
Speaker:moment for me to even have those doubts. That action wasn't able to shut it down because
Speaker:the numbers weren't there at the beginning. A consideration is not only about personal
Speaker:image and times like that. But I imagine part of the worry was also about how the movement
Speaker:itself might look. Because, you know, we know what's going on here. We know why they chose
Speaker:to move it to a synagogue of all places, right? It's being set almost as a type of bait. Like,
Speaker:come shut it down if you dare, right? They have these statements lined up already. It's not
Speaker:just about the personal choices, but it's about the movement. And it's something that I don't
Speaker:think it's silly to be thinking about that. I think it's important to always be considering
Speaker:how our actions might affect the movement. But in this case, you sit there, you think about
Speaker:it, you make the decision and you go. But I think it's okay to have doubts for a second
Speaker:there. In terms of the movement, if Gata calls me into battle, I'm going. you know, if she
Speaker:has given me the green light on something. But yeah, I do understand the kind of issues that
Speaker:are built in there. Thankfully, though, there is another not thankfully there's another sale,
Speaker:but there is another sale set for today, expecting a counter protest as well here in Thornhill.
Speaker:And then there was one last week in Montreal where independent Jewish voices did. mobilize
Speaker:against that sale. Now I don't think anyone was successful in shutting down the events.
Speaker:I apologize if I'm incorrect, but they surely aren't doing these sales in the dark anymore.
Speaker:And hopefully there's some repercussions here because I know that the listings have been
Speaker:removed from Keller Williams website, but we know that the sales are still going on through
Speaker:My Home in Israel Realtors. And with all of what we know coming from the ICC. I can't believe
Speaker:that authorities haven't, oh, I can believe it, but it's very hypocritical that they're
Speaker:considering granting injunctions against protests against illegal sales. Like injunctions are
Speaker:usually because, you know, there's been economic hardship, they've got to keep business going,
Speaker:there's something that needs to keep happening. And so you issue an injunction so it can keep
Speaker:happening. And they're thinking of green lighting. There's also talks going on that involve IDF
Speaker:soldiers in Montreal, like talking about how great it is to be in the IDF. And those are
Speaker:recruitment sessions. And again, any protests outside of there have been labeled as we can
Speaker:imagine that they've been labeled, but surely that is also illegal. Well, I know it is. I
Speaker:know it's illegal to recruit for a foreign military service. on Canadian soil, but this has been
Speaker:going on for a long time. It used to happen at York University. But the fact that it's
Speaker:still happening now during the genocide, when they can imagine what the mobilization against
Speaker:it would be, is fucking maddening. But they, none of them are without resistance. We can't
Speaker:talk about the Thornhill action though, without talking about the violence, the hatred and
Speaker:the vitriol that was there. So all y'all have probably heard about the nail gun. A man, 27,
Speaker:in the parking lot of where folks were mobilizing to go down to the blockade, firing a nail gun,
Speaker:yelling like, fuck all Palestinians, and otherwise getting physical with people. And that was
Speaker:not even close to the only act of violence and real agitation. that went on there. Just to
Speaker:kind of paint the picture for folks who haven't maybe seen the videos or photos from it, the
Speaker:police eventually did push the pro-Palestinian side to the other side of the street. So it
Speaker:became impossible to actually shut down the event. The numbers weren't quite there. I would
Speaker:say the numbers maybe matched, but if anything, the pro-Palestinian side was outnumbered and
Speaker:it became a bit of a speaker battle. They had speakers set up on both sides. and the Israelis
Speaker:were pumping out dance music, other kinds. They were just really celebrating, waving IDF flags
Speaker:and yelling the most horrific shit you can imagine in the faces of people who've lost family members.
Speaker:Like Santiago, they're like, how about 100,000 children? Why not more? Yeah, yeah. It's, I've
Speaker:heard the same things. being set up plenty of counter protests around the city. One thing
Speaker:though about this, the message behind this event, selling off land in occupied Palestinian territory,
Speaker:was not something lost on anyone who was there. What I mean to say by that is that this was
Speaker:kind of a symbolic thing for them, where it was almost, it wasn't even about selling one
Speaker:or two parcels of land, getting to do that while in Canada. That was an intentional thing. It
Speaker:was a giant fucking middle finger. It was a message. And that was clear when you see, I
Speaker:mean, I wasn't there personally, but when I saw the clips of everything that was being
Speaker:said there, everything that was happening there, it was incredibly clear that this was a message.
Speaker:It had the real feels of those videos of IDF soldiers kind of holding up Israeli flags and
Speaker:declaring the land theirs. And they had obviously a lot of police presence and a loud speaker.
Speaker:And the Zionists across the street felt no ways about calling everyone on the other side Hamas
Speaker:supporters, jihadists. Like there was hate speech and incitement to hatred and violence. from
Speaker:those microphones and, you know, the police obviously are not there to protect us. We've
Speaker:talked that about many times. And so the attempt was to drown them out. At some point, folks
Speaker:even tried to strike up dialogue using the loudspeaker with the Zionists. And I thought, I hate talking
Speaker:about the tactic, like, negatively, but let's try to be constructive, because we've already
Speaker:talked about keeping your focus on your own people. And that really wasn't happening there.
Speaker:I think once it became clear that the sale could not be shut down, it was about like maintaining
Speaker:spirit on your side or perhaps shifting tactics. Because it was just like the screaming match
Speaker:back and forth of the same talking points that we have on social media and they would respond
Speaker:with the same ridiculous responses that you would get in your replies. And it's just didn't
Speaker:really I don't think people really wanted to hear that over the loudspeaker. It wasn't doing
Speaker:anything. The best moments were, there was incredible community accountability down there, both in
Speaker:dealing with the violence. Like if you've seen the video of how they responded to the man
Speaker:with the nail gun, they charged him. There are folks that went chest to chest and were ushering
Speaker:him out of the space and filming him and trying to contain him as best as possible at their
Speaker:own personal peril. And also, at one point, the police attempted, well, they did grab a
Speaker:pro-Palestinian protester carrying them by the arms and legs away. And at no moment were they
Speaker:not surrounded by a mass of people screaming at them to let her go. And eventually it was
Speaker:just impossible for the police to move anymore. And they actually kind of handed her over to
Speaker:protesters who dragged her. almost to safety. It was a bit chaotic and formed a protective
Speaker:circle around her and formed a protective circle around them. And on top of that, they were
Speaker:handing out food. It was, there was just a lot of community spirit down there, but there was
Speaker:a real knowledge that if we were going to need to be safe, that was our job. Even though there
Speaker:was a line of police on either side, the amount of times they allowed Zionists to cross the
Speaker:street and come into our group and a cost. and yell and scream and push and unaccounted for.
Speaker:You know, just made it very clear to everyone, thankfully, down there, that was the community's
Speaker:role. And I think there's nothing that kind of lays that bare. It's when like you participate
Speaker:in something that actually replaces the police need that you understand that there is a possibility
Speaker:without them. So that exposure for people is important, as awful as it is. Yeah. Yeah, I
Speaker:think there was a lot of symbolic victories that came from that. Both in showing, as you
Speaker:mentioned, you know, showing who keeps us safe, we fucking keep us safe. You know, we know
Speaker:that. But I think also exposing a lot of hypocrisy. And I think it was effective in exposing the
Speaker:hypocrisy. One, because we know when, you know, everyone knows about the Mount Sinai incident.
Speaker:Well, you know. when I say that the claims that Mount Sinai was targeted, everyone's heard
Speaker:about, you know, politicians coming out and condemning so hateful speech on the Palestinian
Speaker:side, you know, whatever they claim from the river to the sea really means, right? Here
Speaker:you have an instance where there's actual, no possible other interpretation except hate speech
Speaker:going on. You have actual violence going on. You have international law being broken literally
Speaker:right there. The silence or both the silence and the twisted narratives from politicians
Speaker:and from the media were incredibly clear. One, many of the articles written about the nail
Speaker:gun incident. Had some of the most vaguely possible written headlines that any rational person
Speaker:who was reading it would probably assume that the person with the nail gun was a pro-Palestinian
Speaker:protester. Yeah, CP24 was man arrested for assault with nail gun at pro-Palestinian protest. He
Speaker:wasn't at the fucking protest. He was part of the counter protest and it was kind of a step
Speaker:away from the actual. protest, but it purposely misled. It wasn't even vague. It was like it
Speaker:was purposely written so that you would think that. Yeah, yeah. And there's all kinds of
Speaker:studies about the power of headlines, right? How many people actually read the content of
Speaker:an article versus reading the headline. Maybe they read the first couple of sentences. That
Speaker:is incredibly and intentionally misleading. Is there no repercussions though, like for
Speaker:CRTC? Like you're the journalism student here. Like that headline was so purposely misleading.
Speaker:There's nothing. No, no, no. It's advertising. No, because of the, because of the fact that
Speaker:the, it was a significant event and it was happening quickly, you know, they could argue like the
Speaker:public needed to be informed, but there's no thing, there's nothing that can be done because
Speaker:it's not actually factually incorrect. It's just misleading. Right. And you can. So all
Speaker:we can do is there like try to ratio those assholes. Yeah. Yeah, we can. Clarify. But yeah. Secondly,
Speaker:is the fact that there was incredible amounts of silence from the vast majority of politicians.
Speaker:Olivia Chow being one now, Olivia Chow, I'm just going to take a second here because some
Speaker:of the folks from Eglinton Lawrence, you know, they ran into Olivia Chow. And they got the
Speaker:opportunity to ask her about why she has stood by and has not taken down her statement about
Speaker:the so-called anti-Semitism at Mount Sinai. Now, she said that she would only answer off
Speaker:the camera and then told them off the camera that, you know, because of her anti-racism
Speaker:training, that essentially, even if something doesn't occur, it's important to speak out
Speaker:against it. regardless of whether or not it was, you know, accurate or not. Well, Olivia,
Speaker:where's your statement about the actual hate speech going on against Palestinians? And the
Speaker:nail gun. Like, Jesse Brown has the nerve to talk about the Montreal protest of the same
Speaker:sale and completely leave out what had happened a few days earlier in Thornhill. same issues,
Speaker:same kind of mobilization, same realtors. And he has lots to say about the issue in Montreal.
Speaker:Not a word about the violence and not a word. Also, all these outlets that are reporting
Speaker:on this protest and the nail gun, they're failing to really pick up what is being protested.
Speaker:So then it does appear that they're protesting a synagogue because They're not picking up
Speaker:the fact on the stolen land. Like these are villages in the West Bank. And because one
Speaker:of them did give it good coverage, one of them interviewed Gada and interviewed one of the
Speaker:well, the CBC did have Gada on. I know she was able to speak along someone from do say no
Speaker:to genocide. Yes. And they also had one of the realtors. Yeah, the comments by the realtor
Speaker:were. incredibly weak. They were very much not prepared to speak on this whatsoever. And that's
Speaker:the thing is that when you actually, you know, I get told every fucking day of the week that,
Speaker:you know, you got to cover both sides of things. And it's funny because then I pull up articles
Speaker:about the topics I want to write about where nobody's talking about both sides, whatever.
Speaker:I'm not salty about that whatsoever. But... Here's a case where they actually fucking spoke
Speaker:to us, which they never do, usually, right? But they actually spoke to, gotta, they actually
Speaker:spoke to Jews saying no to genocide, and they had the realtor. Okay, perfect. How did they
Speaker:look in comparison? Anybody watching that walks away knowing exactly what's going on, because
Speaker:you see the shitty fucking arguments they have, because they got nothing. It falls apart under
Speaker:the slightest amount of actual scrutiny. They have nothing. There is nothing. Well, we just
Speaker:talked about that the other day on the phone, right, where it was like, well, no wonder they
Speaker:don't respond to you, who's going to respond to you? Because there's no defense. Like, you
Speaker:can't write a line. I don't care how good your PR person or your lawyer is. There is no statement,
Speaker:especially on camera. Like, I can imagine a written statement. You can just drop some.
Speaker:gobbledygook like Selena Robinson did, and like walk away and not answer any questions, but
Speaker:to agree to get on camera and try to defend selling illegal land also at an event where
Speaker:someone used violence in that way. But talking about the condemnations or lack thereof, even
Speaker:Jagmeet's was really the only one that I saw. And that came three days after the fact. They're
Speaker:always very quick on one end, and then they probably need to confirm a million times over
Speaker:on the other end. They're like, oh, a nail gun. I think we can speak out against this one.
Speaker:Yeah, that seems safe. That seems safe. But I would wonder how people would feel about
Speaker:their place of worship being used for this kind of sale during these kinds of times. And the
Speaker:congregation there released a letter. that said the war against Israel spilled over into Thornhill
Speaker:today. And so they are openly, seemingly openly declaring themselves as part of the war, as
Speaker:defending Israel from within Canada. But one thing that this brought up, not just the nail
Speaker:gun, it was a lot of agitators came over and tried to pick fights. And we do need to teach
Speaker:each other more self-defense. We talk about tactics, we talk about a lot of skills that
Speaker:are great to pick up for activism. Building databases is one, you know, marshaling is one.
Speaker:There's all, there's so many, there's so many. But I feel like some MMA. Jesse, you a fan
Speaker:of Dead Prez? Yeah, I know of them, but I, like, you're gonna make me sound uncool now, so you
Speaker:better edit this out. No, well. Well, I bring them up because when it comes to this, I think
Speaker:people should definitely, first of all, go listen to the album, Let's Get Free by Dead Prez.
Speaker:Go listen to that. Is that vinyl you're holding up? Yes, it is. And then I would recommend
Speaker:one of the rappers in the group, Stickman, he has a book called The Five Principles, A Revolutionary
Speaker:Path to Health, Inner Wealth, and Knowledge of Self. I recommend checking this out because
Speaker:they were huge in terms of talking about what when it comes to, you know, self-defense, being
Speaker:in the right mindset and approach to actually being able to, to stand up during these times
Speaker:to defend ourselves, to fight what we, what needs to be done to keep ourselves, you know,
Speaker:healthy. I think they're, they're a great resource for that and their music is incredible. So
Speaker:I'm just going to take a second to plug my favorite album of all time. I'll also, at this point,
Speaker:recommend Frontline Medics, if folks want to follow them on Instagram, because they provide
Speaker:a lot of tactical advice in terms of frontline protesting, even from how to configure yourself.
Speaker:It almost looks like battle plans. And really it is. So check those folks out. There'll probably
Speaker:be lots of links in today's show notes, because we want you folks replicating what we're talking
Speaker:about. That's the whole point of the show in general. And today, I don't know today being
Speaker:March the 7th, folks out East and in Toronto have been blockading Kraken Technologies. So
Speaker:there is an office in Toronto that was shut down, their headquarters in St. John's, and
Speaker:they've got a factory just outside of Halifax. Kraken Technologies is responsible for something
Speaker:called Catfish and... That particular technology allows Israel to use unmanned ships to enforce
Speaker:the blockade on Gaza. So when Justin Trudeau says we provide non-lethal means or technology
Speaker:to Israel, these are the kinds of things they get away with calling non-lethal, as though
Speaker:you can call the blockade of a people's non-lethal, as though it has no social murder. built into
Speaker:it whatsoever, right? Like there's no, nothing wrong with cutting off food and supplies to
Speaker:a densely populated area. One that is now under bombardment. These are the kind of ships that
Speaker:fire on Gazan fishermen as they try to get fish. So non-lethal my ass. So kudos to folks like
Speaker:World Beyond War for organizing that and all the affiliates that were involved. But you
Speaker:know, again, they took a small amount of people to shut down the offices in Toronto because
Speaker:it's just like... one headquarters that looked like maybe 10 people there. Same with the blockade
Speaker:that shut the morning shift down for two hours outside the Halifax factory. It wasn't a massive
Speaker:amount of people, but they had a very long banner. They spread themselves out. You know, they're
Speaker:talking to the workers who are trying to get in. I believe they're like slowing it down.
Speaker:I'm not sure if it was a hard picket or not. Maybe we can get somebody on to. to give us
Speaker:the scoop. The idea was, you know, it was coordinated across the country to a degree, and they were
Speaker:very good at sending out coordinated press releases and photos as they were there. And so everyone
Speaker:started talking about it. And not only were they talking about the action, but they backed
Speaker:it up with all of this information on why they're shutting it down. And it's perfect timing because
Speaker:just two days ago, you know, folks on the other end doing what they can do. launch a lawsuit
Speaker:against the Canadian federal government to get them to stop sending arms over to Israel based
Speaker:on the ruling of the international court that is contributing to genocide. And so it's a
Speaker:combination of all of these pressures that will hopefully get people to the next kind of step.
Speaker:I know folks really celebrating the reinstatement or reported reinstatement of UNRWA funding.
Speaker:That hasn't been confirmed as of while we're recording this, but it is rumored by the CBC
Speaker:that that, and the department did have a press conference scheduled on that topic to reinstate
Speaker:the 25 million payments and also increased financial contributions. So this is a complete reversal
Speaker:of the position that they had just a few weeks ago where they cut off funding and were trying
Speaker:to paint the organization as some sort of bed of Hamas and use that. during, while people
Speaker:are starving to cut off aid. And then that same minister, he has the nerve to go over to Jordan
Speaker:and pose with Canadian food air drops while they're cutting funding. Same with the US air
Speaker:drops of aid. It's just so maddening to see them try to get votes. I know people are being
Speaker:fed and they'll take something like is better than nothing, but the amount of legs that kind
Speaker:of goodwill gets is often erases the harm that they're doing. But yeah, so there's been other
Speaker:political repercussions as well from all of this pressure. I will revisit the MLA Selena
Speaker:Robinson issue just momentarily here because she has now resigned from the NDP entirely.
Speaker:She's going to sit as an independent. She's already kind of told us she's not going to
Speaker:run again. So we've pretty much already done with her. But on her way out, she issues this
Speaker:four page letter. I hinted towards it earlier, it's just trash. She throws some of her callings
Speaker:under the bus. I mean, I'm no fan of the NDP. They might be well deserving of it, but the
Speaker:point is she didn't take any accountability. She's still conflating the issue as like Muslims
Speaker:and Jewish people and how those communities have to come together. And I've seen a lot
Speaker:of that shit from the progressive left. trying to promote conferences that are bringing Arabs
Speaker:and Israelis together to move forward. And I'm just not here for that. The way that they're
Speaker:painted is because they're including Zionists in these discussions. And first of all, it's
Speaker:not between Muslims and Jewish people. We're talking about the state of Israel and Palestinians,
Speaker:which, yes, is predominantly Muslim, but they encompass other religions. And this conflict
Speaker:or whatever... word you want to give to it isn't based on the two religions, like whatsoever.
Speaker:Gladly though, a lot of fallout. It's become very uncomfortable to be a politician that
Speaker:supports Zionism right now. And that shift is really becoming more obvious, I think, day
Speaker:by day. Yeah. And I think you look at everything we talked about so far today as a whole. I
Speaker:think this represents shift, I think, for sure. Where, first of all, look, I love, I love seeing
Speaker:people in the streets, the kind of response that Toronto and other cities have gotten,
Speaker:you know, I've gone down to my fair share of weekend protests. But we always talk about
Speaker:how the need for actual disruption and what we've seen here is the growth of and success
Speaker:of actual disruption. And that is incredibly important. The fact that the narrative is being
Speaker:harder and harder to be controlled. You know, like there was a protest at a synagogue. We
Speaker:know the reasons for it. We've talked about it here. But at the end of the day, there was
Speaker:a protest at a synagogue and that didn't turn into a huge anti-Semitism story. The Mount
Speaker:Sinai got more anti-Semitism blowback than the synagogue did. I think that's because of the
Speaker:nail gun. No, absolutely because of the nail gun. But, you know, the nail gun doesn't come
Speaker:out. when there's non-disruptive protests, you know? And I'm, look, I don't want the nail
Speaker:guns to come out at all. Like, I'm not an accelerationist here, you know? I don't wish to incur violence
Speaker:upon ourselves in order to make a point. I'm never gonna want that. But what I'm saying
Speaker:is, you know, there was a disruption at a synagogue and it didn't get nearly as much anti-Semitism
Speaker:blowback. as one would expect. This is the kind of momentum that needs to be kept building
Speaker:on. And you know, it's going on as we speak, like as we're recording this episode right
Speaker:now. This is how we get change. I think it's, there's a lot to be hopeful here. Okay, then
Speaker:I'm not gonna go straight to the warning I had for folks. I'll first share two tactics that
Speaker:came to light this week for me that I'm gonna quickly just share because they can be easily
Speaker:replicated. And I'm here for that. So, folks on the New York subway enter with lots of people
Speaker:and electric drills, ads ready the place that match the size of the ads you typically see
Speaker:on transit. Obviously a transit worker perhaps helped them with the hex bolt or whatever bolt
Speaker:they needed, either way, and they quickly entered the subways, changed all the advertisements
Speaker:to kind of satire or really overt messaging about the genocide in Gaza. and then disembarked,
Speaker:right? Got the necessary video to promo without faces and the work was done. I don't know how
Speaker:long it takes transit to clean that up. But it's just an example of probably very low resource,
Speaker:very low time commitment and quite a lot of impact because it's replicated then on social
Speaker:media, right? Not everybody has to get on that subway car, but everyone sees that, is inspired
Speaker:and kind of gets on the bandwagon, so to speak. Another one is, I know we've kind of talked
Speaker:about it before here when we had Dimitri Lascaris on, in terms of confronting ministers, but
Speaker:it's been used a few times and most famously folks might have seen the video of people disrupting
Speaker:a New York congresswoman's meeting and it looks like it's in a church and you know a white
Speaker:man is sitting in front of a masked young protester. screaming, you know, sit down, sit down. Okay,
Speaker:so that video there, the tactic I'm talking about is planting people that aren't obviously
Speaker:protesters, right? So they're dressed for the occasion, they're smiling and nodding along
Speaker:with the program. And then someone stands up and accosts and confronts, and they're obviously
Speaker:removed by security. You let the event resume for enough time for folks to feel comfortable,
Speaker:and then you disrupt again and again. And again, and it's rather than everyone standing up,
Speaker:making a scene and all being ushered out at once, you really do make it impossible for
Speaker:them to hold the event because then everyone's also very anxious and they're waiting for the
Speaker:next person to stand up. And it's just, it really must frazzle this shit out of politicians.
Speaker:Mm-hmm. No, and that one was the one in New York that you're talking about, that one was
Speaker:really funny because I mean, seeing these old men, they were just losing their heads. Like...
Speaker:The way that one guy was shouting shut up. And I feel bad for their poor wives sitting beside
Speaker:them. I mean, she kind of laughed at first. I feel like she was prepared for that. But
Speaker:they were having to be like, no, shut up. Stop it. Stop making a fool of yourself. Come on.
Speaker:And I felt bad for them, to be honest. Well, don't. No, the wives, I mean, like a lot of
Speaker:town halls and things, a lot of these meetings are, you know. primarily attended by older
Speaker:retirees. They're not used to facing that kind of actual blowback at these events. I think
Speaker:it's absolutely great for them to actually have to face that. They're not getting it on Fox
Speaker:News at night. Have you seen the one with Lockheed Martin CEO giving a guest lecture, I suppose,
Speaker:or taking questions from a university class? So they're all in their tiered seats staring
Speaker:at, it's remote. He's on. camera and the students all start their questions so respectively and
Speaker:on topic and then right at the end they work in a so how closely will I be contributing
Speaker:to the genocide of Palestinians? You know, I understand, you know, this is how the structure
Speaker:works and this would be my tasking and you know, when you guys I think it opens the video that
Speaker:you're watching. It was a question about. the F-35 fighter jet, how it was designed, and
Speaker:how many children do you think you've killed with that plane? You know, and he doesn't know
Speaker:what to do. I imagine the professor sweating so bad. Satire is one of our most powerful
Speaker:tools. You know, shout out to Basim Yousef. Everyone remembers his interview with Piers
Speaker:Morgan. Satire is an incredibly powerful thing. We need to make... as much use of satire as
Speaker:we can because they don't know how to fucking respond to that. They get it when we're angry,
Speaker:you know, they're like, oh, we got this, you know, we'll just yell back and it's a yelling
Speaker:pissing match. But you bring up satire, you put a smile on your face and you, you know,
Speaker:they have no idea what to do with that. When you look so collected, I know I am guilty.
Speaker:I lose myself sometimes, you know, I go to the front line and just scream, that's not helpful.
Speaker:It's a bit of a release, but when you do it kind of in that really calm and collected way,
Speaker:it disarms them as well. Not only are you stymying them with your wit, but yeah, they really just
Speaker:don't know how to match that energy at that point. I'm going to end the episode with a
Speaker:bit of a warning for folks. I don't know, maybe we should have started with the warning. I
Speaker:hope you all stuck around then. And it's not new to our movement, but I think it just came
Speaker:to light and was really obvious, so it's not. like a tin foil hat moment, it's kind of validated
Speaker:for folks that movements will be infiltrated. There was a collective, I'm not even going
Speaker:to name them because they probably think they're bigger than they are. They claim to be global,
Speaker:whatever. They put out a call for agents embedded behind enemy lines at pro-Palestinian protests.
Speaker:So I imagine... They're trying to recruit folks that can attend rallies and appear to be allies
Speaker:and be anything but. So whether it's surveillance or kind of agitating from within, perhaps planting
Speaker:signs that would delegitimize the movement or doing actions counter to the purpose of that
Speaker:particular action, you know, turning nonviolent actions into violent ones. Either way, whatever
Speaker:their intentions are. Folks should be aware that people are actively recruiting for things
Speaker:like this, and the police are absolutely already doing this. And so it's not to scare you, but
Speaker:being aware is like the very least you could do, that it is a possibility, right? Because
Speaker:then it's in your mind. But there are a few steps that you can take, self-promoting, but
Speaker:we've done two, or we... Our first, very first episode is called We Keep Us Safe. There's
Speaker:lots of tips in there, you know, on terms of how to structure your movement into cells,
Speaker:how to have some correspondence above ground, some below ground, varying levels of access
Speaker:to protect yourself against possible infiltrators or people who have not the best intentions,
Speaker:let's say. And, cause you kind of limit the amount of damage that they can do. Yeah. It's
Speaker:a thing. It's a thing that hopefully you don't spend too much time stressing over though,
Speaker:because they really are meant to just slow you down as well. Not only to like compromise the
Speaker:movement, but spending energy on or perhaps restricting yourself in ways that you can't
Speaker:grow because you're so worried about infiltration is also a detriment. So it's like finding that
Speaker:balance. Vouching is another way that you can help prevent infiltration. Someone must know
Speaker:them somewhere, right? Like someone within your movement has... met them or done something
Speaker:like that is very helpful. I've been asked to vouch or vouch for people or have been vouched
Speaker:for to enter certain circles. Just kind of keep that in mind as you're organizing out there.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah. It's learn what the typical tactics are of people who infiltrate, you know, they're,
Speaker:they have scripts, they have things that they do. It's you have to learn to be able to identify,
Speaker:have things that set off red flags for you. Part of it is just keeping each other accountable,
Speaker:right? Because one of the tactics that infiltrators like to do is, you know, escalation. Um, I
Speaker:think back to the black Panthers, they tried to get them to commit acts of quote unquote
Speaker:terrorism. And some of the infiltrators, right? They wanted to, you know, go through several
Speaker:bombings and stuff. They're trying to push the black Panthers into that. And there was a lot
Speaker:of pushback from inside of the organization against that. Like, no, what the fuck are you
Speaker:talking about? That these are the kinds of things that you see. Um, so. read about the tactics
Speaker:because they haven't changed all that much and there's definitely ways to tell. One of the
Speaker:things Santiago that you reminded me of when you started that statement there was the handbook
Speaker:for CIA operatives. It's we'll link it and it's just how to slow down an organization. So not
Speaker:necessarily the tactics of entrapment. It's not that overt, but it's on how to hold a movement
Speaker:back. And it's fascinating because if you read it, it reads like the NDP. It reads like every
Speaker:meeting you've ever, every chair of every meeting you've ever had within the NDP. It's like always
Speaker:send something to committee, talk really long about nothing. Haggle over the minutes. And
Speaker:the wording and resolutions. And it's just eventually, like you just can't do anything. And they're
Speaker:like cement feet. And I recently learned. that Gloria Steinem admits and is known to have
Speaker:been a CIA operative within the white feminist movement. And her goal was to keep it focused
Speaker:on gender and women's issues. You scare quotes, you know, women's issues instead of class.
Speaker:They wanted to make sure that all of that mobilizing that was going on around the women's liberation
Speaker:movement did not spill over to any kind of class consciousness. And so that, amongst other things
Speaker:that she did for the CIA, that was one of her roles. And so sometimes the infiltrators are
Speaker:your heroes. They are not just somebody who's entered a meeting is yelling from the back,
Speaker:we should burn it down, you know, or like, it's sometimes it's ideologues that seem very convincing
Speaker:and will steer you away from doing what you really kind of need to do. And so I thought
Speaker:that would be an interesting thing to bring up because, yeah, it's not just always some
Speaker:shady guy who looks like a cop. Gloria Stein could be infiltrating your movement. So watch
Speaker:out for those white feminists. Yeah, I would check out, there's a movie, Judas and the Black
Speaker:Messiah, about how an infiltrator led to the death of Fred Hampton, leader of the, well,
Speaker:the chairman of the Chicago Black Panther Party. in those it's often people who can get quite
Speaker:close, right? And I also, I have to warn, like it's also not about living in such fear that
Speaker:we start suspecting everyone and solidarity is our most powerful tool, right? It's just
Speaker:about being aware and keeping an eye on things and thinking what exactly are the things that
Speaker:would be detrimental to the movement? What are the things that will bring us harm? and looking
Speaker:out for those things. You might not be able to catch an infiltrator, you know, but it's
Speaker:about keeping the movement safe and you don't need to know who the infiltrators are to do
Speaker:that. We have to still be able to trust each other to make sure, you know what I mean? Like
Speaker:I don't want people to get, I don't want people to get super paranoid, you know? Yeah, I know.
Speaker:Balance, there's balance. Like, you know, there's a study about our ability to tell when people
Speaker:are lying to us and essentially, something like 58% of the time we can tell which is just slightly
Speaker:better than guessing. I think if you factor in the amount of neurodivergence that are within
Speaker:these movements and reassess that lie radar again I think it'll be a lot higher. Like being
Speaker:able to tell if we're being lied to? Oh I know when I'm being lied to. Oh yeah. I know for
Speaker:sure I won't always tell you I know because I need to save that superpower. You can't know
Speaker:I have it. Definitely, definitely, I have almost complete faith in that. My LIDAR. As we know,
Speaker:neurodivergent people are drawn to activism. There needs to be a study. I'll talk to Lulu,
Speaker:because she doesn't have anything else to do. That's a joke, she's the busiest person I know,
Speaker:but we'll get Lulu back on the show to talk about autistic resistance later, but yeah.
Speaker:Shout out to all those NDs out there keeping it down. That is a wrap on another episode
Speaker:of Blueprints of Disruption. Thank you for joining us. Also, a very big thank you to the producer
Speaker:of our show, Santiago Halu-Quintero. Blueprints of Disruption is an independent production
Speaker:operated cooperatively. You can follow us on Twitter at BPofDisruption. If you'd like to
Speaker:help us continue disrupting the status quo, please share our content. And if you have the
Speaker:means, consider becoming a patron. Not only does our support come from the progressive
Speaker:community, so does our content. So reach out to us and let us know what or who we should
Speaker:be amplifying. So until next time, keep disrupting.
