Julian Ichim: On Community Support and Solidarity

On community support and solidarity

by Julian Ichim, May 19 2011

Sitting in court today, watching my fiancée Kelly Pflug Back, a community activist of many years, who is facing charges stemming from the g20, i was surprised to look around the court room and see that other than myself there was only one other person there for support. Being part of the activist community for about 15 years, i am used to seeing packed court rooms and all sorts of solidarity for people facing political charges.

During a smoke break with Kelly and her surety, i brought up this fact and she stated that she wasn’t surprised at all. Since her house arrest most of her “allies” have not visited, phoned or even emailed her. A group that she helped create, Sense of Security (SOS), split along class lines around the issue of supporting her and the issue of militancy. Many of her former comrades who have known her for a long time are now denouncing her and many of those who do “support” her don’t even have time to send her an email.

This experience is not something new to “street activism.” After i threw chocolate milk on Stockwell Day in 2000, people who assisted me in planning the action denounced me to the media, and when one caring individual tried to raise money for my legal defence, he was shut down by the activist community and i ended up having to use up my grandma’s college fund that she’d been saving for me since i was born (all $783), and plead guilty to get out of the situation.

Members of SOS, facing g20 related charges or drug charges as a result of the intensification of police attacks on the downtown communities in Kitchener and Guelph, show up to empty court rooms, with no jail visits and no support. It seems to me that, to “real anarchists” and “revolutionary Marxists,” poor people are expendable; good to use as an example to the media or to tokenize, but to be thrown aside when they become too much of a headache or left to fend for themselves when facing serious charges.

Although the above stated examples are the norm in our movement, there are examples of people in our community who recognize their privilege and are actively engaged in confronting it. Although these attempts may not be perfect and the outcomes may not seem to be what is ideal or what should exist in a perfect socialist society. It should be recognized that it is easier to sit on the side watching and critiquing than to actively engage and deal with problems as they are. 

In Kitchener, AW@L--an activist group that started out of Wilfrid Laurier University to oppose war, colonialism and imperialism, and the Spot Collective--an organization of street and gang youth that organize around the issues that they face politically, have attempted to create a social space to be used by both radical communities and street youth. A lot of positive things have come out of that initiative, yet it was not perfect. There were problems, contradictions and conflict.

As a result of real issues as well as external attacks, the KW Community Centre for Social Justice (KWCCSJ) recently shut down. As a result of this, people’s feelings have been hurt and real tensions have existed between AW@L and the Spot collective.

However, shortly after the KWCCSJ closed and it seemed that division between the two groups might be insurmountable, one of our more annoying street youths was arrested. We had no one to turn to so we called AW@L people to bail out this youth. Instead of a lecture on how horrible we are etc., I was asked “what can I do to help?” The next day at court, half of active AW@L members—half of the group is facing serious g20 related charges and their ability to function as part of the group has been drastically curtailed by severely restrictive bail conditions—were there and the rest of AW@L’s active membership provided real and meaningful support. There were more than a dozen people there.  Today, there are 5 members of the Spot Collective living with AW@Lers and this AW@L house is used by many downtown street youth as an emergency shelter.

No one in our movement is ever going to be perfect. We won’t necessarily all be perfect anti sexists or understand class issues and we won’t always get along with each other. But if we are to survive as a movement we need to move beyond our differences and have each other’s backs. This is the lesson I have learned from working with AW@L. Maybe if other activists took a page from this book, Kelly’s court room won’t be empty in the future.