Election day for NDP Youth, on a grassroots campaign that almost made it

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Election day for NDP Youth, on a grassroots campaign that almost made it

Wrapping up the working class campaign for Susan Wallace in Toronto Centre

Youth-run and grassroots oriented, this campaign office looked a little different from other NDP campaigns in the number and diversity of working class youth involved. Rashin is on the phone coordinating teams of volunteers in St. Jamestown, the Esplanade and Regent Park.

Susanne Wallace was a long-shot against incumbent Bob Rae. The wikipedia page for Toronto centre still calls it "one of the safest Liberal ridings in Canada". Not anymore. Rae hung onto his seat, but barely.

The NDP largely focused the campaign on other ridings. As Wallace said at the after party: "We didn't have two nickels to rub together. The party was sending resources over there and over there- what we did here we did it ourselves".

George got involved as worker in the USW 9537 strike. He said: "the union involved standing together for the working class, and the same values that you have in unions you have in the NDP, and unions can't survive without the NDP. We have to stand together in solidarity".

The co-campaign manager for Toronto Centre, Farshad Azadian, knocks on doors in St. Jamestown. Although he is only 22, Farshad is an experienced activist, having been a leading figure in Always Question and currently with the Esplanade Community Group, Fightback, and the Toronto Young New Democrats.

Police brutality is one of the biggest issues for youth in Toronto centre, which includes the Esplanade, St. Jamestown and Regent Park. Ezra, a volunteer, says "honestly I became an activist when Junior Manon was killed, and I was like, I don't want to live in a city where police, the coronor, EMS are all cover up murder, where it's that systemic".

Media co-op did participant reporting with this crew of youth as they went through St. Jamestown, getting out the vote for the NDP.

Taking a break at a volunteer's house in the area.

Cathy Crowe, 2010 provincial NDP candidate in the same riding, said "We are so proud of Susan"

Susan Wallace with her son at the election party on Front street: "We have the most grassroots youth activist campaign that we have ever seen."

Youth-run and grassroots oriented, the campaign office for Susan Wallace at Toronto Centre looked a little different from other NDP campaigns in due to the number and diversity of working class youth involved. Susanne Wallace was a long-shot against incumbent Bob Rae. The Wikipedia page for Toronto Centre still calls it "one of the safest Liberal ridings in Canada." Not anymore. Rae hung onto his seat, but barely. Susan Wallace was certainly correct when she said, "We have the most grassroots youth activist campaign that we have ever seen." The NDP largely focused the campaign on other ridings. As Wallace said to her team later that night: "We didn't have two nickels to rub together. The party was sending resources over there and over there- what we did here, we did it ourselves".

The campaign managers were Solomon Muyoboke (23) and Farshad Azadian (22), both leading figures in the Esplanade Community Group as well as the Toronto Young New Democrats. They organized teams of volunteers on a grassroots basis to campaign, with an emphasis on the downtown east side: Regent Park, the Esplanade, Sherbourne and St. Jamestown. Farshad told the media co-op:

"It was probably one of the most racially diverse of any activist group in Canada. This is one of the most ethnically diverse regions of Toronto, an area with some of the highest numbers of immigrants and non-status people, and we realize that we have to come together on the issues that affect us. And we realize that these issues are mixed with the issue of class and how capitalism destroys our neighborhoods and our livelihoods for the sake of profit, and we have to unite on a class basis to fight back."

George, a campaign volunteer, became active as a worker in the USW 9537 strike. When asked how that related to his NDP work, he told the media co-op: "The union involved standing together for the working class, and the same values that you have in unions you have in the NDP. The unions can't survive without the NDP. We have to stand together in solidarity."

With a difference of only 6011 votes (as of 4:39 PM on Tuesday), the vote count was even closer throughout the night as CBC reported live on results. Bob Rae gained 40% of the vote where Wallace was at 30%. This represents a huge gain for the NDP; in the last federal election the NDP only gained 15% of the vote.

Farshad defended his choice to work, as a radical class-struggle activist, within the NDP and pointed to gains from the campaign:

"Our NDP campaign was more radical than anything else that other activist groups do. They don't talk about issues that we talk about. Many so-called radicals are so liberal compared to what we ran on. You can say the NDP is social democratic, but we ran on a socialist campaign, and our votes went ridiculous. Compared to the last federal election we over doubled our percentage. And we had over 100 people mobilized for the campaign. And all on the back of youth, mostly youth from the different hoods in the downtown eastside. That's the definition of grassroots."

Solomon is no less dedicated to future organizing. "It's bittersweet," he said at the election party, adding that he hadn't slept in 30 hours. "We had some fun, we learned a lot, but there is still a lot of organizing to do."

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Comments

Thanks for the comment. No

Submitted by Megan Kinch on Mon, 05/09/2011 - 01:10.

Thanks for the comment. No hard feelings are my part, I appreciate constructive feedback- I do think that we do have to talk about our mandate and make it clearer is a good thing, especially to our readers and contributers.

Why should NDP be on the

Submitted by Tokumei (not verified) on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 16:04.

Why should NDP be on the Media Co-op? Because this year, it was different. How do you define activism? Isn't it getting off your ass, speaking up for yours and others rights, making people hear you and know you mean business? Trying to change something? And isn't grassroots mean people changing people's minds, one on one? Reaching out to each other in solidarity and support, creating communities and networks? That's what people did across communities. Just because it was for a group you deem too mainstream doesn't make it any less real or any less important.

This year it reached out to young voters. We took hold of it, and made it our own. They know who their voters are.

My brothers, 14 and 16, were calling their older friends, parents of friends, family friends, and people they knew on the street to vote NDP. They turned their facebooks orange and argued with their friends why it's important to support education rights, poor rights, minority rights, and gender equality. They told their friends about how Harper feels that all Tamils are terrorists. It got them talking about the cost of education, reproductive rights. Most young people never talk about this kind of thing, certainly not on this level. The election got them engaged in the issues, got them out on the streets talking to people about the important stuff in life. People talked to each other, argued over the phone, msn, skype about what we should, do who we should support in changing our world, in how we can affect the issues. About how mega prisons are wrong, corporate tax breaks are wrong, why can't we pay for our education, and how we should get out of foreign wars. And an incredible amount of young people said 'the NDP can help us. They've never fucked us over before, they promise things that are important to me, and they may be able to do it, if enough of us support them'. It's new, it's grassroots, and its activism, and it's important. Isn't that what the media co-op is about? Waking people up and getting people involved? This is the first step. Take notice.

The difference between "Featured Posts" & "Other Recent Posts"

Submitted by J Stevens on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 17:13.

I have not been suggesting that this article be removed. Any one who regularily contributes to the coops would know that the difference between a Featured Article and the Other Recent Posts column is that the featured articles have been reviewed and selected by local editors and it takes a more "front page" position on the site-- We have yet to hear publicly from TMC editors as to thier considerations on featuring this post.

Regardless, as a member on a national level it is certainly within my grounds to speak my mind about this work being featured on the national page, and also to critique the presentation.

You can be as disheartened as you like, but this coop takes a lot of work and discussion-- I would suggest you become a member Daniel, if you aren't already.

Just as no one forced you to

Submitted by Tokumei (not verified) on Sat, 05/07/2011 - 20:51.

Just as no one forced you to take on such a large debt, no one has said what anyone's opinons should be and I challenge you to quote such things.

Excuse me? It's called University, it's the only route for women who want to get paid a decent wage, and it's fucking expensive. OH and then there was that whole 'supporting my working class family' thing that I did. Silly me, I could have avoided all this debt if only I let my family starve and what...I guess.. joined the army? Haha! I was so foolish!

You seem totally in touch with the working class.

Huh?

Submitted by J Stevens on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 19:49.

You seem angry and self-centered.

Do you have some sort of patent on the term working class?

Did that come with your degree?

Can we assume every person has the same access to university as you did?

You've brought in a lot of personal problems for the NDP to champion.... All I've been trying to talk about here is whether this article has gone through an editorial review and how can we (as a pan-canadian network) build a policy which safe-guards the varying mandates of this coop and its members.

BTW Tokumei, this month is Membership Month -- feel free to join up and contribute in any way you are able.

Regarding how you don't make any sense at all.

Submitted by Tokumei (not verified) on Mon, 05/09/2011 - 01:26.

Well you seem pedantic, out of touch with reality, and oddly jealous of the author.

"All I've been trying to talk about here is whether this article has gone through an editorial review and how can we (as a pan-canadian network) build a policy which safe-guards the varying mandates of this coop and its members."

Except that's really not what you're trying to talk about here. You first argued that nothing concerning the NDP can be considered grassroots, or activist. We demonstrated you are incorrect.

Then you argued that the author was uncritical of the NDP candidate, that she didn't answer any hard questions to her. We showed you examining the NDP campaign was not the angle the author was trying to achieve in this short piece. She was trying to chronicle an astounding rise in grassroots activism, in a community coming together, suprisingly, suddenly, for a communal cause.

You didn't even bring up the the whole 'what should be featured' argument until your sixth comment. You have in fact attacked her article for: not understanding the concept of 'grassroots' or 'activism', being 'uncritical' in a piece that had nothing to do with campaign policies, not asking the candidate about genocide, mega-prisons, and wars abroad (not sure if you actually know anything you're talking about..NDP platform is firmly against prison spending, genocide abroad (see Bill 360 intro'd. by an NDP MP), and want to immediately withdraw from afghanistan). Then you proceeded to whine strangely about her choice of pictures, and complain she's portraying youth as disempowered...which they obviously are? None of this had anything to do with the story she was trying to tell which, if you were unclear, was about the spontaneous, unexpected happening of diverse individuals coming together and working to support this candidate.

You jump around from point to point, in a bizarre manner, and now you say 'but all you're trying to talk about is the editorial process'. Reread your own posts. It's like trying to reason with Donald Trump. If you don't like that her piece was featured, write a better one. But with your understanding of today's financial pressures on impoverished youth, I highly doubt that possible.

Featuring is not permanent

Submitted by J Stevens on Mon, 05/09/2011 - 19:44.

It is not set in stone when an article is featured- it is a simple click to both feature and unfeature.

And as for me publishing a "better" piece-- I do often, thanks. My posts get little more than compliments, requests and thanks. Also you'll notice that I'm not the only one critical of this article.

You are being really assumptive and rude here-- I'm surprised the moderators let these insults through.

Uh I hate to add to the

Submitted by gunchkin on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 04:27.

Uh I hate to add to the dramz, but you called her "angry" and "self-centered" after questioning her life choices. Wtf guys. This thread's gotten pretty ridiculous.

centered around oneself

Submitted by J Stevens on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 10:01.

What does one's personal problems have to do with a federal election or this debate about coop functioning? That is sort of centering the argument around oneself.

And then to suggest that someone they don't know isn't within the working class-- that's something. I can say that how this person writes a drawn out diatribe while missing words and going off topic is seemingly due to anger.

I didn't intend to critique this persons choices but I think it is unfair for them to elect a new master to deal with the consequences instead of being accountable for their privileged choices. Perhaps the banks who give out irresponsible loans should be blamed-- or that comodification of foodstuffs is a big problem, brought to issue. Many of these problems are because of big government.

As an important aside-- could we all refrain from using genderized pronouns towards strangers?

Apologies about the

Submitted by gunchkin on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 13:04.

Apologies about the genderized pronouns.

I found Tokumei's life experiences extremely relevant in explaining why some people would want to see such a story on the co-op.

Why some working class people feel compelled to support the NDP and others don't is a very relevant and interesting issue and if you had offered critiques of their arguments rather than making personal attacks, maybe this would've been a more productive discussion.

I suspect I fall on the same side of the ideological coin as you, but if I didn't I would feel pretty unwelcome in this space.

There's plenty to be said

Submitted by J Stevens on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 15:00.

There's plenty to be said about the content of the article-- for one:

Arguing that one group is more "racially-diverse" is a racist statement in and of itself.

I really am quite frustrated and I haven't meant to attack anyone, I've been trying to correct attacks upon myself. I have been called: a censor, an insurrectionist, a "higher up", ultra-left... A lot of crappy insinuations.

Thank you for your words gunchkin.

Regarding attacks on me

Submitted by Tokumei (not verified) on Mon, 05/09/2011 - 01:38.

Regarding attacks on me, which do not serve to build membership, entice me to join, or make the coop run smoother.

Do I have a patent on the term 'working class'. Well, let me explain something to you about working class women. There aren't a lot of avenues open to us for a job that we can support a family on. You have to go to College or University if you want to make a decent wage. Tuition at my university is 7 grand a year. Times four years. Plus living expenses. You don't see how that comes to 40 grand? If you factor in a struggling single mother at home, with two kids under 12, you can see how a kid with access to a bit of loan money might feel the need to send some back home. Just so the growing kids don't have to eat just rice for dinner like their mum does.

So yes, I think you're out of touch if you can't understand it's important for young women to be able to feed their family, and that it's easy to slip into mountains of debt when we don't have enough social assistance, or cheap enough education. But I think we already understood how little you get young working poor, by your comment about how people under 22 aren't disempowered. Not everyone has the luxury of dropping out of society and become an insurrectionary anarchist because they have other people to feed.

You imply that 40,000 debt in student loans is somehow exorbitant, but the average is 25,000, and I'm assuming that's coming from 19 year olds who aren't sending money back home to feed my family. By saying 'not everyone has the same access to university as you' is definitely making some assumptions about my finances and opportunities. Making sure my mother and younger siblings was important enough to me that going into debt was a price I was willing to pay. A price a 19 year old shouldn't have to pay, and who are you to question me for it? Saying 'no one forced you to go into such a large amount of debt', isn't that assuming that I have another way to ensure my family has food on the table and a roof over their head? Nice. Now you're questioning whether I have the 'patent on the term working class'. From your bizarre comments, I can only say that I most definitely have a better grasp of the reality of young, disenfranchised working class than you.

I really don't know what planet you're living on. Please save your empty invitations to join, you're obviously not trying to build any community here with your personal attacks on anyone who doesn't share the same narrow vision you do. You're not doing the media co-op any favours by driving people away and harassing contributors. Complaining like you're doing now about anything and everything just makes you look bitter and petty.

You're being terrifically

Submitted by Anonymous in Montreal (not verified) on Mon, 05/09/2011 - 13:58.

You're being terrifically rude and are making some pretty sweeping generalizations.

I understand that you've had a difficult life. I have as well - and yes, I am also a young female bodied person who had to send money back home from University to make sure her mother had enough. I made the difficult choice to leave school because I couldn't afford it. You've made a different choice. There's nothing that can be interpreted from that back story, and you're not being fair to J. Stevens.

You have no idea what that person's life choices are, and you don't know if that person is a man or a woman, so please lay off. I looked at this website today to see if there had been resolution regarding the mandate of the Toronto media coop, and instead I see you haranguing a journalist within the coop. I understand if you don't like that person's perspective, but expounding on your back story does nothing to prove any kind of point. Do you honestly think that no one else reading this story has had troubles?

Please, a modicum of respect and sensitivity. Thank you.

My first post was trying to

Submitted by Tokumei (not verified) on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 00:05.

My first post was trying to address some of his comments about the NDP, by giving personal examples as to how their platform addresses specific issues that affect many working class people.

As for my extended background story in my last post, J Stevens specifically asked me if I have 'some sort of patent on the working class', and made all sorts of assumptions about my background and access to education. I was simply informing him (and I understand the pronoun this person uses is he, not just assuming. My apologies if I've been misinformed) and responding to personal attacks on myself. I'm not trying to make myself into some sort of martyr, I'm just giving him my background information, so he can fully understand how wrong his assumptions were. There are people here who have had troubles, as you put it, but I don't go around accusing people anyone else of being over-privileged or assume anything about someone's backgrounds when I have no way to make such a judgment, as he did. If someone accused you

He's also trying to back-peddle in his arguments, saying that all he wanted was for this article to be not featured. If you go back and read his comments, you can see that is patently not true, he didn't even mention that until his sixth comment.

As to the 'insults' I was just taking my guidance as to what's acceptable here by this member and contributor J Stevens. His quotes are included for reference below.

"You are supporting a major runner in the bid to DOMINATE THIS LAND AND ITS PEOPLE and --that is fuct! [sic] This article should not be featured in the least, (especially if the auhor [sic] green-lighted it themselves--?) and the defences put up only make the arguement [sic] weaker."

"You seem angry and self-centered.

Do you have some sort of patent on the term working class?

Did that come with your degree?"

Seems pretty aggressive and insulting to me (and has been, right from the start). In addition, he's a recognized member and a contributor. Shouldn't he be held to higher standards of conduct than an anonymous commenter? :) Don't you find his passive-aggressive invitations to join after insulting people problematic? His wild, off-base accusations against the author have been totally off the hinge from the beginning. But please accept my apologies if I've offended you personally.

Fantastic!

Submitted by J Stevens on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 14:51.

I see my third comment questioning the editorial process of the TMC--

Angry is not an insult, it is a state of being that we are all capable of.

Nor is saying that what one has done is "fuct" an insult.

"A weak arguement" is a matter of opinion-- not an insult.

And lastly if you attempt to center a debate around yourself, I would say that is self-centred.

--Did I use the term "over-privledged"? No, those are your words-- I can't even suppose what that means. You certainly did sarcastically insinuate that I must be "in touch with the working-class".

The outcome of a federal election has a much bigger impact than your personal situation-- the continuance of 500 years of colonialism for example.

What have I "accused" the author of? Writing an un-critical report-- for sure.

But...

Submitted by Anonymous in Montreal (not verified) on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 23:40.

But (to put it quite frankly) the Dominion of Canada is a racist organization that has stomped all over Indigenous groups across Turtle Island. The NDP (under the more radical banner of the CCF) has tried to co-opt this racist organization since 1932.

Regardless of whether or not you're pro-government, you have to conceed that the spread of European style rule from sea to shining sea is racist. Genocide is racist. So when J. Stevens (who has not expressed which gender pronoun they prefer on this forum) says,

"You are supporting a major runner in the bid to DOMINATE THIS LAND AND ITS PEOPLE and --that is fuct! This article should not be featured in the least, (especially if the auhor green-lighted it themselves--?) and the defences put up only make the arguement weaker."

that person is merely expressing a critique of the article, not of the author. In re-reading the comments, yes, J. Stevens seems brash but so do others - including Kinch and yourself. And no, I don't think that anyone should be held to higher standards of conduct than anyone else.

I actually had a conversation with some friends who don't follow this news site regarding this conflict online. When I told these folks - who aren't, as you may assume, "insurrectionary anarchists" - about the scope of the article, they laughed out loud. The NDP is fundamentally not grassroots, and if, as gunchkin says, some folks want to learn about the NDP they can call them up. The Green Party is also not grassroots in the same way that I am not a carrot or a fish.

I saw something earlier in the comments about removing articles from White Power Bill. I don't understand how writing an article about White Power Bill somehow merits publishing, even if White Power Bill managed to co-opt some folks of colour or young folks to do all the hard work for them.

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