This action is happening right now! If you can, please go right now to 180 Bloor Street West to demonstrate your support for their action! Press release below - please forward widely!

Jewish Women Occupy Israeli Consulate in Toronto
Toronto: Wednesday January 8, 2009 Time: 10:25 am

A diverse group of Jewish Canadian women are currently occupying the Israeli consulate at 180 Bloor Street West in Toronto. This action is in protest against the on-going Israeli assault on the people of Gaza.

The group is carrying out this occupation in solidarity with the 1.5 million people of Gaza and to ensure that Jewish voices against the massacre in Gaza are being heard. They are demanding that Israel end its military assault and lift the 18-month siege on the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian aid into the territory.

Israel has been carrying out a full-scale military assault on the Gaza Strip since December 27, 2008. At least 660 people have been killed and 3000 injured in the air strikes and in the ground invasion that began on January 3, 2009. Israel has ignored international calls for a ceasefire and is refusing to allow food, adequate medical supplies and other necessities of life into the Gaza Strip.

Jewish Women Occupy Israeli Consulate in Toronto
Toronto: Wednesday January 8, 2009 Time: 10:25 am

A diverse group of Jewish Canadian women are currently occupying the Israeli consulate at 180 Bloor Street West in Toronto. This action is in protest against the on-going Israeli assault on the people of Gaza.

The group is carrying out this occupation in solidarity with the 1.5 million people of Gaza and to ensure that Jewish voices against the massacre in Gaza are being heard. They are demanding that Israel end its military assault and lift the 18-month siege on the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian aid into the territory.

Israel has been carrying out a full-scale military assault on the Gaza Strip since December 27, 2008. At least 660 people have been killed and 3000 injured in the air strikes and in the ground invasion that began on January 3, 2009. Israel has ignored international calls for a ceasefire and is refusing to allow food, adequate medical supplies and other necessities of life into the Gaza Strip.

December 15, 2008 - TORONTO, Ont.

As we write, more than 110 York undergraduate students are joining graduate student members of CUPE 3903 in an occupation of the President’s Office on the 9th floor of the Ross Building at York University. They are demanding that President Mamdouh Shoukri come out, engage them, and address 12 key questions.

They also plan to present him a letter to sign, requesting that he commit to participating in a public forum of undergraduates and CUPE members, to be held in the week of Jan. 5th, 2009.

Since the strike began on November 5th, and the University locked out students by canceling all classes, Shoukri’s actions and those of his representatives have ranged from unresponsive to hostile to the majority of student concerns. Most recently, President Shoukri refused to participate in an undergraduate Town Hall organized by the York Federation of Students on Thursday, Dec. 4th. There, students discussed the YFS economic proposal* urging York to direct funds and fundraising dollars away from non-essential expenses such as luxurious celebrations, and huge raises and bonuses for York Administrators, back to the classroom where it belongs.

Monday, December 15th
The Concord Café (937 Bloor St.)
7pm

A panel discussion on Labour and the University

On November 6, 2008, CUPE 3903 went on strike against their employer,
York University. Fed up with the employer's dismal offers, nearly 3500
teaching assistants, contract faculty, and research and graduate
assistants took action to win decent job security, equity, wages, and
benefits.

December 15 marks the beginning of week six on the picket lines.

Facing anti-union media, an employer that refuses to negotiate, and
self-serving politicians, it is sometimes difficult to find spaces where
we can collectively discuss the historical and political significance of
this struggle.

Nevertheless, we must ask: what are the implications of this strike for
3903 members, the university sector, and the Canadian labour movement?

Upping the Anti welcomes all organizers, activists, and allies committed
to labour union solidarity to attend the forum with questions and
contributions.

Speakers:

*Punam Khosla* is long-time antiracist marxist-feminist activist and
organizer, and a strike coordinator and media spokesperson with CUPE
3903. She is currently doing her PhD in Urban/Environmental studies at
York University and is a course director (Unit 1). Her current work aims
to support women of colour left activism and involves developing a new

OCAP demands immediate end to the settlements on Palestinian land, calls
for building real affordable housing in Toronto

Today, as part of the International Week Against Israel's Apartheid Wall,
the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) has erected a reinforced
cement wall in front of the Toronto building '50 On the Park' at 50
Portland St. (Bathurst and King) owned by wealthy real estate developer
Leviev-Boymelgreen. Leviev-Boymelgreen is a developer in Toronto and
Brooklyn and also builds illegal Israeli settlements in Occupied
Palestine.

By building Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Boymelgreen is
committing war crimes under International Law. Boymelgreen is expanding
the illegal settlement of Mod'in Illit that is built on the land of the
West Bank Palestinian village of Bil'in. 60% of Bil'in's land has been
stolen by Israel in the expansion of settlements and by the building of
the separation Wall. Bil'in is a village that is being strangled - made
into an open air prison surrounded by settlements, Occupation forces and
military, and enclosed by Israel's Apartheid Wall. This is a system of
colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people which has gone
on for 60 years.

In Toronto and New York, Boymelgreen builds luxury condos in the place of
real affordable housing, displacing poor and low-income people from our

THE ECONOMY GOES INTO CRISIS

We are watching the greatest financial crisis since 1929 unfold before our
eyes. Even if they manage to shore up their system for the moment, there
is no doubt that a serious international downturn in the economy is
getting underway. As this situation begins to impact the lives of our
families and communities, we must understand and prepare to deal with what
the crisis will mean to us:

1.Financial bailout for the rich: Governments everywhere have responded to
the crisis of financial institutions by pouring hundreds and hundreds of
billions of dollars into various bail-out packages for the rich. For
years, they have been telling us no money exists for decent wages, proper
housing, schools or health care and, certainly, no money to ensure that
poor people on assistance can pay the rent and eat properly. Now we see
that this was all a lie. When the banks and corporations are in trouble,
a Niagara Falls of public money suddenly becomes available to them. Don’t
tell us, when we lose our jobs and can’t pay our rent or put food on the
table, that ‘we can’t spend our way out of a recession’. Government must
start spending for us as they have for corporate interests.

2.Get ready for ordinary people to feel the crunch: This downturn is
unfolding in a context where EI and welfare systems have been cut back

BREAKING NEWS For Immediate Release
October 12, 2008

Rail Blockade Disrupts CP Rail’s Olympic Spirit Train
“Six Nations and solidarity activists resist Olympic theft of Indigenous
land, ecological destruction, and attacks on the poor”

Toronto, Ontario – Moments ago, a group of activists occupied Canadian
Pacific (CP) Railway’s train tracks by locking themselves down to the
tracks and hanging banners off of the rail overpass on highway 27 near
Elder Mills. The protest was organized in solidarity with the Olympics
Resistance Network (ORN) and their call to disrupt CP’s “Spirit Train”
that is traveling across Canada. Directions to the blockade site can be
found at the bottom of this release.

“We are here today to show the world what the Olympics really stands
for; capitalist greed and colonialist theft of Indigenous lands” said
Winnie Small. They continued, “In stark contrast to Canada’s cherished
reputation as a human rights advocate, our First Nations live in abject
poverty; casualties of Canada’s apartheid policy refusal to respect
Indigenous rights to their own land.”