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A major setback for the anti-war movement in Vancouver
October 29th 2003
As working, poor and oppressed organizers, Fire This Time (FTT) is fighting to improve the position of
poor, working and oppressed people internationally and locally by fighting in solidarity and in
defense of the most attacked and exploited people globally. Right now, the most explicit
example of oppressed people under attack is shown through the occupations of Iraq, Palestine
and Afghanistan. By organizing against imperialist war that is killing working, poor and
oppressed people abroad we are organizing against the same systems that attack these same
people at home.
Since FTT formed in January of this year, we have focussed the majority of our efforts on building the
anti-war movement through direct work with StopWar.ca. This commitment to developing
StopWar.ca as a vehicle for this movement has led us into conflict with another strong faction in
the coalition. This secret clique, though involved in forming StopWar.ca alongside founding
members of FTT in the fall of 2002, never wanted to use the coalition to build the anti-war
movement.
In the last two months, these major political differences have shaken up the Stopwar.ca Coalition,
differences involving the political direction of Stopwar.ca. There has been constant tension within
Stopwar.ca between these two directions due to a lack of a democratic, political atmosphere
and an absence of political exchange and discussion of these differences.
StopWar.ca, has recently taken extreme action to exclude and silence the tendency within the
coalition that has consistently pushed for building a broad antiwar movement against
occupation.
A package of documented correspondence, as evidence of the existence of an unprincipled and
secret grouping who were responsible for conspiring for the expulsion and exclusion of
dissenting voices, was presented in detail and distributed to the media at a press conference
held on October 15th, 2003.
At this plenary meeting the first item on the agenda was the expulsion of five Fire This Time
Movement for Social Justice members (FTT-5), Mike Krebs, Shannon Bundock, Ali Yerevani,
Nasim Sedaghat and Ivan Drury. This expulsion was carried forward without allowing for an
adequate defense to be made and heard.
The secret clique that engineered this expulsion by lining others in the coalition up against the FTT-5
have since released public statements against FTT to try and isolate us in the anti-war
movement in Vancouver and all across Canada.
We have prepared a document that outlines the history of the exclusion and silencing of independent
voices in the coalition and the expulsion of the FTT-5 from StopWar.ca. This document is part of
a package that is available on this website.
Click here to access this document and others relating to the expulsion.
Included in this package are the other documents we have recently released against this expulsion
and an appendix of historical documents published by FTT and by people within the secret
clique itself. This appendix spans the development and degeneration of StopWar.ca from
February of 2002, when the structure of the coalition was developed and the name 'StopWar.ca'
was chosen, to the expulsion of FTT in October 2002.
Through this package we hope to show the differences of political direction and strategy that
polarized the anti-war movement in Vancouver and led to the continued attempts to isolate the
politics of FTT by the secret clique at work within Stopwar.ca. Through the lessons of these
undemocratic maneuvers resulting in the expulsion of the FTT-5, we will be able to better build
and be part of the crucial international movement against war and occupation. In this time of
sustained and permanent war in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and everywhere at the hands of the
US, Canada and other imperialist powers, the strengthening of this movement will put us and
people in struggle all around the world in a better position against this war and occupation.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or comments.
In Solidarity;
Shannon Bundock
Co-ordinator, Fire This Time
604-340-9670
shannonbundock@yahoo.ca
Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice