Eastside Revolt
23rd July 2006, 20:43
It's a great book with excellent insight on the class factors that have fuelled the riots thoughout Vancouver's history.
It starts with the anti-asian riots in 1907, horrific race riots fuelled by capitalists, with the determination to destroy all Asian competition within Vancouver city limits.
Next the free speech roits (1909 & 1911), organized mostly by IWW, over the very right to organize.
Bloody Sunday: the unemployment riots of '35 & '38. The first of which I find the most inspiring. Starting with a demonstration led by a Relief Camp Workers Union, where they marched into the Hudson Bay Company chanting "Work and Wages". When the police arrived to remove them, they smashed the place up, and started thowing shit at the cops. Six police were injured and they only managed to arrest two people. The march continued to Victory Square where a delegation of ten people were sent to city call to give demands to the Mayor. Mayor McGeer flatly denied them, calling the demands "revolutioary and inexcusable", the delegation was arrested as they left the building. McGeer then made his way to Victory Square where the protester were now surrounded by city police, provincial police, and RCMP. The Mayor read the riot act, the crowd then started singing "The Red Flag" and marched off. This scared the power structure who decended into all out fascism raiding the strike headquarters of many organizations. Word of the police action caused demonstrators to gather from Hastings and Carrall all the way to City Hall. Chaos ensued, as well as hand to hand fighting with police, it took them hours to clear the streets.
The the has a chapter dedicated to the BC Pen riots 1934-'76. The author begins by pointing out the prisons are instruments of class war where "the poor are dispraportionally represented, as are Aboriginals. This means that the prison population is poorly educated, unemployed, in poor mental and physical health - in other words, marginalized....... .......yet they organize as powerful prisoner's rights groups to negotiate with determination and fortitude for their basic rights."
My favorite incident occured in 1975 where three inmates took one classification officer hastage. There demands were: drugs, as well as to be flown to Algeria to meet with Eldridge Cleaver, as well as to have a member of the Communist Party of Canada as a negotiator(ballsy hugh! :lol: ). The demands ofcourse were not met and the hostage was aventually killed as police broke past the barricades.
Then he covers the Gastown Riot 1971, and the Rolling Stones Riot 1972. Which he believed were inspired by smaller skirmishes thoughout the 60's (the Grey Cup Riots and Holloween Riots). The Gastown Riot was a pot demontration, that turned into a riot when police started using clubs to disperse the protestors.
The Rolling Stones Riot was stared by the Clark Park Gang an East Van youth gang, at a Rolling Stones concert. During the riot, the Clarck Prk Gang fired a railway spike from a homade bazooka into the chest of a police officer. :wub:
Of course there were many others that he covered but what I feel was most important was his insight into the '94 Stanley Cup Riot, which is what the riots in Vancouver's near future are most likely to look like.
A party downtown became a warzone with men dressed in black wearing bellaclavas, carrying M-16's, being used to clear unarmed citizens out if the city.Why?:
A massive crowd of working class and unemployed people were gathered in Canada's most expensive shopping area to have a good time. Trust me this will happen much more as time passes. ;)
It starts with the anti-asian riots in 1907, horrific race riots fuelled by capitalists, with the determination to destroy all Asian competition within Vancouver city limits.
Next the free speech roits (1909 & 1911), organized mostly by IWW, over the very right to organize.
Bloody Sunday: the unemployment riots of '35 & '38. The first of which I find the most inspiring. Starting with a demonstration led by a Relief Camp Workers Union, where they marched into the Hudson Bay Company chanting "Work and Wages". When the police arrived to remove them, they smashed the place up, and started thowing shit at the cops. Six police were injured and they only managed to arrest two people. The march continued to Victory Square where a delegation of ten people were sent to city call to give demands to the Mayor. Mayor McGeer flatly denied them, calling the demands "revolutioary and inexcusable", the delegation was arrested as they left the building. McGeer then made his way to Victory Square where the protester were now surrounded by city police, provincial police, and RCMP. The Mayor read the riot act, the crowd then started singing "The Red Flag" and marched off. This scared the power structure who decended into all out fascism raiding the strike headquarters of many organizations. Word of the police action caused demonstrators to gather from Hastings and Carrall all the way to City Hall. Chaos ensued, as well as hand to hand fighting with police, it took them hours to clear the streets.
The the has a chapter dedicated to the BC Pen riots 1934-'76. The author begins by pointing out the prisons are instruments of class war where "the poor are dispraportionally represented, as are Aboriginals. This means that the prison population is poorly educated, unemployed, in poor mental and physical health - in other words, marginalized....... .......yet they organize as powerful prisoner's rights groups to negotiate with determination and fortitude for their basic rights."
My favorite incident occured in 1975 where three inmates took one classification officer hastage. There demands were: drugs, as well as to be flown to Algeria to meet with Eldridge Cleaver, as well as to have a member of the Communist Party of Canada as a negotiator(ballsy hugh! :lol: ). The demands ofcourse were not met and the hostage was aventually killed as police broke past the barricades.
Then he covers the Gastown Riot 1971, and the Rolling Stones Riot 1972. Which he believed were inspired by smaller skirmishes thoughout the 60's (the Grey Cup Riots and Holloween Riots). The Gastown Riot was a pot demontration, that turned into a riot when police started using clubs to disperse the protestors.
The Rolling Stones Riot was stared by the Clark Park Gang an East Van youth gang, at a Rolling Stones concert. During the riot, the Clarck Prk Gang fired a railway spike from a homade bazooka into the chest of a police officer. :wub:
Of course there were many others that he covered but what I feel was most important was his insight into the '94 Stanley Cup Riot, which is what the riots in Vancouver's near future are most likely to look like.
A party downtown became a warzone with men dressed in black wearing bellaclavas, carrying M-16's, being used to clear unarmed citizens out if the city.Why?:
A massive crowd of working class and unemployed people were gathered in Canada's most expensive shopping area to have a good time. Trust me this will happen much more as time passes. ;)