AFU Meeting Minutes (2 April 2006)

The People

Present: Rachel (facilitating), Frank, Terrence, Darren, Franchie, Diana, Martin, Rory, Victoria, Randolf, Glen, Rob (secretary), Chris S, Ashar, Chris B, Mike.

The Food

This month’s delicious vegan dish was Tunisian Vegetable Stew, the recipe is available from the Moosewood cookbook. It was great! Folks came back for seconds and helped themselves to some fresh bakery bread, a giant baked sweet potato and some wonderful salad fixings. Delicious and nutritious! An anti-capitalist smorgasbord.

The Agenda

• Introductions
• Course proposals
• Update on term end party
• Website update (tabled)
• Derrick Jensen show
• Update on workshops

The Meeting

Introductions

People introduced themselves to the group in a fairly quick go-around. (I thought it was too fast and would love to learn more about collective members I haven't met before).

Year-End Party

Big bash planned. Yippee. Different from previous year end parties. Planned for Saturday April 15, 2006 at Canadian Corps, an old Legion Hall that is cheap to rent. Get the word out. Promotion is crucial. We want to generate more interest in the school. It will be a DJ Dance party—Idea to get AFU Members to produce promotional material and to make the party their own. Beautiful things are happening! King & Niagara area. Expected pull from the event around $150. Cool templates for making your own subversive messages in detourned comic series available from Chris Smith and others. We all agreed that Bill set the bar very high with his clever comic.

Course Proposals

Summer term: May 1st first term starts; July 1st-second Term.

Randolf proposed a course for the summer. A continuation of “The Secret History of the World” Course in two parts. The class consensus was to offer the class in the summer time –condensed into 8 weeks from 10 weeks. Wants to present information with a high degree of validity which distinguishes between 'junk' information online and more reputable sources. A lot of misinformation on the internet that the group will explore and attempt to debunk. Tuesdays 6-8 pm for the first term in summer May/June (2006). At 457 Bathurst St.

Darren is offering a course on communication, and conflict resolution strategies for becoming more aware of communication style and strategies for effective communication. Perspectives draw from Buddhist practices, NLP (Neo-linguistic Programming) and other techniques. Darren has experience in these practices. Wednesday at 7pm staring in mid-May 2006.

Martin is reoffering his course in first-aid, no one came out to the course last year. Poor promotion occured last summer as well. Practical course on how to use a splint, a backboard, what is and is not an emergency. Martin teaches first aid to hikers and ski patrollers. One day for a few hours. Location at Forest School at High Park. Check the website for more info.

Rob is offering his course on the child sex panic, "Terror and Sexuality" after putting it on hold for a year. Basic idea is to promote a discussion on the figure of the pedophile and the child protection strategies as a form of moral panic. Analogies can be drawn to the era of the US communist witch hunts under McCarthyism^? (1940s-50s) which also turned homosexual men & women into sex offenders and today's heightened political and sexual folk devils, represented by terrorists and pedophiles respectively. Course approved with minor changes. The group asked Rob to hold off on the course till possibly the July term or September; a paper copy of the course outline would be helpful--bring to next meeting. Discussion of current sex laws encouraged and a committee struck to deal with controversy if that should happen.

Chris B. will develop the Peak Oil class and tweak it into an anti-civilization perspective. Can offer it at Uprising any night of the week. Derrick Jensen will be coming to talk about the collapse of civilization.

Other Business

Frank informed us about the Screening party that will happen at Cinecycle, April 29, 2006. The film class will be screening their subversive cultural productions on that night so come out!

Derrick Jensen, ANTI-CIV writer and activist is speaking in Toronto Wed April 8. We should check him out! DJ Logic and others are playing that night. Event sponsored by AFU and OPIRG.

Workshops

Alan mentioned that the Anti-capitalist DIY workshop is going ahead as planned and they need to confirm the date. (Note: Date confirmed for Sat April 15, 2006).

Rob mentioned that the Richard Day workshop, Gramsci is Dead, is going ahead as planned. Day agreed to come out and discuss his new book and ideas related to anarchism and post-structuralism. Workshop is organized with intoductory sessions in the morning. A lunch break provided by Food Not Bombs followed by the afternoon session with Richard Day and invited discussants. (NOTE: the workshop may need to be moved to Sunday June 4).

Next Meeting:

Sunday May 7, 2006

• 5pm-Potluck
• 6pm-Meeting

Quote of the Month:

“We can no longer sit idly by as others steal our mouths, our anuses, our genitals, our nerves, our guts, our arteries, in order to fashion parts and works in an ignoble mechanism of production which links capital, exploitation, and the family.”

--Felix Guattari (1930-1992)