In the weeks and months that followed the G20 summit in Toronto, I realized that many conversations I had with friends on the topic were extremely heavy, sad, and disheartening. For many of us who were there, the unprecedented police repression will leave long-standing scars. But through all the heaviness, all the shit, there was also so much beautiful stuff that happened in Toronto that weekend. Resistance to capitalism and the shit-stem is beautiful, and I tried to capture some of that beauty with my humble little digital recorder.
So this is my attempt to create some beauty out of the misery. It's a mashup of various sounds, interviews, and speeches I collected on the streets of Toronto. Some of the speeches here gave me chills down my spine. Goddamn, Toronto has some good community organizers.
The music is "Are there any rights I'm entitled to" by Sweet Honey in the Rock. I thought it was a fitting song for this. I don't believe in a society of rights, where civil or human rights are handed down by some benevolent leader, but rather a society of justice and mutual aid, where people work from the ground up to build the societies we want and need. However, I think for many Torontonians and Canadians, the G20 was an enourmous shock where people's rights were taken away in a wholesale robbery.
So if you like this, please share it, and head on over to this website and make a donation, whatever you can, towards the legal defense of G20 protestors. http://g20.torontomobilize.org/
Nobody is free until we're all free.