Alternative Media

YU Free Press

The YU Free Press is an alternative newspaper produced by volunteer graduate and undergraduate students at York University. Our principal objectives are to challenge the mainstream corporate media model and to provide a space for critical analysis and commentary of the news around us – both on and off campus – to a community of students, faculty, and staff alike. We are firmly opposed to oppression in all its possible forms (gender, sexual orientation, race, disability, religion, class, etc.) and are dedicated to upholding and promoting a clear vision of social justice through the publication of labour, union, and activist-positive material.

Writing Process

1) Choosing a topic

2) Information gathering

3) Planning

4) Writing

5) Editing

News Article

• Who, what, where, when, why, and how?

• To the point.

• Accurate facts and quotes.

• Includes more than one perspective.

• Writer objectivity.

• Non-academic writing, short sentences and paragraphs, clear and concise.

Ledes

• Summary Lede: On Monday, September 15, 2008, 200 people gathered on Parliament Hill to greet the Walk4Justice’s completion of a 4,700 km trek from Vancouver BC to Ottawa ON, to demand a public inquiry into the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women.

• Single-Item Lede: The Walk4Justice demanded a public inquiry of Indigenous women from Canada’s federal government.

• Quote Lede: “We are here to make a journey...We are walking it for the women. We have had enough” – Bernie Williams, Walk4Justice Co-Founder.

• Question Lede: How can we begin to address the 500+ Indigenous women who have disappeared or been killed? The Walk4Justice’s recent demand for a public inquiry may give some insight into where to begin.

Fourth Annual Fair Trade Fair at York Raji Chowdury, Vol. 2, Is. 2

The fourth annual Fair Trade Fair at York University was held on

Thursday November 24, 2009. Hosted by the Fair Trade Coalition, a student club that advocates for fair trade and sustainable purchasing practices, the fair had almost 20 vendors (one from outside of Ontario). Caitlin Gascon, President of the Fair Trade Coalition stated: “the vendors loved being here; they were interested by the students and their interests in sustainable practices”.

This is exemplary of the momentum that fair trade is gaining at

York University. Vendors were offering products from clothes, to fruits, to jewelery. The event took place from Vari Hall to Central Square. The annual fair has been inviting fair trade vendors each year and Gascon says that “the goal of the fair is to raise awareness within York’s community about the principles of fair trade and about fair trade product availability and variety.”

The Fair Trade Coalition, a working group of both the Sustainable Purchasing Coalition (SPC) and Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) at York, has higher goals than raising awareness via workshops and their annual fair. The SPC previously lobbied the university to adopt a No-Sweat policy to ensure that York’s apparel be produced under just labour standards. The SPC lobbied for years, culminating in March of 2008 with a rally in Vari Hall and a 43-hour sit-in in front of President Shoukri’s office that won the policy.

Since then, the Fair Trade Coalition has been committed to another

sustainable purchasing policy for the university: the implementation of a fair trade policy. This policy would require university vendors who serve coffee to carry and serve at least one fair trade brand of coffee, if not more. This in turn would make fair trade coffee more widely available to students as an option. The Fair Trade Coalition sees this as a starting point for the university. With rising student interest in fair trade and the continual success of the Annual Fair Trade Fair, the policy will add several possibilities for the university to purchase sustainably, and enhance sustainability as a whole.

Features Article

• Go beyond superficial inquiry.

• Doesn’t go out of date easily.

• Narrow focus on a particular subject.

• Types: Analysis of current issues, interviews and profiles of particular people, human interest stories, humorous accounts, background or contextual information on events.

Features Structure

• Introduction: begins with a quote, can include background, sets the tone

• Main Body: sub-headings, facts and stats, quotes, expert opinions, specifics

• Conclusion: reiterate main idea, suggest course of action

Night in Tunisia: Riots, Strikes, and a Spreading Insurgency

David McNally, Vol. 3, Is. 2

Popular upheavals always carry a distinct sonic resonance. The cascading chants that reverberate through the streets, the roar of the crowd as it drives back the riot police and seizes the city square–all this and more produces an unmistakable acoustic effect. The rhythm of revolt pulsates through society, freedom music fills the air.

Ruminating about this as I watched rebellion flow from Tunisia to Algeria, Jordan, and beyond, I was brought back to Dizzy Gillespie’s jazz anthem, Night in Tunisia. Gillespie’s tune emerged as part of a musical upheaval known as the bebop revolution. And its unique blend of Afro-Cuban rhythms and bebop idioms makes it an early experiment in ‘world music,’ a border-crossing mixing of genres. And so it has been with the freedom music emanating from Tunisia. It, too, is hopping boundaries and echoing far and wide.

“The street has spoken,” is how one Tunisian protestor puts it. Indeed it has, and it shows no sign that it is about to stop its raucous agitation.

“We will Avenge you”

In a country where the official jobless rate is 14% and the real rate, especially for the young, is considerably higher, this dramatic episode became a lightning rod for popular discontent. Daily protests erupted immediately after Bouazizi’s desperate act, spreading to cities and towns across the country. Unemployed teachers, bus drivers, high school students, and street vendors joined the mobilizations. As the movement gained momentum, demonstrators became increasingly confident, torching police cars and trashing businesses linked to President Ben Ali and his family. Then, following Bouazizi’s death, marchers at his funeral filled the air with chants of “Farewell, Mohammed, we will avenge you. We weep for you today; we will make those who caused your death weep.” They more than made good on the pledge.

Who’s next?

Equally important will be the degree to which the insurgent wave continues to flow across borders.

In the early days of January, riots broke out in Algeria in response to announced increases in prices for food, and other staples. Railway workers struck, as did students at five universities. Clearly emboldened by events in neighbouring Tunisia, demonstrators attacked banks, police stations, and government offices. Police violence and mass arrests–at least 1,000 people were detained–failed to dent the movement. As in Tunisia, the struggle moved to a higher level as unions and student groups came together demanding democratization and an end to police violence. In a desperate effort to stave off a Tunisian scenario, Algeria’s government back-tracked, declaring a 41% cut to taxes on food.

Comments Article

•Commentary: response to an event or another article. •Opinion: can use personal experience.

Behind the Vari Hall Face-Lift: Fighting for Student Space Jesse Zimmerman, Vol. 2, Is. 2

Recently students may have heard reports concerning administrative

plans to ‘revamp’ Vari Hall. As of now, three proposed models have been created, each one focusing on drastically changing the interior dynamics of the building. The newly formed Task Force on Student Life, Learning, and Community initially made the proposal that has since been reviewed by President Mamdouh Shoukri. The administrative public relations machine has officially announced that the purpose of this alteration is to create a more “student-friendly” space.

However, when considering the history of Vari Hall and when taking into

account the far reaching implications that come with the implementation of the suggested designs, it becomes quite clear that the intention behind this proposed revamp may not be to improve student space. Rather, these plans to revamp Vari Hall negatively hinder and dramatically disassemble one of the few true student-friendly spaces at York University.

If students were to travel to other university campuses in Toronto or elsewhere, they would be hard-pressed to find a thriving space like Vari Hall. The building was designed in the late 1980s when York University wanted to change its appearance from a perceivably sprawling suburban campus into a more urbanized identity. By the early 1990s, the concrete ramp leading from the Commons Area to the Ross Building was demolished and Vari Hall was constructed. Vari’s rotunda became an informal meeting, organizing, and rallying place for students to freely congregate, interact with their fellow students, and exert their freedom of speech. It is believed that the designer, Raymond Moriyama, actually had this dynamic in mind when designing the architecture of the hall.

Many noteworthy events have taken place over the years in Vari Hall,

but only recently has the administration started to actively clamp down on demonstrations. In 2005, former President Lorna Marsden called in the police to stop a supposedly rowdy anti-war demonstration, and various accounts explain what happened next. Police claimed they were assaulted by students, yet there seems little evidence for this. Students claimed they were attacked unprovoked by police officers, and video footage available on YouTube seems to confirm this. One student was hospitalized and five were arrested.

To fully understand the destructive nature of these revamping plans, I urge students to take a look at the suggested designs. For example, one proposed design shows a central information kiosk with curvy benches dispersed all along the side areas, making a central rallying point impossible. Students may table in this environment, but they are cut off from one another. The information kiosk, in and of itself, symbolizes a corporatized campus where our space no longer belongs to students, but to the administration.

Many of the rallies over the years have been critical of policies and

decisions made by the campus administration, and the administration has responded by attempting to curtail student mobilization. The project is due to be started in 2010, so let us raise our voices against this coercive plan now before it is too late. Will we sit idly by and allow our only remaining space for exercising collective free expression be ‘revamped’ into an administrative stronghold? Students will be asked over the next few months which design they like best. I encourage all those who have the same concerns that I do about student space being repressed to select ‘none of the above.’ Let us make the right choice to keep our space as it is and continue to express ourselves as we freely see fit.

Writing Exercise

• Consider an event or issue that has been sitting on your heart.

• Write about it.

• Write about why it bothers you.

• Connect to something bigger: patriarchy, colonialism, poverty.