David Fennario On G20 “Black Block”– CK Takes a Trip Down Memory Lane With Some Help From Help From Johnny Cash

Anne Lagace Dowson, probably the lone spokesperson for seeking the truth on commercial radio these days, bless her soul, read out a letter from David Fennario on her radio show last Saturday (for those who are interested; Anne is on every Saturday afternoon www.cjad.com from 13;00 -16:00; I do recommend you catch her show).

For those who don’t know who David Fennario is, he is a Montreal playwrite who came from humble beginnings.  He is a socialist, politically and writes plays that are historical, political and satirical.  ”Balconville” from 1979 would be arguably  one of his most famous plays. It has been performed as far as Ireland. It is also the first bilingual play written in Canada.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Dave in 1992 when Montreal was celebrating its’ 350th anniversary with many events about town. One of which, was a community production, in his home district of the  south west Montreal district of Pointe St-Charles, of “Joe Beef” , a short chronological piece done in vignettes. I also had he and his wife Liz in my home for the cast party.  Liz was definitely someone you wanted to have at parties.

As mentioned in the “about ck” page of this site, I was also a member of International Socialists when I was a student at Concordia University in the early 90s. It was then headed by David and Liz.  Yes, there were a few anarchists (or so they claimed to be) in the group. In fact, sometimes I wondered why they joined our little group; there are differences between socialism and anarchism. But, that is neither here nor there for the sake of this post.

He wrote a letter that Anne read on the air on her last radio show:

Some of my best friends are anarchists but whoever saw 150 anarchists as orchestrated and co-ordinated as the Black Bloc were in TO.?
The smashing of the bank windows and burning of cop cars all so cherographed down to the type of hammers being used. And it was very telling to see how the cops held back until the Black Bloc did their shhowpiece.The Black Bloc violence was not in defencse of the protestors.It was an organized disruption that gave the police the ‘legimate’ right to attack and arrest the protestors.
I smell cop all over this.
My guess is the Black Bloc leadership is definitely infiltrated and being used by agent provocateurs to discredit and demoralize the movement.Certainlythat is the conclusion on the Black Bloc the European Left came to after Genoa.What the Europen Left  did,after a lot of discussion and debate ,was organize affinity group marshaals to control outbreaks by the Black bloc and the police during protests
After defending those who were arrested and loudly condemning the corporate elite and their police as the real terrorists,we should also start meeting to discuss and debate in preparations for more protests.
Dave

Yes, he has indeed kept company with anarchists over the years.  This is something I’m sure the right in Montreal are only too eager to believe about our local scribe. This is exactly why we should give credibility to what he says.

It’s been many years since I’ve seen Dave or Liz, but I’m sure that if any anarchists or any of those anti-capitalist groups like CLAC actually were responsible for most of the damage, and there were no agents provocateurs, he wouldn’t make the statements he made above.

I don’t think we’ve heard the end of any of this. In fact, I think this is the beginning.  I would lean on the side that this is a good thing as ceasing to discuss it at all and stopping the questioning and investigating would lull us back to that apathy that Steve and useful idiots like Bill Blair count on to stay in power.

Anne, Keep up the good work! Dave, let’s hope this isn’t the last we’ve heard of you!

Funny how I always believed it was important to strive for equality which was why  I had joined groups like International Socialists and volunteered for Anti-poverty Groups and such.

We were lamenting about lyin’ Brian Mulroney screwin’ up the country.  Looking now at Master Steve, betcha we would never be thinking that lyin’ Brian looks pretty tame and a lot less evul now, would we have?

I have to say, it is great seeing folks like Dave, like some of our prog bloggers who are baby boomers and perhaps not necessarily in the best of health, they continue to plug on in any way they can.

I also thought I would add a few Johnny Cash tunes. One: because I  remembered in “Joe Beef”, Dave had written lyrics to go to the tune of “Walk the Line”. A few of us had a difficult time of it as our director, Glen Robinson (Robertson? Suffering from C.R.A.F.T. here) wanted us to almost mimic Johnny Cash. I dunno, perhaps some deep voiced guys could replicate it, but how about the gals?

Reverend Paperboy picked exactly the right song to describe the mood of some of us when picking Johnny Cash’s “Man in Black” . Go catch his last episode on the “Maple Syrup Revolution” where he talks about Agents provocateurs with co-blogger Dave who has his own expertise on such matters. Go! Download! Listen.

Happy Sunday Nite all!!