Solidarity ’72 Conference

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In 1972 we helped to organize a Latin American Conference bringing together Latin American people and Canadian people. It was called “Solidarity ‘72”. For me, it was a tremendous introduction to Latin American issues. There was somebody from Argentina. There was somebody from Nicaragua. Somebody from Mexico. So a range of countries were represented, and some of the Canadians were the Scarborough Foreign Missions people, and John Foster was there. That was in the fall of ’72. And Bob and Fran, and Mary and Joe Gunn, a number of people – Inky I think went on that as well – who had gone down to Mexico in the summer of ’72 to kind of learn about the organizing efforts of people in Mexico City and surroundings,  and to have an exchange. That was kind of transforming for all who went. Fran had worked in Mexico for a number of years. She knew people. She would have been a key person knowing people to get in touch with. There was a Jesuit fellow from Chile and I think one from Argentina as well. The guy from Nicaragua was a poet, Luis Rocha.

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Mexico was Transformative

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In the summer of ’73, I went on a trip to Mexico with John Arthur and Lindsay, and Bob and Fran were down there as well. And I certainly found it transformative. For me it was interesting to see how people in Mexico working at the grassroots level, were handling problems, right? Because I had been working in Alexander Park as a community organizer. In Mexico the people had Big Problems: no garbage pickup, no water in some of the outer boundaries of the city. And they were trying to figure out how to get that. And we would talk about these things, because we were trying to get Scadding Court built, so people in Alexander Park would have places to go for sports and community activities.

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We went out to one indigenous area where people had to cut through the mountain to bring water to the village. When we arrived that was kind of the final step in that process, so they were having a big celebration. That marked a sort of new future for them because it was very dry in that area. I remember thinking how they were making do with much less than we had here and so, good preservers, I think, of what they had. And the music was part of that liveliness. I remember going into the museum of Ethnoculture, whatever it is called, in Mexico City, and they have different Indian and Mestizo groups set up as their villages, and thinking at the ROM, it’s all ‘bits and pieces’, where here, you had a sense of these people. One time we were south of Mexico City on a little holiday in the valley where Zapata had fought. And I was so surprised that everybody, but everybody there knew that’s where Zapata had been – and this was the early ‘70s, which would have been 50 or 60 years later. And then there had been the massacre at Tlatelolco in ’68, and that was still fresh, and people knew about that.

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Then we thought we should get back to do what we could in Canada: “We can’t do much here in Mexico.” So John Foster had been at the UNCTAD conference in Chile in ’72, so he was quite aware of what was happening, and had contacts in Chile. So I’d say we were preoccupied in the summer of ’73, because the news from Chile had been on the sobering side. And so, as soon as the coup happened, all our efforts went to into publicizing what was really happening – because there wasn’t a lot of information in the papers. And then, to try and open up some space for people to come to Canada.

 

CENCOS Encouraging News Synthesis in Canada

 

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The people we met at CENCOS in Mexico seemed so knowledgeable about what was going on in Mexico. And they said, “Look, it’s no secret. Read all the papers and you make contacts with people and then whatever the mainstream press is saying, you can counter in an informed way. It seemed such an interesting project. And in the general left, was my feeling, there wasn’t that much knowledge of what was happening in Latin America. They were the ones who encouraged us to start the News Synthesis and that’s what we did when we got back.

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Mary Marta was born in ’76. So I think I would have been cutting back my involvements somewhat by then. There were stresses in the News Synthesis around that time, too, because that was a totally volunteer operation. And to put something out monthly was a bit of a challenge. I think up until ’76, I was working at St. Christopher House part time, so I would have had more time but once Mary Marta was born and then I was home with her for about 6 months, and then from then on I was working full time.

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Remembering BRASCAN AGMs

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I think that LAWG always tried to connect the dots of what was happening in Latin America, with Canadian connections. So if it was a soft imperialism, it was important to see how people here were benefitting from that relationship. And I think that LAWG always drove that home. To me, another ‘takeaway’ from LAWG’s work is that it was a small group but I think it did influence government perspectives on Latin America. As a result, it couldn’t act just with impunity. There was a knowledgeable lobby there revealing what they were doing.

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I don’t know if it was a LAWG initiative or what it was, but I remember we all got BRASCAN shares. We went to shareholders meetings to ask questions. They were very discomforted by the presence of people asking intelligent questions about BRASCAN. It wasn’t just shouting. People were asking very good questions. It was kind of exciting to make them squirm. And I still have my BRASCAN share. I don’t know what it’s worth but I get $1.90 every 3 months ,and I’m reluctant to give it up – even though I never go to shareholders meetings. I think it bugs them to have to send me the whole package!! I think John Foster knew BRASCAN well because he had done his thesis on Canadian corporations and their links with missionary organizations, and whether BRASCAN was one those, I have that recollection.

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Successes from the ‘70s Buoyed Us

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I have to say I think I was buoyed up in the ‘70s by the successes we had, internationally and locally. And all the things we learned! In the Scadding Court struggle, we had to mount a campaign to argue how the need of the community was greater than that of the docs at Western who wanted more office space.

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We said that they could have their offices anywhere. And we were successful at that. Then we had to build funding for the community centre and we went from the local level first, we got Board of Education, Dan Lecky helped us, then to Parks and Rec to get sports facilities and then we went to the province and got some funding from them. But the feds were holding out. So we organized the residents in Alexander Park to go down to city hall to make their case. Some of them had never been east of Spadina! Or even on a streetcar. So we’d go on the streetcar and back and “see, it wasn’t too bad!” And then we’d go and sit in committees and listen, and then we’d train them to make the speech and they’d make the speech.

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And so, they built-up confidence and finally, I gave them a list of the federal cabinet ministers who were from Toronto and said, “Call them up and say all we need is this one little piece of funding.” So they called and all the secretaries of the cabinet ministers were calling me and saying “back off” – and I said, no way, unless they say yes, they’re not going to back off. And so we got it. So that kind of experience helps you overcome other defeats.