A-Infos (en) Canada, Ontario, Report: 2009 Common Cause conference

On August 1 and 2, 2009, in the city of Toronto, Common Cause, an Ontario anarchist 
organization, held its third annual Ontario-wide conference. In attendance were members 
from our Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton branches and several new members from London. -- The 
first day began with reports from Ontario officers and local branches giving us a good 
overview of our second year as an organization. The 2008/2009 year saw us focus on both 
internal and public education. Internally, highlights included holding our first internal 
Day School in Hamilton in late June, a big step in developing a common vision and strategy 
across the organization. We also continued to be active in the international anarchist 
movement, sending a delegate to Anarkismo.net and to the organizing committee for the 
North American Class Struggle Anarchist Conference.

Externally, branches successfully organized the second Hamilton Anarchist Book Fair, 
(June, 2009), the first Organizing4Justice conference (Ottawa, October 2008) and 
participated in the first Toronto Anarchist Gathering (April, 2009). The Hamilton branch 
continued to host well-attended monthly anarchist discussion groups while the Toronto 
branch laid the groundwork to begin organizing public discussion groups in that city. We 
also developed a presentation, titled “The Role of the Anarchist Organization” which was 
presented in three cities. (Anyone interested in hosting the talk in their city should 
contact the Ontario secretary. Contact information is listed below).

Common Cause members also continued to be active in a wide range of struggles including 
queer and women's groups, indigenous solidarity, unions, anti-war, prisoner support work, 
anti-security certificates organizing and anti-racism work. Members were part of two 
important victories this year: the release of the last person held on national security 
certificates and the organizing of the first ever post-doctoral fellows union in Canada.

Following reports we discussed and voted on a number of resolutions. Key resolutions that 
were passed included: empowering Delegate Council to pass strategy papers in between 
annual conferences, upping the share of members' dues sent to the Ontario treasurer from 
50% to 60% percent in order to fix the imbalance between local accounts and the provincial 
treasury, and creating a literature working group. Importantly we passed a new publishing 
plan and format for our newspaper, Linchpin. It will now be published bi-annually, but 
with more content and in greater numbers. It was hoped that this will set the newspaper on 
a more sustainable and effective path after publishing was put on hold over the summer as 
funds ran out.

The day ended with Ontario officer elections. With the exception of the Out of Province 
Secretary, all positions were rotated repeating a similar pattern as last year. We were 
encouraged to see newer members take on some of the positions.

After an evening of socializing, the second day of the Conference was taken up with a set 
of strategy sessions. The 5 topics were: building Common Cause, collective campaigns, the 
labour movement and community organizing, political education/developing our ideas and 
media, journalism, outreach. The sessions included both break outs into small groups as 
well as a closing plenary.

By the end of the conference we felt that a lot has been accomplished this year both 
internally and externally for what still remains a small political organization. However 
it was recognized that we still have a long way to go before we can play the kind of role 
that we envision for an anarchist organization in Ontario. Specifically, members expressed 
the desire to see us organize campaigns at the Ontario level, doing a better job of 
popularizing anarchist ideas via our newspaper and website, and making more progress on 
developing strategy for specific areas of organizing. It was the common feeling of the 
members that taking these steps will depend on our ability to attract new members as well 
as increase the skills and knowledge of current ones.

A lot of work awaits us in what is likely to be a key year for Common Cause. With a 
well-organized and productive conference we begin the year with a good start.

If you are interested in learning more or getting involved with Common Cause please 
contact us at: commoncauseontario[at]gmail[dot]com, or use the contact form on our website 
at http://linchpin.ca/ or write to us at P.O. Box 347, Station E, 772 Dovercourt Rd., 
Toronto, ON, Canada, M6H 4E3
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