Location: Green space on the corner of
Walnut and 6th St NE
summer hours: Saturdays 4:00-5:30pm
Winter Hours: Saturdays 3;00-4;30pm
Contact Us
Facebook: CantonFNB
Instagram: CantonFNB
Website: www.cantonfnb.com
Support Us
Cash App: $CantonFNB
Our goal is to feed hungry
people. We require absolutely
nothing from our friends that
come to eat with us
You will find the following at
our serves:
-Vegetarian meals
-Beverages
-Toiletries/medication/etc.
-Harm reduction
Who we are
We are a Pan-Left group that
believes food is a right not a
privilege
We are a non-profit grass-
roots organization
We believe in solidarity not
charity. We require no beliefs,
backgrounds, or acceptance
of any of our beliefs
Come as you are.
NEWS
VOL.4
dancing on the edge of reality
not knowing the next step
i can only imagine the beauty of our
moves
without the boot of oppression
that subverts our grace
WHEREAS the so-called State of Israel is an apartheid settler
state that violently has and continues to illegally and
immorally occupy the land of Palestine,
WHEREAS the so-called State of Israel is actively engaged in
the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians by means
of bullets, exposure, starvation, and indiscriminate bombing
campaigns with the help of extracted U.S. tax dollars,
WHEREAS Canton Food Not Bombs denounces all violence,
coercion, and authority of the state; but pursues and
struggles for the self-determination and liberation of all
under state and imperialist oppression.
LET IT BE RESOLVED that Canton Food Not Bombs
explicitly condemns the genocidal and fascistic actions of
Israel, rejects the ethno-state of Israel, denies its self-imposed
legitimacy, and stands in solidarity with the People of
Palestine, whether they be Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or
hold any other religion or belief system.
across the entire country, and became the “modern” systems we
see today.
Sheriff’s OfÞ ce patch, Modern.
Sam Mitrani, historian at the College of DuPage, has said, “Stop
kidding yourself: the police were created to control working class
and poor people.”
When we look at this system and hope it can be reformed, we
are essentially asking the impossible. The criminal justice system
is not pure-but-damaged; it was always unjust, and is working
exactly as intended.
Stay tuned for the next part of this topic exploration in our next
zine that will delve into alternatives to our modern policing
system!
targeting labor access, fair wages, voting rights, and general
freedoms. A force that was empowered to stop, question, search,
and capture people at any time
Slave patrol badge, 1858
After the Civil War, the Reconstruction Era saw the “Black
Codes”, laws which, no longer able to assume that they were
property, were designed to control African Americans. These
included vagrancy laws, labor contracts, curfews, test oaths to
hold certain jobs, and restrictions on guns, land ownership, and
education access, and restrictions on guns, land ownership, and
education access.” Without freedom seekers to catch, former slave
patrollers began swelling the ranks of their local police forces, and
these codes used the newly growing “pure” police force to enforce
many of the same constraints they always had. Scholar Michelle
Alexander, author of “The New Jim Crow; Color-Blindness in
the Age of Mass Incarceration,” emphasizes, “Law enforcement
in the post-Civil War era played a central role in enforcing
discriminatory Black Codes that restricted the freedom of newly
freed slaves.” These methods and empowerments quickly spread
We had an exciting Þ rst week of September in 2023 here at
Canton FNB. We served two vegetarian meals in solidarity to
the striking teachers of the Youngstown Education Association.
The Þ rst meal consisted of 150+ humus sub sandwiches and the
second meal was around 200+ bean and veggie build your own
burritos. ( we planned for a bit more)
Special thanks to everyone who contributed to this somewhat
intimidating endeavor. Mayday was especially excited, stressed
and overjoyed to help the striking teachers out. She did a
fantastic job of planning and organizing everything.
And very super special thanks to Mayday’s parents who made
5 gallons of delicious salsa for the serve and Pencil for his long
hours, tireless dedication and cooking skills.
Solidarity forever!!
serve at Youngstown
teachers strike
There are a variety of reasons for the failures we saw in the USSR. Some
due to economic and social experimentation-a trial and error, some due
to mismanagement or corruption we see in every government made up
of people, and some due to external factors, like U.S. aligned powers
undermining, sabotaging, and threatening the project. Regardless of
our political tendency (and this author is not a Marxist-Leninist), we
all must realize that the Soviet Project did not happen in a vacuum, but
instead in an environment where external and internal capitalist forces
were constantly hostile, from its inception to its fall. Each and every
revolutionary or radical project should expect the same treatment.
Next, it is important to consider how we measure successes and failures.
There is a habit of measuring any Socialist project with an exceptionally
high bar and Capitalist ones with a surprisingly low bar; what we
might call a double standard. When people go hungry and there is
little opportunity in a Socialist project, it is diagnosed as an intrinsic
system failure. When the same happens in an ultra wealthy and well-
established Capitalist country (or a poor Capitalist country), it is due to
the individual failure of the millions. Capitalist countries cannot hold
up to much of the same scrutiny they give to Socialist projects, even
without being undermined by hostile world powers.
Lastly, Soviet-style socialism is not the only form of socialism.Far from
a single and uniÞ ed theory, Socialism exists on a wide and complex
spectrum. Some may include the social democracies in some European
countries that may curtail the worst of Capitalism for its immediate
citizens. However, this is not a good comparison and does not have
the same revolutionary intent or plan. Some may point to the People’s
Republic of China. While a worthwhile discussion, it is a complicated
one beyond our current scope. For now, let’s consider some successful
and modern but less known socialist revolutionary projects like The
Questions out of Left-fi eld
Didn’t the failures of the Soviet Union prove
that socialism does not work?
The political establishment is quick to claim that “a few bad apples’’
have caused the issues with law enforcement we now see, and in a
prior News Not Bombs article we endeavored to blame the barrel
makers. Here I examine the origins of the wood and nails which
make up our barrel to show the controversial reputation of this
criminal justice system and reveal that the issues of the system
come from its deepest roots.
Slave patrol statutes were laws enacted in the southern states
beginning in the late 1600s. These laws formalized the “slave
patrols” and regulated their activities. The purpose of these was
to control enslaved people, prevent escapes, and maintain “law
and order”.
This wasn’t an unruly posse of rednecks, these were sworn-in
agents acting within an ofÞ cial criminal justice system, the Þ rst
non-urban force of its kind and the father of each that came after
it.
Slave patrols were empowered to stop, question, and search
enslaved people at any time. They were empowered to use
force. Slave patrol statutes were a crucial part of the system that
upheld the institution of slavery in southern states. They served
as a precursor to our own “modern” policing and contributed
immensely to the development of law enforcement agencies in
the post-Civil War era.
According to the NAACP, Slave patrols continued until the Civil
War ended and the 13th amendment limiting slavery was passed;
however, during the Reconstruction period, the Slave patrols
were replaced by militia-style groups who subjected liberated
individuals to continued oppression by enforcing Black Codes
Slave Patrols and Modern
Law Enforcement
EZLN in Chiapas, Mexico (since 1994) or Rojava in Northeast Syria. Or
even successful but shorter lived projects in the past like Revolutionary
Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War or Makhnovia during the
Russian Revolution.
In conclusion, we need to be aware of the history of Socialist projects
and the ways in which their powerful enemies responded and repressed
them; how we deÞ ne failures and successes and to avoid creating a
double standard. Equally important, we must remember that every
structure that involves human discretion, especially those that permit a
central and concentrated hierarchical authority, will be prone to misuse
and mismanagement and ought to be followed by rigorous systems of
accountability. Finally, Socialism exists on a wide spectrum and the
Soviet-style was only one. There were and are other Socialist projects
to study and follow. If interested in this discussion and learning more,
check out the A Club About Books recent readings and/or join the club!
FNB NEWS
In September of 2023, Canton FNB’s Committee of Propaganda
launched a local education initiative in the form of a book club. It is
intended for any and all working folks in Canton, and beyond, that are
interested in educating themselves through Leftist literature alongside
members of Canton FNB. The book club is appropriately named
A Club About Books (ACAB). We explore a wide variety of Leftist
literature, from short stories and newer guides on organizing to the
classic tomes of theory, covering most tendencies of the Left.
The book club remains a program of Canton FNB but itself has put
into practice some of the very principles we have been studying
like: consensus-decision making and leaderfulness, allowing it to
become self-sustaining and member-led with little need of external
interference.
Over the last few months ACAB has grown signiÞ cantly. It collectively
decided to meet and discuss its readings every 2-4 weeks, length and
difÞ culty depending.
ACAB Updates
In December, we read Mutual Aid: for this Disaster (and
the next) by Dean Spade, which covered a more modern
interpretation for the application of that word Leftist love
so much: Mutual Aid. The short book focused on evaluating
mutual aid efforts and their internal structure for Leftist
organizations particularly through the height of the COVID-19
pandemic in the U.S. Additionally, the author discusses the
massive need to consider ourselves as well as the work we
are doing, while in the process of providing aid. The work
cannot be done without “us”, so we need to take care of “us”
as well. We discussed questions like: how do we prevent
and deal with burnout and how do we deal with conß ict and
harm inside of our collectives? What can we do so that this
movement and what we have learned continues and grows
beyond just reacting to this crisis. All of this while trying to
avoid recreating hierarchical and coercive structures: our
inheritance.
Through October and much of November, we read a
selection of essays from Emma Goldman from her collection
Anarchism and Other Essays. Our collective had a great time
reading through these monumental Anarchist writings. In
our meetings we discussed the foundations of Anarchism,
what it is and what it is not, and the importance of individual
sovereignty meshing with collective action and interest. We
learned of the heavy anarchist critiques of organized religion
and the call for the abolition of private property and the state.
Between us were held long discussions on youth liberation
and how to educate the youth properly (or how they ought
to educate themselves), and how the state will always co-opt
education to hide its sins and propagate its supposed self-
imposed legitimacy. ACAB has the honor of always having
four generations of Leftists present and so we were able to
further recognize the intergenerational propaganda campaigns
that we have all been exposed to.
In January ACAB read a selection of socialist short stories from
Worker’s Tales by Michael Rosen and The Castle of Truth
and Other Revolutionary Tales by Hermynia Muhlen. While
these readings were a reprieve from other denser readings,
there was still a tremendous amount to learn from them. The
allegories were very accurate, which allowed us to view the
class struggle through a different and fresh lens. Some of these
short stories are a hundred years old or more. So, it is very
interesting to see how even a hundred years ago working class
people were able to see the inherent failures of Capitalism and
looked to organize themselves to defend their community.
It reminds us that we were passed a very old torch and,
therefore, we need to look back and learn from the successes,
failures, thoughts, and experiences of our predecessors so that
we may build upon what we have inherited instead of from
scratch.
Through February and March ACAB read through the ABC
of Anarchism by Alexander Berkman. Although heavier on
theory than our other books, many of us found this selection
very interesting and a necessary step to better understanding
the basics of Anarchist principles, its application in the real
world before, during, and after revolution, and some of the
different tendencies of Anarchism. We found this reading to
be perfectly complementary to Goldman’s Anarchism and
Other Essays and not redundant. A criticism was that some of
the initial writings may be too simpliÞ ed and general, possibly
leading to some misunderstandings by folks very new to
Anarchism. However, the writing style is fairly short and
decisive and not long winded, unlike many writers of political
theory.
If you would like to join A Club About Books or get more
information, please reach out to Canton Food Not Bombs via
our email: cantonfnb@gmail.com.
