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Who We Are
News Not Bombs is edited and pro-
duced by members of Canton Food
not Bombs. Canton FNB is a Pan-
Le group that believes food is a
right, not a privilege.We are a hor-
izontally operated working-class
collective that believes: direct ac-
tion gets the goods, solidarity over
charity, we keep us safe, and a meal
tastes best when shared with your
community.
We do not require proof of
work, status, sobriety, or re-
ligious aliation to eat with
us; only that you are hungry.
You will nd the following at our
serves:
- Vegetarian meals
- Cold or hot beverages
- Toiletries
- Basic OTC medications
- Harm reduction supplies
- Community
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The CAnTon
CopWATCh
by a concerned citizen
As the Canton Community grapples with the fact that Frank Tyson’s re-
leased autopsy reports that Mr. Tyson’s death was ruled a “homicide”, as
we all knew to be the truth, we all wait to watch the same song and dance
by our city ocials as they pass the buck and reassure the CPD that they
are special. Although, we hope and organize for a change. Since the mur-
der of Frank Tyson, many concerned citizens have been attending the
Canton City Council meetings on Monday nights, in hopes to speak truth
to power in the shameful halls of our city council.
In other Canton Copwatch news, a viral 21 second video of Canton Police
ocer Brandon Momirov kicking a compliant and kneeling young man,
Jaemiir McElroy, in the chest, has triggered an investigation. An inves-
tigation into the actions of CPD by the Canton Police Department, to
determine if they are in trouble, rest assured.
e viral video, lmed on the night of August 24th (2024) by a bystander,
since the bodycam video has yet to be released, shows a large group of
ocers quickly approaching a group of young black men standing to-
gether (which is a crime, depending on the mood of an ocer). As the
ocers yell at the young men to stop and lay on the ground, many listen
and begin to get down. As McElroy,with his hands up, gets on his knees,
a CPD ocer runs (for momentum, one would have to assume) into the
frame and ruthlessly slams his foot into the chest of the young McElroy,
knocking him onto the ground.
e Canton Police Department was allegedly responding to a 911 call
about an argument outside. So, in order to “protect” these fellow Canton-
ites from the violence of a ght that may or may not have already hap-
pened, they resort to their own violence; most likely out of frustration
that they missed an opportunity to beat and abuse with impunity. Now,
out of desperation, embarrassment, and retaliation this young man is be-
ing charged with resisting arrest and obstruction by CPD.
~ 3 ~
Furthermore, it was reported that the victims of this random CPD street
brawl were in possession of marijuana, pistols, scales, and money. All of
which are legal, in the state of Ohio since August 6th, 2024. is makes
one wonder what else they had on them: car keys, cigarettes, maybe a
bottle of water?
Despite Chief of Police John Gabbard’s reminder to us that “our ocers
face stressful, dangerous situations… and Ocers using force outside the
parameters of our training, policy and principles will be held account-
able” , the last couple of years leads any Cantonite to think that Gabbard
is either talking through his teeth, has no control over this department,
or both. As of late September 2024, Ocer Momirov was red. Howev-
er, will he be charged like any other citizen that assaults another? e
CPD murders of James Williams, Zachary Fornash, Frank Tyson, among
others, and the abuse and beatings of Kieven Conver, Jaemiir McElroy,
among many others, leaves Cantonites wondering who it is the CPD real-
ly protects and serves, because it is not the people of Canton.
~ 4 ~
The elusive noW
by Russel
We anarchists reject hierarchies. (No gods no masters) One of the most
harmful organizations in which hierarchies exist, in my opinion, is within
organized religion. ese top down structures serve to convince people
that the top level members have access to God that lower members do
not; that to be nearer to God one must come to the church building and
interact with the priest, pastor or whatever title the upper members of the
hierarchy are called.
Being an atheist, I renounce all judgemental gods and religions. But I also
think that spirituality is an essential part of our existence. is isn’t always
what I’ve thought. I have been an atheist for many years and spurned
the Christian concept of god along with most all practices of spiritual-
ity. However, some experiences have recently changed my mind about
spirituality. I was guratively throwing the baby out with the bath water.
(e baby being spirituality and the bath water being the god concept and
religion.)
I was reading an article recently which proposed that the future and the
past are not real. ey argued that these things exist only in our minds,
contending that the only thing that is real is the present moment. When
I think about the concept of the present moment or ‘now’, it occurs to me
that ‘now’ is a bit elusive. It makes sense to me that ‘now’ is the piece of
time in between the past and future. But how large is this piece of time? Is
it one second, a millisecond, a nanosecond? Is it logical to think that ‘now’
is an innitely small piece of time that is constantly moving?
If that is true then it appears to be nearly impossible to focus one’s atten-
tion on ‘now’ for very long. It feels like our social conditioning only teach-
es us to focus in terms of past and future, even if it is only a few moments
or seconds in either direction. I think “now” is noticed, by most people,
when they stare into a re. I like to picture it as ‘now’ dancing in and out
of my awareness along with the ames.
~ 5 ~
Meditation has always struck me as a practice that helps with coping in
this insane world. I am not very good at it yet. I have never, in the past, re-
garded meditation as being a spiritual experience. Meditation was, to me,
a mindful exercise to lessen stress and anxiety as well as strengthening my
mind and will. It was largely an exercise in attempting to stop my inner
dialog by reciting a mantra or focusing on my breath.
It’s recently my view that meditation is the practice of attempting to focus
on ‘now’ for increasingly long periods. I think that meditation is denitely
a spiritual experience. I also feel that many indigenous spiritual practices
as well as those of many other cultures strive to be in sync with ‘now’ ; in
sync with the divine.
We are all divine.
~ 6 ~
redneCks Are
ComrAdes Too
by Gabriel
What qualities come to mind when you think of a “redneck”? Is it some-
one who is uneducated, intolerant, and far-right? You may be surprised
that the term “redneck” was actually used to describe people with strong
leist principles. In 1921, the largest labor uprising in American histo-
ry took place in West Virginia, known as the Battle of Blair Mountain.
Around 10,000 coal miners battled 3,000 lawmen who were preventing
them from unionizing. e union members wore a red bandana around
their necks to symbolize their solidarity—thus, the term “redneck” was
born out of working-class solidarity. Urban leists must not dismiss the
rural working class because of stereotypes but rather accept them as com-
rades and build solidarity with them.
It is true you would have a hard time nding many self-proclaimed leists
in rural America; and if you look at an election map, most rural peo-
ple appear rather right-leaning. However, I would argue that most work-
ing-class people are leist at their core—regardless of how they vote. ey
are against the corporations that exploit them, the landlords that steal
from them, and the government that keeps these systems in place. De-
spite not having much, they will be the rst to give you a meal and a place
to sleep when you need it.
Why, then, do rural Americans support such hateful policies that go
against their own best interests? e answer is that the Republican Party
has one of the most well-funded and organized propaganda campaigns
in the world, and rural white working-class people are their main target.
ese individuals, who have been oppressed their whole lives, are natu-
rally angry. Right-wing media works day and night to redirect that anger
toward other oppressed groups. For example, they are told that “illegal
immigrants” are stealing jobs, when in reality, employers are taking ad-
vantage of their vulnerable status to pay them extremely low wages. Poor
~ 7 ~
whites are told that Black people are all lazy or criminals, when in reality
they are suering from a similar systemic poverty. In other words, the
goal of this propaganda is to divide and conquer. is is not to say that
rural people would be better o voting Democrat. To most rural folk, the
party represents the urban liberals who look down on them as inferior for
their traditional values and simple way of living.
A Blair Mountain coal miner
We all know people who are trapped in the propaganda machine of the
Right. It is nearly impossible to convince someone to change their views
when there is so much propaganda working against you. So, what can we,
as leists, do? e answer is to show them leism rather than tell them
about it. We must simply live our values and lead by example. Acquire
and distribute food that would otherwise be thrown away, help those who
need it, organize community events, speak against oppression, and most
importantly, invite them to join. ough they may not agree with you in
theory, they will agree with your actions and trust that you have good
intentions and are not just one of the evil socialists they see on TV. From
there, you can meet them where they stand and talk (not debate) with
~ 8 ~
them. If you put action and solidarity rst, they will come around to the
theory side of things too.
One nal but important note: many rural people will have at least some
racist, sexist, homophobic, and otherwise hateful views. As I mentioned
before, this hatred is learned through propaganda, and therefore it can be
unlearned.
However, we must not tolerate hateful speech or action. When it comes
to white supremacists, religious fundamentalists, fascists, or anyone who
is actively causing harm or making the community unsafe, it is far more
important to protect your community from these individuals than it is to
try and reform them.
Remember that the greatest fear of the rich and powerful is a united
working class. is is why the government and capitalists work so hard to
divide us. If we want to create a better world, we have to build solidarity
with all workers—even with those we don’t initially agree with.
~ 9 ~
pAn-lefT
by Danscendental
Food Not Bombs describes itself as “Pan-Le”, but what does that even
mean? To dene any concept it’s important to understand a little bit of its
history, both why it was adopted and how it’s used. “Pan” is a word with
many denitions but here it means “all” or “completely”, as in “Pan-Amer-
ican”, which means all of South, Central, and North America. “Le” is
a bit more obscure, as all political concepts are, but it’s enough to look
towards the origin of ‘le’ and ‘right’ in political history.
During the revolutionary period in French history, the French National
Assembly had a president, and members of parliament would sit to the
le of the president if they supported the revolutionaries while those who
supported the aristocracy and monarchy sat to the right. Le politics then
came to capture those ideas and movements that championed equality,
autonomy, anti-hierarchy, emancipation from the political control of oth-
ers, etc.
So, Pan-Le is an umbrella concept meant to include all of those like
minded people and organizations who share those same principles and
goals of the le, generally. And while the le is notorious for being divid-
ed amongst dozens of dierent and distinct ideologies, parties, and move-
ments, Pan-Le covers all leists under one common roof for the better-
ment of everyone and welcomes all others in need regardless of ideology.
As a quick clarication to popular, contemporary terminology, it’s im-
portant to note the dierence between “liberal” or “liberalism” and “le”
or “leist” because they are oen mistaken for one another, especially in
the US. Historically, liberalism was a term that meant to signify a sus-
picion of government as unnatural and legitimate only as a tool for the
securing of liberty for individuals. Classical liberals wanted to liberate
society from government control and thus secure the greatest freedom for
all (who happen to count as people at that time; certainly not everyone).
While liberals can have leist sympathies, they place the core of their con-
cern on individual liberty and see no role for government or state collec-
~ 10 ~
tive action in reforming or eliminating structural and systemic inequality.
Liberalism is certainly le of conservatism in the US, but compared to
leists here and abroad, they are rmly on the political right as they are
generally okay with, and oen promote, hierarchy and inequality so long
as those policies support individualism (for the *right* kind of people)
and the middle class (why do we still have classes!?). In short, for liberals,
politics is a kind of strategy or game to rig systems towards whatever way
of life is best to them, while leists see politics as a way to create systems
together that support
everyone’s needs, rights,
freedoms, and liberty.
Leists can dier on
motivations, theory,
practical application,
strategy, and a host of
other concerns, but the
one thing they all have
in common is that they
ght for you, me, and
everyone, because no
one does any wrong
by being here; no one
is at fault for nding
themselves wherever
chance and circum-
stance has placed them.
We all matter and that’s
the core of the le—a
concern for everyone
who needs help and the
willingness to stand up
for them.
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WhAT is The
iWW?
e Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is a union unlike any other.
Our union’s goal is to be One Big Union for all workers, in all industries,
regardless of gender, race, or creed. We are dedicated to empowering
workers everywhere. Our duty is to end the current economic system of
wage slavery and create a new world where all live in harmony with the
earth.
Why one Big union?
We understand that the reality of modern economics is one of “class strug-
gle.” e working class makes everything, while the owning class grows
ever richer o our labor. Most of us must work to live and struggle to live
well. Meanwhile, the rich interests that run our society squeeze as much
prot out of our work as possible.
While working people ght for basic dignity, higher pay, and more free
time, the rich already enjoy all the good things in life. We do more so they
can have more. Economically, workers and employers have nothing in
common.
e IWW organizes all workers in a jobsite into One Big Union that works
together to ght for everyone. We also organize the unemployed and un-
deremployed. is is called solidarity unionism, a radical approach to
labor power that ensures nobody is le behind. By organizing into one
coordinated force, the IWW ensures that workers have the most possible
leverage against the bosses to get what we all deserve.
hoW is our union differenT?
e IWW is founded on democracy, direct action, and worker control.
Workers act together on the job to solve problems in the ways we choose.
Members run our unions, not bosses or bureaucrats. We decide what our
unions will or won’t do. IWW unions are built worker-to-worker, amass-
by Fellow Worker Joe Santone
~ 12 ~
ing our own collective strength and relying on our natural solidarity with
each other.
“Union contracts” aren’t required because workers together enforce our
demands. For most of labor history there has been no legal recognition
of such contracts. No union contracts were legally binding in the U.S.A
until 1935. But workers made and kept plenty of gains without them. In
fact, these contracts almost always favor the boss and put workers at a
further disadvantage. Our approach has yielded gains in the past that are
practically unheard of today.
We’re building a union based on the direct power workers already have.
We need no government or employer “recognition” to be legitimate.
Working people have the right to join together to solve our own problems
without any permission. Together, workers push for better pay, hours, and
conditions.
We would love for you to join us. Won’t you help this work along?
To nd out more about the Industrial Workers of the World and to be-
come a member, visit www.neoiww.org.
~ 13 ~
Across
2. People who protect and
serve the ruling class
3. Something you will nd
at a Food Not Bombs serve
4. “Battle of ___ Mountain”
7. “One big _____”
Down
1. A way to cope in this insane world
2. Information used to promote a par-
ticular political cause
5. A union member with a red bandana
6. An ideology that promotes inequality
Across: 2. police 3. community 4. blair 7. union
Down: 1. medetation 2. propaganda 5. redneck 6. liberalism
~ 14 ~
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