Anarchist Ashleigh- Militant CUPE Leader & Teacher For Toronto’s 1%!

Anarchist Ashleigh and her husband Brandon Gray

Update: There was a mistake when this article was originally written- Ashleigh Ingle was with the CUPE 3902, and not the 3903. The 3902 are at University of Toronto and the 3903 are at York University. Both have worked closely with G20 Anarchists. I’ve left the information about the 3903 in the article because it’s useful to know.

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If I ever wondered why some people have tried so hard to shun me at Occupy Toronto, I have little doubt now. These people are scared to death at my ability to dig-out what they’ve been up to- and, it appears that the stakes are rather high…

I’ve seen “Anarchist Ashleigh” at a number of events. Typically, she is the person in the middle of the Black Bloc, carrying a megaphone and leading chants like: “1, 2, 3 4, this is fucking class war!” After hearing the rumours that she comes from a well-heeled background (it appears that Brandon Gray married rich!) it kind of makes me giggle to think she’s actually chanting this crap.

Here’s a great video of Ashleigh leading the Black Bloc during a police violence march back in April:

There’s an interesting quote from Ashleigh in an article titled No Photo Ops, With The Fucking Cops from an anarchist blog that discusses whether the police should be ‘accepted’ at the Toronto Gay Pride parade that’s worthwhile sharing:

“we should not see the presence of our violent oppressors at our celebratory protest as a victory… we should not want their acceptance.”

Okay, the police aren’t perfect- I’ve watched them do some bad things in my time. That said, it seems rather irresponsible to label all of the police ‘our violent oppressors’. After all, who will she call if her house has been robbed?

Her real name is Ashleigh Ingle, and her ‘night job’ as a radical Black Bloc anarchist is quite a contradiction with her day job teaching at an exclusive Toronto private school named the Dragon Academy. Annual tuition at this school is only for the 1%- charging a whopping $19,000 per student!

Is this the same woman who is out marching for tuition-free universities and rounding-up Toronto hoodlums for “Fuck The Police” marches? There’s something seriously wrong here folks- can you imagine what this woman is teaching to these poor children?

If you thought this story couldn’t get more interesting- hang on, I’m only getting started…

You may remember in the past I’ve written about connections between CUPE and the Black Bloc. First, there is the connection between Occupy Edmonton’s Chelsea Flook and the CUPE 3903 at York University. And then there was this article in the Northern Thoughts blog that connected CUPE with the Black Bloc at the G20. Well, Anarchist Ashleigh is the third!

Ashleigh was Recording Secretary with Unit 1 of the CUPE 3902. She made a name for herself back in February when she resigned from the union’s bargaining committee in disagreement of their negotiations with the University of Toronto.

Flag symbolizing Anarcho-Communism

There’s an article in LinchPin, a popular anarchist website that digs into a strike of the Canadian Union of Postal Employees where the anarchists & CUPE 3903 & 3907 locals joined in solidarity, marching black & red flags. Here’s a very telling quote from it:

“The president of CUPE 966 told us of her visit with the cops in Halton: as members of the mainstream unions looked at the black and red flags one said, “You should have brought the Black Bloc with you.” It is great to see public sector unionists openly welcoming the solidarity of anarchists—especially after the smear campaign from the media and the State revolving around last summer’s G20”

I didn’t really understand the significance this quote when I first read it a few weeks ago. But, now that I understand CUPE 3902’s strong connections with militant anti-police anarchists like Ashleigh, it makes a lot more sense.

Permanent link to this article: http://www.genuinewitty.com/2012/05/16/anarchist-ashleigh-black-bloc-leader-and-teacher-for-the-1/