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Aamjiwnaang community members at a pow wow in December.

A "public awareness open house" in Aamjiwnaang First Nation (AFN) became a venue for residents to vent their frustration with industry, after representatives from Enbridge Pipelines Inc. failed to show up to their own event.

In the company's absence, activists unfurled banners and gave presentations on Enbridge's operations, while residents took the floor to voice their concerns. A letter was circulated and endorsed by 27 community members rejecting a "free starter emergency kit" paid for by Enbridge, Suncor, Shell, Styrolutions, Lanxess, and other corporations with a local presence. The kits were devised and distributed by Aamjiwnaang's emergency planner.

The letter, delivered to Enbridge through an unmanned comment box, condemns the emergency kits as a "symbolic empty gesture" that is "at best suspicious and at worst insulting." It notes that "the root causes of contamination in our territory [are] not being addressed" and states "we reject the suggestion that... our community members should be responsible for helping mitigate any damage caused by Enbridge Pipelines."

Aamjiwnaang, a First Nation with about 850 on-reserve residents in southern Ontario, is flanked on all sides by pipelines, oil storage facilities, refineries, and high-emitting petro-chemical processing facilities. This industrial region, commonly known as Canada's Chemical Valley, hosts 40 percent of Canada's petro-chemical sector and was the subject of a VICE documentary in 2013. In 2009, 60 percent of industrial pollutants from the valley were released within 5 km of the reserve.

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An aerial view of Enbridge storage tanks. Photo by Michael Toledano

In and around Aamjiwnaang, Enbridge owns pump stations, tank farms for oil storage, and a number of decades-old pipelines that bring conventional crude and diluted bitumen from Alberta's tar sands to Sarnia refineries. These include: Line 5, which lies exposed on the floor of the Great Lakes; Line 6B, which ruptured more than 3,300,000 litres of diluted bitumen into the Kalamazoo River after Enbridge ignored a known defect; Line 7, which was controversially expanded with no notice to affected communities; and Line 9, which passes through the most populous part of Canada with a 90 percent risk of rupture and thousands of known defects.

Billing their event as an "opportunity to share important information, ask questions and to update you on relevant company information," Enbridge appealed to residents with a free meal, free child care and transportation, face painting, and a visit from Olaf—the fictional snowman from Disney's Frozen. Olaf, ironically, is now being eyed by the US State Department as a potential star of public service announcements teaching kids about the perils of climate change.

Perhaps weary of this symbolism, instead of Olaf, a mascot from Blue's Clues was sent to the open house as Enbridge's sole delegate.

"It was kind of shabby. Blue's Clues fucking shows up but Enbridge can't?" said Vanessa Gray, an activist with Aamjiwnaang and Sarnia Against Pipelines (ASAP). "It was pretty rude."

"They think doing this—giving us food and giving us a bag of goodies or whatever—they think that's being a good neighbour," said Mike Plain, a community Elder, to the gathered crowd of about fifty residents.

"Trinkets," someone in the crowd suggested.

"Trinkets," Plain repeated. "This is the word. A long time ago they gave us whiskey and smallpox blankets. It's no different. It's no different from what they're doing today," he said, drawing applause from the crowd.

Wilson Plain Jr., emergency planner for AFN, said the kits were devised to encourage the "general preparedness" of community members for both natural and industrial disasters. "The kits are just a start to build your own," Plain Jr. said, "to suit your own family."

The kits included matches, flashlights, AM/FM radios, work gloves, hand warmers, water purification tablets, hand sanitizer, first aid kits, multi-tools, candles and a plastic container.

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Vanessa Gray and Mike Plain at a pow wow in December.

"While useful in the event of being lost in the woods, the Starter Emergency Kits will not help community members mitigate the damage of Enbridge Pipeline's leaks or spills," said a press release issued by ASAP.

According to Enbridge's corporate social responsibility reports from 2009-2013, Enbridge pipelines have averaged 83 incidents and 1.88 million litres of spilled hydrocarbons each year. Transporting diluted bitumen from the tar sands poses additional risks. Bitumen sinks and becomes nearly impossible to clean up if spilled into moving water, while the carcinogenic chemicals used to make bitumen flow in pipelines—called condensate or diluent—can evaporate in the event of a spill and "may cause irritation, breathing failure, coma and death, without necessarily anywarning odour being sensed."

For decades, life in Aamjiwnaang has been punctuated by regular emergency sirens and roadblocks, industrial fires, chemical leaks into the air and water, incessant false alarms, and shelter-in-place advisories that instruct residents to stay inside and seal their homes to prevent exposure to airborne toxins. Industrial pollution has degraded the health of the community, contributing to shortened life expectancies, chronic headaches, and elevated rates of miscarriage, asthma, high blood pressure, and cancer—to name only a few documented impacts.

A report issued by Ontario's Environmental Commissioner late 2014 reiterated the long-standing concerns of community members:

"The people of Aamjiwnaang suffer daily from the serious effects of the pollution that plagues their community. Under today's land use rules, it would be highly unlikely that this type of concentrated industrial development would occur in such close proximity to a residential community. Yet, the Aamjiwnaang First Nation suffers a daily assault on their ancestral lands as a result of this disturbing historical legacy, coupled with contemporary indifference."

In 2013, legal counsel for Aamjiwnaang testified to the National Energy Board of Canada that they were never consulted when Enbridge Line 9 was first built, violating both Canadian and international laws. Regardless, the NEB approved Enbridge's plans to retrofit the line. The open house Enbridge missed may have been considered by the company as a reasonable effort at Aboriginal consultation.

"We used the time and the space to do our own report on Enbridge," Gray noted. "It ended up being a really good community discussion... People really are armed now for when Enbridge does come—or if they ever come. They have the right materials."

During the open house, Wilson Plain Sr., a founding member of the Environment Committee, addressed the crowd about Enbridge's local role: "When we talk about cumulative effects, we're talking about Enbridge being a major source of that accumulation of pollution—whether it's a spill or whether it's pollutants in the air. They are the ones that are responsible." He explained that Enbridge pipelines feed the Suncor, Shell, and Nova refineries that are nearest to the Aamjiwnaang reservation.

"They are partners in producing the illnesses that come from pollution," Plain Sr. said. Reiterating that the community has long struggled to obtain funding for a comprehensive health study, he argued that "Enbridge should be a major contributor."

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Aamjiwnaang community members drum at a pow wow in December.

Half an hour before the open house was to commence, Enbridge called Aamjiwnaang's band office to postpone. A notice was posted to the door of the community centre where the event was to take place, noting that dinner would still be served. "They said they were not going to be able to come because they could not get access to their poster boards and all that material that they needed for handouts was locked in their Sarnia office," said Christine Rogers, an employee of AFN's Environment Committee.

Enbridge, Rogers said, told the band "there was a mysterious package that was delivered to the office and there were police involved who had locked the building down." Representatives of the Sarnia police department said there was no record of any such event, and Enbridge did not respond to multiple requests for comment. VICE reached out to the Ontario Provincial Police to see if their officers were dispatched to Enbridge's Sarnia offices, and will update this story as their comments are made available.

"In the wake of Enbridge's cancellation, Aamjiwnaang community members have been left with unanswered questions and zero information. And also tote bags," said ASAP's press release. "Enbridge has not been to the community for an open house since December 8, 2010."

"They don't seem to care," Mike Plain said to the crowd. "I think it's an elaborate, made up story that they could not be here. There's ways and means they could have sent a representative, there's ways and means they could have sent somebody to get their material to be here."

Plain attributed his late brother's cancer to benzene leaks from local industry and condemned industry's prioritization of profits-over-people. "It's cost-efficient, but you're making us lose our lives," he said.

Taking issue with Enbridge's mantra that the company is a " good neighbour," he said "you guys aren't being good neighbours by emitting these toxins to us. That's like a bully coming up and punching you in the face and not giving a rat's ass about it. That's what they're doing."

"They don't know why we revere the land that we live upon. They don't know why we revere the water that flows through here, or the air that we breathe," Plain said.

"You don't know one thing about us First Nations and you call yourself a good neighbour."

Follow Michael Toledano on Twitter.

The most talked-about moment in The Duke of Burgundy doesn't actually happen onscreen. From the other side of a bathroom door, we can only listen as domineering lepidopterist Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen) instructs the servant she's just hired (Chiara D'Anna) to lie down. Evelyn hasn't done an especially thorough job of washing her mistress's underwear, so it's time for her to be disciplined. "Open your mouth," Cynthia says. Then a streaming wet sound can be heard.

Two salient details come to light shortly thereafter. One is that the woman on the receiving end of this piss punishment isn't actually a hired maid, but Cynthia's live-in girlfriend. The other is that the kinky couple's little performance is a part of their daily routine. Evelyn pretends to wash Cynthia's boots outside, idling away the last few moments until Cynthia hits her cue and reprimands her once more.

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The Duke of Burgundy takes place entirely in a world of writer-director Peter Strickland's imagining, making it much more pleasant than it probably sounds with all of its piss drinking and domination. Strickland creates this world with vaguely anachronistic costumes, inventive sound design, and processed visuals. The opening credits grip you with colorful freeze-frames that show different stages of a butterfly's development montaged with shots of Evelyn making her way home on a bicycle. Everything is set to an ethereal tune by Cat's Eyes that give the inaugural sequence a foreboding weight, which is offset by little gestures of playfulness, such as a fictitious "perfume by Je suis Gizella" credit (it's probably not a real perfume company, however, there was a real Gisela of Burgundy). Strickland has described this kind of fine-tuning as turning "dead informational space" into an integral aspect of the overall experience, and it's part of what makes The Duke of Burgundy such a rich, textured environment. He exerts control over every element of the film, but always with a light touch.

What takes longer to emerge than the filmmaker's distinct aesthetic is that one of the sapphic lovers isn't all that into the role-playing lifestyle—and it's probably not the one you're guessing. Strickland slowly shifts our sympathies from one character to the other without casting either half of this increasingly fractured whole as the villain. We start out naturally inclined to think the more dominant Cynthia may be going overboard, but gradually learn that her would-be submissive partner is behind most of their carefully planned activities. Needy and a bit immature, she asks to be locked in a trunk as she sleeps and meticulously guides her lover's dirty talk. Cynthia, meanwhile, just seems like she'd like to have a normal night of cuddling and pillow talk every once in a while.

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The disconnect is just as strong when, a few scenes later, when the two attend a sort of butterfly convention (this time at Cynthia's behest) and Evelyn asks one of the presenters a question. It's a perfectly reasonable query to any layperson, but for the experts in attendance, it's a bit of an eye-roller. Cynthia is visibly embarrassed, and shoots Evelyn a look of disapproval. They make up later, as they always seem eager to, but something's amiss in their union and they both know it.

The butterfly motif is ever-present (including the title), most notably in a hallucinatory sequence that temporarily dislodges the narrative and enters the realm of the abstract. Hundreds of winged creatures flood the screen, their movements loud and inescapable. Then it's over, and things return to normal. Strickland's last movie, the aurally-inclined giallo homage Berberian Sound Studio, was a great exercise in atmosphere and style. But it didn't quite come together as a narrative. He has clear influences in both the exploitation and avant-garde spheres, and weds them more seamlessly here. The Duke of Burgundy is simultaneously out there and reined in.

For all its seeming licentiousness, there's no actual nudity or graphic sex in the film. Nor are there any men. (There are a few mannequins glimpsed during one of Cynthia's aurelian conventions, however.) The Duke of Burgundy isn't a faux-transgressive attention-grabber meant to titillate and exploit, but rather an insightful look at the give-and-take inherent in all relationships through an admittedly unusual lens. Strickland's skill is in how quickly he normalizes the proceedings, neither condescending to his characters nor using their inclinations for cheap laughs. He sympathizes with their struggles to reconcile their differences and understands their needs even better than they do. Everyone should be so lucky.

While most of the country's citizens marked Australia Day with barbecues and beer, on January 26 a large group of protesters gathered on the steps of the nation's parliamentary buildings to mourn the continents colonization by whites. There were several protests in Melbourne but one of the rowdiest came from the Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance, or WAR for short.

Launched before the G20 summit last November, WAR is a coalition of "young Aboriginal people committed to the cause of decolonization and Aboriginal Nationalism," as stated in its manifesto. Their #Genocidal20 protests last year saw 5,000 people marching through the streets of Brisbane before burning half a dozen Australian flags. We caught up with two of their members yesterday to ask about their provocative approach.

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Meriki protests outside Melbourne Town Hall

Meriki Onus,27, of the Gunditjmara and Gunnai tribes is a co-founder of WAR.

VICE: WAR is a powerful name. Can you tell me why you chose it? Meriki: It's no accident. We are Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance. Without resistance the white man succeeds in taking our land and country so our purpose is not to attack but defend and protect. We want to revive the warrior spirit in our people by facilitating a culture of resistance.

Can you explain how the group came about?
My grandmother alerted me to the amazing work that my co-founders were doing up north, primarily in Queensland. We got in touch, bonded, and WAR was born. Then we traveled to Canada together last August where we met like-minded groups. It was so inspiring that we came home and WAR launched before the G20 summit.

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Something I'm wondering is how WAR is different from other activist groups. After all, this isn't a brand new movement.
Yes but Australian militant Aboriginal activism has been dormant since the 70s. The 1990s were dire in terms of organizations for and by black Australians. So we're here to change that. And unlike other groups we're not here to dance with other existing enslaving power structures. We are young and ready to fight for everything our ancestors had taken from them.

Okay so what does fighting look like? What is WAR's mission?
Decolonization. We want to inform our people and inspire them, particularly our youth, to take action in the anti-colonial struggle, because that's the only way. Decolonization encompasses all aspects of life. It's the food you eat, it's the things you buy. Food and health are high on our agenda, but we're also helping our own communities to learn their languages, their dances, the traditions. We want people to study and be informed of their true history.

How do you feel about indigenous leaders who cooperate with our government?
I don't think it's helpful, but I'm not interested in naming names because we share a solidarity as Aboriginal Australians. I think these persons tend to be used as puppets by the white man. You know nothing really changes except they can say, Look we have this black person at the table, oh look how progressive we are .

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There are lots of Australian flags around us. How do you feel when you see that flag?
It's extremely painful. The range of emotions is difficult to express when I see these smiling faces waving at that flag on this day. Today my people feel as though we're at a funeral. I can't understand the celebration. It will always be Invasion Day: the day we adopted an imported Western cultural norm that's not right for Australia.

Who are your protest heroes?
Pearl Gibbs and Malcolm X. We draw a lot of inspiration from these two, particularly for our publication Black Nations Rising.

How does Malcolm X influence WAR?
Mostly in the way we're made up entirely of young Aboriginal people. X said even the best white members of black organizations would slow the discovery of what we need to for our ourselves. Also our magazine is modeled on the the Black Panther Party's Intercommunal News Service.

Does it feel like an important moment for Indigenous youth in 2015?
Yes we're coming to together, we're reclaiming what is ours and we're not being polite. The members of WAR are all under 30. Our youngest members are in their late teens and we are fortunate to have the internet as tool not only to connect and support but to draw attention to the cause, both in Australia and internationally.

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Kai speaks with us at Birrarung Marr

Artist Kai Clancy, 19, is of the Wakka Wakka and Wulli Wulli nations.

I heard you speak earlier today. Tell me about the experience.
Kai Clancy: Yes, I get very emotional, especially today. How can I not? I feel there is a duty to my family and ancestors and all our mob. We must protect our land and our sovereignty to move forwards, for our culture to not only survive but thrive.

And I heard you just moved to Melbourne from Brisbane, particularly to protest?
Yeah all the blackfellas [indigenous Australians] were getting on the bus to Melbourne. I'd just finished uni, a political science major, so I thought why not come down? It's worked out well. WAR are having their first national meeting here at the end of the month along with many decolonization panels and I've recently started working at AIDS Victoria. My boss and colleagues are here today. They're holding that banner over there.

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Yes, you're also an activist for indigenous transgender rights?
Yeah I'm transgender. We call ourselves Brotherboys. So yes queer and transgender rights and feminism are also all things I'm passionate about.

Who are your activist heroes and role models?
Troy Clancy, my dad. He is everything I aspire to be but I also look to persons in my community. Uncle Dean (Ednason) is a very personal role model as he is an elder Brotherboy.

Does it feel like it's an important moment for Indigenous youth in 2015?
Yes, our time is now.

So what would you say to Prime Minister Tony Abbott today?
Get out! I can't understand his obsession with the Queen and the monarch. What is it about this woman that enthralls you so, Tony?

Words and images by Courtney DeWitt. Follow her on Twitter.

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Image via Flickr user MattysFlicks

Addiction treatment has long been the domain of psychiatry—treat the mind and you can control the impulse. But in recent years, science has taken a more active role in understanding and alleviating our vices. This month, Danish researchers, apparently taking this to its logical conclusion, announced that they're developing an antidote to cocaine.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen essentially stumbled upon a compound that looks and behaves like cocaine by binding to the same targets in the brain. Unlike cocaine, however, it doesn't induce feelings of euphoria, but simply occupies cocaine receptors—so if you snort some coke, it won't have any effect. They also hypothesize that due to similarities in how amphetamines and cocaine affect the brain, it may also be able to help treat methamphetamine addiction.

Claus Juul Loland, who led the research, likens the compound to methadone in use and administration—"You will have to take it every day to make sure your dopamine supporters are occupied," he said. Claus is quick to add this is an antidote, not a cure, and stopping your buzz doesn't mean your addiction is licked. "Your addiction and need for the drug will still be there. But that's not a cure; it's just a help."

The National Institute on Drug Abuse places rates of relapse for coke addicts between 40 and 60 percent, even when they get help. The process often takes years and can be incredibly costly. Claus envisions the receptor blocker as playing a role alongside traditional treatment. "Drugs that aid you in getting rid of your addiction would be a great step forward," he said.

The growing role of chemical intervention in drug abuse is being explored, but the early comparisons to controversial treatments like methadone are already raising questions about side effects. Going after addiction with other drugs is complicated; when targeting parts of the brain, we can never be totally selective. "If you modify the dopamine levels you also modify motivation, mood, and levels of depression," Claus warned. "They're all affected by the same type of neurons."

Comparing the mood altering effects to antidepressants, he noted that the drugs are not supposed to be used as a chronic therapy. This is a tool to use over a period while coping with the more tumultuous periods of addiction and recovery. In fact, long-term manipulation of dopamine can be dangerous if it leads to increased levels over a period of time. Dopamine can be quite a toxic compound, although you would have to take the antidote treatment for a while to feel the effects. "But if you take them for ten years you have another problem," Claus quipped.

Follow Wendy on Twitter.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

This article originally appeared on VICE Romania.

When I was in secondary school, one of my teachers had me write an essay on sexual perversions. We didn't have the internet in Romania back then, and "porn" was only available in its softest form at the VHS store. Instead, I turned to a friend's parents' library, where I found a book detailing a bunch of sexual perversions and deviant sexual behavior. It started with homosexuality, of course, meandered through fetishism, and ended with some stuff about zoophilia and necrophilia.

Luckily, things have changed since then. Today, BDSM and foot fetishes—much less oral sex and homosexuality—are no longer considered perversions by the majority of the rationally minded. They're just things that some people like to do on their own time, in the privacy of their own dedicated torture dungeons. But this made me wonder: How long until our current opinions on sex change in the same way?

With that question in mind, I turned to Dr. Alina Rusu—a biologist and psychologist specializing in the psychobiology of sexuality, ethology, and evolutionary psychology—to help clear up some of the sexy stuff I keep getting hung up on.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

ORAL SEX ISN'T FOR EVERYONE, BIOLOGICALLY
Touching somebody's excretory organs with your mouth shouldn't be a pleasant thing to do. They're the holes that piss and shit and discharge escape from, so it makes very little sense to actively explore them with your tongue.

Of course, for most, this isn't an issue whatsoever: Humans tend to enjoy both giving and receiving oral sex. But the opinion persists that not all people wind up developing a taste for it, perhaps because of a biological inclination.

My first thoughts: Oral sex must be a natural behavior that we're biologically programmed to seek out and enjoy, like food or synthetic stimulants. Maybe its function is to establish intimacy and reduce stress—the exact reasons primates groom each other. Or perhaps it somehow contributes to bonding in a couple, or establishing the bonds of dominance and submission necessary for group cooperation. Dogs smell each other's anuses; humans lick each other's anuses.

With that in mind, maybe this works both ways—maybe some people just don't have that biological inclination.

The expert's opinion: We really don't know if an entire species is obsessed by this behavior. In evolutionary psychology we talk about how common a behavior is in a number of cultures, and whether for some animals if it has a universal character.

There are no studies to establish the advantages of this behavior for the individuals who manifest it compared with those who do not. Some studies show that oral sex is perceived as an element of diversification of someone's sexual repertoire in the relationship, and that it correlates with a higher degree of sexual satisfaction for couples.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

SEX IS ONLY CONSENSUAL IF YOU SPECIFICALLY SAY SO
In liberal societies, sex between two consenting adults is generally viewed as a fun, pleasurable thing to do. However, some have taken the "consent" part of that sentence to dizzying new heights: Among the most liberal thinkers of these liberal societies, there's a growing consensus that romantic or sexual interaction should be proceeded with explicit verbal consent.

For instance, in order to reduce the number of rapes on its university campuses, last year California passed the "Yes Means Yes" law, replacing the older "No Means No" maxim. In case you can't work out what that means, here's a summary: One person hoping to initiate and complete a sexual act needs the other person to tell them, verbally, that yeah, they're OK to go ahead and put a finger inside them.

My first thoughts: Bit of a buzzkill. Imagine having to ask your partner any of the following during an ordinary sexual interaction: "Is it OK if I put my hand on your waist?" "Is it OK, now that our bodies are pressed together, if I allow my penis to involuntarily expand?" "Is it OK if, while penetrating me, you also slap my buttocks with a light-to-medium intensity?"

Kind of sucks the spontaneity out of everything, doesn't it?

The law in California was passed with 100 percent good intentions, but it ultimately seems a little futile. The language of seduction is physical, not verbal. Unless you end up making out with someone who's totally inept at reading these normally pretty obvious physical cues—somebody unbuttoning their trousers, say, or lifting your hand from their butt and placing it firmly behind your back—having someone ask permission for every move they make is literally the quickest possible way to kill the mood.

The expert's opinion: Studies of the psychobiology of sexuality that investigate the factors associated with a higher degree of satisfaction in a relationship show that a couple's satisfaction improves with an increased level of communication.

Psychologists who specialize in couple's counseling recommend using verbal communication in the early stages of couple formation, and also later on, especially in order to prevent or reduce commonly stressful situations, or a low level of comfort for one of the partners or both.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

HUMANS ARE EITHER INHERENTLY MONOGAMOUS OR PROMISCUOUS
This debate has raged for decades among the kind of people who debate this kind of stuff. Are humans like penguins, inclined to choose only one partner for their entire lives? Or like bonobos, the most promiscuous of all primates?

One recent bestseller in evolutionary psychology, Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality, states that humans had multiple sex partners for most of our evolution, based on evolutionary arguments having to do with sexual dimorphism, testes size, and our appetite for novelty.

On the other hand, even though not all humans end up in stable relationships, plenty do in most known types of societies, and that can't be a mere coincidence.

My first thoughts: Well, we're all different, aren't we? Upbringing, location, and age all have a large part to play here. If you're an attractive woman of university age living in a busy city, chances are you're going to be having more sex with more people than a man in his late 70s living in a hamlet in rural Northumberland.

The expert's opinion: Behavioral and evolutionary sciences work with the notion that reproduction systems [monogamy, polygamy, etc] are the result of selection pressure from the environment, such as access to food and resources, climate, space and time, potential mates, etc.

The simplest answer would be that the reproduction system of a given society depends on the kind of selection pressure former generations have met.

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Alexis Tsipras giving his celebratory speech in Athens's Propylaea on Sunday. Photo by Dimitris Michalakis

This article originally appeared on VICE Greece.

Greece on Monday was in party mode as the country made headlines for bringing a radical leftist party to power for the first time in the history of Europe. Syriza got 36.3 percent of the votes on Sunday's general election, prompting its supporters to dance on the streets for hours and Hugh Laurie to congratulate them via Twitter.

For young Greeks, the changes that Syriza has promised are long overdue. These include gender equality, LGBT rights, the secularization of the state, the decriminalization of certain drugs, and an end to police brutality. For an older generation of Syriza supporters, the vote was a protest against the crippling cuts imposed by the Troika (the European Central Bank, the IMF, and the European Commission). The left's win signals the failure of the austerity strategy. The party's young leader, Alexis Tsipras, is set to become the first prime minister in the history of the Eurozone to reject austerity measures taken in light of a 240 billion euro ($270 billion) bailout loan.

With that in mind, Syriza's victory could make waves throughout the rest of Europe. Let's take a look at how Greece's voters could have changed things for everyone.

The future of Greece in Europe

Understandably, the European political elite is not taking recent developments well. David Cameron tweeted that "the Greek election will increase economic uncertainty across Europe. That's why the UK must stick to our plan, delivering security at home." Meanwhile, Germany's Central Bank chief Jens Weidmann noted: "It is clear that Greece will remain dependent on support and it's also clear that this aid will be provided only when it is in an aid program." Basically, saying that Greece is still in thrall to European austerity, Syriza or no.

It's unlikely that these words did anything to intimidate Tsipras, who pretty much won the election by using the constant threats made by European leaders to his favour. In a few days, the young leader will be attending an EU summit in Brussels and sitting next to chancellor Angela Merkel, David Cameron and Francois Holland. With a fresh victory in his pocket, he should be able laugh off anyone suggesting further austerity measures for Greece. The measures on the table are so radical not even the former Greek PM, the conservative Antonis Samaras, would agree to them.

Despite lots of establishment head-shaking, Syriza's economic point is valid. According to Stavros Drakopoulos, Professor of Economics at the University of Athens, "the fundamentals of the Greek economy show that the basic position of Syriza for a comprehensive discussion about the sustainability of Greek debt makes sense ." Drakopoulos notes that "most economists agree that the level of Greek debt is unsustainable and needs some form of renegotiation... The huge amount of debt hampers and drags on long-term economic growth that will bring a reduction in unemployment and an increase in per capita income. The need to provide debt relief, which is very likely to bring economic relief, is in the interest of the EU too."

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Syriza supporters celebrating in Athens on Sunday. Photo by Dimitris Michalakis

"Kammenos" in Greek means "burned"

However, Tsipras's decision to form a coalition government with the right-wing populist party Independent Greeks complicates things. A few days ago, their leader, Panos Kammenos, said that Greek debt should be audited and its "odious" part written down, whether creditors like it or not. "Europe," Kammenos said, "is being governed by German neo-Nazis."

This alliance with the less than diplomatic Independent Greeks is a cause for concern. "I think the chance of failure is growing rapidly. Imagine the kind of negotiations such a government is going to have with the Troika ," Aristides Chatzis, Associate Professor of Philosophy of Law at the University of Athens told VICE. "For a party with the slogan 'Left for the first time' to form a government with a populist right-wing party is a very bad start, which gives the message to both Greek society and Europe that Syriza belongs to Eurosceptics."

The other side of the negotiating table won't want to budge either. So far, both the IMF and the ECB deny the possibility of writing off much of the Greek loan. Angela Merkel hates the idea too; she seems to fear it will become a pattern for other failing Eurozone economies and that it will boost Germany's own growing anti-Euro movement.

Rejecting that notion means a new dilemma for the rest of Europe. If Greece is pushed out of the Eurozone and the Euro, that would be a huge test of the strength of the European Union. On the other hand, if Tsipras's demands are met, other radical parties will emerge in countries with similar problems to Greece—like Spain, who will be holding a general election later this year. Large swaths of Europe could turn red.

Could there be a domino Effect in Spain, Italy, and Ireland?

Last Thursday, Pablo Iglesias, leader of the Podemos movement in Spain, joined Tsipras at Syriza's political gathering in Athens. "A wind of democratic change is blowing in Europe," Iglesias said. "The change in Greece is called Syriza. The change in Spain is called Podemos. Hope is coming. To victory! We will overcome."

Spain and Greece aren't the only EU countries with strong anti-austerity political movements. In Italy, Beppe Grillo's Five Star movement surprised Europe in the last EU Parliament elections, gaining 20 percent of the vote. In Ireland, Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams wished Tsipras good luck before the elections, while another Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Midlands North West Constituency, Matt Carthy, stated that victory for left-wing party Syriza could improve Ireland's chance of obtaining a better debt deal from the European Union.

And according to Chatzis, Tsipras has every motivation to win the kind of concessions that could set off that domino effect. "Tsipras's win limits him," he pointed out. "It doesn't allow him to compromise easily, even if the negotiations present him with improvements in the overall package for Greece. He knows that such a compromise will have a great political cost."

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Syriza supporters celebrating in Athens on Sunday. Photo by Dimitris Michalakis

Fascists are pretty happy

Were Tsipras to fail to meet his promises could be even more catastrophic to Greeks than just leaving the EU. It could mean an even greater rise of extremism and fascism locally, as well as internationally. Syriza's voters were largely people who have been socially exhausted by austerity. If they end up feeling betrayed, some suggest they will turn to more extreme political forces, such as the Golden Dawn, which on Sunday got 6.28 percent of the vote and 17 seats out of 300.

Marine Le Pen, leander of the far-right French Front National, is thrilled by the coalition between Syriza and Independent Greeks: "I am delighted at this massive democratic blow the Greek people have delivered to the European Union... This is the moment euro-austerity and the constraints imposed to save the Euro go on trial," she said. The vultures are already circling, looking to pick on the carcass of a Syriza's support, should the party fail.

Which in turn raises questions about Syriza's immigration policy. The Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) notes that previous governments in Greece have been working irregularly "in terms of control and deterrence" of illegal immigration. Generally speaking, the last government's irregular migration policy could be summarized as follows: arrest, detain, return.

Syriza has pledged to change this situation radically. Aggeliki Dimitriadis, key researcher on immigration at ELIAMEP seems to think this is easier said than done: "These changes will take time. Greece's immigration policies are decided on a European level—this is not a domestic policy issue. For that reason, Greece should firstly try to open a dialogue with Εurope, in a way that stresses the fact that altering these policies is in our mutual interest. It is also important, however, to broaden the discussion on migration to include issues that go beyond equating migration with security."

This leads us back to where we started. The changes Tsipras wants to make in Greece rely on him getting Europe's leaders to respect him and lighten their stance. And if he achieves that, his negotiations will have repercussions beyond Greece.

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Image via I Craig

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

Poppie's day as a care giver in a residential dementia home starts at 8 AM and finishes at 8 PM.

Her first duty is receiving handover notes from care givers working the night shift, where anything from missed medication to emergency doctor callouts could have been recorded. She then makes tea for her section of the 67-resident home and assists those who are bedridden to shower and dress. At 12 PM, it's lunchtime. She feeds a puree dinner to residents with difficulty eating before serving lunch to the rest of the home. Following this, Poppie (who is 20) administers medication, which is usually paracetamol or Laxido but sometimes involves more complex pain-control drugs such as BuTrans patches.

By 3 PM, it's time for another round of tea and chat with residents—one of whom is convinced Poppie is a man. Dinner, including another puree option, is served at 5 PM and followed by afternoon medication. Poppie then assists residents into nightwear, makes her final hot chocolates, and fills in handover notes, ready for the night shift.

"During a 12-hour shift, we get an hour taken off, which is meant to be for breaks," she says. "But you're not always guaranteed one."

Like many care workers in Britain, Poppie's pay is just above national minimum wage. It's an amount that does little to reflect a physically demanding job relied on by some of the country's most vulnerable people. One former care giver I spoke to had to pay 30 cents each time she made a cup of tea in the staff room—such a basic, petty "up-yours" to an increasingly young workforce, it would be laughable if it wasn't so sad.

"On a bad day, the low wages honestly make you feel like you don't get paid to deal with everything that is thrown at you," says Poppie. "However, I personally try to provide the best quality of care I can, regardless of my wage."

While Poppie's case seems unfair, the situation for carers who travel to people's houses to provide care is worse. Ninety-three percent of councils in England and Wales don't make it a contractual agreement for home-care providers to pay their workers for the time spent traveling in between care appointments. Last year, two Reading home-care workers publicly resigned after receiving only a few paid hours for a full day's work.

The National Audit Office estimates that 220,000 care workers are being illegally paid in this way or employed on zero-hour contracts. After deducting the unpaid time spent traveling, as well as gas and even uniform costs, some home-care workers have reported earning as little as $5.30 an hour.

"It is not only unacceptable to pay less than the minimum wage, it is against the law," a spokesperson at the Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills told VICE. "We're working closely with the Department of Health, Communities, and Local Government and HM Revenue and Customs to improve compliance with the national minimum wage in the social care sector."

Despite these claims, few councils or private care providers have received penalties for underpaying their workers. In the government's recent "name and shame" list of 37 employers who fail to pay national minimum wage, there was only one adult care provider.

A new petition from public service union UNISON puts pressure on the government to conduct further investigation to the underpayment of care workers. Released last month, it has received more than 12,400 signatures, and 100 MPs have backed an early day motion supporting an HMRC program of "proactive investigations into the sector to help end non-compliance with the National Minimum Wage."

"Care workers are embroiled in one of the largest illegal wage scandals this country has ever seen," says Heather Wakefield, UNISON's head of local government. "As well as plunging workers into poverty, it directly impacts on the quality of care that people receive."

Representatives from UNISON will meet with Jo Swinson, minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs, in February to discuss the issue, but there are fears that HMRC will not investigate breaches of employment unless the workers have registered complaints through the government's Pay and Work Rights Helpline. Due to the convoluted nature of care work pay slips and the fact that many carers are unaware the line even exists. Glen Turner, press officer at UNISON, told me that only 25 home-care underpayment complaints were received last year.

UNISON's Ethical Care Charter is an attempt to work with councils to combat this underpayment. Developed in 2012, the charter responds to a survey of 431 home-care employees that found "poor terms and conditions for workers" were causing lower standards of care.

Councils who sign up to the initiative must employ home-care workers on permanent contracts that pay at least the Living Wage of $11.60 an hour, or $13.30 in London. The Charter also states that workers are to be paid for time spent traveling between home visits, as well as "travel costs and other necessary expenses such as mobile phones."

So far only nine councils and one local authority trading company have signed the Charter, but UNISON hopes this number will increase as councils review contracts with existing care providers.

"The principles set out in the Charter mean care workers are able to provide better care and support," says Councillor Dora Dixon Fyle at Southwark Council, one of the first local authorities to sign the charter. "People who need care support value continuity and quality in their routine, which increases the need to retain staff and create a secure working environment for them."

Having the reassurance of a solid wage is something many carers say would allow them to provide a higher standard of care. It may also mean the sector has to rely less on young people straight out of college. Many, like Poppie, went straight from college into the role because, as Turner points out, most care-worker jobs don't require formal qualifications. If a higher statutory wage were offered, it may widen the field.

"[A solid wage] would give care workers a boost," says Poppie. "It will make us feel like we do matter and that the abuse and unsociable hours are worth our time and effort and commitment. We'd feel like we really are appreciated."

With an aging population and further cuts to health-care services, the question of how the country takes care of its most vulnerable—and the people who look after them—is going nowhere.

Follow Phoebe on Twitter.

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Photo via Flickr user martin

On January 26 the Ontario government announced a revision of policies regarding how trans inmates will be dealt with in the prison system. It is being touted as the the most comprehensive and progressive policy across North America. Of course, the treatment of prisoners in general and especially trans prisoners means this isn't a particularly glowing statement.

The new policy will see changes such as what name and pronouns trans people are addressed by, with which gender they are incarcerated with, who searches trans people and how solitary confinement is used in 'protecting' trans people.

Under the former practice trans inmates were "housed" based on "primary sexual characteristics." This means a trans woman like me would be placed in a men's facility because I have a penis, even though I am legally female according to my government ID. The new policy will see that trans inmates are "housed" according to self-identified gender. Placing trans women with men often leads to assault, sexual abuse and rape. In a study done in California 59 percent of trans women inmates reported being sexually assaulted by other inmates or guards, compared to 4.4 percent of the total inmate population. Looking at those numbers, it can be argued that placing trans women in men's prisons is pretty much sentencing them to assault and rape.

Furthermore, trans women incarcerated in men's prisons are often placed in solitary confinement for "safety and protection." Essentially, prison staff know trans women will be targeted for abuse in men's prisons and their solution is often to isolate them from the men they are incarcerated with, thus punishing trans women further (solitary confinement has a long list of negative consequences for inmates, and the UN says it "can amount to torture"). Ontario's revised policy on solitary regarding trans people simply states that "Wherever possible (and subject to inmate preference) inmates will be integrated into the general population." The language in this revision is vague and likely means a transphobic guard could still place trans people in solitary.

Strip searches and frisks of trans people will also be changed. Under the new policy a trans woman has the option of being searched by a woman. Prior, a trans woman could be strip-searched by a man.

Other policy changes include referring to trans inmates by their proper name and pronouns, which should be a given and failure to that is bullying and harassment.

Boyd Kodak is a trans man who was arrested in 2012 (charges were dropped four months later). Boyd was arrested and brought to the police station being told he had to fill out some papers and would be home within a few hours. At the station, the officers became aware of Kodak's trans status. Kodak, who is legally male and post-operative, was then strip-searched, made to wear women's underwear and clothing, and placed in with women. He was even forced to attend public court appearances in women's prison clothing.

Boyd described this experience and how affected him as follows:

"I have endured a great deal of pain and suffering, including a significant financial loss. I am close to losing the house I spent my life working for. I still require therapy because of the inhumane way I was treated, that I cannot afford. I have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (flashbacks, panic attacks,...), severe depression, extreme anxiety, and situational disorder. I also had physical injury, and developed a bleeding ulcer requiring transfusion... My life will never be the same... Is transphobia so inherent, so ingrained in [our government officials, employees and ministers] way of thinking, that they really think that's all a life like mine is worth?"

Boyd has since filed a complaint with The Ontario Human Rights Commission which has yet to be settled. In meetings with MPP Cheri DiNovo and Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Yasir Naqvi, it was agreed that Boyd had been sexually assaulted while in custody.

"All [of us] agreed that the handling of my prosthesis as they did would equate to sexual abuse."

Susan Gapka, who is part of the Trans Lobby group that advocated for this week's reforms, told me that "this policy ... is groundbreaking as the first of its kind in Canada, perhaps North America. This collaboration shines a light into the dark corners behind the prison walls we are told are there to protect society, yet in practice, hide the negative and abusive treatment some of the most vulnerable people, like trans people, experience."

Gapka also said that 65 percent of people held in Ontario's prisons are on remand, or pre-trial detention, and have not been convicted. Trans women are often held in prisons with men, many of them enduring horrible abuse, without even being convicted of any crime.

Revised policies on how trans women like me are treated in the prison system are an improvement, but failing to address why trans people are being arrested and incarcerated is still a dark cloud looming over all of this.

When I came out as trans and started to "transition" in 2012, I was working as a freelance wedding photographer. My income dropped by 90 percent my first year out as a trans woman. Having trouble finding work as I went through "transition," I dabbled in survival sex work in order to pay rent, eat, and afford my medications. I am pro-sex work and feel no shame about having done it, but I want to be clear: it was transphobia and discrimination that cost me my business and made it difficult to find other work. Systemic transphobic discrimination placed me in a situation where I risked being arrested and detained in a men's prison.

Canada lacks proper statistics on trans people, but as a trans woman and as part of trans communities, I've seen many trans women arrested and incarcerated because of sex work and petty crimes like drug dealing. As with my case, these same instances are often coping mechanisms either for the loss of employment or the stress and trauma many trans people endure because of their identities. It's worth noting that a 2011 study by Trans PULSE found that 20 percent of trans people in Ontario were unemployed. It is of utmost importance that we look at how discrimination impacts the lives of trans people and how that often leads to engaging in "criminal" activities, such as sex work, to survive.

In 2012 Ontario passed Toby's Act into law, adding protection from discrimination for transgender people to the Human Rights Code. It has taken the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services almost three years to update its policies on trans inmates to come into line with Toby's Law. According to Toby's Law, the common practice of incarcerating trans women with men has been in violation of the Human Rights Code. So really, what the government announced yesterday is that it will finally respect and follow its own policies outlined years ago.

Another problem arises when you consider that, much like sexuality before it, gender is coming to be popularly understood as a spectrum rather than a rigid binary of male and female. What about gender non-binary and two-spirit people? They also have a right to be treated as people; however, the gender binary is still the status quo in our society, which is a huge factor in the problems trans people face. Toby's Law is forward-looking compared to a lot of North American legislation in that it is supposed to offer protection to binary and non-binary trans people alike, but the policy revision on trans inmates highlights how far lawmakers (the vast majority of them cis people, not trans) have to go in understanding binary trans people, let alone the non-binary people whose needs aren't addressed at all. Toby's Law is still being violated by the correctional institution's failure to address the treatment of those who don't identify strictly as either male or female.

While I am grateful to see policy changes regarding how trans inmates will be treated in provincial prisons, it's unfortunate to note that federal prisons in Ontario will not be following suit. Also not addressed is how police departments will handle trans people being arrested. Currently, Canada has no federal rights or protections for trans people. Bill-C279, which would address this, has been stalled in the Senate for years.

Ultimately, this policy change fails to address the larger social issues facing trans people, such as systemic transphobia and transmisogyny, and how other forms or prejudice (such as racism) intersect with transphobia. Revamping policies regarding trans people in prisons is important but it also promotes the idea that something monumental has been accomplished, and the fear is that allies to trans people can wipe their hands clean and move on. Trans liberation requires a significant social shift in how trans people are viewed and treated by society. What needs to be focused on moving forward is changes that would see less trans people profiled and criminalized for trying to survive in a hostile society.

Sophia Banks is a photographer and trans activist. You can follow her on Twitter.

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Grindr screencaps courtesy of the author's Instagram

If you're a gay, you know a way to find anonymous sex—even during a historic snowstorm. For decades, gay men have found ways to fuck strangers. In the 70s, they used handkerchiefs to let strangers on the street know they were DTF, and since the late 2000s, years before breeders started using Tinder, gays have cruised via sex apps.

When social media exploded with news about Winter Storm Juno, I knew my gay brethren would use their imminent snow day as an excuse to lick a stranger's poop hole. (After all, to quote VICE senior editor Jacob Gross, "Grindr is certainly more reliable than Uber if you're stranded. No surge pricing.") So I logged onto Grindr in our office in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to check out who was looking (Grindr-speak for searching for sex now). Here's what I found:

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Not everyone was simply looking for quick and dirty connections. One such gay emailed me and described how he was putting "the final touches on a snow storm snuggle" with a homo he hoped could become more than a fuckboy. He met the guy on Grindr and Scruff in the Catskills, where he lives, and was hoping their relationship would blossom soon.

"[sic] im going to meet someone who might be a possible ltr cuddle bud," he wrote. "the storm is just giving us an excuse to connect finally. lolz."

Most of the Grindr crowd, of course, only wanted brief blizzard encounters. Last night, for example, as I researched this article (and searched for my own blizzard boy), I received this message:

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"Not sure I can be inspired to go out in this weather," one boy said when I said I was looking. "Ooh I'm not leaving my apt," another told me when I said I could host guys at my place. Yet another revealed he had no plans for sex during the blizzard and was watching Celebrity Big Brother instead.

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When these boys woke up, they were probably disappointed when they saw a smattering of snow that was hardly the "historic" dusting we were forecasted. In this way, as many have pointed out on Twitter, the storm was a lot like a guy on Grindr: He was packing way less inches than he had promised.

Follow Mitchell Sunderland on Twitter.

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Photo via Flickr user Ciron810

This weekend La Voix du Nord, a paper in northeastern France, reported that over the past three months a court in the Belgian border town of Valenciennes has blocked two families from naming their newborn daughters Nutella and Fraise (French for Strawberry), respectively.

"The name 'Nutella' given to the child is the trade name of a spread and it is contrary to the child's interest to be wearing a name like [that]," the judge declared, according to Time. "[It] can only lead to teasing or disparaging thoughts."

The court similarly opposed the name Fraise in a hearing earlier this month, tying it to the French idiom ramène ta fraise (a rude way of summoning someone), which they claimed could be used to tease her. Henceforth, the state decided, the girls will officially be known as Ella and Fraisine (a common girl's name in the 19^th century).

The Valenciennes court was acting on a 1993 French law that allows parents to name their children whatever they'd like, but requires registrars to report any names that seem apt to cause the child duress to local prosecutors, who can challenge parents' choices in court.

This sounds odd sitting in America, where we have very few rules regarding what we can or can't name our kids.

Our own naming laws vary from state to state, only occasionally limiting the use of numbers, pictograms, and obscenities. And just a few states—California and Massachusetts, for example—restrict the use of diacritics or official length of names due to the technical constraints of record keeping equipment. (Other nations like China and Japan, with complex written characters, or Lithuania and Poland, with an insane number of diacritics, similarly restrict names for technical reasons.) But generally we allow people to use names like (and this is a real list):

Acne Fountain, Cash Whoredom, Fat Meat, Fly-fornication, Ghoul Nipple, In God We Trust, Leper, Loyal Lodge No. 296 Knights of Pythias Ponca City Oklahoma Territory, Moon Unit, Pilot Inspektor, Tiny Hooker, and Toilet Queen.

In 2013 alone, we named kids Cheese, Fairy, and Jag, which that court in Valenciennes would probably hate. And unlike the French, we've actually fired judges who tried to intervene in naming kids, as when one in Tennessee wanted to rename a child from Messiah to Martin, claiming that the kid's parents had set an unattainable and harmful standard with that sobriquet.

Yet laws regulating baby names are fairly common throughout most of the world. Many of them—from Iceland to Italy to Japan to New Zealand to bits of Latin America—are justified by local authorities citing the need to protect children against inherent psychological harm or ridicule.

That seems like a nice idea. But it's hard to pin down when (if ever) a name becomes abusive. Some academics believe that certain names can correlate to mental distress and overall crappier lives. Some believe just the opposite and credit those negative findings to confounding factors.

"Harmful or abusive names are too rare for us to have any real data on their effects," Dalton Conley, a professor of sociology at New York University who writes on the effect of names, explained to VICE. "Early research thought that unusual names were psychologically harmful, but those studies were all flawed. More recent studies have not found any deleterious effects."

With little hard evidence to go on, governments and courts wind up making a lot of arbitrary judgments. France has, for instance, blocked parents from using brand names or the monikers of cartoons like Barbar and Titeuf, as well as obscenities in recent years. But it's unlikely that being named after a car or even a hazelnut chocolate spread will inspire ridicule beyond the norm.

"I think that a name is just another feature among an almost limitless list of possible targets that kids who want to bully can pick up on," says Conley. "Even if a name is fairly normal, a determined teaser can modify it or add a word to make it abusive."

"The response to teasing is not to change ourselves to make us blend into the furniture. It's to teach the potential bullies pro-social behavior."

Many laws wind up being (implicitly or explicitly) as much about regulating what is normal or retaining national cultural identity as they are about protecting children. Even those statutes not explicit in their culturally bound restrictions often descend from and retain aspects of laws that were, often making it difficult for people to name their children something out of the norm.

In Sweden, the current naming laws descend directly from those once used to prevent non-nobles from taking noble names. In Iceland, up until the 1990s the nation required immigrants to take on local names. Now they still require a name to fit the Icelandic alphabet, grammatical structure, and basic cultural milieu. In Morocco, up until recently the government just straight-up banned names from the often marginalized Berber minority. Meanwhile nations like Denmark, Germany, and Norway (and other European states) place so many restrictions on names—no last names as first names, no objects or products as names, no names that can't clearly be associated with one gender—that many people wind up choosing from big books of acceptable national names.

France too, before its 1993 amendment, largely restricted parents to a list of mostly Catholic saints' names. Such enforced homogeneity, as opposed to America's addiction to the bizarre, may make it easier for a kid with an unusual name to be teased, influencing courts' decisions about acceptable names. Although to their credit France is more liberal in their naming allowances than many of their neighbors, seemingly rejecting far fewer novel choices than, say, Denmark.

The hinky aspects of culture and fuzzy borders of when a strange name becomes harmful aside, it's hard to deny that some names just don't sit right. New Zealand is, for unknown reasons, a factory for these names. Parents there have, since 2001, tried to name their kids: 4Real, 5^th, Fish and Chips, Lucifer, Mafia No Fear, Sex Fruit, Twisty Poi, V8, and Yeah Detroit.

In these extreme cases even people who would normally oppose restrictions on names might consider some kind of action appropriate, although folks like Conley don't think that would help the kids very much.

"I do think that individual cases can be determined, in the moment, to be abusive and unacceptable," explains Conley. "But if a parent chooses to name his kid, say, 'Shithead,' then just blocking the name choice legally solves what is probably the least of that kid's problems."

Follow Mark Hay on Twitter.

There are tons of bands that achieve notoriety way too early and then fade into obscurity before their Wikipedia page is fully annotated. At any time, there are dozens of these disposable bands popping into the cultural spotlight and then disappearing, and they're all equally forgettable.

On the other end of the spectrum are bands who spend years in near-complete obscurity, building a small but devoted audience that grows with the band. Saccharine Trust is a prime example of the latter. They came up in San Pedro during the early 1980s alongside bands like Minutemen and Black Flag, recording on Greg Ginn's seminal SST punk label, and ended up producing some of the most innovative and biting records of their time.

While most LA punk bands were jumping around and whining about Reagan, Saccharine Trust were digging deeper, both musically and lyrically. Their debut record, Paganicons, captured what it meant to be a dejected self-conscious guy stumbling through the modern world. Songs like "A Human Certainty" and "We Don't Need Freedom" still hit like a sack of bricks because they tap into tragedy and desperation that's deeply human without being confined to the Reagan era or a specific political ideology.

Saccharine Trust is still going strong to this day, so I called up their guitarist, Joe Baiza. He still lives in Hermosa Beach, California, where SST's hardcore scene started. We chatted about his approach to art, the SST days, and living below D. Boon from the Minutemen.

VICE: You guys were one of the first SST bands, right?
Joe Baiza: Minutemen and Saccharine Trust were the first two bands that SST signed and recorded besides Black Flag. So we were there pretty early on, around 1980. We played our first show with the Minutemen in '79. Minutemen had been around for about six months before that.

Then, Black Flag invited Saccharine Trust to open up some show they arranged at an old cinema in San Pedro called Star Theater. Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski came by after and surprised us by asking to record on SST. That's how it started.

That's how Paganicons came about?
Yeah, that's Paganicons. But our very first time in the studio was for Mike Watt's compilation project, Cracks in the Sidewalk. It was an EP with groups from San Pedro, and Mike asked Saccharine to be a part of that. We went into the studio with Spot over in Hermosa, the same studio that Black Flag used, and recorded a few songs there.

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What was your creative approach to making Paganicons? It's endured really well.
It's unusual to me how people go back and like that record. When I hear it now, it sounds like a beginner's effort and like we're struggling along. The objective was to try to experiment with a different kind of rock music, influenced by the Minutemen but trying it our way. We were also into some of the same groups they were, British groups like the Fall and Gang of Four. I was introduced to that music through Mike Watt and Dennis Boon. Previous to that I was more interested in being a visual artist, which is actually how it started.

I approached music as a conceptual art project for myself. I said, "OK, I'm gonna be in a band," rather than taking the approach of a real musician. I was never in a band before that. I had very limited experience playing the guitar. I approached it without any foundation—there were no groups I could say I was individually influenced by. It started with just making sounds with the guitar. Jack would occasionally try to play basic punk chord progressions and I wouldn't want to do that, so we'd have the bass play the chord progression and then I would do something around that.

It evolved that way, and that first album we were still trying to figure out where it was gonna go. Earl Liberty and Rob Holzman were on the first album. Then we did our first US tour opening for Black Flag, and Rob left and Tony Cicero came in. Every time the lineup would change, the group's sound would also change. The second album came along, Surviving You Always, and it changed again. I was really into jazz music at that time, so that reflected somewhat on the record, which in retrospect is sort of embarrassing.

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Yeah, you didn't exactly fit in with the rest of that scene.
We were an oddball group. I guess you could call it punk rock.

In attitude, definitely.
The Saccharine that exists today is the best version, with Brian Christopherson on drums and Chris Stein on bass. That group has been together longer than the original one. There's still a common thread, though.

Is there ever gonna be a reissue of Paganicons?
We were gonna try to do a reissue with another label, but Greg Ginn at SST still won't allow anything to be done with it. It's kind of being held prisoner right now.

Where did you guys align politically with those first few records? It's hard to tell.
We didn't have any politics, we were apolitical. Though I was very close to D. Boon for a period so I would hear what he had to say and went to some rallies with him in the 80s. But I didn't really follow it that much, and our music didn't reflect any politics. It's more about personal dilemmas and goes to a different existential realm, where politics aren't even part of it. It's just about being inside a place in your brain where you're thinking a certain way.

Yeah, it's more relatable and certainly has a longer shelf life than if you were yelling about Reagan and Guatemala.
We were trying to reflect this idea that when you're struggling so much inside yourself it's hard to be able to deal with what's going on outside yourself. There's too much trouble going on inside to look outside. We didn't have much of a political ideology. D. Boon and Mike were way more overt about their politics, which was cool but wasn't our style.

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You guys spent a lot of time together?
Yeah, well I lived downstairs from D. Boon in this apartment building and I heard them working on their Minutemen songs before they had the band. I heard them practicing and discussing and arguing. Mike had a lot of energy when I first met him, and a lot to say. It was a good coincidence that we were both starting bands at the same time. Jack and I would rehearse alone, because it was hard to get anyone that wanted to play with us at that time. Everyone would quit. One day, Dennis came down and introduced himself after he heard us working on stuff. I had seen the Reactionaries play before that in Long Beach, at Suburban Lawn Studio.

That was their very first thing, right?
Yeah. I remember thinking they were pretty good. They played a really short set, like four songs, and it was cramped and hot. I walked up after and said hey to Dennis and said, "What happened, that was a pretty short set?" He said, "Oh, our bass player passed out!" Mike got too hot and passed out.

They taught me how to approach being in a band. Whenever we'd play a show together Mike would say, "We're gonna kick your ass tonight!" He made me realize that you've gotta really put out. It took a while for me to understand that. You have to make peoples' hair stand up a little, you know?

I learned a lot from those guys. They came right before us and were really good and inspiring. That was the cool thing about San Pedro—everyone wanted to do their own thing instead of sound like some other thing. I still haven't embraced the idea of being a musician or a guitar player. I feel like a non-musician. I'm just using a guitar and it's either gonna sound good or it's not—I have no control over it.

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This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

Photos by Chris Bethell.

Award ceremonies are weirdly popular these days. Barely an evening goes by in Britain without an annual presentation on behalf of hairdressers or funeral celebrants or hotel booking websites. No industry is complete until they have a date in the calendar for a "gala" evening of cheap chicken dinners, frayed nerves, and ersatz glamor.

And so to the Greyhound of the Year Awards 2015. The dog owners, trainers, and bookmakers' big night got off to a bad start outside London's Lancaster Hotel on Sunday night. As they made their way inside, attendees were forced to endure an angry mob of around 100 people chanting "Scum!" and "Shame! Shame! Shame on you!" and even one or two people shouting, "Murderers!"

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Some flicked a defiant middle finger or blew kisses as they strode past, but from the pensive looks on many of the faces in the foyer, being called "scum" probably didn't make them feel like they were the glittering stars of the Dog Oscars as they began an evening of back-slapping and speeches.

This they did not need. After all, their business is not in the best of health. In 2006 attendance at British tracks stood at 3.2 million, but by 2012 that number had declined to 2 million, and the industry's income is down 43 percent since 2008.

Back in the 1950s, working-class crowds of 50,000 would flock to big tracks like White City—on the site of today's BBC enclave in West London—but smaller, remaining tracks now struggle to get 500 along to a meet. Like White City, Walthamstow Stadium—star of Blur's Parklife cover art—is now gone, shut down in 2008 to make way for private flats. At the sport's peak there were over 100 licensed tracks. Only 25 now remain.

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The protestors were in no mood to go easy on a declining sport, however. The animal rights and ordinary dog owners gathered outside the hotel were determined to give the party-goers a hard time about the treatment of the racing greyhounds and the fate of thousands more dogs deemed "surplus" each year.

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Isobel Deeley and Gavin Erickson have two greyhounds at home in Kent. Two years ago they began reading stories about former racing dogs being killed or discarded. "We're not really demo people at all, but when I started looking into what dog racing actually does, I became completely appalled," said Isobel.

"A lot of people here are the same," added Gavin. "Ordinary, well-meaning people who want to try to do something about this exploitative industry. It's quite interesting for middle-aged ladies to be shouting 'scum' at animal trainers. The very, very poor treatment of animals for money—that's upsetting to a lot of people."

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Bridget and Barrie Mayes travelled to London from Dorset. The couple owned a lurcher—a greyhound crossed with a collie or terrier—for 14 years. "We learned about the intrinsic cruelty of the sport," said Bridget. "There's a huge number of dogs over-bred each year and no transparency about the treatment of those who do race. Frankly, I think it's a disgusting activity—we should have grown out of it by now."

Barrie added: "They're just fantastic animals, and once they cease to be useful, they can sometimes be tossed away like an old bicycles. There are some good trainers, but the industry as a whole isn't interested in the welfare of the dogs."

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According to the League Against Cruel Sports, most active race greyhounds are let out of their kennels for exercise and daylight only three or four times a day for periods of 15 to 20 minutes. The campaign group believes least 10,000 dogs are made surplus every year—8,000 retired racers, and the rest through the over-breeding of young dogs who don't make the grade. Small, independent re-homing charities are often left to pick up the pieces.

The industry body Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) describes these figures as "inaccurate guesswork." A spokesman told me, "Far from overproduction, the number of greyhounds bred in the Britain has been in sharp decline for a number of years. The vast majority of British bred greyhounds are registered to race with GBGB and those that do not meet the race track are often homed either by the breeder or with responsible re-homing charities."

There is concern too over injury rates, figures of which the self-regulated industry does not publish.

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One of the protesters, Vikki Squires, is a volunteer at Birmingham Greyhound Protection, and currently looks after a greyhound on a "foster home" basis. "You see a lot of adverts on Gumtree like, 'Ex-racer, free for a good home,'" she said. "But a lot of the rescue groups and individuals can't ask too many questions—they're just glad to give the dog a safe home. The one I'm looking after—it's been difficult to house train. They can be very timid if they've been neglected."

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Toni Tuesday and Steph Maxwell, both from London, came along to protest at the idea of dog racing as cheap and cheerful entertainment. "It might be a night out for stag and hen parties, but they're not thinking about what's involved," said Steph. "If people just look into it, they can't ignore what's right and wrong. I think the protests and leafleting outside stadiums and all the Facebook groups are having an impact. If it got to the point no one was attending anymore, that would be great.

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Massimo Greco flew over from Italy for the weekend just to stop Greyhound industry Godfathers enjoying theirs. "I began adopting greyhounds six or seven years ago, and then I realized it wasn't enough—I was part of a worldwide fight against this industry," he said. "The decline of dog racing in the United States has been very good, and I hope we can have the same thing happen in the UK. The thing that gives me hope is that British people love their dogs."

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If you're reading this thinking, "if only I could vote for these people in the upcoming elections", then you're in luck. The leader of the Animal Welfare Party (AWP)—which has likened the fight for animal rights to those against slavery and for Universal Suffrage—Vanessa Hudson, also attended the protest. "It's not a proper activity for 2015," Vanessa told me. "We understand there are livelihoods at stake, so I don't want to be callous about the decline of the industry, but I'm encouraged that it seems to be declining of its own accord."

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It's probably a tad hasty, however, to conclude the sport has no future. It survives because of something called BAGS—the Bookmakers Afternoon Greyhound Service—that beams live footage onto bookies' screens. The BAGS payments are worth around £25 million [$38 million] to British racecourses each year.

In fact, a 2014 report by the GBGB says the BAGS TV races are now being sold to betting operators in "international territories as far afield as Azerbaijan, Poland, Greece, Spain and the West Indies, and Sri Lanka" and states that, "there is potential to substantially grow revenues further."

It means that even if the number of people going down the dogs is in decline, a growing audience of gamblers inside betting shops—both here and in Azerbaijan, apparently—will keep the industry propped up for the time being.

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