Quebec City: A squat short story (from Barricada #18)

By: liberation - October 4th, 2002  Filed under: News

  Quebec City: A squat short story (from Barricada #18)

On Friday, September 20th, the 920 de la Chevrotiere squat in Quebec City was evicted following more then 4 months of occupation. The eviction was carried out by a small army of cops and city officials.

At around 6 pm several plainclothes officers entered the building, read a legal eviction notice with a megaphone and asked the people inside to leave. The squatters did not resist the eviction and were given permission to go inside two by two to pick up their belongings.

Once this was done, city workers boarded up the building. As soon as the news of the eviction was known, some 40 supporters and friends gathered in front of the building for an impromptus support demo. The official reason given for the eviction was that the place was no longer safe because there was no running water (water was cut a few days before the raid). Despite the eviction, the former squatters will continue the struggle and move ahead with an already planned demonstration scheduled for September 26th (some 100 people came to the demo).

The Story of 920 de la Chevrotiere

On Friday May 17th, after months of organizing, some 300 angry tenants, housing activists, anarchists and other radicals gathered in Quebec City for the largest local demonstration around housing issues since the 1970’s.

The call, issued by the Comite Populaire Saint-Jean-Baptiste, was crystal clear: “come support a direct action” and announced an “unlimited occupation against the housing crisis”. As this was part of a wider campaign coordinated by the FRAPRU (Quebec largest reformist tenant union federation), locals where joined by a busload of tenants from Montreal and Sherbrooke who occupied various abandoned industrial buildings during the week. 12 occupations were organized all over the province by various housing groups involving more then 1200 different people. At this time, no one knew that the Quebec City action would be the longest occupation of the week.

The occupied house was highly significant for the neighborhood and the Comite populaire. In the 1970’s, during the great demolitions, 6 houses known as l’Ilot Berthelot miraculously stood tall and were not demolished. The place was bought and sold so many times in the last 30 years that it’s impossible to keep track of the various owners. All of them, however, wanted to demolish the 6 houses and build in their place huge towers instead of luxury condominiums. There was so much speculation on the value of the buildings and the land that by 1991, it had became the most expensive plot of land in the city.

That’s also when the Comite Populaire, a citizens committee active in the neighborhood since 1976, and the social ecologist group Les AmiEs de la Terre de Quebec chose to move their offices into one of the houses (910 De la Chevrotiere). Their demands were clear: they wanted the take over of the buildings by a self managed housing cooperative. In the face of growing public awareness, the city finally bought the 6 houses in 1994 at the cost of 1 000 000$ (that’s almost 10 times their 1970 value!). Four of them where initially transformed into a self managed housing cooperative, but the 2 southern houses were not. They stood empty for 3 years before the squatters moved in. The city hoped to sell them to some promoters who would demolish them and build luxury condominiums sold at 150 000$ each.

The occupied house was a small two story building typical of the neighborhood. While the action was organized by the Comite populaire, a collective of squatters and supporters have taken over from day one (you believe in autonomy and self-management or you dont!) and the Comite was relegated to a “support” role. The struggle was led by a general assembly of squatters and supporters and the house was managed via regular squatters meetings. The demands of the squatters being three fold.

– First they want the place to be given away to a non-profit group so that it be used for collective needs (such as a social center) and they want the empty land surrounding it developed into a self managed housing cooperative for low-income families.

– Second, they want a stop to the transformation of apartments in the city into luxury condominiums and a total ban of them on site.

– Third, they want the government to finance at least 8 000 new social housing units a year in the province (which would mean 700 in Quebec City).

Support for these demands is high in the city. More then 2 000 people from all over the place –including Basque refugees and French squatters!^?came to visit and signed a petition. The majority of the cooperatives in the neighborhood originally sent letters of support, including the Coop de l’Ilot Berthelot who gave cheap electricity and water to the squatters for three and a half months. You can see posters of support in many houses and, to the squatters surprise, in more then a dozen local stores. Social groups of all kinds sent support letters and some of them, especially student unions, made small and big donations. In this context, the so-called left-wing municipality didn^?t want to send in the cops and hoped the squatters would either burn out or that the support would erode.

A delicate and unforseen situation developed in the last two months of the occupation. Indeed, since the beginning, the occupation attracted it’s fair share of victims of the housing crisis who needed a temporary housing solution, the time necessary to catch up and find a more stable place to stay. In the vast majority of cases, it was going fairly well.

This said, however, we must recognize that, thanks to capitalism, the vast majority of the people of our class who end up in the street are also those that are the most vulnerable and it is rare that housing is their only problem…

A conflict developed in the squat which resulted in homeless people moving in the empty building on the other side of the street, the 921 de la Chevrotiere (which was deemed unsafe by the general assembly). Soon, there was no discussion possible between the two groups, the occupants of the 920 de la Chevrotiere had become the ennemy, false squatters, false anarchists, etc. In the beggining there was three of them… but they where fast joined by other homeless who where kicked out of the various “community resources”. In the end, there was 15 of them.

Sometimes it was calm, but other times they would take to screaming after any and all passersby. One of them tried to assault a women of the neighborhood cooperative. Concrete threats were made against individuals and the squat. Serious violence erupted from time to time inside the building. Soon, the attitude and anti-social acts of these people started to affect everyone. The occupants of the 920 tried to deal with the situation but failed to act on it fast enough. The cops and the municipality succeeded in using the situation to split the support of the squatters.

Political Maneuvers in the Last Two Weeks

Two weeks before the final eviction of the squat, the neighborhood coop had a general assembly where it was voted unanimously to find a “final solution” to the problems coming from the 921 de la Chevrotiere. While the squatters of the 920 tried to explain the differences between the two squats, the executive committee of the coop came to the conclusion that since the unwanted squatters came from a split in the first squat, the only way to get rid of the problem was to close both (which was not exactly what was voted on in the general assembly).

In the end they announced that they would cut electricity and water to the 920 de la Chevrotiere building and would publicly withdrew support if nothing changed. It took a few days to convince all the people in the 921 de la Chevrotiere to move elsewhere, but when it was finally done, the coop had already called the cops and the municipality. The day after the last person moved out, the cops came in and boarded the place (that was on Friday, Sept. 13th).

In the meantime, the municipality had mobilized all of it’s allies to launch a full fledged political attack on the squat. On Monday, September 16th, the chairman of the neighborhood coop and the coordinator of the regional housing coop federation called a press conference to officially denounce the squatters as people who don^?t help the struggle for social housing and to ask them to put an end to the occupation. The same day, the mayor also came out saying that the occupation must end now and that social housing was to be built on site as soon as the squatters were evicted.

Indeed, the coop federation had made a deal with a private promoters to build both social housing and luxury condominiums on the site. The public message was that the squatters were in the way… The intent of the city was clear, they wanted to isolate the squatters and make it look like they where loosing support. This strategy didn^?t work however, and, in less than 24 hours, the squatters succeeded in mobilizing most of the allies they had in the housing rights movement and other social movements to restate their support for the occupation after some 3 months of silence.

But the city chose to ignore this and on Friday, September 20th they sent in the cops to evict the squatters. Only time will tell if the city will pay for this or get away with it as usual, but it is clear however that the regional coop federation did isolate itself from the social movement and that they will pay for it (a new local housing rights coalition was just formed and they where not invited).

Partial victory and the Struggle Continues

While there still is no total victory, the occupation already did get some positive results. First, there will be new cooperative housing on the site (around 30 units). This was not granted at all since the city only wanted to have condominiums. The issue now is whether it will be possible to totally ban condominiums on site (that’s the theme of the next demo).

Second, the city finally gave in in August and voted a moratorium on new conversion of apartments into condominiums. This moratorium is shitty, as it has many holes and exceptions, but it is clearly a response to the occupation and other actions. The whole anarchist criticism of legislation applies here, of course, but it is still a small step. So the squatters did win a few things from the powers because of their action, but the main victory is not there.

The occupation legitimized direct action in the mind of people and showed the support it can have. It helped to educate a large number of people about the housing crisis and the remedy to it. Furthermore, the squatters where not just sitting on the place, it was an experience in itself. An experience of direct action, direct democracy and another kind of social relations. And an experience that allows for other actions.

A radial Infoshop was opened in the basement stocking literature ranging from union newsletters and ecologist literature to Maoist newspapers, anarchists books and Trotskyist magazines. The kids in the neighborhood had a safe place to come and play (and do their home-work!). There have been a number of community activities ranging from free meals to video nights and parties. And groups from all over the city use the space (including the local NEFAC group who had a number of meetings and public activity there). People are already talking about forming an autonomous collective to continue the whole experience elsewhere.

The squat as direct action is one of the ways we can get out of the dead-end of protest as usual. Short of a massive rent strike, it’s the most dramatic action a movement around housing can take. While most of the time public opinion can just ignore the effect of the housing crisis, high profile political squats polarize it. On one hand there are homeless and badly housed tenants, and on the other there are empty buildings. Squats bring all of this in your face, and force people to take a stand. As a direct attack on private property, squats can also bring to the fore the fundamental contradiction of the housing question (housing right vs property rights or human needs vs market). Squats are also everything but symbolic and contrary to most protests, they can’t be ignored by the authorities, tilting the balance of force further to our side.

Nicolas Phebus
La Nuit Collective (NEFAC-QC)

The 920 de la Chevrotiere occupation was the longest single direct action ever on the housing front in Quebec and probably Canada.

[Ok, this was a subjective report written from *my* perspective. Other participants in the squat may (indeed DO) have another interpretation of the events (this is why the article is signed!). This article will be published in the october issue of Barricada. Objectivité existe pas!]

This article was printed in Barricada’s new special double issue which is available now. Barricada is the monthly magazine of the Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC).

Singles copies are 3$ (us), 4$ (can), 1.50$ (Boston) for this special double issue.

Subscriptions are $15 USD for six issues (US and Canada) $30 for twelve issues. $20 USD for a six issue subsciption to Western Europe. Write for bulk rates.

Money orders are best, checks with the “pay to order of” left blank next, or well concelled cash at your own risk.

Barricada
PO Box 73
Boston, MA 02133

Barricada on the web – http://www.barricada.org

For more information about NEFAC, visit us on the web at:
http://flag.blackened.net/nefac(English)
http://www3.sympatico.ca/emile.henry/nefac.htm(French)

=====
I need land, a place where no money is spent, then kick back and live life immaculate. – The Coup.

Nicolas Phébus

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Vancouver (Canada): Woodwards Squat Requests Support

By: liberation - October 3rd, 2002  Filed under: News

  Canada, Vancouver, Woodwards Squat Requests Support

Coalition of Woodwards Squatters and Supporters
Corner of Abbott and Hastings St. Vancouver, BC
Phone (604) 682-2726 FAX (604) 687-4347

September 30th 2002

Dear Friends,

We the Woodwards Squatters are struggling to sustain our presence outside the Woodwards Building in our fight for social housing and we need your help.

Last night our security team counted 125 squatters, homeless, and their supporters, sleeping around the building. Everyday our numbers grow which is both exciting, but also increases our need for more resources.

We need your support in the form of donations (see list below). In return for your help, we will add your name to the list of our endorsers and supporters in our upcoming poster campaign, press conference and website. Anonymous donations are also respected.

Any resources you can contribute would greatly benefit the cause and society as a whole. Join the supporters in your community by supporting the Woodwards Squat.

How to help: There are two ways you can contribute: 1. Bring down your donations, or 2. Items can be picked up.

1. Bring down your donations:
Donations can be brought down directly to the squat at the corners of Abbott and Hastings, or to the office at #42 Blood Alley PH (604)682-2726

2. Items can be picked up:
If you need help getting your donation down to us, just call us (604)682-2726 and we will co-ordinate a pick up.

Things we need (ongoing):

Food and Spices
Blankets, sleeping bags, etc.
Water, Juice, Coffee
Pillows, Quilts
Large cooking pots
Warm jackets, sweaters, socks
Disposable dishes and cutlery
Mattresses, foam pads and tents
Fuel-Fed Cooking Stoves and Fuel
Tarps and Rope
Cleaning supplies
Rolls of Plastic
Art materials (paint, markers, large rolls of paper etc.)
Hammers, pliers, nails etc.
Money for cooking materials and security (radios etc.)
Staple guns
8 1/2 x 11 and 11x 17 paper
Computer, printer
Ongoing photocopying access
Toilet paper, tampons and napkins
Soap, towels and toiletries

We appreciate your support towards the fight for social housing.

In Solidarity,

The Woodwards Squatters

Name of Business / Non-Profit Organization
___________________________________________

Address
___________________________________________

Phone, Email, Fax
___________________________________________

Items Donated
___________________________________________

Date
___________________________________________

“Friends of the Woodwards Squat” <violetta_sera [at] hotmail [dot] com>

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Canada, Toronto, Media, Michele Landsberg on the squat

By: liberation - September 30th, 2002  Filed under: News

  Canada, Toronto, Media, Michele Landsberg on the squat

MICHELE LANDSBERG
TORONTO STAR, SAT. SEPT.28 ’02 PG.L1

On the first blessedly cool evening of the fall, as the welcome rain came sluicing down, I drew the curtains and thought of the Pope Squat, where the rain would be bouncing off the newly repaired roof and watering the Swiss chard, tomatoes, lettuce and marigolds now thriving in the front yard.

Toronto loves to puff itself as “world-class”, but nothing could be more inept, blinkered and junior than the way our city and provincial governments have handled the issue of homeless protesters. Just look at the clumsiness of the Tent City evictions.

As for the squatters who occupied an empty building during the Pope’s visit in July, the provincial government has been numb and dumb, in the deep silence of total uncaring. Some of our city counsellors, on the other hand, have been splutteringly apoplectic at the thought of anarchists occupying a decrepit, unoccupied, abandoned rooming house.

Chris Korwin-Kuczynski once again frothed on about the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty —the crowd that organized the protest march and occupation of 1510 King St. West. But at least he tried to get the building used for social housing. Michael Walker and Brian Ashton oppposed.

The provincial government is even more culpable. Apparently, it owns the derelict building. By default, because the house no longer has a registered owner, the property reverts to the Crown. The owners absconded in 1994, taxes and hydro bills unpaid, and left the empty building to fester with leaking roof, rotting floorboards and walls full of black mould. The homeless squatters have peacefully occupied the premises since July, unbothered by local police. They ripped up rotten floors, tore out stinking carpets, emptied the mounds of garbage, planted a garden, fixed the roof and began the interior renovations.

“We have about 15 people living here,” explained Lisa Kocsis, 20, as she showed me “the model suite” — a bedroom and alcove, newly dry-walled.

The squat is a perfect example of functioning anarchy. Whoever wants to work, shows up and works. Whoever lives there and does some work, has first dibs on a finished room. Local fast food restaurants have been stoic about allowing unfettered use of their washrooms, and neighbours turn up with donations of water, food and equipment. It’s messy, and the house is still half-wrecked, and you wouldn’t want to live there if daily hygiene is an important part of your lifestyle, but 15 people have a roof over their heads and a home address.

Which is more than the city ever offered them, with its 60,000 people on the housing waiting list. Alas, despite Councillor Olivia Chow’s constant urgings, the city never re-invested in social housing the $15 million plus it has saved in the last two years due to lower interest rates on its mortgages.

In recent weeks, Chow and city officials worked with OCAP members to prepare a brief to the province, making it clear that the province now owns the building. Their brief now sits on the desk of Attorney-General Dave Young, who has not bothered to respond.

Social conservatives of the Evesian peruasion should take a leaf from New York, where Mayor Bloomberg, a Republican business mogul after their own hearts, has just arranged to sell 11 abandoned Lower East Side buildings for $1 each to the squatters who have turned them into habitable homes.

The unions and social justice groups who are supporting the squatters might also pounce on the shining example of New York’s Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. It’s a smart non-profit that, for 30 years, has helped vulnerable slum tenants and squatters get co-op ownership of their buildings. It secures loans for them, trains them in construction skills, provides low-cost legal help and insurance, and even teaches residents how to get rid of drug dealers.

Academics who have studied the results have good news: marginal people who find stable housing at low rents (average $500 monthly) in these buildings gradually get their feet on the ground. The slow, hard collective work of reclamation also rebuilds self-confidence. Many of the tenants, even the rebellious punks who built a skateboard park in the cellar, are now earning steady wages and raising families.

Tenant control, in other words, works far better than shelters. Stands to reason, in this capitalist culture, that independence, autonomy and sweat equity (otherwise known as pulling onself up by the bootstraps) give a person an ego boost.

OCAP has done some of the city’s and province’s homework for them by tracking down dozens of abandoned buildings. Now if only our elected officials would snap out of their apathy, we might actually start housing the homeless before winter sets in. What a world-class thought.

MICHELE LANDSBERG

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Canada, TENT CITY – an international call for solidarity

By: liberation - September 30th, 2002  Filed under: News

  Canada, TENT CITY – an international call for solidarity

On Tuesday, September 24, 2002, Home Depot Canada sent a small army of private security guards backed by a small army of Toronto police to forcibly evict about 125 people from a homeless encampment on their unused property in downtown Toronto, Canada. Home Depot needs to be held in account for its actions. Due to the urgency and seriousness of this matter, please respond immediately to our international call for solidarity and action against Home Depot.

Please find below, an action pack that includes:
1. Background guide (includes info on our demands and what you can do)
2. A tip sheet on how to organize your own information picket.
3. Sample text for flyer that can be distributed at your information picket.

For formated copies of the materials, visit our website at www.tdrc.net. Due to the urgency of this matter, please participate right away in this international call for action against Home Depot!

Any questions, don’t hesitate to give us a call at 416-599-8372 or email tdrc [at] tdrc [dot] net. Thanks.

Musonda
Toronto Disaster Relief Committee

1. BACKGROUND GUIDE: An International Call for Solidarity

Here’s why – and how – you should take action against Home Depot.

On Tuesday, September 24, 2002, Home Depot Canada sent a small army of private security guards backed by a small army of Toronto police to forcibly evict about 125 people from a homeless encampment on their unused property in downtown Toronto, Canada. The site, known as Tent City, has been the home to Canada’s largest homeless encampment for several years. There were about 55 structures in Tent City, most of them built by the residents. The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee has been working with residents for more than two years. We moved several pre-fab homes onto the site, supplied portable toilets, fireplaces and even showers. Just three days before the raid, TDRC organized a clean-up day with 60 volunteers (from university students to seniors) who worked alongside Tent City residents to improve the site.

Home Depot has spent tens of thousands of dollars to move against the homeless residents of Tent City. Within minutes of occupying the site, they had erected a new, nine-metre high barbed wire fence, a new security road around the perimeter and high-intensity search lights, not to mention the private security staff and construction crews brought on site. Home Depot removed the residents so quickly that they didn’t have a chance to gather medicine, identification or other personal items. It took hours of intense pressure to arrange for residents to have access to their homes and their belongings. And even then, access was very restrictive. Home Depot has said that it will only guarantee to protect the dwellings and belongings for seven days. And it made no plans for relocation of the residents, not even for temporary shelter. After a great deal of pressure from TDRC and others, the City of Toronto has made an offer to help Tent City residents find proper housing. But Home Depot offered no help at all.

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights says that “forced evictions are a gross violation of human rights”. The International Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Canada has signed, guarantees the right to housing. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Canada has also signed, says that everyone has the right to be protected against “arbitrary or unlawful interference” with their homes. The U.N. says that if people have to be moved, they should be given enough notice so that they can prepare for the move, new homes at another location and practical help in relocating.

Home Depot didn’t do any of this. They spent a lot of money to throw 125 people who had been peacefully living in Tent City off the land without any thought as to where they would go. Home Depot says that the site was unsafe, but the streets of Toronto are even more dangerous. And there were only 14 beds in homeless shelters in the entire city of Toronto (population 2.4 million) on the night that the Tent City residents were forcibly evicted – another sign of the city’s overcrowded and unhealthy shelter system.

Here’s what Home Depot needs to do:

1. Treat Tent City residents with respect. They should have access to their dwellings. Their property and their homes should be protected – not bulldozed after seven days. The portable structures may be moved. Home Depot should help with transportation and storage. They should help residents salvage as much as possible of the structures which cannot be moved.

2. Acknowledge the error of their ways. Home Depot was wrong to evict the residents without any notice and without any help in relocating. Home Depot can make amends by offering $50,000 per unit in capital funding for construction of 55 units of new social housing – the same number of units that were on the Tent City site – for a total bill of $2.75 million. That’s small change for a company that boasted in May of 2002 that it had “a record $5.2 billion in cash on the balance sheet”. An apology is not enough. Home Depot should pay.

3. Adopt the One-Percent Solution. A growing number of groups, including socially responsible corporations, are calling on the Canadian government to restore housing programs that were slashed in the 1980s and cancelled in the 1990s. Home Depot should be an active partner in the One Percent Solution, the campaign for a fully-funded national housing program.

You can make a difference:

The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee is calling on individuals and community groups, unions, faith communities and all others in Canada and the United States to join in a campaign against Home Depot. This is not a boycott, although consumers of conscience may decide to shop elsewhere. This is a mobilization to force Home Depot to take the specific actions outlined above. The TDRC has already talked to senior officials at Home Depot. But they need to feel community pressure before they will respond seriously.

Some tips for action:

1. Contact Home Depot and tell them to meet our demands. Make sure to ask for a response. Organize a letter-writing party in your neighbourhood, union local or faith community. Send a letter directly to

Annette Verschuren, President, Home Depot Canada, 426 Ellesmere Road, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, M1R 4E7.

The telephone number is 416-609-0852 and follow the prompts to get to her office. Or send a fax to 416-412-4215.

2. Organize a Homeless Depot solidarity group in your area and arrange for an information picket of a local store. TDRC has tips for organizing an action on our Web site, along with a flyer that you can copy and hand out to customers.

3. If you are a customer of Home Depot, or know others who might be personal or commercial customers, then contact the store to tell them that you expect corporations to show social responsibility. Tell them that you want them to take action on the basic demands.

Stay in touch:

Look for updates on the Homeless Depot action on the TDRC Web site at www.tdrc.net. Call us at 416-599-8372. Send an e-mail to tdrc [at] tdrc [dot] net. Or write to Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, 6 Trinity Square, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 1B1. Send us copies of any letters that you sent to Home Depot. And make sure to send us copies of any replies that you receive.

2. TIPS FOR ORGANIZING AN INFORMATION PICKET

Tips for organizing a Homeless Depot information picket

1. Look for a Home Depot store in your community. Check out the site. Most stores won’t allow information pickets on their property, but entrances to parking lots can be effective places to hand out flyers. If you have trouble with private security officers or police, call the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee.

2. Round up a handful of supporters. You don’t need a big crowd (although the bigger the numbers, the less likely you will experience trouble from security). Three or four people per parking lot entrance is enough.

3. Make up some picket signs with snappy slogans: Homeless Depot, honk if you hate forced evictions, and so on. Check out our Web site for some ideas. If your group, union local or faith community has a banner, bring it along.

4. Download the information flyer from our Web site. Feel free to make some changes and add local contact information.

5. Pick a day for your event. You might want to send a news release to local media. It’s a good way to build support and get the message out. Send a letter to the president of Home Depot Canada (with a copy to the TDRC) explaining why you are picketing the store. Send a letter directly to Annette Verschuren, President, Home Depot Canada, 426 Ellesmere Road, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, M1R 4E7. The telephone number is 416-609-0852 and follow the prompts to get to her office. Or send a fax to 416-412-4215.

6. Politely offer the flyers to customers as they come and go from the store. Don’t get into extended arguments with angry people. It just raises everyone’s blood pressure. Be prepared with a quick response when people ask why you are there.

7. Local, provincial, state and national laws on information pickets and trespassing can be different from area to area. If you have any doubts, contact a local legal clinic or progressive lawyer. In most places, if you are not blocking traffic and not on private property, then you have the right to an information picket.

Stay in touch. Look for updates on the Homeless Depot action on the TDRC Web site at www.tdrc.net. Call us at 416-599-8372. Send an e-mail to tdrc [at] tdrc [dot] net. Or write to Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, 6 Trinity Square, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 1B1.

Send us copies of any letters that you send to Home Depot. Make sure to send us copies of any replies that you receive. And, please send us copies of any newspaper clippings, if you manage to make some news in your area.

3. SAMPLE TEXT FLYER (Visit our website for formatted copies of this.)

<< side one >>

Home Depot didn’t cause homelessness, but they shouldn’t make it even worse

On September 24, 2002, Home Depot ordered a small army of private security guards, backed by a small army of police officers, to forcibly remove about 125 homeless people from some unused property they own in Toronto, Canada. The people lived peacefully in a community they called Tent City for several years in 55 dwellings, most of which were built by the residents. Home Depot – which boasts “a record $5.2 billion in cash on the balance sheet” didn’t give them any warning, they didn’t offer any help in relocating and they even tried to stop residents from collecting medicine, identification or other personal belongings.

An apology is not enough. Home Depot should pay for the error of its ways. The Toronto Disaster Relief Committee is calling on Home Depot to:

1. Treat Tent City residents with respect. Give them access to their dwellings. Protect their property and their homes. Help them move or store portable structures. Help residents salvage the homes that cannot be moved.

2. Acknowledge the error of their ways. Home Depot should make amends by offering $50,000 per unit in capital funding for construction of 55 units of new social housing – the same number of units that were on the Tent City site – for a total bill of $2.75 million.

3. Adopt the One-Percent Solution. A growing number of groups, including socially responsible corporations, are calling on the Canadian government to restore housing programs that were slashed in the 1980s and cancelled in the 1990s. Home Depot should be an active partner in the One Percent Solution, the campaign for a fully-funded national housing program.

<< side two >>

Tired of big corporations that push around poor people? Here’s what you can do. . .

Tell Home Depot that, as a customer, you expect them to be a good corporate citizen. And that means treating homeless people fairly.

You can make a difference – if you raise your voice!

When you shop in a local store, tell the clerk, the store manager or other employees about your concern regarding the company’s actions in Toronto. And ask the employee to pass those concerns along to the Canadian head office in Toronto.

Send a letter directly to Annette Verschuren, President, Home Depot Canada, 426 Ellesmere Road, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, M1R 4E7. The telephone number is 416-609-0852 and follow the prompts to get to her office. Or send a fax to 416-412-4215.

For more information about the Homeless Depot campaign, you can log onto the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee Web site at www.tdrc.net. Call us at 416-599-8372. Send an e-mail to tdrc [at] tdrc [dot] net. Or write to Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, 6 Trinity Square, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 1B1. Send us copies of any letters that you sent to Home Depot. And make sure to send us copies of any replies that you receive.

Or contact << add local contact information here >>

Toronto Disaster Relief Committee
6 Trinity Square, Toronto, ON M5G 1B1
Phone: 416-599-8372, Fax: 416-599-5445
NEW EMAIL: tdrc [at] tdrc [dot] net
NEW WEBSITE: www.tdrc.net

tdrc

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Canada, Vancouver, Legal fund for ‘Woodward’s 58’

By: liberation - September 30th, 2002  Filed under: News

  Canada, Vancouver, Legal fund for ‘Woodward’s 58’

THE “WOODWARD’S 58” NEED YOUR SUPPORT!

In the early morning hours of Saturday, September 22, 2002, the Vancouver Police Department Riot Squad stormed into the Woodward’s squat which homeless people and their supporters had been occupying since the previous Saturday. 58 people were arrested and charged with violating a Supreme Court injunction.

The squatters and their supporters have to return to court November 7, 2002 to face civil contempt charges. The two lawyers who have so far represented us cannot possibly handle all of our cases themselves. THEREFORE, IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE RAISE SUFFICIENT FUNDS FOR OUR LEGAL DEFENCE. PLEASE DONATE WHATEVER YOU CAN TO THE “WOODWARD’S 58 LEGAL DEFENCE FUND” AND ASK YOUR FAMILY, FRIENDS, CO-WORKERS, UNION, HOUSING CO-OP, CHURCH OR COMMUNITY GROUP TO DO THE SAME.

Please make checks payable to the “People’s Opposition” and write “legal defence” on them. Checks can be mailed to:

Woodward’s 58 Legal Defence
c/o Anti-Poverty Committee
42 Blood Alley Square
Vancouver, BC, Canada
V6B 1C7

Gordon Flett <gflett1 [at] shaw [dot] ca>

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Belgium: Opening of a new squat

By: liberation - September 27th, 2002  Filed under: News

  Belgium: Opening of a new squat

The Collectif “Le Boulet” presents: a new collective, creative and active living space.

For a few days now, we, a group of people of various origins and from different scenes – students, unemployed, artists etc – occupied the buildings located at the 23-25 rue du Boulet in the center of Brussels. Because of our precarious means of subsistence, we needed a space where we could develop our projects, be they political or artistic, and liva a collective life.

The buildings which we have taken over belong to the Sofidev company. These buildings were being left to rot by the owner but are nonetheless completely viable. Although the need for housing with affordable rent is significant, certain companies, in collusion with the city authorities, practise a policy of real-estate speculation by expropriating the inhabitants of various Brussels districts in order to “raise the tone” of the city centre with luxury shops and high-rent housing.

In reaction to this, we want to put some life back into those unoccupied spaces, and make them suitable for living and for the devolpent of non-lucrative activities:

– soundproof rehearsal rooms for theatre, music and dance projects.
– spaces for political and cultural activities, with an ethos of solidarity, and not the traditional commercial ethos (infopoint: distribution and sharing of knowledge through booklets and fanzines, video projections, meetings and discussions, etc).

As of now, you can come and visit us at n° 23-25, rue du Boulet, 1000 Brusselss.

Tel : 0472 650112 E-mail : leboulet [at] linuxmail [dot] org

[trans. NMcN/ainfos]

nestor mcnab <nestor_mcnab [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk>

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TORONTO: Tent City Evicted!

By: liberation - September 26th, 2002  Filed under: News

  TORONTO: Tent City Evicted!

This has been a really bad week for squatters in Canada. First the crew occupying the old Woodward building in Vancouver were brutally evicted after eight days, then last Friday another squatted building in Quebec City (occupied since last May) was cleared out by the cops.

This morning, Canada’s largest and oldest squatter community, the so-called ‘Tent City’ located on Toronto’s waterfront, was forcefully evicted in a massive sweep-and-clear operation involving dozens of city cops and private security guards. The hardware giant Home Depot (which owns that tract of land) had earlier this summer bailed out of negotiations aimed at re-settling Tent City residents and creating interim housing on another nearby piece of city-owned land. Instead, earlier today without any warning at all to residents, they decided to proceed with the eviction of more than 120 people who had been calling that place home.

It had apparently been leaked to the media that an eviction was likely to happen this week. Over the past couple of months police harassment of Tent City residents had been escalating, with cops shining lights through peoples’ windows in the middle of the night, photographing residents, entering homes unannounced and dropping ominous hints that the folks living there ‘weren’t going to be doing so for much longer.’

When I arrived outside the site at about 11 AM today, most residents had already been forced off the land by the cops. People weren’t even being allowed back in to collect personal possessions at this time and a couple of people who had balked at leaving had been arrested. One woman who needed medication for a heart condition was stopped from going in to get her pills for more than seven hours. Other people who had left their personal identification and other essentials in their homes were likewise prevented from obtaining their belongings.

About fifteen minutes after I arrived a whole caravan of large trucks hauling bulldozers, dumpsters and assorted other heavy equipment including spotlights and rolls of fencing were escorted through the western gate by the police. There was something like twenty of these big vehicles altogether. Immediately after their arrival, a roll of heavy-duty mesh was deployed across the driveway, sealing it shut.

Supporters kept trickling in and by about one o’clock something like 75 people had assembled. We learned at that point that Home Depot was planning a press conference at a downtown hotel for two o’clock. Toronto’s Mayor Mel Lastman had already gone before the media to spout off that a ‘blight’ had been removed from the city’s waterfront, and that there were ‘200 beds available’ in the shelter system for those who required them (A poll done of shelters in the Toronto downtown that morning revealed that in fact, exactly seven male and seven female beds were all that was free). Many of the people present headed in the direction of the Holiday Inn on King St. to intervene in Home Depot’s media event.

A few of us who had bikes arrived ahead of the main body of people. We headed into the meeting room where the media were assembling, only to be accosted by hotel security and escorted right back out. We waited outside for the rest of the folks to arrive – then went right back in, some fifty strong. Outmaneuvering the hotel security, we went back up to the conference room, chanting loudly and demanding an explanation from Home Depot. There was media crowded around on both side of the meeting room’s glass doors, that by this time had been closed and locked. Dozens of press people were there. We ended up controlling the agenda, with word coming back to us that Home Depot had in fact cancelled the press conference not long after we arrived.

Next stop: City Hall. People (and the cops) gathered in Nathan Phillip’s Square, than proceeded in a noisy group toward Mel Lastman’s second-floor office. More folks had been arriving as the word got out and by this time nearly a hundred people were present. Predictably, Mel’s office had been closed off and the only people inside were police. A group of people marched around the rotunda area inside City Hall, angrily demanding that The Mayor stop hiding and deal with us. From there, we proceeded as a group to Council Chambers, where a meeting was underway to discuss (if you can stomach this one) Toronto’s ‘official city plan.’

Well, their ‘plans’ changed at that point. People were majorly angry by this time, and made no bones about it. After some heated back-and-forth between Council members and Tent City residents and their supporters, a meeting was set up with the City’s Chief Administrative Officer in a committee room downstairs. The angry debate continued there until nearly four o’clock, when the CAO suggested a separate meeting with a smaller group to try and resolve things at least temporarily. This proved agreeable to most folks, who made their way back toward the Tent City site, where an emergency rally had been called for five o’clock.

Back outside Tent City, 5 PM. I arrived at the west gate, which was still sealed off. The existing six-foot chainlink fence fronting most of the property had been increased to a height of ten feet, with struts across the top where barbed wire was to be strung. There was not much happening in this area – a few cops and assorted other hangers-on were all that was in the immediate area. I headed east along the bicycle trail that bordered the land, only to spot what looked like every media vehicle in Toronto parked close to the eastern gate, located near the mouth of the Don River. Peoples’ houses had not been disturbed as of this time, but a wide band of brush had been cleared inside the entire length of the fence.

A sizable crowd was gathering and a small army of police and oversized private security guards had been amassed. Two helicopters whirred around overhead. A group of volunteers were distributing sandwiches and bottled water from a table they’d set up nearby. Finally, a sign appeared on the fence stating the hours when people would be permitted to return to pick up their belongings. As the rally proceeded, residents started going onto the site in groups of two or three, and returning with their stuff. Near as I could tell about 250 people were assembled outside the site by then, although it was occasionally difficult to distingiuish between some of the protesters, the media and undercover police. The situation was chaotic to say the least.

Folks hung around until a little after seven, at which point we learned that the city was preparing to invoke their emergency response protocol, meaning that various relief agencies would come together with city officials to seek a means of accommodating the numerous people who had suddenly found themselves displaced. A local community centre was pressed into service as a site for co-ordinating this effort and transportation was being set up to get folks there. Many people were drifting off by then as the sun set and the early fall evening began to turn cooler.

A meeting has been called for noon tomorrow outside the western gate of the former Tent City site to discuss possible strategies, which are likely to involve some form of campaign tatgeting Home Depot for their act of extreme bad faith. I mean, prior to today’s events the Tent City residents had essentially been staying on the land with H.D.’s consent, and had even received some donations of building materials from the company. (‘Tent City’ had actually become a misnomer, what with most residents eventually constructing their own small cabins and shacks, mainly using found materials).

Negotiations had been ongoing for over a year following a resolution made by City Council that would have involved re-settling these people on another piece of land the city owned nearby, and possibly constructing some form of transitional housing project there. The City of Toronto, Home Depot and a non-profit property management outfit called Homes First Society were involved in this process along with the Tent City people and their supporters from the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee. Unfortunately, thanks to stalling by the city and now Home Depot’s treachery, these plans currently appear to be extremely uncertain at best.

Graeme Bacque September 24, 2002

Graeme Bacque <gbacque [at] colosseum [dot] com>

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Brutal Repression of Homeless and Woodwards Squatters in Vancouver, Canada

By: liberation - September 26th, 2002  Filed under: News

  Brutal Repression of Homeless and Woodwards Squatters in Vancouver, Canada

At 6 am on the morning of Saturday September 21, 2002, Vancouver riot police broke through barricades and arrested the squatters inside the old Woodwards building. The Woodwards building had been empty for 9 years; a landmark in the poorest neighbourhood in Canada. The squat began on Saturday, September 14, 2002, lasting almost a week. 55 squatters were arrested and brutalized within the buidling by riot police. Squatters were beaten and choked and then taken out of the building through an underground tunnel. 3 squatters and supporters were arrested outside the building. They were pepper-sprayed while climbing down a ladder and attempting to leave.

58 people appeared in court Saturday afternoon for contempt of the court injunction against the squatters.

The tent city outside of the Woodwards building continued after the eviction, and on Sunday night, September 22, 2002, police blocked off all traffic and raided the area, clubbing people, and smashing one woman’s face into the ground. Numerous people were detained and pushed out of the area and at least 12 people were arrested for “obstructing the sidewalk”.

On Monday morning, September 23, 2002, a short community march made its way to the Woodwards building and food was served. The crowd spray-painted slogans all over the building and when two police officers entered the crowd they were yelled at and forced to leave. The crowd then walked over to police grouped a block away and confronted them until they left.

The struggle continues.

sabate <sabate [at] ziplip [dot] com>

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News from Vancouver

By: liberation - September 19th, 2002  Filed under: News

  News from Vancouver

Hi. Here’s a forwarded message about the Woodwards Squat – The Woodwards Squat in Vancouver, an insurrectionary anarchist analysis Monday, September 16, 2002 On Saturday, September 14, 2002, a group of homeless people and community members occupied a huge department building in Vancouver’s Downtown +Eastside that has been vacant for 9 years. During that time various different community groups and agitators have fought to have the building +converted into social housing, only to have the government agree, and then go back on their promise. The old ?Woodwards building? takes up an +entire city block. The Downtown Eastside is the poorest neighbourhood in Canada, and with the current Liberal government’s cuts to social services, social +housing, welfare, and the lowering of the minimum wage, poverty and homelessness are growing; class contradictions are deepening. >Out of this desperate situation, a group of people have squatted the enormous old department building and plan to stay their until it becomes +social housing. Many people have set up camp outside the building and donations of food, mattresses and other essentials have been pouring +in. Banners have been hung from the windows, the sides of the building, and the large ?W? on the rooftop. Woodwards is owned by British Columbia Housing, and the government is threatening to get an injunction to evict the squatters because of +”saftey issues”. ?We have moved into what we consider to be our building? said one of the squatters. As of Monday morning, September 16, 2002, the squatters are still occupying Woodwards. The squat is now into its third day. In our analysis, this action has become possible not only because of the growing divide between the rich and the poor in this province. The +determination of the squatters to finally take action, at risk to themselves, should not be overlooked. The Woodwards building has been +fought for year after year. A range of more conservative community groups as well as direct action organizations have struggled, using +various tactics, to force the government to convert the building into housing. After 9 long years, the building is occupied. The potential is +enormous. Hundreds of homeless people could occupy and use the building. An autonomous social centre could develop. The nature of this +action, in finally squatting this landmark building, will surely lift the morale of the community and hopefully, spread an insurgent attitude +among the exploited and excluded. Currently, security concerns, experiments in self-organization, and the instability of the situation mean that everything is still ?up in the +air?. In our view, the fact that this action was not taken exclusively by ?career activists? is very positive. At the same time, an organizational +structure must develop which is informal, egalitarian, and confrontational to the State. It remains to be seen whether this will occur. It +largely depends on the ability of different social sectors to unite around this struggle in a decentralized way. The task for anarchists, as +always, is to contribute their own methods and tactics of resistance to the larger body of the exploited. Insurrectionary Anarchists of the Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver) check for new info – http://vancouver.indymedia.org

[squat!net]

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Poland, blockade of eviction in Wroclaw

By: liberation - September 16th, 2002  Filed under: News

  Poland, blockade of eviction in Wroclaw

Today a dozen anarchists and squatters managed to prevent the eviction of Ms. Barbara Markiewicz, a pensioner living in mid-town Wroclaw, who was unable to pay rent.

The police and bailiffs charged with the eviction were stopped by people holding a banner “Stop evictions”. The police argued that the eviction comes as a result of the complaints of the neighbours. However the neighbours were solidary against the police.

The bailiffs decided not to proceed with the eviction. The first attempt of eviction of Ms. Barbara took place in april.

Taken from “Alter-EE mailing list” <http://www.lists.most.org.pl/cgi-bin/listinfo/alter-ee>

Zaczek <hydrozag [at] poczta [dot] onet [dot] pl>

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Woodwards Building Squatted in Vancouver, Canada

By: liberation - September 16th, 2002  Filed under: News

  Woodwards Building Squatted in Vancouver, Canada

Vancouver, Canada, September 16, 2002

On Saturday, September 14, 2002, a group of homeless people and activists occupied a huge department building in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside that has been vacant for 9 years. During that time various different community groups and activists have fought to have the building converted into social housing, only to have the government agree, and then go back on their promise.

The Downtown Eastside is the poorest neighbourhood in Canada, and with the current Liberal government’s cuts to social services, social housing, welfare, and the lowering of the minimum wage, poverty and homelessness are growing.

Out of this desperate situation, a group of people have squatted the enormous old department building and plan to stay their until it becomes social housing. Many people have set up camp outside the building and donations of food, matresses and other essentials have been pouring in. The building is owned by the British Columbia Housing, and the government is threatening to get an injuction to evict the squatters because of “saftey issues”.

As of Monday morning, September 16, 2002, the squatters are still occupying Woodwards.

For pictures and updates check – http://ontario.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=12087&group=webcast

sabate <sabate [at] ziplip [dot] com>

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Occupied social centers in Argentina

By: liberation - September 10th, 2002  Filed under: News

From December we began to see a new form of political intervention, after the cacerolazos are born the assemblies, soon the interbarrial of assemblies, and now the phenomenon of the “assemblies okupas”. In the heat of economic and political crisis the search of collective solutions is urgent . Little by little the necessity was growing to create our own spaces and to solve the serious problem of the house. [Read More]

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