November 28th to December 5th, 2020
Saturday November 28th
“Stand for #LandBack”
On Saturday November 28th from 2pm to 4pm, in support of the Indigenous sovereignty struggle week of action, Red Braid organized banner and leafleting “Stands for #LandBack” in four communities in Metro Vancouver. At Main and Hastings in Vancouver; the Whalley neighbourhood of Surrey; the Metrotown neighbourhood of Burnaby; and in downtown Maple Ridge, small groups of 4 to 6 people held banners that read “LAND BACK: Stop Canada’s Invasion of Indigenous Territories” and distributed a pamphlet with brief descriptions of the many sovereignty struggles happening against Canada – which are blacked out by Canada’s media.
Sunday November 29th
Whalley Street Council Meeting
Weekly meeting of members of the Whalley street community met and planned the opening of the Whalley People’s Resource Centre. In the meeting we finalized our Whalley Centre rules, statement of purpose, and the call for donations.
Red Braid Coordinating Committee meeting
Bi-weekly meeting of Red Braid’s elected, 8-member coordinating committee, planning the organizational work of the group for the next 2 weeks.
Monday November 30th
Praxis Committee meeting
Weekly meeting of the Red Braid Praxis committee, where we plan the group’s internal and public education work. In this meeting we planned the upcoming classes on “Gender and Socialist Revolution,” specifically those about the Chinese and Cuban revolutions.
Tuesday December 1st
Eviction Defence Network postering campaign
Early in the morning of Tuesday December 1st, Red Braid’s “Eviction Defence Network” continued our postering campaign to organize the bases for community struggles against evictions. You can download the Eviction Defence Network poster here.
Stop the detention and extradition of Meng Wanzhou picket
As part of a minor Canada-wide day of action against the detention and extradition of Meng Wanzhou, Red Braid released a statement, published a pamphlet, and co-organized a picket outside of a Liberal MP’s constituency office. You can read the statement and download the pamphlet here. We also signed-on to a broad, international statement called “No new cold war, which you can also read and sign here. There are photos of the picket action here.
Maple Ridge Resistance meeting
Weekly meeting of Maple Ridge Resistance, a group of street community members in Maple Ridge. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we meet under a pop-up tent in a park and have hot soup made by Eva, a member of Red Braid who was a resident of Anita Place tent city. This week we planned a news conference against the supportive housing guest ban in place in every low income housing building in Maple Ridge.
Wednesday December 2nd
“Bust the guest ban!” News conference
Following the decision from the Maple Ridge Resistance meeting the day before, Red Braid helped organize a news conference against Coast Mental Health’s guest ban in their Maple Ridge supportive housing buildings. We put out a new issue of the weekly newsletter, “Anita News” with a story about the guest ban – which included a minor win: Coast Mental Health dropped their guest ban policy less than 24 hours after our news conference! See photos from the news conference here. Read the article about the guest ban victory here. And download the printable newsletter here.
Eviction Defense Network meeting
Weekly meeting of Red Braid’s Eviction Defence Network. This new group has grown out of the Stop Demovictions Burnaby campaign as we feel the evictions crisis is no longer uniquely critical in that one neighbourhood. This week EDN finalized our application for membership in the Autonomous Tenants’ Union and discussed and planned three different eviction defence actions.
Thursday December 3rd
Bread Roses and Hormones meeting
Weekly planning meeting of BRH, the autonomous trans and non-binary strand of Red Braid. This week’s meeting continued work on a community survey being postered for and conducted in Metro Vancouver and on Vancouver Island. We also prepared for an upcoming meeting with trans women and non-binary people in Olympia.
Saturday December 5th
New member education class
Bi-weekly education class held for new members of Red Braid. During the first 3 months of membership, Red Braid members have a mentor who helps them become familiar with all the organizing and politics of the group. And we have scheduled new member education classes every 2 weeks in order to read, discuss, and deepen our understanding of our basis of unity. This week we discussed decolonization.
Volcano writer’s workshop
Following the new member education class, we had a short writer’s workshop for Red Braid members who want to join the Volcano newspaper’s writer’s pool.