April 18th to 24th, 2021
Sunday April 18th
Coordinating Committee meeting
Bi-weekly meeting of the Red Braid CC, tasked with planning organizational work over the coming week.
Monday April 19th
Marxist Center Delegates Council meeting
Red Braid is affiliated with the Marxist Center. We have a member who sits on the Delegate Council.
Tuesday April 20th
Eviction Defence Network: RTB hearing
The Eviction Defence Network advocated for a transitional housing tenant at her Residential Tenancy Board hearing, challenging the landlord’s classification of the building as “transitional” and therefore exempt from Tenancy Act rights. We will get a decision within the month, but are feeling optimistic.
Maple Ridge Resistance meeting
We set up outside modular housing and did surveys with approximately ten residents about their living conditions.
COS Education Series: Dissecting Fascism
Political education for Red Braid members, which we call Conditions of Struggle (COS).
We repeated last week’s discussion of Antonia Gramsci’s “Relations between structure and superstructure,” from his Prison Notebooks, for Red Braid members in the Lower Mainland.
Wednesday April 21th
Eviction Defence Network: All-members meeting
Monthly network-wide meeting of all the Eviction Defence Network members.
An Eviction Defence Network member gave a presentation titled, “Why Are Certain Neighbourhoods Targeted for Gentrification? Racism, Capitalism & the Rent Gap.” Then we heard updates about tenant organizing in a number of apartment building throughout Metro Vancouver, and planned an upcoming landlord-shaming action.
Surrey Street Council
Weekly campaign meeting of street community leaders in Surrey.
We continued work on our upcoming street community memorial event, which we are calling a “Ceremony for Stolen Lives,” and our ongoing “Stop the Sweeps” project. We also discussed the question: why is there no tent city in Whalley? While there is a large and established homeless community in the neighbourhood, aggressive policing and gentrification have undermined efforts to establish and maintain a tent city since the shut-down of the Surrey Strip in 2018.
Thursday April 22th
Bread, Roses & Hormones
Weekly meeting of Bread, Roses & Hormones, a campaign led by trans and non-binary people.
This week we discussed the rise of anti-trans violence in North America in 2021, set dates and times for our weekly self-defence trainings, and planned outreach for our next consciousness raising session on the topic of (mis)recognition.
Friday April 23th
Eviction Defence Network: RTB hearing
An organizer with Red Braid’s Eviction Defence Network advocated at a Residential Tenancy Board hearing to support a supportive housing tenant in Maple Ridge facing eviction. The hearing ended with a negotiated settlement for a 2-month (rather than 2-day) eviction: a partial success in supporting the tenant to remain housed.
Whalley People’s Resource Centre
The Whalley Centre is open every Friday from 11pm to 7am. It is run by the Surrey Street Council.
It was a rainy night and the community was reeling from the tragic death of a longtime, much-beloved community leader, who was a regular presence at the Whalley Centre. The Centre provided shelter for 22 people throughout the night, plus three furry friends, including a 6-week-old kitten. We served pasta bolognese and gave out dry clothing and blankets to people who were cold and wet.
Donate to the Whalley People’s Resource Centre. The weather is getting warmer, but it is still cold at night. We need coats, blankets, gloves, socks, and clean underwear!
Upcoming events
Conditions of Struggle: Dissecting Fascism
Six bi-weekly online classes hosted by Red Braid members in Nanaimo, BC and Olympia, WA.
Class 6 in our political education series on facism is titled “… and how to fight it.” On April 27 at 5:30pm, we will discuss strategies for resisting fascism. Email organize@stopdisplacement.ca for the readings!
Publishing done in this period
Besides the various leaflets and local newsletters, we also published the following Volcano articles:
Bread, Roses & Hormone, Tracking violence against trans people in formal and informal institutions
Eviction Defence Network, RTB orders ‘intimi-victions’ landlord to apologize, stop intimidating tenant
Isabel Krupp, A tale of two slumlords
