In response to the Stewart Squat, Red Braid received questions and critiques from Indigenous youth and others who support the struggles of low-income Indigenous and working-class people against the forces of colonialism and capitalism. We’ve been going through posts and comments, grouping them under some themes, and have responded here.
On April 17, homeless and underhoused residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside took over a vacant school building, launching the latest #SQUAT2SURVIVE action: the Kennedy Stewart Squat!
Homeless and low-income women have established a wing in the Hothouse Squat as a space for women’s community, solidarity, and collective struggle against patriarchal power and violence, which has increased during the COVID-19 crisis.
To survive COVID-19, we have to protect Indigenous spaces. We have to protect our physical spaces where we can see and care for each other. We have to defend all our relations against being controlled by building managers, surveilled by police, and killed by colonizer violence.
#SQUAT2SURVIVE COVID-19! Unhoused and underhoused communities seize the vacant North Surrey Recreation Centre in Surrey Centre to create and fight for homes safer than the streets, shelters, and modular housing that are becoming COVID-19 hothouses
On April 1st, homeless activists launched the Hothouse Squat. They call for for poor and homeless communities all over the province to take over vacant buildings as part of the #SQUAT2SURVIVE movement, in an act of militant self-defense from COVID-19.
You can't self-isolate in shelters, SROs, modular housing, or on the streets. By taking over vacant buildings, we can immediately shelter ourselves from the many threats of poverty – of which COVID-19 is just one. Support poor and homeless communities to #Squat2Survive!
Homeless activists are calling a press conference to demand that the government redirect resources to poor communities, so that they can take care of their own health and safety in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Red Braid is distributing information, offering resources, and organizing poor and homeless communities. We encourage others to download, adapt, and distribute the flyer in their own communities.
