I make things. It’s what I do. Mostly, I make things with written words. Sometimes those things involve audio, and occasionally photos or video. But always words. This piece of writing is intended as the first in a new, ongoing practice. Well, I say “ongoing,” but I don’t actually know that. I may decide that …
Tara Ehrcke of Victoria, BC, was initially politicized as part of the global justice movement in the 1990s. As that movement faded after 9/11, she was peripherally involved in anti-war organizing, but put more of her energies into local political work. In the early 2000s, she became a teacher, and for a decade and a …
As part of Toronto’s Shelter and Housing Justice Network (SHJN), Lorraine Lam is active in struggles related to housing, homelessness, and poverty. She connects her commitment to social justice to growing up in a church setting, saying, “It was there that I learned a lot of the values around what it means to love people …
Kerri Claire Neil (she/her) is a community organizer based in St. John’s, Ktaqamkuk (Newfoundland). She is Co-Chair of the Social Justice Co-operative of Newfoundland and Labrador (SJCNL) and recently took over her family’s business, Downtown Comics. Currently, Kerri is actively involved in Tent City 4 Change, a grassroots collective that is advocating for housing justice …
Dev Ramsawakh is a disabled, transmasculine, and diasporic Indo-Caribbean multidisciplinary storyteller, producer, and educator. Their written, audio, and video work focuses on their intersecting identities, on community, and on deconstructing colonial systems, and it has appeared in a wide range of outlets, venues, and events, both grassroots and mainstream. They are also a co-founder of …
[Originally published on The Media Co-op.] Saleh Waziruddin is a South Asian anti-racism activist who has participated in grassroots struggles throughout his adult life. In his 20s, he organized in the Muslim community in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now in his 40s, he lives in Niagara, Ontario, and is active in the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association (NRARA). …
[Originally published on The Media Co-op.] Nina Newington is an organizer based in rural Nova Scotia. In recent years, her grassroots work has focused on protecting forests in the province. Newington says that her political consciousness “really emerged from being a queer kid in England in the 1970s” and not knowing that there was anyone …
The new mayor could push for a cut in the police budget to make up for a big budget gap, but it’s unlikely that she will. In the spirit of Toronto’s long history of communities resisting the harms of policing, however, grassroots groups are campaigning for her to make that choice. In December, the Toronto …
We live in a culture that tells us to face the world’s problems on our own—but any chance we have of making transformative change can only come from organizing collectively. This past year, governments around the world responded to sustained popular pressure—Portugal announced a radical plan to tackle the housing crisis; Chile signalled that it …
Stefan Christoff is an organizer, musician, and broadcaster based in Tiohtià:ke, also known as Montreal. Across his decades of activism and organizing, he has been part of supporting lots of different struggles resisting systemic violence and oppression, including colonial systems here on Turtle Island (North America) and around the world. That has involved solidarity work …