[Anarchist attacks on gentrification]

descriptif :

text

photos (vitrines et bâtiments attaqués par des extincteurs à peinture)

texte :

Anarchist attacks on gentrification

St. Henri, November 2014

“Although gentrification of a neighbourhood is more than just new businesses and nice-looking storefronts, we decided to render some of our disgust with gentrification by vandalizing two such examples with fire extinguishers filled with paint…”

“…These businesses play an active role in the ”revitalisation” of the neighbourhood, and contribute to pushing out the poor in favour of young yuppies with considerable income and who are always in search of the new trend – whether in terms of food, beer, fashion, or even neighborhood. Unable to afford the new price of living and facing greater police harassement, a method of social cleansing that pushes undesirables further and further from downtown and central areas, precarious workers, the unemployed, and all other marginalized of society are always on the losing end of this ‘revitalisation’.

We see this action as part of a struggle against colonialism and as a gesture of solidarity with indigenous self-determination and soverignty. While we recognize that our struggle in Montreal, occupied indigenous territory, isn’t at all comparable to indigenous struggles in form or content, we engaged in this action in solidarity with those in struggle against exploitative projects, including pipeline construction and other resource extraction schemes.

We think that one of the best ways to act in solidarity is to struggle in our own context against common enemies : the forces of repression and displacement, including capital and the police. In this sense, inspired in part by the struggles against threats to the territory and water on lands already stolen from indigenous peoples, the threats that participate in this ongoing process of colonisation and genocide of indigenous peoples in Canada, we attacked the forces that further alienate us from our surroundings and push us out of the spaces we inhabit.”

[phot.] Hochelaga, May 2012 - Place Valois
[phot.] St. Henri, 2014 - Campenelli’s

Hochelaga, November 2013

Le Chasseur restaurant and the Le Valois, In Vivo and Bagatelle bistros had their windows smashed and were graffitied. A flyer left strewn near the destruction read :
“ You and your collaborators of gentrification, you come here, in Hochelaga to rot us with your 25 bucks table d’hôte, your crap condos and your hip businessman ideals. It seems quite obvious that your not welcome here. Your presence makes us want to vomit. We know the song too well. Under your cheerful young entrepreneur and unscrupulous airs, your only goal is to colonize our neighborhoods and adapt them to your interests. You have big cash and the cops for your security and that’s how you plan to succeed. Well you better get the fuck out of here because we want nothing of your sanitized world...”

Hochelaga, September 2013
“Over the night of september 5, we broke the window of the office of Carole Poirier, Partie Québécois representative in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. With an extinguisher filled with paint (sprayed into the broken window) the interior of Carole’s office was completely covered. Walls, carpet, computers, everything. On the outside wall, “fuck la propriété privée - grève des loyers ” was written. This action was done in solidarity with those being evicted from the Moreau lofts, and as a fuck you to politicians who all work hand in hand with landlords to render the neighbourhood sterilized and policed.”

More info at mtlcounter-info.org

---

sources :

https://mtlcontreinfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MTLCI-affiches.pdf
https://mtlcounterinfo.org/anarchist-attacks-on-gentrification/
https://mtlcontreinfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/gentrification.pdf