Upcoming PCAP EVENTS:
1. Squeegee Action and No-Poorbashing Leafletting: Saturday May 31
2. Squatting Tour & Affordable Housing Action: Sunday June 15th
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1. Squeegee Action & No-Poorbashing Leafletting Saturday May 31st @ Ptbo Square (George & Simcoe St)
PCAP invites you to squeegee downtown and/or hand out leaflets against poorbashing.
-Support the rights of panhandlers
-Tell the DBIA to stop poor-bashing
-Confront police harassment of poor people
This is a legal action. Participate or observe. All welcome.
Tell the DBIA to Stop Poor-bashing!
The Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA) has recently launched an anti-panhandling campaign to discourage local residents from giving money to panhandlers. Instead, residents are encouraged to give panhandlers 50¢ coupons which can be redeemed at local businesses for food and clothing. To promote this campaign, the DBIA is using poor-bashing rhetoric to convince the public that panhandlers spend their money on booze & drugs.
Not only are these claims false (the majority of panhandlers use the money for basic survival - food and shelter) but the DBIA is taking away panhandlers' rights to manage their own money.
The DBIA anti-panhandling campaign is just another attempt to demonize, humilate and control poor people.
PCAP won't stand for it!
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2. Squatting Tour & Affordable Housing Action
Sunday June 15th, 2003
3pm - Meet at Inverlea Park: One block East of Water St. & Parkhill Rd. "Give it or Guard it" Housing Campaign and Squatting Free food; child-friendly; peaceful event; all welcome. About the "Give it or Guard it" SQUATTING TOUR & Campaign: Over the next few months, PCAP will be publicly identifying buildings which are empty in Peterborough and could be used for AFFORDABLE HOUSING.
Using the principle of "Give it or Guard it", PCAP will publicly announce the locations of empty building which they plan to take over for affordable housing. The property owners and police then can choose to "guard it" (ie. surround the building and prevent it from being used for housing), or "give it" up to those seeking shelter. The purpose of this strategy is to draw attention to the empty buildings in town that could be used for affordable housing.
At some point, one of these buildings will be taken over by community members for housing.
WHY THIS ACTION?
The shelters are overflowing. Eviction rates have skyrocketed. Thousands on a 5 year waiting list for affordable housing. The governments have refused to act.
We can't wait any longer. If they won't build it, we will take it! AFFORDABLE HOUSING NOW!
Join us on the following dates for the Squatting Tour:
SATURDAY, JULY 19, 2003 Time & Location TBA
SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2003 Time & Location TBA
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The Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty (PCAP) is a group dedicated to political struggle against an economic system that maintains and profits from the inequality, indignity and needless suffering of poverty. PCAP organizes actions to support and protect low income persons or groups who are being oppressed. PCAP helps people deal with social assistance claims, housing issues, police harassment, squatters^Ò rights and poor-bashing. If you need assistance or want to get involved, call PCAP.
Office: 393 Water St. Unit 17 Peterborough K9H 3L7 Office Open Daily. Call for details: (705) 749-9694
Friday, May 30, 2003
Saturday, May 3, 2003
May Day Focuses on Housing in Peterborough
by Paul Bocking (IWW & PCAP)
On May Day, the Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty (PCAP) and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) joined together for the kick-off of a local direct-action campaign for affordable housing in Peterborough, Ontario. Over four months, PCAP will publicly visit abandoned buildings throughout the city which could be opened up for housing. One of these will be squatted. A few dozen people (including members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, based in Toronto) gathered on an overcast day in Confederation Park in downtown Peterborough. Speakers discussed housing issues, May Day and the labour movement, along with the agenda for private control of public space led by the downtown business association.
Leaving the park, we marched onto the street, past the police station on the way to our destination, an extensive mansion; empty for two years after being sold by a centralizing university for which it formerly served as residences, classrooms and offices, to a private owner. While admitting that the building could easily serve as low cost housing, the owner is on the public record for stating, "It is too beautiful a home to convert into affordable apartments". A mindset which ensures that housing will not be a priority of the State, let alone private business, unless it is forced onto the table. After reading our banners, drivers honked at us as they drove past us in a lane of the three lane one-way road we kept partially open.
Reaching the house, PCAP, OCAP and IWW members spoke while a PCAP member bravely scaled a wall and unfolded a large PCAP banner off of the building's second floor balcony. A couple of interested neighbours came over and we discovered that several doors were open, allowing us to tour the expansive structure. Not intending to squat the building despite its excellent condition, we later headed out, to regroup at a music event that night featuring folk, funk and punk acts.
Amazingly we experienced no police interference, our main opposition coming from social agencies, represented by the muncipal housing chairman, who denounced 'breaking into private property' the next day, "I don't agree with their actions. There are lots of groups out there working hard to offer housing." Actions like this one, demonstrate the importance of PCAP and similar groups in providing a way for youth, unemployed and low income workers to speak for themselves and force change on a system which ignores or suppresses them.
The Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty is a member of the Ontario Common Front.
On May Day, the Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty (PCAP) and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) joined together for the kick-off of a local direct-action campaign for affordable housing in Peterborough, Ontario. Over four months, PCAP will publicly visit abandoned buildings throughout the city which could be opened up for housing. One of these will be squatted. A few dozen people (including members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, based in Toronto) gathered on an overcast day in Confederation Park in downtown Peterborough. Speakers discussed housing issues, May Day and the labour movement, along with the agenda for private control of public space led by the downtown business association.
Leaving the park, we marched onto the street, past the police station on the way to our destination, an extensive mansion; empty for two years after being sold by a centralizing university for which it formerly served as residences, classrooms and offices, to a private owner. While admitting that the building could easily serve as low cost housing, the owner is on the public record for stating, "It is too beautiful a home to convert into affordable apartments". A mindset which ensures that housing will not be a priority of the State, let alone private business, unless it is forced onto the table. After reading our banners, drivers honked at us as they drove past us in a lane of the three lane one-way road we kept partially open.
Reaching the house, PCAP, OCAP and IWW members spoke while a PCAP member bravely scaled a wall and unfolded a large PCAP banner off of the building's second floor balcony. A couple of interested neighbours came over and we discovered that several doors were open, allowing us to tour the expansive structure. Not intending to squat the building despite its excellent condition, we later headed out, to regroup at a music event that night featuring folk, funk and punk acts.
Amazingly we experienced no police interference, our main opposition coming from social agencies, represented by the muncipal housing chairman, who denounced 'breaking into private property' the next day, "I don't agree with their actions. There are lots of groups out there working hard to offer housing." Actions like this one, demonstrate the importance of PCAP and similar groups in providing a way for youth, unemployed and low income workers to speak for themselves and force change on a system which ignores or suppresses them.
The Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty is a member of the Ontario Common Front.
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