We don’t have to be in the streets together to act in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives! If you’re staying home while in-person protests are happening, here are a few things you can do:
Send your elected officials some version of this letter to advocate for defunding and redistributing the Ottawa Police Services Budget.
Put a Black Lives Matter sign in your home window, or make signs to post around your neighborhood.
Post a picture of yourself holding a sign expressing your support on any social media you use.
Health crises are political. For May Day 2020, let’s come together against the forces of capitalism and colonialism, which are currently intensified as part of the COVID-19 pandemic. May Day is normally a time to gather and celebrate, and so this year we want to safely transform our public spaces into expressions of that collectivity! We’re happy to share these images commissioned by Punch Up and beautifully drawn by Bia Salles (@bia_makes_art).
We invite you to show your solidarity by using and sharing these images of butterflies (ENG/FR), bees (ENG/FR), and birds (ENG/FR) that evoke the power of life against colonialism and capitalism! You can download the whole set of images in English or French. Color, draw, or trace them with kids! Create your own images that evoke the spirit of May Day! We encourage you to post them around your neighborhood, in your window, at your workplace, on social media, on patches. We’re excited to see what you do! Share digitally using #MayDay2020.
For more gorgeous shareable images, check out these graphics from Justseeds Artists Cooperative and this comic from Ad Astra Comix.
Building a New World In the Shell of the Old
The crisis that the pandemic escalated was already here. This May Day offers a chance for us to collectively meet this crisis by building a new world, recognizing that the one we’ve been living within creates misery and devastation. It consistently kills poor people, Indigenous peoples, racialized people, migrants, elders, kids, and disabled people first; it regularly places disproportionate care work on the shoulders of women and forces working-class folks to put their bodies on the line. COVID-19 is accelerating harms that were already pervasive.
We will be living through this crisis for a long time, and so our organizing has to happen over the long-term with care and intention. People want to help one another; we are good at organizing and self-organizing. The state is neither interested in nor good at those things, nor are the very rich. This is a good time to remember that and to build on our collective strengths.
This May Day, we encourage you to think about how your life is connected with workers, with Indigenous sovereignty and migrant justice, with people resisting imprisonment. When we evoke work, we mean not only wage work, but all the activities that sustain us and our communities. When we evoke open borders, we think not only of people imprisoned in immigration detention centres or killed at sea, but all the peoples who have had borders imposed on them by settler states. When we evoke freedom from prisons, we call for releasing prisoners and also resisting the slide toward a police state in the name of public health.
These images evoke intertwined struggles and sites of liberation. Even in the midst of a global pandemic, there are victories. Wildcat strikes remind us that, as the old song goes, “without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn” and that we need not wait on union bureaucracies to exercise worker power. Rent strikes show that the property-owning class is vulnerable to organized resistance, even when people are physically separated, and assert that everyone deserves a dignified place to live. Mutual aid and caremongering networks affirm that people want to care for each other and will self-organize to do so.
Winning recognition of the dignity of work is only the beginning. Rent strikes and halting evictions are only the beginning. Establishing community networks of care and support are only the beginning.
We know that there is no going back to the world that was; that world was never good for the vast majority of us. We can build a new world in the shell of this one.
The Centretown Community Association is establishing a Standby
Volunteer List; to join, send an email to
president@centretowncitizens.ca with your name, tel nbr, dates/hrs
you’re available and whether you have access to a vehicle.
Given current concerns about COVID-19, we are postponing the Early to Bed Dance Party Fundraiser. We want to do what we can to keep our community safe and healthy and slow the spread of the virus. We’ll announce a new date as soon as we’re able. In the meantime, let’s practice physical distancing and social solidarity!
Friday, March 27, 8 PM – 11 PM Shanghai Restaurant, 651 Somerset Street West Facebook event here
What is an Early to Bed Dance Party? It’s a super fun dance party, but earlier in the evening so we can still go to bed at a reasonable time! Come dance your face off and still be in bed by 11:15!
Shanghai will be serving beverages, DJ Justice will be spinning, and the dance floor will be shaking!
PWYC at the door. This is a fundraiser! Funds raised at the door will be split between three initiatives:
Ottawa Abortion Doula Collective: “You deserve support throughout your abortion. We’re here to make sure you get it.” What’s not to love???
Jail Accountability and Information Line (JAIL): The Jail Hotline tracks issues experienced by people incarcerated at the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre, advocating for their needs to be met in a dignified and respectful manner, while connecting them to community supports for when they are released.
Indigenous Land Defenders Legal Defence: We don’t have a specific organizations lined up yet, but we will post details once confirmed. Many Indigenous folks have put their bodies on the line in support of Wet’suwet’en land defenders, and we’d like to contribute to their legal costs.
Accessibility:
Shanghai is accessible by ramp at the side door. It does not have an
accessible washroom. There will be loud music and lots of folks at the
front of the venue. We will try to maintain a quieter space at the back
where folks can chill out and chat. We ask folks to avoid wearing
scented products for those with scent sensitivities.
If you have any accessibility concerns or other questions, please get in touch with Punch Up at punchup@riseup.net.
Over the course of 2020, we’re hoping to expand both the number of subscribers and the number of groups submitting events. And we’re hoping you can help us make that happen.
The first edition was emailed to almost 70 subscribers on Monday June 18th, 2018. It has gone out every Monday since, and has grown to over 200 local subscribers.
Even more amazingly, just in 2019, the REO List featured events from 174 different organizations, all based in the Ottawa area.
There’s clearly a lot going on in Ottawa! With your help, the REO List can reach even more people and organizations.
There are two tangible things you or your organization can do to help keep the REO List growing:
1) Share the details about the REO List with your friends, family, and with your organization’s members and contact lists. A general overview of the REO List, including how to subscribe, can be found here.
2) Submit your organization’s events to the REO List for inclusion in an upcoming email. Events submitted by Friday at midnight will be included in the email released the following Monday. You can submit an event by filling out the online form.
How Does the REO List Work Again?
If you’d like to let other people know about the REO List and need a quick descriptive blurb, you’re welcome to use this one:
The Punch Up Collective runs the Radical Events Ottawa (REO) List, a weekly public email announcement list for radical events, meetings, protests, and other activities in Ottawa, Ontario, on unceded Algonquin territory. It’s a way for fellow radicals to share upcoming activities without relying on Facebook and other commercialized platforms.
Subscribers receive one email per week, each Monday, containing details on upcoming events and actions in the Ottawa-Gatineau region. Subscriber emails are not shared with anyone and won’t appear publicly anywhere. The REO List is not a discussion forum; the only email subscribers receive will be the once-weekly events email from Punch Up, and individuals can unsubscribe anytime.
Fight Ford! We Will Win! Join the “Fighting For Our Lives” contingent on December 10th!
Tuesday, December 10th, 2019 5:00-8:00pm Ottawa Conference and Events Centre 200 Coventry Road
Bring signs, banners, and noisemakers!
Doug Ford is coming to Ottawa for a $1,000 per plate “Holiday Dinner” hosted by the Conservative Party. The Ottawa Coalition Against Ford will be there to give him the welcome he deserves! (See the general call-out here.)
Join us in the “Fighting For Our Lives” contingent! We’ll picket one of the entrances in solidarity with those most affected by Doug Ford’s cruelty, with the people whose very lives are put at risk by this government’s policies, including Indigenous people, people on ODSP and OW, people denied access to overdose prevention sites, migrants and refugees denied access to legal aid, and all those targeted by multiple forms of oppression.
We are fighting not only the cuts to social services, to classrooms and universities, and to environmental and worker protections; we are also fighting the Ford government’s distribution of money and support towards things that hurt us: prisons, the foreclosure of reproductive justice, and corruption at the core of the current government.
We acknowledge that this action is taking place on unceded and unsurrendered Algonquin territory. We believe that effectively fighting the Ford government requires reckoning with and challenging colonialism and supporting Indigenous struggles for self-determination.
Please email us at punchup@riseup.net if you are definitely planning to attend the picket so that we know we can count you in! We will email a reminder and plans for gathering. We’re friendly and welcoming!
Fight Ford! We Will Win!
In solidarity and struggle, The Punch Up Collective
Fight Ford! We Will Win! Join the ‘Fighting For Our Lives’ March on June 7th!
4:00pm Friday, June 7th, 2019 Dundonald Park (Somerset @ Lyon, map link) Marching to Courthouse on Elgin St.
Bring signs, banners, and noisemakers!
On Friday, June 7th, during the province-wide Day of Action to oppose the Ford government, the Punch Up Collective invites you to join the ‘Fighting For Our Lives’ contingent as we march from Dundonald Park to the main Ottawa rally at the Ontario Courthouse on Elgin St.
The main June 7th rally in Ottawa, taking place at the Ontario Courthouse (161 Elgin St.), has been endorsed by the ODLC, OPSEU OAC, Ottawa Post-Secondary Education Coalition, Ottawa Coalition Against Ford, ETFO, OCEOTA, OSSTF, CUPE, PSAC, UNIFOR, Fight for $15 and Fairness, and GSA Carleton. Groups are encouraged to organize their own feeder marches and to converge at the Courthouse for a 5:00pm rally.
The ‘Fighting For Our Lives’ contingent marches in solidarity with those most affected by Doug Ford’s cruelty, with the people whose very lives are put at risk by this government’s policies, including Indigenous people, people on ODSP and OW, people denied access to overdose prevention sites, migrants and refugees denied access to legal aid, and all those targeted by multiple forms of oppression.
We are fighting not only the cuts to social services, to classrooms and universities, and to environmental and worker protections, we are also fighting the Ford government’s distribution of money and support towards things that hurt us: prisons, the foreclosure of reproductive justice, and corruption at the core of the current government.
We acknowledge that this action is taking place on unceded and unsurrendered Algonquin territory. We believe that effectively fighting the Ford government requires reckoning with and challenging colonialism and supporting Indigenous struggles for self-determination.
Fight Ford! We Will Win!
In solidarity and struggle, The Punch Up Collective
With the aim of increasing local organizing infrastructure, Punch Up has begun assembling a series of resources we hope will help organizers plan and carry out effective social justice events, demonstrations, and actions.
Please use these, modify them to suit your own organizing context, and share as needed.
We’ll be adding to these resources over time. If there’s an issue or topic you’d like to see addressed, or if one of the above guides is missing something crucial, contact us at punchup@riseup.net.
With the ongoing trial of Constable Daniel Montison in Ottawa, we contributed an in-depth article on the Ottawa police to the new issue of The Leveller. This is a companion piece to our timeline of Ottawa police violence featured in the previous issue. Drawing on public records, media accounts, and independent investigations, we examine a history of violence and racism, ineffective oversight, reports that go nowhere, and bloated budgets. We argue that taking all of this together clearly indicates that the OPS, as an institution, is rotten to the core. While there’s a lot that we couldn’t cover in this article, we do hope this piece helps to share some context for understanding and challenging the police in our city.
We contributed a detailed timeline of Ottawa police violence to the new issue of the The Leveller. We developed this timeline in preparation for the upcoming trial of Constable Daniel Montison, who was charged with manslaughter following the death of Abdirahman Abdi in July 2016. While the timeline is obviously incomplete, we hope it’s helpful in creating a context for understanding specific incidents of police violence in our city. Stay tuned for the longer, in-depth article we will be releasing soon!
We don’t have to be in the streets together to act in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives! If you’re staying home while in-person protests are happening, here are a few things you can do:
