[Dnfd_announce] DTES teach-in: NO to pipelines, NO to gentrification (Tues January 8)

[Ivan Drury]

In preparation for the January 14 major action against the Enbridge
pipeline...

DTES COMMUNITY TEACH-IN  >>

NO TO PIPELINES, NO TO GENTRIFICATION

Tuesday January 8
11am
Carnegie Centre Theatre
(401 Main St, main floor)

Come hear affected community speakers and organizers on the destructive and
displacing effects of the proposed Enbridge pipeline on Indigenous
communities and talk about how this will affect Indigenous and low-income
DTES residents too. Together we will work on what we can do within and
alongside our anti-gentrification struggles to stop these pipelines and
break the cycles of displacement.

Coffee and a light snack will be available onsite

Read the Rising Tide call-out for the January 14 noise demonstration
against the Enbridge consultations here:
http://www.facebook.com/events/203420029795241/

For more on the connections between pipelines and gentrification and the
anti-displacement contingent at the anti-Enbridge demonstration, read the
DTES Not for Developers coalition statement below:


UNITING THE STRUGGLE AGAINST PIPELINES & GENTRIFICATION

The DTES not for Developers Coalition joins with others in endorsing the
January 14 anti-pipelines action. We acknowledge the DTES is on unceded
Coast Salish territory. DNFD is a coalition of groups and individuals
working against the gentrification based displacement of indigenous and
low-income folks from the DTES. Many indigenous people displaced from the
land end up in the DTES where they try to build a community to call home.

Rising Tide-Vancouver Coast Salish Territories is calling for a broad based
mobilization against pipelines. The family-friendly action will gather
Monday January 14 at 5pm at Victory Square (Hastings and Cambie), the
opening day of Vancouver hearings of the Joint Review Panel in Enbridge's
proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. It will demand climate and
environmental justice and challenge the corporate state consultation
process, which has nothing to do with genuine consent of indigenous and
affected communities. It will stand in full solidarity with indigenous and
other communities resisting Enbridge, Kinder Morgan, Pacific Trails and
other pipelines, and the Tar Sands.

On November 27 the Uniist'ot'en clan of the Wet'suwet'en evicted
trespassing surveyors for the Pacific Trails Pipeline from their land. This
first trail-blazing project is designed to carry fracked natural gas. We
draw strength and inspiration from indigenous defense of the land.

SFU's Goldcorp Centre For the Arts at Woodward’s exemplifies the hypocrisy
of fraudulent consultation processes with affected communities globally and
locally. Goldcorp, one of Canada’s and the world's biggest mining
corporations, displaces indigenous people in Guatemala and other countries
via land grabs, environmental destruction, and repression. It has attempted
to shift attention from its dismal human rights record in the Global South
by funding Arts and other projects in the DTES. But in reality its presence
promotes aggressive gentrification and begins another cycle of displacement
that will lead to skyrocketing rents and land values, and increased
homelessness and involuntarily displacement of DTES residents from their
own community. This includes many indigenous people, who experience the
highest rates of homelessness. Low-income residents have never consented to
condos and gentrification. Now some condo developments, such as at 955 East
Hastings, follow the Woodward’s model.

Sequel 138, designated for the Pantages site at 138 East Hastings, is such
a project, and is supported by three levels of government. Vancouver’s
Development Permit Board rubber-stamped the project despite very strong
community opposition. Recently, BC Housing bailed out Sequel 138 developer
Marc Williams with a low-interest loan. Despite a desperate need for 100%
social housing at the site, the proposed project contains only 18 units of
social housing as required by zoning, while 79 units for are for purchase
at rates that make home ownership “affordable” through the support of the
Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The sales brochure advertises
Sequel 138 as a “local arts and social housing project,” though local
community based artists have rejected Sequel 138. The Vision Vancouver
council is promoting gentrification in the name of “social mix.”

DNFD recently held a town hall on displacement showing connections between
destruction of the land and gentrification. On January 8 at Carnegie at
11am, we will hold another town hall which will talk in more detail about
the resistance to pipelines and its links to our struggle against
developers.

After the teach-in join our anti-displacement contingent at the action on
Monday January 14! We will meet at Carnegie at 4:30pm.

DTES Not for Developers Coalition
January 2, 2013
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