Communiqué - Red Emma Performed in a Squat in Montreal

During the night of May 13th at 10pm, WeNous, a radical theatre troupe, and an audience of over 100 people, arrived and set up in an abandoned building on the CN territory. We decided to breathe new life into this space, and to maintain the usage that could have been, above and beyond that of recreational tourist centers, condos and other remnants of a system devoted to ever increasing capitalist expansion. The event came shortly after the community-led battle against the Casino, which was victorious in defeating it. We were inspired by this struggle and many others, and wanted to make the statement that community space should be used for the community good, even if that means reappropriating it.

We stand in solidarity with the people of Point-St.Charles and emphasize that popular movements reapropriating territory is not new, nor only a concept here. Throughout the history of Montreal’s social struggles, it has always been through direct action that desired changes have been made. These direct actions have made concrete improvements in peoples lives: the train blockades by the Irish heritage throughout the 19th century, the
occupation of buildings by WWII veterans, the squats on St-Norbert St, Overdale in 1988 and 2001, and so on. Today’s Social struggles, mainly presented as unrealistic, utopian and impossible, actually stem from a long history. This is one of the reasons why WeNous decided to use Emma Goldman, the early 20th century anarchist, as a theatrical subject : to
reappropriate history, which has been changed so that entire views are erased ; and to take back our own history; that of movements of resistance hidden, diverted and forgotten.
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