Building Movements of Resistance: Lessons from the G8/G20 Organizing

Friday, December 3
7:30pm - 9:30pm

Grace Westminster United Church
505 10th Street East
Saskatoon, SK

2010 SASKATOON ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Building Movements of Resistance: Lessons from the G8/G20 Organizing and the Repression of Dissent.

In this talk, Toronto-based community organizer and independent media activist Sharmeen Khan will speak about her experiences and insights into the resistance to the G8/G20 summits which took place in Toronto in June of 2010.
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The summits are now infamous for the massive scale of the security operation which cost Canadian taxpayers nearly $1 billion as well as the size and violence of the police crackdown on dissent. By the end of the weekend, nearly 1100 arrests had been made (the largest mass arrests in Canadian history) and stories began to emerge of widespread abuse of arrestees and the trampling of civil liberties.

In the talk, Sharmeen will cover a range of topics related to the G8/G20 protests including:

- the broad-based organizing efforts that took place in the lead-up to the summits (which built links between diverse communities and strove to empower people living in marginalized communities to speak with their own voices about the issues facing them in their day-to-day lives),

- the police repression targeting key community organizers and the sweeping arrests which saw thousands of police round up protesters, bystanders, journalists and legal observers alike,

- the ongoing legal support of the 100 or so people still facing charges,

- and the overall impact that the event and its aftermath have had on organizing efforts for grassroots social change.

Please join us to listen and discuss this timely and important issue in the struggle to build a more just and sustainable world.

Sharmeen Khan was a media spokesperson for the Toronto Community Mobilization Network, the main network organizing the resistance against the G20. She now works at the Ontario Public Interest Research Group at York University.

Event page on facebook.