Gentrification

Anarchists hate cameras. We love games. That’s why some friends in the Sud-West took up the call to play CAMOVER . Masked up in black (obvi), we bagged a bunch of nosey CCTVs and painted over many others. No Face No Case! Shouts out to hommies in Hochelaga throwing down. Keep the good work up and the snitch cameras down. From one participant: CamOVER!? No Question. We hit the street four deep, two on the lookout, real casual, walkies and cigarettes, and got to bagging. Rope lines snaking through the air, cracks off streetlights as cams tumble down, we caught a side-eye from a citizen passerby and got back at it, like, FUCK YOU&YOUR CAMERAS. We dipped when the cops rolled up, stashed the cams alley-side, and swooped em up the next day.” ...

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In 2016, numerous attacks were launched at diverse symbols of gentrification in the Montreal neighborhoods of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Saint-Henri. We wanted to give space to the people involved so that they can explain a point of view, that corporate media consistently ignore or misrepresent. subMedia has obtained an exclusive interview with two anarchists involved in the actions. ...

11 x 17″ | PDF

Over the last few months, friends have been playing Camover in the neighbourhood of Hochelaga. We’ve destroyed around twenty security cameras. For your pleasure (and certainly for our own as well!), here’s a photo in which we see a friend sporting a necklace of optical trophies. In response to the recent smashings of gentrifiers in the neighbourhood, and in the context of twenty-two businesses being vandalized in the last year, the city and the police have publicly announced a renewed collaboration. They’re desperately trying to reassert control, faced with people who “aren’t afraid of the police”, and their initiative to install more cameras shows it. Of course, the police know that it’s impossible to be everywhere all of the time. There will always be loopholes that allow those who are creative and well-prepared to attack. That’s where cameras come in: to make us feel powerless and watched. But our masks will continue to give us power against any camera. No face, no case. And so, to keep up morale, we’ve decided to see this increase in the presence of cameras in the neighbourhood as an occasion for more CamOver and increased sabotage of the mechanisms of control that the authorities put in place. ...

On Monday October 31, about 75 people assembled in Hochelag’ with costumes and candy for a Halloween demonstration against gentrification. In a carnivalesque mood, the small crowd took the streets and put up graffiti on the walls of the neighbourhood. In the wake of the demo’s path, one could read: “fuck homa”, “genre = cauchemar” (gender = nightmare), “tout le monde déteste la police” (everyone hates the police), “junkies contre la gentrification” (junkies against gentrification), etc. This gave a bit of colour and life to Hochelag’, a neighbourhood which is undergoing sterilization so that, slowly but surely, all that can thrive are condos, yuppie grocery stores and high-end clothing stores. ...

About a year ago, the good citizens of the neighborhood were indignant about an attack against Electric Kids, whose front window was sprayed with purple paint which we can still see traces of today. Tonight, we decided to attack other businesses on rue Sainte-Catherine – three furniture design boutiques, a real estate office, and a yuppie hair salon. If this is the strategy we use, it’s not just to make those who support and participate in the gentrification of Hochelaga talk about it. We want to do more than just raise our voices, to be more than indignant when faced with this movement that slowly chases us from the neighborhood. Rather than being satisfied with just smashing their windows, we decided to spray the interior of the design businesses with paint to ruin their merchandise. It’s a matter of directly effecting these owners, and not just the facades that protect them. ...

On Halloween night a crew of 100 peeps in costumes marched on the neighborhood of Hochelaga in Montreal, and handed candy to kids and neighbors. They also spray painted condominiums and businesses they say are contributing to gentrification. They also smashed luxury cars and when a cop cruiser tried to run them over they responded with a volley of rocks, and like ghosts disappeared into the night.

Last Tuesday, August 16, a widespread power failure plunged Hochelaga into darkness. No more light in the streets, no more functioning cameras… When we realized what was happening, we quickly exchanged knowing looks and smiled under the glow of candles. We gathered our rain jackets and several tools, then left to play in the night. The torrential rain had disrupted the stifling machine of the city and its system of surveillance. The storm offered us a respite, a moment of chaos to not be missed. Completely drenched, with joyous hearts, we strolled in the streets, improvising our targets with excitement. We took several precautions: planning an exit route for each location, and having lookouts. Darkness was our accomplice. We hurried to play until electricity returned, then headed to our homes without any problems. ...

Today is July 1st, the day when the founding of the state of Canada is celebrated. We have chosen this day to announce that over the past months we have stolen and freely redistributed a number of quality objects and food obtained from bourgeois stores to marginalized individuals and families from oppressed communities in Montreal, occupied Kanien’kehá:ka territory. This text is to explain why we have done this, to express solidarity with related actions, and to encourage others to continue taking similar initiatives. ...