I for one am energized by this, especially become I'm away from home in Montreal (with Tami). Makes we want to get back to the hood ASAP, so I can walk the streets with our shit in effect. 

I think the timing of this is perfect. It's time we play the theater of the absurd card and pretend that there is enough space in Vancouver to keep people from dying in the streets, living in black mold conditions as though we need to replace mining and black lung in the poor classes because there isn't enough hard labour anymore (all been mechanized to save the capitalists fuck faces money and not have to deal with actual peasants). 

Great stuff. Thank you soo much,

g.

No, I don't think a certain amount of shaming will change much for the better. At the end of the day developers and politicians most often change their minds to either appease someone who occupies a similar class in society as themselves or to hold-on to their power. Such as building social housing here and there to get us off their back. Not to say that a certain politician or developer isn't better than another but often I find the difference is more like choosing between different flavours of ice cream. I feel we need much deeper change. Not just putting bandaids on these gapping wounds in our society. And on top of that we can't expect the people who most often benefit from these problems to make them better.

I think much more potential for success lies in trying to solve these problems directly with our friends and neighbours instead of continually demanding that our self-identified leaders fix them for us. The Olympic Tent Village was an inspiring start at this. It would be wonderful to create more projects like this that communicate our feelings and ideas with society (as the pantages banner does) while addressing directly and autonomously our needs.

No I'm referring to the statement in the text of the original post, the press release that accompanies the photos.

The Ivan writer in this series is personally committed to Civil Resistance to defy the wishes of the SIX major forces arrayed agains us: 1. council and city staff, 2. developers, 3. the provincial government, 4. property owners, the Strathcona residents association and both business associations serving the area (Hastings Cross and Strathcona) 5. the corporate media and 6. by far the biggest and most fiercesome - the majority of Vancouver and BC residents who in their ignorance and apathy are either overtly opposed to the very existence of the DTES or who really couldn't care less.

Faced with such a goliath-list of opponents, sparing the DTES from terminal gentrification is almost impossible. There is at most a 10 percent chance I reckon, and that chance is not served by a continuation of exactly the same kind of political and social opposition that has got us almost nowhere over the past 20 years.

Do not mistake creation of Vandu, Insite, the shelters, free food services and other good things about the DTES with defeat of the opposition - this is different.

Banners on Pantages, petition drives, media conferences, rallies, sloganeering, speaking at council meetings and creation of blogs and endless debate amongst us amount in the end to little more than a fight over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. What has it achieved, especially since neolibs came into open ascendance with the election of Campbell almost ONE DECADE AGO? Almost nothing.

Council does not care what we say - we are outnumbered, and the playing field is far from even thanks to a corporate media that queers the pitch against us. When are you going to tire of betting against the house? When are you going to tire of deference to self-imposed authority? When are you going to tire of playing into the hands of corporate media openly hostile to us? Why are you addicted to the same old bullshit?

Only massive, sustained Civil Resistance offers at least a reasonable prospect of getting our way. Non-Violent Confrontation, real Direct Action - not more hot air and shadow boxing - will get enough attention and send a message that it is game on for real.

Ivan says he has no faith in electoral politics and believes in Civil Resistance, but does not want to assume that for the rank and file in the 'hood. Fair enough, he is a truly honorable man (I mean that, no Shakespearian irony here) and I agree with him. So then why not ask the proles what they want, instead of assuming they are not prepared to get hot and heavy? We are not asking people to consider property damage or personal violence - only no longer cooperating with an abusive system.

When you go to the Height Review this Thursday you are strengthening Robberson's hand - you are endorsing their system. That is dysfunctional. Inviting any organs with the PostMedia Network Incorporated group (Sun, Prov, Courier et al) to the media conference outside the Pantages is endorsing their system. That is blatantly against your own interests - the Sun will turn around and fuck you time and time again and yet you continue to dance in the dark. WHY? 

I challenge you to ask your members and the wider community, as the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council at most only represents 10 to 20 percent, if they are prepared to step this up and get in the face of the man - even if only glowering at him eyeball to eyeball.

What might Civil Resistance look like? Well, the System causes physical and mental pain to us - homelessness, hunger, poverty, destroying community, so why not cause physical and mental pain for its devotees? An eye for an eye sort of thang. A transit fare boycott disrupts the buses system-wide and will drive people wild. Good - it should, why should their lives run smoothly when ours do not?

Taking it further and blocking all traffic in the heart of the machine, downtown, will really fuck with their heads. No property is damaged and the only ones physically hurt will be us, as the cops arrest us and beat the shit out of us, you know, the usual.

The way to hurt council, city hall and victoria is to deny them money - no taxes or fees of any kind. They can't put hundreds of us in jail.

Now, every time I discuss this with any Vancouverite all I get is why it will not work. It worked for Rosa Parks, it worked for Mandela and the ANC and it will work for us. Stop with the knee-jerk reaction how it will not work and we have no mandate and and and ...

Find out if there is a mandate, ask the people for christ's sake, you have the reach DNC and CCAP and VanAct and Vandu and ....

After all, your way is not working is it? When will you concede defeat - when the Pantages is developed? When the First United has to move or disallow its residents to smoke outside cos they are disturbing the hood? How much displacement is too much before you say enough and take a real stand, instead of shadow boxing?

Let's make it real.