COVID AWARE ORGANIZING

If we're going to build accessible, safe spaces to organize, that needs to include ways to reduce COVID transmissions amongst our comrades. Shira Lurie, a COVID aware activist with Protect our Province Nova Scotia (POPNS) and Mask for Mask Queers, joins host Jessa McLean to give easy, affordable precautions we can incorporate into our organizing and event planning.

Filling in the gaps where our governments have failed to protect us isn't new to progressives. Neither is having to buck popular trends, or create new ones. So why the resistance to masking and other initiatives around air quality? We unpack that and how we can start to bring more people along, even after five years.

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Resources:

• COVID Conscious Under Capitalism - Blueprints of Disruption
• Rabble Rants: Mask Bans (podcast episode)
• Need a Mask? Can you Donate a Mask? DonateMask.ca
• How to build your own Corsi-Rosenthal Box - Corsi-Rosenthal Foundation
• Guest: Shira Lurie

Canada recently adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which is nothing but unmasked anti-Palestinian racism that looks to criminalize criticisms of Israeli State. The Ontario Progressive Conservatives are going to pay organizations like CIJA $550 million to teach that definition in schools. Our hosts remind us all of this is coming at a time where the Canadian state is spending unprecedented resources on weaponizing the legal system against activists. The repercussions are already being felt.

Within days of the adoption of the IHRA, the Crown dropped charges against a woman, not because she didn't commit the violence she was accused of, but because it was justified by the mere mention of a Free Palestine.

Why is Canada so invested in defending Israel's occupation and genocide of Palestinians? People may not like the answer....

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All of our content is free - made possible by the generous sponsorships of our Patrons. If you would like to support us: Patreon

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Resources:

• CBC: Hijab Assault Charges Withdrawn
• CBC: Ontario expands Holocaust education in schools to combat rise in antisemitism
• Harsha Walia: Colonialism, racism and the IHRA | The Monitor

We will remember this 5th of November. A bonus Rabble Rants for the Blueprints of Disruption audience in response to the 2024 U.S. Presidential election.

While some blame voters and activists, our hosts examine how the DNC is to blame and what the results mean for the movements we feature on the show.

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Be sure to catch more RABBLE RANTS on its dedicated feed.

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This installment of the TENANT POWER series features three members of the Ottawa Neighbourhood Organizing Centre (NOC) and their work supporting tenants in their fight against landlords, and of course, capitalism.

The work of the NOC began in the most organic way. By going into their community and talking to as many people as possible. Listening to their neighbours and finding common ground. Overwhelmingly, people needed and most importantly, wanted to fight, as tenants.

Hear how they continue to learn from one another and build power where they are. Quite literally going door by door, building by building and block by block to Activate the Tenant Class.

Guests: Seema Shafei, Shivangi Misra, Ethan Mitchell

CALLS TO ACTION:

• If you are a tenant organization, please reach out to NOC through their Instagram, or email us at bpofdisruption@gmail.com
• Donations can be made to the Bank Block Tenants here

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All of our content is free - made possible by the generous sponsorships of our Patrons. If you would like to support us: Patreon

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Resources:

• “A So-called Tenants’ Union”: Defining the Organizational Power of Tenants within and outside the Law
• Follow NOC on Instagram

The wealthy bought up the neighbourhood like their own personal game of Monopoly. Now they want to tear down some of the only affordable units in Ottawa - places where some of called home for 40 years.

Demovictions, like renovictions are eating away at the bottom of the housing market, targeting low cost rentals and turning them into places most people can not afford. Even with new renoviction bylaws in place, there is seemingly no help coming from City Hall for the tenants on Bank Street.

We interview Ben Emond from Bank Street Tenants and ask about their beginnings; how they came together after all receiving N13s (eviction notices). We hear about the resistance they've faced from their landlord, the rubberstamping approvals process at City Hall and the tactics the these tenants are using to push back against it all.

All of our content is free - made possible by the generous sponsorships of our Patrons. If you would like to support us: Patreon

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Resources:

• Bank Street Tenants Confront Smart Living Properties to say No to Mass Eviction - The Leveller
• Learn More – Bank Block Tenants

Support Systems Amid State Suppression with Dalia Awwad and Rachelle Friesen, both members of the Toronto Legal Support Committee.

Toronto Police have escalated their harassment and surveillance of Palestinian solidarity activists across the City, with arrests nearing 100. Our guests provide firsthand accounts of the oppressive tactics being used and the impact they are having on individuals and the larger movement. But not to worry...

Just as the tactics used by Police, the Crown, the media and politicians have been multi-faceted, so has been the response of these activists. Rather than go underground, stay quiet and 'out of trouble', they have risen up and created a community around the arrestees that goes way beyond legal support.

CALL TO ACTION

Donate to the Toronto Community Justice Fund

All of our content is free - made possible by the generous sponsorships of our Patrons. If you would like to support us: Patreon

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Resources:

• Unlawful Assembly While Masked - Blueprints of Disruption | Podfollow
• Blockades and Bail Conditions - Blueprints of Disruption | Podfollow
• Donate to the Toronto Community Justice Fund

Journalist and human rights lawyer, Dimitri Lascaris on Lebanon, the resistance and bringing down an apartheid state.

After returning from his fourth trip to Beirut in the past year, Lascaris describes the changes he's seen in Lebanon, laments on the depravity of our politicians and the need to reassert the right to armed resistance for the Palestinian people.

All of our content is free - made possible by the generous sponsorships of our Patrons. If you would like to support us: Patreon

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Resources:

• Disrupting Politics with Dimitri Lascaris - Blueprints of Disruption
• Lebanon Palestine and Resisting Colonialism - Blueprints of Disruption

Unverified: The Grind Uncovers New Lows in Canadian Media

Journalist Dave Gray-Donald from the GrindTO spent months analyzing Canadian media reports and attempting to hold his follow journalists accountable for repeatedly printing unverified claims about October 7th, 2023. His piece, Global News and Postmedia Refuse to Correct Oct. 7 Falsehoods exposes some of the most horrific failures of our legacy media - but its not getting the exposure it needs...

...so we also discuss how to combat the impacts of shoddy, even malicious reporting by supporting independent media and good reporting when we see it.

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All of our content is free - made possible by the generous sponsorships of our Patrons. If you would like to support us: Patreon

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Resources:

• Global News and Postmedia Refuse to Correct Oct. 7 Falsehoods - The Grind Magazine