Red Tent 2010 at the Vancouver Olympics - For a National Housing Strategy
RED TENT NEEDS YOU THIS SATURDAY AT NOON FOR OUR RECORD-BREAKING 2010 OLYMPIC ACTION
The Olympic Wrap-up!
We are finished with homelessness, tired of knowing that thousands of people across Canada are forced to sleep on the streets. Solving homelessness is not rocket science - it means providing houses and supports for people who need them, through a funded National Housing Strategy.
We call on the organizing community in Vancouver to join us in sending a message to the Harper Government that cannot be ignored!
On Saturday, February 27 we will descend on the Canada Pavilion equipped with 142 red tarps and 1700 feet of messaging calling for an end to homelessness in this country.
We will be peaceful, we will be loud, we will be creative, and we will be relentless. We will wrap the entire pavilion...
The games are almost over: Lets show the global media that this is only the beginning!
Join us!
Where: Meet at Keefer Place, next to the T & T Market (Keefer and Abbott), and then on to the Canada Pavilion at Dunsmuir and Beatty
When: Noon on Saturday, February 27th
What: A paint brush, and sleeping gear if you want to stay overnight. And instruments, always...
Who: You, and us, and all our friends!
See you Saturday!
Or sooner, if you’d like to get more involved:
Wrap Party Work Party: Thursday February 25, noon till evening at Pivot (678 East Hastings). Come see what we're up to and lend a hand
Wrap Party Prep Party: Saturday February 27, 10am at Pivot. Come help us get everything ready and transported!
bump!
Sportsmanship: The Great Olympic Fraud
http://www.progressive.org/zirin022510.html
"The range of ugliness from the catty to the racist to the fatal - is significant because it exposes the reality of what the Winter Olympics are all about. The International Olympic Committee - that sewing circle of monarchists, extortionists and absolved fascists - likes to hide behind the pretense of nobility...But in the hands of the IOC, it's all a gigantic fraud.."
Bump--tomorrow! Bring a paint brush!
How'd it go?
It went pretty well. The tarps looked great and we got a lot of great feedback, even from Olympic fans. My only complaint was that as a police escorted protest, we were only permitted to block the entrance to the Canada Pavilion for 60 seconds--even though there was about a 45 min wait on the other side of the pavilion wall. Plus, we had to take the whole thing down after about 4 hours--even HBC-decked passerbys were incredulous: "You have to take it down already?"
But it was fun and effective in a lot if different ways. Pivot and the organizers shouold be very proud. Photos to come!
Xinhua news: http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3903381
CTV : http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100227/bc_housing_homelessness_red_tent_campaign_100227/20100227?hub=BritishColumbia
Georgia Straight: http://www.straight.com/article-295141/vancouver/housing-activists-surround-vancouver-olympic-celebration-site-message-stephen-harper
And more photos from stephen hui:http://www.straight.com/article-295188/vancouver/photos-vancouver-activists-encircle-canadas-olympic-pavilion-call-action-homelessness
North West Corner going up.