The First Feminist General Assembly, which took place in Washington Square Park in New York City the evening of Thursday, May 17, could mark a historical turning point. Emerging out of the Occupy Movement, the event brought together a cross-section of the hundreds of thousands of women already mobilized from a broad progressive spectrum.
Sitting in the living room of a friend's Mile End apartment just shy of 8:00pm of Thursday, I am called into the street by the deafening sound of clanging pots and pans.
On the residential street lined with Montreal's classic triplex townhouses, people of all ages are gathering with their cookware. Children clang at the doorstep of their friends calling to them to come out.
The now nightly "casseroles" are the latest form of popular outrage to premier Jean Charest's new special law that curbs freedom of assembly and association rights, in a bid to break three months of social unrest.
As attention turns toward the mass student strike on the streets of Montreal, ongoing for three months, the Quebec student movement clearly exemplifies the power that activism holds to shape our collective imagination.
The student protests distant from the halls of political power in Quebec City, are largely setting the terms of political debate on moves by the Quebec government to significantly hike post-secondary tuition fees.
Livestreaming has helped the Occupy movement showcase speakers, protests, general assemblies and workshops without the mainstream media. Now almost every Occupy's media centre has a computer set up to stream the action.
