Lessons from #Occupy in Canada: Contesting Space, Settler Consciousness and Erasures within the 99%

Under a slogan of ‘We are the 99%’, the #occupy movement has won praise for its bold reclamations of public space and for re-centring class analysis in North America. Despite this, however, important critiques of the movement’s elisions and erasures have also beenraised. This article examines how th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Konstantin Kilibarda
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Edinburgh 2012-03-01
Series:Journal of Critical Globalisation Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.criticalglobalisation.com/issue5/24_41_OCCUPY_IN_CANADA_JCGS5.pdf
Description
Summary:Under a slogan of ‘We are the 99%’, the #occupy movement has won praise for its bold reclamations of public space and for re-centring class analysis in North America. Despite this, however, important critiques of the movement’s elisions and erasures have also beenraised. This article examines how three #occupy encampments in Canada have engaged with these calls to #decolonise the movement and to address divisions within the 99%. These critiques question #occupy’s ability to fix a ‘broken social contract’, ‘reclaim Canada’, or ‘take back our democracy’ without addressing the underlying racial contracts foundational to North American settler-states. Practical experiences with raising postcolonial critiques are examined through in-depth interviews with organisers at #occupy encampments in Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver.
ISSN:2040-8498