May Day! The fightback against ABC has begun

Renewed mobilization of workers and renters in the face of a right-wing civic government

PHOTO: Y Hanson Photography

Municipal news round-up 

May Day rally condemns ABC rollback of Vancouver’s living wage policy 

Labour leaders, grassroots activists, and elected politicians gathered for a May Day rally on Monday outside City Hall in Helena Gutteridge Plaza. The protest, organized by the Vancouver and District Labour Council, drew several hundred people and focused on condemning the ABC City Council’s recent decision to scrap the City’s Living Wage policy. 

Speakers included city councillor Pete Fry, Adriane Carr, and Christine Boyle, representatives of many labour unions including PSAC, which has just been through strike action, as well as the Vancouver Tenants Union. It was a modest rally, but hopefully a sign of renewed mobilization of workers and renters in the face of a right-wing civic government. 

ABC’s decision to no longer commit to the living wage shows who they value
Commentary by Sean Orr.

Displacing the arts in Vancouver: Minor tweaks won’t solve crisis  

On April 18, 2023, the CBC published a story on artists in Vancouver who are struggling to find spaces to create art, amid the crisis of rising rent in the city. A 2019 report from the Eastside Arts Society estimated more than 400,000 square feet of artist production space was lost between 2009-2019, with an estimated 50,000-60,000 additional square feet lost since 2019. The cause? Redevelopment of commercial and industrial lands, resulting in a loss of the warehouse spaces that artists rely upon for studios. 

The City has tools to protect existing art spaces and to create new ones. Vancouver already has rezoning- and density-related incentives that allow developers to increase allowable floor space in buildings in exchange for contributions towards community amenities such as parks or arts space. City policy is to target specific neighbourhoods to increase density and improve access to amenities. Council revisits these targets regularly, including most recently at the April 11 meeting.

In 2019, Council unanimously approved Culture|Shift: Blanketing the City in Arts and Culture a “10-year transformational cultural plan that encapsulates the aspirations of thousands of people who lent their expertise to co-create an inclusive, ambitious vision for Vancouver’s cultural fabric.” Council recently received a progress report on this initiative.

As part of the Culture|Shift initiative, the City also approved the Making Space for Arts and Culture report in 2019. This report recognized the ongoing difficulties artists in Vancouver face when seeking affordable spaces to create art. A motion approved by Council on April 11, 2023, recognized the report’s finding that “one of the most critical challenges facing arts and culture is the availability of affordable spaces and displacement of existing spaces due to accelerated development, rapidly rising industrial and commercial land values, and competition with higher land uses.” Thus, the City itself agrees with the concerns reported by local artists in the CBC. The motion itself seeks to address these concerns by considering whether the City could increase the frequency of events allowed in non-traditional arts venues.

How this minor tweak might solve the problem of affordable arts spaces is anyone’s guess. The lack of arts space in Vancouver is a problem inextricably linked to the housing crisis. As there, the only viable solution is direct investment in publicly-owned affordable spaces. Anything less is simply a subsidy for already-rich property owners.

Photo: Y Hanson Photography

Vancouver's newest electoral party celebrates its one year anniversary 

Organizers and members of VOTE Socialist were together again this past Sunday at the annual Social Justice Info Fair in Grandview Park. This gathering marked the one-year anniversary of the electoral organization, which was launched at a rally prior to the 2022 May Day Social Justice Fair in Grandview Park. This year, members and supporters marched in the Workers March down Commercial Drive, served up cake to 80 people, and talked about the future of socialism in Vancouver. 

Upcoming Events

Mayworks Festival of Working People & The Arts BC - Celebrating diverse artists and working people at the intersection of art, social justice, and labour. The Mayworks Festival of Working People & the Arts celebrates diverse artists and working people at the intersection of art, social justice, and labour. Mayworks festivals take place in communities around the world.  The festival brings together artists and workers from a diverse range of organizations in the visual & media arts, community arts, cooperatives, and labour movement to celebrate the rich history of working people in British Columbia.  View Calendar of Events Here →

Cooperative Ownership and Creative Cooperatives - Join the Union Cooperative Initiative for a special edition episode on ‘Imagining Cooperative Futures’, where we talk to creative cooperative members and organizers on the roles that co-ops can play in transforming our communities towards equitable futures. Hosted by Jonny Sopotiuk (Union Cooperative Initiative), the panel will discuss how building cooperative based economies with a focus on the creative sectors can address current economic disparities, while building worker power, towards just futures. This episode will be live streamed at 1pm PST on May 5th, 2023 and is FREE. 

OPEN HOUSE: Chinatown Labour Histories with David Ng and the Union Cooperative Initiative a series of short tours of the cultural history of the Lim Sai Hor Kow Mock Association building, a brief history of the neighbourhood, as well as some of the initiatives that the Union Cooperative Iniatives community projects working group has been cultivating to build relationships in the community. David will also share the inspiration behind our newly unveiled “Chinatown Labour Histories” window display, and why we wanted to illuminate stories of social movement organizing that historically existed in the community - and that continues today.  Tour duration will be approximately 30 minutes. Participants are welcome to ask questions and connect with UCI members that will be present that day.

Sun, May 7, 2023 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM PDT  525 Carrall Street.

Union Underground: Mayworks Closing Party Join us for the closing party of Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts British Columbia on Saturday, May 13, 2023, 7:00 PM - 11:30 PM. The People's Pub Speakeasy (Ticket and password required for entry) Location TBA. Tickets on Eventbrite here. 

Poem of the Week

Like You
Roque Dalton - 1935-1975
translated by Jack Hirschman

Like you I
love love, life, the sweet smell
of things, the sky-blue
landscape of January days.
And my blood boils up
and I laugh through eyes
that have known the buds of tears.
I believe the world is beautiful
and that poetry, like bread, is for everyone.
And that my veins don’t end in me
but in the unanimous blood
of those who struggle for life,
love,
little things,
landscape and bread,
the poetry of everyone.