Community Discussion and Fundraising Dinner for Cedar Hopperton
May 11th, 2018 from 5:30-8:30pm
Kingston Unitarian Fellowship Hall (206 Concession St.)
Come enjoy a delicious and healthy dinner while listening to members of our community share stories and wisdom from their experiences of political repression within grassroots social movements.
A few weeks ago, our friend and comrade Cedar was arrested during a house raid in Hamilton. After police kicked in the door and threw a flash grenade into the living room, a SWAT team trashed the house with assault rifles drawn. The people in the house were targeted for organizing publicly as anarchists and being involved with The Tower, an anarchist social centre in Hamilton. Cedar has been charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offense – the state is trying to prove that they helped organize a demonstration in one of Hamilton’s wealthiest neighbourhoods where masks were worn and property was damaged. A more detailed overview of recent events in Hamilton can be found at https://hamiltonanarchistsupport.noblogs.org
Increased repression of social movements concerns all of us who care about resisting the rise of authoritarianism and building better worlds. Because the government and police are oppressive institutions, we can expect that our resistance will inevitably bring repression.But how much that repression succeeds at disrupting our lives and movements depends on how we deal with it! Here in Kingston, we’d like to take this moment to come together to build connections and solidarity and hear from one another. Folks will share stories about political repression and about how they and their communities have supported one another and continued to build strong movements in spite of it. We are lucky to have many committed and strong organizers here who have a lot of experience and wisdom to share with us.
We’ll be collecting donations for the Hamilton Community Defence Fund for legal expenses for Cedar. No one will be turned away for lack of funds – if this event sounds at all interesting to you but providing a donation is currently not within your reach, please come anyway! And if you’d like to donate online: https://fundraising.the-tower.ca
The Unitarian Hall is wheelchair accessible, and dinner will have both vegan and gluten-free options. You’re also welcome to bring your kids! If you have other food-related requests or any other questions, please get in touch with us at epic [at] riseup.net
Hope to see you there!