In Chicoutimi, the wave of consternation among the merchants of rue Racine caused
by the murder of a homeless person (Éric Gaudreault) who slept on a public benchlast October was very short-lived. The poor remain undesirables in the gentrifiedpublic space. This week, the wave of complaints from downtown merchants prompteda police intervention to drive out a squat established since January in a heatedstairwell of the Racine Street bus station. About fifteen people lived in thissquat and about thirty frequented it according to the press.City councilor Mireille Jean and the Saguenay police welcome this intervention asif it would bring "security" and "friendliness" back to the area. Listening tothem, one would almost believe that it was for the good of homeless people thatthe police chased them out of their squat. Maybe in fact this squat made thecity's contempt for the poor a little too visible for their taste...For years, the scarcity of affordable housing in downtown Chicoutimi has beendenounced and nothing has changed. We have seen what tolerance the city hastowards the most crooked owners of rooming houses (slum version). Through theirnegligence, people have even died. We remember, for example, Michael Labbé. Theproblem is systemic. Private property and the profits of traders and buildingowners take precedence over the right to a standard of living sufficient toensure the well-being and health of people.To think that it is enough to "place" homeless people in specialized homes is todemonstrate willful ignorance as to the various roots of this situation, startingwith the affordable housing crisis and a situation of unfavorable socioeconomicfactors. Let's face it, rather than offering a decent standard of living toeveryone, our system of capitalist inequalities stigmatizes the poor and seeks toattribute responsibility for their socio-economic situation to them. Under theseconditions, the so-called "fight against homelessness" by elected officials andthe police only serves to reassure the bourgeois.The conditions of the squat in the stairwell of the bus station were certainlynot ideal, but they nevertheless met the needs of many of its inhabitants betterthan many services or rooming houses. The squat was also close to the soupkitchen and downtown community groups. This is significant at a time when moreand more less affluent people have to seek housing in other neighborhoods (withfewer community groups) due to the scarcity of affordable housing. Rather thanthe police and their supposed "benevolence" chasing them away (kudos to the mediafor this imbecile image!), the squatters need the solidarity of a neighborhoodwhere people come before dollar bills. This doesSolidarity with squatters and squatters!Pete Kropoby Collectif Emma Goldmanhttp://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2022/03/eviction-des-squatteurs-et-squatteuses.html_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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