Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
From Infoshop OpenWiki
The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is a group of anti-poverty activists in Ontario that uses direct action to fight for the rights of the poor and homeless. Whereas more "liberal" anti-poverty groups use charity and advocate reform while speaking patronizingly of the poor, the OCAP works with and for the poor for basic and immediate needs.
The group was founded in 1989 by John Clarke a British ex-pat and unemployed auto-worker. The group was created to battle the growing problem of poverty, homelessness, and gentrification in downtown Toronto. It rose to much greater prominence as one of the leading voices of opposition to the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris, which culminated in a June 2000 riot in which Clark and others were arrested. The group is still headquartered in Toronto, and that remains the centre of most of their activities, but they have engaged in actions in most major Ontario centres.
The movement is composed primarily of activists, social workers, and the poor. It is funded through private donations and support from labour unions, with a third of their operating funds coming the Canadian Auto Workers.
Its direct action tactics have been very controversial, and the leading members have been arrested a number of times. The organization has blockaded major streets, broken into abandoned buildings to apply pressure to have them be turned into housing, and crashed political events and meetings. A small controversy was created when a group of OCAP activists walked into Ontario Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's office and staged a mock eviction, moving his furniture out onto the curb.
The group has battled many organizations, keeping a close eye on the behaviour of the police and making enemies of all major political parties. The group is especially confrontational towards neighbourhood associations that tend to work to close homeless shelters and evict the poor from neighbourhoods.
The tactics have earned the group much publicity, notice from politicians, and have had real results in increasing the supply of affordable housing. The group is known world wide, and it is frequently held up as a success story by anti-poverty activists, anarchists, and many others involved in other or similar resistance movements.
