On this week’s episode of Talking Radical Radio, I speak with Émilie Joly. She is a community orgnizer with FRAPRU, or Le Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain, and she talks with me about their long history of research, writing, and street-level mobilization around issues of concern to low-income tenants.
FRAPRU began more than three and a half decades ago with a focus largely on research related to housing and tenant issues, but soon developed into a network that brings together tenants associations and housing committees from across Quebec. It still does plenty of research, but as one component of the overall work through which the advocacy and political mobilization of its member organizations are supported, coordinated, and augmented. Following the direction of its member organizations as formulated at an annual congress and four general assemblies each year, FRAPRU’s political mobilizations take many forms. Of course it meets with and lobbies politicians and bureaucrats, but it does much more. This past spring, for instance, they staged a multi-day tent-city occupation of various public spaces in Montreal to exert pressure on the provincial and federal governments to prioritize investment in social housing. During the recent federal election campaign, they occupied various campaign offices — including those of Justin Trudeau and Tom Mulcair — to get the parties to take up housing issues in a more serious way. And they and their member organizations participated in Quebec’s recent social strike, in which more than 1,300 community organizations across Quebec shut their doors on November 2 and 3 in protest against the provincial government’s austerity agenda.
Joly talks with me about housing and tenant issues in Quebec; about the past and present of FRAPRU; and about the fights against austerity and for adequate, affordable housing for all.
To learn more about FRAPRU’s work, click here.
Talking Radical Radio brings you grassroots voices from across Canada. We give you the chance to hear many different people that are facing many different struggles talk about what they do, why they do it, and how they do it, in the belief that such listening is a crucial step in strengthening all of our efforts to change the world. To learn more about the show in general, visit its website here. You can learn about suggesting topics for future shows here.
Talking Radical Radio is brought to you by Scott Neigh, a writer, media producer, and activist based in Hamilton (formerly Sudbury), Ontario, and the author of two books examining Canadian history through the stories of activists.
