Communiqué - 13 mai

During the night of May 13th at 10pm, WeNous, a radical theatre troupe, and an audience of over 100 people, arrived and set up in an abandoned building on the CN territory. We decided to breathe new life into this space, and to maintain the usage that could have been, above and beyond that of recreational tourist centers, condos and other remnants of a system devoted to ever increasing capitalist expansion. The event came shortly after the community-led battle against the Casino, which was victorious in defeating it. We were inspired by this struggle and many others, and wanted to make the statement that community space should be used for the community good, even if that means reappropriating it.

We stand in solidarity with the people of Point-St.Charles and emphasize that popular movements reapropriating territory is not new, nor only a concept here. Throughout the history of Montreal’s social struggles, it has always been through direct action that desired changes have been made. These direct actions have made concrete improvements in peoples lives: the train blockades by the Irish heritage throughout the 19th century, the occupation of buildings by WWII veterans, the squats on St-Norbert St, Overdale in 1988 and 2001, and so on. Today’s Social struggles, mainly presented as unrealistic, utopian and impossible, actually stem from a long history. This is one of the reasons why WeNous decided to use Emma Goldman, the early 20th century anarchist, as a theatrical subject : to reappropriate history, which has been changed so that entire views are erased ; and to take back our own history; that of movements of resistance hidden, diverted and forgotten.

We wanted to confront the social means of expression that are considered traditional and recognized as the status-quo, which are based on the capitalist mode of property; to cease existing only in reaction to the system rather than creating real alternatives, to work out our ways of life and play and the way we provide for our fundamental needs. By performing Red Emma in a squat, we wanted to express the idea of a zone of autonomy, protected from the speculation, which makes possible to exist differently, out of the paradigm of consumption. Often, the physical space to experiment and create in such an ideal is unavailable without first participating in a commercial exchange to obtain such space. The reappropriation and use of this space, which is more a political action against property, is an act that gives us time to devote ourselves to our ideals, in our communities. This will coincide with a practice of culture of resistance where art cannot be an end product, in and of itself and separated from the world, but a means of living our ideas and a language to be used to create such ideas, accessible to all, with our multiple identities and our multiple skills. To isolate the culture, to put it under a sphere of glass to admire it, is to uproot and disassociate from it. Thus, we make a distinction between the capitalist culture and the culture of resistance. WeNous set out to empower the latter, so that it is not covered up and swallowed by the former. By applying our artistic work to reality in forms of local and international struggle, we create an exchange of ideas, and strengthen resistance by enriching its culture.

WeNous – May 16th 2006

**Don’t forge tour next two performances!

************Wednesday May 24 and Thursday May 25****************

7pm
Studio-théâtre Alfred-Laliberté
Pavillon Judith-Jasmin
405, rue Ste-Catherine E.
Room J-M400 (Métro level)
metro Berri-UQAM
Entry by donation (sliding scale 5-20$)
Presented as part of the Festival of Anarchy
Infos: http://anarchistbookfair.taktic.org

(to see photos from the premiere of Red Emma, visit : gallery.cmaq.net/red-emma)

Contact : red-...@riseup.net