An interview with the Afro-Indigenous Rising Collective, a police abolition coalition, who are occupying Nathan Phillips Square
Written by: Aidan Jonah
The Afro-Indigenous Rising Coalition has been occupying Nathan Phillips Square for more than a week. They are pushing for police abolition. using a non-hierarchical power structure to ensure the continous growth of the movement. I was fortunate enough to sit down with one of the main organizers, who asked to stay anonymous to protect their safety.
The Canada Files spoke with an AIR Collective organizer on June 26.
Aidan: Thanks for speaking with me. So I guess this is a big question, but I think has to be asked. So what action is being taken at this moment, and why are you doing this?
AIR Collective Organizer: So we're having an occupation and Nathan Phillips Square. This is mostly for abolishing the police. We actually have a 10 point list of demands.
But this it generally arose out of the protests from the Justice for Regis protests that happened on May 31. It was a couple of people who just felt really, really emboldened to actually keep this going. We seriously considered occupying Nathan Phillips Square that day. And we said, You know what? There's black and indigenous people, they are targets of police violence disproportionately compared to other groups. We have never come together like this before in Canada. So why don't we form an organization where we can actually do something.
There's been a lot of interest when especially the elders, and the Indigenous community, and a lot of Black people actually really like it. There's been some growing pains. But so far, we've been having a pretty good go at it. Like we've been raising a decent amount of money on me and personal donations and stuff like that. And we tend to also have actions while we continually stay here.
Aidan: Are there any past actions in particular, that inspired you to do this?
AIR Collective Organizer: There's been a lot of autonomous zones set up. I think during South Africa in the early 90s, they've had autonomous zones, and there should be autonomous zones, tried by a lot of different types of people all over the world and that inspired me. I mean, even indigenous communities, African communities have non hierarchical structures where they do something like this.
Aidan: So now I think obviously, we're all hoping this succeeds and is able to grow bigger. So what do you envision this being what you envision the impact of this movement being if it goes as well as you as you'd be hoping?
AIR Collective Organizer: One of our demands is rent relief for COVID. So what I'd also really like is for more regular people to understand that this is, yes, this isn't just for just like political activists or people who identify as activists, it could just be for regular people who are so upset about what's going on in the world right now. They come out and say I support this, because it's mostly like working class people are going to be affected by layoffs and stuff during COVID.
They were still forced to pay their rent and we know about the astronomical housing crisis and rental crisis in Toronto. So what I would love is for more people [to join], just regular working class people like what we saw happen out in Malton when Ejaz Choudry was shot during a wellness check. It's just regular people regular working-class, non-political people organizing that, it's a beautiful thing and i'd love that to happen in Toronto.
Aidan: Alright, so obviously there's gonna be a big vote on the 29th with Toronto City Council. Now of course there's a more reformist kind of motion coming up for a potential 10 per cent police budget cut. The motion is limited, but do you think this could be a sparkplug or something even bigger for the movement?
AIR Collective Organizer: It could be, but I think a lot of people kind of realize that policies and it's really determined with industries. So I think yeah it's more reformist type of view, 10 per cent. But, I think if the people really push this I think we can could do way better than 10 per cent, we're talking about 100 per cent, so completely abolishing the police. So that's where we hope we can go, we're gonna aim for the stars.
Aidan: So let's move on to something which, obviously is probably not gonna be as fun to talk about, unfortunately. How do you feel like this movement has been treated by the media so far?
AIR Collective Organizer: Complete disregard, just complete disregard. But it seems as though the longer we stay here, more media do come out. So for example, we had a CBC reporter actually come out today to speak to us. The reporter wanted to do a story on [the AIR Collective], which was pretty crazy because it took a week of us being here in front of City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square, before reporters actually started coming out to us.
The first people who started coming up to us, it's like, you know, right wing media like rebel news. We have to really thank the volunteers here who came on because they did a really phenomenal job of stopping the people from recording their faces and preventing, like footage to be used against us in a negative light.
Aidan: So now going back to the structure of this movement. You previously mentioned a non-hierarchical structure. What do you think are some of the advantages of this are?
AIR Collective Organizer: We have more people, more regular people being able to take part in the decision making process. I think if you ask anyone, doesn't matter if the political norms... do you think you should be able to decide what you do because I don't live your life, right? So I wouldn't come to you and tell you. You should do this. So do you think other people should? They said no, I don't. Is it okay, so you should have this autonomy to make that yourself.
So we wanted to just expand that to communities and say, okay, since communities live in their community, people live in their communities, they understand the problem specific to their communities. So they should be taking part in the decision making process because it empowers them.
A lot of people really love being a part of non hierarchical, horizontal structures where they get to decide the course of their life. I mean, I know it seems sort of utopian. Have you ever talked to people, or even the most right wing conservative fascist, and let's talk about autonomy? You know, if you don't put the name anarchism on it, or non hierarchical, they tend to love it.
Aidan: So, what are some of your favorite moments from this occupation so far?
AIR Collective Organizer: Okay, so last night, I had to step away for a bit. I just went home to shower, get some rest, and then I came back and now there was a medical tent. They didn't have this hours before. A medical tent where people could sleep. Now we have a mental health tent where people could distress.
It was so amazing seeing that even though I was part of the organizing group, when I came back, I realized this wasn't even the core organizing group that set this up. These are the people who came here and decided to support this. They decided, as a community, this will be better for us and they got the resources together, and they got the group together and coordinated itself and put it together. I love that.
Aidan: So a final question.. do you feel like activist groups in Toronto have done a good job of supporting you so far?
AIR Collective Organizer: I don't think so. Some of them have been quiet. But at the same time, like, I'm not gonna say that they wouldn't support us if they had the chance. I think they would.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
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