On December 1, 2011 APUS will be evicted by U of T from its home at 100 Devonshire.
In the tradition of Public Enemy, APUS will continue to fight the powers that be to ensure that we are relocated to a suitable space that satisfies our diverse program needs for part-time students, women, and their children. More importantly, APUS must be relocated to a space that is accessible to all students on campus, including low-income, working poor, racialized, and students with a wide range of disabilities.
As a founding member of Woodsworth College, and an equity and student rights advocate for some of the most marginalized students on campus, APUS hopes to reconnect with all of our allies over the past five years to organize a united front of student, disability, women’s, anti-racist, anti-poverty, and anti–gentrification organizations to ensure that U of T provides APUS with a suitable space to continue serving part-time students from diverse communities on the margins of Toronto — a city where the gap is growing between the “haves” and “have nots”.
At a time when the U of T administration is undermining the ability of progressive left student organizations to create open democratic spaces on campus for students to participate in political education, consciousness raising, international solidarity efforts with oppressed peoples across the globe suffering from the global economic crisis of capitalism in the 21st century, APUS is launching “Fight the Power 2011” to continue our space campaign with dignity and justice.
In 2011, APUS will fight to win and continue the ongoing struggle to ensure that U of T student organizations have the type of space that is necessary for us to organize the change we want to see in the world.
On December 1, APUS is scheduled to be evicted from its residency at 100 Devonshire so it can be demolished as a part of U of T’s ongoing redevelopment plans to benefit private interests at the expense of many students who are struggling to get by. This year, APUS is not settling for an inaccessible space in a funeral home.
Inspired by the legacy of Public Enemy, APUS will fight the powers that be who continue to weaken progressive student organizations on campus by jeopardizing their space. APUS takes inspiration from Chuck D on “Fight the Power” when he expresses his will to fight on the side of the oppressed and encourages others to do the same:
I’m ready and hyped plus I’m amped
Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps…
What we got to say
Power to the People no delay
To make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be (Chuck D, 1989)
This year we hope all of our campus and community allies will “Fight the Power” with “no delay” in solidarity with APUS to ensure our space campaign ends in victory.
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