Kitchener Waterloo Youth Collective
From Metapedia
Kitchener Waterloo Youth Collective is a left-wing political group that exists in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. KWYC was made up initially of mostly members of the Kitchener-Waterloo Anti Racist Action chapter but now includes a number of street and youth gangs.
KWYC rented a large commercial space in order to provide youth with a safe place to hang out, and organize for their rights. It was called "The Spot youth drop in centre". The Spot provided youth with books, computers, clothing, use of a telephone, and other services. All of the funding came from the organization's membership and supporters, and no business or government money was accepted. All decision about "The Spot" were made democratically, and every youth had equal opportunity to participate in the descion making process.
KWYC took a number of "squats", occupying abandoned buildings and demanding that they be converted in to social housing and/or opened to the homeless. They also initiated a number of "tent cities", setting up tents and other shelters anywhere from parks, to the front of city hall, to the mayor's front lawn, in order to illustrate the homelessness and housing problems of the city.
KWYC has a May Day event every year, with a conference, workshops and actions. Organizations from all over the country have come to participate.
In 2003, Kitchener-Waterloo helped to form the now defunct Rebel Youth Network.
In the 2004 federal election, The Spot ran one of their members, Mark Cobrier, as an Independent Candidate in the riding of Kitchener-Centre. One of his opponents was Thomas Ichim - the brother of Julian Ichim - for the newly formed Conservative Party of Canada, which was a merger of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and the Canadian Alliance.
Ichim ran in the 2005-2006 election in the riding of Kitchener-Waterloo.
In 2006, many of KWYC organizers settled a law suit with the local police for harassment. The settlement was in the thousands of dollars.
Although the "The Spot" drop-in center no longer exists, KWYC is still very active in Kitchener-Waterloo and their members and can often been see loitering around the downtown core area.
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