Introducing the Victoria Liberation Front

In response to the City of Victoria’s agenda against its marginalised and disenfranchised residents, I hereby announce the founding of the Victoria Liberation Front.

WE ARE NOT POWERLESS, WE ARE DISORGANISED!

About the Front:

We at the Victoria Liberation Front are the unofficial opposition at City Hall. Our mission is to rally advocates and activists against the agenda of an administration that undermines the human rights of vulnerable residents. Our motto is to respect existence or expect resistance.

Tired of being on the worse end of the social contract? Join us at https://victorialiberationfront.org/.

Why the Front:

“Even when I was in a crowd, I was always alone.” —Ernest Hemingway

If you follow the activist scene in Victoria, you may feel dispirited, without being able to tell what’s wrong with it. Like it’s lacking direction.

The answer can be found outside this city. Just travel across the strait to Vancouver and drop by the Downtown Eastside. There’s a very tight community of marginalised and disenfranchised people over there to learn from. Even the most humble resident is a militant member of a bustling community. Many advocacy organisations, revolving around the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), form a powerful movement that can take on any level of government. I’ve recently attended a rally at Victory Square sponsored by seventeen major organisations bracing for battle against the provincial government over its sordid plan to force drug users into involuntary treatment at carceral facilities, and it was only the latest of the community’s campaigns.

Let’s come back over here, and the contrast could not be more depressing. The downtown community is being dispersed by a mere clique of loonies in suits at City Hall and a few dozen lackeys in uniforms on the ground. While there are lots of advocacy and activist groups around, there is no functional network, hence no resistance. We have resources, yet everyone seems powerless to stop the oppression.

Years I’ve spent navigating the activist scene in town. The more I explore it, the more I realise how little I know about it, and likewise how little fellow activists know about each other. For instance, I’ve just mustered a team for legal action against the City of Victoria. We ended up working with a downtown organisation mere minutes on foot from where I live. I stroll by its location all the time, yet I didn’t even know it was there—and I wasn’t the only one.

I used to be homeless, and I acutely remember the crushing feeling of helplessness that comes with isolation and lack of access to resources. But we’re not powerless, we’re disorganised. Whenever a crisis arises, we meekly look around hoping someone will take the lead instead of assuming it, because we have become a community of strangers. The leaders that could call forth a tent city at the courthouse are gone, and the community’s remnants are scattered to the winds.

This must change. Let’s form an umbrella organisation whose purpose is to counter City Hall’s nefarious ambitions. We have to reach out to each other, put our differences aside, and work together to uphold human rights our so-called elites openly flout. Because they can only get away with it if we let them. Ask our counterparts across the strait about that.

We can win if we form a common front!

Martin Girard
Chief Insurrectionist of the Victoria Liberation Front
November 2, 2024

Land acknowledgement:

We of the Victoria Liberation Front acknowledge we operate on lands originally stolen from the lək̓ʷəŋən centuries ago by an overseas monarch, then again by a rival overseas monarch. We denounce the colonial enterprise which led to the forced assimilation and genocide of indigenous populations, perpetuated to this day. We do not recognise the authority of any overseas monarchs, nor that of His Majestic lackeys—including colonial police forces—and would rather build a relationship with those who foster a connection with these lands.

Charter:

We embrace connex causes: We are all in the same boat together, and all worthy causes are interconnected.
We reach out to other organisations: A fractured activist landscape weakens us all. Let’s join forces instead.
We reach out to lawyers: Bureaucrats fear lawyers more than they fear thugs. So we welcome lawyers.
We stay clear of politicians: Partisan politics are a swamp. We don’t get mired in them.
We do not accept public funds: Government money always comes with strings attached. We do not need it.
We do not need permits: The City does not ask us for input, so we do not ask for its approval.

• Statement of solidarity with the unhoused community
• Statement of solidarity with people who use drugs
• Statement of solidarity with the indigenous population
• Statement of solidarity with the 2SLGBTQIA+ community
• Statement of solidarity with Palestine