"The collective’s mission is to combine artistic production, political activism and community organization.” Its main activity is an annual tour, across Quebec, Canada and the United States, of an exhibition of artists’ books, zines and independent publications in a 50s era Airstream trailer. Various book-making workshops are also offered for free. Each year, a jury selected by the collective choses the books for the collection. The aim of the collective is to distribute alternative documentation and to encourage the creation of networks in the arts and in independent media. Former Bookmobile collections are kept in the Artexte documentation centre in Montreal, where they are accessible to the public. Bookmobile tours were suspended in 2006 for restructuring. Photos of the project can be seen at http://grrrlzines.net/fotos/bookmobile.htm and the archives accessed at http://artexte.ca/coll-mobilivre/mobilivrelinks.htm. Address in the United States: c/o Space 1026, 1026 Arch Street, Philadelphia PA 19107. Email: renseignements@mobilivre.org.

A group member of NEFAC (North-Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists), and then of the UCL (Anarchist Communist Union). “The Federation’s activities centre around developing theory, anarchist propaganda and interventions in the struggles of our class.” The work of the Sherbrooke collective addresses several issues, including anarchism in the student context, food autonomy and precarious work.

The collective is currently inactive.

La RuBrique ('brick street', but a pun on 'rubrique', a column) is a collective which produces a publication by the same name 3 or 4 times a year. It was previously known as the Comité de quartier sud-ouest (South-west district committee). RueBrique aims to distribute credible information, from an anarchist perspective, on issues of importance to the neighbourhoods of Montreal's south-west in order to encourage people to get involved in their neighbourhoods. In collaboration with other groups, the collective also participates in various local struggles.

Collective without a formal basis of affinity. Prepares and serves organic, vegetarian food (almost always) once a week at the University of Sherbrooke. Other activities have also been organized such as readings of engaged poetry and participation in various information tables.

The collective is inactive, but a cooperative café was opened.

Collective which aimed at getting people involved in order to develop neighbourhood self-management: “It isn’t enough to keep an eye on power, we must exercise it.” The main activities of the group included staffing the committee’s offices, editing a newspaper (Le mégaphone), organizing benefits, maintaining a skills and services exchange network and a second-hand clothing store. The group closed down in 2001 because the costs of maintaining the space was too high.

The group existed from fall 1999 to summer 2001.

For questions or information: glp@no-log.org

A member of Solidarity across Borders, this group defended Gorka and Eduardo in particular and Basque political prisoners in general and denounced torture and Canadian immigration policies. The committee organized vigils at the exits of metro stations and the courthouse, two benefit concerts, protests, information-tables and talks in CEGEPs and universities, as well as theatrical readings. It also did direct actions such as dropping banners on overpasses.

The group existed from 2001 to 2005.
 

Le Comité Mexique-Montréal promotes solidarity and mutual aid between non-indigenous and indigenous activists in both Montreal and Mexico. This strengthening of solidarity between communities of resistance in Mexico and Montreal happens through various rebellious activities and political and social projects such as organizing a demonstration, political education, practical collaboration, and direct exchanges among activists.

The Café tried to "create a space for democratising both the political and social aspects of culture", particularly through the re-appropriation of the neighbourhood by its residents. It provided a warm and friendly atmosphere, bridging cultural and socio-political issues. It was a space for encounter, debate, information-sharing and solidarity; a space of resistance, a hub of emancipation and challenge to economic globalization. Activities included film screenings, discussions, round tables, diverse shows at affordable prices and dinners.

The Coopérative de solidarité Les Irréductibles was dissolved and Café la Petite Gaule closed in 2005, after two and a half years of continual activity. However, its charter is still in force, ready for an eventual relaunch.  
 

Affinity group which prepared recuperated food. The prepared food was served during solidarity actions and activist events. Dada a faim also organized an evening against patriarchy and another action: the night, women without fear. The collective existed from 2002 to 2005.
 

A direct action occupation originally organized by the Comité populaire St-Jean-Baptiste in the context of a FRAPRU campaign. Over time, the occupants decided to transform the squat into a “social centre for different political and community actors. The occupants still demand that the city build social housing, but want this space to be a place for organizing struggle, a self-managed space.” The initiative gave birth to La Page Noire, a self-managed social bookstore.

The squat lasted from 17 May to 20 September 2001.
 

"A perpetual festival is a network of individuals who, every once and a while, decide to open their place to everyone interested (capacity permitting) and offer diverse, free activities that each host decides upon. (…) The only criteria to participate in the festival is that the event be free of charge, legal, residential and non-promotional. Among other things, it is an opportunity to experiment with different kinds of community and cultural relations in the urban context.”

The project existed between 2003 and 2005.

Hommes contre le patriarcat is a pro-feminist, radical affinity group which recognizes that the feminist struggle is a class struggle and a struggle for the freedom of women and thus accepts that it  belongs entirely to women. The collective supports feminist activists, specifically by addressing men. Its main aim is to quell masculinist groups, but it also tries to bring radical change to their so-called private lives, attempting to eliminate sexism and patriarchy in their behaviours and attitudes.

This collective prepares vegan food once a week at UQAM, and sometimes for activist events, mostly out of recuperated and organic food. They also distribute recuperated food to people in the neighbourhood when the kitchens aren't working. Their actions are guided by principles of food autonomy, free access to good quality food, and creating community spirit. The collective denounces the waste of capitalism and the intrusion of the private sector into the university.

For more information, contact the Public Interest Research Group (GRIP-UQAM)

Local DS-3159, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
(514) 987-3000 poste 4077
 

Liberterre (literally, freedom-earth) was an eco-anarchist collective for analysis and radical action which published the magazine Terre et Liberté (Land and Freedom), from 2003 to 2006. In 2007, it re-constituted itself as a non-mixed women’s group before dissolving. To its members, Liberterre was born of revolt against the enslavement of nature to the material interests of humans and against the productivist ideology justifying this servitude. “We are the living rage of a dying earth.”

See the monograph produced by CRAC with members of Liberterre.

Radical feminist affinity group which aimed to unlearn attitudes and behaviours of internalized domination, to put anarchist and feminist beliefs into practice, to encourage the creation of affinity groups and direct action. This collective gave numerous trainings on "Women and globalization" and "Radical nonviolence". Nemesis also organized and participated in many actions with other feminist groups.  

Founded in 2000 as the Women's committee of SalAMI, it assumed its new name in 2002 when it became an autonomous collective. It ceased to exist in 2005.

Squat which took place in Montreal from 27 July to 1 August 2001. Initially intended as a symbolic action to denounce the housing crisis and private property in the housing sector. The squat was really focused on survival, and there was thus a lot of emphasis on security and surveillance, but the building was also fixed up, food was found and prepared, etc.

Radical queer affinity group which fights heterosexism and pink capitalism through festive and bizarre direct actions, workshops, DJ film nights, artistic production of all kinds (clothing, video, design), etc. The struggle is also carried out by connecting with other sex and gender rebels (transgenders, prostitutes and others), as well as people who challenge the advertising industry, the church, psychiatry, ultra-capitalism and so on.

Following the Overdale squat, this squat at 3100 Rachel, Montreal lasted from 1 August to 3 October 2001. During the final month, the aim was to maintain a place to live but also to create a self-managed social and cultural centre (show room, invite groups to hold meetings there, have staff, etc). People in the squat did a tour of the neighbourhood, organized two neighbourhood parties, had outside political film screenings in the evenings and more.
 

RAME strove to "unite anarchist forces in the student milieu through a visible, formal and regular network. In the medium term, RAMÉ aims to set up local groups in order to become a network of groups.” RAMÉ produced propaganda and did conscientization work by organizing activities (workshops and panels) and publishing a bilingual bulletin "Marmite" or “The Boiling Point”. It also tried to "contribute to establishing anarchist practices".

RAME has been defunkt since 2007.

A three-day, North American gathering on the themes of collaboration, creativity and autonomy which took place in May 2007 - a Montreal version of Portland’s RecentChangesCamp. This BarCamp was organized according to the OpenForum method, based on setting the agenda collaboratively. Different workshops running in parallel dealt with such topics as: the wiki as a technology of self-organization, collaborative cinema, spaces of co-working, women and freeware, collaborative sites, etc. This event launched more than ten other projects.

For more information, contact Anne at anne@koumbit.org.

Theatre collective which brings together anarchist activists from various perspectives who want to get involved in a different way, through artistic expression. Mainly known for its play on Emma Goldman, the collective participated in every step of production: from research on writings and set conception to promotion and staging. The collective encourages reflection on activism, the place of art in our society and of subjectivity in history.