vimeo.com/.../266955645

Greetings Troublemakers...

welcome to Trouble.

My name is not important.

Whether you live in a

densely-populated metropolis,

or a mid-sized city,

chances are you've had

first-hand experiences

dealing with the process

of capitalist urbanization

known as gentrification.

It's called gentrification.

They can buy the land at a lower price.

Then they move all the people out,

raise the property value,

and sell it at a profit.

While this disease is

often popularly associated

with its most visible symptoms,

like the opening of a new boutique cafe

on your block,

or the seemingly endless construction

of new high-rise condo towers...

gentrification is, at its core,

a process of displacement.

It is class warfare,

waged in the physical spaces

of our neighbourhoods.

It is speculation and investment,

financed by banks, investment firms

and pension funds,

enacted by real estate developers

and facilitated by state, regional

and local governments.

The development of the modern city

has always been, and continues to be,

intimately tied to the interests

of capitalists and the ruling class.

Many of the cities that exist today

first emerged back in

the 18th and 19th century,

often in tandem with

the development and spread

of industrial manufacturing

and resource extraction.

Early capitalists required

massive numbers of workers to toil

in their factories and mines,

and so people were forced off the land

and into concentrated urban populations,

where they often lived

in squalor and misery.

In much of the Global South,

this phenomenon is still taking place,

as farmers and Indigenous communities

are pushed off their lands and forced

to move to cities to work in factories

or precarious jobs in informal

and black market economies.

In 2014, the UN estimated that

for the first time in human history,

more than half of us lived in cities.

This trend is only set to increase..

and by far the fastest rate of urban

population growth is occurring in

sprawling and overcrowded

mega-slums.

Meanwhile, in the Global North,

today's metropolitan cities have become

the command and control centres

for transnational corporations,

hubs of global finance,

and incubators of the dynamic new

flag-bearers of the so-called

information economy.

Yet at the same time,

decades of corporate off-shoring

and neoliberal structural adjustments

have created deep reservoirs

of inequality.

Gentrification is a byproduct

of this contradiction.

A process whereby cities

and neighbourhoods

regenerate themselves

by displacing working-class people

to suburban ghettos in order to make

more room for the lavish lifestyles

of the rich.

Over the next thirty minutes,

we will look at gentrification

as a structural phenomenon,

and examine how it is playing out

in three megacities:

Toronto, New Orleans and Istanbul.

Along the way,

we will highlight the voices of a number

of individuals who are organizing

with their neighbours,

fighting back against the state

and corporate developers...

and making a whole lot of trouble.

Since the financial crisis in 2008,

we’ve increasingly seen

the financialization of

the rental housing sector.

Financialization is a bit of

a complicated term.

What it really refers to is this shift

in the way that capitalism

has been operating,

and a change that's taken place

since about the 1970’s.

So a shift from capital accumulation

coming from commodity production

to coming through financial channels.

And what this has also involved is

an increasing role for finance capital

in other parts of the economy where

it hadn’t previously played

a prominent role,

and then enforcing on those

parts of the economy, logics of finance.

Today, big money is made in cities.

The real estate market is currently

the largest sector of

the Canadian economy.

If you look at the biggest landlords

in the country, 18 out of the top 20

would fall under the category

of these financialized landlords.

You see things like hedge funds

and pension funds that are invested

in different local housing markets

because it’s seen as a relatively

safe investment.

Fincialized investment in Canada

has been growing since the 1990’s.

Real Estate Investment Trusts

are increasingly taking over

the rental housing market.

Since 1996,

Real Estate Investment Trusts,

or REIT’s, in particular,

have grown from owning zero

multi-family apartment suites,

to owning over 160 000.

Such that now they own

about ten percent of privately-built

multi-family housing in the country.

Real Estate Investment Trusts

allow investors to pool capital together

to purchase real estate

and the real estate itself

then gets managed in a way

to try and increase its value

and generate profits

back to those investors.

So real estate investment trusts

have access to tremendous amounts

of capital and can buy large portfolios

of buildings as they grow.

And then they can take advantage of

economies of scale to make

those buildings more profitable.

What they call this is "re-positioning."

This has created a situation where

all landlords across the board

have been forced to take on

certain strategies to increase profits

in order to compete on that market.

Housing prices have been going up

in Canada and indeed

other parts of the world.

Canada’s been hit particularly hard.

One of the hottest real estate markets

where we’ve seen the largest increase

in property values has been Toronto.

In Ontario,

the government sets an annual

rent guideline.

This is the amount that landlords

are legally permitted to

raise rents for sitting tenants.

The guideline in 2017 was 1.5 percent.

Yet we saw a 6% overall

increase in rents.

And so landlords have been able

to raise rents beyond

the provincial guideline

primarily through vacancy decontrol.

Since the 90’s we’ve had no rent control

on vacant units.

So this creates a pressure

to try and make units vacant

so that the rent can be increased

up to whatever the market will bear.

In the last year,

the average price for a one bedroom

unit in Toronto has increased

to over $2000.

The pattern that we’ve seen

has been one of increasing social and

spacial inequality in this city.

So a pattern towards gentrification

in the urban core.

The demographic data

is really very clear.

It shows that downtown Toronto

and the corridors along subway lines

are essentially enclaves

for rich white people.

The majority of working-class,

heavily racialized population

is being pushed out

into the inner suburbs

or is struggling to stay

in a few remaining areas

in and around downtown Toronto,

including places like Parkdale

and the Queen and Sherbourne area.

Rising house prices in Toronto

have also created a situation where

many young professionals in the market

for their first homes

have been priced out of the city.

So we’re seeing a lot of young

professional people trying to buy property

in cities like Hamilton.

The city of Hamilton’s cool quotient

has been on the rise for some time,

but the prosperity that’s got some

celebrating has others worried about

whether the urban renaissance there

could be leaving some people behind.

Hamilton is a mid size city in southern Ontario
and for most of its history, Hamilton was

a large steel manufacturer.

It’s still known as the “Steel Town”
although for years now, the steel industry

has been shrinking, and now it’s trying
to essentially recreate itself as a “artistic

hub” and kind of draw in creative professionals
from the greater Toronto Area.

Because of Hamilton’s physical proximity
to Toronto, we have kind of a secondary wave

of gentrification happening in Hamilton.

The province of Ontario has regional population
targets and a general idea about where they

want to see population growth happening.

In order to facilitate this and in order to
integrate some of the metropolitan areas,

they’ve invested in larger scale transportation
infrastructure.

One such initiative is the Go Transit Network
which is a fleet of busses and trains which

link commuters from the greater Toronto Area.

Hamilton has two new Go Transit Hubs in the
works.

One in the east and one in the north of downtown.

Both of these are aimed at making Hamilton
more attractive as a potential bedroom community

of Toronto.

And beyond that, the province is also funding
a light rail transit or LRT line in Hamilton

which is going to run the length of the lower
city from Mcmaster University in the west,

out to Stoney Creek in the very east end of
the city.

This project is really going to open up the
city to gentrification.

This is essentially a state led strategy of
urban intensification and the levels of development

that accompany it.

Despite the upheaval and mass displacement
that it brings in its wake, gentrification

is usually a pretty gradual process, and one
that traditionally tends to take place in

stages.

Stereotypically, it starts with artists, students
and hipsters of various stripes moving into

a working-class neighbourhood, drawn to the
area by its cheap rents.

These new arrivals bring with them increased
social capital and disposable income, and

soon a host of new cafes, restaurants, bars
and art galleries begin to spring up to cater

to their tastes.

From there, the area starts to get a buzz,
and real estate agents begin promoting it

as an up-and-coming neighbourhood.

Homeowners decide to cash in on rising property
values, while long-standing working-class

and racialized tenants are priced, or otherwise
pushed out.

More middle-class residents move in, rents
go up... and the cycle repeats until the area

is completely transformed into a sterile playground
for the rich.

That's how the story goes, anyway.

In reality, this oversimplified formula for
gentrification ignores the important role

that developers, finance capital, police and
urban planners at various levels of government

play in coordinating the process.

But even when all those variables are factored
in, the fact remains that gentrification generally

still takes years to play out... for the simple
reason that it's hard to displace large numbers

of poor people from their homes in one fell
swoop.

Except of course... when the powerful forces
pushing gentrification get a little helping

hand from the even more powerful forces of
Mother Nature.

You’ve got Pagoda’s over there, you’ve
got the Church of Yoga over here, you’ve

got the Uber building down the street, so
you’ve got all these little spots here and

there that are quickly making it so this is
actually a high traffic area of primarily

white people that are not from here carrying
yoga mats.

That’s what this area, it used to be a very
poor area, got replaced with.

I’ve seen this city go through changes in
my life.

The building of the Crescent City Connection-
that bridge transformed this community in

a multitude of ways.

With that bridge came urban renewal.

One of the oldest African Communities was
displaced in order to build a housing project.

The third would be Betsy, Hurricane Betsy.

Because of Besty, people that would normally
be still living down by the Bayou or the 9th

ward, would have just remained in those areas.

But because of the devastation of those communities,
it forced them to come into a community that

was being rebuilt and reborn, and then Katrina.

Out of all of them, Katrina was the worst.

It had the most devastating impact.

I moved to New Orleans in 2014.

I’m from Venezuela and my country’s consulate
had closed down in Miami so I came here to

get my passport.

There was also some immigration restrictions
that encouraged me to move here.

A big factor was connected to gentrification,
which is moving here because housing was more

affordable after Katrina and because employment
was something I could find here more accessible

than in South Florida.

Because of Katrina and the great displacement
of local communities after Katrina and during

Katrina, to be a guest in this city and to
be a resident in this city post Katrina, and

be a respectful guest, you have to be very
aware of the racial dynamics of who has been

displaced and who has been the demographic
replacing the people who are no longer able

to come back to the city, alongside with millions
of dynamics that go anywhere from microagressions

to being a major player of gentrification
and in the systems that are negatively impacting

and negatively affecting the communities here.

Katrina was also the very first major disaster
where Fema came under homeland security.

The first two weeks after Katrina, it was
all about security.

You know, it felt like all those that matter
had left.

Those who was left in the city, don’t even
really matter.

And they made that crystal clear by their
action.

With that and the advent of disaster capitalism.

Seeing everything from trash removal, to the
removal of bodies- was held up until certain

individuals got they contracts.

You had billions of dollars that was allocated
to a city with a population of less than half

a million.

Billions.

But it impacted no one that really had the
needs.

The needs of the community have gone unaddressed
and instead what has been prioritized has

been profit and the passing of policies that
have been geared towards making profit from

the displacement of people.

Looking at prisons and the jail systems now,
and how much of the money that the government

gives is still going towards allegedly restoring
or rebuilding or expanding the jail or the

prisons or rebuilding or expanding new hospitals
which are more for profit and they’re not

as affordable.

With all these examples you can see how the
city systemically is still taking money from

the disaster and still profiting from the
displacement of the community here and investing

that money in for profit projects that are
geared towards tourists or geared towards

upper class guests or upper class residents
as opposed to working class communities and

poor communities, and particularly communities
of colour which was the majority of people

in New Orleans before Katrina.

People are being priced out of their homes.

A unit that was maybe 500 during pre-Katrina,
now was somewhere around 12.

Developers are coming in, and now you have
the advent of the Air B&B, you know you have

a New Orleans that is constantly being transformed
around us.

You see a lot of whites and others coming
in to predominantly African American community.

Directly after Katrina, everybody basically
had to evacuate the city.

A lot of the housing that could have been
restored, was not restored.

Instead it was taken down and new housing
that’s not affordable was built up or businesses

were built up.

In general, we’ve seen almost no efforts
to bring back people that were displaced by

Katrina, and instead we’re seeing efforts
to continue to profit from making more tourist

hot spots.

The industry that’s really running the city
is tourism.

White tourism.

And it’s controlled by white dollars.

And they control not only the white tourism,
but they control about 90 percent of the black

tourism.

A lot of the money that’s being given to
New Orleans from the government is going to

the expansion of prisons or the attempts at
building new prisons.

It’s a completely a for-profit organization,
so a lot of the money is being either misplaced

into making more profit from poverty and crime
and displacement, or it’s being put into

development that is to better assist the communities
that are not from New Orleans, so it’s being

put to renovate big businesses or to make
the business sectors and the upper class sector

and the tourism sector in the city better
and it’s not being distributed in the places

that it’s the most needed.

This is a city that’s ran by the police
because it’s ran by tourism.

And in order for tourism needs to survive,
it’s got to be protected.

But you try to tell the police- it don’t
have nowhere near the impact of poverty.

That’s the most cruel thing.

You know, you be living on a block, where
there only one person got a Mercedes, you

dig?

And you catchin’ a bus.

Ten years ago, the international financial
system nearly collapsed.

A historically unprecedented housing bubble
in the United States burst, setting off a

chain reaction that ended up threatening the
institutional pillars of global capitalism

itself.

As millions of people lost their homes, governments
around the world scrambled to bail out the

banks and pump money back into the global
economy.

But rather than spending that money on rebuilding
the local communities that they'd just destroyed,

the banks poured that money into a number
of so-called 'emerging economies'.

A prime example being Turkey.

Back in 2008, Turkey was already in the midst
of a construction boom, and the flooding in

of billions of dollars in foreign investment
only quickened the pace.

In the five years between 2011 and 2016, house
prices in Turkey doubled.

Much of this growth was concentrated in Istanbul,
the sprawling metropolis of over 15 million

people that once served as the capital of
the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, and which

for over two thousands years has remained
the primary bridge between the continents

of Europe and Asia.

The dizzying pace of urban transformation
in this former Ottoman capital has been closely

linked to the dictatorial ambitions of the
country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,

who has sought to use the reconstruction of
Istanbul as a tool for consolidating power

around a new national identity.

If we talk about the global capitalist crisis,
it’s obvious that the states are trying

their best to get over this crisis with the
tool of urban gentrification because they

have the companies, they have the law making.

The capitalization process of Istanbul city
is not a new thing, it is a long term project

of the state.

We are talking about over 50 years.

The last 12 years, the process get faster
in the government of the AKP.

These urban gentrification projects always
has been resource of income for the state.

These projects has been widely spread and
they started to change the face of the city

and now they are making it more and more easier
to make this.

In the beginning, it was only possible to
destroy that building and make a new one with

a consensus of all people living in.

But now, they make it majority of people and
the state of emergency also helps to build

this legal process more and more easier.

For last four or five years, they are nationalizing
the private spaces.

By these practices, they are trying to change
the type of capitalist power.

It is also politic of homogenizing the people.

Deleting all cultures and force them to be
Muslim, force them to be Sunia Muslim, and

Turkish people, which is the identity of the
state.

For Istanbul, you can see there are big walls
which are coming from Ottoman or Byzantine

time.

Out of the walls, they have built the slums.

The builders of the Gejekondu Areas, slum
areas, are so called minorities.

It’s not just Alevis and Kurds, but also
Roma people.

People who had immigrated from village to
big cities like Istanbul.

From the beginning, these neighbourhoods like
Gazi Neighbouhood, like Bir Mayis Neighbourhood,

and CHKMUNTLU?

All these neighbourhoods were built with the
participation of the whole community.

And caring and thinking about of all the needs
of that community.

So, these slums means more than just spaces
to live, but it’s also a way of relationship

that people are caring about each other.

During 1960’s and 1980’s, many revolutionary
organizations have appeared, and this is important

because next residents of these regions will
be the organizers of the first actions against

the destruction policy of the state.

The Taksim riots started against the construction
of a mall.

The Gezi Park protests became so popular.

The rioters of Taksim/Gezi achieved the collectivization
of the park, and this is a great example of

how we can struggle against the gentrification
politics, against the space politics of the

states and the companies.

The meaning of the park, the meaning of the
space has been changed.

People got the control of the park and the
space has a political meaning.

When we look what happened after Gezi, that
riots, the people coming together and the

occupation of the Gezi Park becomes something
to hold and many people go on resisting after

the Gezi Park was evicted.

The social resistance was very high and people
were not afraid to go on the streets anymore,

and that also affected in a way urban gentrification
protests and many other protests, but as the

oppression become more and more visible, and
that social opposition became less and less

seen, that also has its effects on urban gentrification.

During one week, the Turkish state have been
killed over 10 young people.

We are not just talking about of a day, we
are talking about years where people have

been oppressed politically, socially and economically.

One of the first things that they are trying
to break is the relationship in these neighbourhoods.

The culture of resistance and the culture
of solidarity.

It is not just a struggle against the gentrification
projects.

It is against the violence and the terror
of the state.

These days, gentrification can often seem
inevitable.

It is, after all, a constant process firmly
anchored upon the sanctity of private property

and the unshakeable logic of the free market.

According to this cold logic, homes, and the
land that they are built on, are commodities

like any other.

It follows, then, that they can be bought
and sold... and if the people living there

don't hold the deed, there's not much they
can do to stop it.

Except, of course, there is.

Because despite what capitalist may claim,
our homes are not commodities like any other.

They’re much more than that.

People defending their homes have been primary
agents of struggle for the entirety of human

history.

From anti-colonial struggles waged by Indigenous
nations, to peasants taking up arms to defend

their lands from enclosure and theft... people
tend to fight hard for their homes.

And while things in cities are different,
and often much more complicated... the basic

principle is the same.

I think that it’s important for revolutionaries
and for anti-capitalists and anarchists who

want to fight a process like gentrification
which is multifaceted to actually be embedded

in the communities that are affected by gentrification.

The only way of actually stopping gentrification
is getting out in front of it, and in order

to get out in front of it, you need to actually
be living there.

You need to have social relationships with
the people who are going to be displaced,

and you need to help with them to fight.

And you know this is not, the sexiest type
of work.

You have to come in very humble and really
try and support the work that’s being done

by the people that are the most affected and
not trying to come into anyone’s community

with like a saviour complex, especially if
you’re white, to try and fix people’s

problems because usually there’s been communities
of people that have been facing those issues

for decades, if not hundreds of years.

I think that the left are often looking for
shortcuts.

Unfortunately, currently, the left is largely
based around academic spaces and, you know,

is not necessarily associated with the fabric
of working class people’s lives.

Ground level tenant driven organizing in buildings
is what’s actually making a lot of change.

People in their building can work together
build a moment, and fight in a way that they

can stop these companies from exploiting them
and kick them out of their homes.

Hundreds of residents here in Parkdale are
heading into their second month refusing to

pay rent in protest of rent hikes

Build working class organizations that are
independent from politicians, social service

agencies, or non-profits.

You can’t be beholden to anybody’s interests
other than our own.

It’s not going to be benevolent on the part
of landlords, or a change of heart on the

part of policy makers that’s going to lead
to the types of changes that tenants need

to see.

You have to create your daily life against
system.

You have to organize your own ways with people
that are not like the capitalist relationships.

You have to create solidarity.

You have to care about each other.

You have to take the responsibility of each
other and you have to be organized, thinking

about the needs of your community and the
people in your community.

That comes with responsibility of constantly
trying to bring visibility and attention and

voice and power to the people who are actually
affected by the injustices.

Fighting for ways that people can live affordably
in cities and build communities there, for

social purposes rather than for capitalist
accumulation.

People tend to be much more satisfied to just
gripe about things as they exist, than to

actually try to seek out and understand what
is fuelling the process and how they might

actually go about trying to stop it.

Housing is allocated by the market, it’s
not allocated according to social need.

And so, this is why you have these constant
and persistent problems that don’t seem

to go away.

Don’t be trapped in the dead ends presented
to us by political and legal systems.

We need to find our own ways to creatively
struggle in our own interests.

Everyday with your every action, you have
to fight against, you have to create for your

struggle.

Giving struggle against the strategies of
the companies but also strategies of the state.

And the state- it is an enemy that we have
to struggle.

Not just urban development projects - every
front.

You know, let the fire burn.

They ashes is good for cultivating the land.

You dig?

And I’m just plant a lot of seed.

Grow something else up.

In our hyper-atomized and individualistic
societies, we have become incredibly isolated

and alienated from one another.

Those of us living in multi-residential apartment
blocks can often go years without communicating

with our neighbours, beyond the occasional
small-chat when getting on the elevator.

We're conditioned to keep our noses out of
other people's business, and to call the cops

if we see someone loitering, or if the neighbours
play their music too loud.

This divide and conquer strategy is intended
to keep us weak, and incapable of mounting

collective resistance to shared hardships.

So if we are to avoid the future that capitalists
have in store for us, in which our cities

are even further transformed into geographically
segregated and heavily militarized urban enclaves

of poverty and wealth, this is a mentality
we must overcome.

So at this point, we’d like to remind you
that Trouble is intended to be watched in

groups, and to be used as a resource to promote
discussion and collective organizing.

Are you interested in organizing your building,
or starting a collective to fight gentrification

in your neighbourhood?

Consider getting together with some comrades,
organizing a screening of this film, and discussing

where to get started.

Interested in running regular screenings of
Trouble at your campus, infoshop, community

center, or even just at home with friends?

Become a Trouble-Maker!

For 10 bucks a month, we’ll hook you up
with an advanced copy of the show, and a screening

kit featuring additional resources and some
questions you can use to get a discussion

going.

If you can’t afford to support us financially,
no worries!

You can stream and/or download all our content
for free off our website: sub.media/trouble.

If you’ve got any suggestions for show topics,
or just want to get in touch, drop us a line

at [e-mail].

Stay tuned next month for our second installment
in this two-part series, as we take a look

at three more cities facing the onslaught
of gentrification, and how people there are

fighting back.

This episode would not have been possible
without the generous support of Fernando,

and Miki.

Now get out there, and make some trouble!