ILPS Symposium on the Struggles of Homeless, Urban Poor, and the Internally Displaced

On Saturday May 19, 2018, ILPS in Canada and its allies organized a symposium on the struggles of the homeless, urban poor, and the internally displaced at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, Canada. It bought together ILPS member organizations and other anti-imperialist mass organizations, primarily in Canada and in the United States, who are participating in resistance against gentrification, displacement, super-exploitation, and criminalization of their communities, among other issues with primarily affect the urban poor. Positions on these issues as well as the experiences from the communities affected were shared throughout the symposium, with a goal of sharpening and unifying towards anti-imperialist positions on them. The symposium also was held with a goal towards forming an ILPS Commission on the rights and welfare of urban poor communities struggling against imperialist displacement, containment, criminalization and exploitation.

To capture the discussions which took place at the symposium, and stimulate further discussions about the issues presented, the organizing committee has prepared a symposium document. The document contains transcriptions of the presentations, roundtables, and resolutions presented at the event. We hope that the document can be shared and discussed with organizations advancing the struggles of the urban poor within the ILPS and the growing anti-imperialist movement.

Follow-up activities to the symposium will be held throughout 2019 in preparation for the Sixth International Assembly of the ILPS, where the proposed ILPS Commission on the struggle of urban poor communities against imperialist displacement, gentrification, containment, criminalization and exploitation will be presented.

Download the symposium document here: