Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Drawing on document and literature-based research and thirteen years of experience in anti-racist Black organizing in Canada as a woman of African descent, including recent work with a collective of African and Caribbean youth, this paper provides a brief sketch of the historical efforts of Black organizing and coalition building in Canada (Turtle Island). These insights will then be used to, both, analyze and inform contemporary mobilizations including that of social movements like Black Lives Matter (BLM) Canada and community organizing initiatives undertaken by voluntary organizations like the Africa Centre on Treaty 6 (Indigenous) territories in western Canada. The purpose of this graduate participatory research initiative is to contribute towards the research-based understanding and continued development of Black organizing and coalition building in Canada by addressing some of the following questions: (1) What can we learn from the history of specific (cases) of Black organizing initiatives in Canada (e.g. the Canadian experience with anti/slavery)? (2) What do contemporary cases of Black organizing and coalition building look like (e.g. Black Lives Matter)? What can we learn from these initiatives to strengthen the continued anti-racist political prospects of these struggles? (3) What are the ways in which we might need to re-think current organizing work? (4) What is the place of Indigenous sovereignty struggles in relation to Black organizing and vice versa? The research is theoretically and analytically informed by and contributes towards Black Feminist theory and the work of the Combahee River Collective (1979).