Tenants of 3434 Eglinton Avenue East, working with OTD Toronto, have organized their building into the East Scarborough Tenants Union (ESTU) to take on big landlord Starlight Investments and MetCap property management. Through collective action, tenants have won campaigns around hot water and balcony conditions, and have forced the landlord to sit down and negotiate collectively with them.

To learn more about this experience, we are joined by Carolyn, one of the leaders within 3434 Eglinton and a member of OTD Toronto. In the course of our conversation, we talk about how tenants got in touch with OTD and started organizing, the actions that have been taken, the wins, the issues remaining, and the strengths and weaknesses of the organizing effort so far. We also talk about the impressive ways in which organizers in Toronto have combined confrontational organizing with community-building work.

If you are a tenant, or have any interest in neighbourhood organizing, don't miss this one!

*NOTE: We will not be releasing any Barricade episodes in October, but we will be back to publishing regularly at the beginning of November!

For news and updates about this podcast, you can follow OTD/OP on instagram at: www.instagram.com/otd.op/

You can also find more information about OTD/OP on the organization's website: https://otd-op.org/

If you want to get in touch with the country-wide Organizing Committee of OTD/OP, you can reach out to via email at: [email protected]

To get in touch with a specific OTD/OP Chapter, you can find more info at:

Vancouver: www.instagram.com/otd.van/ Toronto: www.instagram.com/otd.toronto/ Ottawa: www.instagram.com/off_the_defensive_ottawa/ Gatineau: www.instagram.com/otd.op.gat/ Montreal: www.instagram.com/op.otd.mtl/ Quebec City: https://www.instagram.com/op.otd.qc/

Thank you for listening and make sure to join us later in November when we return!

In July we released an episode with members of Off the Defensive/Offensive populaire Montreal, talking about their successful tenant organizing in the Norgate complex in the Ville Saint-Laurent neighbourhood. Since that episode was released, the landlords of the Norgate buildings have launched a lawsuit against OTD/OP organizers and tenants of the buildings in a transparent attempt to scare people away from organizing.

Unfortunately for the landlords, OP Motreal and the Norgate tenants aren't going anywhere. In this episosde, we are joined by Lyn and Nick of OP Montreal to talk about these latest developments, how OP and the tenants are responding, and how those of us outside Montreal can support.

Each of our neighbourhoods is one front in a wider struggle. A win for working class tenants in Montreal is a win for working class people everywhere. If you want to stand against lawfare by landlords, please donate to the OP Montreal and the Norgate tenants' legal defense fund here: https://gofund.me/6d2729649

For news and updates about this podcast, you can follow OTD/OP on instagram at: www.instagram.com/otd.op/

You can also find more information about OTD/OP on the organization's website: https://otd-op.org/

If you want to get in touch with the country-wide Organizing Committee of OTD/OP, you can reach out to via email at: [email protected]

To get in touch with a specific OTD/OP Chapter, you can find more info at:

Vancouver: www.instagram.com/otd.van/ Toronto: www.instagram.com/otd.toronto/ Ottawa: www.instagram.com/off_the_defensive_ottawa/ Gatineau: www.instagram.com/otd.op.gat/ Montreal: www.instagram.com/op.otd.mtl/ Quebec City: https://www.instagram.com/op.otd.qc/

Thank you for listening and make sure to join us later in September for our next episode!

Welcome to the second episode in our two-parter on financialization. Today we are joined by Kevin Skerrett, the founding director of Carleton University's Financialization Lab and a researcher who has spent decades working within the labour movement. Kevin is an expert in the role of pension funds in the modern capitalist economy, and in analyzing financialization in general.

On the face of it, pension funds could seem like a positive thing. After all, don't the profits they make help fund workers' retirements? In our current era of financialization, however these funds play an insidious role. Pension funds have increasingly become major players in the financialized economy. In doing so, they are behaving as particularly aggressive investors, actively driving some of the worst forms of financial profiteering. Whether it's arms-dealing, housing speculation, or the privatization of public infrastructure, working class people are increasingly finding ourselves fighting against the very funds which are supposedly meant to provide for our future.

By making our individual economic futures dependent on actions that erode the futures of all working class people, these funds represent one way that workers are divided from one another, and get pushed into a false alignment of interests with the rich and powerful. But even for those fortunate enough to have good pension plans, if our individual security depends on the erosion of the society around us, how secure are we really?

How did we get here? What does it mean for us? And what can we do about it?

Listen in to learn more!

For news and updates about this podcast, you can follow OTD/OP on instagram at: www.instagram.com/otd.op/

You can also find more information about OTD/OP on the organization's website: https://otd-op.org/

If you want to get in touch with the country-wide Organizing Committee of OTD/OP, you can reach out to via email at: [email protected]

To get in touch with a specific OTD/OP Chapter, you can find more info at:

Vancouver: www.instagram.com/otd.van/ Toronto: www.instagram.com/otd.toronto/ Ottawa: www.instagram.com/off_the_defensive_ottawa/ Gatineau: www.instagram.com/otd.op.gat/ Montreal: www.instagram.com/op.otd.mtl/ [NEW] Quebec City: https://www.instagram.com/op.otd.qc/

Thank you for listening and make sure to join us at the beginning of September for our next episode!

Today on the Barricade, we'll be discussing housing financialization: a process that affects every working class person in Canada, whether you are a tenant or a homeowner, but that can feel abstract. We want to dig into what financialization is, and what it means for us as working class people and as organizers.

We are joined by housing and financialization scholar Martine August. Martine is an Associate Professor of Planning at the University of Waterloo, and has conducted years of research specific to the political economy of housing in Canada. We're going to pick her brain on major events, actors and policies that brought about the current financialized housing market, and what financialized ownership looks like right now.

For news and updates about this podcast, you can follow OTD/OP on instagram at: www.instagram.com/otd.op/

You can also find more information about OTD/OP on the organization's website: https://otd-op.org/

If you want to get in touch with the country-wide Organizing Committee of OTD/OP, you can reach out to via email at: [email protected]

To get in touch with a specific OTD/OP Chapter, you can find more info at:

Vancouver: www.instagram.com/otd.van/ Toronto: www.instagram.com/otd.toronto/ Ottawa: www.instagram.com/off_the_defensive_ottawa/ Gatineau: www.instagram.com/otd.op.gat/ Montreal: www.instagram.com/op.otd.mtl/

Thank you for listening and make sure to join us later in August for our next episode!

Welcome to the second episode of the Barricade!

Today, Serena and Ethan are joined by Esther and Nick from the Montreal chapter of OTD/OP to talk about a recent organizing campaign among tenants of the Norgate buildings in Ville Saint Laurent. We discuss the issues tenants faced, how OTD/OP worked with them to get organized and fight, and what we can learn from their experience.

If you are located in Montreal, join OTD/OP members at the 'Low Ball Your Landlord Fest', including music and food! https://www.instagram.com/p/DZIjiC7lvNs/

If you want to get in touch with the Montreal chapter, you can find more info about them here:

www.instagram.com/op.otd.mtl/

https://www.facebook.com/op.otd.mtl/

For news and updates about this podcast, you can follow OTD/OP on instagram at: www.instagram.com/otd.op/

You can also find more information about OTD/OP on the organization's website: https://otd-op.org/

If you want to get in touch with the country-wide Organizing Committee of OTD/OP, you can reach out to via email at: [email protected]

To get in touch with a specific OTD/OP Chapter, you can find more info at:

Vancouver: www.instagram.com/otd.van/ Toronto: www.instagram.com/otd.toronto/ Ottawa: www.instagram.com/off_the_defensive_ottawa/ Gatineau: www.instagram.com/otd.op.gat/ Montreal: www.instagram.com/op.otd.mtl/

Thank you for listening and make sure to join us at the beginning of August for our next episode!

Welcome to the very first episode of the Barricade!

The Barricade is an English-language podcast launched by Off the Defensive/Offensive populaire (OTD/OP) to serve as a forum to share and analyze stories of working class and popular political struggle. Our aim is to learn the lessons we need to build a fighting movement, rooted in our workplaces and our neighbourhoods, able to build popular power with a strategic horizon of socialism.

Today, we will be talking with Hamna and Steve, two members of Off the Defensive who played leading roles in the 2025 conference at which OTD was founded. Our discussion touches on some of their takeaways from previous neighbourhood organizing in Toronto, the reasons that OTD was launched, and how we want to take our neighbourhood organizing to the next level.

For news and updates about this podcast, you can follow OTD/OP on instagram at: www.instagram.com/otd.op/

You can also find more information about OTD/OP on the organization's website: https://otd-op.org/

If you want to get in touch with the country-wide Organizing Committee of OTD/OP, you can reach out to via email at: [email protected]

To get in touch with a specific OTD/OP Chapter, you can find more info at:

Vancouver: www.instagram.com/otd.van/ Toronto: www.instagram.com/otd.toronto/ Ottawa: www.instagram.com/off_the_defensive_ottawa/ Gatineau: www.instagram.com/otd.op.gat/ Montreal: www.instagram.com/op.otd.mtl/

Thank you for listening and make sure to join us on July 7th for the second episode of the Barricade!