In March 2020, Red Canary Song gathered with Chinatown tenant organizer groups from LA, Toronto, Seattle, Philly, Calgary and more through Coast to Coast Chinatown to explore the intersectional organizing of sex workers in Chinatown and how their workplaces and homes were impacted by gentrification. Together, we shared strategies for mobilization as workers and renters to connect common battles against new jails and luxury developments.

Coast to Coast Chinatowns Against Displacement (C2C) was formed in 2019 with groups from Boston, Philadephia, New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Toronto coming together to strategize how to fight gentrification and strengthen grassroots power in Chinatowns across North America.

C2CChinatowns believes gentrification is an insidious war against indigenous and poor communities of color. Gentrifiers, developers and the capital supporting them are transnational and coordinated, working on a global scale from the same playbook we see being used against the Chinatowns, and indigenous, black and brown communities we live in. To dismantle these destructive forces, local grassroots organizers in Chinatowns have decided to band together to mobilize a coast to coast resistance movement against displacement.

In our work as a coalition, we stand alongside our neighbors in frontline communities who are fighting back against gentrification, from Los Angeles to Seattle, from Vancouver to New York. We stand together with communities across the country who are resisting the profit-driven real estate speculation that has led to a crisis of evictions, homelessness and the loss of jobs for poor and working class people.We stand in solidarity with communities across the globe who are fighting to protect their culture and their traditions, and who are struggling to save their homes and homeland from erasure.

Below are some images from the event.