Our world is growing more and more polarized, and the division is palpable. By trying to navigate systems that aren’t designed to support us, marginalized people continue to face obstacles. During a recent conversation with some peers at McGill, we spoke openly about the systemic changes we hope to see, whether in housing, climate justice, or the universities complicity in global conflicts, but found ourselves struggling to name concrete steps forward.
Get Organized! is a workshop series launched by SSMU External Affairs earlier this year. The series offers students a chance to connect with local movements, learn political organizing skills, and build relationships rooted in action.
“The workshop series started and was kind of inspired by a similar series at the CSU at Concordia that was called Get Radical,” shared Jamila, who works as the Policy and Mobilization Researcher at SSMU External Affairs. “It’s a really clear entry point for anybody at McGill who’s been looking to get involved but finds it overwhelming or doesn’t know who to reach out to or what to join.”
When she first arrived in Montreal, Jamila wanted to be politically active, but found it intimidating to join spaces without knowing anyone. “Get Organized has been a really, really wonderful way for people to just get to know each other and make friends with people that share an interest in being politically active,” she stated.
Each session featured local grassroots organizations doing movement work, including SLAM-MATU, Students for Migrant Justice, the Immigrant Workers Center, and Mobilizing for Milton Park.
“Each workshop has one or multiple local organizations doing some kind of grassroots organizing,” Jamila explained. They noted how the workshops “make it possible for people to feel more empowered politically by making friends and comrades, learning about things that are already happening, and then learning skills so that they can start things autonomously if they like.”
Though McGill has cracked down on certain forms of campus advocacy, particularly around Palestinian solidarity, Pitre says Get Organized! hasn’t encountered those barriers.
“I think that we’ve been able to put forth some quite radical programming and have really candid discussions about things like protest safety and knowing your rights when interacting with the police, but also McGill security.”
For Pitre and her team, part of the series intends to introduce students to new avenues of involvement beyond what’s already visible. “There are so many other ways for people to get involved … and we wanted to broaden the different range of struggles and local groups that students are aware of so they can get involved in other things.”
Harlan Porfiri, a student from the US, shared that the political context at home deeply shaped their motivation to join: “In the United States, the rise of fascism is particularly concerning. The rise of anti-trans rhetoric and legislation as well as weaning access to reproductive healthcare immediately threatens the well-being of my friends and family.”
Harlan heard about the workshop series through McGill Students for Good Jobs and signed up right away. Sharing their experience, Harlan said they “feel more knowledgeable about the organizing happening in my community and how I can make an impact as a student. I am impressed and inspired by the number of people interested in organizing, as well as the resources available to us as students to do so.”
“The current state of the world often moves me to fear, but I can say with absolute certainty that putting my energy toward community organizing has given me hope and the strength to look forward. It’s a very powerful feeling to be in a room full of people who see some injustice or some lack in the community and agree that they want to do something to fight against or change it.”
When asked what she’d say to someone on the fence about joining, she replied:
“It just feels so empowering to get to know other people and skills that make it possible for you to just do something, without waiting for the opportunity to come up. You look around and see things that you want to change in your community … having other people and skills to make that happen is really empowering.”
For future workshop or mini-series opportunities, follow @ssmu_ea on Instagram.