Action groups are made up of people who choose to focus on a particular issue or area related to social and environmental justice. They receive funds, organizational support, training, space to meet and organize, and access to OPIRG's networks of student and community activists. Action groups are always open to new members, and OPIRG is always open to proposals for new action groups. If you'd like to talk about forming a new group please get in touch with our Coordinator of Volunteer & Community Engagement at vpce@opirgguelph.org
CURRENT ACTION GROUPS:
CLIMATE JUSTICE GUELPH
Our society is facing the most crucial ecological, social and political crisis in human history. The movement for climate justice is divided and active support in Guelph could be stronger. Climate Justice Guelph aims to provide a network to unite the climate movement in Guelph. We mobilize students and community members to join Guelph-based actions and existing groups fighting for climate justice by promoting, educating and training via local and national resources. We situated on the land of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation of the Anishinaabek Peoples.
You can reach us at: climatejusticeguelph@gmail.com
https://linktr.ee/climatejusticeguelph
STUDENTS FOR PALESTINIAN LIBERATION
We organize with students, workers and community members around the Palestinian cause, to bring an end to the colonization and brutal oppression of Palestinians. We are asking the University administration to end its complicity in Israeli Apartheid by cutting ties with Hebrew and Tel Aviv University, and end its investments in Israeli companies. We oppose settler-colonialism everywhere, and we know that the University won’t ever make progress on truth and reconciliation here in Canada if it can’t even identify and act on its entanglements in settler-colonialism elsewhere.
We engage in outreach and education, host speakers, and agitate for an apartheid-free campus.
You can reach us at: splguelph@protonmail.com
FOSSIL FREE GUELPH
We believe that the impacts of climate change are a pressing reality and that there is an urgent need for us to react as a society. The most important step toward reducing global green house gas emissions is to curb the growth of the fossil fuel industry. We are asking the university to freeze new investments in fossil fuel companies and, over a five year period, divest from them completely.
We engage in outreach and education, and mobilize students to take a stance against the university’s unethical investments through petitions and direct action events. Our meetings are based on members’ availability.
You can reach us at: fossilfreeguelph@gmail.com
GUELPH ANTI-PIPELINE ACTION (GAP)
We mobilize to educate, agitate, and organize around environmental and social issues related to resource extraction. We especially focus on challenging pipeline projects and the Tar Sands, which we see as inherently detrimental to natural environments, Indigenous communities, settler communities and watersheds. We also oppose the industrial expansion they facilitate.
We host speakers, screens films, demonstrate, educate, and facilitate events and workshops. We challenge oil dependency and strive towards resiliency.
You can reach us at: guelphgap@gmail.com
RHYTHMS OF RESISTANCE
Interested in social justice? Interested in drumming? This is a group for people passionate about playing music together and harnessing samba’s power to promote social justice causes. The Guelph-based group rehearses once a week Monday nights at 6pm, performs at rallies and events, and participates in ethnographic research on what makes a group like this sustainable through time.
You can reach us at: guelph.ror@gmail.com
SOME PAST ACTION GROUPS
Students Offering Welcome
United Against Oppression
Student-Worker Alliance
Migrant Justice Guelph
Food Not Bombs
GotBike
Students Against Sweatshops
Trucks to Nicaragua
Growing Community Health
Mining Justice Guelph