Avery Edwards is a community organizer, gender freedom fighter, and a co-founder of PYROS, the Prairie Youth Radical Organizing School, located on Treaty 6 territory in Edmonton.
In 2018, PYROS launched Queer Scouts, a cohort style leadership development program that empowers queer and trans youth to challenge injustice in their schools and communities through collective action.
I met Avery and some other members of PYROS and Queer Scouts in Winnipeg last month at the 1919 General Strike conference. Attending this conference was part of their youth education programming.
Jane McAlevey, labour organizer and author of the book No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age, was the keynote speaker at this conference and spoke about the need to build the strike weapon to combat climate change. As young people across Canada and around the world participate in climate strikes, walking out of school to demand energy and climate justice, there has never been a more crucial time to engage youth in education about labour history and strike tactics that can win.
The Prairie Youth Radical Organizing School is creating programming that sets itself apart from many other queer and trans organizations in Alberta, by bringing in this important labour component.
For more information, visit:
www.prairieyouthradicalorganizingschool.org