Alternative Culture Now:The Politics of Culture in the Present Conjuncture

Alternative Culture

ALTERNATIVE CULTURE NOW: THE POLITICS OF CULTURE AT THE PRESENT CONJUNCTURE

 

Call for Proposals:

‘Alternative Culture Now: The Politics of Culture at the Present Conjuncture’
Conference and Event
Budapest, Hungary
April 8-10, 2010

Proposal Deadline: January 25, 2010

How do things stand with respect to the fate of the alternative? Branded and normativized, incorporated into a whole ensemble of mainstream discourses, and no longer the threat it once posed to capitalist and communist states alike, the political and social force of the alternative seems to have faded away. And yet the dream of the alternative continues to inspire political and social movements, artists, theorists, and all kinds of creative practices. How might we begin to situate and think alternativity as a global phenomenon at this precise conjuncture in world history? What is alternative about culture today? And what might or can it become?

The alternative, of course, has always been phraseable in the singular and the plural. On the one hand, it is a phenomenon locked into local configurations, a multi-polar and non-totalizable practice of myriad deviation. Here, its ambit can be that of a family drama or workplace, a national concatenation, or the homogenizing logic of a dominant cultural medium or genre. The dreams it holds in reserve are vitally minor: the fissuring of a regime with a joke or dissidence, the freedom mobilized in small, almost imperceptible defections or reversals. The production of the alternative is in this sense the aggregate, spontaneous effort of innumerable cultural agents to resist every species of stasis and capture, every grammar and vernacular, every gestural hierarchy and total system.

At the same time, this molecular vision of the alternative, of a plurality of fissions and margins, has always been accompanied by attempts to think what it is in the tendency of a moment which suppresses cultural possibilities on a global level. This is a dream of a communication or inter-mediation between margins, a system of deviances which comprehensively address the conditions which negatively hypostatize the life of the virtual. Global patriarchy, violent state expansionisms, the inhibiting logics of capital, and the globalization of the English language can be envisioned as transnational, systematized normativities that threaten cultural specificity or possibility in a way that is never exhausted by its expression on the register of the local. Is there, in this sense, only one alternative: an alternative to which there is no alternative? This notion of a single alternative-a universal difference necessary to shelter the future lives of difference–immediately sets into motion its own paradoxical dialectics of alternativity, itself appearing to erase the thing it promises. How do we escape this vortex, or at least make its impasses productive?

Is one alternative more important than another? Can alternatives be exhausted or rendered obsolete? What kind of method could we develop to test the valences of alternatives? Can or should alternative culture polemically charge the space of its own marginality, or would this degenerate into an infinite sectarianism?

We understand “alternative culture” to include diverse forms of cultural expression and activity, which are connected by their shared goal of creating just, humane, and equitable human relations by means of their opposition to existing cultural, social, and political forms.

This conference encourages contributions from scholars, educators, artists, cultural workers, policy makers, journalists, and others involved in alternative culture and international cultural policies. We are especially interested in contributions addressing alternative culture in Central/Eastern Europe and countries/regions of the former Soviet Union.

Areas of inquiry for submissions may include, but are not limited to, the following general topics in relation to the politics of alternative culture today:

Aesthetics – Collectivity – post-Communist Culture – Creativity – Cultural Studies – Eastern Europe – Geography -Globalization – Higher Education – Media – Memory/Nostalgia – Music – New Media – ex-Socialist History – ex-Soviet Urban Spaces – Visual Culture

The “Alternative Culture Now: The Politics of Culture at the Present Conjuncture” conference will take place at the OSA Archivum in Budapest, Hungary, April 8-10, 2010. It is organized and sponsored by the International Alternative Culture Center, with the support of the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology (Central European University) and the Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies (University of Alberta). The conference format will be diverse, including paper presentations, panels, round-table exchanges, artistic performances, and exhibitions. We encourage individual and collaborative paper and panel proposals from across the disciplines and from artists and community members.

Paper Submissions should include: (1) contact information; (2) a 300-500 word abstract; and (3) a one page curriculum vitae or a brief bio.

Panel Proposals should include: (1) a cover sheet with contact information for chair and each panelist; (2) a one-page rationale explaining the relevance of the panel to the theme of the conference; (3) a 300 word abstract for each proposed paper; and (4) a one page curriculum vitae for each presenter.

Please submit individual paper proposals or full panel proposals via e-mail attachment by January 25, 2010 to 
alternativeculturenow@gmail.com with the subject line “Alternative Culture Now.” Attachments should be in .doc or .rtf formats. Submissions should be one document (i.e. include all required information in one attached document).

Website: http://www.alternativeculture.org

Conference Organizing Team: Sarah Blacker (University of Alberta, Canada), Jessie Labov (Ohio State, USA), Andrew Pendakis (University of Bonn, Germany), Justin Sully (McMaster University, Canada), Imre Szeman (University of Alberta, Canada), Maria Whiteman (University of Alberta, Canada), and Olga Zaslavskaya (OSA, Hungary)

Sarah Blacker
Department of English and Film Studies
3-5 Humanities Centre
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
T6G 2E5

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

German University Students on Strike

German Students Strike

GERMAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ON STRIKE

 

Links to German student protests that are ongoing:

http://www.euronews.net/2009/11/17/german-university-strike-spreads/

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4901195,00.html

Thanks to Patrick Ainley for sending me these links.

Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Beneath the University, The Commons

Commons

BENEATH THE UNIVERSITY, THE COMMONS

 

Beneath the University, the Commons
A conference at the University of Minnesota
April 8-11, 2010

// Antioch 05.08 // Rome 10.08 // Athens 12.08 // New York City 12.08 // Helsinki 03.09 // Zagreb 05.09 // Heidelberg 06.09 // London 06.09 //Santa Cruz 09.09//

Seemingly discrete struggles over the conditions of university life have erupted around the world within the past year. These struggles share certain commonalities: outrage over precarious and exploitative conditions, the occupation of university spaces, and goals of reclaiming education from state and corporate interests.  It is becoming increasingly apparent that recent struggles over the university are not merely discrete events. They express a wider collective desire for direct control over the means of production and forms of life; a desire to create relationships of learning,  
collaboration, and innovation beyond the university’s attempts to quantify and discipline them.

Although the modern university has served the interests of the state and capital since its inception, the past thirty years have witnessed tightened ties with corporate, financial, and geopolitical interests. The subsumption of higher education under capital-driven business models has intensified the expropriation of the products of cooperative labor.  With the proliferation of student-consumer and scholar-manager subjectivities, we increasingly find ourselves uncomfortably and often unwittingly occupying the role of active participants in these trends.  As the global struggles over the past year have illustrated, however, opposition to these mechanisms of capture is mounting, as are creative strategies for alternatives and exodus.  Struggles against the corporate university are linking up across borders; the slogan of the International Student Movement, “One World – One Struggle : Education is Not for Sale,” and the slogan of the Anomalous Wave, “We Won’t Pay for Your Crisis,” appear in actions across Europe, the Americas, and South Asia.

“Beneath the University, the Commons” builds on the work accomplished by activists, organizers, artists, and academics at the “Re-thinking” and “Re-working” the University Conferences of 2008 and 2009 (http://www.reworkingtheu.org), while expanding the scope of our discussions and bringing together more international scholars in order to address an increasingly volatile global situation.  Our goal is to aggregate and accelerate our knowledge of university conditions and our collective acts of resistance to them, including alternative forms of engaging with each other and with the world.  To this end, the 2010 conference will draw together a diverse set of people committed to exploring how we can understand, create, and experiment with the commons beneath the 
university.  Our questions include but are not limited to:
//How do we enact and sustain occupations of the university in the exceptional times and spaces of the everyday?

//How do we generate an international “undercommons,” maintaining – as Stefano Harney and Stevphen Shukaitis have suggested – subversive  positions as actors within, rather than of, the spaces of the university?

//How can unionization projects and occupation struggles learn from and collaborate with one another?

//How do we negotiate the line between stability and revolutionary effectiveness?

//How do we open up sustainable and liveable spaces for radical research, education, and scholarship, without being subsumed by the publish-or-perish disciplinary apparatus?

//How can we collaboratively map and share research, information, tactics, and cultures?

//In recognition that our conditions are a part of a larger set of global occupations and injustices, how do we link with social movements outside of and across the university?

This four-day event will consist of two days of conference sessions bracketed by two days of workshops, writing collaborations, skill shares, and plenty of time for sustained conversations among participants.  We are accepting proposals both for formal papers and for non-conventional forms of participation.

– If you would like to present a paper, please submit an abstract and a CV or brief biographical statement.
– If you would like to participate in another way (by leading a workshop, facilitating a roundtable, presenting media, etc), please submit a brief (1-2 pages) description of the proposed activity and include what kind of resources we would need to provide, along with a CV or brief biographical statement.

All proposals should be addressed to conference@beneaththeu.org, and must be received by January 1, 2010.
–
Stevphen Shukaitis
Autonomedia Editorial Collective
http://www.autonomedia.org
http://info.interactivist.net

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Discourse, Power and Resistance Conference 2010

Discourse

DISCOURSE, POWER AND RESISTANCE CONFERENCE 2010

 

DISCOURSE, POWER, RESISTANCE Annual Conference
30 March – 1 April 2010
University of Greenwich, London

The 9th conference in the ‘Discourse, Power, Resistance’ (DPR) series has moved from Manchester Metropolitan University to its new host in the School of Education and Training at the University of Greenwich, and will be held at the University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom, between 30 March and 1 April, 2010.

The venue is part of a world heritage site laid out in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries by Sir Christopher Wren and his successors. The conference will use the King William Building and the Stephen Lawrence Building, named in honour of Stephen Lawrence, killed some four miles away from Greenwich by racists in 1993 and now a symbol in the campaign for racial and social justice.

The title of the conference is simple: Trust. The conference will look at issues of trust in the academy and beyond – in management, teaching, learning and research. The six streams of the conference are:

- Trust and Leadership in the Academy
- Trust and Panic in Education
- Research Ethics
- Trust in the Community: critical race theory
- Faith, Belief and Truth
- The Individual in a Mistrustful World

DPR 9 will look at the troubled relationships within and beyond the academy, in the UK and world-wide, where questions of trust are crucial: who can we trust, how can we know what is true, what happens when trust breaks down in the academy, in the community and internationally? What research methodology brings us an understanding deep enough to trust, and why is this methodology so often still suspected and dismissed by managers and policy-makers at all levels?

For further information and Call for Papers please contact:
Jerome Satterthwaite (jnsatterthwaite@gmail.com)

DPR journal: Power and Education : http://www.wwwords.co.uk/power/
Travel Information
Greenwich Tourist Information
Suggested hotels: 
De Vere Devonport House | Ibis Hotel London Greenwich

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Youth Fight for Jobs London Newsletter

Higher Education

Youth Fight for Jobs LONDON NEWSLETTER

 

Youth unemployment stands on the verge of 1million – That’s 1 in 5 young people unemployed. Whilst the government can afford to spend billions bailing out the banks it can’t afford to put money into decent jobs and free education for young people. Education offer no alternative to the dole queues – universities are set to increase fees to at least £7,000 per year, putting university out of reach for most ordinary people. For young people that have a job, it often comes with a lower minimum wage, worse conditions and poor contracts.

Youth Fight for Jobs was set up in March to provide an alternative to people who want to fight back against unemployment. We had a launch ‘March for Jobs’ where 600 young people marched through the four poorest boroughs of London demanding decent jobs and conditions. Since then the campaign has grown. We have become the focal point for the media on the fight against youth unemployment and have held activity, fortnights of action, protests against the releasing of unemployment figures, meetings, gigs and stunts.

We have a national demonstration taking place on the 28th November marching under the banner of ‘for real jobs – for free education’. For this demonstration we will be doing activity all over London and would like you to get involved in helping us build the campaign and local groups. See: http://www.youthfightforjobs.com

We are also organising a day of action on the 21st November (the week before the demonstration) where we will be leafleting estates, doing stunts and postering around the route of the demonstration which we would like you to get involved in.

We are organising activity across London including:

Greenwich

Lewisham

Hackney

Leyton

Tower Hamlets

Walthamstow

Hillingdon

West Central

East London

Haringey

Camden

Lambeth & Southwark

Croydon

If you would like to get involved in this activity or want help building in your area/school/college/workplace- contact us through the number and email below. Enclosed are a few leaflets for the campaign and also a membership card to join the campaign for £4 waged/£1unwaged.

Yours Sincerely,

Suzanne Beishon, Youth Fight for Jobs Steering Committee, 07716610893, suzbeishon@hotmail.com

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Demonstration Against Higher Education Fees!

Higher Education

DEMONSTRATION AGAINST HIGHER EDUCATION FEES!

 

Government puts education into the hands of big business

No university fees! Demonstrate 28 November!

We won’t pay for the bosses’ crisis!

New Labour and the Conservatives are determined to make young people and workers pay for this crisis. On the one hand, they say there are jobs available for all, all you need is ‘determination’. At the same time, they slash funding for youth training and put corrupt fat cats in charge of setting university fees.

Lord Mandelson refused the National Union of Students a voice in the review of university fees because that would harm the ‘objectivity’ of the review. Instead, we have an ‘objective’ board of some of the biggest capitalists and privateers in Britain, chaired by Lord Browne. Lord Browne was Chief Executive of BP until 2007, making billions of pounds out of war in Iraq and environmental destruction. Browne left BP, amidst allegations of corruption, with a £5 million payoff and a £21 million pension pot. Is this man seriously going to say that society cannot afford our education?

David Eastwood, Vice Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, also sits on the review. As part of the Russell Group, he has been demanding students pay more for education for years. The university is currently trying to close its entire sociology department, without consultation with staff, because it is not bringing in enough money. Aston University’s vice chancellor is also ‘objectively’ reviewing university funding, fresh from slashing 18 jobs over the summer.

The rest of the board is made up of a former advisor to Tony Blair (the Prime Minister who abolished free university education), two NGO bigwigs and, unbelievably, Peter Sands, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank. Is he going to demand the same level of investment in education, in our future, that him and his peers have received over the last eighteen months? Of course not. The bosses organisation, the CBI, call for fees of £7,000 a year. Labour and the Tories say similar. Before the review board has met, the outcome is clear. Peter Sands, Lord Browne, Lord Mandelson and all the others want to make us pay for the crisis of their system.

£350 million cuts are being made in vocational education. Out of around 600,000 school leavers, 8,000 will get real apprenticeships, ones which lead to a job and a qualification.

Never mind that young people want to learn, want to work! Never mind that 55% think university education should be free! Since when did the politicians care what we think? Since when did big business and university bosses do favours for us?

Since we organised and fought them. Youth Fight for Jobs says no to university fees, no to writing off our generation, no to mass youth unemployment. We are demonstrating on 28 November – for real jobs, for free education. Join us in the fightback!

Join the demonstration in central London, Malet Street, WC1E, nearest tube Euston / Russell Square. For details of transport from outside London, see: http://www.youthfightforjobs.com/transport

Youth Fight for Jobs: http://www.youthfightforjobs.com

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Historical Materialism Volume 17 Issue 3 (2009)

Historical Materialism

HISTORICAL MATERIALISM VOLUME 17 ISSUE 3 (2009)

 

http://www.brill.nl/hima

To subscribe, write to: historicalmaterialism@soas.ac.uk

Historical Materialism
Research in Critical Marxist Theory
Volume 17 Issue 3
2009

CONTENTS:

Articles

Massimo de Angelis and David Harvie
‘Cognitive Capitalism’ and the Rat-Race: How Capital Measures Immaterial Labour in British Universities

Iain Pirie
The Political Economy of Academic Publishing

Maria Turchetto
Althusser and Monod: A ‘New Alliance’?

Reflections on ‘Gewalt’ (contd.)

Vittorio Morfino
The Syntax of Violence. Between Hegel and Marx

Archive
David Fernbach
Editorial Introduction to Paul Levi’s Our Path: Against Putschism and What Is the Crime: The March Action or Criticising It?

Paul Levi
Our Path: Against Putschism

Paul Levi
What Is the Crime: The March Action or Criticising It?

Interventions

Alberto Toscano
Partisan Thought

Ben Fine and Alfredo Saad-Filho
Twixt Ricardo and Rubin: Debating Kincaid Once More

Jim Kincaid
The Logical Construction of Value Theory: More on Fine and
Saad-Filho

Review Articles

Christian Høgsbjerg
on Frank Rosengarten’s Urbane Revolutionary: C.L.R. James and the Struggle for a New Society and Brett St Louis’s Rethinking Race, Politics, and Poetics: C.L.R. James’ Critique of Modernity

Robert T. Tally Jr
on Loren Goldner’s Herman Melville: Between Charlemagne and the Antemosaic Cosmic Man: Race, Class, and the Crisis of Bourgeois Ideology in the American Renaissance Writer

Seongjin Jeong
on Iain Pirie’s The Korean Developmental State: From Dirigisme to Neo-Liberalism

Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism
Peter Thomas
Catharsis

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Centre for the Study of Education and Work – Update 30th September 2009

Unemployment

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK – UPDATE 30th SEPTEMBER 2009

 

OUR MANDATE: The Centre for the Study of Education and Work (CSEW) brings together educators from university, union, and community settings to understand and enrich the often-undervalued informal and formal learning of working people. We develop research and teaching programs at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (UofT) that strengthen feminist, anti-racist, labour movement, and working-class perspectives on learning and work.

Our major project is APCOL: Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning. This five-year project (2009-2013), funded by SSHRC-CURA, brings academics and activists together in a collaborative effort to evaluate how organizations approach issues and campaigns and use popular education.

To change your subscription settings, visit http://listserv.oise.utoronto.ca/mailman/listinfo/csewbroadcast

For more information about CSEW, visit: http://www.csew.ca

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FORUM: SOLIDARITY, RESISTANCE, CHANGE: ORGANIZING WORKING CLASS COMMUNITIES

Public forum featuring: Steve Williams, Co-Director and co-founder of the California based group “People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER)” and co-author of the book “Towards Land, Work and Power”.
Join us to hear Steve Williams speak about POWER, and organizing working-class communities in the current context of the economic crisis.

Introductions and opening remarks will be made by Sam Gindin, CAW (Retired), and Stephanie Ross, York University. With Q & A.

Friday October 2, 2009
7pm
Ryerson Student Centre
55 Gould Street, Room 115
Toronto

Directions: http://www.oakhamhouse.com/pages/directions.php

In 1997, in the wake of Clinton’s historic attack on social assistance, welfare and public support measures for the poor, activists in the San Francisco area formed POWER: People Organized to Win Employment Rights. Since its inception, POWER members have waged more than twenty campaigns to improve the living and working conditions for welfare workers, domestic workers, low-income tenants and other working class people of color.

Co-sponsored by Socialist Project and Centre for Social Justice
Endorsed by Black Action Defence Committee (BADC), No One Is Illegal (NOII) and Ontario Coalition against Poverty (OCAP)

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STUDENT-LED CONFERENCE PUTS THE PRIDE BACK INTO HEALTH RESEARCH

Research with Pride
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
8:30 am – 4:30 pm
University of Toronto
Dalla Lana School of Public Health
155 College Street, Room 610

In partnership with The 519 Church Street Community Centre, this unique forum will offer the opportunity for students, community members, academics, and allies of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two spirit, and queer (LGBTT2Q) communities to come together to discuss relevant health research, with a specific focus on community-based research (CBR) strategies.

Free. Lunch and snacks provided.

For more information or to register:  http://researchwithpride.org/index.html

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MAKING MUNICIPAL VOTING MATTER

Thursday, October 1
9 am to Noon
89 Chestnut Street
Toronto, Ontario

Elections in Toronto are not meeting our expectations. Voter turn-out is surprisingly low. New faces on City Council are uncommon. And perhaps most importantly, our City Council does not reflect the evolving demographic of Toronto’s population. What are options for renewal?

Join other community organizations and individuals in a discussion about the changes we need to make municipal elections matter in Toronto.

RSVP for this event: http://www.facebook.com/l/2617e;tinyurl.com/lgcywd

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BUILDING THE FUTURE WE WANT: FINDING OPPORTUNITY IN ADVERSITY

Friday, October 2, 2009
9:00 am to 4:00 pm
New College, University of Toronto
$50.00 (includes lunch and refreshments)

The Symposium will bring together a broad range of individuals and organizations to explore the ways in which the current economic and social crisis may provide opportunities to rethink how government, the non-profit sector and business can renew our social safety net for the 21st century.

Panels:

* Ending Poverty
* Social Infrastructure
* Good Jobs
* Social Security and Economic Stabilizers

Register online at http://www.socialplanningtoronto.org/symposium

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SHOVEL READY IS NOT THE WHOLE STORY: OPTIONS AND PRIORITIES FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN THE GTA

Public Forum on Housing

Presented by The Older Women’s Network (OWN) and The Centre for Women’s Studies in Education at OISE, University of
Toronto

Sunday, October 4, 1:30 to 5 pm
OISE Auditorium
252 Bloor Street West (St. George Subway)

Panel Members:

* Heather McGregor, Chief Executive Officer, YWCA Toronto
* Angela Robertson, Executive Director, Sistering – A Woman’s Place
* Michael Shapcott, Director, Affordable Housing & Social Innovation, Wellesley Institute

The Older Women’s Network (OWN) – A Voice for Mid-Life and Older Women – is a not for profit organization incorporated in 1988. In 1997 OWN was instrumental in building a 142 unit Housing Co-op in the St. Lawrence Market area of Toronto.

For more information:  http://www.olderwomensnetwork.org

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A SERIES OF LEARNING CIRCLES: IN CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF ALAN THOMAS

By the holders of the Alan Thomas Fellowship
of the Carold Institute
In Celebration of the Life and Work of Alan Thomas

Date: Monday October 5, 2009
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Place: Concordia University
Hall Building 7th Floor
Room H-762
1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Montreal

RSVP: 514-848-2424 (2036)
For more information: qaal@alcor.concordia.ca
Admission is FREE
Light Refreshments will be available

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FIRESIDE CHAT ON RACE, GENDER, INCOME VIA TELEPHONE/INTERNET

A special invitation to:
Public health planners and practitioners, policy makers, public health evaluators, community partners working with public health (e.g., NGOs, community health centres, school boards and educational institutions)….

A Fireside Chat – free pan-Canadian discussion via telephone/internet

Thursday October 8, 2009
1:00pm-2:30pm (Eastern Time)
Using an Online Toolkit to Address Social Determinants of Health through Multiple Intervention Programs

For more information and to register:  http://www.chnet-works.ca

Race…gender…income…All of these affect our health. In fact, considerable evidence exists that unequal social conditions contribute significantly to the persistent inequalities in the health of populations, internationally and in Canada.

How can public health programs address these, and other, social determinants of health? How are ’social determinants’ understood and defined? What information can we draw upon to identify the determinants that we might be able to address? What kinds of interventions might be effective? How can we assess the impact of health interventions on social determinants? Is there any evidence that the social determinants can be altered through public health programming?

If you have ever asked yourself these questions, please join us on October 8. This Fireside chat will focus on using elements of the Multiple Interventions Program Tool Kit, an on-line resource for public health planners, to take into account social determinants of health when planning, implementing, and evaluating multiple intervention programs.

CHNET-works! hosts weekly fireside chats re: community health issues a project of RRASpHIRN, University of Ottawa Population Health Improvement Research Network – Réseau de recherches d’amélioration de la Santé de la population

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WOMEN TOGETHER: ENCOURAGING WOMEN TO TAKE A BIGGER PART IN POLITICS

An evening with:

* Andrea Horwath, Ontario NDP Leader
* Peggy Nash, President of the Federal NDP
* Cheri DiNovo, MPP Parkdale-High Park & ONDP Women’s Critic

Monday October 5 2009
CAW 1285 Hall,
23 Regan Street, Brampton
(McLaughlin & Bovaird– easily reached from the 401, 407 & 410)
6:30PM reception, 7:00PM start
Dinner will be served.

Tickets are $24 or five for $100
$15 for students, or on layoff
Make cheques out to CAW 1285, write Elect Women Together in the memo area, and mail to CAW 1285, 23 Regan Road, Brampton, ON L7A 1B2

All are welcome to attend.

Introducing potential candidates, Party members, supporters, friends and others, to the nuts and bolts of getting elected.

Women Party members who have run for office are asked to share their experience and knowledge.

To order tickets, for more info, or to volunteer: ondpwomen@gmail.com

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DIVERSITY: STRATEGIES FOR A CHANGING WORKFORCE

The Toronto Training Board in partnership with Working Skills Centre and Working Women Community Centre is holding a one-day forum entitled “Diversity: Strategies for a Changing Workforce”.

The Forum is intended to gather “promising practices” related to creating a robust, multi-generational, diverse workplace, something that is essential to Toronto’s ability to attract and retain skilled workers.

If you are unable to attend, please consider finding another representative of your workplace.

Friday Oct. 16
Metro Hall
55 John Street, Room 308
9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Registration: $35 before Oct. 1 and $50 after Oct. 1 (including at door)
Includes breakfast, light lunch and snacks.
To register:  Carmen@ttb.on.ca
For more info:  416-703-7770 x. 519

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FOOD ISSUES PANEL: BROKEN SYSTEM

In conversation with Matt Galloway

How do we rethink our food distribution and quota systems along with various other antiquated food policies in order to rebuild our food systems so that we can help support a model that is based around small-scale local producers, while we ensure that we can provide nutritious and affordable food for all of our diverse communities.

Panelists:

* John Rowe, Farmer
* Debbie Field, Food Activist, FoodShare Toronto
* Ruth Klahsen, Artisan Cheese Maker
* Nick Saul, Food Activist, The Stop Community Food Centre

Tuesday October 20
Hart House, University of Toronto
7 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Free Event

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RISK MANAGEMENT FOR NONPROFITS: NO COST & LOW COST WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR PEOPLE AND REPUTATION

October 15, 2009
8:30am – 12:30pm
Centre for Social Innovation
215 Spadina Ave.
Alterna Boardroom, 4th floor
$73.50 (inclusive of GST)
Coffee and light breakfast will be provided

We’re pleased to announce that the Centre for Social Innovation will be hosting a half-day workshop on effective risk management! Every organization needs to take risks in order to grow and reach the next level, but learning to do it smart is key. Presented by David Hartley, this workshop will help guide you to that place and is geared towards staff members, board members, and key volunteers of small and medium nonprofit organizations.

To register: http://socialinnovation.ca/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=8

For questions, please contact Yumi Hotta, Community Animator at yumi@socialinnovation.ca

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FREE FILM FEST SHOWCASES LABOUR

Source: rabble.ca

The Canadian Labour International Film Festival is close to its goal of screening films in 100 communities across Canada. The movies will screen in cinemas, labour halls and living-rooms. There’s still time to get involved. CLIFF board member Raj Virk explains how.

http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/redeye/2009/09/free-film-fest-showcases-labour

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MULTI-UNION COALITION AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA STRIKES BACK AT DEVASTATING CUTS

By Jack Gerson, Tanya Smith, Labor Notes

Students, faculty, and staff at the University of California’s campuses walked out Thursday to protest hundreds of layoffs, cuts to academic programs and research centers, a staggering 32 percent tuition increase, and the stripping of any pretense of shared governance by placing “emergency” dictatorial powers in the university president’s hands. Photo: andydr

A coalition of unions, faculty, and students gave a sharp rebuke to cuts and corporate giveaways at the renowned University of California system on September 24—the first day back for most UC campuses.

Organizers called picket lines, rallies, and teach-ins on each of the 10 campuses to protest a wave of layoffs, tuition increases, and academic and research program cuts—all steps toward the decimation of public education in California.

To read more: http://labornotes.org/node/2459

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UNIONS MUST MOVE LEFT, THEY HAVE NO ALTERNATIVE – MONTHLY REVIEW

David Bacon (dbacon.igc.org) is a California writer and documentary photographer. He was a union organizer among immigrant workers for two decades. He documents the changing conditions in the workforce, the impact of the global economy, war, and migration, and the struggle for human rights.

To read more: http://www.monthlyreview.org/090928bacon.php

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VIDEO: NAOMI KLEIN VS. ALAN GREENSPAN ON CRONY CAPITALISM IN THE US

Source: http://www.youtube.com
Except from September 24th 2007 Democracy Now! Naomi Klein and Alan Greenspan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09zvzzCOB2M

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CANADA MUST FORGE ITS OWN ECONOMIC FATE

Source: murraydobbin.ca

The SPP is dead. Let’s keep it that way.

With virtually no fanfare or media analysis, one of the most transformative agreements ever signed by Canada and the U.S. (and Mexico) is officially dead. The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), the formal expression of a corporate lobbying campaign called deep integration, is no more.

To read more: http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2009/09/24/EconomicFate/

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VIDEO: FIX EI TOWN HALL – JUDY REBICK – SEPTEMBER 21, 2009

Source: www.youtube.com
Author and social justice activist Judy Rebick addresses the “Fix EI” Town Hall Meeting held at Ryerson University in Toronto – September 21, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK5rOQpQxVA

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UNION RIGHTS AS HUMAN RIGHTS: BUILDING THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IN MANITOBA

By Errol Black

The Manitoba Federation of Labour (MFL) is holding its annual convention in Brandon October 2 – 4, 2009. There are many important issues to be dealt with however the one issue that should be on the agenda and should be the focus of discussion is the spectre of eroding memberships in trade union organizations, evident in all jurisdictions in Canada.

To read more: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/reports/2009/09/article2314/

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ONTARIO FACULTY RELEASE REPORT ON UNIVERSITIES AND THE RECESSION: PAPER FINDS SERIOUS FINANCIAL IMPACTS ON INSTITUTIONS AND STUDENTS

TORONTO , Sept. 29 /CNW/ – The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) today released a research report, written by Hugh MacKenzie, analyzing the impact of the recent recession on Ontario’s universities. The report, commissioned by OCUFA, indicates that the economic downturn highlights fundamental problems with how the province funds higher education.

“This paper reveals serious cracks in Ontario’s funding model,” said Professor Mark Langer, President of OCUFA. “The recession starkly illustrates how our institutions are seriously under-funded, and how this under-funding puts serious financial pressure on students and their families.”

The negative effects of the recession are due to policy changes that began in the mid-1990s. After huge cuts to public university funding, institutions were forced to turn to private sources of income such as endowment funds and higher tuition fees. Now, 14 years later, the global financial crisis has significantly reduced the value of endowment funds and pension plans, hurting university revenue. Moreover, record student unemployment has made it even harder for students to pay for Ontario’s already expensive tuition fees. The Government of Ontario’s current tuition policy will allow fees to increase by an average of five per cent in the 2009-10 school year.

OCUFA has recently launched the Quality Matters campaign (http://www.quality-matters.ca) to raise awareness of the need for greater public funding in the university system. This investment will help mitigate the effects of the recession while improving educational quality and controlling tuition fees.

To read the report, please go to http://www.ocufa.on.ca/Publications.researchreports.gk.

Founded in 1964, OCUFA represent 15,000 faculty in 24 faculty associations across Ontario. For more information, please visit the OCUFA website at http://www.ocufa.on.ca

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PODCAST: NAOMI KLEIN INTERVIEWS MICHAEL MOORE

Source: Common Dreams

On September 17, in the midst of the publicity blitz for his cinematic takedown of the capitalist order, Moore talked with Nation columnist Naomi Klein by phone about the film, the roots of our economic crisis and the promise and peril of the present political moment.

To listen to a podcast of the full conversation:  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091012/moore_podcast

To read an edited transcript of their conversation: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/09/25

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VIEWS: MUTUAL AID SOCIETY – INSIDE HIGHER ED

Source: http://www.insidehighered.com

Did humanity evolve with selfish genes? Scott McLemee looks into an alternative theory.

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/mclemee/mclemee260

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JOB POSTING: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SISTERING, TORONTO

You will foster learning, innovation, research, and philanthropy across the organization while promoting collaboration throughout Sistering and within the wider community. You will represent our organization to the broader community, build and maintain strong relationships, and ensure our financial health and sustainability. A ‘big picture’ thinker and inspirational leader, you have a graduate degree in a human services field or the equivalent, a proven five-year track record of success as a senior manager, ideally within a diverse, non-profit organization serving marginalized communities, and experience working with a Board of Directors. You have five years of experience in the social services or not-for-profit sectors, strong government and community relations expertise, and advocacy skills to effect change in social policies.

You may be required to work occasional weekends, provide periodic on-call support for weekend drop-in shifts, and travel within the city.

We offer excellent compensation and benefits. Please apply to:
962 Bloor Street West
Toronto, ON M6H 1L6
tel: 416-926-9762
fax: 416-926-1932
e-mail: jkali@sistering.org

Sistering has anti-racism/oppression and employment equity policies and especially encourages Aboriginal women, women of colour, immigrant and refugee women, and women from other disadvantaged groups to apply.

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JOB POSTING: PROGRAM COORDINATOR, MAYWORKS, TORONTO

Deadline: 6:00 p.m. on October 13, 2009

Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts seeks a Program Coordinator for the festival events.

For more information on this position: http://www.mayworks.ca/

***END***

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowsk

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Toward a Global Autonomous University

 

Edu-factory

TOWARD A GLOBAL AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY

 

Toward a Global Autonomous University: Cognitive Labor, the Production of Knowledge and Exodus from the Education Factory

By: Edu-factory Collective
ISBN 978-1-57027-204-2: price $14.95: 196 pages

What was once the factory is now the university. We started off with this apparently straightforward affirmation, not in order to assume it but to question it; to open it, radically rethinking it, towards theoretical and political research. The Edu-factory project took off from here….Edu-factory is, above all, a partisan standpoint on the crisis of the university…. The state university is in ruins, the mass university is in ruins, and the university as a privileged place of national culture — just like the concept of national culture itself — is in ruins.

We’re not suffering from nostalgia. Quite the contrary, we vindicate the university’s destruction. In fact, the crisis of the university was determined by social movements in the first place. This is what makes us not merely immune to tears for the past but enemies of such a nostalgic disposition.

University corporatization and the rise of a global university…are not unilateral impositions or developments completely contained by capitalist rationality. Rather they are the result — absolutely temporary and thus reversible — of a formidable cycle of struggles. The problem is to transform the field of tension delineated by the processes analyzed in this book into specific forms of resistance and the organization of escape routes.

This is Edu-factory’s starting point and objective, its style and its method.

The Edu-factory Collective: http://www.edu-factory.org/edu15/

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Edu-factory

Polygraph 21

Polygraph 21

POLYGRAPH 21

 

Study, Students, Universities

Issue Editors: Luka Aarsenjuk and Michelle Koerner

Introduction: Available as a PDF file, Luka Arsenjuk and Michelle Koerner

Creating Commons: Divided Governance, Participatory Management, and Struggles Against Enclosure in the University, Isaac Kamola and Eli Meyerhoff

Surplus Knowledge; or, Can We Teach Today? Juliet Flower MacCannell

Destinies of the University, Alessandro Russo, Translated by Roberta Orlandini

Risky Business: Why Public Is Losing to Private in American Research, Christopher Newfield

The Financialization of Student Life: Five Propositions on Student Debt, Morgan Adamson

Axiomatic Equality: Jacques Rancière and the Politics of Contemporary Education, Nina Power

A ‘Nueva Politicidad’, A Different Epistemology: An Introduction to ‘Colectivo Situaciones’ and ‘Universidad Trashumante’, Beatriz Llenin-Figueroa

An Elephant at School and Other Texts, Colectivo Situaciones, Translated by Beatriz Llenin-Figueroa

Walking the Other Country: Reflections on ‘Trashumancia’ and Popular Education, Universidad Trashumante, Translated by Beatriz Llenin-Figueroa

On Study: A ‘Polygraph’ Roundtable Discussion with Marc Bousquet, Stefano Harney, and Fred Moten, Available as a PDF file.

Universities in France: Forty Years After May ‘68, Renaud Bécot, Translated by Justin Izzo

The Gated Campus, Its Borderless Subjects, and the Neighborhood Nearby, Gökçe Günel, Books in Review

Marc Bousquet, How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation (2008), Available as a PDF file, Review by Gerry Canavan

Antonio Negri, The Porcelain Workshop: For a New Grammar of Politics (2008); Paolo Virno, Multitude: Between Innovation and Negation (2008); Christian Marazzi, Capital and Language: From the New Economy to the War Economy (2008), Review by Alex Greenberg

John R. Betz, After Enlightenment: The Post-Secular Vision of J. G. Hamann (2009), Review by Lucas Perkins

‘Polygraph’ 21 is at: http://www.duke.edu/web/polygraph/poly21.html

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk