Educating from Marx
CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK – UPDATE 5th JANUARY 2013
EVENTS
SPEED DATING FOR WORKERS’ RIGHTS
Monday, January 7, 2013
7:15pm – 10:00pm
417 Restaurant and Lounge
417 Danforth Ave., Toronto, ON
Fundraiser for the Workers’ Action Centre.
Speed dating, men & women, ages 30 – 40. Meet 12 – 14 singles in one evening while raising money for a worthy cause
Cost: $25 – Please bring cheques made out to the Workers’ Action Centre.
To sign up: Send an email to justidateevents@gmail.com to reserve your spot.
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ONTARIO 2013: TOWARD A POST-AUSTERITY VISION
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
10:00am – 4:00pm (lunch included)
Thomas Lounge, Oakham House
Ryerson University Toronto, ON
Please join the CCPA [Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives] – Ontario for an update on the province’s economy and a strategy session focusing on how to move toward a post-austerity vision.
We’ll feature:
* Hugh Mackenzie, CCPA- Countering deficit hysteria: Ontario budget numbers post-Drummond
* Jim Stanford, CAW- Economic and jobs update
* Trish Hennessy, CCPA- Toward a post-austerity narrative
* Sectoral updates … and more!
Questions? Please contact Trish Hennessy: ccpaon@policyalternatives.ca
Register at http://ccpa-ontarioeconomicupdate-eac2.eventbrite.com
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ANTI-CAPITALISM AND FEMINISM
Saturday, January 12, 2013
7:00pm
Beit Zatoun
612 Markham Street
Toronto, ON
Join the Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly for a ‘coffee house’ discussion on Anti-capitalism and Feminism
- Socialist Feminism in Canada: A Brief History — Meg Luxton
– Marxist Feminism: Keywords and Key Concepts — Shahrzad Mojab
Followed by Q and A and informal discussion.
This is the first of a three-part monthly series on anti-capitalism and feminism. Watch for future listings.
More about the speakers:
Meg Luxton: Professor and Director of the Graduate Program of Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies at York University. Meg has been active in the women’s liberation movement, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, and a range of campus and community groups. As a socialist feminist scholar she writes on feminist politics, women’s work (paid and unpaid), international effort to include women’s unpaid work in the UN and the history of the Canadian women’s movement, especially it’s left-wing currents.
Shahrzad Mojab: Professor in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education and Women and Gender Studies, University of Toronto. Scholar, teacher, and activist, Shahrzad is internationally known for her work on the impact of war, displacement and violence on women’s learning and education. Her recent co-edited book, Educating from Marx: Race, Gender and Learning (2011, with Sara Carpenter, Palgrave McMillan ‘Marxism and Education’ Series) is an anti-racist feminist analysis of Marxism for a revolutionary feminist praxis. For more on this book see: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/educating-from-marx-race-gender-and-learning-by-sara-carpenter-and-shahrzad-mojab/
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WORKERS RISING FROM WALMART TO MARIKANA PUBLIC
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
7:00pm – 8:30pm
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, room 8220
252 Bloor Street West
Toronto, ON
Speakers:
– Elizabeth Clinton, OUR Walmart campaigner from Texas
– Ritch Whyman, International Socialists
While governments around the world try and push austerity and force the working class to pay for the economic crisis, workers continue to resist.
Showing that workers in some of the lowest paid service-sector jobs can organize and fight back, workers from Walmart and McDonald’s have held protests, wildcat strikes and campaigned for better wages. In South Africa, miners have bravely faced down police bullets in their struggle against their employers and government. Workers across Ontario are preparing to protest a Liberal government that is trying to impose wage freezes and cut their benefits.
Join a discussion on working class resistance, where we have been and where we are going.
Organized by the U of T International Socialists
Info: reports@socialist.ca
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COMMUNITY HEALTH FORUM: NEWCOMERS TO CANADA: MIGRATION, IMMIGRATION CHALLENGES AND SUCCESSES
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
7 to 9 p.m.
Ramada Plaza Hotel
300 Jarvis Street, Toronto and online
Topics to be discussed:
-Ethnoracial diversity
-Getting to healthcare
-Navigating the system
More information: http://www.actoronto.org/home.nsf/pages/act.docs.2302
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FORCED MARRIAGE PROJECT – WORKSHOPS
The Forced Marriage Project (FMP) invites you to participate in a four part series of FREE training workshops for service providers, youth-focused agencies/groups, community-based organizations/groups, and volunteers.
The Forced Marriage Project (FMP) is a project of Agincourt Community Services Association, funded by Status Women Canada. We raise awareness about forced marriage in Canada through our website, newsletter, youth engagement initiatives, and training service providers and community members
in understanding and responding to cases of forced marriage.
#1: An Introduction to Forced Marriage
#2: Working with Parents
#3: Engaging Youth
#4: Intervention in Cases of Forced Marriage
For more info and to register: http://fmp-acsa.eventbrite.ca/
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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT COURSE AT RYERSON
The first course was taught by Winnie Ng and Deena Ladd over six full time days in the spring, 2012. There were 18 participants — the majority were front-line community workers in a variety of settings. The majority were sponsored by their employers to attend which made it possible for them to take the course. We had a great class that supported each other in their learning and the evaluations were very positive!
We are hoping people who are working in community agencies, unions, immigrant settlement agencies and neighbourhood centres, health centres, etc will be supported by their organizations to attend this course. The course will be examining models of community engagement, strategies of best practices, working from an anti-oppression practice, strengthening leadership skills, developing critical analysis and reflection on our own practice and understanding how to do this work in the context of inequalities and unequal power dynamics.
Please consider the following:
* If you are an executive director or manager – would you financially support one of your staff to attend this course?
* if you are in a leadership position, could you consider arranging a scholarship donation from your organization and sponsor a community leader to attend?
* If you are a front-line worker – do you want the space to learn, share strategies and strengthen the work you do with the communities you work with?
* If you work in a trade union – do you want to learn, share strategies and understand how to build connections with communities and the work you are doing?
* If you are a community activist – do you want the space to share strategies, learn about best practices and get support for the work you are doing?
Course CSWP 936 – Logistics: the course is $524 and will be 39 hours of instruction and fully credited by Ryerson University. The course is part of a new certificate in Community Engagement, Leadership and Development.
The class is 6-9pm and runs from Monday January 14 until Monday April 15.
There is no class on Monday February 18, Family Day.
For more information about The Chang School, or to register for the Certificate in Community Engagement, Leadership and Development, visit http://www.ryerson.ca/ce/community or contact directly. Phone: 416.979.5035, Email: ce@ryerson.ca
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THE “C-WORD”, A PUBLIC CONVERSATION ABOUT CAPITALISM
By Building Common Ground – Guelph
Sunday, January 27, 2013
1:00pm until 3:00pm
Bookshelf Cinema
41 Quebec Street, Guelph, ON
Sam Gindin and Leo Panitch, co-authors of a new new book entitled “The Making of Global Capitalism”, will initiate the next BCG public conversation on the relationship between capitalism, our economic and environmental crises and the implications for all those interested in building a better world.
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NEWS & VIEWS
ROBIN HOOD TAX WINS
Euro Parliament okays 11 nations’ plans to tax financial transactions.
Brussels (13 Dec. 2012) – The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT and commonly referred to as a Robin Hood Tax).
Read more: http://sgnews.ca/blog/2012/12/11/robin-hood-tax-wins/
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THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF HUGO CHÁVEZ
One of the main factors for the popularity of the Chávez Government and its landslide victory in this re-election results of October 2012, is the reduction of poverty, made possible because the government took back control of the national petroleum company PDVSA, and has used the abundant oil revenues, not for benefit of a small class of renters as previous governments had done, but to build needed infrastructure and invest in the social services that Venezuelans so sorely needed. During the last ten years, the government has increased social spending by 60.6%, a total of $772 billion.
Read more: http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/14/the-achievements-of-hugo-chavez/
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12 IDEAS TO STOP WAGE THEFT
Over the last 12 days of action, we [The Workers’ Action Centre] have profiled stories of workers fighting for unpaid wages. With your support, we have sent a powerful message to our government representatives that they need to stand up for stronger protections for workers in Ontario.
Read more: http://www.workersactioncentre.org/12-days-of-action/
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LEADERSHIP, FEMINISM AND EQUALITY IN UNIONS IN CANADA
This project explores the current climate and attitudes to women, feminism, leadership and equality in Canadian unions through the insights, voices and experiences of women union leaders, activists and staff. Women from seven provinces and territories were involved, including retired and still active staff, leaders and activists, racialized and Aboriginal women, lesbians and young women, and women from public and private sector unions and central labour bodies. Our findings do not address the situation in Québec.
The discussions were wide-ranging, analytical and deeply-moving. What emerged was a widespread consensus that there is a serious problem within the labour movement in advancing women’s equality work and supporting feminist activists at all levels. Union women, however, still share the optimistic belief that organized labour has played and can continue to play a critical role in challenging inequality.
Read more: http://womenunions.apps01.yorku.ca/
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ARTIST CREATES A VISION OF SOLIDARITY
Toronto – December 24, 2012 – There is a long history of mural art and the labour movement, and UFCW [United Food and Commercial Workers] Canada is helping that history continue.
This past July, more than a thousand agriculture workers gathered in Leamington, Ontario to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first-ever Agriculture Workers Alliance support centre in Leamington, Ontario. To mark the occasion, UFCW Canada and the AWA commissioned Chilean-born, Canadian-based social activist artist Gilda Monreal to create a mural to honour the tens of thousands of migrant workers who toil each season in Canada’s agriculture sector.
Read more: http://www.ufcw.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3183%3Aartist-creates-a-vision-of-solidarity&catid=6%3Adirections-newsletter&Itemid=6&lang=en
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THE FUTURE FOR LONG-TERM CARE LOOKS GRIM: MASS PRIVATIZATION
As with hospital beds, the government and other proponents of the near freeze in new long-term care beds suggest that home care can take up the slack.
Does this stand up? Well, let’s take even a very aggressive version of this theory. Say that 25% of all people in LTC could be dealt with through home care. (Currently, that would mean evicting 19,250 LTC residents.)
Read more: http://ochuleftwords.blogspot.ca/2012/12/the-future-for-long-term-care-looks.html
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CENTENNIAL OF 1912 “BREAD AND ROSES” STRIKE
The Bridge Review: Merrimack Valley Culture is an online journal about the culture of the Greater Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. Founded in 1997, the journal explores the interwoven concepts of place, nature, culture and society. Based at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, the journal includes writing, visual art, music, video clips, and other creative and scholarly works relevant to our region.
This special edition of the Bridge Review is dedicated to the centennial of the 1912 Bread and Roses strike.
Read more: http://www.breadandrosesbridgereview.com/
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A PROPOSAL TO STRENGTHEN THE CANADA PENSION PLAN: THE 1.5 OPTION
Expanding the Canada Pension Plan is back on the table. The federal and provincial finance ministers have been exploring several proposals for expanding the CPP in a paper prepared by their officials.
When the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans were created in the mid-1960s, they were deliberately designed to pay relatively modest benefits. The reasoning was that the private tier of employer-sponsored pension plans and individual savings plans would play the lion’s share of the earnings replacement objective for middle- and upper-income Canadians. The Achilles heel of Canada’s retirement income system is that private pension and savings plans never grew sufficiently to properly serve the earnings replacement objective for many Canadians.
The Caledon Institute for several years has been proposing a ‘1.5’ solution for expanding the Canada Pension Plan in which the Year’s Maximum Pensionable Earnings would increase by 50 percent and the earnings replacement rate would also rise by 50 percent. We would raise the Year’s Maximum Pensionable Earnings level from its current $50,100 to $75,150 – an increase of one-half. The earnings replacement rate would go from 25 to 37.5 percent – also an increase of 50 percent. As a result, the maximum CPP benefit would more than double, from $11,840 to $28,181.
Read more: http://www.caledoninst.org/Publications/PDF/1002ENG.pdf
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MIGRANT WORKERS IN CANADA FACE DETERIORATING CONDITIONS
18 December 2012 – Today, International Migrants Day, the Canadian Council for Refugees expressed its concern about a series of changes over the past year that reduce migrant workers’ rights. As a result many migrant workers in Canada are worse off than they were a year ago.
‘Things are going from bad to worse for the over 100,000 “low-skilled” migrant workers in Canada’, said Loly Rico, CCR President. “The Canadian Council for Refugees has deep concerns over the government’s approach to migrant workers as disposable, short-term labour with fewer rights and protections than Canadian workers.”
Migrant workers in Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program are vulnerable to exploitation because of their temporary status and restrictions on their work permits. While the transition to permanent residence for “high-skilled” temporary foreign workers is being made faster and more flexible, “low-skilled” migrant workers still don’t have access to permanent residence.
Read more: http://ccrweb.ca/en/bulletin/12/12/18
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ONTARIO NEXT RIGHT-TO-WORK TARGET?
When Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed right-to-work bills into law last month, he gladdened the hearts of anti-union politicians next door in Ontario. Could our province, a union stronghold, be next?
The more unions are beaten back in the United States, the worse it is for Canadian workers, whose jobs can easily be shipped south. One need only look at Caterpillar’s Electro-Motive Diesel jobs being moved from London, Ontario, down to Indiana in 2012, after that state passed right-to-work legislation. Such laws outlaw contracts that require all those represented by a union to pay dues, thus breaking up solidarity.
Read more: http://www.labornotes.org/2013/01/ontario-next-right-work-target
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JOBS
SUMMER 2013 SESSIONAL TEACHING POSITIONS AT MCMASTER UNIVERSITY’S LABOUR STUDIES
The School of Labour Studies, McMaster University, invites applications for the following positions to be offered in the Summer 2013 session.
Read more: http://www.labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/jobs
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PROGRAM DIRECTOR, METCALF CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, TORONTO
The goal of the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation is to enhance the effectiveness of people and organizations working together to help Canadians imagine and build a just, healthy, and creative society.
Across its 3 programs areas — sustaining the vibrancy of the professional performing arts, harnessing the benefits of living within the Earth’s environmental limits, and improving low-income peoples’ economic livelihoods and access to quality jobs — the Metcalf Foundation advances its mission through practice, policy, and collaboration.
Responsibilities
The Program Director holds primary responsibility for the vision, strategic development, and implementation of all aspects of the Inclusive Local Economies Program, and contributes to the Foundation’s broader mission and mandate including the Innovation Fellowship Program
See complete job posting at http://metcalffoundation.com
To apply or recommend candidates for the position please contact Ruth Richardson of Open Blue Consulting, in confidence, at ruth@openblue.ca Interested candidates should send their expression of interest by Monday 7 January 2013, 5:00 PM EST to ruth@openblue.ca
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ASSISTANT/ASSOCIATE/FULL PROFESSOR IN CONTINUING AND COLLEGE EDUCATION
The Woodring College of Education invites dynamic and innovative educators to apply for a tenure-track position (open-rank) in the Master of Education Continuing and College Education (CCE) Program, beginning September 2013.
The successful candidate will be visionary and collaborative with other professional educators, students and alumni. She/he will maintain a strong record of scholarship and will be a leading educator. Additionally, she/he will support student professional development projects and assist students to be competitive in the market for teaching in higher education, directing training and staff development for business, industry, government and professional associations and as administrators of programs for adults, especially in colleges, technical schools and university settings.
For more information, please visit: https://jobs.wwu.edu/JobPosting.aspx?JPID=3860
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ABOUT CSEW (CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION & WORK, OISE/UT):
Head: Peter Sawchuk
Co-ordinator: D’Arcy Martin
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. For more information about this project, visit http://www.apcol.ca
For more information about CSEW, visit: http://www.csew.ca
**END**
‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs
‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc
Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski
Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com
Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski
Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog
Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski
Glenn Rikowski’s paper, Critical Pedagogy and the Constitution of Capitalist Society has been published at Heathwood Press as a Monthly Guest Article for September 2012, online at:
http://www.heathwoodpress.com/monthly-guest-article-august-critical-pedagogy-and-the-constitution-of-capitalist-society-by-glenn-rikowski/
Heathwood Press: http://www.heathwoodpress.com
The Individuality Pr♥test: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/transcontinental/the-individuality-prtest
I Love Transcontinental: http://ihearttranscontinental.blogspot.co.uk/
