Capitorg
CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK: UPDATE 13th APRIL 2013
EVENTS
APRIL 28: NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING FOR WORKERS WHO HAVE BEEN KILLED, INJURED OR MADE ILL ON THE JOB
A message from the Workers Health & Safety Centre: More than twenty years ago, the Canadian Labour Congress declared April 28 a National Day of Mourning for workers who have been killed, suffer disease or injury as a result of work. Every year since, unions, labour councils, families and community partners gather by the thousands to ‘mourn for the dead’. What began through the efforts of Canada’s labour movement is now observed in more than 100 countries.
The Day of Mourning though, is also intended to focus attention on what we can do to break the silence of indifference and say enough to the suffering caused by hazardous working conditions. On April 28 let’s resolve to action that restores and promotes dignity and health in our workplaces and our communities.
For more information, including venues: http://www.whsc.on.ca/pdfs/DOM13_EventListing_WebMar26.pdf
+++++
COLOUR OF POVERTY / COLOUR OF CHANGE PRESENTS ITS 2ND PROVINCIAL FORUM – FROM POVERTY TO POWER – RACIAL JUSTICE, MAKING CHANGE
Monday April 29 from 6pm to 9pm
Tuesday April 30 from 9am to 5pm
Oakham House – Student Campus Centre
Ryerson University, 55-63 Gould St, Toronto (Room SCC 115)
Join us on Monday April 29 from 6pm to 9pm for a welcome to the conference, guest speakers, poetry performances and reception. Then on Tuesday April 30, join us for the all day learning and strategy forum with guest speakers, roundtable discussions and issue focused strategy sessions. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
Roundtables will include:
– Intersectionality of oppression
– Political participation and representation
Issue focused strategy sessions will include the following topics:
– Employment equity
– Income security
– Colours of politics
– Criminal justice and policing
– Immigration policy and the changing face of Canada
– Fiscal policy & economic literacy
– Education – access and opportunities
Everyone welcome ! Free – but hurry – to register click here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5698626746
+++++
BOOK LAUNCH: ‘THE GREAT REVENUE ROBBERY: HOW TO STOP THE TAX CUT SCAM AND SAVE CANADA’
Monday, April 15
6:30pm – 8:30pm
No One Writes to the Colonel
460 College Street, Toronto
“This is a welcome critique of conventional economic wisdom. If you thought tax cuts would solve all of your problems, read The Great Revenue Robbery and think again.”
-Thomas Walkom, political columnist, Toronto Star
Join authors and organizers for the launch of The Great Revenue Robbery: How to Stop the Tax Cut Scam and Save Canada
Edited by Richard Swift for the Canadians for Tax Fairness
Online media sponsor: rabble.ca
+++++
CELEBRATING MAY DAY 2013
Sunday, April 28
4:30pm – 8:00pm
Steelworkers Hall
25 Cecil Street, Toronto, ON
Build a Common Front Against Austerity and War!
Speakers, Live Music, Poetry & Dance, Food & Refreshments
Organized by the United May Day Committee
Free Admission
Doors Open at 4:30 p.m.
+++++
SEND IN YOUR WORK POEMS!
By Lorraine Endicott, Editor, Our Times
An artist and poet born in North Burnaby, B.C., Lena Wilson Endicott (or “LWE,” as she often liked to sign her paintings) cared deeply for the world and social justice, and loved Our Times, reading every issue from cover to cover.
Our Times is sponsoring a Canadian poetry contest in her name. Send us your poems about work, working people and social justice. (Maximum five.) They need to not have been published before, and be a maximum of 40 lines each.
We are excited to announce the judges for the contest. They are Marilyn Dumont, poet; Valerie Endicott, family member (and member of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario); and Adriane Paavo, labour educator (Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’ Union, and member of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada). The contest coordinator is Maureen Hynes, poet, and Our Times’ poetry editor.
Make sure there is no identifying information on the poetry pages themselves, to ensure impartial judging. Put your name, address, email address and union affiliation, if any, in the body of your email or in your cover letter.
Email your submission to Our Times’ poetry editor at poetry@ourtimes.ca, or mail it to: Our Times, Poetry Editor, Suite 407 15 Gervais Drive, Toronto Ontario M3C 1Y8.
The deadline for submitting is June 30, 2013. The first-prize winner will receive $400 and the first two runners-up will receive $100 each.
The winner and runners-up will have their poems published in Our Times, and will receive two-year subscriptions to the magazine. Winners will be announced in our Fall 2013 issue.
+++++
APRIL 16 WORLDVIEWS PRE-CONFERENCE EVENT: THE WAR ON KNOWLEDGE?
Tuesday, April 16
1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility
Munk School of Global Affairs – 1 Devonshire Place
University of Toronto
Higher education is under attack. Internationalization, politics, and worldwide economic trends are forcing universities and colleges to ask themselves tough questions. Criticisms are commonplace in the media, while new communications technologies threaten traditional institutions. So what lies ahead?
Let’s talk about it.
Join Worldviews 2013 for a special pre-conference debating the interplay between higher education, media, and society. This free event will feature a short keynote presentation, panel debate, and reception.
We will explore the increasing emphasis being placed around the world on:
– Shifting the cost of education to students
– Getting students in and out of higher education in shorter time periods
– The increasing focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics related subjects, and criticism of the liberal arts
– The exclusive focus on higher education as a means for job training
– Expanding online learning as either a complement or alternative to on-campus learning
Why are these ideas being proposed by so many and whose interests do they serve? Is this pragmatic agenda a “war on knowledge” or a “war” on specific types of knowledge and specific types of education? Some media coverage has asked constructive questions, but much of the discussion has been superficial. So where do we go from here?
Registration is required (and free!), so save the date and register here! http://munkschool.utoronto.ca/event/13609/register/
+++++
CLASS ACT: A TRIBUTE CONCERT IN HONOUR OF LONG-TIME LABOUR AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST ARLENE MANTLE
Saturday May 11
8 pm
Trinity St. Paul Church, 427 Bloor Street West
Tickets: $15 PWYC (see below)
Co-sponsored by Toronto Musicians Association
Please join Mayworks Festival at Class Act, a tribute concert in honour of Arlene Mantle’s (1932-2012) lifelong contribution to the labour movement and tireless fight for social justice.
Featured performers include writer, teacher and Canada’s first Lady of Dub, Lillian Allen; multi-award winning, singer/songwriter, self-taught musician, and prisoner rights activist Faith Nolan; Toronto-based composer and singer, former front man of The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir and The Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, David Wall; Juno nominated songwriter, producer and musician Dinah Thorpe; singer/song writer and community activist Amai Kuda; and Chilean band, Grupo Taller (meaning ‘workshop group’); and singer, songwriter, mother and activist Lynn Mantle,who learned her chops singing back up behind mom, Arlene Mantle.
These stellar performers will be backed up by the Kevin Barrett Group, making its mark on the Toronto music scene for more than a decade, led by musical director, producer and teacher Kevin Barrett. This evening of song and celebration will be hosted by long-time social justice activist and community organizer, Angela Robertson.
How to purchase your tickets:
Seats to the concert are limited. Mayworks encourages everyone to purchase advanced tickets to guarantee a seat.
Tickets may be purchased via the Mayworks Paypal account online: http://mayworks.ca/support/ (please indicate “Class Act Concert” when you make your donation). If you are unable to make an online donation but would still like to purchase advanced tickets, please send an email to
registration@mayworks.ca with the subject line “Class Act Concert”.
Want more information?
Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts is a multi-disciplinary arts festival that celebrates working class culture. For more information on other events at the 2013 Festival, please visit http://www.mayworks.ca
+++++
+++++
NEWS & VIEWS
WHY I’M VOTING NO: OSSTF AND ONTARIO TEACHERS
By Jason Kunin, The Bullet
Teachers in Ontario may not know it, but their actions in this coming week will have huge ramifications for unionized workers across Ontario and across the country. We stand poised either to hold the line against the austerity agenda and mounting attacks on workers, or pave the way for escalating attacks on the labour movement.
After a year that has seen the provincial Liberal government strip education workers of their collective bargaining rights and legislate strips to our wages and benefits that took decades of struggle to win, public secondary teachers in Ontario will be voting this week on whether to accept a peace deal that offers some minor improvements over the “contract” imposed four months ago by Bill 115 but which leaves most of the major strips intact.
Read more: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/804.php
+++++
THE FOG CLEARS: NEW INFORMATION ON FEDERAL JOB AND SERVICE CUTS
By Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
After four austerity budgets and lots of hide and seek, there are finally some answers about what services federal departments are going to cut. CCPA’s Senior Economist David Macdonald has examined over 180 departmental Reports on Plans and Priorities in order to estimate employment cuts down to the program level and determine where federal spending cuts hit the hardest.
He finds that cuts have disproportionately focused on service delivery, and that the total number of federal public service jobs cut over the entire austerity period (March 2012 to March 2016) will be 28,700—with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada experiencing the largest loss of positions. By 2016, the total number of people working for the federal government will have fallen by 8%, almost double the 4.8% figure reported in Budget 2012.
Read the full analysis, The Fog Finally Clears: The job and services impact of federal austerity:
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/fog-finally-clears
+++++
MAGGIE THATCHER, MILK SNATCHER
By Sheila Cohen, Labor Notes
“Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, out, out, out!” was the slogan chanted at so many demonstrations.
Londoners will be gathering again in Trafalgar Square this Saturday to celebrate the death of “Maggie Thatcher, Milk Snatcher.” Now that she’s well and truly “out,” how do we define what she left behind?
Read more: http://www.labornotes.org/2013/04/maggie-thatcher-milk-snatcher
+++++
MEXICAN WORKERS WIN OWNERSHIP OF TIRE PLANT WITH THREE-YEAR STRIKE
By Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes
On the 879th day of their strike, Mexican tire workers sought help in Germany, where the multinational that wanted to close their plant was based. After a determined 1,141-day campaign, the company sold them the plant, which they now run as a cooperative.
The hurdles to buying a plant, even a failing plant, are huge, and once in business, the new worker-owners face all the pressures that helped the company go bankrupt in the first place. Most worker-owned co-ops are small, such as a taxi collective in Madison or a bakery in San Francisco.
But in Mexico a giant-sized worker cooperative has been building tires since 2005. The factory competes on the world market, employs 1,050 co-owners, and pays the best wages and pensions of any Mexican tire plant.
Read more: http://www.labornotes.org/2013/04/mexican-workers-win-ownership-tire-plant-three-year-strike
+++++
DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE! RBC LAYOFFS NOT ABOUT FOREIGNERS VS. CANADIANS
By Chris Ramsaroop and Syed Hussan, rabble.ca
Once again the temporary foreign worker program has erupted in controversy where it is being used to pit workers against each other.
News reports point out that the Royal Bank of Canada has decided to move its information technology department abroad. To do so, it has brought in temporary workers from India that will learn the ropes from their Canadian counterparts. Following this training, the Canadian workers will be laid off, and the Indian workers will transition the IT department to India and return there.
Read more: http://rabble.ca/news/2013/04/dont-believe-hype-rbc-layoffs-not-about-foreigners-vs-canadians
+++++
UNION MEMBERS OBJECT TO THEIR PENSIONS BANKROLLING ANTI-UNION PORTER AIRLINES
COPE Local 343’s fuel handlers at Porter FBO have been on strike since January 10, 2013 for a first contract. They organized for safer working conditions and a living wage. Porter has not budged on its position of a 25-cent increase for half the workers and nothing for the remainder.
What many of you may not know is that OMERS, the pension plan for Ontario school board and municipal workers, is the single largest outside investor in Porter, which pays its fuel handlers on average $13 an hour.
Read more: http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1790
+++++
+++++
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**
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales); and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)
‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8
Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com
Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski
Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski 