Education Crisis
CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK: UPDATE 17th NOVEMBER 2012
EVENTS
FREE SCREENING OF “DEBTOCRACY”
Friday, December 7, 2012
7:30pm until 10:00pm
Centre of Gravity Circus Training Studios
1300 Gerrard Street East, Toronto
Event organized by: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Cinema.Politica.Danforth
“Debtocracy” (Greek: hreokratía) seeks the causes of the debt crisis and proposes solutions sidelined by the government and the dominant media.
Aris Chatzistefanou and Katerina Kitidi discuss with economists, journalists and intellectuals from all over the world, who describe the steps that led Greece to the current debt trap – to debtocracy. The documentary follows the course of countries like Ecuador, which created Audit Commissions, and tracks the similar process in Greece.
Debtocracy features the academics David Harvey, Samir Amin, Costas Lapavitsas and Gerard Dumenil; the philosopher Alain Badiou; the head of Ecuador’s Audit Commission Hugo Arias; the president of CADTM Eric Toussaint; journalists like Canadian Avi Lewis (co-creator of the documentary “The Take”) and Jean Quatremer; as well as public figures like Manolis Glezos and Sahra Wagenknecht (from the German party Die Linke).
To be followed by a panel discussion!
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BOOK LAUNCH OF “MONSTERS OF THE MARKET: ZOMBIES, VAMPIRES AND GLOBAL CAPITALISM”
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
7:30pm
The Gladstone Hotel (in the Ballroom)
1214 Queen Street West, Toronto
A night to celebrate the launch (in paperback) of David McNally’s “Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism” and the book’s receipt of the 2012 Deutscher Prize. With MCs Faria Kamal and Alan Sears, remarks from Himani Bannerji and talk and short reading by David.
Drawing on folklore, literature and popular culture, this book links tales of monstrosity from England to recent vampire- and zombie-fables from sub-Saharan Africa, and it connects these to Marx’s persistent use of monster-metaphors in his descriptions of capitalism. Reading across these tales of the grotesque, McNally offers a novel account of the cultural economy of the global market-system.
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BOOK LAUNCH & PUBLIC LECTURE – “SEX, RACE AND CLASS: THE PERSPECTIVE OF WINNING (A SELECTION OF WRITINGS 1952-2011)”
Monday Nov. 26
7:00 p.m.
George Ignatieff Theatre
Trinity College, 15 Devonshire Place, Toronto
In 1972, Selma James set out a new political perspective. Her starting point was the millions of unwaged women who, working in the home and on the land, were not seen as “workers” and their struggles viewed as outside of the class struggle.
For James, the class struggle presents itself as the conflict between the reproduction and survival of the human race, and the domination of the market with its exploitation, wars, and ecological devastation. She sums up her strategy for change as “Invest in Caring not Killing.”
This selection, spanning almost six decades, traces the development of this perspective in the course of building an international campaigning network.
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CANADIAN LABOUR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: TORONTO
November 24-25, 2012
2:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Innis Town Hall
2 Sussex Ave., Toronto
Take in a series of labour-related films at CLiFF-Toronto, a film festival that seeks to tell the stories of workers (unionised and non-unionised) and those who seek justice on the job and dignity in their workplace. The festival is platform for stories that have been made into films, but cannot find an audience beyond the film makers’ own circle of influence.
The film We Are Wisconsin (http://wearewisconsinthefilm.com/) will be playing on Saturday, November 24.
Additional films are also being shown on Saturday, December 1 and Sunday, December 2, 2012.
Download the program for a full list of films and for alternate locations: http://labourfilms.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/TorontoProgram22OctB.pdf
Further details are available on the CLiFF website: http://labourfilms.ca/
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TALK: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE NEW ATTACK ON CANADIAN UNIONS
Monday, Dec. 3
2:30-4:30 p.m.
Ross Bldg., Room S674 (Verney Room)
York University, Toronto
With Andrew Jackson, Packer Chair for Social Justice, York University
Part of “Dispatches from the Global Labour Movement” series, sponsored by York University’s:
– The Centre for Research on Work and Society
– Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy
– Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Gender and Work
– Work and Labour Studies Program
– The Department of Political Science
– The Department of Social Science
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NEWS & VIEWS
CHORUS OF WARNINGS GROW: ‘SAY NO TO US AUSTERITY’
by Common Dreams staff
As President Obama and Washington lawmakers embarked on fiscal negotiations to address federal budget concerns and the impacts of a stubborn economic recovery, nearly 350 prominent economists, under the banner “Jobs, Not Austerity,” issued a statement warning that the “obsessive concern with cutting deficits that has infected both parties” is a serious threat to making sound economic policy decisions in Washington.
Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/11/16-7
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TOP LABOUR STORIES THIS WEEK: FROM EUROPE’S GENERAL STRIKE TO MIGRANT WORKERS’ PLIGHT IN CANADA
by Lori Theresa Waller, rabble.ca
It’s been a significant week for the labour movement worldwide, with an unprecedented multi-national general strike yesterday in Europe. So we feel like it’s an appropriate time for us to launch a new weekly feature, recapping the top stories from the labour movement. Each week top labour
stories will be compiled and summarized by our new labour reporter, Lori Theresa Waller. If you have a suggestion for next week’s list, contact lori@rabble.ca
Read more: http://rabble.ca/news/2012/11/labour-news-round-weeks-top-stories
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VIDEO: LARRY ROUSSEAU AT OFL EQUITY CONFERENCE
by rabbleTV
Larry Rousseau speaks at Ontario Federation of Labour’s Equity Conference
9-11 November 2012.
Watch the video: http://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/2012/11/best-net/larry-rousseau-ofl-equity-conference
For more information, please visit http://ofl.ca/index.php/equity2012/ and http://psac-ncr.com
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HOW CHICAGO TEACHERS GOT ORGANIZED TO STRIKE
by Labor Notes
The seven-day Chicago Teachers Union strike in September beat back a mayor bent on imposing very bad “education reforms.” But how? The win was possible because of years of patient organizing, focused on getting members to step up.
Read more: http://labornotes.org/2012/10/how-chicago-teachers-got-organized-strike
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INTERNS, UNITE! (YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE – LITERALLY)
by Greig de Peuter, Nicole Cohen, Enda Brophy, Briarpatch Magazine If decent, full-time work is getting harder to come by, the same can’t be said for internships, whether unpaid or barely paid.
Unpaid interns frequently perform work that used to be done by entry-level paid staff, and are also denied access to labour protections and benefits extended to traditional workers. More importantly, few people can afford to work for free. If doing an unpaid internship persists as an obligatory rung on today’s shaky career ladder, the professions drawing on this system will be transformed to favour those from wealthier backgrounds. Beyond parents (not all of whom can remortgage to support their 22-year-old’s cashless gig in an expensive city), subsidies come from personal loans or part-time jobs. “Paying your dues” is a lazy cliché rather than an ethical argument for why it’s acceptable for young people to donate their labour. From street protests to online campaigns, the emerging intern activism is one part of the wider effort by fresh actors to reformat labour politics for precarious times.
Read the full story here: http://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/interns-unite-you-have-nothing-to-lose-literally
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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
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‘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
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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
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I Love Transcontinental: http://ihearttranscontinental.blogspot.co.uk/
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski 