Education Crisis
CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK: UPDATE 28th OCTOBER 2012
EVENTS
We Are Ontario – Putting Equity before Austerity Conference, Niagara Falls
Hosted by the Ontario Federation of Labour
November 9-11, 2012
Embassy Suites Niagara Falls – Fallsview
6700 Fallsview Boulevard, Niagara Falls, L2G 3W6
Contact – Janice Gairey – jgairey@ofl.ca or Paulette Hazel – phazel@ofl.ca
Phone – 416.443.7667 or 416.441.2731 x 667 Fax – 416.441.1893 Web-site:– http://www.ofl.ca
Background materials and registration forms are attached and also available online at – http://www.ofl.ca/index.php/equity2012
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Social Planning Toronto (SPT) Member Forum: 2013 City Budget
Friday, Nov. 30
Doors open 9am, 9:30am to 12pm
2nd floor auditorium, Metro Central YMCA (space is wheelchair accessible)
20 Grosvenor Street (Yonge & Wellesley)
Join us for our annual City budget forum! Come and learn about:
– the City of Toronto’s 2013 staff-recommended operating budget
– what the budget means for our communities
– opportunities to participate in the budget process
The forum will include a presentation on the 2013 City budget, remarks from our community panel, and a question / answer and discussion session with participants.
Speakers include:
– Mark Ferguson, CUPE Local 416
– Sonja Greckol and Lishai Peel, Toronto Women’s City Alliance
– Franz Hartmann, Toronto Environmental Alliance
– Rob Howarth, Toronto Neighbourhood Centres
– Linsey MacPhee, Toronto Drop-In Network
– Tim Maguire, CUPE Local 79
– Claire McWatt, Toronto Youth Cabinet
– Jane Mercer, Toronto Coalition for Better Child Care
– Neethan Shan, Council of Agencies Serving South Asians
– Michael Shapcott, Wellesley Institute
– Susan Wright, Toronto Arts Council
To register: http://spt2013budgetforum.eventbrite.com/#
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Book Launch – Raising the Workers’ Flag: The Workers’ Unity League of Canada, 1930-1936
By Stephen L. Endicott
University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
http://www.utppublishing.com/Raise-the-Workers-Flag-The-Workers-Unity-League-of-Canada-1930-1936.html
The last time the Canadian working class faced a crisis as serious as this one – during the Great Depression of the 1930s – they emerged with a new form of working class organization and new tactics. It was then that industrial unionism exploded and along with it a new radicalism that included historic strikes, movements of the unemployed, political demands linked to struggles, and the famous sit-downs. The question confronting us today is what kind of new organizational forms and tactics-strategies might emerge from this crisis.
The past won’t give us answers, but it does carry clues. In this regard, a new book by Stephen Endicott is a very worthwhile read. It is about the Workers Unity League, which was established by Canadian Communists at the end of the 1920s and for six years led heroic strikes outside the existing unions and developed a militancy and class sensibility that was then collapsed into the unions it earlier fought. It mines new archival material from the RCMP and Communist Party and not only discusses the debates that led to the decision to operate outside of the existing unions and the
circumstances that led to an eventual reversal, but also – and especially important in the present context – the particular organizing strategies used at a time of great attacks on the working class while the official leadership of labour floundered.
The book launch is on November 14, 6-8pm at the Ben McNally Bookstore
366 Bay Street
Toronto, ON
Tel. 416-361-0032
This is a private book launch, so the store will be closed, but tell them you are there for the Stephen Endicott book launch.
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The Inner Activist: Building Personal Mastery
Sunday, December 2 to Saturday, December 8, 2012
The Haven, Gabriola Island
7-Day All Inclusive Package:
$2,250 – Early Bird / $2,500 – Regular
As a leader of change, you are invited to attend our Building Personal Mastery program. This is a rare opportunity to join a diverse group of change leaders in a 7 day (all-inclusive) residential program where you can rejuvenate and develop your emotional leadership capacity.
Join us December 2 – 8, 2012 and over the course of 7 days you will acquire Self-Knowledge and Personal Mastery Tools that will help you lead from your best self.
– Discover how you get in your own way.
– What are the disconnects between your intention and what you actually do?
– Uncover root causes of limiting behaviours that don’t serve you personally or professionally.
– Connect with life serving goals that guide your day to day actions towards your highest aspirations.
– Understand your role in organizational challenges and team dynamics, and how to lead from your best self.
Leading social change is demanding: Understanding how your inner experience drives your behaviour is the cornerstone to success. In this program you will be invited to explore what makes you tick, particularly in stressful situations. What unrealized potential can you unleash? What is your learning edge that will help you become a more effective change leader?
For more info and to register: http://www.gifttool.com/registrar/ShowEventDetails?ID=1919&EID=9199
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Reviving Labour’s Image
February 22-23, 2013
Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in downtown Toronto
From Wisconsin to California and to Canada, the radical right has been eroding worker freedoms and union gains. And many people are acknowledging why the right’s on the move. The New York Times noted recently that in California prospects “are stronger” today to pass a referendum to curtail union political spending “because of a decline in the image of labor.”
You know, too, that a poor image means you have to work harder to get public support. With more membership and public sympathy, everything unions work for is easier, especially organizing – the front line in the struggle against the right’s anti-union movement. Your opponents are telling labour’s story, so everything you do is much more difficult.
But unions can improve their image, as more than 80 elected leaders, organizers, campaign staff, educators, media relations staff and others learned at September’s Reviving Labour’s Image training event.
You’ll learn how to think about labour’s image in a whole new way from Terry O’Reilly, see how to defeat workers’ fears about unions from psychologist Margo Watt, and see the impact of a union advertising campaign on labour’s image.
You will also delve into how to build and protect a “brand” image from brand advisor Dan Aronchick, pick up insights into persuading an audience on any screen – from Skype to CNN – from media consultant Allan Bonner, and hear about turning around a damaged image from consultant Robin Sears. You will come away with great new ideas and practical, affordable, real-world advice you can use in your job the day after.
For more info and to register: http://sgnews.ca/2012/10/reviving-labours-image-2013/
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NEWS & VIEWS
Mayworks Festival Open Call for Submissions 2013 Festival
Deadline: November 5, 2012
Mayworks Festival – Toronto is pleased to invite submissions for its 28th festival season. Applications are accepted from groups and individuals in a range of disciplines, including: visual art, music / poetry, film, video, interdisciplinary, and theatre.
Mayworks Festival is a multi-disciplinary arts festival that celebrates cultural production working class culture. Mayworks Festival seeks to showcase high calibre art by artists at all stages in their careers that are politically and socially engaged with labour realities. We are especially committed to providing a platform to support the under-represented labor of indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, migrants, women, queer-identified people, people of color, and youth.
Our program committee is guided by our equity policy that recognizes the systemic discrimination and injustices faced by equity-seeking groups. Mayworks Festival is not a funding body, we work in partnership with unions and co-presenters to present events that fit our mandate. We are committed to paying artists’ fees.
Submissions will not be accepted after the deadline date: Nov. 5, 2012.
Proposals selected will be notified by email by December 2012. The festival dates (TBD) will be in early May 2013.
Questions about the application process, contact Dianah Smith at program@mayworks.ca
Organizations interested in co-sponsoring an event at Mayworks Festival, contact Nausheen Quayyum at outreach@mayworks.ca
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The Nature of the Beast: Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin on ‘The Making of Global Capitalism’
by Aaron Leonard, rabble.ca
Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin have just released their latest book, The Making of Global Capitalism. Aaron Leonard recently sat down with Panitch and Gindin in New York City to discuss their work.
Read more: http://rabble.ca/news/2012/10/nature-beast-leo-panitch-and-sam-gindin-making-global-capitalism
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Global Economic Crisis Shakes Old Paradigms
by Walden Bello, Toward Freedom
The world will soon enter the sixth year of the Great Recession, and there is no end in sight. In the United States, where stagnation continues to reign, some 23 million Americans remain out of work, are underemployed, or have simply dropped out of the labor force owing to frustration.
Read more: http://ca.mg4.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=1r1dqnsijkt2d
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Video: Understanding Marx Through Comedy
Here’s a decent comedic attempt to explain some of Marx’s basic ideas.
“Capitalism teaches the people the moral conceptions of cannibalism are the strong devouring the weak; its theory of the world of men and women is that of a glorified pig-trough where the biggest swine gets the most swill.” — James Connolly 1910
Watch the video: http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.ca/2012/10/marx-through-comedy.html
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Video: Occupy Socialism
Alternatives to Economic Inequality, Imperialist War and Ecological Destruction
Ingo Schmidt is an economist, a writer, and a labour educator. He is the Coordinator of the Labour Studies Program at Athabasca University.
Part of the World Peace Forum Teach-In and produced by working TV.
Watch the video: http://www.socialistproject.ca/leftstreamed/ls151.php
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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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