Faith Agostinone-Wilson
CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK: UPDATE 4th AUGUST 2013
EVENTS
CHARLIE ANGUS AT WORD ON THE STREET
Attention Toronto book fans! Charlie Angus, author of the 2013 book “Unlikely Radicals: The Story of the Adams Mine Dump War” will be speaking at the Toronto Word on the Street Festival, Sunday, September 28th. Time TBA. Admission is free.
About the book: For twenty-two years politicians and businessmen pushed for the Adams Mine landfill as a solution to Ontario’s garbage disposal crisis. This plan to dump millions of tonnes of waste into the fractured pits of the Adams Mine prompted five separate civil resistance campaigns by a rural region of 35,000 in Northern Ontario. Unlikely Radicals traces the compelling history of the First Nations people and farmers, environmentalists and miners, retirees and volunteers, Anglophones and Francophones who stood side by side to defend their community with mass demonstrations, blockades, and non-violent resistance.
Watch the Unlikely Radicals video book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=133R4jUiXQ4
Order the book: http://www.btlbooks.com/book/unlikely-radicals
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HEALTHIER CITIES AND COMMUNITIES SYMPOSIUM
October 23-24, 2013
Dalla Lana School of Public Health
155 College Street
Toronto, ON
Call for Participation
We will hold a one-day symposium to learn about and celebrate community action, education, and research, oriented to improving health and well-being in cities and communities, locally and beyond. The keynote speaker is Trevor Hancock, a scholar and advocate on healthier cities for over 20 years and we seek to have a mix of presentations on exciting research and practice, and open space time for discussion.
We seek your input to contribute to shaping the symposium. Through the symposium, you will have the opportunity to:
– identify and address ‘burning questions’ arising from your work and mutual interests in solutions-focused research and practice for healthier cities and communities
– interact with and learn from others engaged in work aimed at improving urban and community health
– shape the development, priorities and focus of the Healthier Cities and Communities thematic concentration in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health
– join or initiate new ‘constellations’ of focused interest on specific topics and/or burning questions (subgroups driven by the interest and enthusiasm of members)
We are currently requesting proposals for participation in the symposium in the form of presentations. If you are interested in learning more about this process, please contact us by filling out the contact form here: http://healthiercitiessymposium2013.wordpress.com/
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AN EVENING WITH PULITZER PRIZE JOURNALIST, AUTHOR AND ACTIVIST CHRIS HEDGES
Friday September 20th, 2013
Doors: 7:00pm
Event: 7:30pm
Bloor United Church
300 Bloor Street W—Toronto
Introductions by Simon Black and CAW Economist Jim Stanford
Q & A moderated by Punam Khosla
This is an accessible event.
Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and writer Chris Hedges will be speaking about his experience with the on-the-ground reportage and writing of days of destruction, days of revolt as he travelled to depressed pockets of the United States to report on recession-era America. What follows is a terrifying glimpse of the future for America and the nations that follow its lead — a future that will be avoided with nothing short of revolution. This publication addresses occupy Wall Street in Hedges’s first book since the international protests began.
Tickets $20. Available online now at: Canadian Dimension: http://canadiandimension.com/store/item/5394/
Eventbrite: http://chrishedges.eventbrite.ca/
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BOOK LAUNCH: “FEAR OF A BLACK NATION: RACE, SEX, AND SECURITY IN SIXTIES MONTREAL”
Thursday, August 8, 2013
7:00pm
A Different Booklist
746 Bathurst Street
Toronto, ON
Join us on August 8 as David Austin launches his new book “Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex and Security in Sixties Montreal”.
In the 1960s, for at least a brief moment, Montreal became what seemed an unlikely centre of Black Power and the Caribbean left. In October 1968 the Congress of Black Writers at McGill University brought together well-known Black thinkers and activists from Canada, the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean—people like C.L.R. James, Stokely Carmichael, Miriam Makeba, Rocky Jones, and Walter Rodney. Within months of the Congress, a Black-led protest at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) exploded on the front pages of newspapers across the country—raising state security fears about Montreal as the new hotbed of international Black radical politics.
David Austin is the editor of You Don’t Play with Revolution: The Montreal Lectures of C.L.R. James. He is a community organizer and teaches in the Humanities, Philosophy, and Religion Department at John Abbott College, Montreal.
For more info: http://adifferentbooklist.com/i/1188585/fearblacknation.jpg
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NEWS & VIEWS
THE WAR ON PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS: NEW UNIONS, NEW ALLIANCES, NEW POLITICS
By Michael D. Yates, The Bullet
The U.S. working-class was slow to respond to the hard times it faced during and after the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Finally, however, in February, 2011, workers in Wisconsin began the famous uprising that electrified the country, revolting in large numbers against Governor Scott Walker’s efforts to destroy the state’s public employee labour unions.
A few months later, the Occupy Wall Street movement, which supported many working-class efforts, spread from New York City to the rest of the nation and the world. Then, in September 2012, Chicago’s public school teachers struck, in defiance of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s attempt to destroy the teachers’ union and put the city’s schools firmly on the path of neoliberal austerity and privatization.
These three rebellions shared the growing awareness that economic and political power in the United States are firmly in the hands of a tiny minority of fantastically wealthy individuals whose avarice knows no bounds. These titans of finance want to eviscerate working men and women, making them as insecure as possible and wholly dependent on the dog-eat-dog logic of the marketplace, while at the same time converting any and all aspects of life into opportunities for capital accumulation.
Read more: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/854.php
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DEMOCRATIC AND ECONOMIC RIGHTS: TRAINING THE TRAINER WORKSHOP MANUAL
The Ontario Federation of Labour has produced a handy training manual for running workshops on democratic and economic rights through the prism of labour activism. The workshop aims to give interested labour activists the tools to teach people in their networks and communities about their rights and, what is more, participants will also learn how they can organize their own seminars. We can only nurture our communities and foster progressive change is we all take on the challenge of being both teachers and students. Knowledge sharing and popular education are invaluable. Thanks to this OFL workshop those of us without teaching experience can get in on the game!
Download the manual: http://ofl.ca/wp-content/uploads/DemocraticRights-TrainingNotesSpring2013.pdf
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IN NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION TO RAISE MINIMUM WAGE, NEW YORKERS STAGE STEALTH
SIT-IN
By Sarah Jaffe, In These Times
A group of about 20 well-dressed people huddled on a street corner at lunchtime in Midtown Manhattan, receiving last-minute instructions from a tattooed organizer in a Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC) shirt.
They were about to take part in a national day of action for a higher federal minimum wage, with rallies in 15 states and 22 cities. Targets include low-wage employers such as Wal-Mart, fast food restaurants, car washes, airports and other restaurants. The actions are focused on a push for the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). This bill would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 and index it to inflation, and raise the subminimum wage for tipped workers as well.
But many of the worker organizations that joined today’s [July 24] action are interested in moving beyond just a minimum-wage increase—like Fast Food Forward, New York’s wing of the national fast-food worker organizing campaign, which has consistently called for a $15-an-hour wage and union recognition for the workers.
Read more: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/15353/in_national_day_of_action_to_raise_minimum_wage_new_yorkers_stage_sit_in/
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DAVID ROVICS UPDATE: INTO A PRISM
American singer-songwriter David Rovics has just released Into a Prism, a collection of 15 new songs. It’s named after the NSA global spying program revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. In addition to the title song (“Prism”) Rovics skewers Barack Obama and other bought-off politicians, attacks (with characteristic wit) American chauvinism and cultural imperialism, and celebrates heroes like exiled African-American activist Assata Shakur and Vasili Arkhipov, the Soviet submarine commander who literally saved the world during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Rovics has an impressive ability to balance righteous indignation with compassion and ironic humour. He excels at incorporating historical events into his songs and making them relevant. Into a Prism is an acoustic album, and the artist’s voice and guitar work are in fine form. Why is this guy not headlining the summer folk festivals? For info: http://davidrovics.bandcamp.com
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CANADA: BILLIONS IN PROFIT, CUTS FOR LOCAL WORKERS, SCAB-BREWED BEER FOR NEWFOUNDLANDERS AND LABRADORIANS!
By LabourStart
The war to set global labour standards in the brewing industry is being fought in the Canadian city of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
On one side, the Canadian division of the world’s largest (and very profitable) brewing corporation, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev). On the other, one of the global giant’s smallest and most vulnerable local unions in what appears to be an attempt to establish a pattern of concessions and roll-backs that the corporation could then try to impose on all of its other unionized workers around the world.
The workers, who are members of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public Employees (NAPE/NUPGE), have been on strike since April 10. Before they were in a legal position to exercise their right to strike, the company attempted to force the workers to train the scabs who are now doing their jobs.
Please write to AB InBev and demand that they treat their workers, and their workers’ communities, with fairness and respect. To send a message to AB InBev, visit: http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=1867&src=derekmailing
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JOBS/INTERNSHIPS
PROFESSOR, SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AND LABOR RELATIONS, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
Labor Studies and Employment Relations Department
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Rutgers University, School of Management and Labor Relations, has one of the world’s leading faculties in the field of Labor Studies and Employment Relations (LSER). The LSER Department is soliciting applications for one or two tenure-track professor positions. One position will be at the assistant and the other, which depends on available funding, is at the assistant or associate professor level. While we are particularly interested in scholars with a specialization in the labor market and work experiences of ethnic and racial minorities, Latin American employment relations, employment relations in sports and entertainment, social movements or political economy/institutional labor economics, we are open to other areas of study in the broad fields of labor studies and employment relations. We are seeking a broadly trained scholar who is an excellent researcher and can teach graduate and undergraduate level courses – both on and off campus in the relevant field of Labor Studies and Employment Relations, and who can contribute to our continuing education and/or online courses. The positions are expected to begin September 2014.
For more info, visit http://smlr.rutgers.edu/labor-and-employment-relations
Applications should be submitted no later than October 15, 2013 to Ms. Laura Walkoviak at law@work.rutgers.edu; however, the positions will remain open until filled.
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MAYWORKS FESTIVAL JOB OPENING: FUNDRAISER POSITION
Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts is a multi-disciplinary arts festival that celebrates working class culture. Founded in 1986 by the Labour Arts Media Committee of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, Mayworks is Canada’s largest and oldest labour arts festival. The Festival was built on the premise that workers and artists share a common struggle for decent wages, healthy working conditions and a living culture. Mayworks’ goal is to promote the interests of cultural workers and trade unionists, and to bring working-class culture from the margins of cultural activity onto centre stage.
Mayworks Festival is seeking a Fundraiser for 9 months beginning October 1, 2013, who will have the following responsibilities:
– Work with the Festival Director, board and Fundraising Committee to implement a fundraising plan and strategy
– Responsible for the production of the yearly private donor (labour movement and individual/membership) fundraising campaigns
– Act as the liaison with private donors and do follow-up telephone calls to potential contributors
– Create, with assistance from the staff and board, private donor prospect lists
– Sell program advertising in the Mayworks program guide
– Keep clear records of all donations and responses and provide these to the Festival Director as requested
– Submit a final fundraising report to the board including accounts receivable and an updated version of the fundraising database
– Other related duties as assigned
Start Date: October 1, 2013, training ongoing
Rate of pay: $25.90 per hour
Term Position: 9 months for a total of 275 hours, temporary replacement and non-permanent, with contract ending June 30, 2014
Union Membership: Mayworks is a unionized workplace as a sublocal of CUPE 1281. This temporary position is in the bargaining unit for 9 months, and the person hired will become a dues-paying member who is eligible for all of the rights, benefits and protections included in the Collective Agreement.
Please send in your application by August 31, 2013, end of business day via email to applicants.mayworks@gmail.com
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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**
Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ 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 
