Neoliberalism and Education Workshop

Robin Small

NEOLIBERALISM AND EDUCATION WORKSHOP

BISA IPEG/BLT Workshop and Film Screening: Education Meets Neoliberalism and the Political Economy of Precarity

Location: University of Middlesex (MDX), Hendon. Town Hall, Committee Room 3
Date and time: 14 February, 2014, 10.30 – 19.00

Co-sponsors: BISA-International Political Economy Group (IPEG, Convenor Phoebe Moore) and BISA- Learning and Teaching Working Group (BLT, Convenor Steven Curtis, London Metropolitan University, Higher Education Academy)

Local organisers: Phoebe Moore (MDX Law), Elizabeth Cotton (MDX Business), Merilin Nurmsalu (MDX Law)

All welcome. Please email Merilin Nurmsalu merilin.nurmsalu@gmail.com with interest in attending for catering purposes.

Website: http://www.bisa-ipeg.org/uncategorized/education-meets-neoliberalism-and-the-political-economy-of-precarity/

This workshop will critically examine the political economy of current changes in education policy in the United Kingdom and internationally as it has impacted and impacts marginalized groups as well as educators. Discussions will touch on the political economy of precarity and ask difficult questions about the flexilisation of the labour market and how it is reflected in every level of education from early schooling to adult, community, higher and trade union education and training. Participants will look at changes to education in all levels of education from secondary to University, adult, community and trade union education including the depoliticisation of pedagogies and curricula. Further challenges are brought about through introduction of new technologies including distance learning, online administration and new performance indicators, all of which we will argue can be appropriated for critical use.

The changing role of educators will be assessed as we look at critical pedagogies, the seen purpose for private involvement in education and the concept of ‘employability’, internships and possibilities for critique and intervention. In that light we invite educators, public intellectuals and trade unionists who look at the need for specific absences to be revisited. This also includes critical investigations around the understanding of the dangers of precarity for mental health, the costs of precarity for educators and students, political trade union education and the waning of working class and disability representation in recent education policy as well as the classroom.

This event is intentionally set to run the day after a very important event on similar themes run by Maureen Spencer, Heather Clay and Alan Durant entitled  ‘The state, the university and liberal education: a complex relationship between piper and tune’ on Hendon campus on 13th February. Please email Christiana Rose for more details about this c.rose@mdx.ac.uk .

14th February programme: 
10 – 10.30 Coffee/tea, registration

10.30 – 11.30 Plenary speaker: Matthew Watson University of Warwick, ‘Taking the Classroom into the Community’ 
Chair: Phoebe Moore

11.30 – 12.30 Plenary speaker: Mike Neary University of Lincoln, ‘Pedagogy of Excess: an alternative political economy for student life’
Chair: Steven Curtis

12.30 – 1.15 Lunch. Over lunch, Steven Curtis, Politics and Economics Lead for the Higher Education Academy (HEA) will take the opportunity to chat to participants about the support that the HEA offers university educators.

1.15 – 3.15 The Future of Trade Union Education (Workshop one)
Plenary speaker: Jo Cain, Head of Education for Unison, on the future of trade union education: perspectives from Unison
Chair: Elizabeth Cotton
Participants: Ian Manborde, Elizabeth Cotton, Martin Upchurch, Education for Action (Phoebe Moore, Kirsten Forkert, Miguel Martinez Lucio), Industrial Officer PCS, NUT, organiser for domestic workers

3.15 – 5.15 Community Education and beyond (Workshop two)
Plenary speaker: Joyce Canaan, Birmingham Radical Education (BRE(A)D) on critical thinking and practice and countering capitalist ‘realisms’
Chair: Steven Curtis
Participants: Annabel Kiernan, Dave Hill, Johnna Montgomerie, People’s Political Economy (Laura Hill and Sarah Kunz)

5.15 – 7.00  Film screening We will screen, and Director Luke Fowler will lead a discussion about his incredible 61 minute film ‘The Poor Stockinger, the Luddite Cropper and the Deluded Followers of Joanna Southcott’ which is a beautiful documentary about the Marxist historian Edward Palmer (E. P.) Thompson, who was employed by the Workers’ Education Association (WEA) from 1946, aged 24, to teach adults in the industrial towns of the West Riding. These WEA classes were open to people for whom university education was not previously available. 
See: http://lux.org.uk/collection/works/poor-stockinger-luddite-cropper-and-deluded-followers-joanna-southcott

 

**END**

‘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

The New Left Book Club: https://rikowski.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/the-new-left-book-club-call-for-papers/

Glenn Rikowski at Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski   

Critical Theory, Film and Media: Where Is “Frankfurt” Now?

Eisenstein

CRITICAL THEORY, FILM AND MEDIA: WHERE IS “FRANKFURT” NOW?

Call for Papers: Permanent Seminar Conference 2014: Critical Theory, Film and Media: Where is “Frankfurt” Now?

Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, DE, Aug. 20-24, 2014

Deadline for Papers: February 28^th

This is an international conference at Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Germany, August 20 through 24, 2014, organized by the Institut für Sozialforschung and the Institut für Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft in cooperation with the Permanent Seminar on Histories of Film Theories.

In 2010, Alexander Kluge releases a DVD called “Wer sich traut, reißt die Kälte vom Pferd” (Those who dare tear the cold down from his horse), the third installment in a series that started with a ten-hour film based on Eisenstein’s project of filming Marx’ “Das Kapital”. Picking up on an unfinished project developed with Adorno in 1967 on the theme of coldness, the 2010 DVD presents a media mix of 31 different types of short films and 41 stories in an accompanying booklet. The project is a collaboration between 12 artists, scholars and experts from various disciplinary backgrounds, two of them being fictive characters.  Reading theory has become a collaborative effort, involving various disciplines on different platforms, and dealing with unfinished projects. About the project Kluge writes:

“The possibility of a revolution in Europe has disappeared, and with it the confidence in a historical process that can be directlyshaped by people’s consciousness. With this confidence, a certain unrest and urgency have disappeared. … As if in a quiet garden we can now study strange thoughts from [x] and weird projects from [y], because they are like messages from an ideological antiquity. … We do not have to announce anything new, we do not have to pass final judgments, can change little and do not have to imitate [x] or [y]. One can see this as a goodbye, or as a beginning.”

Kluge then goes on to make a statement about Marx that we could paraphrase for our purposes in the following way: “The analytical instruments of the Frankfurt school are not outdated. … Sifting through the rubble of history we find useful tools.”

With a combination of social philosophy, philosophical aesthetics, political economics and a particular focus on technology the Frankfurt school and its kindred spirits Benjamin and Kracauer have paved the way for film and media studies as a critical discipline.

Now, at a time, when the generational project of 1968, the march through the institutions under the assumption that a revolution in Europe is possible, has largely run its course, it is time to sift through the rubble of history, collect the tools, pick up on unfinished projects and think about new beginnings.

What, then are the analytical instruments that the Frankfurt school provided that will be useful going forward? How did the Frankfurt School of critical theory shape the course of film and media theory in the 20th century, and how will its tools continue to shape the study and critical analysis of media and culture?

„Critical Theory, Film and Media: Where is ‘Frankfurt’ now?“, an international conference organized by the Institut für Sozialforschung and the Institut für Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft in cooperation with the Permanent Seminar on Histories of Film Theories (filmtheories.org), proposes to address  these questions through a series of panels, keynote lectures and panel discussions.

Contributions are welcome on various aspects of critical theory, film and media, from the impact of critical theory on the history of film theory and media studies and film and media practice to debates about media and politics and the continuing relevance of critical theory to postcolonial, queer and other recent strands of cultural theory.

In particular, the conference proposes to address, but will not limit itself to, the following areas of study

From the critique of the culture industry to the “creative industries”: Without doubt the culture industry chapter of the “Dialectics of Enlightment” is among the most influential texts in the history of film and media theory. Together with Adorno’s notes on cinema in the “Minima moralia” this chapter constitutes a damning indictment of commercialized culture as exemplified most notably by Hollywood cinema. Among other things, with its strong focus on Hollywood, the “Culture industry” chapter laid the groundwork for the institutional histories of Hollywood proposed by the New Film History and continues to echo in current debates about creativity and the “creative industries”. One of the aims of this conference is to trace how the Frankfurt school critique of the culture industry has shaped the study of commercial and popular culture, but also to inquire into the possible continuing relevance of some of the basic tenets of Adorno and Horkheimer’s critique to digital network culture.

Essayism, Criticism and Critical Theory: In his famous essay on the “Essay as form” from 1958 Adorno argues for a kind of critical writing that strategically subverts and transgresses disciplinary boundaries. Going back even further, criticism constituted a crucial part of the project of critical theory since its beginnings, whether the film criticism of Kracauer or the music criticism of Adorno. One could argue that film studies emerged as a field in precisely the area carved out by Adorno – indebted to criticism, in a space in between disciplines, borrowing tools and approaches from neighboring field, avoiding for a long time the ossifications of disciplinary protocol. Emerging roughly a decade after film studies, “Medienwissenschaft” occupied a similar trans- or non-disciplinary space. Revisiting the Frankfurt legacy of criticism as theory and of disregarding disciplinary protocol this conference proposes to explore the power and potential of essaysism in the academic study of film and media culture today.

Philosophy of History and the History of Media: The Institut für Sozialforschung was created in response to a failed revolution, the German revolution of 1918. Combining Marx with Freud to explain why the revolution did not happen led the Frankfurt school to develop a theory of power and subjectivity of which Foucault later acknowledged that it would would have saved him a lot of trouble had he known about it earlier. The idea of history as process evolving around the possibility of a revolution remained central to later generations of critical theorists. From the outset, Kracauer and Benjamin in particular tied the question of historical process and historical consciousness to the question of media technology, in particular photography and film. In the wake of the emergence of digital network communications and the current transformation of moving image culture the positions the work of Benjamin and Kracauer have re-emerged as key reference in film and media theory. This conference proposes to explore why, even though the urgency that comes with a confidence in history as process has been lost, as Kluge argues, this work appears to be immediately relevant to the study of media and history in contemporary media culture.

Critical Theory, Feminist Film Theory and the Politics of Desire: One of the most important and powerful contributions of the Frankfurt School to the field of critical theory in the 20th century consisted in linking the critique of capitalism to sexual politics and the politics of desire. Drawing on the Frankfurt School’s signature combination of neo-marxist analysis with Freudian psychoanalysis, Herbert Marcuse discussed the capitalist system of production in terms of a sublimation of desire in his book 1955 “Eros and Civilization” that an important reference for the generation of 68. Feminist film theory, from Laura Mulvey onwards, emerged in the 1970s from a similar convergence of Freud and Marx (and from Althusser and Lacan), while later approaches to sexual politics and media, from gender studies to queer theory, owe a significant debt to Frankfurt school critical theory in their own ways, in particular to Kluge and Negt’s critique of Habermas’ concept of the public sphere, but also to Benjamin and Kracauer and their interest in the historically changes modes of mediated affect. One of the aims of this conference is to explore how the critique of capitalism and the analysis of sexual politics intersect and re-align in contemporary media culture and in the face of what has variously been called “information capitalism” or “digital capitalism”.

Critical Theory, Artistic Practice and the Category of the Art Work: Critical theory, from Benjamin’s works on the theater to his essay on the author as producer and the artwork essay to Kracauer’s film theory and Adorno’s sociology of music has left a significant imprint on film art and on media practice more broadly speaking. German experimental theater and radio in the 1920s, the television programs with avant-garde composes curated by Mauricio Kagel in the 1960s and 1970s and the new German cinema of Kluge and beyond all in varying degrees have use critical theory as a frame of reference. Jean-Luc Godard, a former critic who never ceased to be a critic, continues to acknowledge his debt to critical theory and to Benjamin and Adorno in particular in his work for cinema and television as does, of course, Kluge in his television work. Of particular interest in these examples is a critique of the category of “work” that can be traced back to Adorno but is probably now more relevant than ever. This conference proposes to trace the Frankfurt lineage of the critique of the category of art work across a variety of artistic and media practices.

Critical Theory and the Critique of Institutions: The Institut für Sozialforschung was created in the late 1920s as a research institution outside the university, even though it had ties with the University of Frankfurt, which itself had only been founded in 1914. Benjamin’s troubles with academic protocol are well known, and Kracauer consistently worked outside the university until very late in his life. Critical theory emerges outside of, or in tension with, the established institutions of academic life and carries the critique of institutions as its birthmark, so to speak. The Frankfurt school’s critique of institutions further extends to cultural institutions, from Benjamin’s critical analysis of Brecht and Brechtian theater to Adorno’s critique of the practices and institutions of classical music. One of the key legacies of the Frankfurt school is to keep the critique of institutions alive in film and media studies in areas where the focus tends to either be on representations of social and gender roles or on technologies regardless of their institutional dynamics.

Critical Theory and Gesture as Interruption: Few other concepts from early critical theory have developed a more virulent afterlife in the theory of theater, film and media than the concept of the “gesture”. Emerging from the theory of language and theater from his early essay on language an the book on the German “Trauerspiel” Benjamin defines “gesture” as a interruption of an action and as the “frozen dialectic” that later becomes a key to his theory of film and of the images, as well as to his readings of Kafka. Roland Barthes draws on Benjamin’s theory of gesture in his analysis of Eisenstein, as does Heiner Müller in his re-readings of Brecht, Jeff Wall in his tableaus or Godard in his “Histoire(s)”. This conference proposes to explore the prehistory and afterlife of this key concept of both critical theory and modern art theory.

Critical Theory and the History of Media Technology: Over the last few years a strain of Medienwissenschaft focused on the history technology and particularly computer technology has gained prominence in the Anglophone world under the label “German media theory”. Inspired mostly by the work of Friedrich Kittler and deriving from Heidegger rather than Adorno – or from Freiburg rather than Frankfurt –, this strain of media theory has proposed what we might call “Technohegelianism”, i.e. a philosophy of history as driven by technology and information technology in particular, as an alternative to a critical theory approach to media. This conference intends to explore the relative merits as well as the points of convergence and communication between “German media theory” and FrankfurtSchool critical theory, with a particular focus on the question of media technology.

The conference will be held at the Campus Westend, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt.

Proposals for papers and panels should be submitted to before February 28, 2014.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent out before March 15, 2014.

Scientific committee:

Dr. Sidonia Blättler, Institut für Sozialforschung, Frankfurt
Prof. Dr. Eva Geulen, professor of German literature, Frankfurt
Prof. Dr. Vinzenz Hediger, professor of cinema studies, Frankfurt
Prof. Dr. Axel Honneth, director of the Institut für Sozialforschung, Frankfurt
Prof. Dr. Rembert Hüser, professor of media studies, Frankfurt
Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Müller-Schöll, professor of theater studies, Frankfurt
Prof. Dr. Juliane Rebentisch, professor of philosophy and aesthetics, HFG Offenbach
Prof. Dr. Marc Ries, professor of media sociology, HFG Offenbach
Prof. Dr. Martin Seel, professor of philosophy, Frankfurt
Dr. Marc Siegel, assistant professor of cinema studies, Frankfurt

Information and Contact: info contact: frankfurtconference@filmtheories.org

See website: http://filmtheories.org/permanent-seminar-conference-2014-where-is-frankfurt-now/

 

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘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

Cinematicity: City and Cinema After Deleuze

Gilles Deleuze

CINEMATICITY: CITY AND CINEMA AFTER DELEUZE

Call for Papers: Cinematicity: City and Cinema after Deleuze

Organizers: David B. Clarke, Marcus A. Doel, Richard G. Smith

This session of the Royal Society of Geographers & Institute of British Geographers Annual International Conference 2014, focuses on the ‘co-production’ of filmic and urban space. That term, as it features in the conference theme, relates to knowledge – proposing that ‘new encounters are disrupting conceptions of where knowledge resides.’ Engaging Deleuze’s discussions of cinema, this session questions the framing of co-production in terms of dwelling. The reciprocal presupposition of cinema and city would seem, rather, to embody a sense of becoming. Thus, Deleuze’s conceptions of the cinemas of the movement-image and time-image recall Lewis Mumford’s claim that, ‘In the city, time becomes visible.’ How does cinema think the city, and vice-versa, to generate new, transformative senses of cinematicity? Contributions exploring the connections between cinematic and urban space are invited, potentially including work on early cinema and living pictures; considerations of specific cities, films or genres; conceptions of city and cinema as spiritual automata; and a multiplicity of other creative conceptualizations of cinematicity.

Please send abstracts of no more than 200 words by 14th February to: d.b.clarke@swansea.ac.uk

Annual International Conference 2014: http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm

Contact:
David B. Clarke
Centre for Urban Theory
Department of Geography
Swansea University
Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
Tel. +44(0)1792 602317
E-mail: d.b.clarke@swansea.ac.uk

**END**

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘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

Centre for the Study of Education and Work: Update 7th October 2013

Peter Hudis

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK: UPDATE 7th OCTOBER 2013

EVENTS

RYERSON SOCIAL JUSTICE WEEK (OCTOBER 7 – 11)
A week of events, speakers, exhibit and cultural events to transform Ryerson into a hub of social justice and solidarity.

Monday October 7th

Rally: Decent Work For All!
Time: 12:00pm – 1:30pm
Location: Gould Street & Victoria
-Drumming
-Student and Worker Speakers

Social Justice ‘Walking Tour’
Time: 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Location: Meet at Ryerson statue

Opening Lecture – Idle No More: Reframing the Nation To Nation Relationship
Time: 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Location: TRS1067 (TRSM Building – 55 Dundas St. West)

For more info on the week’s events: http://www.ryerson.ca/socialjustice/events/index.html

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REBELS WITH A CAUSE FILM FESTIVAL AT YORK UNIVERSITY

Tuesday, October 22- Friday, October 25, 2013
York University
4700 Keele St., Toronto

The Rebels with a Cause Film Festival is brought to the York U community by artists and activists who seek the delicate balance between both creative and political work. We believe that film should not pacify or be escapist, but politicize and give us the courage to transform ourselves and our communities. The films selected are artistic reflections on social justice issues and critical documentations of unsung community work. Located within a university context, Rebels engages in dialogue outside the classroom through conversations after screenings. We hope that the communal act of viewing and sharing our ideas about films will strengthen our community and empower our work on York campus and beyond.

For more info: http://rebelsfilmfest.wordpress.com/

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FROM INDUSTRIAL FOOD TO WORLD FOOD: A BOOK LAUNCH AND PANEL DISCUSSION ON WORLD FOOD DAY

Wednesday, Oct 16
6pm – 8pm
FoodShare Toronto
90 Croatia Street, Toronto

Contact: Robyn Shyllit – 416.363.6441 x282 – robyn@foodshare.net

The event is FREE and snacks will be provided. Books will be available for sale and signing. Wheelchair accessible.

Celebrate World Food Day on October 16, with a special book launch and panel discussion featuring author of The Industrial Diet Anthony Winson, No Nonsense Guide to World Food, Second Edition author Wayne Roberts, FoodShare Executive Director Debbie Field, and Executive Director of Marin Organic in California Jeffrey Westman.

Plus, meet the author’s of FoodShare’s first cookbook, Marion Kane and Adrienne De Francesco, and purchase your own signed copy of share: Delicious Dishes from FoodShare and Friends.

For more info: http://www.foodshare.net/events/from-industrial-food-to-world-food-a-book-launch-and-panel-discussion/

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GETTING IN & STAYING IN: LABOUR MARKET CHALLENGES FACING YOUTH

Monday, 4 November 2013
9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Toronto Central YMCA Centre
20 Grosvenor Street, Toronto

Youth are experiencing unprecedented barriers to entering the workforce and are resorting to creative, and sometimes unpaid, outlets to gain meaningful experiences, network and secure stable employment. Join Social Planning Toronto, Toronto Workforce Innovation Group and McMaster University’s School of Labour Studies as we explore overall trends in youth unemployment in Canada and Ontario; the rise in unpaid internships; the debate around skills mismatch; youth & unions; youth in self-employment; and the public policy options and promising practices available to support youth in these difficult times.

For more info: http://bit.ly/17elObc

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WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH – OCTOBER 2013

In 1992, October was proclaimed Women’s History Month to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of women throughout Canadian history. October was chosen to coincide with anniversary of the Persons Case, which on October 18, 1929 – through the courage and determination of the Famous Five, the five Canadian women who launched the case – established once and for all that women were “persons” when the Privy Council overturned a Supreme Court of Canada decision and ruled that women were indeed persons, and could become Senators. The ruling not only opened the political doors for Canadian women. It also clearly asserted that women’s equality rights in Canada were fundamental.

What the law allows is one thing, but what opportunity allows is another. For millions of Canadian women, their opportunity to fully use their talents and vision continues to be limited by access to affordable and accessible quality child care. In Canada, women’s share of unpaid work, including childcare, remains double to that of men; so the lack of quality, affordable child care falls particularly hard on women and their access to work outside the home.

Women’s History in Canada deserves to be celebrated and acknowledged. It is a time to look back, but also to commit to a future  where a lack of quality, affordable child care is a historical footnote  — and where no woman is limited by an uncaring government. Add your voice to make that future happen. UFCW Canada members, activist and allies are also encouraged to download and share a special poster to commemorate Women’s History Month.

Take action on child care: http://www.ufcw.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3664&Itemid=358&lang=en

Download the poster: http://www.ufcw.ca/templates/ufcwcanada/images/media/posters/Women-History-Month/2013/WoHistyMo_oct2013_EN_8x11_email.pdf

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FEAST FOR FAIRNESS

Join us at a Feast for Fairness at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market!  Help us win a minimum wage increase for all workers!

Saturday October 12
10:30am to 12pm
St. Lawrence Market
Meet at the corner of Front St. E and Jarvis.
(1 block south of King St. E) Toronto

This Thanksgiving weekend, many low-wage workers are resorting to food banks in order to get by and restaurant workers continue to see their wages stagnate. Many migrant workers are excluded from minimum wage laws altogether.

Join the Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage and Migrant Workers Alliance for Change as we demand an immediate increase to the minimum wage to $14 and ending minimum wage exemptions for all workers!

Under the banner of “Poverty Wages? NO THANKS!” this event will be just one of many province-wide actions taking place around the Thanksgiving weekend calling for a $14 minimum wage, and in alliance with the Raise the Rates Week of Action from Oct. 14-20.

Find out more here: http://raisetheminimumwage.ca/updates/look-whos-putting-food-on-your-table/

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NEWS & VIEWS

VIDEO – “MADE IN THE USA” DOCUMENTARY CRITIQUES HUDAK’S PLANS FOR A LOW-WAGE ONTARIO

In June 2012, Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak published a “white paper” outlining the changes his party would like to make to the province’s labour laws. Hudak and the Tories say employees in unionized workplaces should be allowed to receive the benefits of union representation without paying the dues that make those benefits possible. While this proposal would violate current Ontario law and an historic legal ruling by Supreme Court Justice Ivan Rand, such “free rider” laws are used to suppress union activity in 24 U.S. states, where they are commonly referred to as “right to work” laws.

In June 2013, veteran journalist Bill Gillespie climbed in a van with a camera crew and headed south to get the real story about “right to work.” His documentary film, Made in the USA: Tim Hudak’s plan to cut your wages, is the result.

“There is a lot of great research out there about the dangers of ‘right to work’ laws,” says Gillespie. “Our goal in making this film was to present that research in a way that was accessible to a wide audience. By presenting the facts through the stories of people who have personal experience with right-to-work laws, I think we’ve succeeded in doing that.”

Made in the USA was financed by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

Watch the video: http://www.madeinusamovie.ca/

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CALL FOR ABSTRACTS! GENDER, WORK AND ORGANIZATION

Gender, Work and Organization
8th Biennial International Interdisciplinary Conference
24th – 26th June, 2014, Keele University, UK

As a central theme in social science research in the field of work and organisation, the study of gender has achieved contemporary significance beyond the confines of early discussions of women at work. Launched in 1994, Gender, Work and Organization was the first journal to provide an arena dedicated to debate and analysis of gender relations, the organisation of gender and the gendering of organisations. The Gender, Work and Organization conference provides an international forum for debate and analysis of a variety of issues in relation to gender studies. The 2012 conference at Keele University attracted approximately 380 international scholars from over 30 nations. The Conference will be held at Keele University, Staffordshire, in Central England, the UK’s largest integrated campus
university.

For more info: http://labouringfutures.com/network/stream-for-gender-work-and-organization-2014/

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SOCIAL PLANNING TORONTO (SPT) DEPUTATION TO ONTARIO MINIMUM WAGE PANEL

On Sept. 6, 2013, Social Planning Toronto presented its deputation to the Ontario Minimum Wage Advisory Panel. Part of SPT’s mission is to be actively involved in highlighting the impact of poverty and income inequality on Toronto residents. With nearly half of Canadian workers living paycheque to paycheque, SPT strongly believes the Ontario government has a key role and responsibility to ensure that its labour force is not working for poverty level wages.

Read more: http://www.socialplanningtoronto.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/SPTDeputation.OntMinimumWagePanel.13.09.061.pdf

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PROSPECTS FOR A CONTINENTAL WORKERS’ MOVEMENT: A FRIENDLY DEBATE

From The Bullet

The two articles that follow are part of a debate on the prospects and problems of building international working-class solidarity and struggle. They focus on these issues for the case of North America, a continent bound together through NAFTA, continental economic integration, overlapping labour markets, and U.S.-Canadian unions. Dan La Botz’ article presents a very positive but critical commentary on Richard Roman and Edur Velasco Arregui’s book, Continental Crucible: Big Business, Workers, and Unions in the Transformation of North America. La Botz questions what he sees as an overly optimistic analysis of prospects for the working class movement in North America. The reply by Roman and Velasco Arregui argues for a cautious optimism, an optimism based both on characteristics of the present moment of globalized capitalism and the historical ties between the working classes of North America. This debate seeks to contribute to both the rebuilding of the Left and the building of a class-wide, continent-wide and eventually international, fight against capitalism, two tasks that are inseparably intertwined.

Read more: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/885.php

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS – MAYWORKS FESTIVAL 2014

The Mayworks Festival – Toronto is pleased to invite submissions for its 29th festival season. Applications are accepted from groups and individuals in a range of disciplines, including: visual art, music/ poetry, film, video, interdisciplinary, and theatre. We also welcome unions and art organizations to propose panel presentations, forums, and screenings, and to sponsor or co-sponsor events.

Mayworks Festival is a multi-disciplinary arts festival that celebrates cultural production working class culture. We seek to showcase high calibre art by artists at all stages in their careers that are politically and socially engaged with labour realities.  Mayworks Festival is especially committed to providing a platform to support the underrepresented labor of indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, migrants, women, queer-identified people, people of color, and youth.

Submissions will not be accepted after the deadline date: Nov. 1, 2013.
Proposals selected will be notified by email by December 2013. The festival dates (TBD) will be in early May 2014.

For more info: http://www.mayworks.ca

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JOB POSTINGS

CO-ORDINATOR, CENTRE FOR RESEARCH ON LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN (CERLAC), YORK UNIVERSITY

Please note: The Centre Coordinator is required to speak, read and write Spanish fluently.

The Centre Coordinator supports the Centre Director for the overall operation of Centre-related activities, including providing support to financial activities; program administration and secretarial support to the Centre Director and projects.

Education:
Completion of university degree in a related field such as Humanities, Development Studies and any related field in the Social or Environmental Sciences.

Experience:
2-3 years of related work experience in an academic or related research focused unit or NGO environment providing administrative support. Experience with, or demonstrable knowledge and awareness of, issues related to critical social science research, international development, and social justice and Latin American and Caribbean region and/or communities. Experience in Latin America and the Caribbean and/or with Latin American and Caribbean communities is an asset.

For more info: http://webapps.yorku.ca/nonacademicpostings/summary.jsp?postingnumber=8577

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HEAD OFFICE SECRETARY– BILINGUAL, CANADIAN LABOUR CONGRESS

The Canadian Labour Congress requires a bilingual Head Office Secretary. The primary role of the Head Office Secretary is to proofread and format French and English documents.

Duties:
– use word processing software to produce correspondence, memos, reports, briefs, bulletins, letters and documents;
– proofread and format existing documents including memos, reports, briefs and letters;
– use desktop publishing software to format and/or draft layout design for publications;
– enter information in databases;
– act as relief and assume responsibilities of other secretarial positions;
– ensure correct filing of electronic and physical documents;
– register participants for conferences;
– draft routine correspondence and reply to email enquiries;
– provide switchboard relief;
– post information on the intranet and CLC websites.

Qualifications:
– 2 years office experience performing similar tasks;
– oral and written fluency in English and French;
– excellent proofreading and formatting skills in French and English;
– ability to work as part of a team;
– completion of post-secondary office administration training is preferred.

For more info:
https://charityvillage.com/jobs/search-results/job-detail.aspx?id=281857&l=2

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PUBLIC SERVICE ALLIANCE CANADA: REGIONAL EDUCATION OFFICER (BILINGUAL) – ATLANTIC

Under the direction of the Regional Coordinator and as part of a regional team that includes other regional office staff, the Regional Council, the Regional Education Committee, and other regional union bodies such as the Alliance Facilitators’ Network, the Regional Education Officer builds the union and fosters membership solidarity by coordinating the development and delivery of a quality program of membership education and empowerment in the region. The Regional Education Officer closely collaborates with other Regional Education Officers and with the staff of the Education Section in
Ottawa to maintain a core Program of PSAC Membership Education that is relevant, comprehensive, innovative and dynamic.

For more info: https://charityvillage.com/jobs/search-results/job-detail.aspx?id=281800&l=2

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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  

‘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

Educating from Marx

 

The Spectacle of Disintegration

McKenzie Wark

THE SPECTACLE OF DISINTEGRATION: SITUATIONIST PASSAGES OUT OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

By McKenzie Wark

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Published May 2013

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Following his acclaimed history of the Situationist International up until the late sixties, THE BEACH BENEATH THE STREET, McKenzie Wark returns with a companion volume which puts the late work of the Situationists in a broader and deeper context, charting their contemporary relevance and their deep critique of modernity. Wark builds on their work to map the historical stages of the society of the spectacle, from the diffuse to the integrated to what he calls the disintegrating spectacle. THE SPECTACLE OF DISINTEGRATION takes the reader through the critique of political aesthetics of former Situationist T.J. Clark, the Fourierist utopia of Raoul Vaneigem, René Vienet’s earthy situationist cinema, Gianfranco Sangunetti’s pranking of the Italian ruling class, Alice-Becker Ho’s account of the anonymous language of the Romany, Guy Debord’s late films and his surprising work as a game designer.

At once an extraordinary counter history of radical praxis and a call to arms in the age of financial crisis and the resurgence of the streets, THE SPECTACLE OF DISINTEGRATION recalls the hidden journeys taken in the attempt to leave the twentieth century, and plots an exit from the twenty first.

The dustjacket unfolds to reveal a fold-out poster of the collaborative graphic essay combining text selected by McKenzie Wark with composition and drawings by Kevin C. Pyle.

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“Wark’s readable explanation of the movement’s ideas is the best I have read. ” – Edwin Heathcote, In praise of BEACH BENEATH THE STREET, FINANCIAL TIMES

“A playful, smart and occasionally epigrammatic study of the Situationists … this brilliant account is not only an essential work for our own times; it also comes with a cover that, with the minimum of manual dexterity, folds out into a collaborative graphic essay. ” – John Burnside, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

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ISBN: 9781844679577 / Hardback / $26.95 / £16.99 / $28.50CAN / 256 Pages

For more information on THE SPECTACLE OF DISINTEGRATION or to buy the book visit:

http://www.versobooks.com/books/1162-the-spectacle-of-disintegration

———————————– 

Visit Verso’s website for information on our upcoming events, new reviews and publications and special offers: http://www.versobooks.com

Sign up for the Verso mailing list:

https://www.versobooks.com/users/sign_up

Become a fan of Verso on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Verso-Books/205847279448577

And get updates on Twitter too!

http://twitter.com/VersoBooks

 

**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

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

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

 

Centre for the Study of Education and Work: Update 12th May 2013

Education Crisis

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK: UPDATE 12th MAY 2013

EVENTS

BRIEFING ON P3S AND AUSTERITY
Thursday, May 9
10:30am
OFL Building, Toronto
15 Gervais Drive, 8th floor boardroom

You are invited to join a briefing by health policy expert Dr. John Lister on the P3 disasters in England, the austerity agenda and the response of the unions and civil society organizations.

Dr. Lister will provide a briefing on the latest news as six large hospital trusts face bankruptcy due to their P3 payment obligations, the British government has moved to underwrite the P3 schemes to keep them afloat and the fight-back against austerity continues.

Dr. Lister is a professor of health policy and health journalism at Coventry University in the U.K. He is also the executive director of London Health Emergency — the British equivalent to the Health Coalitions — and one of the founders of Save Our NHS. Dr. Lister is the author of two books on international health reform. He is an expert on P3s and health policy reform. He has written a number of reports and analyses on British health reform for media, unions and civil society organizations.

Please let us know if you intend to attend this briefing at ohc@sympatico.ca
Ontario Health Coalition – http://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca

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GREATER TORONTO WORKERS’ ASSEMBLY GENERAL MEETING

Saturday May 11
10am
Steelworkers’ Hall
25 Cecil Street, Toronto

The goals of the Assembly are:
* To bring together activists within the broad working class movement, to explore the experiences and approaches to struggle that both unite and divide us as a starting point for overcoming divisions and building greater collaboration, exchange, strategic discussion and action amongst us.
* To share our understanding of the problems created by capitalism and the current economic crisis and the need to develop alternative visions that challenge the logic and power of private corporations, and the states that back them, over our lives.
* To identify and develop concrete strategies and organizational forms of struggle which defend working-class people’s immediate needs and lay the groundwork for an equitable and democratic alternative to our present economic and political system.

http://www.workersassembly.ca/node/219

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FILM: BUTTERFLIES ON THE SCAFFOLD / MARIPOSAS EN EL ANDAMIO (DRAG CULTURE IN CUBA)

1995, 75 min. film on transgender life in Cuba

Wednesday, May 22
8 p.m. – 10 p.m.
The 519 Church Community Centre, Room 301
Toronto

Discussion to follow screening of film.
All welcome, free of charge, light refreshments served, donations welcome, TTC tokens available.

Sponsored by LGBTI/Allies Rainbow Sea of Red Open Collective and endorsed by CUPE and CAW locals in Toronto, Canada-Cuba Friendship Association and other social justice groups in the GTA.

You are welcome to attend our meetings every 4th Tuesday of the month at 8 p.m. at The 519 Community Centre.

For more information: seaofredopencollective@gmail.com

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CONCERT: SONGS OF LOVE, HOPE, AND OPTIMISM WITH COMMON THREAD CHORUS

Saturday, May 25
1:30 and 7:30 pm
Al Green Theatre
750 Spadina Avenue (Spadina subway)
Toronto

Local social justice choir Common Thread Community Chorus celebrates late NDP leader Jack Layton’s parting message of love, hope and optimism in its annual fundraiser concert.

The choir will be commemorating its 14th year by selecting songs that strongly reflect Layton’s letter to the Canadian public two days before he passed away on August 22, 2011.

Ticket Info:
In advance: $18 Adults, $13 Seniors/Students, Kids 8 and under FREE
At door: $20 Adults, $15 Seniors/Students
Pay What You Can
Group rates available

Advanced tickets through PayPal at info@commonthreadchorus.ca

PH: 416-410-5022   http://commonthreadchorus.ca/

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URBAN WORKER CAMPAIGN LAUNCH

Thursday, May 23
7:00 pm
The Common
1080 Bloor Street West, Toronto

Join MP Andrew Cash and MPP Jonah Schein at the launch of the Urban Worker campaign.

There will be music from great local musicians and refreshments.

It used to be that when you started your working career you could work the same job until you retired, usually with a workplace pension. Today’s reality of work has fundamentally changed yet our policies, especially Employment Insurance and pensions, remain stuck in the past.

Nearly 50% of Torontonians can’t find permanent, full-time jobs that provide benefits and job-security. I hear about this all the time in our community because so many of us work part time, on contract, freelance or are self-employed. We are a city of web designers and roofers, musicians and consultants, office cleaners and waiters, service sector workers and contract professors. We all face the same issues.

I’m proud to announce that this spring I will introduce a bill in the House of Commons that lays out measures to protect, among others, those who have no pension, those who have never been able to qualify for EI, and those who are working unpaid internships. On May 23rd, I’ll be launching this bill at the Common on Bloor. I hope you can stop by to show your support, hear more about the bill and share your experience as an Urban Worker.

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NEWS & VIEWS

VIDEO: MEXICAN WORKER-RUN TIRE FACTORY A SUCCESS

By Oscar León, The Real News

Union wins years long struggle against vulture capitalists and now helms one of Mexico’s most successful tire factories

Watch the video: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10179

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PRIVATE MONEY, PUBLIC PROGRAMS? THERE WILL ALWAYS BE STRINGS

By Sherri Torjman, Caledon Institute

In response to the perpetual shortage of funding for a wide range of social needs, Ottawa just announced its commitment to the use of social impact bonds.  The emerging sphere of social finance throughout the world opens many new fiscal doors. Social finance is a term that refers to a range of instruments, including social impact bonds, which blend public and private money to tackle tough social problems.

The potential problem with social impact bonds is not the fact that they bring private capital into the social equation.  The primary concern with this instrument is the obsession with quantifiable performance outcomes. These expectations can lead to perverse outcomes, such as selecting the
participants most likely to succeed in a program rather than the ones who need most help.  The question of whose benefits are being measured must also be considered.  Finally, patient capital is required in order to achieve real social change.

Read more: http://www.caledoninst.org/Publications/PDF/1010ENG.pdf

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POVERTY FREE ONTARIO ON THE 2013 ONTARIO BUDGET

Budget provisions inadequate but . . . community gets government attention on single adults

After several years of community advocacy, the Ontario Government finally acknowledged in its 2013 Budget that single adults on social assistance are living in especially severe conditions of hardship and hunger. Once again, the Government adjusted social assistance rates by 1%, the current rate of inflation, but added a $14 top-up for single adults without children on Ontario Works.

Community advocates for a poverty-free Ontario have been campaigning since 2009 for benefit increases that would begin to relieve the tremendous deprivation of single adults living in deep poverty at less than 40% of the official Ontario poverty line. They can finally claim a clear breakthrough with the Government on the plight of single adults, even if the actual rate increases this year are not at the level needed.

Contending that the Government was taking a “balanced approach” to achieving “prosperity” and “fairness,” Finance Minister Charles Sousa actually tips the balance in the direction of continuing austerity.

Read more: http://www.spno.ca/latest/poverty-free-ontario-on-the-2013-ontario-budget

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CHICAGO WORKERS OPEN NEW COOPERATIVELY OWNED FACTORY FIVE YEARS AFTER REPUBLIC WINDOWS OCCUPATION

By Democracy Now!
Almost a year to the day after their window factory closed, a group of former workers have launched their own window business without bosses. They successfully raised money to buy the factory collectively and run it democratically. In 2008, some of the workers were involved in a famous six-day sit-in after Republic Windows and Doors gave workers just three days’ notice before closing the factory. The sit-in drew national attention and union workers reached a settlement where they each received $6,000. About 65 workers occupied the factory after their jobs came under threat
again in 2012, refusing to give up their jobs.

Read more: http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/9/chicago_workers_open_new_cooperatively_owned

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FERNWOOD PUBLISHING SPRING OVERVIEW

Happy spring everyone! And of course, Happy May Day! Things have been incredibly busy here at Fernwood, and we’ve even added some new staff members to our family. Aside from making new personnel feel at home, we’ve been working hard at getting our Spring 2013 books out on the shelves (most of which are available now), organizing author speaking tours, attending conferences and, of course, getting prepared for our Fall 2013 line-up.

And oh, while we’ve got you, our Spring and Fall 2013 Catalogues are available to download right here, or if you’d like physical copies, get in touch with us at info@fernpub.ca and we’ll get them out to you right away.

Visit the website: http://www.fernwoodpublishing.ca/
Download the catalogues: http://www.fernwoodpublishing.ca/page/Catalogues

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JUST PUBLISHED – THE GLOBAL LABOUR MOVEMENT: AN INTRODUCTION

A short guide to the Global Union Federations, the ITUC, and other international bodies

Authored by Edd Mustill, introduction by Eric Lee

Tens of millions of workers around the world are affiliated, through their union membership, to one of the global union federations (GUFs). These international unions cover every industry, from transport to finance to public services. They work to support their affiliates throughout the world, providing support during industrial disputes, training union members, and bringing pressure to bear on multinationals and governments.

This book serves as a short introduction to the GUFs, as well as the International Trade Union Confederation, and a starting point for union members who want to learn more about the international dimension of our movement.

Publication Date: Apr 25 2013
ISBN/EAN13: 1484165764 / 9781484165768
$5.99

Order from the publisher: https://www.createspace.com/4252731

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800 DEAD IN BANGLADESH: FIGHT GLOBAL CAPITALISM WITH INTERNATIONAL WORKING CLASS UNITY

By Richard Mellor, Facts for Working People

I’m having a hard time figuring out where to start this morning.  I need to control my anger after reading the introductory paragraph to this article in Bloomberg Businessweek, a major journal of the US capitalist class.

“Bangladesh’s billion dollar garment industry provides opportunities for millions of poor, illiterate women,” BW writes.  Indeed it does.  The death toll from last month’s catastrophe when a building housing several factories collapsed has topped 800. When opportunity knocks it knocks hard in Bangladesh. It also has its dangers the article confesses.  The nation is a “paradox” BW argues. Is that what you call it?

Read more: http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.ca/2013/05/800-dead-in-bangladesh-fight-global.html

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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=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

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

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

 

Centre for the Study of Education and Work: Update 1st December 2012

Education Crisis

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION AND WORK: UPDATE 1st DECEMBER 2012

EVENTS

FIGHTING FORWARD – A LABOR & WORKING-CLASS SUMMIT

The 2013 conference of the Working Class Studies Association (WCSA)

June 12-15
Madison College – Downtown Campus
Madison, Wisconsin

Join us at the epicenter of the “Wisconsin Uprising” for a gathering of working people, community and labor activists, students and educators focused on building a revitalized movement in support of labor and the working class. Since the start of the Uprising, we have witnessed an historic response by working people to the decades-long assault on our rights and livelihoods. Now is the time to reflect, strategize, and build connections, as we not only continue to fight back against this assault but also move forward in building a better future for labor and working class people. It is time for Fighting Forward!

The Summit will provide an opportunity to celebrate, educate, strategize, share experiences and best practices, and build connections and relationships. The program will incorporate a broad array of activities, including workshops, panels, training sessions, roundtables, cultural exhibitions and performances, strategy sessions, tabling and exhibits, and social activities aimed at building and strengthening connections among participants.

To register or submit a proposal: http://www.fightingforward.org/

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MOVIE: SPECIAL FLIGHT (VOL SPÉCIAL)

Tuesday, December 4
6:45 PM
Bloor Hot Docs Cinema
506 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Suggested donation $2-10

Fernand Melgar / CH / 2011 / 100 min / French with English s.t.

This special screening is co-presented by No One is Illegal – Toronto.

Synopsis: Each year, thousands of men and women in Switzerland are imprisoned without trial or sentence. Simply because they stay in the country illegally, they may be deprived of liberty for up to eighteen months before being deported.

After The Fortress (awarded with the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival), which dealt with the reception conditions for asylum seekers in Switzerland, Fernand Melgar takes a look at the other end of the chain, i.e. at the situation towards the end of the migrants’ journey. The filmmaker immersed himself for 9 months in the administrative detention centre Frambois in Geneva, one of the 28 deportation centres for the paperless in Switzerland.

For more info: http://www.cinemapolitica.org/screening/bloor/vol-sp%C3%A9cial

Watch the trailer: http://www.cinemapolitica.org/emvideo/modal/4080/800/600/field_trailer_url/youtube/9vL1PgyL0lk

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TOOLS FOR CHANGE WORKSHOP: ONLINE ORGANIZING & MAKING SOCIAL MEDIA COUNT

Wednesday, January 16, 2013
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Toronto, Ontario

This workshop explores how to do effective online campaigning & maximize social media strategies in your projects and campaigns. Participants will explore the benefits and challenges of different online and social media tools, be given useful information about managing online campaigns & social media platforms as well as mobilizing different audiences and tracking results Location: University of Toronto, St. George Campus.  Exact campus room location given to registrants a week before the event.

Trainer: Anil Kanji works as the Supporter Communications Coordinator for Greenpeace Canada, with a focus on digital mobilisation, storytelling, and fundraising. Anil has over 16 years of communications and marketing experience in both the for-profit and no-profit sectors. He has trained with the New Organizing Institute, SmartMeme, and is part of the global Web of Change community.

To register: http://www.eventbrite.ca/event/4808754113/eorg#

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NEWS & VIEWS

VIDEO: TAX THE RICH

Tax the Rich: An Animated Fairy Tale is narrated by Ed Asner, with animation by Mike Konopacki. Written and directed by Fred Glass for the California Federation of Teachers. An 8- minute video about how we arrived at this moment of poorly funded public services and widening economic inequality. Things go downhill in a happy and prosperous land after the rich decide they don’t want to pay taxes any more. They tell the people that there is no alternative, but the people aren’t so sure. This land bears a startling resemblance to our land.

For more info, go to http://www.cft.org

Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6ZsXrzF8Cc

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VIDEO: THE CONCEPT OF “FAIRNESS”: POSSIBILITIES, LIMITS, POSSIBILITIES

Critical Social Research Collaborative (CSRC) – the Fourth Annual Conference in Critical Social Research: Faultlines of Revolution!

Keynote address by Michael A. Lebowitz: The Concept of “Fairness”: Possibilities, Limits, Possibilities. The talk draws on Lebowitz’s latest book, The Contradictions of “Real Socialism”. Moderated by Gulden Ozcan.

For more info about the CSRC see http://www.csrcproject.ca

Watch the video: http://www.socialistproject.ca/leftstreamed/ls152.php

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AFTER BLACK FRIDAY’S DAY OF ACTION, WHAT’S NEXT FOR WAL-MART?

by John Logan‚ Beyond Chron

So the day of action at Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, has passed at least for the time being. And it turned out to be much larger than the company’s executives in Bentonville had predicted or care to admit.

Thousands of Wal-Mart workers and their allies protested for better wages, affordable healthcare benefits, full-time jobs and an end to management retaliation for speaking out in at least 100 cities, including in Dallas and Lancaster, Texas, Miami and Kenosha, Wisconsin, and several other locations not known for their activism. Although the final tally will not be clear for some time, “open-source” actions of some kind took place at Wal-Mart stores in 46 different states across the nation, with major demonstrations in California, Washington, New York and Massachusetts.

Read more: http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=10728#more

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BANGLADESH – 100 PLUS WORKERS BURNT TO DEATH. WALMART AGAIN?

from Facts for Working People

Over 100 people died in a fire in a garment factory in Bangladesh recently.
At least 111 people died and scores of others are missing or injured.
Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of clothing after China. Since 2006 more than 500 workers have died in fires in Bangladesh according to Clean Clothes Campaign an anti-sweat shop group based in Amsterdam. The industry employs more than three million workers in Bangladesh, most of them women.

Outfits like Walmart, Tommy Hilfiger and Gap get clothing produced in these sweat shop death traps. A spokesperson for the Clean Clothes Campaign says that these profit addicted companies “have known for years that many of the factories they choose to work with are death traps. Their failure to take action amounts to criminal negligence.”

Read more: http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.ca/2012/11/bangladesh-100-plus-workers-burnt-to.html

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HOLIDAY GIFTS WITH A CONSCIENCE

THE MEDIA CO-OP WANTS TO DOUBLE YOUR RADICAL READING THIS WINTER!

Between now and December 5 choose from three great packages for you or for that special radical reader in your life and they (or you) will receive the Dominion magazine before the holidays! If you are giving a gift just make sure to email the name and address of the recipient to our National Sales Coordinator at membership@mediacoop.ca after you make your payment.

– Radical Reading Package – $40 – You get year-long subscriptions (6 issues) to both The Dominion and Briarpatch magazine. This is a saving of 25% over the normal subscription rates.

– Buy Nothing (But This) “Cyber Monday” Sustainer Package – $60 one-time payment or $5/month – Sign up as a sustaining member and you will receive 6 issues of both the Dominion and the Briarpatch and one entry into a draw to win two great prizes!

– Smash the System Sustainer Package – $120 one-time payment or $10/month – Sign up as a sustaining member and you’ll receive 6 issues of both The Dominion and Briarpatch, 3 entries into the aforementioned draw, and you will also be the first person on your block to own one of the awesome newly designed Media Co-op t-shirts we will be launching publicly in Winter 2013.

For more info: http://www.mediacoop.ca/holidaypromo

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SHAKE THINGS UP THIS HOLIDAY WITH THE CCPA!

This holiday season, give a gift that inspires ideas and gives hope for a better world—of peace, justice, democracy, and respect for the planet. Support our work by giving a gift from CCPA (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives) to friends, family, or ask for one yourself! You’ll be contributing to the work we do—and together we’re powerful enough to influence change.

You can support the CCPA’s work in several ways:

– Give a gift membership ($35). This is the perfect gift for the socially concerned citizen. Your gift will directly fund the CCPA’s critical work. The recipient of your gift will receive a one-year membership to the CCPA and10 issues of The CCPA Monitor (Canada’s leading progressive journal).
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/gift-membership

– Make a year-end donation (amount of your choice). Your year-end donation directly supports important new research toward economic, environmental, and social justice. You can make a one-time donation or set up a monthly contribution charged to your credit card. You will receive a tax receipt for 100% of your donation early in the new year.
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/year-end-donation

– Give a calendar ($25). A great gift for everyone, the CCPA’s 2013 Calendar: An Agenda for Social Change is not only beautifully illustrated, but also identifies and describes key dates in Canada’s social justice history. Each day provides an opportunity to explore how debates about equality, gender, environment, First Nations, labour, trade and social programs helped shape our development and identity.
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/gift-calendar

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HOLIDAY JOY AT UFW STORE

Why shop at UFW (United Farm Workers) online store this holiday:

– No repair bills from 9 reindeer stomping on your roof.
– No lines, no crowds, no parking, no zombie sales clerks.
– Shop online all night long.
– Your purchase helps farm workers win good union jobs.
– We don’t sell fruitcake and everything we do sell is zero-calorie.

Visit the site: http://www.ufwstore.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=HOLIDAY&Store_Code=IS0005

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TROUBLEMAKERS ON YOUR HOLIDAY GIFT LIST?

Check out our special holiday packages. The Labor Notes store is stocked with T-shirts for kids and adults, pint glasses, Troublemakers Union knit caps and Troublemakers Union hoodies, now available in red.

Visit the site: https://store.labornotes.org/

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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

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

Centre for the Study of Education and Work: Update 17th November 2012

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

 

****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/

 

 

Cuts Cafe

Capitalism IS Crisis

CUTS CAFÉ

The government tells us that cuts to public services and social security are needed to save an economy in crisis, but in reality the crisis is capitalism.

For the two weeks leading up to the Trade Union Congress demonstration on October 20th, Cuts Café will provide a radical space in Central London to build resistance to these devastating cuts, and to explore the real alternatives to austerity.

It will be open for all of us who are affected, whether we are people with disabilities, women, migrants, workers, pensioners, students, unemployed… or anyone else not part of the privileged elite who are enriching themselves in this ‘crisis’.

By sharing this reclaimed space, we hope people working in their community, local anti-cuts, student, or autonomous groups, as well as the trade unions, will be able to collectively and democratically build positive alternatives with which to challenge the ‘politics as usual’ forced upon us.

This will be an opportunity for connections to form outside of those groups that we may already be involved with, and to reinvigorate the anti-cuts movement at the grassroots level.

Cuts Café, being part of a movement for creating equality and real democracy, will be organized without discrimination and, as much as possible, without hierarchy. We welcome you to come and participate in the running of the space.

If you or your group would like to facilitate a workshop or skillshare, screen a film, hold a discussion, or use the space in any other way please get in touch! You can also contribute by helping to provide some of the more material resources needed for the day-today running of the space, or just by coming down to share a bit of your time.

For more information email cutscafe@riseup.net or to propose an event get us at eventscutscafe@riseup.net.

Twitter: @Cuts_Cafe

Facebook: Cuts Café

Cuts Café website: http://cutscafelondon.wordpress.com/

 

**END**

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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 

‘Land and Destiny’ – A Film by Brett Story

The Island

‘LAND OF DESTINY’ – A FILM BY BRETT STORY

The Committee on Globalization and Social Change Presents

Brett Story – Filmmaker and Geographer, University of Toronto

Land of Destiny (80 minutes, 2010)

Friday, March 2nd, 2012 | 6.30 – 8.30 pm

Segal Theatre, The CUNY Graduate Center

365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY10016

A hard-working petrochemical town is rocked by revelations that its workers suffer an epidemic of cancers. But even more terrifying is the looming spectre of deindustrialization and joblessness.

Retired pipefitters serving fries, basement musicians, boilermakers and volunteer firemen, heartbroken widows and an optimistic mayor – the lives of a diverse medley of characters intersect to reveal the dramas and contradictions of an industrial town out of sync with a post-industrial economy. In the rich fabric of the city’s landscape – rows of boarded storefronts, the bright sprawl of petrochemical plants and the swollen rooms of hospital wards and crowded bars – one finds a microcosm of the 21st century. A portrait of a working-class city in paralysis and a meditation on work and place in the modern economy, Land of Destiny offers an intimate story about work, struggle, and
survival.

Brett Story is a writer, organizer, and independent documentary filmmaker based out ofToronto. She is currently working toward a PhD in geography at the University of Toronto, conducting a project about the relationship between prisons and cities.

Free and open to the public
The Committee on Globalization and Social Change Email: globalization@gc.cuny.edu
Website: http://globalization.gc.cuny.edu

**END**

 

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

 

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub,Bangor, northWales)  

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘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

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Bristol Radical Film Festival

Karl Marx and Cinema

BRISTOL RADICAL FILM FESTIVAL

27th Feb – 4th March 2012

The Bristol Radical Film Festival screens some of the most socially and politically engaged documentary films from around the world. Taking place over the course of a week, the festival hosts screenings in a variety of community-based venues, culminating in a weekend of screenings, talks, workshops and debates at the entirely volunteer-run and not-for-profit cinema, The Cube. The variety of venues reflects the festival’s aim to bring this kind of cinema out from the shadows and into the community.

The fight back is on. Come and see what cinema can do to help.

For more information, visit: http://www.bristolradicalfilm.org.uk/index.html, or see our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/RadicalFilmFestival?sk=app_106878476015645

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘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

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

London Socialist Film Co-Op

Karl Marx in Film

LONDON SOCIALIST FILM CO-OP

AT THE RENOIR CINEMA, Brunswick Square, London WC1
Nearest London Tube: Russell Square
Buses: 7, 17, 45, 46, 59, 68, 91, 168, 188

10.30 FOR 11AM SUNDAY 12 FEBRUARY 2012

JUST DO IT
Emily James, UK 2011 [12A], 88 mins

Emily James spent a year within the environmental movement documenting the clandestine activities of the major players. In this feature documentary, she presents an insider’s account of the new global movement, an independent group funded by volunteers; inspiring, anarchic individuals with inventive strategies challenge the multi-nationals, frustrate the police and create confusion. This film shows what one group of committed individuals can achieve.

NOT IN OUR NAME
Gabrielle Tierney, Ireland/UK 2009 [12A], 30 mins

Nine men were totally acquitted of their £350,000 criminal damage to the International Arms manufacturer in Derry in 2006. The decision became a legal benchmark; an act of deliberate civil disobedience recognised as a weapon in the fight for peace. This film documents the victory and their solidarity with the people in the Lebanese town of Qana; knowledge of the production of those weapons and their use in the Israeli massacre became an impetus for the men to act.

Discussion led by Emily James, Gabrielle Tierney and Anne-Marie O’Reilly, Outreach Co-ordinator, Campaign Against Arms Trade

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘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

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski