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Sep 12, 2019 - Book Launch - Martin Lukacs: The Trudeau Formula

When: Thursday September 12th, 7pm
Where: Workers' Action Centre, 720 Spadina Ave.

Book launch and Q&A with The Trudeau Formula author Martin Lukacs, in conversation with Judy Rebick and Russ Diabo, and moderator, Sharmeen Khan.

After a decade of Stephen Harper, the arrival of Justin Trudeau felt like a relief. But as Canadians reckon with the gulf between the dazzling promise of Trudeau's election and the grim reality of his government, journalist Martin Lukacs makes the case that "real change" was never on the table.

Drawing on investigative research and first-hand reporting, he reveals that behind the new wave of Trudeaumania was a slick status-quo political machine, backed by a cast of corporate elites and lobbyists who expected a pay-off from Liberal rule in Ottawa.

Lukacs exposes a climate plan hatched in collaboration with Big Oil, the arming of a bloody Saudi war in Yemen, a reconciliation industry that has masked ongoing theft of Indigenous lands, and the sell-off of public infrastructure to private profiteers--a re-branded continuation, not a break, from Harper's legacy.

Sponsored by the Socialist Project, The Centre for Social Justice, and the Council of Canadians-Toronto chapter | Facebook event

Jun 15, 2019 - Rebellion: A Climate Change Protest Sign-Making Workshop

When: Saturday June 15, 6pm
Where: Fabarnak, 519 Church St.

NUIT ROSE is a free, annual, late night festival of queer art and performance, showcasing provocative, contemporary work by local and international artists. This year, we are pleased to work in participation with NUIT ROSE to present REBELLION, a Climate Change protest sign-making workshop led by artist and activist Amrita Singh. This FREE interactive project aims to bring awareness of climate change and encourages diverse narratives in environmental activism.

Where does environmental degradation occur? Is it in the shrinking of the Amazon rainforest over 5000km from Toronto? Or the melting polar ice caps roughly 15,000km away? While climate change may seem to have little local relevance, immediate action is required by all to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and mitigate the threat of climate change. Numerous reports from environmental watchdogs warn that if mitigation does not occur and a 'hothouse' state is reached, the effects of climate change will likely be irreversible.

Sponsored in part by The Centre for Social Justice | Facebook event

May 14, 2019 - General Strike: Cabaret 1919

When: May 14th, 7pm
Where: Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Ave.

An exciting cabaret evening of theatre, music and poetry on the centenary of the Winnipeg General Strike will celebrate its historical importance and enduring relevance to a diverse range of contemporary struggles.

Featuring:

* Remembering the Winnipeg General - an original play by Thomas McKechnie, performed by Heather Marie Annis and Ximena Huizi, directed by Erin Branderburg, with original music composed by Kristine Schmitt. In the play, the events of the 1919 strike are a springboard to examine the modern political moment.

* Toronto 1919 - an original play written by Craig Heron and performed by the Toronto Workers History Project Theatre Group. This play returns to the exciting weeks of May 1919, when Toronto workers organized a general strike in support of the eight hour day.

* Mohammad Ali, the socialist hip-hop artist, performing "Solidarity Forever" from his new album Labour of Love, a hard-hitting selection of workers' anthems and more...

eventbrite.ca

May 11, 2019 - Stop the Attacks on Our Schools

When: May 11th, 6pm
Where: Downsview Public Library, 2793 Keele St.

It's no secret that the education the city provides for the wealthy is different from what working class families get. Schools in rich neighbourhoods have new buildings, new technology, and offer fancy field trips. Meanwhile, schools in working class neighbourhoods, like those along Keele street, are dilapidated and often can't even afford basic materials like textbooks. Not surprisingly, rather than fixing these problems, Doug Ford is making them even worse. We can't afford to ignore these attacks on our children's futures! On May 11, join us at Downsview Public Library to hear from teachers about the disastrous effects of Ford's cuts to our already-struggling public schools - and learn how we can push back and fight for a public school system that works for all children.

Organizers: Action Keele Campaign, Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project

Apr 25, 2019 - [Oshawa] Nationalize General Motors: Oshawa's Green New Deal

When: Thursday, April 25th, 7pm
Where: IBEW Hall, 1001 Ritson Rd S. Oshawa

Join in a discussion on unexplored alternatives: how we could nationalize GM under Democratic workers' and community control while implementing a Green New Deal for Oshawa. The Green New Deal is a plan to create millions of jobs, while taking on climate change, building stronger communities, and tackling inequalities. What could this kind of transformation look like in Oshawa?

Sponsored by Unifor 222 Political Action Committee, Durham Region Labour Council, Centre for Social Justice, Delivering Community Power, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and Atkinson Decent Work Project.

Facebook event | Facebook livestream (click on 'Going', to be notified)

Apr 8, 2019 - Booklaunch: The People’s Republic of Walmart

When: Monday April 8th, 6pm
Where: Burdock Music Hall, 1184 Bloor St W

Since the demise of the USSR, the mantle of the largest planned economies in the world has been taken up by the likes of Walmart, Amazon and other multinational corporations. For the left and the right, major multinational companies are held up as the ultimate expressions of free-market capitalism. Their remarkable success appears to vindicate the old idea that modern society is too complex to be subjected to a plan. And yet, as Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski argue, much of the economy of the West is centrally planned at present. Not only is planning on vast scales possible, we already have it and it works. The real question is whether planning can be democratic. Can it be transformed to work for us? An engaging, polemical romp through economic theory, computational complexity, and the history of planning, The People's Republic of Walmart revives the conversation about how society can extend democratic decision-making to all economic matters. With the advances in information technology in recent decades and the emergence of globe-straddling collective enterprises, democratic planning in the interest of all humanity is more important and closer to attainment than ever before.

* Leigh Phillips is a science writer whose work has appeared in the New Scientist and The Guardian, amongst other publications.
* Michal Rozworski is a union researcher and writer based in Vancouver, Canada. He holds graduate degrees in economics and philosophy and publishes frequently on political economy.

Discussants:
* Pam Frache. Organizer with Workers Action Centre and the $15 and Fairness campaign.
* Sam Gindin. Author of The Making of Global Capitalism (with Leo Panitch), In and Out of Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives (with Greg Albo and Leo Panitch), and "Socialism for Realists."

Organized by Socialist Project and Centre for Social Justice.

Mar 1, 2019 - Moving Beyond Ford: The Transportation We Want

When: Friday, March 1st, 6:30pm
Where: 60 Lowther Avenue (St. George Subway station)

In Toronto and beyond, campaigns are underway to confront the Ford government's initiative to take the Toronto subway system from the TTC in order reorganize, further automobilize and possibly privatize transit and transportation across the Toronto region. This and other Ford Government initiatives have put progressive transportation advocates as well transit riders and workers on the defensive. Once more, proactive initiatives are forced onto the backburner. This includes proposals to make transit free, to provide mass public transit to working class neighbourhoods across the city and region, to integrate public transit, cycling and pedestrian life from the ground up, and to shift transportation patterns from car and truck traffic at a regional scale. Instead of reacting only to provincial policy, this panel discussion will link current transit campaigns to a longer-term question: what would a just and environmentally sustainable transportation future for the Toronto region look like?

Speakers:
* Dan Tsengay, from TTCRiders and the Anti-Upload Campaign
* Speaker from TTCriders
* Deborah Littman from Keep it Public, and
* Roger Kiehle and Tricia Wood from York University.
* Stefan Kipfer from Free Transit Toronto will chair and introduce the panel.

Sponsored by Free Transit Toronto, Centre for Social Justice and Toronto Socialist Project | Facebook event

Feb 28, 2019 - Digital Games: A Canary in the Coal Mine of Capital

When: Thursday, February 28th, 6:30pm
Where: Workers Action Center, 2nd floor, 720 Spadina Ave.

Not everyone plays digital games, but with the rise of casual, mobile-based gaming, we all know someone who does. With global sales revenues that far exceed global Hollywood's annual box office, the digital games industry is a leading and fast-growing sector of digital capitalism, and the logics and mechanics of digital games are spreading through the wider economy at a breakneck pace, with the insurance industry and ride share apps looking towards "gamification" and other forms of psychological nudging to influence the behavior of workers and consumers alike. In this session of The Capitalism Workshop, Daniel Joseph focuses on two sides of digital games: the commodification of play through new commodity forms bolstered by digital platforms, and the production of games, which is tied up with highly exploitative labour practices, neoliberal development models, and cultural imperialism. The contradictions and conflicts arising from the intertwining of digital games and capitalism have led over the past year to a massive, and long-overdue, explosion of class consciousness in the games industry. Game Workers Unite has subsequently emerged as an international labour organization dedicated to unionizing workers in an industry historically hostile to labour politics and collective action. The digital games industry is "the canary in the coal mine" of capitalism: it tells us about the dangers coming our way as well as the new forms of class struggle emerging in response.

Bio:
Daniel Joseph (PhD) is a Post-doctoral fellow and lecturer (Department of Arts, Culture and Media University of Toronto Scarborough), a freelance journalist (published in venues such as Jacobin, Real Life Magazine, and VICE), and is a member of the Toronto chapter of Game Workers Unite. He holds a PhD in Communication and Culture from Ryerson University and York University.

Facebook event

Feb 4, 2019 - Launching the Socialist Register 2019

When: Monday February 4th, 7pm
Where: Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas St W (near Dufferin)

The World Turned Upside Down -- a panel discussion with Nicole Aschoff, Sam Gindin, Colin Leys and Leo Panitch, chaired by Greg Albo.

SR 2019 poses two overarching questions for the new period opened by the Trump election and the continued growth of right-wing nationalisms. Is there an unwinding of neoliberal globalization taking place, or will globalization continue to deepen, but still deny the free cross-border movement of labor? Would such an unwinding entail an overall shift in power and accumulation to specific regions of the Global South that might overturn the current world order and foster the disintegration of the varied regional blocs that have formed?

Sponsored by: York University Book Store, Brunswick Books, Socialist Project, Centre for Social Justice and Socialist Register | eventbrite.ca

Dec 5, 2018 - Book Launch: The Bloomsbury Companion to Marx

When: Wednesday December 5th, 6:30-8:30pm
Where: A Different Booklist, 779 Bathurst Street

Featuring: Andrew Pendakis, Imre Szeman, Dhruv Jain and James Penney.

There are very few figures in history that have exerted as much and as varied an influence as Karl Marx. Edited by Jeff Diamanti, Andrew Pendakis and Imre Szeman, and with 74 chapters by significant Marx scholars from around the world, The Bloomsbury Companion to Marx is an incredible reference guide to Marx's life, work, sources, concepts, reception and influence. Join us in celebration of the Toronto book launch of The Bloomsbury Companion to Marx, and take in an evening of readings and discussion.

Supported by The Capitalism Workshop, Socialist Project and the Centre for Social Justice | www.eventbrite.ca

Nov 18, 2018 - The Fight to Improve and Rebuild Public Healthcare

When: Sunday Nov. 18th, 3pm
Where: Steelworkers' Hall, 25 Cecil St.

On the campaign trail to the 2018 Ontario election, Doug Ford raised problems with the provincial health care system and promised his constituents that "help is on the way." Now that Ford is Ontario's conservative Premier, he is not helping the health care system, but putting it-and this vital public service-on the chopping block. Ford is placing our health and the health of our families in the hands of those whose primary concern is to profit, not to meet our needs. How do we stop this? How can we organize to collectively improve rather than privatize and destroy this public good? The last time anything threatening as this happened in Ontario, the labour movement responded with the Days of Action. What can we learn and creatively adapt from that experience?

Join Natalie Mehra and Michael Hurley for a discussion about Ford's threat to the public health care system in Ontario, and what we need to do to secure, rebuild and improve public health care for all.

socialistproject.ca | Facebook event

Nov 7, 2018 - Global Warming and the Sweetness of Life

When: Wednesday November 7th, 6:30pm
Where: A Different Booklist, 777 Bathurst St

A book launch, reading and discussion, with Matt Hern and Shiri Pasternak.

Matt Hern is a community organizer, independent scholar, writer and activist based in East Vancouver, British Columbia, who is known for his work in radical urbanism, community development, ecology, and alternative forms of education.

Shiri Pasternak is Assistant Professor in Criminology at Ryerson University. Shiri teaches courses in the Indigenous Justice and publishes in the fields of legal and historical geography, settler colonial studies, political economy, and critical legal studies. She is the author of Grounded Authority: the Algonquins of Barriere Lake Against the State, published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2017.

Co-hosted by the ICCIT, the Technoscience Research Unit, the Centre for Social Justice, and the Socialist Project.

Oct 14, 2018 - Corbynism and the Labour Party

When: Sunday October 14th, 3pm
Where: WAC (second floor), 720 Spadina Ave, Toronto

The leadership of the UK Labour Party by Jeremy Corbyn continues to enjoy enormous popularity across the UK. This even despite continual attacks from the corporate press, the Conservative Party, and opposition from within the Parliamentary Labour Party itself. Indeed, under Corbyn's leadership, the Labour Party has once again become a mass party, with a larger membership than any other social democratic party across Europe. Moreover, grassroots activism and direct participation in the party by members has grown to levels not seen in recent history, especially since the party's centralization under the "Third Way" leadership of Tony Blair. This active engagement has helped Corbyn and the party's socialist left capture key institutional positions, and to consolidate their power within the party to some extent. Yet serious challenges remain - and even though the recent Labour Party conference saw some gains accrue to Corbyn and the left, so too were there trade-offs and setbacks.

Leo Panitch, who was in Liverpool to observe developments at the Labour Party conference and to speak and participate in Momentum's "The World Transformed" festival there, will assess the opportunities and challenges faced by Corbyn and his social movement supporters in pursuing the project to democratize the UK Labour Party - and transform British politics. Moreover, what are the implications for an international left largely in retreat?

Sponsored by Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project | socialistproject.ca

Oct 5, 2018 - Book Launch: Puerto Montt

When: Friday October 5th, 7pm
Where: A Different Booklist, 777 Bathurst St

Join us for the Toronto book launch of Graeme Krupinski's premier novel, Puerto Montt. A short reading by the author, discussion by Matt Tracey and audience Q&A.

socialistproject.ca

Jun 21, 2018 - Book launch: Free Public Transit

When: Thursday, June 21st, 6pm
Where: A Different Booklist, 777 Bathurst St

Join us for the Toronto launch of a unique book: Free Public Transit - And Why We Don't Pay to Ride Elevators, edited by Judith Dellheim of Germany's Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and Jason Prince, of Concordia University in Montreal. It is a collaborative result of an international network of scholars and activists working for fare-free public transit.

The book includes overall analysis of public transportation and describes and discusses various efforts in cities around the world to build movements for decommodified and accessible public transport. Examples include Toronto, Montreal, Bologna, Hasselt, Tallinn Stockholm and others.

socialistproject.ca/event/book-launch-free-public-transit

Mar 29, 2018 - Book Launch: The Contradictions of Pension Fund Capitalism

When: Thursday, March 29th, 7pm
Where: Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil Street

Kevin Skerrett (Research Officer for the Canadian Union of Public Employees) and Chris Roberts (National Director of Social and Economic Policy for the Canadian Labour of Congress) discuss the significance of their edited book, The Contradictions of Pension Fund Capitalism (Cornell University Press, 2018). Heather Whiteside and Janice Folk-Dawson speak to the issues the book raises for the trade union and working-class movements today.

Book description: it is often hoped and assumed that union stewardship of pension investments will produce tangible and enduring benefits for workers and their communities while minimizing the negative effects of what are now global and intensely competitive capital markets. At the core of this book is a desire to question the proposition that workers and their organizations can exert meaningful control over pension funds in the context of current financial markets. Contributing authors review the recent experience of pension "austerity" by comparing the situations of Canada, the US, the UK and Australia. The concluding chapter argues that the central implication of this recent history is an urgent need for a re-orientation of trade union and working class movements to a demand for adequate, universal pension provision that is no longer embedded in financial markets.

Co-sponsored by Centre for Social Justice, Global Labour Research Centre, Socialist Project

Dec 1, 2017 - Red Talks: Toronto’s Housing Crisis

When: Friday December 1st, 7pm
Where: Friends House, 60 Lowther Ave.
Free or PWYC

Why it's happening and what to do about it.

Presentations by:

* Simon Wallace - The Parkdale Rent Strike

* Niko Block - Why Housing Costs are Skyrocketing

Organized by the Socialist Project, co-sponsored by Centre for Social Justice | Facebook event

Oct 5, 2017 - Corbyn, Sanders and the Labour Movement

When: Thursday, October 5th, 7pm
Where: Friends House, 60 Lowther Avenue

Join us for a panel discussion with Hilary Wainwright, Red Pepper Magazine and Doug Henwood, Behind the News.

The relative success of the Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn campaigns have put left politics back on the political map. This panel will seek to explore the role that the labour movement played in the Sanders and Corbyn campaigns and consider whether similar political campaigns have the potential to contribute to a renewed and strengthened labour movement.

This event is co-organized by the Global Labour Research Centre (York University), the Centre for Social Justice, and the Socialist Project | eventbrite.ca

Aug 22, 2017 - Forum: The France of Macron, the ‘New’ Neoliberal Reforms and the Left

When: Tuesday, August 22nd, 7pm
Where: A Different Booklist Cultural Centre, 777 Bathurst St. (South of Bathurst subway stop)

Analyses and Reportbacks from the 2017 Election with Stefan Kipfer and Nathan Rao

The 2017 Presidential and Parliamentary elections produced a paradoxical result: the victory of a youngish Emmanuel Macron who is a pure product of the discredited social democratic François Hollande presidency (as well as the typical institutions of the French ruling class) and a leader of a brand-new political formation (La Republique en Marche) that managed to marginalize the parties (the Republicains and the Parti Socialiste) that have, under different names, governed France since 1958. Macron's victory blocked the advances of the neo-fascist Front National, the President of which, Marine Le Pen, garnered a record 10.5 million votes in the Presidential election. In turn, Macron threatens to deepen the very conditions that have led to the recurrent surge of neo-fascist politics in France. He wants to radicalize the policies of the Hollande government by making the state of emergency a permanent feature of French law, implementing a new set of neoliberal labour reforms, entrenching austerity to shrink public sector employment and deconstructing the French welfare state all the while defending a central and aggressive role for the French military sector Euro-American imperialism. A force of 'continuity-in-discontinuity', Macron's En Marche thus expresses the ongoing crisis of rule in France as well as the wider systemic uncertainties about French capitalism and the future of the European Union. What are the political implications of the French elections for the future of left and popular forces in France?

* Stefan Kipfer just returned from a sabbatical year in France doing research on fascism and anti-fascism. He teaches politics and urban questions at York University.

* Nathan Rao is a writer and political activist living in France.

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project | Facebook event | www.evensi.ca

May 29, 2017 - Roundtable: Mine Tailings Dam Collapses in Canada and Brazil

When: Monday May 29th, 7pm
Where: A Different Booklist Cultural Centre, 777 Bathurst Street (south of Bloor)

* UGO LAPOINTE, Canadian Programme Coordinator, MiningWatch, Canada
* RICHARD HOLMES, Fisheries Biologist, Likely BC (community affected by Mt. Polley)
* BRUNO MILANEZ, researcher, Brazilian Network for Environmental Justice
* JOAN KUYEK. Founding National Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada
* JUDITH MARSHALL, CERLAC, York University (Moderator)

Sponsors: MiningWatch Canada, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN), Latin American Caribbean Solidarity Network (LACSN), Centre for Research on Latin American and the Caribbean (CERLAC), York University, Kairos: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives | PDF poster

Apr 20, 2017 - Forum: South Africa, a Dream Betrayed

When: Thursday April 20th, 7pm
Where: A Different Booklist Cultural Centre, 777 Bathurst Street

Understanding the Political Crisis in South Africa

Since 1994, the political leaders of South Africa have attempted to solve the national question through the 'de-racialisation' of the economy and society. How to remake the state without addressing the benefits and misfortunes of capitalism and racism in South Africa? The ANC-led governments linked the struggle against racism to the national task of creating and strengthening a black capitalist class. This was an integral part of their attempt at de-racialisation within the class and property relations of capitalism. But the misfortunes of capitalism and racism in South Africa continue to take the form of mass poverty for the majority of its people. And in post-apartheid South Africa the wealth and privileges of the beneficiaries of apartheid have been protected even with apartheid's end. Only a tiny minority of blacks have entered into the capitalist class, often through connections to the state and the governing group. The current government of President Jacob Zuma is witness to major brawls between rival elite factions, amidst growing corruption scandals. The historical alliance between the ANC, the SACP and COSATU is fracturing. Protests and demonstrations calling for Zuma to resign are growing. Out of this ruin, a new South African working class movement may yet emerge.

Eli Kodisang has been involved in South African left politics and struggle for almost thirty years. He was a local and national organiser and educator in various COSATU unions, and then moved to Khanya College, a left NGO that provides support and political education for community and informal worker movements. He is currently organising informal waste pickers and completing a Masters in Education and Work.

Organized by the Centre for Social Justice and Socialist Project | Facebook event

Dec 13, 2016 - The Rise and Fall of Cheap Nature

When: Tuesday, December 13th, 7pm
Where: Steelworkers' Hall, 25 Cecil Street, Toronto

The Rise and Fall of Cheap Nature: Work, Power, and Capital in Making and Transcending Planetary Crisis

* Jason. W. Moore - Sociology, Binghamton University

With commentary from:
* Adrian Smith - Department of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University
* Tania Hernandez Cervantes - Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University

Organized by: Centre for Social Justice. Co-Sponsors: Global Labour Research Centre, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Departments of Politics and Geography at York University, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Dec 1, 2016 - No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age

When: Thursday, December 1st, 7pm
Where: United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil Street, Toronto

Income inequality has reached levels not seen since the 1920s. Labor unions' membership is in decline, and popular opinion has turned against them. Promising movements like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter lack an organized base, and therefore are unable to build the power to effect meaningful change. Why do progressives in the United States keep losing on so many issues, and what is to be done?

With:
* Jane McAlevey - Author of No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age, and Raising Expectations and Raising Hell: My Decade Fighting for the Labor Movement

Discussants:
* Stephanie Ross, School of Labour Studies, McMaster University
* Michal Rozworski, OCUFA, and blogs at Political Eh-conomy

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Global Labour Research Centre at York University, Socialist Project, York University Departments of Geography, Social Science, Political Science | Facebook event

Oct 30, 2016 - Chinese Workers' Uprising

When: Sunday October 30th, 2pm
Where: Beit Zatoun Cultural Centre, 612 Markham Street, Toronto

China has been the fastest growing major economy in the world for three decades. It is also home to some of the largest, most incendiary, and most underreported labor struggles of our time. But under China's labor management system, independent unionism is severely restricted, and the ACFTU official trade union body monopolizes worker representation for more than 800 million workers. Independent organizations are barred from agitating for their interests, despite growing wealth inequalities, and where long hours, safety hazards, and authoritarian management define life in the factories.

But this has not prevented the emergence of workers' resistance and fightbacks across almost all sectors of work. The China Labour Bulletin reports that the number of strikes has been increasing over the past two decades. At any given time, numerous strikes are taking place, and walkouts and slowdowns over work conditions and pay are a regular and growing occurrence. Workers' rights NGOs, while operating from a distinct disadvantage, have become increasingly involved and visible.

* Lu Zhang, Temple University, Author of Inside China's Automobile Factories: The Politics of Labor and Worker Resistance.

* Eli Friedman, Cornell University Author of Insurgency Trap: Labor Politics in Postsocialist China.

Sponsored by: Asian Canadian Labour Alliance, Centre for Social Justice, Global Labour Research Centre at York University, Socialist Project, and the Unifor Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy | Facebook event

Oct 20, 2016 - Book Launch: Hearts and Mines: The US Empire's Culture Industry 

When: Thursday October 20th, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun Cultural Centre, 612 Markham Street, Toronto

with:
* Tanner Mirrlees, Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and
* Scott Forsyth, Associate Professor of Cinema & Media Arts, York University.

From Katy Perry training alongside US Marines in a music video, to the global box-office mastery of the US military-supported Transformers franchise, it's clear that the US national security state is a dominant force in global media culture. How and why is this so? 

Please join us for a discussion about the production, profit and  power of US Empires culture industry -- a nexus between the US state and globalizing media firms and the source of entertainments that promote US Empire as a way of life around the world. 

Refreshments will be served. All are welcome. Free.

The event is co-sponsored by the Centre for Social Justice, the Global Labour Research Centre, the Socialist Project, and Union for Democratic Communication | Facebook event

Oct 17, 2016 - Understanding the 'Gig Economy'

When: Monday, October 17th, 12:30pm
Where: York University, 4700 Keele Street, York Lanes 280N, Toronto

The Global Labour Research Centre (York University), the Socialist Project, and the Centre for Social Justice are pleased to host a talk on "Understanding the 'Gig Economy': the Political Economy of Platform Capitalism."

with Ursula Huws, Professor of Labour and Globalisation, University of Hertfordshire.

The recent explosive growth of online platforms for managing labour has brought mixed responses. Is it a prefigurative model of a new post-capitalist form of work organisation? Or is capitalism up to its old tricks? Drawing on recent research on 'crowd work' in Europe, Ursula Huws will provide a critical analysis of platform capitalism, placing it in the context of the new wave of restructuring and accumulation following the 2007-7 financial crisis.

Please RSVP | Facebook event

Sep 25, 2016 - Book Launch: Facing the Anthropocene, Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System

When: Sunday September 25th, 2pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St., Toronto

Science tells us that a new and dangerous stage in planetary evolution has begun, the Anthropocene, a time of rising temperatures, extreme weather, rising oceans, and mass species extinctions. Humanity faces not just more pollution or warmer weather, but a crisis of the Earth System. If business as usual continues, this century will be marked by rapid deterioration of our physical, social, and economic environment. Large parts of Earth will become uninhabitable, and civilization itself will be threatened. Facing the Anthropocene shows what has caused this planetary emergency, and what we must do to meet the challenge.

Bridging the gap between Earth System science and ecological Marxism, Ian Angus examines not only the latest scientific findings about the physical causes and consequences of the Anthropocene transition, but also the social and economic trends that underlie the crisis. Cogent and compellingly written, Facing the Anthropocene offers a unique synthesis of natural and social science that illustrates how capitalism's inexorable drive for growth, powered by the rapid burning of fossil fuels that took millions of years to form, has driven our world to the brink of disaster. Survival in the Anthropocene, Angus argues, requires radical social change, replacing fossil capitalism with a new, ecosocialist civilization.

Ian Angus is editor of the online ecosocialist journal Climate and Capitalism, and co-author of the Belem Ecosocialist Declaration. His previous books include Too Many People? Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis (with Simon Butler) and The Global Fight for Climate Justice.

Organized by Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Sep 8, 2016 - Forum: Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class

When: Thursday, September 8th, 7pm
Where: United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St., Toronto

Immanuel Ness, City University of New York

Discussants:
* Sam Gindin, York University
* Viviana Patroni, York University
* Kyla Sankey, University of Toronto

Co-sponsors: Centre for Social Justice, Department of Social Science, York University, Socialist Project | PDF poster | Facebook event

Aug 18, 2016 - Labour and the Political Economy of Peripheralisation

When: Thursday, August 18th, 7pm
Where: Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst Street, Room #4

The Global Labour Research Centre (York University), the Centre for Social Justice, and the Socialist Project are pleased to host a talk on: Labour and the Political Economy of Peripheralisation: The Case of Ukraine and the European Union

with:
* Dr. Gregory Schwartz, School of Economics, Finance and Management Faculty of Social Sciences & Law, University of Bristol

Ukraine's Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) that forms part of the Association Agreement with the European Union, is designed to harmonise laws, norms and regulations in trade. At the same time, together with recent changes in the labour law, the DCFTA promises significantly to transform labour and employment in Ukraine and set in motion changes that will affect labour in the European Union itself. Using data from a study of the labour market in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, this presentation will examine current developments in the 'Europeanisation' of work and employment, assessing the manner in which the realities of informal, insecure, flexible and low pay work in Lviv fit into the wider matrix of European labour restructuring. The presentation will also consider how the notion of peripheries plays a key role in understanding the development of global capitalism (viz. theories of 'combined and uneven development' and 'variegated neoliberalisation'), and will argue that the specific nature of constructing internal peripheralisation by means of spatially segmenting labour markets (as represented by Ukraine and other CEE countries) suggests a degree of maturation of EU capitalism that necessitates a closer theoretical inquiry.

Facebook event

May 26, 2016 - The BJP and the Crisis of Liberal Democracy in India

When: Thursday May 26th, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St., Toronto.

Since the election of the BJP in May 2014, there has been an unprecedented onslaught on workers' rights along with a well-planned assault on democratic institutions, academic-cultural centres, intellectuals, left, progressive and secular groups, religious minorities, women and marginalized sections across India. Indeed, recent developments, such as the breaking of strikes across India, the arrest and torture of the disabled scholar Dr. G.N. Saibaba (Delhi University) on false accusations of being involved in the armed revolutionary movement, the suicide of Dalit scholar V. Rohith due to caste-based abuse and harassment, and the recent attacks on freedom of speech at JNU because of purported anti-national activities, among many others, demonstrate that we are witnessing a rising tide of fascism in India. Yet the working class movement remains in disarray and unable to resist these attacks. 540 million members of the Indian working class and 270 million agrarian semi-proletarians are left to the mercy of fascist corporatist trade unions on the one hand, and reactionary parties of the rural bourgeoisie on the other. Failure to understand the changes in modus operandi of imperialism and realize the revolutionary potential of the gigantic unorganized and informal working class has similarly resulted in the failure to evolve new forms and strategies of resistance. Given the rise of fascist challenge it is even more urgent to rethink the approach and methods in the working class movement.

Presentations by:
* Abhinav Sinha, PhD student, Delhi University
* Dr. Himani Bannerji, Sociology, York University
* Dr. Raju Das, Geography, York University
* Dr. Ritika Shrimali, Geography, York University

Sponsored by Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Socialist Project and York Centre for Asian Research.

May 20, 2016 - Symbolic Violence and Liberal Settler-Colonialism

When: Friday May 20th, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St.,

Glen Coulthard is Yellowknives Dene and an assistant professor in the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program and the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014), winner of the 2016 Caribbean Philosophical Association's Frantz Fanon Award for Most Outstanding Book.

This event is sponsored by the International Political Economy and Ecology Summer School (IPEE), an annual graduate seminar organized by the Faculty of Environmental Studies and the Departments of Political Science and Geography at York University. Co-sponsors include the Global Labour Research Centre, York University (GLRC), Historical Materialism, No One Is Illegal Toronto, Socialist Project, and the Centre for Social Justice.

Facebook event

Apr 22, 2016 - Book launch: Confronting Injustice

When: Friday April 22nd, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St., Toronto

Confronting Injustice: Social Activism in the Age of Individualism by Umair Muhammad.

A new generation of activists working for economic and environmental justice, and against war and poverty, confronts critical questions. Why is the world so unjust and crisis-prone? What kind of world should we fight for? How can we win? In this panoramic yet accessible book, Umair Muhammad engages with these and other urgent debates. He argues that individual solutions like "buying green" are dead ends and that hope for the future lies in a radical expansion of democracy and the transformation of the economy from one based on profit to one that can meet human needs. The scale of these problems should make it clear that individualist, lifestyle approaches to activism will not suffice. We need to change the structures of our social system, not our light bulbs. Confronting Injustice seeks to expose the structural roots of the injustices we must confront, and outlines an approach to activism that transcends the hopeless individualism of our time.

Panelists:
* Umair Muhammad is a researcher who focuses on the political economy of climate change. He is also a member of the editorial team of Delusions of Development and is studying for his Phd at York University.

* Ama Amponsah is a long-time resident of Jane and Finch. She organizes with Jane Finch Action Against Poverty (JFAAP) and is a former member of CUPE Ontario's Racial Justice Committee.

* Stefan Kipfer is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. His research interests include urban politics, social theory, and ecological socialism.

* Sadia Khan is a community organizer in the East end, and has worked with new immigrant communities in various capacities for over 8 years. She is currently pursuing her masters in Social and Political Thought at York University.

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Jane Finch Action Against Poverty (JFAAP) and Socialist Project | Facebook event

Apr 18, 2016 - Forum: Demilitarization

When: Monday April 18th, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St., Toronto
$5/$10 PWYC

The Military/Security complex and Canada, Palestine/Israel, and climate change

* Dr. Rand Askalan is a Toronto-based physician who has organized humanitarian relief for the victims of Israel's wars and siege of Gaza. She has just returned from Gaza and from the West Bank. Her efforts have led to Canadian contributions of $85,000 for a fully equipped ambulance, for a therapist to provide rehabilitation training at the Right to Live Center in Gaza, for intensive care medical equipment to a hospital in Hebron, to the Palestinian Healthy Child Fellowship program at Sick Kids Hospital, and to the founding of the Palestinian Canadian Physicians Society.

* Matthew Behrens is a freelance writer and social justice advocate who coordinates the Homes not Bombs non-violent direct action network. He writes regularly for NOW magazine and for Rabble where his column "Taking Liberties" examines connections between national security and civil liberties. Behrens has worked closely with the targets of Canadian and U.S. "national security" profiling for many years.

* Judy Deutsch is former president of Science for Peace. She taught a course on climate justice at the University of Toronto and writes frequently about climate change and the military. She is a psychoanalyst and gave a keynote paper at the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme/World Health Organization conference on the Gaza siege, held in Ramallah in 2008. Her paper is now published in the book Psychoanalysis, Collective Traumas and Memory Places.

Sponsored by Science for Peace and the Centre for Social Justice.

Mar 31, 2016 - Book launch/forum: The BRICS: An Anti-Capitalist Critique

When: Thursday March 31st, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St., Toronto

The relative economic decline of the United States, Europe and Japan is often linked to the rise of an 'emerging' bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa demanding 'a seat at the table'. Yet as many of the world's leading left thinkers demonstrate in this important new book, the BRICS seem to be not so much overturning the tables of global capitalism, but as collaborating in holding them up.

The book's co-editors Patrick Bond from South Africa and Ana Garcia from Brazil will be joined by the two Toronto authors of chapters in the book in discussing how to understand where the BRICS fit on the most crucial global issues ranging from world finance to climate change.

Panel:
• Patrick Bond: University of KwaZulu Natal
• Ana Garcia: Federal Rural University of Rio de Janiero
• Judith Marshall: labour educator and researcher, formerly with United Steelworkers' Global Affairs Department
• Leo Panitch: York University

Sponsored by Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project.

Jan 10, 2016 - Forum: France: The Radical Left in the Maelstrom

When: Sunday, January 10th, 2pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham Street

With the November 13th terrorist attacks, the strong showing of the far-Right Front National in regional elections, and the COP21 climate conference in Paris, France has been in the headlines a great deal in recent weeks. Yet we rarely hear about how the radical Left fits in to the evolving situation there. Come out to hear a longtime member of the Toronto Left who has been living in Paris since 2012 and is a supporter of the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA).

Sponsored by Centre for Social Justice and the Socialist Project | Facebook event

Oct 30, 2015 - Building Power in Our Communities

When: Friday, October 30th, 6-8 pm
Where: Seneca @ Yorkgate Mall, 1 Yorkgate Blvd (Jane and Finch), Rooms 218/219
All are welcome. Admission is free. Child care will be provided.

The Fight for Racial and Economic Justice
With Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson and presentations by Jane Finch Action Against Poverty (JFAAP) and Network for the Elimination of Police Violence (NEPV).

Kali Akuno, a founder of Cooperation Jackson and a key member of the late Chokwe Lumumba's successful election campaign for the mayoralty of Jackson, Mississippi, will discuss integrating strategies in the fight for racial and economic justice, including popular assemblies and neighborhood defence committees; alternative community development through solidarity economies; and strategically selective engagement with electoral politics and taking government office. Jane Finch Action against Poverty, a grassroots, resident-led coalition of community members, activists, and workers, is hosting the meeting. They, along with The Network for the Elimination of Police Violence, will offer presentations on their recent activities and plans for the future.

* Kali Akuno is a founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, an emerging network of worker cooperatives and supporting institutions. Kali served as the Director of Special Projects and External Funding in the Mayoral Administration of the late Chokwe Lumumba of Jackson, MS. Kali also served as the Co-Director of the US Human Rights Network and was the Executive Director of the Peoples' Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF) based in New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. He was the co-founder of the School of Social Justice and Community Development (SSJCD), a public school serving the academic needs of low-income African American and Latino communities in Oakland, California. Kali has authored many articles and pamphlets on Black, international and working class politics, with a focus on how government counterinsurgency, state violence, the drug war, mass incarceration and neoliberalism impact Black communities.

* Jane Finch Action Against Poverty is a grassroots group in the Jane Finch community. It consists of community residents and members from different organizations in the area. The group was formed in October of 2008 following a rally at the intersection of Jane Finch to commemorate the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

* Network for the Elimination of Police Violence is a network of organizations coordinating community-based responses to police violence. It strives to build the capacity of and unity among communities to resist police violence, recognizing that racism as a system shapes and informs police violence against and in racialized and indigenous communities.

Hosted by: Jane Finch Action Against Poverty. Endorsed by: Network for the Elimination of Police Violence, Socialist Project, Centre for Social Justice | Facebook event

Oct 29, 2015 - Public Talk with Christian Parenti: Climate Crisis and Climate Realism

When: Thursday Oct 29th, 7pm
Where: Friends House, 60 Lowther Avenue, Toronto

Mass migration, civil war, banditry, imperial military adventures -- all these are current responses to the climate crisis. These and other impending dislocations from climate change intersect with the already-existing crises of poverty and violence in "catastrophic convergence" that demands immediate action and longer-term social change. What is the relation between the reformist project of short-term emissions redactions and a longer-term struggle to create a sustainable political economy?

Christian Parenti, journalist and professor at New York University, will discuss these and other questions in a public lecture that draws from his current research into economic and environmental history and upon his book Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence which involved years of travel and reportage in conflict zone and climate frontlines around the world.

Christian Parenti has a PhD in sociology from the London School of Economics and is a professor in the Global Liberal Studies Program at New York University. His latest book, Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence (2011), explores how climate change is already causing violence as it interacts with the legacies of economic neoliberalism and cold-war militarism.

Christian's three earlier books are The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq (2005), The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America from Slavery to the War on Terror (2002), and Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis (2000/2008).

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project, Chair in Comparative Political Economy at York, Rising Tide Toronto | Facebook event

Oct 6, 2015 - Roundtable discussion: An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

When: Tuesday October 6th, 1:30pm
Where: Moot Court Rm 1005, Osgoode Hall, York University, 4700 Keele Street

The Culture of Conquest and the Doctrine of Discovery: The U.S. as a Colonial Settler-State

Featuring author Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (California State University). Chaired by Lee Maracle (University of Toronto). With discussants: Boyd Cothran (History, York), Bonita Lawrence (Equity Studies, York) and Victoria Freeman (History, York)

"Roxanne-Dunbar-Ortiz has defined the term engaged intellectual through a life spent on the frontlines of the past four decades of social struggles. She has never abandoned her roots through the process of becoming one of the most respected Left academics in the United States." - James Tracy.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is a feminist, historian and revolutonary activist who has been involved in Indigenous rights movements and social struggles for many years. This panel discussion, lead by acclaimed writer and scholar Lee Maracle, will enable leading York scholars who study Indigenous peoples to dialogue with Roxanne and draw out comparisons between the experiences of Indigenous peoples in Canada and the USA.

This event is made possible with generous support from: Department of History (York), Department of Political Science (York), Department of Social Science (York), Indigenous History Network, Socialist Project, Dean's Office Faculty of Graduate Studies (York), Faculty of Environmental Studies (York) and the Centre for Social Justice | Facebook event

Oct 1, 2015 - Russia in the Global Crisis: Geopolitical Dilemmas, Strategic Responses

When: Thursday, October 1, 7:30pm - 9:30pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St. (Bathurst and Bloor)
Admission is free. Donations welcome.
Space is accessible by mobile ramp. Washrooms are downstairs and not accessible.

Geopolitical conflict produced by NATO expansion is a product of an economic and social process taking place in Europe. In fact, it is the logic of the neoliberal model that stimulates NATO expansionism. This is very similar to what we saw in the late nineteenth century with the new wave of colonialism produced by the so-called Late Victorian Depression: to stabilize the system without changing it.

The dream of Russian elites is to have good relations with the West. The elite's money is in the West, their children are at Oxford and Harvard, their property is in Switzerland and England. They are ready to make almost any concession that will not destabilize Russia itself. But the West is not accepting these offers. Ruling circles in the EU prefer to speak of a Russian threat instead of cooperation with Russia. This is all complicating the wider geopolitical setting around the Black Sea, in the conflicts in Syria and the Middle east and in Russia's relations with China and East Asia. These are all crucial issues for understanding the new political divisions between west and east shaping global politics.

Speakers:
* Boris Kagarlitsky, coordinator of the Transnational Institute Global Crisis project and Director of the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements (IGSO) in Moscow.
* Sergei M. Plekhanov, Associate Professor of Political Science at York University and a former Deputy Director of the Institute for US and Canadian Studies in Russia.

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project, and Canada Research Chair in Comparative Politics, York University | Facebook event

Sep 29, 2015 - Linda McQuaig is Right: Keep the Tar Sands in the Ground!

When: Tuesday, September 29th, 7pm
Where: United Steelworkers' Hall, 25 Cecil Street

At the beginning of the federal election campaign, Toronto Centre NDP candidate and respected author Linda McQuaig stated a simple fact: "a lot of people recognize that a lot of the oil sands oil may need to stay in the ground if we're going to meet our climate change targets." This sparked a corporate media backlash, accusing her of being ideologically-driven, anti-Alberta and anti-jobs.

The science is clear: if Canada continues to extract the tar sands, it will be game over for the climate. To avoid climate catastrophe we need to keep the vast majority of tar sands in the ground.

Speakers:
* Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning investigative journalist who has been writing about the oil and gas industry, energy, and economics for more than two decades. Publications Nikiforuk has contributed to include Foreign Policy, The Walrus, Maclean's, Canadian Business, the Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, and The Tyee. Nikiforuk's journalism has won seven National Magazine Awards and top honours for investigative writing from the Association of Canadian Journalists. "Tar Sands", which criticized the pace and scale of the world's largest energy project, was a national bestseller and won the 2009 Rachel Carson Environment Book Award. Andrew lives in Calgary, Alberta.

* Justin Podur is a writer and a professor of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto. He is the author of Haiti's New Dictatorship and has contributed chapters to Empire's Ally: Canada and the War in Afghanistan and Real Utopia. He has reported from India (Kashmir, Chhattisgarh), Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico (Chiapas), and Israel/Palestine.

* Carolyn Egan is the president of the United Steelworkers Toronto Area Council and Co-Chair of the Good Jobs for All Coalition.

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Toronto 350, Toronto East End Against Line 9, Toronto West End Against Line 9, Rising Tide Toronto | Facebook event

Sep 26, 2015 - Ayotzinapa: Chronicle of a State Crime

When: Saturday, September 26th
1pm - Events begin
2pm - Screening of "Ayotzinapa: Chronicle of a State Crime"
3:30pm - Live music
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham Street, Toronto
5pm - Procession to Alexandra Park (275 Bathurst St)

Live music, a screening of the documentary film "Ayotzinapa: Chronicle of a State Crime," public lectures, and a procession will mark one year since the forced disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa Teacher's College students perpetrated by Mexican police and cartel members. The events coincide with a massive, pan-American day of action in which people across Mexico and throughout the hemisphere will demand that the students be returned alive.

On September 26, 2014 students from the Ayotzinapa Teacher's College (Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers' College) were raising money to attend a protest in Mexico City when police and gunmen attacked them in the town of Iguala, Mexico. Three were killed, dozens were injured, and 43 student-teachers were forcefully disappeared, never to be seen again.

Co-sponsored by Amnesty International, the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, Common Frontiers, the Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network, and We Are All Mexico, Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Sep 3, 2015 - Forum: Chris Hedges: The Great Unraveling

When: Thursday, September 3rd, 7pm
Where: United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St, Toronto
General Admission: $25.00 (this is a fundraiser for Canadian Dimension magazine)

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges joins us for an evening in Toronto to speak about "The Great Unraveling."

Revolutions come in waves and cycles. We are again riding the crest of a revolutionary epic, much like 1848 or 1917, from the Arab Spring to movements against austerity in Greece to the Occupy Movement. In his newest book, Wages of Rebellion, Chris Hedges investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution, rebellion, and resistance. Drawing on an ambitious overview of prominent philosophers, historians and literary figures, he shows not only the harbingers of a coming crisis but also the nascent seeds of rebellion. Hedges' message is clear: popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of mounting environmental destruction and grotesque wealth polarization.

The event is organized by Canadian Dimension magazine with support from Centre for Social Justice | www.eventbrite.ca | Facebook event

Aug 9, 2015 - Forum: Public Transit Struggles in London and Toronto

When: Sunday, August 9th, 1pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham Street, Toronto

P3s, Transit Workers and Alternatives

You are invited to a discussion on struggles over public transit in London, England and in Toronto, over P3s, privatization, funding public transit, and posing alternatives, such as reduced fares, free transit and increased accessibility. We are at a turning point in the struggle for public transit, particularly in Toronto. Although we have now won broad recognition of the need to expand public transit, the modes and organizational forms this will take, the fares that will be levied, the funding provisions and the operational practices remain completely unclear. There remains nothing in the way of a national public transit plan in Canada, and Ontario planning is both ad hoc and bent on privatization. There are important strategic lessons to be learned from the experience of London -- a system at the forefront of these kinds of battles over the neoliberalization of transit systems. As well, there is a growing national and international free public transit movement as a central means to address global warning and for transit justice to give equal access to mobility.

* Janine Booth is a London Underground RMT union activist and author of Plundering London Underground.
* Kamilla Pietrzyk and Brenda Thompson are active with Free Transit Campaign and TTCriders.

Sponsored by Centre for Social Justice, Free Transit Toronto Campaign and Socialist Project | Facebook event

Jun 21, 2015 - Forum: Capitalism vs. Ecology: We Need to Change Everything! Resistance and Alternatives

When: Sunday, June 21st, 2pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St (Bathurst & Boor)

It is no longer plausible to propose incremental solutions to the ecological crises of our time. The numbers are clear: to avoid a trillion metric tons of cumulative carbon emissions by 2039, and an increase in global average temperatures of 2°C, it is necessary to stabilize immediately Greenhouse Gas emissions. The ecological scars of desertification, coastline loss, species extinction, destruction of habitat, and much else is evident for all to see.

The main culprit of runaway climate change and environmental degradation, as Naomi Klein points out in her new book, is the economic system itself: capitalism. This is a class system that requires endless growth and is incompatible with sustainability and meaningful climate action. Market solutions from the last decades of neoliberalism have miserably failed. The tactics of even "Big Green" environmental groups have too often pursued immediate reforms that fail to address the real sources of the crisis in the unequal relations at work, the need for endless consumption, and the hollowness of democracy today.

But what might serve as an alternative political program for an ecological transition? Where might new radical political movements emerge to carry forward such an ecological revolution? Is "Blockadia" enough? Or is there even more needed to, as Klein suggests, "build the world that will keep us all safe"?

Please join us for this final talk in our ecology series to hear about the many examples of environmental resistance across North America and their challenges.

Speakers:

* Jodi Dean is a professor in the Political Science department at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York State. She has been an active in the We Are Seneca Lake anti-gas struggle and is the author of Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies (2009), Blog Theory (2010), and The Communist Horizon (2012), among others.

* Greg Albo is a professor of Political Economy at York University, co-editor of the Socialist Register (recent volume: Transforming Classes), and director of the Centre for Social Justice.

* Niloofar Golkar is a Toronto-based activist with Rising Tide Toronto and a graduate student in the Department of Political Science at York University.

The space is accessible by mobile ramp upon request in advance. Washrooms are downstairs and not accessible, unfortunately.

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Jun 12, 2015 - Forum: Nuclear Precipice: Ukraine, Russia, and patterns of U.S. Hegemony

When: Friday, June 12th, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St (Bathurst & Boor)

What is the background of the ethnic conflict in Ukraine? Can the Ukraine situation lead to a Russia/US confrontation involving nuclear weapons?

According to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the world is again at a precipice with threats of nuclear war.

James Bissett, former Canadian diplomat, warns that "The current crisis in Ukraine threatens global security and at worst has the potential for nuclear catastrophe... The almost virulent propaganda onslaught blaming Russia for the instability and violence in Ukraine simply ignores reality and the facts."

Speakers:

* Halyna Mokrushyna, "The self-fulfilling prophecy of two Ukraines: The East-West cultural and political split in Ukraine since 1991." Halyna Mokrushyna is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in sociology at the University of Ottawa and is a part-time professor. Her doctoral project deals with the memory of Stalinist purges in Ukraine. She holds a doctorate in linguistics and MA degree in communication. Her academic interests include: transitional justice; collective memory; ethnic studies; dissent movement in Ukraine; history of Ukraine; sociological thought. She publishes in Truthdig, Truthout, Counterpunch, and New Cold War.

* Sergei Plekhanov, "Russia and the West: Back to Cold War?" Born in Moscow, Russia, Dr. Plekhanov holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from Moscow State Institute of International Relations and a Ph.D. in History from Institute for the Study of the USA and Canada, Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, York University; Director of the South and Central Asia Project at the York Centre for Asian Research; Senior Associate of the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, University of Toronto. Prof. Plekhanov has published widely on issues of post-communist transformations in Russia, Russian foreign policy, US-Russian relations, and American politics. He is serving as Secretary of the Canadian Pugwash Group, an NGO advocating nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

* Judy Deutsch, "Patterns of U.S. Hegemony." Judy Deutsch majored in history at UCLA, is a psychoanalyst, is a columnist for Canadian Dimension Magazine, and was president of Science for Peace (2008-2012). She works on many issues including climate justice, nuclear weapons and militarization, and ending Israeli apartheid.

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project | Facebook event

May 24, 2015 - Carbon Markets and Neoliberal Capitalism

When: Sunday, May 24th, 1pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St, Toronto

In April it was announced that Ontario would be joining Quebec in implementing a cap and trade system on carbon emissions. While the Ontario government has presented this development as a positive step for the climate, critics of cap and trade point out that the mechanism often does not lead to lower green house gas emissions. Instead, it creates another market to commodify nature and allows corporations to continue profiting from environmental destruction for a small financial fee.

Please join us to hear an overview of the development of cap and trade systems, their track record in other parts of the world, an assessment of the Ontario plan, and ideas on other avenues we could be exploring to reduce emissions and limit climate change.

Guest Speaker:
* Romain Felli is a senior researcher in political science at the University of Geneva, Switzerland and is currently a visiting fellow at York University. He works on environmental governance and the political economy of climate change.

* Paul Kellogg is Associate Professor in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies at Athabasca University. He was a founding member of Toronto-Bolivia Solidarity and helps organize with Ideas Left Out.

The talk is free. The space is accessible by mobile ramp upon request in advance. Washrooms are downstairs and not accessible, unfortunately.

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Apr 12, 2015 - Green Cities Against Neoliberal Urbanism: Urban Planning and Toronto Politics

When: Sunday, April 12th, 2pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St, Toronto (Bathurst & Bloor)

Canada's municipalities are collapsing, from both fiscal austerity and ecological pressures. Toronto, in particular, has been dealing with the enormous challenges of rapid population growth, amalgamation, crumbling infrastructure, and the federal and provincial offloading of costs. The chronic underfunding of municipal projects is negatively impacting affordable housing, public transportation, social services, green initiatives, and public spaces.

Instead of an increase in public investments in our decaying city, we have seen a process of 'neoliberal urbanism' characterized by the privatization and elimination of public goods and services. Lost in this process is attention to poverty, social services, good jobs, and the protection of the environment.

Please join us to hear about the track record of neoliberal urbanism and its deregulation of greenbelts, expansion of capital developments, resulting housing inequalities, and 'green-washing' of planning and urban design, with comparative analyses to cities like Berlin and Seoul. Our speakers will also address paths to building people-centered and environmentally friendly cities through initiatives like democratic planning.

Speakers:

* Kanishka Goonewardena, University of Toronto
* Stefan Kipfer, York University
* Laam Hae, York University

The talk is free. The space is accessible by mobile ramp upon request in advance. Washrooms are downstairs and not accessible, unfortunately.

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Mar 31, 2015 - The Historic Feminist Victories of the 1980s on Reproductive Rights and Pay Equity

When: Tuesday, March 31, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St, Toronto (Bathurst and Bloor)
The talk is free. The space is accessible by mobile ramp upon request in advance. Washrooms are downstairs and not accessible.

Looking Back and Forward

This public meeting commemorates two of the greatest achievements of the modern Canadian feminist movement, when thirty years ago, working closely together with the labour movement, the historic legislative and judicial victories on pay and workplace equity and women's reproductive rights were both won. This meeting brings two of the leading feminists who acted as the link and buckle with the labour movement in those victories of the mid-1980s together with two women activists who are engaged in a new generation of struggles on women's reproductive rights and pay and workplace equity to discuss the legacy of these victories and assess their continuing impact and relevance today.

Speakers:
* Carolyn Egan was a founding member of the Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics which sparked the campaign to overturn the federal abortion law by opening an illegal abortion clinic with Dr. Henry Morgentaler. She continues to be active in the struggle for reproductive justice for all women, and is president of the Steelworker Toronto Area Council.

* Mary Cornish is a senior partner in Cavalluzzo Shilton McIntyre & Cornish, a Toronto public interest law firm. As a feminist human rights lawyer, she continues to chair the Equal Pay Coalition, a broad based Ontario civil society coalition which successfully lobbied for the implementation of Ontario's proactive pay equity laws.

* Anjali Kulkarni is a fourth year medical student at the University of Toronto. She is the current National Officer of Reproductive and Sexual Health (NORSH) with the Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS). Previously she was the co-president of Medical Students for Choice (MSFC) at the University of Toronto.

* Stephanie Ross is Associate Professor of Work and Labour Studies in the Department of Social Science and co-director of the Global Labour Research Centre at York University. She is president of the Canadian Association for Work and Labour Studies and has edited two books: Rethinking the Politics of Labour in Canada and Public Sector Unions in the Age of Austerity.

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project | PDF poster | Facebook event

Mar 27, 2015 - Labour Pains, Capital Gains

When: Friday March 27, 2015 | Registration: 8:30 - 9am | Conference: 9am - 4:15pm
Where: Ryerson University, 350 Victoria St, Toronto
Reception: 6pm at the Imperial Pub

This conference will explore how precarious labour market arrangements and changes to social policy have exacerbated low-waged and no-waged work. Presentations will advance or challenge theoretical approaches, explore the intersections of race, class, gender and other subjectivities in the context of full-time, part-time and casual work, the experiences of migrant and undocumented labour as well as unpaid work in the sphere of social reproduction, voluntary and probationary work.

Co-sponsored by Centre for Social Justice | www.alternateroutes.ca | www.eventbrite.ca | PDF poster

Mar 20, 2015 - Neoliberal Violence and the Mexican state: Emerging community and class struggles

When: Friday, March 20th 7pm
Where: Kerr Hall South, Room 369, Ryerson University, 50 Gould Street
(corner of (or near) Bond Street (Gould is one street north of Dundas and runs East-West. Bond is 2 streets east of Yonge and runs North-South)

Speakers:
* Maria de la Luz Arriaga Lemus, professor in the Faculty of Economics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and founder of the Tri-national Coalition in Defense of Public Education (Mexico, the United States and Canada) in 1993, and the Network for Public Education in the Americas in 1999.

* Hepzibah Munoz Martinez is professor in the History and Politics department at the University of New Brunswick (Saint John campus). She has done accompaniment work with the United Forces for Our Disappeared in Coahuila since 2012. Her blog nomorebloodinmexico.org focuses on solidarity work between Mexico and Canada in the area of human rights.

* Richard Roman is associate professor emeritus in Sociology, University of Toronto, and an associate fellow of CERLAC, York University and the co-author of Continental Crucible: Big Business, Workers and Unions in the Transformation of North America (2nd edition, 2015).

Sponsors: Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project, Common Frontiers, CERLAC | Facebook event

Mar 15, 2015 - Climate Change Impacts on the Global South and Inadequate UN Agreements

When: Sunday, March 15th, 2pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St, Toronto.

Climate change is already catastrophic for countless people around the world, especially in parts of the Global South. Some residents of low-lying Island States in the Pacific Ocean are already having to move to other countries as a result of rising sea levels. Water is also rising in Bangladesh, swallowing up coastal areas and contaminating fertile land. In East Africa changing sea surface temperatures have disrupted seasonal rains and lead to severe droughts while West Africa is experiencing rising temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns which are threatening agriculture. Southern Africa is similarly seeing rising temperatures, below-normal rainfall, and droughts. Meanwhile, South Asia and South East Asia have been subjected to extreme weather events that have killed and displaced tens of thousands of people, with more severe climate impacts on the way.

These developments are revealing all too starkly the limits of neoliberal development strategies of building capitalism. There is a pressing need to turn to ecologically-responsible production and egalitarian development.

Yet, wealthy nations continue to look the other way, formulating weak and non-binding agreements on climate change at UN conferences. Even the 2 degree Celsius target set out by developed countries for capping the rise in warming would lead to full-scale humanitarian disasters in the developing world. Indeed, scientists say that at 2 degrees of warming, expected in 20 to 30 years, the world will encounter widespread food shortages, unprecedented heat-waves, and more intense cyclones.

Please join us to hear about the climate impacts in some of the most vulnerable regions in the world, an assessment of the current impasse at the global level, and some thoughts on ways to avoid an escalating crisis.

Speakers:
* Nasima Akter, Executive Director, Bangladeshi-Canadian Community Services
* Isaac Asume Osuoka, Director, Social Action, Nigeria
* Romain Felli, Senior researcher in Political Science, University of Geneva

The talk is free. The space is accessible by mobile ramp upon request in advance. Washrooms are downstairs and not accessible.

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Feb 22, 2015 - Green Jobs: The Newest Challenge for Workers and Unions

When: Sunday, February 22nd, 2pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St, Toronto

We cannot develop an ecologically-responsible and just economy without considering the consequences for work and employment. But what is the meaning of 'green work' in capitalist societies of endless production and consumption for the purposes of profits?

If we scale back on tar sands, fracking, and other dirty energy projects, as we must, workers who lose their jobs will need retraining, temporary income support, and a green energy infrastructure to work in. This will require a whole range of collective investments and decisions.

What issues do we need to raise as workers in our workplaces and unions? How do we link the struggle for green jobs to precarious work, which is often not only unstable but also ecologically damaging? What should we push for and build in society generally?

We could demand of a just transition that it extend beyond retraining and replacement wages for workers in polluting industries that get shut down. Rather than shutting down polluting industries according to market logic, we could insist that workers' rights be extended to include being actively and democratically involved in decisions around industrial and plant conversion to low-carbon, low-waste production, and in decision-making in society as a whole.

Speakers:
* Steven Tufts, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Geography, York University
* Nigel Barriffe, Community Organizer, Elementary Teacher with the TDSB, and a member of the Green Economy working group of the Good Jobs For All Coalition
* Lilian Yap, PhD student, Political Science Department, York University, comparing green work projects in Toronto and Buenos Aires

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Feb 16, 2015 - Round-table Discussion: Europe's Crisis and the Rise of the Right: Challenges for the Left

When: Monday, February 16th, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St, Toronto

With:
* Liz Fekete, Institute of Race Relations, UK
* Richard Seymour, Blogger, Lenin's Tomb
* G.M. Tamas, Hungary's dissident philosopher, ex-MP
* Geoff Eley, Historian, U Michigan

Moderated by Greg Albo and Leo Panitch, co-editors of the Socialist Register.

Sponsored by Socialist Register, Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project, and LAPS at York University.

Feb 8, 2015 - Forum: The Historic Victory of Greek Left: What Now?

When: Sunday, February 8th, 2:30pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St, Toronto

On January 25 2015, Greece elected a new government representative of a range of radical and left forces after years of protests and street battles against the extreme policies of austerity imposed by the so-called Troika composed of the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Syriza represents the first and the strongest democratic response to the bizarre deepening of neoliberalism after the 2008 crisis.

Were such a democratic government to be stymied or brought down by the hostility of its domestic capitalist class working in cahoots with international capitalists and their political representatives, this would be a tragedy for democracy. It would reinforce the notion, growing ever stronger in Europe today, that the only way to protect people from the neoliberal austerity is through supporting right-wing ethno-nationalist parties. For the moment -- at least until Podemos reclaims the mantle at the end of this year -- a democratic Greece under Syriza represents what democratic Spain represented for the international left in the 1930s. The prospects for a different outcome are much better, provided there is strong international support for giving a Syriza government the breathing room it needs.

This forum brings together two important commentators on the left, socialist strategies and Greece to comment on the openings and dilemmas now confronting the Greek, and indeed the European and international, left.

With:
* Peter Bratsis, Political Science, at City University of New York (see The End of TINA)
* Leo Panitch, Political Science, at York University (see The Greek Election)

Sponsored by Centre for Social Justice, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly and Socialist Project | Facebook event

Feb 1, 2015 - Forum: Environmental Justice, the Tar Sands, and Indigenous Rights

When: Sunday, February 1st, 2pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St, Toronto

Tar Sands extraction projects, located primarily in Treaty 6 and 8, have radically damaged and contaminated a huge area of land in so-called Alberta, and poisoned the Athabasca watershed. As a result of the toxic operations, some Indigenous communities are experiencing unusually high rates of rare cancers and other illnesses. Traditional ways of life are also at risk as hunting, fishing, and collecting medicinal plants is becoming more difficult in polluted waters and lands.

These lands are the traditional territories of a number of Indigenous Nations whose right to hunt, fish, and live are protected by Treaties, which are currently being violated.

Speakers:
* Heather Milton Lightening, Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign
* Keith Stewart, Climate and Energy Campaign Coordinator, Greenpeace Canada
* Anna Zalik, Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University

Recommended reading: A Line in the Tar Sands.

This is the second talk in the series: Capitalism vs. Ecology: We Need to Change Everything! Discussion series on ecology, economy, and social justice. Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly, Socialist Project. | Facebook event

Jan 22, 2015 - Forum: Global Pacification System: Israel and Canada

When: Thursday, January 22nd, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham Street, Toronto
Suggested Entrance donation of $10 but no one turned away for lack of funds

There will also be a free will offering to support the work of ICAHD.

With the recent events in Ferguson MO (as in G20 in Toronto in summer 2010) the reality of militarization of police, equipment and tactics has come to North America. Jeff Halper speaks to this phenomenon in the larger perspective of "Global Pacification System". He is a long-time activist, writer and commentator on Israel-Palestine known for his writing on the concepts and practice of "matrix of control," and "people warehousing" as practised by Israel on the Palestinian population in Occupied Palestinian Territory, especially in Gaza.

* Jeff Halper is an Israeli peace activist and Nobel Prize Nominee. Co-Founder and Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Dr. Halper will be touring Canada for three weeks. Halper has been advocating for the human rights of Palestinians for decades, educating audiences around the world and actively resisting policies of dispossession in Occupied Palestinian Territory through the work of ICAHD.

* Greg Albo teaches political economy at the Department of Political Science, York University, Toronto. Co-editor of A Different Kind of State: Popular Power and Democratic Administration and author of numerous articles in journals such as Studies in Political Economy, Socialist Register, Canadian Dimension, and Monthly Review. Professor Albo is also on the executive of the Centre for Social Justice in Toronto.

* Robert Latham is director of the Centre for International and Security Studies, and associate professor of Political Science, at York University in Toronto.

Tour sponsors include the United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel (UNJPPI), Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) Canada, United Jewish People's Order (UJPO), and Canadian Friends of Sabeel. The January 22 Toronto event is also sponsored by Canadian Dimension magazine, Centre for Social Justice and Science for Peace.

Facebook event

Jan 15, 2015 - Launching the Socialist Register 2015

When: Thursday Jan 15th, 7:15pm
(doors open at 6:30 -- food and refreshments)
Where: Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas St West

"Transforming Classes"

with:
* Sue Ferguson, David McNally, John McCullough and Adolph Reed
* Moderated by Leo Panitch and Greg Albo

Sponsored by Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project, and The Socialist Register | Facebook event

Jan 11, 2015 - Forum: This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate

When: Sunday, January 11th, 3pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St, Toronto

Discussion of Naomi Klein's new book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate.

The Lima Conference should have been a milestone that marked out how governments will take urgent action to tackle climate change and to support vulnerable people across the world to adapt to its locked in impacts. But it was a failure and ran up against a political-economic system that puts the pursuit of profit above the needs of people and the limits of nature.

This is the importance of Naomi Klein's new book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate, where she argues that the main culprit of runaway climate change is the system itself: capitalism. She explains that a system that requires endless growth is incompatible with sustainability and meaningful climate action. Klein insists and shows that market solutions will not do the trick, and that even "Big Green" environmental groups are part of the problem because they falsely suggest we can solve the crisis without fundamental changes in society.

Join us as our speakers review and assess the book and offer additional thoughts on steps forward.

Speakers:

* Sam Gindin spent most of his working life in the trade union movement as research director of the Canadian Autoworkers. He is the co-author, with Leo Panitch of The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire.

* Patricia E. (Ellie) Perkins is a Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, where she teaches and advises students in the areas of ecological economics and critical interdisciplinary research design. Her research focuses on feminist ecological economics, climate justice, and participatory community- and watershed-based environmental education for political action.

* Umair Muhammad is the author of Confronting Injustice: Social Activism in the Age of Individualsm. He is a PhD student in Political Science at York University. His research focuses on the political economy of the environment.

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Dec 12, 2014 - Forum: Partners in Crime: The Mexican state, North American Capitalism, and the 43 Missing Students

When: Friday, December 12th, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St., Toronto

The signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement came with the promise of prosperity and jobs for all and the extension of human rights. These are, it needs hardly saying, promises unkept.

On September 26th 2014, over 100 students from a rural teacher's college were passing through the nearby town of Iguala in Guerrero en route to a demonstration in Mexico City. Three were killed along with three bystanders and 43 are still missing. The families of the students continue to demand that their children be returned alive.

The search for the students has unearthed a number of mass graves and has lead to an eruption of protests across the country. The parents of the missing students have traveled throughout the country meeting with communities that have also experienced killings and disappearances. The family insists it was not simply a local occurrence but something that happens in many places, and that the responsibility lies with the state.

Speakers:
* Anna Zalik, Associate Professor at York University, writes extensively on the oil sector and capitalist development in Mexico, Nigeria, and Canada.
* Richard Roman, co-author of Continental Crucible: Big Business, Workers, and Unions in the Transformation of North America.
* Judith Adler Hellman, Professor of Political Science at York University and author of The World of Mexican Migrants (2008), Mexican Lives (1999) and Mexico in Crisis (1988).
* Ricardo Bocanegra, student at Seneca at York, activist, and organizer of Mexico solidarity actions in Toronto

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Common Frontiers, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Nov 29, 2014 - Book Launch: A Line in the Tar Sands

When: Saturday November 29th, 1pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St. , Toronto

Join contributors, an editor, and Line 9 activists for a celebration of A Line in the Tar Sands: Struggles for Environmental Justice.

Tar sands "development" comes with an enormous environmental and human cost. But tar sands opponents -- fighting a powerful international industry -- are likened to terrorists; government environmental scientists are muzzled; and public hearings are concealed and rushed.

Yet, despite the formidable political and economic power behind the tar sands, many opponents are actively building international networks of resistance, challenging pipeline plans while resisting threats to indigenous sovereignty and democratic participation.

Presenters:
* Toban Black, Editor
* Lana Goldberg, Rising Tide Toronto
* Lindsay Gray, Aamjiwnaang and Sarnia Against Pipelines
* Myeengun Henry, Chippewas of the Thames First Nation
* Lilian Yap, Contributor

Co-sponsored by the Centre for Social Justice and Between the Lines. Thank you to our online media sponsor: rabble.ca | Facebook event | PDF poster

Nov 27, 2014 - Forum: Endless War? The Middle East and Canada's New Militarism

When: Thursday, November 27th, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham Street, Toronto

In 2003, the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq on false pretenses and left the country in ruins almost a decade later, creating the conditions for ISIL's ascension in the region. Now the U.S. is spearheading a campaign to return to Iraq and enter Syria to fight off ISIL. Canada has heeded its neighbour's call for support and is already on the ground "helping" with the mission. Canadian reinforcement for U.S. imperial endevours around the world is standard procedure, but Canada has its very own imperial strategy as well. A new foreign policy stance has led to interventions in Afghanistan, Haiti, Libya, and Mali, among other places.

Canada is (again) intervening in the Middle East with fighter jets, logistics, forward bases, and other supports. This is another escalation in the 'new militarism' that is dominating Canadian foreign policy and increasingly, society. Can the intervention succeed even on its own militarist terms? What are the alternatives for the anti-war movement?

In the midst of the conflict is the besieged city of Kobane, part of the Kurdish region of Rojava in northern Syria. Two years ago Syrian Kurds declared autonomy and set up a system of direct democracy called "Democratic Confederalism." What is happening on the ground and how can the Left support the Rojava Revolution and Kobane?

Speakers:
* Sabah Alnasseri, Professor of Political Science, York University
* Judy Deutsch, Science for Peace, Canadian Dimension Magazine
* Tyler Shipley, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Humber College
* Sardar Saadi, PhD Student at UofT, Toronto-based activist

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Science for Peace, Socialist Project | Facebook event | PDF poster

Nov 2, 2014 - Forum: The Maidan Uprising and Civil War in the Ukraine: Questions for the Left

When: Sunday, November 2nd, 2:30pm
Where: Steelworkers' Hall, 25 Cecil St., Toronto

Last year's events marked not only a turning point in Ukraine's history. It also posed a number of difficult questions for progressive movements and left critical theory. Volodymyr Ishchenko, a sociologist and leftist commentator, will present his perspective on the Ukrainian Maidan and the ongoing civil war. The presentation will discuss questions of revolution, nationalism, fascism, imperialism and the strategy which has been raised in political and academic discussions in and around the Ukraine.

Volodymyr Ishchenko is a sociologist studying social protests in Ukraine. He is the deputy director of the Center for Social and Labor Research, a member of the editorial board of Commons: Journal for Social Criticism and LeftEast web-magazine, and a teacher at the Department of Sociology in the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. He authored a number of comments and interviews about Ukrainian Maidan, particularly, for the Guardian and the New Left Review.

Sponsors: Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly (GTWA) | Facebook event

Oct 9, 2014 - Transit Forum: Beyond the Gridlock

When: Thursday, October 9th, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St, Toronto

Public Transit Struggles from across Europe and North America

Struggles to expand public transport and to block privatization are central to overturning neoliberalism and addressing climate justice. This forum brings together some of the leading public transit activists in Europe and North America.

Chairs: Greg Albo (Socialist Project/York) & TTCRiders, Toronto
Speakers:
* Allan Alakula (EU representative, Tallinn);
* Marcus Finbom (Planka.nu, Stockholm);
* Joanna Erbel (Congress of Urban Movements, Warsaw);
* Jaron Browne (POWER, San Francisco-Bay Area)

Presented by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Berlin and New York Offices, Socialist Project, Centre for Social Justice, York University | Facebook event

Sep 24, 2014 - Neoliberalism and the Far Right

When: Wed, September 24th, 7pm
Where: Steelworkers' Hall, 25 Cecil Street, Toronto

* Bill Fletcher Jr is co-author of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor

* Greg Albo is co-editor of Socialist Register.

Sponsored by Labour Committee of the GTWA, Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project, Global Labour Research Centre | PDF poster | Facebook event

Jun 11, 2014 - Book Launch: Revolutionary Activism in the 1950s & 60s

When: 6:30pm, Wednesday June 11, 2014
Where: Pauper's Pub (second flr), 539 Bloor St. West, Toronto.

You're invited to celebrate the launch of: Revolutionary Activism in the 1950s & 60s: Volume 1: Canada 1955-1965; Volume 2: Britain 1965-1970

Meet the author, Ernest Tate. And special guests Bryan Palmer, Chris Schenk and Richard Fidler.

Books will be on sale for a special price of $30 (cash) for both volumes.

Sponsored by Centre for Social Justice and Socialist Project | Facebook event

May 26, 2014 - Forum: Neoliberalism and Politics

When: Monday May 26th, 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham Street, Toronto

Neoliberalism and Politics: Reflections on the recent elections in India

Prabhat Patnaik is a highly distinguished and internationally renowned critical scholar. He holds a D.Phil in Economics from the University of Oxford, UK, and in 2012, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science (Economics) by SOAS, University of London. He has taught at the University of Cambridge, UK, and at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, widely recognized as a leading center of critical scholarship. He is currently Professor Emeritus at JNU, having retired in 2010 from the Sukhamoy Chakravarty Chair that he held there. Between 2006 and 2011 he was the Vice-Chairman of the Planning Board of the southern state of Kerala in India.

Presented by: Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy, York University; Department of Political Science, York University; Centre for Social Justice, Toronto | PDF poster | Facebook event

May 4, 2014 - Workshop: The Forecast on Climate Change

When: Sunday May 4th, 12pm
Where: Centre for Social Innovation/Centre for Social Justice, Second Floor, Room # 1, 720 Bathurst St.

Capitalism and the IPCC Report on Global Warming

There are many discussions on the Left occurring over climate change. Some of these have been occurring about a 'just transition' in the labour movement to energy democracy to the financialization of the ecology movement through the promotion of 'cap and trade' systems to deal with carbon emissions. The release of the latest major set of studies from the UN's Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change allows a fresh look at these debates from the latest 'consensus report' from scientific analysts from around the world. This workshop will allow us to discuss and debate some of the current findings, how the developments around climate change are interacting with current developments in capitalism and the state of social movement struggles around climate change.

* What does the IPCC report tell us about the latest evidence on climate change?
* How are different sectors of the capitalist classes responding to climate change?
* What new openings are occurring in struggles around climate justice?
* Where is the Left in these struggles?

Presenters:
* Justin Podur, Faculty of Environment Studies, York University
* Lana Goldberg, Toronto No Line 9 Coalition

The IPCC Report can be found here www.ipcc.ch

Commentary on the report can be found here:
* Climate change a threat to security, food and humankind
* climateandcapitalism.com/category/ipcc

This discussion is part of a Workshop on Ecosocialism sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Free and Accessible Transit Committee, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Apr 13, 2014 - Forum: Ecology as Politics: The Origins of Ecosocialism

When: Sunday, April 13th, 1:30pm
Where: CSI Annex, 720 Bathurst Street (Room #1), Toronto

The sources for eco-socialism are many but Andre Gorz's Ecology as Politics remains one of the most important texts. It first connected the ecological movement to larger struggles of the labour and socialist movements. He began to develop these themes in his strategic interventions for 'Reform and Revolution' where he made the case for 'structural reforms' that would win gains within capitalism but also carry an anti-capitalist logic.

Gorz also connected ecological struggles to his 'strategy for labour' where he had re-asserted and re-thought workers' control and self-management. His later writings on Capitalism, Socialism, Ecology more directly linked ecology to some of the traditional demands of the socialist movement - reduced work-time, living better with less through collective consumption, the social ideology of the car in opposition to public transportation, the rationality of the market and endless consumption, and many others.

Gorz's was a radical position against productivism and market ecology. His ideas provide a critique of current green politics, and provide a link to what many identify as 21st century socialism.

Presenters:

* Umair Muhammad, York University, author of Confronting Injustice

* Greg Albo, York University

Gorz's Ecology as Politics can be downloaded here.

This discussion will kickstart a Workshop on Ecosocialism. We will also use this meeting to discuss further readings, topics, speakers and so forth.

Sponsors: Centre for Social Justice, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Dec 13, 2013 - Pension Funds, Unions, and Working Class Strategies

We are pleased to invite participation in an open workshop series focused on the role of Canadian workers' pension funds in the larger national and global economy.

One of the key features of the continuing deep economic crisis facing Canadian workers is the attack on long established pension and retirement benefits, which are now dismissed as a costly frill that only benefits a shrinking minority of the workforce. The defence of these benefits by trade unions is becoming more difficult and divisive - it risks appearing self-serving in a context where the older notion that private, employer-based plans might serve as a positive step toward a universal system of full coverage for all workers is no longer credible.

Workshop Coordinators:
• Convenor: Kevin Skerrett (Canadian Union of Public Employees), kevin.skerrett@gmail.com
• Greg Albo (Centre for Social Justice), albo@yorku.ca

Proposed Series Schedule and Details:
Each of the six workshops will be held on Friday afternoons from 3:30pm - 6:00pm, every other week. (We will skip November 8th, and use November 15th in its place)

Registration not required for the last two sessions -- open to all.

• September 27: From Pension Fund Socialism to Pension Fund Capitalism?
• October 11: Trade union and 'progressive' strategies: The Responsible Investment, Capital Stewardship, and 'pension fund activism' movements
• October 25: Fiduciary Duty - A legal shield for corporate capitalism?
• November 15: Pension funds and privatization: P3s and pension-financed privatization
• December 6: The Rise of Finance - What role for trade unions & pension funds? With Michael Rafferty, John Peters and Aidan Conway.
• December 13: Trade unions, pensions, corporations, and the state. With Doug Henwood and Sam Gindin.

Location and Time: Sessions will be held on Fridays from 3:30-6:00 in the ING Room, ground level, at the Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst Street (one block south of Bloor).

This workshop is co-sponsored by the Centre for Social Justice, Global Labour Research Centre (York University), Canada Research Chair in Political Economy (York University) and Socialist Project | PDF flyer | Facebook event

Oct 26, 2013 - Forum: The Hidden History of Workplace Resistance

When: Saturday Oct 26 - 1pm
Where: Steelworkers' Hall, 25 Cecil Street, Toronto

The Hidden History of Workplace Resistance U.S. Autoworkers Speak Out

Three prominent uaw shop floor activists describe current life on American assembly lines and keeping resistance alive.
* At the height of the recent economic crisis auto companies were bailed out while workers' concessions were accelerated and working conditions made even more brutal.
* Profits are now at record levels again but pressures on workers continue. what are the barriers to fighting back?

Speakers:

* GREGG SHOTWELL: 30 years at General Motors. Machine operator turned rebel. Generally recognized as one of the most articulate voices of the U.S. working class. Author of Autoworkers Under the Gun.

* SCOTT HOLDIESON: Electrician at Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant, writer and editor of the local union paper, long-time activist for union democracy and equality among workers.

* SEAN CRAWFORD: Great grandfather was Vice Chair of the Flint sit-down strike and great grandmother and great aunt were part of the Women's Emergency Brigade. Hired on as lower-waged ('second-tier') worker at GM.

Intro: Sam Gindin, former Research Director of the (former) CAW

Sponsors: Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly www.workersassembly.ca, Centre for Social Justice.

Aug 25, 2013 - How Tar Sands Threaten Our Communities

When: Sunday, August 25 -- 2pm
Where: East York Civic Centre, 850 Coxwell Ave., Toronto

Featured speaker: Ben Powless, Mohawk environmental advocate organizing Ottawa's community campaign against tar sands pipeline. Ben works extensively with the Indigenous Environmental Networks on climate policy.

... along with East End Toronto community voices.

Meeting begins with a short video on tar sands.

Concern is growing. Word is getting out about Enbridge Corp.'s plan to convert an aging cross-Toronto pipeline (Line 9) to transport a toxic mixture of bitumen (tar) and chemicals.

Hundreds of East End Toronto residents have expressed alarm about the dangers of a spill and the effect on climate change. Our public event August 25 will enable community voices to be heard with lots of time for discussion.

Facebook event

Aug 8, 2013 - Forum: France: One year after the Sarkozy defeat

When: Thursday August 8 -- 6:30pm
Where: CSI/CSJ, 720 Bathurst Street, Toronto.

François Hollande and his Socialist Party came to power following presidential and legislative elections in May-June 2012. While the defeat of hard-Right president Nicolas Sarkozy and his UMP party certainly came as a huge relief, Hollande and his government have essentially pursued the same agenda as the defeated forces of the Right and have plummeted in the opinion polls.

How have the forces to the left of the Hollande government responded in a context of Socialist disarray, continuing economic crisis in France and the EU and growing popularity of the far-Right Front National party? What are their prospects in the coming period? Come out for a talk and discussion about these and other questions with a supporter of the GTWA and Socialist Project who has been living in France for the past year and who is a member of the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) in Paris.

Co-sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly and Socialist Project | Facebook event

Jul 11, 2013 - Forum: Has the Giant Awoken?

Understanding the Mass Protest Movement in Brazil

When: Thursday, July 11 -- 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham Street, Toronto

Brazil is currently witnessing the largest mass protests to hit the country in over 20 years. Originally organized by the Free Fare Movement (MPL) in Sao Paulo against a planned 10 cent public transit fare hike, the protests quickly spread to Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, and other major cities across the country. At its peak, over 1 million people in over 100 Brazilian cities took to the streets to protest a long list of grievances ranging from political corruption to human rights abuses to World Cup spending.

Who exactly are the protesters taking to the streets? What are the root grievances they want addressed? Why has Brazil erupted now? For critical insights into all of these questions and more, join us for a public forum with four Brazilian activists who will share their perspectives about this exciting moment in Brazilian history.

Speakers
* Mariana Faraz Duarte is a community development and health practitioner concerned with social justice and participatory decision-making mechanisms. Her experience combines popular education, community organizing and facilitation of participatory urban planning using a Freirean approach. She is doing her PhD in Public Health at University of Toronto.

* Rubem Silva is a youth activist involved in housing and students' social movements in Brazil. He is concerned with social justice, popular participation, collective organization, and LGBT rights. In Brazil, he is a member of Juntos! which is one of the leading groups of the protests in Brazil. Moreover, He is an undergraduate student of Health Studies at University of Sao Paulo. Currently, he is doing an exchange program in Public Health and Sexual Diversity Studies at University of Toronto.

* We will also hear (via Skype) from two activists in Rio de Janeiro who are involved in the protests movement on the ground.

Endorsed by: Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly, Centre for Social Justice, Toronto New Socialists, Socialist Project | Facebook event | beitzatoun.org

Jun 24, 2013 - Forum: Democracy Against Capitalism

A discussion with Brian Roper, author of The History of Democracy - A Marxist Interpretation.

When: Monday, June 24 from 7-9 PM
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham Street, Toronto

Brian Roper is a long-time activist on the socialist left in New Zealand and an Associate Professor in Politics at the University of Otago. He is the author of Prosperity for All? Economic, Social and Political Change in New Zealand since 1935 (Cengage, 2005) and The History of Democracy -- A Marxist Interpretation (Pluto Press, 2012).

Sponsored by Centre for Social Justice, the New Socialist Group and Socialist Project | Facebook event

Jun 23, 2013 - Forum: #Chapuling in Turkey

Occupy Gezi and Reflections from the Turkish Left

When: Sunday, June 23 -- 3:30pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham St, Toronto

Since the end of May, Turkey has seen the rise of a social movement that has serious implications, both for freedom and democracy within the Turkish state as well as broader geopolitical ramifications. The movement and its protests have galvanized Turkish society and is notable for the inclusion of Kurdish activists. It has been met with horrible repression and staged violence by agents provocateurs. Even in the face of international condemnation, whether from powerful governments or international social movements, the Tayip Erdogan regime continues to repress the movement, which grows stronger by the day.

This forum, with three activists of Turkish origin, will explore the origins and potentialities of this exciting situation.

Speakers:

* Balca Arda is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at York University in Toronto, Canada. Her PhD thesis focuses on the artistic performances of Muslim Diaspora on the post-September 11 period in North America. During her undergraduate studies at Bogazici University in Turkey, she co-founded "Davetsiz Misafir" (The Uninvited Guest), an intellectual magazine of science-fiction, cinema and critique, and she became the chief editor and art director of the magazine. She pursued her graduate studies at the University of the Arts London in the field of Digital Arts. From 2008-2010, Balca was a member of the artist residency of Borusan Art Center that selected 10 young Turkish artists to support their artistic works. She pursued another MA in the political science department at Bogazici University, and her thesis was on the Transformation of the Kurdish Oppositional Art in Turkey.

* Ezgi Dogru is a graduate of Middle East Technical University in Ankara, and is currently a PhD student in Political Science at York University studying urban political economy and regional accumulation strategies in Turkey. She has been organizing some of the support demonstrations in Toronto.

* Baris Karaagac went to school in Istanbul and is currently teaching Development Studies at Trent University. He is the editor of Accumulations, Crises, Struggles: Capital and Labour in Contemporary Capitalism.

* Chapuling (Turkish: çapuling) is a neologism originating in the May 2013 protests in Turkey, derived from Prime Minister Erdogan's use of the term "çapulcu" (roughly translated to "looter" or "marauder" ) to describe demonstrators.

Sponsored by: Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly; Socialist Project; Centre for Social Justice | Facebook event

Apr 24, 2013 - Forum: After the CJC

Palestine, Canadian Jewish Politics, and 'This immense mess' with Dan Freeman-Maloy

When: Wednesday April 24 -- 7pm
Where: Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham Street, Toronto.

In 1968 Maxime Rodinson, then perhaps the most prominent Jewish intellectual critic of Zionism and its association with Western imperial power, reflected upon the course of Jewish communal politics. Catastrophic wartime defeat in Europe and the subsequent rise of the Israeli state had produced a dangerous trajectory. Rodinson wrote: "The Jews might allow themselves to be drawn by this evolution into taking positions against the ideals and aspirations of the Third World, which by the very force of circumstance are shared by the Arabs." Arguing that "Jews are driven by the process set in motion by Zionism towards options that are reactionary in the fullest sense of the word," Rodinson urged resistance to this trend.

The trend has certainly been contested. But at the level of Jewish communal organization and leadership in the West, this struggle has in some cases simply been lost. This is dramatically the case in Canada. In 2011, this longstanding defeat was capped off by the dissolution of the historic centrepiece of Canadian politics politics, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), by its budgetary leadership. The way is now clear for complete domination of Canada's organized Jewish communal mainstream by a corporate advocacy system formally associated with Israeli state structures. With even veteran Canadian Zionists alienated by the new leadership's contempt for internal democratic process, one thing is certain: this leadership and the organizations under its direction are set to oppose any anti-imperialist forces within this country that seriously engage with the politics of the Middle East.

This talk will review the deterioration of Canadian Jewish politics and implications for leftist strategy. It will also outline the broader politics of Western Zionism and identify the relationship between the Palestine question and the rise of budgetary authorities within communal leadership structures.

"An important part of the world Jewish population, the Israeli Jewish colony, thus finds itself committed to a dead-end course, driven to a policy of preventive aggression abroad and discriminatory legislation at home, the entire situation encouraging a racist and chauvinist mentality that impels society down the road of social regression. This immense mess could not be limited to Palestine, nor even to the Arab world." -Maxime Rodinson, 1968

Speaker bio: Dan Freeman-Maloy is an activist and writer, currently pursuing a PhD in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter. As an undergraduate student activist in 2006, he wrote a lengthy polemic about Canadian Jewish politics, "AIPAC North: 'Israel advocacy' in Canada." A recent collection of his writing on Western imperial politics and Palestine (2012) is available in full.

Sponsors: Centre for Social Justice, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly, Independent Jewish Voices (Toronto), International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (Toronto), Socialist Project | Facebook event

Apr 21, 2013 - Public Forum: The Problem of Labour Imperialism

Challenges in Building International Labour Solidarity

When: Sunday, April 21st -- 1:00 -3:00 pm
Where: Centre for Social Innovation, ING Room, 720 Bathurst St.
(Just South of Bathurst Station, West Side of the street)

Join us for an afternoon with Kim Scipes, Associate Professor of Sociology at Purdue University North Central, long time labor activist, Chair of the Chicago Chapter of the National Writers Union, UAW #1981 and author of AFL-CIO's Secret War against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage? Kim's recent book explores the role of the AFL-CIO in undermining workers struggles in the Philippines, Chile, Venezuela and elsewhere. He explores the implications of these actions and the way rank and file workers have tried to challenge this agenda. Kim's talk will be followed by Marion Pollack, long-time union activist and retired member of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. Marion will turn the discussion to the Canadian context and the relevance of this analysis for Canadian labour movement and particularly for building genuine international labour solidarity today.

Sponsored by: Labour for Palestine -Toronto, International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran-Canada Branch,Toronto Haiti Action Committee, Worker to Worker - Canada Cuba Labour Solidarity Network, Educators for Peace and Justice, Centre for Social Justice and others.

Contact us at labour4palestine@gmail.com or on Facebook

Feb 27, 2013 - Book Launch: Boom, Bust and Crisis

BOOM, BUST and CRISIS
Labour, Corporate Power and Politics in Canada
edited by John Peters

Labour in Canada Series

Wednesday, February 27, 2013, 7:30 pm
Centre for Social Innovation, Main Floor Cafe,
720 Bathurst Street (South of Bloor), Toronto

Published by Fernwood Publishing

Co-sponsored by the Centre for Social Justice.
This is a free event. Everyone is welcome.
For further information contact Nancy Malek 902-857-1388

Facebook event | PDF poster

Dec 13, 2012 - Alternatives to Capitalism Workshop

Presenters: Manuel Larrabure and Thomas Ponniah

When: Thursday, December 13th -- 6:30pm
Where: Centre for Social Justice/CSI Annex, Second Floor, Meeting Room #1, 720 Bathurst Street, Toronto

One of the central tasks of remaking socialism for the 21st century is insisting upon and exploring alternatives to capitalism. This has been the importance of the Venezuelan Revolution, and the politics emerging in the Bolivarian bloc of states. The recent re-election of Hugo Chavez has led to further radical proposals for socialization. But these require careful study and debate given the experience of Venezuela and the balance of class forces inside the country and the region. One of the central theorists of the new theory of the transition to socialism has been Michael Lebowitz, who draws extensively on the developments in Venezuela in his thinking on 'real human development'. This meeting will for discussion of these issues in light of the new Venezuela programme.

Suggested readings:
* Venezuelan Programme for the Transition to Socialism

* Michael Lebowitz, The Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2010) or
* Michael Lebowitz, The Path to Human Development: Capitalism or Socialism?, Socialist Project, 2009

Sponsors: York Institute for Political Economy Initiative, Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Nov 27, 2012 - Alternatives to Capitalism Workshop

When: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 -- 6:30pm
Where: Centre for Social Justice, CSI -- 720 Bathurst St. Ground Floor Lounge, Room 6, Toronto

One of the central tasks of remaking socialism for the 21st century is insisting upon and exploring alternatives to capitalism. This involves assessment of the historical debates and experiences of the 20th century; examining contemporary attempts to pursue social alternatives as in the examples from Cuba and the Bolivarian bloc of states; and investigating the practical alternatives to find a cooperative social logic in workers' cooperatives and control, eco-localism, and so forth. This workshop will provide a venue for debate and discussion of these issues. It will do so through reading groups, invited talks and public discussions.

The first few meetings will be organized around the reading and discussion of the important new book on 21st century socialism:

M. Lebowitz, The Contradictions of Real Socialism: The Conductor and the Conducted (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2012).

The readings for the second session are:

Lebowitz, The Contradictions of Real Socialism, Chapters 2-8.

A third meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, December 13th. The readings will be announced.

Sponsors: York Institute for Political Economy Initative, Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project | Facebook event

Nov 16, 2012 - Reading Henryk Grossman's Law of Accumulation

and Breakdown of the Capitalist System

Friday, November 16th, starting at 6pm
CSI/Centre for Social Justice,
720 Bathurst St. Second Floor, Room One, Toronto

A meeting for a textual discussion of Grossman's major work in classical Marxian crisis theory.

Readings:

* Grossmann, H. The Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System: Being Also a Theory of Crises. London: Pluto Press, 1992.

* Kuhn, R. "Grossmann on Class Struggle, Beyond Exegesis: A Response." Science and Society, vol. 61 no. 2 (Summer, 1992).

* Lapides, K. "Grossmann's Model of Capitalist Breakdown: A False View of Marx's Wage Theory." Science and Society, vol. 61 no. 2 (Summer, 1992).

* Lapides, K. "Henryk Grossmann on Marx's Wage Theory and the 'Increasing Misery Controversy.'" History of Political Economy, vol. 26 no. 2 (1994).

Sponsors: York Institute for Political Economy Initative, Centre for Social Justice | Facebook

Nov 15, 2012 - The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State

When: 6:30pm, Thursday November 15, 2012
Where: Ryerson University, Room 508, 285 Victoria Street, Toronto

In an age of government imposed austerity, and after 30 years of neoliberal restructuring, the future of the welfare state looks increasingly uncertain. Asbjørn Wahl offers an accessible analysis of the situation across Europe, identifies the most important challenges and presents practical proposals for combating the assault on welfare.

Wahl argues that the welfare state should be seen as the result of a class compromise forged in the 20th century, which means that it cannot easily be exported internationally. He considers the enormous shifts in power relations and the profound internal changes to the welfare state which have occurred during the neoliberal era, pointing to the paradigm shift that the welfare state is going through. This is illustrated by the shift from welfare to workfare and increased top-down control.

Asbjørn Wahl is an adviser to the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees and director of the Campaign for the Welfare State in Norway. He serves as Vice President of the Road Transport Workers' Section of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) and Chair of the ITF Working Group on Climate Change. He is also a member of the coordinating committee of the European Social Forum. He has published a number of articles on politics, social and labor both in Norway and internationally. His most recent publication is The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State (Pluto Press, London, November 2011).

Sponsored by MA Program in Public Policy and Administration at Ryerson, Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project. Contact: Bryan Evans, b1evans@politics.ryerson.ca or phone 416 979-5000 ext 4199 Facebook event

Nov 4, 2012 - Honouring our Communities: March Against Racism

Jason Kenney is being awarded an 'honorary' degree by Israel's Haifa University at a fundraiser supported by Stephen Harper, Ezra Levant, Peter Munk, Stockwell Day and others. This event is a celebration of war, racism, corporate profit, displacement, apartheid and anti-migrant xenophobia - all intensified by the Conservative Party of Canada's agenda. There is nothing honorable about this gathering.

We call on our communities to gather in/to honour of our strength and resilience, in opposition to this award and gathering, and against the dishonorable acts of Kenney, Harper and their allies

Join us on November 4th - 4pm ! #confrontkenney #nohonour
Rally at David Pecaut Square (King & John) March to Fairmont Royal York Hotel (100 Front)

Facebook event

Oct 25, 2012 - Human Rights and Community Resilience

Human Rights Class with Josephine Grey and Community Resilience with Laura Kolnick have combined their powers to bring you one amazing course: open, direct, and hopeful. This class is a space for discussion exploring and managing alternatives in communities. We will look at preparation and adaption at the local level in light of significant changes in society due to unprecedented climate change, peak oil, future energy shortages, globalization, etc.

The class will approach these ideas through a human rights framework based on international declarations and treaties; how human rights can help us make difficult choices.

Goal: bring resources to students to help them talk to and work to organize their communities such that they are strengthened and empowered communities so that they can be prepared in times of crisis.

October 25, 2012 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Repeats: Weekly on Thursday for 8 occurrences
Where: 888 Dupont St, Apt 404, Toronto

www.freescool.com

Oct 21, 2012 - Flash Animation for the Movement

Making animations to zap your website and juice up your PowerPoint snoozers
This free workshop has 2 sessions of three hours each:
Oct 14: Introduction to animation, Flash timelines and tools demo, story-board building.
Oct 21: Student's story-boards critiqued and rendered in Flash. The time in between sessions should be used by students to mess around with their own projects.

You will need:
1) your laptop with mouse or tablet and with any adobe flash program installed.
2) an unruled paper pad & pencil.
3) An idea or something you would like to animate.

Sunday, 14 October 2012 from 2:00 to 5:00pm
720 Bathurst Street (second floor)
This is a free, two-part class, the second part will be the following Sunday October 21st (2-5pm).
The instructor is Mike Constable and his work can be viewed at www.mikeconstable.com.

Here's a sample of the flash file we worked on last week:
www.socialjustice.org/events/Flash-PS.swf

Co-sponsored by Centre for Social Justice and Socialist Project | Eventbrite - register

Sep 19, 2012 - Book Launch: Social Democracy After the Cold War

edited by Bryan Evans and Ingo Schmidt

Guest speaker: Leo Panitch

Wednesday September 19th, 6:30pm

CMA Student Lounge
Room 1-003 (7th floor)
Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University
55 Dundas Street West

Sponsored by the Centre for Labour Management Relations at Ryerson University and the Centre for Social Justice | Invitation - jpeg | Facebook event

Sep 10, 2012 - Reading Grossman's Law of Accumulation

Graduate students and faculty at York University reading Henryk Grossman's major work.

Readings:
* Grossmann, H. The Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System: Being Also a Theory of Crises. London: Pluto Press, 1992.

* Kuhn, R. "Grossman on Class Struggle, Beyond Exegesis: A Response." Science and Society, vol. 61 no. 2 (Summer, 1992).

* Lapides, K. "Grossmann's Model of Capitalist Breakdown: A False View of Marx's Wage Theory." Science and Society, vol. 61 no. 2 (Summer, 1992).

* Lapides, K. "Henryk Grossmann on Marx's Wage Theory and the 'Increasing Misery Controversy.'" History of Political Economy, vol. 26 no. 2 (1994).

September 10th and the 17th, at 6-9 pm
CSI - 720 Bathurst Street, 2nd floor, Toronto.

Facebook group

Aug 5, 2012 - Political Evening with Isaac Silver

Isaac Silver, a member of the US socialist, feminist and anti-racist political organization Solidarity will be giving an informal talk on the Chicago Teachers Struggle and Immigrant Organizing on Sunday evening,

August 5th, at 7:00pm at the Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst Street.

This session will be informal and you are all welcome to come and engage with this young, yet experienced activist who is involved in some extremely interesting organizing in the US.

This event is co-sponsored by the Internal Education and Political Development Committee and the Public Sector Campaign Committee of the GTWA; Centre for Social Justice.

Jul 10, 2012 - Website Development with WordPress

This is a tutorial/workshop that will work with all five languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and MySQL), but mainly focus on a practical hands-on approach on how to develop and maintain a website using the most popular content management software (CMS) - WordPress.

It will also touch on other related issues like images, colors, fonts... anything you need to make your web development experience enjoyable instead of hair-pulling frustration.

The class will be conducted using a PC and projector, but you are welcome to bring your own laptop/netbook etc... and use our wifi.

July 10 and 17, 2012 - 1-3pm
720 Bathurst Street (second floor)

Jun 19, 2012 - The Challenges of the Greek Left After the Election

An Assessment and Report-Back

Leo Panitch
Editor, Socialist Register
Professor of Political Economy, York University

After two years of anti-austerity street battles, Greece is in the midst of a highly polarized electoral battle, with voting set for Sunday June 17th. There is a good possibility that Syriza, the Coalition of the Radical Left, will emerge as the strongest party, and be posed to form an anti-austerity government of the left, the first radical government elected in Europe in decades. But the direction and programme of Syriza is far from settled, and containing many contradiction and tensions. Whatever the electoral outcome, the crisis in Greece and Europe is far from settled, and will enter a new phase. Leo Panitch is just returning from a week in Greece where he met many senior officials in Syriza, and also of the radical left coalition Antarysya, speaking at one of their congresses.

Tuesday, June 19th -7:00 PM
Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham Street, Toronto

Sponsored by: Centre for Social Justice, Internal Education Committee of the GTWA, Socialist Project.