Marxism 2012 is endorsed by the Ryerson Students’ Union.

DATES

Friday, May 25 to Sunday, May 27, 2012

For exact times, please see the full schedule.

LOCATION

Ryerson Students’ Centre *

55 Gould Street

Toronto, Ontario

TTC: Dundas | Directions & map

* The Ryerson Students’ Centre is a fully accessible space.

MORE INFO

Email: marxism [at] socialist [dot] ca

Phone: 416-972-6391

Facebook: Marxism 2012

Schedule

This is a preliminary schedule and is subject to change. Speakers’ biographies are available here.

FRIDAY MAY 25

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

• The global fight against austerity: from the ballot box to the street (Room 1) – Nikos Loudos, Judith Orr, Andria Babbington, Monique Moisan, Carolyn Egan

9:00 pm – late

• Social

SATURDAY MAY 26

10:00 am – 11:15 am

• Egypt and the Arab World: the year of revolution (Room 1) – Member of Egypt’s Revolutionary Socialists (TBA), Yusur Al-Bahrani, Sid Lacombe

11:30 am – 12:45 pm

• The 2012 Quebec student strike (Room 1) – Xavier Lafrance, Monique Moisan, Sibel Epi Ataoğul
• Thomas Mulcair & the NDP: what next? (Room 2) – Ritch Whyman
• The red in the rainbow: socialists & queer liberation (Room 3) – Darren Edgar
• Why is the 1% imposing austerity? (Room 4) – Pam Frache, Paul Kellogg

1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

• Building rank & file resistance in labour / lunch break (Room 1) – Carolyn Egan, Sung-Lim Kang, Jonathon Hodge, Jeff Ince, Pam Johnson

2:45 pm – 4:00 pm

• Tar Sands, pipelines & Indigenous sovereignty (Room 1) – Ben Powless, John Bell
• ‘Occupy everything!’ The history of the Russian Revolution (Room 2) – Octavian Cadabeschi
• Can capitalism be reformed? (Room 3) – Kevin Brice
• 1965: Canada’s rank & file rebellion (Room 4) – Pam Johnson

4:15 pm – 5:30 pm

• ‘From each according to their ability’: socialists & the disability movement (Room 1) – Melissa Graham, Michele MacAulay, Patricia Reilly
• Quebec, First Nations & the Canadian state (Room 2) – Chantal Sundaram
• Too many people? Population, immigration & climate change (Room 3) – Ian Angus
• The radical roots of hip hop (Room 4) – Mohammad Ali Aumeer

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

• Can we stop the Harper Agenda? (Room 1) – Brigette DePape, Tasha Peters, Ben Powless, Hadayt Nazami, Michelle Robidoux

9:00 pm – late

• Social

SUNDAY MAY 27

10:00 am – 11:15 am

• Eyewitness to the Greek rebellion (Room 1) – Nikos Loudos
• ‘Never going back!’ How women won abortion rights (Room 2) – Michelle Robidoux, Judith Orr
• The new class struggle in Africa (Room 3) – Ali Awali
• From Libya to Syria: revolution vs ‘humanitarian intervention’ (Room 4) – Jesse McLaren

11:30 am – 12:45 pm

• Palestine: imagining the one-state solution (Room 1) – Palestinian guest speaker, Abbie Bakan
• Racism, Islamophobia & economic crisis (Room 2) – Nikos Loudos, Chantal Sundaram
• 1972: when Quebec workers occupied (Room 3) – Jessica Squires
• Chile: students & workers rise up (Room 4) – Peter Hogarth

12:45 pm – 2:00 pm

• Are you a revolutionary? Introduction to the International Socialists / lunch break (Room 1) – Yusur Al-Bahrani, Kevin Brice

2:00 pm – 3:15 pm

• The role of socialists in Egypt’s revolution (Room 1) - Member of Egypt’s Revolutionary Socialists (TBA), Judith Orr
• What’s green about Marxism? (Room 2) – Bradley Hughes
• Women, workers & resistance in Iran (Room 3) – Niaz Salimi, Faline Bobier
• Hacktivism, social media & revolution (Room 4) – Chris Bruno, James Clark

3:30 pm – 4:00 pm

• Closing rally: global crisis, global resistance (Room 1) – Nikos Loudos, Judith Orr, Monique Moisan

When Harper first came to power in 2006, Canada had the 8th largest real economy. Under minority Conservative governments & Finance Minister Flaherty; Canada has fallen to 11th place having been surpassed by Brazil, Russia & India while the People’s Republic of China recently became the 2nd largest economy  in the World though is not part of the G8. (see BRICs)

Last month, a broad alliance of organizations from across the progressive spectrum came together to train 100,000 people in non-violent direct action in the hopes of supporting a wave of action targeting corporations and the politicians that own them. It was called 99% Spring. Some also called it “co-optation.” We call it “alliance building.”

The conversation within the movement has been fascinating, and reveals some key pitfalls that the resurgent U.S. Left might fall into if we’re not careful.

Grassroots groups that organize primarily in working class and communities of color such as National Peoples Action and the National Domestic Workers Alliance helped lead the 99% Spring process. Despite this, the terms of the debate have almost exclusively centered on the participation and limits of MoveOn.org (as a symbol and stand-in for more moderate liberals, the institutional left, and the nonprofit industrial complex). “Are the liberals co-opting Occupy?” or “Is Occupy co-opting the liberals?” There is indeed a historical precedent of radical peoples’ movements becoming de-fanged by the status quo. And yet, too often, the historic limits of the Left in the United States have been connected to its internal tendency towards sectarianism and the politics of purity. At this moment, our own circular firing squads may be a deeper threat to the viability of our movements than “outside” groups.

It is precisely because of our long-term work with radical grassroots movements that both of us dove into helping organize 99% Spring. We were each involved in writing the curriculum and designing the trainings. We were challenged by, and learned a lot from, the process. Our organizations (the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the Ruckus Society) are both movement groups that support frontline communities speaking and acting for themselves, and we were both part of the left wing of the 99% Spring alliance.

We are living in an incredible time. Occupy has helped us all re-imagine political vision and strategy. 99% Spring was a bold effort with a lot of success, real limitations, and some mistakes. We want to share our experiences from the heart of 99% Spring project to help our movements think more clearly about alliances, and some of the challenges that our political moment presents us.

full article:
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/joshua-kahn-russell/2012/05/99-spring-new-radical-alliances-new-era

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1173954–france-election-francois-hollande-defeats-nicolas-sarkozy-to-become-president

In Canada, we have problems as well. This book was released in April.

http://thievesofbaystreet.ca/about/

May 1, 2012, 4pm — International Workers’ Day
March starts at Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto City Hall

* No Work * No School * No Shopping * No Banking * No Housework *

Copyright © 2012 Toronto Video Activist Collective

by Justin Saunders

Annual workers’ rights celebration spills into streets throughout day, night

One of the most successful May Day demonstrations in years took place earlier today, as large numbers filled the streets of Toronto in the annual festival of workers rights that is celebrated worldwide.

Early in the day, a small Occupy contingent began guerilla gardening in a small patch at Queens Park, behind the provincial parliament building. The two dozen or so police attending the event stood well back, although a video unit showed a strange interest in the goings on. The camera on top of the black SUV with heavily tinted windows swivelled back and forth over a small group busily engaged in planting peas, garlic, onions, kale, lettuce and radishes. None of the other journalists present seemed to notice, so our crew approached and motioned that we wanted to ask them a question. After a few hand signals indicating that we should wait while they finished talking about something, the van pulled away, only to return five minutes later to the same spot.

This ‘Garden Party Picnic Potluck’ was held to ‘challenge the lack of food security for many in this city’, said Jacob Kearey-Moreland, who organized the event. Kearey-Moreland said the symbolic garden at Queens Park was one of ’99′ other gardens planned across the city on May Day, intended to connect food security to broader economic issues – namely that, in spite of abundance, 1 billion people globally lack access to food. Occupiers plan to return regularly until the garden is harvested.

The day’s main rally and march gathered at City Hall later in the afternoon, and quickly swelled to well over 1500 people. The event, a joint action between the May 1st Movement, No One Is Illegal and Occupy Toronto, denounced austerity policies at all levels of government, and highlighted the struggles of immigants, refugees and indigenous peoples in Canada, drawing links between them and the historical struggles of the labour movement, whose victory in securing the 8-hour workday is routinely celebrated on May Day.  Nadia Saad of No One Is Illegal said: “We will connect our struggles.” In a press release, NOII called for the “freedom to move, stay and return” for non-status and migrant workers who have virtually no rights under the Canadian immigration system.

Full article:
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/mayday-takes-toronto/10726

Watch video 1/2:

http://ww3.tvo.org/video/176923/occupy-take-two

Part 2/2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWBwg4mYJxQ

Collaboration or cooptation? Expansion or dilution? Mark Engler on what to make of the 99% Spring.

by Mark Engler

Over the past several weeks, a broad coalition of progressive organizations—including National People’s Action (NPA), ColorOfChange, the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), MoveOn.org, the New Bottom Line, environmental groups like Greenpeace and 350.org, and major unions such as SEIU and the United Auto Workers—has undertaken a far-reaching effort to train tens of thousands of people in nonviolent direct action. They have called the campaign the 99% Spring.

Starting this week, many of these same groups will be rallying their members and supporters to use newly honed skills to confront the shareholder meetings of corporations across the United States—charging executives with abusing workers, the environment, and communities in pursuit of profits for the 1 percent. They are calling the drive 99% Power. With prominent actions gearing up this week—starting with major protests at Wells Fargo meetings in San Francisco—the campaign may soon be coming to a city near you.
The Genesis of the 99% Spring

Although this month’s 99% Spring trainings have taken place in the shadow of the Occupy movement, the coalition building behind them actually predated the emergence of Occupy Wall Street. Last summer, a handful of organizers from groups such as Jobs with Justice, NPA, and NDWA had discussions in which they lamented the lack

of direct action in recent years. As NPA Executive Director George Goehl explains, “We felt what was missing in terms of organizing and in terms of the broader fight was that there wasn’t enough energy pointed towards challenging corporate power: That’s not going to government and saying, ‘Reign these guys in,’ but actually going toe-to-toe with big corporations.”

complete article:
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/occupy-the-99-percent-spring-and-the-new-age-of-direct-action

Living in a park at night had a lot of interpersonal problems especially on the gender divide. The precarity was the situation of uncertainty or safety. The funny example was the men feeling uncomfortable among the transgender women who identify as women. Precarity could also alude to an underemployment given people had time to live in a public space.

Getting the Q & A rolling. I mentioned that living in a park was in itself an act of civil disobedience to assemble with others. The numbers of new and apolitical people who knew something was wrong. Being “loving” was being patience with those who had something to say and listening to them. Of course there was challenges with those who did not look at the long term objectives of the movement.