Judy Rebick Archives - Occupy Toronto

Film Screening: Occupy Love

When: Thursday October 10 — 6pm-8pm Where: Ryerson University, LIB 072- 350 Victoria Street Light Dinner. Solidarity Video Award Ceremony, Film Screening: Occupy Love, followed by discussions with director Velcrow Ripper. The film connects the dots in this era of rapidly evolving social change, featuring captivating insider scenes from the Egyptian Revolution, the Indignado uprising in Spain, Occupy Wall Street in New York, Indigenous activists at the Alberta Tar Sands, the climate justice movement, and beyond. Woven throughout the action oriented backbone of the film is a deep exploration of public love, and compelling stories of an emerging new paradigm. 8.30 pm. Discussion with Director, Velcrow Ripper and Judy Rebick, the Inaugural Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy afterwards. https://www.facebook.com/events/1413050778923206/...

Book review: Occupy This

Review of Judy Rebick, Occupy This! (Penguin, 2012). By Donya Ziaee Reading long-time activist Judy Rebick’s new e-book Occupy This! re-awakened memories of my experience at the Occupy Toronto encampment in its very early days. The optimism, excitement and hope with which Rebick pens her latest book is quite reminiscent of the sentiments that drew me, and perhaps many others, to the camp in the initial period. Yet, while Rebick’s contribution captures quite well the initial sense of optimism and reinvigoration that the Occupy movement had seemed to unleash, it says much less about the complex practical, organizational and strategic questions that grew in significance as the occupation wore on. Occupy This! traces the origins and characteristics of the Occupy movement to earlier social justice movements based around the principles of non-hierarchy and participatory democracy, and celebrates the strengths and successes of this new politics in providing an alternative to the current neoliberal order. Rebick argues that, within the US, this politics originally emerged with the anti-globalization movement of the 1990s and the heralding of a bottom-up, collective, and compassionate approach to social change. Comparisons are subsequently drawn between the democratic forms emerging from the Occupy movement and earlier experiments with participatory democracy, such as the participatory budget in Porto Alegre, the horizontalidad movement of worker takeovers of closed-down factories in Argentina and the Movement for Socialism led by Evo Morales in Bolivia. full article: http://newsocialist.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=631...

Occupy Toronto Activist Assembly Jan 20-22

Occupy Toronto Activist Assembly Friday, January 20-Sunday, January 22, 2012 OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) at St George and Bloor. This is an invitation to Occupy Toronto’s first Activist Assembly on the weekend of January 20, 21, 22. This will be a conference style event, focused on developing Occupy Toronto’s activist capacity. Join the FaceBook Event:www.facebook.com/events/270078499716966 SCHEDULE: Friday: 7:00 – 10:00 -Opening Panel – Discussion of why Occupy is effective. The focus of this session will be on the importance of outreach, protest, mass mobilization, and of constant recruitment of new people. The panel will be facilitated by an Occupy Toronto facilitator, followed by an open discussion with the attendees and break out groups to address the question “Why are we here?” Speakers: Carolyn Egan – is the president of the Steelworkers’ Toronto Area Council and United Steelworkers Local 8300. She is a long-time pro- choice, anti-war and social justice activist in Toronto and a leading member of the International Socialists. Judy Rebick – is a veteran activist, on feminist, democracy, anti- racist and international solidarity issues. She is also a writer, teacher and sometime journalist. She has a new e book coming out in March called Occupy This!. She is the founding publisher of rabble.ca and a regular on the Q media panel. Syed Hussan – is an organizer, activist and writer based in Toronto. Hussan has been involved with anti-colonial, migrant justice, feminist, anti-racist, environmental justice, anti-war and prison abolition movements and is active in No One Is Illegal – Toronto and Toronto Stop the Cuts Network. As part of his involvement in the Toronto Community Mobilization Network, Hussan was charged with Conspiracy. Though his charges were dropped after 18 months, 6 activist and community organizers have been jailed for the Anti-G20 protests. Saturday: 11:00am -12:15 -History Session (select one) Room 1 – Egypt and the Arab Spring Room 2 – Greece, Spain and the European fight back Room 3 – The Struggle in Wisconsin Room 4 – Paris 68 – a near revolution in France. Room 5 – Students for a Democratic Society – The American student movement of the 60s Room 6 – Indigenous Resistance 12:30-1:30 lunch 1:30-2:45 – Discussion with Occupier’s from across Ontario (select 1 room) The Southern-Ontario Occupies will also be involved in this assembly. We are inviting people from various camps to talk about their unique experiences in other cities. Room 1 – Ottawa/ Montreal Room 2 – Kitchener / Guelph / Niagara / Room 3 – Kingston /Windsor /London/ Room 4 – Pickering/Hamilton/Brampton/Orillia Room 5 – Sault Saint Marie / Sudbury / Barrie 3:00-4:15 – Issues discussions (select one) Room 1 – Environmental Justice Room 2 – Militarization, Colonialization and Occupation Room 3 – Financial Collapse Room 4 – Austerity and Neoliberalism Room 5 – Economic Alternatives Room 6 – Building fortress North America 4:30-5:45 Discussion of OccupyTO’s Committee structure Sunday: 11:00-12:45 Classroom style teach-in (select first option) Room 1 – Speaking to the Media Room 2 – Facilitation Training Room 3 – 10 steps to effective campaigning Room 4 – Direct Action Training Room 5 – Marshal Training Room 6 – Anti-Oppression/Anti Racism Training 1:45- 3:30 Classroom (second choice) Room 1 – Speaking to the Media Room 2 – Facilitation Training Room 3 – 10 steps to effective campaigning Room 4 – Direct Action Training Room 5 – Marshal Training Room 6 – Anti-Oppression/Anti Racism Training 3:45 – 5:15 Committee Discussions Room 1 – Outreach / Action Room 2 – Media Room 3 – Facilitation / Marshals Room 4 – Finance Room 5 – Women’s / Accessibility Committees Room 6 – Marshals 5:30-6:00 Closing Ceremony – Main Room REGISTRATION: ****Please note: Everyone who plans on attending this event must register to attend Registration is Free and MANDATORY!*** You can register online by sending your full name in an email entitled “registration” to [email protected] Or by signing up on the signup sheet that we will be bringing to almost every Toronto General Assembly from now on. Those who have not registered for this event, will not be allowed into the rooms. BUSES: For those people out of town, we are working on organizing buses to pick a few people up from all across southern Ontario (and Quebec.) This is STILL NOT CONFIRMED. If we find the funding for it, we will have one bus leaving Montreal, one bus leaving Windsor, and one bus leaving Sault Saint Marie to stop off at various towns and cities and pick people up on the way to Toronto. (and also drop people off on Sunday evening.) Everyone who wants to get on those buses must sign up for a seat with a liaison from your town. If you don’t know of a liaison to speak to from your town, e-mail [email protected] and we will either send you contact info for your town’s liaison, or ask you to BE your town’s liaison....