CONTENTS
CALLS TO ACTION
TRIPS Waiver
Petition to the Government of CanadaWhereas:
– India and South Africa have brought a motion forward at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to temporarily waive certain parts of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement around COVID-19 medical technologies;
– If the member countries of the WTO approve this temporary waiver, it would help ensure production of sufficient quantities of affordable COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines, which would increase the global supply of these goods, benefiting the global pandemic effort;
– Without the waiver, low- and middle-income countries don’t have the ability to manufacture vaccines, and many countries will have to rely on pharmaceutical companies and wealthy countries for charity, or go without access to lifesaving medicines and technology;
– Pharmaceutical companies have received unprecedented taxpayer funding to help develop COVID-19 vaccines; and
– Many countries are now facing new and more contagious variants of COVID-19, making the global deployment of vaccines even more urgent.
We, the undersigned, people of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to support the proposal from India and South Africa for a waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19 at the WTO TRIPS Council without delay.
petitions.ourcommons.ca
EVENTS
Mayworks 21
When: May 5 – 16Mayworks actively engages in a social dialogue that reimagines and represents economic and environmental justice. From the organizing efforts of factory workers at Amazon to the hidden connections between the extractive industries and our cultural institutions, artists and organizers share their insights and reaffirm the possibilities of collective action. The works of this year’s festival emerge in the middle of a global pandemic that has further exposed the violence of racialized capitalism.
We invite you to check out our website or download the program to start planning ahead for any of our events that catch your eye or your interest. Please keep in mind that some of our online encounters require registration.
– Sunday May 9 – 16: “Sorry We Missed You” (2019), by Ken Loach
– Monday, May 17 – Saturday, May 31: Latin@merica: Embedding bodies and localities, in conversation with Eva Salinas
mayworks.ca
When We Stood and Fought
When: Thursday May 13th, 7pmQuebec City 2001 – The People’s Summit
The Second People’s Summit of the Americas took place from 17-21 April, 2001 in Quebec City. Activists from all over Canada – and the world (60,000 or more) went to Quebec City and voiced their opposition to the “Summit of the Americas”.
Toronto was well-represented and the Toronto Workers’ History Project (TWHP) is proud to present five such activists in discussion about their roles in that historic Summit.
Winnie Ng (Facilitator), Judy Rebick, Chris Ramsaroop, Michelle Robidoux and Kim Fry.
Facebook event | mailchimp
Syndemic: Crucial Conversations about Humanity’s Organic Crisis
When: Thursday May 13th, 7pmWhat will Covid-19 mean for humanity’s future? And how can we relate our understanding of that pattern to the national communities in which we live? Join us as world-renowned scholars, journalists, and activists address these questions. With Mike Davis, co-author of Set the Night on Fire.
Zoom meeting ID 937 3986 0877.
Speaking Up: Defunding the Police
When: Thursday, May 13th, 7pmWhat could it look like to defund the Winnipeg Police Service and build alternative capacities in its place? This talk will provide an overview of some of the history, theory, evidence, and community safety practices informing local and global social movement demands to abolish the police.
policyfix.ca | zoom.us
Poetry and Music
When: May 14th, 7pmJoin us for a night of poetry, music and songs by five poets, four composers and two singers, COMMA with a former Canadian Poet Laureate and a wide audience!
George Elliott Clarke, co-hosting with Ms. Yang Wang of East and West Learning Connections, will be PLEASED TO BRING YOU 5 FINE Poets.
Ayesha Chatterjee – Giovanna Riccio – Lisa Richter – Andrea Thompson – Anna Yin
All of whom will recite poetry and then have a song or songs performed by singers and a pianist: They are poets become songwriters!
eventbrite.ca
TPFF Nakba Commemoration
When: May 15th, 12pm – May 16th, 9pmJoin us in commemorating the 73rd year of Al Nakba with a special film screening and artist discussion. The film will run May 15-16, 2021.
MAY 15: Artist talk and studio visit with the renowned Palestinian artist Samia Halaby. The talk will be live streamed our our Facebook and YouTube at 5pm EST.
MAY 15-16: Worldwide screening of the critically-acclaimed film, You Come From Far Away by Amal Ramsis. The film will be available on-demand, from May15th at 12pm EST until May 16th, 9pm EST.
Facebook event | YouTube
Organize Amazon!
When: May 15th, 1pmThe realities are stark: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos added almost $100 billion to his net worth during the pandemic, while nearly 20,000 employees tested positive for Covid-19.
Amazon’s profits are made possible by the labour of poor and racialized warehouse workers, but also by the company’s lucrative technology contracts with police and border agencies. How can we intervene? This conversation brings advocates for Amazon employees into conversation with cultural workers to discuss organising strategies.
Panelists:
– Hiba Ali, digital artist and scholar
– Michael DeForge, comics artist and illustrator, Cartoonists Against Amazon
– Arash K., former Amazon delivery worker, UFCW
– Gagandeep Kaur, Organizer, Warehouse Workers Centre
zoom.us | Facebook event
Ongoing Nakba, Ongoing Resistance
When: Saturday May 15th, 7pmWhere: Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen St W.
As we approach the anniversary of the Nakba, the colonization of Palestine and the forced expulsion of Palestinians continues. The threat of Zionist expulsion is a reality for Palestinians everywhere in the occupied territories, but nowhere is it more evident today than in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. There, at the heart of Palestine’s capital, Palestinian families are confronting the threat of imminent expulsion from their homes as the Israeli regime attempts to move Zionist settlers into the area.
NOTE: There will be sanitizers and face masks available at the event, and we will be abiding by COVID-19 guidelines, including social distancing measures. We look forward to seeing you there!
Facebook event
Class Struggle and Union Organizing at Amazon
When: Sunday May 16th, 2pmJoin us for a presentation and roundtable discussion on class struggle and union organizing at Amazon warehouses with Alessandro Delfanti and Amazon workers and organizers Ira and Fathia.
A central political challenge for the Left today is to organize gig workers across the sectors of digital capitalism into unions. High-tech corporations such as Amazon, Google, Apple, and Facebook have quickly become one of – if not the – most powerful sectors of contemporary capitalism, and these and other companies have been equally creative and vicious in keeping their operations all but free of unions. The struggle to organize and unionize workers in “Big Tech” has recently become concentrated on Amazon, the pivotal company in the new logistics of distribution and retail, and now, one of the largest employers on the planet, next to Wal-Mart and US Department of Defense.
Organized by Socialist Project and Centre for Social Justice | eventbrite.ca
Pack the Public Galleries of the Ontario Legislature #FordFailedSeniors
When: Tuesday May 18th, 10:30amWe can’t fill the Legislature physically during the shutdown but we can organize thousands of Ontarians to pack the Public Galleries virtually for Question Period.
Pour on the pressure. Make the Ford government take responsibility and commit to finally fix LTC.
Register to be there and hold Ford accountable. Email ohc@sympatico.ca with your name and town so we can tell the opposition parties you are there. Use the subject line FordFailedSeniors so we can easily spot your email. Include a sentence or two if you have a personal experience with long-term care for the opposition parties to raise if they can, pushing for key changes.
ontariohealthcoalition.ca
A Song for Milagro
When: May 18th, 8pmThe International Network for the Freedom of Milagro Sala invites you to participate in the International Virtual Festival for the freedom of Milagro on May 18th, the 240th anniversary of the execution of Tupac Amaru. Artists from different countries will sing to Milagro.
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Sisters of the Roundtable: Self-Care Social
When: May 20th, 7pmJoin us for an evening of meditation, labour bingo, and prizes! Brought to you by the Women’s Committee, Toronto and York Region Labour Council.
All women and non-binary folks are welcome!
labourcouncil.ca
ARTICLES
TRIPS Waiver and Libertarian Brain Rot
In this episode we dig through a libertarian Financial Post article opposing a TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver for COVID vaccines, discuss the public research origin of COVID vaccines, and dissect Biden’s puzzling tentative support for a patent waiver.Source: The Scarlet Standard Episode No. 15
Subjects of the New Corporate University
By Reuben RothAt about 10:28 p.m. on Sunday May 3rd, the other shoe dropped. Insolvency Court Justice Geoffrey B. Morawetz gave Laurentian University’s president what he had wished for: a ruling in his favour and the signal that heralded the conclusion of phase one of the restructuring and transformation of Laurentian University. Even though postsecondary education is a provincial jurisdiction, the legislation used to carry out this weaponized ‘restructuring’ is a federal law: the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). This “insolvency law” is being applied to a publicly-funded university, in the city of Sudbury, a four-hour drive north of Toronto.
Source: The Bullet No. 2367
Restore Democracy in Myanmar
The Asia Europe People’s Forum (AEPF) expresses solidarity with the people of Myanmar who are bravely resisting the military coup that reversed the fragile democratic process that was unfolding in Myanmar. The world is witnessing a brutal crackdown where all kinds of force and intimidation are being used on the nonviolent, civil mass resistance that seeks to restore democratic forces, release from incarceration elected representatives and civil society leaders, and restore civilian rule and processes. The people of Myanmar want an end to the emergency and return to an atmosphere of freedom, peace and genuine stability.Source: The Bullet No. 2368
Amazon’s Patents Signal the Future It Hopes to Achieve
By Alessandro DelfantiIn anticipation of increasing robotization, two poles tend to emerge within discussions about the future of work: at one end, a post-work utopia of fully automated abundance; at the other, a dystopia of unemployment and immiseration. Necessarily, both projections are speculative. Seeing as we cannot know the future, predictions about technology and work are developed by considering existing tendencies in tandem with our own ideological interpretations. There are very good political reasons for such speculations: we use them to imagine a better future and to try to attain it.
Source: The Bullet No. 2369
Ending the Afghanistan War? Almost Everything Biden Said Was a Lie
By Sonali KolhatkarPresident Joe Biden, in announcing an ostensible end to the US war in Afghanistan, is continuing his streak of paying eloquent lip service to progressive causes while maintaining the implied status quo. In a televised address from the White House on April 14, Biden said, “it’s time to end America’s longest war. It’s time for American troops to come home.” But just a day later, the New York Times reported without a hint of irony that “the Pentagon, American spy agencies and Western allies are refining plans to deploy a less visible but still potent force in the region.” This means we are ending the war, but not really.
Source: The Bullet No. 2370