CONTENTS
CALLS TO ACTION
Hands Off the Greenbelt
Ontarians are rallying to say #HandsOffTheGreenbelt and fight the provincial government’s other attacks on the environment!Over the past year there have been more than 135 rallies and events all across the province! Hundreds of thousands of people have called or written to their MPP. Together, we convinced the provincial government to change course on their attack on the Greenbelt.
environmentaldefence.ca
Training: Building Tenant Power
Are you a tenant who’s fed up with ever rising rent? Are you inspired by the rent strike happening in York South-Weston? Do you want to be an community organizer? Join our movement and be a part of YSW Tenant Union! Register for our “Building Tenant Power” series of trainings starting this October. You will learn how to build tenant power in your building and neighbourhood step by step.tenantunion.ca
Phone Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
When: October 17thPlease phone PM Trudeau to urge him to protect Dr. Hassan Diab and refuse any request from France for Hassan’s extradition!
Key messages for Prime Minister Trudeau:
– Protect Hassan Diab from further injustice. Say NO to any request for Hassan’s extradition.
– I am very concerned that France is scapegoating Hassan Diab for a crime he did not commit.
– France has convicted the wrong person—and they know it…
justiceforhassandiab.org
EVENTS
Critical Conversations in Work and Labour
When: October 12-13The Global Labour Research Centre (GLRC) at York University is pleased to welcome you to the 8th annual Graduate Student Symposium: Critical Conversations in Work and Labour. This virtual conference is designed to showcase the scholarship of new voices in labour studies across a diverse range of disciplines. It is our hope that the workshop will provide an interdisciplinary venue for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to share their research in a collaborative and supportive environment.
yorku.ca
Global Fight for a Just EV Transition
When: October 12th, 12noonIt’s not radical. French and German Stellantis plants operate on a 35-hour work week. If electric vehicles take less time to make, we should fight for a shorter week Come hear workers from three unions discuss our fight for a worker-led EV transition.
uawd.org
Black and Caribbean Book Affair!
When: October 12 – 14Where: Blackhurst Cultural Centre, 777 Bathurst St
From October 12th to 14th, immerse yourself in the world of literature as we showcase the works of talented authors.
Our theme, “Books Open Our Worldview, Bans Limit It,” resonates with the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024) and affirms the African presence and history in Canada.
adifferentbooklist.com
Art Exhibit: Rocky Dobey
When: October 13 to November 5th, 6-9pmWhere: Gagné Contemporary, 136 Brooklyn Ave
For over 40 years, outsider artist Rocky Dobey has been producing intaglio prints, etched metal plaques, engraved copper sheets and site-specific public sculptures. Working anonymously for the first two decades, his work has drawn attention to social and political issues like prison and justice reform, neighborhood gentrification, globalization, indigenous sovereignty, drug rehabilitation and homelessness.
Facebook poster
Instruments of Capitalism
When: October 13th, 6pmJoin us for a book talk with scholars Clara E. Mattei (The Capital Order) and Quinn Slobodian (Crack-Up Capitalism) as they discuss and connect the themes from their newest books. Joined by historian Adam Tooze (Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy), their discussion will illuminate the economic systems and strategies — from austerity, to tax havens, and beyond—that serve as the instruments that uphold and protect the capitalist system.
peoplesforum.org | Livestream on YouTube
Film screening: United Against TC Energy
When: Friday October 13th, 6:30pmWhere: Native Canadian Centre (across from Spadina Station), 16 Spadina Rd
For the first time, Wet’suwet’en leaders and Mixtec, Otomi & Nahua land defenders are coming together to resist TC Energy’s pipelines on their territories.
Traveling 4000 kilometers east from Wet’suwet’en territory and north from Puebla and Hidalgo, Mexico, these land defenders will converge in Toronto to build their shared resistance to Canadian company TC Energy’s colonial pipeline projects!
Show up in solidarity to hear directly from these land defenders at a panel and film screening.
mininginjustice.org | Facebook event
IWOC 2023
When: October 14th, 8:30amWhere: SMWIA Local 30, 190 Milner Ave, Scarborough
Registration: $85
This year’s Indigenous and Workers of Colour Conference (IWOC) is back this Fall with an amazing lineup of speakers and workshops, connecting our movements in decolonial solidarity within the Labour Movement and beyond! The Equity Committee of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council is proud to present this year’s conference centred on the empowering theme of “Power Beyond the Checkbox: Taking Action as BIWOC.” Centering the voices and experiences of Indigenous and racialized workers across the City, this year’s IWOC promises to be the most exciting and empowering yet!
labourcouncil.ca
The Far Right, Capitalism, and Class
When: October 14-15, 2023Where: Ontario Tech University, Oshawa
“The Far Right, Capitalism, and Class: Toward a Political Economy” symposium comes at a critical moment when an ascendent hard right has seized–or is seriously contesting for–power around the world. The rise of this new far right must be understood as an outcome of the crises of legitimacy that have manifested across the advanced capitalist countries.
socialscienceandhumanities.ontariotechu.ca
Keep Transit Public!
When: October 14th, at 12pmWhere: Hamilton City Hall
The City of Hamilton and Metrolinx are determining who will operate and maintain the Hamilton Light Rail Transit. We are fighting for the LRT to be both operated and maintained PUBLICLY by the Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) and the Almagamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 107. Come out and help us put pressure on City Council to act as a change council that SUPPORTS Hamilton’s working class, true public transit, and people over profit. We do not want a private third party to contract and sub-contract out work that belongs in the public domain.
Show up out front of Hamilton City Hall for food, refreshments, speakers and kids activities.
Facebook event
Rally: United Against TC Energy
When: Saturday October 14th, 1pmWhere: Nathan Philips Square
Indigenous land defenders from Wet’suwet’en territory and Puebla/Hidalgo Mexico are coming to Toronto to resist TC Energy’s pipelines on their territories. Show up in solidarity with them to join their rallying call: NO to pipelines, colonization, policing, and corporate greed stealing their land and burning the planet!
Meet in Nathan Phillips Square at 1pm for speeches and a march through the heart of downtown Toronto, where we will make some noise outside of major landmarks of the colonial-capitalist extractive industry!
mininginjustice.org | Facebook event
Labour Unions in Solidarity with Anti-Fascism
When: October 15th, 2:30pmOver the course of the last year, we have witnessed an alarming rise in transphobic hate led by the network of far-right extremists that organized Yellow Vest Canada, the Freedom Convoy, and other reactionary and violent movements. Organized labour’s history of engagement in social justice issues is complicated but is one that must be intentionally revived for this critical moment. As the tide of nascent fascism rises in Canadian society, community anti-fascist and social justice organizations are struggling to out-organize the far-right.
Featuring:
– Rob Halpin, Executive Director, Ontario Federation of Labour
– Emily Quaile, Steering Committee member, Community Solidarity Ottawa, Graduate Student and Research Assistant, Institute of Political Economy, Carleton University
Organized by Centre on Hate, Bias, and Extremism, and sponsored by the Ontario Federation of Labour, the Centre for Social Justice, and the Canadian Association of Work and Labour Studies. eventbrite.ca
Canadian Foreign Policy Hour with Yves Engler
When: Mondays at 6pmJoin author Yves Engler on Mondays for a weekly news roundup and interactive discussion about Canada’s role abroad. This weekly session will delve into the latest developments on subjects ranging from military affairs and Canada’s role in Ukraine to its contribution to Palestinian dispossession, and the exploitation of African resources. Join Yves for a critical take on Canada’s foreign policy. Questions, comments, and criticisms are all welcome.
zoom.us
Indigenous History Walk
When: October 18th, 3pmJoin the Indigenous History Walk at Keele Campus led by guides from First Story Toronto. All are welcome, including faculty and graduate students from across the university.
docs.google
JFAAP’s 15th Anniversary!
When: October 18th, 6:30pmWhere: Jane Finch Mall, 1911 Finch Avenue W (near McDonalds)
Jane Finch Action Against Poverty (JFAAP) is the longest standing resident-led grassroots group in the Jane Finch community.
On October 17th, 2008, a rally commemorating the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty took place at the intersection of Jane and Finch. Jane Finch Action Against Poverty was formally launched at this rally, and this year will mark our 15th anniversary!
docs.google | Twitter poster
How to fix the housing crisis?
When: October 18th, 6:30pmRent prices are up almost 10% across the country, and many of us are struggling in the housing and affordability crisis. But who is to blame? And how do we fix it? And what do you say when so many people – including progressives – are blaming it on im/migrants?
Join experts and organizers from across the country to get answers to your questions and to be part of a collective movement for change.
migrantrights.ca
Is New Nuclear a Good Investment for Ontario?
When: Wednesday, October 18th, 7pmThe Ontario Government is on a nuclear speaking spree, extending and rebuilding old reactors and planning to build up to 8 new nuclear reactors (at Bruce and Darlington).
Is nuclear power compatible with a long-term sustainable energy future for Ontario? Is there a role for new nuclear plants in reducing Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions in the next critical decade?
eventbrite.ca
The 1970s and Us
When; October 19th, 5pmWhere: UofT, Victoria College Chapel, 91 Charles St W
Michael Hardt, author of The Subversive Seventies.
eventbrite.ca | Facebook poster
ARTICLES
Brief Animated History of the Question of Palestine
1917 – 1947: British mandate; 1947 – 1977: Partition plan, 1948, 1967, 1973 wars, inalienable rights; 1977 – 1990: Lebanon, ICQP, Intifada; The Peace Process of the 1990s; 2000-present: Second intifada, separation wall, Road Map, etc.Source: LeftStreamed
Good for the Planet? Public Lands, Cattle Ranching and Wildlife
By Erika SchelbyWhen conservationist Aldo Leopold persuaded the US Forest Service in 1924 to establish the nation’s first federally approved wilderness of more than 500,000 acres around the headwaters of the Gila River in southwestern New Mexico, he did not anticipate that this priceless pristine land would be invaded by cattle. This problem would take root around the mid-1970s after a bankrupt rancher “abandoned his cattle in the wilderness.”
Source: The Bullet No. 2883
Why Don’t Capitalists Want to ‘Go Green’ Anymore?
By Emiliano BrancaccioIt seems that among the highest circles of capitalist finance, the ecological transition no longer garners the same level of support it once did. A growing faction among wealthy capitalists is challenging what they call the excessive rigidity of the measures needed to reduce polluting emissions. The idea now in vogue is that the green transition is taking place too fast, creating a risk that rising production costs will become unsustainable.
Source: The Bullet No. 2884
Palestinian Resistance: Israeli Occupation and Siege of Gaza
By Socialist ProjectThe cross-border attack by Hamas militants in Gaza on Israel was a surprise to the world. Yet contrary to the way the attack has been covered in the international press, and responded to by world leaders, far more important than the details of how this attack was carried out is the deeper reality that it communicates: there is no path forward for the decades-long illegal occupation of Palestinian land by Israel. If the reality of the brutal strangulation of Gaza has long since made clear to anyone paying attention that any notions of the Israeli occupation of the coastal strip having ended in 2005 with the withdrawal of military personnel and settlements was a farce, the current attack has pointed up the delusion that this ongoing mass imprisonment of innocent human beings is somehow sustainable given Israel’s technological superiority – with the “Iron Dome” missile defense system and high-tech surveillance capable of neutralizing even the relatively minimal threat Gazans posed to Israeli lives and property.
Source: The Bullet No. 2885
EMPLOYMENT
Event Coordinator
Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) is seeking an Event Coordinator to lead the coordination of our annual year-end event, the Greener City Celebration (GCC).The GCC brings together our community of supporters and collaborators for an evening of good fun, conversation and entertainment. We are pleased to be holding an in-person celebration once again at Lula Lounge on December 5th!
Independent contractor compensated at $24/hr; invoice biweekly.
Please submit a resume with a 1-page cover letter describing your relevant skills and experience by Monday, October 16th.
torontoenvironment.org