Immigrant Workers in Montreal: Precarity and Struggle?
Presented in English and French
Room #119
Based on the experiences of Dignidad Migrante, Pinay and the Immigrant
Workers Centre, as well as our own experiences, we will discuss the
nuances between precarious labour of immigrants and the international
division of labour. For example, under the table migrant work in Canada
generates huge profits for Canadian businesses while the state ignores
it to profit the bosses. At the same time, the social benefits of
Canadian workers are based on the super-exploitation of immigrants and
poor countries like Mexico. One of the effects of this economic dynamic
is that our countries of origin are among the greatest immigrant
producing countries in the world.
Presented by: Viviana Medina and Erik Argüello (Dignidad Migrante
and Mexicains united for Regularization); Aadi Ndir (Immigrant Workers
Centre); Evelyn Calugay (Pinay). Viviana Medina and Erik Argüello are
activists and founding members of the Dignidad Migrante collective and
the Mexicans United for Regularization. Aadi Ndir lived without papers
for six years in Montreal and is well-acquainted with systems of
exploitation; today he works as a community organizer at the Immigrant
Workers Centre. Evelyn Calugay is a member of Pinay Québec, an
organization of Filipino women in Quebec which has fought for the rights
of domestic workers since 1991. Dignidad Migrante, MUR and CTI are part
of the Status for All! network.
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Workplace Popular Assemblies: Possibilities for reclaiming grassroots power
Presented in English
Room #123The
present order is unsustainable socially, economically and ecologically.
The constant growth model is not only bankrupt but based on a
disempowering form of commodification. Workers are in a race to the
bottom in an unsustainable order. There is a fundamental conflict
between those who labour and produce things and those who profit from
that labour. Popular educator Paulo Friere said “dig where you stand”.
Unions and any group of workers can make their presence felt in the
places they work by using grassroots assemblies. This workshop will
discuss how can these assemblies be created and what possibilities exist
for them to challenge the destructive dynamics of capitalism.
Presented by: Dave Bleakney, a postal worker and an
anti-capitalist trade unionist who, for the past 16 years, has been the
national education representative (anglophone) for the Canadian Union of
Postal Workers.
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Art & Politics: Creative work as a tool for political emancipation - critique of activist productivism
Presented in French
Room #125This
workshop aims to create a space to reflect on the place of artistic
creation in anti-authoritarian activist spaces. Why do we conceive of
artistic creation as an individualist practice? How can we leave behind
the art of amusement and move into an artistic political practice? How
can we escape a productivist logic imitating capitalism and conceive an
artistic emancipatory logic? How, through art, can we regain contact
with our bodies? These are some of the questions which will be raised.
You are welcome to come and share your experiences and reflections.
Presented by: Marhi Aive, a Literary Studies student. For some
time, she has thought about literature and the language of bodies as
tools of political emancipation, from a feminist perspective. She is
part of the Anarchist Writers Bloc and works on the creative feminist
zine SpeCULum.
-- 3pm to 5pm: Simultaneous Workshops (3) --
The Authoritarian Division of Labour
Presented in English
Room #123
From
a lifetime of toiling in the fields of the first empires to a lifetime
of precarity in the flexible labour market, the division of labour has
been a central method of organizing power and privilege in patriarchal
class societies. Using anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian and feminist
analyses, we will examine how the contemporary work regime perpetuates a
long legacy of violent division along the lines of gender, class, race,
region, legality and more. The goal is to generate a lively discussion
of how movements of contestation and alternative projects for organizing
(non-)production can overcome and/or reproduce these problematic
divisions.
Presented by: Kevin Sutton, a precarious educator who makes a
living helping economics students pass their exams and makes life
liveable by undermining their beliefs in the process. Kevin seeks
complicity with all who would challenge the economist's regime of
boredom.
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Survival and Resistance: An Immigrant History of May Day
Presented in English and French
Room #119
This
presentation and discussion will look at May Day from the perspective
of migrant worker and anti-racist struggles. From its origins, May Day
has been linked to the campaigns of immigrant workers, not just for
better working conditions, but against systemic racism. From Jewish and
Eastern European laborers in the 1800s, to Chinese migrants who built
railways, to today's Latin American migrants in the US who "reclaimed"
May Day in 2005-06, the experiences of immigrants (with or without
papers) is crucial to understanding the radical underpinnings of May Day
and its meaning for us today. Aside from providing a historical
perspective on the roots of May Day, this workshop will also explore
some local examples of migrant justice struggles linked to popular,
working class, anti-racist campaigns.
Presented by: Mostafa Henaway & Jaggi Singh. Mostafa Henaway
is a community organizer active with the Immigrant Workers Center. Jaggi
is a community organizer, active with Solidarity Across Borders and No
One Is Illegal. Both Mostafa and Jaggi, who were born and raised in
Toronto, are involved with the Status For All Coalition and the
Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) in Montreal.
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Educational Institutions: Squeezing maximum productivity from students
Presented in French
Room #125This
panel discussion by students involved in diverse aspects of the student
movement will explore different elements of labour and exploitation in
our education systems. Panelists will discuss the following questions:
student labour organizing in universities that try to use them as
discount workers; gendered divisions of labour during the 2012 student
strike and in the student movement more generally; and schools as
factories producing 'good workers' for the capitalist system.
Présentée par : Jeanne Bilodeau, étudiante en enseignement au
secondaire qui milite au sein du Grévisse, un groupe autonome dans le
département d'éducation, à l'UQAM; Amber Gross- étudiante militante et
membre d’AMUSE/SEOUM, le Syndicat des employé(e)s occassionels de
l’Université McGill; Camille Robert, étudiante en histoire à l'UQAM et
impliquée dans le mouvement étudiant depuis quelques années; et Camille
Tremblay-Fournier, étudiante en sociologie et études féministe;
militante étudiante et ancienne membre du comité femmes de l'ASSÉ.
-- 5pm to 6pm: Plenary with snacks! --Join us at
the end of the teach-in for a short plenary bringing together the themes
of the Teach-In and looking ahead towards upcoming mobilizations and
actions. There will be drinks and snacks, as well as presentations about
the day's workshops. We'll also hear from members of the
Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) of Montreal about the upcoming May
1st demonstration, as well as from the Status For All Coalition about
the May 18th city-wide demonstration for immigrant rights.