Occupy Talks: What Gravy Train?

Austerity, Finance, and the Polarization of Wealth

Toronto — 18 January 2012.

Over the last several decades, inequality has been steadily increasing, with the 1% enjoying ever higher concentrations of wealth, while members of the 99% experience greater poverty. What are the underlying factors that lead to this polarization of wealth? How do our economic and financial policies favour capital over ordinary people? How has the situation worsened since the financial meltdown? Who is paying the price and why?

As Millionaire Mayor Ford and Toronto City Council meet to discuss and vote on massive budget cuts, we explore the underlying structures that lead to such backward decisions with renowned speakers:

Jim Stanford is one of Canada's best-known economists. He is the founder of the Progressive Economics Forum and writes a regular column for the Globe and Mail. He has written seven books, including his latest, Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism.
Nathan Okonta is a community activist and researcher, studying the links between schools and prisons. He is a former member of the Metro Network for Social Justice and is currently a member of the Network for Pan-African Solidarity Toronto, and the Tabono Institute.
Linda McQuaig is an acclaimed Canadian journalist and best-selling author. She currently writes an op-ed column for the Toronto Star and has written eight books on politics and economics, including It's the Crude, Dude, and most recently, The Trouble With Billionaires.
Sam Gindin is a respected academic and intellectual. Until recently he was a professor of political economy at York University. He regularly publishes in academic journals and has written numerous books. His latest is In and Out of Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives.

Strategizing the Resistance:
A Conversation with Manny Ness

Toronto — 13 January 2012.

View on YouTube website

In 2012 workers in Toronto face a large coordinated attack on jobs and services. We must resist, again, as workers have resisted throughout history. In order to develop creative, innovative resistant strategies as we fight to win, we can look to our own history - and present - of class struggle to see what others have done and how we can learn from them.

Ness has done extensive research on social and revolutionary movements, labor militancy and migrant worker resistance, and class struggles. And has published recent books on new worker organizations. He recently co-edited a collection called Ours to Master and to Own which details 22 cases of workers' councils, assemblies and occupations from the Paris Commune to the present.

Part of the Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly (GTWA) winter 2012 Assembly.

Contracorriente:
Discussion with Michael Lebowitz

Cuba — February 2010.

View on YouTube website

Interview by Aurelio Alonso.

Michael Lebowitz is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. Some of his recent books include Beyond Capital: Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class, Palgrave Macmillan (2003), Build it Now: Socialism for the 21st Century, Monthly Review Press (2006) and Socialist Alternative: Real Human Development, Monthly Review Press (2010).

LS #	Date	Title
128.	January 29, 2012	Occupy Talks: What Gravy Train?
Austerity, Finance, and the Polarization of Wealth. Over the last several decades, inequality has been steadily increasing, with the 1% enjoying ever higher concentrations of wealth, while members of the 99% experience greater poverty. Presentations by: Jim Stanford, Nathan Okonta, Linda McQuaig and Sam Gindin.
127.	January 22, 2012	Strategizing the Resistance: A Conversation with Manny Ness
Immanuel Ness is the author of several books on workers' organizing and resistance. He is a trade union organizer and labour activist and co-founded with Keith Brooks of the New York Unemployed Committee (1990-1993), which successfully organized jobless workers at New York State unemployment centers. He recently co-edited a collection called Ours to Master and to Own which details 22 cases of workers' councils, assemblies and occupations from the Paris Commune to the present.
126.	January 1, 2012	Contracorriente - discussion with Michael Lebowitz
Michael Lebowitz is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. Some of his recent books include Beyond Capital, Build it Now and Socialist Alternative.
125.	December 25, 2011	Deutscher Prize Lecture 2011
The 2010 Deutscher Memorial Prize was awarded to David Harvey for his book The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism. The lecture is entitled: "History versus Theory: a Commentary on Marx's Method of Capital."
124.	December 18, 2011	Uniting Struggles: Critical Social Research In Critical Times
The thirty-fifth anniversary edition of Alternate Routes. Presentations by Randall Germain, Priscillia Lefebvre and Richard Fidler. Recorded in Ottawa, 2 December 2011.
123.	December 16, 2011	Novotel Mic Check
Supporters of the Novotel Ottawa workers OCCUPIED the main restaurant and management had no choice but to shut down the restaurant and give the coffee for free. Supporters then gathered in the front of the hotel and marched and chanted "Solidarity Forever."
122.	December 11, 2011	CUPE National: Move Your War Room To Toronto Now
In 1981, Ronald Reagan took on and smashed PATCO, the Air Traffic Controllers. The American labour movement expressed outrage but did nothing. This sealed the fate of American workers for over three decades. Toronto's mayor, Rob Ford, has declared war on city-workers. He intends to smash unions. This is our PATCO moment.
121.	December 8, 2011	Toronto Emergency Public Warning
This is a message from the Emergency Public Warning System. This is not a test. Open class war will break out in Toronto in early 2012. Produced by Sindicalista TV for rabbletv.
120.	December 7, 2011	#OccupyTTC
A group of people from OccupyToronto paid their fare and rode the subway cars of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). They engaged with riders using the people's mic - about the state of the TTC and the city's budgetary cutbacks.
119.	December 4, 2011	The Left's Responses to the Crisis in Europe and North America
Leo Panitch, Stephanie Ross, Albert Scharenberg, Bill Fletcher
118.	November 20, 2011	Understanding and Fighting Austerity	Gindin, Sam; Stefan Kipfer
What are some of the forces that are driving the current crisis? How is it pushing forward the agenda of business and governments to get working people and our organizations to tighten our belts and accept their calls for austerity? What forms is resistance taking around the world - what are the strengths and limitations of that resistance and what can we learn from it?
117.	October 30, 2011	Afghanistan: Ten Years of War and Resistance
Opening meeting of the Canadian Peace Alliance convention. Featuring: Judith Leblanc, Suraia Sahar and Derrick O'Keefe. Recorded in Toronto, 14 October 2011.
116.	October 16, 2011	OccupyTO - day 1
OccupyTO is a movement that will start on October 15th, 2011 that intends to show our solidarity with the Occupy Wall St. movement and stand in unity with the rest of the world to seek and work towards drastic changes to economic systems that are destroying our economy, social fiber, and environment.
115.	October 10, 2011	The Failure of Liberal Democracy
Gaspar Miklos Tamas is one of Hungary's pre-eminent public intellectuals and social critics. Following a lecture (in Montreal) about the failures of liberal democracy as part of his North American speaking tour, he was interviewed by Matthew Brett.
114.	October 2, 2011	Public Services, Good Jobs and the Ontario Election
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and Prime Minister Stephen Harper are cutting, privatizing and contracting out vital public services. The McGuinty Liberals are giving corporations a $2.4-billion annual tax break while cutting jobs and services. And Tim Hudak's Tories plan to start cutting where Mike Harris left off. Labour and community activists discuss the Ontario provincial election, what our communities have at stake, and how we can make a difference.
113.	September 16, 2011	Stop Ford's Cuts
The idea is simple: Torontonians meet in the park and lay out a People's Declaration - a clear set of demands to deliver to City Hall. Then we all show up at City Hall on September 26 and 27 to make sure that are these demands are met when council votes on the future of our city.
112.	July 31, 2011	One World, One Revolution
New video on Greece and the European Union financial crisis, produced by RealDemocracy.gr. "Welcome to the civilization of fear. Where words have no meaning. It is us or them..." Recorded in Athens, Greece on 28 and 29 June 2011.
111.	July 10, 2011	The Madison Moment: North American Public Sector Collective Bargaining
Over the last year or so there have been over 700 attacks in the United States upon public sector collective bargaining. This alarming trend is also finding root in Canada with the elimination of collective bargaining rights. Recorded in Toronto, 23 June 2011.
110.	July 9, 2011	No TTC Fares on Smog and Heat Alert Days!
Activists demand action on 'No TTC Fares on Smog and Heat Alert Days'. Recorded in Toronto, 6 July 2011.
109.	July 3, 2011	Meaning of Maghreb?
Participants: Slavoj Zizek, Mamdouh Habashi, Samir Amin, David Harvey, Zygmunt Bauman. Moderator: Srecko Horvat. Recorded in Zagreb, Croatia on 18 May 2011.
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