How Labour is (Part of) the Problem in Building the Left

Toronto, October 15, 2010.

Lecture by: Professor Frances Fox Piven, CUNY Graduate Center.

A leading scholar and political activist, Frances Fox Piven was recently president of the American Sociological Association and is former Vice-President of the American Political Science Association. Her most recent book is Keeping Down the Black Vote (2009).

Other books include:

• Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America (2006),
• The War at Home: The Domestic Causes and Consequences of Bush's Militarism (2004),
• Why Americans Still Don't Vote (2000), (Google preview)
• Breaking of the American Social Compact (1997) and
• Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare (updated edition, 1993).

Moderated by John Myles, Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto.

Economic Crisis? Who Pays?

Toronto, August 24, 2010.

Forum and organizing meeting on the government's proposed public sector wage freeze.

At risk is free collective bargaining, workers rights, public services and our communities, so join members of the Toronto Workers' Assembly for a discussion on what's happening and how we can and should respond.

Organized by the Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly.

Bargaining in an Era of Wage Restraint

Re-thinking Strategies for the Public Sector

Toronto, June 19, 2010.

With:

• Sam Gindin is the Visiting Packer Chair in Social Justice at York University, Toronto and active with the Toronto Workers' Assembly.
• Michael Hurley is President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions and Vice-President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Ontario.

Resources:

• Bullet No. 354: The Public Sector: Searching for a Focus

Working Class Fightback: Lessons of the Last Great Depression

Toronto, January 25, 2009 – A 10 Minute Production

The financial crisis has certainly brought on a deepening worldwide slump, with growing mass unemployment and impoverishment. There is also a crisis of working class institutions, in particular the union movement. How can the working class build unity within its ranks and rebuild our capacity to fight back? One thing we can do, is to learn from the experiences of working people during the 1930s, who organized a series of mass fightbacks and built new institutions, such as industrial unions.

Challenges Facing the Labour Movement Today:

Vancouver, June 4, 2008.

Greg Albo: teaches political economy at York University in Toronto. He is also on the editorial boards of Canadian Dimension, Relay and Socialist Register. He writes on contemporary capitalism and the political economy of North America.

Sam Gindin: is a former Assistant to the President of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), and is now the Packer Chair in Social Justice at York University in Toronto. He writes widely on the labour movement (notably on developments in the auto sector), and on the US empire.

Putting the Movement Back in Labour:

Toronto, May 27, 2008.

A discussion of the current crises we face in the labour movement and how we might organize differently to build the kind of movement we need. LeftForum page...

Defending The Right To Strike:

Toronto, Nov 26, 2007.

In October, the CAW announced its “Framework of Fairness Agreement” (FFA) with Magna International. This deal could signify an historic turning point in the union. In addition to ushering in an undemocratic workplace representation structure and enshrining a new kind of “non-adversarial” labour relations, the CAW has given up the right to strike at the Magna plants organized under the FFA. Meanwhile, that same week, CUPE's national convention witnessed a walkout by almost 1,000 Ontario delegates when a resolution from Ontario's health care workers asking for access to the strike fund for political strikes was defeated. Strike page...