[IPSM] Fwd: URGENT MESSAGE to supporters of the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy

[Dru Oja Jay]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Centre 2110 <centre2110 at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 4:42 PM
Subject: [Centre2110] URGENT MESSAGE to supporters of the 2110 Centre for
Gender Advocacy
To: centre2110 at lists.mutualaid.org


To friends and members of the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy,

To friends and members of the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy, we need your
help to overcome an impasse in the political vision at the organization:

The 2110 has come a long way since the turnover of staff and board 18 months
ago. From a point of almost total stagnation, the Centre has emerged,
putting on or co-sponsoring at least 75 political events (film screenings,
workshops, panel discussions etc.) on many different issues (abortion
access, trans inclusion, Israeli apartheid week, gendered and racialized
violence etc.) In its biggest success on October 4th, the 2110 spearheaded a
250-person march down St. Catherine's to demand government action on the
epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women.

Despite these successes, the organization could and should do a lot more.
Unfortunately, there is still a culture that says it's okay for staff to
take a paycheck without fulfilling the basic requirements of their jobs
(employees start at $18 an hour and receive several thousand dollars in
benefits). The events mentioned above were largely organized without the
help of two permanent full time (32 hours a week) staff members. To put it
bluntly, there are some whose vision of the center is as a place for a few
to derive social and economic benefits.

The problem lies in the fact that the 2110 Centre (which has an annual
budget of nearly $250,000), could and should be doing much more. Since its
budget comes through a secure student fee levy, the organization has the
potential to do amazing and influential political work. It could and should
be at the forefront of a wide variety of campaigns on and off campus,
including: the struggle for abortion access, sexual assault awareness, trans
access to healthcare, attacks on sexist advertising and gender-focused
international solidarity work, to name a few. In short, the 2110 Center has
the potential to be a much more valuable resource for the Montréal and
Concordia activist communities.

Sadly, some staff have taken advantage of these resources, in what is
tantamount to theft of student and activist resources, a violation of the
2110's obligations to its membership, and an unjust compromise of its social
justice mandate.

We have tried, in recent weeks, to push the board to address many issues,
(including misappropriation of funds, bad labor practice, abuse of power
etc.) The board and some staff have responded by blocking and side-lining
our many attempts to do so. Members of the board have threatened our jobs in
response to our insistence that these issues be addressed.

We feel that we have no recourse to address our grievances internally, and
are turning to you, the membership, in order to establish a process that
will allow the Centre to address serious violations of the Centre's mandate
and operating principles that are recent and ongoing. In doing so, we aim to
address these issues in a transparent fashion, and to ensure the Centre's
future as a vibrant, public advocate on behalf of those who face
gender-based oppression.

We are working to hold a Special General Meeting (SGM) of the 2110 Centre at
the earliest possible date, in order to bring these issues before the
membership. The board blocked, and then delayed this process.

The only way to hold an SGM without consensus of the board is for 1000
members of the 2110 Centre to sign a petition demanding a meeting be called.
Upon receipt of 1000 signatures, a public meeting will be called and we
invite you to attend, discuss and vote on the issues at hand.

As Montrealers with a desire to build the social justice community, we
believe you have a stake in the organization’s future. We ask you to endorse
this statement and petition.
For information on how to do either, or for additional details on the
above-listed issues, please visit:

http://www.2110democracy.ca

In solidarity,

Bianca Mugyenyi (Full time Programming and Campaigns Coordinator)
Maya Rolbin-Ghanie (Interim Volunteer Coordinator)
Aly Stillman (Part time Promotions and Publicity coordinator)
Katie Earle (Orientation Coordinator)

Supporters:

Nick Barry Shaw, Haiti Action Montreal
Anna Luisa Daigneault, Université de Montréal, Missing Justice
Eliane Ellbogen, Eastern Bloc
Yves Engler, Author, Blackbook of Canadian Foreign Policy
Lex Gill, Head and Hands
Nadia Housefather, Graduate Student's Association
Dru Oja Jay, The Dominion
Courtney Kirkby, CKUT 90.3FM & Barriere Lake Solidarity Collective
Aimee Louw, Missing Justice
Martin Lukacs, independent journalist and activist
Amy Miller, Wide Open Exposure
Svea Vikander, Missing Justice
Lise Weil, Trivia: Voices of Feminism




--
2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy
2110 Mackay (metro Guy-Concordia)
tel: 514-848-2424 ext. 7431
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