[opirgyork] Strawberry Ceremony this Weekend & Rally for $14 Min. Wage!

[OPIRG York]

Hey Everyone!

Check out the upcoming events in this digest email! Hope you can make it
out to some!

If you're interested in volunteering, or have any questions, please get in
touch with Victoria, at victoria at opirgyork.ca.
We always are in need of volunteers! And stop by the OPIRG York office
anytime -- Room 449C Student Centre!

-- OPIRG York


 ****************
*TODAY'S DIGEST:*

 1. 9th Annual Strawberry Ceremony in Honour of Missing and Murdered
Indigenous Women
2. SEX WORKERS! Maggie's is coming to York!
3. Mad(ness) Pride Toronto 2014: Call for Submissions
4. Mi'kmaq Warriors Speaking Tour Comes to Toronto
5. Toronto Rally for a $14 Minimum Wage
6. Black Struggle and Socialist Revolution
7. How Is Your Mental Health? Voices Against Violence
8. Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis,
and Movement Building Strategy
9. Anti-Racist Organizing for Collective Liberation Workshop

****************

*1. **9th Annual Strawberry Ceremony in Honour of Missing and Murdered
Indigenous Women*

9th Annual Strawberry Ceremony to Honour missing and murdered Indigenous
women who have died violent deaths by Colonialism
Friday February 14th
Strawberry Ceremony with Wanda Whitebird begins at 12:30 PM
Police Headquarters 40 College Street (College and Bay)

Community Feast catered by NaMeRes at the 519 Church Street Community
Centre; 519 Church Street following the rally.

Please signs and banners in honour of women who have died only.
Tokens will be available at the rally.

Three Indigenous women have died violent deaths in Toronto since last
year's ceremony. This has led No More Silence to create a community owned
database to document and investigate such deaths in collaboration with
Families of Sisters in Spirit and the Native Youth Sexual Health Network

We continue to raise our voices in denouncing the racism and complicity of
state institutions and we support the demand for a national public inquiry
led by Indigenous grass roots women and supported by a United Nations
Investigation into Missing & Murdered Indigenous women in Canada

According to research conducted by the Native Women Association of Canada
(NWAC) under the Sisters In Spirit Program, over 600 Indigenous women have
been murdered or gone missing, most of them over the last 30 years.

Despite clear evidence that this is an ongoing issue, the federal
government decided in the fall of 2010 to end funding to Sisters in Spirit.
Instead monies in the amount of $10 million have been dedicated to a
central RCMP missing person centre. The same institution - who, along with
the Vancouver Police Department, failed to properly investigate Pickton in
1997 - was at the centre of a public inquiry in Vancouver. The sham inquiry
into the failed Pickton investigation has since been completed with no
consequences for any guilty parties and was boycotted by 20 of the 21
groups who were granted standing due to the denial of adequate funding for
legal defense.

Pickton, who was convicted for six murders, has admitted to killing 49
women. A total of 18 murders occurred after he was arrested and released
for the attempted murder of a sex worker in 1997. This is blood on police
hands, yet RCMP officers testifying at the sham inquiry state "there are
few things they would change about how they did their work."

It should come as no surprise that the Committee to End Discrimination
Against Women at the United Nations has visited the country to investigate
Canada's missing and murdered Indigenous women.

On February 14th we come together in solidarity with the women who started
this vigil over 20 years ago in Vancouver's DTES, and with the marches and
rallies that will be taking place across this land. We stand in defense of
our lives and to demonstrate against the complicity of the state in the
ongoing genocide of Indigenous women and the impunity of state institutions
and actors (police, RCMP, coroners' offices, the courts, and an indifferent
federal government) that prevents justice for all Indigenous peoples.

No More Silence began holding ceremony at police headquarters on February
14th 9 years ago. 2 years ago we formed the February 14th Organizing
Committee in an effort to broaden community participation in the planning
of the event - the committee is made up of  The Native Youth Sexual Health
Network Sistering and other feminist and Indigenous community organizations.

****************

*2. **SEX WORKERS! Maggie's is coming to York!*

You are invited to a bi-weekly group for current and former sex worker. Join
us for discussions, skill share and community building.

*When*: The first group will meet on Feb 19th @ 4pm
*Where*: We will be meeting at York, but the location is confidential. If
you wish to attend please email Lux @ outreach at maggiestoronto.ca

Snacks & TTC tokens will be provided

The group will build on and develop narrative and story
telling skills in order to create public education resources,
zines, and short stories as well, participants will have
opportunity to create film and other visual arts.

*Facebook Link:* https://www.facebook.com/events/530667483714083/

Maggie's:
Toronto Sex Workers
Action Project
298A Gerrard St E 2nd fl
www.maggiestoronto.ca
416-964-0150


****************

*3. **Mad(ness) Pride Toronto 2014: Call for Submissions*

Call for Submissions to Mad Pride Toronto 2014
Saturday, July 5 to Monday, July 14
www.madprideto.com

Mad Pride is an arts, culture, and heritage festival created by psychiatric
survivors, consumers, mad people, and folks the world has labelled
"mentally ill".

Mad Pride is about:
remembering and participating in mad history
challenging discrimination
advocating for rights
affirming mad identities
developing and empowering mad communities
having fun!
Our lives and contributions are valuable and need celebration!

Do you want to host or participate in a consumer/survivor-driven event,
performance (poetry, spoken word, theatre, dance, music, comedy, book
reading, other), film screening, talk, presentation, workshop, or panel
discussion at Mad Pride Toronto 2014? Do you know someone/groups we should
contact to support and encourage their involvement?
Emailoutreach at madprideto.com for a copy of our submission form or leave a
message at 647-931-7563 to set up a time to ask questions/discuss your
ideas or fill out the submission form over the phone. Please include your
name and a way to contact you or someone else on your behalf.

Do you want to submit to our third juried Art Exhibition? We invite two
dimensional, sculptural, or time-based art submissions from psychiatric
survivors, consumers, and mad people. Contact Martine at
martinematthews at soundtimes.com.

If you are a consumer/survivor and would like to display/sell your art,
crafts, buttons, t-shirts, knitting, zines, books, music, baked goods or
promote your blog, website, group, network, idea, consider requesting a
table at the Mad Market. Contact outreach at madprideto.com or leave a message
at647-931-7563.

Deadline: April 15, 2014

Please help circulate this Call for Submissions to your colleagues,
friends, and neighbours. Copies of our brochure and flyer are available for
download and distribution from our website. To request a Mad Pride Toronto
outreach presentation for your group/organization or for copies of our
promotional materials, contact outreach at madprideto.com or 647-931-7563.

Do you want to get involved in making Mad Pride Toronto 2014 happen? Check
out www.madprideto.com/contact.html for more information on joining the Mad
Pride Toronto 2014 Organizing Committee and/or to volunteer. Contact
outreach at madprideto.com or leave a message at 647-931-7563.

****************

*4. **Mi'kmaq Warriors Speaking Tour Comes to Toronto*

*Date*: Thursday, February 20th
*Time*: 6:30pm
*Location*: Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre, 439 Dundas Street
East, Toronto

Members of the Mi'kmaq Warriors Society who have been arrested and
incarcerated will be on a speaking tour in January and February to raise
awareness about their struggle against fracking, their ongoing assertion
and exercise of nationhood, and the repression they face from police and
courts.

"Our warriors are still being mistreated in the system, justice for our
political prisoners of war." Suzanne Patles, member of the Mi'kmaq Warrior
Society

*BACKGROUND*:

Suzanne Patles speaks from Elsipogtog Anti-Fracking Blockade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyewGdAlQNk

Elsipogtog: The Fire Over Water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0N-lDcq1PQ

Mi'kmaq Blockade
http://www.submedia.tv/stimulator/2013/10/16/mikmaq_blockade/

Warriors Defence Fund:
http://www.gofundme.com/4v80u4

Sacred Fire: The People United Against Fracking
http://sacredfirenb.com/welcome-to-the-sacred-fire-website/

Guardian: New Brunswick fracking protests are the frontline of a democratic
fight
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/21/new-brunswick-fracking-protests

****************

*5. **Toronto Rally for a $14 Minimum Wage*

*Date*: Saturday, February 15th
*Time*: 1pm
*Location*: Young and Dundas Square

This Family Day, Ontario families deserve a raise! Rally for a $14 minimum
wage to lift working families out of poverty.
1 pm at Yonge and Dundas Square.
Organized by the Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage, the Ontario Federation
of Labour and the Ontario Common Front.
Other events will be held cities and towns elsewhere in Ontario.
For more information, visit:
www.RaisetheMinimumWage.ca<http://www.raisetheminimumwage.ca/>

****************

*6. **Black Struggle and Socialist Revolution*

Date: Feb 13th, 2014
Time: 6-8pm
Location: Accolade West, York University
Room: #209

Over 40 years since the heroic civil rights and black power movements in
the USA, we are told that racism has become a thing of the past. We have
Black billionaires, Black presidents, Black police chiefs and prominent
Black entertainers. Has the promise of a post-racial society been
delivered?

>From the Jena Six, the killing of Trayvon Martin, the conditions facing the
black poor during Hurricane Katrina, the mass incarceration in prisons, the
ever-widening gap between the rich and the majority, to the mass
foreclosures since the 2008 crisis, the situation for the vast majority of
Black people in America continues to decline.

The Socialist Fightback is not hosting this discussion as your cliched
tribute to the past struggle against racism that we are used to during
Black History Month. For us Socialists, that struggle is not in the past.
Instead, we aim to inform the ongoing and unfinished struggle against
racism, economic inequality and for a genuine end to racism which is only
possible in a socialist society.

In this regard we have to study the great political traditions and leaders
of the past, looking at their strengths and weaknesses, instead of
sanitizing them as the mainstream press and academy does. This includes the
ideas of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X to the growing radicalization of
that movement in the late 1960s expressed through the Black Panther Party
and its leaders such Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and Fred Hampton, as well as
prominent revolutionaries such as Angela Davis.

Join us for an open discussion. Feel free to bring any questions.

Details
Date: Feb 13th, 2014
Time: 6-8pm
Location: Accolade West, York University
Room: #209

Organized by:
Socialist Fightback Club at York University

Contact:
socialistfightbackclub at gmail.com
647-448-0980

****************

*7. How Is Your Mental Health? Voices Against Violence*

Are you interested in exploring the systemic inequities that impact young
people's lives  and mental well-being?
Do you want to create change in your community?

Become a youth-researcher and join us as we use art and photography to
answer these and many more questions.
For more information call 416-736-2100 ext 40873 or email
voicesagainstviolencemh at gmail.com

****************

* 8. **Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist
Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy*

*Date*: Thursday, March 5th
*Time*: 3-5pm
*Location*: York University, RM TBD
*Facebook Link:* https://www.facebook.com/events/704154692948451

Chris Crass is a longtime organizer working to build powerful working
class-based, feminist, multiracial movements for collective liberation.
Throughout the 1990s, he was an organizer with Food Not Bombs, an economic
justice anti-poverty group, strengthening the direct action-based
anti-capitalist Left. In the 2000s, he was an organizer with the Catalyst
Project, which combines political education and organizing to develop and
support anti-racist politics, leadership, and organization in white
communities and builds dynamic multiracial alliances locally and
nationally. He has written and spoken widely about anti-racist organizing,
lessons from women of color feminism, strategies to build visionary
movements, and leadership for liberation. His book, Towards Collective
Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building
Strategy was recently published by PM Press.

At York on March 6th, Crass will draw on the long legacy of white
anti-racist organizing, to explore anti-racist organizing vision,
strategies and lessons with the goal of deepening our understanding and
commitment to anti-racist organizing as a key element in building larger
movements for the liberation of all people.

Downtown on March 7th, Crass will give a more indepth workshop on
Anti-Racist Organizing for Collective Liberation. See the other Facebook
event for more details.

"In his activism and writing, Chris Crass has been able to articulate and
practice a transformative model for social change. Guided by a vision of
collective liberation that centers the experience and leadership of women
of color, Chris has done groundbreaking work to realize the revolutionary
potential of grassroots multiracial alliances." --Harsha Walia, co-founder
of No One Is Illegal and Radical Desis


"Many call for a revitalized Left to challenge the neoliberal war on the
99%, but few explain what that might look like. Chris Crass not only shows
us what an energized radical movement looks like, he demonstrates that it
is already here--in anti-racist movements, in women of color feminism, in
queer politics, in anti-imperialist and anti-war movements, and in a
movement-based anarchism grounded in the struggles of ordinary people to
collectively resist oppression and dispossession while building liberatory,
democratic communities of resistance. Crass understands all of these
movements as a source of strength and solidarity, not diversions from the
class struggle. Towards Collective Liberation ought to be essential reading
for anyone who believes a different Revolution is possible."

- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical
Imagination

Supported by OPIRG York, OPIRG Toronto, and the following programs,
faculties and departments at York University - Graduate Program in Gender,
Sexuality and Women's Studies; Faculty of Graduate Studies; Department of
Sociology; Sexuality Studies Program; Graduate Program in Social and
Political Thought; Senate Committee on Research, Ad Hoc Research Fund;
Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, Research Events and
Outreach Fund



****************

*9. **Anti-Racist Organizing for Collective Liberation Workshop*

*Date*: Friday, March 6th
*Time*: 6:30pm
*Location*: Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), 215 Spadina Ave.
*Facebook Link:* https://www.facebook.com/events/704154692948451

Chris Crass is a longtime organizer working to build powerful working
class-based, feminist, multiracial movements for collective liberation.
Throughout the 1990s, he was an organizer with Food Not Bombs, an economic
justice anti-poverty group, strengthening the direct action-based
anti-capitalist Left. In the 2000s, he was an organizer with the Catalyst
Project, which combines political education and organizing to develop and
support anti-racist politics, leadership, and organization in white
communities and builds dynamic multiracial alliances locally and
nationally. He has written and spoken widely about anti-racist organizing,
lessons from women of color feminism, strategies to build visionary
movements, and leadership for liberation. His book, Towards Collective
Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building
Strategy was recently published by PM Press.

There is a profound need for anti-racist leadership in white communities
that can simultaneously build support for movements and challenge the ways
that racism has divided our movements. While racism has historically
divided our movements, anti-racism can be a catalyst to build them. Drawing
on the long legacy of white anti-racist organizing, this workshop will
explore anti-racist organizing vision, strategies and lessons with the goal
of deepening our understanding and commitment to anti-racist organizing as
a key element in building larger movements for the liberation of all people.

All those interested in building movements for collective liberation are
welcome. But please RSVP at collectlib2014 at gmail.com so we can prepare
accordingly..

Wheelchair accessible
Childcare available on request.
Centre for Social Innovation, Whole Connector Room, 215 Spadina Avenue
(Suites 120/400) between Dundas and Queen St. W.

Testimonials:
"In his activism and writing, Chris Crass has been able to articulate and
practice a transformative model for social change. Guided by a vision of
collective liberation that centers the experience and leadership of women
of color, Chris has done groundbreaking work to realize the revolutionary
potential of grassroots multiracial alliances." --Harsha Walia, co-founder
of No One Is Illegal and Radical Desis


"Many call for a revitalized Left to challenge the neoliberal war on the
99%, but few explain what that might look like. Chris Crass not only shows
us what an energized radical movement looks like, he demonstrates that it
is already here--in anti-racist movements, in women of color feminism, in
queer politics, in anti-imperialist and anti-war movements, and in a
movement-based anarchism grounded in the struggles of ordinary people to
collectively resist oppression and dispossession while building liberatory,
democratic communities of resistance. Crass understands all of these
movements as a source of strength and solidarity, not diversions from the
class struggle. Towards Collective Liberation ought to be essential reading
for anyone who believes a different Revolution is possible."

- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical
Imagination

Supported by:
OPIRG Toronto, OPIRG York, CUPE 3903, Canadian Association of Labour Media
and the following programs, faculties and departments at York University -
Graduate Program in Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies; Faculty of
Graduate Studies; Department of Sociology; Sexuality Studies Program;
Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought; Senate Committee on
Research, Ad Hoc Research Fund; Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional
Studies, Research Events and Outreach Fund

****************



-- 

-OPIRG York
--
www.opirgyork.ca
416-736-5724
opirg at yorku.ca



*There are many ways to get involved at OPIRG. Apply to be a working
group: **http://opirgyork.ca/working-groups
<http://opirgyork.ca/working-groups>*
Contact victoria at opirgyork.ca for further information.

*We also have two collectives: *PrOPIRGanda Radio and the Radical Reading
Room. You can contact us about ways to get involved in these collectives:
opirgyork at gmail.com.

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