[opirgyork] Pow Wow Starts Tonight - Film Screening + Undergrads Solidarity with CUPE Rally Today + Get Involved!

Thu Mar 5 05:29:29 PST 2015

Hey Folks!

For the duration of the CUPE 3903 strike, OPIRG York board and staff will
continue to fill our mandate, continue to do work in the community, and
continue to work on social and environmental justice issues, but will not
be crossing picket lines. Please see our solidarity statement below as well
as ASAY's solidarity statement. Today there is a rally in support of CUPE
at 2pm at the main gate at York Blvd. and Keel St. Please come out and show
your support!
ALSO...

*The 13th Annual Pow Wow starts TONIGHT!! *
*Please see details below!*

-OPIRG York
********

*TONIGHT @ 7pm- **Screening of **DRUNKTOWN'S FINEST*
*Thursday, March 5th *
*Time: 7pm, @ Moot Court, Osgoode Hall*
Set among the landscape of the Navajo Reservation, Drunktown’s Finest takes
us on a journey of exploration into the lives of three young Navajo people.
Unfolding over a few days in the lives of the three protagonists – who
represent three genders – we follow Luther, a father-to-be trying to stay
out of trouble in order to be accepted into the militarily; Felixia, a
beautiful transgendered woman who aspires to be Miss Navajo; and Nizhoni,
an adoptee who defies her White parents by searching for her birth family
before leaving for university. All three characters navigate the realities
of life on their rez and struggle to balance the formation of their own
identities with traditional Navajo values and familial pressures.
Please share and attend!!

[image: Inline image 1]

*Friday, March 6th -4th Annual Knowledge In Sharing Stories Conference*
*Breaking Intergenerational Trauma: Motivation, Inspiration, Dedication
from teh 7th Generation*
*Time: 10AM-4PM, @ Moot Court, Osgoode Hall*

*SCHEDULE*

*Time*

*Speaker*

*10:00am – 10:15am*

*Welcome/Opening Prayer/Poetry *

Karissa John, Blu Waters, Rosalind Rundle

*10:15am – 10:35am*

*Journey and collection of Poems*

Melissa Compton

*10:35am – 10:55am*

*The Story of my Residential School Experience*

Cliff Standingready

*10:55am – 11:15am*

*Original Instructions: Healing Through the Reclamation of Culture*

Lisa Boivin

*11:15am – 11:35am*

*7 Poems, 7 Generations*

Jamie Lee Morin

*11:35am – 11:55am*

*From Homeless Addict, to the Halls of Academia*

Jesse Thistle

*11:55am – 12:15pm*

*Word on the Street*

Krystal Froman

*12:15pm – 12:35pm*

*Storytelling & Film Sharing*

Michael Keshane

*12:35pm – 12:45pm*

*Morning Q&A*

*12:45pm – 1:00pm*

*Birthing the Two-Spirit Flag*

Fallon Simard, artist & Blu Waters

*1:00pm – 1:30pm*

*Lunch*

NVP Artist – artwork

*1:30pm – 2:15pm*

*A Spoken Word Piece*

Kahsenniyo Tahnee Williams

*2:15pm – 3:00pm*

*Empowerment & The Identity of Being Indian in the 21st Century*

Nataanii Means

*3:00pm – 3:45pm*

*Survive & Thrive*

Shawnee Talbot

*3:45pm – 3:55pm*

*Q & A with Kahsenniyo, Shawnee & Nataanii*

*3:55pm – 4:00pm*

*Closing Remarks, Closing Prayer*

Karissa John, ASAY, & Blu Waters

*Saturday, March 7th - Pow Wow*
*12-5pm, Vari Hall, York Unversity*

*********************
*YorkU Undergrads for CUPE 3903*

Join group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/342473285945776/

We are a group of undergraduate students creating a collective in support
of CUPE 3903.We must show the administration that many undergraduate
students are in support of and united in struggle with CUPE 3903. TAs,
graduate assistants, research assistants and course instructors are the
lifeline of this university – they make our education possible. Their
working conditions impact our learning conditions.

Let’s show our support for their fight for living wages, job security, and
better teaching and learning conditions for everyone. Show the
administration that we refuse to accept or support the exploitation of
teaching staff and graduate students!

Join the picket lines in solidarity! The more people who are mobilized in
support, the faster and more successfully the strike will end.

Any undergraduate students that would like to get involved in
strike/solidarity action with CUPE 3903, please contact us at
undergrads4cupe at gmail.com

Follow us on twitter for updates and action plans @undergrads4cupe

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

*RALLY IN SUPPORT OF CUPE 3903- TODAY @ 2pm*

*Date: TODAY*
*Time: 2pm*
*Location: Mian Gate, York Blvd and Keele St.*
***Calling all students (undergraduate, graduate, continuing ed) faculty,
staff, and all university workers***

TTC buses 41, 60F, 107, 106, 196 and VIVA orange northbound will drop you
off in front of the Main Gate, Keele and York Blvd.

The York Mobilization Committee calls all students, faculty, staff, and
community members to join the picket lines in solidarity with CUPE 3903 and
to denounce the efforts of the administration to keep the university open
and encourage scabs!

More and more common is the heavy weight of low wage labour and debt for
the broad masses of workers upon which the entire rotten capitalist system
extracts its profits and fuels a class of idle capitalists. The University
of Toronto is no different in this sense, for post-secondary education,
like most things in capitalist society, is a private for-profit
institution, in which a bureaucracy composed of executive administrators
earning triple digit incomes demands a “fair agreement” from
debt-indentured teaching, graduate and research assistants.

It is for these reasons that the York Mobilization Committee is calling for
a March 24th Day of Action in solidarity with striking students in Quebec,
and striking student-workers in York University. We have been organizing
towards the Day of Action, along with many cities and campuses throughout
Canada, under the demands of free education, open access, and acquiring
democratic control of our campus. We demand an abolition of tuition which
holds graduate students in a state of debt-indentured need for the
exploitative work that this administration demands. We demand open access
to and democratic control of all post-secondary education so that
student-workers are not thrown under the bus by careerist tendencies within
bargaining executives. These gains can only be achieved through a
relentless political struggle against the administration, and against the
opportunists within CUPE 3903 and other unions who seek not the gains of
workers but merely the gain of their career portfolio. This is why the York
Mobilization Committee is with with the striking students and
student-workers, and fights against capitalist exploitation.

We envision the assembly to strive to be safe and accessible to all people
that wish to participate; in short, any sort of oppressive behaviour
(racism, anti-Black racism, anti-Islamophobia, misogyny, transphobia,
ableism, national chauvinism, etc.) will not be tolerated within these
meetings. The assembly must strive to be anti-colonial, feminist and
LGBTQ2S+ inclusive, expressed in the committees’ political leadership and
in their actions.

For more info and accessibility requests, email revstudentsyork at gmail.com

If you are from a campus group, faculty or staff, and would like to deliver
a solidarity message, please email us or comment below.

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

*OPIRG York Strike Solidarity Statement with CUPE 3903 & 3902*

*March 3rd, 2015.*
*(View online + please share here: bit.ly/3903support
<http://bit.ly/3903support>)*

The staff and board at OPIRG York extend our solidarity and support for
CUPE 3903 and CUPE 3902 who are on strike for accessible education for all,
a fair and equitable work place, and increased job security. The university
administration has failed to bargain in good faith, and has forced the
unions to strike for these demands. It is the Administration who we must
direct our attention towards and ask that they return to bargaining in good
faith, and demand that they put accessible education first.

Currently many members of 3903 (many of whom are also students) live on
wages below the poverty line, are asked to reapply for their jobs year
after year, and are given class sizes that exceed an ideal learning space
for students. The fight for decent wages, job security and a cap on class
sizes is a fight for students to have a better learning environment. It is
not just a CUPE 3903 fight; it is one that we all should demand from York’s
administration, and is a fight for decent worker’s rights.

For example York has outright refused to add LGBTQ to their equity policy,
which is something 3903 has demanded. The members of 3903 & 3902 deserve
our support. We stand in solidarity with CUPE and it’s membership and
encourages students, community members, faculty and staff to join 3903 and
3902 on the picket line in their demands for accessible education for all.

For the duration of the strike, OPIRG York board and staff will continue to
fill our mandate, and continue to do work in the community, and continue to
work on social and environmental justice issues, but will not be crossing
picket lines.

*To read more about CUPE’s demands and ways to support:*
http://betteryork.ca/

*More information and to contact OPIRG York:*
http://opirgyork.ca
opirgyork at gmail.com, opirgyorkboard at gmail.com.

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

* Official Announcement from the Aboriginal Students Association at York
Re. 13th Annual Pow Wow*

We at ASAY support the faculty and Contract Instructor's and Teacher's
Assistant’s strike; however, it comes at a critical time - Pow Wow time -
which could reduce numbers and attendees to some of our events. We are
meeting with CUPE to work out the details, stay tuned. No matter, THE SHOW
WILL GO ON. That aside, we stand with CUPE and understand their position.
Contract Instructors and TAs do need to eat and pay bills, we understand
that, and they can't do it on the ridiculous wages they get; the university
needs to pay them what they are worth and stop treating them like academic
general laborers or peons. And if the university needs to find money to do
so, dip into the higher pay salaries of upper echelon university exec's and
bureaucrats – a couple thousand out of a few $100 000 salaries won’t hurt
anyone. It's a matter of priority and good business practice: YorkU pay
your Contract Lecturer and TA employees fairly, give them job security, and
treat them like the educated, vital teachers they are.

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

-- 

-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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