Solidarity Fundraiser for Victims of Typhoon Ondoy

Philippine Solidarity Organizing Group presents...


8pm, Saturday, Oct 24 at "Not My Dog" 1510 Queen Street West (just west of Lansdowne)

Featuring: Hot Carl and the Cincinnati Bowties and other musical guests.


Solidarity Fundraiser for Victims of Typhoon Ondoy
8pm, Oct 24 at Not My Dog
(1510 Queen Street West, just west of Lansdowne)
featuring: Hot Carl and the Cincinnati Bowties and other musical guests.

$10 Cover (or pay-what-you-can)


Considering the tragedy, this a win/win situation here people. Come
out, have a few drinks, watch an amazing band, and be inspired by some
great cultural acts, all while raising a few dollars that will go
towards a great cause.

Most of you are aware of the devastating affects Typhoon Ondoy has had
on the Philippines. We are trying to make a small difference by
supporting the victims of the typhoon by providing some financial
assistance. Funds raised will be going direct to people's
organizations in the Philippines, rather than to the highly corrupt
Philippine government, which has been slow to respond to the people's
suffering. We are asking people to pay a $10 cover, or otherwise
whatever you can afford. The bar is not charging us anything for the
space and the musical acts are all volunteering their time. Now it’s
your turn to pass this on to a few people and make sure that you and a
few friends show up! It’s not a lot money and you will be having a
great time.

To be honest, even if we were not hosting the party, I would be
sending most of you a message regarding the show that “Hot Carl and
the Cincinnati Bowties” will be putting on. Every time I tell people
about their shows I say that I am not inviting them to watch a
friend’s band, but instead I am inviting them to watch an amazing
show. They have a ton of energy and play all kinds of covers with
their own creative twist. You will not be disappointed!

That being said, the disaster that was Typhoon Ondoy is no joking
matter. People there really are suffering and do need our help. Lets
be honest, there are a lot worse ways you could be spending $10 or a
Saturday night. Please come out and support the cause.

Thanks to Russ of Not My Dog for allowing us to use the bar and to
“Hot Carl and the Cincinnati Bowties” for allowing us to charge a
cover.

For more information, please contact philsog@gmail.com.

CHRY ANNUAL FUNDRAISIND DRIVE

The home of RADIO BASICS, CHRY 105,5 FM presents:

A SOUND INVESTMENT
TUNE IN FROM OCTOBER 14-24
AND SUPPORT TORONTO'S BEST COMMUNITY RADIO STATION

The 8th Annual New College Conference on Racism & National Consciousness | LAND AND FREEDOM

Announcing

THE 8TH ANNUAL
NEW COLLEGE CONFERENCE ON
RACISM & NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS

"LAND AND FREEDOM"

SATURDAY OCTOBER 31, 2009
10 AM - 5:30 PM
WETMORE HALL | 21 CLASSIC AVE. @ SPADINA
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

http://racismandnationalconsciousness.wordpress.com/

______________________________________________________________________

This conference is free and open to all. Each year for the past seven
years it has attracted scholars, students, activists, writers, commu-
nity and cultural workers from a wide spectrum of interests. Lunch
will be provided. Please register at nc.programs@utoronto.ca well
ahead of the date so we can cater for everyone.

For updates on conference proceedings; short clips of our featured
Keynotes; video footage of previous conferences; local and interna-
tional news/commentary; and information pertaining to upcoming events/
actions, visit our website @

http://racismandnationalconsciousness.wordpress.com/ ______________________________________________________________________

CONFERENCE PROGRAM (Tentative)
-------------------------------

10am - 10:15am
Welcome
Principal of New College, Shahrzad Mojab

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10:15am - 10:25am
Conference Introduction
Anrold H. Itwaru

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10:25am - 11:25am
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Maria Paez Victor.
Topic: "From conquistadores, Dictators and Multinationals
to the Bolivarian Revolution"

11:25am - 11:40am
Discussion

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11:40am - 11:45am
Break
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11:45am - 12:30pm
BOOK LAUNCH: "THE WHITE SUPREMACIST STATE: EUROCENTRISM,
IMPERIALISM, COLONIALISM, RACISM"
EDITED BY: ARNOLD H. ITWARU

This work of activist scholarship has emerged out of the RACISM &
NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS Conference throughout the past seven years.
Scholars who have contributed to this volume include Ward Churchill,
Arnold H. Itwaru, Sunera Thobani, Natasha Ksonzek, Ella Shohat and
Robert Stam, Henry Giroux, Nandita Sharma, Julia Sudbury, Marianne
Vardalos, Lorne Foster.

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12:30pm - 1:00pm
Lunch
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1:00pm - 2:15pm
Panel I: "Nations, Nation-States, and the Holocaust of Modernity"
Panel Convener/Co-ordinator: Umesh Sharma

Speaker: Umesh Sharma
Title: "Beasts of Burden: White Terror, the Pale continent, and
the Racial World Order"

Speaker: Navyug Gill
Title: "Cultivating Cultivators: Notes on the Regulation of the
Means and Modes of Production in Colonial Punjab"

Speaker: Jessica Chandrashekar
Title: "Sexual Violence Against Tamil Women and the Construction
of 'humanness' in Sri Lanka"

Speaker: Harsha Walia
Title: "Colonialism, Capitalism, and the Making of the Apartheid
System of Migration and Control in Canada"

2:15pm - 2:30pm
Discussion

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2:30pm - 2:45pm
Break
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2:30pm - 3:30pm
Second Keynote: Omali Yeshitela
Chairman of The African Socialist International
Title: "National Consciousness and African Liberation"

3:30pm - 4:00pm
Discussion

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4:00pm - 4:15pm
Break
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4:15pm - 5:15pm
Panel II: "Land and Indigenous Peoples"
Panel Convener/Co-ordinator: TBA

Speakers: TBA

5:15pm - 5:30pm
Discussion

______________________________________________________________________

CONFERENCE CO-ORDINATORS

| ARNOLD H. ITWARU | NATASHA KSONZEK | UMESH SHARMA |

______________________________________________________________________

SUPPORTED BY THE OFFICE OF THE PRINCIPAL, NEW COLLEGE,
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

THE WRONGS OF THE IMMIGRATION SYSTEM!

A statement by No One Is Illegal - Toronto

October 2009

Some believe that the Canadian immigration system is fair and generous. It

isn't. And Stephen Harper and Jason Kenney are swiftly making it even
worse.

They are underhandedly taking apart the so-called 'objective' points-based
system. They are moving quickly to get rid of its 'humanitarian' part, the
refugee process. In its place, they are setting up temporary work programs
that are designed to push most migrants in to vulnerable, precarious and
temporary jobs without access to services or the ability to unionize.

In 2008, for the first time, more people arrived on exploitative temporary
work programs than people with some access to permanent residency!

Major changes have been sneaked through a budget bill and other seemingly
disconnected regulation announcements. Bill C-50 and Bill C-45 gave powers
to immigration minister and officers to arbitrarily decide who can come in
to Canada and who cannot. The family reunification program has been
modified to actually deter reunification. Visas have been imposed on Czech
Romas and Mexicans. Deportations have increased with moratoriums on return
lifted for many countries. Only people in 38 professions can now immigrate
to Canada - everyone else is banned. A new clause within the Temporary
Foreign Worker manual means that migrants are permanently temporary, they
can stay indefinitely in Canada without having to leave to renew their
work permit but are unable to apply for permanent residency.

Kenney is bent on breaking the already dysfunctional refugee system.
Refugee acceptance rates have dropped each year, halved in the last two
decades. Now the Harper government is 'revising' this system. For the
first time, Canada could fast-track rejections of refugee claimants from
'safe' countries. These 'safe' countries are mostly those which Canada has
trade relations with. The proposed changes follow a months-long, carefully
orchestrated xenophobic campaign, led by Kenney.

Even those granted citizenship are seemingly never fully recognized as
Canadian. They are excluded and ignored in and by Canada. Maher Arar,
Maher Arar,
Abousfian Abderazik and Suaad Haji Mohamud are three of the many citizens in
whose torture and abuse Canada is complicit.

Canada champions itself as a beacon of progressive immigration and
settlement policy as it moves towards a temporary immigration system. But,
migrants of color earn 40% less than their white counterparts. In Toronto,
the number of immigrants who are poor has grown by 125%, and almost 60% of
poor families are from racialized groups. Immigrant neighborhoods are
underserved and marginalized. Immigrant families have little access to
recognition of credentials or good jobs, or to services such as affordable
childcare.

Many immigrants sacrifice themselves and their aspirations for the
betterment of their children. But often second and third-generation
immigrants remain in exploitative jobs, pushed out of schools and
universities, unable to fully access opportunities promised.

Even more than immigrants, temporary migrants like farm workers, live-in
caregivers, construction workers, others, face exploitative and precarious
work and living conditions. They pay taxes and build communities but are
unable to access the most basic services. Migrant workers are not allowed
to bring their families.

During the recession, attacks against migrants have greatly increased. In
the last year, immigration enforcement has carried out large workplace
raids and forcibly deported people. The enforcement arm of immigration
targets non-status people that it considers most vulnerable - women at
shelters and people at community gardens. These tactics push already
vulnerable undocumented people into situations where they face greater
risk and exploitation.

The changes to the Canadian immigration system are a violent continuation
of exclusion of migrants. The present Canadian immigration system, set up
by settlers on colonized land engages with migrants, mostly of color, only
to exploit their labor. As we fight against the recent and coming
regressive changes by Harper and his cronies, we must challenge the entire
exclusionary basis of the immigration systems themselves.

Join the fightback!
Visit nooneisillegal.org.
Sign up at https://lists.riseup.net/www/subrequest/nooneisillegal for more.

Find out more yourself!

** About the refugee system: www.ccrweb.ca;
http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=00220 and
http://www.lawyersweekly.ca/index.php?section=article&articleid=472

** About Canadian mining companies and displacement:
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/30233

** About poverty and racialization: http://cop.openconcept.ca/

** About workplace raids:
http://www.rabble.ca/news/2009/04/protests-respond-ontario-immigration-raids

** About Jason Kenney's lies:
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet207.html

** About temporary work programs: (2008)
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=ecb6c196-7f79-4c4b-8d82-3742549ee5ba;
(2009)
http://ablawg.ca/2009/06/04/canada%E2%80%99s-temporary-immigration-system/
and http://www.justicia4migrantworkers.org/

** About changes to temporary work programs:
http://www.straight.com/article-237638/bill-targets-foreign-workers and
http://www.ocasi.org/index.php?qid=967

** About changes to the refugee act:
http://www.canada.com/news/Ottawa+readies+fast+tracking+refugee+claims+from+safe+nations/1899301/story.html

VIDEO: Student Gets Arrested at Northern By Toronto Police

Editorial Note:

The context of the following arrest is not clear to BASICS Free Community Newsletter. But what is clear from the video is that arrests can be made of youth in Toronto schools with no justification provided, even with hundreds of witnesses. That this can happen with so many witnesses should give us pause to reflect on what happens to racialized Toronto youth when arrested by police when there are no witnesses.

Venezuela – Grassroots Movements and the Revolution – Bringing it Home

Thursday October 15^th

7 to 9 p.m.

Central Neighourhood House

349 Ontario Street

Toronto

Join delegates reporting back from the Frente Norman Bethune solidarity trip with Venezuela. This event will focus on struggles and gains made by poor and working people, students, youth and communities in Venezuela and provide space to discuss how we can continue to build for social change in our communities, unions and neighbourhoods.

Farshad Azadian - Activist & Community Organizer with BASICS Free Community Newsletter and the Esplanade Community Organization

Solomon Myobuku - Community Organizer with Esplande Community Organization

Kelly O’Sullivan - Community & Labour Activist with CUPE Local 4308

Pablo Vivanco - Member of Barrio Nuevo

For more information contact: 416-529-9600 or cupe4308@gmail.com