MEGAN BOLER

Hello all and a Happy New Year from the Boler Research Team!

It’s Averie here with a recap from an interesting presentation I attended this evening on behalf of our group.

You may recall a while back when we looked into the efforts of a group called OUR Walmart and the strikes by Walmart workers and their supporters on #BlackFriday.

Well this evening at OISE, the International Socialists at UofT held a discussion on austerity in the modern labour context and invited an organizer, Elizabeth Clinton, from OUR Walmart in Texas to speak about the movement. Also speaking was Ritch Whyman of the International Socialists.

The presentation did include a lot of labour lingo that I wasn’t altogether “hip to” but I found it incredibly valuable. In our project, we talk a lot about such large-scale movements, so here was my chance to actually meet activists who were themselves involved in these struggles and hear about the interrelatedness of these movements.

Allow me to summarize the main points that I found interesting below:

— The work of the OUR Walmart campgaign certainly did not stop after #BlackFriday, and as a result of some of the pressure being put on Walmart’s execs, the company announced today it would introduce ore transparent scheduling and more scheduling choices for part-timers.  On this development, Elizabeth Clinton said,“ I think that it demonstrates that if we fight, we can actually win.”

— On his own note of optimism, Ritch Whyman told those assembled that 1000 teachers surrounded the Board of Education downtown today to protest Bill 115 and its effects — shutting down Bay St. in rush hour in the process. (some news reports put the number assembled much lower)

–Overall message/question explored was how to knit together the activism going on in various movements presently within Canada and the US. As Whyman stated, “It’s not just a fight around Bill 115, it’s not just about Idle No More, .. It’s about how do we knit these struggles together.” He added that there needs to be further communication between activist groups to find strategies that will allow them to address the current labour environment as a whole, as a class issue, not a matter of isolated issues.

— One major obstacle noted by many in the room was the stifling of activist organizing at the grassroots by senior union leaders. Some suggested that workers must first rise up against the inaction/unfair practices of their unions before they can actually tackle the larger labour issues they’re facing.

–This feeds into an extremely interesting point/contradiction which may be one of the biggest takeaways from the night overall. For here was Elizabeth Clinton, in an environment like Texas, with some of the weakest labour conditions in the country, talking about the progress of OUR Walmart organizers helping workers to stand up for themselves within one of the most anti-labour corporations in the world. Meanwhile, the assembled Ontario socialists spoke at length about the failure of their robust and highly established unions to protect them and put their best interests first!

–Whyman had a very interesting point about this. He said that in Canada, there’s often an “illusion” that we’re  THE progressive country when it comes to labour — that we’re somehow ‘safe’ due to the simple fact that unions exist. This evening’s discussion suggested this couldn’t be further from the truth. Whyman and others encouraged workers to remain vigilant and talk to their co-workers about how they feel their union is/is not representing them for a start.

STAY TUNED for an upcoming interview with Elizabeth Clinton on women’s roles in the OUR Walmart/ #Occupy Walmart organizing!

–Averie

 

Our research team is traveling the West Coast of the U.S., interviewing many amazing horizontal participant-leader women of occupy! Beginning December 12, PI Megan Boler landed in Los Angeles and has since met and interviewed six inspiring and diverse women in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, and soon more in Oakland and San Francisco.  Team members Emil Marmol and Christina Nitsou will also be doing interviews with Occupy women in southern California this month.

Our interviews focus on women’s experiences as central participants in this movement of horizontal leadership, and how and when issues of gender and race are discussed as central to the goals and/or process of the movement.  We are particularly interested in women’s roles in admin of social media and communications for Occupy, and whether there is evidence of new forms of feminism or women’s liberation movements. Interview questions include: What were your hopes and motivations when you participating in the Occupy Movement? Are there particular philosophies, books, theories, documentaries of guidance/guidelines that Occupy participants frequently reference? Have you witnessed cross-generational fertilization going on between veteran activist and younger new activists?

Check in soon for our preliminary finding from these 12 interviews with #occupywomen!

Hello world!

Averie from the Boler Research Team 2012-13 here, with an update on a fascinating social movement taking Canada by storm today. This is especially relevant given our current research into the role of women and feminist organizing in the Occupy movement.

The Globe and Mail has just reported that more than 1,000 protesters marched through the streets of Ottawa today in support of Chief Teresa Spence of the Attawapiskat First Nation, and the Idle No More movement.

**It’s important to note that many feel the media has been slow to catch up on this movement, as it really began taking place with First Nations protests over the last few months, or even the last year.**

From what I can glean from Twitter and other news sources, protests also took place today in:

Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, Edmonton, Prince Albert, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, the Yukon, and the NorthWest Territories.

There was also a flash mob in Sault Ste Marie, and solidarity action taking place in the US and the UK.

The movement: 

Idle No More is a fairly recent, primarily Canadian movement, which snowballed from the activism of one group of First Nations women in Saskatchewan earlier this month.

According to the idlenomore.com:

“The focus is on grassroots voices, treaty and sovereignty, it began in the early part of October when discussing Bill C 45.  All 4 women knew that this was a time to act, as this bill and other proposed legislation would affect not only Indigenous people but also the lands, water and the rest of Canada.
With the focus on the most urgent bill knowing it would initiate attention to all other legislation, the 4 ladies held rallies and teach-ins to generate discussion and provide information.”

According to the Globe and Mail today (Friday):

“Highways have been closed, Christmas music has been drowned out by native drummers at shopping malls, and the hunger strikes by an Ontario chief and others who support her have become a rallying cry for native people from one coast to the other.”

Chief Teresa Spence is now in the 12th day of a hunger strike she started to force Prime Minister Stephen Harper to meet with her. Though Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan has offered to meet with Spence, she is holding out for a meeting with Canada’s leader.

Women in the Idle No More movement: 

While the movement is still taking shape, the buzz around Idle No More has included a lot of feminist messages. Below is a curation of some such content I’ve found while trolling the net this afternoon.

The galvanizing poster from idlenomore.com, featuring women:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 These pictures of “women warriors” protesting went viral on Twitter this afternoon the second is from Ottawa, not sure where the first is from:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This video compiling First Nations leaders speaking to #IdleNoMore crowds features a few women with strong messages about respect for Indigenous women and grandmothers. Listen near the middle for the quote

“It takes warrior women with strong minds and strong hards to bring our people together”

The Globe & Mail quoted National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Shawn Atleo saying that a crucial part of this movement was demanding action around the cases of “hundreds or potentially thousands” of missing and murdered First Nations girls and women in Canada.

Here were some women-centred tweets circulating on Twitter about the protests today:

http://storify.com/averiemac/women-and-idlenomore

[<a href=”//storify.com/averiemac/women-and-idlenomore” target=”_blank”>View the story “#Women and #IdleNoMore” on Storify</a>]