Hot Tubbin' For Justice

"Where I come from we are not called troublemakers or shit disturbers, we are human rights defenders. When we stir some shit it's for the working class!" Chris Sorio, Migrante BC So in April 2018 I went to Chicago and attended the Labor Notes Conference for the first time and it changed my life. It was the first time I had gone to a conference so big, so unapologetically socialist, so full of a class analysis, focusing on organizing, on movement building, on workers' power! To put the "movement" back in the labour movement! It was not about which position you held in the union, it was about the collective working together to fight against the right and the boss and workers to take ownership of their unions. I wrote extensively about it on this blog - here , here , here  and the session with the West Virginia Teachers got their own post . It was at that conference I met a ton of awesome activists from BC. The Vancouver crew met at the Canada caucus a...

This session featured: Joan Timoney - Women's Refugee Commission (USA) - moderator Lina Abou-Habib - Women's Learning Partnership (Lebanon) Melanie Gallant - UN High Commissioner for Refugees (Canada) Zoreh Yasna Faizi - Women Refugee Route (Denmark) We started with some context setting by taking a global look at asylum, settlement and nationality laws. In 2016, the member states of the UN signed the New York Declaration for Migrants and Refugees where countries committed to save lives, protect rights on a global scale. A gender perspective would be used to look at the plight of migrant and refugee women and girls including their sexual and reproductive rights.  Our panelists were very different. We started with Zoreh Yasna Faizi is an Afghan refugee who settled in Denmark. She was born during the war in Afghanistan. Her father was a strong feminist and a politician of which she wanted to be as well. When she was 8 years old her school closed when the Taliban came t...

with Sarah and Shelley at the Memorial March As I continue on this incredibly unpredictable path in the labour movement, looking back on 2018 gives me some time to reflect on the past year. It was also the year of a lot of "firsts" without my dad, which is still weird. Last year, I committed to write more about the things I attend, mostly for me so I can look back and remember what happened over the course of the year. So without further ado - here was my 2018! January With members of the first AUCE 1 bargaining committee Italian Film Festival  - I saw 6 films at the IFF. It was a great way to connect me to my dad as I was getting used to life without him. I was pleasantly surprised how good the movies were. I will be attending this year's festival starting this weekend - I have 6 tickets booked this time as well. Forza Italia! City on Edge Exhibit at the Museum of Vancouver - this was an exhibit about the history of protest in the city of Vancouver. The...

Members of the Migrant Workers Centre at their AGM last weekend. A few weeks ago my friend Susanna contacted me to see if I could bring greetings on behalf of CUPE BC at the Migrant Workers Centre (MWC) AGM. Formerly the West Coast Domestic Workers' Association, I knew this group was heavily involved in legal assistance and advocacy for temporary foreign workers (TFWs), admittedly a file I don't really know much about but I was intrigued by the invitation. Once everything went through the proper channels, I was in and looking forward to hearing more about their work and how our organizations could work together.  So, I showed up and brought greetings. I talked about the natural alignment of values between the work our union does and the work they do. T he labour movement isn't just about organized labour, it's about all workers. CUPE BC delegates passed a resolution at our convention earlier this year that called on the union to advocate for TFWs and to build re...