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

"Solidarity of the working class is the greatest force for change in history."  Sara Nelson, CUPE National Convention 2019 The 2019 CUPE National Convention took place in Montreal, October 6-11th. This convention marked 10 years since I attended my first union event and as the BC Caucus Whip, I was really excited for the ensuing week. I am so proud to be from BC. I tried to coordinate the floor differently this time by using an app that would enable communication to get to delegates in a more consistent and timely manner. Our executive board came together, we huddled, chatted and cheered each other on. Everyone stepped up when I needed help and I thought we did a great job repping our region.  Here are some of my thoughts on various parts of convention. Post-Secondary Sector Meeting This year, the post-secondary sector meeting focused on the rise of hate on our campuses. We were fortunate to have Kimalee Phillip, one of our Human Rights reps, speak to

10 years ago, I entered the convention hall at the Palais de Congres in Montreal and had no idea what I was getting myself into. It was my very first CUPE National Convention. I was new to the union, a young worker, and really overwhelmed by the size of the floor and the number of chairs in the room. I'll admit, I thought the whole "brother/sister" thing was super creepy. (I did not know the history of those terms, that I have come to love). There was so much going on - it  was hard to keep track. The paramedics in BC were on strike and we all got t-shirts as a solidarity act and I thought that was pretty cool. Then we shut down the streets of Montreal and marched to city hall in support of local 301, Montreal's blue collar workers. That was FUN! I went to the Young Workers caucus and there were maybe 20 of us there - probably less. Later in the week, I was approached by someone from the Young Workers' Committee to speak on one of their resolutions. I HATED p

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

The three host nations open the Women Deliver Conference - thank you to the matriarchs of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Waututh nations. The Power of Us: Opening Plenary Katja Iversen - Women Deliver After a moving and energetic welcome by the host nations - Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Waututh, the President and CEO of Women Deliver, Katja Iversen, welcomed everyone to Vancouver at the opening of Women Deliver 2019. She told us that there were 8000 delegates (4000+ in the room) from 165 countries. The conference delegation included 1400 young leaders from around the world and an estimated 100k people participating in satellite events around the world!  She implored us to take advantage of all of the programming options - from plenary sessions, workshops, social events, 150 exhibitor booths, power talks, digital poster sessions, virtual reality films, short films and culture night! The program was bold and intense, with the goal of creating, fostering, and sustaining