Dialogues

Essential Work Disposable Workers Dialogue.jpeg

Essential Work, but Disposable Workers?

Saturday, May 1, 6:00-8:00PM

Long before the pandemic hit, essential workers and labour organisers were denouncing the inadequate, if not deplorable, working conditions in their sectors, stemming from a lack of funding, resources and planning, as well as social inequalities arising from systemic racism and gender disparities. A year into the COVID-19 public-health crisis, these problems have been worsened by a neoliberal response that prioritises private interests and profit over the health, safety and wellbeing of frontline workers. This panel brings together workers and organisers from the long-term care, education, temporary and migrant labour sectors to discuss the impact the pandemic has had on them.

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Money Moves: 超时工作, A conversation

Thursday May 13, 7:30-9:00PM

Workers are organizing to win better conditions for themselves and their colleagues, but this can only happen if workers feel they have community support. Given the upsurge in anti-Asian racism and the importance of grocery workers in the context of COVID-19, supporting this work is increasingly important. Edward Hon-Sing Wong, the Chair of the Chinese Canadian National Council - Toronto, describes Money Moves as one such show of support; solidarity expressed through a collaborative art performance. Taking up space in grocery stores without permission from the owners, the making of Money Moves was perhaps equally subversive.

Join the makers of the film as well as members of the Chinese Canadian National Council to discuss the filmmaking process and further ways we can support new migrant grocery store workers.

Illustration by Michael DeForge. Originally commissioned by Briarpatch Magazine

Organize Amazon!

Saturday, May 15, 1:00-2:30PM

The realities are stark: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos added almost $100 billion to his net worth during the pandemic, while nearly 20,000 employees tested positive for Covid-19.

Amazon’s profits are made possible by the labour of poor and racialized warehouse workers, but also by the company’s lucrative technology contracts with police and border agencies.

How can we intervene? This conversation brings advocates for Amazon employees into conversation with cultural workers to discuss organising strategies.

“Art against precarity” (2017) by Tzazná + Queso

Looking back, looking forward: Collective organizing in the arts & culture sector

Tuesday, May 25, 6:00-7:30PM

Long before the pandemic, systemic labour issues in the creative sectors were pushing artists and activists to collectively and collaboratively organize. Installers, artists, curators, arts administrators, and other cultural workers face work precarity in the form of underpaid, unpaid, unprotected, and insecure work. This is doubly true for Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, racialized and/or low-income workers seeking job security, safety and access. As these very issues are now being compounded by the pandemic, recognizing ‘artists-as-workers’ and ‘workers-as-artists’ is as important as ever. From advocacy to community building, this panel brings together cultural workers from Toronto, Vancouver and New York City experienced in collective organizing. The panelists will share challenges brought on by the pandemic, issues relevant to their members, and reflections on the future of labour justice. Learning from each other, panelists will exchange strategies on how to shift the balance of power in the arts.

unpruned tomato vines: a conversation

Friday, May 28, 6:30-8:00PM

In the summer of 2019, Tea Base transformed what was once a pile of bricks sitting in the Chinatown Centre mall courtyard into the Anti-Displacement Garden; a place that welcomed public use and community gathering. In historically immigrant and working class neighborhoods across North America, surveillance and gentrification are happening hand-in-hand and making our cities less livable. In the face of attempts to police and price-out Black, Indigenous, racialized communities, Tea Base experiments with actions that nurture solidarity and nourish community power. Join Tea Base organizers and artists Christie Carrière, Hannia Cheng, Jason Li and Florence Yee for exchanges on art-based collective action and reflections from the Coast-to-Coast Chinatowns Against Displacement Week of Action.