A discussion with Tom Hooper and Tim McCaskell

Tuesday, June 11, 7:00 p.m.
Steelworkers’ Hall, 25 Cecil St.

It’s been fifty years since the Stonewall riot that launched a new phase of gay organizing and since the controversial amendments to the Canadian Criminal Code that allegedly “decriminalized” gay sex. In the decade after those events, new political organizing within Toronto’s LGBTQ community fought for a radical vision of “Gay Liberation.” Organizations, newspapers, demonstrations, and celebrations blossomed. But the impact of that political challenge soon faded. What happened? Our two speakers will address this history.

Tom Hooper wrote a PhD dissertation on the organizing against the bathhouse raids of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and has been a leading voice of the Anti-69 movement that has recently challenged the celebrations of the 1969 criminal reforms.

Tim McCaskell has been a prominent activist in the LGTBQ community for decades and is the author of Queer Progress: From Homophobia to Homonationalism.

Facebook event page here.

ACCESSIBILITY INFO:

Steelworkers Hall is a wheelchair accessible space. Parking is available in the lot behind the hall on a first-come first-serve basis (enter through laneway east of hall). There is also paid parking available on the street. The closest transit stops are Spadina and Nassau (510 Spadina Streetcar) and College and Beverley/St. George (506 Carlton Streetcar).

For any other accessibility questions or concerns, please contact Craig Heron at cheron@yorku.ca.

Video from the latest production of the Toronto Workers’ Theatre Group, Toronto 1919. Recorded at the General Strike: Cabaret 1919, at the Tranzac Club, 14 May 2019.

with Deborah Littman, Roland Nelson, Stephanie Ross, and Richard Wellen

Tuesday, March 19, 7:00 p.m.
Steelworkers’ Hall, 25 Cecil St.

In recent decades, universities have turned increasingly to the use of poorly paid instructors on short-term contracts without any job security. Today a majority of university classes are taught by these workers. Since the 1970s, precariously employed university workers in Toronto have organized to improve the terms of their employment, first in the Graduate Assistants Association, then the Canadian Union of Educational Workers, and finally in the Canadian Union of Public Employees. They have bargained hard to win some decent working conditions, often having to engaging in long, bitter strikes to make any gains. Deborah Littman, Roland Nelson, and Richard Wellen were active in those campaigns at Ryerson University, the University of Toronto, and York University, and will talk about their experiences in building unions on these campuses. Stephanie Ross, a professor of Labour Studies, will discuss the broad trends of precarious academic labour. Join us for a lively and important discussion.

Facebook event page here.

ACCESSIBILITY INFO:

Steelworkers Hall is a wheelchair accessible space. Parking is available in the lot behind the hall on a first-come first-serve basis (enter through laneway east of hall). There is also paid parking available on the street. The closest transit stops are Spadina and Nassau (510 Spadina Streetcar) and College and Beverley/St. George (506 Carlton Streetcar).

For any other accessibility questions or concerns, please contact Ed Dunsworth at edunsworth@gmail.com.

Tuesday, February 12, 7:00 p.m.

RESCHEDULED due to weather. Please note the new date below.

Tuesday, February 19, 7:00 p.m.

Steelworkers’ Hall, 25 Cecil St.

This film focuses on the labour organization of Italian immigrant workers in the residential construction sector, known at the time as “the jungle” due to its terrible working conditions and widespread exploitation by developers and (sub)contractors. Led by the charismatic Bruno Zanini, a petty criminal and aspiring opera singer-turned-labour organizer, and the thundering Charles Irvine — a shillelagh-wielding Scottish immigrant who was once a banana boat worker — bricklayers, plasterers, carpenters, cement masons and labourers, organized as the Brandon Union Group, engaged in two major strikes in 1960 and 1961 – the latter being one of the largest and most violent in the city’s post-war history.

The film will be introduced by its producer and director, Gilberto Fernandes, director of the Portuguese Canadian History Project and post-doctoral fellow at the Robarts Centre at York University.

Facebook event page here.

ACCESSIBILITY INFO:

Steelworkers Hall is a wheelchair accessible space. Parking is available in the lot behind the hall on a first-come first-serve basis (enter through laneway east of hall). There is also paid parking available on the street. The closest transit stops are Spadina and Nassau (510 Spadina Streetcar) and College and Beverley/St. George (506 Carlton Streetcar).

For any other accessibility questions or concerns, please contact Ed Dunsworth at edunsworth@gmail.com.

From our November meeting on the Metro Days of Action.

Tuesday, January 8, 7:00 p.m.
Steelworkers’ Hall, 25 Cecil St.

Sports have long been a crucial expression of working-class cultures and experiences. Many workers played sports as a leisure activity after a long week on the job, and sports clubs and teams were often important branches of political, ethnic, or religious organizations. Sports have also been the site of struggle. Working peoples have fought for the right to play sports and access to spaces in which to do so. Immigrant and racialized communities have pushed for inclusion in sporting cultures and to secure a place for their own games within the broader sports landscape. At the same time, sports have sometimes been viewed by bosses and social reformers as an ideal training ground for imbuing working-class people with industrial discipline.

Join us to hear two exciting presentations on the history of workers and sport in Toronto, followed by a Q&A.

Janelle Joseph is the author of Sport in the Black Atlantic: Cricket, Canada and the Caribbean Diaspora (2017) and the co-editor of two books, including Race and Sport in Canada: Intersecting Inequalities (2012). She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Toronto, where she is also the Director of the Academic Success, Student Life and the Assistant Director of the Transitional Year Program.

Bruce Kidd is a Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto. He has authored or edited 12 books and hundreds of articles and other works, including The Struggle for Canadian Sport (1996) and Historicizing the Pan American Games (2017, co-edited with Cesar Torres). He is an Officer of the Order of Canada.

ACCESSIBILITY INFO:

Steelworkers Hall is a wheelchair accessible space. Parking is available in the lot behind the hall on a first-come first-serve basis (enter through laneway east of hall). There is also paid parking available on the street. The closest transit stops are Spadina and Nassau (510 Spadina Streetcar) and College and Beverley/St. George (506 Carlton Streetcar).

For any other accessibility questions or concerns, please contact Ed Dunsworth at edunsworth@gmail.com.