Conference Announcement

Toronto, ON – The growing Filipino Canadian community from across Ontario and beyond will teem eagerly with life as they take great strides towards transforming history and settling and integrating into Canadian society as the Ontario-wide “Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change” conference takes place this November 19th and 20th (venue TBA). All are welcome to join the flourishing discussion and contribute towards concrete action in building a movement for social change.

Organized by the member organizations of the Magkaisa Centre under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), this two-day conference will take the necessary steps towards building a movement for social change by placing the struggles of the transnational working-class at its fore. By drawing from the distinct histories and resistance of the Filipino Canadian community’s struggle for genuine settlement and integration, the conference aims to put forth a transformative new paradigm that places the struggle of the working-class at the heart of ending the crisis of neoliberal globalization in Canada.

“Counterspin” will bring the struggle for genuine settlement and integration to new heights since its progression from its beginnings at 2010’s “Counterspin: Towards a just and genuine settlement and integration: link arms and unite for freedom,” held in Montreal. While this conference broke the ground in introducing the progressive Filipino Canadian community’s new path towards social transformation, 2011’s “Counterspin: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration,” held in Vancouver, provided a further understanding of this emerging new path.

As the Philippines has now soared into the top spot of Toronto’s source of immigrants, the growing Filipino Canadian community continues to enter Canada under restrictive and exclusionary immigration policies that deny them from fully participating in Canadian society besides as sources of cheap and disposable labour. Faced with the community’s intensifying marginalization and social exclusion, “Counterspin” will instead enable the community to take root in their new home and fully participate in Canadian society by building a movement that will advance and make central the class struggle of workers, women and youth.

“Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change”
Ontario-wide conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Claude T. Bissell Building, Room 205, University of Toronto
Registration is $20.00 (includes meals and conference materials)

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For more information, contact the Conference Secretariat:
Bryan Taguba
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Twitter: #Counterspin3

Register for Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change