Toronto, ON – Progressive Filipino Canadians refuse to be deceived by the Conservative government’s latest attempt to mask the abuse, violence and exploitation perpetrated against live-in caregivers, of whom 81% are Filipino women that are under Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). The issuing of 10,000 open work permits to live-in caregivers, recently announced by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, is yet another tactic to appease the growing awareness and dissatisfaction of the widespread exploitation, human rights abuses and violation of women’s rights occurring under a program that is based on the modern-day slavery of women.

Irrespective of Jason Kenney’s recent ploy, members of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) have not wavered in their longstanding and resolute position to scrap the LCP, asserting that the program itself creates the conditions for the systemic violence, exploitation and abuse faced by Filipino women in Canada. Since its inception in the 1980s, more than 100,000 Filipino Canadian women have come into Canada through the program, a situation which has created the Filipino Canadian community’s economic, social, political and cultural marginalization in Canadian society. And for over two decades, the progressive Filipino Canadian community has been steadfast on calling for its abolition while recognizing in the immediate term that all live-in caregivers be granted permanent residency status upon arrival to Canada.

Despite the fact that the issuing of open work permits has always been a normal process for those who have completed the 24-month mandatory live-in requirement of the program, this so-called “unprecedented move,” that expedited the release of open work permits, is relentlessly pushed and packaged as a solution to unchain live-in caregivers from the bondage of poverty and slavery. Given the thousands of open work permit application backlogs that have piled up over the years, this is purely a desperate effort to salvage Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) from its bureaucratic failures in processing the papers of live-in caregivers on time – failures which have intensified the abusive, exploitive work conditions and created long months of restrictions for live-in caregivers to access the healthcare system in Canada.

“We have nothing to be thankful for with this so-called change. Not only do we contribute taxes to the Canadian economy, Canada, through CIC, amasses millions of dollars from open work permit applications alone as each one of us has to pay a $150 fee. We deserve this open work permit as we have paid and completed our work obligations,” says Grace Tan, a live-in caregiver and a SIKLAB member.

Exposing the contradiction behind Kenney’s claim that this “will help caregivers…while they wait for their permanent resident applications to be processed,” it is imperative to recall that last month, the Conservative government has declared plans to slash approvals of over 7,000 permanent residency applications made through the LCP in the upcoming years ahead. As such, it is most pressing to critically understand that the issuing of open work permits alone does not guarantee that live-in caregivers will be granted permanent residency in Canada, nor does it answer the issue of long years of family separation and reunification of live-in caregivers from the families they have left behind back in their countries of origin.

Exemplified through the Conservative government’s all-out attack on racialised and im/migrant communities through its massive neoliberal changes and reforms on immigration – from its plan to reduce the quotas for live-in caregivers to become permanent residents by 50%; decreasing skilled worker visas by 20%; reducing quotas for spouses and children by 4,000 per year; reducing the number of refugee applicants granted permanent residence by 25%; and imposing an indefinite moratorium on the permanent sponsorship of parents and grandparents, the current move of issuing open work permits, rather than assuring the granting of permanent residency, may possibly lead to dire consequences, such as prolonging live-in caregivers’ temporary and vulnerable status, or worse, downright denying them permanent residency and deporting them from the country for which they have worked hard for to settle in the hopes of eventually building a home.

With Canada’s crippling health care system, childcare crisis and a rapidly aging population, the demand for labour is not declining but soaring to its highest peak. As part of the Conservative government’s neoliberal concerted efforts of massive cutbacks and austerity measures, a 30% increase of workers have been funnelled in through the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) within the past few years, in which the majority comes from the Philippines. Recruited for their labour yet disposed of when no longer needed, it is a hypocrisy that while immense profits are amassed from temporary foreign workers, Canada instead locks them into state of permanent impermanence, with minimal or no chance of acquiring permanent residency.

We, at the CPFC, reiterate our stance that the oppression and exploitation of workers under temporary migration programs such as the LCP and TFWP are not the answers to Canada’s economic, healthcare and childcare needs. Instead, they merely provide low-wage and privatized solution that pits foreign and Canadian workers against each other – as it is being used to drive down the wages of all working class Canadians, while simultaneously implementing the wide-scale contractualization of labour in Canadian society. This situation leaves all workers to an unsecured and unstable existence.

“The issuing of open work permits is rendered meaningless in the face of the Conservative government’s efforts to keep labour temporary. Eradicating the cyclical pattern of temporary labour migration is the only way to break our temporariness in Canada, says Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada.” As we continue to build the path for genuine settlement and integration, members of the CPFC will continue to demand for genuine immigration programs for all racialised, working class and im/migrant communities who call Canada home.

Scrap the racist and anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program!
Stop the expansion of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program!
Advance the movement for genuine settlement and integration!
Permanence through genuine immigration programs now!
Expose and oppose Canada’s neoliberal agenda of globalization!

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Organizations under the CPFC:
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
SIKLAB Canada (Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Canadian Workers)
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – National
Sinag Bayan Arts Collective – National
Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR)

For more information:
Joy C. Sioson
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org

With over 120 participants, “Counterspin 3: Building a movement for social change” Ontario-wide conference, once again, heightened, with militancy, the pivotal and crucial role of marginalized communities in Canada, such as the Filipino Canadian community, to intensify the building of a genuine progressive movement that will bring about social change in a country that continues to systemically deny communities of colour their full participation and entitlement.

Held at the University of Toronto and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education on November 19th and the 20th, respectively, “Counterspin 3” is a continuation of the Filipino Canadian community’s assertion to counter their intensifying social and political exclusion as manifested in their struggles against systemic racism, gender oppression, and economic marginalization. Organized by the Magkaisa Centre, and under the auspices of the newly formed Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), “Counterspin 3” is symbolic of the desire of members of the Filipino Canadian community to create a path towards their just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada.

Launched in Montreal on May 2010, and followed by the conference held in Vancouver in June 2011, the series of “Counterspin” conferences is a testament of the progression in the organizing within the progressive Filipino Canadian community that embraces the working-class perspective as a primary tool to advance socialism and to counter the increasing attacks of neoliberal agenda of globalization perpetuated against the working-class and racialized peoples in Canada. More so, “Counterspin” exemplifies the growing assertion within the community to build a home and a future, nurtured in the culture of resistance and empowerment.

Delegates listen to the first panel

Steeped with enthusiasm and excitement, “Counterspin 3” conference delegates deepened their understanding of the current global politics and progressive movements; the history of Filipino Canadians; and their concrete struggles, challenges and barriers in Canada, including the role of art and cultural resistance; and the importance of understanding social services as part of a community’s full participation and entitlement.

Guest speakers Ninotchka Rosca, Filipina feminist and internationally-renowned novelist; Dr. David McNally, long-time activist and political science professor at York University; and Emmanuel Sayo, community organizer and pioneer in human rights organizing in the Filipino Canadian community, opened the conference with a critical look at the ongoing crisis of neoliberalism, and the desperate measures being taken to maintain the current system of globalization and imperialism at the expense of the world’s working-class. Along with this progressive analysis of global political economy, an emphasis was also put into the roles of resistance movements in unmasking the impending demise and the rapid deterioration of the current economic system of capitalism. The organic growth of various forms of resistance, such as the Occupy Movement, and the resistance coming from progressive migrant and immigrant communities, were reiterated as key components in bringing about genuine social change.

From left to right: Dr. David McNally, Ninotchka Rosca and Emmanuel Sayo

From an engaging discussion and debate on global politics and movement, the succeeding panels presented on the concrete expressions of the Filipino Canadian community’s current reality as a transnational community; its continuing resistance against the community’s increasing exclusion and marginalization; and most importantly, its role in reclaiming the progressive culture and history of a community that, for over 20 years, has been at the forefront of exposing and opposing the systemic violence and aggression perpetuated on Filipino Canadian women, workers, and youth, and other members of the working-class in Canada.

Emphasizing the intensifying blows of the neoliberal agenda that further marginalizes, excludes, and attacks the well-being of the growing Filipino Canadian community, panelists Joy C. Sioson and Reuben Sarumugam of the Magkaisa Centre, presented on the history of Filipino Canadians in Ontario, the making of the progressive Filipino Canadian movement, and the overview of the current conditions of one of the largest ethnic groups in the province, particularly in the City of Toronto. The delegates’ attention was drawn to the direct impacts of official federal and provincial policies that shaped and continuously shape the Filipino community in Canada. They showed that the progressive Filipino Canadian movement has also been and continues to be the driving force in combating the barriers to genuine settlement and integration through community educating, organizing, and mobilizing.

Joy Sioson, chairperson of PWC-ON and Reuben Sarumugam of UKPC/FCYA-ON

Reclaiming their roles as part of the leading force in making history and challenging the market-driven economic and social policies that perpetuate their marginalization, sectoral representatives Bryan Taguba of SIKLAB, Qara Clemente of PWC, and Ken Santos and Aila Comilang of UKPC/FCYA, posed the challenge to all Filipino Canadian workers, women and youth to cultivate a culture that will develop an empowered community, immersed in the knowledge and practice of the importance of sharpening the tools and taking the revolutionary road, towards genuine liberation, equality, and human rights for future generations. The speakers also acknowledged that the path paved by those who pioneered the organizing of progressive Filipino Canadians serves as a continuing inspiration for them to lead the future of the community.

As the new wave of community organizing in the Filipino Canadian community grows, progressive music, art and poetry depicting realities and common struggles become important tools in educating, and popularizing the creative nature of the community. Marissa Largo, Toronto-based artist and educator; Jean Marc Daga, spoken word artist and SIKLAB-ON member; and Neil Castro, Sinag Bayan founder and chairperson of the National Council of the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance, elaborated on the arts and the cultural arena as an essential component in shaping and transforming art and culture as one that inspires collective action towards social change.

As an illustration of the creativity and talent within the Filipino Canadian community, various performances by Sinag Bayan Ontario took centre stage to depict the true force of the community’s culture of resistance. In “My Folks,” a combination of spoken word poetry and striking live gestures, performers conveyed the resiliency and militancy of the Filipino Canadian community to confront the systemic forces that relegate its members into exploitation and marginalization. In “Kapit Bisig Maleta Fashion Show,” various stories of migration were depicted by painted maletas (suitcases) bearing the portraits of community members as live-in caregivers, mail order brides, service sector workers, youth and the elderly, each embodied by their respective performers. Both pieces represented an all-out assertion that the Filipino Canadian community will continue to strengthen its resolve in their struggle for genuine settlement, full participation, and entitlement in the broader Canadian society.

Kapit Bisig Maleta fashion show

My Folks

Tying the Filipino Canadian community’s struggle for a just and genuine settlement and integration with understanding and accessing social services in Canada, the last panel examined the role of social services from the perspective of the Filipino Canadian community. Ilyan Ferrer, PhD student at McGill University and member of Kabataang Montreal; Danielle Bisnar, lawyer and PWC-ON member; and Cecilia Diocson, founder of the Philippine Women Centre, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada and CPFC, examined the history of social services, the barriers faced by the community in accessing adequate services, and the impacts of the extensive cutbacks and privatization of social and public services on marginalized and racialized communities. All three speakers also highlighted the important task of building the Filipino Canadian community’s capacity to understand the democratic and public provision of social services as vital for a successful and fully developed community and society.

The creative and artistic fervor of various members of Sinag Bayan Ontario, Sinag Bayan Quebec and guest performers ended the day with a much-enjoyed cultural solidarity night. Through songs, poems and dance, conference participants and organizers alike, celebrated the great success of the day’s proceedings with performances that expressed the vision of a truly empowered and liberated Filipino Canadian community.

Jean-Marc Daga, Neil Castro and Marissa Largo

The second day of “Counterspin 3” conference was a more intimate sharing and discussion on the 15 major concerns in the Filipino Canadian community. The 15 Concerns serves as the program of action that aims to address working-class issues, and to help advance the struggle for socialism in Canada. A brief study on the history of women’s oppression was also given by Ms. Rosca to further solidify and frame the importance of putting the struggle of women at the very core of the struggle for genuine liberation of the working-class.

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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

Toronto, ON – With the recent announcement by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to slash approvals of over 7,000 permanent residency applications made through the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), progressive Filipino Canadians firmly maintain that under the Conservative government’s policy-imposed age of austerity for all working-class Canadians, no amount of change or “improvement” can be made to the LCP and the endemically exploitative nature of the immigration system itself while it continues to stamp and seal entry to workers to toil under conditions of modern-day slavery.

With the passage of two years since Kenney’s holiday announcement of cosmetic changes to the LCP, we have seen no real improvement in the conditions of the Filipino Canadian community. Instead, amidst a worsening healthcare crisis and an ailing global economy, we have only witnessed the continuing marginalization and exploitation of Filipino Canadian women, youth and workers. We refuse to be duped by the blatantly aggressive attacks against our community as the unabated expansion of temporary migration continues to extend our vulnerability and to hold us hostage to our immigration status while we now face longer processing wait times for open permits and permanent residency status.

Under the Conservative government, Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (CIC) plan to expand temporary migration includes reducing the number of caregivers granted permanent status—to 9,000 in 2012, down from 16,000 this year—and extending wait times for open permit applications from six to eight months to up to 18 months. Also, the development of the “Supervisa” for parents and grandparents has phased out permanent residency and family reunification through parent and grandparent sponsorship indefinitely. It is no accident that such slashes and cuts are occurring while recorded applications for entry under the LCP are at their highest, and while demand for the cheap, yet skilled provision of childcare and healthcare is at its peak.

Members of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) assert that the LCP has never been an answer for Canada’s childcare and healthcare needs. Instead, it has merely provided a temporary, low-wage and privatized solution for our inadequate and declining healthcare system. Since its implementation in the 1980s, it has systematically brought over 100,000 Filipino women and their families to settle in Canada under the guise of conditional opportunities, yet continues to deny them their just and genuine settlement and integration, as majority of the Filipino Canadian community continue to suffer the impacts of deskilling, family separation, systemic racism and economic marginalization.

“We strive to contribute to Canadian society while the concerted efforts of the neoliberal agenda prevent us from genuinely settling, integrating and fully participating in a place that is now also our home. Alongside our mothers who have been brought in under the LCP, we continue to be segregated to low-wage and casualized jobs. While newcomer families are trapped in a cycle of poverty, it is no surprise that we have some of the highest high school dropout rates in Canada’s major cities,” says Neil Castro, Chairperson of UKPC/FCYA’s National Council.

An estimated $25 billion is what the Canadian government is saving in healthcare costs due to the contribution of over 2 million unpaid caregivers, who often perform duties that would require the attention of healthcare professionals and support workers. Under the live-in caregiver program, healthcare professionals, especially nurses from the Philippines, are placed under strict conditions not to practice their profession or go back to school in order to complete their requirements. Often paid at a rate of less than minimum wage, live-in caregivers perform care work for all demographics in Canada, but also perform housework and additional duties outside the specifications of the program. The work of unpaid caregivers and live-in caregivers is an example of the cost cutting and privatized measures our government has taken to buttress our crippling healthcare system.

In addition, the all-around costs of immigration, including applications for work permits, landing fees, board and lodging, purchasing goods and contributing taxes, are being made at the expense of transnational working class communities, while Canada saves further healthcare dollars. “We cannot accept being cheap disposable commodities,” says Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada. “We refuse to live under constant fear and threat of deportation while we contribute so much to Canadian society.”

“Our lives are more than just numbers,” contends Roderick Carreon, National Chairperson of SIKLAB Canada. “Our lives cannot be capped like quotas. We must demand genuine immigration programs and demand a stop to temporariness and migrant work programs as the only means for our community to come to Canada.” Members of the CPFC will continue to demand for the fulfillment of our lives as working class peoples by building the path towards our just and genuine settlement and integration.

Stop the deportation of live-in caregivers!
No to the expansion of the temporary foreign workers program!
Scrap the racist and anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program!
Advance the struggle for a just and genuine settlement and integration!

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Organizations under the CPFC:
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
SIKLAB Canada (Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Canadian Workers)
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – National
Sinag Bayan Arts Collective – National
Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR)

For more information:
Joy C. Sioson
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org

Toronto, ON – In just a few days, Ontario’s Filipino Canadian community will readily advance their struggle for a just and genuine settlement and integration to greater heights as “Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change” commences. Only several days remain in the countdown to this historic two-day conference that will counter the community’s cycle of marginalization and impermanence by creating a unified movement that strives for full participation in Canadian society and embraces their pivotal role in creating genuine social change. Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), “Counterspin” will advance the successes from its previous occurrences in Montreal and Vancouver at the University of Toronto’s Claude T. Bissell Building and Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

A press conference will be held on November 19th for members of the media. Interviews will be provided by speakers and organizers such as award-winning novelist and internationally-renowned feminist Ninotchka Rosca, long-time community organizer and human rights activist Emmanuel Sayo and the Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada, Cecilia Diocson. As well, Joy Sioson, Chairperson of the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario and Counterspin Conference Secretariat will be available for interview. “Counterspin” will provide all participants with an opportunity to join in the transformative discussion that will envision and execute change that will allow the Filipino Canadian community to take root, build a home and further contribute to Canadian society and history.

“Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change”
Ontario-wide conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Day 1: Claude T. Bissell Building, Room 205, University of Toronto
Day 2: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Room 5250, University of Toronto
Registration is $20.00 (includes meals and conference materials)

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REGISTER NOW to attend the conference and for media access to the “Counterspin” press conference: http://bit.ly/counterspin3

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

Toronto, ON – The progressive Filipino Canadian community are gearing up to take the next steps toward genuine settlement and integration in Canadian society as the Ontario-wide conference titled “Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change” boldly asserts the community’s role in helping build Canada’s history. It will take place at the University of Toronto campus, Claude T. Bissell Building on November 19th and will continue the next day at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

As “Counterspin” provides the context of globalization, its particular impact is undoubtedly felt most, in the Filipino Canadian community, by the women, workers and youth. However, the issues faced by Filipino women, workers, and youth in Canada under neoliberalism does not mean that as a community, Filipinos are powerless to the various government labour policies and program implementations that relegate Filipinos to low-wage service sector jobs and deskill many members in the community. Against this dominant pattern, community members will affirm their crucial roles as builders and makers of Canadian society who have the tools to counter these relegations and create their own path towards genuine settlement and integration.

Panel speakers include members from the various fields of arts and culture, political science, literature, law, and community based organizations. Some of these include internationally-renowned feminist Ninotchka Rosca, Emmanuel Sayo, community organizer of Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights and David McNally, a leading Marxist scholar, activist and professor in the Political Science department at York University. They will provide the context of how globalization and transnationalism under the neoliberal agenda directly affect the Filipino Canadian community. In the arts and culture area, Marissa Largo, a PhD candidate and art teacher at Mary Ward will bring out the history of how arts and culture play a role in community-building. To speak on the issue of social services within the community, Danielle Bisnar, Ilyan Ferrer, and Cecilia Diocson will bring forth the analysis of social services coming from the Filipino Canadian community itself. Speakers from the Magkaisa Centre will be part of the panel to elucidate the community’s experiences and analysis necessary to take the next steps toward genuine settlement and integration.

The third installment of “Counterspin” will stamp a historical mark in the movement for genuine social change in Canada that recognizes the struggle of the working class, youth, and women at the forefront of Canadian society. It will assert the working class struggle of the community as part of genuine women’s liberation, fearlessly carried out within the next generation of Filipino Canadians. The Magkaisa Centre invites all to be part of this dialogue to continue building this culture of resistance and furthering the strides towards full participation in Canadian society.

“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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REGISTER NOW: http://bit.ly/counterspin3

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

Toronto, ON – As the deepening crisis of neoliberal globalization is becoming increasingly apparent, the Filipino Canadian community across Ontario is readily countering their marginalization through “Counterspin 3: Building a Movement for Social Change.” Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), this historic gathering will advance the community’s struggle for genuine settlement and integration at the crux of the movement of the working class.

Building on the success of the previous “Counterspin” conferences in Montreal and Vancouver, the conference will awaken all to their realities and their potential in building a vibrant and enduring movement for social change that puts the struggle of the transnational working class at its fore. At the first panel, Ninotchka Rosca, an internationally-renowned writer and revolutionary feminist will counter imperialism’s narrative of temporary migration for Filipinos around the world by understanding the right of the transnational working class to take root and create a home wherever we are. Emmanuel Sayo of the Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights will elucidate the concept of genuine settlement and integration and its significance to the Filipino Canadian community. David McNally, a York University professor and leading political theorist, will discuss the current global economic crisis and its impacts on im/migrant communities.

The next two panels will then zoom out from the global picture and into the history of Filipino Canadians in Ontario as it has shaped the province’s history and Canadian society in order to put the community’s call for genuine settlement and integration into perspective. Next, members of the Phillipine Women Centre of Ontario, Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance¬—Ontario and SIKLAB Ontario will advance the role of women, workers and youth as makers of history by drawing on their distinct yet intertwined experiences and struggles, particularly as the Philippines is now the top source of immigrants in Ontario.

Towards concretely addressing the community’s needs of settlement and integration, the following panel on social services will discuss its importance beyond the terms of accessibility and into developing a critical understanding of social services from the community’s perspective. Speakers from national women’s organizations, the academe and the legal field will come to grips with the dismantling of social services as it goes hand in hand with neoliberal immigration and labour policies. For the final panel, Filipino Canadian artists and community organizers from across Canada will reclaim art and culture for the people and its importance in building a movement for social change.

With over 250,000 Filipino Canadians in Ontario, “Counterspin” will be pivotal in not only exposing the systemic issues that marginalize the Filipino Canadian community in Ontario, but in also creating tools that will facilitate their just and genuine settlement and integration. “We should not accept the growing marginalization, deskilling and constant exclusion our community faces. We should be well-equipped with the knowledge and tools to advance the struggles of our community,” says Grace Tan, member of PWC-ON and SIKLAB-ON. Armed with a comprehensive vision for an empowered community and a transformative society, all participants are invited to embrace the limitless possibilities in building a movement for social change that will combat the further exploitation of women, youth and workers.

“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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REGISTER NOW: http://bit.ly/counterspin3

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

Ontario’s growing Filipino Canadian community buzzes with excitement as the Magkaisa Centre prepares to host Toronto’s first ever Counterspin conference. Determined to carry on the successes of previous Counterspin conferences in Montreal and Vancouver, the progressive Filipino Canadian movement towards genuine integration and settlement in Canada will accelerate into high gear on November 19th to 20th less than a month from today. Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), this two-day conference titled “Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change” will have five panel lectures featuring a number of local and international academics, community activists and artists.

Day one will begin with guest speakers Ninotchka Rosca, the acclaimed international author and feminist; long-time community activist and organizer Emmanuel Sayo, a member of Philippines Canada Task Force on Human Rights; and Professor David McNally of York University. Their panel will focus on creating and nurturing the new path towards social change by introducing the context of transnationalism, globalization and the struggle for genuine settlement and integration.

Panelists and community organizers from the Philippines Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON), Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance¬—Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON) and SIKLAB-ON (Filipino Canadian workers organization) will also highlight the history and resistance of Filipino Canadian women, youth, and workers while revealing the challenges ahead. Next, they will emphasize the importance of accessing social services from the community’s perspective. The final panel will discuss art and culture as an integral component in countering the community’s marginalization.

Day two aims to prove that actions speak louder than words. Action planning sessions will be held for the community to collectively discuss how to counter the community’s cycle of poverty towards taking root and building a home in Canadian society.

All are invited to connect on a meaningful level, share experiences and learn from each other in order to build a movement for social change.

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Click here to register: http://www.magkaisacentre.org/2011/10/17/counterspin/

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

Marching under slogans such as “We are the 99%” and chanting to expose the “rising gap between the rich and the poor,” progressive Filipino Canadians recognize this increasing stratification not only as chants but as harsh realities felt in the lives of the growing Filipino Canadian transnational community. With the Philippines now the largest source of immigrants in Toronto and the whole of Canada, Filipino Canadians are denied their genuine settlement and integration in Canadian society as they are relegated as sources of cheap and temporary labour through neoliberal labour programs such as the Live-in Caregiver Program and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program.

Moreover, the Conservative government’s massive cutbacks on settlement programs last year and more recently on social services, the privatization of essential public services, and their incessant drive towards the contractualization of labour are clear indications of the Conservative government’s concerted efforts to prevent immigrant, racialised and working class communities from genuinely settling, successfully integrating and fully participating in Canadian society. Such cutbacks are being implemented alongside financial policy initiatives geared towards bolstering corporate investment.

Canada, being an advanced capitalist country, is not immune to the worsening global crisis. In fact, it addresses it by fervently pushing for the rabid implementation of its neoliberal agenda. As Canada’s continuous economic growth immensely relies on immigration, its insistence on temporary migration and the cyclical importation of cheap and temporary labour from the Global South and exploitation of these workers in Canada is a clear response to this crisis and therefore cannot be ignored. As such, progressive Filipino Canadians urge all to realize and to critically understand these growing movements as symptomatic of the growing crisis of capitalism brought upon by the neoliberal agenda of globalization.

As capitalism’s crisis intensifies, progressive Filipino Canadians will continue to march in solidarity with the 99% with a strong resolve to break the cycle of temporary migration and will continue to endeavour in building the movement for the just and genuine settlement and integration of not only Filipino Canadians, but of all racialised and working class peoples who call Canada home.

Advance the struggles of the 99%!
Expose and oppose the neoliberal project!
Break the cyclical pattern of temporary migration!
Advance the movement towards genuine settlement and integration!

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For more information:
Ken Santos
(416) 519-2553
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Facebook and Twitter: ugnayanontario

The National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) sends our warmest and most militant greetings of congratulations to the Philippine Women Centre of B.C., and its newly-elected Board of Directors at its recently-held Annual General Meeting. For over 20 years of Filipino Canadian women’s organizing, the PWC of B.C. has served as an example and inspiration to thousands of Filipino Canadian women to take great pride in continuing the long history of our struggle and resistance as working-class women of colour in Canada.

The NAPWC salutes the great courage and determination of the new Board of Directors, all your members, and volunteers in your commitment to march forward and continue the pioneering work of the PWC of B.C. for equality, genuine development and women’s liberation. Your fervor in advancing the struggle of our growing community for genuine settlement and integration in Canada is integral and central in our efforts to build a progressive movement for social change – a movement that puts the struggles of marginalized workers, women and youth at the forefront of the working-class struggle in Canada.

As we enter another milestone in the history of Filipino Canadian women’s organizing, our strong resistance against our continuing exploitation and oppression will be marked, yet again, in the history of our community, as we reclaim the revolutionary road towards women’s emancipation.

Sulong kababaihan! Makibaka, huwag matakot!

In Solidarity,
Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada
(member of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians)

With the Philippines now rising as Toronto’s No. 1 source of immigrants, as recently reported in the National Post’s “Ten ways to nurture ‘the soul of our city,’” the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) recognizes the significance of this number beyond sheer quantitative measure – that the presence of over 250,000 transnational Filipino Canadians in the heart of Canada’s economic engine has been driven by the full-scale expansion of the neoliberal agenda of globalization. As our entry into Toronto is facilitated by neoliberal labour and immigration policies that stamp and seal our admissibility under the pretext of becoming sources of cheap and disposable labour, our growing community is immediately denied their full participation in Canadian society despite upholding the bare bones of the economy. To get to the heart of “tackling Toronto’s complex quality of life issues” is to genuinely address the growing Filipino Canadian community’s needs of settlement and integration towards their full participation and entitlement as necessary in truly nurturing “the soul of our city.”

It is no mere statistical anomaly or historical happenstance that the Philippines has now become Toronto’s No. 1 source of immigrants. We must acknowledge that the increasing rates of Filipino migration into Canada operate far beyond an individual’s choice to settle in another country. Instead, the massive influx of transnational Filipinos into Toronto must be understood as a concerted effort by Canada’s neoliberal agenda to drive more and more workers out of their countries to circulate the global labour market as a pool of cheap labour.

Just as Canada opens its doors to admit thousands of new immigrants as permanent residents and temporary workers, they are subsequently prevented from genuinely settling and integrating into their new home as they are at once “pigeonholed in jobs as caregivers” and casualized, low-wage service sector jobs. As such, we are hard-hit by the impacts of deskilling as our years of professional training and education are rendered unusable and corroded away by years of repetitive and backbreaking work. If we are to truly settle and integrate into Canadian society, it will not be achieved by performing the dirtiest, dangerous and most difficult jobs that no other Canadians would take, for wages below minimum wage in some cases and under conditions that are akin to modern-day slavery. Whereby the development and full participation of an entire community is impinged upon by their immigration status or by occupational segregation, the possibilities of genuinely “nurturing the soul of the city” cannot be fully realized.

The lure of Toronto as Canada’s top destination for immigrants, often applauded for its multiculturalism and diversity, cannot simply be taken for granted as a marker of world-status as its economic life highly depends on the cyclical importation of cheap labour from the Global South and the continued exploitation of its workers. It is no surprise that this insistence towards temporary migration is occurring alongside the ongoing privatization of public services. The unabated implementation of the Conservative government’s neoliberal agenda will only serve to drive us further away from truly “nurturing the soul of the city” as it continues to marginalize our communities and prevent our full participation and entitlement in Canadian society.

Our contributions to Canadian society extend far beyond our capacities as mere appendages to the economy. As over five decades of struggling for our genuine settlement and integration in Canadian society has demonstrated, there is much more at stake in nurturing Toronto’s true potential than what can be provided by exclusionary immigration policies that operate solely for the sake of global competitiveness. It cannot simply be said that “the world needs Toronto to succeed,” as the article points out, but also that “Toronto needs the world to succeed” as well. For our city and for Canadian society to truly thrive, we must take root in our new home by continuing to strive for our just and genuine settlement and integration.

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Organizations under the CPFC:
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
SIKLAB-Canada (Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Canadian Workers)
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – National
Sinag Bayan Arts Collective – National
Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR)

For more information:
Joy C. Sioson
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org

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

Globalization is a complex phenomenon grounded in the flow of capital, mainly from the North to the South, and the flow of labour, mainly in the counter direction. Within the global “South” there is a differential in development, with flows of capital within developing nations, and a flow of labour from the less developed to the more. Globalization is thus marked by an unprecedented migration of labour that is further distinguished from previous historical migrations by its largely temporary character. Migrant labour in the period of globalization is characterized by its total subservience to the needs of capital: its flow, its temporary character, and its conditions of existence are governed by the nation states to purely serve the interests of capital.

While Canada as one of the most developed nations of the global North exports capital both through direct investment abroad and the hiring out of services that can be performed abroad, it also imports labour in the most cost-effective way to work on its fixed capital in the agricultural sector, in construction, and in the service industry. These are temporary foreign workers, whose numbers now surpass the number of regular immigrants, who constitute the most exploited section of the labour force, a second class of labour without the historically earned rights of workers in Canada.

Within South Asia labour migration produces both the lure of prosperity and the overwhelming experience of misery. On the one hand the failure of nation states to provide the basic necessities of life to vast numbers of their people drive them to seek work abroad, attracted by the prospect of good wages that they can remit home for the betterment of their families. On the other hand this binds them to the most oppressive exploitation in the receiving countries, where they are dehumanized and often deprived of health and life.

The conference will explore a common framework within which the various experiences of labour migration in the period of globalization can be brought together. It will focus on the experience of South Asian migrant labour in the specificity of national conditions but attempt to integrate these different experiences into a global understanding.
The proceedings of the conference will be published and will include submissions by scholars and activists unable to attend the conference.

The conference is being organized by Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation for South Asian Advancement and is sponsored by the Morgan Centre for Labour Studies at Simon Fraser University, the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, SFU, Dean of Arts and Social Sciences, SFU, Institute for the Humanities, SFU, Race, Autobiography, Gender, and Aging Centre (RAGA), University of British Columbia, Canadian Farmworkers’ Union (CFU), and Progressive Intercultural Services Society (PICS), and South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD).

Registration
Pre-registration for the conference is required as seats are limited. The opening plenary is open to people not registered for the conference but requires prior notification to: cbanerjee@telus.net

For registration contact: Chinmoy Banerjee: cbanerjee@telus.net
Registration fee for the conference: $40.00 (includes lunch and refreshments on November 26 and November 27)
Registration for conference and dinner on November 26: $60.00

GLOBALIZATION AND MIGRANT LABOUR CONFERENCE
FOCUS ON SOUTH ASIA

November 25-27, 2011

PROGRAMME

November 25: 6.00 pm Reception

7.00 pm Opening Plenary: Chair Zahid Makhdoom
Room 1900, Fletcher Challenge Theatre

Chinmoy Banerjee: Dr. Hari Sharma and the Hari Sharma Foundation

Gary Teeple: The Morgan Centre for Labour Studies and the Labour Studies Programme at Simon Fraser University

7. 45 pm Screening of El CONTRATO

November 26: 9.30 am Registration

10.00 am Morning Session: Chair Gary Teeple
Room 1700, Labatt Hall

Genevieve LeBaron: Neoliberalism, Migration, and the Changing Contours of Labor Unfreedom

Tania Das Gupta: Precarious workers in the South Asian Community: Race, Gender, Class and Migration Status

Satya Sharma: Where Ethnicity and Class Intersect: The Political Economy of Farm Working in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia

Cecilia Diocson: Resisting the Temporariness of Migrant Labour: Organizing and Educating Migrant Workers in Philippines and Canada

12.00 pm Lunch

November 26: 2.00 pm Afternoon Session: Chair Habiba Zaman
Room 1700, Labatt Hall

Vinod Kumar Adhikary: Issues in Nepali Migration under Globalization

Viola Perera: Rights and Challenges of Sri Lankan Female Overseas Migrants

Hussain Bux Mallah and Haris Gazdar: South- South migration and Citizenship: Ethnic Bengalis in Karachi

Samarajit Jana: Sex-Workers Led Initiatives for Rights and Justice: A Case Study from Kolkata, India
5.30.00 pm Banquet

November 27: 10.00 am Morning Session: Chair Sunera Thobani Room 1600
S Irudaya Rajan: Impact of Global Crisis in the Gulf in South Asian Migration
Mahendra K Lama: Irregular Migration from South Asia in Japan: Nature, Dimensions and Policy Issues
Junaid Rana: (Pakistani Migrant Workers and Post-9/11 Islamophobia)
12.00 pm Lunch

November 27: 1.00 pm Roundtable: Chair Harsha Walia
Charan Gill, Sunera Thobani, Zool Suleman, Raj Chouhan, Adriana Paz, UFCW Canada

3.00 pm Closing Plenary: Chair Harinder Mahil Room 1700, Labatt Hall
Jim Sinclair

Presenters at Globalization and Migrant Labour Conference

Mr. Vinod K Adhikary
Former Joint secretary
Ministry of labour
Govt of Nepal
&
Former Director General
Dept of labour
Govt of Nepal
Kathmandu, Nepal

Dr. Chinmoy Banerjee
President
Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation for South Asian Advancement
Burnaby, BC

Ms Cecilia Diocson
Executive Director
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada; Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Montreal

Mr. Haris Gazdar
Director and Senior Researcher
Collective for Social Science Research
Karachi, Pakistan

Dr. Tania Das Gupta
Professor, Department of Equity Studies
Cross-appointed to Department of Sociology
York University, Toronto

Dr. Samarjit Jana
Principal, Sonagachi Research and Training Institute (SRTI), Kolkata
Chief Advisor, Durbar Mahial Samanya Committee (DMSC)
Kolkata, India

Dr. Mahendra P Lama
Founding Vice-Chancellor,
Central University of Sikkim, Gangtok
India

Dr. Genevieve LeBaron
Researcher, Liu Institute for Global Issues
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

Mr. Hussain Bux Malha
Research Officer
Collective for Social Science Research
Karachi, Pakistan

Mrs. Viola Perera
Senior Programme officer
Women and Media Collective
Coordinator: Action Network for Migrant Workers.
Colombo, Sri Lanka. .

Dr. Satya P Sharma
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Dept. of Religion and Culture
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon

Dr. S Irudaya Rajan
Chair Professor
Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs
Research Unit on International Migration
Centre for Development Studies
Trivandrum, Kerala
India

Dr. Junaid Rana
Associate Professor of Asian American Studies
Affiliated with Dept of Anthropology, Center for the Study of Asia and Middle East
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
USA

Session chairs:

Dr. Gary Teeple
Professor, Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology
Director, Morgan Centre for Labour Studies
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, BC

Dr. Sunera Thobani
Director, Race, Autobiography, Gender, and Aging (RAGA) Centre
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

Ms Harsha Walia
Activist and writer
Downtown Eastside Women’s Association
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Habiba Zaman
Professor, Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, BC

Plenary Chairs

Mr. Harinder Mahil
Former Chair, BC Human Rights Commission
Vice President, Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation
Vancouver, BC

Mr. Zahid Makhdoom
President, World Sindhi Institute
Sitting Judge, Provincial Court, BC
Director, Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation
Vancouver, BC

Closing Plenary

Mr. Jim Sinclair
President, BC Federation of Labor
Vancouver, BC

Participants at the Roundtable

Mr. Raj Chouhan
MLA, Province of British Columbia
Labour Critic, NDP
Former President, Canadian Farmworkers Union
Burnaby, BC

Mr. Charan Gill
Executive Director
Progressive Intercultural Services Society (PICS)
Canadian Farmworkers’ Union (CFW)
Surrey, BC

Ms. Adriana Paz
Founder and Representative, Justicia/Justice for Migrant Workers, BC
Vancouver. BC

Mr. Zool Suleman
Lawyer
Member of the Justice Committee, City of Vancouver
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Sunera Thobani
Director, RAGA Centre
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

UFCW Canada
UFCW is the largest private sector union in Canada

The weekend of June 18th to 19th marked a monumental point in the history of Filipino Canadian community, as over 60 Filipino Canadians asserted their right to take root and build a home here in Canada. Sponsored by the University of British Columbia’s Liu Institute for Global Issues and in collaboration with the Philippine Studies Series, the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) made their impact in the West Coast through the weekend conference titled “Counterspin: Taking root and building a home, deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration.” As Filipinos have been entering Canada for over 50 years since the 1960s, emergence of a new path towards genuine settlement and integration is both urgent and timely. Counterspin was originally launched in Montreal in May last year and the CPFC was formed as a result of the conference. Counterspin is a historical landmark for Filipino Canadians as it represents a national movement towards the community’s full participation and entitlement.

Five panel presentations with three speakers on each panel were the educational components of Counterspin, which took place during the first day of the conference. The second day was reserved for action-planning to address issues and research that were highlighted on the first day.

Beginning the 1st day of panels, “Creating and nurturing a new path” introduced the history and experience of the Filipino Canadian community as a transnational community, whose struggles are directly shaped by the vagaries of neoliberal globalization. As elaborated by speakers Ninotchka Rosca, Dr. Geraldine Pratt and Emmanuel Sayo, the basic challenges of settlement and integration faced by Filipino Canadians can only be genuinely addressed by creating their own history in their new home. Instead of privileging other people’s struggles, the Filipino Canadian community’s own struggle is now being wrought based on their own experiences to combat the low wage, dead-end and temporary conditions they are relegated to.

The second panel, “The leading force: makers of history,” continued by describing how the present neoliberal system thrives on the blood and sweat of the working class. Arlene Oropel’s sharing of her experiences as a former domestic worker was beyond a mere exposé of issues under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) but also represented a forward-looking challenge to all workers to demand their full entitlement. Ending their exploitation as workers under the LCP is to call for its scrapping, wherein they can arrive as permanent residents and accredited workers and demand for the creation of universal childcare. Joy Alarcon, founding member of Kabataang Montreal and vice-chairperson of PWC-Quebec, encouraged all workers to look beyond their own issues and forge alliances with other oppressed communities to fully realize the interconnectedness of our struggles for community-building and to take united action as members of the Canadian working class. Bryan Taguba, member of SIKLAB-ON and UKPC/FCYA-ON, boldly spoke of how community organizing empowered him to further look into the conditions of young workers in Canada and to challenge the circular pattern of migration. Aptly demonstrated by the panelists and representatives of various chapters of SIKLAB, workers from the Global South, majority of who are women, have great potential and experience for becoming a leading force in transforming society and making history.

The women’s panel, called “Something else, something fierce: new perspective in our women’s organizing,” featured PWC members Charlene Sayo, Qara Clemente and Krystle Alarcon. Sayo’s presentation challenged young women to cultivate a new culture of sisterhood based on class as is necessary in creating a militant women’s movement. By exposing the links between consumerist and shallow relationships among women as built upon capitalism’s dividing nature, she highlighted how the root causes of young women’s issues can be surmounted by comprehensively addressing the situation of women in the community and in society as a whole. Clemente presented on the new revolutionary road that young women should take in community development and a struggle for genuine equality and liberation. Alarcon expanded on Clemente’s presentation by focusing particularly on the media. She said that youth should take it upon themselves to “counterspin” how the media spins Filipino Canadian issues. “We should no longer be subjects,” she asserted, because of the power of social media such as Twitter and Facebook to spark social movements. With the new perspective illustrated by this panel, the road ahead for all Filipino Canadian women can be an empowered one.

The youth panel, titled “Sharpening our tools for our future,” demonstrated the capacity of Filipino Canadian youth to harness their own tools as liberating mechanisms towards social transformation. Carlo Sayo, Chairperson of UKPC-BC, showed how youth apathy and alienation in relation to consumerist culture was at play during the June 15 Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver. In stark contrast to such actions, the achievements of youth movements around the world, as locally exemplified by UKPC-BC, have instead uncovered the wellspring of transformative action within youth who are asserting their full participation in society. Reuben Sarumugam’s presentation brought the history of UKPC-Ontario’s benchmarks in youth organizing to life by demonstrating how their relentless efforts in community-based research and organizing is committed to making Filipino Canadian youth count in Ontario and beyond. Neil Castro’s presentation ended the panel by challenging all youth to be critical thinkers and doers. Instead of passively accepting their continued isolation and underdevelopment, he calls on all youth to acknowledge their realities as marginalized youth and to create their own homegrown perspectives and forms of resistance, as demonstrated through his experience with UKPC-Kabataang Montreal.

As tantamount to becoming full participants in Canadian society, the last panel on social services and the lack thereof for the Filipino Canadian community began to create a progressive understanding of the myriad possibilities of a self-sufficient and developed community. Ilyan Ferrer, a PhD student in McGill University and member of Kabataang Montreal demonstrated the workings of social services in Canada and its endemic barriers in accessibility, such as lack of awareness, language, and the current system’s inherently individualizing tendency. Shauna Butterwick, a UBC professor in Educational Studies and long-time supporter of the NAPWC, bolstered Ferrer’s presentation by reiterating how neoliberal policy reforms in Canada have made social services more market-driven and restrictive. Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), put in the last word on the panel and the 1st day’s proceedings by linking the all-around impacts of neoliberal budget cuts and immigration policies on the community’s ability to access social services and their overall awareness in demanding for their full entitlement.

Counterspin delegates then made their way to Simply Delicious Galleria where cultural performances by different members of UKPC, PWC and SIKLAB showed their national solidarity by singing, rapping and performing spoken word pieces. Everyone was cheering and dancing to progressive lyrics and chanted “end the exploitation, march for liberation!” at the end of the show. Some youth members even came up with performances on the spot about transnationalism and economic marginalization, already showing how the conference inspired them. More members have also joined the Kalayaan Centre’s Tinig ng Masa radio show and have been very vocal about the issues they have learnt at Counterspin and continue to advocate for the genuine settlement and integration of Filipino Canadians.

During the last day of the conference, the previous day’s proceedings were put into action as youth and workers gathered into their own sectoral groups to create national action plans that are particular to their situation. Their collective visioning and planning generated concrete ideas for advancing the call for the community’s just and genuine settlement and integration.

With a deeper understanding and a broader vision of the steps ahead in community organizing, the CPFC will continue to pave and lead the path towards the Filipino Canadian community’s just and genuine settlement and integration.

For photos of the conference, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/pwcontario/sets/72157627062745205/

Issued by the Counterspin Conference Secretariat
Vancouver, British Columbia
July 20, 2011

In deepening the understanding of a just and genuine settlement and integration, internationally-acclaimed writer and feminist revolutionary Ninotchka Rosca honours progressive Filipino Canadians with her unwavering support and solidarity as a guest speaker at this historic conference. Rosca, who spoke at the 1st Counterspin conference held in Montreal a year ago, will further elucidate her analysis of the concept of ‘transnationalism’ as pertinent to the current realities and struggles of the transnational Filipino community in Canada and beyond. Smashing imperialism’s dominant narrative of ‘circular migration,’ Rosca will challenge this narrative which reduces the transnational working-class simply as a “moveable feast of reserved labour in accordance with the needs of capital” locked in a state of “permanent impermanence.”

Induced by the neoliberal agenda of globalization’s escalating attacks, the Filipino Canadian community’s conditions are evidently trapped within this narrative. Now Canada’s 3rd largest visible minority group and its largest source of immigrants, Filipinos are systematically streamed through Canadian contractual migration schemes and labour policies such as the Temporary Foreign Worker’s Program (TFWP) and the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). Such programs not only lock workers in a state of temporariness, uncertainty and permanent impermanence, but also create the conditions for the community’s political, economic and social segregation in Canada. “In the face of our community’s intensifying economic marginalization and socio-political exclusion, understanding the concept of ‘transnationalism’ is crucial towards strengthening our efforts in community-building. At the same time, it is fundamental in advancing our national movement for our just and genuine settlement and integration,” says Arlene Oropel, member of SIKLAB-BC.

A milestone event in the history of Filipino Canadian organizing, this national conference will show the strength, resiliency and commitment of progressive Filipino Canadians in countering imperialism’s dominant narratives and rapacious assaults, which leave the community in a permanent state of poverty and underdevelopment. It will advance the role of progressive Filipino Canadians in countering economic marginalization, systemic racism and social exclusion towards building a truly progressive movement that will relentlessly fight and put the interests of the most oppressed and marginalized in society at the forefront. As Rosca states, “the proletariat has no country…and therefore we must build him/her one.” “Counterspin” will be indicative of the progressive Filipino Canadians’ heightened militancy and continuous struggle to firmly take root and build a home that embodies the collective values and perspectives of the working class.

“Counterspin: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration”
National conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia
6476 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC
Registration is $25.00 (includes 2 meals and conference materials)

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For more information or to register, please contact the conference secretariat:
Krystle Alarcon; 778-321-8275; krystle.alarcon@gmail.com
Jon Nieto; 778-384-7378; jonziphone@gmail.com
Arlene Oropel; 778- 317-5265; ajalex12jaylon@gmail.com
Twitter: #Counterspin2
Tumblr: counterspin2.tumblr.com

The weekend conference, taking place from June 18th to 9th at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia, will particularize the Filipino Canadian community’s issues through the call of genuine recognition as integral members and full partakers in the Canadian “cultural mosaic.” With that aim, sharings and presentations from community organizers, members and researchers will challengingly pose perspectives that expose the interconnectedness of transnationalism and neoliberal globalization to the struggle of community building. Organized by the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), “Counterspin” seeks to lay down the foundation necessary to transform and reconceptualize dominant traditions of community engagement and to build a progressive movement that focuses on making Filipino Canadians full participants in shaping Canada’s future.

As a continuation of the first “Counterspin” conference held in Montreal from April 30th to May 1st in 2010, the conference will feature internationally acclaimed writer Ninotchka Rosca, academics and community organizers from Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. The 1st day of the conference will include panel speakers alongside revolutionary feminist writer Ninotchka Rosca who will contextualize the obstacles and realities of Filipinos as transnationals who are caught within the bounds of neoliberal globalization. Titled “Creating and nurturing a new path,” the introductory panel will discuss the meaning of the call for the genuine settlement and integration and full participation of the Filipino Canadian community to counter the cycle of “permanent impermanence.”

Other panels from the workers, women, and youth sectors will emphasize that as the 3rd largest visible minority group who has resided here for almost fifty years, it is integral for the Filipino Canadian community to reclaim their history here in Canada and take on the role as purveyors of a distinctly radical and transformative culture.

“The leading force: makers of history” situates the struggle of the working class at the forefront of community empowerment. As women continue to be the most oppressed and exploited in our community, “Something else, something fierce: new perspectives in our women’s organizing” discusses the ongoing challenges of building a strengthened women’s movement that interweaves an analysis of race, class, and gender. “Sharpening our tools for our future” will focus on the key role of the youth in building upon a legacy of resistance. The final panel will look at social services in Canada and the Filipino Canadian experience.

In encouraging community engagement, the 2nd day will be dedicated to creating action plans to raise the involvement of Filipino Canadian youth from identity politics to community building and as future leaders in transforming the community’s ethos. “As Filipino Canadian youth, it is integral that we talk about our experiences here in Canada and take leadership in building an empowered community,” states Krystle Alarcon, member of UKPC/FCYA-BC and PWC-BC.

“Our conditions have changed and it is time for us to tackle the concrete realities of our community. Our full participation can only be genuinely achieved with the realization that our marginalization is directly rooted in systemic processes in immigration and the profit-driven agenda of capitalism,” Alarcon adds. “Counterspin” will pose the challenge of smashing old ideas, advancing the struggle to make the Filipino Canadian community count in Canada’s future, and entrusting a culture of resistance to future generations.

“Counterspin: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration”
National conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia
6476 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC
Registration is $25.00 (includes 2 meals and conference materials)

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For more information or to register, please contact the conference secretariat:
Krystle Alarcon; 778-321-8275; krystle.alarcon@gmail.com
Jon Nieto; 778-384-7378; jonziphone@gmail.com
Arlene Oropel; 778- 317-5265; ajalex12jaylon@gmail.com
Twitter: #Counterspin2
Tumblr: counterspin2.tumblr.com

“Counterspin: Taking root and building a home: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration”
For immediate release
June 3, 2011

Vancouver, B.C. – June 18th and 19th will mark a momentous occasion for the Filipino Canadian community in Vancouver as it hosts “Counterspin: Taking root and building a home. Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration.” This two-day national conference will, once again, heighten the unity of progressive Filipino Canadians to advance the struggle towards the community’s full participation and entitlement in Canada.

To be held at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia (UBC), this conference will further solidify the call for the community’s just and genuine settlement and integration and will be a declaration of an ongoing commitment to continue a legacy of resistance.

For over 50 years, the Filipino Canadian community has been struggling for a just and genuine settlement and integration. Since Canada opened its immigration doors to people from Third World countries, such as the Philippines, immigration policies like the Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP) and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) have systemically pushed the Filipino Canadian community into the margins of Canadian society – politically, economically, socially and culturally.

As Canada intensifies its implementation of neoliberal policies, it is our women, workers and youth who bear the brunt of these oppressive and exploitative policies. The Kalayaan Centre, Kapit Bisig Centre, and Magkaisa Centre have been at the forefront of these struggles. “The Filipino Canadian community, especially the youth, looks forward to a future where they can fully participate, engage and exercise their full entitlement in all aspects of Canadian society,” states Krystle Alarcon, conference organizer and member of the Philippine Women Centre of B.C.

“Counterspin” will focus on some key issues, including: the Filipino Canadian community as a transnational community; history of migration in Canada; community organizing and building a progressive movement; making the youth count; youth and alienation; and arts and culture as a form of empowerment. Speakers will include community organizers representing the workers, women and youth sectors, and academics Ilyan Ferrer of McGill University, Geraldine Pratt and Shauna Butterwick of UBC. Renowned novelist, writer and feminist revolutionary Ninothcka Rosca will be a conference guest speaker.

As we forge unity towards the community’s advancement and development, “Counterspin” national conference will be another milestone in reclaiming their rightful place in a multicultural and multi-ethnic Canada. All participation and involvement in this conference will be a testament of the community’s commitment in overcoming economic marginalization, combating systemic racism and social exclusion, enhancing women’s equality and human rights and making the youth count.

“Counterspin: Taking root and building a home. Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration”
National conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia
6476 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC
Registration is $25.00 (includes 2 meals and conference materials)

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For more information or to register, please contact the conference secretariat:
Krystle Alarcon; 778-321-8275; krystle.alarcon@gmail.com
Jon Nieto; 778-384-7378; jonziphone@gmail.com
Arlene Oropel; 778- 317-5265; ajalex12jaylon@gmail.com

Toronto, ON – June 2, 2011 – The Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) offers its support to Vivian de Jesus and Lilliane Namukasa’s struggles as overworked and underpaid workers under the modern-day slavery Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). PWC-ON and its’ sister organizations under the Magkaisa Centre assert that genuine change can only be brought about by challenging the very foundations that the Live-in Caregiver Program is built on, rather than reforming the inherently oppressive, exploitative and violent employment program.

The two women are suing their former employers and are demanding compensation for years worth of unpaid wages, overtime and holiday pay, and for being wrongfully dismissed.

De Jesus was abruptly laid-off and was given only 20 minutes to pack her belongings after living with and caring for an elderly woman and her two adult children with disabilities for more than 10 years. She worked approximately 132 hours per week for the last four years, overly exceeding the statutory 48-hour workweek, but was not paid according to provincial employment standards. Namukasa, likewise, suffered uncompensated labour and was arbitrarily fired a year ago.

“Despite the changes to the LCP, it is critical for us to understand the program for what it truly is. It systemically facilitates extremely exploitative and oppressive working conditions and circumstances for many women in the program. This leaves many caregivers in a constant state of instability, uncertainty, and danger,” states Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC). “The continuous upsurge of stories such as de Jesus’ and Namukasa’s is a testament of the vicious nature of the LCP as an employment program rather than a sincere and effective immigration program,” adds Diocson.

The experiences of de Jesus and Namukasa illustrate some of the program’s immediate consequences; however, the long-term impacts directly prevent the successful development of the workers, while under the program and beyond. As seen in the Filipino Canadian community from over two decades of community-based research and organizing, the program legislates caregivers and their families to a cycle of poverty, thus economically, socially, and politically segregating an entire community.

As progressive Filipino Canadians, members of the PWC-ON and its’ sister organizations have continually been at the forefront of exposing and opposing the racist and anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program. While its existence as a modern-day slavery program continues to persist, PWC-ON will continue to demand for its’ scrapping. PWC-ON will unyieldingly stand firm with the demand for the just and genuine settlement, integration, full participation and entitlement of workers under the LCP and the entire Filipino Canadian community.

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For more information, contact:
Joy C. Sioson
416-519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org

The National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) welcomes and encourages all to partake in “Counterspin: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration” – a nation-wide conference taking place from June 18th to 19th, 2011 in the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia.

Under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), “Counterspin” will embark upon the momentous task of reconceptualizing and building the movement to counter and transform the social reality of the Filipino Canadian community – a transnational community caught in a cyclical state of permanent impermanence, induced by the ever-intensifying threats of neoliberal globalization and imperialism.

As a continuation of the first Counterspin titled “Towards a just and genuine settlement and integration: Link arms and unite for freedom,” held in the City of Montreal on April 30th until May 1st of 2010, women, workers, and youth, from the Filipino Canadian community, will once again gather to deepen and strengthen their resolve to realize our community’s entitlements of fully participating in the broader Canadian society as makers of history and as a people for social transformation.

Organized by the nationally formed organizations housed under the Kalayaan (Freedom) Centre in Vancouver, The Magkaisa (Unity) Centre in Toronto, and the Kapit Bisig (Link Arms) Centre in Montreal, the two-day conference will usher in a new phase in the rich history of our educating, mobilizing, and organizing work in the Filipino Canadian community. Armed with the challenge to proactively advance our successful development, empowerment, and community building in Canada, this vital undertaking is all the more paramount for the coming future generations to inherit our community’s legacy of struggle and resistance.

As Filipinos have been coming to Canada for over five decades, becoming the third largest immigrant group in the country, the call for a just and genuine settlement and integration have taken the centre focus in valiantly tackling our issues as workers, women, youth, and as peoples of colour – systematically pushed to the physical, cultural, social, economic, and political peripheries of society by the very system that boasts of diversity and multiculturalism. We have arrived at a new dawn of identifying with a truly progressive perspective that expressively and assertively places the struggles and the best interests of the most oppressed and exploited at the forefront of self-recognition, community representation, and cultural affiliation.

Thus, as we sharpen our tools in creating a progressive movement for the future of the Filipino Canadian community, this two-day conference will be indicative of our community’s renewed vigour and political will to take action towards countering economic marginalization, systemic racism and social exclusion. “Counterspin” will provide the venue for us to share and learn from one another as we deepen our understanding of our current collective realities, as well as our roles in changing and shaping our community’s future in Canada. “Counterspin” is and will be a symbol of the progressive Filipino Canadian community’s assertion for the advancement of the struggle for genuine settlement and integration towards our full participation and entitlement in Canadian society! Let us live out history by taking part in its creation!

“Counterspin: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration”
National conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia
6476 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC
Registration is $25.00 (includes 2 meals and conference materials)

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For more information or to register, please contact the conference secretariat:
Krystle Alarcon; 778-321-8275; krystle.alarcon@gmail.com
Jon Nieto; 778-384-7378; jonziphone@gmail.com
Arlene Oropel; 778- 317-5265; ajalex12jaylon@gmail.com

So much to learn, so much to see! Learn why we came to Canada in the first place and celebrate International Workers Day with SIKLAB-ON and UKPC-ON: http://www.magkaisacentre.org/2011/04/21/intl-workers-day/.

Listen up & learn about the Canada’s labour and immigration programs and how it affects us. ‘Cuz we all know we didn’t come to Canada just to ski.

Come celebrate International Workers Day with the Magkaisa Centre: http://www.magkaisacentre.org/2011/04/11/working-class-struggle/

The Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) encourages all working class Canadians, before stepping into the voting booth on May 2nd, to cast aside the talking heads on television and examine their own conditions as workers in this country. Rather than getting caught up in the scandals of the political elite, we must go back and examine our struggle in this period of economic crisis. Among other paramount issues, it is necessary to examine the cutbacks to settlement funding, the reduction of sponsorship for parents and grandparents and the continued privatization of healthcare, childcare, eldercare and care for people with disabilities. During this election, we must pay critical attention to the underlying motive of neoliberalism that runs through each platform.

While economists and Prime Minister Stephen Harper have argued that Canada is a world leader in recovering from the economic crisis, we must look back and recognize the government cutbacks and austerity measures that have been made at our expense. Since the beginning of the year, the Federal government has cut $53 million from settlement services. Meanwhile, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) Minister Jason Kenney proudly announced record-breaking entry numbers of immigrants into Canada: over 280,636 immigrants, with equally staggering recruitment numbers of 182,322 temporary foreign workers and 7,661 live-in caregivers. However, family sponsorship for parents and grandparents were drastically cut, with a drop of almost 5,000 from 2006 to 2010. As Kenny’s unabashed pronouncement of the roll-out of the government’s neoliberal agenda, he bluntly stated that “We need more newcomers working, paying taxes and contributing to our healthcare system.”

For the CPFC, a “strong economy” in a country that prides itself as a champion of human rights should not depend on the cheap labour of workers from the Global South who are legislated to work under exploitative and oppressive conditions. It is a hypocrisy to welcome immigrants into a country while eliminating funding for their successful integration and hindering their ability to reunite with their loved ones. What this government and its political parties have failed to mention is that we are not out of the economic crisis, and the push for contractualization, deregulation and privatization is the real platform on the table, as blatantly apparent in strategies on immigration, labour and healthcare.

Today, Canadians take pride in “Tommy” Douglas’ contribution of universal healthcare. Though several decades have passed since, very few leaps have been made with the healthcare system. With all political platforms out in the open, it is clear that the government does not want to take responsibility for the increasing elderly population and the serious need for a national childcare strategy. Using the terms “family care” and “caregiving,” all the mainstream political parties have tried to fool Canadians into believing that real improvements will be made. The Conservatives argue that “respecting” Canadian’s rights to choose their own means of childcare merits $1,200 a year for a child under six (Universal Child Care Benefit) and $2,000 dollars a year for a child under 18 (Child Tax Benefit). They also believe providing a Family Caregiver Tax Credit of $2,000 will be enough for family members to take care of their elderly and sick loved ones.

Similarly, the Liberals and New Democrats have no real strategy, as they are only either adding benefits or credit variations of their own. According to the Liberals, 2.7 million Canadians provide care for seniors and family caregivers provide 80% of homecare services, which total to about $9 billion dollars in unpaid work. While the Liberals have promised $1 billion in a Family Care Employment Insurance Benefit and a Family Care Tax Benefit for up to $1,350, the New Democrats have matched this with an offer to extend the Employment Insurance Compassionate Care Benefit to six months as well as creating a Caregiver Benefit ($1,500 per year). While government officials boast of setting records and being leaders, the real picture in Canada is that care giving is a sector that is completely neglected. What these political parties have given are platforms that are merely a patchwork of benefits and credits that are short-term strategies to deal with a serious long-term concern.

While much is mentioned about family care, nothing has been said about the Canadian government’s de facto national childcare program of the Live-In Caregiver Program (97% of participants being Filipino women) – a violent program that continues to marginalize and deskill the Filipino Canadian community. It has never been mentioned in any campaign, but continues to be a cheap substitute for eldercare, childcare and care for people with disabilities in this country.

The direction Canada is moving into is a neoliberal future: it is a highly dependent and unstable economy fuelled and maintained by, but not limited to, the cheap labour of the Global South, the continued privatization of public services and assets, and the exploitation of Canadian workers. May 2nd is not just another election – it also provides Canadians another glimpse of the neoliberal agenda. Based on their platforms, it is clear that the mainstream parties would provide little change in Canada’s overall direction. Now more than ever, it is crucial for the working class and the workers from the South to awaken and exercise their democratic rights even after the elections. Democracy does not stop after May 2nd, and as such, CPFC will continue to expose and oppose neoliberalism in all its forms and will strongly move forward to advance the struggle of the working class in Canada.

Watch the promo vid! Take action through SIKLAB-ON and UKPC-ON’s upcoming event, “Advance the Working Class Struggle,” April 30, 2-5pm @ OISE 5280: http://www.magkaisacentre.org/2011/04/11/working-class-struggle/

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For more information, contact:
Joy C . Sioson
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org

A conversation led by Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), rooted a comprehensive understanding of women’s issues within the perspective of class struggle, racial discrimination and gender oppression. While women of colour have been rendered invisible as permanent sources of cheap labour by the neoliberal agenda of globalization, it is precisely their struggle that must become central to the overall struggle for equality and liberation, as Diocson noted. “Our history and experiences as Filipino Canadian women necessitates a vision for radical change within the community and as members of Canadian society. We will no longer keep our eyes closed as our women’s poverty and underdevelopment continues to be inherited by the next generation,” Diocson asserts. As the lecture has showed, progressive Filipino Canadian women are now proudly contributing to the reconceptualization of the Canadian women’s movement, enriching the struggle with a dynamic and grounded understanding of the inseperable issues of race, class and gender.

Diocson’s lecture called on all women to reclaim and strengthen the century-long legacy of revolutionary women’s resistance in the face of women’s growing demands for equality, human rights and genuine development, which are still largely unaddressed for working-class and racialized women. The continued existence of the Live-in Caregiver Program, a program that essentially perpetuates the modern-day slavery of the 97% of Filipino women it employs, directly impinges upon any advancements made by the women’s movement. “If women’s liberation is to be truly realized, we cannot accept the continued existence of a program that is based on the modern-day slavery of women,” says Kim Abis, UKPC@UofT member and Women and Gender Studies student.

As demonstrated by the event’s solidarity performances, empowerment and liberation on the revolutionary road can be actualized through the transformative capacity of arts and culture. Three songs performed by Sinag Bayan Ontario, an arts and culture collective composed of members of the Magkaisa Centre organizations, expressed women’s collective will to boldly march forward on the revolutionary road without inhibition.

Following on the heels of UKPC@York’s 1st public lecture, the success of “Reclaiming the Revolutionary Road Towards Women’s Liberation” is a mark of UKPC/FCYA-ON’s commitment to intensify their efforts in educating, organizing and mobilizing for the Filipino Canadian community’s just and genuine settlement and integration. Another public lecture by UKPC@UofT is sure to challenge all to build the strong foundational knowledge necessary in making the Filipino Canadian community count in Canada’s future.

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See our photos on Flickr!

For more information, contact:
Ken Santos
416-519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org

Aside from the big show in April, there’ll be a few events taking place this month to build up excitement about Something Else, Something Fierce. For info, tickets and artist bios, check out napwcsomethingfierce.com.

A lecture presented by Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), will emphasize the need to continue building upon the revolutionary ideas and actions of working-class women that were crucial in propelling the women’s liberation movement in the Global North. Besides celebrating the progress set forth by the resistance of revolutionary women for the last century, the event also poses a challenge to all women, feminists and women’s groups to embark upon the revolutionary road towards the genuine emancipation and liberation of all women, especially working-class women and women of colour in Canada.

“As women of colour play a key role as members of the Canadian women’s movement, we have to address women’s oppression comprehensively. Real gains for all women must be based on a dynamic understanding race, class and gender,” says Diocson. The systemic relegation and subjugation of women of colour from the South, particularly Filipino women, to become domestic workers through the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) is a clear indication of the ongoing oppression, marginalization and exclusion that women of colour face. “We cannot be liberated while the LCP continues to exist, and while the absence of a national childcare program for all women continues to persist,” she continues.

“During this 100th year anniversary of IWD, we believe that all roads that lead towards women’s liberation must serve all women regardless of race or class, and must address the oppression and exploitation of working-class and women of colour in Canada,” says Kim Abis, a UKPC@UofT member and undergraduate student. While regressive economic policies such as the LCP continue to pit women against each other on the grounds of race or class, its detrimental impacts continue to be shouldered by racialized women, who often carry their community’s economic burden.

“It is time to reclaim the revolutionary road towards genuine women’s liberation and place the struggles of proletarian women at the forefront of the struggles towards women’s and class liberation. This is the only way to truly bring back the militancy and activism back to the women’s movement,” says Aila Comilang, a UKPC@York and PWC member. “The revolutionary road towards women’s liberation will not leave any aspect of reality untouched and is not limited to women alone. Within our context as Filipino Canadian women, it is a road that will simultaneously lead towards our liberation and towards the just and genuine settlement and integration of the entire Filipino Canadian community,” ends Comilang.

“Reclaim the Revolutionary Road towards Women’s Liberation” will challenge all women to embrace the struggles of working class women and to forge solidarity along anti-racist and anti-imperialist lines that are fundamental towards building a strong women’s liberation movement in Canada.

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For more information, contact:
Kenneth Santos
416-519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org

Guest Speaker Cecilia Diocson
Executive Director, National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)

Saturday, March 5th, 2011, 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Doors open at 5:30 PM

OISE Room 5250
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), 252 Bloor St. West

Tickets are $10 in advance or at the door
Celebration includes a fundraising dinner and cultural performances

Part of UKPC@UofT’s lecture series
Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance/Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada–Ontario @ University of Toronto)

During this 100th year anniversary of International Women’s Day, the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) in collaboration with UKPC@UofT invites everyone to an empowering night featuring a fundraising dinner with a public lecture and cultural performances in celebration of the century-long legacy of revolutionary women’s struggle. Initially wrought a hundred years ago by women garment and factory workers who marched the streets of New York in outright refusal of their severe working conditions, the very existence of International Women’s Day is a testament of the revolutionary ideas, processes and actions that have built and strengthened the growing women’s movement. During the celebration, a dynamic discussion by Cecilia Diocson is set to highlight the necessity of reclaiming the revolutionary road towards genuine women’s liberation, as a call to all women to reclaim the struggle of working-class women as an integral component to the struggle of the entire working-class.

As women are often the hardest-hit by regressive economic policies, Ms. Diocson’s discussion is to be a sure reminder of how women’s intensifying marginalization and exploitation are fueled by the anti-woman and anti-worker neoliberal project for economic expansion. Since slave societies of the past until today’s advanced capitalist order, any means of survival made through accumulation and expansion has been established at the expense of women, particularly women of colour. It is no surprise that Canada’s drive for economic competitiveness has been fueled by the systematic conscription of women from the South into its reserve army of cheap labour, clearly seen in the Filipino Canadian community’s experience of being legislated into poverty through policies such as the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP).

As the discussion is to put forth, all Canadians and all women must face the challenge of women’s exploitation and commodification head-on, without any recourse to reform or compromise. UKPC@UofT and PWC-ON’s celebratory night featuring a fundraising dinner with a public lecture and cultural performances is sure to inspire all to reclaim the revolutionary road towards genuine women’s liberation.