PROPOSAL DEADLINE EXTENSION:

Though we’ve received a lot of kick ass proposals, we’ve decided to extend our deadline so that folks have some extra time to come up with ideas and get them in to us.

We’ll be accepting proposals until THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012.

Breaking Bars, Building Bridges:

Challenging the Prison System & Fostering Communities of Support

WPIRG’s 2012 SCHOOL OF PUBLIC INTEREST

Friday February 10 – Sunday February 12, 2012

In spite of widespread opposition, the statement made by two provinces (Ontario and Quebec) that they will refuse to pay – and even the warnings of the state of Texas – Canada’s Bill C-10, the Conservative Omnibus Crime Bill, is poised to become law by March 16, 2012. The bill will institute sweeping changes that will produce more crime and more prisoners, just in time to fill the super-prisons scheduled for construction across the country.

Meanwhile, grassroots activists continue to be criminalized in their fight for justice. After 18 months living under severely restrictive bail conditions, six anti-G20 activists from communities across the province were sentenced on November 22^nd, 2011 to serve time in jail. Their charges stemmed from their political organizing. Still yet, marginalized communities continue to be targeted on a daily basis by the policing and prison apparatus. Police murders continue across the continent with impunity, and police brutality remains a daily reality within and outside prison walls.

As we struggle for a just world, one without oppression or inhumanity, where the earth is respected and all are free, we must realize that the context of our work is changing. Harper’s agenda will see an escalation in the criminalization of dissent, activism, and direct action. As social supports for the poor continue to evaporate under neoliberal attacks, more members of our community will end up behind bars, even as global resistance to the austerity agenda continues to mount. And while the government and corporations continue to pillage indigenous lands and suppress community self-determination, Aboriginal people make up a massively disproportionate segment of the prison population.

In the spirit of solidarity, WPIRG invites all community-based activists, people impacted by the prison system, communities and supporters of prisoners, and anyone who sees value in gathering to resist the institution, to join us in our 2012 School of Public Interest, which will focus on challenging criminalization, supporting prisoners, and building alternatives.

Our goal is to provide a space for in-depth conversation of prison justice and abolition, opportunities for networking and strategizing, and a radical education venue geared towards sharing knowledge, skills, and tools to further our everyday activism and integrate prison justice into our different struggles. We especially hope to strengthen a southern Ontario network that can effectively coordinate local grassroots mobilizations against prison expansion and criminalization over the coming years. Travel subsidies are available. Please contact us for more information on them.

We welcome individuals and organizations to submit proposals for workshops, discussions, and trainings. We are very interested in disseminating practical skills and tools, and also encourage non-expert driven discussions which ask questions to stimulate discussion – this means we value the voices and experiences of prisoners, their families, friends, and communities, and refuse to limit ourselves to a narrow definition of “activist” or “expert.” In your proposal, please include a paragraph explaining the topic, a brief description of the format (lecture, participatory workshop, facilitated discussion, etc), and the desired outcome or goal of your session.

Please submit proposals to spi.waterloo@gmail.com by Thursday January 5, 2012. And please stay tuned for more information!

Possible Discussion Themes:

• the impact of bill C-10 and harper’s criminal agenda
• strategies for resistance to prison expansion
• the criminalization of dissent
• supporting prisoner activism
• political prisoners on turtle island/north america
• criminalization of people without status and refugees
• intersections between the struggle against the prison-industrial complex and fighting other systems of oppression (e.g. feminism; anti-racism; indigenous sovereignty/decolonization; migrant justice; disability justice; environmental justice; anti-poverty)
• restorative justice / transformative justice / alternatives to incarceration
• political vs. social incarceration
• sharing skills and organizational models (e.g. copwatching, letter-writing, book drives, noise demos, campaigning)
• police/prison abuses and seeking justice
• working for reform from an analysis of abolition
• prisoner support & solidarity
• social construction of crime
• radical, or anarchist, criminology
• prison expansion & capitalism
• gender-based experiences of incarceration
• “mainstreaming” and engaging the public on prison justice and abolition
• creative expressions of resistance

Who Streets? G20 Book Launch Celebration!

Book Launch and Community Fundraiser

Friday, November 25^th 2011

7pm till late!

Rum Runner Pub- 1 King St. West, Kitchener

Join us for an evening celebration to mark the release of ‘Whose Streets: The Toronto G20 and the Challenges of Summit Protest’ and ‘Upping the Anti- Issue 13′ with a media showcase, selections from the book presented by authors and local activists, and more!

In June 2010, in the midst of ongoing global economic crisis, thousands of activists gathered in Toronto to oppose the latest round of bank bailouts, austerity measures and anti-democratic economic policies being coordinated by the G20. They were greeted with arbitrary state violence on a scale never before seen in Canada.

Whose Streets? is a combination of testimonials from the front lines and analyses of the broader context, an account that both reflects critically on what occurred in Toronto and looks ahead to further building our capacity for resistance.

Featuring reflections from activists who helped organize the mobilizations, demonstrators and passersby who were arrested and detained, and scholars committed to the theory and practice of confronting neoliberal capitalism, the collection balances critical perspective with on-the-street intensity. It offers vital insight for activists on how local organizing and global activism can come together.

http://www.btlbooks.com/book/whosestreets

WHEN: Wednesday, October 26th 7-9pm

WHERE: Multi-Purpose Room (Student Life Centre): University of Waterloo

Long exploited as a resource-extraction colony within the US, the Appalachian Mountains are home to a fight for survival whose outcome will determine in part the industrial power of this country. Without coal, there would be no ‘cheap’ electricity. Today’s energy corporations and government bodies are continuing to show the extent of their violence and greed as they push their extractive agendas in the “New Coal Rush.”

Our insatiable demand for cheap power has lead to the most extreme, devastating form of coal mining yet, Mountaintop Removal (MTR). The TRUE COST OF COAL graphic uses MTR in Appalachia as a lens through which to understand the historical and contemporary story of ENGERY, RESOURCE EXTRACTION and of AMERICAN EMPIRE accelerating throughout the world.  Wewill expose the DECEPTIONS of CLEAN COAL technologies and bring to light the ensuing CLIMATE CHAOS facing the world today.

With a gigantic portable teeming with intricate images of plants and animals from the most bio-diverse temperate forest on the planet, the Bees will share (and seek) stories of how coal mining and Mountaintop Removal affect communities and ecosystems throughout Appalachia and beyond.

This graphic also looks to the future, raising questions about resistance, regeneration, and remediation while celebrating stories of struggle from mountain communities. The TRUE COST OF COAL will challenge all of us who casually flip on a light switch to examine our own connections to MTR- and to think about what we can do to stop it from within our own communities.

Learn more about this graphics campaign at beehivecollective.org

Join WPIRG for a daylong direct action training!

Direct action has played an integral role in most movements for social change, from the civil rights era to the suffragettes, and from forest defense and worker justice movements. This workshop is for people who are newer to direct action, and are interested in learning about different kinds of direct action, as well as the basics of when, why and how to integrate direct action into your campaigns. Topics to be covered include: action strategy, building your action team, common roles in a direct action, decision-making at actions, basic safety considerations, knowing your rights, the consequences of taking action, escalation and de-escalation.

About the Trainer: Jessica Bell is a trainer for the Ruckus Society and a lecturer at Ryerson University.

The training is free, lunch will be provided, and is open to both students and community members. The venue is wheelchair accessible, and childcare will be provided upon request.

Email tammy@wpirg.org to register.

Books to Prisoners: Mondays 6-7pm

Craftivist Skillshare: Mondays 6-8pm

Students Against Animal Cruelty (SAAC): Tuesdays 2-3pm

KW Indigenous Solidarity Action Group: Tuesdays (bi-weekly) 6-8pm (starting Oct. 4th)

Waterloo Region Rainbow Coalition: Tuesdays (bi-weekly) 7-9pm (starting Oct.11th) @ The Faculty of Social Work (120 Duke st. Kitchener)

FreeSkool: Wednesdays (bi-weekly) 2-3pm (starting Oct. 5th)

Climate Action Project: Wednesdays 6pm

Grand River Media Collective: Fridays 2-3pm @ Sound FM (142 Waterloo st.)

Food Not Bombs: Saturdays 11:30 am cooking @ the Working Centre & 1:30pm serving @ City Hall

Community Garden: Tuesdays and Sundays 5-8pm

The university campus is many things: a place for education and exploration, a venue for the sharing of ideas and development of relationships, and also a potential breeding ground for social justice organizing and political resistance.

Running September 19th-24th DisOrientation is WPIRG’s alternative orientation week, and is your portal into environmental and social justice organizing on campus and beyond! DisOrientation 2011 will introduce students, both new and returning, to the radical side of campus and the community. Acknowledging that there is so much more to university life than parties and pub crawls, and that critical, meaningful learning takes place outside the confines of the classroom, DisOrientation will introduce participants to the possibilities of becoming engaged in campus and community organizing, and provide you with the skills, knowledge and tools necessary to take action on social and environmental justice issues.

Social and Ethical Responsibility Group: Wednesdays from 6:30pm-7:30pm

Students Against Animal Cruelty: Mondays from 4pm-5pm

Creative Activism Collective: Tuesdays from 6pm-7pm

Bring Your Own Bottle: Mondays from 2:30-3:30pm

Climate Action Project: Wednesdays from 6pm-7pm

Reproductive Justice Collective: Thursdays from 12pm-1pm

Books to Prisoners: Mondays from 5:30pm-6:30pm

Amnesty International: Thursdays from 5pm-6pm

Food Not Bombs: Saturdays meet at the Working Centre kitchen at 11am to cook or at the entrance of Kitchener City Hall at 2pm to serve

Community Gardeners: Tuesdays after 4pm and Sundays after 4pm at the Community Garden (near the intersection of Columbia and Westmount)