4th Event: Capitalism and Ecology, June 28

When: Thursday June 28. 5:45 – 7:30 PM

Where: China Creek Park, at 10th and Clark. We will be on the Clark side; There will be a visible banner reading “Revolution is a Garden Party”.

Join us for Free Food! Food Not Bombs dinner provided. Presentations and a workshop to explore:

–Can capitalism ever be “green”?

–How does commodification affect living and environmental systems?

–How can we build response-able relationships between our communities and environmental systems?

Speakers include:

Erin Innes: Feminist permaculture activist/teacher, and founder of the Farmhouse Farm, Vancouver’s first bike-powered backyard Community Supported Agriculture project.

Eric Doherty: transportation planner, environmental consultant, and longtime activist and organizer on environmental justice.

Patrick Condon: Sustainable urban designer; he is now senior researcher with the Design Centre for Sustainability at UBC.

Randy Chatterjee: Founding member of Village Vancouver, the Transition initiator for the Lower Mainland of British Columbia

Accessibility information:
10th avenue is a bike lane.
Parking on 10th, 11th, and Glen
Wheelchair accessible from 10th, 11th, and Clark
We will have a extra chairs for those who cannot/do not want to sit on the ground.
Vegan and Gluten free food will be available.
No Bathroom facilities at the Park

Third event: Capitalism and Patriarchy. DATE CHANGE!

Due to scheduling conflicts, we’re moving our Capitalism and Patriarchy event.  The event will be held on Friday, June 1.

Seeing the Strings presents:
Capitalism and Patriarchy
Friday, June 1

SFU Harbour Centre room 1400.
By donation, no one turned away for lack of funds

Join us for presentations and a workshop exploring:

How is sexism fundamental to capitalism?
How does violence against women and gender-nonconforming people support capitalism?
How does defining our own relationship to gender undermine capitalism?

Presenters:

Dr. Amy Hanser, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, UBC. Dr. Hanser researches and teaches on work, social inequality, gender, economy, and culture. Her current research is on consumption and inequality in China,  and social change in Chinese marketplaces. She has published a book, and a wide array of academic articles, chapters, and collections.

Mary Shearman. Mary is a PhD Candidate at SFU in the department of gender, sexuality and women’s studies doing a longitudinal study on the regulation of feminine sexuality and expression.Mary moved to Vancouver from Ottawa after doing a BA honours in theatre when she realized that her degree would land her a job with the federal government if she stayed put.  When Mary arrived in Vancouver to do her MA project on feminist theatre for young audiences, she planned on dropping out of school but, almost 8 years later- hasn’t followed through with that plan yet…

Esther Shannon. Esther is a longtime feminist activist who has worked with community-based feminist organizations on a wide variety of women’s issues and as a feminist journalist and researcher and as a  communications specialist. She is a founding member of FIRST, a national coalition of  feminists working advocating for the decriminalization of sex work and for sex worker human and labour rights.

Second Event Announced! Capitalism and Colonialism: Moving Forward Looking Back

We’re pleased to announce our second event, being held on April 13th at SFU Harbour Centre.  The topic is “Capitalism and Colonialism: Moving Forward Looking Back,” with great speakers including local artist and First Nations activist Gord Hill.  Info is below, hope to see you there and please spread the word!

Seeing the Strings presents:
Capitalism and Colonialism: Moving Forward Looking Back
Friday April 13. 7pm. SFU Harbour Centre room 1400.
By donation, no one turned away for lack of funds

As Occupy protests have erupted across the world to decry the injustice of our current economic system, the question arises: What are we fighting against? At present, Vancouver lacks any adequate forum for understanding what capitalism is and how it functions. It is for this reason that we are hosting the Seeing the Strings series of teach-ins to explore how capitalism operates, its inherent violence, and how it interacts with other forms of oppression (eg. sexism, colonialism, criminalization, etc).

Our second event is Capitalism and Colonialism: Moving Forward Looking Back, being held at Harbour Centre on April 13th.

What is the intertwined history of capitalism and colonialism? How is colonialism still occurring in “Canada” today? What is its violence? How does it affect indigenous people? How does it affect non-indigenous people? What are some indigenous alternatives to capitalism and how to use the land?

Please join us to address these and other questions about capitalism, colonialism, and their alternatives.  Hope to see you there!

Gord Hill is an indigenous artist, activist, and defender of the land. He is author of “500 Years of Indigenous Resistance” and “The Anti-Capitalist Resistance Comic Book”.

Anna Soole is a Metis social justice facilitator and experimental educator, specializing in forum theater. She works with youth, Aboriginal communities, queer communities, and others, to develop agency and transformation.

First Teach-In Announced! March 23: Capitalism And You

We’re excited to announce the first in our series of teach-ins on capitalism, what it is, and how it works.  Our first event, Capitalism and You, will be held at the Vancouver Public Library on March 23rd.  Are you curious about exactly what it is that we Occupiers mean when we say that we’re protesting against “capitalism?” Or maybe you are an Occupier, and want to gain a clearer understanding of how we all got into this mess, and what some strategies might be for getting ourselves out.  How do all the diverse issues that the 99% are facing tie together, and what can we do about it?  How are we all effected by our economic system, and how can we stand together to make it more just, equitable, and sustainable?  Come on down to the VPL on March 23rd and let’s figure it out together!

Capitalism and You
Friday, March 23, 2012, 7-9 PM
Downtown Vancouver Public Library, Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye room
By donation, no one turned away for lack of funds

What are the basics of capitalism? How is it connected to different
forms of exploitation? How does capitalism shape you? Join us for two
short presentations, group discussion, and a short workshop.

Presentations by Iglika Ivanova, Researcher with the Canadian Center
for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and Matthew Wildcat, PhD student in
Anarcha-Indiginism at UBC.

Stay tuned for details on our second event:

Capitalism & Colonialism. Friday April 13, 2012. 7-9 pm. SFU Harbour Centre, rm 1400.

Seeing the Strings: A Series of Teach-ins on the Oppressions that Hold Capitalism Up

As Occupy protests have erupted across the world to decry the injustice of our current economic system, the question arises: What are we fighting against? At present, Vancouver lacks any adequate forum for broad-based deliberation about what capitalism is and how it functions. It is for this reason that we are hosting a series of teach-ins to explore how capitalism operates, its inherent violence, and how it intersects with other forms of oppression.

Our aim is to initiate meaningful deliberation in Vancouver around how capitalism operates, and its reliance on both visible and invisible forms of domination and exploitation in order to function. Rather than being simply a lecture series, we hope to create a learning space where attendees become participants, working together by sharing and analyzing their experiences. The planned events will bring together a range of scholars, activists, organizers, and occupiers, as well as others interested in exploring how capitalism affects both their and others’ lives.

Each event will be split into three equally important components that will work to build both personal and community-wide understanding of the topics. First, a discussant will explore the themes of the event within a historical and theoretical context. This will create a system-wide explanation or “big picture,” demonstrating not only what the specific form of oppression addressed is, but also how it operates within capitalism. The aim of this presentation is to introduce the conceptual framework that will operate throughout the night. Then, a second speaker will explore the topic in a historically present context, using examples from living communities to reveal the connections between past and present, theory and practice. This speaker will not only expose how certain oppressions intersect with capitalism, but will also bring to light how these oppressions may function outside of capitalism. Thus, this speaker will illustrate both the connections and disconnections of various forms of oppression within capitalism. The third component of the night will be a participatory workshop, with strong facilitation, involving all attendees. There will be small group discussions with small or large group movement activities that will enable individuals to explore how the topic at hand functions in their own life, to learn about the experiences of others, and to see that oppression functions systemically, affecting everyone in different ways. Using these three components, and by exploring a variety of connected oppressions, we hope to facilitate holistic education about what we are fighting against when we protest capitalism.