Montreal's student protesters have put down their signs and are taking something of a break until classes resume in August. Meanwhile, there is time to examine the movement against tuition hikes and the methods it used to draw local and international support.
One of the most attention-grabbing tactics of the student movement is its use of nudity, specifically topless women. There were many "nude" student protests over the months, the most notable during the Montreal Grand Prix.
Lindsey German has an excellent knowledge of women’s history, and has written two perceptive books about women in the second half of the twentieth century, Sex, Class and Socialism (Bookmarks 1998) and Material Girls (Bookmarks 2007). As is well-known, she is also the National Convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, the biggest ever mass movement in Britain, and the one which organised the largest demonstration in British history on February 15, 2003, against war in Iraq. She is therefore the perfect person to write a book about women and war over the last one hundred years, and no one who reads How a Century of War Changed the Lives of Women will be disappointed.
One hundred years ago Sunday was the watershed 1913 women's suffrage march in Washington, D.C. Plus, Friday is International Women's Day. It's therefore the perfect moment to reflect on the strategies and tactics of several generations of amazing women.
We all know that the suffragettes won in the end by securing the vote for U.S. women in 1920. But to stop with that fact is to miss the phenomenal, inspirational, often nail-biting and groundbreaking campaign that preceded their win, as well as the lessons they have for activists today.
In honour of International Women's Day, Vireo Research is hosting a screening of MissRepresentation - a documentary on how women are misrepresented in the media, and the subsequent impact on young women. You can view the trailer here: https://vimeo.com/42433365
Tickets are available now: http://vireomissrepresentation.eventbrite.ca/ or purchase at the door.
All proceeds will be donated to Plan Canada's initiative, Because I am a Girl.
We hope to see you there!
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Fifty years ago, on February 13, 1963, the publication of Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique sparked a new awakening in the thinking of women across North America.
Betty Friedan denounced the repression women suffered in the aftermath of World War II when they were forced out of wartime jobs and convinced to accept the role of keepers of the home. Profiteers of the market launched an unrelenting but subtle propaganda campaign to venerate women as wife and mother. This role, Friedan said, was the "feminine mystique."
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Judy Rebick was the spokesperson for the Morgentaler Clinic when it first opened in Toronto and later a key spokesperson for the Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics.
Monday, January 28 is the anniversary of the deepest and most important victory the women's movement in Canada has ever had. After almost 20 years of struggle, beginning with the Abortion Caravan in 1970, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the abortion law in a landmark decision citing women's right to privacy -- in effect women's rights to control their own bodies.
On Monday December 17th, the Missing Women's Commission of Inquiry report by Wally Oppal will be released by the provincial government to the public.
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Monday December 17th from 8:30 am till 2 pm
In the courtyard between the Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue and Delta Vancouver Suites.
(courtyard on Seymour Street between 550 and 580 West Hastings)
Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territories
Bring drums and candles.
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Come support family members - many of whom were initially denied travel assistance - who have only a few hours to review the report before it is made public.
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Juventina Villa knew her days were numbered. A leader of an environmental organization in the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, she and other activists have been in the crosshairs of organized crime and government forces for years. Her husband and two nephews were murdered this year.
On Nov. 28, one day before the International Day of Women Human Rights Defenders, Juventina was shot to death, along with her 17-year old son and before the eyes of her eight-year old daughter.