ABOUT SCHOLAR STRIKE 2020
TEACH-IN:
LEGACY OF POLICING INDIGENOUS LANDS AND BODIES IN CANADA
WITH PAM PALMATER
MODERATED BY BEVERLY BAIN
9/10/2020
TEACH-IN:
SCHOLARS AND EDUCATORS
FOR BLACK LIVES
WITH SANDY HUDSON
MODERATED BY JANELLE BRADY
9/9/2020
TEACH-IN:
SOLEMN PROMISES/ STOLEN LAND: POLICE & TREATY-BREAKING 1492 LAND BACK LANE
WITH ELDER EILEEN ANTONE, COURTNEY SKYE,
KEVIN WHITE, AND DALE TURNER
MODERATED BY SUSAN HILL
9/9/2020
TEACH-IN:
THE RACE TO INCARCERATE IN THE UNIVERSITY
WITH BEVERLY BAIN AND IDIL ABDILIAHI
MODERATED BY ROSALIND HAMPTON
9/10/2020
TEACH-IN:
TWO CRISES: A VIRUS AND LABOUR
WITH RINALDO WALCOTT
MODERATED BY LLANA JAMES
9/10/2020
TEACH-IN:
CO-CONSPIRING AGAINST CARCERAL SYSTEMS
WITH MEGAN SCRIBE AND BILLY-RAY BELCOURT
MODERATED BY EVE TUCK
9/10/2020
TEACH-IN:
BLACK TAX AND THE INVISIBLE LABOUR
OF BLACK WOMEN IN THE ACADEMY
WITH ANDREA DAVIS
MODERATED BY MICHELE ANTOINETTE
9/10/2020
TEACH-IN:
MIGRANT WORKERS IN CANADA:
UNFREE LABOUR ON STOLEN LAND
WITH CHRIS RAMSAROOP, ADRIAN SMITH,
AND EVELYN ENCALADA GREZ
MODERATED BY MIN SOOK LEE
9/9/2020
TEACH-IN:
GENDER, COLONIALISM, AND
ANTI-BLACK POLICE RACIST VIOLENCE
WITH ERICA VIOLET LEE AND EL JONES
MODERATED BY OMISOORE DRYDEN
9/10/2020
TEACH-IN:
ABOLITION OR DEATH:
CONFRONTING POLICE FORCES IN CANADA
WITH DESMOND COLE
MODERATED BY BEVERLY BAIN
9/9/2020
Scholar Strike Canada originated as a labour action in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, to protest anti-Black, anti-Indigneous, racist and colonial police brutality in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere. Over 3,000 University workers signed our solidarity statement and took part in historic labour action that took place on September 9 - 10, 2020. For those two days, we paused our teaching and all administrative duties. Through Sept 9 - 10, 2020, Scholar Strike Canada hosted public digital teach-ins on state-sanctioned violence as part of the systemic violence that materially disenfranchises Black, Indigenous and racialized people, and is a contemporary function of slavery, carcerality and colonialism in the world today. Speakers included: Courtney Skye, El Jones, Desmond Cole, Eve Tuck, Rinaldo Walcott, Andrea Davis, Erica Violet Lee, Chris Ramsaroop and many others. Our live-streamed public digital teach-ins garnered over 60,000K views in 48 hrs.
Watch all of our teach-ins here on our Scholar Strike Canada YouTube Channel.
Scholar Strike originated in the U.S from a tweet by Dr. Anthea Butler who, inspired by the striking WNBA and NBA players, put out a call for a similar labour action from academics. The Canadian action is aligned with the one in the U.S., in its call for racial justice, an end to anti-Black police violence and it adds a specific focus on anti-Indigenous, colonial violence.
The List of Demands that we called for in September 2020 remain relevant right now:
List of Demands
Statements of solidarity, while important, are not enough. We must commit ourselves as scholars, artists, writers, poets, designers and researchers to actively ending all forms of racist, carceral, institutional and systemic forms of violence.
• We must support the demands for defunding the police and redistributing those resources to Black, Indigenous, racialized, queer and trans communities for the creation of sustainable and healthy communities.
• We must support demands to remove campus police. All agreements between policing institutions and universities must be rescinded.
• We must address the historic and current underrepresentation of Black and Indigenous faculty (full and part-time) in all Canadian institutions and press University Administrations to prioritize the urgency of these faculty hires.
• We commit to supporting meaningful efforts to recruit, admit, retain and mentor Black, Indigenous and racialized undergraduate and graduate students.
• We must support the campaign by CUPE 3261 to stop the University of Toronto from contracting out caretaking services thereby relinquishing its responsibility to safeguard secure and suitable paying jobs and health and safety of workers
• We must advocate for the creation, expansion, and maintenance of mental health and health care resources for students at our universities.
• We must support the demand for affordable education, sustainable jobs and housing for students and cultural professionals across all the universities.
Through our historical political action we saw something extraordinary come together. We know there is a hunger for political conversations and action in this moment of change. We want to continue the momentum and be part of that change with you.
We are both community activists who also work in academia. We have decided to continue programming and co-hosting teach-ins featuring activists, academics & artists on our channel and would like to invite you to stay connected. We know now is the time to grow, connect and mobilize our activist/academic communities across Canada through actions, teach-ins and social media.
We will also use our website, youtube channel and newsletter update you on upcoming teach-ins and spread the news of actions & events.
In Solidarity,
Min Sook & Beverly