Upcoming events
In Person Workshop: How to Start a Tenants' Association
IN PERSON SDC WORKSHOP: How to start a tenants' association with Meg Walker and Lynn Intini!
Thursday, April 23rd
6:30-8pm
St. John the Evangelist Church Basement
Food Provided
Registration required: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/in-person-workshop-how-to-start-a-tenants-association-tickets-1986033213805
This session is for tenants who are thinking about organizing in their buildings or communities—and for anyone wanting to better understand how tenant associations are formed, sustained, and used to resist displacement. Join us for a practical, grounded workshop led by local organizers:
Meg Walker has been organizing in Waterloo Region for over a decade around housing and climate justice. She works with the Social Development Centre’s Eviction Prevention Team alongside tenants resisting mass evictions and displacement.
Lynn Intini brings extensive experience supporting tenant organizing and community-led advocacy efforts, with a focus on building collective capacity.
Together, they will walk through: how tenant associations get started; what it takes to organize with neighbours; common challenges and how to navigate them; strategies for building collective power in the face of displacement.
This is a participatory session so please come with questions, experiences, and a willingness to think together about what organizing can look like where you are. We’ll end with time to connect informally with others over light refreshments. We’re grateful to be building these conversations together. As always, please invite like-minded relations to join us!
All events are supported by the University of Waterloo Faculty of Health EDI-AR Seed Fund.
Workers Alliance: Motown and the Making of Working-Class Revolutionaries with Jerome Scott and Walda Katz-FIshman
Workers Alliance Organizers’ Talk: Motown and the Making of Working-Class Revolutionaries with Jerome Scott and Walda Katz-FIshman
Date: Sunday, April 26th
Time: 6-8pm
Location: Kitchener, Grand River Unitarian Congregation, 299 Sydney Street
Please join us for a book talk with veteran organizers and authors Jerome Scott, and Walda Katz-Fishman, on their book Motown and the Making of Working-Class Revolutionaries. The talk will explore the history of rank-and-file organizing in the auto industry, including the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, as well as lessons for workplace organizing, union democracy, and building worker power today. Follow them at @mowtownrevolutionaries.
Jerome Scott is a veteran labour organizer who was active with the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and continues to organize today through efforts like the Logistics Workers League, supporting organizing Amazon workers in the United States.
Walda Katz-Fishman is a professor of sociology at Howard university whose work focuses on labour, social movements, and political economy.
You can pre-register here! Google RSVP link
Organized and hosted by the Workers Alliance with support from the Theorypractice Lab.
Past events
Tenant Rights and Housing Justice: Conversation with Ricardo Tranjan & Meg Walker
Political economist Ricardo Tranjan will introduce the central argument of his book The Tenant Class, which reframes the so-called “housing crisis” as a site of class struggle between tenants and landlords. Meg Walker, a local tenant organizer with the Social Development Centre, will then guide discussion using questions gathered through her organizing work, followed by audience Q&A. Afterward, we’ll continue upstairs in the lounge for food, conversation, and relationship-building.
Registration Required: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/housing-justice-and-tenant-rights-with-ricardo-tranjan-and-meg-walker-tickets-1983278680923
About the book:
The Tenant Class places tenants and landlords on opposite sides of a class divide and challenges dominant myths about renters, affordability, and housing markets. Drawing on Canada’s history of collective action, Tranjan argues that organized tenants have the power to fight for decent homes and fair rent.
Supported by the University of Waterloo Faculty of Health EDI-AR Seed Fund and the Faculty of Health Teaching Fellows.
Housing Justice Online Teach-In: Bill 60 & Tenant Rights with Meg Walker
Join us for a virtual session with local tenant organizer Meg Walker to learn how Bill 60 weakens tenants’ rights and access to housing justice, affecting you, your neighbours, and the wider community. The session includes one hour of teaching followed by Q&A.
Meg Walker has been organizing in Waterloo Region for a decade around housing and climate justice. She works with the Social Development Centre’s Eviction Prevention Team alongside tenants resisting mass evictions and displacement.
Resources to explore: ACTO’s One Pager (attached) and Social Development Centre’s Resource Page
Registration required: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/housing-justice-online-teach-in-bill-60-tenant-rights-with-meg-walker-tickets-1983276124276
The Tenant Class Study Group with Dr. Adra Raine
Join us for donuts, coffee, and critical conversation as we prepare for The Tenant Class author Ricardo Tranjan’s March 3 in-person visit with the Lab (see details below). Through selected readings, reflection, and discussion, we’ll explore key ideas from The Tenant Class, including narratives, class struggle, housing as a political issue, and the history of tenant organizing in Canada. We’ll also generate questions for Tranjan and local organizers.
Registration Required: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/1983274656887
Virtual Teach-in on Venezuela with Dr. Justin Podur
Please join us online with the Theorypractice Lab in collaboration with Textile for a virtual teach-in into the history and current context in Venezuela with Dr. Justin Podur, co-author with Joe Emersberger of Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media, and 20 Year of Coup Attempts against Venezuela. On January 3, the US mounted a surprise attack, capturing the Venezuelan president and First Lady and killing over 100 Venezuelan military personnel and civilians. Why has the US, regardless of administration, exerted such pressure to try to overthrow Venezuela's government? How does Venezuela fit into other US plans and interventions? Is it oil? Or the politics of what Venezuelans call the "Bolivarian Revolution"? This talk will address these questions. Don't miss this chance to learn and engage with others passionate about global topics. Come ready to ask questions and expand your understanding!
Justin Podur is a professor at York University's Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change. His on-going work can be found at: https://podur.org/
Interventions 101: From Overwhelm to Action
Interventions 101: From Overwhelm to Action
Tuesday, November 18 | 6:30–8:30pm | Online (Zoom)
Facilitated by educator, writer, organizer, and our Lab’s community partner Dr. Adra Raine, this online session offers space to think through what issues matter to you and how we can effectively move from analysis to action. Together, we’ll explore pathways for intervention: investigating dilemmas, mapping obstacles, and connecting to movements in the region. Bring your questions, frustrations, and ideas. Your input will help shape future Lab events.
Free Public Screening of "The Cost of Growth" Documentary
The Cost of Growth: Film Screening and Discussion
Tuesday, November 11 | 5:30–8:30pm | EC5 1101, University of Waterloo
Join us for the Ontario screening of The Cost of Growth, a new documentary linking local struggles against resource extraction in Serbia, Italy, and Sapmi to broader questions of justice, democracy, and war. After the film, join us for food and conversation. Organized in collaboration with UW alum, Samuel Casais. Masks available.
See here for more info & registration
Laundering Black Rage Authors’ Talk
Authors’ Talk: Too Black and Rasul Mowatt
Laundering Black Rage Study Group
Library reading group, co-hosted by The Libraries w/ Jermal Jones
An Organizer's Workshop with Dr. Stuart Schussler
Join the Theorypractice Lab for a hands-on workshop with Dr. Stuart Schussler for students interested in community organizing towards liberation for all. Together participants will learn about Zapatista praxis (theory and practice in action), participate in small group activities to consider community organizing practices, and join in conversation with Dr. Schussler about his twenty years of experience organizing for Indigenous autonomy, migrant and refugee justice, and human rights. Please join us from 1-2:30pm in room DC-1568. In person: Masks appreciated. Registration required.