Wednesday, 23 March 2016
Jobs, Meaningful Jobs, No Jobs - March 22 Insight TV discussion
An important discussion broke out on the Newcomers and Refugees segment of Rogers TV Insight programme, featuring a contribution by TorontotheBetter spokesman Taodhg [Tim] Burns about the social economy and its potential for what Insight moderator Ranjit Khatkur appropriately termed "meaningful jobs." The valid point made by one Insight panel member was that immigrants and refugees in particular (but perhaps anybody) needing a job, is not too concerned with whether the job they may get is "meaningful", as long as it helps them to put food on the table.
Against this there will be no objection from most, if not all, social economy proponents, I suspect. Nobody is counselling job seekers to wait until they can find a "social economy" job before they work. But,though practical, the question implicitly concedes our main argument for the social economy when it comes to jobs, which is, that, most, if not all, workers, GIVEN THE CHOICE, would, and do, prefer to work in jobs that fulfil whatever they consider to be a worthwhile purpose (above and beyond survival, that is, however undeniably worthwhile it is). In the case of TorontotheBetter this mean jobs that incorporate worker decision-making, environmental conservation and/or community partnership.The problem, then, is not that meaningful work is an extra "frill" over and above the "real" purpose of work: money to live on. No, the problem is that not enough jobs in the present economy incorporate what we call here a broader social purpose.
The major stress levels being reported in today's workplace are leading to sickness and disability at least in part because so many jobs lack satisfactory meaning to those performing them, particularly when they are working more hours to stay in the same economic place..Would we say that workers rejecting jobs that ignore their human rights, or health and safety, are being too fussy? Of course not. The same should be true for jobs with social meaning. It is precisely the relative lack of such jobs that makes our call for a social economy in which all jobs have a social meaning beyond, but not as opposed to, financial remuneration, so important.
To make it easier for workers to find work that speaks not just to their pocketbook but their values is what prompts Torontothebetter's call to universalize social purpose in the workplace. All work is social, though sadly much of it (company names withheld here) is "anti-social", so the whole economy should be a genuine social economy. More social enterprises and their more fulfilled workers will mean more healthy and financially satisfied workers.
As has been the case throughout modern history, benefits have never been given to workers freely. We must fight for them. And as workers have done, and continue to, fight for workplace health and safety, which more, though by no means all, now have, we must fight for work that has meaning. Join TorontotheBetter in this struggle by becoming a member of our Alliance for Toronto's Social Economy [ATSE]. Send return email to postmaster@torontothebetter.net with ATSE in the subject line to express your interest. We will be in touch about our plans.
Monday, 21 March 2016
On co-ops, social enterprises and the like
TorontotheBetter is the programme of a worker co-op called Libra. We conduct our financial operations through a credit union, a financial co-operative, and we obtain goods and services from a number of other consumer co-operatives. So, we like co-ops. Their basic principle of democratic ownership and control and their history of successful business is a lesson to all enterprises that ignore issues of worker and/or customer participation. But when we started TorontotheBetter back in 2004 we refused to limit our governing directory inclusion criterion to one social economic ownership form, even if that form was one we admired and encourage others to emulate, We dd this for two reasons: 1) many worthy socio-economic ends, such as renewable energy, can be achieved without a co-operative structure of any kind and 2) there are many forms of collective operation and ownership that can achieve similar aims as co-operation without adopting its legal structure. Hence to exclude the latter would mean excluding many social businesses that citizens of Toronto can benefit from greatly. We chose to ignore, too, the inevitably somewhat passive culture of co-ops that seems inseparable from what is otherwise a virtue of co-ops, their defining voluntarism. To include the maximum potential social and economic change in the enterprises we feature then, we must, and so do, let a thousand flowers bloom.We should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Wednesday, 16 March 2016
GTA documentary Premiere - "Street Children of Nepal"
* In association with Studio89 [www.torontothbetter.net/2bS89.htm] and Youth Troopers for Global Awareness [www.ytga.com]*
TorontotheBetter presents a PWYC GTA premiere
TorontotheBetter presents a PWYC GTA premiere
STREET
CHILDREN OF NEPAL
A TORONTOTHEBETTER PWYC SCREENING
7PM – Saturday May 21,2016
– at Studio89, a TorontotheBetter Fair Trade partner
located at 1065 Canadian Place Unit 104, Mississauaga [near Tomken and Eglinton] . "our Toronto includes the GTA"
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– at Studio89, a TorontotheBetter Fair Trade partner
located at 1065 Canadian Place Unit 104, Mississauaga [near Tomken and Eglinton] . "our Toronto includes the GTA"
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AFTER TEN YEARS OF CIVIL WAR AND A
CATASTROPHIC EARTHQUAKE WHO PAYS THE BIGGEST PRICE?
