Sunday 29 December 2019
A deadly holiday season for workers in Delhi
On December 8, 2019 a fire killed 43 workers and injured more than 50 in a factory in Delhi, India. No, it was not Rana Plaza again, the Bangladesh disaster of 2013 that killed over a thousand and injured 2500+. This time the workers were producing bags for locals, not consumer clothing for westerners, but they have in common company contempt for the health and wellbeing of poor workers. Industrial Workers of the World and the Maquila Solidarity Network,
this picture from theguardian.com
Businesses flouting regulations is part of the problem but inadequate regulations and policing of them are also specifics that the two incidents also have in common. Notwithstanding the various codes of conduct that have been drafted since rana Plaza in 2013, underlying inequality and the desperation of workers dependent on urban factory jobs to survive, remain. Delhi is a long way from Canada but as long as workers can be dangerously exploited in any country their relative worth and status is lessened everywhere. To help workers in Toronto we must do what we can to help workers wherever they are being harmed. Local internationalist union organizations like the Industrial Workers of the World and the Maquila Solidarity Network, an NGO whose activism for workers has been long supported by TorontotheBetter will help you to engage in the struggle for better conditions for workers everywhere.
Businesses flouting regulations is part of the problem but inadequate regulations and policing of them are also specifics that the two incidents also have in common. Notwithstanding the various codes of conduct that have been drafted since rana Plaza in 2013, underlying inequality and the desperation of workers dependent on urban factory jobs to survive, remain. Delhi is a long way from Canada but as long as workers can be dangerously exploited in any country their relative worth and status is lessened everywhere. To help workers in Toronto we must do what we can to help workers wherever they are being harmed. Local internationalist union organizations like the Industrial Workers of the World and the Maquila Solidarity Network, an NGO whose activism for workers has been long supported by TorontotheBetter will help you to engage in the struggle for better conditions for workers everywhere.
Thursday 26 December 2019
"Homelessness in the GTA" - Cathy Crowe visits Peel Poverty Action Group on Feb.6, 2020
TorontotheBetter is a non-profit network of Toronto area based socially purposed enterprises. "Our Toronto Includes the GTA"
Saturday 21 December 2019
Cathy Crowe video talks about new book "A Knapsack Full of Dreams" and homelessness in 2019
See: our new TorontotheBetter video "Cathy Crowe in conversation with Paul Pakeman and Friends" on Youtube at:
On behalf of TorontotheBetter we thank Cathy for all her work as well as
her new book, and thanks also to Pance of the Centre for Social Justice for video
production. Stay tuned to this blog for more events in the new year.
Let's make 2020 a 20/20 vision and action year for Toronto and the world we share.
On behalf of TorontotheBetter we thank Cathy for all her work as well as
her new book, and thanks also to Pance of the Centre for Social Justice for video
production. Stay tuned to this blog for more events in the new year.
Let's make 2020 a 20/20 vision and action year for Toronto and the world we share.
Tuesday 17 December 2019
"Homelessness in the GTA" - Join Cathy Crowe on Thursday Feb.6 2-4pm in Brampton
TorontotheBetter is pleased to support the Peel Poverty Action Group in its upcoming forum with homelessness activist Cathy Crowe at the Knights' Table soup kitchen in Brampton on Feb.6. Cathy will talk bout her new book "A Knapsack Full of Dreams" and today's homelessness crisis. The event is free for all.
KnightsTable is located at 287 Glidden Road #4. For more information call 416-707-3509. or 905-454-8725.
"Our Toronto Includes the GTA"
KnightsTable is located at 287 Glidden Road #4. For more information call 416-707-3509. or 905-454-8725.
"Our Toronto Includes the GTA"
Friday 13 December 2019
For long sight and clear vision: Practice 20/20 in 2020 - with some recommended reading
These are bad times, indeed with right-wing popular sounding leaders worldwide occupying seats of power and business promoted as the only self-respecting game in town.That nationalisms and religious sectarians of all stripes have found willing followers is attributable to the gaps between leaders and led that have arisen following a long period of market fundamentalism that increased social division and left many adrift, hopeless, and searching for rescue. When most else is removed the weakest are often left with little that offers felt substance than national or religious identities. Look carefully at recent elections and we see that identity politics is working, as social solidarity support is weaknened. Parallels with the rise of fascism in the 1930's are, sadly, accurate.
Long sight, both rear view and forward reveals therfore that to avoid more catastrophe as our world diversifies we must live together in peace and as much harmony as we can muster. It will help if enterprise, as well as the state, is committed to some core social purposes other than evading visible legal violations, say the kind that TorontotheBetter celebrates in the enterprises listed in our online directory, the first of its kind when we started it at the beginning of our now still teen-aged century.
Our proposed new charter for enterprise will contribute to this better world goal and, with the help of users as well as producers, our goals can become reality as people and organizations work for the same end: a better world for all. Such a charter represents a kind of socialism from the bottom up.Though there must be a degree of voluntarism the state must use carrots and sticks to encourage/discourage policy adoption. Thus, long sight can foresee the day when social purpose (better, not just good) will be in the DNA of all enterprise.
Long sight tells us not to sacrifice the planet for a few more kilometres or calories per hour/meal, while clear vision recognizes that humans have more in common than separates us. TorontotheBetter calls us all to use 20/20 in 2020, We don't want, or have, to, drown (asphyxiate) in carbon dioxide.
If you're the book-, not just blogpost-, reading kind we recommend two books at this time: Peter Linebaugh's 'Red Round Globe Hot Burning", about the importance of commons (plural), and Raghuram Rajan's "The Third Pillar." about the key role of community(-ies) to our lives. Commons and community are agents of the long sight and clear vision that allow us to survive when bullies aggress and the fearful retreat. Brexit and "make us great again-ism" are today's prime examples in the west. Remember: we can all be great if we conserve and cooperate. TorontotheBetter's recent interview with Toronto street nurse Cathy Crowe and the memory of another Canadian hero who fought for the poor, Norman Bethune, in whose tradition Cathy rightly belongs, should encourage us all to practice 20/20 in 2020.
For the above and other new better world books at discounted prices contact postmaster@torontothebetter.net with Books in the subject line. Good prices and avoidance of corporate glutton Amazon. To us 20/20 sounds like a good plan for 2020.
Long sight, both rear view and forward reveals therfore that to avoid more catastrophe as our world diversifies we must live together in peace and as much harmony as we can muster. It will help if enterprise, as well as the state, is committed to some core social purposes other than evading visible legal violations, say the kind that TorontotheBetter celebrates in the enterprises listed in our online directory, the first of its kind when we started it at the beginning of our now still teen-aged century.
Our proposed new charter for enterprise will contribute to this better world goal and, with the help of users as well as producers, our goals can become reality as people and organizations work for the same end: a better world for all. Such a charter represents a kind of socialism from the bottom up.Though there must be a degree of voluntarism the state must use carrots and sticks to encourage/discourage policy adoption. Thus, long sight can foresee the day when social purpose (better, not just good) will be in the DNA of all enterprise.
Long sight tells us not to sacrifice the planet for a few more kilometres or calories per hour/meal, while clear vision recognizes that humans have more in common than separates us. TorontotheBetter calls us all to use 20/20 in 2020, We don't want, or have, to, drown (asphyxiate) in carbon dioxide.
If you're the book-, not just blogpost-, reading kind we recommend two books at this time: Peter Linebaugh's 'Red Round Globe Hot Burning", about the importance of commons (plural), and Raghuram Rajan's "The Third Pillar." about the key role of community(-ies) to our lives. Commons and community are agents of the long sight and clear vision that allow us to survive when bullies aggress and the fearful retreat. Brexit and "make us great again-ism" are today's prime examples in the west. Remember: we can all be great if we conserve and cooperate. TorontotheBetter's recent interview with Toronto street nurse Cathy Crowe and the memory of another Canadian hero who fought for the poor, Norman Bethune, in whose tradition Cathy rightly belongs, should encourage us all to practice 20/20 in 2020.
For the above and other new better world books at discounted prices contact postmaster@torontothebetter.net with Books in the subject line. Good prices and avoidance of corporate glutton Amazon. To us 20/20 sounds like a good plan for 2020.
Monday 2 December 2019
By the way, in case you missed it, Norman Bethune was a communist.
Among the newest set of movie-sparked accolades for Canada's revolutionary 20th century hero, Norman Bethune, most of the press coverage steps over, or downplays the basic motivation and context for his key interventions in two of the most important events in the political history of the last century, the Spanish Civil War in 1939 and the Chinese revolution in 1949. Just as much as Tommy Douglas, originally opposed by Canada's medical establishment but now universally celebrated as a national hero, communist party member Bethune was a strong, though long isolated among Canadian physicians, voice for publicly funded healthcare available to all in Canada, rich or poor. With the communist party he joined he stood for the rights of all to a decent life free from debilitating sickness and exclusion. Thus he was a foundational builder of the values of the modern Canada most here now support and defend and in China, where the writer of this post spent some time teaching, the words Norman Bethune appear in the name of many hospitals built after the revolution of 1949.
For all the positive attention likely to come the way of Bethune's memory as the newest movie on his life goes into production let no-one forget the ideals that led him to do what he did in revolutionary struggles that ultimately changed the lives of billions for the better and ultimately cost him his life. As a celebrant of what social enterprise, at its best, can do for the betterment of human life, at the same time TorontotheBetter recognizes and supports the fundamental importance of free public services as rights of all in any jurisdiction that wishes to call itself democratic and for the people. As is only too clear at our moment in history this principle has still to be learned in certain places and by certain leaders. Let Bethune's revolutionary spirit be re-animated in fact, not just on film, as it is by current activist healthcare professionals like Cathy Crowe, campaigner for Canada's homeless, whose recent interview with TorontotheBetter will soon be available on this blog, and, will too, we trust, contribute to a new generation of social and political action, especially for the poor and the marginalized, in a country historically known for the quality and extent of its social support.
