Event Announcement: Reclaim the Revolutionary Road Towards Women’s Liberation

RECLAIM THE REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
TOWARDS WOMEN’S LIBERATION
Philippine Women Centre of Ontario’s Celebration
of the 100th Year Anniversary of International Women’s Day

Guest Speaker Cecilia Diocson
Executive Director, National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)

Saturday, March 5th, 2011, 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Doors open at 5:30 PM

OISE Room 5250
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), 252 Bloor St. West

Tickets are $10 in advance or at the door
Celebration includes a fundraising dinner and cultural performances

Part of UKPC@UofT’s lecture series
Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance/Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada–Ontario @ University of Toronto)


During this 100th year anniversary of International Women’s Day, the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) in collaboration with UKPC@UofT invites everyone to an empowering night featuring a fundraising dinner with a public lecture and cultural performances in celebration of the century-long legacy of revolutionary women’s struggle. Initially wrought a hundred years ago by women garment and factory workers who marched the streets of New York in outright refusal of their severe working conditions, the very existence of International Women’s Day is a testament of the revolutionary ideas, processes and actions that have built and strengthened the growing women’s movement. During the celebration, a dynamic discussion by Cecilia Diocson is set to highlight the necessity of reclaiming the revolutionary road towards genuine women’s liberation, as a call to all women to reclaim the struggle of working-class women as an integral component to the struggle of the entire working-class.

As women are often the hardest-hit by regressive economic policies, Ms. Diocson’s discussion is to be a sure reminder of how women’s intensifying marginalization and exploitation are fueled by the anti-woman and anti-worker neoliberal project for economic expansion. Since slave societies of the past until today’s advanced capitalist order, any means of survival made through accumulation and expansion has been established at the expense of women, particularly women of colour. It is no surprise that Canada’s drive for economic competitiveness has been fueled by the systematic conscription of women from the South into its reserve army of cheap labour, clearly seen in the Filipino Canadian community’s experience of being legislated into poverty through policies such as the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP).

As the discussion is to put forth, all Canadians and all women must face the challenge of women’s exploitation and commodification head-on, without any recourse to reform or compromise. UKPC@UofT and PWC-ON’s celebratory night featuring a fundraising dinner with a public lecture and cultural performances is sure to inspire all to reclaim the revolutionary road towards genuine women’s liberation.


For more information or tickets, contact:
Ken Santos
416-519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org