Vancouver, BC – Progressive Filipino Canadians from all over Canada resolutely await an upcoming national conference titled “Counterspin: Taking root and building a home, deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration.” To be held at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia from June 18th – 19th, this conference will once again galvanize the unity and the unrelenting will of progressive Filipino Canadians to be at the forefront of advancing the struggles of the Filipino Canadian community towards full participation and entitlement in Canada.
In deepening the understanding of a just and genuine settlement and integration, internationally-acclaimed writer and feminist revolutionary Ninotchka Rosca honours progressive Filipino Canadians with her unwavering support and solidarity as a guest speaker at this historic conference. Rosca, who spoke at the 1st Counterspin conference held in Montreal a year ago, will further elucidate her analysis of the concept of ‘transnationalism’ as pertinent to the current realities and struggles of the transnational Filipino community in Canada and beyond. Smashing imperialism’s dominant narrative of ‘circular migration,’ Rosca will challenge this narrative which reduces the transnational working-class simply as a “moveable feast of reserved labour in accordance with the needs of capital” locked in a state of “permanent impermanence.”
Induced by the neoliberal agenda of globalization’s escalating attacks, the Filipino Canadian community’s conditions are evidently trapped within this narrative. Now Canada’s 3rd largest visible minority group and its largest source of immigrants, Filipinos are systematically streamed through Canadian contractual migration schemes and labour policies such as the Temporary Foreign Worker’s Program (TFWP) and the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). Such programs not only lock workers in a state of temporariness, uncertainty and permanent impermanence, but also create the conditions for the community’s political, economic and social segregation in Canada. “In the face of our community’s intensifying economic marginalization and socio-political exclusion, understanding the concept of ‘transnationalism’ is crucial towards strengthening our efforts in community-building. At the same time, it is fundamental in advancing our national movement for our just and genuine settlement and integration,” says Arlene Oropel, member of SIKLAB-BC.
A milestone event in the history of Filipino Canadian organizing, this national conference will show the strength, resiliency and commitment of progressive Filipino Canadians in countering imperialism’s dominant narratives and rapacious assaults, which leave the community in a permanent state of poverty and underdevelopment. It will advance the role of progressive Filipino Canadians in countering economic marginalization, systemic racism and social exclusion towards building a truly progressive movement that will relentlessly fight and put the interests of the most oppressed and marginalized in society at the forefront. As Rosca states, “the proletariat has no country…and therefore we must build him/her one.” “Counterspin” will be indicative of the progressive Filipino Canadians’ heightened militancy and continuous struggle to firmly take root and build a home that embodies the collective values and perspectives of the working class.
“Counterspin: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration”
National conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia
6476 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC
Registration is $25.00 (includes 2 meals and conference materials)
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For more information or to register, please contact the conference secretariat:
Krystle Alarcon; 778-321-8275; krystle.alarcon@gmail.com
Jon Nieto; 778-384-7378; jonziphone@gmail.com
Arlene Oropel; 778- 317-5265; ajalex12jaylon@gmail.com
Twitter: #Counterspin2
Tumblr: counterspin2.tumblr.com