Briarpatch articles from October 2000

Briarpatch archives from October 2000

Labour education for social change.
October 1, 2000... Canada is a place where it is possible to complete 12 years of elementary and high school and several more years of post-secondary education and graduate with distinction but be wholly unaware that the labour movement does more than go on...

Paid education leave: how education opens the doors for union members.
October 1, 2000... As we write this article, 125 workers are studying union education in classrooms on the shores of Lake Huron, at Port Elgin, Ontario. They come from all across the country. Some are autoworkers, some are miners, some are fishers, some are cake...

Popular education: it's alive and well in the labour movement.
October 1, 2000... "Effective labour education is about increasing resistance to the status quo... it's about educating for change." -- Bob White Some labour educators have been doing popular education for years, although they were not calling it that....

Starting with women's lives: changing today's economy. A facilitator's guide.
October 1, 2000... Starting with Women's Lives: Changing Today's Economy A Facilitator's Guide by Suzanne Doerge and Bev Burke Starting with Women's Lives: Changing Today's Economy is a new publication creating interest among trade unions, churches,...

Broadening the trade union horizon: how to motivate trade union activists through labour eduation.
October 1, 2000... Historically, in labour unions, we have put a lot of stock in the "talking heads" approach to passing on our collective wisdom to new shop stewards and union activists. While it's true that seasoned activists have huge amounts of information...

Sisterhood in the classroom: the Prairie School for Union Women.
October 1, 2000... Imagine this: a place where progressive union women can come together to learn from each other, rejuvenate and place the issues important to women on the trade union agenda. Regardless of their age, race, sexual orientation. Regardless of how...

Kids camp: an educational summer experience for kids sew the seeds of tomorrow.
October 1, 2000... The 2000 Saskatchewan Federation of Labour Summer Camp for Kids was a huge success. An annual event in Fort Qu'Appelle, this year's event drew 59 teenagers and 24 adults, living, learning and playing together. This year is the 12th...

Missing perspective: how can you get labour curriculum back into the schools, even in Ralph Klein's backyard.
October 1, 2000... I began with these simple words: "Hi, it's a real pleasure to be invited here today." The high school teachers were watching and waiting for my next words. Some faces were welcoming, some sceptical or even downright hostile. What am I...

Talking union to union members: what it takes to publish a good union newsletter.
October 1, 2000... A few years ago, a Canadian teachers union surveyed its members to find out how they got their news about the union. The researchers found the major source of information was their union newsletter. The next most important source was the staff...

Rethinking Web sites: how unions can keep from eating e-dust in the battle for the attention of union members.
October 1, 2000... Those of us who were pitching web sites to our respective union higher-ups three or four years ago probably stare sleeplessly at the ceiling with alarming regularity, wondering what we've gotten ourselves into now that many of us have actually...

Rise, near-fall, and revival of a left wing think-tank: how the CCPA is weaning Canadians away from neo-liberalism.
October 1, 2000... NewsWatch Canada, which monitors the media from the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, has done several surveys on the coverage of Canada's think-tanks by the major daily newspapers. Invariably, it finds that right-wing...

Building on a strong foundaton: alternative ways to educate union members.
October 1, 2000... Recent national and international events point to the critical role that organized labour plays in all matters related to social change. While much of our history, particularly from 1945 to 1975, was a period of positive social change in...