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It is less than a week until the start of the Peoples' Social Forum—a joyous gathering with special exhibitions, work and peoples history tours, film screenings, critical mass rally, a pow-wow, street performances, concerts, games, and building new relationships.
Ottawa (15 Aug. 2014)—The Peoples' Social Forum (PSF) is less than a week away and Ottawa is a bustle of activity.
Starting August 21st, thousands of activists, students, unions, Indigenous peoples, youth, environmentalists, and ordinary individuals will gather in Ottawa to oppose the current political and economic direction, and to propose a plurality of alternative paths towards a better world.
For the past two years activists from coast to coast have been planning for the PSF. The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is a partner of the PSF and has been part of the organizing workshops and movement assemblies.
People from all regions gathering in Ottawa
There are buses and caravans coming to the city from as far away as Vancouver, British Columbia. This is not to mention all the people making their way to the city by almost all forms of transportation.
To find out about buses or rides available to the PSF, go to either the Facebook page or the PSF website.
Bringing together movements
The intention of the PSF is to bring together movements from Canada, Quebec and Indigenous Peoples in solidarity to counter the attack, coming from all levels of government, to our rights, our jobs, our lands, our services, and our future. It will also honour the unceded Algonquin territory on which we’ll stand, and honour each other’s struggles for dignity and justice
As one of the flyers for the PSF says "Through workshops, presentations, demonstrations, assemblies, and cultural activities we will all teach and we will all learn. We will see the inter-connectedness of all our struggles, campaigns, and movements, and we will find each other."
Opening with Algonquin Ceremony
The PSF will open with a traditional Algonquin ceremony on Victoria Island, as has been requested by Algonquin elders in the host community. This will be followed by 4 days of workshops, panels, movement assemblies, special exhibitions, tours, film screenings, a critical mass rally, parties, a powwow, street performances, concerts, a fair for vendors and independent media, and other actions and demonstrations.
The entire program can be found by clicking here.
More information:
Peoples' Social Forum on Facebook
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE