Presenters:

Linda McQuaig (author and journalist), James Hutt (the LEAP), Rebecca Keetch (autoworker, Green Jobs Oshawa), Tony Leah (the Political Action Committee of Unifor Local ) and Fred Hahn (CUPE Ontario).

Date-Time-Space:

Monday September 30  –  7:00 pm – 10:00pm (Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil Street).

Description:

In the spirit of the global climate strike and as part of the local, Canadian and international push for a Green New Deal, we invite you to learn more about and show your solidarity with the Green Jobs Oshawa campaign to “Take the Plant, Save the Planet.” GM’s bosses are closing the auto plant, but workers, community members and eco-socialists have launched a campaign to create good jobs and produce green and sustainable energy products. The campaign recently earned positive coverage from The Toronto Star here, here, and here, and the CBC here, and it has been endorsed by The LEAP, as well as Naomi Klein and other prominent voices in the global environmental and labour movement.

GM Oshawa was once the home of the largest auto facility on the continent. GM no longer wants it, aside from a small project that might at most, provide 300 jobs. But workers do, and they have plans for it. The Oshawa plant could create many more good, sustainable jobs, by converting the facility into a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles and other sustainable energy products. This requires that governments step in, and have democratic public ownership replace corporate ownership and make products that challenge climate change. To make this possible we need to show solidarity with Green Jobs Oshawa, the worker-led movement leading this campaign. We need to build a worker-green alliance grounded in concrete struggles, making the idea of Just Transition, something real. In the upcoming federal election, we need to push politicians and their parties beyond platitudes about climate change and green jobs. Here is a concrete opportunity to really do something about it. This requires placing, to the extent we can, a radical transformation of economic structures and power, led by workers, on the public agenda.

Please let us know you are attending or spread the word on FB

Bios:

Linda McQuaig (author and journalist)

James Hutt (the LEAP)

Rebecca Keetch (autoworker, Green Jobs Oshawa)

Fred Hahn (CUPE Ontario).

Organized by Centre for Social Justice, Socialist Project, Green Jobs Oshawa, and The LEAP