Tuesday, May 1, 2012

May Day and some public lectures

A couple of items have come through my email in the past few days that are of interest.

My colleague Ingo Schmidt has written an interesting piece about why capitalists are waging war on workers and what we can do about it (just in time for May Day). There is also a May Day march tonight in Edmonton starting at 5:30.

And the Parkland Institute and the U of A's Community Service Learning program are hosting a (free!) spring speaker series on oil and democracy. There are five presentations (from 7-8:30 on Thursday nights in room NRE 1 001 of the University of Alberta. These include:

May 10: Contextualizing democracy by Dr. Ian Urquhart
May 17: Institutions of Democracy by Rob Macintosh and David Campanelle
May 24: Labour in a natural resource economy by Bob Barnetson and Gil McGowan
May 31: Issues of equity, aboriginal rights by Eriel Deranger
June 7: Environmentalism and international activism by Mike Hudema and Chelsea Flook

Speaking of oil and democracy, I will be hosting a (free) lecture in Edmonton on May 18 (3-4:30) as part of Athabasca University's Arts and Sciences lecture series. It is entitled something along the lines of "Trading Health for Profit in a Petrostate" and examines how workplace health and safety is impacted by an oil-driven economy. This lecture will be held on the 11th floor of Peace Hills Trust Tower (109th Street and 100th Ave) in Edmonton.

Finally, there are two panels at the Canadian Political Science Association conference in Edmonton on June 13 (I think). I will be presenting some research Jason Foster and I have done regarding the implication for democracy of the growing use of temporary foreign workers in Alberta.

-- Bob Barnetson

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