Mayworks! Montreal 2008: Full Schedule of Events

Any Wall Turned on Its Side Becomes a Bridge

A festival of working class art and resistance dedicated to bringing down the walls that divide those who face injustice from war, racism, and neoliberalism.


Today in Montreal immigrants and migrants face the brunt of economic
globalization. Whether it be in the textile factories such as Lamour
Hoisery which left its immigrant workforce in Montreal jobless to then
seek profits by moving their operations to the workers' homelands
of Bangledesh, India, and China and to exploit their brothers and sisters
there, leaving them here with no severance and no justice. They worked in
conditions reminiscent of the beginning of this century, locked in the
factory at night, with a pro-management union and no lunch breaks. These
are only a few examples of the conditions they faced.

We also see migrant farmworkers facing the gravest of work conditions:
they are made to leave each season, they face discrimination and are
sometimes treated like indentured labourers, and are ultimately made to be
invisible. The irony of this state of affairs is that this city is a
sweatshop resting on the backs of migrants and immigrants. The
clothes we wear, the food we eat, the taxis we take all depend on their
unrecognized labour.

The walls of Apartheid in South Africa were widely and comfortably
condemned – but what is more uncomfortable is to acknowledge that the
patterns of oppression, exploitation, segregation, and institutionalized
racism that characterized South Africa’s apartheid reign persist on a
global scale today. The current global migration and labour system works
to divide people through walls both tangible and intangible, and to
maintain that system of power and exploitation.

We must recall that their struggle for dignity is not just a struggle for
their own dignity, but for dignity for all. Solidarity is the weapon we as
working and oppressed people have. It is solidarity that brought down
apartheid in South Africa, and it is solidarity that will bring down
apartheid in Palestine, and that will bring down injustice and walls that
we struggle against here.

"The hour arrives for us to sit down, together once again, those who are
so similar in our differences who are us and all of you...But, well, this
is not (not yet anyway) the purpose of this letter. What is it then? Well,
strictly speaking, the object of this letter is the paper, the ink and the
heart which dresses as one and covers itself with the other in order to
extend a long bridge which can cross languages, colors, cultures, borders,
armies, police and a considerable amount of kilometers by air-sea-land,
which can arrive at that other heart which you (and us) carry in our left
side."-Subcommondante Marcos


This year’s lineup of events:

The city is a sweatshop - vernissage and public forum
Friday April 25th, 6:30pm, Centre communautaire de loisirs Côte-des-Neiges
5347 Rue Côte-Des-Neiges
(métro Côte-des-Neiges)
A vernissage, of community based working class art.
Forum on the fight of textile immigrant workers.
This event will also host a Public Forum, bringing together immigrant
workers who have been fighting for justice from the Lamour textile factory
and Goldan Brown, and domestic workers who have been fighting for labour
rights.


Family day in Parc Kent
Saturday April 26th, 12pm-5pm
A day of music, workshops, food that brings together immigrant workers and
their allies for a day of fun and celebration in Cote Des Neiges.
Organized by the Immigrant Workers Centre


Theatre Evening
Sunday April 27th, 7pm
Centre communautaire de loisir CDN, 5347 Côte-des-Neiges
Featuring: Third Space Playback - an improvisational theater troupe
dedicated to using the art of Playback Theater to explore our experiences
of identity, conflict, and connection, social oppression and liberation.
Playback actors take true life stories from the audience and transform
them on the spot into compelling original works of art.
Common Thread Productions will present excerpts from "Unraveling
Herstory," the true story of 9 women's journey through the mirror of the
past to discover the stories that lie beneath the fabric of contemporary
Montreal.


No One Is Illegal Film Night
A night of films on Migrant Justice and their struggles for justice and
dignity.
Tuesday April 29TH, 7pm
6767 Cote Des Neiges


March against Capitalism: International Workers’ Day
Thursday May 1st, 6:00pm
Corner Ontario and Valois (Maison des généraux)
(metro-Joliette)


L’Opposition ouvrière: Book Launch and Concert
Friday May 2nd, 7:00pm
Café Chaos, 2031 St-Denis street
L'OPPOSITION OUVRIÈRE by ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAÏ and a concert with: Bernard
& Ses Désaccords, Mitch L'Affront, Du Faim-Fond D'Notre Ruelle,
Genr'Radical, with the 'master of celebration' Norman Nawrocki (poetry
animator for the night)


Deportation: A cd launch from sanctuary
An evening and launch of Deportation with a concert from Lal and a special
debut of Kader and 23
Saturday May 3rd, 7:30pm
St. Gabriels Church


*STATUS FOR ALL!*
A march for immigrant justice, and against poverty, racism & racial profiling
Sunday May 4th, 12:30pm
Starting Point: Corner of Victoria & Van Horne in Côte-des-Neiges
(metro Plamondon, sortie Van Horne)
**This is a child-friendly demonstration.
Food and drinks will be available.
There will be vehicles on-hand for those with reduced
mobility.*


Fighting Back: Art and Social Change.
Paintings by Eileen Young
May 8 to 31.
Simon Bolivar Centre
394 de Maisoneuve W., near corner of Bleury
Walk west from Place des Arts Metro, Bleury exit.
Vernissage: Thursday May 8, 6:30pm - 8:30pm


Organized by the Mayworks Montreal! Committee: Immigrant Workers Centre, No One Is Illegal Montreal, Solidarity Across Borders, Sabot Art Edition, Lamour Workers Committee, Centre for Phillipine Concerns, LAL, Public Transit Records, Kader Support Committee