Invitation to participate in the Toronto Peoples’ Social forum and PSF General Assembly July 10-12
June 9, 2015
As a follow up to the very successful People Social Forum, we are hosting a Social Forum in Toronto to counter the Pan American Economic Summit that will bring the heads of Shell, Rockefeller Foundation, US, Canadian and European Chambers of Commerce, as well as Canada’s Finance Minister, ex-Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and John Negroponte to Toronto from July 8 to the 10th, 2015.
Starting July 10, the Peoples’ Social Forum will be hosting a counter summit in Toronto, bringing together activists, students, unions, Indigenous peoples, youth, environmentalists, and hundreds of ordinary individuals to oppose the current political and economic direction of this country, and propose a plurality of alternative paths towards a better world.
This gathering will take place on Missassauga Anishinaabe territory. It has been a home and hunting grounds to many peoples, including the Haudenosaunee, Wendat, and the Mississaugas of the New Credit. It is the territory of the One Dish One Spoon treaty, which was made between the Anishinaabe and Haudenausonee in order to share hunting and fishing territories. What belongs to one belongs to all. In this spirit, we will come together to find ways to work together towards a more just and joyful world.
Host A Workshop
This is what the forum is all about – groups and individuals propose workshops within 17 themes, and the social forum organizes these into a schedule that has something for everyone. Saturday, July 11 will be the day of workshops. Most workshops will be 1.5 hours, but we can accommodate 3 hour slots if groups want to propose a Movement Assembly. June 19 is the deadline for workshop submissions. Fill out our simple workshop registration form and we’ll figure out the rest!
Tabling At The Forum
Take part in the alternative media and vendors space at the PSF Counter Summit. Contact psf.communications@gmail.com for details.
Endorse The Forum
Add your organization’s name to a growing list of PSF endorsers. Support the forum and join this on-going, Canada-wide movement building process. To endorse, contact psf.communications@gmail.com
Volunteer For The Forum
E-mail psf.communications@gmail.com if you are interested in joining the Toronto PSF team to make this ambitious gathering a success.
House An Activist During The Forum
Do you have a spare room or a couch to share? Activists from across the country are traveling to Toronto for the counter summit and the PSF General Assembly (which will happen on Sunday, July 12). If you can spare some space in your place, please drop us a line at psf.communications@gmail.com!
What Is The Peoples’ Social Forum?
The Peoples’ Social Forum (PSF) is a critical public space aimed at fostering activist involvement of individuals and civil society organizations that want to transform Canada as it exists today. The first PSF was held in Ottawa on August 21-24, 2014 and attracted over 5000 participants from across Canada.
The PSF is a space for social movements to meet and converge for the free expression of alternative ideas and grassroots exchanges. It seeks to inspire practical involvement in social movements and develop networked action strategies aimed at creating convergence of struggles, toward building a broad strategic alliance against neo-liberal and neo-conservative policies in Canada. Social justice, Original Peoples rights, sustainable development, international solidarity and participatory democracy are at the centre of its concerns.The PSF is an inclusive space that must be occupied by all people and activist organizations convinced that another Canada is not only possible, but above all, necessary.
Objectives of the Peoples’ Social Forum
- As an inclusive space for activist grassroots debate, the PSF intends to:
- Foster constructive and mobilizing societal debate across the country;
- Recognize and honour the territories and the rights of the Original Peoples whose territories we reside on and where the PSF takes place.
- Act in solidarity with Original Peoples through rejecting the racist Doctrine of Discovery and the Terra Nullius.
- Prompt individual and collective grassroots participation;
- Share, promote and circulate alternative initiatives and projects;
- Stimulate the emergence of concrete actions and the convergence of struggles against neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism;
- Promote sustainable development across Canada in a spirit of solidarity, justice, equality and harmony.
The PSF is part of the global movement of social forums that have emerged at different levels since the first World Social Forum (WSF) was held in Porto Alegre (Brazil) in January 2001, which was conceived as a summit to counter the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
