The TSSU social justice committee is working with a grassroots network of activists and organizations to plan a week of action, art and education to bring attention to the social and environmental impacts of Vancouver-based mining companies. From the destruction of indigenous lands without community consent to the water and air pollution affecting local residents’s health; from the powerful blasting that damages homes to the violence and threats against community members who speak out, the issues are piling up. Here at home, Vancouver mining companies are buying up public services from housing to education to the arts and are on the forefront of the processes of privatization and gentrification. It’s time to speak up and say, no! From May 14th to May 19th, join the Mining Justice Alliance for a week of arts, education, and resistance:

Nevermined: A Night of Arts and Resistance
Saturday May 14th, 2011, 7-10pm
Join the Mining Justice Alliance for a night of arts and resistance.
Featuring: Press Release Collective, Roberto Espinoza, Sarita Galvez, puppetry, live mask-making, artwork, speakers from mining-affected communities, and much more!
Admission by donation: $0-$10
Rhizome Cafe – 317 East Broadway

Symposium on Mining, Social Justice and Indigenous Self-determination
Sunday May 15th, 2011, noon-8:30pm
Join the Mining Justice Alliance for an Indigenous welcoming, workshops on open-pit colonialism and mining justice through creative resistance and alternative solutions, and an international resistance and solidarity panel.
Free admission
SFU Woodwards, World Arts Studio (2nd floor), Goldcorp Centre for the
Arts, 149 West Hastings

Rally at Goldcorp’s AGM
Wednesday May 18th, 2011, 9:15am
Bring your pots and pans and make some noise! We’ll march to the Goldcorp AGM and the office of the Canada Pension Plan, which invests in destructive mining companies.
Family-friendly, non-violent event
Meet at Waterfront Station (Cordova exit), 601 West Cordova. March to 999
Canada place for 9:30am.

Save Wirikuta. Stop mining in Real de Catorce. Rally at First Majestic’s AGM
Thursday May 19th, 2011, 9:00am
Come and join us, show your solidarity to protect Wixarika sacred pilgrimage route from destruction by First Majestic. Bring drums and blessings!
Family-friendly, non-violent event
Meet at Waterfront Station (Cordova exit). March to 837 West Hastings for 9:30am.

There has been a lot of buzz around campus regarding the rally on THURSDAY, JAN 27th at 3 PM in front of Harbour Centre. The group SFU against Goldcorp and Gentrification is hosting the rally, which is going to take place in front of the Board of Governor’s meeting to protest the $10 000 000 donation made by Goldcorp to the Centre for the Contemporary Arts. So what’s the big deal? Contemporary Arts used to be in portable classrooms, right? Don’t we love the arts?

Of course. The issue is not about contemporary arts. We love artists. Art is a cornerstone of our society. It’s part of what makes us human, and it is so important that we recognize that importance at an institutional level by providing our emerging artists with classroom, studio, and performance space, and through adequate funding.

What SAGG is protesting is the lack of transparency surrounding the donation from Goldcorp. The Board of Governors’ refusal to engage in dialogue–the very cornerstone of higher education–with every group that makes up our university: faculty, undergraduate students, graduate students, and workers of all kinds.  The head-in-the-sand approach to the donation, which not only effaces any questions surrounding the ethics and practices of the donor company, but also refuses to acknowledge that to accept this kind of donation is to relish in the privatization of the university. Education should be public. Post-secondary institutions should not be relying on the charity-washing practices of multinational corporations to provide adequate infrastructure to its faculties and schools.

But perhaps most importantly, when every branch of the institution is demanding accountability and asking for an opportunity to engage in dialogue with the Board of Governors, and that board refuses to hear our voices, we should sound the alarm. What has happened to our system? Is it truly so fundamentally broken that students and faculty can no longer even add agenda items to a meeting? When the board of governors refuses to hear our voices when we try and use the channels they provide for us, it’s time for us to make our own channels.

Come out and rally against backroom deals. Against shutting down dialogue. Demand a better institution. Demand to be heard.

Meet us in front of Harbour Centre. 3 pm. Thursday, January 27th. We need you.