Category Archives: Capitalism & Class
Furor, Fighting, Freedom, and Fanon: “Concerning Violence: Nine Scenes from the Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defense”
“And it is clear that in the colonial countries the peasants alone are revolutionary, for they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The starving peasant, outside the class system is the first among the exploited to discover that only violence pays. For him there is no compromise, no possible coming to terms; colonization […]
#raisetherates: BC’s 3rd Annual Welfare Challenge
Shila is a third year Bachelor’s of Social Work student, a queer woman of colour, and an international student from Indonesia passionate about food, politics, and anti-oppressive social work practice. Samantha is a Vietnamese Chinese Canadian teenager born and raised in south east van. She is in her third year at UBC and plans on […]
May Anne Then’s Teach-In Speech: Ask yourself, “What is my philosophy on access?”
I’d like to begin by acknowledging that what I say today will no doubt be influenced by my personal experiences and may not represent all international students. I am May Anne, an International student from Malaysia/Brunei. I joined the Science faculty 4 years ago and have since transferred to Forestry. I came to UBC in […]
Capitalism vs. the Climate: Naomi Klein is Coming to UBC on October 26th!
This is cross-posted from the Canadian Center for Policy Alternative’s website. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein will be addressing the Vancouver Institute on Sunday, October 26, 2014 at 7:00 p.m., Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, University of British Columbia. Naomi Klein is the author of […]
Anne Kessler’s Teach-In Speech: ‘We must hold the university to account’
Hi UBC, My name is Anne Kessler, I’m your AMS VP academic and university affairs, and I’ve been asked here today to give you some background information on the proposed tuition and housing increases. I’m going to be giving a recounting of our meetings with the university so far and some sense of how the […]
Who is Subsidizing Whom? Rethinking the “Domestic”/”International” Divide
A few days ago, The Talon UBC released information about UBC’s bold move to increase international undergraduate tuition by 10% and residence fees by 20%. The university’s proposals have been met with outrage. Students are now organizing resistance efforts on a massive scale, with upcoming initiatives that include a mass-teach in on Tuesday, emergency AMS […]
Dr. Elvin Wyly’s Teach-In Speech: “You are students, not $tudent$”
In the last thirty years, higher education has been transformed. While education has been promoted and celebrated as the source of innovation and advances in “human capital,” the public missions of education have slowly been abandoned and replaced with the cold calculus of supply and demand. Every year brings a few more changes that make […]
Ivan Leonce’s Teach-In Speech: “That’s not consultation; that’s notice”
Thank you so much for having me speak, and there’s so much to speak to but so little time, so I’m just going to dive right into it and share my thoughts on two things today. The first is on what the university will have you believe is a “democratic” consultation process. A process, in […]
Housing the Privileged: What a 20% Residence Fee Increase Really Means
It has recently been revealed that UBC is planning to increase the cost of its 8-month-term student housing fees by a whopping 20%. This is just one of a number of fee increases proposed by the university slated to take effect in 2015. In a presentation to the AMS, the university explained that this increase […]
Social Justice Synonyms #3: “Classy” and “Poor”
Welcome to the third segment of Social Justice Synonyms, a column at The Talon that encourages inclusive, peaceful dialogue, and discourages oppressive and discriminatory language. Today’s words are classy and poor. Classy may seem innocuous at first. We compliment our friends for looking classy when they are dressed up. We attach the word “classy” to […]
