THE ARTISTS LOFT STUDIO

The Stand Community Organizing Centre (Treaty 6 Justice Collective), CUPE Saskatchewan and CCPA are proud to host anti-poverty activist John Clarke:  THE ARTISTS LOFT STUDIO.  With recent cuts to the Lighthouse in Saskatoon, a range of cuts to STC and public services, and public sector workers losing their jobs, the Wall government has put austerity back on the agenda.  The Sask Party is tranferring the problems of Saskatchewan’s boom and bust to our province’s most economically vulnerable residents.  As an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), John Clarke has been involved in poor people’s movement for 0ver 25 years.  He first became active in anti-poverty struggles in 1983, when he helped form the Union of Unemployed Workers in London, Ontario.  In 1989, he was among the organizers of a province-wide March Against Poverty that helped force the Liberal government of the day to increase social assistance rates.  Since 1990, John has been a Toronto-based organizer with OCAP, which has played a leading role in mobilizing against policies of economic violence.  John recently traveled to the UK to observe and learn from anti-austerity movements there.  He will be speaking about the connections between what is happening in Saskatchewan and broader struggles against austerity in Canada and around the world.  John Clarke will be leading a workshop on how citizens can effectively push back against government austerity in their city, province and across Canada.