By Thomas Linner
Previously published in the Winnipeg Free Press February 24, 2022
Previously published in the Winnipeg Free Press February 23, 2022
11:30 am Joseph Zuken Citizen Activist Award honouring Harold Dyck, lifelong anti-poverty activist, educator and advocate. 12:00 pm Launch State of the Inner City report:
Placing Community at the Heart of the Recovery from COVID by Lila Asher, Kayla Villebrun-Normand and Sarah Cooper &
What’s Going on with Portage Place by Owen Toews
Register here: Zoom Feb 17 at 12:00 noon for this presentation on Public Banking with Thomas Marois.
What are the Prospects for Public Banks Catalyzing Green & Just Transitions?
Public banks are pervasive, with more than 900 worldwide, and powerful, having combined assets nearing $49 trillion. They are also resurgent, with new institutions being created worldwide and grassroots movements championing public banks as a means to right historic structural inequalities. But there is nothing essentially better or worse about a bank being public. Instead public banks need to be thought of as dynamic and contested institutions within the public spheres of states. In this view, public ownership predetermines nothing, but it does open up a particular public realm of possibilities. Change becomes possible and is a result of social forces making it so, if within the structural confines of gendered, racialized, and class-divided capitalist society.
In this presentation, Thomas Marois will introduce the main empirical and conceptual points of his recent book, Public Banks: Decarbonisation, Definancialisation and Democratisation (CUP 2021). He will elaborate on the global prospects of public banks catalyzing green and just transitions. Thomas will conclude by questioning what the possibilities and pitfalls are for public banks in Canada.
Bio
Thomas Marois is a Reader of Department of Development Studies at SOAS University of London. He is author of the recent book, Public Banks: Decarbonisation, Definancialisation and Democratisation (Cambridge University Press 2021). Between late 2020 and early 2022, Thomas worked as a Senior Research Fellow in Patient Finance and Public Banking at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) where he is involved in the Government of British Columbia’s engagement with IIPP on mission-oriented innovation. He is currently a Researcher at the Municipal Services Project and Co-I in a SSHRC-funded 4-year project studying public banks and public water around the globe (both housed at Queen’s University, ON). Thomas is engaged with the Canadian Union of Public Employees National on its submission to the Canada Infrastructure Bank five-year review in 2022 and is advising Public Services International on developing a trade union approach to public banks. Thomas does not have all the answers on public banks, but he’s keen to discuss their prospects.
Register here for Public Banking Semina
By Tim Sale
The education landscape has changed somewhat with the withdrawal of Bill 64, yet it is far from clear what the government’s next steps will be.
James will speak about how we can move Manitoba’s public education system from where it is, to where it should be. He will present recommendations from the Manitoba Teachers’ Society which call for tangible change to our public education system which will support positive outcomes for students and their teachers. Funding that is adequate, stable and equitable is foundational to these recommendations.
James Bedford is the President of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society, representing 16,600 public school educators. Prior to that, he was a high school science and math teacher with more than 25 years of experience.
Register here: Killing Bill 64: What Now for Education in Manitoba?
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Manitoba office is pleased to announce the appointment of Niall Harney as the Errol Black Chair of Labour Issues. Niall brings a strong blend of quantitative skills and public policy research to this role.
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