SOLIDARITY BEYOND BARS by Jordan House and Asaf Rashid: Book Launch

Fernwood Publishing and TYPE Books (Junction) welcome you to the launch of SOLIDARITY BEYOND BARS by Jordan House and Asaf Rashid.

This venue is wheelchair accessible. This event is free and open to the public.

Type Books – The Junction

2887 Dundas St W
Toronto, ON M6P 1Y9

ABOUT THE BOOK

https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/solidarity-beyond-bars

Prisons don’t work, but prisoners do. Prisons are often critiqued as unjust, but we hear little about the daily labour of incarcerated workers — what they do, how they do it, who they do it for and under which conditions. Unions protect workers fighting for better pay and against discrimination and occupational health and safety concerns, but prisoners are denied this protection despite being the lowest paid workers with the least choice in what they do — the most vulnerable among the working class. Starting from the perspective that work during imprisonment is not “rehabilitative,” this book examines the reasons why people should care about prison labour and how prisoners have struggled to organize for labour power in the past. Unionizing incarcerated workers is critical for both the labour movement and struggles for prison justice, this book argues, to negotiate changes to working conditions as well as the power dynamics within prisons themselves.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jordan House is an assistant professor in the Department of Labour Studies at Brock University. His research focuses on prison labour and prisoner-worker organizing, new forms of worker organization and labour movement renewal. His work has appeared in several publications, including Labour / Le Travail, Labor Studies Journal, Rankandfile.ca, Canadian Dimension and Jacobin. He previously worked as a labour organizer and union researcher and is a long-time prison justice activist.

Asaf Rashid went from being an aspiring scholar in environmental studies to a community agitator and campaigns coordinator of the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group. He is a lawyer, based in k’jipuktuk/Halifax and a board member of the Halifax Workers Action Centre, a member of the Canadian Prison Lawyers Association and supporter of the East Coast Prison Justice Society. Rashid has also been a union organizer and labour rights activist, among other social justice activities.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Jessica Evans is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the Toronto Metropolitan University and a community advocate with the Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project. Her research uses critical political economy and critical criminology to explore the relationship between capitalism and the carceral state in Canada. She is particularly interested in the role of the carceral system in shaping ideas of citizenship, rights, and deservingness in response to changes in modes of capitalist accumulation. Her recent work can be found in The Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, Citizenship Studies, Punishment & Society, and Historical Materialism.

Shane Martínez is a Toronto-based lawyer who practices criminal defence and human rights law. He is also an adjunct professor of Prison Law, Policy & Reform at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School. His primary focus is on test cases that challenge established norms within the prison system, particularly in relation to issues of inmate labour, family separation, and anti-Black racism.

In 1983, at the age of 27, John Chaif was sentenced to life in prison with 25 years until parole eligibility. In 1988 he escaped from Collins Bay Institution in Kingston, Ontario. He was later rearrested in the United States and spent six years in the federal prison system there before being transferred back to Canada. John has spent a great deal of time inside advocating against systemic abuses, including abuses relating to prison labour. His advocacy has at times attracted the attention and opposition of prison authorities. Earlier this year he won a Federal Court challenge he brought after being denied day parole (Chaif v. Canada (Attorney General), 2022 FC 182). John was subsequently released from prison on day parole this past May at the age of 67. He now continues his activism on the outside, as a vocal proponent for the human rights of prisoners.

https://www.facebook.com/events/5532187926846781/