The fight against privatization

A fight for anti-oppression and equity

Earlier this fall, I spent some time in counter-protests against the hate-filled anti-2SLG-BTQI+ rallies. Energy, love, and acceptance overpowered much of the hate at that moment; however, I know that in the long run it didn’t heal this social ill. That doesn’t mean I am without hope—in fact, I left the protests with a deep feeling of equanimity, re-empowered in my activism. I left the sea of Pride and Progress flags knowing that there is a community that has my back, and that will fight for the tenets of equity and goodness.

This feeling of empowerment moves beyond anti-oppression work into an equally important, and in fact parallel area—the fight against privatization. We know that the privatizing of public services, the selling of public lands, and the dismantling of public institutions has greater impacts on oppressed communities. In this way, fighting privatization is a fight for anti-oppression and equity.

In this issue you will find articles that explore the dangers of privatization and that highlight how we can counter the government’s continued use of the privatization playbook—underfund, undermine, and then cut, all in the name of putting more money in the pockets of the rich. This then increases the disparity between those who have too much and those who need more just to live.

This issue also marks the 50th volume of Education Forum—an achievement of which the whole publication team is most proud. As part of our ongoing desire to be a relevant publication you will no doubt notice some changes to our format, both online and in print. We are moving to a journal-style bound print copy, and it is my hope as editor that you will see Education Forum as a publication worthy of holding on to. I am sure it will find a proud place on your bookshelves, its bound spine being a sign of OSSTF/FEESO’s role as a leader in labour and education. The new Education Forum layout was created with accessible design in mind, for example we are using matte nonglossy paper and are ensuring correct contrast ratios for text and background colours. We also reduced the number of columns on the page to improve readability and simplified the grid layout to improve clarity. For online access, an accessible PDF version of the magazine has been produced and shared on our website. Accessible PDFs are specifically programmed to include accessibility features such as document bookmarks, text tagging, and the addition of alt text to graphics and images to provide descriptive information.

I hope as you read through this issue you will find something to keep you hopeful and engaged in activism and I hope you find the new format as pleasing as the whole Education Forum team found it to create.