The Caribbean Community Study Circle (CCSG) has become a space and a place of learning in Toronto

BY PAUL JUNOR

It is more than a book club as it has become a site where there are: active discussions, engaging conversations, and participatory dialogues between: current university researchers, involved community members, students, activists, and elders. The meeting takes place on the 3^rd Saturday of each month, between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. at the Blackhurst Cultural Centre.

From the establishment of Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association in 1919 on College Street, fights for desegregation led by the Joint Labour Committee to Combat Racial Intolerance, and the Black Women’s Collective’s insistence on addressing: racism, sexism, homophobia and classism as constitutive of an anti-imperialistic politics: the rise of the Black Action Defense Committee in response to police brutality in 1988, Justice for Migrant Workers fighting against new forms of indentured labour, Indo-Caribbean organizers making movements with Jane and Finch Action Against Poverty-Caribbean peoples in Toronto have a long and proud history of fighting for justice for us all, building up the strength in our communities and enriching the culture of the city.

The following questions were posed because of this. They include:

• How do we keep this history alive?
• How do we learn from these stories of organizing and struggle?
• What kinds of questions do we ask of the past today?
• What lessons might we learn?
• What does it mean to be Caribbean in the diaspora today?

Starting January 20^th, 2025, join them as they start to build a space to: study, ask questions, learn together, and build community through the launch of The Caribbean Study Circle. The objective of the CSG is to create a community-based space in which we talk and think about where, why, and how we are living the way we do, but most importantly how we want to live-and how do we get there.

The monthly gathering/grounding is to study and discuss short readings and learn together as a community, but we also want to know what questions you have? What issues are you interested in learning about?”

The dates of the sessions that have taken place so far are: January 20^th, February 17^th, March 16^th, April 20^thh, May 18^th, June 15^th, July 20^th, August 17^th, and September 21^st. The dates of the remaining monthly sessions are October 12^th, November 16^th, and December 21^st.

Some of the topics covered in the sessions are:

• January 20^th: Why Study? Why Organize?
• February 17^th: Studying in Order to Act
• March 15^th: Our Ongoing Struggle for Liberation and the Threat of Fascism
• April 20^th: The Importance of Internationalism and Solidarity
• May 18^th: Fighting Genocide, Palestinian Solidarity and Encampment in Toronto
• June 15^th: The Haitian Revolution and the 220 Year Struggle against Imperial Backlash
• July 20^th: The Haitian Revolution part 2: The African Political Influence, Internal Contradictions, and the Constitution
• August 17^th: The New Beginning Movement and Revolutionary Black Power in the Caribbean
• September 21^st: Walter Rodney, Power and the Dangerous Allure of Black Capitalism

The names of some of facilitators of the sessions are:

• Tamanisha John (Assistant Professor of Black Politics in the Department of Politics at York University)
• Kevin Edmonds (Assistant Professor (teaching stream) Caribbean Studies Program at the University of Toronto
• Alissa Trotz (Professor of Caribbean Studies, Director of the Women and Gender Studies Institute and Director of the Undergraduate Caribbean Studies Program at the University of Toronto)
• Runako Gregg (Researcher, Activist, Human Rights Lawyer)
• Melanie Newton (Assistant Professor of Caribbean and Atlantic World History at the University of Toronto)
• Astrid Jacques (Senior Manager, Organizational Initiatives and People Management in the Ontario Public Service)
• Magdalene Brunache (PhD student at the University of Toronto)
• Rachel Goffe (Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Geography (UTSC), Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. Beverley Mullings (Professor of Political Economy at the University of Toronto)
• Horace Campbell (Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University)