The Future is Public building a pro-public movement for all Concordia University, Montreal, June 15-16

What

The Future is Public was a two day gathering of union leaders, activists, researchers, and community groups designed to share ideas and proposals around building a pro-public movement in Canada.

Why

Privatization is deeply unpopular and has been fought successfully. But if the anti-privatization movement only thinks defensively the best we can do is protect the status quo. A discussion about reclaiming and reimagining public services can help move us towards a clearer picture of what we want from our public services in the future.

What's all this about a pro-public movement?

David McDonald was interviewed on Talking Radical Radio about pro-public movements.

Dru Oja Jay outlined how expanding public services can benefit the climate, economic equality and indigenous sovereignty in the Tyee.

David McDonald's Building a Pro-Public Movement in Canada is an in-depth exploration of the possibilities.

Highlights

Makila Co-op produced these highlights from the first two days of Future is Public:

Photos, Notes and Outputs

We've also put online: written notes from workshops, the results of the open space sessions, photos and other materials.

Videos of all the major presentations are available here. Avi Lewis' summary of the conference, delivered at the end of the Saturday, is a good place to start.

Some photos of Friday and Saturday activities at the conference have been posted on Facebook.

You can also read what people said about the conference on Twitter.

We sent out a survey to conference attendees. You can read a summary of the responses.

If you have materials to add, please email info at publicservices.ca

Organizers

The conference happened with the support of several organizations:

CONTACT

Please contact organizers at info@publicservices.ca with any questions