Rise Up Collective

Susan G. Cole in a still from the video interview.

Origins of Women Against Violence Against Women

 A driving force in initiating Toronto's Take Back the Night marches, Women Against Violence Against Women was a feminist...

Filed under: announcements & updates, violence

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Protests, Parades and Potlucks: The Lesbian Mothers Defence Fund

 This interview explores the important role the LMDF played in the 1980s, supporting lesbian mothers who faced systemic discrimination...

Filed under: announcements & updates, childcare and family, LGBTQ+

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The Story of Two Industrial Women Workers

 Cathy Mulroy was one of the first women hired into a non-traditional job at Sudbury mining giant Inco

Filed under: announcements & updates, work & labour

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Organizing Domestic Workers: Intercede

 Intercede was an advocacy group of foreign domestic workers and their feminist allies that raised awareness about the exploitation...

Filed under: announcements & updates, immigration, work & labour

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historical photograph of a group of women in front of a banner at an International Women's Day celebration

International Women’s Day and International Solidarity

 This audio-only interview focuses on the international solidarity politics of the International Women’s Day Committee (IWDC) during the 1980s.

Filed under: announcements & updates, solidarity

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Birch Proposals: The Early Fight for Child Care Quality

 In June1974, Margaret Birch, Provincial Secretary for Social Development, delivered a proposal to change Ontario’s day care licensing requirements....

Filed under: announcements & updates, childcare and family

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Immigrant Women Create the Working Women Community Centre

 In 1975, in response to the recognition that a lot of immigrant women were marginalized either because they were...

Filed under: announcements & updates, immigration, work & labour

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Organized Working Women builds women's support picket for Fleck strikers.

Fleck Strike and Feminist Solidarity

 This interview focuses the 1978 landmark strike against Fleck Manufacturing, an auto-wiring plant located outside London ON, and the...

Filed under: announcements & updates, solidarity, work & labour

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Still from video of Jeannette Corbiere Lavell

Indigenous Women’s fight to end sex-based inequities in the Indian Act

 Jeannette Corbiere Lavell describes to Rise Up her long struggle to regain her status under the Indian Act

Filed under: announcements & updates, indigenous

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Still from Video of Monique Mojica

Monique Mojica: reclaiming Indigenous history and culture through theatre

 In this interview Monique Mojica (Guna and Rappahannock nations), tells her stories of being an Indigenous playwright, performer and...

Filed under: announcements & updates, arts, media & culture, indigenous

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DAWN & the Struggle for Disabled Women’s Rights

 The Disabled Women’s Network (DAWN) was founded in Winnipeg in 1987 by women from across Canada. 

Filed under: announcements & updates, disability

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This button from the 1982 Organized Working Women Conference features the slogan "Women for Unions, Unions for Women".

Founding of Organized Working Women

 The focus of this interview is the founding in 1976 of Organized Working Women, an independent feminist labour organization...

Filed under: announcements & updates, work & labour

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Still from video of June Veecock at IWD in Toronto

Black Nurses Challenge Systemic Racism

 In 1990, seven Black and one Filipina nurse filed complaints of systemic racism against Toronto’s Northwestern Hospital at the...

Filed under: justice, racialized & women of colour, work & labour

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Federal Leaders’ Debate on Women’s Issues

 Chaviva Hošek talks about the 1984 federal election debate on women's issues.

Filed under: announcements & updates, politics & government

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Toronto Women’s Bookstore: Becoming Intersectional and Anti-racist

 In this interview with Anjula Gogia, she tells the story of her involvement with the Toronto Women’s Bookstore (TWB)

Filed under: announcements & updates, arts, media & culture, social & economic justice

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Justice in P4W

 In this new interview about Justice for Women in prisons, Joey Twins and Kim Pate speak about the 1994...

Filed under: announcements & updates, justice

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Founding of Toronto Wages for Housework

 This interview focuses on the founding of Toronto Wages for Housework in 1975 and its organizing principles, networks, and...

Filed under: announcements & updates, work & labour

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Portuguese Workers & Cleaners’ Action 1975

 This interview focuses on Cleaners’ Action, an advocacy group founded in 1975 to support Portuguese cleaners.

Filed under: announcements & updates, work & labour

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Women’s Equality & the Charter of Rights and Freedoms

 Canadian women began mobilizing in anticipation of constitutional reform in 1980.  After a series of mass actions, conferences and...

Filed under: announcements & updates, politics & government

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Creating Crisis Centres for Women

 In this new Women Unite Interview Darlene Lawson and Deb Parent discuss the early history of creating crisis centres...

Filed under: announcements & updates, violence

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Toronto Indochinese Women’s Conference 1971

 In April 1971. women from Canada and the United States met with Indochinese women to strategically collaborate

Filed under: announcements & updates, feminist organization, peace & war

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Women Unite Relaunched!

 Rise Up! is pleased to announce the relaunch of Women Unite, a new collection that includes over 25 video...

Filed under: announcements & updates

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The Fight’s Not Over

 This podcast explores the 1970 Abortion Caravan on its 51st anniversary...

Filed under: health & reproductive rights

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Statement In Response To Concerns About Women Unite

 There have been serious concerns raised about the lack of a Black feminist presence in the Women Unite* collection,...

Filed under: announcements & updates

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Celebrating Marlene Green

 Marlene Green is one of five Black activists celebrated through the Akua Benjamin Project: 50 Years of Black Activism.

Filed under: racialized & women of colour

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Unions as Sites of Feminist Activism

 Justice and Dignity for All is a documentary by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers about the workers, mostly...

Filed under: rural & northern, work & labour

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Angela Robertson, member of the Black Women's Collective, speaks at a protest against police violence. In response to the October 27, 1989, police shooting of 23-year-old Black woman Sophia Cook, the Black Women’s Collective organized the Women’s Coalition Against Racism and Police Violence. This coalition of 35 women’s and progressive organizations brought people together on December 16, 1989, to demand police accountability and an end to police brutality against Black people.

Sharing feminist history

 Sharing feminist history with new generations, students and researchers has always been an important goal for Rise Up! We...

Filed under: announcements & updates, indigenous, racialized & women of colour

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Some Black Women

 Claire Prieto’s film "Some Black Women" (1977) looks at the lives and roles of Black women in Canada during...

Filed under: arts, media & culture, racialized & women of colour

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Sisters in the Struggle

 The NFB documentary Sisters in the Struggle (1991- Dionne Brand, Ginny Stikeman) features a frank conversation among Black women...

Filed under: arts, media & culture, racialized & women of colour

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Making Movie History: Sylvia Hamilton

 Sylvia Hamilton first became involved with the National Film Board in the mid-1980s. In Making Movie History, she reflects...

Filed under: arts, media & culture, racialized & women of colour

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Norma Scarborough and Henry Morgentaler hold a copy of The Toronto Star with front-page headlines announcing the historic Supreme Court decision taken on January 28, 1988, stating that Canada's abortion law is not legal.

“Abortion law not legal….”

 In 1974, Norma Scarborough and Dr. Henry Morgentaler were among the founding members of CARAL

Filed under: health & reproductive rights, justice

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Pat Schulz: Childcare Advocate

 "Maybe one's definition of reasonableness depends on where you fit in the system. Reasonableness is a device used by...

Filed under: childcare and family

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50th Anniversary Royal Commission on the Status of Women

 The Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada was established in February 1967.

Filed under: politics & government

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For every woman…

 “Approximately 20 Ottawa women participated in Remembrance Day ceremonies at Confederation Square on November 11. They carried a large...

Filed under: peace & war, violence

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Illustration by Barbara Hartman Branching Out, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1978

Lesbian Mothers and Custody Fights

 Before same-sex marriage, before gay and lesbian couples could adopt children, and before benefits were extended to same-sex partners,...

Filed under: childcare and family, LGBTQ+

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In response to the October 27, 1989, police shooting of 23-year-old Black woman Sophia Cook, the Black Women’s Collective organized the Women’s Coalition Against Racism and Police Violence. This coalition of 35 women’s and progressive organizations brought people together on December 16, 1989, to demand police accountability and an end to police brutality against Black people.

Fighting Racism and Police Violence: Then and Now

 Rage and grief. Agony and anger. COVID-19 has exposed deep racial and class inequalities embedded in Canada, and now,...

Filed under: justice, racialized & women of colour, social & economic justice

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Notes From the Archive: On the Current Crisis…

 In writing this update, there is a compulsion to write about the times we’re living through together. This would...

Filed under: announcements & updates

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New to the Rise Up! Archive

 We’ve just posted a new article on the website that addresses the critical history of Studio D, Canada’s groundbreaking feminist film-production...

Filed under: announcements & updates, arts, media & culture

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Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en

 As blockades and other actions continue in support of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation’s opposition of the Costal Gaslink Pipeline,...

Filed under: announcements & updates, indigenous

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New to the Rise Up! Archive

 We’ve uploaded a wide range of new buttons and posters that chronicle events and campaigns from the women’s movement....

Filed under: announcements & updates

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