The theme of the 2023 UALE Biennial Conference is “Labour Education Saves Democracy!” This year's conference features a wide range of panels, roundtables, teaching demonstrations, and cultural events, all set against a historical backdrop where some of the earliest strikes in the American labor movement took place – and where generations of immigrants have fought for their right to democratic participation in their home community. Together we will explore whether and how labour education can foster democratic practices at both the political and the organizational levels.
In doing so, we recognize that people of marginalized identities have not had equal access to democratic practices in our unions or our political systems, and we recognize as well the particular threats that white supremacy, capitalism, and settler colonialism pose to democratic systems. As we foster these important conversations, participants will have opportunities to engage with the legacy of this land as both the historic home of the Pennacook people, who still live and work on this land today despite genocide and settler colonialism, as well as the site of an industrial textile powerhouse that relied on the labor of enslaved people to produce massive profits.