Toronto March 16 -Solidarity against austerity!

[blake 3:17]

March 16th pre-budget Rally and March: Fight Poverty, Demand Living Income, Housing, Public Services for All!
Submitted by ocap on Wed, 02/08/2012 - 19:40.

On March 16, 2012 FIGHT POVERTY AND DEMAND: A LIVING INCOME! HOUSING! QUALITY PUBLIC SERVICES FOR ALL!

(DOWNLOAD POSTER & FLYER AT BOTTOM OF PAGE)

-Solidarity Against Austerity-
Friday, March 16, 2012
Rally and March
12noon
College and Bay St, Toronto (Outside the Ministry of Housing)


Join the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and allies for a march and rally on Friday, March 16th, in the lead up to the 2012 Provincial Budget. The McGuinty government has hired former head of the TD bank, Don Drummond, to propose and provide the basis for massive social cutbacks in their 2012 budget. It is being drafted as the Provincial component of the austerity agenda that is gathering force across Canada and internationally. City Hall, Queen`s Park and Ottawa are delivering austerity, but clearly it is being cooked-up on Bay Street by bankers like Drummond to the benefit of their rich friends.

We have to stop the cuts and fight for what poor and working people need!

The measures they intend to hit us with will fall on top of the losses we have already faced:

-Social assistance rates have lost at least 55% of their spending power since the days of the Harris Tories; the base amount for welfare today is a despicable $599/month

-The minimum wage has been reduced in real terms and more and more workers are forced into low wage jobs with E.I, employment standards and protection for workers being steadily eroded

-The fastest growing numbers amongst the poor in Ontario are racialized people without status; forced in to an economy that benefits from their massively underpaid and exploited labour, but fails to provide even basic services

-Waiting lists for social housing across this province are decades long while people are priced out of the private housing market and homeless shelters are overcrowded

-Access to affordable childcare is almost non-existent while thousands wait for limited subsidy spaces.

For poor people and workers in this province, it has been a constant state of crisis. McGuinty is now preparing to make this situation much worse.

On March 16, we will be rallying at an Ontario Government location but taking our march to Toronto`s financial centre where the real decisions are being made by and for the '1%'.

We will be marching to oppose austerity measures but also to demand the reversing of previous cutbacks, the right to a living income, the right to affordable and accessible housing, and for good quality public services for all! We will be marching against the kind of society Drummond and the rich are creating, and for one that meets the needs and improves the lives of all of us!

JOIN US!

HOW TO BE INVOLVED IN MARCH 16:

-Organize a contingent: bring a group of people from your organization, neighbourhood, city or union local to this demonstration - bring your demands

-Drum out Drummond: bring drums, noise makers, pots and pans

-Organize a group of students or a ‘kids block’ to be a part of the day as part of March Break

-Banners, flags and signs: Organize a ‘banner making day’ in your area, bring your banners to the march

-Help fund a bus, food, transit tokens, ASL, and materials for the day: if you or your organization or union local can make donations of money or in-kind, please help us make this day as participatory and accessible as possible

-Build the movement: add your organization’s to the list of endorsers for this day of action

-Get the word out: help us get the message out about this day of action, download the poster and flyer at www.ocap.ca, forward this announcement far and wide, contact us if you would like to help with postering, flyering, etc.

GET IN TOUCH: Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 416-925-6939
Web: OCAP.ca
Facebook: OCAP
Twitter: @OCAPtoronto

DOWNLOAD POSTER & FLYER BELOW:

POSTER:
http://ocap.ca/files/OCAP_March%20low.pdf
FLYER (FRONT):

http://ocap.ca/files/flyer_side1%20lo.pdf

FLYER (BACK):
http://ocap.ca/files/flyer_side2.pdf

[blake 3:17]

From OCAP:
Former Toronto Dominion Bank economist, Don Drummond, has now handed over
his report to the McGuinty government. As we might have expected it is a
call to arms for the advocates of austerity. It suggests cuts to social
services that would make Harris’s Tory government look like social
reformers. Harris cut the Provincial Budget by less than 4% during one
term of office while Drummond wants a 17% reduction kept up for a decade
and a half. Among other drastic recommendations it calls for limiting
annual spending growth for social assistance to 0.5% until 2018, despite
the fact that those living on social assistance are still suffering from
the 21.6% cuts to assistance from the Harris years, which the Liberals
have only made worse. Nowadays a person living on welfare in Ontario is
making 55% less than they did in the early 90s, when the rates were
already far below the poverty line. Also in Drummond’s cross-hairs are
ODSP and the Child Tax Benefit.

Through all the rhetoric of ‘’overspending’’ it is important to remember
that this economic crisis was not caused by us. After all, it is
noteworthy that the budget was balanced before the crisis of 2008-09. It
was not caused by welfare recipients, it was not caused by organized
labour and it was not caused by public services. We are living through a
financial crisis that was caused by the rich, and while the banks are
getting bailed out we are being bled dry to pay for their greed.

The Drummond report is a roadmap to austerity and if it is not swiftly
defeated its legacy will haunt us for decades to come. At the same time it
is important not to stay fixated on the Drummond report. We know that the
Liberals have been planning to implement cut-back measures long before
this report came out. It is imperative that we keep a close eye on the
upcoming budget and root out every attack directed against us in the name
of austerity.

The time is crucial for us to coordinate our efforts and organize
ourselves as effectively as possible to mount a serious fightback.

Overview of the days of action

This is not the first time radical groups, community groups and labour
unions have been called to fight together. In the mid to late 1990s in
response to the drastic cuts to social services and attacks on workers put
forth by the Harris government these groups had to band together to mount
opposition. What started as small protests against the PC government soon
swelled to one of the largest mobilization periods in Ontario’s history,
with hundreds of thousands of people joining in the fight. Unfortunately
this mobilization, though ground-breaking in many ways, was not enough to
defeat the Tories and they were not forced to retreat. As powerful as the
Days of Action were, the present struggle against austerity will need to
learn from past shortcomings as well as strengths. Unlike the
mobilization against Harris, the struggles we take up to-day will need to
escalate to the point where those implementing austerity face a level of
economic and political disruption that creates for them a social, economic
and political catastrophe. We can’t stop at moral appeals but must force
Bay Street and its political representatives at Queen’s Park to retreat
through decisive mass mobilization

The Common Sense Revolution cuts were pushed through and we are living
with its legacy today. In real terms people living on social assistance
today have less spending power than they did during the height of the
Harris-era cuts. Capitalism has re-doubled its attacks on organized labour
and vital public services are being cut and threatened daily. If we fail
again this time around, however, the results will be far more devastating.

Proposal for a plan to move forward

We in OCAP believe that the only way we can truly defeat the current wave
of austerity measures is to build a movement that is willing and committed
to pushing back in meaningful ways. Symbolic rallies and editorials will
only get us so far, and social assistance reviews are not going to help us
push back against austerity. It has even been admitted by Lankin that a
raise in social assistance rates is not even on the table. Rather, to beat
this beast we have to put forward a plan of resistance that is going to
disrupt every stage of their agenda, we have to be willing to confront
these politicians and decision makers head on at every single chance we
can take.

On March 16th OCAP, with a wide array of community groups and labour
groups will be marching from the ministry of housing down to the financial
district. In a show of unity we will be marching together against the
austerity measures of the liberal provincial government, we will be
demanding a raise in OW and ODSP rates, as well as quality public
services. But marches alone are not going to win this battle. Other
community groups have to be willing to take up the fight in meaningful
ways, unions have to be willing to strike against this government, and
everyone has to be committed to taking this to its logical conclusion! We
are calling on all our allies, all labour unions, all activists, all
community organizations to help us defeat this government and the
austerity measures it represents. Together we can fight to win!

[TheGodlessUtopian]

thread moved :)

[blake 3:17]

The march went well. It covered a fair bit of Toronto's downtown, and caused some lock ups of major financial and state institutions.

A little quiet but effectively disruptive. I'd ballpark attendance around a 1000, which was a bit disappointing, but absolutely fine.

There were no arrests or injuries during the march. Near all OCAP actions are heavily policed. There was a fairly heavy police presence, but they didn't cause any problems for us.

[NewLeft]

I completely forgot..http://www.audi-tt.ru/forum/phpBB2/images/smiles/facepalm.gif I should have attended.