Comrade Marcel
21st July 2003, 04:37
DINE AT THE TORY TROUGH!!
OCAP FEAST AND MARCH THROUGH YORKVILLE
ON CUMBERLAND (NORTH OF BLOOR, WEST OF BAY)
SATURDAY, AUGUST 23RD
FROM 7.00 PM
As much as he'd like to avoid it, Ernie Eves will soon have to
call an election. He has chosen to run on a platform that targets
immigrants, poor people, the homeless, teachers and trade unions.
The Tories have already created an Ontario that is based on the
most sickening disparities between wealth and poverty. The homeless cram
into shelters, thousands are evicted from their housing, children are
taken into care in record numbers because their parents are poor and
hundreds of thousands turn to private charity to feed their families.
The other side of the coin is the world of privilege inhabited by
the beneficaries of a vast transfer of wealth. The loot generated by
inhuman welfare cuts and the destruction of social housing has been handed
to the rich in the form of tax breaks. A decade long freeze of the
minimum wage has created a profit bonanza for employers. The end of
effective rent controls has put the grocery money of low income tenants
into the pockets of exploitive landlords.
Yorkville is one of the troughs where the rich go to enjoy the
spoils their Government has filched from poor families. At high priced
boutiques, they spend more on single items of clothing than many have to
make do with for a year. At some of the 'fine dining' restaurants in the
area, they can select bottles of 'private cellar' wine that would cost
several week's wages for a minimum wage worker. All this lavish
consumption takes place in businesses that back and fund the Conservative
Party. Yorkville is as much a product of the Tory years as the poverty
and misery that blights the communities of Ontario.
On August 23rd, the poor and homeless, along with their
supporters, will come to Yorkville to enjoy a feast. We will fill the
streets and demonstrate that resistance to the Tory 'Road Ahead' to even
greater inequality is on the upsurge. We will serve notice that poverty
and the fight against it will be an unwelcome but unavoidable election
issue for the Tories. It will not be business as usual in Yorkville that
night. We are bringing our fight right to the Tory Trough.
OCAP needs maximum support for this action. The rich have Ernie
Eves to take care of their political needs and Julian Fantino to provide
for their security. We will need a large and diverse array of allies from
unions, social justice movements and religious organizations to stand in
solidarity with us that night. Please consider the following ways you can
support us.
* Endorse the action by sending us a support letter AND by making a
contribution (cash or in kind) to the feast. We want people to eat well
that night.
* Mobilize for the event. Turn out members of your community organization
or union. Bring banners and stand with us against the hateful future Eves
would create in Ontario.
* Let us know if you can help provide transport up from the neighbourhoods
south of Bloor where many people will come from that night.
* Call us if you can help with some of the outreach for the action.
In Tory Ontario, poverty is supposed to be hidden and wealth is
supposed to go unchallenged. On August 23rd, in Yorkville, it won't work
that way. Let's defeat the Tories and everything they stand for.
Thanks,
OCAP
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
517 College Street, Suite 234 Toronto, Ontario M6G 4A2
416-925-6939 [email protected] http://www.ocap.ca
OCAP FEAST AND MARCH THROUGH YORKVILLE
ON CUMBERLAND (NORTH OF BLOOR, WEST OF BAY)
SATURDAY, AUGUST 23RD
FROM 7.00 PM
As much as he'd like to avoid it, Ernie Eves will soon have to
call an election. He has chosen to run on a platform that targets
immigrants, poor people, the homeless, teachers and trade unions.
The Tories have already created an Ontario that is based on the
most sickening disparities between wealth and poverty. The homeless cram
into shelters, thousands are evicted from their housing, children are
taken into care in record numbers because their parents are poor and
hundreds of thousands turn to private charity to feed their families.
The other side of the coin is the world of privilege inhabited by
the beneficaries of a vast transfer of wealth. The loot generated by
inhuman welfare cuts and the destruction of social housing has been handed
to the rich in the form of tax breaks. A decade long freeze of the
minimum wage has created a profit bonanza for employers. The end of
effective rent controls has put the grocery money of low income tenants
into the pockets of exploitive landlords.
Yorkville is one of the troughs where the rich go to enjoy the
spoils their Government has filched from poor families. At high priced
boutiques, they spend more on single items of clothing than many have to
make do with for a year. At some of the 'fine dining' restaurants in the
area, they can select bottles of 'private cellar' wine that would cost
several week's wages for a minimum wage worker. All this lavish
consumption takes place in businesses that back and fund the Conservative
Party. Yorkville is as much a product of the Tory years as the poverty
and misery that blights the communities of Ontario.
On August 23rd, the poor and homeless, along with their
supporters, will come to Yorkville to enjoy a feast. We will fill the
streets and demonstrate that resistance to the Tory 'Road Ahead' to even
greater inequality is on the upsurge. We will serve notice that poverty
and the fight against it will be an unwelcome but unavoidable election
issue for the Tories. It will not be business as usual in Yorkville that
night. We are bringing our fight right to the Tory Trough.
OCAP needs maximum support for this action. The rich have Ernie
Eves to take care of their political needs and Julian Fantino to provide
for their security. We will need a large and diverse array of allies from
unions, social justice movements and religious organizations to stand in
solidarity with us that night. Please consider the following ways you can
support us.
* Endorse the action by sending us a support letter AND by making a
contribution (cash or in kind) to the feast. We want people to eat well
that night.
* Mobilize for the event. Turn out members of your community organization
or union. Bring banners and stand with us against the hateful future Eves
would create in Ontario.
* Let us know if you can help provide transport up from the neighbourhoods
south of Bloor where many people will come from that night.
* Call us if you can help with some of the outreach for the action.
In Tory Ontario, poverty is supposed to be hidden and wealth is
supposed to go unchallenged. On August 23rd, in Yorkville, it won't work
that way. Let's defeat the Tories and everything they stand for.
Thanks,
OCAP
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
517 College Street, Suite 234 Toronto, Ontario M6G 4A2
416-925-6939 [email protected] http://www.ocap.ca