A report from Union Communiste Libertaire (UCL)

Against privatization and price increases: ONLY THE STRUGGLE PAYS!

On April 1st 2010, some 15,000 people descended on the business district in Montreal at the call of more than 95 unions, popular, feminist and student groups. Is this the first stage of a response against the Liberal budget? Only time will tell. In any case, it was a nice demonstration--a popular grand procession, very diverse and militant (at least in discourse).

We now know that the budget tabled on March 30th by Minister Bachand introduced a host of measures, each more regressive than the one before. The introduction of new fees for healthcare or the rapid growth of sales tax (QST) are examples. The rich will fare quite well, as usual. Nothing in this budget calls into question their privilege and their little schemes to stash their money in tax-free havens. Again, we are required to sacrifice for them. Enough!

By Chris Shannon

For those who were around during the early to mid-nineties, a familiar pattern may be emerging. Ontario was then, as it is now, in an economic crisis. The province was bleeding jobs and the coffers at Queen’s Park were short over $10 billion.

Bob Rae, Ontario premier and New Democratic Party (NDP) leader at the time, decided that public sector workers were the answer to saving money. He ripped open union contracts and imposed forced unpaid days off. Union leaders were incensed. The newly termed “Rae days” marked a split between labour and the NDP. Sid Ryan, head of the Canadian Union of Public Employees - Ontario, and a perpetually failed NDP candidate for election, said he would “Never forgive Rae for what he had done.”

by Geordie Gwalgen Dent
Toronto Media Coop

TORONTO — Under a blanket of hail, rain and cold weather, 250 anti-poverty protesters marched on the financial centre of Toronto on Nov. 5, The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) organized march took aim at government policy during the recession. The Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario held a separate march on the same day to the Ontario legislature.

“We wanted to participate [on] that day and march into the financial district to point out who is benefiting within this crisis,” says Lisa Schofield, an organizer with OCAP.

By Scott Neigh
August 1, 2009

More than 3300 employees of mining giant Vale Inco are on strike in Sudbury, Ontario, and in other Canadian communities to defend decades' worth of gains. Beyond that, the strike by members of Locals 6500 and 6200 of the United Steel Workers of America also raise important questions about how unions orient themselves towards their communities and towards the nation-states in which their members live.

There are a number of "very provocative issues for the men" in the company's demands, according to a 21-year veteran of Inco's transportation division who requested to remain anonymous when interviewed at a picket line in the Sudbury community of Copper Cliff.* He pointed out, "There's absolutely no monetary raise in this contract" and no expectation by the members that there would be one, given the low price of nickel and the state of the global economy.

June 11, 2008
Hamilton, ON

Local members of Common Cause joined part-time professors at McMaster University as they held an info picket outside the University’s annual convocation ceremonies at the Hamilton Convention Centre on Thursday, June 11. Common Cause members, some of whom are also part of CUPE 3906, helped hand out over 200 flyers to parents and students.

The sessionals, members of CUPE 3906, are protesting lay-offs and trying to raise awareness about major restructuring planned by the University's administration.

For the second year in a row, Hamilton will be home to Ontario's only Anarchist Book Fair, happening June 6, from 10am to 4pm at Westdale Collegiate, 700 Main St. West . Over 300 people from all over southern Ontario took part in Hamilton's first anarchist book fair, held last June.

For those not familiar with anarchist book fairs you can expect a couple dozen or so publishers and book stores to be on hand offering literature in various forms (as well as the occasional t-shirt) at affordable prices. You can expect to find just about every social justice issue covered from the environment, to women's struggles to radical history and theory. Many local activist groups will also be on hand to share information about important struggles happening in our community and beyond.

This is the text from the leaflet Common Cause distributed at the March 21, 2009 JobsFirst! labour rally in Hamilton, Ontario. The pdf is available below for download.

They Didn't Share the Wealth, Why Should We Share the Pain

For the past 30 years the rich got richer off our backs. Speed-ups, wage cuts, longer hours, precarious jobs, cuts to social services. The rich got super-profits and the rest of us got insecurity, poverty and debt. Governments have been only too happy to lend a hand.

Now that they've squandered their ill-gotten gains (along with our savings) on the global financial casino, they want to squeeze us even more to make up their losses! Layoffs, concessions, cutbacks...they are turning their crisis into our pain.

BY PETRE MARIN

Unless you have been stuck in a cave somewhere over the past few weeks, you have no doubt heard about the financial crisis south of the border. You have also likely heard Canadian officials and business people claim that the Canadian economy is doing just fine and is immune from the US turmoil. We can hardly expect them to say other wise, not least during an election. But in fact there is more than a good chance that Canada will follow the US into a major economic crisis.

A very detailed talk on the cause of the current world financial crisis that starts off by explaining the background economics in an easy to understand manner, moves on to the role the war and other events apart from the sub-prime crash played and concludes with a look at what opportunities have been created for anarchist by this sequence of events. The discussion afterwards concentrates on the specifics of the situation in Ireland where the meeting was recorded.

Talk was given by Paul Bowman to a Workers Solidarity Movement meeting in Dublin on Oct. 1st, 2008.

Oct. 1, 2008
BY PETRE MARIN
LINCHPIN

Unless you have been stuck in a cave somewhere over the past few weeks, you have no doubt heard about the financial crisis south of the border. You have also likely heard Canadian officials and business people claim that the Canadian economy is doing just fine and is immune from the US turmoil. We can hardly expect them to say other wise, not least during an election. But in fact there is more than a good chance that Canada will follow the US into a major economic crisis.