Marching against War on Labour Day/The Bullet on the Labour Day

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1. From Windsor Peace Coalition:
Marching against War and Militarization on Labour Day
2. From The Bullet:
Labour Day 2008 and Canadian Workers
3. From The Bullet:
Out of Sight -- Out of Mind: Toronto's 'Streets to Homes' Response to
Homelessness

1.
On Thu, 8/28/08, Windsor Peace Coalition <windsorpeace at hotmail.com> wrote:

From: Windsor Peace Coalition <windsorpeace at hotmail.com>
Subject: Marching against War and Militarization on Labour Day
To:
Received: Thursday, August 28, 2008, 4:30 AM

WAR AND A MILITARIZED ECONOMY ARE NO
SOLUTION TO THE CRISIS IN MANUFACTURING

March with the Peace Coalition in the Labour Day Parade
- Monday, September 1, 2008 -

You are invited to march with Windsor Peace Coalition in the Labour Day
Parade this Monday, September 1 at 10 am.  Look for our blue and yellow
banner INVEST IN OUR COMMUNITIES, NOT IN WAR!

The parade forms up in the Holy Rosary church parking lot on the corner of
Drouillard and Wyandotte East starting at 9 am. and will start moving west
on Wyandotte at 10 am. to the riverfront Festival Plaza for speeches,
refreshments and a children's program.

As the crisis in manufacturing deepens, leading to hardship and insecurity
for many in communities such as ours, the Harper government is pushing war
and militarization of the economy as a "solution".  Under its "Canada
First" plan, $490 billion is to be poured into military spending over the
next 20 years to step up Canada's integration with the U.S. war marchine
and build up the Canadian forces in preparation for new wars of aggression
as part of NATO or other "coalitions" operating outside of international
law while continuing theillegitimate, failed occupation of Afghanistan.

Billons of public dollars will be diverted from social spending into the
arms industry, making Canadian universities centres for military research
and promoting  "jobs" and "exciting careers" fighting with the Canadian
forces as cannon fodder for the monopolies who profit from the destruction
of war.

Harper is cynically trying to brand this  plan of imperialist war and
militarization as one of  " putting Canadians to work protecting
Canadians".  It must be rejected!

The interests of Canadian workers do not lie in putting our natural and
human resources in the service of immoral, illegal wars and empire
building.  Join with us this Labour Day in demanding that investments be
made in addressing the needs of people and our communities - for a
dignified livelihood and social programs for all in a sovereign Canada -
and not in war, militarization and the annexation of our country to a
foreign superpower bent on world domination.

2.
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Labour Day 2008 and Canadian Workers
From:    "The Bullet" <lists at socialistproject.ca>
Date:    Sun, August 31, 2008 7:25 am
To:      seinforma at resist.ca
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 135 .... August 31, 2008
________________________________________________________________

Labour Day 2008 and Canadian Workers

Greg Albo

Labour Day 2008 in Canada sees a number of longer term trends over this
period of neoliberalism intensifying -- downward pressures on real wages,
growing precarious and marginal work, undermining of public sector services
and work, increasing reliance on migrant workers with restricted rights,
and mounting global inequalities. A recession resulting from the
overaccumulation of capital in key sectors in the U.S. and Europe has been
spreading across the world market. This cyclical crisis of global
capitalism has been aggravated by the turmoil in the financial sector due
to the overextension of credit, and the tax-cutting excesses and
liberalisation policies of national governments and the international
financial institutions. This has weakened labour markets across the major
capitalist countries and encouraged employers to step up their political
struggles against unions in favour of further policies of labour
flexibilization.

** Economic Slowdown **

These global economic trends have ended the export-led -- particularly
driven by high demand and prices for Canadian commodity exports in metals
and fossil fuels -- mini-boom in Canada over the last six years. Over the
first half of 2008, the Canadian economy has been growing at well under 1
percent for the year, with growth forecasts continuing to be lowered.
Export growth has now fallen for four consecutive quarters, and is down 5
percent, as the U.S. recession lowers demand for autos, oil and gas and
lumber. The nonsense from business and government economists that Canadian
resources would somehow insulate Canada from the U.S. downturn has again
been confirmed. The most significant sign of the export decline has been
the fall in the value of the Canadian dollar from well above par last year
to below 95 cents US.

These developments have meant that consumption-sensitive sectors, such as
housing and retail, are all stalling. While the credit bubble in Canada --
in mortgages, personal and commercial credit -- is not as devastating as in
the United States, parallel problems exist. Bank credit and loan capital of
all kinds is tightening, even with a looser monetary policy. Job losses are
consequently mounting in the labour market. The economic recession, with
the hardships and pressures it will bring for working class Canadians,
should be a major factor in the coming federal election as the minority
government, led by the hard right Conservatives of Stephen Harper,
dissolves.

** Labour Movement Challenges **

The Canadian labour movement is thus faced with major challenges and
struggles as fall 2008 approaches. The economic recession points to the
incredible absence of an anti-neoliberal movement and agenda in Canada, and
the need for the Left in the labour movement to be at the forefront of this
effort. The continuing announcements of workplace closings in the
manufacturing sector, and pressures on collective bargaining across all
sectors, suggests the need to build an anti-concessions movement that is
willing to explore more militant workplace tactics.

The public sector confronts new limits to workers' rights and working
conditions in the context of still ascendant neoliberal policies. A few
campaigns here -- notably some of the anti-privatization struggles around
health care, universities and municipal services -- have had some
successes, but these community-union alliances remain fleeting, even when
major campaigns and demonstrations suggest their enormous potential.
Without major support from the main political parties, and in the absence
of new Left organizational capacities forming in Canada, these efforts have
not been able to shift the balance of social forces. Organizing campaigns
in the service sector and with migrant workers have also made some gains,
but these have not yet been able to push past stagnant union density levels
(at levels that have fallen substantially from high points) in Canada.

And crucial international solidarity campaigns, notably with respect to the
miserable conditions of Palestinian workers in the Occupied Territories and
inside apartheid Israel, the continued assaults on unionists in Columbia,
and against the NATO alliance wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq,
have only built up fragile support. These essential internationalist
campaigns require major mobilizing efforts by the Canadian Labour Congress
and the union affiliates. Significant educational work and targeted
political activity could play a major role in breaking Canada's imperialist
foreign policies as the American empire's greatest ally.

** Labour Movement Impasse **

These are, indeed, major challenges for Canadian workers. It is important
to underline that key struggles and signs of political resistance keep
surfacing in all these areas, from both inside the labour movement and also
associated social forces and movements. But aside from a few important
initiatives in locals and labour councils -- the most visible being some of
the living wage and immigrants' rights struggles undertaken by the Toronto
and Vancouver District Councils, the union movement remains directionless
and limited by defensive and weak leadership. The CLC convention of this
summer is notable only for its complete lack of a sense of urgency of the
issues facing the union movement and the failure to move any significant
organizing, mobilizing or political agenda ahead.

This failure of vision and initiative has pushed union affiliates
increasingly toward 'competitive unionism,' and striking special agreements
with employers (such as the CAW-Magna Framework of Fairness agreement), and
collective agreements laced with moderate wage proposals and workplace
concessions. Some unions, notably the Canadian Auto Workers, following
other unions in the educational, construction and commercial sectors, into
an embrace of the Liberal Party, while the rest of the labour movement
clings tenaciously to the NDP, even while that party moves ever further
away from union and working class issues toward a 'post-partisan',
'post-class', and 'post-campaigning' political organization. The lack of a
socialist Left, with ties to rank and file and activist groupings across
the working class in all of Canada's regions and diverse communities, is
plainly evident in all this.

This impasse inside the Canadian labour movement is reflective of a wider
decline of the Canadian Left. The long-term drift of the NDP, going back to
the late 1970s, toward U.S. style Democratic Party politics and British
'Third Wayism', led to a now more than two decade long period of denial of
the social democratic realignment and an effort to work through social
coalitions and networks amongst social activists. None of these -- even in
their loosest organization form as national and local offshoots of the
World Social Forum -- exist as actual movements in Canada today. The New
Politics Initiative to reposition the NDP was, perhaps, its last
significant effort. This failure to comprehend the new political challenges
posed by neoliberalism was matched by the stale rigidity of a range of the
small left radical groupings that maintain a marginal presence in
progressive campaigns in Canada. But in taking their political instruction
from London, New York or Havana, they have been stuck in political
frameworks formed in quite different political moments and contexts. The
ideological, political and organizational terrains have long since shifted
and a period of experimentation in new political formations and political
creativity is now on the agenda. This can be seen by the important
political struggles in Latin America, but also the significant political
realignments and breakthroughs unfolding in Greece, Germany, France and
Portugal. From once leading some of the most significant fightbacks against
neoliberalism and globalization over the 1980s and early 1990s, the
Canadian Left is now fractured, at a major impasse and fighting only minor
rearguard actions.

** Labour Day **

Labour Day in Canada is not only a day to celebrate the historical
accomplishments of Canada's unions and working people to build a just
political order. This we should do, as well as take heart in the many
important struggles and battles being waged daily in our workplaces and
unions. But we should also take time to reflect on the obstacles we are now
confronting in Canada and the limits of our current organizational
capacities. Even the best campaigns and most significant struggles have
been stalling. There is an imperative to building an anti-capitalist
movement and politics to support the immediacy of the fights, for example,
against neoliberalism, the wreckage of the recession, the needs of migrant
workers and Canada's growing military role in Afghanistan and the Middle
East.  There is also, finally, the active rediscovering of a 21st century
socialism to confront the mounting ecological, militarist and social
barbarism of capitalism.  The Canadian labour movement and Left has often
played a key role in advancing these struggles. We should also reflect on
Labour Day on how we can do so again.

The Labour Platform below is a contribution by the Socialist Project to the
debate on the kind of orientation that our labour and socialist movements
in Canada need to consider to move forward.

Greg Albo teaches political economy at York University.


******************************************************************
******************************************************************

Labour Movement Platform

As workers, we are today confronted with the challenge of defending what we
have and making gains in the face of an ever-expanding and relentless
employer offensive. The employers' drive to increase productivity and
profits -- central to capitalism everywhere -- demands that we accept job
loss and insecurity, concessions, new forms of speedup, and expanded
management control in the workplace. More of us are forced to work in
precarious forms of employment, making ourselves 'flexible' without access
to unemployment and other social benefits or hope of a decent pension. Our
economic insecurity makes it possible for employers to divide us and force
upon us a false choice between jobs or the environment. Governments
continue to reinforce the power of our employers with policies designed to
undermine both individual and collective resistance. Our unions are
weakened by divisions over how to respond, but most pursue strategies that
fail to challenge the underlying causes of the problems we face. Many of us
are experiencing a terrible isolation, as we lose both our links to the
labour movement and our confidence in collective struggles.

Given these realities, many of us are asking: How can we rebuild workers'
strength and confidence? How can our movements retake the initiative and
turn things around?

3.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 134 .... August 27, 2008
________________________________________________________________

Out of Sight -- Out of Mind:
Toronto's 'Streets to Homes' Response to Homelessness

John Clarke

The City of Toronto's 'Streets to Homes' program is a finalist for one of
two awards that will be presented during the celebration of United Nations'
World Habitat Day.  These annual awards are given for 'practical and
innovative solutions to current housing needs and problems'. 'Streets to
Homes' is an initiative that focuses on placing people who are on the
streets in housing units, and is presented as a bold and vital step that
can actually eliminate the destitution of poverty in Toronto.

"Streets to Homes is helping us to end street homelessness," Toronto Mayor
David Miller has claimed. "It is making Toronto a more inclusive city, and
the world is taking notice. This recognition is a tribute to both City
staff and our community partners, who have worked together tirelessly and
seamlessly to help some of our most vulnerable citizens."

As I write this article, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty is preparing
to take a delegation to the office of the Coroner of Ontario to challenge
the death of yet another person whose homelessness had been 'solved' by
'Streets to Homes'. He was dumped in substandard accommodation in an
outlying part of the city without the supports that would enable him to
survive.  He perished in that setting.

There is a glaring contradiction between the 'Streets to Homes' initiative
as it is presented by its boosters in Toronto City Hall and the quiet,
hidden misery that plays out in the lives its 'success stories'. Even
viewed, simply and immediately, as a program that has put some 1,500
homeless people into housing units over three years, there is much that is
flawed and even shameful about 'Streets to Homes'. However, the bigger
question and the greater outrage lies in its role in both concealing and
serving an agenda of driving the poor and homeless from the centre of the
city in the interests of redevelopment.  Before we can grasp the
significance of 'Streets to Homes', we must first look at the essential
nature of this process and the ways in which it is being pushed forward.

** Urban Redevelopment and the Poor **

Redevelopment in Toronto is proceeding under conditions where the scale and
depths of poverty have already been increased by declines in real wages and
the removal of important elements of social provision. Unemployment
insurance has been gutted, social assistance rates slashed and the
governmental initiatives that once generated housing for low income people
have been scrapped. Some 70,000 people sit on waiting lists for social
housing in this city, while the housing stock they wait to occupy crumbles
for lack of basic upkeep.

It is under these regressive conditions that poor communities find
themselves targeted by upscale redevelopment. Decades ago, developers
focused on generating suburban sprawl but the driving down of property
values in the central area that this facilitated, created, over time, a
reverse process.  Since these are market forces and not rational planning,
this process has turned into a frenzied drive to create an oversupply of
upscale housing.

The developers' appetite for profits may be unlimited but urban space is
decidedly finite. Much of the territory slated for redevelopment is already
spoken for. Poor people have created homes and neighbourhoods. Public
housing projects have been constructed.  People marginalized by
deindustrialization and social cutbacks have moved into the city centre
where they stand the greatest chance of surviving. These low income
populations are, therefore, in the way and, as peasants were once driven
out to make room for sheep grazing, so poor and homeless people are to day
removed to provide space for luxury condos.

Middle class professionals moving into these contested areas are not
comfortable with the evidence of social destitution around them.  The
merchants who cater to the new occupants want to be free of the homeless.
The logic of investment, property values and 'quality of life' demands they
be removed. An unholy alliance of business interests, higher income
residents, media, cops and politicians is formed to take on this job. Since
it is the municipal level of government that has been developed to carry
out the public functions that are most closely related to the needs of
property investment, City Hall has a central role to play in this regard.

Continue reading:
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet134.html#continue

John Clarke is an activist with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty in
Toronto.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Bullet is produced by the Socialist Project. Readers are
encouraged to distribute widely. Comments, criticisms and
suggestions are welcome. Write to info at socialistproject.ca
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