[van-announce] Anti-Liberal/Olympics Hunger March! {Sun.Feb.17th}

[Anti-Poverty Committee]

~please forward~

Anti-Liberal/Olympics Hunger March!
Sunday Feb. 17th @ 2pm
Victory Square (Hastings & Cambie)

Resistance March to Soup Kitchen at Olympic Clock!

The BC Liberals are set to announce a 3 billion dollar budget surplus at
the expense of poor people’s lives! Join the APC and demand a Poor Peoples
Budget for Economic Human Rights!

No Olympics on Stolen Land! ~ Raise the Rates! ~ Free Tuition! ~ Homes Now!



* People’s Budget for Economic Human Rights!

The Anti-Poverty Committee demands that the BC Liberals spend their
estimated 3 billion dollar surplus on immediate housing for all in need.

There is no such thing as a ‘housing crisis,’ there is only a political
crisis. There is more than enough money to provide every poor working and
unemployed person and family with decent housing.  But while the
politicians consider us their  surplus, they amass billions of dollars
made at the expense of our poverty.

We demand that not one more cent be spent until every person is housed!

Our proposed breakdown of how the Liberals must spend our $3 billion surplus:

SOCIAL HOUSING NOW!

We demand that the BC Liberals immediately begin construction on no less
than 2010 units of fully subsidized social housing a year. This will cost
$200 million a year and $10 million per year in operating costs.

It’s important not to be fooled by the Liberals claims of building social
housing. What they aren’t telling us while we pat them on the back is that
the little money they are spending on housing is federal health money.
What they want us to believe is social housing is in fact assisted living
for the elderly. Gordon Campbell makes is grandstanding on the backs of
seniors.

The fact that the government itself admits that providing social housing
is less expensive then the consequences of homelessness, and yet refuses
to do so speaks to the truth that this government is a brutal one.

If driven by cost efficiency, as the government and tax-fanatics often
excuse themselves, we would not be warehousing people in shelters but in
decent homes. Under this capitalism our suffering is not an economic
fall-out but rather a calculated surplus used to exploit us further by
keeping wages and employment down. We say no more!

RENT REPARATIONS

Currently under the Liberals latest housing plan humorlessly titled
‘Housing Matters,’ rent subsidies have been made available to a very few
working people. Under this deceitful plan persons or families can only
receive supplements if no one in the family is on income assistance and
only if every member of the household has ‘full citizenship’. The cut-off
for subsides is fixed so that, for example: a single mother with 3 kids
can only get a $200 subsidy for an apartment that costs less than $800 a
month!

Housing minister Rich Coleman’s former job was working for landlord
associations, so with his expertise in slumlording he knows full well how
astronomically priced even the worst hovels in this province are.

We demand that rent reparations be paid out to all low-income renters.
There are more then 65 000 households in BC paying more then half their
income on rent. We have paid too much for too damn long! Bring in a rent
freeze and compensate anybody who’s currently being bled dry by paying
over a third of their monthly income into shelter. Housing rights are our
human rights!

RAISE THE DAMN RATES ALREADY!

Welfare rates must be raised to levels that people can live decent
dignified lives. To raise the rates 50% is $500 million. What else can we
say about that
!

PAYBACK TIME!

The BC Liberals have successfully disempowered poor people’s ability to
fight back by destroying our community services. Almost every string of
our social security net has been cut. Our communities have been slashed
and burned by funding cuts and altogether closures of the few places we
felt safe.

We demand that every service that fell under the Liberal blade be
reinserted. That the $200 million stolen from social programs and services
since 2001 be paid back with interest!

Stop sending our community to jail or deporting them because there is no
more legal aid! Stop the eviction factories from throwing families out
into the streets because they can not legally challenge the landlords!
Stop abusing us because there is no access to a Human Rights Tribunal!
Stop stealing our children because there is no care! Stop kicking us in
the teeth when we are down – or we will stop you!

AND SO MUCH MORE

These simple demands barely cost 2/3 of our surplus. In fact we are fine
with not taking this money that has been saved at our expense; we would
much rather have the health of our communities restored with the money
that is currently being squandered by the police, prisons, corporate
subsidies and the damn Olympics.

Our government’s priorities are clear. Profit before people. Based on this
calculation they are unfit to govern. Because they will not house people
we must do so by whatever means. Our government will not give unless
forced. We will only get what we organize to take.





-- 
The Anti-Poverty Committee is an organization of poor and working people,
who fight for poor people, their rights and an end to poverty by any means
necessary.  For more information on the Anti-Poverty Committee's on-going
campaigns, visit http://apc.resist.ca  Contact us by e-mailing
apc at resist.ca or phoning 604-682-3276.


                           UNITED WE WILL WIN!