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Tag: Labour movement

All out Sept. 27

SEPTEMBER 17, 1995 – September 27 will see the biggest demonstration yet against Mike Harris and the Tory government in Ontario. On the 22,000 strong Toronto labour day march,[1] hundreds of workers carried signs calling for unionists to join the protest. More than 10,000 flyers announcing the demonstration were distributed to union contingents. Since the election of the Tories on June 26 of this year we have seen the slashing of welfare payments, a 20 percent cut to transfer payments to municipalities, and over two million dollars taken out of Wheel Trans (the public transportation system for the disabled.) But…

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A demo a week keeps the Tories at bay

AUGUST 7, 1995 – Rumour has it that Ontario has rolled over and died since the election of the Tories. According to Bob Rae, there’s nothing to be done for the next four years, just sharpen your pencil, put it on your bedside table, pull the covers up over your head and wait till the next election. But it seems a feisty layer of people haven’t yet heard that bright idea. Instead, they’ve been out there an average of once a week fighting back against this government. Judge for yourself: when has an incoming government been so rapidly met by…

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Solidarity against the cuts

JULY 24, 1995 – Mike Harris has joined Ralph Klein and Paul Martin in the war against the poor. Within days of taking office, Harris announced cuts totalling $1.9-billion. Fully $500-million of these cuts come right out of the pockets of the poorest in the province, through a 21% cut in social assistance (welfare) payments. Harris is accumulating a war chest from the pockets of the poor to give to the rich next year. He intends to cut taxes 30%, and those tax cuts will disproportionately benefit the richest in the province. There is a concerted attempt by governments across…

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How Bob Rae destroyed his base

MAY 15, 1995 – The NDP looks set to lose the June 8 election in Ontario. Membership in the party is down by thousands. “After the Social Contract negotiations in the summer of 1993, thousands of NDP members tore up their cards and quit the party. Membership has fallen by about one-third to about 22,000”. [1] Riding after riding has fewer workers prepared to go door to door than in the last election. Rae and the party leadership have no one to blame but themselves. There was euphoria in 1990 when the NDP won a majority at Queen’s Park. Many…

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Fear of striking

MARCH 27, 1994 – For a few days, everything seemed possible. On March 11, 1994, Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, in a letter to CUPE Ontario Executive Board members, laid out a plan of action that had the potential to galvanize the Ontario labour movement. In the confidential letter, widely leaked to militants in the labour movement, Ryan spelled out exactly how serious the attacks on Ontario workers have been in the last two years. “A recent survey of 30 percent of CUPE locals has indicated a staggering job loss of…

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