Socialist Party of Ontario

Wear your Socialism on your sleeve…or lapel!

Cool new Socialist buttons. T-shirts to come shortly. Pick them up at future events/rallies or get one or more by mail!

We will mail a button for any donation of $5.00 or more. Any donation of over $25 is tax deductible. On any donation of over $10 we will send both designs. On higher donations we can send a few if you want that. You need not be a party member of course to wear your love of socialism on your lapel!
Check or money order can be sent payable to:
Socialist Party of Ontario
Mail to:
Socialist Party of Ontario
2858 Lake Shore Blvd. W.
Toronto M8V 1H9
Or donate via Paypal at this link:
http://tumblr.socialistpartyofontario.ca/donate

They will also be available at events/rallies of course!
PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU MUST BE A RESIDENT OF ONTARIO TO DONATE. This is a legal requirement.

May SPO Executive & Membership Meeting & Spring Social

Join us for the May Membership/ Executive meeting of the Socialist Party of Ontario to be followed by our spring social.

Please note that you are more than welcome to attend the social even if you do attend  the meeting.

The Executive meeting begins at 1 p.m.

Sunday, May 5th 1:00 p.m.
Library Pub (upstairs at the Imperial)
54 Dundas St. E.
Toronto

All members of the party are welcome and have the right to attend and to participate fully in the debates and discussions.

Observers are also welcome and are encouraged to attend.

On the agenda will be:

The (possible) upcoming Ontario election and our candidates
Socialist Outreach Campaigns: our door-to-door and media strategies
Executive Recruitment
Reports on Newly Formed Riding Associations and our fall Campus Club strategy
Where & when to hold the AGM  for 2013


Everyone’s input and perspective will be heard and is welcome.

This is your party and it needs your ideas.

There is no charge to attend or participate.

This will be followed by a spring social/open discussion  beginning at around 3:30 p.m. Please feel free to attend the social even if you do not attend the meeting.

There is no need to RSVP either event.

For further information please email us or call 416-251-5576

Bringing Socialism Directly to the People. Door-to-Door Across Ontario!

What is the solution to the problems facing working people, the middle class, women, the racially marginalized and all of those left out of the neo-liberal power structure?

The answer is Socialism.

The way to create a better, more equal, more equitable and democratic society is to take a message of optimism, social justice and socialism directly to the doors and streets of the people that capitalism has left behind.

There is no other way. You can only fight capitalism by fighting capitalism.

The Socialist Party of Ontario intends to do just this, in communities across Ontario, every weekend from now until…well until we have built the broad Socialist movement that the province and country needs and until we have delivered a message of Socialism and Feminism to every apartment, house, workplace, school and community centre in Ontario.

Join us in your community to make it happen. Join us in taking a message directly calling for Socialism, Feminism and real Democracy to the people of your community.

Over the coming days we will be announcing neighbourhoods that we will be going to an when.

Want to join us for these drops? Want to organize a drop in your community? Email us. We will help you set it up and we will get you the materials.

Email us at info@socialistpartyofontario.ca or on Facebook.

There is no better way to fight for a socialist agenda than to take it right to your neighbours. To their doorfronts and their mailboxes. To their workplaces and demonstrations.

It is never too late to write the future!

Toronto Socialist Winter Social!

Interested in the Socialist Party of Ontario?

Want to find out what we are all about?

Toronto member who wants to get more active?

Student who wants to get involved?

Join other socialists & Toronto SPO members at the Regal Beagle on Tuesday, January 22nd at 7:30 p.m. for an informal night of drinks, discussion and socializing.

Regal Beagle

335 Bloor Street West (just west of St. George St.)

Toronto, Ontario

Non members are welcome and encouraged to attend. We are a democratic group and all points of view are welcome.

If you have questions regarding the event, please email us.

Please note that you are welcome to attend without the need to RSVP. Just come on out!

See you on the 22nd!

Solidarity with Chief Spence and Idle No More

Sisters & Brothers;

The Socialist Party of Ontario wishes to express its total and unequivocal support not only for the heroic Chief Theresa Spence,  but also for the growing Idle No More movement and its campaign of public resistance to the Harper government.

Canada is a nation founded on colonial expropriation and cultural assimilation. Our society exists only due to the genocidal policies of our forebears. This is a fact that compels us to stand up and act in solidarity with sisters and brothers in the First Nations and Aboriginal communities and to seek to redress the systemic injustice that they face.

The Socialist Party of Ontario believes that Canada is a nation built on stolen land and that the policy of any government of this country must be to recognize and undo the criminal actions of our collective history that we have chosen too often to ignore.

We send our complete solidarity to Chief Spence, and call on Prime Minister Harper to relent in his cruel and unjust game of “saving face” and to meet with this fellow national leader. We call on all provincial leaders and the leaders of the opposition to stand up vocally and in solidarity against this continued colonialism and in support of not only Chief Spence but also the Idle No More movement and its actions of non-violent civil disobedience in particular.

Recognizing and ending Canada’s colonial legacy of racism and genocide should be the top priority of any government that truly seeks to change the racist attitudes that we still institutionally display by our nation’s paternalistic and offensive attitudes towards the First Nations and Aboriginal Peoples.

In Solidarity,
Natalie Lochwin
Spokesperson, Socialist Party of Ontario

Down with Bill 115. Solidarity with teachers!

Sisters  and Brothers;

The Socialist Party of Ontario wishes to express its unequivocal and unwavering support for the rotating strike actions being taken by our teachers province wide.

Education workers, both teachers and support staff, have had their democratic right to free assembly quashed. Their collective bargining rights as a union have been suppressed by law. This is clearly an unconstitutional action by our Ontario Liberal government and it must be opposed. Laurel Broten’s strong arm tactics and legal threats are an embarrassment and a disgrace to our democracy.

The Socialist Party of Ontario stands with and endorses any actions taken by our teachers, especially those that defy Bill 115, an attack on basic human rights. 

We encourage parents and caregivers to join teachers on picket lines, and we applaud students who have stood in solidarity with their educators.

We will never accept this kind of assault on our sisters and brothers in the union movement, and we stand with all workers, both  unionized and non-unionized, in their struggle against austerity and the push of governments to systematically destroy the  rights that so many of our brothers and sisters have fought and died for over the past decades.

In Solidarity,

Natalie Lochwin 

Spokesperson, Socialist Party of Ontario

Socialist Party of Ontario nominates its first candidate!

The SPO wants to congratulate Andrea Gar Quiano on her confirmation as our first official candidate in the next provincial election. She will be running in Peterborough.

Congratulations also to David Bergeron on his election to the executive as our Organizing/Membership Coordinator and to Kannan Divakaran Nair on his election to the executive as our Diversity Coordinator.

At the Policy Assembly several changes to the constitution and platform were made. These will be updated and available shortly.

Watch for some new candidate announcements in the next few days.

SPO Fall Policy Assembly - Toronto - November 25th

POLICY ASSEMBLY

Sisters & Brothers;

Join the SPO at its fall Policy Assembly this November in Toronto.

Happy Labour Day 2012 - The Fight Continues!

SPO Pride Statement 2012

Once again it is that time of year when we gather to celebrate our sexualities and the freedoms we have fought hard to attain over many years. On Gay Pride Day, we will enjoy the company of other Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer, Questioning, and Two-Spirited people (as well as our straight allies) in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding.

We also acknowledge that not only is this time of partying, but also remembrance of those still in the closet, and those that went before us who never knew the freedom of being able to celebrate their true selves in the way we do today. It is in this spirit that the Socialist Party of Ontario joins with all those who support the rights and values of a free and open society based on respect for diversity and difference.

The SPO, Ontario’s newest political party, unlike the other provincial parties, started out from the beginning as a party that welcomes all people, all sexualities, and that at its founding recognized the value of inclusion and diversity. From the start we have had LGBT, Women, and other groups at the foundation of our party. No other Ontario political party can claim this.

However, we also have a very different focus for Ontario than other parties. We are here today not only to celebrate but to educate. As Socialists we are here to promote some very important values, values that all other Ontario parties have forgotten. Pride week is not simply about the festivities and consumerism of a fun-filled week of celebration, but also of reflection on where we have been and where we are going as a society. Sexual freedom is not the only value that deserves celebrating, but also all those social values that make inclusion, diversity, democracy, and public democracy important in a new Ontario.

As socialists, we recognize that LBGTIQQTS people are not the only ones who have suffered under the current economic system and the governments that support it. Capitalism, the idea of the accumulation of profit at the expense of exploitation and oppression of various groups in society, is fast becoming an obvious problem in the development of an egalitarian and people-directed Ontario. As an historically oppressed people we need to recognize that LGBT people must work with other exploited and oppressed groups to achieve our goals.

Many will recall the role of organized Labour in our liberation over the years. And as members of the working class the time has come for LGBT people to support Unions and their struggles in bringing both social and economic equality to all the people of Ontario.

Women’s groups, and the women’s liberation movement of the 70’s and 80’s all fought for the recognition of differing forms of family, sexual, and gender expression. Today, women’s rights to equality in the workplace and to sexual health issues (including the right to reproductive choice) are an important locus for the support of the LGBT movement.

Despite these moves, however, we must look at systemic change for Ontario—the elimination of a system in which the ruling class is the arbiter of all that is good, and the oppressor of all those who fight for basic freedoms and democracy.

In a socialist Ontario, there would be free and direct democracy in both the government and the workplace. The SPO is dedicated to bringing bottom-up decision making and policy development into the government of the province. The SPO believes that our goals are not the same as the capitalist parties’ goals.

At this time of LGBT celebration and protest, we ask that you consider the very nature of oppression and control, and join us in the fight for a people-oriented agenda for the residents of Ontario. Please join us in the questioning and fighting-back against the rule of profit driven politicians and soft-capitalist parties, and the end to inequality for all people regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sex.

Mark Davies

LGBT Representative Socialist Party of Ontario

Natalie Lochwin

Spokesperson, Socialist Party of Ontario