Socialist Party of Ontario

Upcoming SPO events of note in April.

Join the SPO at the OFL Day of Action Rally

Solidarity with CUPE 3903!

The Socialist Party of Ontario (SPO) offers support of and solidarity with CUPE 3903, representing contract professors, teaching assistants, and research assistants at York University, as they continue attempts to reach a settlement in their contract negotiations, prior to their April 12 deadline. CUPE 3903 have been fighting to ensure that employment equity and minimum funding measures remain in their contract, and we fully support their efforts. As a supporter of post-secondary education, we are disappointed that the trustees at York University, a progressive institution of higher learning, have taken these steps towards their own students and employees.

The SPO supports workers rights, and the rights of those suppressed by interests generally aimed at profits over people. We recognize the vulnerable position of the CUPE 3903 membership and the precariousness of their employment status. The SPO advocates for full, free access to education for all, as well as to a real, living wage for all, as an initial step towards creating a classless, free, and equitable society. As such, we stand alongside the CUPE 3903 membership, and support them as a model of member-driven, social justice, unionism.

In Solidarity;

Simon Levy

Labour Coordinator, Socialist Party of Ontario

Solidarity with CUPE 4207-3!

The Socialist Party of Ontario (SPO) supports the rights of all workers in Ontario, and any organizations that serve to represent those workers. It is the goal of the SPO for all workers to achieve full liberties and solidarity and, ultimately, control over the results of their labour.

Over the years, we have witnessed the slow erosion, both of workers’ rights, as well as the rights of workers to collectively bargain employment contracts in the hopes of achieving fairer settlements with vastly more powerful owners and managers. The destruction of these rights is present in institutions both public and private.

We find it extremely unfortunate that a public institution of higher learning, one that receives our endorsement for increased support and access, must resort to playing unnecessary games, bargain in bad faith, and make attempts to further weaken the collective bargaining process. The position taken by the Board of Trustees at Brock University, both to reverse their decision on a negotiated contract agreement, as well as to insist on maintaining an ability to contract out unionized jobs, is not supported by the SPO, and is not becoming of a respected institute of higher learning.

The SPO offers its full support for the workers represented by CUPE Local 4207-3, as well as for the collective bargaining process they are attempting to maintain.

Simon Levy

Labour Coordinator, Socialist Pary of Ontario

Defeat the budget and bring the government down! Official Statement of the Socialist Party of Ontario

The Socialist Party of Ontario categorically rejects the disgraceful McGuinty Liberal budget and calls on NDP MPPs to vote against it, even if that means bringing the government down.

This austerity budget is wrong in every way. Its proposals of cuts to infrastructure, cultural institutions, the critical Northern Ontario lifeline of Ontario Northland, its job cuts and its decision to balance the books on the backs of those on social assistance and our fellow citizens in the public service who actually make the province run, make it unacceptable for any progressive or left-wing MPP to support it.

The reality is that the only reason the austerity regime is necessary at all is to subsidize nearly two decades of corporate and personal tax cuts.

The Socialist Party of Ontario calls for the budget to be balanced by the reversal of these tax cuts sufficiently to preserve the services and jobs in question.

The decision to halt further corporate tax cuts, while a positive step, is entirely insufficient.

We also reject the disgraceful attempts by the Finance Minister to pit worker-against-worker with the false and appalling rhetoric that implies that cutting pensions for public sector workers somehow benefits single mothers without pensions. The solution to that problem is simple, and that is to increase pensions for all workers, not to decrease them for some.

We call on all leftist and progressive organizations to resist the budget, and we call on left NDP MPPs to vote against it.

Natalie Lochwin

Spokesperson Socialist Party of Ontario

Michael Laxer

Spokesperson Socialist Party of Ontario

Party Elections & Resolutions

Sisters & Brothers,

We have opened up pages so that members will be able to propose resolutions/constitutional amendments and put their names forward for party office at the upcoming convention to held in Toronto at the end of May.

You can find these pages at:

http://tumblr.socialistpartyofontario.ca/resolutions

and:

http://tumblr.socialistpartyofontario.ca/partyelections

See you at the end of May!

Solidarity withToronto’s Library Workers. Statement of the Socialist Party of Ontario

The Socialist Party of Ontario applauds the Toronto Public Library Workers for their courage in standing up to Toronto City Council and Rob Ford’s anti-worker austerity agenda.

We fully support the workers of Local 4948, in their effort to fight the attempts of the city to destroy job security and contract out our public services to private sector companies who will provide the least possible service for the most corporate profit.

Libraries are a crucial part of the social fabric of this city that offer citizens irreplaceable resources and the Socialist Party of Ontario opposes all cuts to our libraries and is proud of the library workers who have stood firm in the face of these attacks.

In Solidarity;

Natalie Lochwin

Spokesperson Socialist Party of Ontario

Michael Laxer

Spokesperson Socialist Party of Ontario

Say NO to the Drummond Austerity Agenda. Statement from the Socialist Party of Ontario

The Socialist Party of Ontario condemns in every respect the disgraceful report issued today by Don Drummond. The report is an insult to and an assault on the people of Ontario and could only have been written by a hack and so-called economist for one of Canada’s big banks.

His absurdly overwrought and intentionally extreme vision of Ontario’s alleged economic predicament is, simply, false. His open embrace of the ongoing austerity attack on the people of Greece clearly indicates what this ideologically driven manifesto is really about.

Yet again, the citizens of Ontario are being called upon to sacrifice gains that took decades to achieve so as to continue to finance an untenable capitalist economy with all of its various handouts to corporations and its tax cuts that have helped to pay for the lifestyle that Drummond enjoys.

Fear not, his lifestyle will not be sacrificed!

The SPO calls on the McGuinty government and the NDP to reject the report in its totality. It signals a clear return to the Harris days that our citizens have already rejected.

Further we call for a change in the entire framework of this debate.

It is simply unacceptable to call for fees for school buses, massive cuts to health care, farcical ideas such as ending all day kindergarten or cutting access for seniors to medication, etc. Other than as citizen funded comedy, the report is not worth the paper it is printed on.

The SPO feels that the increase in incomes of the top 1% of income earners, enabled by decades of tax cuts and subsidies, has been the main force driving income inequality in Canada and other advanced capitalist countries, as well as greatly contributing to a lack of government revenues.

The Socialist Party of Ontario, therefore, strongly supports increases on the very highest income earners and the creation of new tax brackets. The Socialist Party of Ontario will ensure that the combined federal/provincial income tax rate for incomes between $250,000 and $500,000 shall be 60%, for incomes between $500,000 and $1 million shall be 70%, and for incomes over $1 million shall be 90%.

Further, the Socialist Party of Ontario supports taxing income from capital at the same rate as wages and salaries, and will raise the provincial portion of taxes on capital to match the combined federal/provincial rates on wages and salaries.

It is striking at the corporate welfare culture, at the immoral profits of the big banks and major corporations and at the citizen subsidized lifestyles of people like Drummond that should be the focus of any attempt to create a balanced budget for the citizens of Ontario.

Natalie Lochwin

Spokesperson Socialist Party of Ontario

Michael Laxer

Spokesperson, Socialist Party of Ontario

Stand Up Against Caterpillar & For the Rights of Workers: Statement from the Socialist Party of Ontario.

The Socialist Party of Ontario condemns in no uncertain terms the disgraceful decision of the American corporation Caterpillar in closing its locomotive plant in London and firing its 460 dedicated workers. This despite its profits of $4.9 billion last year.

We stand in solidarity with the CAW and its members against this flagrant example of union busting.

This decision is an example of this era of capitalist greed and corporate immorality at its worst. The CEO’s and shareholders of this company should be profoundly ashamed at participating in this rush to the bottom and the impact that it will have on the community of London for the sake of marginally higher profits to be squandered in CEO bonuses.

The SPO demands that the McGuinty Liberal provincial government take immediate action to seize the assets of this predatory enterprise in Ontario and place them under democratic worker’s control.

Further, we call for the government to take steps so that in future, as the SPO calls for in its platform:

A. All closed factories will be reviewed by an association of former workers and the government. If viable, the factory will be requisitioned by the government, put into public ownership and democratic management and retooled to meet the needs of the environment and the population. The former workforce will be rehired and, when necessary, retrained.

B. Profitable companies moving existing jobs out of Ontario but maintaining a base in Ontario will face penalties, up to and including a public takeover of operations and assets.

The status quo is no longer acceptable. Now is the time to take back our economy for the people and to preserve the good jobs that Ontario’s workers need.

Natalie Lochwin, SPO Spokesperson

Michael Laxer, SPO Spokesperson

A New Year’s Appeal From Our Spokesperson, Natalie Lochwin

Sisters & Brothers;

A New Year is at hand, and it is a time of new beginnings for the Socialist Party of Ontario. Formed only last May, and recognized by Elections Ontario in September, we have begun to build a real alternative to the capitalist system and all the other major political parties that accept it. We ran our first five pioneering candidates in the provincial election. I am proud to have been one of them.

Our alternative is an explicitly socialist, democratic, feminist platform. We are not afraid to tackle “difficult” issues like inequality, poverty, worker’s rights and so many others, that the “mainstream” parties are scared will drive away media support and make them appear “too radical”.

But, dangerous times often require radical solutions, and they require people that are willing to proudly act on their beliefs.

The SPO is willing to. Steadfastly and without worrying if this will make us less electable in the short-term. We are building a movement…and that movement seeks to change society. We firmly believe in a strong foundation and our values are distinctly left-wing. We are seeing that supportive like-minded individuals are joining our ranks.

The SPO platform is unequivocal in its vision for a truly hopeful, inclusive and open socialist society. We believe that fighting for the values we truly believe in is the only way we can ever hope to achieve them.

The coming year presents many exciting opportunities. We are designing a new website, we will continue to build our door-to-door campaigns, we are creating on-line videos and advertisements. Your help is essential for we would be nowhere without the continued support and efforts of our dedicated members & volunteers

If you are interested in volunteering on one of our campaigns, please let us know.

I am asking you, whether member or not, to help us in our fight, with a donation of whatever amount you can afford. Donations are now tax deductible, and they will help to finance a programme that will help to build the foundation for a Socialist Ontario.

To make an on-line donation, please follow this link:

http://tumblr.socialistpartyofontario.ca/donate

To send a cheque or money order by mail please forward to:

Socialist Party of Ontario

2858 Lake Shore Blvd. W.

Toronto, Ontario

M8V 1H9

Please note that you must be a resident of Ontario to donate.

I am looking forward to the year ahead!

In Solidarity & Thank You!!

Natalie Lochwin

Spokeswoman for the SPO