THE ECONOMY GOES INTO CRISIS

We are watching the greatest financial crisis since 1929 unfold before our
eyes. Even if they manage to shore up their system for the moment, there
is no doubt that a serious international downturn in the economy is
getting underway. As this situation begins to impact the lives of our
families and communities, we must understand and prepare to deal with what
the crisis will mean to us:

1.Financial bailout for the rich: Governments everywhere have responded to
the crisis of financial institutions by pouring hundreds and hundreds of
billions of dollars into various bail-out packages for the rich. For
years, they have been telling us no money exists for decent wages, proper
housing, schools or health care and, certainly, no money to ensure that
poor people on assistance can pay the rent and eat properly. Now we see
that this was all a lie. When the banks and corporations are in trouble,
a Niagara Falls of public money suddenly becomes available to them. Don’t
tell us, when we lose our jobs and can’t pay our rent or put food on the
table, that ‘we can’t spend our way out of a recession’. Government must
start spending for us as they have for corporate interests.

2.Get ready for ordinary people to feel the crunch: This downturn is
unfolding in a context where EI and welfare systems have been cut back
considerably over the last few years. Recently re-elected Harper
Conservatives have made clear they will not put resources into social
programs and other initiatives crucial to our survival. In fact, they
will try to do the very opposite. As the downturn cuts into government
revenues, government will try to cut programs, in order to balance their
books. This should not only be expected from the openly right wing
Federal Government. Ontario’s Dalton McGuinty has already made clear that
economic downturn will delay Queen’s Park’s ‘poverty reduction’ measures.
Undoubtedly, the ‘progressive’ Toronto City Council will respond to an
upsurge in welfare cases by ensuring local offices turn away as many
people in need as they possibly can.

3.Communities under attack will have to organize: As the downturn hits,
we can expect a lot of jobs to be lost. In Ontario, this has already begun
in the manufacturing sector. Companies will try to lay off workers without
paying money owed to them. The number of people facing eviction for non-
payment of rent will go up considerably. Unscrupulous employers will try
to take advantage of the desperation of the unemployed by cutting wages
and not providing overtime and holiday pay. People needing EI and welfare
will face a bureaucratic wall built to deny them income they need and have
a right to. Already overcrowded shelters for the homeless will face a
huge increase in the numbers turning to them. We will need to bring
people together to take action. Delegations from the community will have
to confront government agencies that withhold income. We will have to
mobilize to defend families facing eviction and fight to ensure evictions
are banned during the crisis – a tactic already being employed in the US.
Additional resources for income support programs for those without work
must be provided. To win such things, we’ll need to take strong and bold
action. Grassroots organizations must work together, to demand necessary
government actions. Local committees will have to form, to take up this
kind of work. We’ll need the strength of trade unions, with their strike
weapon, to be set in motion. If the leaders of these unions are too timid
and conservative, their members will have to make them take action or get
out of the way and make way for those who will. There will have to be a
major fight-back in Toronto and across the country, to prevent poor and
working people from being saddled with the costs of a mess created by the
greed of banks, corporations, and the governments who serve their
interests.

4.We must fight for what we need: We live under a system of capitalism
expressly organized to make profit for a few at the expense of the great
majority. As this system moves into crisis, those few will seek solutions
that work in their favour. For at least thirty-five years, capitalists
and government have worked to rescind the concessions they made at an
early time. Social supports have been removed, workers’ rights
undermined, and the world markets have been given a free hand to engage in
a wild frenzy of parasitic speculation. Now, it seems to have blown up in
their faces, and the response will be to make working and poor people
cover the cost. And yet, money remains available for the things their
profit system requires. The federal government still finds money to wage
war in Afghanistan. Dalton McGuinty has just announced that $635 million
to fund the Pan Am Games is available, but a $500 million budgetary
shortfall exists, so hospitals and schools should expect less funding.
The banks will be allowed to come back with their hands out as many times
as they like, and public funds will be thrown at them without delay. For
the needs of poor people, however, nothing will be provided, unless we
fight. We will become a priority when we pose enough of a problem that
that they have to treat us as one. Otherwise, we will be the ones paying
for this crisis. Get ready to fight back.

If you would like to work together, to organize in your community to
ensure people under attack are supported, to demand and win our basic
needs and rights, please get in touch.

THE ONTARIO COALITION AGAINST POVERTY (OCAP)
(416) 925-6939 - ocap@tao.ca – www.ocap.ca

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