Canada’s Bank Bailout $275 Billion and Counting…

by Steve da Silva
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

According to Statistics Canada, in the last quarter of 2008 Canada’s economy shrank at an annualized rate of 3.4%, and it’s expected that the economy contracted at an even faster rate in the first quarter of 2009. This means that Canada is officially in a recession, defined as a period of at least six months of economic contraction. Despite the reassurances made by Canada’s politicians, as the job losses amount into the hundreds of thousands and with an unemployment rate of 8%, there is nothing for workers to be optimistic about.

And how has the Canadian government responded to what is scaling up to become the greatest economic crisis in Canada and the world since the 1930s?

In late 2008, the Canadian government injected $75 billion into the Canadian banking system in order to buy up unstable mortgage debts held by the banks in a program called the Insured Mortgage Purchase Program (IMPP). Preparing themselves for worse times ahead, the Canadian banks quietly liquated their soon-to-be-troubled assets in exchange for cold, hard cash from the public purse.

With a nearly total media blackout on the decision and thus no opposition to check this unprecedented transfer of wealth from the public to the rich, the back-room dealings were taken to new levels in early 2009 as Canada’s banks were pushing for more bailout money. The Conservative government – with the silent complicity of their “opponents” in Parliament – passed the 2009 Federal Budget which approved an additional $200 billion in bailout money under a program they called the Extraordinary Financing Framework (EFF). While much adieu was made about the Federal Budget’s estimated 5-year $85 billion deficit, nothing at all was said about the plan to spend $200 billion to bail out the banks. This bailout was not calculated into the deficit projections because, as the budget tells us, in return the government was getting “revenue-bearing assets” from the banks. Well, the question immediately follows: If these assets were bearing revenue, why would the banks by trying to liquidate them in the first place? When these assets begin to fail in the coming months and years, it is now working-class Canadians who are going to be picking up the bill for these toxic liabilities.

By early March 2009, the Bank of Canada lowered its interest rate to an all-time record low of 0.5%, a move that economists compared to making a decision to launch nuclear warfare. What this move signaled was the Bank of Canada’s preparations to flood the economy with new dollars that are going to be used to buy up billions of dollars of corporate debt, which is setting the stage for pushing the bank bailout beyond $275 billion.

As the Canadian economy moves into depression territory, all signs suggest that the Canadian government and every political party represented in it are going to stand firm as staunch defenders and apologists for the bankers and big business. The majority of us, in the meantime, can either sit back and watch our interests continue to be attacked; or we can begin organizing ourselves to seriously confront the capitalist class relations that are allowing these outrages to be carried out.

2009 International Women’s Day in Toronto

by Keerthy Narayanan Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

International Women`s Day (IWD), March 8, is an international day to celebrate the economic, social, and political achievements of women around the globe, while demanding that there is still much to be done to achieve women’s liberation and end the oppressions, discriminations and violence that particularly target women. This year, on the weekend of March 8th, IWD was celebrated in Toronto and the theme chosen for the event “Good Jobs and Dignity for All” – a call out to the government to ensure that this becomes a reality here in Canada. This message comes during a crucial time of economic recession, where the most vulnerable in the population happens to be women. According to the Canadian Auto Workers, 70 percent of part-time jobs and two-thirds of the Canadian population earning minimum wage are women. In other words, women are suffering disproportionately due to the economic recession and this harsh reality is even more evident for women of color, migrant women and Native women.

On March 7th, the day of the IWD march, participants gathered at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education to hear powerful speeches delivered by women from various backgrounds addressing issues and voicing their solidarity with other struggles. The rally was followed by a march that attracted over 1500 participants chanting and relaying their message to the public, who stood still to watch the demonstrators make their way through the downtown core to the IWD fair, where various groups had booths to educate people on various women’s issues.

The next day, the Migrant Women’s Organizing Body got together to facilitate workshops and discussions under the theme “Fighting the War on Us”. Women of color are on the forefronts of fighting for decent livelihoods, justice, and the right to self-determination. It is critical for women to converge during times like this when imperialist forces and systemic racist-sexist policies are pressing down on women and exploiting them for their labour and bodies.

The Migrant Women’s Organizing Body is a growing body of different organizations that intends to expand as a network of women standing side-by-side in solidarity to fight against women’s oppression, and is planning to continue organizing IWD and other related events in Toronto.

Revolutionary Movement Advancing in Nepal

Himalayan Maoist-Communist Movement First to Make Major Breakthroughs in 21st Century

by Derek Rosin
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

Revolution is very much alive, and nowhere is it stronger than in the Himalayan country of Nepal. Today in Nepal, a country of 30 million people, there is a real communist revolution taking place, something most of us have never witnessed in our lifetimes. It's uplifting, exciting, dangerous, complicated and contradictory. And it needs to be studied carefully by anyone who's ever thought about what it would take to make a real revolution.

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. Most people are poor peasants who can barely eke out a living. It's a country dominated by foreign powers, especially its southern neighbour. India has historically strangled Nepalese domestic industry and controlled its resources. Internally, the Nepalese people are kept down by caste oppression – a system of discrimination based on the family you were born into. Women also suffer tremendously. The combination of poverty and oppression has forced tens of thousands of Nepalese women into prostitution in India. Communists have been active in Nepal for decades, searching for ways to solve these basic problems.

A turning point came in 1996, when an insurrection was launched by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Starting off small, the Maoist movement was able to strengthen and grow by relying on and leading mostly poor Nepalese peasants to fight and overthrow the forces of government in the countryside, then represented by an absolute monarchy. In their place, they began constructing a new society – by taking steps to end gender and caste oppression, introducing forms of popular democratic government, and providing for people's needs like basic health care and education. The Maoists called this the “People's War” - a revolutionary war of the people that seeks to overthrow the old system.

Within 10 years, the Maoists controlled 80% of Nepal. Only the cities remained firmly under government control. It was at this point that the Maoists decided to change tactics. Although they had built up a powerful People's Liberation Army (PLA), they did not feel it would be best to capture the cities militarily. They faced several obstacles: weak support among middle-class people in the cities, who would have to be important allies in any future society; an unfavourable international situation with no real socialist countries who could assist their extremely undeveloped country; and the mood of the masses themselves, who were justifiably exhausted by a decade of bloody conflict and yearned for peace.

In November 2006, the Maoists ended one phase of the revolution by signing a peace treaty with the government on the condition that elections be held for a Constituent Assembly – a temporary governing body that serves to write a new constitution for how society will work. The peace treaty gave the Maoists the freedom to begin doing intensive political work in areas they had previously been weak – namely in the cities and the heavily populated Southern Terai region. A tactic during this time was to politically isolate the leadership of the mainstream parties and reach out to their supporters by demanding the unconditional dissolution of the corrupt and widely-hated monarchy.

In April 2008, elections for the Constituent Assembly were held and the Maoists emerged as the biggest and most influential party. This shocked everyone in the world except the Maoists themselves, who knew the huge support they had been building throughout Nepal. In May, the monarchy was abolished.

Today, the situation is extremely complex. Although the Maoist leader Prachanda has been elected Prime Minister of the country, the revolution is far from complete. In nearly every way, it is just beginning.

Prachanda, whose real name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, has been clear for a long time that the process of negotiations and entering government is a temporary tactic, and that this phase will not last forever. He has also been clear to emphasize that all their gains have rested on the foundation of the People's War. For this reason, the Maoists, despite entering the government, have refused to disband or disarm their army. They want to fuse their army with the old National Army, maintaining their leaders and influence over it.

Maoists have also emphasized the need for a thorough agrarian revolution that would give peasants land and break the power of landlords. They want to push forward with what they are calling the “People's Federal Democratic National Republic”. This is a slogan that encompasses many demands: autonomy for minority nationalities, multi-party democracy and democratic rights, national sovereignty and independence, women's equality, the end of caste discrimination and more.

The old mainstream parties, who enriched themselves by defending the old society, are bitterly opposed to these plans, and will try to block the Maoists.

So now there exists an uneasy dance between the Maoists and the representatives of the old system, as each tries to manoeuvre for their very different goals. It's an unsustainable situation, one where something definitely has to give.

This is what a real revolution looks like. Messy, complex, full of new approaches, unorthodoxies, and compromise. Study intently and stay tuned.

Worker Victories in Guadeloupe and Martinique Resonate through French Empire

by Justin Panos
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)




A leader of the League Against Profiteering (LKP) in Guadeloupe.

On January 19th, 2009, Guadeloupe’s League against Profiteering (LKP) organized workers, youth, and the women’s movement to shut down the small French Caribbean island’s industries, refusing to budge unless the French government dealt with the longstanding economic and cultural issues of the small nation. France’s domination over its colony, Guadeloupe, became intolerable for the island’s 450,000 residents earlier this year when masses of people closed down roadways, schools, gas stations, public transportation and the entire tourist infrastructure that services the rich elite from France and other richer nations.

Guadeloupe’s economy is regulated in euros as imposed by the French government. In 2007, the escalating prices of food, oil, and gas led to a rapid decline in the living conditions for most of the island’s population. As the financial crisis that began in the US expanded to all sections of the world economy, official unemployment rates in Guadeloupe reached as high as 30%.

The LKP, an umbrella group of 49 unions and grassroots organizations, took the initiative to launch its strike in January. The protestors immediately demanded a 200 Euro monthly wage increase, bringing the minimum wage up to 1,321 euros a month, significant raises for better paid workers, a 20% decrease in the price of student meals and public transportation costs, a moratorium on all foreclosures, evictions and utility cut-offs, and official recognition of the indigenous language on par with French.

The Guadeloupean protests threatened the French government to such a degree that they granted the strikers their top 20 demands and continue to negotiate on the remaining 126 mid-term and long-term demands. The LKP declared the accord signed on March 4th as an immediate victory, but only the first of its kind. Demonstrations still continue against the island’s white elite who control the majority of supermarkets, sugar mills, and agriculture.

Within weeks of its own mobilizations, the revolutionary impulse of Guadeloupe spread to its neighbouring country, Martinique, which unified its movement on February 5th and mobilized for the same demands that the Guadeloupeans were making. In Martinique, 25,000 protestors took control of the capital, Fort-de-France. The strike in Martinqiue, lead by the February 5 collective, shut down the island’s industries for 38 days. Like Guadeloupe, the majority of their demands were met, such as a $250 USD increase in monthly wages and a 20% lowering of the prices on 400 basic necessities.

And then came the wave of mobilizations in a third French colony on the other side of the world in the Indian Ocean, La Réunion, which had similar mass actions to protest the 52% poverty rate and 24% unemployment on the island. The movement’s leader, Gilles Leperlier of the Collectif des Organisations Syndicales, Politiques et Associatives de La Réunion (COSPAR) said, “Something is developing in the Overseas Territories [France's name for its colonies], a vast movement challenging the situations of privilege, a social and political movement that will not stop until the Overseas Territories have taken in hand their own destiny and put an end to the iniquity of a system that maintains them in economic dependence.”

Monopoly corporations in Canada, such as GM and Chrysler, who continue to demand concessions from Canadian workers, quiver at the thought of the revolutionary surge that could be projected by the some 225,000 CAW workers being threatened with plant foreclosures and pension cuts. The mobilization of the Caribbean population should serve as a lesson to all those negatively affected by the current crisis of monopoly capitalism and imperialism, that only militant organization and mobilization can achieve a better future for the people.


Demonstration on March 11 in St-Denis, La Réunion, a French colony in the Indian Ocean.

The Story of Zahir Ofuq: Canada relegates migrant to legal limbo

by Craig Fortier (Research by Ian Munroe)
Basics #13 (Apr/May 2009)

Afghan writer and philosopher Zahir Ofuq endures 15 years with no rights, no status, says it’s like being in an “open air prison”.

TORONTO – On a rainy and windy day at a Toronto rally calling on the Canadian government to pull troops out of Afghanistan, Zahir Ofuq stands atop the makeshift stage and explains how the combined occupation of his country Afghanistan and Canada’s immigration system have torn him from his family and confined him to life with neither status nor rights.

Zahir Ofuq fled Afghanistan with his family in 1992 after the rise of the warlord regime of Burhanuddin Rabbani and Ahmed Shah Masood. Zahir belonged to a communist group in Afghanistan with links to the previous central government in Afghanistan. Zahir was a tireless defender of human rights, and was imprisoned by the government he worked in for twenty years for his opposition to human rights violations. However, after two years in prison, the government fell and Zahir and his family fled to Pakistan, where his family remains, in hiding, to this day. Zahir subsequently came to Canada to apply for refugee status.

At the Immigration & Refugee Board, Zahir’s application for refugee status was turned down, even as Canada was gearing for war against the very regime that Zahir was fleeing. Even though he was never personally accused of involvement in any of the atrocities, and was in fact jailed for opposing them, his membership in the party was enough for the Canadian state to exclude him from refugee status.

The Canadian government, however, did not deport Mr. Ofuq because under Canadian policy, Afghanistan was deemed too dangerous to deport failed refugees. Thus, Zahir lingers in legal limbo, unable to acquire the status he needs to work, have rights, and sponsor his family here in Canada. Recently, his application for a visa to visit his severely ill daughter in Germany was denied.

Macdonald Scott, an immigration consultant with Carranza Barristers and Solicitors, and a member of No One Is Illegal-Toronto, has been working on Zahir’s case since 2006. He explains, “The thing is, he’s like person-non-grata with everyone. Someone who’s an anti-imperialist or a human rights activist, it’s like the last thing I think Canada and the United States wants is to see an independence movement in Afghanistan that’s really autonomous…”.
Zahir understands that his lack of immigration status is a direct result of Canada’s imperialist war in Afghanistan. It is for this reason that he has worked closely with No One Is Illegal and other anti-imperialist organizations in Toronto to oppose Canada’s occupation of Afghanistan. He notes that the Canadian government’s claims on why they are occupying Afghanistan are hypocritical and untrue.

He explains his case: “I think this is a very, very bad argument from immigration, because personally when a person is not guilty, you cannot make him guilty by saying it is so. The other point is now they are not going to accept me to give me status because of my affiliation with a particular political party, but Harper sends troops to Afghanistan to save the same party’s members, the leadership of the same party - they’re in parliament in Afghanistan. They send the troops to save the parliament, but I’m guilty, they’re not guilty? Where’s the logic?”
Zahir’s case is not unique. It is estimated that there are over 200,000 people live in Canada with no immigration status, with at least 80,000 in Toronto alone. Under new Conservative immigration laws like Bill C-50, more and more people are being pushed towards legal limbo, losing status and having applications rejected.

On May 2nd, Zahir will take to the streets with thousands of others on May Day to demand: “Enough is Enough!” And to state “No One Is Illegal!”. The march will begin at Allen Gardens at Dundas and Sherbourne at 12pm and will be preceded by a community festival on Friday, May 1st starting at 6pm at Steelworker’s Hall, 25 Cecil St.

For more information on No One Is Illegal and Zahir’s case go to http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org.

Ontario Provincial Budget Confirms Cuts to Childcare Subsidies for Low Income Families

by Carolina Crewe
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)

The failure to allocate money for childcare in the March 26 Ontario provincial budget will have a grave impact on single mothers and working class families in Toronto.

The onset of job losses and a looming depression has created a situation where adults will be returning to school for retraining, signalling a need to increase the amount of subsidized childcare spaces. As a poverty reduction strategy, childcare and early childhood education is an investment that governments cannot afford to ignore. Currently, children who are waitlisted for subsidy spaces number more than 14,000. With numbers this high, the Ontario provincial government is gambling with the well-being of families by foreshadowing cuts rather than growth for the subsidy program. The McGuinty-led government is employing a "pass the buck" strategy by opting to lobby the federal government to top up the subsidy funding, which expired in March 2009. Some 6,000 childcare spaces, currently in use, are slated to be permanently cut in Toronto, as well as 16,000 more spaces across the province.

Most of these spaces were created with federal government-transferred money in 2003, as part of a "Best Start" plan for early learning, childcare and family support programs.

Most affected are families in low-income neighbourhoods whose centres have more subsidized spaces. For example, in Davenport-Perth, 35% of families are living below the poverty line (more than the Toronto average of 32.2%), with 25% of families having lone parents. In the 12 licensed childcare centres in this neighbourhood, 53% of all operating licensed spaces have been subsidized. At least two of the centres in this neighbourhood operate almost exclusively on subsidized spaces at 85% and 92% respectively. Cumulative measures to reduce the numbers of families receiving and eligible for subsidies have already been implemented to achieve the slated cuts, including the introduction of an “Absentee Policy”. This policy penalizes subsidized families, even for keeping their children out when they show symptoms of illness, allowing only 2 sick days per month (even for infants) and a measly one-week vacation over the entire year. Failure to meet the requirements of this Absentee Policy means parents lose subsidized spaces for ALL of their children.

As a mass of families currently accessing subsidized spaces are forced out of childcare centres, low income neighbourhoods will lack parents to pay the full daycare fee to maintain enrolments, resulting in centre closures. In adjacent communities such as Toronto Centre-Rosedale, where the number of families with children living in poverty is at 60%, the fallout from these cuts will be even more devastating. According to the Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare, professional Early Childhood Education staff - already drastically under-paid - will lose their jobs, while centres will significantly reduce their capacity or close down altogether. Given the Harper government's record failure to provide funding for childcare, merely throwing in chump change for children under six, it is unlikely they will step in to reverse the cuts.

At a time when Canadian banks and big businesses are getting bailouts in the hundreds of billions by the Canadian government, these anti-childcare policies of the provincial and federal governments are just another example how working people – especially low-income families and single mothers – are the first to be victimized and the last to be considered in times of crisis.

All children in our communities deserve access to early learning childcare programs and family support. We need to plan together in our communities to fight the coming barrage of policies that will cut families' access to childcare. Refusal to accept these policies will show the province and the federal government that Ontarians cannot work or access education without adequately funded and equitable childcare.









These Cabbagetown kids are wondering why McGuinty’s budget is going to leave them and their friends without subsidized childcare spaces.

Enemy of the People: Jason Kenney

by Hassan Reyes
(Basics Issue #13, Apr/May)

Indeed, it’s been a while since we at BASICS declared someone an ‘Enemy of the People’. We’ve wanted to focus our limited space on the good work being done by various people's organizations. However, the actions of one individual in the Federal government has prompted us to bring back this section to highlight the racist, reactionary tendencies that exist in Canadian politics today.

The Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Member of Parliament for Calgary South-East Jason Kenney has been on a tear, looking to earn the crown of most right-wing politician in Canada, if not North America. In the first three months of 2009, Kenney has been making continuous headlines for his unrelenting support for apartheid Israel and the imperialist wars in the Middle East and Central Asia.

As Minister of Immigration, Kenney has overseen a massive increase in raids on locations where undocumented workers are looking to build a life. Near the beginning of April, over 100 workers were swept up in raids in the GTA alone. Instead of regularizing these people who have come here to work in order to have their rights protected and their taxes collected, Kenney and Co. would rather split up families and detain workers in inhumane conditions.

Calling them “bogus refugee claimants”, Kenney has made it a personal mission to see that principled war resisters from the United States are denied refugee status in Canada, even though many of them face lengthy jail sentences if they return to Obama’s U.S. for refusing to participate in the murderous campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

More recently, Kenney weighed in to denounce Israeli Apartheid Week, a grassroots educational and cultural series of events organized on campuses in over 40 cities worldwide. Kenney was of course responding to the calls of Zionist organizations that are realizing that the tide of public opinion in North America is shifting away from supporting Israel as it continues its construction of permanent ghettos, indiscriminate bombing and a range of other war crimes against the Palestinian people.

Just weeks after condemning university activists for showing movies and holding talks exposing Israel, Kenney responded to a call by the Jewish Defence League (JDL) asking the Canadian government not to allow British Member of Parliament George Galloway to enter the country. Galloway, an outspoken critic of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and long time supporter of Palestinian people, was considered by Kenney to be a 'threat to national security' for handing over donated items and civilian vehicles to the elected representatives of the Palestinian people in Gaza. The JDL, on the other hand, is actually classified as a terrorist organization even by the U.S. government’s standards, even though the U.S. is itself apartheid Israel’s strongest supporter in the world.

Kenney and company did, however, let their fellow Enemy of the People, George W. Bush, into the country just weeks prior to Galloway's scheduled talks in a number of Canadian cities.

Kenney appears to have no problem supporting actual terrorist groups such as the JDL or the People's Mujahedin of Iran, a right-wing neo-conservative CIA-backed outfit that advocates the violent overthrow of the Iranian government. Kenney spoke at a rally organized by the group on Parliament Hill, though he later said he didn’t remember going to it.

And then in early April, in a public address Kenney made to a group of Croatian supporters, he told the crowd that he keeps a prayer card on his desk of the fascist Croatian Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac – one of his ”heroes of the 20th century”. Cardinal Stepinac was a rabid anti-communist and a Nazi supporter who was in 1946 convicted and imprisoned for his crimes in collaborating with fascism and overseeing the forced conversion of Orthodox Christian Serbs to Catholicism during the fascist reign of the Second World War.

Kenney has been working overtime in 2009 to offend and attack the people and anyone fighting for a more just and peaceful world. So for your attacks against immigrants, peace organizations and your active involvement in the oppression of Palestinians, you, Jason Kenney, are an Enemy of the People.

May Day 2009: Festival (May 1) and Day of Action March and Rally (May 2)

Cultural and Political Festival:
Friday, May 1, 6pm - Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St.
(See below for details)

'NO ONE IS ILLEGAL' Rally and March
Saturday, May 2, 1pm - Rally at Sherbourne and Carlton
(See below for details)

This year, the newly-formed May 1st Movement (M1M) Committee and its allies are coming together to restore the importance of May Day for working peoples' struggles.

May Day, that is May 1st is celebrated everywhere in the world as the day for workers. Everywhere, on that day, people celebrate the accomplishments of working people everywhere towards justice, true peace and liberation. Everywhere that is, but here in Canada and in the United States.

It is long time we change that.

Come celebrate as communities and activists come together across borders to celebrate our resistance as workers striving for a world of of true peace, justice, equality and respect for all.

MAY DAY FESTIVAL

Friday, May 1, 2009

6:00pm - 10:00pm

United Steelworkers Hall

25 Cecil St

Toronto, ON

Entrance FREE!

Food from all over the world!

With Speakers from:

Six Nations Mens Fire

No One Is Illegal -Toronto

Frente Farabundo Marti de Liberacion Nacional - Toronto

MIGRANTE Ontario

Canadian Humanitarian Appeal for the Rights of Tamils

BASICS Newsletter

Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid

With Dance performances from:

Manuela Astudillo (Ecuador)

MataDanze (Latin American)

Musical perfomances by:

Amai Kuda

CUPE Freedom Singers

Generaciones (Chile)

Hernan Astudillo (Ecuador)

Kings of Kush (East Africa)

Lyrics (Bolivia)

Maracatu Nunca ANTES

Panyolito (Philippines)

Ruben Esguerra (Colombia)

Santa Guerrila (Philippines)

Wasun and Unsung

Visual and Video Art by:

Alex Felipe (Philippines)

Huellas (Latin American)

Spoken word by:

Mujeres Al Frente (Latin American)

La Revolucionaria

Rafeef (Palestine)

SPIN (Guatemala)

Theatre and Performances by:

Teatro un Minuto (Latin American)

Honor Ford Smith (Jamaica)

And music all night by:

El Machetero (Chile)

dj eLman (Colombia)

This event is part of the build up to the MAY 2nd MAYDAY OF ACTION

No One Is Illegal!

May Day of Action

Rally and March

Saturday, May 2, 1pm

Meet: Sherbourne and Carlton

The MayDay Festival is organized by the May 1st Movement Committee (comprised of No One Is Illegal-Toronto | FMLN - Toronto | Migrante Ontario | Canadian HART | Casa Salvador Allende | BASICS Newsletter | CUPE Ontario International Solidarity Committee | Tamil Youth Organization | Barrio Nuevo | Labour Education Centre | BAYAN Toronto | CAIA |Victor Jara Cultural Group | Progressive Nepali Forum on the Americas)

Media Sponsorship by: CHRY 105.5FM, Voces Latinas CHHA 1610AM, BASICS Community Newsletter

Stop the Sell-Off of Public Housing in Toronto

TCHC Plans to Sell 350 Apt. Units and Houses
by Levi Waldron and Ryan Newell (OCAP)
BASICS Issue #13 (April/May)

The Toronto Community Housing Corporation is responding to the financial crisis and sharp drop in real estate prices by proposing the sell-off of 326 apartment units and 45 single-family homes of public housing (see a map with photos of these properties at www.communitywalk.com/tchforsale).

Meanwhile, the waiting list for social housing in the city of Toronto stands at an astonishing 70,000 and many TCH tenants already find it impossible to obtain transfers, especially to larger family-sized units.

TCHC management says that they are only selling properties that no one wants to live in, with high property values that will allow them to replace the units while saving money to put into repairs. However, seen alongside the ambitious “revitalization” plans for low-income neighbourhoods across the city in Regent Park, Lawrence Heights, Alexandra Park, Edgeley Village, Thistledown and Flemingdon Park, it is clear that this sell-off represents the final stages of gentrification that will occur in other “revitalized” public housing projects once property values are high enough.

Even temporary losses of public housing units have huge effects. One example is seen in the TCHC financial plan for Regent Park (2003, Table 3), which predicted a temporary shortfall of 461 unit-years of housing during redevelopment, plus as much as 2087 unit-years lost because demolitions are counted at the start of the year and new units are counted at the end of the year, meaning as much as 2548 unit-years lost, the equivalent of losing a 100-unit building for 25 years.

Unlike with Regent Park, we have no idea where, when, or with what, these units will be replaced. But they will not be replaced with comparably sized units in the same “mixed” neighbourhoods, or it wouldn’t make sense to sell them in the first place. TCHC wants to sell these units because they are located in desirable neighbourhoods with high property values, where the integration of public housing units in mixed-income areas as promoted in its “revitalization” plans already exists. The truth is that public housing can be repaired or rebuilt, communities can be renewed, without the large-scale sale of peoples’ homes, the demolition of older housing projects, and the dispersal of whole communities.

If the TCHC believes they can quietly carry out this dubious sell-off, they are sorely mistaken. The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) has researched the buildings and houses proposed for sale, and found large numbers of vacant units, and houses receiving overdue repairs after they are vacant and slated to be sold. TCHC is trying to ensure a smooth sell-off by allowing dozens of single-family houses and countless apartment units to sit vacant while families in TCHC buildings all over the city wait up to a decade for a transfer to a larger unit. OCAP has also begun meeting tenants who are unwilling to sit on their hands while the city turns a profit by selling the roof over their heads. One such building is 389 Church St, the only women-only apartment complex owned by TCHC. While TCHC’s claim that they simply can’t find enough women who want to live in shared accommodations with other women is hard to believe, it is harder to believe that other solutions can’t be found (for example, women with children are currently not allowed to stay in the building).

TCHC should be prepared to defend its sell-off proposal in the light of day. It is not enough to promise that the units will be replaced and tenants will be relocated: public housing tenants deserve to live with the dignity of knowing their homes are secure and to maintain the connections they have built over years in the neighbourhoods they call home. But it’s not just the tenants currently living in these units who should be concerned and ready to stand up and fight. Social housing is a public asset that was only won out of poor peoples’ struggle, and we cannot silently watch while it is sold off to make room for private developments. OCAP has announced that it is committed to supporting tenants in disrupting the sell-off process at every step along the way.

We need more social housing now! We need repairs for existing units now!

Visit ocap.ca for more information or contact OCAP at 416-925-6939 or ocap@tao.ca.





389 Church St, the only women-only apartment complex owned by TCHC, is being put up for sale .

Review of Steven Soderbergh’s 'Che'

by Sana Malik
BASICS Issue #13 (April/May)

Steven Soderburgh's 4.5 hour biopic on Enrnesto Che Guevara is an accomplished and respectful take on the revolutionary years of Che’s short life. For those who expect a celebratory tribute to the Latin American figure, Soderbergh’s piece will seem like an ambiguous attempt to represent a hero’s tale. However, Sodebergh’s depiction and stylistic choices – always showing not telling – are as complex as its subject. Che was a principled man, but he was not without flaws or errors in judgement. This is an epic that celebrates his victories, but it just as easily leads you into the frustration of crushing defeat that Che was surely encountering. Soderbergh's strong cinematic overtures, and especially the contrast in pace and tone between part one and part two provoke questions on who Che was as a revolutionary and as a leader forced to make conflicting decisions. And that's exactly where this picture is its strongest- never making any judgement calls but leaving the viewer in the position of dissecting Che’s actions as a man of principle, without ever making his thoughts or actions palpable.

Part one juxtaposes scenes of guerilla fighting in the ‘50s in the Cuban heartland with Che’s first visit to the UN in 1964. His zeal and confidence are on full display in the gritty black and white reel, and a BBC reporter’s voiceover perfectly intonates the simultaneous suspicion and intrigue the West held of Che. It’s here that Soderbergh introduces and plays on the iconic and visionary poses that make the Argentine recognizable as a revolutionary, while the battle of Cuba wages on in subsequent scenes. Indeed, Che is to remain an enigma in Soderbergh’s vision - adding to his larger than life image as a popular icon – and Benicio del Toro captivates with perfection in the lead. Del Toro’s Che is equally compassionate and cruel, sometimes dogmatic and other times rash, his brilliant intellect on display and his crucial miscalculations crushing. It makes the man all the harder to understand.

After the battle has been won and Cuba’s glorious socialist revolution is in place, part two begins with Fidel Castro reading Che’s farewell letter to the Cuban people he helped free from the forces of imperialism. Che’s vision for a free and socialist Latin America has compelled his return to Guerilla warfare and to Bolivia and to his eventual death. This story is less about his image as a revolutionary icon and more about a man as complex and conflicted as a determined fighter. The glamour is left behind in part one, and the continuation is a jauntier, more reflective piece that captures more of Che’s raw emotion and human spirit. Or at least as much as much is accessible. Soderbergh reconstructs the complexity of Che’s covert battle – in the landscape and with himself – through discrete, but powerful sequences in the fateful year Che spent in the Bolivian highlands. Che sees everything that happened in Cuba in reverse: he is rejected by the peasants he hopes to liberate, his battalion shrinks as fighters die, are wounded, or run away, and the American-trained Bolivian militia encroaches his terrain. But he never turns back and that is the biggest message this film delivers.

The film is challenged by it’s slow pace and choppy storytelling attempting to mesh parts that don’t quite work together. It’s not entirely a glamorous portrayal and part two, especially, will probably suffer in commercial success. But it’s as honest, direct and significant as the subject it portrays.