A brief forward on the liberal government's efforts to ease Ontario's poverty crisis: In response to the tragic death of Kimberly Rogers, the government has ended a punitive lifetime ban for welfare fraud and has more recently decided to end a ridiculous welfare rule requiring applicants to liquidate their education savings plans. As confirmed by Community and Social Services Minister Sandra Pupatello, "[It]'s a dumb rule that works at cross-purposes to what welfare is suppose to be doing for people and their families..
. hat rule is going to be eliminated.Furthermore, the Liberals have raised social assistance (welfare and ODSP) rates by 3%, however, for a single person living on welfare this amounts to just $15. 60/per month. In addition, minimum wage has been increased to a modest $7.
15 hour. The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty is a very different kind of community-based organization which mounts regular campaigns on a wide range of issues such as welfare and workfare, immigration, labour, housing, and so forth.Since its founding convention in November 1990, OCAP has honed its tactics, and through much persistence has strengthened vital ties with the marginalized poor of Toronto. More recently, OCAP has organized and managed a "Raise the Rates" campaign in an effort to press the liberal government to increase social assistance rates across Ontario by 40% - a level that reflects the actual cost of living. This paper tells the story of a Raise the Rates direct action event.
On September 29th, a small group of OCAP members successfully took $3500 plus worth of groceries and toiletries from an undisclosed Loblaws store and distributed it to people living in the city's downtown east end the following evening. This event was planned around the one-year anniversary of the Liberal Government to call attention to their inaction; specifically their failure to appropriately address the needs of those on social assistance.To publicize the food grab, OCAP hosted a free lunch at Allen Gardens on October 5th and immediately following the event, most of those in attendance (approximately 50 people), marched down to Queen's Park and handed over the bill to one of McGuinty's liberal lackeys. OCAP has worked hard to build extensive coalitions with a diverse range of people representing the poor and underemployed. As the gap between the rich and poor increases, more and more people are identifying with poverty and OCAP's membership is swelling.Attendance at the free lunch at Allen Gardens that precipitated the march to Queens Park was comprised mostly of students and the unemployed.
Indeed, when common people feel their interests are being pushed by an organization which represents their needs, they will turn out. Poverty can strike anyone - there are no ethnic, racial or religious boundaries. OCAP provides a blanket of solidarity where poor white communities and come together with poor black communities, and as such, OCAP is not a homogeneous association, however; it does practice exclusionary politics.According to John Clark, long time member and organizer, OCAP is an anti-capitalist organization that rejects the notion that they have any common sets of interests with those who hold economic and political power.
2 This disregard for potential alliances because certain goals may be juxtaposed, is premature. New identities lend fresh ideas to strategic planning and an entire generation of young professionals waiting to express their ideals and affect change should not be offhandedly dismissed under notions of 'them against us'.There were four police officers on bikes present at the lunch, two of whom rode with the group to Queen's Park. Their presence was mainly symbolic as their services were not needed - it was not a riotous crowd. Interaction between the activists and the officers was minimal, but not entirely unfriendly.
None of the officers was offered any chilli. Perhaps exchanging niceties with the enemy is counter-revolutionary, but I thought such a gesture and would have reflected well on the event. There was plenty of chilli to go around.While OCAP normally targets government and its particular agencies, this event was a campaign not only 'for the poor', but also 'against the rich'. Loblaws became the chosen target because it represented economic power and capitalist greed. Indeed, it is worth noting the discrepancy: As more and more people go hungry, grocery baron Galen Weston remains the second richest person in all of Canada.
Reaction of the conservative media to the chosen target was typical: Theft is theft and losses due to shoplifting are passed on to the customer in the form of higher prices.Unfortunately, the free lunch and subsequent march to Queens Park attracted very little attention from government and media, and that attention which was garnered was cast in a negative light. Joe Fiorito of The Toronto Star wrote "[t]hey're just a bunch of thieves. "3 Likewise, Sandra Pupatello's statement denounced the event by stating that stealing food is an inappropriate means to advocate needs of Ontario's most vulnerable and does little to make taxpayers empathetic to the real need that exists for enhanced services.It should be noted that Sandra Pupatello has been routinely unavailable for comment when questioned about government response to OCAP's Raise the Rates campaign, yet managed to make her self available as soon as OCAP became a target of criticism. Due to the need for confidentiality, the food grab was not publicized beyond the ranks of OCAP members, however, the free lunch and the subsequent presentation of the bill to a Queens Park employee may have been more effective had there been greater awareness throughout the city.
When the driving issue behind the direct action event is misunderstood, the media fails to deliver the right message to the public and similarly, the people in government don't learn anything they don't believe they already know. In essence, the media did not emphasis the need for an increase in the social assistance rates and government dismissed the crowd in front of Queen's Park as a nuisance by sending a young liberal aide down to receive the grocery bill. For many, OCAP is a service institution that helps common people live their daily lives.For activists with larger ambitions, OCAP provides the means for working toward fundamental change.
The kind of change that requires organized, mass grassroots movements, patience and commitment. While many OCAPers hope to see change on a revolutionary scale, emphasis is on community building trough direct action, mobilizing the poor and getting OCAP's name 'out-there. ' People need be made aware of the provincial government's record and the need to apply direct action to secure better treatment for the disadvantaged.Expanding group identity and forming strategic alliances in an effort to battle poverty on a national level is essential. New alliances help to shape new strategy, strengthen relationships with key players from other organizations. Coalition building culminates in greater access to needed resources to affect broader reaching change.
Mobilization of the poor and other concerned groups to do battle with those institutions responsible for perpetuating an agenda that maintains a state of impoverishment requires change strategy on a national level.Indeed, of the 5 million people living in poverty in Canada, just shy of 2 million live in Ontario. The process of awareness and education is cyclical: Identification and emphasis on an issue or a set of issues, brings increased awareness and ultimately involvement. Greater involvement opens the opportunity for increased knowledge production. In effect, the more people that understand the issues around an activist event, the more people will feel inclined to get involved.
Since knowledge create more knowledge, the possibilities for change in a sympathetic society are quite amazing.
