For those of you lucky enough to stay in the city for the May long weekend, do we have a FUN event for you!!!!!

Toronto Stop the Cuts will host its first ever social, meet other like minded people event.

Facebook link: http://www.facebook.com/events/376401842401517/

On Saturday May 19, 2012 join us for a movie (Heist), food, laughter, drinks and funky music (good to dance to!!)

Date: Saturday May 19, 2012
Time: Movie @ 5:00 p.m, Party @ 7:00 p.m.
Location: 1482 Bathurst Street, 4th Floor (CUPE 4400 ) (just north of St. Clair on Bathurst) (St. Clair W Subway station)
Cost: PWYC – suggested donation $5

*All ages event
*Wheelchair accessible
*Childcare/games provided
*Drinks and snacks available (for sale)- alcoholic and non-alcoholic

#May1TO: Against Cuts! For Services!

Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/events/411211275563850/

On May 1, 2012, join Toronto Stop the Cuts at 4pm at Nathan Phillips Square as we march to stop the cuts, expand services to all and stop the handouts to cops and corporations.

We’ve seen cuts to services and lay offs at all levels of government. We’ve seen hand outs to cops, to corporations and the military. We’ve seen immigrants, poor and undocumented people, women, queer and disabled people shut out. And we’ve fought back!

On May Day 2012, we rally with communities from across Toronto in a united march against the waves of austerity being unleashed against the poor and working people of this city.

On May 1, 2012, International Workers Day, join us at 4pm at Nathan Phillips Square for a rally and march to respect Indigenous sovereignty, insist that no one is illegal, for international workers solidarity, to defend and expand public services, to stop prison expansion and corporate handouts, to end imperialist wars and aggression, to build people’s power, and to move beyond capitalism.

Our declaration of resistance: http://www.torontostopthecuts.com/uncategorized/a-declaration-of-resistance-stop-the-cuts-the-age-of-austerity/

*Free Meal (provided by Food Not Bombs)
*ASL-English at the Rally and 7pm performances
*Closest accessible transit station is Queen Station. There will be accessible transit during the march.

The rally, march & cultural festival from 4pm to 9pm are being coordinated by Occupy Toronto, May 1st Movement and No One Is Illegal – Toronto.

Media Sponsor: rabble.ca

Endorsed & Supported by Afghans for Peace, CAMP Sis, Canadian Auto Workers Union, Centre for Social Justice, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, Committee for the Defence of the Iranian Peoples Rights (Canada Organization), Committee of Progressive Pakistani-Canadians, Common Cause Toronto, Communist Party of Canada, DAMN, Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly, Health for All, International Council of Latin American and Caribbean Women in Canada, International Federation of Iranian Refugees, Iraqi Federation of Refugees in Canada, International League of People’s Struggles Canada, Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network, Law Union of Ontario, Maggie’s: Toronto Sex Workers Action Project, Metro Toronto Labour Council, Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, Movement Defence Committee, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Ontario Federation of Labour, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation District 12, OPIRG Toronto, OPIRG York, ProtestBarrick, Rhythms of Resistance, Socialist Project, Stop the Cuts, Toronto Bolivia Solidarity, Toronto Socialist Action, Trans Film Screenings, Tudeh Party of Iran – Canada Organization, United May Day Committee, Unity Against Unemployment in Iraq, Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallmapu [Toronto], Workers Action Centre, Workers Communist Party of Iran and more…

JOIN MAY DAY!

- Call-In Sick. Take the day off and do something you love. Organize your own action if you like. And at 4pm come to the rally and march.

- Organize a contingent: bring a group of people from your class, organization, neighbourhood, or union local to this demonstration, bring your demands, banners, flags and signs.

- Help fund a bus, food, transit tokens, ASL, and materials for the day. If you or your organization or union local can make donations of money or in-kind, please help us make this day as participatory and accessible as possible. Cheques can be made to No One Is Illegal and mailed to 260 Queen Street West, PO Box 60006, Toronto, ON M5V 1Z8. Please put May Day in the memo line and email may1toronto2012@gmail.com to let us know.

- Build the movement: add your organization to the list of endorsers for this day of action. Email may1toronto2012@gmail.com

- Get the word out. Call, text, and email your friends. Come to one of the postering days. Email us at may1toronto2012@gmail.com if you need posters or flyers. Share one of the facebook events, or better yet, start your own! Make sure to tag everything, including pictures and videos after, with the hashtag #May1TO

For the past year, the Toronto Stop the Cuts Network has been mobilizing the people of Toronto to fight back against the Ford administration’s plans to gut city services, hike user fees and attack city workers. Over the summer of 2011, Torontonians came together to resist austerity and the massive transfer of cash and resources from poor to the rich in our city. We saw creative actions, petitions, all-night deputations, mass meetings and huge rallies at City Hall. The fightback continued right through to the final budget vote on January 17th. That night, despite attempts by the Toronto Police to shut us out of City Hall, our demands were heard loud and clear by a council that was forced to vote against many of the proposed cuts. It was an important victory for Toronto that showed those inside City Hall that we have the power to back up our demands.

However, over the past few months, we have been hit with new waves of austerity from all levels of government. City workers agreed to major concessions that have paved the way for privatization of many city services. The provincial budget made no move to curtail the obscene tax breaks corporations and the rich enjoy at our expense. Instead, McGuinty is making poor and working people pay for a crisis we did not create through massive cuts to social assistance, health care, education and beyond. Harper’s austerity budget will result in nearly 20,000 layoffs in the federal public service; cuts to already massively underfunded First Nations; denial of hundreds of thousands of immigration applications coupled with an all out attack on refugees and a push for increasing levels precarious migrant labour; increased prisons and policing, while decreasing already weak environmental protections; raising the retirement age and cutting other vital services.

This age of austerity is already being met with fierce resistance. Around the world, people are mobilizing to fight back against attacks on poor and working people. The Toronto Stop the Cuts Network is committed to being part of this global movement. Alongside many other inspiring community groups, we are building a broad, grassroots movement to fight austerity in this city. Our focus remains on local issues – we will fight austerity as it impacts our communities whether cuts come from Ford, McGuinty or Harper.

Join us!

Neighbourhood committees are hard at work building local anti-austerity campaigns. Come out to a meeting or public event in your community to learn how you can join the fight to Stop the Cuts!

For more information visit: http://www.torontostopthecuts.com/get-involved/

A Two-Part Event Series Organized by St.Clair Stop the Cuts

The St. Clair West chapter of Toronto Stop the Cuts has been organizing tirelessly over the past several months to stop the Ford administration’s cuts to services and jobs, to expand services for all, and to stop handouts to cops and corporations. To build our strength for the fight ahead, we’re hosting two community events in our neighbourhood on March 31st and April 14th.

We invite ALL members of Stop The Cuts to attend!

Please Email Us to Register: stopthecuts.workshops@gmail.com

http://www.facebook.com/events/303047679768269/

Saturday, April 14: Building Community Power – Neighbourhood Organizing Past & Future
Skills for Change @ 791 St. Clair Avenue West at Greensides west of Christie
2:30pm – 4:30pm

**Child-care Provided**Space is Wheelchair accessible**

How have communities across this city been organizing against austerity? How can we learn to be more effective?

Speakers:

AJ Withers is a Toronto-based anti-poverty and disability justice organizer and author. They have worked with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) for many years and their book Disability Politics and Theory will be out this spring through Fernwood Publishing.

Saturday, March 31: Breaking it Down: Understanding Austerity

See Video from March 31st Event here: http://bit.ly/HjbAQG

Toronto Stop the Cuts joined OCAP today at the Fight Poverty, Solidarity Against Austerity Rally & March which began at 12pm. Toronto Stop the Cuts released a banner outside City Hall today reading “We Fought Ford, McGuinty’s Next.” (See attached photos)

“What Stop the Cuts Network is fighting is austerity – the plundering of the poor by the rich – not just Rob Ford and city budget cuts” said Victoria Barnett, of Toronto Stop the Cuts Network. “These are cuts to services and jobs coming from all levels of government. Living as we are in a city that already has inadequate and inaccessible services for poor, working and immigrant residents, Stop The Cuts will keep fighting to expand services for all and stop handouts to cops and corporations.”

Toronto Stop the Cuts Network has many neighbourhood chapters that have been organizing across the city. The ongoing organizing of Toronto Stop the Cuts network, along with many other resident, activist and labour groups has created the conditions that have derailed Rob Ford’s agenda. The Toronto budget that passed on January 17th was one success in a long journey, which will include continued struggles at municipal, provincial and federal levels.

-30-
Media Contacts:

Toronto Stop the Cuts spokesperson, Victoria Barnett: 416-721-3471
OCAP Media Spokesperson: 416-826-4796

www.torontostopthecuts.com
twitter.com/tostopthecuts
tostopthecuts@gmail.com

Friday, March 16, 2012
Rally and March
12noon
@ College and Bay St, Toronto (Outside the Ministry of Housing)
More info:  http://www.facebook.com/events/168518953261094/

Join the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and allies for a march and rally, in the lead up to the 2012 Provincial Budget. The McGuinty government has hired former head of the TD bank, Don
Drummond, to propose and provide the basis for massive social cutbacks in their 2012 budget. It is being drafted as the Provincial component of the austerity agenda that is gathering force across Canada and internationally. City Hall, Queen`s Park and Ottawa are delivering austerity, but clearly it is being cooked-up on Bay Street by bankers like Drummond to the benefit of their rich friends.

We have to stop the cuts and fight for what poor and working people need!

GET IN TOUCH: Ontario Coalition Against Poverty ocap@tao.ca/416-925-6939
Visit:www.ocap.ca

Stop the Cuts in the Downtown East!

Date: Wednesday, March 7th
Time: 5pm
Location: 349 George St.

The School House was first opened in the 1970s, it is a 55 (paid) bed
facility for men in the downtown east end of Toronto.  It was one of
the first shelters in Canada to operate from a harm reduction
perspective. Schoolhouse is one of very few harm reduction focused
shelters in this city. Schoolhouse also has 55 beds, at a time when
most shelters are at capacity and when we face a deepening housing
crisis in this city. There are 79 000 housholds on the waiting list
for social housing in Toronto, a list that is estimated to be at least
a decade long. Most poor people are priced out of the private market
with the average bachelor apartment ranging around $777 a month while
the base amount for welfare is only $599.

Schoolhouse as a vital service in this neighborhood that needs to be defended!

To break the silence on this closure, and to demand that this shelter
remain open – we are calling for a rally to take place outside of
Schoolhouse (349 George Street) on Wednesday, March 7th at 5pm.

Rally to defend this vital service in our community!

This rally is organized by: The Downtown East Stop the Cuts Committee,
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Health Providers Against Poverty,
and the Harm Reduction Coalition

To endorse this event, or for more information contact the Downtown
East Stop the Cuts Committee: TorontoDTE@gmail.com
or OCAP: 416-925-6939

www.torontostopthecuts.com

Date: March 1st
Location: Edward Day Gallery, 952 Queen street west
Time:  7:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Toronto Budget: Major Victory but the Fight Continues

On January 17, 2012, Rob Ford experienced a major defeat as Toronto City Council refused to pass many of his proposed cuts.  Cuts to child care, priority-area community centres, ice rinks, pools, community grants, TTC, three homeless shelters, public libraries, the Toronto Environmental Office and the Immigrant Women’s Health Centre were stopped in the 2012 Budget.

There is no doubt that our organizing in neighbourhoods across the city, along with many other resident, activist and labour groups created the conditions to derail the Ford agenda.

While this is a major victory in the battle against austerity in Toronto, there is still much work to be done. Council passed a budget that raised residential property taxes by 2.5% but only raised corporate property tax rates by 0.83%. The Toronto Police were handed a budget increase at the expense of other city departments. Overall the city saw nearly $60 million dollars in cuts including the layoff of over 1000 workers, the privatization of custodial services, deferred hiring of emergency and fire personnel, closure of some pools, closure of visitor cafeterias in long-term care homes and elimination of the Christmas bureau (this list is not comprehensive). The selloff of 700 TCHC Housing Units is being debated on January 24th and the City continues to threaten workers with a lockout that could start in early February. (See details of action against Community Housing sell-off here, http://bit.ly/w82Jsl).

In a city where people without immigration status are already shut out of most services, where many people of color and poor neighbourhoods have sub-standard and inaccessible service provisions, where the province and federal government have been part of large scale attack on women, youth, queer, indigenous, people with disabilities and the elderly, the 2012 Toronto Budget was proof of how little city politicians care about anything but the bottom line.

Since Ford was elected last December, tens of thousands of people have participated in deputations, petitions, lobbying, direct actions and protests. Yesterday at 12:30pm, Health for All dropped a banner inside Council Chambers. At 5:30pm, Toronto Stop the Cuts Network and our eleven neighbourhood chapters participated in a rally with Respect Toronto, Occupy Toronto and nearly 2,000 people. At 6:30, as Council began to vote, Torontonians attempted to enter City Hall to watch the proceedings. The Toronto Police used excessive force to lockdown City Hall. In the hour that followed, police beat, brutalized, pepper sprayed and injured dozens of people who were barred from participating in the so-called democratic budget process. 4 people were arrested. Occupy Toronto continued to campout and was given and eviction notice to leave by Thursday, January 19^th.

Police violence and the lockdown of City Hall failed to keep our voices out of Council Chambers- dozens inside Council Chambers and in the council rotunda led multiple disruptions against the budget that cut services and lays off workers. Councilors insisted again and again that it was the immense amount of public pressure that forced them to vote against part of the Ford agenda.  The budget vote demonstrates the power of mobilization and protest.

People around the world are fighting back against austerity and we are proud to be part of that global movement here in Toronto. Toronto Stop the Cuts and our allies will continue to mobilize against Ford’s cuts and cuts at all levels of government. If Ford locks out workers, we will stand in solidarity with them on the picket lines. If TCHC evicts tenants, we will be there to defend them. If community services are shuttered, we will fight to keep them open.

We are celebrating our victory and planning for the fight that lies ahead by returning to our 11 neighbourhood chapters and we invite Torontonians to form more. We return to talking to our neighbours, building alliances and strengthening relationships. We call on people across Ontario and occupied Canada to form into neighbourhood organizations and broad based networks. We will Stop the Cuts! We will ensure justice and dignity for all!

Media, Pictures, Videos:
www.facebook.com/stopthecuts (you don’t need a facebook account to access these pages)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67994621@N02/sets/72157628920728555/
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/police-crack-heads-major-budget-cuts-reversed/9633

More information – including which Councilor voted for what:
 http://www.socialplanningtoronto.org/city_budget_2012/january-17-final-budget-vote/

DONATE:
If you can donate financially please write us a cheque! Make cheques out to ‘Toronto Stop the Cuts’ – email tostopthecuts@gmail.com for information on how to get the cheques to us! THANK YOU to all those who have donated thus far- Toronto Stop the Cuts has been doing great work with the help of these donations!

ENDORSE:
Have your organization or union local endorse ‘Toronto Stop the Cuts’- just email us at tostopthecuts@gmail.com with your endorsement! (If you would like your event/campaign endorsed by Stop the Cuts, please email us at tostopthecuts@gmail.com.)

www.torontostopthecuts.com
www.facebook.com/stopthecuts
tostopthecuts@gmail.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/TOstopthecuts
twitter.com/tostopthecuts