Opposition to the Anti-Social
Offensive
in Ontario
Ford Government's
Neo-Liberal Definition
of Giving Students
Choice
- Mira Katz -
Toronto, January 25, 2019
 In
Ontario, in the name of upholding individual rights, the Ford
government is introducing measures at a rapid pace that target
the
organizations of workers, students, teachers, nurses and other
professionals which represent and fight for their collective
interests.
The government claims the organizations which express collective
rights
block the affirmation of individual rights. This requires the
collective response of all the collectives of the people. The
students
have been fighting this assault on their associations and
federations,
defending the modern outlook that affirms education as a right
for all
and the need to oppose the attempts of the Ford government to
drag
society further backward by seeking to eliminate the collective
voice
of the youth and students in the post-secondary education system.
The
anti-social measures of the Ford government which attack the
right to
education for all and the collective voice of students must be
defeated.
Underpinning the Ontario government's attack on youth and
students is
the ideological offensive that collective rights violate
individual
rights. To push this at the post-secondary level, the government
has
introduced measures to destroy the independent organizations of
the
students, in particular the current students' unions.
The measure to make "non-essential non-tuition
fees"
voluntary specifically targets students' unions and clubs and
their ability to function and mobilize students to oppose the
direction being imposed on the campuses. It de facto attacks the
existing student organizations and student media on campuses by
seeking to throw them into chaos through drastic reductions or
elimination of their funding.
 The government
deceptively
says giving students the "freedom
to choose" whether to pay for their own organization or not is
"empowerment." The measure is fashioned after the "right to work"
attacks on unions in the U.S., where workers have the "freedom to
choose" whether to pay or not pay dues to their organized
collective, a measure that has seriously weakened the U.S. trade
union movement and lowered the standard of living of working
people generally.
Prior to these measures being announced, the
Ontario
government decreed that every campus must have a "free speech"
policy. Student unions are forced to accept the government
directive or face loss of funding. This is direct interference in
the students' right to decide their own affairs and in this case
how to concretize the right to speak within an atmosphere and
institution that can be very intimidating and abusive of
individuals.
The government free speech directive includes
measures
that
target students for expulsion and other penalties for
"disrupting" classes on campus. These measures have been put in
place to pave the way for criminalization of students who oppose
the anti-social offensive; students who stand shoulder to
shoulder with faculty or staff who may engage in strikes or other
collective actions to defend their rights; students who are
determined to make Canada a zone for peace and non-interference
in the internal affairs of other countries; students who stand
with the Indigenous land defenders and others in action to
humanize the social and natural environment; or any students who
strive to organize to affirm the rights of all.
The government is seeking to suppress the right
of all
to
organize collectively and affirm their collective right to
freedom of speech. The collective defence of freedom of speech is
the only way individual freedom of speech can be affirmed, in the
same way that collective defence is the only way the working
class can defend its right to wages and working conditions
acceptable to itself as individuals and lay effective claim on
what is theirs by right.
 The government bases
its
disinformation on the notion that
individual freedom of speech, or what it calls "choice," is
affirmed by negating collective freedom of speech. This is a
fraud. Without collective freedom of speech, individuals cannot
affirm their right to freedom of speech without fear of being
targeted for discrimination, intimidation and persecution if
their speech does not correspond with what the powers in control
dictate.
To separate individuals out from their
collectives and
the
relations that exist objectively means denying the youth the
right to develop their relations with others and their
collectives. The ruling elite want students to be random
individuals without independence from the powers that be and
without empowerment and a voice and agenda that come from the
strength of their collectives and uniting in action to defend
their rights and solve problems. The powers that be have already
set an agenda for the society and in this case an agenda of the
education institutions to serve the ruling financial oligarchy.
They seek to deprive all others of their voice and an agenda that
favours them.
Without collective organization, how can an
individual
be
empowered? The Ford government's notion of choice is related to
the individual as a consumer of this or that option, and the
individual's empowerment means the ability to choose a product
the ruling elite present. The authority in power dictates the
choices. The individual is expected to choose one of the offered
choices and if the individual does so, or at least does not raise
a fuss over the choices, everything is okay. Without a collective
where individuals can discuss and hash out what the choices and
direction should be, individuals are deprived of their voice and
right to speak and deprived of an agenda and direction that
favour them.
This notion of choices and the freedom of the
individual to
choose does not recognize the polity and the role of individuals
within it and the relations that exist or must exist between the
individual and the collective, among the individuals themselves
and the collectives themselves, and of all within the general
interests of society.
To lay claim to what belongs to them by right and
affirm
their rights in practice, individuals have to participate
consciously with their peers and their collectives to find out
how to develop the ensemble of human relations within the modern
objective conditions. They must participate consciously with
others to defend themselves concretely within the situation and
to improve and humanize the social and natural environment. In
sum, this means solving the problems history has passed down to
the youth and working people.
 The working class has
great
experience with this notion of
"freedom of choice" and there are important examples of its
rejection with organized resistance for negotiated collective
agreements that are acceptable to themselves. Oh No!, say the
employers with the backing of the state and its rule of law
serving powerful interests. They dismiss with contempt the notion
of social responsibility and that workers who produce the wealth
that society and people require have a just claim on that social
wealth and their terms of employment. No!, again say the
employers, the role we give to you and your collectives is the
right to "choose" the way our wishes and agenda are to be
implemented.
Disinformation is precisely the outlook employers
impose
through blackmail and by browbeating individual workers and their
collectives into accepting false choices. When the workers
through their collectives say No! and stand their ground
for their just claims, they and their leaders are targeted as
extremists and even criminals with the full force of the state
used to force the acceptance of what is unacceptable. How else
can one explain the federal Trudeau legislation forcing postal
workers to stop their rotating strikes before a new collective
agreement acceptable to the workers was reached?
The Ford government thinks it can use the weight
of
government and the state to succeed in eliminating students'
resistance to attacks on public education. But these are attacks
on not just the students and families but also on society as a
whole. The government hopes to make it more difficult for
students to say No! but student youth have always fought
for freedom of speech. The collective movement to defend that
right cannot be given or taken away by governments or
administrations of public or private institutions. Students have
the
right to conduct organized resistance to the government's
anti-social
direction for the society, which violates their rights as
individuals
within their collectives.
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 5 - February 16, 2019
Article Link:
Opposition to the Anti-Social
Offensive
in Ontario: Ford Government's
Neo-Liberal Definition
of Giving Students
Choice - Mira Katz
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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