United We Resist -- Mass Rally for Public Education
Despite a winter
storm and blowing snow, hundreds of teachers, education workers,
parents, students and supporters of public education rallied out
front of the Toronto Congress Centre in Etobicoke on February 27,
to protest cuts in funding of public education in Ontario. The
occasion for the action was a $250-$1,600 a plate fund-raiser for
the Ontario PC party where Premier Doug Ford was the keynote
speaker.
 The United We Resist
Education Mass Rally was
initiated by the Elementary Teachers of Toronto. They organized
carpooling and shuttle buses from across the Greater Toronto
Area, bringing in contingents of teachers and their students and
parents. They were joined, banners and flags in hand, by Toronto
education workers (CUPE Local 4400), the Ontario Secondary School
Teachers' Federation (OSSTF), Toronto transit workers with ATU
Local 113, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU),
and a contingent from CPC(M-L).
The spirit of the people standing up for public
education was
incredible. Everyone brought their concerns, printed on banners
and hand-written on placards and signs. They called on those
supporting the Ford government cuts to spend a day in their
schools; they condemned the negative impact of increased class
sizes and called for full funding for all-day kindergarten, and
proper funding of autism programs. University students joined in
the action demanding cuts to OSAP be repealed. Singing, stamping
feet and marching along the hundred-metre entrance road, and
picketing the entrance to the parking lot, the rally was very
successful at slowing access to the fund-raising dinner. In many
cases it took a car 45 minutes or more to get from the street to
the parking area. Where possible, participants engaged those in
the cars in discussion of their demands and concerns.
Leading up to the
rally, the Elementary Teachers of Toronto posted that "Ford's
assault on public education in declaring a strip of four per cent
from education by removing class caps, dismantling full-day
kindergarten as we know it and slashing millions from critical
programming is beyond reprehensible." They pledged to "build our
mass and resist in power." This mobilization by the Elementary
Teachers of Toronto is a harbinger of the organized resistance of
the people that is coming in Ontario to the anti-social cuts of
the Ford government.
 
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 9 - March 16, 2019
Article Link:
United We Resist -- Mass Rally for Public Education
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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