Farshad Azadian is a founder of the Esplanade Community Group, and a TCHC tenant.
Working class people in Canada are today experiencing the hardest economic times in recent history. Unfortunately, the worst of it is yet to come. Working people in Toronto are bracing for major attacks on their living standards, even worse than those seen under Mike Harris’ right-wing regime. Today, Rob Ford and Dalton McGuinty have forged an unholy alliance to target working families that are still reeling from the impact of the world capitalist crisis.
McGuinty continues to increase tuition fees, cut public services, and raise taxes on basic goods while giving handouts to big business. Today, Toronto garbage collectors, transit workers, and city employees (and the services they provide) are all on the chopping block. The latest assault, declared by Rob Ford during the recent Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) corruption scandal, is to “absolutely” privatize our housing.
Rob Ford intends to place 164,000 of our homes on the market for purchase by the highest bidder. This represents the continuation of the gutting of public housing in Ontario that began during the early 1990s. The idea that big business profiteers will provide for the needs of Toronto’s working families is absurd. Privatization of the public sector typically results in service cuts, increases to consumer costs, as well as attacks on the workforce.
This happens for obvious reasons. A bunch of wealthy shareholders will care little for the needs of our families. Instead, their intention to maximize profits will mean a further tendency to leave units in disrepair, hike up rents, and lay-off maintenance staff. Furthermore, the sell-off of valuable housing is almost guaranteed to occur given the extremely valuable downtown properties on which our housing is built. Destroying public housing, which is already occurring in Toronto, to build upscale condos is a very real possibility, with residents being displaced to the suburban ghettos surrounding the city.
History of cuts
Any long-time resident of TCHC will tell you that the attacks on public housing are nothing new. The quality and affordability of housing has steadily declined during the last 20 years. In 1984, Brian Mulroney’s Conservatives cut $2-billion of federal funding to housing. The Liberal Party criticized these cuts while in opposition, but when they took power in 1993 (under Jean Chrétien and his finance minister, Paul Martin), they continued these cuts, downloading the responsibilities to the provinces, and planning to eventually cut all federal funding to public housing.
This sort of game by the bosses’ party was replicated at a provincial level in Ontario. Both Mike Harris (of the Conservatives) and Dalton McGuinty (of the Liberals) are responsible for massive cuts. In the 1990s, Mike Harris famously slashed funding and support to social services and programming. In 2003, McGuinty and the Liberals were elected on the promise to massively increase funding to public housing. By 2007, instead of the promised increase, this enemy-of-the-people had decreased funding for housing by about $1-billion. Furthermore, what had been previously downloaded from the federal government onto the provincial governments was then further downloaded onto the municipalities, with the clear understanding that a municipality would not be able to raise the revenue to provide for the housing needs of Canadians.
The lie that these cuts were a result of a lack of money doesn’t stand up to the facts. Tens of billions have been handed to the big bankers and businessmen in the form of tax breaks and bailouts. Similar amounts of our tax dollars have been spent on the war in Afghanistan, fighter jets, and the recent G20 summit. It clear that the money is there, but that the government’s commitments are to their friends on Bay Street, not to the majority of Canadians who work for a living.
The current state of our housing
This string of cuts has left us in the midst of a severe housing crisis. Anybody who pays rent to keep a roof over their heads is likely feeling the attacks. Rents have sharply increased over the last decades, far outpacing our wages. It is nearly impossible to find affordable housing in the city, with access to rent-geared-to-income (RGI) subsidies requiring a 15-21 year waiting list. If one finds a cheaper unit, it almost guaranteed to be in what amounts to unliveable and unsafe conditions — no place for our children to grow up in.
Those living at, or entering, Toronto Community Housing are likely to be paying unreasonable rents and live in buildings that are in serious need of repairs. Infestations hurt the health of many residents, particularly elders and children, as well as the pocketbooks of residents trying to take matters into their own hands. Horror stories of elevators dropping a dozen floors in TCHC buildings are not uncommon, either. It is estimated that the TCHC is criminally behind in repairs to the tune of $300-500-million. Meanwhile, the impact of the economic crisis, in terms of layoffs, pay cuts, and lost hours, means that the need for affordable housing is more pressing today than ever. Residents are rightly fed-up with the current state of our housing.
The David Miller camp betrays Toronto’s working class
We cannot ignore the betrayals of the supposedly “left-wing” city councillors who dominated City Hall during David Mller’s mayoralty; many of them continue to hold their positions today. Working class people had put their hopes in David Miller, particularly because of his labour and New Democratic Party (NDP) credentials, but soon found that they did not get what they voted for. The Miller camp continued the cuts and attacks on working people, and this was the major factor in the victory of Rob Ford in October’s municipal election. People were looking for an alternative from the miserable status quo, and seeing none provided by the “left-wing,” many bought into the anti-elite right-wing populism of Rob Ford. This is why Joe Pantalone, the mayoral candidate backed by both labour and Miller, stood no chance.
Today, most of what is left of the “left” on city council are members of the Miller camp “old guard,” with a few newcomers. Invariably, these councillors did everything possible to make themselves looks as business-friendly to Bay Street as possible. This is straight out of a page ripped out of the British “New Labour” politics of Tony Blair — support for service cuts, privatization, austerity, and attacks on public sector workers. To appease the bankers and bosses, “New Labour” abandoned their base of support among the workers and poor.
In Toronto, the David Miller government was little different. Miller and his allies on council attacked labour (exemplified by the attacks on Toronto city workers in 2009 and repeated confrontations with Toronto transit workers), coupled with cuts to social programs and the imposition of user fees that disproportionately affect workers and the poor. Furthermore, the Miller camp capitulated to the corporate media’s hysteria over crime by committing to a law-and-order agenda that saw the squandering of almost a billion dollars of tax dollars annually to the brutal Toronto police.
The working class needs leaders that stop currying favour with the Bay Street bosses, that distances itself from the betrayals of the past council, and adopt a program that deals with the pressing needs of the majority of Toronto’s residents —for shelter, food, transit, good jobs, and education.
Sweep the TCHC bureaucrats out!
The bureaucrats of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation are no friends of working class tenants. Our communities are justifiably furious at the lavish spending of our tax dollars by the TCHC slumlords while our units are left in a state of illegal disrepair, our rent continues to climb, our subsidies are cut, and we face evictions during the toughest of times.
The bureaucrats of the TCHC have never served the interests of our communities. When the Conservatives and Liberals cut funding to public housing, these officials never challenged it. Instead they carried out the cuts, destroying the lives of many families and evicting many others onto cold streets.
To add insult to injury, they worked with big condo developers to “revitalize” the neighbourhoods they had run into the ground. They promised residents, who understandably wanted to escape from dilapidated buildings, that every TCHC tenant would be returning to a brand-new condo unit.
The first phase of the Regent Park Revitalization saw the massive demolition of public housing. Before the reconstruction had been completed, these traitors reneged on their promise and ensured that at least 2,000 resident would be permanently displaced from Regent Park. These broken promises happened for one reason only — to ensure the profits of big businessmen and developers who wanted to see the “dilution of poverty” in the areas they were building. This betrayal will never be forgotten.
The “revitalization” plans for Lawrence Heights and Alexandra Park, both of which have already begun, are more of the same. There is no guarantee that residents will be able to return to their units, as the Regent Park development has shown us. Furthermore, publicly owned properties worth billions of dollars are to be handed to the corporate friends of the TCHC bosses, at the expense of tenants and taxpayers.
This displays an important point. The difference between the former TCHC bosses and the Rob Ford administration is only a difference of degree. The TCHC has, for the past decade, enacted cuts and a “slow” privatization of our communities through the developer-driven “revitalization” program. Rob Ford is simply carrying out this agenda more rapidly. In this goal, he has been greatly assisted by the TCHC tops who have, through their disgusting waste of tax dollars, caused massive and justified public outcry. Neither Rob Ford nor the previous TCHC administration represents a solution to the needs of tenants.
The mood of tenants and labour
There is a real fighting mood that has erupted across Toronto upon the announcement of Rob Ford’s agenda. The will to fight back can be seen among tenants, organized labour, and especially among youth. Over the days before the city council meeting on 9th March, members of the Esplanade Community Group got several calls from youth in neighbourhoods across Toronto. They were trying to mobilize people for the council meeting. This was quite indicative because we had been trying, for the past year, to organize many of these same youth. Now, they were trying to get us mobilized and fighting with them.
This mood was very apparent at the actual city council meeting on March 9, where Rob Ford intended to eliminate the TCHC’s board. The council room seats were packed, and many people were standing. The mood of anger was apparent as the crowd would jeer at Rob Ford, and cheer whenever a councillor challenged Ford. The council Speaker, Frances Nunziata, repeatedly threatened to kick youth and tenants, who could not contain their anger, out of the council chamber. With the examples of Tunisia, Egypt, and Wisconsin fresh in the minds of many, Nunziata probably realized that she could go no further then threats as she might have a protest on her hands. After the city hall meeting, supporters of Fightback got an excellent reception, with dozens of people approaching us to talk about housing and to pick up copies of our publication.
Which way forward?
A fighting mood, among both organized and unorganized working people and youth, will not necessarily translate into a strong movement that is capable of winning. The missing ingredient, at present, is the lack of a fighting leadership. There needs to be an organized fight back against the Rob Ford agenda. Tenants must be organized into neighbourhood organizations in the coming period, to be linked up with organized labour. Most importantly, the mass organizations of the working class, the unions and the NDP, have a duty to those working people who built them in the first place, to provide leadership in this fight.
We cannot forget that the many things that make life in Canada semi-tolerable — such as universal healthcare, the minimum wage, workplace safety, the right to unionize, the 40-hour workweek and affordable housing — were only won through struggle. Working people had to fight to win these things, and they did so primarily through their unions and workers/labour parties. Nothing has changed since those past struggles. Working class people are going to have to fight once again to ensure that their needs and those of their families are met.
This means demanding not just an end to the privatization, but fighting for a massive increase to public funding for housing. It has not been uncommon for the more progressive-minded NDP candidates to call for a national housing strategy during elections. This is an excellent demand. Quality and affordable housing must be provided to all. This will necessarily mean expanding the TCHC through large-scale construction of homes, to be built by locally hired workers and youth, and to paid at union-level wages.
Furthermore, we must clean up our own house. The tenant representative positions at the TCHC are tokenistic and have little influence. Meanwhile, the TCHC management has shown itself to be self-serving and very much influenced by the pressure of condo developers. Their behaviour has been a great help to Rob Ford’s goals of privatization. We can’t allow this to continue. Tenants must democratically run the entire TCHC. That would prevent abuses, potential corruption, and ensure the end of any back-room dealing. To leave unelected bureaucrats in charge of the TCHC would mean compromising on the future of our families and children.
Rob Ford has declared war on working class people in Toronto. We must make it clear that we will defend our communities and livelihoods. Our intentions are clear; we are going to fight back.
For a massive increase in funding to public housing! Housing for all!
Sweep the TCHC bureaucrats out! No corporate take-over of the TCHC!
For direct tenants’ control of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation!
