[Hipster Duck]

The status quo sucks, but what are you going to do? Torontonians are more bite than bark. We just keep taking it.

 

[vTO]

General Strike in T.O. Now!!!

We don't have to take any of it!!! Who wants EMS cuts? Who wants TTC cuts? Why does Toronto have to cut it's spending while most of our money goes to the FEDS and the PROVINCE?

The problem is that many people have no idea or they've been misinformed and think that Toronto is a poor city that needs to get it 'act together'... it's the FEDS and the PROVINCE that need to get their acts together.

There is only one way to make anything happen. We need to organize a strike now!!!

 

[alklay]

I still don't know who we are striking against? Clogging the financial district is going to get Stephen Harper to formulate a transit plan? Not in a million years.

By all means, let's use Toronto's political influence. But calls for a 'strike' make absolutely no sense and will be of absolutely no use or effectiveness.

 

[vTO]

I still don't know who we are striking against? Clogging the financial district is going to get Stephen Harper to formulate a transit plan? Not in a million years.

By all means, let's use Toronto's political influence. But calls for a 'strike' make absolutely no sense and will be of absolutely no use or effectiveness.

We're striking against the Province and the Feds... to them we have no political influence otherwise we would never have got into this situation. It's much easier for them to buy the 905 votes. The only real political influence is something that the old men on top will feel. Every company and corporation affected by this strike will also start screaming at the Prov/Feds and finally we'll see something happen. If not we might as well sit back and become Detroit.

 

[AndreaPalladio]

Well a general strike would probably go for longer than a few days... clog all access to the financial district and Bay St as well as major highways so there is a hell of a lot extra that we would have to do.

Excellent. A few "work at home days" in July. Can we schedule the strike for a Monday and Tuesday, so we can all get out of town for our bonus long weekend?

 

[Hydrogen]

We're striking against the Province and the Feds... to them we have no political influence otherwise we would never have got into this situation. It's much easier for them to buy the 905 votes. The only real political influence is something that the old men on top will feel. Every company and corporation affected by this strike will also start screaming at the Prov/Feds and finally we'll see something happen.

I sympathisize with what you are saying, but if people walk off for two days, it'll make the news for a day and a half, and then be replaced by stories about how Conrad Black is doing in prison, or how one study suggest spandex reduces libido.

Governments grit their teeth and live through strikes because they know that it is difficult to sustain them. Large strikes from multiple sectors of the economy won't last because most people don't have strike funds of any kind. The cost of that strike comes out their pockets, and too many days of out of pocket costs can hurt quite badly.

As for political influence, we have as much as any other citizen. It is how we use it that counts. We have just gone through a decade of cost-cutting and budget balancing efforts, and have been lead to believe that these are the only goods worthwhile pursuing. Too many politicians have failed to pick up on the idea that if one fails to fund something properly right now, it will only cost much more to do so later on. They have also refused to examine the Byzantine tax structure found in all corners of the country, a tax system that results in a myriad of tax instruments that differ from place to place.

It is difficult to make changes when many people don't want to think about the difficult content of that change represents. It is even more difficult to make political change when people don't even want to go and vote.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

at exactly 12:00pm tomorrow, everybody flush their toilets. this will send a clear message that can't be ignored.




vTO, i'm pulling your chain because organizing such a proposal is next to impossible and even if it were, like it was posted above, it will hardly be noticed.

 

[Hipster Duck]

I sympathisize with what you are saying, but if people walk off for two days, it'll make the news for a day and a half, and then be replaced by stories about how Conrad Black is doing in prison, or how one study suggest spandex reduces libido.

Ha ha. Say the word "Paris" and more people think about that ditz then, you know, that city of 10 million people that's the capital of France.

 

[Hydrogen]

Wow, I didn't know she was that rich and powerful!

 

[vTO]

General Strike in TO

I completely understand what you guys are saying but there seems to be no other options left if we want this city to progress. A strike, if possible, would be pretty hard on everyone but I dont see any other way to force a long term solution, except for more useless talking at city council. Look at what's happening in Vancouver right now... they're starting something and it's worth a shot. Well maybe it's by accident that 2 different unions are on strike at the same time but it doesn't hurt.

 

[Chuck]

Look at what's happening in Vancouver right now...

What, rain? I haven't heard about anything happening in Vancouver.

Strikes are seldom an effective means of getting things accomplished. They just piss people off, and don't result in nearly as much sympathy as you would hope for.

 

[vTO]

General Strike

What, rain? I haven't heard about anything happening in Vancouver.

Strikes are seldom an effective means of getting things accomplished. They just piss people off, and don't result in nearly as much sympathy as you would hope for.

Getting people pissed off would be far more useful than complacency
and/or whining. We just have to piss off the right people.

 

[JasonParis]

I completely understand what you guys are saying but there seems to be no other options left if we want this city to progress.

I'm sort of in agreement. There's no sign of anything changing and sometimes a society needs to do such a thing in order to bring attention to a matter. A one day action of some sort may be the squeek in our wheel that gets us our greese.

Realistically though, I feel most Torontonions are too complacent and far too career-oriented to think about walking away from their jobs for a day.

 

[AnarchoSocialist]

I think the idea of a general strike is a good idea. But I also agree with the criticism that it needs to be focused and have a purpose. If you just strike and say that Toronto is treated unfairly and unjust then people will just laugh. The only group in Canada that can strike or hold general days of action on a general theme such as unfair treatment are Aboriginals. But if the strike was focused, on say unfair equalization, provincial downloading that has not been corrected, being saddled with issues such as homelessness, poverty and the need for social housing while surrounding cities and municipalities are able to avoid accomodating their fair share, then it could be very effective.

There is no reason it couldn't stick either. Just look at the Aboriginal Solidarity movement and you can see the progress they are actually starting to make. Yes people might get pissed because their train is cancelled or they have too detour off the highway, and they are still a long way from having their issues properly addressed, but the conversation that is taking place around the problems they face is becoming somewhat more civilized than in the past and it is in part because of the mass protest and actions they are taking.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Striking is useless - it alienates precisely the people (other Torontoians) that is needed for the movement. Far better to target where the decision makers at the senior levels of govenment have a vested interest. Like refusing to pay taxes en masse; not charging GST and PST, stop delivering provincial and federal programs, shut down the legislature (or hell, turn up Enwave's steam system).

AoD