Raise The Rates

“Send Your Grocery Bill To Dalton McGuinty!”

On August 20, dozens of OCAP members and supporters entered an upscale
Loblaws grocery store. We loaded each of our carts with roughly $250
worth of groceries and took them to check outs. After they were rung
through, we produced Dalton McGuinty I.O.U coupons that, we insisted, were
worth the $250 people were losing as a result of his Governments massive
cut to the Special Diet program. We suggested to the managers that they
should give us the food and send the bill to the Liberal Government.

As you can see from this video, the operators of the store did not see
things our way but, in front of hundreds of shoppers, OCAP put its demands
forward and a major business profiting from McGunity’s tax breaks to
corporations had its operations disrupted by our action.

What we want to stress is that the challenge to poverty that we took up
that day was not a gesture but a call to action. It points to how the
poor can and must fight back in the face of the austerity agenda of every
level of government. If the poor are passive, their suffering will be
acceptable to those in power but, if they take collective action that
prevents business as usual, they have found a power they can use to press
their demands.

Imagine if the action we did in one Loblaws was taken up by others and
done on a far bigger scale. Picture thousands of people doing things like
this every day across the Province for several weeks to press a demand for
an increase in social assistance rates. It would have an impact as large
as that of a major strike. We would hit those who profit from social
cutbacks and low wages in the cash register – the place that hurts them
the most.

When they cut your income, remove the services you depend on and throw you
into deeper poverty, don’t believe there is nothing you can do. Don’t
waste your breath trying to convince them to be kinder and gentler.
Organize with others in your communities to become, not a quiet and
reasonable voice, but a problem they have to deal with. Then, you will be
force they have to reckon with and a set of demands they have to deal
with.

Get Involved in the Raise the Rates Campaign!
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty: www.ocap.ca/416-925-6939
See the demands and supporters of the Raise the Rates Campaign:
http://update.ocap.ca/node/947