City Hall Archives - Occupy Toronto

The Democracy Project: a History, a Crisis, a Movement

The Democracy Project: a History, a Crisis, a Movement by David Graeber – review What&#8217s the 1st question that springs to thoughts when you believe about Occupy Wall Street? Where did it go? Was something in fact achieved? What went incorrect? These are not the concerns that David Graeber desires to answer in his new book on the protest and its ramifications. Graeber, an anthropologist and lifelong activist, was there from the beginning and helped give OWS its start in life in September 2011. He also helped coin the slogan &#8220We are the 99%&#8221, which did so significantly to brand the movement. Now, nearly two years on, Graeber wants to draw some of the wider lessons. He thinks the query that demands to be answered is: Why did it function? This is not as crazy as it sounds. Graeber has two motives for believing that Occupy was a huge good results. The 1st is that so several folks showed up at all. Graeber, who is also an anarchist, is a veteran of actions, rallies and occupations whose participants can normally be counted in the tens, not the tens of thousands. Bloombergville, a forerunner of the occupation of Zuccotti Park, was a camp of 40 activists living in tents opposite City Hall in decrease Manhattan throughout the summer time of 2011. No a single noticed, which is what tends to occur with this kind of protest. The original occupation of Wall Street on 17 September drew a couple of thousand folks, which was regarded as a triumph. But within weeks the movement had spread to a lot more than 600 cities, and large crowds were assembling day-to-day in New York. Graeber writes of possessing to pinch himself as he watched thousands of men and women mimicking the hand gestures and rallying cries of activists who were more used to shouting at every single other across empty rooms. full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/28/democracy-project-david-graeber-assessment...

Stop the 2013 Budget Cuts!

Please join the Toronto Quit the Cuts occasion at City Hall this coming Tuesday to when once again Quit THE CUTS! Attached is a flyer for the east-end about cuts affecting homeless prevention solutions and shelters &#8211 please print off and enable us distribute! Make contact with your city councilor and inform them to Cease THE CUTS! See here: &#8216No one should really be left out in the cold&#8217 from Collectively Toronto tool to send a message to neighborhood councilors: http://togethertoronto.ca/campaigns/homelessness &#8212&#8212&#8212&#8212&#8212&#8212&#8212 Speak Out Against the Spending budget! Join the Cease the Cuts &#8216Budget Breakfast&#8217 Tuesday, January 15, 2013 8:00am Toronto City Hall (100 Queen St. West, front entrance) It is time as soon as again to speak out against the Toronto City Spending budget. The 2013 spending budget has enormous cuts to services the men and women of Toronto desperately require. City Council votes on the spending budget on Tuesday, January 15th. Join us as we fight to Stop the Cuts for 2013. How to get involved: 1. Get in touch with your local councilor demanding that they vote against any cuts in the 2013 spending budget. Demand even more solutions, not less. (Unearth your councilor here: http://app.toronto.ca/im/council/councillors.jsp) two. Talk to mates, family members, co-workers and neighbours about the cuts. Distribute the Quit the Cuts Price range flyer: http://tinyurl.com/STCbudget2013 three. Join us for the Quit the Cuts Spending budget Breakfast on January 15th. We will be at City Hall to voice our opposition prior to council votes. Important Troubles in this Budget Ideology more than Frequent Sense • Service and staffing cuts from final year have not and will not be reversed. The loss of revenue from cutting the Automobile Registration Tax and freezing property taxes in 2011 leaves a lingering hole in the budget that is made use of as an excuse to cut solutions. • House taxes are once once more only becoming raised by beneath two% rather of the 3% required to match inflation. Corporations continue to get handouts as their home taxes are becoming raised by much less than 1%. A 3% raise would price the typical homeowner only $ 80-$ 90/year. The cost of not rising taxes is massive cuts to solutions we all desire. • The City is once again refusing to use last year’s surplus to balance subsequent year’s books. This is a different justification for cuts. Utilizing surplus is a common spending budget practice &#8211 not the recklessness that Ford claims it is. • Budgets that have been reduce by ten% final year are frozen for this year. Including inflation and development in the city, most departments are down 16% or much more. Much less funding implies fewer services. Proposed Cuts and Fee Hikes • Shelter, assistance and housing is becoming attacked when we already have a housing crisis in this city. Due to federal, provincial cuts there is a cut of $ 72 million from last year’s spending budget. City Council should really be fighting these cuts on behalf of Torontonians. Instead they are adding their personal cuts via the elimination of the Individual Needs Allowance, slashing the price range for TCHC repairs, rent subsidies and reducing the quantity of shelter bed nights by a whopping 41,172 • We currently face one other TTC fare hike while service levels remain grossly inadequate • Dialysis individuals are going to shed Wheeltrans access • The Global AIDS Initiative is becoming axed • Cuts to the Fire Department that place everyone’s safety at threat • Police, who in fact got a price range increase last year, are only being asked to freeze their $ 1 billion budget....

May Day takes Toronto

May Day takes Toronto by Justin Saunders Annual workers’ rights celebration spills into streets throughout day, night One of the most successful May Day demonstrations in years took place earlier today, as large numbers filled the streets of Toronto in the annual festival of workers rights that is celebrated worldwide. Early in the day, a small Occupy contingent began guerilla gardening in a small patch at Queens Park, behind the provincial parliament building. The two dozen or so police attending the event stood well back, although a video unit showed a strange interest in the goings on. The camera on top of the black SUV with heavily tinted windows swivelled back and forth over a small group busily engaged in planting peas, garlic, onions, kale, lettuce and radishes. None of the other journalists present seemed to notice, so our crew approached and motioned that we wanted to ask them a question. After a few hand signals indicating that we should wait while they finished talking about something, the van pulled away, only to return five minutes later to the same spot. This ‘Garden Party Picnic Potluck’ was held to ‘challenge the lack of food security for many in this city’, said Jacob Kearey-Moreland, who organized the event. Kearey-Moreland said the symbolic garden at Queens Park was one of ’99′ other gardens planned across the city on May Day, intended to connect food security to broader economic issues – namely that, in spite of abundance, 1 billion people globally lack access to food. Occupiers plan to return regularly until the garden is harvested. The day’s main rally and march gathered at City Hall later in the afternoon, and quickly swelled to well over 1500 people. The event, a joint action between the May 1st Movement, No One Is Illegal and Occupy Toronto, denounced austerity policies at all levels of government, and highlighted the struggles of immigants, refugees and indigenous peoples in Canada, drawing links between them and the historical struggles of the labour movement, whose victory in securing the 8-hour workday is routinely celebrated on May Day. Nadia Saad of No One Is Illegal said: “We will connect our struggles.” In a press release, NOII called for the “freedom to move, stay and return” for non-status and migrant workers who have virtually no rights under the Canadian immigration system. Full article: http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/mayday-takes-toronto/10726...

OCCUPY THE BUDGET

On January 17th Occupy Toronto will Occupy the Budget and stage a three day over-night occupation outside of City hall. Our three-day occupation requires all committees to reactivate! Specifically, we need more volunteers for food, info and logistics! If you were previously a member of these committees or if you would like to join these (or any) committee now, please contact [email protected] and come down on January 17th! Join us! Occupy the Budget! Occupy City Hall! – For more info on Ford’s cuts, and on the Rally at City Hall at 5:30 on the 17th, check out:www.torontostopthecuts.com – Even if you can’t stay overnight or have to work, your support during the day would be highly appreciated! Bring blankets and tents. Bring baked potatoes and hot chocolate. Bring a hot meal to the kitchen. Hang around for an hour or two serving food or helping with logistics. It all helps! Spread the Word!...

All out for a three day outdoor occupation of City Hall during the city budget meetings!

Tuesday the 17th, Wednesday the 18th, and Thursday the 19th of January 2012! Bring your tent, stay the night! Show Rob Ford and his corporate backers that our city isn’t theirs to dismantle! On the 17th of January, Rob Ford and his cronies are going to try to pass a budget full of service cuts, attacks on workers and ordinary people as part of his austerity agenda. Ford – a millionaire business owner himself – doesn’t care about ordinary people (neither 905 OR downtown,) he only cares about filling the pockets of his corporate buddies. Like other politicians around the world, he’s cutting services, firing workers, downloading costs to other people and telling people to “tighten their belts” while banks and corporations make record profits! Occupy Toronto is drawing a line in the sand and saying no more! We are supporting Stop The Cuts and their 5:30 rally at City Hall, and we are sticking around for 3 days after to keep saying No More! Join us! Occupy the Budget! Occupy City Hall! – For more info on Ford’s cuts, and on the Rally at City Hall at 5:30 on the 17th, check out:www.torontostopthecuts.com – Even if you can’t stay overnight or have to work, your support during the day would be highly appreciated! Bring blankets and tents. Bring baked potatoes and hot chocolate. Bring a hot meal to the kitchen. Hang around for an hour or two serving food or helping with logistics. It all helps!...