Two days of action by labour unions and community activists, supported by hundreds of thousands of people, temporally re-took Toronto from the right-wing political forces that have controlled Ontario since the election of the Conservative government in June, 1995.
Under Premier Mike Harris, the provincial government has embarked on a Thatcherite economic restructuring: huge cuts in welfare, education and health; the transfer of payments to the municipalities, and attacks on public sector workers.
On October 25, a million people stayed away from work, shutting down the city. Rather than the traffic chaos predicted by the mass media, large parts of the city had a "Sunday morning" feel. Beginning at midnight with a large turnout to shut down the Toronto Transit Commission yards, hundreds of picket lines were set up across the metropolitan area.
Except for emergency services, the public sector was nearly totally shut down, including the post office and garbage collection. Shutting down the heavily used transit system was a major victory and came in spite of a court injunction prohibiting the protesters from doing so.
All levels of education, from pre-school to universities, were also all but closed down. In many high schools, the handful of teachers who showed up to work outnumbered the students. Thousands of university and college students protested in one way or another, and state-supported day-care, one of the most threatened sectors, was virtually non-existent.
Much of the private sector was also affected. All construction sites, both union and non-union, were shut down. There were pickets at over 300 locations throughout the city — government offices, colleges and universities, construction sites and factories. There were scores of planned and spontaneous demonstrations and rallies. Hundreds of people got into the Stock Exchange and spent nearly an hour shouting slogans and hammering on the glass barricade above the trading floor with sticks, leaving a trail of torn paper on the floor.
On October 26, a march and rally, estimated by organisers at 300,000, left from various points to gather at the provincial legislative buildings. They came from all over the province, and many different unions and community groups. There were skilled and unskilled workers, young and old, marginal and mainstream people, students, activists, artists, teachers, poor, women, environmentalists, and the First Nations (natives), who led the march.
There was a festive atmosphere to much of the two days — we had reclaimed the city as our own. Tens of thousands of people participated in a political demonstration for the first time and the political passions of activists were regenerated and renewed — community groups and the social movements were given equal billing with the unions.
The experience of having seen first-hand the power of workers to withdraw their labour, and then to see tens of thousands of people marching in common cause, will hopefully open many of us up to new political possibilities. While it is not yet clear how to go forward, the idea of a province-wide general strike is already being advanced. Considering that the days of action in Toronto were preceded by similar days in four other Ontario cities, this would seem possible.
[Abridged from an article by Jim Campbell on the Internet.]