Rabble Rants: Lessons from People's Circle for Palestine
The University of Toronto student encampment, named the People's Circle for Palestine, dismantled their tents after an Ontario Superior Court judge ordered an injunction against them.
Our hosts break down the ruling, what it means for other encampments and bring up lessons learned from the end of just "one tactic in the toolbox" of students demanding their institutions disclose and divest.
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Transcript
Welcome to Rabble Rants. I'm Santiago Gelo Quintero, and alongside Jess McLean, we're going to unpack
Speaker:the stories that have us most riled up and challenge the narratives around them. This is the first
Speaker:time ever since the inception of the LCBO for folks outside of Ontario. That is the Liquor
Speaker:Control Board of Ontario. So they operate what we call our liquor stores right across the
Speaker:province. So yeah, that's 9,000 workers in like hundreds of stores. But as Ford likes to remind
Speaker:us, it's not the only place that you can buy alcohol. And that is part of the reason these
Speaker:workers are on strike. Okay, so on top of your typical bargaining items, you know, they're
Speaker:looking for better pay, they're looking for better job security and access to benefits,
Speaker:because Opsu released a statement, they tell us that 70% of their workers are casual. that
Speaker:would be like precariously employed. You know, they can't control how many hours they're going
Speaker:to get, which makes them unable to cross the threshold of qualifying for benefits. And this
Speaker:is a tactic used quite often, especially with public sector work forces where newer employees
Speaker:are hired on a part-time basis, even though they're almost working full-time hours, but
Speaker:they're kept at a level that prevents them from getting all of the benefits of that union.
Speaker:So. Obviously that's on the table. There's a lot of things that they're bargaining for their
Speaker:employees, but they're also on strike for something that's really partly outside of their collective
Speaker:bargaining agreement, but completely related to their job security and revenue streams for
Speaker:the province. Premier Ford is planning on and has taken the steps necessary to make it possible
Speaker:to
Speaker:corner stores, grocery stores where they already are. And he's talking about expanding this
Speaker:even further. I mean, Santiago, the liquor store makes bank, bank! Like $2.5 billion just in
Speaker:profits go back into the province. That doesn't even include like the taxes that you pay on
Speaker:alcohol. We pay a sin tax. I don't know if that's federal or not, but either way, there's provincial
Speaker:taxes on alcohol as well. That's not what I'm talking about. Like just the profits from operating
Speaker:those stores and the markup that they're putting on the booze and whatnot, that's all gonna
Speaker:be gone. So like $2.5 billion is kind of even a drop in the bucket when you're talking about
Speaker:the entire provincial budget. Like if you look at it, for example, Toronto schools alone have,
Speaker:I think, a backlog of repairs that are $4.7 billion. Damn. So I mean, it's not like this
Speaker:is the be all end all, but it is part of a larger pattern that neoliberals have been instituting
Speaker:for years now, but Ford has a real taste for it. And that is the privatization of public
Speaker:revenue streams. Public services in general, right? A lot of them are put over to the private
Speaker:sector to so-called like save money or to build on efficiencies. We're horrified when it happens
Speaker:to our healthcare and whatnot for kind of separate reasons. But then we have services or crown
Speaker:or provincial entities that actually generate a revenue stream, an impressive one on top
Speaker:of employing unionized workers. So it's kind of a plus for our community. I mean, we could
Speaker:look at alcohol sales kind of like separately on whether that is helpful to the community,
Speaker:but folks are kind of getting on the whole alcohol bit. You know, like, yes, we. This man has
Speaker:just been pushing beer down our throats from the day he was elected. I mean, he won on Buck
Speaker:a Beer for those who don't remember. Still waiting on Buck a Beer. Blocked it out. Yeah. Well,
Speaker:we did. I think there was a few weeks where a single brewery was offering a dollar a beer
Speaker:because it was based on agreements that he had to make with brewer retail. And we never did
Speaker:get Buck a Beer, but we did get Doug Ford and we've had him for so long. It's a basic attack
Speaker:on the public sector. And another one on Opsu. So it's no wonder their workers are on strike
Speaker:facing this kind of prospect. Right. Because if you look at the revenue reports for the
Speaker:LCBO, they've been steadily kind of dipping as Ford allows booze to be sold in other places,
Speaker:because like those private retailers, they take 10 percent of the profit instead of it going
Speaker:into the province. So he's quite literally taking money out of our pockets and handing it over
Speaker:to retailers like fucking Loblaws. We're always back to fucking Loblaws and the Westins and
Speaker:that crew, you know, the usual suspects already making serious bank and contributing almost
Speaker:none of it back to the public sector. I kind of had a feeling walking into this one that
Speaker:it's like, what do I say about this other than like attack on workers, you know, because it's
Speaker:obvious that like, Doug Ford doesn't operate under. He's always operating for some private
Speaker:interest or another, right? Like everything he does, it's not because it's the better way
Speaker:to run things. It's always he made a deal with someone and he's going to get them some extra
Speaker:money. And you know, like this isn't in the interest of the public at all. Well, at least
Speaker:the public interest is not at all what he's focusing on. And so, like, we know that, like,
Speaker:he has been... against the LCBO for a long time. But at the end of the day, this isn't really
Speaker:about whether or not alcohol should be sold in corner stores, grocery stores, or government
Speaker:regulated storefronts, like the LCBO, right? It's about like the workers here who are asking
Speaker:for better working conditions, better pay, you know, and what the f*** The Premier of Ontario
Speaker:does in response to that, because the Conservatives have been cosplaying recently as being pro-worker,
Speaker:as being pro-labour, right? They know that that's a popular thing, so they've been trying to
Speaker:capitalise off of that, but then immediately, the second that labour issues actually come
Speaker:into play here, the second that the LCBO workers stand up and ask for better, what does he go
Speaker:and do? Films a video with a map that he puts out about all the different storefronts that
Speaker:you can get alcohol at while The LCBO is on strike. Yeah, it's just as much about dismantling
Speaker:the social safety net as it is like public sector unions And I'm sure JP Hornick is smart enough
Speaker:to have sensed this coming with this type of government, which is in part likely why Opsu
Speaker:was so defiant during the almost general strike to support education workers against Ford when
Speaker:he used the notwithstanding clause. Not only could they foreshadow this happening to them,
Speaker:like as in those tactics being used against them, but any public sector union under a conservative
Speaker:government is in big trouble. And we just need to look at the last few weeks in terms of Opsu,
Speaker:they're the folks. that lost 50 employees when the science center was just shuttered overnight.
Speaker:Those were OPSU workers. They've got 320 children's aid workers on strike in Ottawa right now because
Speaker:of the situation and the provincial government has put those kind of agencies in with underfunding
Speaker:and treatment of workers and whatnot. And this is just like this week, this past like week
Speaker:and a bit. And so it's refreshing to see a union operating under the larger picture as well.
Speaker:Openly saying we're not just doing this for the better working conditions, but because
Speaker:this is part of a larger pattern, because this will eat into public revenue streams and forcing
Speaker:that conversation on, this is a man that talks about being a good businessman and paying down
Speaker:debt and not running a deficit, which is all bullshit, right? It's all bullshit. But they're
Speaker:the ones that also constantly eat into the only revenue streams we have. And they refuse to
Speaker:tax the rich to replace those revenue streams. So the only other side of the equation is to
Speaker:completely strip the public sector. And a lot of the releases by OBSU encourage people to
Speaker:ask, you know, your MPP, where do you think that replaced revenue will come from? And that's
Speaker:really not the question because they won't replace that revenue. They want they're aiming for
Speaker:smaller government, as in like smaller private public sector. The idea is to not replace that.
Speaker:revenue, but to use it as an excuse to make further cuts to the things that make a healthy
Speaker:working class. And so this man has been pushing gambling and booze and I'm not here to make
Speaker:judgment. I mean, I play the lottery, I drink, but those are his priorities in pushing this
Speaker:out. And at the same time, limiting access to addiction counseling or just healthcare in
Speaker:fucking general. And, you know, I'm talking about school backlogs and repairs and like,
Speaker:there's an endless list of the public sector paying for this other end. The LCBO workers
Speaker:in Opsu are really pissed off about the idea of putting it in corner stores. And folks have
Speaker:kind of crunched the numbers. Bonnie Cromby, the leader of the Ontario Liberals, she's blowing
Speaker:these numbers up even larger. But for all we know, she's right. I don't trust Bonnie, but...
Speaker:Either way, CBC kind of crunched some numbers on that. And it's shocking how much money is
Speaker:just directly being transferred to the private sector, openly, because it's a deal with the
Speaker:beer store as well. So if folks need to understand, the LCBO is provincially run, they're unionized
Speaker:workers. So is the beer store, but the beer store is owned by Brewers Retail, which is
Speaker:a collection of the major brewers in Ontario, and maybe a couple of small ones. I imagine...
Speaker:I don't know if craft breweries are represented there at all, but it's all private. That is
Speaker:private profit 100%. The only thing we get is from the taxes that are made from those sales.
Speaker:And in order to sell beer in corner stores, Doug Ford is paying the beer store. They're
Speaker:gonna pay them so that their own products are available in more places. They are paying a
Speaker:private company. money to essentially distribute their shit. Now they won't actually be shipping
Speaker:it to the corner stores themselves, but they're facilitating it. They're giving them more venues
Speaker:to sell their booze. They just won't be able to make it at the beer store locations. But
Speaker:the beer store, they don't care. The brewers don't care. If it's sold at the corner store,
Speaker:they don't have to pay the employees there. The only thing they have to do is make sure
Speaker:the corner store can get their goods. They only have to create a distribution system for it,
Speaker:but they don't have the headache of having to have brick and mortar stores anymore. They
Speaker:likely want this fucking, these changes, but Ford is going to pay them about a hundred million
Speaker:dollars. And the revenue stream lost just from this is going to be 150 to $200 million a year.
Speaker:From no fiscal standpoint, does this make sense? Unless you understand that Doug Ford is engaged
Speaker:in class warfare. is making his friends money. And same with the Science Center. That move
Speaker:is 100% to make his friends money. We not done an episode on it, but long story short, the
Speaker:land around the Science Center is owned by the same folks who bought the kiddie corner at
Speaker:that intersection, is a developer friend of his, someone who lost money on the green belt
Speaker:deal being rolled back, okay? And so all these folks are connected, not to mention the Science
Speaker:Center's trying to be moved. to Ontario Place where he's then doing favors for Therma Spa
Speaker:because we know that he is fiscally involved with the investment firm that owns them. And
Speaker:how coincidental is it that new Ontario line just happens to go from the former site of
Speaker:Ontario Place to the former site of the Science Centre? I'm sure that there was, that's just
Speaker:a coincidence. Yeah. You know, like I was going to talk about the LCBO strike just because
Speaker:we should be talking about it as part of this larger pattern. It's not just like another
Speaker:strike in Ontario and across Canada, which I'm happy to see. But it was when Ford recorded
Speaker:and released this new ad and map that I really said, no, I absolutely need to go into the
Speaker:studio and vent about this. I almost wish I hadn't seen it. It's so enraging. So because
Speaker:you won't be able to buy liquor. at the LCBO, Ford's team created a map. I'm not sure what
Speaker:ministry was responsible for this, but they created an interactive map where you can like
Speaker:basically plug in your postal code and it will direct you to where to find alcohol. And you
Speaker:can even select what kind of alcohol do you want coolers, do you want wine, do you want
Speaker:beer? And the closest location to you will pop up. And no, I am not gonna share the link because
Speaker:that is scab behavior. No, it's not sending a worker across a picket line. We call these
Speaker:virtual picket lines. And by purchasing alcohol online or going skirting the picket line or
Speaker:essentially devaluing their strike, right? If you are making less the impact of their strike,
Speaker:I consider that scabbing behavior. It's dishonorable. I mean, like to be clear here, like alcohol
Speaker:withdrawal kills, if people... need to go buy alcohol because that's just where they're at.
Speaker:You know, I'm not so harsh. I'm going to be like, you're a scab. But if you have the ability
Speaker:to make decisions here that are in support of the workers, that's what you should be doing
Speaker:always. And like this ad wasn't that, you know what I mean? It's Ford standing at a barbecue
Speaker:with all these strategically placed craft. You know, it'll be these breweries that he had
Speaker:a relationship with, I'm 100% sure. And so he has these beers on display and he's talking
Speaker:about parties and barbecues. And then he talks about this fucking map. And apart from the
Speaker:awful behavior that is coming from the premier of a province, like encouraging you on how
Speaker:to subvert a strike and also like just pushing booze on top of that, you have to remember
Speaker:this is the same man. who puts zero resources into say a map that would show ER closures.
Speaker:If you remember, we did an episode with Ghost Gurney. If you don't follow them on socials,
Speaker:you should, because they're the only people that are routinely announcing and then mapping
Speaker:the closures of our emergency rooms that are happening on the regular. The Ministry of Health
Speaker:is not doing this. There is no map that came out of the provincial government to help you
Speaker:with this at all. there is not even a sounding board. You know, there's not even an announcement
Speaker:system for this. And when we were all looking for COVID vaccines and people are still having
Speaker:trouble finding COVID vaccines, there is nothing that the provincial government put out to help
Speaker:you navigate that either. And I'm sure this list goes on and on in the amount of interactive
Speaker:maps that could have, should have been and never was. But the second the strikes started, this
Speaker:map was launched and an ad was created to go along with it. which tells us not only that
Speaker:Ford is a piece of shit, but that he definitely did not negotiate in good faith having all
Speaker:of this up his sleeve. Frankly, it's probably something they've been working on for a while
Speaker:because it's the only thing he has to tell people, look, I gave you booze in more places. He also
Speaker:changed the hours that you could serve at bars. He increased them or got rid of them. I should
Speaker:know if I'm gonna talk about it, but all I know is they weren't what they were. You know what
Speaker:I mean? Like he's pushing this shit on us. And... Every element, every layer to this shit is
Speaker:a direct attack on the working class. Yeah, if anything, he might be happy that there's
Speaker:a strike. He sees this as an opportunity to further his agenda, right? Absolutely, because
Speaker:now, you know, everybody who's out there that needs to plan a party that knows about this
Speaker:map is learning the other places you can actually buy booze and beer. So maybe they had just
Speaker:habitually still been going to the beer store and the liquor store, the grocery store is
Speaker:selling it. But now they're forced to go to these new locations, make them their new locations.
Speaker:And so yeah, this will eat into the LCBO revenue stream to begin with, which would just allow
Speaker:him to further his agenda by saying, well, see, it's not making the same amount of money it
Speaker:was. You know, and he always likes to pretend that these are small business owners, like
Speaker:the corner stores. We're really talking about like Circle K. Yeah. That's really who's going
Speaker:to be getting the bulk of these sales and have the space to display it and whatnot. It's the
Speaker:larger convenience stores that are owned by massive chains that are then owned by millionaires
Speaker:and billionaires. Well, that's a wrap on another Rabble Rants. Be sure to share the episode
Speaker:if you liked it. If you're not also subscribing to our other podcast, Blueprints of Disruption,
Speaker:you are missing out. That is where you'll find the stories and strategies of the people fighting
Speaker:back against all of this. Until next time. support those striking workers, and keep on disrupting.
