A Declaration on Social and Economic Policy Directions for Canada by Members of Popular Sector Groups
As socially concerned people in labour unions, women’s organizations, welfare rights associations, church organizations, aboriginal groups, and other community associations, we are alarmed by signs of deepening social crisis in Canada today. Plant shut-downs, farm bankruptcies, business failures, and abandoned communities have left well over a million and a half people unemployed, thus deprived of an adequate family or personal income. During the past two years alone, nearly a million people have become dependent on welfare. Close to one out of every five citizens in Canada is now living at or below the official poverty line.
As members of various popular organizations, we wish to declare our solidarity with all those people who have become the victims of the continuing social and economic crisis in this country. Indeed, we stand in the tradition of popular movements who have relentlessly struggled for public policies based on economic and social justice in Canada. Today, more than ever, we must resist the strategies of divide and conquer and unite in common cause. We therefore invite other members of our own organizations, as well as other concerned persons and groups in communities and regions across Canada, to join with us in a process of analyzing the realities and causes of the present socio-economic crisis and identifying alternative economic and social policy directions.
Download A Time to Stand Together…A Time for Social Solidarity
Table of contents
Social Crisis
Market Policies
Private Sector
Natural Unemployment
Government Deficits
Social Spending
Selective Programs
Privatized Services
Minimum Incomes
Bilateral Free Trade
Social Solidarity
Alternative Policies
Full Employment
Economic Strategies
Labour Standards
Social Programs
Taxation Policies
Public Sector
Social Movement
