On Oct. 24, thousands of teachers and education workers, hundreds of young people, and 40 comrades of the Revolutionary Communist Party rallied at Queen’s Park in Toronto to protest the crisis in Ontario’s public education system and prepare for the coming round of strike votes. The rally was organized by a common front of Ontario’s five major education unions, representing over 255,000 workers.
Nearly 1,800 Ontario schools need major repairs, and 32 are in such poor condition they need to be replaced entirely. Yet the Ford government’s funding plans will leave education $2 billion short of its estimated repair bill by 2028–29. That’s $2 billion short of what’s needed just to keep schools running as they are, never mind improving them!
‘We’re ready to fight like the French!’
The slogans raised by our comrades were received with excitement. Our “Fight like the French!” placards, proudly displaying the hammer and sickle and marxist.ca, were so popular that we ran out within fifteen minutes of the rally beginning! This was despite teachers and education workers having received a message from the Union Higher Ups “warning” them not to accept material from “outsiders”.
But far from being outsiders, comrades connected with the militant mood already developing among education workers, selling over 40 copies of the latest issue of Communist Revolution.
One teacher, excited by our slogans, wanted to take a placard but hesitated because of the warnings about “outsiders”. Instead, she took one and handed it to her eight-year-old son, saying “It’s his future, after all!”
Some teachers had even brought One Piece flags, a symbol of the Gen Z revolutions, although these seemed to disappear shortly after the rally began, likely at the request of the organizers.
Prepare to defy back-to-work legislation!
The union leaders gave some fighting speeches, denouncing the government’s attacks on education and even invoking the landmark strike of CUPE education workers in 2022. But they stopped short of committing to defy back-to-work orders—measures which have been resorted to with increasing frequency by governments across Canada to quash strikes.
In 2022, 55,000 CUPE education workers defied Ford’s anti-strike legislation after it was deployed to halt their job action. Faced with the prospect of a wider strike movement, Ford was forced to withdraw the legislation. With strike votes approaching in November, the question of how to confront the government is not abstract. The unions must be prepared not only to strike, but to defend their right to do so.
Teachers and students strike as one!
If this common front goes on strike together, it would bring a quarter of a million education workers onto the picket lines. Two million students—many of them sympathetic to their teachers and holding their own gripes with the Ford government—would be out of class. The potential for a united struggle is enormous.
A generation of young people has grown up knowing nothing but crisis, austerity and attacks on their living standards. Already, students across Ontario are organizing strikes on Nov. 5 against cuts to OSAP and attacks on post-secondary education.
Ontario has a proud history of student-teacher solidarity. Moreover, the ongoing movement in France demonstrates the power of teachers and students when they combine forces in militant mass action. Preparing for a joint offensive, including through coordinated actions and mass demonstrations involving both teachers and students, should be made a top priority for both union and student leaders. The larger and more all-encompassing the movement, the greater the chance that Ford will back off.
The way to “fight like the French” and win is to unite the struggles of workers and youth!
