CPC UofT | CESB is not enough!
April 2020
COVID-19 is revealing the many crises that make up our society, including in higher education. As universities evict precarious students, classes move online, and federal and provincial governments fail to provide students with real financial help, the position of students and education workers is more precarious than ever. While many people are waiting for things to go back to "normal," communists are organizing for a better world now, recognizing that "normal" wasn't so great for most of us already.
For students, the big news federally is the announcement of the Canadian Emergency Student Benefit (CESB), offering $1,250/month for three months, along with promises for increased tuition aid in the fall. Though students can take all the help we can get, this benefit is less than 63% of the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), which is already too low for working people in Canada. Moreover, rather than reducing tuition costs or bloated university fees, the federal government has chosen to subsidize this unsustainable structure through aid packages while giving crumbs to students, expecting them to survive on little in the summer and borrow in the fall.
Students deserve more—an economy and a higher education system designed for the people!
To get there, we need to organize. In this newsletter, you'll find events and statements related to the struggle. Want to join our club? Check out the events below, and apply to join the party today!
We can’t march and gather in the streets this year, but we can still celebrate the working class by gathering online! Hear journalists, activists, musicians, and poets from wherever you’re social distancing!
Left Wing Movie Night: Ballad of a Soldier (1959)
Our club regularly hosts a film night, screening films with political significance and discussing them afterward. We are now able to stream these events online. This time, we’re showing Ballad of a Soldier, a 1959 Soviet film. Set during World War II, the film recounts the effects of war and international turmoil through the point of view of Alyosha, a young soldier torn between love, family, and the front. "Ballad of a Soldier" won numerous awards both in the USSR and abroad, collecting the 1960 Cannes Special Jury prize, the 1960 BAFTA award for Best Film, the 1961 Lenin Prize, and a nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the 1960 Academy Awards.
Online Seminar: Pandemic, Crisis, and Class
Speakers Jeanne McGuire and Miguel Figueroa presented on the underlying crisis of capitalism, COVID-19, and the way forward. Follow the link above to learn more!
The Communist Party of Canada, nationally and provincially, has been vocal in its calls for more aid, stronger public infrastructure, and true people’s policy alternatives. Check out some of our statements below!
Trudeau’s Patchwork Income Deal is Insufficient
…as details have slowly emerged it is clear that many working people are excluded from the CERB. Students who are beginning to look for summer jobs, workers in the gig economy, and people who have any income whatsoever are among those immediately deemed ineligible. In response to outcry over these exclusions, the government has begun introducing other targeted programs. These include the Canadian Emergency Student Benefit (CESB), which provides a paltry $1250 per month to post-secondary students and recent graduates, payable between May and August. This is equivalent to income from a full-time job paying less than $8.95 per hour – it is wholly insufficient to cover rent and living expenses for students who do not live at home, let alone exorbitant tuition and ancillary fees. Moreover, the CESB is not available to hundreds of thousands of secondary students who rely on summer employment income to pay for their eventual post-secondary education.
Release Non-Violent Offenders From Canadian Prisons
Prisoners are unable to self-isolate, and have limited access to hygiene and sanitary products. Many inmates are older people, or have compromised immune systems that would cause major complications if they were to get infected with Covid-19.
For those inmates who are not a risk to public safety, and who have a safe place to stay, immediate release is vital and would be in the best interests of society at large, potentially helping to reduce the impact of the pandemic on local community hospitals.
Cancel Rent! Housing for people, not for profit
The emerging health and economic crises are compounding the already dire housing emergency in Ontario. It is long overdue that the right to housing was recognized by the actions of governments. The Communist Party stands in solidarity with tenants and tenants’ rights organizations calling to cancel rents and organizing rent strikes on April 1st and beyond.
By the way, if you need help connecting with tenant organizers and rent strike coordinators, please let us know! You can also check out Keep Your Rent!
The Communist Party of Canada is a revolutionary party committed to the liberation of working and marginalized people. Apply to join today! Follow our club on Facebook, and find the Party on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
