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