Food for thought

The futility of reform -- the Liberal government of Ontario has convened early from its summer recess to pass an education act that forces the teachers to show up on September 4th for the start of school, that forces a contract on them that invokes a pay freeze and loss of benefits such as sick days, that ignores the collective bargaining process entirely, and that suspends the right to strike. After a stormy education scene with the preceding Tory government, the Liberals entered a period of calm and Premier McGuinty actually calls himself the education premier. Many teachers say they feel betrayed but as the economic climate bites, what would you expect. The Liberals have crossed the line into neo-liberal policy. They have given the act the Orwellian title, The Putting Students First Act and have emphasized that they cannot raise wages and deliver all-day kindergarten at the same time, among several other things. The usual claptrap that sounds good but really expects the teachers to pay for educational services out of their wages. This is another example of the recent pit-bull attacks on workers and their wages and benefits, which is what we would expect in any recession.

While we are on the far right, The New York Times reported that Tom Morello, of the metal rap band Rage Against the Machine, described Romney's pit bull, Paul Ryan thus, " He is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades. I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lot of rage in him; a rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor, a rage against the environment. Basically, the only thing he is not raging against is the privileged elite he is grovelling in front of for campaign contributions." Nuff said!

John Ayers