Your Future -- Your Workplace

Going Public in Our Communities:
Public Services - Our Right
April 1 to 4, 2001

10-Point Action Plan

These are the ten points identified at the CLC Conference on Privatization. Delegates have spoken and said where they want their movement to go, the things they want done to help them fight the fights and win the battles against privatization and deregulation. They want the labour movement to help them defeat a global agenda driven by corporate interests and which depends on « divide and conquer », the marginalization and exploitation of working people based on race, gender, age, ableness, culture...whatever it takes.

1. Solidarity! The labour movement needs to come together and work together locally, nationally and internationally to fight globalization and what it’s doing to our communities.

2. Mobilize! The labour movement must move into the community to organize against privatization and deregulation. We must organize to take action and build the capacity for our communities to take up the fight. Home, community, workplace, union...they’re all connected.

3. Educate! Education is a powerful organizational tool. We need to educate our members to take direct action, working with groups who share our goals and values : youth, seniors, cultural communities, and workers who aren’t organized.

4. Imagine! We need to build broad-based coalitions that link partners from our communities and from all walks of life. Working together, we can build a new social and economic model that puts people first.

5. Build! Labour councils play a crucial role in bringing our vision for progressive change to our communities. We need to commit the resources to strengthen their capacity to build links between labour and the community.

6. Communicate! We need to get our message out through all the communication tools available to tell people in our communities about how privatization, deregulation and globalisation affect them at home. This includes supporting alternative media and adopting creative communication methods and training our members how to use them.

7. Think! Collective bargaining needs to be seen from a broader perspective. It has to include the issues that affect our communities. We can make collective bargaining a tool for challenging the globalization agenda at home.

8. Unity! Common language and strategies can be co-ordinated for fighting privatization and deregulation through collective agreements throughout the labour movement.

9. Action! We need to generate and support political activism by our members at all levels. This includes organizing campaigns to promote public services, developing courses on fighting globalization - and delivering them at the local level.

10. Influence! The labour movement needs to elect people who preserve and expand public services and then hold them accountable. City councils, hospitals boards, school boards, commissions, and taskforces...we need to be there. We need to actively lobby in support of public services and work in support of the people who share our goals.

11. Celebrate! We need to take pride in our victories and share our stories with each other.