Central Executive Committee, March 2020

We salute the immense efforts of healthcare workers to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and provide their essential services in a state of emergency. For over 30 years public sector unions and community organisations have struggled against privatisation, job loss, and closures in the healthcare sector. Our public healthcare system was overwhelmed before the outbreak of the global pandemic. Decades of cuts and austerity will leave working people, Indigenous peoples, the unemployed, the elderly, and the poor severely exposed unless emergency action is taken. 

NO WORKER LEFT BEHIND! 

Everyone has the right to a safe work environment. No worker should be forced to choose between their safety and their paycheque. Trudeau’s lifeline is insufficient; 55% of previous earnings through Employment Insurance will force millions into poverty. Many precarious workers do not qualify for EI. We need job protection and guaranteed compensation. 

• Guarantee all workers at least 21 paid sick days
  Make EI non-contributory, and universally and immediately accessible to all workers including part-time and precarious workers for the duration of unemployment at 90 percent of previous earnings 
• Introduce a guaranteed annual livable income now
• Protect workers in healthcare, long-term care and other emergency services with the provision of emergency free childcare services
• Introduce plant closure legislation to stop unjustified closures and layoffs
• Enforce the right of all workers – organized and unorganized – to refuse unsafe work
• Enforce COVID-19 health advisories in workplaces, with penalties for employers who violate the advisories;  set-up hotlines to report employer violations
• Migrant workers exploited through the Temporary Foreign Workers program need access to social supports and their freedom of movement and safe passage guaranteed 

AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL! 

The COVID-19 pandemic is a virus that will affect all strata of society. A tiered health system will leave too many people behind and provide preferential treatment on a basis of profit and not medical science or need. Universal healthcare for all is required to fight the virus. Access to health services must be expanded and preventative measures are needed. Now is the time for our public healthcare system to expand and take serious proactive measures. Healthcare workers are begging for businesses to close in order to slow the transmission of the virus; this system comes with harsh lessons. Under capitalism, the profit of the ruling class will be prioritized over workers’ lives. 

• Eliminate the requirement to produce health insurance cards for the duration of the crisis; provide healthcare and treatment to all who need it
• Expand Healthcare to cover prescription medications, dental care, physiotherapy, ambulance services, prescription eyeglasses free of user fees and private insurance
• Publicly produced, researched and developed pharmaceuticals for all 
• Immediate funding for hospitals to open closed wards and beds, including capital funding for new hospitals, staff and equipment where needed
• Immediate funding to expand hospital and healthcare staff across the country based on need, with attention to Northern and Indigenous communities, many of which have boil water advisories while almost none have hospitals or adequate healthcare facilities and staff to meet the crisis 
• Immediate funding for home visits to the elderly and those quarantined or self-isolated, on the basis of need, to include provision of food, drugs, and other necessities
• Immediate funding and oversight of long-term care homes, where the elderly and infirm are in greatest danger, where staff-patient ratios are very high, and staff are contract workers often working in several homes simultaneously
• Immediate funding of public health services, including expanded testing for the COVID-19 virus, and restoration of public health units closed or cut by right-wing governments

PUT PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS! 

In times of crisis the class divide deepens. There is no such thing as a business in need of a bailout: there are workers and owners, whose interests are not only different but in conflict. The Liberal government has handed out billions of dollars to corporations as thousands of workers are being laid off. Thousands of young people are wondering how they will finance massive student loan repayments. Over 500 billion in loans and handouts is being made available to corporations through government maneuvers. Banks in Canada received over $114 billion in cash and loan support from governments during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. There are estimates that at some point during the crisis, three of Canada’s banks—CIBC, BMO, and Scotiabank—were completely under water, with government support exceeding the market value of the bank. Trudeau is preparing a bailout for the oil and gas sector that will be around $10 billion at a time when the majority of the people in Canada are weeks if not days from defaulting on their debts. It is unconscionable that in a time of great urgency the canadian Crown is prioritizing oil and gas profits ahead of human life. 

• Eliminate student debt and cancel credit card debt
• Extend and enact bans on evictions and foreclosures
• Defer rent payments, rollback rent and implement rent geared to <20 per cent of income  to cover all rental units 
• House the homeless with emergency, interim, and permanent social housing
• Provide emergency housing on reserves, and in Northern and isolated communities
• Defer personal debt, including mortgages and loans
• No one is illegal! Refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented migrants must have their rights enforced  
• Social services need to be greatly expanded as social distancing and isolation are not currently safe options for everyone 
• Teachers need emergency resources and funding to provide education to students  
• Loans to businesses must not be the publicly-funded corporate bail-outs of the 2008-09 economic meltdown.  Public funding must buy public equity (a public share of the business), or public ownership of the business where it is in the public interest to do so (e.g. energy, banking, transportation)
• Convert military spending to civilian or public healthcare, hospitals, beds, staff and equipment, medical research, testing for COVID-19, and for protection of workers’ jobs, wages and incomes, the sick, the elderly, and the poor

By sending material aid as well as frontline healthcare workers, the people of Cuba and China have yet again demonstrated their internationalists commitment to the workers of the world and our shared future. The significant contribution of Cuban workers in the sphere of pharmacology and their anti-imperialist mission will be an important stalwart in the fight ahead. There are important lessons in the fight against COVID-19 to be learned from the workers and state agencies in Cuba, China, DPRK, Laos, and Vietnam. The World Federation of Trade Unions has led the charge in calling for measures to protect and enhance the health and wellbeing of all workers. It will take international cooperation to combat the pandemic. 

Sanctions are killing our brothers and sisters. The continuation of sanctions by the Canadian state will leave millions vulnerable in places like DPRK, Nicaragua, Eritrea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. The Canadian states support for the illegal zionist settlement project already harms the lives of millions Palestinians and the situation will worsen as the impact of the virus is felt. Denial of life saving medicines for those with pre-existing conditions and weakened immune systems will put the people of these countries in grave danger. The Helms-Burton act and the Yankee blockade of Cuba are opposed by an overwhelming majority of the world’s states; it is illegal for american law to be upheld in Canada. Lift the sanctions! Now more than ever we need cooperation and solidarity amongst all people. This is a global pandemic and will require worldwide solutions and struggle.     

We stand with our comrades of our sister organisations in the World Federation of Democratic Youth. The youth of the world must collaborate with available science and tested safety measures across invisible imperialist lines. This is a time when scientific breakthroughs and discoveries cannot be hoarded for profit, every step must be forward. Our bond is indivisible, across the world we need to fight as one for our common goal of working class power. Giving working people the tools to democratically run the economy will create a future where we provide for all, from the collective efforts of society.   

We stand at the crossroads. Now, we the youth, must take leadership to ensure the security of our collective future. Another world is possible! A world where exploitation, want, poverty, and insecurity shall be ended forever. This is not an easy task, but a necessary goal which will be won through struggle. The task is ours as young workers and students.

Now is the time to organize!

Youth are the future, the future is socialism!