Open Letter by Candidates of the Municipal Socialist Alliance

This letter addresses a motion that was passed at the 5th MSA Convetion (Sept. 14). Minutes can be found here: https://bit.ly/3zabBE5

The concerns of the MSA members below are legitimate. A MSA convention did pass a motion without promptly updating our website. In fact, two motions were passed without amendment of the website. With apologies to both, this task slipped through the cracks. This letter will remain published for transparency.

As of Oct. 23, the MSA program on “De-fund, Disarm, and Disband the Police! End Racial Profiling!” now reflects the resolution passed on Sept. 14. Further, we added “Develop and Preserve Allotment and Community Gardens in Mississauga” to our program, which was also adopted on Sept. 14.

- D.T.

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The interests of the working class and employing class have nothing in common. As experienced trade unionists and socialists, we the undersigned know that the government and the police are not on the side of labour and the oppressed. They enforce the interests of the propertied class, the employers.

That is why, as candidates of the MSA, we put forward the following resolution at the MSA’s September 14 Convention: “The MSA commits to vote against state budgets or any other funding for the core repressive functions of the state (cops, executive etc.) To amend the MSA program and campaign materials to reflect this commitment.”

There is nothing ‘tactical’ or ‘transitional’ about using public money to fund organized violence against the poor. If the MSA obtains enough support from the population to block all funding to the executive and the police, the unions and the working class will be mobilized to establish a workers government and provide security functions of their own.

Though there was discussion within the MSA about the resolution, it passed by majority vote. More than one MSA candidate has experienced police violence first hand while protesting against the eviction of poor people from Toronto parks last summer. For us it’s not just a question of principle. It’s about self-preservation and common sense.

Today we publish this statement in protest because more than a month after the Convention, the MSA has violated its stated principle of workers democracy by refusing to honour the resolution. Instead, the MSA Program, available at municipal.socialistalliance.ca, continues to pledge collaboration with the authorities while sustaining hundreds of millions of dollars of the cops’ billion-dollar budget.

The Program calls to: “Target a 50% reduction in the total Toronto Police Services Budget Vs 2020 Approved Budget by no later than 2025,” stipulating further that “the reduction will be achieved incrementally with consultation from the Toronto City Council, Toronto Police Services, Ontario Ministry of the Community Safety and Correctional Services, Community Groups, and the general public.” Instead of opposing all state budgets, as mandated by the MSA Convention, the program even calls to establish an entirely new layer of state bureaucracy by creating “...an Elected Community Oversight Board with full powers over the police.”

The state is a tool of the capitalist employing class and the landlords. It cannot be controlled or reformed to serve the interests of labour. Furthermore as socialists, we believe that the workplaces, banks and the housing stock must become public property. That is the bottom-line principle of socialism, and we are disturbed it was omitted from the MSA program.

Our only allegiance is to the working class.

In solidarity,

Corey David, MSA candidate for Ward 20 (SSW), member of Socialist Action

Sarah Szymanski, MSA candidate for Ward 3 (Mississauga), Communist Workers Circle, CUPE Local 3906

Mark Freeland, MSA candidate for Ward 7 (Mississauga - Cooksville), member of Socialist Action, LiUNA Local 183, Local IATSE 58