Confronting Deindustrialization and Urban Renewal As a Neoliberal Socio-Ecological Fix Through Social Movement Alliance-Forming in Toronto, Canada
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Resistance Along the Rails: Confronting Deindustrialization and Urban Renewal as a Neoliberal Socio-Ecological Fix through Social Movement Alliance-Forming in Toronto, Canada by James Patrick Nugent A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography and Planning University of Toronto © Copyright by James Patrick Nugent 2018 Resistance Along the Rails: Confronting Deindustrialization and Urban Renewal as a Neoliberal Socio-Ecological Fix through Social Movement Alliance-Forming in Toronto, Canada James Patrick Nugent Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography and Planning University of Toronto 2018 Abstract This dissertation analyzes post-Fordist social movement coalitions between labour, community and environmental groups that responded to, but also helped constitute, processes of deindustrialization and so-called urban renewal in Toronto, Canada between 2004-2015. I theorize this urban restructuring not only as a spatio-temporal fix but as a more encompassing “socio-ecological fix” that better accounts for the socio-ecological constraints and opportunities placed on the production of urban space for and by capital, labour and a wider range of social (movement) actors. The emergence, development, efficacy and impacts of two labour-community coalitions in Toronto are analyzed by integrating macro-scale theories of coalitions (i.e., eco-Marxist and Gramscian approaches) with social movement theory and ethnographic approaches. The Mount Dennis Weston Network (2007-2012) sought to create “green jobs” on a brownfield site before scaling-up into the Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN). The TCBN (2013-2015) aimed to win Ontario's first “community benefits agreement” (CBA) as a tool for leveraging rapid transit infrastructure investments to achieve other social and environmental policy ii objectives (e.g., employment equity, social procurement, environmental design, etc.). I appraise these coalitions as efforts to demand a right to the city—i.e., more democratic and egalitarian production of urban space (including the regulation of the urban metabolism)—and in terms of social movement alliance-forming that I define as a two-way shift in scale: an institutional broadening (or organizational scaling-up) and an ideological deepening (i.e. praxis). These social movement processes require more extensive on-the-ground organizing within neighbourhoods and unions without which coalitions risk becoming coopted and confined to negotiating minor concessions and trade-offs that deepen socio- ecological tensions and contradictions. In this way, discourses around “green jobs,” “sustainable cities,” and “community benefits” have been used by the state and corporations to organize consent for neoliberal urban governance (i.e., increased privatization and deregulation of the transit and energy sectors, and transit-led gentrification). iii Acknowledgements Thank-you to all the activists past, present and future who will never be thanked. To all the organic intellectuals who will never be called doctor but whose praxis advances our collective struggles. Thank-you Mom for giving birth to me even though you already had another crying baby and toddler (two good guys though as it turned out). Dad, for the sacrifices you have made. To all my family for your emotional and intellectual support and insight. Special thank-you to my supervisor Scott Prudham for fostering intellectual curiosity. And to Steven Tufts, Sarah Wakefield, Peter Sawchuk and Ken MacDonald who have all guided my research over the years. Thank-you to Alana Boland for your pedagogical mentorship. And to all my students through whom I continue to learn so much. Finally, love to all my union buddies, my gang of IDSers, my roomies and office mates! iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents v List of Tables vii List of Figures viii List of Appendices x List of Acronyms xi Resistance Along the Rails 1 Chapter 1 Transformative Research: Building and Studying Social Movement Coalitions 18 Chapter 2 Social Movement Alliance-Forming: An Institutional Broadening and Ideologically Deepening of Coalitions 44 Chapter 3 Deindustrialization and Urban Renewal as a Neoliberal Spatio-temporal Fix and Socio-ecological Fix 73 Chapter 4 Toronto's Deindustrialization & Ontario's “Green Jobs” Policies Toronto's 92 Chapter 5 Toronto's Urban Renewal as a Socio-ecological Fix 112 Chapter 6 The Mount Dennis Weston Network (2004-2010): Resisting Deindustrialization in Toronto's Inner Suburbs 137 Chapter 7 The Mount Dennis Weston Network (2011-2012): Struggling for Good Green Jobs in the Neighbourhood 172 v Chapter 8 Organizing for Community Benefits (Take Two): The Mount Dennis Weston Network (2012) 196 Chapter 9 The Challenge of Cross-class, Multi-Ethno-Racial Alliance-forming in York South-Weston 225 Chapter 10 Scaling-up Demands for a Community Benefits Agreement: The Toronto Community Benefits Network (2013-2015) 252 Chapter 11 Community Benefits Agreements: Social Bargaining or Negotiated Neoliberalism? 292 Evaluating CBA Negotiations for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT Project Conclusions 330 Bibliography 341 vi List of Tables Table 0.1 Social Movement Organizations in York South-Weston (2004-2013), not state-funded 3 Table 8.1 Timeline of MDWN meetings and other significant events 201 Table 8.2 CBA Proposal by the MDWN to Metrolinx, November 12, 2012 204 Table 8.3 Family Day workshop, break-out groups' responses to key questions 213 Table 9.1 Meetings on gun violence in York South-Weston 229 Table 10.1 Key Milestones for the Toronto Community Benefits Network 258 Table 10.2 TCBN Meetings 2013 (Does not include TCBN working group 265 meetings) Table 11.1 Political lobbying by the TCBN 297 Table 11.2 Comparison of CBA proposed by the Network and the Community Benefits Framework and RFP clauses agreed to by 306 Metrolinx vii List of Figures Figure 0.1 Map of Toronto, Ontario, Canada showing York South-Weston 2 Figure 2.1 Neoliberalism's Logic of Participation 54 Figure 5.1 Ontario's average annual change in per capita public infrastructure 121 stock, 1955-2009 Figure 5.2 Non-residential Construction Jobs in Ontario (1991-2012) 127 organized according to governing political party Figure 7.1 An illustrative summary of the Mount Dennis Economic Development Workshop Summary held December 18th, 2012 186 Figure 8.1 Newly formed TCBN unveils banner in front of Metrolinx offices during Board Meeting December 5th, 2012. Participating are members 208 of the MDWN, SAWRO and Labour Council Figure 8.2 Family Day Flyer (February 18th, 2013) 210 Figure 8.3 Family Day in Mount Dennis, February 18, 2013, showing child- minding centre in foreground, food tables at left, with presentations and 211 break-out groups in background Figure 8.4 Hammer Heads graduation ceremony with Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig, Councillor Nunziata, COBT Business Manager James 218 St.John, Hammer Heads student Lawrence Toulouse and Glen Murray, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Figure 9.1 Advertisement for gun violence meeting in York South-Weston, August 30th, 2012 231 viii Figure 9.2 Dot map of York South-Weston. Each dot represents one person based on the 2011 Canadian Census and National Household Survey and coloured according to visible minority status. Green dots represent Black residents, predominantly along the rail corridor and Weston Road 237 running diagonally (northwestwardly). Blue dots represent white residents, red dots represent Asians, brown dots represent South Asian and yellow dots represent other/mixed Figure 10.1 Map of Toronto's Neighbourhood Improvement Areas (formerly "Priority Neighbourhoods") showing the route of the Eglinton 256 Crosstown Light Rail Transit line Figure 10.2 Organizational Chart of the Toronto Community Benefits Network 272 ix List of Appendices Appendix I Map of York South-Weston (Federal Electoral Riding District) 383 Appendix II Letter to Metrolinx from Mount Dennis Weston Network, May 24th, 2012 384 Appendix III Toronto Community Benefits Network Foundation Document, May 22nd, 2013 390 Appendix IV Metrolinx Community Benefits Framework 394 Appendix V Building Opportunities through Community Benefits Agreements: Leveraging infrastructure projects to increase training and labour market 399 access for equity-seeking and historically disadvantaged groups in Ontario x List of Acronyms ACORN Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now APCOL Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning AFP Alternative financing and procurement ANC Action for Neighbourhood Change ATU Amalgamated Transit Union BIA Business Improvement Area CBA Community Benefits Agreement CCF Co-operative Commonwealth Federation FYI For Youth Initiative GTS Georgetown South (rail corridor expansion project) IBEW International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers LEC Labour Education Centre LRT Light rail transit MDCA Mount Dennis Community Association MDWN Mount Dennis Weston Network MPP Member of Provincial Parliament MP Member of Parliament NDP New Democratic Party PAT Professional, administrative and technical (jobs) P3 Public-private partnership RFP Request for Proposals SAWRO South Asian Women's Rights Organization TCBN Toronto Community Benefits Network WCC Weston Community Coalition xi 1 Resistance Along the Rails This dissertation is about social movement coalitions between labour, community and environmental groups that have emerged in post-Fordist Toronto as part of struggles over deindustrialization and urban “renewal.” Deindustrialization