02) OTTAWA HITS THE STREETS IN SOLIDARITY
By Larry Wasslen, Ottawa
The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa took the lead in organizing a May 29 march in support of the Quebec student strike against tuition increases, with the backing of Ottawa's Solidarity Against Austerity collective as well as trade unions and community groups.
The battle against the Charest austerity regime was sparked in March 2011 when Finance Minister Bachand announced plans to increase tuition fees by $325 annually over five years, beginning September 2012. Last August, student unions and federations began organizing to resist the increases. By November 2011, the Canadian Press reported that "more than 200,000 college and university students voted in favour of `boycotting classes'" a euphemism of the press when referring to the student strike which began on Feb. 13, 2012.
The Ottawa event took on greater importance with the imposition of the anti‑democratic "special law" Bill 78. This law would force demonstrators to inform police of their intent to hold a demonstration, give the intended route and duration of a march of 50 or more people, impose draconian fines on organizations and individuals, and allow the police to declare any demo illegal.
A festive crowd of all ages gathered in Confederation Park, the site of the peaceful Occupy Ottawa protest of 2011. Students with colourful banners and slogans were joined by trade unionists waving union flags, and by social activists from community based groups.
The crowd grew steadily to over 700, with people coming from every direction. By the time Priscillia Lefebvre, a Carleton University grad student and Vice‑President of CUPE 4600, began her opening remarks, the drums, pots and pan symphony was well tuned and ready to go.
Lefebvre reminded us that we were gathered on unceded Algonquin territory, and welcomed everyone who had come to support the "Quebec Uprising", which unleashed thunderous applause. She drew attention to the fact the Quebec students had the lowest tuition fees in the country, the result of years of struggle for accessibility to education. Pointing to the common cause between students and workers in Quebec and in Canada, she asked the crowd if they would take the streets. Again there was thunderous applause, and the cry went out: "Whose streets? Our Streets! A qui les rue? A nous les rues!"
Alex Dugas, spokesperson for the Strike Committee of the University of Quebec/Outaouais, noted that the strike had been going for more than 100 days. He mocked the Charest regime, which had tried to force the students from the streets with Bill 78. The government had wanted the students to go back to school, to learn.
But Dugas exclaimed that the strike has been a great teacher. The students have learned to fight for social justice, democratic rights, and culture.
We have learned, Dugas said, to "say NO to the concept of a university that serves only the interest of a very small minority of powerful people!" The strike had shown the students and the people the face of neo‑liberalism and just who the police were protecting. The crowd erupted with shouts of "Shame! Shame!"
He said that the people gathered for the Ottawa march were in solidarity with locked-out workers, with workers who have lost their jobs to austerity across the country, and with those being forced back to work, the CP Rail workers. He explicitly stated that the student strike had become a popular struggle, a class struggle against the privileged few! Whistles, pots, pans, and drums beat ferociously.
Patrick Smoke, the Aboriginal Representative at the Canadian Federation of Students, explained the 2% cap on federal funding for the Post Secondary Support Program which helps First Nation and Inuit students complete their post-secondary education. More than 10,000 are waiting for funding of any kind, while many go completely without funding.
Smoke highlighted that this was not simply a battle over a 75% increase in tuition fees: "It is about having affordable post secondary education for everyone... not just for the students of today but for all future generations of students."
"Let us continue to resist until the government agrees to our terms," said Smoke, "until the Government has guaranteed to protect post‑secondary for the long term!"
Roxanne Dubois, National Chair of the Canadian Federation of Students, emphasized that governments across the country are abandoning the youth by failing to address the lack of funding in every province. This has resulted in ever increasing tuition fees and a mountain of student debt. Dubois declared that the CFS "was united with students in Quebec in defeating Bill 78, in cancelling once and for all tuition fee hikes."
She concluded with a call to intensify the struggle beyond freezing tuition. "Let us be clear," Dubois explained, "once this [battle] is done our work is not over. We will continue to fight until we get free education in every single province in this country!" The pot and pan symphony erupted in support of this democratic demand.
The final speaker before the march began was Robyn Benson, the newly elected President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. She underlined that "education is a public service, an investment in our future generations," just as public services provided by PSAC are an investment in "the common good".
"PSAC stands proudly in solidarity with the student movement in Quebec and speaks out strongly against Bill 78," said Benson. "We can take to the streets and we can be heard!"
The crowd then began its march with the slogans, "So So So Solidarity!", and "Whose streets? Our Streets!" Two banners led the militants into the street. The Solidarity Against Austerity banner read "Student Strike: La Lutte Populaire", and the workers' banner supplied by CUPW stated "Capitalism doesn't work for workers! CUPW-STTP."
In a show of defiance, the route of the march through the downtown core of Ottawa was not given to authorities. People in apartments and offices showed their support by waving red items from their balconies, or by banging pots and pans. The demo stopped at the office of "Austerity Harper", so that he could hear the Pan/Drum/Whistle Symphony No. 1 in F major (for fightback). The march proceeded into the market area and across the bridge into Gatineau. Some people on the sidewalks joined the demo while many received and displayed the Red Square patch which has come to symbolize the student strike.
Once in Quebec the march headed for the Palais de Justice where Anne‑Marie Roy, V-P Communications of the Federation of Students at University of Ottawa, and Denis Lemelin, President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, again demonstrated the student-working class alliance which has been growing during this battle.
"Everywhere in Canada education is under attack," said Roy, noting that the University of Ottawa budget raises tuition fees yet again, and that 41% of the University's budget comes from tuition fees. How long will it be, she asked, before universities become private institutions?
Denis Lemelin saluted the crowd, saying this is "solidarity in action." He outlined the general attack on democratic and labour rights which has become the hallmark of the Austerity Harper regime, including legislation which has gutted the right to negotiate collective agreements. Lemelin called on the people to take to the streets to defend our rights.
The march continued through downtown Gatineau to demonstrate to the people of Quebec that we are with them in their struggle. It wound its way back across the bridge to the University of Ottawa, where students had organized two demonstrations against the Administration's raising tuition a further 5 per cent.
(The above article is from the June 16-30, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)