04) STUDENT STRIKE SHAKES QUEBEC

 

PV Montreal Bureau

 

            The students are starting to shake Québec, with province‑wide student strike and rolling mobilizations that have brought have brought thousands into the streets despite blistering cold weather.

            Over 123,000 students have now voted to join the strike and the number is increasing almost daily. Since January, student's unions have been holding general assemblies of their membership to take strike votes on a faculty or programme basis. A growing number of colleges (Cégeps) are entirely shut down while university campuses, usually bustling at this time of year, are more like ghost towns.

            Instead, the students are hitting the streets with almost daily mobilizations and bi‑weekly demonstrations.

            Already last semester, the students had built a brick wall over the door of the Minister of Education's office and staged mobilizations of thirty thousand people in the streets. This year has seen students, labour and community activists occupy the stock exchange, march for several hours through downtown Montreal, eventually shutting‑down the Cartier bridge, and converge on the National Assembly in Québec city overcoming blizzard conditions.

            The police response to the demonstrations has been heavy-handed, with helicopters circling in the air, storm trooper‑style riot squads on the ground, and repeated indiscriminate use of tear‑gas. Behind the police barricades the Charest Liberals are not sitting comfortably. But the government is unlikely to give in, with a likely fall election around the corner.

            The Charest Liberal government is officially proposing a $325 fee annual increase over five years, for a total increase of 75%. Québec currently has the lowest tuition fees for in‑province students and most accessible post‑secondary education in Canada. Polls show broad support behind the students.

            Québec student's also have their own challenges with internal unity, although so far they have successfully been able to maintain a more or less united front, behind the "red square" ‑ a symbol of the student movement in Québec since the 2005 strike of 200,000 students for bursaries.

            Unlike English‑speaking Canada, a large number of student unions have no affiliation and are independent. While a relatively loose table of consultation exists between McGill, Laval and several other schools, the strike is being driven by the main student union centrals, particularly the militant and leftist ASSE (Association for Student Union Solidarity).

            ASSE has formed a short‑term coalition with several other student unions called the CLASSE (Broad Coalition of ASSE), campaigning for reduced fees and free education. Their English-language site, www.stopthehike.ca, shows what is perhaps key to the Quebec student's approach ‑ united, militant and political, with an escalating and democratically decided strategy.

            A large number of students are also represented by two other federations of college and university students. The university federation tends to be much less confrontational and more tied‑in to a strategy of electing the Parti Québécois. The students have reached an agreement on the strike, and to keep internal the debate and criticisms about strategy and tactics.

            Anglo campuses have been somewhat slower, but are also mobilizing. Concordia's Women studies programme students are reportedly the first to vote "en gréve." Outside of Québec, the Canadian Federation of Students have expressed solidarity while student unions internationally are also responding to a CLASSE call for statements of support. Québec labour and community groups have come on side, including the left‑wing Québec solidaire party, which is demanding elimination of fees.

            "The students are the front‑line of the struggle against the capitalist attack here in Québec," Marianne Breton Fontaine organizer of the LJC‑Q told People`s Voice. "It is vital that this strike grow," she said, adding that labour needs to "more actively embrace the movement and help build a political strike against the government."

(The above article is from the March 16-31, 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.)