Student strike against tuition hike #3

Manif-Action Banque Nationale

video:

Blocage de la banque nationale du 11 avril 2012. Violences policières acclamées par les employés.

http://vimeo.com/40200408

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Blocage du pavillon Roger Gaudry à l'UdeM - 12 avril 2012

Le 12 avril 2012, l’Université de Montréal impose une injonction aux 17 152 étudiants de l’UdeM en grève générale illimitée (contre la hausse des frais de scolarité). Cette injonction est une atteinte à leur droit de grève puisqu’elle interdit les perturbations et le piquetage sur le campus de l’UdeM. Ce droit de grève a pourtant été voté démocratiquement en assemblée générale par une trentaine d’associations étudiantes. L’UdeM démontre qu’elle méprise ses étudiants en refusant d’écouter leurs revendications et en imposant ses directives anti-démocratiques. Une manifestation a été organisée pour faire valoir le respect du droit de manifester ainsi que pour répondre à cette attaque envers la jeunesse universitaire. Durant la manifestation les étudiants occupent le pavillon Roger Gaudry, symbole de l’université, où se trouve également le bureau du recteur, Guy Breton.

http://www.universitv.tv/archives/1456

Ha! Demo today, and nice spring weather!

See you there, MontréalaisES!!!!

And what a beautiful sight it is. I wish students in other parts of the country would join in a show of solidarity.

Sounds like the streets are blockee'd at Victoria Square. 

Viva la revolucion!

Quebec student protest marks Premier Jean Charest's ninth year in power

MONTREAL - Quebec students showed no sign of backing down Saturday in their battle with the provincial government, staging another massive march through the streets of Montreal.

Thousands of students were joined by residents young and old for the protest against the planned tuition hikes that coincided with the anniversary marking Premier Jean Charest's taking power nine years ago.

"I've always thought that change comes from the young," said Lise Lajoie, 72, who attended the march with a friend. "It's nice to see young people mobilize."

Students like Barbara Dufour say they remain committed to the strike, despite warnings the spring semester could be scrapped if the walkout continues.

"I think it's worth it," said Dufour, 25, an animation student at a junior college in Old Montreal. "What would be the point if we stopped now? Everything would be lost."

The march stretched along several city blocks and tied up traffic in the city's already congested Plateau neighbourhood.

Meanwhile, a group of students at Universite de Montreal set up tents on a campus lawn, vowing to "occupy" the university until the government backs down.

There were no incidents at the march on Saturday, but protests have grown more heated in recent days as the government takes steps to force students back to class.

The websites for the Quebec Liberal Party and the province's education department were apparently hit by a cyberattack on Friday evening. While no one had claimed responsibility, Twitter and Facebook users had circulated a link denouncing the Charest government and explaining how to crash a website....

Global News | Quebec student protest marks Premier Jean Charest's ninth year in power

Blocking the Hall

First Day of Exams Sees Violence

Anti-tuition hike protesters blocked the entrance to Concordia’s Hall Building on the morning of April 12, delaying the first day of scheduled exams and increasing tension between striking and non-striking students.

After about 45 minutes the picket was broken, followed by riot police dispersing the the group of approximately 75 protesters using CS gas and baton tactics.

There were arguments between protesters and students attempting to enter the building, and some students reportedly threw fruit and coffee at the protesters in attempt to break through the line.

“I don’t mind them doing this during the semester, but not when I have an exam in an hour and I have to study,” said Actuarial Mathematics student Tom Riskas. “We’ve already paid for the semester, by losing the semester what money are we saving?”

“Using force to block people is not peaceful.”

Protesters were a mix of Concordia students and Syndicat des étudiant-e-s employé-e-s de l’UQAM. The group moved from their 7:00 a.m. meeting point at Lucien-L’Allier Metro to the Hall Building, police following and advising them to move with the flow of traffic.

Police direction was ignored. Once the protesters reached the corner of de Maisonneuve Blvd. and Bishop St., they ran to the Hall Building. They linked arms and wrapped chains around several doors to prevent anyone from moving in or out from about 8:00 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.

After 30 minutes, students inside the building attempted to force their way out. A window was smashed and protesters swarmed an open door, shoving coming from both sides.

Soon after, riot police arrived and the picket was broken. Protesters quickly gathered at the corner of de Maisonneuve Blvd. and McKay St., but the riot police formed a line and pushed them back using CS gas and batons.

“There are a number of reasons for the action, but an important one is the way the administration has been inflexible regarding the strike, especially with the examination schedule,” said one student demonstrator who spoke with The Link on condition of anonymity.

“We telling them, ‘you’re not the ones with all the power here.’”

Exams scheduled at 9:00 a.m. were moved to 9:30 a.m. without losing the three hour allotted time.

http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/2963

Banner read "High schools are angry - Popular Movement" with the name of the group.

Over 165,000 Students On Strike in Quebec Over Planned Tuition Hikes

video and transcript

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I...

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Early this morning protesters made sure no classes would be held in two Cegeps who announced they would force people back to class.

Pas de cours aujourd'hui aux cégeps de Valleyfield et Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu

Les cours sont suspendus, lundi, au cégep de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu et au Collège de Valleyfield, deux établissements où la direction a annoncé son intention de recommencer des cours malgré des grèves étudiantes.

Au cégep de Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, la direction a annoncé sa décision lundi matin, après avoir constaté que des dizaines d'étudiants bloquaient toutes les entrées de l'immeuble. Des autobus transportant des grévistes d'autres villes étaient aussi attendus....

http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/societe/2012/04/16/001-droits-scola...

CBC on Quebec student strike: Deploying government discourse?

CBC news reports are now using inaccurate language to describe the ongoing Québec-wide student strike.

Journalists on the CBC are regularly repeating, without question, the terminology of government officials, tilting reports to justify the planned $1,625 hike in post-secondary tuition fees over the next five years.

CBC's willingness to adopt malicious Québec government discourse, attempting to define the strike as a “boycott”, is deeply disappointing, illustrating a broader CBC shift toward the right.

Student strike or student boycott?

In a report, broadcast nationally on CBC Newsworld, journalist Alison Northcott reported from the vibrant and mass student protest in Montreal’s Plateau district over the weekend.

As tens-of-thousands of students and community members filled block after block on St Denis street, CBC's Northcott reported that “many” students have “been boycotting their classes for nearly two months.”

Utilizing the term “boycott” to describe the collective action of striking students, is both dishonest and distracts from the reality of the student strike as a grève politique. Namely, a mass political action, democratically decided upon in open votes or general assemblies within Québec student unions and associations.

Why is the CBC adopting inaccurate language to describe the ongoing student strike?

Why are CBC reporters adopting the language of politicians in Québec City, terming the mass student strike a boycott, a linguistic move that demeans and undermines the strike movement.

Student strike and social justice

CBC reports are also failing to highlight the wider implications of the weekend protest in Montreal, an action that called Pour un Printemps québécois ! and involved the active support and participation of many Québec unions, such as the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), and community groups like Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU).

Québec's student strike is not occurring in isolation from other social justice struggles, the mutual solidarity and links between grassroots campaigns, was clearly expressed on the streets of Montreal at last Saturday's rally.

This fact was completely ignored by the CBC's reporting on the march....

http://montreal.mediacoop.ca/story/cbc-qu%C3%A9bec-student-strike-deploy...

eta

Wouldn't a news report exploring the complexity of the broader social movements, including artists, community groups, and unions, who are actively involved in supporting the strike, be more engaging?

Certainly the mass weekend protest, which stretched across the Plateau, clearly expressed the demands of striking students to halt tuition fees hikes, quite literally the demonstration was a sea of red square, but it also addressed broader social justice campaigns.

Placard signs with the words « Rêve général illimité ! » written on them, illustrate the many wider dreams for the current strike movement, and have been common in the student protests over recent months.

Student protests are also highlighting the campaign to cancel a recently imposed $200-per-year healthcare flat tax, or 'user fee', for all in Québec. This grassroots push back by anti-poverty organizations, and workers unions is strongly supported by striking student unions.

The Coalition opposée à la tarification et à la privatisation des services publics is campaigning on this issue, shedding light on how the Québec healthcare user fee is a clear drift toward the privatization of public health care. This campaign is supported by the Coalition large de l'Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSÉ).

A critically important campaign at a time when the Conservative government in Ottawa has moved towards a hands-off approach on healthcare transfer fees, opening the door for provincial governments to experiment with, and drift toward increased privatization in the healthcare system. At the same time as Conservatives signal that the Canada Health Act will not be strictly enforced.

What a great cover for the Liberals as their well connected friends face fraud charges. 

"Police also arrest 13 others for alleged kickbacks"

Right now at UQO

Inside...

[img]https://p.twimg.com/Aq2-87yCEAI1qiL.jpg[/img]

[img]https://p.twimg.com/Aq2_q8cCQAA-LS9.jpg[/img]

...and outside.

[img]https://p.twimg.com/Aq2jf7ICMAEAtw5.jpg[/img]

I still cannot get over the uniforms of the SQ riot police. Are we living on an Alfonso Cuarón film set?

It is absurd, given the rather extreme police violence against peaceful protestors - the young man who lost an eye was playing the harmonica at the time; that was on camera.

There is only one action - done by Gord knows whom - that could be considered potentially violent - bags of bricks on metro rails. It would be a very odd thing for anyone in a progressive student movement to do - usually it is rightwing groups that attack public transport, from fascists in Italy to Al Qaida in London and Madrid. All the other stuff was just the usual "redecorating" - some of it actually very creative and pretty - one usually finds in such conflicts, some sit-ins and occupations, etc.

In my very humble opinion, it would not be a bad move for the student associations - all together - to speak out against such sabotage that could endanger ordinary commuters, but to emphasize the fact that not only have  Beauchamp and Charest failed to condemn the extreme police response and the serious wounding of students, arrests of reporters and professors etc, Charest has actually said (I don't have the exact quote, unfortunately) something to the effect that if one takes part in a protest, it is at the participant's peril. Very authoritarian indeed.

I'm wondering how the student movement will be approaching the upcoming Earth Day demo.

Riot Police Kettle UQO Students, Make Dozens of Arrests

Gatineau riot police kettled over 200 students, professors, supporters, and journalists on Lac des Fées parkway on Wednesday, April 18.

The demonstration was en route to the Université du Québec en Outaouais’s (UQO) Lucien-Brault campus as students defied a court injunction for a third day ordering them back to class and criminalizing protests within 25 metres of both UQO’s Gatineau campuses.

On Monday, students barricaded themselves inside the Alexandre-Taché campus and forced the university administration to suspend classes. One student was injured by police and sent to hospital after the university rector ordered food not be delivered to students barricaded inside.

On Tuesday, protests and road blockades were held at the Taché campus, with police entering the campus building and riot police deployed. Video footage revealed a professor being arrested and taken outside of the building, the same man who spoke at a press conference on Monday and condemned the police as well as the Quebec government for using the judicial system as a weapon to end the strike.....

http://www.mediacoop.ca/story/riot-police-kettle-uqo-students-make-dozen...

quote:

Within a few minutes, the students were kettled, boxed in by police on all sides, and told that they could not leave. Meanwhile,supporters gathered outside police lines on the road and on the campus. After an hour or so, police announced that they would let people leave one by one where they would then show identification and be given a $300+ fine for blocking the road. Those who refused to present identification would be arrested for obstruction.

Police later threatened demonstrators outside the kettle that they would raise the fine for those inside to $500. Radio-Canada reported fines were being issued for $444 and that over 100 arrests had been made by 2:15pm.

Students remained peaceful throughout the day although infuriated that the judicial system and the police are being used to stifle their freedom of assembly and expression.

You are right - it was not violence as such. But it would have been a very unwise move by the students, who have been making use of such creative and inspiring tactics.  I am so relieved that the FECQ is standing with the other two groups now. Charest and Beauchamp have a lot to answer for.

As for "boycott", it is a deliberate weasel-word used by right-wingers - the same who natter on about student "entitlement". Lysiane Gagnon, Alain Dubuc, that sort of person (oddly, both were lefties in their youth). Strike is a legitimate word for collective actions not involving wage-labour - think rent strike, hunger strike etc.

Unionist wrote:

Lagatta, I agree with you about provocations, etc. But what violence?? Even the bricks on the Métro tracks were carefully preceded by synchronized pulling of the emergency stops at several stations. I repeat: What violence???

Yes, reasonable people can disagree on the appropriateness of that tactic, but it really shouldn't be compared to bombing trains and buses. The Tyendinaga railway blockades of 2006 and 2007 are a more apt comparison. Disruptive? Yes. But not violent.

quote

Today, multiple contingents of demonstrators defied the injunction again, blocking roads, protesting outside of buildings, and seeking to outflank police lines upon the deployment of kettles. In mid-afternoon, police began making mass arrests, filling two buses with protesters, including at least one professor, destined for a detention facility. Many others were ticketed on site and released.

Buses tomorrow morning are expected to transport dozens of supporters from Montreal to Gatineau, where resistance to judicial and police intervention in the strike will continue.

Student associations are facing similar battles elsewhere in Quebec. A critical site will the Université de Sherbrooke, where a judge today ordered all students back to class tomorrow morning and banned protests within 25 meters of campus for the next ten days. A protest is planned for tonight at 8pm outside the Sherbrooke courthouse. Another judge rendered a less heavy-handed decision on a request for a similar injunction at Cégep de Saint-Laurent, upholding today the agreement between the administration and students suspending all classes, with the exception of those in which the petitioner is registered, which are mandated to restart.

The Association des juristes progressistes has joined all national student organizations in denouncing the government’s growing recourse to the courts to repress student protest and strike activity.

http://tuitiontruth.ca/