Student Strike #10: aux 100 prochains jours

"...This is why we have universal healthcare, why tuition is subsidized, why arts funding exists, why EI exists. It's what separates us from the animals, or at least separates us from the Americans."

Catchfire wrote:

Students claim to have caught Montreal police on video breaking store windows. (FB link)

They don't need to claim. They have caught them. Tabernak de crisse, the cops weren't very subtle.

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/quebec-student-struggle-poses...

Okay here's the deal the NDP's official position is neutrality, but a neautrality leaning,towards the students. Several NDP MPs have attended the student protest and Boultrice has heavily condemned it on his sight.

The NDP is calling for both sides to get back to the negotiating table and for the federal government to increase education transfere to the proviences immediately by 800 million dollars.

Mulcair himself as said he's worried the protests will end in human tradgety, which with rubber bullets and tear gas and who knows what next is basically a certainty at this point. The NDP acknowlgeds education is provincial juristuction, but it appears its giving its support subtly through unofficial channels. If this was happening in Ontario Mulcair could refere the question to Andrea Horwath, but Quebec has no NDP wing and so Mulcair's caught in an ironic. In Alberta at least Mulcair can claim technically he wasn't violating provinicial juristiction, he can say it was about,federal enviromental law enforcement, international trade, and Currency all federal juristraction.

Mulcair must be hating Jean Charest right now for all this.

I don't think we've heard the last of this from Mulcair, he's going to get pulled into this thing which is ironic given that for decades Quebec becomes enraged when ever a federal party encrouched on the National Assemble. If he publicly endorses the students he gets burned for being a Centralist Federalist, if he doesn't he gets burned for not caring, which I have no doubt he does care deeply.

One thing that maybe be possible is Mulcair has an unofficial meeting where he tells John Charest to smarten the fuck up.

This whole thing is a for greater challenge then what's going on in Alberta.

Catchfire wrote:

Students claim to have caught Montreal police on video breaking store windows. (FB link)

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK3ZFYj0dzE]And they stole this guy's skateboard.[/url] (0:21)

Charest is toast. This shit reverberates.

Just in, from a friend in Montreal: Amir Kadhir on CUTV tonight. 400 or so protestors arrested tonight, including journalists.

As is its practice, the  NDP will determine its position based largely upon whichever side promises the most political advantage. Until then it will, as is also its practice, lay low and make vague signs and indications it hopes will be variously interpreted as 'support' by both sides. Anybody watching the NDP and certainly the Quebec Student movement itself, knows that the NDP stands exposed as at best a fair-weather friend and at worst a silent partner  - of Jean Charest. So there's little to go on. Here's CP on May 8:

"Tom Mulcair bristles at the suggestion that he's forbidden his younger members from taking sides in the dispute over tuition - a charge levelled at him by opponents in his home province, particularly those of the left-leaning sovereigntist variety. Mulcair says his caucus is united and that young New Democratic MPs, some of whom were university students just last year, understand their role as federal politicians.

And that role doesn't involve weighing in on Quebec provincial debates, Mulcair says, even if his party now holds the bulk of the province's seats and is seen as its voice in Ottawa...

'Our fight is not with the Charest government,' said Mulcair, who served as a minister in Charest's cabinet.."

http://www.brandonsun.com/national/breaking-news/ndps-policy-on-quebec-s...

What we know, is that the NDP has not come out for the students, even though that is clearly the right thing to do.  And we will also know that if and when they do, it will only be because politically the students are already winning.

yeah, as much as it would be a nice moral boost for the leader of the opposition to back the students, it's really not the sort of thing that quebecers want or expect.  mps, you bet, but it's just not a federal issue.

what they do want and expect is a less openly hostile anglophone media.  it's incredible, i've basically started getting all my national news from la presse, the complete disconnection from reality in the anglophone media in even the most basic factual reporting has put the bias into relief in a way that for me problematizes everything they do.  there are camera crews from tva and cbc right next to each other and the tva team is reporting basically what's going down, while the cbc is going on about what the police have told them and describing fears of violence and shopkeepers' irritation.  like even the devoir is running so many canadian presse stories these days that it's not even worth bothering to pick up.  then again, the journal briefly had an online publication claiming that the co-leader of the classe had been evicted from his apartment for failing to pay rent, classic hit journalism.  so i guess it's a bigger problem.

and for people who want to get the real scoops in english, this had been the go-to montreal english blog for years and years: http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/ a daily read, no question.

That laughable coming from left leaning sovergiegntists given they keep complaining the Mulcair will interfer in provincial politics and the ridiculous suggestion of Mulcair being a silent partner with Charest is obscene, Mulcair wants talks to resume and for the federal gov to transfer 800 million dollars to the proviances to reduce tuition.

Catchfire wrote:

 

Instead of condemning the students for wanting their tuition to remain reasonable, why doesn’t the rest of the country stand up and demand the same thing?

A start, perhaps...

30 students are currently blocking access to the Administration offices at the University of Ottawa in a bid to block the drafting of a tuition increase budget and in solidarity with the Quebec student strike.

A_J wrote:

It's odd, becayse Mulcair has no trouble wading into municipal politics, yet is so quick to point to the party's federal role as an excuse to remain silent on the Quebec strike.  I agree NDPP - Mulcair and the NDP will be watching carefully, as it always does, to see which the side is "winning".  If people remember this in 3 years' time, the PQ might stand a chance to retake some of its losses.

Obviously you meant BQ which lost to the NDP in 2011.

Except there's no left alternative in Quebec provincial politics aside from QS which has, what, one elected member, and 4% of the popular vote. I don't see any hope for the PQ as long as they are led by Marois. Wasn't Mulcair was in the Earth Day/May Day parade in Montreal this year? I'd love to see him give unequivocal support to the student movement here. I'd love to see him give Charest some serious grief. All he has to do to justify mingling in Quebec politics is say he feels some responsibility to do so given the lack of a provincial NDP here.

A sports-gambling site has begun taking bets on potential outcomes of the Quebec student strike - and the array of betting scenarios ranges from funny to frightening.

The site sets odds for when the strike will end; whether there will be a referendum on tuition hikes; how many fines will be levied against the most hardline student group; and whether the government will back down.

It even sets odds on whether martial law will be declared in Quebec by the end of 2012 - a suggestion that has so far been limited to Internet chat boards and never come up in mainstream political discussion.

Nevertheless, it pegs the odds of imminent military rule at 5.5 to 1.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/05/24/quebec-student-strike-betting-website.html

Mniemoeller wrote:

If the students put as much energy into organising political opposition to M. Charest as they do into protests, riot and mayhem, they stand a better chance of achieving their goals. 

Have they been able to find a a potential alternative that would reverse the tax increases..errr..I mean the tuition hikes?  Because the simple act of no longer following one political camp in favour of another doesn't necessarily translate into the achievement of the original goal.

No, considering the wider context of these protests embracing the vision of a better society via good governance, achieving the original goal is no longer valid. Political opposition to the status quo precludes joining present political actors in favour of a new party that represents the principles and policies of the future generation.

I doubt that the F1 race will go ahead. This strike thing will still be ongoing, and as more get pissed off with Charest's draconian new law (78) it can only grow. Screw F1, that's a rich people's sport.

Our Not-So-Friendly Northern Neighbor Quebec is trampling basic democratic rights in order to end student protests against tuition increases.

And yet self-righteous pricks from the Charest government appear on the news daily to say they are the government of 8 million people and are not going to be dictated to by a small minority of students in the province. I think this will continue for a while yet, maybe right up to the next Quebec election.

Ha!

[url=http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Student+leader+wins+Lieutenant+Gover... leader wins Lieutenant Governor’s medal[/url]

Quote:

Quebec has essentially told one of its most controversial student leaders – one who has encouraged a strike that has caused months of turmoil on the province’s streets and in its political corridors – to keep up the good work.

Despite her calls for civil disobedience in the face of Quebec’s new Bill 78, Jeanne Reynolds – one of the co-spokespeople for the province’s most militant student associations – has been awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s medal for her academic excellence and her social involvement.

Reynolds, who received the medal as an arts student at the Collège de Valleyfield, is one of the representatives of the Coalition large de l’association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSE), considered the most hard-line among the major student groups. The government has consistently refused to negotiate with the CLASSE, even when it has agreed to talk to the other student groups during the 15-week-long boycott of classes to protest tuition hikes.

Feminist scholar Judith Butler foresees rising repression against protests in the western world

quote:

Butler mentioned that new laws—such as Quebec’s Bill 78—are often justified by authorities in the name of security for dignitaries and the global economy. She highlighted the fact that many protesters are in the streets to demonstrate about their lack of “security” over such basic needs as shelter, employment, and health care.

“Wealth is accumulating at accelerated speed for fewer and fewer people,” Butler stated. “And conditions of precarity are being intensified at an accelerated speed for more and more people. It’s not exactly the traditional conception of class warfare, but it is our very contemporary version.”

Under Bill 78, police must receive eight hours’ notice of any demonstration involving more than 50 people. Authorities can order demonstrators to move their protest to a different location. Encouraging someone to protest is illegal, and people can be fined up to $5,000 for preventing someone from entering an educational institution. For these actions, student leaders face fines of up to $35,000, and student federations face maximum fines of $125,000.

“I think if those demonstrations can bring the routine operation of a university to a halt, that means they are exercising quite a bit of power,” Butler declared. “I actually think the Montreal students’ strikes have been among the most powerful.”

Butler stated that in Berkeley, a legal case has been made that demonstrating students pose security risks for the university. She added that sometimes, the law works to “shore up military and police power”.

“The more we see courts and judges accept that kind of argumentation, the more serious this conflict will become because there is no recourse even to basic classical liberal precepts of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly under those conditions,” Butler said. “That is very, very frightening. Some would even say that those kinds of laws that prohibit assembly and free speech on grounds of state security are emblematic of fascism. I’m not saying we live in a fascist society, but I am saying those are the hallmarks. So it’s extremely important that these kinds of legal decisions not become normalized or accepted as reasonable. And it does mean that extra-legal forms of resistance will become more and more important.”

Judith Butler will deliver UBC’s Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies free spring lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (May 24) at the Vogue Theatre.

http://www.straight.com/article-692066/vancouver/prof-foresees-rising-br...

Quebec Premier Replaces Chief of Staff Amid Student Crisis

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/05/24/montreal-arrests...

"694 arrested in Montreal and Quebec city protests...officers were ordering the demonstraters to leave, but were blocking the way out.."

Red Square, Everywhere:
With Quebec Student Strikers, Against Repression

quote:

Democratic Activist Student Unionism

The core of democratic activist student unionism is the recognition that students, like workers, have collective interests (e.g. quality accessible public education) and a potential for collective power that needs to be organized to be effective in defending these interests. This kind of student unionism depends on finding ways of fighting collectively around immediate and local issues as well as challenging government policies. Solidarity is at the core of this collective power, both within the student movement and with other allies in social movements.

The potential collective power of students can only become a real force when students have developed capacities to analyze their situation, communicate with each other and act in concert, confident that others will also join the fight. Governments and university administrations will only really pay attention to student unions that have mobilized and knowledgeable memberships willing to take action to back up demands.

The General Membership Meeting (GMM) plays and important role in this process, as it puts transparent collective and democratic decision-making at the core of the student union. Here, students gather to debate and pass motions to establish the direction of their union. The GMM also elects and supervises delegates to Quebec-wide congresses that coordinate overall campaigns. The GMM is a rich and challenging venue, where activists must engage their fellow students, listen to counter-arguments and attempt to persuade others that mobilization is necessary and possible.

The scale of these meetings varies on different campuses. In some places, student unionism is organized around specific departments, schools or faculties, while in others it is campus-wide. ASSÉ did not invent the GMM, which is written into the constitution of many student unions as a result of the long history of militancy in the Quebec student movement. Rather, ASSÉ developed mobilizing strategies that used the democratic decision-making of the GMM as a key component of campus activism....

http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/640.php

contrast an opinion piece like this with anything in any english canadian daily.  here's the google translation.