A history for student sturggle for unity (2)

Divisions and current challenges

by Drew Garvie
To oppose the militancy of the CFS, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) was founded in June of 1995 with help from mainly the Liberal Party, but also from the Conservatives. Its tactics do not include any member mobilization and instead focus entirely on lobbying and photo opportunities with politicians. CASA and its provincial affiliates have distinguished themselves by frequently supporting rises in tuition fees over the last 25 years. Its capture by governments and the Liberal party remains and students cannot call it a truly independent student federation.

Quebec Anti-Austerity Battle Heating Up

Johan Boyden

Reprinted from People's Voice Newspaper

Mobilizations to stop the austerity measures of Philippe Couillard’s Quebec Liberal government got a boost in late March, after a meeting of the Front Commun, the Common Front of Quebec public sector trade unions. Then the student movement brought over 70,000 protesters into the streets on April 2, its largest mobilization since the 2012 strike.

In late March, the Liberal budget presented by Couillard’s finance minister Carlos Leitao ended any illusions that negotiations could lead to a victory for public sector unions. Calling the budget “austerity at light speed,” and a gift to big business, the labour movement condemned the proposals including a two-year wage freeze. On March 31 the Front Commun concluded further negotiations would be a dead-end and began mobilizing for a strike.

ASSÉ newsletter now available in English

By Geoffrey Vendeville,
The Link, Concordia

One of Quebec’s largest and more militant student federations is reaching out to anglophones by publishing an English-language edition of its quarterly newspaper for the first time since fall 2010.

The Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante is releasing the English-language version of its newspaper, Ultimatum, in the next two weeks, said co-spokesperson Benjamin Gingras.

“There is a massive number of anglophone students who are as affected by questions of austerity, tuition fees and basically the whole student condition. The idea is to be inclusive and reach out to all students regardless of language,” he said.

“These are issues that go beyond the language barrier.”

All or nothing? The case for cross-Canada student unity.

Nora Loreto presents a hard-hitting commentary from the blog Rabble.ca about renewed claims of 16 CFS disaffiliations across Canada.  As has been said before, "Students have long rejected the parameters of Canada’s flawed Constitution, placing education as a provincial concern, and fought hard for a federal-level student movement... After smashing the CFS, what’s next? We would wake up with a horrible hangover and have to rebuild. At best, the defederation campaigns are an incredible waste of time and distraction; at worst they make all students, well beyond CFS members and including the Quebec’s student unions, incredibly vulnerable to the right’s agenda."  

Please note that not all the opinions expressed in this article are necessarily those of the Rebel Youth editorial board.

Approach with caution: CLASSE on upcoming education summit

Camille Robert speaks at a press conference

Montreal, 20 September 2012

Following the announcement of the cancelling of the tuition fee increase and the abrogation of the Law 12 (formerly Bill 78), the CLASSE (the Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante / Broad Coalition of the Association for Student Union Solidarity) wishes to salute the courage and determination of all those who were active over the last few months.

The organisation wishes, at the same time, to recall that this victory is not the end of the struggle, and that the student and popular mobilization must continue.

“If the Parti Québécois is passing today a series of measures which answer to our demands, it is because we have held to our principles, and have defended them with an approach that was combative, yet unifying,” said Camille Robert, co-spokesperson for the CLASSE. “In the future, our approach will win out over any regressive measure.” The CLASSE therefore notes that it remains opposed to any increase in tuition fees, including indexing to inflation. “Education is a public service, which must remain accessible; not a commodity, with a price that varies with the market,” said Jeanne Reynolds, co-spokesperson of the organisation.

In this sense, the CLASSE is approaching the upcoming summit on education with caution.  ”The PQ deputies are arguing for the indexing of tuition fees to inflation. Until the results of this summit emerge, the cancelling of the tuition hike is, in a way, a temporary victory. The improvements to the student aid system [of loans and bursaries] must also be maintained beyond the current academic year. It is for this reason that we will remain mobilized”, explained Mme Reynolds. Beyond a summit on the financing [of higher education], the CLASSE insists that there be held an “Estates-General” (Etats-Généraux) which will allow collective reflection on the mission of post-secondary education.

Finally, the CLASSE invites once again the population to join them in the streets of Montreal and Quebec on Saturday the 22 September. “We can be proud of what we have accomplished, but we must bear in mind that the battle for access to education does not end today. In this sense, we continue to defend the idea of free education as a project of society”, concluded Camille Robert.

For more information:
Ludvic Moquin-Beaudry, press attaché for the CLASSE:  514-835-2444
Email: communication@asse-solidarite.qc.ca
web: www.bloquonslahausse.com

Student struggles in Canada

Excerpt from the 25th Central Convention documents of the Young Communist League of Canada on the struggle of high school and post-secondary students.

The primary contradiction in the struggle for increased access to education is: corporations want a trained workforce but they will not pay for it through corporate taxes, forcing the people to pay for education through wages, savings and especially debt. The working people want accessible, emancipatory education.

This class perspective is often obscured. The struggle for access is presented as a simply universal fight against the government. Right-social democratic ideas in the student movement deliberately avoid class perspectives and misrepresent the state as neutral. Yet the state’s decisions are, generally, in line with the banks and businesses. And the single largest group of youth impeded and excluded from post-secondary are youth from the working-class majority.