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.

Thatcher's legacy

By Tristan Dineen and Johan Boyden

Rarely has class conflict been made so blatantly obvious.  Gathered under the vast dome of St Paul’s Cathedral and ringed by legions of police and military personnel, the royalty, robber barons, presidents, oligarchs, bankers, tycoons, war criminals, celebrities and aristocrats of the global capitalist class assembled in grand style to bid farewell to their champion: a woman who had dedicated her life to defending and expanding the profits and privileges of the few -- at the expense of the many.

But mere blocks away from where former British PM Margaret Thatcher lay in state masses of working class people gathered to basically celebrate the death of a woman who had brought them nothing but misery, impoverishment, heartless spending cuts, privatization of public services, foreign wars, union busting, regressive taxes, police crackdowns, and a reactionary legacy that keeps on killing, and uprooting.

Thatcher's trail of destruction is relevant for young people in Canada, to understand an important part of the global story of how gains of past struggle, and prospects for our future, were destroyed.

What went wrong?

Political parties and student struggle

Jean Chrétien, Liberal Prime Minister
of Canada from 1993-2003 

Commentary
By Rebel Youth

Other articles and series on this theme: the student fight back and struggle today; our coverage of the Quebec Student Strike; Students of Canada Rise Up; YCLer Marianne Breton Fontaine speaks on Student Solidarity tour; Call to 2013 YCL student conference.

Can elections be used as markers in time and struggle? Perhaps only with the full knowledge that, as Marxists understand, history is not made by the comings and goings of bourgeois political parties in polite rotation through their bourgeois parliaments, like so many characters in a Swiss Cuckoo Clock -- but by the struggles of the masses.

Still, the Canadian federal election in October 1993 is significant moment to tag. The outcome shaped the terrain of struggle of the youth and student movement in many new ways. The unpopular Conservative government (formerly led by Brian Mulroney) was swept out of office in crushing defeat -- reduced from 156 seats to just two, it lost official party status. The landslide victory of Jean Chretien's Liberals began thirteen years of that party's rule.

Swept to office on somewhat vague promises of change and anti-Free Trade sentiment, the Liberal's quickly dropped their proposals like renegotiating NAFTA and made their true colours clear to all by shifting attention towards balancing the budget -- ie. paying back the big capitalist creditors. Still in their honeymoon period, the Liberal's announced that all of Canada's social programs would be reviewed with sweeping and significant changes likely to come. Cut backs would be deep.

Call-out to the second-annual YCL-LJC student conference

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Open only to members of the YCL-LJC or by invitation

1. We believe in the principle that the student movement is one of the most radical, dynamic and progressive forces for change in society and the future.

2. The uprisings of students in the Middle East and North Africa, the brave united battles of the Chilean students, and the massive struggle in Quebec last winter and spring have shown the validity of the optimistic claim that the young people, united with the working class, are continuously an important catalytic force for social transformation, overthrow and revolution.

3. At the same time, new, contradictory and even confusing developments are taking place internationally and locally. We believe that the student movements in Quebec and English-speaking Canada are at a difficult but significant and even historic juncture.  At stake is our basic access to education.

Tory youth stoop to new low

Special by Rebel Youth

The Campus Conservatives of Ontario have sunk to a new low.

On their website the Tories have launched a provocative graphic featuring an ape with the sign -- "Silly Tories, everything should be for free!" (a message from the Left).

Update: the Tory youth have dropped this graphic after our article exposed their shallow ad campaign.

This is, of course, mockery and provocation posing as satire. But it also has a nasty edge.

Tory youth leader resigns over racism

Report from Sun News

Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative party says its youth president has resigned following racist comments he made on social media on Friday.

Braydon Mazurkiewich expressed disappointment on his Facebook page in regards to the Kapyong Barracks land deal that would see the former military base turned into an urban reserve.

“I wouldn’t want to live anywhere near there!,” Mazurkiewich wrote of the southwest Winnipeg property.

The 24-year-old went on to say the space was “built for hardworking men and women of the military, not freeloading Indians.”

The party condemned the comments and asked for Mazurkiewich’s resignation.

“As PC Manitoba Party President I have asked Brayden Mazurkiewich for his resignation and received it,” party president Ryan Matthews said in a statement late this afternoon.

Matthews called the comments “conduct detrimental to our party.”

Mazurkiewich had served as the party’s youth president since February 2012.

Against Misogyny and CAFE, for Full Equality!

Statement of the YCL-LJC Central Executive Committee
November 2012

The Young Communist League of Canada calls on all democratic-minded youth and students to redouble theirefforts to defend and extend women’s rights for full equality and expose the misogynistic “Canadian Association for Equality” (CAFE).

We call for an end to their anti-women campaign of disinformation, lies and even hate promoted through so-called “Men’s Awareness” groups.

The claim of these groups is that men and boys are facing equity issues due to ‘misandry’. In fact, the main danger young men face is not at all from pro-women policies and feminists – which help young men – it is from big business and the Harper Conservatives, whose capitalist system has created mass unemployment, rising tuition fees, environmental crisis and poverty -- while spending billions on wars and corporate tax cuts.

Quebec Law 78 is a dangerous club to beat the people!

Hundreds of thousand of demonstrators 

march in the streets of Montreal on May

22, defying  law 78 in what is being called 

the largest civil disobedience action in 

Canadian history

The adoption of Bill 78, May 18, 2012 by the corrupt and reactionary government of Jean Charest (with the support of the ultra‑right party, Coalition Avenir Québec or CAQ), will go down in Canada and Quebec`s history as one of the most serious attacks against civil liberties, fundamental rights and democracy in general.

The attack in Quebec on freedom of speech, assembly, and the right to organize threatens the people across Canada.

We call on labour, students, popular movements and all democratic‑minded people of Quebec and English‑speaking Canada to unite and fight for the preservation of our democratic rights and against Bill 78. A unified and coordinated resistance is the only effective way for the people of Quebec to repeal the Act and to make a break from the policies of austerity,privatization and higher fees. We call to intensify mobilization efforts to organize a general strike in Quebec.

Student actions a step ahead, but not enough

by Johan Boyden

The Feb. 1 cross‑Canada day of action by the Canadian Federation of Students was an important step towards the kind of broad, united fight for accessible education that is urgently needed right now.

Students are facing a powerful opponent - the agenda of big business. That means higher and higher tuition fees. Heavier student debt. Increased privatization. The corporate engines seem to be running on nitrous with the economic crisis these days.

If we agree on that, then the February 1st demonstrations should act as a wake‑up call for students in English‑speaking Canada, not just because of the scale of the protests. Crowds of a few thousand marched in several cities - below potential, but a good start. What was lacking was a clear, militant action plan to return to the streets, draw in a much stronger range of forces, and keep up the pressure.

YCL CEC on Election and Youth

Struggle and resistance 

is the way forward!

The results of the 2011 Federal election are a call to action for the youth and student movement. It is time to pick up our picket signs and banners for major mobilization against the extremely dangerous Harper Conservative majority government.

The Conservatives have no mandate from the young people, nor from the people in general, to accelerate their pro-capitalist, anti-peace, anti-environment agenda – and this must not pass! In confronting our emergency situation, young people should take heart in the fact that Harper won the support of less than 25% of registered voters.

The election has also shown how flawed the Canadian voting system is. The situation calls out for mixed-member proportional representation. 

Struggle shifts to outside parliament

Commentary by the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada

The May 2nd federal election gave Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party an absolute majority in the new Parliament. But to do it they had to hide their real agenda, and spend millions in payoffs and promises they may never deliver. They haven’t convinced a majority of Canadians to privatize medicare and social programs, and they haven’t sold Canadians on their sky-high military spending, the wars in Afghanistan and Libya, or their war on civil, democratic and labour rights. The outcome did not reflect a political swing to the right among voters, and Harper has no real mandate to impose his reactionary agenda on the working class and the peoples of Canada.

In fact, the Conservatives garnered less than 40% of votes cast, and only 24.3% support among all registered voters. There was no seismic shift to the Conservatives; rather, the Tory majority came about primarily due to vote-splitting between the Liberals and the social democratic NDP in key ridings, especially in Southern Ontario and British Columbia.

ON MAY 2: DUMP THE HARPER TORIES AND BLOCK THE RIGHT!

From People's Voice.

A message for the 2011 federal election from the Communist Party of Canada

This federal election will be crucial for our country, and the stakes have rarely been so high. If the Harper Conservatives manage to secure a majority in the next Parliament, it will have catastrophic consequences for working people, for Aboriginal peoples, for women, youth and students, pensioners, new immigrants and racialized communities. Canadians need to defeat this Tory government and end the ruinous, pro‑corporate policies it has inflicted ‑ a critical first step in taking our country in a new, peaceful, democratic, sovereign and socially progressive direction.

Kenney spars with protesters, thanks communists

September 01, 2010
Reprinted from the Guelph Mercury

Jason Kenney gave as good as he got Tuesday during a visit to Guelph.

The federal Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism got a glimpse of Guelph political activism as he attended the Guelph Conservative Party’s annual summer barbecue in Riverside Park.

About 100 turned out to meet and hear Kenney, whose recent changes to rules governing foreign workers and funding for immigration services have sparked much discussion in the media.

A coalition of about 30 protesters occupied a picnic area about the length of a soccer pitch away from the Conservative event, but the pitch of their voices over a megaphone was shrill and loud enough to clash with Kenney and Guelph Conservative Party federal candidate Marty Burke during their remarks.

Jason Kenney not welcome in Guelph!

Statement by the YCL Ontario

This Tuesday, August 31^st, Guelph Conservatives welcome federal Citizenship and Immigration (Censorship and Deportation) minister Jason Kenney. Mr. Kenney is coming as a special guest to a BBQ hosted by the Guelph Conservative Party, along with their candidate for the next federal election. But he isn’t just here to enjoy the food, the company, the summer weather – or even the beautiful scenery at Riverside Park. Mr. Kenney is here on a mission: to portray the Harper government’s immigration program as being about creating a welcoming, multicultural Canada for immigrants from all over the world by playing on the popular sentiments of Canadians who genuinely hope that this is the case.

First Nations Students Live In University

Protest funding cuts that will lead to school's death

by GARSON HUNTER - reprinted from The Dominion

Suggestive of an eagle in flight, the First Nations University of Canada building was designed by architect Douglas Cardinal, whose work reflects his Metis and Blackfoot heritage. The building officially opened in 2003. The property is located within Wascana Centre Authority and owned by First Nations University of Canada Inc. Under its Saskatchewan Treaty Land Entitlement Agreement with the federal and provincial governments, Star Blanket Cree Nation is seeking reserve status for the 32.5 acres of land. The main campus is in Regina, located within the Treaty Four area, on Cree-Saulteaux land. There are also FNUC campuses in Saskatoon and Prince Albert.

Struggles ahead for Ontario youth

By Drew Garvie, for Rebel Youth. Photo: Drew gets spotted on a right-wing blog.

March 15 2010

Members of the newly expanded provincial committee, comrades,

The outgoing provincial executive wishes to welcome you to the committee at a time when there is an urgent need for a strong and dedicated leadership in the province of Ontario. We are confident that the incoming members of the committee will provide this. We would also like to thank Jeff T. and Shone B. for their work on this committee. Jeff who has been on the committee since 2008 and Shone who has been on the committee since 2004. We will continue to build on these comrades’ past hard work.

This meeting is being convened at a time when our class and the youth are being attacked and our rights and past gains rolled back, not least here in Ontario. While the recent economic crisis has led many young people to understand that capitalism is not a humane, sustainable or realistic long-term economic system, the ruling class has attempted to use the crisis to their advantage. In the initial stages of the economic crisis they denied its existence. Now they say we’re on the road to recovery, but contradicting themselves they also say it is time for the state to tighten its belt and reduce essential and already inadequate social spending. The hypocrisy of the "jobless recovery” combined with their insistence that the working-class must bear the burden is what young workers and students in Ontario must immediately fight, in our workplaces, on our campuses and in our communities.

RY Interviews David Jacks Part 1

This is part one of a very extensive interview done last September by Rebel Youth Magazine.

We are posting it here on the blog to supplement the print edition's publication of RY's interview with a spokesperson for ASSE, a student union federation in the nation of Quebec.

Note that the grammar is not up to par. This is due to trying to keep the transcription as close as possible to the audio recording.

We entered the Lo Pub. It was dimly lit and not too many patrons were in it at that hour. Seemed cozy enough. Some rock and top 40 music played in the background. We ordered a round of draft beer and sat in the corner. “Help yourself to some cheese bread” David Jacks says. All I had brought with me was a red Lloyds tape recorder, masking tape holding the batteries in. I'll point out now that for a man who is smiling and cheerful every time I see him, a columnist at the Winnipeg Sun has labeled him “Mr. Grumpy Pants” last autumn. WTF is up with that !?

Student movement in English-speaking Canada faces pressure from the organized right-wing

Rebel Youth report

Debates around the future of the Canadian Federation of Students, English-speaking Canada's largest student organization, came to a head at its semi-Annual General Meeting last month. Held Nov. 24-28 in Ottawa, the AGM was attended by over 300 delegates from about eighty student union locals.

The meeting took place in the context of thirteen organized defederation campaigns at colleges and universities affiliated with CFS campuses this semester.

"These moves are been vocally supported by the Conservative Party," B.C. delegate Zach Crispin told People's Voice. Crispin pointed to a series of cross-Canada workshops bringing together Conservative youth and attended by sitting Members of Parliament, previously reported in PV last spring.

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.

Web reviews-highlights

the web and blogosphere highlights column

RADIO

WFMU' beware of the Blog is a highly entertaining blog in terms of music and what odd things it can dig up .

The following two links are highly educational in WWII history, swing music and propaganda: