06)
PV Montreal Bureau
Québec
students are campaigning against the Charest Liberal government's 75% tuition
fee hikes. Successful actions have been building across the province, and a
major student strike on the national‑level is expected this March,
shutting down campuses in all big cities and regions of Québec.
Strike votes
will be take place in early February. Full‑time student tuition in Québec
is increasing by over $1600, in addition to extra fees charged on campus.
Since
September students have been holding a series of escalating actions, building
pressure against the government. Some campuses saw students staging "paper
storms" after paying tuition, as thousands of bills were thrown from
campus balconies like confetti. Students also built a brick wall overnight in front
of the minister of education's office door, highlighting blocked access to
education.
The most
significant protest was a demonstration of over 30,000 in the streets of
The demo was
the first united student march since 2005 when Québec students rallied with the
labour movement for several weeks, shutting down high
schools, colleges and universities, as well as the port of Montreal, in the
largest education mobilization in Canadian history. That protest halted large
fee increases until now, although it also created controversy, when one block
of student unions broke unity to negotiate a compromise deal without consulting
the broader movement.
In Québec,
student unions hold campus‑wide general assemblies several times a year
to decide important strategic and policy questions. Student unions are
affiliated into three major groups ‑ the left‑wing Association pour
une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ), and
the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) and Fédération
étudiante collégiale du
Québec (FECQ). There is also a much looser organized TASQ and a large number of
unaffiliated or independent student unions.
"Students are angry and optimistic," Marianne Breton Fontaine, leader
of the Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Québec, told People's Voice. Breton Fontaine pointed to a November all‑student
union meeting which agreed on a basis of unity around accessible education, and
also a new coalition uniting ASSÉ with seven other student unions.
"Already
some campuses have voted yes, but the FEUQ appears to be working on its own
strategy, electing the nationalist Parti
Quebecois," Breton Fontaine said.
"In the
electoral struggle is it is not the PQ but Quebec solidaire
that is closest to the demands of the students, but at any rate this question
will mainly be decided on the streets," she said, pointing to the
"Red Hand" coalition (labour, housing and
other social activists, as well as many students) which is calling for a
political strike in defence of public services, free
health care and education, and progressive taxation. "Connecting as many
people as possible, linking students' demands with broader social-economic
issues ‑ like the austerity budget and economic crisis ‑ this is
the way forward," she concluded.
(The above
article is from the February 1-14, 2012, issue of People's