Why the Student Movement Must Evolve

Last Sunday, I went to Parc Lafontaine to observe the latest Quebec student protest along with several other scholars.  With the PQ government having already promised to quash the tuition increases, this rally attracted the most committed activists, those who are pushing for an end to tuition and who are nervous about the direction of the approaching summit on higher education.

When I returned home from this comparatively small march, I started thinking further about where the movement is going to go next.  I then came across an op-ed in the Toronto Star written by leaders of the more ‘radical’ of the student groups, CLASSE, who had organized and led the day's march.  

I decided to submit the following letter to the editor of the Star:

CLASSE is right to pause and recognize the victories of the Québec student movement ( Québec Student’s Hail Their Movement’s Victories).  That hundreds of thousands of citizens mobilized to protest peacefully for change, taking to the streets for months, should inspire people on both sides of the solitude regardless of where one falls on the tuition issue itself.

But if the student movement has truly shown there are no limits to the “politically possible,“ and that the “dogmas of the rich and powerful” can be overcome by broad citizen engagement, then the movement must now begin to look beyond the singular issue of access to education.

The student movement was always on its strongest footing when it linked its fight for access to education to the broader fight against growing corporate power and the perverted spending priorities of government.  It was less compelling when the salaries of University administrators and researchers were its principle focus and target.

To its credit, CLASSE’s manifesto challenged head on the narrow economic way of thinking guiding neo-liberal policy.  The Manifesto decries the privatization of public services and the increase in corporate wealth at the expense of average citizens. It speaks out against spiraling environmental degradation at the hands of industry and the persistence of ethnic, gender and other forms of systemic discrimination.

Where the Occupy movement could muster several thousand to city streets, the Québec student movement brought hundreds of thousands together listen to student leaders describe a system they see as stacked in favor of the few.

But while its one thing for student leaders to have spoken to other issues and struggles, its another entirely to mobilize action around those issues. 

It is important to consider why so many people took to the streets of Montreal: was it because the tuition increase affected their bottom line? Or was there something more to the movement, a broader dissatisfaction with the status quo and a will to fight for broader societal change?

Whatever the answer to these questions, the student movement has an opportunity to use its momentum to channel the energy and awareness already built during the spring towards taking action on other causes.  Its not hard to imagine the message that would be sent to those in power, whether in Québec city or Ottawa, if 100, 000 people were marching in the streets, month after month, to demand increases in corporate taxation, or to oppose the Northern Gateway pipeline and call for stricter environmental regulations.

In Québec, that will mean some tough choices for student leaders many of whom are sovereigntists and have an affinity with the ruling péquistes.  It means CLASSE must speak out, and loudly, when the government betrays progressive principles; when it drifts into worrisome flurries of ethnic nationalism, or excludes First Nations from a fare say in the development of the North for example.

The student movement can certainly pause to reflect on and acknowledge its achievement.  But it would be foolish not to link its fight to broader social struggles that are even more pressing. For progressives across the country there lies the hope the movement in Québec might lead to something much bigger, something that can undermine the dominance of neo-liberal thinking in our provincial and federal capitals alike.