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:
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.
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