BC Student Protest

[ArseCynic]

In BC, Canada, the liberal government has been cutting the funding for education for 8 years. They, along with the cons, have been privatizing the schools since I started intermediate elementary school. The teachers have gone through 3 strikes since I have been in school. The teachers in BC have 15% less pay than what all of the teachers in the other provinces get. The teachers have been deemed an "essential service" by the christy clark government and have lost the majority of their worker's rights. this year they have been on work to rule. they are trying to fight for more funding for textbooks and other essentials, smaller class sizes, less special needs kids per class, worker's rights, and higher pay(although they have given up on the pay and just use it for barganing purposes).

The Christy Clark government is currently trying to legistlate the teachers back to work, under this bill-22 called something like "Education improvement act". Starting tomorrow the teachers are goign on a full-fledged strike for 3 days.

on friday, over 1500 students, including myself, protested in sopport of our education and the teachers. oh course the media barely covered it, and when they did they tried to mask it as "students protest over the dispute" when really not even one of us where supporting the other side.

The majority of the students there were completely bourgeoisie and almostg all preps. I am extremely surprised at how many of them actually came, even though it was raining. How the heck do we transfer this spontaneous motivation from issues like this, that somewhat directly affect's them, to bigger issues on a larger scale?

PS. I'm in grade 11.

if this is in the wrong section please move it.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

As with any class it takes a long time of agitating, organizing and educating. You must continuously do this and continuously relate it to terms your peers understand.Eventually, after enough attacks,they will come to understand how the university does not work for them and that the only alternative is a radical alternative.

[blake 3:17]

@AC-- right on! Keep it up!

I was active as a student in the mass teachers strike in Ontario in the late 90s. The Ontario Liberals are trying to do the same thing here.

[ArseCynic]

@goddlessutopian, Actually It's not about university, I'm in highschool currently. Yea I've been trying, I've started an underground newspaper and a political awareness club.

[NewLeft]

Let's bring that energy over to Ontario.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

@goddlessutopian, Actually It's not about university, I'm in highschool currently. Yea I've been trying, I've started an underground newspaper and a political awareness club.

University, highschool I use them interchangeable. :p

Good to hear you have started campaigns. Why is your paper underground? Are the school authorities oppress and not allow student publications?

[blake 3:17]

Let's bring that energy over to Ontario.

Do it!!!

[ArseCynic]

University, highschool I use them interchangeable. :p

Good to hear you have started campaigns. Why is your paper underground? Are the school authorities oppress and not allow student publications?

Legally they can't do shit since we aren't doing anything wrong, but in reality its a horrible idea to allow our identities to be exposed. The school already has a school paper(prep run, ads, so on), and they would try to stop us. The admin have allodoxaphobia, and the fear of getting sued. They are always trying to find ways to stop the students from expressing their opinions.

sometimes its a little ridiculous, for example this week, there was a mass student walkout and protest to support the teachers and public education(the liberals are privatizing it). my grade 8 friend who is very active, was emailed by the vice principal about it and she said that it is unacceptable to encourage other students to leave the school to protest. of course he never even whent to the protest or was involved in it at all.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Legally they can't do shit since we aren't doing anything wrong, but in reality its a horrible idea to allow our identities to be exposed. The school already has a school paper(prep run, ads, so on), and they would try to stop us. The admin have allodoxaphobia, and the fear of getting sued. They are always trying to find ways to stop the students from expressing their opinions.

sometimes its a little ridiculous, for example this week, there was a mass student walkout and protest to support the teachers and public education(the liberals are privatizing it). my grade 8 friend who is very active, was emailed by the vice principal about it and she said that it is unacceptable to encourage other students to leave the school to protest. of course he never even whent to the protest or was involved in it at all.

Ah, build support before doing any actions than. Perhaps a political education club to soften up the propaganda shoved down their throats? Creating support for this club could be a mission for your paper.

[Parvati]

Cool to know from revolutionary students from the other side of the country. As I'm from Quebec, I'm now in Unlimited strike with 130 000 others students for now, but the state of mind is quite the same; a lot of bourgeois & petty-bourgeois elements, and a reformist political framework.

In Quebec, but now also in Ontario, we're trying to organize into a Revolutionary Student Movement. We've got some texts (more and more in english) if you're interested.

[La Guaneña]

How the heck do we transfer this spontaneous motivation from issues like this, that somewhat directly affect's them, to bigger issues on a larger scale?

PS. I'm in grade 11.


Ok, don't know if this is going to help, but this is coming from a student who just finished the equivalent of grade 11 in a brazilian federal school.

First of all, try to find another student organization in your country that you have full agreement with. Having you and your comrades at your school join an existing organization will give you a head start in things such as material, structure and experience.

Second, you will not mobilize half of the students in your school in a semester. What you have to do now is tiny "ant's work", by gathering a group of probably 5-10 students that you might find that are interested in student and worker struggles. A newspaper is something interesting, but from my experiences here it was just something very expensive and that not many people get the info on it.

The best way to spread info from what I saw here was by approaching students that I knew that had some involvement or that had demonstrated interest. Talk to people, ask if they have interest, try to break all of the bias(?) that this society put into them.

Students love to get angry at shit, and they love it even more when they get angry together, so be aware for the rank-and file, oportunist and other organizations that want to take advantage from that rage, and slowly build a steady structure.


PM me if you like.

[Parvati]

Here are two articles on the Student Movement in Quebec that we produce for our free bilingual communist Newspaper, the Partisan. Maybe it could inspire you, both for struggle and production of material.
-----------------
While this article was going to the press, the beginning of the general student strike in Québec was only a few hours away. Students at the Université du Québec à Montreal (studying humanities, arts, political science and law) were likely to initiate the movement, together with small departments at Université Laval and the Université de Montréal; they will be joined by the CEGEP de Valleyfield and Marie-Victorin next week.

Considering that the student mobilization is mainly related to the $1,625 rising of university tuition fees on the part of the Charest government (in addition to budget cuts in CEGEPs), the Revolutionary Student Movement (MER-PCR) calls for an expansion of the fight. If rising tuition is an attack against our rights and those of the proletarian youth, we cannot oppose it while accepting all other assaults stemming from capitalism, including increasing fees in the health care system, cuts in pensions and layoffs that continue to multiply. We simply cannot tolerate becoming poorer while the rich become richer!
It has become quite clear that we must organize against these various attacks. There is now the potential for struggle, a fact that expresses itself in the many people affected by the crisis of capitalism who are willing to fight —an incredibly positive development. Traditionally, however, defensive struggles against government attacks are waged in a disorganized manner: the students are fighting for their rights, workers are struggling on their part, community groups are defending others, etc. Sometimes this works, but we are often unable to win anything in this manner.

Getting organized is not enough. To do things properly —in a way that leads the proletariat to victory— we must organize using the necessary means to fight and win.

Some of us are fed up with the routine way of organizing, in which the most important objective appears to be “feeling good” about what we are doing. Let’s leave it to others to take care of their consciences! What interests us is to organize a militant response. This will allow us to fight against both arbitrary and artificial divisions within the working class, along with the different struggles that are waged: popular, labour, student, etc. The situation is clear: we have only one enemy —the capitalist system— and our response must be common and include not only students but all oppressed people. For that reason, we invite students to join the various committees and anti-capitalist meetings to be held during the strike.

Because for the Revolutionary Student Movement, anti-capitalism must be something more than speeches: it must develop as a real practice in the class struggle.

To get in touch with the Revolutionary Student Movement in Québec:www.mer-pcr.com



The announcement last March of an increase of $1,625 over five years in university tuition fees has generated a strong opposition among Québec students, which is likely to soon result in an indefinite general strike. Over the past year, students have participated in dozens of actions, including demonstrations, disruptive actions, a permanent camp outside the office of the Ministry of Education in Montréal and even the erection of a brick wall in front of the door of the Minister’s office. On 10 November, a huge demonstration of no less than 30,000 people took to the streets in Montréal as more than 200,000 students across the province went on strike for one day.


Of all the national student unions, it is the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (http://www.asse-solidarite.qc.ca/)“Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante” (ASSÉ) that pushes the most for a general strike against the Charest government. On December 3, the ASSÉ established a broader coalition (“la CLASSE” (http://www.bloquonslahausse.com/)), which includes seven non-affiliated local unions totalling over 60,000 students —a number that could quickly climb in the coming weeks. “La CLASSE” adopted ASSÉ’s main stance: for free education and a democratic, feminist and fighting student union. As for the other national student unions, they have positioned themselves against the raise of tuition fees and may support a general strike. In fact, the two main federations are calling for a day of “visibility actions” on January 31 and for a national demonstration on March 22, but it is still not clear whether they will call their local unions to go on strike.


Many are still distrusting, however, of the two national federations, because in the last strike in 2005 the federations’ leaders negotiated a cheap agreement with the government excluding the ASSÉ and without consulting the grassroots student population. To prevent the coming strike ending as in 2005, the ASSÉ succeeded in concluding an agreement with two of the three other national student unions stating that each of them will refuse to negotiate with the government without the presence of all student unions. But the “Fédération Étudiante Universitaire du Québec” refused to sign the agreement; so its leaders may try to repeat the 2005 betrayal.


At the time of this writing, five student unions representing approximately 6,850 students had voted for a general strike. Several general meetings will be held in the coming weeks. “La CLASSE” has already decided that the launching of a general strike will require the support of at least seven student unions representing 20,000 students or more on three different campuses.


The communist viewpoint
The main consequence of rising tuition fees will be to further limit access to university for the already marginalized youth. In this sense, the more tuition fees increase, the more the universities will become citadels of the bourgeoisie. Communists not only support the fight for free education, but they also demand an education serving the people, so that education ceases to be the transmission belt of the capitalist system and its inequalities.


Rising tuition fees is part of the logic of a system in crisis and part of the measures taken against the working class that the bourgeois governments are implementing all over the world. This is why the fight against tuition fees rising must expand and generate a broader movement against any fee increase in all public services. Ultimately, the movement must go from student to class struggle, in a way that the whole system will be challenged.
Right now we must fight for the student strike to be massive and combative. We need not be afraid to make strong demands and wage strong actions. Also, we need not be shy to expose the student leaders who will try to negotiate a unrepresentative agreement with the government.



As a comrade from the Revolutionary Student Movement (http://www.mer-pcr.com/) (MER-PCR) told the Partisan: “We must take part in the strike with the objective of making radical ruptures with bourgeois society and organizing militant actions that will go beyond symbolic ones. We must refuse to limit the struggle on the terrain of public opinion and instead seek direct confrontation with the capitalist state.”

[La Guaneña]

Here are two articles on the Student Movement in Quebec that we produce for our free bilingual communist Newspaper, the Partisan. Maybe it could inspire you, both for struggle and production of material.
-----------------
While this article was going to the press, the beginning of the general student strike in Québec was only a few hours away. Students at the Université du Québec à Montreal (studying humanities, arts, political science and law) were likely to initiate the movement, together with small departments at Université Laval and the Université de Montréal; they will be joined by the CEGEP de Valleyfield and Marie-Victorin next week.

Considering that the student mobilization is mainly related to the $1,625 rising of university tuition fees on the part of the Charest government (in addition to budget cuts in CEGEPs), the Revolutionary Student Movement (MER-PCR) calls for an expansion of the fight. If rising tuition is an attack against our rights and those of the proletarian youth, we cannot oppose it while accepting all other assaults stemming from capitalism, including increasing fees in the health care system, cuts in pensions and layoffs that continue to multiply. We simply cannot tolerate becoming poorer while the rich become richer!
It has become quite clear that we must organize against these various attacks. There is now the potential for struggle, a fact that expresses itself in the many people affected by the crisis of capitalism who are willing to fight —an incredibly positive development. Traditionally, however, defensive struggles against government attacks are waged in a disorganized manner: the students are fighting for their rights, workers are struggling on their part, community groups are defending others, etc. Sometimes this works, but we are often unable to win anything in this manner.

Getting organized is not enough. To do things properly —in a way that leads the proletariat to victory— we must organize using the necessary means to fight and win.

Some of us are fed up with the routine way of organizing, in which the most important objective appears to be “feeling good” about what we are doing. Let’s leave it to others to take care of their consciences! What interests us is to organize a militant response. This will allow us to fight against both arbitrary and artificial divisions within the working class, along with the different struggles that are waged: popular, labour, student, etc. The situation is clear: we have only one enemy —the capitalist system— and our response must be common and include not only students but all oppressed people. For that reason, we invite students to join the various committees and anti-capitalist meetings to be held during the strike.

Because for the Revolutionary Student Movement, anti-capitalism must be something more than speeches: it must develop as a real practice in the class struggle.

To get in touch with the Revolutionary Student Movement in Québec:www.mer-pcr.com



The announcement last March of an increase of $1,625 over five years in university tuition fees has generated a strong opposition among Québec students, which is likely to soon result in an indefinite general strike. Over the past year, students have participated in dozens of actions, including demonstrations, disruptive actions, a permanent camp outside the office of the Ministry of Education in Montréal and even the erection of a brick wall in front of the door of the Minister’s office. On 10 November, a huge demonstration of no less than 30,000 people took to the streets in Montréal as more than 200,000 students across the province went on strike for one day.


Of all the national student unions, it is the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (http://www.asse-solidarite.qc.ca/)“Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante” (ASSÉ) that pushes the most for a general strike against the Charest government. On December 3, the ASSÉ established a broader coalition (“la CLASSE” (http://www.bloquonslahausse.com/)), which includes seven non-affiliated local unions totalling over 60,000 students —a number that could quickly climb in the coming weeks. “La CLASSE” adopted ASSÉ’s main stance: for free education and a democratic, feminist and fighting student union. As for the other national student unions, they have positioned themselves against the raise of tuition fees and may support a general strike. In fact, the two main federations are calling for a day of “visibility actions” on January 31 and for a national demonstration on March 22, but it is still not clear whether they will call their local unions to go on strike.


Many are still distrusting, however, of the two national federations, because in the last strike in 2005 the federations’ leaders negotiated a cheap agreement with the government excluding the ASSÉ and without consulting the grassroots student population. To prevent the coming strike ending as in 2005, the ASSÉ succeeded in concluding an agreement with two of the three other national student unions stating that each of them will refuse to negotiate with the government without the presence of all student unions. But the “Fédération Étudiante Universitaire du Québec” refused to sign the agreement; so its leaders may try to repeat the 2005 betrayal.


At the time of this writing, five student unions representing approximately 6,850 students had voted for a general strike. Several general meetings will be held in the coming weeks. “La CLASSE” has already decided that the launching of a general strike will require the support of at least seven student unions representing 20,000 students or more on three different campuses.


The communist viewpoint
The main consequence of rising tuition fees will be to further limit access to university for the already marginalized youth. In this sense, the more tuition fees increase, the more the universities will become citadels of the bourgeoisie. Communists not only support the fight for free education, but they also demand an education serving the people, so that education ceases to be the transmission belt of the capitalist system and its inequalities.


Rising tuition fees is part of the logic of a system in crisis and part of the measures taken against the working class that the bourgeois governments are implementing all over the world. This is why the fight against tuition fees rising must expand and generate a broader movement against any fee increase in all public services. Ultimately, the movement must go from student to class struggle, in a way that the whole system will be challenged.
Right now we must fight for the student strike to be massive and combative. We need not be afraid to make strong demands and wage strong actions. Also, we need not be shy to expose the student leaders who will try to negotiate a unrepresentative agreement with the government.



As a comrade from the Revolutionary Student Movement (http://www.mer-pcr.com/) (MER-PCR) told the Partisan: “We must take part in the strike with the objective of making radical ruptures with bourgeois society and organizing militant actions that will go beyond symbolic ones. We must refuse to limit the struggle on the terrain of public opinion and instead seek direct confrontation with the capitalist state.”


I will try to incorporate something about the struggle in North America in the debates and publications that will happen in the next month down here.

Thank you for the material, and feel free to send me more. I will work on translating and publishing some of our own here sometime.

[La Guaneña]

My girlfriend is currently righting in her organization's newspaper about the privatations happening here in Brazil, and I showed her what is happening in Canada. She said that she will mention the struggle in her text and that she will also add an international solidarity note. It's not huge but helping news get around is never bad.

Good luck in your struggle comrades, and keep on sending us updates!

[ArseCynic]

My girlfriend is currently righting in her organization's newspaper about the privatations happening here in Brazil, and I showed her what is happening in Canada. She said that she will mention the struggle in her text and that she will also add an international solidarity note. It's not huge but helping news get around is never bad.

Good luck in your struggle comrades, and keep on sending us updates!

Oh thank you very much! does this paper have a site or a name? I would like to share this with some of my classmates.

[La Guaneña]

Oh thank you very much! does this paper have a site or a name? I would like to share this with some of my classmates.

This is the organization's website: http://jcabrasil.blogspot.com.br/

The paper will probably come out in one or two weeks, and I will post a translated copy of whatever comes out.

I told her I would help with a little paragraph talking about what the student movements are like in Canada currently, so are there any other organizations other than MER? Are the demands still bourgeois?