Help me radicalize a student action

[Minima]

Help me radicalise a student action in Vancouver

Ok so I ask the question how we can radicalise the two disparate issues in higher education of "exploited" contract teaching labour in the form of ta's and "contract lecturers" and tuition hikes and student loans.

I am generously given the response that we can only even combine the two through a greater framework of anti-privatization and anti-neoliberalism. that TA's getting paid more and students paying less are not intuitively compatible for the average student, who only see (and we only present) the issue from a singular standpoint.

So alot of talk talk which is nice and then someone brings up the fact that we actually have to organize this event, so we scramble and we come up with routes, hamfisted ideas for the name of the event, ideas for postering, slogans etc.

So it stands now that materially we are demanding a reversal of the tuition hikes, and more pay for TA's along with some vague platitudes about how education is a right, and that we should stand up to "defend our education"
An entire rally will be marshalled on those premises. we're showing our solidarity with Montreal students protesting tuition hikes,

I cannot come up with a creative way or an argument to somehow again politicize what has become again a kind of mishmash of "diverse" voices, all coming together to ask for more money from a (majority conservative) government. I ask them provocatively if they want to join the NDP (Social democrats) and they're like hell no, i'm like good, then what is your problem with trying to articulate some kind of logic outside the framework of electoral politics? beyond this kind of self interested single issue politics?

do we seriously expect most people to come to the conclusion that neoliberalism is bad for education and their livelihoods in general, just by presenting them a banner that says education is a right, when our concrete demands are to lower student fees and to raise the wage of tas? I don't know what I'm missing, as these are mostly reasonable intelligent people, i don't know what kind of provocation is necessary, They obviously agree with my logic but they are hesitating on some kind of strategic concern, and I don't want to point of process them to death, or simply walk away.

1.) Can anyone offer advice, or articulate some kind of political vision for students fighting simultaneously for more accessible education and full communism/anti-liberalism? Someone was pushing for a pamphlet to distribute and I think that would be a better medium to try and hash out these ideas.

[daft punk]

The NDP is gonna confuse you for a start, as they mix left wing policies with some that are not very left wing at all. They are not a workers party. You have to politicise everything. Put the cuts in the context of the 2008 crash, the recession, the bailouts for the rich etc. Yes you need a pamphlet, posters etc. Keep up the good work.

see the stuff here (http://www.socialistworld.net/view/47)

[Parvati]

As I understand, you're from Canada, just like me. For myself, I'm part of the Revolutionary Student Movement, related to the PCR-RCP Canada, and we produce some analysis and articles on the issues that interested you. Here I put some short articles from the Partisan Newspaper, but I also have a 20 pages document called Student Movement : Issues and Perspectives, that I can easily send to you by e-mail.


QUEBEC:
200,000 Students on Strike!
Partisan #19 • March 22, 2012
http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/imagecache/Article/18%20mars%202012%20075.JPG (http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/18%20mars%202012%20075.JPG)
At the time of this writing, more than 200,000 students were on strike to protest university tuition fee increases. Meanwhile, the biggest demonstration yet is set for Thursday, a nod to the March 22 occupation at the University of Nanterre, which marked the beginning of the revolutionary spring of 1968 in France.
Launched in mid-February by “la CLASSE” (a coalition of local student unions led by the more militant national student union, “l’ASSÉ”), the student strike expanded and even rallied student unions from the largest federations, who are generally subservient to the state apparatus. Hundreds of actions have taken place all across the province; students have faced a vicious repression by the police, but the movement has not wavered. On March 18, more than 30,000 people took part in demonstrations in Quebec City, Alma, Sherbrooke and Montreal, showing a strong popular support to the strike.
Students also discovered the extent of the political and ideological arsenal of the state. The assholes raging in the bourgeois media engaged in a systematic campaign of denigration of the student movement. The editor-in-chief of “La Presse” newspaper, André Pratte, especially made a fool of himself by writing that the movement is that of “a tiny minority” (sic). The government did not hesitate to create “student groups” that support tuition raises in an attempt to undermine the movement’s legitimacy.
Government supporters have tried to divert the public debate on access to education by focusing on the “troubles” made by “agitators” and trying to present the majority of students as “privileged”, who allow themselves to be financially supported by the “taxpayers” —as if they were not taxpayers themselves. But neither brute repression nor reactionary propaganda have succeeded in stopping the movement.
It may be tempting for some to think that the issue of the battle will happen as soon as “a majority” in favor of the student movement will appear in opinion polls. But in fact, things never happen this way.
The student movement can only prevail if it succeeds in establishing itself as the dominant pole in the current balance of power against the State. This requires students to continue and expand the strike. The movement needs more actions and “disorders” that disturb business as usual. It has to turn towards the working class and the broad masses. It must mobilize the proletarian youth, including high school students, who are now beginning to take the streets.
The fight against rising university tuition fees is a struggle for people’s right to education. In the capitalist system we live in, education serves to reproduce the division of society into classes. This is done first by forcing capitalist values and ideologies in all levels of the curriculum but class- and race-based selection is also an important factor for preventing access to higher education for the proletarian youth. Defending people’s right to education requires that we oppose this kind of selection.
The student movement is obviously not a homogeneous movement: it is a multi-class one, crossed by various currents and interests. After five weeks of strike and backed by the unanimous support of the big bourgeoisie, the Charest government has not backed down. In due course, the government knows it can rely on these divisions and on those privileged sectors of the student movement that are in search of “credibility” in the eyes of the ruling class.
The victory of the student strike will depend on the capacity of the most militant sectors among the student movement —those who identify themselves with the interests of the popular masses— to keep the initiative and make the bourgeoisie and its state apparatus pay the high price!
Students who support this perspective should immediately contact and organize with the comrades of the Revolutionary Student Movement (MER-PCR) (http://www.mer-pcr.com/).




Québec Student Movement: Fight to Win!
Partisan #16 • January 27, 2012

http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/imagecache/Article/1_1436514739_af2ffee0db_o.jpg (http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/1_1436514739_af2ffee0db_o.jpg)
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.”

[blake 3:17]

When I was active in the student movement, my fellow radicals tried to push a few things. A major demand was for freezing tuition. I thought the demand should be the abolition of tuition fees, either in their entirety or to a miniscule portion of what they. I don`t think $50 or a $100 is unreasonable.

I`d push for education, employment, housing and medical care as social rights.


when our concrete demands are to lower student fees and to raise the wage of tas?

I`m with you on this one. Of course I support both.

There are various demands which radical students can make (eg. Canada out of NATO) which or may not get a mass hearing. What about challenging rules around housing, social assistance and EI? What about free part time evening classes for working people?

Quebec is often held up as having the best child care system in North America, but has many flaws. Is there a way to get students to push for a more just system?

I don`t know enough about Quebec`s education system or other social programs, to suggest precise demands. Where`s Quebec Solidaire on the student strike?

[Minima]

ideas for slogans, chants would be appreciated =)

@Blake i don't know enough about quebec to answer you either, i'm currently in vancouver. I think those things are kind of formal concerns that are already being addressed by other activists and my goal is to kind of inject some kind of larger political vision so we aren't just a bunch of students asking for money. Where are you from?

@sounds good parvati can you pm me?

[TheGodlessUtopian]

ideas for slogans, chants would be appreciated =)


"The students united, will never be divided." I always liked.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

ideas for slogans, chants would be appreciated =)

'Education for the masses,
not the rich and ruling classes!'

'No ifs, no buts,
no education cuts!'

^Those are two classics from my student demos. It'd be great if you could have a French equivalent as well.

Equate the cuts to breaking a child's legs (reducing the quality of his education with teacher's salaries as they are) and then expecting the child to pay for the healthcare (increasing the tuition fees).

[Minima]

I recently came across this passage in monsieur dupont which i thought was particularly poignant.



None of that is difficult, it is to be expected. We are also perfectly capable
of theorising the continued breaking off of revolutionary groups into
alliances with reformist initiatives; we all have our personal lines in the
sand, we are all passionate beings, we are all likely to be goaded into futile
action every once in a while by some perceived urgency. With every
bit of this we are at ease, it is within the bounds of our comprehension
and requires only a steadying influence. But that is not all. What has surprised
us, and what we always run into as a concomitant to capitalism’s
appearance in society as distractive and, ultimately, nullifying noise is,
the failing silent of pro-revolutionaries when faced with the particularly
vibrant and rebellious manifestations of reformism. In a reversal of the
negotiative conventions of diplomacy, pro-revolutionary theory loses
its critique precisely at the point the state becomes most conciliatory,
thereby losing everything in the rush to secure real gains. It is most
prone to capitulation when the state is most willing to negotiate. Prorevolutionaries are most gullible when the state is most plausible, they
fumble their critique at the moment it ought to be pushed to its fullest
limit. It is not coincidence that these periodic re-territorialisations of
apparently revolutionary positions by the state, this calling in of dogs allowed
to roam wild, under the pretence of exigent political reform, occur
in moments most likely to go objectively into a revolutionary situation.
Personalist, or identity, politics is one such roaming dog. It strutted like
a sheep killer but really it was on a long lead.


the "perceived urgency" in our case was the idea that we somehow had to capitalize on the momentum of the Quebec student protests. i didn't think there was any point in staging another rally which would only further exhaust the energy of an already (perpetually) exhausted group of activists who are inevitably the majority of all of these types of events in vancouver. however opposing the rally would only have made me look like a total douchebag and wouldn't have done my ideas any service...

[Minima]

@giant monkey man -
Equate the cuts to breaking a child's legs (reducing the quality of his education with teacher's salaries as they are) and then expecting the child to pay for the healthcare (increasing the tuition fees).

I feel like that line tries to appeal to liberals, and it's the kind of argument that avoids any substantive criticism of the problems that wage cuts and tuition increases are only a minor part of. strategically it doesn't make sense in a country with a conservative government and a social democrat opposition that has miles to climb even to form a government and turn back the changes wrought by 8 years of privatization, budget cuts, anti-science policies like shutting down institutes that do atmospheric research on climate change, etc and going after charities. real damage that has to be undone. I don't think appealing to liberalism is going to get us anywhere.....

[GiantMonkeyMan]

I feel like that line tries to appeal to liberals, and it's the kind of argument that avoids any substantive criticism of the problems that wage cuts and tuition increases are only a minor part of. strategically it doesn't make sense in a country with a conservative government and a social democrat opposition that has miles to climb even to form a government and turn back the changes wrought by 8 years of privatization, budget cuts, anti-science policies like shutting down institutes that do atmospheric research on climate change, etc and going after charities. real damage that has to be undone. I don't think appealing to liberalism is going to get us anywhere.....

I mainly wrote that because it's a (debatably :p ) funny line that could be a gateway for young students to start discussing the issues properly and still remain light-hearted enough not to feel like more homework. I went through a year of student protests about tuition fees/cuts etc and, apart from a core of dedicated protestors, most of the students were only peripherally aware of the issues and were shamefully apathetic. Admittedly I don't know enough about your situation to offer more than my solidarity.

[TrotskistMarx]

Hello my friend, you know most people think that big rich countries do not need revolutions. So they only pay attention to Haiti, Palestine, Mexico, Pakistan, India, Nigeria etc. But they forget that there is also poverty and hunger in rich big nations. And indeed, Canada also needs a government of the workers. Thanks

.


As I understand, you're from Canada, just like me. For myself, I'm part of the Revolutionary Student Movement, related to the PCR-RCP Canada, and we produce some analysis and articles on the issues that interested you. Here I put some short articles from the Partisan Newspaper, but I also have a 20 pages document called Student Movement : Issues and Perspectives, that I can easily send to you by e-mail.


QUEBEC:
200,000 Students on Strike!
Partisan #19 • March 22, 2012
http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/imagecache/Article/18%20mars%202012%20075.JPG (http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/18%20mars%202012%20075.JPG)
At the time of this writing, more than 200,000 students were on strike to protest university tuition fee increases. Meanwhile, the biggest demonstration yet is set for Thursday, a nod to the March 22 occupation at the University of Nanterre, which marked the beginning of the revolutionary spring of 1968 in France.
Launched in mid-February by “la CLASSE” (a coalition of local student unions led by the more militant national student union, “l’ASSÉ”), the student strike expanded and even rallied student unions from the largest federations, who are generally subservient to the state apparatus. Hundreds of actions have taken place all across the province; students have faced a vicious repression by the police, but the movement has not wavered. On March 18, more than 30,000 people took part in demonstrations in Quebec City, Alma, Sherbrooke and Montreal, showing a strong popular support to the strike.
Students also discovered the extent of the political and ideological arsenal of the state. The assholes raging in the bourgeois media engaged in a systematic campaign of denigration of the student movement. The editor-in-chief of “La Presse” newspaper, André Pratte, especially made a fool of himself by writing that the movement is that of “a tiny minority” (sic). The government did not hesitate to create “student groups” that support tuition raises in an attempt to undermine the movement’s legitimacy.
Government supporters have tried to divert the public debate on access to education by focusing on the “troubles” made by “agitators” and trying to present the majority of students as “privileged”, who allow themselves to be financially supported by the “taxpayers” —as if they were not taxpayers themselves. But neither brute repression nor reactionary propaganda have succeeded in stopping the movement.
It may be tempting for some to think that the issue of the battle will happen as soon as “a majority” in favor of the student movement will appear in opinion polls. But in fact, things never happen this way.
The student movement can only prevail if it succeeds in establishing itself as the dominant pole in the current balance of power against the State. This requires students to continue and expand the strike. The movement needs more actions and “disorders” that disturb business as usual. It has to turn towards the working class and the broad masses. It must mobilize the proletarian youth, including high school students, who are now beginning to take the streets.
The fight against rising university tuition fees is a struggle for people’s right to education. In the capitalist system we live in, education serves to reproduce the division of society into classes. This is done first by forcing capitalist values and ideologies in all levels of the curriculum but class- and race-based selection is also an important factor for preventing access to higher education for the proletarian youth. Defending people’s right to education requires that we oppose this kind of selection.
The student movement is obviously not a homogeneous movement: it is a multi-class one, crossed by various currents and interests. After five weeks of strike and backed by the unanimous support of the big bourgeoisie, the Charest government has not backed down. In due course, the government knows it can rely on these divisions and on those privileged sectors of the student movement that are in search of “credibility” in the eyes of the ruling class.
The victory of the student strike will depend on the capacity of the most militant sectors among the student movement —those who identify themselves with the interests of the popular masses— to keep the initiative and make the bourgeoisie and its state apparatus pay the high price!
Students who support this perspective should immediately contact and organize with the comrades of the Revolutionary Student Movement (MER-PCR) (http://www.mer-pcr.com/).




Québec Student Movement: Fight to Win!
Partisan #16 • January 27, 2012

http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/imagecache/Article/1_1436514739_af2ffee0db_o.jpg (http://theredflag.ca/sites/default/files/1_1436514739_af2ffee0db_o.jpg)
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.”

[Minima]

@Giantmonkeyman: I kno you're probably right that might be more appropriate even for college students but i just resent this practice of dumbing things down so much that it all becomes so vague and reduced to these kinds of moral arguments that most normal people are already so tired of.

I guess my point is that we shouldn't try to cater to those people and simplify things because we'll only lose the few people who are astute enough to recognize the larger problems at hand (just another boring student protest) and we shouldn't expect apathetic people to be all of a sudden excited by those kinds of arguments. I think there are alot of intelligent people out there that just aren't interested in these kinds of single issue politics because there are just too many things to get angry at in life, yet there is no way to articulate a broader anti-systemic impulse, etc.

[Mr. Natural]

Minima, Thanks for the topic. Colleges are a major locus of dissent, and there aren't enough "organizing discussions" taking place on these left sites.

How about using your current protest as the opening action in a "long march" that will eventually bring the entire bourgeois "educational" system into question? It's rotten to its core. Current "education" at the university level is an abomination.

Blake 3:17 suggested something along "long march" lines: "I'd push for education, employment, housing and medical care as social rights." He is suggesting educational issues bring the entire system that manufactures them into question, an ultimate revolutionary program with which I agree.

But you are beginning with a two-issue college education protest. Why not begin there with a small core of radicals that then branches into contact with all the major university units: ta's, contract lecturers, professors, campus workers, the various student groups, the unpaid athletes of professional university sports, the surrounding community--all of whom are exploited and degraded "at university"?

Of course, few of the exploited understand their situation, so you would begin small. But you could begin to assemble representatives from all of a modern university's exploited toilers, and take it from there: a long march within the institution that will ultimately bring the entire institution into question. And while you are at it, you will be thinking of ways to bring a real, human education to human beings. And you will, as Blake 3:17 proposed, be bringing all capitalist institutions into question.

"College is not the place to go for ideas": Helen Keller

My red-green, Helen Kellerian best.