Quebec Student Strike Ongoing

[The Intransigent Faction]

MjxnJKaBxaU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjxnJKaBxaU)

It's too bad this sort of action doesn't seem to spread to other provinces. At one point they even got as far as briefly occupying the Education Minister's office.

[Bostana]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjxnJKaBxaU


Okay let me show you how the youtube thing works.

All you need is the part I highlighted everything past the equal sign is wrap in the youtube tags
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjxnJKaBxaU

[Misanthrope]

Great to see the youth value their education so much and fight for their rights.

[Luc]

Le Rouge is in this (the strike not the video :lol:), hope he can give us some inside info

[The Intransigent Faction]

Okay let me show you how the youtube thing works.

All you need is the part I highlighted everything past the equal sign is wrap in the youtube tags
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjxnJKaBxaU

Funny...coulda sworn I tried that :blushing: haha thanks.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Love it, I hope this movement continues to gain steam and give the youth there some real actions.

[Stalin Ate My Homework]

Look at all those red flags...:)

[GiantMonkeyMan]

http://vimeo.com/40761843

- Some obligatory riot porn from the Canadian student protests, Quebec specifically. Unfortunately, my secondry school French is not good enough to understand some of the content. Could someone tell me what the gist of the paper at the beginning and the speeches were please? :thumbup1:

[Le Rouge]

Fuck My School.
I live in Quebec and a court ordered that students of my college must return to classes by next monday. :crying:

[Geiseric]

Fight the power! Solidarity from a Quebequois in California!

[Le Rouge]

http://vimeo.com/40761843

- Some obligatory riot porn from the Canadian student protests, Quebec specifically. Unfortunately, my secondry school French is not good enough to understand some of the content. Could someone tell me what the gist of the paper at the beginning and the speeches were please? :thumbup1:


Translation was a bit difficult but here it is.
On the paper :

----------------------------

Article 5 : To preserve trust and consideration

A policemen must not :

1. Use a strong language, insults, blasphemy.
2. Forgot to identify or refuse to identify himself by an official document when someone ask it.
3. Forgot to use a identification mark prescribed in its direct reports.
4. Perform acts or have an injurious language about race, skin color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, political beliefs, language, age, social status, marital status, ethnicity, handicap.
5. Be disrespectful or impolite on people.

Article 6 : To avoid any form of abuse.

A policemen must not :

1. Use more force than necessary
2. Make threats, intimidate or harass.
3. Lay a charge without justification.
4. Abusing authority
5. Detain, for interrogation, a person not under arrest.
----------------------------------------

[the zizekian]

From Montreal, I can tell you that university is the ideal place for making a revolution because the very word university means revolution: “uni-“ means One and “verso” means overthrowing (this One).

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Fuck My School.
I live in Quebec and a court ordered that students of my college must return to classes by next monday. :crying:

As revolutionary leftist it is a good thing we care about law and order... right? ;)

[Le Rouge]

Look at all those red flags...:)

LOLL At our biggest demo, there were thousands and thousands of red flags. Unbelievable :wub:
Sad to see that most of you won't see what i have seen that day...

[Le Rouge]

As revolutionary leftist it is a good thing we care about law and order... right? ;)

I didn't say that i will go back to school. But, students against the strike will get back in their classes fucking Scabs.

[the zizekian]

A revolutionary cares about law but only to demonstrate law is the perfect crime, a crime which erases its traces.

[marl]

Stay safe, and keep fighting, comrades. You oughta picket your classrooms.

[the zizekian]

We only ought to find pleasure in pain to be a revolutionary.

[black magick hustla]

I didn't say that i will go back to school. But, students against the strike will get back in their classes fucking Scabs.

thats not scabbing

[the zizekian]

thats not scabbing

It is.

[black magick hustla]

It is.

no its not. student "strikes" are not real strikes, they are the equivalent of boycotts. refusing to boycott is not the same as "scabbing".

[the zizekian]

no its not. student "strikes" are not real strikes, they are the equivalent of boycotts. refusing to boycott is not the same as "scabbing".

Education is not directly for consumption but for production.

[black magick hustla]

There is a world of difference in crossing a picket line, where people participating in the strike are endangered of being sacked and replaced and therefore have their livelihoods endangered, as opposed to kids walking out of a university. Scabbing is not "bad" because you don't participate, but because you are fucking with people's lives. Calling someone a scab is a serious offense, people have been beaten to death for being scabs. I am just saying.

[the zizekian]

There is a world of difference in crossing a picket line, where people participating in the strike are endangered of being sacked and replaced and therefore have their livelihoods endangered, as opposed to kids walking out of a university. Scabbing is not "bad" because you don't participate, but because you are fucking with people's lives. Calling someone a scab is a serious offense, people have been beaten to death for being scabs. I am just saying.

I see no difference: the places in universities are the places where “do or die” ideologies are at stake.

[danyboy27]

Since some reactionary studient got their court order to force the course to be given, many establishement are now ran like a goddamn police state with cops fighting protester and screening the folks who enter.

many unjustified arestation and beating occured last week.

Sooner or later the cops are gonna have to realize that they cant do that forever, not without stretching their forces (4k on an island of 3 million peoples) too thin.

I saw a video where they thretened an elected representative who went at a protest to ask to the cops who where in charge, and they where not able to give him a proper answer.

seriously, fuck the liberal party of Quebec and their stupid lackey.
fuck these peoples.

[black magick hustla]

I see no difference: the places in universities are the places where “do or die” ideologies are at stake.

man what shit have u been smokin

[the zizekian]

The only good police(wo)men are suicidal ones; they are the only ones a communist society can afford.

[NewLeft]

Since some reactionary studient got their court order to force the course to be given, many establishement are now ran like a goddamn police state with cops fighting protester and screening the folks who enter.

many unjustified arestation and beating occured last week.

Sooner or later the cops are gonna have to realize that they cant do that forever, not without stretching their forces (4k on an island of 3 million peoples) too thin.

I saw a video where they thretened an elected representative who went at a protest to ask to the cops who where in charge, and they where not able to give him a proper answer.

seriously, fuck the liberal party of Quebec and their stupid lackey.
fuck these peoples.
Headline for Ottawa Citizen:
Beyond the protests, a “civil war” among Quebec students as some try to attend class

Why higher tuitions are not 'unjust'‎

Analysis: Striking Quebec students given a free pass on violence‎

Charest's lapdogs are out on full attack.

[the zizekian]

Why higher tuitions are not 'unjust'‎


Tuitions are unjust.

[Geiseric]

In the sense that schools are pretty much run to make money for construction companies and the sense that they are run to shape us into productive forces, in a sense it is a buisness and we are striking.

[NewLeft]

In the sense that schools are pretty much run to make money for construction companies and the sense that they are run to shape us into productive forces, in a sense it is a buisness and we are striking.
Plus the students who are returning are doing so to secure employment.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Beyond+protests+civil+among+Quebec+students+some+a ttend+class/6494764/story.html

[the zizekian]

Tuitions are unjust.


Even if the only persons interested to university studies were the richest persons on Earth, universities still have to be free to show where the injustices are hiding in our societies.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

Fuck My School.
I live in Quebec and a court ordered that students of my college must return to classes by next monday. :crying:

Or what?


In the sense that schools are pretty much run to make money for construction companies and the sense that they are run to shape us into productive forces, in a sense it is a buisness and we are striking.

Colleges are obviously businesses just like any other however they are selling their commodities (the opportunity for higher learning) to consumers (the students) which is to say I agree with Black Magik Hustla that student "strikes," are more akin to boycotts than actual worker's strikes.

[the last donut of the night]

In the sense that schools are pretty much run to make money for construction companies and the sense that they are run to shape us into productive forces, in a sense it is a buisness and we are striking.

the relationship between university and capital, in the sense you describe here, is much more indirect than say, the relationship between a factory and capital. of course every social relationship in some sense serves the interests of capital or serves as a symbol of its rule, but some are of course more direct than others. while i of course support this move, we have to be careful to put students and workers in the same bucket. going back to classes is not scabbing

[Le Rouge]

Or what?



The consequence is not the problem. Actually the biggest problem is that students against the strike will get back in class...Fuckers! They represent 45% of the students. Tuesday is gonna be a big chaos. What i know is that it's now against the law that we prevent people from entering the college. I hope there's not many cops Tuesday cause we'll try to block the entrance.

More info to come.

[Luc]

The consequence is not the problem. Actually the biggest problem is that students against the strike will get back in class...Fuckers! They represent 45% of the students. Tuesday is gonna be a big chaos. What i know is that it's now against the law that we prevent people from entering the college. I hope there's not many cops Tuesday cause we'll try to block the entrance.

More info to come.

best of luck! :)

[the zizekian]

Even if the only persons interested to university studies were the richest persons on Earth, universities still have to be free to show where the injustices are hiding in our societies.

Think at universities as libraries’ entrances.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

The consequence is not the problem. Actually the biggest problem is that students against the strike will get back in class...Fuckers! They represent 45% of the students. Tuesday is gonna be a big chaos. What i know is that it's now against the law that we prevent people from entering the college. I hope there's not many cops Tuesday cause we'll try to block the entrance.

It may be illegal for you to prevent people from going but not to continue striking and make going to class and having a class impossible, irritating, not worth it, etc.

Good luck, cause a lot of ruckus and drown out the teachers.

[Ocean Seal]

A policemen must not :
1. Use a strong language, insults, blasphemy.

:confused:
I don't understand how this would come up during a police encounter.
I'm pretty sure they don't shout death to god at occupy rallies here.

[danyboy27]

:confused:
I don't understand how this would come up during a police encounter.
I'm pretty sure they don't shout death to god at occupy rallies here.

many Quebec swearing words are related to religion and are therefore a form of blasfemy. Criss, tabarnacle osti, calice etc etc.

i dont personally see the big deal, especially after i saw the way they treat people in the street with paper spray, rubber bullet and clubbing, swearing sound kinda bening

[the zizekian]

In the past days, it was all about “do we (students associations) or not condemn violence…”

[Capitalist Octopus]

Update.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Quebec+education+minister+Line+Beauchamp+calls+tru ce/6503755/story.html#ixzz1stZpmQKj

[the zizekian]

It is sad to see students negotiating with an illegitimate party (i.e. a corrupt government).

[Capitalist Octopus]

Further update, people are saying fuck the truce.
Not respecting the government's claim in order to put more pressure upon them during the negotiations.
I will be on the streets tonight.

[the zizekian]

Student talks 'respectful,' minister says
By Kevin Dougherty, GAZETTE QUEBEC BUREAU April 24, 2012 7:02 PM


http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Student+talks+respectful+minister+says/6512034/story.html (http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Student+talks+respectful+minister+says/6512034/story.html)

[NewLeft]

I want the liberal party to disappear. I was happy when they had their worst turn out in May and I hope it continues that way.

[La Guaneña]

This is Brazil in one or two years.

You have my full support.

[Capitalist Octopus]

Just got back from the march tonight.
Lasted about two hours.
From start people were blocking streets with big signs, mail boxes, garbage cans, etc
Dropping rocks along the way too for other people to pick up

Eventually people started smashing windows of a bank, shooting flares.
Police declared it illegal, police moved in.
Everyone ran, me too.

No counts on arrests or anything yet, or any further property damage or injuries.

People definitely knew what they were doing, this is starting to really heat up.

[Capitalist Octopus]

More details on tonight here, with arrest counts and such.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Students+break+truce/6512902/story.html

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74JQQf4zfg4

[Parvati]

I was also at the demo yesterday, was kind of an instigator. Good atmosphere, good energy, but one of my comrade was brutally arrested for breach of condition and now my heart is full of rage... Shame on pigs...

There some nice things with this strike, here are some articles that we published
http://theredflag.ca/node/243
http://theredflag.ca/node/226

There is on now some talks with the government; they ask us for a truce, with no more social or economic perturbation, but at the same time judges continue to issue injunctions to force the return in class. Conservatory of Music canceled its semester; there's an action of occupation on thursday to make them change their decision. 5 or 6 high schools are now also on strike, and more than 160,000 students from colleges and universities.

These two videos are interesting; it was an event called to cancel the "Fair of North Plan", an exhibition with a presentation of Prime Minister of a new project of imperialism against native people and environnement in the Far North. Some of the slogans are "We go forward, we don't retreat", "Police is at the service of richs and fascists" "Police everywhere, justice nowhere"
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qVDTvWcuc4&fb_source=message
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02_Kl6UvcP8&feature=watch_response

[Capitalist Octopus]

Wooow.
8 hours into negotiations that were supposed to last 48 hours the government excluded one of the unions, and the rest walked away in solidarity.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/news/6517521/story.html

Things are going to get really bad...

[the zizekian]

At last, the time has come to talk about violence in-depth. When a someone holding power talks about others’ (subjective) "violence", it is always to hide his/her objective violence.

[Capitalist Octopus]

all hell has broken lose.
this is about more than just tuition now.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Riot+police+disperse+student+protest+Montreal/6519653/story.html#ixzz1t7LXclit

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/04/25/students-call-off-talks.html

[the last donut of the night]

This is Brazil in one or two years.

You have my full support.

sei lá véi

[the zizekian]

this is about more than just tuition now.

Yes.The struggle of CLASSE student association can only be the authentic class struggle.

[Le Rouge]

Negotiations have started a few days ago between the students organisation and the Minister of Education, Line Beauchamp. I'm not really aware of what is happening but i think that the CLASSE (one of the three student's organisations) has been excluded from the negotiations because they didn't condone the violence made by the students during yesterday's demo. The fun fact is the government never condone the violence made by the pigs at any demo.

On my side, we didn't got back to school. Our school administration cancelled classes this week because the current state of things isn't favorable to learning. Yay!
Next assembly tomorrow to decide if we still continue the strike or not.

[the zizekian]

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Riot+police+disperse+student+protest+Montreal/6519653/story.html#ixzz1t7LXclit

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/04/25/students-call-off-talks.html

If one needs more proofs of the priority banks have, we just have to pay a bit of attention to the media coverage of the ongoing student protests here: banks come first when the media write about the damaged properties:

Montreal student demonstration turns violent
Protesters smash bank windows, set car on fire
CBC News
Posted: Apr 25, 2012 2:57 PM

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/04/25/students-call-off-talks.html (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/04/25/students-call-off-talks.html)

...


Within the crowd, some people were wearing ski goggles and masks as they ran away from police who had ordered the protesters to disperse around 10:15 p.m., not long after the vandalism started.

Windows of banks and several stores were shattered while cars were vandalized and bricks were also reportedly thrown at mounted police. The windows at Police Station 21, on Ste. Elizabeth St. and René Lévesque Blvd. were also smashed.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Riot%20police%20disperse%20student%20protest%20Mon treal/6519653/story.html (http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Riot%20police%20disperse%20student%20protest%20Mon treal/6519653/story.html)

[La Guaneña]

sei lá véi

Medão do FIES véi

[the zizekian]

Quebec offers to stretch tuition hike over 7 years

But student groups say hike will still be a burden

CBC News (http://www.cbc.ca/news/credit.html)

Last Updated: Apr 27, 2012 5:03 PM ET


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/04/27/montreal-student-protests-quebec.html?cmp=rss (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/04/27/montreal-student-protests-quebec.html?cmp=rss)

[Os Cangaceiros]

six cop cars smashed in Montreal (http://waronsociety.noblogs.org/?p=4408)

synopsis of recent events there (http://waronsociety.noblogs.org/?p=4404)

[the zizekian]

Quebec offers to stretch tuition hike over 7 years

But student groups say hike will still be a burden

CBC News (http://www.cbc.ca/news/credit.html)

Last Updated: Apr 27, 2012 5:03 PM ET


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/04/27/montreal-student-protests-quebec.html?cmp=rss (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/04/27/montreal-student-protests-quebec.html?cmp=rss)

CLASSE rejects government offer as other student groups suggest mediation


By Karen Seidman, Gazette Universities Reporter April 30, 2012 7:22 AM



http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/CLASSE+rejects+government+offer/6537609/story.html (http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/CLASSE+rejects+government+offer/6537609/story.html)

[The Intransigent Faction]

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1171412--more-mayhem-hits-montreal?bn=1


On a number of occasions in recent days, student protesters have in fact made clear their impatience with the masked vandals in their midst; they have delivered admonitions and Bronx cheers at demonstrations whenever the minority in the crowd starts causing damage. On Tuesday, at a formal news conference, people in masks were suddenly shouting back.


The government is of course doing everything they can to exploit this "division" in the ranks of the protesters...

[the zizekian]

More than 100 arrests in Montreal May Day riot
2,000 people march through the streets

Last Updated: May 2, 2012 12:29 AM ET


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/05/01/montreal-may-day-rally.html (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/05/01/montreal-may-day-rally.html)

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

I saw that awful "No! It's a boycott!" bullshit pop up again in this thread, so Ima repost this sweet pamphlet. <3

YES, THIS IS A STRIKE.
On the picket lines, I’ve heard the same numb recitation of “This isn’t even a strike, it’s a boycott!” repeated like a mantra, absolving one of responsibility for crossing a picket line. It seems as though disparagingly few students have taken the time to critically assess the assumptions underlying this discourse – speaking to a sad state of affairs in the university more generally. A boycott concerns consumption, and a strike production; consequently these readings represent opposing understandings of not only students and the university, but of knowledge itself.

To refer to a boycott, essentially, is to refer to students as consumers, and knowledge as a commodity that is passively consumed as a finished product. Within the idea of the boycott is the assumption that the student exchanges their tuition for a fixed body of knowledge, which is then their property.

Ironically, this runs counter to the idea, oft referred to by the same academic hacks, that university is an “investment” in knowledge-capital. For knowledge to produce value, as capital, it must be acted upon by labour – it must pass from its abstract existence and be transformed qualitatively. This process, for obvious reasons, is directly dependent on the concrete work of the student. In the course of their studies, students create a body of usable knowledge and social capital from which the university profits – when students stop going to class, this transformation of knowledge is interrupted. In other words, yes, it is a strike.

Disturbingly, foundational to all of this is the notion that knowledge exists, fundamentally, within the logic of the marketplace. It is implicit that knowledge serves first and foremost, a role within the reproduction of capital. While free market fundamentalists might argue that the interests of capital serve the greatest possible good, one might hope that university students are not so intellectually stunted. In any case, a little bit of thought should reveal the obvious, that knowledge is not a fixed quantity, and does not diminish when it is shared. On the contrary, knowledge tends toward the common, increasing as it is passed between us. In fact, it is only because of this that the university as a site of social production is even possible.

Tuition hikes mean a further erosion of this commons, an increasing commodification of knowledge, its increasing transformation into capital, and its increasing monopolization by the capitalist class. It is with the student strike, the disruption of this process, that we stand to reappropriate knowledge by and for the commons. What is at stake in tuition hikes is not only the exclusion of particular individuals from the university – it is a battle in the larger context of “austerity” wherein the capitalist Moloch, having inevitably run up against the limits of capital accumulation elsewhere, is now turning on us to fuel its fires. As workers rise up and strike across the world, students’ actions here are contextualized by global struggle. Boycott? No. A strike, as in, “striking a blow”. In case it wasn’t obvious . . .

YES, THIS IS CLASS WAR.

[danyboy27]

Hoo great now the studients who has been trying to get an injonction to get back to school has been whining beccause the schools wont open beccause of the protest outside is disrupting the whole thing.

What a bunch of useful fool.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Hoo great now the studients who has been trying to get an injonction to get back to school has been whining beccause the schools wont open beccause of the protest outside is disrupting the whole thing.

What a bunch of useful fool.

You mean the student scabs who never supported the strike to begin with, yes, useless indeed.

[danyboy27]

You mean the student scabs who never supported the strike to begin with, yes, useless indeed.

they now wear proudly their army green square and look totally useless beccause unlike the studients groups they are unwilling to do anything at all.

Its the typical profile of the reactionaries in Quebec; they whine and moan but they dont do squat to make anything happen at all.

[the zizekian]

The Guardian is covering the event:

Quebec student protests mark 'Maple spring' in Canada
A revolt against a government tuition fee hike is growing into Occupy-inspired dissent against austerity and inequality

Martin Lukacs (http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/martin-lukacs)
guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/), Wednesday 2 May 2012 13.30 BST

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/02/quebec-student-protest-canada (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/02/quebec-student-protest-canada)

[the zizekian]

Quebec finance minister says tuition issue will be resolved in an election


By Kevin Dougherty, Postmedia News May 2, 2012


http://www.canada.com/news/Quebec+finance+minister+says+tuition+issue+will+re solved+election/6553700/story.html (http://www.canada.com/news/Quebec+finance+minister+says+tuition+issue+will+re solved+election/6553700/story.html)

[the zizekian]

Quebec finance minister says tuition issue will be resolved in an election


By Kevin Dougherty, Postmedia News May 2, 2012


http://www.canada.com/news/Quebec+finance+minister+says+tuition+issue+will+re solved+election/6553700/story.html (http://www.canada.com/news/Quebec+finance+minister+says+tuition+issue+will+re solved+election/6553700/story.html)


All to the contrary, I say the tuition issue cannot be resolved in an election simply because the youth is not allowed to vote.

[danyboy27]

All to the contrary, I say the tuition issue cannot be resolved in an election simply because the youth is not allowed to vote.

What are you talking about? most studient who protest tuition fee are 18 of age and over.

If it wont get resolved with an election, it will be most likely beccause the PQ is a bunch of bourgeois assole.

[the zizekian]

What are you talking about? most studient who protest tuition fee are 18 of age and over.

If it wont get resolved with an election, it will be most likely beccause the PQ is a bunch of bourgeois assole.

Wake up, the students are also thinking to those who will follow them!

[danyboy27]

Wake up, the students are also thinking to those who will follow them!

You dont seem to understand that the weight of the studient would be enough to bring down the governement in an election.

And it dosnt change nothing from the fact that the PQ is a bunch of bourgeois who will not hesitate to smack the studient in the face once they will get elected.

[the zizekian]

You dont seem to understand that the weight of the studient would be enough to bring down the governement in an election.

And it dosnt change nothing from the fact that the PQ is a bunch of bourgeois who will not hesitate to smack the studient in the face once they will get elected.

You don't seem to understand that the weight of the studients wouldn't be enough to bring down the governement in an election.

[danyboy27]

You don't seem to understand that the weight of the studients wouldn't be enough to bring down the governement in an election.

Believe me, with the lattest participation rate for the 2008 election of 57% it wouldnt take much people to bring Charest down, he got his majority governement only by a fews seats.

[the zizekian]

Believe me, with the lattest participation rate for the 2008 election of 57% it wouldnt take much people to bring Charest down, he got his majority governement only by a fews seats.

Believe me, with the latest participation rate for the students strike vote, it wouldn’t take much students to bring to power a government more conservative than the Charest one.

[danyboy27]

Believe me, with the latest participation rate for the students strike vote, it wouldn’t take much students to bring to power a government more conservative than the Charest one.

Many people stopped going to the popular assembly beccause they didnt liked the general overall atmosphere, they come and go but that dosnt mean they are against the strike or for charest for that matter.

Most studients hate charest guts and wil vote against him.

I also fail to see how a more conservative governement could emerge from the next election, The Caq got almost no supporters and everyone hate charest, the worst thing that could happen is a liberal minority governement.

[the zizekian]

Many people stopped going to the popular assembly beccause they didnt liked the general overall atmosphere, they come and go but that dosnt mean they are against the strike or for charest for that matter.

Most studients hate charest guts and wil vote against him.

I also fail to see how a more conservative governement could emerge from the next election, The Caq got almost no supporters and everyone hate charest, the worst thing that could happen is a liberal minority governement.

Such petty political calculus allows a government to buy time and to use the student’s conflict to hide its corruption. Meanwhile, the wealthy baby-boomers are aging and will vote to give the balance of power to the CAQ.

[NewLeft]

Such petty political calculus allows a government to buy time and to use the student’s conflict to hide its corruption. Meanwhile, the wealthy baby-boomers are aging and will vote to give the balance of power to the CAQ.
CAQ on a downward spiral?

[the zizekian]

The student represents the rising democracy and the Quebec democracy is a dying one.

[NewLeft]

The student represents the rising democracy and the Quebec democracy is a dying one.
Arise you slaves..

[the zizekian]

Arise you slaves..

Yes, the aging wealthy will not be cared for by an enslaved youth.

[NewLeft]

Yes, the aging wealthy will not be cared for by an enslaved youth.
Whatever you say Zizek.

[the zizekian]

Whatever you say Zizek.

Zizek has his place in universities and in governments.

[Le Rouge]

Going to my college assembly tomorrow.

[the zizekian]

Quebec student group presents demands to end protests
Rene Bruemmer and Kevin Dougherty, Postmedia News
Published: Thursday, May 03, 2012

http://www2.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=6560380

[danyboy27]

Such petty political calculus allows a government to buy time and to use the student’s conflict to hide its corruption. Meanwhile, the wealthy baby-boomers are aging and will vote to give the balance of power to the CAQ.

http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/346845/sondage-leger-marketing-le-devoir-the-gazette-legault-et-la-caq-plus-bas-que-jamais

http://quebec.huffingtonpost.ca/jeannicolas-gagne/legault-caq_b_1388140.html

dont make me laugh, the CAQ got great rating when they kept their mouth shut.Since they started talking The right wing hate them beccause they are not has firm has the ADQ used to be and the leftist hate them has well for verry obvious reasons.

I am not saying they cant get elected, but with a shit leader with no charisma, a shit political platform that nobody like and almost no financial backing it would be surprising to see those idiots came to be in a position of power.

If anything the CAQ will divide the liberal electoral base wich is a good thing overall and will advantage the PQ.

But anyway, Bourgeois elections suck and the PQ will eventually backstab the studients and the rest of Quebec populaton eventually.

[Le Rouge]

I love the CLASSE. While the other organisations try to make an agreement on the rise of tuition fees with the Minister of education, the CLASSE is presenting a plan to attain free education :) A rise of only 0,7% on banks profits would make a $2 billion income annually their leader says.

Go Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois!!!


The government will ignore that plan though.

[the zizekian]

http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/346845/sondage-leger-marketing-le-devoir-the-gazette-legault-et-la-caq-plus-bas-que-jamais

http://quebec.huffingtonpost.ca/jeannicolas-gagne/legault-caq_b_1388140.html

dont make me laugh, the CAQ got great rating when they kept their mouth shut.Since they started talking The right wing hate them beccause they are not has firm has the ADQ used to be and the leftist hate them has well for verry obvious reasons.

I am not saying they cant get elected, but with a shit leader with no charisma, a shit political platform that nobody like and almost no financial backing it would be surprising to see those idiots came to be in a position of power.

If anything the CAQ will divide the liberal electoral base wich is a good thing overall and will advantage the PQ.

But anyway, Bourgeois elections suck and the PQ will eventually backstab the studients and the rest of Quebec populaton eventually.

You admit yourself that your own petty analysis/predictions are going nowhere!

[danyboy27]

You admit yourself that your own petty analysis/predictions are going nowhere!

No they are not ''going nowhere''.
Has i said, the current studient anger toward the governement will probably be the charest governement demise next election.

And has i also said earlier the social democrat (PQ) will probably stab the studient in the back one day.

You have a verry natural talent to denounce other, but when its time to demonstrate how i am wrong all you do is to point out other things you dont like rather than actually have a serious discussion about it.

[the zizekian]

No they are not ''going nowhere''.
Has i said, the current studient anger toward the governement will probably be the charest governement demise next election.

And has i also said earlier the social democrat (PQ) will probably stab the studient in the back one day.

You have a verry natural talent to denounce other, but when its time to demonstrate how i am wrong all you do is to point out other things you dont like rather than actually have a serious discussion about it.

You are wrong by betting on the future, the time for the revolution is now.

[the zizekian]

Victoriaville protests injure 11 after clashes with police
By Monique Muise and Christopher Curtis, Postmedia News May 5, 2012 7:06 AM


http://www.canada.com/news/injured+Quebec+student+protesters+clash+with+polic e+Victoriaville/6566978/story.html

[Sasha]

Victoriaville protests injure 11 after clashes with police
By Monique Muise and Christopher Curtis, Postmedia News May 5, 2012 7:06 AM


http://www.canada.com/news/injured+Quebec+student+protesters+clash+with+polic e+Victoriaville/6566978/story.html


On Facebook I heard 3 people in hospital with rubberbullet head wounds, one of them a 20 year old student who is in a coma, he for sure lost an eye and maybe never will wake up again...

[Le Rouge]

ANDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD... The results are............. WE WON!

Government won't stop the raise of tuition fees, but agreed to disminish "Afferent Fees" by the same amount the tuition fees will raise. So, students won't pay more. Let's hope the government and universities will respect that agreement. Let's hope.


Tuition fees : + $250/year
Afferent Fees : - $250/year

[Fawkes]

I saw that awful "No! It's a boycott!" bullshit pop up again in this thread, so Ima repost this sweet pamphlet. <3

YES, THIS IS A STRIKE.
On the picket lines, I’ve heard the same numb recitation of “This isn’t even a strike, it’s a boycott!” repeated like a mantra, absolving one of responsibility for crossing a picket line. It seems as though disparagingly few students have taken the time to critically assess the assumptions underlying this discourse – speaking to a sad state of affairs in the university more generally. A boycott concerns consumption, and a strike production; consequently these readings represent opposing understandings of not only students and the university, but of knowledge itself.

To refer to a boycott, essentially, is to refer to students as consumers, and knowledge as a commodity that is passively consumed as a finished product. Within the idea of the boycott is the assumption that the student exchanges their tuition for a fixed body of knowledge, which is then their property.

Ironically, this runs counter to the idea, oft referred to by the same academic hacks, that university is an “investment” in knowledge-capital. For knowledge to produce value, as capital, it must be acted upon by labour – it must pass from its abstract existence and be transformed qualitatively. This process, for obvious reasons, is directly dependent on the concrete work of the student. In the course of their studies, students create a body of usable knowledge and social capital from which the university profits – when students stop going to class, this transformation of knowledge is interrupted. In other words, yes, it is a strike.

Disturbingly, foundational to all of this is the notion that knowledge exists, fundamentally, within the logic of the marketplace. It is implicit that knowledge serves first and foremost, a role within the reproduction of capital. While free market fundamentalists might argue that the interests of capital serve the greatest possible good, one might hope that university students are not so intellectually stunted. In any case, a little bit of thought should reveal the obvious, that knowledge is not a fixed quantity, and does not diminish when it is shared. On the contrary, knowledge tends toward the common, increasing as it is passed between us. In fact, it is only because of this that the university as a site of social production is even possible.

Tuition hikes mean a further erosion of this commons, an increasing commodification of knowledge, its increasing transformation into capital, and its increasing monopolization by the capitalist class. It is with the student strike, the disruption of this process, that we stand to reappropriate knowledge by and for the commons. What is at stake in tuition hikes is not only the exclusion of particular individuals from the university – it is a battle in the larger context of “austerity” wherein the capitalist Moloch, having inevitably run up against the limits of capital accumulation elsewhere, is now turning on us to fuel its fires. As workers rise up and strike across the world, students’ actions here are contextualized by global struggle. Boycott? No. A strike, as in, “striking a blow”. In case it wasn’t obvious . . .

YES, THIS IS CLASS WAR.



Many people are hesitant to admit it, but what's the major driving factor behind pursuing "higher education"? Universities don't "give" knowledge for knowledge's sake. They may foster learning, but if that was all they did, people would just leave school whenever they "had their fill". But that's not what people do.

What do you do when you are finished with school? You graduate. What does graduation signify? That you've learned a quantitatively acceptable amount? No, graduation signifies that you are now in possession of a very valuable commodity: a degree.

Knowledge contains no marketplace value, but a degree does. There's no "increasing commodification of knowledge", knowledge was commodified the second a system was introduced that quantifies it. Do tuition hikes result in restricted access to learning? Yes. But they don't result in increased commodification.

Of course, knowledge is not a tangible thing, but a degree is recognized in the marketplace as a signifier of knowledge, and degrees are what universities provide in exchange for payment. Given that a degree is a commodity, how then is widespread refusal to pursue one not a boycott?

There are two contentions here:
1. Increasingly restricted access to a commodity
2. Increasingly restricted access to the resources necessary for learning


In short, this is both a strike and a boycott.

[Le Rouge]

Medias are constantly bashing the Black Bloc...And what about the cops beating the shit out of students? Nope! They rarely even speak about them. Except on better media stations like Radio-Canada (RDI)

TVA is the worst TV channel in the whole world.

[blake 3:17]

The deal looks like it will maintain the status quo at present, and then maybe have increases pushed after? Can any of the sisters or brothers in Quebec explain?

From the CBC :
The Quebec government had offered weeks earlier to roll out tuition hikes over seven years instead of five. Under the latest deal, the students will get at least a temporary tuition freeze for now.

Any tuition hikes would have to wait until the completion of a review by a proposed universities committee to help deal with financial management concerns. That report is due to be completed in December.

But it's the hope of the students that potential cost savings identified by the committee would help offset the tuition increases.

Is there a plan to rock bureaucrats?

[the zizekian]

Quebec raises tuition, but students won’t pay more in tentative deal
RHÉAL SÉGUIN (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/rhal-sguin/)
QUEBEC CITY— Globe and Mail Update
Last updated Sunday, May. 06, 2012 8:59AM


"The increase in tuition will be offset by an equal reduction in other fees students are typically charged. Students currently pay an average of $800 in annual university surcharges, which usually fund non-academic activities and various student services."


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/quebec-raises-tuition-but-students-wont-pay-more-in-tentative-deal/article2424035/ (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/quebec-raises-tuition-but-students-wont-pay-more-in-tentative-deal/article2424035/)

[the zizekian]

Quebec raises tuition, but students won’t pay more in tentative deal
RHÉAL SÉGUIN (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/rhal-sguin/)
QUEBEC CITY— Globe and Mail Update
Last updated Sunday, May. 06, 2012 8:59AM


"The increase in tuition will be offset by an equal reduction in other fees students are typically charged. Students currently pay an average of $800 in annual university surcharges, which usually fund non-academic activities and various student services."


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/quebec-raises-tuition-but-students-wont-pay-more-in-tentative-deal/article2424035/ (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/quebec-raises-tuition-but-students-wont-pay-more-in-tentative-deal/article2424035/)

The existing surcharge is not large enough to offset the planned tuitions hike.

[the zizekian]

The name of one of the students severely wounded in Victoriaville is Alexandre Allard. I will remember his name forever.

http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/Quebec/2012/05/05/003-etudiant-ul-blesse.shtml (http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/Quebec/2012/05/05/003-etudiant-ul-blesse.shtml)

[the zizekian]

Maxence L. Valade is the name of the student who has lost one eye. I will also remember his name forever.

http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2012/05/05/des-dizaines-darrestations (http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2012/05/05/des-dizaines-darrestations)

[Capitalist Octopus]

The deal is terrible, certainly not a victory, and it will not be accepted by the students.
In fact, CLASSE only signed it due to a miscommunication.
This is not the end, but merely an indicator that disruptive protests and property destruction/combat with police works in convincing the government to make offers

[Le Rouge]

The existing surcharge is not large enough to offset the planned tuitions hike.

This

[the zizekian]

The deal is terrible, certainly not a victory, and it will not be accepted by the students.
In fact, CLASSE only signed it due to a miscommunication.
This is not the end, but merely an indicator that disruptive protests and property destruction/combat with police works in convincing the government to make offers

I also think that the deal is terrible because to gain something the students will have to convince university administrators that they are wasting money.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

An article I wrote for REVO relating to the Quebec struggle...

http://www.revousa.org/student-struggles-grip-quebec

[the zizekian]

All but one students associations which voted today, voted to reject the deal:

http://lagreve.wordpress.com/ (http://lagreve.wordpress.com/)

[Le Penseur Libre]

It would be nice if somebody could summarize what happenend in the last days..

[danyboy27]

The propositon by the governement that has been accepted by the association are a fucking joke.

Basically the governement agreed to set up a temporary comitee that will look at the spending and gestion of the universities and issues 'RECCOMENDATIONS and SUGGESTION to the education minister. The composition of this commitee is a joke, it basically give the majority of votes to corporation and governement official.

see that graph over there?, The yellow and orange sector represent the number of studients and union representative allowed by this commitee, the rest are basically a bunch of rubber stamper and corporate shill.

Its basically a free pass for the governement to keep cutting in university services with the excuse that it will be done to avoid the studient to pay more tuition fee.

The governement never gave any guarantee that it will cut the tuition fee but said that if he find any form of money with the commitee that it will be used to lower it. Bottom line, if studients dont pay tuition fee, they will have to feel Quebec new brand of austerity justice.


http://www.bloquonslahausse.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/conseil-provisoire1.jpg

[blake 3:17]

Analysis from a long time socialist:


Defiant Quebec Students
Reject Shabby Government Offer

Richard Fidler

Quebec college and university students are now in the 13th week of their militant province-wide strike while voting by overwhelming majorities to reject a government offer that met none of their key demands. After a 22-hour bargaining session involving ministers of the Charest government, university and college heads, and leaders of the major trade-union centrals, the student leaders agreed on May 6 to put the offer to a vote of their respective membership without recommending acceptance.


If the offer (the French-language text is here) were accepted:

The 75 per cent hike in tuition fees (now spread over seven years, but indexed) would remain, albeit with slightly liberalized access to scholarships and loans, and provision for repayment of loans geared to future income.
A provisional committee would examine university budgets and propose possible cuts. Each dollar cut would go to reducing incidental fees not related directly to tuition (admission, registration, sports services, technology, etc.).
The committee would include four students, but also fourteen other members: 6 university rectors, 4 trade union representatives as well as 2 representatives of business, 1 from the ministry of education, and a chair with a tie-breaking vote – the latter four all designated by the minister of education.
The committee would table its recommendations by December although if necessary its mandate could be extended by one more year. It might then be replaced by a permanent committee appointed by law, its composition undetermined at this point.
Pending the provisional committee's conclusions, the students’ incidental fees would be deferred. However, these fees would apply retroactively to the students in any amount the committee is unable to cut from current expenses.
There is no assurance that the proposed committee would agree on budget cuts sufficient to reduce or eliminate the hike in tuition fees. Furthermore, the committee would be composed largely of members with a vested interest in opposing cuts in expenditures, especially in research and funding of pro-business courses.

Market Prerogatives, Not Social Need

Most importantly, the offer, if accepted, would trivialize the key demands advanced by the students throughout the strike movement: for an immediate freeze on tuition fee levels, increased access to quality education and a public debate on the long-ignored goal of free and universal education from kindergarten to university. It would force the students into a market-driven accounting exercise, striving to justify cuts in spending on infrastructures, research, courses and teachers’ salaries – just when students and professors have struck a responsive chord among many Québécois with their united campaign against the underfunding of public post-secondary education in the province.

Small wonder, then, that this miserable “offer” is being rejected overwhelmingly by students across Quebec. And thousands are continuing to march for hours each night through the streets of Montréal, in spontaneous demonstrations that began some two weeks ago in rejection of an earlier offer by the Liberal government.


In continuing their boycott of classes, which has shut down the majority of Quebec's major post-secondary educational institutions, the students are courageously risking loss of credit for an entire semester. They have led an exemplary struggle, conducted since the beginning with mass democratic assemblies and decision-making. The three main student organizations – the CLASSE, FEUQ and FECQ[1] – have maintained a united front in the face of repeated government attempts to divide them and isolate the more radical CLASSE from the other two groups.

They have withstood vicious media attacks on them as a selfish elite, and the exploitation of a few, isolated acts of violence against property (often by Black Bloc anarchists) to portray the students as little more than publicity-seeking vandals.

They have successfully defied more than a dozen court injunctions ordering universities to reopen and professors to teach.

And they have resisted massive police repression that has resulted in the arrest of well over 1,000 students and serious injury to some as a result of the cops’ use of rubber bullets, concussion grenades and tear gas.

Solidarity Lacking

But by themselves – notwithstanding these heroic actions – the students have been unable to create a social relationship of forces sufficient to break through the unyielding opposition of the government and the business class it represents. They have won significant support from some community grass-roots groups, including a broad-based Coalition against privatization and user fees for public services. The Coalition was a prime organizer of the massive demonstration at the Liberal party's general council meeting May 4-5, held in the town of Victoriaville in the futile hope of avoiding pro-student demonstrations in Montréal.

Notably missing, however, has been active solidarity from Quebec's trade unions, whose million-plus members represent the largest social force with the potential economic clout to defeat the government and business assault on the students. The major centrals and many local unions have issued statements in support of the students, and some have contributed funds to their organizations. But they have made no effort to organize economic action, even a one-day general strike in support of the students’ demands as requested by the CLASSE. And now their central leaders appear to have been accomplices in the government's latest manoeuvres with the students.

By the 12th week of the student strike, the government was coming under a lot of pressure not only from the students but from the university and college administrations, which feared they would be faced this fall with a double cohort of students in the wake of a cancelled semester – an enrolment overflow they are not equipped to accommodate. Furthermore, a mounting series of disclosures of scandals and corruption implicating government ministers in lucrative construction contracts, illegal party financing, and even possible connections with organized crime – as well as widespread criticism by First Nations and ecologists of Charest's showcase Plan Nord program to expand mining in Quebec's far north – have undermined the government's legitimacy and fed rumours that Charest is planning to call an early election before the Liberals are outflanked by the opposition Parti Québécois or ultra-neoliberal Coalition Avenir Québec. However, the student unrest jeopardizes this scenario.

Charest's Manoeuvre

The government's response was to call a meeting on May 5-6 with the rectors and student representatives in an ultimate attempt to bludgeon the students into a deal that would, it hoped, rescue its credibility and restore order in the schools. And in a shrewd move, it invited the presidents of Quebec's three main union centrals, the FTQ, CSN and CSQ,[2] to attend this summit, held simultaneously with the Liberal party's general council meeting in Victoriaville.

The formula proposed by the education minister seems to draw in part on a proposal first advanced by the two relatively conservative student organizations. The FEUQ and FECQ had suggested that the tuition fee increase might be avoided through equivalent cuts in unnecessary expenditures by the universities.

The CLASSE, for its part, fought to maintain the focus on the fee hike and the broader perspective of free post-secondary education. However, its own proposal, adopted a few days later, noted that funds for higher education could be found through cuts in business-oriented research programs (not basic or theoretical research) and competitive advertising by universities; a moratorium on infrastructure expansion, including additional satellite campuses; and an immediate freeze on pay and hiring of senior university management personnel. The CLASSE also called for an “estates general” on the future of Quebec education, in which it said it would advance the demand for free education, which could be financed by a capital tax on financial institutions. And it drew attention to the huge profits being registered by the major banks, even amidst the economic crisis.

Although there were significant differences in the proposals of the respective student groups, there were clear parallels. The FEUQ and FECQ were retreating somewhat from the earlier focus on tuition fees. The CLASSE was clearly striving to maintain a united front while appealing to other forces in the community to engage in economic action in support of its overall demands.

A call for a social strike appeared on the CLASSE web site, although a discussion of this proposal, scheduled for debate at two successive meetings of its weekly congress, was postponed for lack of time. And, as mentioned, it received no response from the forces to which it was primarily addressed.

Students undefeated

Remarkably, Quebec's major trade union leaders – experienced negotiators in hard-fought bargaining with businesses and governments – apparently advised the student leaders to accept the shabby offer presented to them by the Charest government. Although to date little has been said publicly about their role, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that their intervention did nothing to aid the students’ struggle and may in fact have undermined it.

Judging from this week's votes rejecting the offer, however, hundreds of thousands of students have not been taken in. Their anger, and renewed mobilization, may even be preparing the way for a new advance.

While speculation on the ultimate outcome of this massive uprising is premature, it is already clear that even if the strike ends without major gains, the students have not been defeated. They have fought impressively, to the best of their ability. And they have ignited a major debate in Quebec society, challenging neoliberal prerogatives and opening the prospect of “another Quebec” in which access to education will be a basic social need, available to all irrespective of income, and not a commodity for which access and content is a function of big business exigencies. The students have set the parameters for the continuation of this important debate, which has facets that reach far beyond public education as such. •

Richard Fidler is an Ottawa member of the Socialist Project. This article first appeared on his blog Life on the Left.

Endnotes:

1. Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante; Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec; Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec. Also participating in the negotiations was the TaCEQ (Table de concertation étudiante du Québec), which represents about 65,000 students at McGill, Laval and Sherbrooke universities. It broke with the FEUQ in 2005.

2. Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec, Confédération des syndicats nationaux, and Centrale des syndicats du Québec. Also participating was the FQPPU, the Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs du Québec.

[NewLeft]

The Real News: Quebec Students Rejecting Tuition Dea (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6w3NhlYrfg)

D6w3NhlYrfg

[the zizekian]

We only have to guess that the striking students are behind the complete paralysis of the subway trains in Montreal for this morning rush hour.

http://www.fm93.com/national/nouvelles/le-metro-de-montreal-paralyse-143893.html (http://www.fm93.com/national/nouvelles/le-metro-de-montreal-paralyse-143893.html)

[Le Rouge]

First day of class after a 9 week strike....I feel sooo down. It's like we did all that for nothing.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

First day of class after a 9 week strike....I feel sooo down. It's like we did all that for nothing.

I felt the same after the student protests in the UK but I feel it definitely set a precedent for the future trade union strikes that are going on now and spurred on a more radicalised student population. Your protests did so much more that I'm almost ashamed for how lackluster my own turned out to be. I'm certain that in the months to come more members of the working class will be inspired to demonstrate their own greivances and use those opportunities to encourage your fellow students to come out in solidarity. Remember, maintain the discussions with your peers and continue the struggle wherever you can.

[the zizekian]

The strike continues and there is even a plan to disrupt the Formula 1 Grand Prix (race cars) next June.

[Le Rouge]

The strike continues and there is even a plan to disrupt the Formula 1 Grand Prix (race cars) next June.

Amir Khadir?

[the zizekian]

Amir Khadir?

Khadir is asking for an enquiry about the police in Victoriaville.

[the zizekian]

In the green room with Slavoj Zizek:


At the end of this short clip, Zizek says that universities should remain “ivory towers” if we want great things to happen:


http://vimeo.com/41528022

[The Intransigent Faction]

We only have to guess that the striking students are behind the complete paralysis of the subway trains in Montreal for this morning rush hour.

http://www.fm93.com/national/nouvelles/le-metro-de-montreal-paralyse-143893.html (http://www.fm93.com/national/nouvelles/le-metro-de-montreal-paralyse-143893.html)

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1176871--montreal-police-search-suspects-in-subway-smoking-bombings?bn=1


Another message states: “On the one hand we want to live communism, on the other we want to spread anarchy.”Hmmmmmmm.....:unsure:

[the zizekian]

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1176871--montreal-police-search-suspects-in-subway-smoking-bombings?bn=1

Hmmmmmmm.....:unsure:

Roxanne Belisle, Geneviève Vaillancourt, Vanessa L’Écuyer and François Vivier-Gagnon are being accused of having generated fear of terrorist activities (they can get a five-year prison sentence). They are close to Force étudiante critique (a student association).

http://tvanouvelles.ca/lcn/infos/regional/montreal/archives/2012/05/20120513-071405.html (http://tvanouvelles.ca/lcn/infos/regional/montreal/archives/2012/05/20120513-071405.html)

[Grenzer]

Zizekian, I think you're putting way too much stock in student scum. They are ephermal, vacillating pseudo-radicals for the most part.

[the zizekian]

Zizekian, I think you're putting way too much stock in student scum. They are ephermal, vacillating pseudo-radicals for the most part.

That's reactionary!

[Le Rouge]

Zizekian, I think you're putting way too much stock in student scum. They are ephermal, vacillating pseudo-radicals for the most part.

Thank you, come back when you've changed your mind.

[danyboy27]

Zizekian, I think you're putting way too much stock in student scum. They are ephermal, vacillating pseudo-radicals for the most part.

Radicalization is a process that take time, trought struggle even the most pissant left-wing liberal have the potential to become a true leftist radical.

all that police charge, tear gassing, rubber bullet shooting and smuggy governement attitude is making wonder at creating the next generation of revolutionary.

The distrust those studients feel toward both the state and their oppressive instutition like the police and the court system is getting stronger by the day.

One of my relative who is currently a studient on strike lost so much of her illusions about the governement and the rule of law, i dont really know how it could have happened without this struggle.

[the zizekian]

Roxanne Belisle, Geneviève Vaillancourt, Vanessa L’Écuyer and François Vivier-Gagnon are being accused of having generated fear of terrorist activities (they can get a five-year prison sentence). They are close to Force étudiante critique (a student association).

http://tvanouvelles.ca/lcn/infos/regional/montreal/archives/2012/05/20120513-071405.html (http://tvanouvelles.ca/lcn/infos/regional/montreal/archives/2012/05/20120513-071405.html)

Je viens d’envoyer ce message d’appui à Force Étudiante Critique :

Étant donné que certains sont tentés de rapprocher l’enfumage soudain de passages souterrains à la terreur, il convient d’aborder cette question de la terreur. La première chose à dire de la terreur est qu’elle est absolument nécessaire à la justice. La justice a comme symbole une femme aveuglée par un bandeau tenant une épée et une balance dans les mains. Aussi bien le bandeau, l’épée que la balance symbolise la terreur. La balance symbole la terreur puisque le seul équilibre véritable est un équilibre de la terreur. C’est la fin de la guerre froide entre communisme et capitalisme (l’équilibre de la terreur) qui provoque les actions étudiantes. De plus, lorsque l’on dit « la loi c’est la loi », on dit en fait que la justice est fondée sur une terreur totalement arbitraire. Aussi, pour rendre justice, il faut être prêt à faire périr le monde entier.

[danyboy27]

Je viens d’envoyer ce message d’appui à Force Étudiante Critique :

Étant donné que certains sont tentés de rapprocher l’enfumage soudain de passages souterrains à la terreur, il convient d’aborder cette question de la terreur. La première chose à dire de la terreur est qu’elle est absolument nécessaire à la justice. La justice a comme symbole une femme aveuglée par un bandeau tenant une épée et une balance dans les mains. Aussi bien le bandeau, l’épée que la balance symbolise la terreur. La balance symbole la terreur puisque le seul équilibre véritable est un équilibre de la terreur. C’est la fin de la guerre froide entre communisme et capitalisme (l’équilibre de la terreur) qui provoque les actions étudiantes. De plus, lorsque l’on dit « la loi c’est la loi », on dit en fait que la justice est fondée sur une terreur totalement arbitraire. Aussi, pour rendre justice, il faut être prêt à faire périr le monde entier.
Smoking a subway station full of working class folks was pretty dumb tho.

[the zizekian]

Smoking a subway station full of working class folks was pretty dumb tho.

Forget about the working class, what is dumb is only rat racing in tunnels to stay in the bogus middle class.

[danyboy27]

Forget about the working class, what is dumb is only rat racing in tunnels to stay in the bogus middle class.

are you freaking high? socialism and communism is based on the fucking working class, you cant just forget ''those people''.

The only ones who have an advantage of us forgetting the working class are fascist and right-wingers.

[the zizekian]

are you freaking high? socialism and communism is based on the fucking working class, you cant just forget ''those people''.

The only ones who have an advantage of us forgetting the working class are fascist and right-wingers.

The working class that is also the proletariat is only the Force Étudiante Critique here (not the subway users).

[danyboy27]

The working class that is also the proletariat is only the Force Étudiante Critique here (not the subway users).

Fact: 99% of the people who take the subway are workers.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Why do the Quebec student protests seem confined to Francophone students? What is the dynamic with English speaking universities in Quebec (and elsewhere in Canada)?

Also its interesting that (as far as I know) there is a near total US corporate media black out of the protests. I have heard some news of the Quebec protest movement on Vermont Public Radio (bordering Quebec) but otherwise that's it.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Re: Dannyboy27
Fact: You pulled that number out of your ass.

Re: The awful "Students are bourgie wankers!" regurgitated uncritically from the national post
In Quebec, due to the last fifty years of student struggle, the class composition of students here is pretty different from the rest of North America. Like, it's actually relatively feasible for working class kids to attend university, and the vast majority attend CEGEP (junior college).

Re: Anglo Universities
Actually, this warrants a post when I'm not at work . . .

[danyboy27]

Re: Dannyboy27
Fact: You pulled that number out of your ass.

I dont have the stats to back it up but generally those who take the metro and the bus are worker.

I take the bus for 8 year already and believe me there aint much bourgeois around.

Anyway, blocking people from taking the metro is counter productive and stupid.

[the zizekian]

Fact: 99% of the people who take the subway are workers.

Fact: 99% of the people is the symbol of the Occupy movement.

[Le Rouge]

The Minister of Education, Line Beauchamp, just resigned minutes ago.

[the zizekian]

The Minister of Education, Line Beauchamp, just resigned minutes ago.

It is Charest (the prime minister) who should have done so!

[Le Rouge]

It is Charest (the prime minister) who should have done so!

One down, one to go.

[the zizekian]

It is Charest (the prime minister) who should have done so!

I’m sick and tired of woman paying for man.

[danyboy27]

Fact: 99% of the people is the symbol of the Occupy movement.

make me a big favor and respond when i adress you on something.

We should not ignore the workers in all this.

what do you have to respond to that?

[danyboy27]

I’m sick and tired of woman paying for man.

I dont think the current situation have anything to do with that.
Charest would have dropped anyone in the same position, he a ruthless opportunist bastard.

[WanderingCactus]

are you freaking high?

zizekian is seemingly always high.

[Parvati]

On the smoke bomb in the Metro, I personnaly think it lacks some mass line; metro users are a majority of proletarian people. On the other hand, it is clear that the bourgeoisie tries to take them as scapegoats.

It sure that I personally want students to win over the governement (or I lost 3 full time months of my life :P), but in a global, marxist perspective, it's the generated experience of struggle for the proletariat (and for sure, some stratas of the petty bourgeoisie too) that is learning quite quickly some political basis. The spontaneous movement is full of political mistakes, but it is still carrying life.

Pour ceux&celles qui parlent français, je vous invite à lire les deux derniers articles publiés sur le blog du MER, sur la bataille à Victoriaville et la question des injonctions au Collège Lionel-Groulx
www.mer-pcr.com

[the zizekian]

make me a big favor and respond when i adress you on something.

We should not ignore the workers in all this.

what do you have to respond to that?

You're fetishizing workers, the 99% is freeing them.

[the zizekian]

I dont think the current situation have anything to do with that.
Charest would have dropped anyone in the same position, he a ruthless opportunist bastard.

It has nothing to do with Charest, most prime ministers worldwide put a woman to deal with the department of education.

[black magick hustla]

Zizekian, I think you're putting way too much stock in student scum. They are ephermal, vacillating pseudo-radicals for the most part.

wtf arent u a student lol. i mean i always joke about how student are scum but i dont really mean it ...

[Ele'ill]

wtf arent u a student lol. i mean i always joke about how student are scum but i dont really mean it ...

there's not much that you do mean

[danyboy27]

You're fetishizing workers, the 99% is freeing them.


In what smoking the metro, dropping brick on the tracks and threatening to physically harm journalist help the worker?

I am really expecting an answer this time, if you fail to do so i will consider that you are an outright troll.

[the zizekian]

In what smoking the metro, dropping brick on the tracks and threatening to physically harm journalist help the worker?

I am really expecting an answer this time, if you fail to do so i will consider that you are an outright troll.

I'm not at your service. Everything one needs to know about workers’ self-help is depicted in the movie Fight Club (by David Fincher, 1999).

[danyboy27]

I'm not at your service. Everything one needs to know about workers’ self-help is depicted in the movie Fight Club (by David Fincher, 1999).

You do realize that by not responding to my verry simple question repeatedly you are actually trolling this forum?

[the zizekian]

You do realize that by not responding to my verry simple question repeatedly you are actually trolling this forum?

You are trolling.

[the zizekian]

MjxnJKaBxaU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjxnJKaBxaU)

It's too bad this sort of action doesn't seem to spread to other provinces. At one point they even got as far as briefly occupying the Education Minister's office.

Since the Europeans are caught with the Bologna Higher Education reform, the Quebec students’ strikes should be used as a model to reach out the European students:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_Process (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_Process)

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Alright, so I can see the confused logic behind "BUT THE WORKERZ!!!1!!!11!!" in critiquing the smoke bombing. I disagree, since, after all, any disruption of the flows of capital is going to negatively impact those whose lives are immediately dependent on the flow of capital (meaning, inevitably, workers). What I can't understand is how you could possibly employ that type of thinking in defense of journalists writing for the bourgeois press. What next, "BUT THE POOR PROLETARIAN COPS!!!11!!!" Consider the role of the media, think about the practical reasons to not want a camera in your face, read the National Post for ten minutes, then I dare you to tell me again that students should avoid attacking journalists.

[danyboy27]

Alright, so I can see the confused logic behind "BUT THE WORKERZ!!!1!!!11!!" in critiquing the smoke bombing. I disagree, since, after all, any disruption of the flows of capital is going to negatively impact those whose lives are immediately dependent on the flow of capital (meaning, inevitably, workers). What I can't understand is how you could possibly employ that type of thinking in defense of journalists writing for the bourgeois press. What next, "BUT THE POOR PROLETARIAN COPS!!!11!!!" Consider the role of the media, think about the practical reasons to not want a camera in your face, read the National Post for ten minutes, then I dare you to tell me again that students should avoid attacking journalists.

Well if that can make you feel better, the cops are not proletarian and deserve every bits of misery the studients can give them, they are a tool of the goddamn state.

Attacking the press is a totally different thing. Any direct act of violence against them will only boast their reputation and make them feel more important, and it will generate even more bad cover.
On a long and short run its counter-productive and useless in the current situation.

In the current situation, The best way to counter the media is to create your own brand of propaganda against them and the state.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

In the current situation, The best way to counter the media is to create your own brand of propaganda against them and the state.

I agree with this. However this bit -


Attacking the press is a totally different thing. Any direct act of violence against them will only boast their reputation and make them feel more important, and it will generate even more bad cover.

- sounds like the thinking of irritating liberal pacifists. Has this strategy worked for liberal pacifists? Obviously not. Generally, getting your ass handed to you is not a solid propaganda strategy. In any case, if we create our own worthwhile media, we can cover it the way it ought to be covered: snitches getting what they deserve.

[danyboy27]

- sounds like the thinking of irritating liberal pacifists. Has this strategy worked for liberal pacifists? Obviously not. Generally, getting your ass handed to you is not a solid propaganda strategy. In any case, if we create our own worthwhile media, we can cover it the way it ought to be covered: snitches getting what they deserve.


Anyway, what is your great idea to fight back against the press? burn their offices? throws rock at journalist? beat them in the street?

it will not work, you wont stop them from slandering peoples by doing this.

[The Intransigent Faction]

Anyway, what is your great idea to fight back against the press? burn their offices? throws rock at journalist? beat them in the street?

it will not work, you wont stop them from slandering peoples by doing this.

I agree. I'm no pacifist, but we of all people should know that attacking journalists will not stop their propaganda---if anything it will ultimately do the opposite.

It is a common criticism in mainstream media that strikers and their actions are "disruptive", though, whether to the bourgeoisie or, yes, to the lives of other workers. To this I will only say...well duh, they are supposed to be disruptive. You will draw negative media coverage by being disruptive (obviously), but it is necessary, and we know that even a minor nuisance to the bourgeoisie will get negative coverage. If disrupting the daily routine of other workers is such a bad thing, then you'd have a tough time spreading strikes or bringing as much of the capitalist machine as possible to a halt.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Anyway, what is your great idea to fight back against the press?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times_bombing

lol I was jk :lol::unsure:

But seriously, if a member of the press is recording you commiting a criminal act, then yeah, maybe some sort of action should be taken against them. Or against their camera, at least. But as far as big, publicized events go, you're never going to succeed in shooing the press away from those, people are just going to have to deal with it.

The absolute worst are the people who actively try to win over the press to "our side", a foolish delusion if there ever was one.

I came back on to this thread though to say that I've been very impressed/inspired/entertained by the goings on in Montreal over the past little bit, you guys did good, keep up the good work.

[Le Penseur Libre]

Can anyone link me to a manisfestation in Quebec I can't seem to find one ?!? But I have heard that there gonna have one today

[danyboy27]

The charest governement is about to pass a set of emergency measures to guts the protests.

Basically, they will suspend the semester and allow cops to arrest and fine anyone who is blocking or disrupting the schools.

Of course he mentionned 2 days ago that there will be no special laws and no deployement of cops.

Charest is a slimy bastard, a liar and a fraud.

[Le Penseur Libre]

The law 78 has passed yesterday, see the attachement file. ( only in french srry )

[Le Penseur Libre]

MTL RIOT LIVE : livestreamDOTcom/cutvmontreal

[Os Cangaceiros]

MONTREAL - Appeals for calm from various student associations and political leaders following the passage of a controversial new law in Quebec appeared to be largely heeded as several thousand people protested peacefully in Montreal from Friday night until 3:30 a.m. Saturday.

About two hours into the event, however, police reported a series of Molotov cocktails had been thrown at officers by a handful of protesters, prompting the riot squad to deploy smoke bombs, percussion bombs and CS gas against the entire crowd.


Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Police+tear+smoke+bombs+after+Molotov+cocktails+re portedly+tossed/6647402/story.html#ixzz1vNrUR7H8

[nomad05273k]

LOLL At our biggest demo, there were thousands and thousands of red flags. Unbelievable :wub:
Sad to see that most of you won't see what i have seen that day...

Where's the black flags at?

[danyboy27]

I went to a protest march organized on Quebec last night and it was peaceful.
2000 peoples, young, old, middle aged, a lot of people.

We where frequently cheered by the peoples from the street and from the appartements.

The cops kept to themselves, no riot gear, they blocked the street and directed the traffic.

I heard some nasty stuff about montreal protest tho.
Stupid copper threw tear gas inside a bar and pepper sprayed people taking a drink on a outside table, they arrested ,pepper sprayed and insulted many people who had nothing to do with the protest at all.

the SPVM are the fucking scum of the earth.

[Le Rouge]

The fucking law 78 passed... DAMN! Now we have to tell the pigs when we prepare a demo which has more than 10 people attending. Also, we can not incite people to attend a demo or cheer people attending them. I could get a fucking fined for doing that. A real Fascist law.....Nazi Canada/Québec

[nomad05273k]

The fucking law 78 passed... DAMN! Now we have to tell the pigs when we prepare a demo which has more than 10 people attending. Also, we can not incite people to attend a demo or cheer people attending them. I could get a fucking fined for doing that. A real Fascist law.....Nazi Canada/Québec

'Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable', JFK

[Le Rouge]

'Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable', JFK

Thanks for the cheer

[Le Penseur Libre]

wow it sucks i am going to be at the quebec protest tonight. i would love to go to mtl. the protesters in quebec are just of bunch of hipsters/petit bourgeoie... who are actually following the law 78 :S

[Parvati]

What's interesting is that night demos are getting more and more proletarian and less "student petty-bourgeois chic". The other thing interesting is that there's now thousand and thousand of youth who reject the legality of bourgeois law for their own legitimity.

Red flags with hummer sickle are also popular; at Valleyfield College or at the May Day Protest, there was more people who ask for a flag than the actual number of flag we got (and we've got over 130 of them at the May Day protest)

[KurtFF8]

Solidarity action tomorrow in NYC http://www.facebook.com/events/175495162577776/

[Le Penseur Libre]

Wow i am pround. It's nice to see people like michael moore caring about our cause:)

[Sasha]

The fucking law 78 passed... DAMN! Now we have to tell the pigs when we prepare a demo which has more than 10 people attending. Also, we can not incite people to attend a demo or cheer people attending them. I could get a fucking fined for doing that. A real Fascist law.....Nazi Canada/Québec

Anyone seen the awsome picture of the first official demo route under the new law? When drawn out on a map it shows a huge middle finger :thumbup1:
I only seen the pic on Facebook so I cant link

[danyboy27]

wow it sucks i am going to be at the quebec protest tonight. i would love to go to mtl. the protesters in quebec are just of bunch of hipsters/petit bourgeoie... who are actually following the law 78 :S

well all i can answer to that is fuck you.
There was act of civil disobedience yesterday at the end of the initial protest, folks where arrested and fined.

The only difference with montreal beside the number of people participating in act of civil disobedience is that they didnt wanted to put at risk the crowd that wasnt ready for that kind of action.

i am all for civil disobedience, but labelling everyone who didnt wanted to get arrested has petit bourgeois and hipster is downright stupid.

[Le Penseur Libre]

have you been to qc? These guys aint real, they are shouting "La loi 78 on s'en calis" and yet they still follow it. imo doing 1 minute of silence is stupid, useless and kills the momentum of the protest. Resu;lt? Not a single media talking about the manifestation. im not sure if I should continue to go there...:cursing:

[danyboy27]

have you been to qc? These guys aint real, they are shouting "La loi 78 on s'en calis" and yet they still follow it. imo doing 1 minute of silence is stupid, useless and kills the momentum of the protest. Resu;lt? Not a single media talking about the manifestation. im not sure if I should continue to go there...:cursing:

I fucking live in Quebec city and i have been to the protest, my gf goes there has well verry often when she can.

Of course there are some slogan that didnt make any sense, for exemple some dude started a slogan about Quebec becoming a country, wich is ridiculous.

i wouldnt call the mass of people who are mostly workers who give their time to participate to a peaceful protest petit bourgeois, its both innacurate and dumb.

You may think its easy to just charge the cop and break shit up, but when there are toddler,pregnant women, elderly people and folks in wheelchair in the crowd, you think twice before putting those people at risk.

Hell, you might not remember what the goddamn law said but i read the fucking thing twice and if they catch you they wont just temporary detain you for the night, they will ask you to pay up to 10 000 dollars, hell only wearing the red square on my t-shirt during the protest would have been enough for the cops to arrest me and ask me to pay the fee.

Keep in mind that the cops are arresting people in the middle of the goddamn street outside protest for only wearing the red square.
If you consider that the whole crowd most of the time wear the red square, even a sheduled protest is in itself a act of civil disobedience, goddamn even talking on facebook or twitter about that is a criminal offence that could grant you an arrestation and a 7k tickets.

dont forget that the organizer of the protest are now accountable for EVERYTHING the crowd does and can be charged up to 20k, and the studient organisation will also have to foot a similar bill.

[Public Domain]

Montreal suddenly seems liek the greatest place to live in Canada

[Le Penseur Libre]

I fucking live in Quebec city and i have been to the protest, my gf goes there has well verry often when she can.

Of course there are some slogan that didnt make any sense, for exemple some dude started a slogan about Quebec becoming a country, wich is ridiculous.

i wouldnt call the mass of people who are mostly workers who give their time to participate to a peaceful protest petit bourgeois, its both innacurate and dumb.

You may think its easy to just charge the cop and break shit up, but when there are toddler,pregnant women, elderly people and folks in wheelchair in the crowd, you think twice before putting those people at risk.

Hell, you might not remember what the goddamn law said but i read the fucking thing twice and if they catch you they wont just temporary detain you for the night, they will ask you to pay up to 10 000 dollars, hell only wearing the red square on my t-shirt during the protest would have been enough for the cops to arrest me and ask me to pay the fee.

Keep in mind that the cops are arresting people in the middle of the goddamn street outside protest for only wearing the red square.
If you consider that the whole crowd most of the time wear the red square, even a sheduled protest is in itself a act of civil disobedience, goddamn even talking on facebook or twitter about that is a criminal offence that could grant you an arrestation and a 7k tickets.

dont forget that the organizer of the protest are now accountable for EVERYTHING the crowd does and can be charged up to 20k, and the studient organisation will also have to foot a similar bill.

Yes you do make a point. I think the problem is mostly that the quebec's manif doesnt have enought people. But keep in mind that the cops in quebec are not severe...they are not really applying the law 78..

[danyboy27]

Yes you do make a point. I think the problem is mostly that the quebec's manif doesnt have enought people. But keep in mind that the cops in quebec are not severe...they are not really applying the law 78..

It depend on both the administrative sector and the police force involved.

Quebec city got around 700 cops with only a small part of that being on the ground, the rest are mostly office workers.

Montreal is a totally different story, the SPVM got 4000 cops well known for their racism and brutallity.

the rest of quebec is controlled by the Regional police, basically semi-elite with a ''better'' training and equipement, only bested by the mounties.
Their elitist mentality might explain why they are also verry brutish.

Of course they are verry sporadic in applying the law, but they do it mostly to set an exemple. If they are unable to instill fear they will be more systematic in the future.

[wsg1991]

so what are you planning to do canadians ?

[blake 3:17]

This is an unprecedented level of struggle. There were several events in Toronto today in solidarity -- wasn't able to attend so can't report.

Video of rally in Montreal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zIO4FgXN1CY


Union cash flowing into Quebec to fund prolonged student protests
Andy Blatchford, Tuesday, May 22, 2012 6:46 PM


Students protesting against tuition hikes confront Quebec Provincial Police at the Lionel Groulx college Tuesday, May 15, 2012 in Ste. Therese, Quebec. Out-of-province money is rolling in for Quebec student activists amid warnings their protest movement could persist into the summer. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
MONTREAL - Out-of-province money is flowing toward Quebec student activists amid signs their protest movement could persist into the summer.

Trade unions based outside Quebec have already confirmed depositing some $40,000 into the bank accounts of the province's largest student federations, cash that has helped pay for needs such as buses and food during demonstrations.

Unions in the rest of Canada, meanwhile, say their memberships will soon be asked to vote on new contributions for these student groups. Others are urging local union branches to consider making donations.

The cash injection from outside the province represents a fraction of the monetary support that has been sent to student groups. Quebec unions have given tens of thousands of dollars to the cause, including $35,000 just from the Confederation des syndicats nationaux.

But as the student crisis showed no signs of slowing down Tuesday — the 100th day of the strike — more unions were considering whether to pitch in.

The executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers said Tuesday that his union could approve a financial contribution for the students in the next day or two.

"We're actively considering it," said James Turk, whose association represents 66,000 teachers and other academic professionals across Canada.

Turk said there's added urgency to help out now that the Quebec government has adopted an emergency law — Bill 78 — that sets some restrictions on protests.

"We don't want the main issue obscured, and that is the desire to have accessible post-secondary education," he said, referring to the issue that ignited the strike movement several months ago — the provincial plan to hike tuition fees.



Read it on Global News: Global Winnipeg | Union cash flowing into Quebec to fund prolonged student protests

http://www.globalwinnipeg.com/canada/union+cash+flowing+into+quebec+to+fund+prolonged+s tudent+protests/6442646110/story.html


Quebec students are teaching us all an important lesson
BY DERRICK O'KEEFE | MAY 22, 2012

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Here at rabble.ca, we've been hard at work to break through the wall of mainstream media that - either by ignoring or cynically attacking - has largely kept the rest of Canada in the dark about the historic social movement taking place in Quebec.
All across Canada and beyond, we need fair and in-depth coverage of the Quebec student strike. Not just so we can show solidarity with their efforts, but so we can learn from their creative and determined movement. Here are a few of my thoughts on the strike, which I originally wrote up for a regular column I do in The Source / La Source, a bilingual newspaper in Vancouver.
*
"Those who struggle may fail. Those who do not struggle have already failed." - Bertolt Brecht
Quebec's students are teaching, or re-teaching, an important lesson to all of us.
In Canada, and here in British Columbia, decades of neo-liberalism have rolled back our public services. Even more damaging, perhaps, has been the way these years have rolled back our public imagination.
The There Is No Alternative (TINA) doctrine, popularized by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative rule in the U.K., still holds sway over much of our political discourse. Official policy debates are too often just a matter of opposing views on how to tinker around the edges.
But in Quebec, the student movement is pointing right at the heart of the matter. Faced with a 75 per cent tuition increase, they have fought back - hard. Holding out on strike for well over three months now, they have displayed remarkable unity and creativity.
In addition to putting up a fight for their own right to an accessible education, they have appealed to the wider society, calling for a ‘social strike' against Quebec's Charest government. As in B.C., Quebec's government is Liberal by name, but in reality is a coalition that represents right-wing corporate interests.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/derrick/2012/05/quebec-students-are-teaching-us-all-important-lesson

[blake 3:17]

From Al Jazeera:


Quebec students mark 100 days of fee protests
Protest comes after provincial government passed emergency law to end Canada's most sustained student demonstrations.
Last Modified: 23 May 2012 00:22

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Angered by the government's recent crackdown, students made their pitch for low-cost education for all [AFP]
Tens of thousands of people defied an emergency law restricting protests by marching in Montreal to mark the 100th day of student protests over plans to raise tuition.

Demonstrators slowly winded through the downtown streets of Canada's second-largest metropolis on Tuesday, occasionally booing Quebec Premier Jean Charest and his "truncheon law."

With placards in hand, blowing horns and beating drums, festive students and their supporters - some of them first-time protesters angered by the government's recent crackdown - made their pitch for low-cost education accessible to all.


"Today, we're all students," Chloe Domingue-Bouchard, a political science student at the University of Quebec, shouted over a bullhorn to the crowd.

"We're here not only to denounce a hike in school fees but also an unjust and brutal truncheon law ... that has turned us all into criminals."

Charest is a "tyrant," another protester said.

The new law requires groups larger than 50 to alert police if they plan to hold a demonstration, and provide the location, time and duration of the event ahead of time. It also suspends classes interrupted by the strikes until mid-August.

The measure was passed last Friday in response to ongoing student unrest after students rejected a deal with the provincial government that would have gradually raised tuition fees over a seven-year period, instead of five.

On its heels, the city of Montreal also passed a bylaw prohibiting the wearing of masks after several cloaked protesters smashed storefronts and clashed with police in recent weeks.

Those failing to comply with either law face fines.

Growing support

Protests have raged here since mid-February over a plan by the provincial government to raise tuition fees at Quebec universities by 82 per cent, or more than $1,700.

Before the emergency law was unveiled, a majority of Quebecers backed the government on the need for an increase in school fees to rein a budget deficit.

But many now say Charest has mismanaged the crisis, and support for the students is growing.

The Grammy Award-winning band Arcade Fire pinned symbolic red squares of cloth to their chests for a performance on US network NBC television's "Saturday Night Live" program over the weekend, to show support for the student movement.


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/05/2012522215350248850.html

[blake 3:17]

Yes you do make a point. I think the problem is mostly that the quebec's manif doesnt have enought people. But keep in mind that the cops in quebec are not severe...they are not really applying the law 78..

Outside of political interests, it is a stupid law, and will be very hard to defend in the courts.

From the CBC:

Education Minister Michelle Courchesne said she sympathizes with everyone who has to work in Montreal, particularly retailers and restaurant staff.

PQ leader Pauline Marois said the premier has lost control of the situation.

"I think it's really difficult," Courchese said. "What we want most is social peace,"

Courchesne said Monday night's relatively peaceful demonstration showed protests can take place within the parameters of the new law.

Overnight Sunday and into Monday, at least 300 people were arrested and 20 were injured during protests in Montreal.

She said she is confident that calm will return to Montreal's streets, however Courchesne is less certain about a return to negotiations with student leaders anytime soon — especially with CLASSE openly calling for protesters to defy Bill 78.

"Once they are asking (people) to disobey laws and have that strong attitude regarding the respect of laws, I presuppose that they don't want to come back to the table," said Courchesne.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/05/22/quebec-opposition-slams-bill-78-100th-day.html

[blake 3:17]

Apologies for the multiple posts.

Just got word that the bus drivers union SCFP (the Quebecois wing of CUPE) has announced that they will not be collaborating with police in moving protesters detained by police.

http://www.caomsc.qc.ca/

[blake 3:17]

One more... A message from the legal team of the CLASSE the most militant and left student union:


CLASSE - Urgent Appeal to the Rest of Canada

Request for solidarity and support for the Legal Committee of the CLASSE

Sisters, brothers,

We write you during a dark time for democratic, human and associative rights in Quebec with the following appeal for your help and solidarity. As you have no doubt heard, the government recently enacted legislation that amounts to the single biggest attack on the right to organize and freedom of expression in North America since the McCarthy period and the biggest attack on civil and democratic rights since the enactment of the War Measures Act in 1970. Arguably, this recent law will unduly criminalize more law-abiding citizens than even McCarthy's hearings and the War Measures Act ever could.

Among other draconian elements brought forward by this law, any gathering of 50 or more people must submit their plans to the police eight hours ahead of time and must agree to any changes to the gathering's trajectory, starttime, etc. Any failure to comply with this stifling of freedom of assembly and association will be met with a fine of up to $5,000 for every participant, $35,000 for someone representing a 'leadership' position, or $125,000 if a union - labour or student - is deemed to be in charge. The participation of any university staff (either support staff or professors) in any student demonstration (even one that follows the police's trajectory and instructions) is equally punishable by these fines. Promoting the violation of any of these prohibitions is considered, legally, equivalent to having violated them and is equally punishable by these crippling fines.

One cannot view this law in isolation. In the past few months, the Québec student movement - inspired by Occupy, the Indignados of Spain, the students of Chile, and over 50 years of student struggle in Québec; and presently at North America's forefront of fighting the government's austerity agenda - has been confronted by precedent-shattering judicial and police repression in an attempt to force the end of the strike and our right to organize collectively. Our strike was voted and is re-voted every week in local general assemblies across Québec. As of May 18th, 2012 our committee has documented and is supporting 472 criminal accusations as well as 1047 ticket and penal offenses. One week in April saw over 600 arrests in three days. And those numbers only reflect those charged with an offense, without mentioning the thousands pepper sprayed and tear gassed, clubbed and beaten, detained and released. It does not mention Francis Grenier, who lost use of most of an ey!
e when a sound grenade was illegally thrown by a police officer into his face in downtown Montreal. It does not mention Maxence Valade who lost a full eye and Alexandre Allard who clung to life in a coma on a hospital bed for days, both having received a police rubber bullet to the head in Victoriaville. And the thousands of others brutalized, terrorized, harassed and assaulted on our streets. Four students are currently being charged under provisions of the anti-terrorist laws enacted following September 11th.

In addition to these criminal and penal cases, of particular concern for those of us involved in the labour movement is that anti-strike forces have filed injunctions systematically from campus to campus to prevent the enactment of strike mandates, duly and democratically voted in general assemblies. Those who have defended their strike mandates and enforced the strike are now facing Contempt of Court charges and their accompanying potential $50,000 fines and potential prison time. One of our spokespeople, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, will appear in Superior Court under such a charge for having dared say, on May 13th of this year, that "I find it legitimate" that students form picket lines to defend their strike.

While we fight, on principle, against this judicialization of a political conflict, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the struggle on the streets has been, for many, transferred to the courtroom and we must act to defend our classmates, our friends and our family. This defense needs your help. Many students have been denied access to Legal Aid to help them to defend themselves. This, while students filing injunctions to end strikes have been systematically granted Legal Aid. While sympathetic lawyers in all fields of law have agreed to reduced rates and alot of free support, the inherent nature of the legal system means we are spending large sums of money on this defense by the day.

It is in this context that we appeal to you to help us cover the costs of this, our defense. Not only must we help those being unduly criminalized and facing injunctions undermining their right to associate, but we must act now and make sure that the criminalization and judicialization of a political struggle does not work and set a precedent that endangers the right to free speech and free assembly.

If you, your union, or your organization is able to give any amount of financial help, it would make an undeniable difference in our struggle. In addition to the outpouring of support from labour across Quebec, we have already begun to receive trans-Canadian and international solidarity donations. We thank you for adding your organization's support to the list.

If you have any questions, please contact us via email legal AT asse-solidarité.qc.ca. Telephone numbers can be given to you in a private message. You can also send you donation directly to the order of "Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante" (2065 rue Parthenais, Bureau 383, Montréal, QC, H2K 3T1) noting "CLASSE Legal Committee" in the memo line.

In solidarity,

Max Silverman

Law student at the Université du Québec à Montréal

Volunteer with the Legal Committee of the CLASSE


Andrée Bourbeau

Law student at the Université du Québec à Montréal

Delegate to the Legal Committee of the CLASSE


Emilie Charette

Law student at the Université du Québec à Montréal

Delegate to the Legal Committee of the CLASSE


Emilie Breton-Côté

Law student at the Université du Québec à Montréal

Volunteer with the Legal Committee of the CLASSE

[KurtFF8]

There were a few solidarity actions in NYC yesterday:

42678493

(And if that doesn't work: https://vimeo.com/42678493 )

[danyboy27]

Apologies for the multiple posts.

Just got word that the bus drivers union SCFP (the Quebecois wing of CUPE) has announced that they will not be collaborating with police in moving protesters detained by police.

http://www.caomsc.qc.ca/

i was so happy to hear that.

[The Intransigent Faction]

There were a few solidarity actions in NYC yesterday:

42678493

(And if that doesn't work: https://vimeo.com/42678493 )


There were some in Vancouver as well. :) http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/fr/photo/vancouver-rallies-striking-quebec-students/11004

[danyboy27]

Massive arrestation yesterday, 160 people in Quebec city and around 450 in Montreal.

In both Cases the police used city buses to load the prisonner and ship them to the police station where they received a fine of 600 dollars each.

The montreal and quebec protest where declated illegal even before they started.

In both Quebec and montreal the cops surrounded the protester, asked them to leave and arrested the whole crowd.

There was no organizers at the quebec city protest, when i went there yesterday to check it out it was a goddamn mess from the start.

[KurtFF8]

I read somewhere that the transit workers union was going to try to prevent the use of buses for protesters. Perhaps they failed to prevent that in Montreal as they failed in NYC?

[danyboy27]

I read somewhere that the transit workers union was going to try to prevent the use of buses for protesters. Perhaps they failed to prevent that in Montreal as they failed in NYC?

Well if i am not mistaken many cops have the capacity to drive buses so it dosnt make much of a difference.

[danyboy27]

The anarcho-panda will be in Quebec city tonight for the march, and i seriously hope someone have organised something this time.

http://histoireetcivilisation.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/anarchopanda.jpg?w=500&h=376

[Bandito]

The route that students presented the cops when asked about it:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/484237_241349949304934_100002897928304_370855_1429 275491_n.jpg

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Was that the actual route?

[Le Penseur Libre]

Massive arrestation yesterday, 160 people in Quebec city and around 450 in Montreal.

In both Cases the police used city buses to load the prisonner and ship them to the police station where they received a fine of 600 dollars each.

The montreal and quebec protest where declated illegal even before they started.

In both Quebec and montreal the cops surrounded the protester, asked them to leave and arrested the whole crowd.

There was no organizers at the quebec city protest, when i went there yesterday to check it out it was a goddamn mess from the start.

How many people were at the manif in Quebec?

[blake 3:17]

Got this today from an activist in the CLASSE. Good idea to read this if you are in Montreal:


Information on contesting tickets
POSTED 24 MAY 2012
Information for anyone wishing to contest a ticket in relation to demonstrations in Montreal– from lawyer Denis Poitras:
1) Contest your ticket by signing it, indicating the date and checking “not guilty”. Don’t write anything else, no explanations, don’t indicate a motive (this will help better prepare any legal proceedings).
2) Scan your ticket and email it to [email protected] with a phone number you can be reached at as well as your version of the facts. If you don’t have access to a scanner, you can fax it to 514-289-1729.
3) Mail it to the Municipal Court.
4) Don’t publish your version of the facts elsewhere!
You should hear back from the Municipal Court within 6 months, possibly more. We will create a private listserv for all the accused in order to organize a joint trial, examine different possibilities in terms of legal defense, funding options, etc.

[Capitalist Octopus]

http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2012/05/resistance-can-be-violent/

"Resistance can be Violent"

Above is an article from a comrade of mine discussing why the movement is now violent, and why this is probably a good thing. Interesting read.

[Tabarnack]

The movement is not violent, there has been some incidents of violence but on the whole not much, but I am sure the authorities and their allies on the "left" are pushing for it...

[danyboy27]

How many people were at the manif in Quebec?

yesterday about 200, today it seem like they are 2000, maybe more.

I dont know about montreal tho,

[danyboy27]

violent is a really big word for the action of 1 or 3 invididuals here and there.

There are a lot of people really into civil disobedience tho, like those 160 folks who where arrested in Quebec.

I fucking laugh at those reactionary idiots living in Quebec who think these protest are violents, those tools have no fucking idea how hardcore the 40s and 50s where, how people had to really push far to be heard. People where shot, bulding where set ablaze, cops got severely beaten etc etc.

Violence or not these protest are really taking their toll on the cops who have to do overtime over and over and over.

Hell i cant imagine how the riot squad people stacked in the van all in gear at this heat must be fucking pissed right now.

One of charest advisor jumped out of the ship yesterday and i wouldnt be surprised if in the coming week there will be more folks from the party leaving his cabinet or the party.

[blake 3:17]

Avaaz.org has a petition against Bill 78 that is getting lots of signatures. I know many folks here are critical of Avaaz, but they do a good job on things like this -- 15000 people have signed in the past few minutes! The message is a basic defence of civil liberties.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/quebec_protests/?cXOyrab

[Os Cangaceiros]

http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2012/05/resistance-can-be-violent/

"Resistance can be Violent"

Above is an article from a comrade of mine discussing why the movement is now violent, and why this is probably a good thing. Interesting read.

It's definitely refreshing when people actually stand their ground against the pigs and don't just stand around chanting "SHAME! SHAME!"

[danyboy27]

Yesterday protest In montreal and Quebec city where peaceful, but some people where arrested, many people showed up and there was also some protest in granby and in sagnay

So far the number of people arrested since the begining of the conflict is higher than the goddamn october crisis in the 70s, around 2000.

For those who are not familiar with it, the october crisis was when the provicial governement asked the army in beccause a minister and a diplomat where kidnapped by a small cell of Quebec separatists well known for blowing up mailboxes.

The pressure those massive arrestation and protest have on the governement is tremendous; cops are frustrated and exausted, the justice system can barely handle all those fine and judicial proceeding and eventually the cost of the whole thing will outweight the tution fee increase.

most cops dont even dare giving fee related to law 78 and instead are looking for something more trivial like traffic violation or some such shit beccause they know they could be sued in a fews month when it will be declared unconstitutional.

[Le Penseur Libre]

Going tonight to the Quebec's manifestation I hope there will be alot of people!!!

Also, what do you guys think about Anonymous??

We are fighting against censorship and these guys are censoring websites. isnt it a paradox?

[blake 3:17]

For those who don't read French or don't reach French well enough, the link here is to a blog which is translating articles and documents from french to English. It is a volunteer effort, and there may be some errors, but very useful!

Link here: http://translatingtheprintempserable.tumblr.com/

Edited to add: A very pretty video of pots and pans demontrators: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/05/25/montreal-pots-and-pans-video-bill-78_n_1546694.html

[The Intransigent Faction]

Going tonight to the Quebec's manifestation I hope there will be alot of people!!!

Also, what do you guys think about Anonymous??

We are fighting against censorship and these guys are censoring websites. isnt it a paradox?

Anonymous is "censoring websites"? :confused: Do you have any proof? That sounds like nonsense to me.

[Luc]

http://www.rt.com/news/canada-protest-spreads-ontario-284/


Ontario students have pledged to take to the streets in solidarity with their protesting fellows in Montreal and other cities of Quebec. The students are defying emergency laws the authorities are imposing to curb down the wave of dissent.

Students in Quebec have been protesting for more than 100 days now, with violent clashes between police and protesters reported on several occasions. The latest demo on Wednesday night resulted in a police crackdown on demonstrators.

About 700 people were detained throughout the province, which pushed the total number of detentions over the months over 2,500. That is at least five times more than during the 1970 crisis, when martial law was declared in Quebec in response to the actions of radical nationalists.

The protest against the hike of tuition fees was mainly focused in the province’s largest city Montreal, but it is now spreading outside of Quebec. A group of students the neighboring province of Ontario pledged their support of the movement Friday.

“The most important thing we can do in Ontario to support the struggle in Quebec is to bring the spirit of democracy and activism into the province of Ontario,” said student and activist Xavier Lafrance as cited by the Toronto Sun. “The spirit is in the air. Mr. McGuinty needs to be aware that it can and will happen in Ontario.”

Calling the rally scheduled for June 5 the “beginning in Ontario,” Sandy Hudson, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario, said the group is expecting to “build a movement and have capacity.”

On May 18, Quebec provincial government issued a controversial emergency regulation called Bill 78 designed to undermine the students’ ability to impose school shutdowns. It restricts public gatherings larger than 50 people, provides fines for protest leaders endorsing unsanctioned events and forbids covering of faces on demos, among other things.

The regulation’s effect on freedom of assembly is drawing an increasing number of older protesters to join their students. The Montreal Gazette cites Henri Fernand, 65, who took part in Wednesday’s rally in his wheelchair as saying: "The youth is our future and I'm proud of them. I'm here in solidarity with the students."

anyone know of any plans for protests in ontario? i can pm you my location and local unis if you want. is it just universities (im in highschool can i still help someway)? i want to help in whatever small way i can even if it is just showing up at a solidarity demo. :) any quick advice if i get arrested at a demo or somthing? :lol: should i not since im not in uni/college?

i havent realy been following this as much as i should :blushing: any links to summary articles?

[The Intransigent Faction]

http://www.rt.com/news/canada-protest-spreads-ontario-284/

anyone know of any plans for protests in ontario? i can pm you my location and local unis if you want. is it just universities (im in highschool can i still help someway)? i want to help in whatever small way i can even if it is just showing up at a solidarity demo. :) any quick advice if i get arrested at a demo or somthing? :lol: should i not since im not in uni/college?

i havent realy been following this as much as i should :blushing: any links to summary articles?

Funny you should mention that---I guess I didn't post this here already, so: http://www.torontosun.com/2012/05/25/ontario-students-plan-support-of-quebec-counterparts

The Canadian Federation of Students is planning a rally at Queen's Park downtown for June 5th.

It's true that post-secondary students pay tuition, whereas high school is generally publicly funded through taxes (aside from private schools of course), but it's absolutely an issue in which high school students should get involved as well, especially since many of you and your classmates are, after all, the next generation of university and college students. If things continue like this, then it will only be more expensive for you!

By all means show up at a demo if you can! :) To have not just current students but also aspiring students, and all others who see education not as a commodity but a fundamental right speaking out about tuition fees strengthens the voice for change.

[danyboy27]

Today protest in Quebec and Montreal where fucking Wicked! a shitload of peoples, and the cops dont give a damn about this stupid law anymore.

i was in the bus at 8 in direction of the protest and a ton of people where banging pot and pan together from their appartement and house windows.

Protest have now spread to many other cities in QUebec including trois rivieres and sagnay.

Since the massive arrestations made last week the cops have been awfully quiet, probably beccause the governement dont want more people overcrowding the justice system.

My legs are fucking destroyed from walking that verry steep hill called cote sallabery, i can barely walk, and i really wonder how all those 70 year old folks who where there made it at all.

i dont have any number but i would say we where more than 2000 peoples that for sure.

I dont know where this is all gonna go but i can safely say this is the biggest social mobilization since the 60s and i dont think this is just go away when the tuition fee issue gonna be over.

Its so fucking refreshing, especially in a place with so much apathy.

[danyboy27]

To all my fellow comrades from other provinces, dont let the state and the corporation give you the shaft, resist!

[Os Cangaceiros]

While since Friday, May 18 demos are held in several cities of the province, like Quebec City, Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières, in Montreal, tens of thousands of people are confronting the Police State defying the new “special law” Bill 78 which requires, among other things, that any gathering of 50 or more people to provide its trajectory to the cops 8h ahead and modifies it at their request with fines that can reach thousands of dollars.

Friday, May 18,
after giving a trajectory to the cops and leaving the Place Émilie-Gamelin at 21h, the demonstration that, at some point had more than 10,000 people of all ages, deviated and improvised its way. The crowd chanted “la loi spéciale, on s’en câlisse!” (We dont give a fuck about the special law!) And anti-government slogans and anti-cops. Some 40 minutes after the start of the demo cops charged against the crowd without warning throwing bombs at head height, as always, and so began the clashes. The crowd responded with rocks, smoke bombs and molotov cocktails, many groups splintered and clashes continued until 3:30am with windows smashed and copcars vandalized. There were a dozen arrests and a man was hospitalized in serious condition after the cops shot him in the liver point blank with a plastic bullet.
watch a video here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsMfHKYiTdw)

Saturday, May 19,
another huge crowd of thousands of people took to the streets being the 26th nightly demonstration in as many nights, no trajectory was given to the cops. The demo left Place Émilie-Gamelin around 21h as every other evening. The SSPVM declared the protest illegal a few minutes after it began and repeated many times the same warning with the crowd chanting “la loi spéciale, on s’en câlisse!”. A convoy of several buses of the SQ riot-squad (provincial police) followed the demonstration by parallel streets. Several people were masked, challenging the new municipal rule, effective the same day, prohibiting the wearing of masks during a demonstration.
A little after 22h cops provoked the crowd with arbitrary arrests and started to gas. The clashes started and barricades were erected, notably one at the corner of Ontario and Saint-Denis, where a flaming barricade was erected and maintained for several hours. Cop cruisers and riot-squad buses were attacked. The SQ came as reinforcement to the SPVM and at some point firefighters arrived and went up to the fire, but they received orders to leave (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkLn6_Khgn4). Probably they wanted pictures of the intervention the riots-quad against a background of fires to legitimize the power-tripping cops attacking everything that moves in the street or on the terraces of bars on St. Denis. In fact the next day, the mayor said to some journalists who questioned the work of cops, that the rioters had set fire to Montreal.

There were 69 arrests according to the cops, arresting just about anyone at any time. 9 of 69 people are accused of assault against police officers, assault with a weapon and arson. Three people still in the cages of the state were released on bail on May 22 (note that another person is still in the cages of the state in relation to charges of mischief and assault against a police officer during the riot on April 20th (http://www.sabotagemedia.anarkhia.org/2012/04/riots-and-street-battles-in-the-financial-district-of-montreal-during-the-plan-nord-job-fair-w-pics-vidz/) during the Plan Nord job fair). The owner of a restaurant was also arrested (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqODGP-habA) because he wore a red squarre (symbol of the student mouvement) and let people inside while the cops were on a rampage, another announced that he would sue the SPVM after they attacked people on the terrace (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piSF0UzPfoA).

Sunday, May 20,
once again several thousand people in the streets of Montreal, the protest is declared illegal from the get-go. Again many people are masked. The cops tried to disperse the crowd on several occasions, but the crowds dispersed and reformed for 5h while which there were barricades and intense street battles against brutal cops. Shop windows were smashed (which probably gets the authoritarian pacifists all whiny) and attacks on police vehicles including one arsoned (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITU-MY73Y1Y) due to a “failure” according to the cops… At one point, a crowd of youths who had been caught in between two lines of riotpigs came together and charged at one of the lines of armed cops, breaking and disrupting the lines, and so several escaped (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aeh7arrYCVU). Comrades, your courage really warms our hearts and points towards a new world.

Pigs made several mass arrests, with a total of 300. Amongst dozens injured, several people were seen unconscious after being attacked by the pigs, a man was taken to hospital unconscious after receiving a plastic bullet in the head. Several shitbag cops were injured as well.

http://waronsociety.noblogs.org/?p=4873

my thoughts:

U-UDWPXrW5c

[Le Penseur Libre]

Anonymous is "censoring websites"? :confused: Do you have any proof? That sounds like nonsense to me.

DDosing a website makes it unavailable, so isnt it a kind a censorship?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack

[danyboy27]

Quebec being a verry apathetic place on earth, all these protest make me feel i am not alone and it does wonder to my morale.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I'm curious, what's public opinion like in regards to these current demonstrations?

[danyboy27]

I'm curious, what's public opinion like in regards to these current demonstrations?

Its far from being uniform and depend largely on where the person live.

I dont know about montreal but in Quebec i saw many sign of sympathy from the people living within the city and not a lot of love from the subub around it.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

This may have been mentioned earlier in the thread but..

what is the current situation at Anglophone universities? As I understand there are protests at McGill and McMasters. How much solidarity is there in Ontario and elsewhere? What are chances of the protests spreading beyond Quebec?

[blake 3:17]

I'm curious, what's public opinion like in regards to these current demonstrations?

The polls have been pretty evenly split -- 45:45 and 10 undecided.


This may have been mentioned earlier in the thread but..

what is the current situation at Anglophone universities? As I understand there are protests at McGill and McMasters. How much solidarity is there in Ontario and elsewhere? What are chances of the protests spreading beyond Quebec?

There's a solidarity action Wednesday evening in Dufferin Grove Park, 8pm, bring your pots n pans. https://www.facebook.com/events/391104920936260/

School has mostly wrapped up so on campus organizing is very difficult. The Canadian Federation of Students doesn't appear to be doing much -- they're essentially lobbyists -- and the two main Grad Student CUPE locals signed contracts not long after the Quebec strike started.

From personal contacts, most everyone I know is sympathetic. I haven't a clue what undergrads think.

[bricolage]

there is a solidarity demonstration tomorrow in london, uk.

[danyboy27]

84 arrest In Quebec city yesterday and one of the negociator who just got out of a meeting with the governement got arrested by the cop at the same time.

Bunch of fucking coward will only act where there are a small crowd, tomorow was really stormy and cold, i am surprised that many people decided to show up despite the really really bad weather.

[danyboy27]

I almost forgot, there was a protest yesterday organized by a bunch of jurists, lawyers and former judges against bill78.
they where a fews hundred.

It was a legal protest (they warned the protest 8 hours in advances) but its still verry powerful to see that kind of people going against the establishement for once.

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/292656_371559169566797_265180340204681_1035583_137 539556_n.jpg

[KurtFF8]

This video is worth posting, perhaps one of the better quality videos of a demonstration made as it's ongoing that I've ever seen

42848523

[The Intransigent Faction]

DDosing a website makes it unavailable, so isnt it a kind a censorship?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack

If you wanna be picky about it, maybe---but I don't see how the goal of shutting down the RIAA website is censorship. It doesn't stop them from making public statements or whatever, but it does make their lives more difficult.

[danyboy27]

Jean charest the Quebec prime minister was there during the ongoing negociation today, a first since the crisis.

I really dont know how the studient leader can stand the bastard, i would quickly loose my temper in its presence.

[Le Penseur Libre]

Jean charest the Quebec prime minister was there during the ongoing negociation today, a first since the crisis.

I really dont know how the studient leader can stand the bastard, i would quickly loose my temper in its presence.

lol he sat down with the students after 106days, 206 millions wasted and more than 2000 arrestations for only 45 minutes!!!!, thats pathetic

[Le Penseur Libre]

Anonymous about to dump SPVM'S databases lulz

https://p.twimg.com/AuBKgTkCAAAKQ3z.png:large

sh*t about to get real

[danyboy27]

The media is spreading misleading information about the legality of the recents protests.

CBC said a fews minutes ago that when protesters give their itinerary before to protest it mean its legal.

IT IS NOT! The law said the itinerary must be given 8 hours in advance, not 5 minutes.

The cops might not declare the protest ilegal, but according to bill78 it is.

[danyboy27]

The protest today turned into a cat and mouse game with the cops. we didnt gave them the itinerary and we moved around the city, basically fucking with them.

Eventually those bastard sent the riot squad and charged the crowd, injuring a journalist and other protester.

they tried to caught us in sandwich but me and 40 other protester where able to escape trought a set of stair downtown.

the rest of the crowd converged toward the national assembly and me and my gf left the group.

[The Intransigent Faction]

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/735165--westmount-students-rally-in-solidarity-with-quebec-protesters
(http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/735165--westmount-students-rally-in-solidarity-with-quebec-protesters)
Hope to see more of this here in Ontario in the days leading up to June 5th and beyond. :)

[GiantMonkeyMan]

qLvsy4eLAwk

[Geiseric]

God damn those cops are awful.

[danyboy27]

God damn those cops are awful.

Well, the SPVM(montreal municipal police) are a bunch of thugs notorious for their agressivity and hatred toward the general population.

Just to give you an idea how crazy the SPVM folks are, they ARRESTED a black dude beccause he was jaywalking.

In another notoriously racist/brutal event, the SPVM at a subway exit pointed their gun at a black dude, threw him on the ground only to realize a fews second later that he wasnt a wanted gang member. they didnt even said they where sorry and just left the scene.

[Le Penseur Libre]

cool video that I was on youtube

Tjk042c9JPg

[danyboy27]

Yesterday protest In Quebec City was relatively small (300 peoples) but peaceful.

The cops decided to deploy the riot squad to scare the hell out of protesters, around 68 big dude in riot gear charging and dispersing the crowd.

1 dude was arrested, he refused to give up his flag to the cops, it was a Quebec flag.

For some totally random reasons while the montreal cops are relatively quiet The one of Quebec city are getting all gun ho on peaceful protesters.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Quebec MNA Amir Khadir arrested at protest (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/06/05/amir-khadir-arrested.html)



Quebec City police corral 50 demonstrators at rally over Bill 78 and student crisis

A Quebec politician was arrested Tuesday night during a protest over the province's student crisis and its contentious Bill 78.

Amir Khadir, the National Assembly member for the Montreal riding of Mercier, was handcuffed and placed on a bus with other detainees after police surrounded a group of demonstrators in Quebec City's Petit Champlain neighbourhood.

He was given a $494 ticket for violating Quebec's Highway Safety Code and was released that night along with his fellow arrestees, Khadir's spokesperson Christian Dubois said.

Dubois said Khadir was on his way home from work at the National Assembly when he saw a "casserole" protest — one of the regular demonstrations against Bill 78 in which people bang pots and pans — and decided to join.

"The protest was declared illegal. People were walking calmly to the rhythm of the pots and pans," a statement on Khadir's Facebook page said. "Police corralled the demonstrators, they were handcuffed and placed on a bus.... Bizarrely, everyone was handcuffed for a Highway Safety Code infraction even though everything stayed peaceful."

There were about 100 demonstrators in all, Dubois said. About 50 of the demonstrators were surrounded and arrested.

Khadir's Facebook page said he was only doing what he does in Montreal "every night that he has the chance: that is, marching peacefully with other protesters."

"The freedom to protest is quite limited in Quebec," the statement said.

Khadir is the Québec Solidaire party's first and so far only MNA in the Quebec legislature. He was elected in 2008.

Quebec City and Montreal have seen regular public protests over the student crisis and Bill 78, the province's emergency legislation that sets strict rules for demonstrations.

In Montreal on Tuesday, the city's 43rd straight nightly march experienced no incidents as about 100 people took to the streets. The march headed west to downtown from its usual starting point at the Unviersity of Quebec in Montreal campus, then south and back east to Old Montreal.

A concurrent protest in Toronto in solidarity with the Quebec demonstrators had about 300 people clanging on pots and pans and wearing red squares, the symbol of the Quebec protest movement. Ontario university students pay the highest tuition fees in the country.

There have also been solidarity protests in Regina, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Whitehorse, Calgary, Washington, New York, Paris and London.

Student leaders say that because a university or college education has replaced a high-school diploma as the baseline requirement for most new jobs, it should be kept affordable or even free. Despite that, the average undergraduate tuition countrywide has jumped 266 per cent since 1990, far outstripping inflation.

Quebec's Liberal government says it needs to raise revenues for its universities to maintain their quality of education and research.

[SirBrendan]

The sympathy for the protest itself,which is aimed against tuition increases, is low across Canada (I'm Canadian). There are several reasons for this, but the bulks results from the fact that the protests are in Quebec. Quebec has for decades recieved the most money of any province from the entitlement program, which is to say that there is a general undertone of resentment towards Quebecois from English-Canada. It's unfortunate but a political reality of Canada. The other issue is that Quebec enjoys the lowest tuition cost in Canada, less than a third of the cost of university here in Ontario. There are already the most subsidised in their tuition cost.

This causes unfair but real distaste and anger from the rest of Canada and so the protest has little traction on a national level. In truth, the protest was fairly unpopular with even public support in Montreal and Quebec being opposed to the protest after protesters began more aggressive tactics (Canadians generally hate any form of violent protest).

However, since the implementation of Bill 78 by the 'Liberal' Charest government, public support has begun to radically sway. Even the right wingers get pissed when government so obviously 'suspends' rights.

My personal objection to this protest is that they didn't go far enough. A tuition freeze when you have the lowest tuition in the country is naturally going to have little legitimacy, especially during a recession in which the layman thinks austerity is the solution (wrong but popular). I believe protests for universal post secondary would have been much more fruitful in gathering support. It;s bad they shot so low; in my mind, this protest will be done by the end of the year and little if anything real will have been gained

[danyboy27]

i almost got myself arrested in the process, but i ran faster than the cops.

[The Intransigent Faction]

The sympathy for the protest itself,which is aimed against tuition increases, is low across Canada (I'm Canadian). There are several reasons for this, but the bulks results from the fact that the protests are in Quebec. Quebec has for decades recieved the most money of any province from the entitlement program, which is to say that there is a general undertone of resentment towards Quebecois from English-Canada. It's unfortunate but a political reality of Canada. The other issue is that Quebec enjoys the lowest tuition cost in Canada, less than a third of the cost of university here in Ontario. There are already the most subsidised in their tuition cost.

Granted, which is why this needs to be turned into an issue about the right to an education nationwide. The general population may not be completely sympathetic, but I don't think it's fair or helpful to downplay displays of solidarity from students in Ontario (if not from the general population, then from what I've seen as a student in Ontario the support is not negligible). Also, did I miss something? Even the bourgeois media seems to be saying that the protest has gone beyond simply being about tuition fees. There's been a fair bit of union support, has there not?


This causes unfair but real distaste and anger from the rest of Canada and so the protest has little traction on a national level. In truth, the protest was fairly unpopular with even public support in Montreal and Quebec being opposed to the protest after protesters began more aggressive tactics (Canadians generally hate any form of violent protest).

However, since the implementation of Bill 78 by the 'Liberal' Charest government, public support has begun to radically sway. Even the right wingers get pissed when government so obviously 'suspends' rights.

My personal objection to this protest is that they didn't go far enough. A tuition freeze when you have the lowest tuition in the country is naturally going to have little legitimacy, especially during a recession in which the layman thinks austerity is the solution (wrong but popular). I believe protests for universal post secondary would have been much more fruitful in gathering support. It;s bad they shot so low; in my mind, this protest will be done by the end of the year and little if anything real will have been gained

You've got the intelligent pessimism covered, but some willful optimism doesn't hurt either. :) You have a legitimate concern, but can we really afford to say "well they didn't go far enough, so that's it, we're done. it's time to pack up and go home"?

Also, as you say, Bill 78 has really sparked a furor over the government's heavy-handed tactics. Everyone from celebrities to lawyers to the protesters themselves stood against that. I don't think this is over yet...

[The Intransigent Faction]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/06/06/montreal-suspicious-packages.html

'Suspicious packages' were recently mailed to MNA members (including Charet himself) and Quebecor media. A "radical left" group, the "Forces armées révolutionnaires du Québec", has apparently claimed responsibility.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

[SirBrendan]

You've got the intelligent pessimism covered, but some willful optimism doesn't hurt either. :) You have a legitimate concern, but can we really afford to say "well they didn't go far enough, so that's it, we're done. it's time to pack up and go home"?

Also, as you say, Bill 78 has really sparked a furor over the government's heavy-handed tactics. Everyone from celebrities to lawyers to the protesters themselves stood against that. I don't think this is over yet...

You're absolutely right here. Bill 78 is going to run the circuits on civil rights discussion. There's also going to be some serious discussion about the use kettling, which although popular in Europe, has never been used in Canada as it is indiscriminate and deliberately incendiary (For those who aren't familiar, kettling is when police trap a protest on all sides and then begin filtering them out. It almost always results in mass-arrest regardless of whether a particular protester was violent or even if it's some bystander). Only at this point the Charest government can not be seen as backing down now. They offered the most agreeable deal the student leaders can expect. The issue is how quickly news narrattives change and how easily they become statist apologists.

A week ago the news were focussed on outrage over Bill 78. Already this week student leaders are being presented as obstinate and entitled agitators again after their refusal to accept tuition increase. Again, I really, really wish they'd have gone for Universal Education. But with it only being about Montreal, it becomes isolated and removed. The only thing people see is a bunch of kids asking for more. The News channels focus on broken windows and the few violent acts by misled radicals. They rarely, if ever, show the police beating on kids, and if they do that always inckude the qualifer of the police brutality being justified.

The point I'm trying to get across is that unless this protest can be made to evolve into a larger protest, both about civil rights (it has on this front) and the obligation to provide education, then it will not have a national impact. For myself, here in Toronto, I just do my part and try to defend the protests as much as possible to friends and social media like the CBC website. It's obviously not too much, but it's always good to try.

I'm just cynical because I remember when the G20 abuses occurred here in Toronto. They systematically repressed protest and free speech with countless brutality issues. Ultimately though, the public forgot about it and all we were left with was a couple of cool pictures. The public needs a big issue to keep our interest and moral investment/indignation and Montreal's tuition simply isn't enough and even Bill 78 isn't enough by itself aside from ruining the Liberal government's reputation in Quebec(like that was hard to do).

[danyboy27]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/06/06/montreal-suspicious-packages.html

'Suspicious packages' were recently mailed to MNA members (including Charet himself) and Quebecor media. A "radical left" group, the "Forces armées révolutionnaires du Québec", has apparently claimed responsibility.

Anyone have thoughts on this?


either the FLQ is back with a brand new formula and mailboxes are gonna explode soon or its a bunch of folks who want to troll the governement.

[danyboy27]

The sympathy for the protest itself,which is aimed against tuition increases, is low across Canada (I'm Canadian). There are several reasons for this, but the bulks results from the fact that the protests are in Quebec. Quebec has for decades recieved the most money of any province from the entitlement program, which is to say that there is a general undertone of resentment towards Quebecois from English-Canada. It's unfortunate but a political reality of Canada. The other issue is that Quebec enjoys the lowest tuition cost in Canada, less than a third of the cost of university here in Ontario. There are already the most subsidised in their tuition cost.

This causes unfair but real distaste and anger from the rest of Canada and so the protest has little traction on a national level. In truth, the protest was fairly unpopular with even public support in Montreal and Quebec being opposed to the protest after protesters began more aggressive tactics (Canadians generally hate any form of violent protest).

However, since the implementation of Bill 78 by the 'Liberal' Charest government, public support has begun to radically sway. Even the right wingers get pissed when government so obviously 'suspends' rights.

My personal objection to this protest is that they didn't go far enough. A tuition freeze when you have the lowest tuition in the country is naturally going to have little legitimacy, especially during a recession in which the layman thinks austerity is the solution (wrong but popular). I believe protests for universal post secondary would have been much more fruitful in gathering support. It;s bad they shot so low; in my mind, this protest will be done by the end of the year and little if anything real will have been gained

Regardless of all this, the protests so far have done a tremendous job at putting foward issues that have been burried for decades; capitalism, democracy, egality, solidarity, police brutality etc etc.

it also gave the opportunity to many leftist to get together; studients talking to old union guys, anarchist mingling with social democrats, communist etc etc

People start discussing politics around here, and in a apathetic cynical place like Quebec its more than welcome.

Quebec is the fiscal paradise of canada and have been slowly destroyed by numerous neoliberal policies, just saying no to tuition increase is a fucking revolutionary act by Quebec standards.

[SirBrendan]

Regardless of all this, the protests so far have done a tremendous job at putting foward issues that have been burried for decades; capitalism, democracy, egality, solidarity, police brutality etc etc.

You're absolutely right. I should try to keep perspective here; thank you for the lighter perspective. There do seem to be a lot of leftist protests popping up recently, which is something that at 22 years of age, I've never seen before (It's always been flag waving d-bags calling for lower taxes and less muslims). So I should be more excited. I'm just afraid of where this protest ends, which is that activists, upset about Bill 78 and kettling, begin to become more violent.

Public opinion will shift drasticlly and will be used to confirm the narrative that these are young hooligans looking to stir up trouble rather than an educated citizenry demanding more of their government. There's a bizarre intergenrational war here, where the baby boomers for whatever reason seem to see our generation as entitled whiners (read the top rated cbc comments to see what I'm talking about).

I'm happy to see these students brave enough to protest and support them entirely. I just hope the protests stay non-violent. I'm excited to see a resurgance of left-wing activism about the real issues (Marijuana and gay marriage are not the real issues, lol). I just don't want economic leftist protest delegitimised when they're only just starting. And so I watch/comment with hopeful trepidation.

PS: The message I want to support is keep it civil and focus on the larger issues for anyone lucky enough to be able to join these protests.

[blake 3:17]

MNA Amir Khadir arrested in Quebec City during protest


BY MAX HARROLD, THE GAZETTE JUNE 6, 2012 6:41 PM

5

MONTREAL – Québec Solidaire MNA Amir Khadir was arrested in Quebec City Tuesday night during a protest against tuition fee hikes and Bill 78.

Quebec City police would not confirm the MNA for Mercier district, which includes Montreal’s Plateau Mont Royal area, was among those handcuffed and arrested in a mass arrest in the provincial capital. But TV news images showed him being escorted away by police.

Quebec City police Constable Marie-Ēve Painchaud said 65 people were arrested on the Côte de la Montagne at about 10 p.m. for blocking traffic. She would not confirm any of the names of those arrested. She said there were 67 tickets issued to the group of 65. One of those arrested was also ticketed for verbally insulting a police officer.

Several photos of Khadir being detained were also seen on social media websites. Painchaud said those arrested were part of an illegal assembly as they had not provided police with their route before the march and they were blocking traffic, she said.

“We gave them many, many, many warnings,” Painchaud said. “They were walking all over the place. It was nearly impossible to guarantee people’s safety.”

The protesters were fined $494 and all of them were to be released Tuesday night, she added.

On Khadir’s Facebook page, one of his aides confirmed he was arrested, ticketed and released. She said: “Amir was coming out of the National Assembly and he heard the sound of the pots and pans. He went to join the protesters. When the march moved forward he decided to walk with them.

“People were walking calmly to the beat of the pots and pans. The police rounded up the protesters in a kettle and handcuffed them and made them board a bus.

Khadir "says that what he was doing this evening in Quebec City is what he does in Montreal every night when he can, in other words marching peacefully with other protesters. He notes that the freedom to protest is really restricted in Quebec City.



Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Amir+Khadir+arrested+Quebec+City+during+protest/6735735/story.html#ixzz1x3aphgEO

[danyboy27]

That beccause the mayor of Quebec city is an assole.

[Le Socialiste]

My personal objection to this protest is that they didn't go far enough. A tuition freeze when you have the lowest tuition in the country is naturally going to have little legitimacy, especially during a recession in which the layman thinks austerity is the solution (wrong but popular). I believe protests for universal post secondary would have been much more fruitful in gathering support. It;s bad they shot so low; in my mind, this protest will be done by the end of the year and little if anything real will have been gained

The simple answer is that everything has to start somewhere. It takes the smallest of sparks to ignite a social movement in an atmosphere much like the one we're living in. This isn't to say that it only requires one or two individuals to launch entire layers of society forward into conflict with the establishment; one must also take into account the existing material state of the system and those who live within it. So when something like this student strike comes along, it doesn't take much to get the ball rolling.

Prolongment of the movement, provided it doesn't wallow in stagnation, stands to radically politicize large segments of the population, moving beyond single-issue protests like tuition hikes towards a direct confrontation with the establishment and its interests. We've seen the potential for this to happen in Quebec, as well as the people's willingness to defy Bill 78 (not to mention the introduction of 'casserole protests' that have moved into working-class neighborhoods and communities). It's still too early to tell which direction the movement will go, and its success has yet to be determined. But we have gained a sense of people's urge to fight back against austerity, turning to mass organization as a means of furthering their agenda. We can stand to learn from the struggle in Quebec as the conflict continues to unfold. What happens there will be of some value as we look to counter the dictates of finance capital, including the relations inherent in capitalist development on both the political and economic fronts.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/06/06/montreal-suspicious-packages.html

'Suspicious packages' were recently mailed to MNA members (including Charet himself) and Quebecor media. A "radical left" group, the "Forces armées révolutionnaires du Québec", has apparently claimed responsibility.

Anyone have thoughts on this?


It spells FARQ ... well at least they have a sense of humor

[danyboy27]

The cops arrested several studients including Amir khadir daughter today beccause they where apparently linked to several incidents of vandalism like thorwing smoke grenade in the metro.

Well, so far no formal accusation have been made, there are great chances many of these people might be released later today.

[danyboy27]

an update on the arrestation of amir daughter.
she was apparently doing some sit-in when a act of vandalism occured.
chances are this whole thing is nothing but sheer political intimidation.

[blake 3:17]

Nudey protest: http://www.photojpl.com/naked-student-protest-at-the-montreal-grand-prix/-/AfoHU4SYJz/ has sound!

[ellipsis]

MASSIVE numbers of people in the streets of montreal right now, clashing with insane numbers of police

http://www.livestream.com/cutvmontreal (http://t.co/TB0Lp34B)

[danyboy27]

Quebec city mascott for studient protest rebel banana asked jean charest to come to the national assembly this sunday for a duel before sundown.

he will stay there for most of the sunday afternoon, waiting the prime minister to show up for a duel.