Quebec Student Revolt Continues
2012Robbie Mahood 2012-06Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 12 →
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MONTREAL—On May 19, Quebec’s Liberal government passed draconian legislation, Law 78, to smash the mass student strike that has shaken Quebec society over the past four months.
The so-called Loi de Matraque (truncheon law) is an attack on the rights of association, demonstration and free speech. It suspends academic sessions at all Quebec colleges and universities affected by the strike, prohibits picket lines at educational institutions, forces professors (who had largely been supportive of the strike) to report to work when classes resume in August, authorizes withholding of dues check–offs for any student association deemed responsible for disruption of courses, and outlaws any demonstration that is not pre-approved by the police. Student assoBut this alone does not explain the government’s tough no-concessions stance. The Liberals are very much the party of the Quebec capitalist class, and Charest is their lieutenant. The Quebec bourgeoisie is anxious to impose austerity in a vain attempt to improve the competitive position of Quebec capital.
The Liberal years in office have been dedicated to downtown Montreal on May 22 to mark 100 days of protest against tuition hikes and repression.
rolling back the legacy of the so-called “Quiet Revolution”—that is, the gains that the labour upsurge of the 1960s and ’70s secured for Quebec workers and the Quebec nation as a whole. Indeed, the government was able to wring major concessions from the Quebec public sector unions in 2005 and 2010. By contrast, in 2005, the Liberals were forced to retreat before the student mobilizations that greeted their first attempt to force through a tuition hike. This time they are determined to win.
In order to prevail against such a determined opponent, the students would need the support of the labour movement, and not just the resources that the unions have donated but the preparation and organization of at least a one-day general strike.
This, the union leaders have refused to contemplate. Unfortunately, although the idea of a “social strike” is in the air, no significant political force has been prepared to take this demand into the unions and fight for it.
Whatever the outcome of the strike, Quebec’s young students have shaken the neo-liberal status quo to its roots. The fight for a freeze on tuition fees linked to the goal of achieving free higher education has struck a chord.
Two different visions of society are posed: on the one hand, relentless commodification of both natural and human resources to benefit the few and drive down the living standards of the many, while degrading the environment; and on the other, collective democratic control over the commonwealth so as to provide a decent life for all, and promote the stewardship, rather than the ruin, of the planet. n Robbie Mahood is a member of Socialist Action (Canada) living in Montreal. Several of his pots have been bent out of shape.
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In order to prevail, the students need the full support of the labour movement, including the preparation of a ‘social strike.’