Campus Fightbacks in the Age of Austerity: Learning from Quebec Students

Alan Sears, Xavier Lafrance — 2013-02-16T09:59:21Z

The 2012 Quebec student strikes delivered one of the few victories we have seen in anti-austerity struggles in the Canadian state. The mobilization, which at its high point saw over 300,000 students on limited or unlimited strike, and demonstrations of hundreds of thousands, was a crucial highpoint that has a great deal to teach radicals. The attempted clampdown by the Jean Charest government through Bill 78 [1] that attempted to outlaw the movement, unleashed a new and innovative round of resistance including the casseroles night marches.

- IV457 - February 2013 / Canada, Quebec, Youth and student movements

Red Square, Everywhere: With Quebec Student Strikers, Against Repression

Alan Sears, Xavier Lafrance — 2012-06-20T10:54:05Z

The Charest government has turned to repression to try to break the largest and longest student strike in Quebec history. Students had already endured heavy-handed policing, including hundreds of arrests and brutal attacks by riot cops on campuses and in the streets. The new strikebreaking legislation, Bill 78, is a brutal clampdown on the right to organize collectively and on freedom of expression. The protest plans for any demonstrations of more than 50 people must be cleared with the police in advance of any gathering, or the action will be considered illegal. Individual students, staff or faculty members who advocate the ongoing strike action risk harsh penalties, and student unions or university employees unions who organize or support ongoing strike activity will face heavy fines.

- IV449 - June 2012 / Quebec, Youth and student movements

International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Campus Fightbacks in the Age of Austerity: Learning from Quebec Students

Red Square, Everywhere: With Quebec Student Strikers, Against Repression