Solidarité avec les etudiants du Québec!

Solidarité avec les etudiants du Québec!

You are probably aware - and in case you are not:

There is a student led revolution happening right now in Montréal and Québec.
On the 100th day of the student strike 500,000 people protested in solidarity. That was a week ago, and the daily protests continue.
This mass movement of non-violent civil disobedience is in response to an announcement to raise tuition fees by 75% over the next five years. Students have been striking in Montréal and sparked a student movement with mass support across Canada and around the world.
In Québec and across Canada the slogan Red Square Revolt is symbolized by the popular wearing of a plain red square made of felt. The red symbolizes student debt meaning that they are in the red. Students, sympathetic faculty, and the supportive public are demanding that education in Canada become free, in the same way that health care is free to all in Canada. Education and health care are free for all in several countries in Europe and this idea is spreading fast throughout Canada today as a result of these protests.
Do you agree that education should be free and available for all? Do you support the student strike against the 75% tuition hike? Show your support by wearing a red square. I made mine out of paper, fastened by a safety pin.
Solidarité!


Here are 3 short videos with more info:


Pots & Pans Protest
This was Thursday in response to a bill just passed making it illegal to protest without police permission.
The pots and pans protest is modeled after a style of protest that is traditional in Chile.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/0...n_1546694.html


Red Square Revolt | Quebec Students on Strike

https://vimeo.com/42702955



Maple Spring
More than 400,000 filled the streets of Montreal this week as a protest over a 75 percent increase in tuition has grown into a full-blown political crisis. After three months of sustained protests and class boycotts that have come to be known around the world as the "Maple Spring," the dispute exploded when the Quebec government passed an emergency law known as Bill 78, which suspends the current academic term, requires demonstrators to inform police of any protest route involving 50 or more people, and threatens student associations with fines of up to $125,000 if they disobey. The strike has received growing international attention as the standoff grows, striking a chord with young people across the globe amid growing discontent over austerity measures, bleak economies and crushing student debt. We’re joined by Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, spokesperson forCLASSE, the main coalition of student unions involved in the student strikes in Quebec, and Anna Kruzynski, assistant professor at the School of Community and Public Affairs at Concordia University in Montreal. She has been involved in the student strike as a member of the group, Professors Against the Hike.

https://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/25/maple_spring_nearly_1_000_arrested

The protests are in response to the Provincial Debt of Quebec, affecting the services and future of the Quebecois. Including education, but all social services and economic development.

It's a response to Privatization, Austerity and the influence of economic elites over the governance of Quebec.

I've lost track of a great video I watched last month, where a young woman clearly explains why it's not just about rises in tuition. It's a response to that, but the deeper reasons get left out of the news coverage. I'll try to dig up the video, but my effort on google just now didn't give it up. Must bookmark more!

Found it! Thanks to FB:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=qLRL17dczwg

The protests that have been going on for months, are truly spectacular and inspiring. Except for those ignorant of modern social reality and the sources of our global economic and political problems.

Even some who recognize those problems, and support the protests, have an explanation that is not congruent with the reality. Those views are conveyed daily, on this board and all across the internet.

Popular and facile ideas, that confuse theory with facts, and interpret all facts to fit the preconceived theory, well, we know where that leads. Not a new problem.

Patchen,

At no point was I quoting anyone, those are my words, I was summarizing a take on why the protests have taken off in such a massive and relatively unprecedented way, based on my reading of the alternative, movement news. And provided the video, at some minor effort, that I partially base my interpretation on.

Thanks for all the info you're sharing. Differences in explanation between us, are irrelevant in light of the vastly greater importance of this global protest of and resistance to economic injustice which I understand to be systemically derived. And as so, requires a systemic response.