Student Strike in Quebec against the increase in tuition fees
On 13 February 2012 an indefinite student general strike was started in Quebec against the increase in tuition fees which has been legislated by the Liberal government led by Jean Charest. The planned rise is $1,625 over five years, which represents a phenomenal increase in fees which are currently at $2168 per year. The stated intention is to attain the Canadian average which is currently $4,000 per year. Quebec currently has the lowest tuition fees in North America following important struggles by students and workers to defend education for the greatest possible number of people. An increase of $500 over five years was adopted in 2007 as the first step to the deregulation of tuition fees. On 25 April the indefinite general strike movement regrouped nearly 200,000 students from universities and CEGEP (“collège d’études générales et professionnelles”, an intermediary level of education between secondary school and university). This increase was decided by the Charest government in its 2010 budget which was marked by numerous brual measures which aimed at destroying, step-by-step the social conquests of the Quebecois working class. Increases in charges for electricity had also been adopted except for the 150 biggest businesses in Quebec, which were too important, according to Prime Minister Jean Charest, to be subject to increased charges! A health tax of $200 per person, irrespective of their income, was instituted on a pretext of “saving the public health system”! Social gains and public services, won through hard struggles by the Quebecois working class are now more than ever threatened by the bourgeoisie’s desire to have us pay for the un-ending crisis of capitalism.
The student protest movement developed rapidly from 13 February, marked by demonstrations which grew in size, some of which ended in confrontation with the police. 7 March saw a tumultuous demonstration and a student named Francis Grenier practically lost the use of his eye. The students and all their supporters were enraged and the student movement was galvanised. Sunday 18 March a family demonstration at which the writer of this piece was present saw 30,000 people in Montreal and thousands of others in Quebec and Sherbrooke. On 22 March a national demonstration took place in Montreal with more than 200,000 participants, which makes it one of the biggest political demonstrations in the historiy of Quebec and even of Canada! 14 April saw the Quebec Spring demonstration, so called because a number of observers had drawn a parallel between the student struggle in Quebec, which reflects a growing dissatisfaction with the Charest government, and the Arab Spring.
There were then a succession of demonstrations and diverse actions, like blockades of bridges, roads, occupations of ministries, and so on. The police repression became more brutal and on 26 April a demonstration which this writer was part of was declared “illegal” by Montreal police. Nevertheless thousands of demonstrators continued their march, braving the orders of the police and winning an important symbolic victory. The Charest government turns a deaf ear to student demands and projects demagogic, profoundly dishonest propaganda about students who do not want to make their “fair contribution” to save the education system and rebalance public finances! Coming from a government which has been marked by many scandals and which does not hesitate to lavish gifts upon big businesses while imposing austerity measures on the working class, this is simply revolting! The bourgeois media have certainly done their job by using certain “violent” incidents, which were probably carried out by agents provocateurs, to associate the students with rioters and criminals.
In Quebec the struggle for access to education has always been an integral part of the struggle against national oppression, in particular during the Peaceful Revolution of the 1960s which saw the modernisation of Quebecois society. The under-education of the French-Canadian people allowed Anglo-Saxon capitalists to create an easily-exploited reserve of cheap labour. To conserve social peace the Quebecois political class, from the the nationalist Parti Québécois to the federalist Parti Libéral, kept university tuition fees frozen for several years, between 1994 and 2007 and before that, from the 1960s until 1990. With the development of the economic crisis, the liberal government decided to go onto the offensive and make students pay a good part of the deficit created by the rescue of the banks and big businesses. The two principal leftwing parties in Quebec, Québec Solidaire and the new independence party Option Nationale, gave their support to the student struggle and have event come out in favour of free education from nursery to university. This latter demand is very important and is defended vigorously by ASSE (Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante), a combative student union which is in large part the instigator of the current strike movement. In order to unify the forces of the student movement ASSE has set up CLASSE (Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante – broad coalition for student union solidarity).
Free education at all levels is a necessity to allow everyone, in particular the children of the working class, to have access without limits or obstacles to education to constantly improve their knowledge and skills. It is an important, fundamental demand for every socialist and democrat truly worthy of the name. Under socialism, the right to accessible and free education will be guaranteed to allow everyone to learn in a manner convenient to them and to constantly perfect their knowledge and skills. Following the October 1917 revolution in Russia, the Bolsheviks installed free education at all levels, an important gain that even the Stalinist counter-revolution was unable to destroy. All in all, the struggle of the Quebecois students is an integral part of the struggle for social justice and for the creation of an alternative to the cuts agenda and austerity budget imposed by the bosses and their political parties.