Common Front has received the following appeal from the Concordia Student Union. The university administration has tried repeatedly over the summer to increase international tuition fees and cut needs-based bursaries. This has been defeated every time, thanks in part to student protests. We encourage all of our supporters to attend the demonstration on Friday morning.
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Subject: URGENT- We need YOUR help!
Hello everyone!
As you may know, last week, the Quebec Superior Court ruled that the University must temporarily stop collecting the increased fees from students. It is now important to once again come together and stop the university from pushing students around and going forward with this increase.
By Bloque Popular Juvenil – Peoples’ Youth Block
Tuesday, 08 July 2008
from Marxist.com
On June 26, at around 10.40pm, comrade Ángel Humberto Martínez Cerón was assassinated just a few metres from his home. He was the General Coordinator of the "January 24" Revolutionary Socialist Students Block (known as BERS-24). The political activity this revolutionary young militant was involved in was the reason why the ruling class decided to silence him.
Ángel
Comrade Ángel had a spirit of sacrifice for the cause of socialism, and he was aware of the possible consequences of genuine revolutionary activity. He would always say that "we do not need any more martyrs, what we need is revolutionaries dedicating all their energies to the struggle, we need them alive to build socialism". The best tribute we can pay to the comrade is to continue his struggle, never to lose our convictions. He had the qualities of a genuine leader, he was able to inspire confidence and give strength to comrades when they most needed it. Without doubt, the memory of the comrade will inspire future generations to carry on the struggle.
University of Toronto rabble-rouser graduates in a gown of protest - but still faces criminal charges from a sit-in gone wrong
KATE HAMMER, The Globe and Mail
Compiled by Editorial Research
posted on fightfees.ca
June 21, 2008
Her pale face bobbing in a black sea of robes, Oriel Varga nearly disappeared in the graduate procession. But as she moved toward the stage at the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall this month, campus police had her in their sights.
A navy blue cape embroidered with white felt letters hung across her narrow shoulders: “I spent a night in jail for U of T’s crackdown on student dissent,” it read.
$1.4 MILLION FEE INCREASE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
The Concordia University Board of Governors (the university’s highest decision making body) is attempting once again to INCREASE INTERNATIONAL TUITION FEES BY $1000 PER YEAR. The board attempted to pass this fee increase last September and again in march but did not have the courage to follow through with the tuition increase. In the face of the hundreds of students who had assembled to denounce this unfair proposal the board postponed the vote until the June meeting when fewer international students will be able to protest.
By Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network
Monday, 09 June 2008
The protest of the students of the Tarbiyat-e Moalem [teacher training] University in Pardis Karaj, about 20km west of Tehran, has not only continued but grown in strength and resolve.
Saturday 7 June
Almost 5000 female and male students gathered together at the campus and held an 'open tribune' - a platform where they held an open debate about their struggle and how to develop it, their demands and so on.
Protest of students near Tehran
The number of students on hunger strike has reached 126 and yet the authorities are still ignoring this dispute and refusing to discuss the students' demands. The situation of the hunger strikers is deteriorating rapidly but they are determined to continue their protest. For example, a female student who has had bleeding in her stomach is still continuing with her hunger strike.
By Mike Palecek
Thursday, 05 June 2008
Fightback
The closure of the GM's Oshawa plant announced on Tuesday June 3rd is a slap in the face to auto workers everywhere. The ink is barely dry on the CAW's new contract for General Motors workers, a contract that contained many concessions that were supposed to keep this plant and others like it open. But General Motors has shown that they never had any intention of living up to their end of the bargain. They held plant closures over the heads of the bargaining committee to get concessions and when they finally got them, they announced they're closing the plants anyways. 2,600 jobs will be lost. GM and the other auto-giants have shown that they are incapable of running this industry without attacking workers. The government has given various interest-free loans and incentive packages to the companies to keep them operating, but they continue to lay off thousands of workers and close plants. Enough is enough! The auto industry should be immediately nationalized and placed under the control of the workers. We have already poured millions of public dollars into these companies; we don't owe them a dime.
By Hands Off Venezuela - Montreal
Tuesday, 03 June 2008
On May 28th, close to 200 people attended a very successful conference on Cuba and Venezuela, entitled "Cuba after Fidel, Venezuela at the Crossroads." Hands off Venezuela Montreal and the Bolivarian Society of Quebec, in collaboration with the International Marxist Tendency and Gauche Socialiste, organized the event.
Invited to speak were Celia Hart, Cuban Trotskyist, scientist, lecturer, and author; Jorge Martin, international secretary of Hands Off Venezuela; and Pierre Mouterde, Québec Solidaire member and author of works on Latin American and Quebec social movements.
Letter of solidarity to Committee for Just Education from Common Front Montreal
Greetings and solidarity brothers and sisters.
We have been closely following the developments of the student movement at the University of Toronto. Common Front would like to express our solidarity. Although we did not have the opportunity to stand side by side with you during the protest on March 20th, 2008, we are confident that the allegations against you are fabrications by a desperate University administration. Our experiences in organizing the Dawson College student strike for free, quality, accessible education have taught us the lengths that administrations will go to to stifle student movements which challenge their profit interests. The attacks on working students in Quebec and across Canada are part and parcel of attacks on the progressive reforms that the working class has fought so hard for all these years. This offensive can only be fought with a student movement united across Canada and united with teachers and workers who share a common interest in transforming our society.
Montreal hosts world-reknowned Cuban scientist, lecturer, and activist Celia Hart, on the topic “Cuba After Fidel.” Hart will outline the prospects for workers’ democracy in Cuba.
Also featured will be International Secretary of Hands Off Venezuela, Jorge Martin, analyst of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution and organizer for the Occupied factory movement in Latin America.
James Cockroft and Pierre Mouterde, prolific authors on Latin American issues, will also be speaking.
Keynote speakers will be available for a press conference, one hour before the event.
Lorenzo Fiorito
for The Awaj
April 15-May 15, 2008 issue
It seems as if nothing is predictable anymore in Quebec politics. Since the spring 2007 election, we’ve seen the decline of the Charest Liberals, the identity crisis of the Parti Quebecois, the dramatic ascent and rapid depreciation of the ADQ’s popularity- and there’s no telling where it goes from here. The spring 2007 election also introduced Quebeckers to a new political voice: Québec solidaire. At the end of March, in a small café on Parc Avenue, The Awaj spoke with one of two spokespeople for QS - the personable Dr. Amir Khadir.
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