The First Step to a Democratic Student Union

By Fehr Marouf and Lorenzo Fiorito
October 22th, 2006

Until March 2005, students at Dawson College had no independent representation. The Student Union was co-managed by the College administration, and its budget was approved by the College. Students organized and won a campaign for a legally independent union in accordance with Quebec's unique accreditation act.

In response to this overwhelming display of rank-and-file student democracy, involving over 50% of the Union's 7500 members, career student politicians refused to recognize the results and declared themselves the leadership of the Union, immediately handing control back to the College administration. After a prolonged battle which involved the courts, this sham executive was disbanded and the opportunity for genuine representation was secured.

This opportunity was squandered.

Their Democracy

Almost immediately, the same leadership who had fought so valiantly for independent representation turned towards infighting and corruption. Blinded by their success, and the size of the budget students had mandated them with (over $285,000 a year), the goals and vision that had brought them to power quickly gave way to narrow self-interest and cronyism. Friends, lovers and roommates were quickly hired as staffers, and financial records became a thing of the past. Even the tradition of allowing students to gather at the union's offices gave way to a bunker mentality and abusive attitude towards regular students.

In response, a grassroots effort to dislodge this calcified leadership was launched and the extent of corruption quickly became clear. As elections got under way in May of 2006, the opportunity was made available to restore a semblance of balance to the executive. Fulltime students, members of the union, and opposition members of the executive, were disqualified illegally by an electoral officer chosen by unconstitutional means. Candidates were disallowed from overseeing the ballot counting process, convenient attack articles in the student newspaper were placed at the ballot box and the journalist responsible was appointed as an election scrutineer. In one case, the margin by which the executive's favoured candidate "won" was three votes.

This clear manipulation, executed during an election that proved to be unconstitutional to begin with, showed a fear of student democracy and what it could accomplish. But rank-and-file opposition is not so easily crushed.

And Ours

Over the summer, the lessons of this episode led to the birth of a new rank-and-file movement at Dawson College. Common Front was the organized expression of the anger at the corruption of career politicians. (These bureaucrats had raised the stakes over the summer by spending approximately $17,000 on promotional materials which were never used, without a budget approved by the students.) Amid a contested and possibly illegal election and accusations of mismanagement, students looked for a fresh start: electing a new executive, ratifying an auditor and ratifying a new constitution. Months of preparation led to the launch of a campaign for a General Assembly to be held on October 5th, 2006 to carry forward these demands. A petition bearing the names and signatures of several hundred students, enough to trigger a General Assembly, was handed to the executives on September 12th, 2006.

A Senseless Act

Common Front's work was interrupted tragically the following day by the senseless shooting that made international headlines. Two organizers were shot at, but thankfully escaped unharmed. Other students were not so fortunate. Less than two meters away was Hayder Kadhim, who was shot in the head, the neck and the leg, but miraculously was not paralyzed. Anastasia Rebecca de Sousa was killed, and 18 other students were injured.

This tragedy gave a renewed focus to the organizers' tasks. Hayder Kadhim asked for their support in his campaign against the ruling Conservative Party's gun policies, which he believes would create the conditions for more attacks of this nature. The organizers agreed to put the question to the General Assembly, and further proposed the creation of a Dawson Support Bursary, to financially aid working students who would be dealing with the combined burden of work, schoolwork and the trauma of this experience.

Before, during, and after the crisis, the politicians attacked the General Assembly at every step of the way. The list of fulltime students, which the union is constitutionally required to possess, was denied the organizers. The petition was supposedly, and conveniently, lost.

Against all odds, on October 5th, 2006, the General Assembly drew over 150 students who voted to support Kadhim unanimously. They also voted unanimously to create the Dawson Support Bursary. Finally, students also passed a new constitution by a vote of 89 to 12 which put in place stricter rules on accountability to ensure that elections take place fairly and budgets are administered properly. This was a great victory for union democracy.

Sabotage

When the assembly tried to move to the next point on the agenda, a small group of people, some of whom were not registered to vote, disrupted the meeting.

Instead of bringing forward legitimate arguments to convince the majority of voters, this small and clearly isolated minority resorted to technicalities in an attempt to rob 150 students of their votes. While the points they raised were neither legitimate nor relevant, they disrupted the meeting to the point that the assembly lost quorum after having legally passed those three motions.

The Executive Council of the Dawson Student Union refuses to recognize the results of this General Assembly, and is continuing with elections which are neither in accordance with the old nor the current constitutions. Common Front continues its battle against a corrupt union bureaucracy.

A Vibrant Union Emerges
A Bankrupt Bureaucracy Collapses

We stand for union democracy at all levels, and for the empowerment of the students within the union. We base ourselves on genuine issues and the will of the students, rather than backroom deals and personality politics. Our methods reflect this, as we organize ourselves publicly, through open meetings. We bring our concerns directly to the students through dialogue and through the General Assembly.

We want to take student politics in a direction that recognizes the challenges working students face, and the natural allies the student movement has in the labour and public service unions. Our union can be more than just a self-interested social club. Every student supports this union with our hard-earned dollars-we deserve nothing less.

The new period opened up by the experiences of Quebec's student strike of 2005 has begun to find an echo in sectors of the student population who are experiencing struggle for the first time in their lives. In a period of attacks on education in Quebec, students will need effective unions, capable of dealing with the political challenges which lie ahead. The time of career politicians at Dawson College is now behind us. The experiences of students at Concordia University, where similar accusations of mismanagement and electoral fraud have emerged, have made clear a pattern of bureaucratic degeneration at all levels. In light of this, Common Front will be calling a conference of rank-and-file students from across Montreal to organize a unified strategy for reclaiming our unions.