by Fehr Marouf

From November 14-16, 2007, more than 60,000 students across Quebec joined ASSÉ, the radical student union in the province, in 3-day strike for the following demands:

* For free, quality, accessible education
* For a massive reinvestment in post-secondary education
* For a reinvestment in daycares for student parents
* For the abolition of the anti-strike Law C-43

To the shock of many in the media, students at one anglophone institution - Dawson College - joined for all three days, with an additional demand for a $10/h minimum wage. After the strike, ASSÉ adopted a motion in solidarity with the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. Below is an analysis of the Quebec student strike by Marxists working in Montreal, as well as an account of their victory at Dawson College.

The student strike across Quebec and at Dawson College this November, 2007 was a product of the Quebec student strike of 2005. In 2005, Quebec society was looking for a way out of the impasse posed by the class-collaborationist PQ (Parti Québécois) on one hand, and savage Liberal attacks on the workers' unions on the other. The labour leadership, particularly the PQ-friendly FTQ (Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec - Quebec Federation of Labour), frustrated the aspirations of the workers for even a 1-day general strike.

Thus, the issue of funding for post-secondary education became a catalyst for the discontent of society. When the Charest Liberals attempted to slash $103 million from the education budget and convert bursaries into loans, clear and decisive leadership came from radical student union ASSÉ (Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante - Association for Student Union Solidarity), representing tens of thousands of students in colleges and universities across Quebec. ASSÉ was able to organize a strike whose momentum captured the imagination of advanced workers, the middle classes and students in the rival FÉCQ/FÉUQ unions. Even the PQ-friendly bureaucrats of FÉCQ (Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec - College Student Federation of Quebec) and FÉUQ (Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec - University Student Federation of Quebec) were dragged along into the strike movement. The government and these bureaucrats collaborated to crush the strike on the basis of granting minimal demands.

In 2005, the International Marxist Tendency in Montreal was literally composed of two active members. Our "forces" were isolated: we were anglophones in a French-speaking society, we were Marxists in an anarchist-inspired movement and we had no influence in unions or organizations when these elements were clearly necessary for an intervention in the movement. Nonetheless, we enthusiastically threw ourselves into the strike, and drew several conclusions from the development and betrayal of the 2005 strike.

First, that workers' support was an absolute precondition for a successful student movement. The strike aroused a mutually sympathetic feeling between workers' and students' unions: however, this was limited to informal collaboration which did not extend to the rank-and-file level. Many strikers just expected workers to "down tools" in solidarity, not realizing that the trust and respect of the workers must be built and earned by collaboration over time.

Second, that division between rival student unions must be overcome. Despite ASSÉ's radicalism, they failed to recognize that as a minority they could play an important (even a leading) role - but that by maintaining a division in the movement they left the bulk of students under the influence of collaborationist bureaucrats.

Thirdly, we learned, through our exposure to the movement, the power of clear and bold demands to mobilize the population. The unlimited strike tactic and the call for free education were dismissed by many as too radical - but it was precisely this radicalism which proved the most effective means of building a combative student movement with meaningful social weight.

Common Front

After much debate, the IMT in Montreal (all two of us at that time) set out to bridge the divide between anglophone and francophone students by working in our own backyard. This meant Dawson College, where an accreditation drive had opened up possibilities for work in a newly independent student union. Although Dawson was a part of the traditionally passive anglophone population, it was the largest college in Quebec, and students were primed for further action by the accreditation drive.

We began by contacting students who had organized and mobilized for the accreditation drive, putting together a working group that was intended to change the approach to politics at Dawson. But after a semester of energetic but ineffective campaigning, we learned that it was not enough to have a "team of people". A worked-out platform, demands that addressed the real issues, and formalized organization were necessary; gradually, we began moving towards these goals. We drafted a statement of principles and called weekly meetings for a new, broad-based organization: Common Front - a name which drew on the experience of the revolutionary Quebec General Strike of 1972.

The tragic shooting at Dawson College struck particularly close to home during our formative period. The period that followed was a difficult one. The best that can be said is that it tested and steeled our bonds as an organization, and also demonstrated who was serious about building a strong movement of students united with workers. It was a challenging time, but we got through this stage of development at last.

February 7th Demonstration

Our first real campaign began with a Canada-wide day of action for lower tuition fees, called for by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). It could not have come at a more opportune time for us in Quebec.

The ruling Liberals had made the raising of tuition fees - by $50 a semester - a primary part of their platform for the upcoming spring elections. This was particularly dramatic since Quebec had a long-standing (though informal) agreement that tuitions would remain frozen at levels fought for in the 1997 student strike. The PQ did not hesitate in reversing its position and calling for the lifting of the tuition freeze, while the Action Démocratic du Québec (ADQ - “centre right”) had changed its tune since the last strike and now stood openly against the students and for the raising of fees. (In this case, everyone knew they were never serious about supporting the 2005 student strike in the first place.) Clearly (in line with the prescriptions of the bourgeois manifesto “For a Clear-Eyed Vision for Quebec” [Pour un Québec lucide] of October 2005), the government was preparing to break the back of the student movement - and not a single party in office was going to do anything about it.

The slogan of the CFS in Quebec was to “keep the freeze.” Our perspective was to act as a free-education contingent within the CFS demonstration. This demand naturally pushed us into collaboration with ASSÉ's Montreal regional council, where we soon became members. This also brought us onto a collision course, not only with executives of the Dawson Student Union, but also anglophone "left radicals" who believed the population wasn't ready to adopt genuinely militant demands. This was particularly a problem with our allies at Concordia University, where Common Front had gained two members by this time.

In order to promote the demonstration, the demand for free education and the necessity of unity with workers, we founded a newsletter named The Spark. We also held a press conference alongside francophone student unions, in the effort to show that the “anglophone/francophone divide” was breaking down. The spokesperson of the radical left-wing party Québec solidaire (QS), Amir Khadir, and the QS candidate running in Dawson’s riding, Sujata Dey, also lent their support.

Our efforts were clearly having an effect and therefore the student leaders were forced to promote the demonstration - exposing even more students to our ideas. Despite the best efforts of the union executives (and their CFS overseers) to limit the demands, half the 150-strong Dawson contingent carried pickets for free education, and half the chants from the crowd were based on that demand.

This experience was a serious political education for Common Front. It proved to us, in practice, that political demands are a better mobilizing tool than trying to expose a bureaucracy. The reason for this is that the free education demand is a reflection of the aspirations of the working class and their children. Time and time again, we had achieved several formal victories - but in the absence of a mass base, the bureaucratic machine crushed us easily. In order to keep our gains, we needed an activated population; to reach the population, we needed to promote demands that reflected their unconscious strivings.

March 29th Demonstration

We followed up on this successful protest by mobilizing for ASSÉ's 1-day strike for free education. A strike vote required a General Assembly, which we had to organize on our own. Though we did not reach quorum (due to the efforts of the union executive), we went on to call for a walkout.

Between the assembly and the strike, we continually mobilized students. These students assumed that the DSU had supported the strike; this resulted in hundreds of students asking their elected representatives for more information, and being told the strike was "cancelled". We had plenty of complaints from students, whose teachers had moved exams to avoid conflicting with the strike, then moved them back under pressure from the union. Our posters were torn down, our organizers banned from campus for the day, the police were called, and deportation threats were made against one of Common Front’s members who is not a Canadian citizen. While this demonstration was poorly attended, we learned for the future the necessity of organizing and contacting our supporters regularly throughout a mobilization.

The Elections and Their Political Impact

This strike had taken place against the backdrop of Quebec’s provincial elections, which had taken place just three days earlier, on March 26. The election radically redrew the map of Quebec’s political landscape. The Liberals were forced into a minority government - the first since 1878 - finally paying for the attacks of 2003-4. The PQ was reduced to a mere rump, precipitating an internal leadership crisis, reflecting its outmoded and irrelevant worldview. The PQ bureaucracy had demonstrated over and over again that it was not serious about the sovereignty of Quebec - and in a climate where class issues had now taken the forefront, attempts to beat the sovereignty drum merely reminded workers of repeated betrayals on class issues.

The ADQ, on the other hand, shot up from 5 to 41 seats, giving them the balance of power. Interestingly, Dumont’s vague position on the Quebec national question was not a handicap in the slightest. His election campaign had been fought and won on the basis of stirring up a racist media campaign dubbed the “accommodation debate” (which, incidentally, has yet to die). The ADQ revived the imagery of hardline anti-labour political boss Duplessis, painting the era of Duplessis’ leadership as a golden age in Quebec history. Their campaign particularly targeted middle class suburbanites with the view that their tax dollars were supporting a variety of social parasites like blue-collar city workers, students, and daycare workers. As we wrote at the time:

It's no coincidence that Dumont referred to his party's electoral success as "a revolt of the middle class and the rural areas." The middle class has often been used throughout history to serve the interests of the business and political elite against the working class. As middle-class and rural Quebecers are squeezed out of employment by the ruling class, they look for solutions to the crises they are facing. Since the genuine left wasn't organized enough to take advantage of this discontent with a serious criticism of capitalism, the ruling class was able to exploit the vacuum and influence these social groups [through the ADQ].

The ADQ was able to successfully maneuver the Liberals into re-directing of $950 million in federal transfer payments, which had been intended for social services, towards tax cuts aimed at the middle class. A farcical “crisis” of the National Assembly ensured that the tax cuts passed - even though 70 percent of Quebecers opposed the cuts. Coincidentally for us, $950 million is exactly the figure which would ensure a quality post-secondary education system - completely free to all in Quebec.

Spring Elections at Dawson

Immediately following this mobilization were preparations for the student union elections. Our slate had a platform that included free, quality, accessible post-secondary education, the abolition of Quebec's Law C-43 (which bans 500,000 public sector workers, including teachers, from striking), and a comprehensive investment in daycares for student parents. These were the demands of ASSÉ's mobilization efforts.

Law C-43 was recognized by ASSÉ as a threat to students' right to strike. However, Common Front pointed out the larger implications of its abolition. Instead of treating it as a purely student issue, the demand for abolishing this law could be used to build links with the powerful public sector unions. Common Front made these arguments before an ASSÉ congress, and the demand was officially adopted after intense debate.

We were refining our strategy for reaching students - and we could have done better in this campaign. However, Common Front managed to win one key position in the Dawson Student Union, the position of Vice President for External Affairs - which aided our efforts greatly.

Perspective Towards a Failed General Strike

Over the summer, ASSÉ congresses, Common Front meetings, and strategizing sessions continued. At the Quebec section of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS-Q), which represented the major anglophone student unions, we participated in an election which put one Common Front member on the executive. The majority of the new executives were supportive of mobilizing towards a student strike for free education, immediately committing a budget of $60,000 to action committees on CFS-Q campuses for that purpose.

These efforts were unfortunately hampered by collusion between bureaucrats from the DSU and the Concordia Student Union (CSU) as well as CFS (National) executives. Someone changed the locks to the CFS-Q office in the middle of the night - the same night that chequebooks and financial records reportedly went missing.

In the ensuing legal battle, the bureaucrats wasted thousands of dollars of students’ money on slick lawyers, all in a determined effort to reclaim the Quebec section from the left. During the 2005 student strike, the right wing executives of the CFS-Q distributed thousands of dollars' worth of lipstick bearing the slogan "solidarity is sexy". In 2007, they used the courts to delay any action by new executives determined to do far more.

The CFS-Q is still tied up in court today, and was unable to act during the strike. This exposed the result of trying to maneuver around entrenched bureaucrats without a strong, mobilized social base: they will do anything go to in order to avoid a left turn, and the only way to defeat them is by the power of the mass base, organized and prepared for battle by the active layer.

While this drama was playing itself out, ASSÉ was paralyzed by a debate over including non-ASSÉ unions into a greater strike coalition. Everyone seemed to have forgotten that this was a successful tactic in the last strike! We explained the Marxist position in terms that were understood by the assembly.

The conflict centered around the difference between a union mandate for free education (ASSÉ's position) or a softer "perspective towards free education". Purism on both sides prevented an immediate resolution to the impasse. As Marxists, we understand the importance of resolute and clear demands. However, isolating oneself into a purist clique prevents the exposure of these ideas to the widest base of students. The advanced students have the responsibility to reach out to their brothers and sisters in the movement who have yet to reach more advanced political conclusions. Our position was that any union which mobilized for free education should be accepted into the coalition - regardless of whether the mobilization was successful or not. A similar compromise was finally adopted.

Unfortunately, time was not allocated to resolving other, more serious issues in the build-up towards the student strike. ASSÉ organizers were preoccupied with the eventual goal of an unlimited general student strike. Rather than considering this the apex of the strike movement, they considered it a starting point. This perspective led to a loss of momentum, as student unions folded their arms, waiting for others to go first. Unfortunately, at the most radical schools of the 2005 strike, this resulted in a backlash of massive proportions. The opportunity was lost, and the strike was defeated by enormous proportions at several schools.

It came to light that FÉCQ/FÉUQ bureaucrats had colluded with the PQ to delay the strike for one semester, in order to use the strike to call for a new election (and thus a PQ victory). The bureaucrats, who admitted the plan's authenticity, mobilized for “No” votes at general assemblies across the province.

However, isolated schools did gain strike mandates, so the sights were lowered toward a 3-day strike on Nov. 14, 15, and 16, in preparation for a larger strike in the new year. This proved to be successful virtually everywhere, including the schools which voted against the unlimited strike.

Dawson Breaks the Barrier

At Dawson, we were helped in our mobilizations when ASSÉ agreed to publish an English edition of their newsletter, the Ultimatum. Common Front gladly took the opportunity to write and distribute it.

The student union was holding elections once again, and once again we participated. We used the Marxist analysis of elections as a guide for our activity: they became a mobilizing tool, with our election platform clearly calling for the 3-day strike. This time, our mobilization proved to be strong: we had learned the lessons of the past. Our message was clear, we stuck to the demands without distraction, and we used a variety of tactics - but all with the same central issue: a strike for free, quality post-secondary education. Throughout the campaign, we collected signatures - but more importantly, contact information - from supporters of the 3-day strike. This resulted in a very tight race, which nearly put us in control of the student union, but did not reach that point. More importantly, classrooms and corridors buzzed with talk of strike action for two months, as the walls were plastered with our red posters, and the strike banners hung proudly for all to see.

On the day of the General Assembly, hundreds arrived half an hour early. Hundreds more arrived in the ensuing half hour. Over seven hundred students tried to pack into a room designed for 350, with hundreds overflowing into the hallway. This was the highest turnout since the accreditation drive, and bureaucrats were used to struggling to reach the quorum of 115. Common Front organizers were in shock. At first, the bureaucrats and a panicked college administration tried to turn people away, but they had no control whatsoever over the collective will of the students. Their attempts to delay the assembly did not dampen the mood, as spontaneous chants of "Strike! Strike! Strike!" traveled through the waiting crowd.

The Dawson executives had shipped in the Deputy Chairperson of the CFS (who had played an integral role in "neutralizing" the CFS-Q and countering our efforts at Dawson) - all the way from Ottawa - to “handle” the situation we had created. They placed their trust in his abilities to hold back the wave, but no fancy footwork could hold the students down. Attempts by the chair to delay voting were defeated no less than five times. After the vote, he shrugged and looked for forgiveness from the routed bureaucrats.

When the time came to vote on the strike itself, a deafening majority voted with their lungs and their hands - while 10 voted against. The divide between anglophone and francophone students was visibly crumbling.

Three-Day Strike

There was little time for celebration. Though the moment was emotional, there were picket lines to organize.

The response of the bureaucrats was contradictory. A few called Common Front organizers to help negotiate details of the strike. The President, however, initiated a secret meeting with administration that specifically excluded the one Common Front executive. In an attempt to divide students from teachers, their deal stipulated that one door to the College was to be left open, and teachers were ”required” to break the picket line by using this door. But the class solidarity of many of the teachers overshadowed these petty manipulations: the support from teachers on campus was phenomenal, in spite of this attempt to sow division. Symbolic pickets at all entrances were relatively effective, however, with support from teachers high despite end-of-semester stress. Half the classes were cancelled throughout all three days.

Over the next three days, news came in of attempted student occupations at Vieux-Montreal College and the university of UQÁM, both ending with blood and arrests as riot police stormed in and swung batons indiscriminately. At Dawson, picketers were quickly met with a squad of 20 police officers early on the first day, and the picket line was broken by threats of fines and arrests. On one day, the head of security barreled through the picket line on his way out of the school, and pushed several picketers to the ground after exiting.

Despite this, we were happily surprised to see dozens of new faces who remained committed for all three days, through rain and sub-zero temperatures - students brought to the fore by the strike itself. Strikers’ morale soared as francophone students from St-Laurent College, and anglophone students from Concordia and McGill, came to picket with us on the second day. Together, we marched to meet more than 3,000 protesters in downtown Montreal. The cold rain did not dampen the mood of the students gathered from across Quebec, and massive red banners proclaimed slogans for free education. For many of the Dawson picketers, this was their first strike, and their first protest. Many of them subsequently joined Common Front.

A New Strike for the New Year

This is only the beginning: ASSÉ is already mobilizing towards a longer-term strike in the coming semester. The university of UQÁM, facing a serious financial crisis and government threats to close down the state-run institution, has a mandate for an unlimited strike beginning in late January. With this in mind, the strike at Dawson has had some important consequences.

Dawson's strike is a proof of the power of Marxist organizing methods, and the power of organized students to change their corner of society. It shattered the "common-sense" belief - prevalent amongst both anglophone and francophone activists - that anglophone students were too "apathetic" to take combative action for radical demands. The three-day strike was successful in breaking the silence of English-langugage media regarding the student movement. It consistently raised the demand for free education in the public eye. Common Front is now in a unique position, being the only organization successful in mobilizing anglophone students for a strike. (We also met enthusiastic students from another anglophone college, Vanier, at ASSÉ's demonstration. They are members of a large action committee, and are determined to mobilize with us for free education.)

Through work at Dawson, Vanier, Concordia, and McGill, Common Front must prove that free education is a demand finding support from all who work to pay for their tuition fees: whether anglophone or francophone. As ASSÉ schools begin to strike in January and February, anglophone colleges and universities must not return to the role of watching from the sidelines. Instead, anglophone student activists must put forward the demands of the movement - and develop links with teachers and support staff. Students at FÉCQ/FÉUQ schools, such as Concordia, need to mobilize for solidarity with ASSÉ's demands, and for an end to the division in the student movement.

Only by an organized and united campaign across Quebec, in unity with teachers and workers, can students win. Such a victory, however, would come at a heavy price to Quebec's bourgeoisie, as free education can only be financed by an end to the tax cuts and goodies the government grants the corporate sector. It is for this very reason that students can no longer consider their movement simply a movement for free education: this is a part of a wider movement to fight back against all the attacks of the government on social services, and the wages and conditions of regular students, teachers and working people across Quebec. Any movement that sides with workers against corporate profits must know its enemy.

Ultimately, our movement will come to the inescapable conclusion that free education, the right to strike, comprehensive daycares and a living wage can only be guaranteed by abolishing capitalism. Capitalism hoards all the wealth of the society in the hands of a small privileged group - an immense wealth which, owned and controlled democratically by the working class, would be more than enough to guarantee free quality accessible education for everyone, guarantee living wages for all, and rebuild our crumbling health care system. This is socialism, by its very nature.

We’ll be working toward that goal, every step of the way.