Appeal from Quebec: Solidarity and Legal Support Needed
May 22, 2012 - rabble.ca
As you have no doubt heard, the [Quebec] government recently enacted legislation that amounts to the single biggest attack on the right to organize and freedom of expression in North America since the McCarthy period and the biggest attack on civil and democratic rights since the enactment of the War Measures Act in 1970. Arguably, this recent law will unduly criminalize more law-abiding citizens than even McCarthy's hearings and the War Measures Act ever could.
Quebec Students Say Charest's Authoritarian "Special Law" Will Fail
By Roger Annis - May 18, 2012
Details of Bill 78 were unveiled late Thursday and debated in a special, overnight session of Quebec's National Assembly. They include a ban on demonstrations within 50 meters of a post-secondary institution and severe financial penalties on students or teachers and their organizations if they picket or otherwise protest in a manner declared "illegal." Demonstrations of ten or more people must submit their intended route of march to police eight hours in advance.
Quebec Government Defends Police Assault on Striking Students, Plans Further Repression
By Eric Marquis - WSWS
Quebec’s Liberal government has fiercely defended the Quebec Provincial Police’s savage attack on a demonstration of striking students and their supporters last Friday...[T]he Quebec Provincial Police (QPP) brutally attacked the crowd with tear gas, truncheons and rubber bullets. Two young men suffered serious head trauma after being struck in the face by rubber bullets shot at close-range. One has lost an eye and the other remains in hospital in critical condition.
Quebec Students Reject Miserable 'Offer' from Charest Government
By Richard Fidler - May 9, 2012
Quebec college and university students are now in the 13th week of their militant province-wide strike, while voting by overwhelming majorities to reject a government offer that met none of their key demands...After a 22-hour bargaining session involving ministers of the Charest government, university and college heads, and leaders of the major trade-union centrals, the student leaders agreed on May 6 to put the offer to a vote of their memberships without recommending acceptance.
Riot Police Turn Bus into Victoriaville Jail Cell: A First Hand Account from the Québec Student Strike
By Stefan Christoff - Coop Média de Montréal
During the day, on the ground in Victoriaville, police forces seemed at times overwhelmed by both the size and the militancy of the protest...At the protest a number of de-arrests took place, protesters rushing Sûreté du Québec (SQ) police to break-up arrest attempts. SQ forces instead chose to arrest students under the cover of night, away from the media cameras...Just after 10pm, fully armed SQ forces boarded and took control of our Montreal-bound bus, announcing all were under arrest for “participating in a riot.”
What the Rest of Canada Doesn't Understand About Quebec's Student Movement
By Jesse Rosenfeld - May 4, 2012
Quebecers are just plain more aspirational when it comes to social rights...In the nightly mass demonstrations of the past week, one feels the frustration of a generation that is seeing the promises of social security their parents benefited from being taken away.
Nuclear Hypocrisy, Canadian Unrest, WW3 Foretold and Other News [Video]
by Amir Alwani
PotentNews.com
April 30, 2012
Episode 6 of the Potent News Blast covers the demonization of Iran, Canada's approval of torture, the fraud of "green" homes, and much more.
Police Assault Protesting Students in Mexico
By Rafael Azul - 1 May 2012
Hundreds of police attacked students demanding more resources for education...in Morelia, Mexico. The police occupied three student hostels...and brutally assaulted the protesters...Behind the police crackdown is a wholesale attack on the right of Mexico’s working class and rural students to an education.
The Purpose of Education: Social Uplift or Social Control?
By Andrew Gavin Marshall
The emergence and spread of education...is generally considered to be the result of the Enlightenment ideals and the emergence of democracies. The idea was that education was developed and designed for the purpose of enlightening individuals, spreading literacy and fostering intellectual pursuits which would yield for the benefit of the whole of society, a benevolent institution. Indeed, there are these elements to the history of education; but like with most things, there are other, deeper, elements to the story. So it begs the question: what is the purpose of education?
UC Davis Students and Faculty Face Prison Time for Peaceful Protest Against Bank
By Mela Heestand - April 27, 2012
...[O]n March 29...the 11 students and 1 professor involved in the sit-in received orders to appear at Yolo County Superior Court. At the request of the UC Davis administration, District Attorney Jeff Reisig is charging the so-called Davis Dozen with 20 counts each of obstructing movement in a public place, and one count of conspiracy. If convicted, the protesters could each face up to 11 years each in prison, and $1 million in damages. The UC Davis administration is sending a clear message to protesters: dissent will not be tolerated.
Glorifying Israel Shames Harvard
Harvard's motto is "VERITAS (truth)." Its shield displays it. So do rings students buy. It wasn't present at Harvard's April 19 - 20 Israel Conference (IC). Perhaps an invitation wasn't extended.
Class War and the College Crisis: The "Crisis of Democracy" and the Attack on Education
By Andrew Gavin Marshall
All around the world, the youth are taking to the streets, protesting, agitating, and striking against the abuses of power, the failures of government, the excesses of greed, plundering and poverty. The educated youth in particular are playing an active role, a role which will be increasing dramatically over the coming year and years. Now, just as several decades ago, the youth are turning back to activism. What happened in the intervening period to derail the activism that had been so widespread in the 1960s? How did our educational system get to its present state?
Quebec Students Appeal for Wider "Social Strike" Against Charest Government
By Coalition large de l’ASSÉ (CLASSE) - April 27, 2012
The student movement has focused on the issue of tuition fees and the commoditization of the universities. However, it is not unaware that this measure is integrally linked to a larger project affecting elementary and secondary education, the health-care sector and the unfettered development of natural resources. Our resistance to the Quebec government's neo-liberal measures has to take into account all of these sectors, establishing a social link that enables us to speak of a community.
A Look at the Massive Student Movement Shaking Up Quebec
By Richard Fidler - rabble.ca
The student strike - the longest in Quebec history - is now in a crucial phase. If it continues for more than a few days, an entire semester will be sacrificed by the students. Yet the strike has held firm. There are still more than 170,000 students boycotting classes and they are now being joined by some high school students.
Major Quebec Daily Publishes Fascist Diatribe Against Student Strike
By Eric Marquis - 25 April 2012
One of Quebec’s principal dailies has published on its internet site a commentary from a senior Quebec government official that openly calls for fascist-type violence to be employed against striking students...Titled “To be rid of student strikes,” the comment...urges that the actions the “fascist movements of the 1920s and 1930s” employed to “reconquer ground” from strikers and the left be emulated.