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<H1>“We are all students.”</H1>
<H2>Quebec profs issue call for unlimited general strike of campuses</H2>
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<P class=intro><I>This <A class=relay
href="http://profscontrelahausse.org/petitions-et-lettres-ouvertes/manifeste-des-professeurs-contre-la-hausse/"
target=_blank>appeal by Quebec post-secondary teachers</A>, signed initially by
21 professors, has now been signed by more than 1,600 others in support of their
students.</I></P></DIV>
<P class=intro-text>As professors who strive to bequeath knowledge to all those
who seek an education, we support the students striking in democratic defense of
accessibility to university education and in justified opposition to the
commodification of education. We say to these student youth who are standing
firm that they are not alone.</P>
<P>Beyond the legitimate demands linked to the precariousness of student status,
it is the future of education and Quebec society that is at stake in the
conflict between the students and the government. This strike is an extension of
the numerous struggles that have emerged in recent years challenging the
subordination of the public good to private interests with the help of a
scandalously obliging government.</P>
<H3>An Increase That Impoverishes Education</H3>
<P>The most immediate issue in the current conflict is of course the increase in
education fees. This 75 per cent increase, we note, follows the 30 per cent
increase imposed since 2008. These increases are draconian, and they fit within
a logic of privatization of the funding of our public services. Among its most
obvious consequences, we can anticipate a substantial increase in student
indebtedness, as we see in the rest of Canada and in the Anglo-Saxon world as a
whole, as well as a significant decrease in accessibility to education.</P>
<P>This privatization of university funding, based on a neoliberal premise,
treats students as customers. To profit from their investment, they will be
tempted to choose their area of study in terms of its financial yield and
potential for employment. The logic of indebtedness regiments the students <I>de
facto</I> in the world of finance, and subordinates their decisions to the
bankers. The student thereby becomes an agent of reproduction of the social
order, instead of a citizen participating fully in the evolution of his or her
society. Academic freedom and the entire critical dimension of university
education would appear to be threatened with obsolescence.</P>
<P>The discourse of the Liberals, the ADQ/CAQistes<A
href="http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/606.php#3" name=3c><SPAN
class=note>[3]</SPAN></A> and the university administrations claims that the
increase will help solve the problem of “under-funding” of Quebec universities.
But we should instead be talking about “malfunding,” considering the huge
transfer of funds once devoted to education and basic research to investments in
real estate, private research, advertising and the financing of a powerful
bureaucracy. In this sense, the central issue is less the under-funding than
what we choose to fund in our universities. To what degree are we prepared to
sacrifice courses considered unprofitable, to reduce accessibility to studies in
order to feed the endless appetite of the boards of directors?</P>
<H3>From One Revolution to Another</H3>
<P>Underlying the debate over the increase in education fees is a conflict
between different models of education. Finance Minister Raymond Bachand evokes a
“cultural revolution” when he attacks the achievements of the <A class=relay
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiet_Revolution" target=_blank>Quiet
Revolution</A> by returning education fees to what they were prior to 1968, when
the university was essentially reserved to a male elite. The creation of a more
egalitarian system of education, such as we enjoyed until the 1990s, was the end
result of a broad collective debate expressed, for example, through the Parent
Commission<A href="http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/606.php#4"
name=4d><SPAN class=note>[4]</SPAN></A> and the vitality of the student movement
of that time.</P>
<P>We note today that the conservative revolution being implemented by the
Liberal government is not the product of any debate and is presented to us as an
inevitability. Symptomatic in this regard is the Agreement to lift the lid on
student fees (<I>Pacte sur le dégel des droits de scolarité</I>) announced in
2010. It was based on a sham consensus featuring the representatives of the
Chamber of Commerce, the Conseil du Patronat and neoliberal think tanks (<A
class=relay href="http://www.iedm.org/e" target=_blank>IEDM</A>, <A class=relay
href="http://www.cirano.qc.ca/index.php?lang=en" target=_blank>CIRANO</A>),
organized of course under the leadership of the bard of the <I>lucides</I>, <A
class=relay href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucien_Bouchard"
target=_blank>Lucien Bouchard</A><A
href="http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/606.php#5" name=5e><SPAN
class=note>[5]</SPAN></A> himself. The denial of any form of opposition or
dialogue opened the way to Raymond Bachand's budgets, just as the injunctions of
the “<I>banksters</I>” [English in original] have imposed austerity policies
here and elsewhere in the world.</P>
<P>As a result, we have to consider the student movement and its demands as a
voice of resistance. For several years now, the students have been presenting an
intelligent analysis of the issues related to post-secondary education, and
calling for a public debate, a <I>débat de société</I> on the future of
education. This demand has been met by a dogmatic refusal to open the dialogue
and recognize the students as legitimate interlocutors. This stiff resistance
explains the fact that the debate is now being expressed in the streets. The
violent police repression of the students is the material expression of the
contempt for those who struggle, often imaginatively, to defend what they know
is precious to each of us: education as a public good.</P>
<H3>Everyone United Against the Increase</H3>
<P>Considering that the increase in education fees masks an ongoing
privatization of funding of the universities, that it challenges universality as
a model of accessibility to post-secondary studies, and that it furthers the
transformation of institutions of learning into mere market organizations, we
think the unlimited general strike is a justified method in the circumstances
and that the students' demands for a freeze on student fees and free education
are legitimate.</P>
<P>The students are inviting us to build a new political way of thinking
(<I>imaginaire</I>) that can revive the democratic and modern foundations of the
educational system and of Quebec society as a whole. Within this perspective, we
greet their call to general mobilization as an invitation to defend the right
not only to higher education but also to the civilizing implications of the
university. As professors, we respond: We are all students!</P>
<P><B>Authors:</B><BR>Benoit Guilmain, Collège Édouard-Montpetit;<BR>Anne-Marie
Le Saux, Collège de Maisonneuve;<BR>Stéphane Thellen, Cégep du Vieux
Montréal.</P>
<P><B>Signatories:</B></P>
<P>Normand Baillargeon, Université du Québec à Montréal; Mario Beauchemin,
Président de la FEC-CSQ; Claire Fortier, Collège Édouard-Montpetit; Isabelle
Fortier, École nationale d’administration publique; Gilles Gagné, Université
Laval; Frédéric Julien, Collège Édouard-Montpetit; Anna Kruzynski, Université
Concordia; Benoit Lacoursière, Collège de Maisonneuve; Diane Lamoureux,
Université Laval; Georges Leroux, Université du Québec à Montréal; Karim-Mathieu
Lapierre, Cégep de St-Jérôme; Michèle Nevert, Université du Québec à Montréal,
présidente du SPUQ; Jacques Pelletier, Université du Québec à Montréal; Martin
Petitclerc, Université du Québec à Montréal; Guy Rocher, Université de Montréal;
Cécile Sabourin, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières; Jean Trudelle, Collège
Ahuntsic, président de la FNEEQ-CSN; Louise Vandelac, Université du Québec à
Montréal.</P>
<HR style="WIDTH: 85%; HEIGHT: 1px" align=center>
<P class=subhead2>Endnotes:</P>
<DIV class=other>
<P class=other><A href="http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/606.php#1a"
name=1><SPAN class=term>1.</SPAN></A> An English translation: Broad coalition of
the Association for student union solidarity.</P>
<P class=other><A href="http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/606.php#2b"
name=2><SPAN class=term>2.</SPAN></A> In English: Coalition against
fee-for-service and the privatization of public services.</P>
<P class=other><A href="http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/606.php#3c"
name=3><SPAN class=term>3.</SPAN></A> A reference to the Coalition Avenir
Québec, a new right-wing party led by François Legault, a former Parti Québécois
minister. The CAQ recently absorbed the right-wing Action Démocratique du Québec
(ADQ).</P>
<P class=other><A href="http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/606.php#4d"
name=4><SPAN class=term>4.</SPAN></A> The report of the Parent Commission in the
early 1960s launched a far-reaching educational reform that ended church control
of education and led to the founding of a province-wide network of public
universities and community colleges.</P>
<P class=other><A href="http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/606.php#5e"
name=5><SPAN class=term>5.</SPAN></A> Bouchard, a former Parti Québécois
premier, authored a right-wing manifesto a decade ago that was issued by
prominent right-wing ideologues who called themselves “<I>lucides</I>,” the
clear-eyed realists. It provoked the publication of an alternative manifesto
from leading progressives who called themselves the “<I>solidaires</I>,” those
promoting solidarity of the oppressed and exploited. The name was subsequently
adopted by Québec solidaire.</P></DIV>
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