The Marxist-Leninist Daily

Mass action of 15,000 students in Montreal, April 25, 2012. (Montreal Openfile)

Enough Is Enough! No to Charest's Anarchy and Violence! Education Is A Right!

The Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec (PMLQ) adds its voice to those of Quebeckers vigorously denouncing the anarchy and violence the Charest government continues to create on the issue of education. The government's arrogance knows no bounds. Education Minister Line Beauchamp continues to believe she can choose the student representatives with whom she wants to negotiate and that she can dictate what will be negotiated. The government believes its police can violently attack a demonstration of 15,000 youth without consequence and blame "vandals" for the violence. It must not pass!

The government's refusal to negotiate in good faith and to cancel the tuition fee increase is unacceptable. That's why the government is criminalizing the student demonstrators and only wants to talk about the violence of the "vandals" the "economic disruptions," allegedly caused by the students and other fairy tales. Everyone can see that it's a ruse since the police attack peaceful political expression and the minister refuses to negotiate.

Regarding the accusation that CLASSE has an aim other than defending the students' interests -- a "social cause" as the Education Minister says -- far from isolating CLASSE, it only throws ridicule on the Minister. Only those who defend the private interests of the monopolies and financiers can push ignorance and arrogance so far as to say that the defence of the right to education is a private cause of a certain extremist student group.

The Charest government and its Minister have nothing to offer the students except anarchy and violence. Out of desperation, Charest is pulling out all the stops. These are acts of violence, vengeance and spite against the students because he cannot succeed in breaking their unity or that of their leaders and organizations. The students are honourably and firmly defending their unity, their demands, their rights and their principles with utmost determination.

The PMLQ firmly denounces the monopoly media and the Montreal and Quebec police who spent the night reducing the debate to a question of "vandals," probably their own, to justify the intervention, brutality and the massive number of arrests. The demonstration of 15,000 people held Wednesday night in Montreal was not an evening of vandalism. Thousands of people assembled to protest Education Minister Beauchamp's unilateral decision to exclude the Broad Coalition for Student Union Solidarity (CLASSE) from the negotiations. The police launched an attack against the demonstrators and then declared the demonstration illegal. It was a virtual siege in the streets of the downtown. Hundreds of police including riot squads were brought in to charge at the demonstrators, attacking them with pepper spray and stun grenades, while a helicopter flew over head for hours to add to the chaos as part of the police arsenal that Quebeckers despise so much. Nothing can justify these all-out attacks on our youth and students, Mr. self-proclaimed Minister for Youth!

Condemn the Government -- It is Not Fit to Govern

With Minister Beauchamp's unilateral decision to exclude CLASSE, the government is completely exposed for its refusal to break the impasse in which it has put the students and the population. The students and their leaders have done everything they could to defend the right to education since the start of the conflict. Respect them!

What kind of money has the government spent on police, riot squads, arrests, injunctions, delays and cancellations of the academic session, as well as the hiring of agents provocateurs, security guards and private security agencies? If not for all the disruption that the government has caused in the CEGEPs and universities and the total insecurity created in Quebec, the government could have resolved this conflict long ago. So what is it waiting for? Who is it defending? Certainly not the students nor the Quebec people. It is acting to defend its anti-social and anti-national agenda to serve the monopolies and private interests, against the interests of the vast majority of the population.

The youth are Quebec's most precious resource. The Charest government must take full responsibility for the attacks against the youth and the violence in the streets of Montreal. Everyone can see the crisis is the result of the Premier's stubborn refusal to negotiate with those who defend the right to education. No one is fooled about the pretexts he uses for using teargas and batons against the youth. The Education Minister's facade of sincerity, spending only one hour with the student union delegates before expelling CLASSE -- the organization with the most members -- was the straw that broke the camel's back with regards to public order.

The government has created an intolerable situation for the youth who are sacrificing their school terms to defend the future of education. The fact that it uses police and riot squad violence to attain its goals demonstrates its total failure.

No to the Tuition Fee Hike!
Charest and Minister Beauchamp Should Resign!

Montreal, April 25, 2012

(Translated from the original French by TML Daily; Photos: B. Barbe, McGill Daily, Media Coop)

Minister of Education Expels
Student Union from "Negotiations"

Students from Limoulou CEGEP demonstrate in Quebec City for their right to education and to oppose the
exclusion of the student union CLASSE from negotiations with the Charest government, April 25, 2012.

On April 25 at the end of the day, Minister of Education Line Beauchamp announced at a press conference that the Broad Coalition of Student Union Solidarity (CLASSE), one of the three student union centrals representing Quebec students, had been expelled from negotiations with the government. She said CLASSE had "excluded themselves from the negotiation table" because the CLASSE website had announced a demonstration on the evening of April 24 that was later declared illegal and which she claimed was punctuated by "serious acts of vandalism and violence." She added that other demonstrations announced on the site had a "provocative tone." She also claimed to be upset about use of language she deemed "blasphemous" that she could not repeat as an MNA, i.e., that the students had called for "a God-damned big demo tonight to mark the end of the truce."

The students and their allies immediately denounced the government's latest provocation which hasn't fooled anyone. One of the spokespersons for CLASSE underscored that the Minister had found the excuse she had been looking for to exclude CLASSE from the negotiations in which the Minister did not participate for even one hour. Likewise, student representatives who wished to address the tuition fee hike were told by negotiators that they did not have any mandate to broach the issue. The only two offers put on the table after 40 hours of negotiations were an enhancement to student aid and the establishment of a temporary commission which could make recommendations to the Minister regarding the management of universities.

Yesterday afternoon, more than 300 people responded to the call of CLASSE to demonstrate at Place Émilie-Gamelin in Montreal to commemorate the end of the academic session. They were devastated to learn of the exclusion of CLASSE.

By the evening, the numbers grew to 1,000 students then to 15,000 in the streets of downtown Montreal to denounce the Minister's latest provocation. Once again, police used the pretext that there were "vandals" amongst the students to justify the use of violence. Hundreds of police attacked the students, who had not been given due notification that the demonstration was "illegal." Amidst the chaos, the monopoly media, which has endorsed all this brutality against the youth, claimed such a warning had been given at 8:30 pm, 9:00 pm and 10:15 pm.

Spokesman for the Montreal Police Ian Lafrenière stated that the police were focused on only a minority of the demonstrators. This did not prevent the police from making mass arrests of nearly 100 people.

Montreal, April 25, 2012: "[Minister of Education Line Beauchamp], You're the one who should be shown the door"
(McGill Daily)

Where Is the Minister of Education Headed?

The Federation of College Professionals (FPPC-CSQ), affiliated with the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), strongly rejects the Education Minister's decision to exclude the Broad Coalition for Student Union Solidarity (CLASSE) from the negotiating table and seriously questions Line Beauchamp's capacity to resolve the impasse on this issue.

The president of the FPPC-CSQ, Bernard Bérubé is in disbelief at today's turn of events, after more than eleven weeks of strikes.

"Our members are literally appalled by CLASSE's exclusion from the negotiations. Their impression is that the reason given by the Minister simply doesn't hold up but only serves as a pretext to terminate the negotiations which she has never believed in. The exclusion of CLASSE is nothing more than Line Beauchamp's last resort to escape her responsibilities," Bérubé said.

Government Revives Old Practices of Confrontation

The union president also notes that the minister still refuses to refer to negotiations with the students, preferring to use the term "discussions."

"In light of what has happened, we can only doubt the minister's good faith. Especially since she is part of a government which the Labour Relations Board has found guilty of negotiating in bad faith on at least two prior occasions. This was the case during negotiations with the home daycare workers, as well as with the public sector workers in 2005. We are therefore under the impression that the government is trying to revive its old practices, its old tactics of confrontation and bad faith that haunted its first mandate," Bérubé added.

Chaos Sets In

The President of the FPPC-CSQ believes that the latest events are even more serious than the chaos that taking place inside the walls of our colleges.

"What is happening makes no sense. We're witnessing a string of injunctions one after another that go in every which way. It's gotten to the point where we have colleges asking for injunctions to cancel other injunctions. The situation is turning into a virtual legal Tower of Babel because our political leaders refuse to take up their responsibilities. It's sad but everything is happening as if the Charest government, after having lost all political credibility in this matter, has decided to eliminate the credibility of the courts as well," said Bérubé.

Professional Staff in Turmoil

Bérubé deplores that the climate in the colleges further deteriorates while the administrators, overwhelmed by the situation, don't know how to react.

"The professional staff also feel torn and don't understand how [the government] could have let the situation deteriorate to this point," concludes the FPPC-CSQ President.

The FPPC-CSQ represents nearly 1,200 professionals in 34 colleges. It consists exclusively of CEGEP professionals. The CSQ represents more than 190,000 members, of which close to 130,000 are education workers. It is the major education union in Quebec. The CSQ is also present in the health care and social services sectors, daycare, the municipal sector, the culture and recreation sector, and the community and communication sectors.

Tuition Fees -- An Agreement Must Be Reached!

The general administration and the three unions and Valleyfield College invite Minister Beauchamp to reach an agreement with the student associations, in order to quickly resolve the current crisis.

Although we learned yesterday that the minister has opened the door to a dialogue, we hope that she does everything in her power to remain with all the student federations until a satisfactory solution is found and the students choose to return to class.

Noting that time is of the essence and that a solution must quickly be found to the current crisis in our college and university systems, the general administration and the three unions at Valleyfield College have agreed to adopt the following proposal:

Whereas the Valleyfield College's mission is to promote access to quality education for the people of Vallée-du-Haut-Saint-Laurent;

Whereas Valleyfield College aims to make students autonomous by helping them master the education process, develop their critical thinking and their responsibilities to their studies and their roles as citizens;

Whereas the university tuition fee increase is a measure that could have a direct impact on access to post-secondary education, and could affect attendance in pre-university programs and technical programs as well as on the professional life choices of thousands of students;

Whereas the university tuition fee increase promotes the indebtedness of Quebec students and their families;

Whereas post-secondary education should be made accessible to the largest number of people while maintaining a student financial aid program suitable for middle class families;

Whereas the students at Valleyfield College have been on strike since February 20, 2012 and that each additional day of suspension of classes complicates the planning of the resumption of the session;

Whereas we must ensure that the climate is conducive to learning when classes resume;

Whereas the students at Valleyfield College are affiliated with CLASSE, the movement that represents more than half the college students currently on strike, which is waiting to be invited to the roundtable by the Minister and we think this invitation could permit a resolution to the current impasse in which Valleyfield College currently finds itself;

It is therefore with a unanimous voice that the Valleyfield College administration, the teachers' union, the non-teaching professionals' union and the support staff's union, invite the Quebec government to quickly and unconditionally open the dialogue with all the representatives of the student associations in order to find a solution to the current crisis and permit students to return to class as quickly as possible.

Who Will Stop the Violence Against Our Youth?

University of Sherbrooke students denounce state-organized violence and
repression against the youth, April 25, 2012. (C. Beauvais)

The failure of the Charest government's politics are exposed day after day, minute after minute, through the violence committed against the youth and against those who express their opposition to its anti-people measures.

The rage in the hearts of the Quebec people, who are witnesses and the victims of beatings, teargas and Charest's arrogance, is completely legitimate. Our wounds are collective. How do we go beyond the anger and feelings of powerlessness created by these images of our youth being attacked by the repressive state forces? How do a people recover from this?

I don't have the answers, but right now the coherence can be found in the student movement and their allies who, despite the sickening violence of Charest, are confronting the anti-social agenda and fighting for a better future for Quebec's youth.

Our security lies in the collective fight for our rights, for the elaboration of a nation-building project that responds to Quebeckers' aspirations.

Charest must stop and ban all forms of violence against demonstrators and create the conditions for a national discussion on the future of education. He is the Head of State, he has the power. If not, he has no place as leader of Quebec. The Workers' Opposition and that of the Quebec people must consolidate to force him to render accounts and must put themselves in a position to provide an alternative to the government's destruction.

The Need for New Forms of Governance

The violence unleashed against students this week is the Charest government's response to the preoccupations of students and large sections of the population as to how to resolve conflicting views on today's matters of social concern, in this case, that of education. The issue has not changed: the democratic process students have followed is being rejected, to such an extent that the official student representatives, as the official voice of all students, are not even acknowledged by the government as legitimate spokespersons chosen through accepted norms by the collective to represent them.

This modus operandi of the Charest government is in line with a generalized approach to "labour relations" today, whereby private interests, in their efforts to subjugate all that pertains to the public interest to their own, impose a modus operandi which is, in fact, a breach in the arrangements we have known to this day. These arrangements constituted a sort of accommodation of the workers and people whereby governments recognized, at least in principle, those representing the collective at hand, "sitting" at the same table in a "negotiation" process with its established norms and processes. When talks broke down, pressure tactics were foreseen, such as withdrawing one's labour power, in order to force the employer to back down, etc. A new politicization of private interests is blocking the popular will from finding its legal expression and from playing a role in finding solutions to today's social problems. Meanwhile, measures taken by governments or put in place through government action allow, among other things, private interests to directly pillage the public treasury, without restraint.

One argument put forward by the Liberal government from day one to justify increased tuition fees is that they are necessary in order to improve the universities' performance. But what can this performance be if the human factor -- the upcoming generation -- is its first victim? Furthermore, will the increased sums be invested in research in the service of private interests? The question arises in light of the recent "health tax" which has been imposed upon the Quebec population -- $100 taken through personal income tax and $200 next year. Everyone is aware that this "health tax" will change absolutely nothing with regard to the inhuman conditions which prevail in health care system. In other words, we are paying the rich directly in the name of "health." Will we be doing the same in the name of university "performance"?

The resistance which the students are devoted to, heart and soul -- the human factor/social consciousness in action -- as well as other resistance struggles taking place in Quebec at this time, are pushing the issue of public debate and collective representation to the forefront. Worker and student representatives must be acknowledged as such, as the legitimate representatives of their respective collectives. Moreover, the representatives of these collectives must be part and parcel of the decision-making process vis-à-vis their various fields of concern as well as on matters which affect their lives as well as society in general. How to resolve this problem is central to the issue of defending public right and removing the block to society's path to progress, as well as fighting the anarchy which private interests, by means of the governments in place, are imposing at this time on society as a whole.

Space for Renewal!

On April 22, the day after a demonstration booed Charest during his visit to Gatineau to speak to his party about his Northern Plan, five Gatineau area Liberal MNAs made remarks revealing that they lack one iota of the stature required of men and women of state. The MNA for Hull-Aylmer Marcel Proulx said that the student demonstrations were "terrorism pure and simple," and others accused the unions and "marginal groups" of feeding a "destructive climate" and sowing "a feeling of terror amongst the student community."

This outdated speech of the five MNAs took place at the very moment that 250,000 people were marching in the streets of Montreal for Earth Day. The demonstrators put forward their preoccupations for the collective good that is our environment, but also for the human collectives that refuse to accept that decisions that affect their lives are taken without their voice and without consideration for the adverse consequences of these decisions on their lives. Today, there is a consciousness that the old arrangements that marginalize the political debate don't respond to society's needs. These old arrangements permit the international monopolies to dictate the working conditions and lives of the workers and people. The people also find it socially irresponsible that these same companies damage ecosystems and endanger the health and security of the people as if they were nothing. Just as the students are currently doing, they oppose this government that takes one anti-social measure after another under the pretext that in the long run, everyone will benefit, while everyone knows this is false. The youth in particular are discussing the future of education and by extension, society's future in general.

Faced with this social consciousness in all its human splendour, the "elected representatives," on their side resort to condemning this consciousness and offers in its place a discourse that goes even deeper into anti-consciousness. If booing is terrorism, then what about the endless booing sessions in the Quebec National Assembly and Parliament? The Liberal MNAs have been bypassed by current events to the extent that they speak of those they oppose as "marginal groups" -- in some cases political parties in good standing -- and see "instigators" everywhere as a pretext to discredit the student movement and the movement in general and take new measures to criminalize them.

We must condemn these defamatory statements which have never seemed so anachronistic, as they only serve to condemn all those who don't accept Charest's anti-social plans and who want to end their marginalization to take up their social responsibilities. The Liberal Party has all the appearance of a "clan" defending "its own," while today a growing consciousness is crying out loud and clear that the whole society is our extended family and the world's fate is in our hands. These archaic forces not only block renewal, but they want to completely destroy the social fabric and any notion of society. It must not pass!

Enough Is Enough! No to Charest's Anarchy and Violence! Education Is A Right!

Enough Is Enough! No to Charest's Anarchy and Violence! Education Is A Right!

Condemn the Government -- It is Not Fit to Govern

Minister of Education Expels Student Union from "Negotiations"

Where Is the Minister of Education Headed?

Government Revives Old Practices of Confrontation

Chaos Sets In

Professional Staff in Turmoil

Tuition Fees -- An Agreement Must Be Reached!

Who Will Stop the Violence Against Our Youth?

The Need for New Forms of Governance

Space for Renewal!

Enough Is Enough!
No to Charest's Anarchy and Violence!
Education Is A Right!

Minister of Education Expels
Student Union from "Negotiations"