The Marxist-Leninist Daily

On May 22, at the historic demonstration held in Montreal to support the students in their opposition to the fee hikes imposed by the Charest government and to condemn the government's Special Law which suspends civil liberties, TML Daily interviewed people from all walks of life about their concerns and why they were at the demonstration. Students, workers, retirees, artists, representatives of social, political and cultural organizations, small businesses and every possible collective said with one voice: We will not back off. From the rallying point at Place des Festivals, up to Sherbrooke Street, down Peel, along René-Lévesque to Berri and up to Parc Lafontaine, people stood as one at the march called by the students to mark 100 days of their strike against the fee increases and to express their opposition to Bill 78.

By 1:30 pm, the subway was swamped with people making their way to the rallying point. Buses from Montreal North and other areas were filled with demonstrators, who were dropped off on the outskirts of the downtown area because the buses refused to go where they would be stuck for hours. At the Berri-UQAM metro station, the central square was full of students gathering to march together to the rallying point. Students from Cegeps and universities in cities across Quebec came by bus to converge in Montreal for the occasion. On Ste-Catherine Street, at the Place des Festivals, thousands upon thousands of people gathered early with their banners, signs and costumes of all kinds, each more inventive than the one before, expressing the collective social conscience of the Quebec people. Proud, defiant, progressive, dignified, determined, young and old, all together in a sea of humanity affirmed what they stand for, their heart and soul.

Many Quebec cities were represented, large and small, including Quebec City, Rimouski, Sherbrooke, Joliette, Gatineau, Trois-Rivières, Shawinigan, Berthierville, to name a few. Quebec City students came from Laval University, Cegep de Limoilou and FX Garneau and other schools. They were joined by bus loads of high school students from several cities. Many people took the day off work or left work early so as not to miss the historic event. People were there to support the students, they said, but also to condemn the Special Law and the corruption of the Charest government. This corruption is not just a matter of the brown envelopes filled with cash that are surreptitiously passed around, they said. It is a matter of the private interests the government serves and how it makes the people pay for its schemes to hand over the wealth of the Quebec nation to these private interests.

"Bill 78 is an attack on all our fundamental rights," said a retired teacher. "We will not be silenced. And we are going to win."

The high school students were particularly vocal. "This morning we held a picket line with our parents to support the struggle against the tuition fee hike. The struggle continues, that is our message today," said students from Sophie-Barat high school in Ahuntsic, Montreal.

"On March 22, we took a unanimous vote to support the fight against the tuition fee hike. The school administration wrote to our parents twice asking them to prevent us from supporting the strike. We will not back off," some high school students from Longueuil, piped up. "We are here today to show our support for the Cegep and university students who are on strike. It is for us that they did that and for that they are being attacked. We study at private schools, so we were not able to join the strike but we took many actions to support it. It is our duty to be here today to support the students who are fighting for us." "Everybody has to support them," another group of students added.

Representatives of the generations that have come before were also present in very large numbers. One of them put it very succinctly when she told TML: "If there is one thing we fought for all our life it was to make sure that our youth have a future. We are not going to accept that this future be destroyed."

Many workers were present and they made their support felt in many ways. For instance, trucks caught in the crowd sounded their air horns throughout the day to the delight of the demonstrators who posed for photographs with the drivers and loudly applauded as they passed. Workers told TML that they too have been facing many laws which prohibit them from exercising their rights. They refuse to be silenced by repression and special laws. It is crucial a solution be found to the problem of how the law is used to suppress the people's rights, they said.

"This Special Law comes straight out of the repressive labour laws. Every day now we face injunctions, lockouts, special laws. Our right to fight for our demands and to present any demands is being attacked, but this law goes beyond all the special laws that are being passed for this or that sector. It is an attack on the fundamental rights of everybody in Quebec. We are here as workers and citizens to stop this," a Montreal postal worker told TML.

"Today's demonstration is the strong expression of the popular will. The Charest government has no choice. It has to back off. It has to abrogate its Special Law. We will not back off," one person told TML.

Chloé-Domingue Bouchard from the CLASSE, which called the demonstration, greeted the demonstrators at the beginning of the action and was vigorously applauded when she said:

"In the face of Bill 78, today, we are all students. This government tried to marginalize us. It has failed. Its attempt to divide us has led to our call to unite. This is a government that has failed."

From beginning to end, people said this fight is for a democracy that represents the interests of Quebec.

Government's Use of Violence as a Diversion

We have been through the same thing that the students are going through. The government also raised the issue of violence and intimidation with us as a diversion to attack the construction unions with Bill 33 [an Act to eliminate union placement and improve the operation of the construction industry] and to hide what is really happening on the construction sites. They want to crush the unions and the student associations so that they cannot resist, so that they cannot organize to defend the rights of their members. They say that if you belong to an organization, the organization deprives you of your freedom. They are pitting the individual worker against the collective and they do the same with the students. They want to make you illegal when you present demands on behalf of the workers or the students.

Look what they are doing with the Quebec Construction Commission (CCQ). This is the Commission responsible for the implementation of the construction laws and collective agreements. Since the passage of Bill 33 on the referral of workers to the construction companies, in the name of fighting violence and intimidation, the government has changed the composition of the CCQ Board so it is in a position to step up its attacks against the construction unions. As well, under the hoax of modernizing the compensation system for injured workers, the government has changed the composition of the board of the Workplace Health and Safety Commission (CSST), which oversees health and safety at work and medical care and compensation for the injured workers. They want to change the compensation system into one that forces injured workers back to work. We are here today to say no to that.

Is the Charest government going to start listening to the people and change its ways? We hope so but it does not look like it. We are not going to stop protesting.

Opposition to Government's Corruption

The government says the tuition fee hike will not affect us. It's only a measly 50 cents more a day for the students, Charest says.

I live on a modest pension and already I have to assist my four children who go to university to pay their fees. I have to use my pension, my credit cards and borrow money to help them. I should not have to do that. The students should not begin their life on the labour market with this load of debt. I paid taxes all my life and am still paying taxes. I don't mind paying taxes but I want to see results from that.

There is more than enough money in Quebec to freeze the tuition fees. It is because of corruption that we can't get our hands on that money. The big banks are not paying any taxes. The big corporations receive highly educated skilled labour but they don't pay a penny for their education. Quebec should have a policy according to which the large corporations finance a portion of the education system. Besides that, it is not right that universities spend huge amounts of money on advertising to appeal to the large corporations. Money intended for education should never be used for these kinds of expenses.

I also support wholeheartedly the students' refusal to wait until the next election for the changes they need to have access to education. That is what we are always told -- wait four years and change the government. We need the change now and it is the students who are showing us the way. The changes start here. I believe in democracy but it has to mean something.

Charest's Arrogance and Method of Using Provocations

Personally I am against the tuition fee hike. I created quite a stir when I showed up at work with my red square. But beyond the fee hike, there is the arrogance of the Charest government. Everybody has to denounce it; there is no choice. This government refused to negotiate with the students from the very beginning. It even refused to admit they were on strike. Charest kept saying their action is a boycott. Open a dictionary; the example of students is even given to explain what a strike is. But the worst, if you ask me, is the way this government is trying to pit society against its youth. It is trying to spread hatred against the youth, saying they are lazy, they are spoiled, they don't want to study. Nobody knows such youth. To promote hatred against the youth is unforgivable and very dangerous, irrespective of anybody's opinion about the fee hike. I hope the movement will stick together so that we can get rid of the Charest government.

May 22 Across Quebec

29th Consecutive Night March

Montreal police arrest protesters as demonstrations against the tuition fee hike continued into the evening.

After the demonstration of half a million people, the 29th consecutive night march of about 3,000 people again took over the streets of downtown Montreal on the evening of May 22.

Forty-five minutes after the march began, Montreal Police (SPVM) declared the demonstration illegal. Police forces launched stun grenades, small rubber grenades that detonate at 175 decibels. Two of them exploded on the ground right in the middle of the crowd.

The SPVM conducted another mass arrest of 113 people. Six were injured.

Concerned with the brutality the demonstrators face, the executive of the Montreal transit workers' union recommended to its members that they refuse to transport Montreal police officers. They also issued a press release denouncing the Special Law.

Nearly 500 people held a militant march that began at University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) and went through the streets of the Rouyn-Noranda in the west of Quebec to support the students express their defiance of the Special Law. The call for the action was initiated by Jean-François Vachon, outgoing president of the UQAT Student Association and was taken up by people from all walks of life -- students, youth, parents, families, trade unionists and others. The lively and determined atmosphere of the action gave the lie to the Charest government's disinformation and Special Law that to fight for one's rights is the source of social disorder.

The demonstration coincided with the publication of an open letter from the Collectif de l'Abitibi-Témiscamingue. The letter, signed by one hundred people, including well-known folk singer Richard Desjardins, city councillors and members of the media, opposes the Special Law and supports the students on the occasion of their 100 days of strike. The letter also demands the resignation of Liberal MNAs Daniel Bernard (Rouyn-Noranda-Témiscamingue) and Pierre Corbeil (Abitibi-Est) if they do not reverse their stand in support for the Special Law.

The end point of the march was the constituency office of Bernard where the letter was read aloud. The street outside his office was filled with people chanting the demand "Resign! Resign!" directed at both Bernard and Corbeil.

Chicoutimi

In Chicoutimi, nearly 300 people participated in a demonstration against the tuition fee increase and Special Law. It was the most significant demonstration in the Lac-Saint-Jean area since the strike began.

The demonstration was declared illegal from the start but the demonstrators refused to be intimidated. "The police have just informed us that our march has been declared illegal, but they will tolerate us so long as there is no vandalism," one organizer said.

Sept-Îles

In Sept-Îles close to one hundred people took to the streets, including students, teachers and workers.

The symbolic rallying point of the march was in front of the Caisse Populaire Desjardins, where the employees have been on strike since March 9.

In Gaspé in eastern Quebec, some 200 people took action to mark the 100th day of the student strike. The importance of the fight as more than just a student issue was conveyed by the breadth of participation: students, workers, retirees, trade unionists and parents all took a stand to demand the right to education and to defy the Special Law. They rebuked the Charest government's arrogance and threats to deport the youth, chanting slogans such as "Charest, get out -- we'll find you a job in North."

The participants marched for an hour and a half, before sitting down beside the main thoroughfare next to the shore where a minute's silence was observed. The police had threatened a heavy presence, but this did not materialize. Consequently, the action was a peaceful one. Elsewhere in the region, similar actions took place in the Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Bonaventure and St. Anne-des-Monts, among others.