Maple Spring: The Red Square movement returns

“They may have the toughest batons. They may have the thickest armor. They may have the largest newspapers. They may have the thickest wallets. But we have the longest breath. We have the courage of the oppressed. We have the strength of the multitude. But mostly, we are just right.”

- Patrick Charron Morneau,
spokesperson for the
Association for Student Solidarity

In the summer of 2012, streets in cities across the province of Quebec, Canada, resounded most evenings with the sound of “les casseroles.” Citizens stood at open windows and on their balconies banging pots and pans as student protesters and sympathizers snarled traffic in daily marches which, at their peak, brought up to 200,000 people onto the streets of Montreal, the province’s largest city.

The Red Square movement was born to fight against the Liberal government’s plan to raise tuition by 75% over five years. Since 1968, mass actions of this sort have stopped Canadian governments in their tracks when it came to raising the fees for higher education.

Today, Quebec's militant student actions have resulted in the lowest costs for post-secondary education in North America. In practical terms, it has also meant less debt and less worry for young people entering an economy that is producing fewer and fewer well-paid jobs, even for those with degrees.

The success of the Red Square protests – as well as the mobilization of activists from outside groups, especially in the environmental and anti-poverty movements – may be a sign that the energy unleashed in 2012 may now be getting harnessed for a broader fight against the neoliberal economic policies favored by almost every political party in the province and across Canada as a whole.

Recognizing that austerity isn't just about student payment issues, other activist organizations have entered to broaden the movement. One of the largest is the Red Hand Coalition, which is “comprised of over 80 community groups (and) has been working since 2009 to oppose cuts and organize popular resistance.” Red Hand recently released a policy paper called “10 Billion Solutions” in which they propose their own “anti-austerity” budget.

The activists in Quebec argue that their society has broadly supported a social contract since the days of the “Quiet Revolution” in the 1950s, when the province shrugged off the domination of the Catholic Church on the one hand, and its English speaking political and business elite on the other. The bulwark of this contract are the social programs that today's austerity measures, totaling $4 billion in proposed budget cuts, would eviscerate by creating user fees for some while cutting other programs entirely.

To combat the government's approach of making citizens pay fees for healthcare and other social services, the Spring 2015 (Printemps 2015) movement was born. The plan: to combine almost almost daily marches (with large ones every Saturday), educational meetings and renewed student strike actions, which have canceled classes across the province, to galvanize the public.

All of this is in anticipation of a Greve Sociale, or “Social Strike,” planned for May 1 across all sectors of society in opposition to the austerity measures forwarded by the current Liberal government under its new leader, Philipe Couillard.

One thing that could have enormous impact on the May Day strike is the possible involvement of Quebec’s labor unions, which have thus far offered mostly tacit support to previous student actions, including those in 2012. Public sector employees who represent almost 500,000 workers are currently in negotiations with the government and are a larger force in Quebec politics than elsewhere in the country. If they along with private sector unions join the teacher’s union in the fight, there's a very good chance the government will be forced to make concessions.

A Culture Apart from the Neoliberal Norm
Many activists from outside Quebec marveled at the size and effectiveness of the 2012 demonstrations. The students’ ability to come out in such numbers is due in part to the unique circumstances prevailing in Canada’s only French-speaking majority province.

Students in Quebec are organized along different lines than they are in other places in North America. University and college students all join associations (what amount to student unions), whether local or provincial based on their institution or program of study.

The most militant and effective of these groups in recent years has been the Association pour une Solidarite Syndicale Etudiente (ASSE), which was founded in 2001 and currently has about 50,000 members. It is also arguably the most democratic, demanding regular assemblies for members who want to get involved. The group also believes in direct action over negotiations, making it a thorn in the side of successive governments since its creation.

The group was extremely effective during the Red Square protests and student strike actions several years back, increasing their numbers at the end of 2011 through the formation of the the temporary Large Coalition (CLASSE) which allowed other associations to coordinate with them. The coalition had as many as 100,000 members in a province of 8 million people.

CLASSE already helped bring down the Liberal government of Jean Charest, which tried to use divide-and-conquer tactics to separate it from other, less militant associations. Authorities have since tried to counter these large-scale mobilizations by creating a raft of legislation, both provincial and municipal, to stop strikers and marchers.

But the provincial Bill 78 was a major misstep for the government; its authoritarian provisions ignored both local and international law by, for example, banning assemblies at universities and curtailing the rights of university workers to strike. It turned a significant number of previously sympathetic citizens against the Liberal party, and the short-lived PQ government of Pauline Marois nullified most of the bill when it came to power shortly after.

The View from the Streets
The first major protests of Printemps 2015 were on March 21 and seemed to catch authorities off-guard. In Montreal, organizers estimated the crowd at 5,000 for the first march, which police declared illegal from the outset. This was because police hadn’t been provided, and had not approved, an itinerary required by municipal Bylaw P6, which also bans masks at protests. Although there were some broken windows and a number of arrests, the crowds and police have mostly been peaceful in the days since.

The same cannot be said for Quebec City, the provincial capital, which tends to be more conservative and less diverse than multi-cultural Montreal, and which saw over 300 arrests on March 24. Early in the week, Quebec City police also released a dog that badly bit a protester.

Even worse was the scene in the capital on March 26 when officers fired tear gas directly at a crowd of demonstrators. Police claimed that the tear gas canisters were safe for protesters because only the cap comes off when the gas is released. But they might have trouble explaining that to Naomie Trembley-Trudeau, a young woman who was injured when she received a cap to the face at close range.

On Saturday, March 28, I joined a group at the week’s big demonstration in Montreal to see if the overly aggressive police tactics deployed in Quebec City would be repeated. The crowd in Montreal was smaller than during the previous week, but lively, made up mostly of students, young mothers with baby carriages and a number of elderly citizens.

The chant “Whose streets? Our streets!” rang out in French, along with sounds of bagpipes and drums as the crowd marched. Police seemed content to let the demonstration progress, but ensured that protesters would not be able to reach the central area downtown; they also boxed in some protesters on side streets, making it difficult for them to rejoin the march.

With understated irony, police officers themselves covered their riot shields and the backs of their bullet proof vests with red stickers, promoting their own campaign against a wage freeze and pension cuts proposed in the budget for public sector workers. One marcher joked that the cops were probably happy for the overtime pay.

Those with the most to learn from Quebec’s anti-austerity movement may not be in North America but in Europe where countries suffering under similar economic policies, from Ireland to Greece, have similar traditions of militant student activism. For now, Quebec’s activist community is ramping up in anticipation of May Day, hoping that the Social Strike will be large enough to force the government to scale back its austerity plans.

For more coverage of the history of student activism in Quebec, and background on the Red Square Movement, go here.

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