Student groups are planning weekly marches starting March 21 to denounce austerity budget
Student leaders want Couillard to halt fossil fuel development
Student leaders announced a wave of protests that they hope will dwarf the Maple Spring of 2012. This time, they will be marching to call for an end to austerity measures and the exploitation of fossil fuels.
Representatives of five student associations from the Université de Montréal and UQAM said in a news conference on Friday that they have the support of 32,500 students across six campuses to launch the strike, dubbed Printemps 2015.
They plan to hold the first protest March 21 at 2 p.m. at Place ÉmilieGamelin, near Berri métro, and to demonstrate there again every subsequent Saturday until their demands are met.
So far 25 student associations — from UdeM, UQAM, Université Laval, Concordia, CEGEP du Vieux Montréal and Université du Québec à Chicoutimi — have voted to go on strike starting March 23.
Associations for about another 100,000 students are to hold strike votes in the coming weeks, said Félix Gingras-Genest, a member of UQAM’s social science student union.
“We learned a lot from the spring of 2012,” Gingras-Genest said in an interview. “We can draw inspiration, but we have to go much further. In 2012, we fought against the tuition hike. Now, the attacks on the population — not just students — are much larger, so the struggle must be larger.”
“It won’t be just a student strike; it’s a student strike that will initiate a social movement.”
Student leaders want the Couillard government to back down on all austerity measures and to declare a moratorium on fossil fuel development.
“We’re of the opinion that there are no compromises possible. That would signify leaving some sectors of society behind,” Gingras-Genest said.
Most of the student groups at the news conference were members of Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ), which was, under its former name CLASSE, one of the driving forces behind the Maple Spring.
Asked what kind of pressure tactics they had in mind, Camille Godbout, an ASSÉ spokesperson, said “all options are on the table.”
“The political context is different now. The Liberal Party isn’t just attacking students with a drastic tuition hike,” she said. “There are a number of regressive measures that have negative consequences on the majority of the population.”
ASSÉ is planning a rally outside the National Assembly on March 26, the same day as Quebec tables its budget. They are also planning a provincewide demonstration on April 2.
Concordia’s Fine Arts Student Alliance, one of only four anglophone student associations part of ASSÉ since it joined last year, voted on Wednesday to go on strike March 23 and April 2.
In 2012, the Concordia Student Union received a strike mandate in a general assembly. But Benjamin Prunty, the CSU’s president, said the union doesn’t plan to do the same this year, taking “more of a support role for the grassroots mobilizers.”
“There’s a strong will for strikes in certain departments — a surprisingly strong will, I would say.”