A Week of Student Strikes

This week will see students in France, Canada, and even here in the United States (gasp!) go on strike. The student union model is probably our best hope for organizing the campus around student power.

France

Courtesy LibCom:

Students across France are voting to strike to protect their right to an education and to demand improvements.

In the last two weeks 48 general assemblies have been held in French universities, 33 of which had more than 100 students and 7 more than 500. The main focus of the students' anger is the Pécresse law (on 'autonomy') which is seen as the first step towards privatisation of universities.*

Students also have many other demands mainly relating to increased budgets for universities, more bursaries, more student housing, removal of campus security and amnesties for militants, some of whom are being punished for action during the anti-CPE movement.

Students have been voting on a variety of measures, usually strikes, blockades and demonstrations. During the anti-CPE movement many tactics were used, such as flying blockades of roads, railways and airports. As the movement develops we can expect to see these tactics re-emerge.

Update | Update from Nanterre University

Canada

The McGill Daily:

Social science students at l'Université de Québec à Montréal (UQAM) voted Tuesday to go on an unlimited general strike, pushing open the floodgates for the anticipated three days of action next week called by the Association pour une solidarité syncidale édudiante (ASSÉ).

Alexandre Leduc, the coordination secretary for l'Association Facultaire étudiante des sciences humaines at UQAM (AFESH-UQAM), said that the push for an unlimited general strike came as a surprise to the AFESH executive.

"I have to admit, we didn't see this coming," Leduc said. "But people wanted to move. They've been waiting since September to do something."
[...]
ASSÉ, the radical student union in Quebec that represents about 40,000 students, has called for three days of action to occur next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in protest of the Liberal party’s decision in May to defreeze tuition. Tuition for Quebec students consequently increased $50 this semester, and will continue to increase $50 a semester for the next five years – for a total increase of $500, or 30 per cent.

On Tuesday, McGill undergraduates will vote at a GA on whether they want to hold a one-day strike on Thursday.

Massachusetts

Students at UMass Amherst are planning a student strike starting this Thursday, November 15. The action has been endorsed not only by the undergrad SGA, but also the Graduate Student Senate and the graduate student labor union. Boston Globe:

Student government leaders are urging University of Massachusetts at Amherst students to skip classes Thursday and Friday to protest a range of grievances they say university administrators have consistently ignored.

The two-day student strike is intended to pressure administrators into heeding student complaints about increased student fees and aggressive police patrols of dormitories.

"This has been a long time coming," said Jeff Napolitano, president of the Graduate Student Senate. "These are chronic issues that are not being addressed. There really is not any dialogue between the people who run the school and the people who study here."

Graduate students who work as teaching assistants are planning to boycott their classes, he said. Graduate teaching assistants also have been holding rallies this fall, demanding a new contract with reduced fees and better health insurance coverage.

Student leaders are demanding that the university reduce student fees, which they said had risen sharply in recent years; increase efforts to recruit minority students; and reduce police patrols of dormitories.

I'll be hopefully interviewing several strike organizers later this week for a better look at what's happening there on the ground. Also, check out their official website and Facebook Event. If you're near Massachusetts, join up and help the strike succeed!