The Canadian student movement needs to get militant
It would be just as mistaken to deny weaknesses within the student movement as to claim this is the central problem. Student
activists have a choice: slide towards advocacy, or fuel up a militant Canada-wide campaign, with allies like labour, people’s forces, and parents – for ultimately our demand is raising living standards of the people as a whole
By Johan Boyden on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 - 710 words.
One of the contentious resolutions at last month’s Canadian Federation of Students general meeting condemned the recent massacre of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. After this debate, what is new and significant in the Canadian student movement?
Of course, context is needed. The CFS is the most numerically significant component of the Canadian student movement, although it excludes the two militant student organizations in Quebec with tens of thousands of members. It also excludes the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), deliberately engineered as a right-wing split over a decade ago.
The CFS is potentially the “tip of the spear” of the student fight back, especially in English-speaking Canada. The CFS meeting therefore had great significance, not least with the Harper Tory government attacking public funding of post-secondary education.
To most young people, the CFS meeting was invisible. We can hold the corporate media primarily responsible for that. But many progressive youth and students are starting to wonder: who is to blame for the absence of loud and proud protest on a cross-Canada level against the escalating tuition fee crisis?
To be sure, the CFS will campaign in the next federal election – presumably evaluating platforms. And if Harper’s term in office wasn’t enough to convince youth that elections are significant, just look at how elections have framed the tuition fight-back in Ontario, BC, Manitoba and now Nova Scotia.
Last year’s CFS federal election campaign was half-baked — leaflets delivered too late, strategy not thought-out, Greens rated perhaps too harshly (and the Communists, who advocate for tuition fee elimination, omitted). That criticism was raised at the last CFS meeting. Now, apparently, things will be different. But if you can’t vote, either because you are too young or not a citizen, what’s the appeal? And is this tactic sufficient?
Frankly, the answer is no. Yet reflection on the student fight back can not start and end with a discussion of tactics alone, or calls for “a diversity of tactics.” Of course I agree, to borrow the title of one progressive student publication, we must be “Upping the Anti.” But beyond activist hipster phrases, there is a concrete problem: can meaningful parliamentary advance be achieved without the people’s mass action?
Look at Manitoba: the NDP campaigned for a tuition freeze, but is implementing an increase. Currently in Nova Scotia, the NDP is only campaigning on tax credits to address student debt! Students can’t rely on their friends in a political party and privately hope they’ll be the engine to bring our train home.
Having not had a major cross-Canada “day of action” in several years, it’s fair to ask if the student movement isn’t dangerously shifting towards a latent rather than a active force.
That brings us back to Sri Lanka.
Not that the resolution was mistaken; rather, it was congruent with the deeper commitment of the CFS to the peace movement. The parochial claim that internationalism is somehow in conflict with “bread and butter” struggles flies against solidarity and all its cardinal principles. Ultimately, we share the same oppressors in the form of imperialism.
But if mass action and mobilization for the right to accessible education are neglected, reactionary forces within and outside the student movement will have another cleavage to exploit. There is historical precedent here. During the Vietnam war, the Canadian Union of Students imploded, largely for not balancing an agenda of anti-imperialist solidarity work with the more immediate concerns of members.
Access to education could be the campus issue that “electrifies the third rail.” This is already the main dynamo inside the student movement, one that can be neglected but never turned off. Once a force is in motion it won’t spontaneously stop; but nor will it necessarily move in the strongest way.
Unity is a struggle. Some on the left sidelines might be inclined to slag the student leadership as reformist social democratic careerists, call for a “real” fightback, and quietly wash their hands of participation in campaigns to reduce tuition.
It would be just as mistaken to deny weaknesses within the student movement as to claim this is the central problem. Student activists have a choice: slide towards advocacy, or fuel up a militant Canada-wide campaign, with allies like labour, people’s forces, and parents – for ultimately our demand is raising living standards of the people as a whole.
(-1 rating, 3 votes)
Loading ...4 Comments
Leave a Reply
Articles by this author
-
Police harassment of people of color in Canada is a symptom of a more general malaise
Even a casual survey of Canada from the increasing willingness of police to use armed force, to broad cultural symbols, to the security arrangements for the BC Olympics, and even Canada's foreign policy, shows a fetish of violence, a quasi-militarization of society
-
The Canadian student movement needs to get militant
It would be just as mistaken to deny weaknesses within the student movement as to claim this is the central problem. Student activists have a choice: slide towards advocacy, or fuel up a militant Canada-wide campaign, with allies like labour, people's forces, and parents - for ultimately our demand is raising living standards of the people as a whole
-
Canadian youth and workers need to join forces to combat recession
Johan Boyden reports
-
Despite familiar attempts at election fraud, the Left finally wins in El Salvador
Johan Boyden talks to student activist Tanya Portillo, who was an election observer in the recent runoff in El Salvador, about right-wing attempts at election fraud and the elation of the El Salvadoran people that after 20 years of reactionary governments they now have hope
-
George Galloway's ban from entering Canada is a travesty that we will fight
Anti-war politician George Galloway was banned from Canada last week because the Conservative government said he supported Hamas. But they have no problem with letting in supporters of Israel who have inflicted many more terrorist murders. Canadians are up in arms at their government's disregard for basic principles of free speech and they must vent their anger
-
Israel Apartheid Week in Canada welcomes Ronnie Kasrils and fights censorship and interference
Israel Apartheid Week in Toronto has welcomed veteran South African anti-apartheid activist and now politician, Ronnie Kasrils, in a climate of interference from university administrators and pro-Israel organizations.
-
Canadians welcome in the Age of Obama, and hope for movement on Omar Khadr
Canadians are broadly happy at the election of Barack Obama, and hope his influence will rub off on conservative Canadian PM Stephen Harper, who previously had a close relationship with George W. Bush.
-
Canadian activists react to the Gaza assault, while the government does nothing
Johan Boyden evaluates the response from the Canadian activist groups and the political parties there.
Looks like we have another Bill Ayers on our hands. This article calls for militant activism but in a cowardly manner does not state what that "militant activism" would mean on the ground, as is usually the case. Do you know what it means "to get militant" or words mean little to you as long as you can get attention like a reality show star.
It also rambles on from Sri Lanka to crying about the CSF to going back to Sri Lanka to really talking about the CSF again. Next time if you want to talk about "improving" the standard of living in Canada then focus on that. Do not bring up Sri Lanka (as if you really give a crap what went on there) and then ramble about raising your own standard of living. In the end all you've done is show your ignorance, lack of empathy and total inability to actually lead a constructive student movement. Next time, spare me the 5 minutes it took read your article.
Another Bill Ayers? That's a bit rich.
What's the CSF? Maybe you should take more than five minutes to read the article.
What's required in English Canada is an organization of the student left that is pro-CFS, willing to work with student unions and even run candidates, but can act independently of the student unions so as not to be limited by the electoral concerns that tend to render them inactive during the campaign and post-campaign period from February until the end of the term. A student left organization could also run its own campaigns that could in turn be focused on winning over or, if necessary, pressuring student unions to take stances on issues such as Afghanistan through arguments like military vs. education spending and the targeted recruitment of debt-ridden students. And independence is required because we need to have the freedom to criticize student unions and the CFS when they make mistakes or are not effective in their campaigns. But in the end, we'd have to prove ourselves through action.
If we can pull together such an organization around a set of basic principles and demands, we can begin to coordinate campaigns on multiple campuses that are oriented on large numbers of students on the question of imperialism but also the "bread and butter" issues, as well as making the connections between the two – namely the lack of funding for post-secondary education (and every other social program) while military spending goes through the roof.
Regarding the idea that the corporate press doesn't publicize CFS decision – of course, but this is a cop-out argument. CFS doesn't bother to inform the "rank-and-file" students. It has failed miserably in putting out any sort of publication to generalize its political positions on a variety issues and to try and counter not only the corporate media's portrayal of CFS but also the numerous crummy student newspapers that are in the hands of career-oriented journalism students who take potshots at student unions while failing miserably to take on university administrations. The recent "Campus Action" newspaper put out by CFS-Ontario was only one edition if I remember correctly. Even the Canadian Union of Students had a better record in attempting to inform students through its own publications like CUS Across Canada and Issue as well as with annual educational seminars open to any student.
The CFS-Ontario Activist Assembly and recent anti-war assembly co-hosted with the Canadian Peace Alliance are the sorts of things that should be taking place at least annually if CFS is going to build up a core of student activists that go beyond just the student union executives and the usual suspects. The student movement really needs to dig deep into the "rank and file" and work to expand the core of the movement.
The only recent attempt to put together an political and activist-oriented student publication was the Agitator but it stopped publishing in January but will hopefully be back for the coming year. We need more initiatives like this, more people helping build up the circulation of a publication like this with the goal of transforming readership into membership of a new student organization that avoids the anti-CFS sectarianism of some of the student left but connects radical ideas with an orientation on mass action that CFS tries to do with its tuition fees campaigns. Just think how pathetic it is that there is no English Canadian student anti-war organization. Pathetic! Whether we like it or not, CFS won't be doing this anytime soon, so its up to the left to do it and we'd have a chance in hell of doing it if we had an organization.
The Ryerson Free Press is a "political and activist-orientated student publication".
http://www.ryersonfreepress.ca/
The CFS is a bureaucratic mess, more intent on survival than representation. They pander to 'militant' students while marginalizing their other members. As a member of the CFS, I can tell you that they've done nothing in my 4 years of education to improve my life. In fact, I'd argue that they made things far worse. Thanks for unilaterally supporting Palestine! That really helped the divisive atmosphere at York! And supporting CUPE 3903 despite overwhelming disapproval from the student body and faculty. Thanks! When did the CFS stop representing student interests in politics and start becoming an extremist ideologue?
You want militancy? Great, foster hostile relationships that lead to stalemates (see CUPE 3903/YFS versus York Administration).
We want moderation, reason and change!