Letter
Peace on the Picket Lines
Since the beginning of strike activities last week, a lot has been said about strikers needing to respect the rights of their fellow students.
Obviously, this is a valid and important point. A strike is a forceful action and one that many students aren’t used to seeing or dealing with.
When I was growing up, my mom was a teacher, so I spent my formative years on picket lines and supporting teacher’s unions, but I understand that most students at Concordia may not have that kind of background or understanding of working-class movements and history.
It’s important for strikers to recognize this and react accordingly to the concerns of non-striking students and professors. However, it is deeply troubling to me that in numerous statements released by administrators, professors and students opposed to the strike there has been not a word about preventing violence against striking students.
I can personally attest that not a day has gone by when, as a student actively involved in the strike, I have not experienced some form of harassment, intimidation or assault from non-striking students.
This comes in the form of non-strikers shoving strikers around on their way into classes, threatening strikers with assault, following us down the street to yell at us when we’re not even demonstrating, etc.
After all, strikers have passed mandates precluding us from violent actions against our fellow students; non-strikers have not recently voted in favor of any such mandates.
For those of us familiar with public discourse around gendered and radicalized violence, it seems disturbingly clear that there is an attempt going on to frame strikers at Concordia as being inherently violent, aggressive and acceptable targets for violence, while simultaneously framing non-strikers as passive, innocent victims.
This framing echoes racist, sexist, and classist constructions around the issues of violence and abuse in general, and can only contribute to a deeply unsafe environment for all students.
If we are going to ensure the safety of all students during this time of intense action and rising tension among the Concordia community, it is important to challenge this kind of hypocrisy and make room for strikers to talk about our experiences with violence at the hands of anti-strikers.
The fact that administration, non-striking students, etc. seem to be consistently denying that such violence is even a possibility is deeply disturbing.
—Laura Robbins
BA Fine Arts and Women’s Studies
