Laval Anthro Students on Strike
Quebec Students Join International Movement
In tandem with the Global Day of Action hosted by the International Student Movement, an online platform for student activists, the Association des étudiantes et étudiants en anthropologie at Université Laval in Quebec City held a one-day strike on Oct 18.
The association will also be striking from Nov.14 to 22, during the “Global Student Strike,” also an International Student Movement initiative.
“The reasons [for the strike] are a bit more general than in the case of the student strike of last winter,” said a member of AEEA’s executive, who requested not to be named.
The AEEA executive cited “many polemics at the global level on the subject of education” as the reason for holding the strikes. “It’s a question of commercialization […] a big reflection on what education has become today,” she said.
Most courses in Laval’s anthropology department have been cancelled for the strikes. On Thursday, students participated in a special conference and discussion on the Printemps Erable and the association’s future role in student mobilisation on an international level.
Students also discussed the Association pour une solidarite syndicale étudiante’s plans for the week-long strike in November, including the organization of popular education activities to stand in for cancelled classes.
The AEEA represents 235 students at Université Laval.
International Student Movement
The International Student Movement’s Joint Statement has been endorsed by dozens of student and social groups from around the world, such as the Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante, which has been disbanded into ASSÉ.
According to the Movement’s website, protests were held in connection to Thursday’s Global Day of Action in Rabbat, Bangkok and New Orleans, among other places.
In downtown Montreal, an approximately 100-person march resulted in three arrests. According to the AEEA executive, reaching out internationally is a way for Quebec’s student movement to stay pertinent.
“It’s a way to support all the people worldwide that are in a similar situation to ours in terms of tuition fees [and] all the people who are fighting to change general opinions on education,” she commented.
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