Over 30 years of anarchist writing from Ireland listed under hundreds of topics
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Interview with an organiser from the Quebec 2012 mass student strike & movement.
Date: Wed, 2013-10-23 10:38
Having recently completed a seven stop all Ireland speaking tour, Vanessa Gauthier Vela answers some questions on the nature of the 2012 Quebec student uprising. This interview is a longer version of the one that appeared in the print version of Irish Anarchist Review 8. Audio from Vanessa's talks in Ireland will also be available soon.
1. Can you briefly summarise the struggle of 2012 for our readers?
Lessons from the Mass Student strike in Quebec - Ireland tour September 2013
Date: Thu, 2013-09-12 11:26
In 2012 the attempt by the government to Quebec to introduce a 75% fee hike was defeated by the organisation of a mass student strike that lasted over 6 months. That fee increase was part of the global process of imposing the privatisation and commodification of education. Since the victory, organisers of the strike have been being doing speaking tours to aid the process whereby "youth and students everywhere are becoming increasingly conscious of the need to organize as a means to defend education as a social right". In September this tour reaches Ireland where we need to hear how a sustained and militant student movement that can win is built.
[PDF of leaflet about the tour to download and distribute]
Sample audio from the tour (actually from our launch dinner & discussion on feminist organising in the strike)
Quebec Strudent Mass Strike 2012 - sampler from tour around Ireland with Vanessa by Workers Solidarity on Mixcloud
Challenging targeted policing: my experiences in the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
Date: Thu, 2013-07-04 16:01
Mike Harris came to power as Premier of Ontario in 1995. Harris could easily be characterised as ruthless, callous and even authoritarian. One of his first acts as Premier was to slash welfare payments by a whopping 21.6%. Under his “Common Sense Revolution” Harris cancelled funding for affordable housing and curtailed services to the homeless, introduced workfare, repealed pro-labour legislation, brought in tighter eligibility criteria for disability allowance, and introduced legislation in relation to renting and tenants rights that resulted in many more becoming homeless in the process. Poor people were demonised and cast as scroungers and cheats, with welfare fraud hotlines established to report them.
