The Trans-Pacific Partnership: This is What Corporate Governance Looks Like

The Trans-Pacific Partnership: This is What Corporate Governance Looks Like

By: Andrew Gavin Marshall

The following is the first installment of a three-part exclusive for Occupy.com on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Originally published at Occupy.com

Part 2: The Trans-Pacific Partnership: This is What Corporate Governance Looks Like

Part 3: The Trans-Pacific Partnership: What “Free Trade” Actually Means

In 2008, the United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab announced the U.S. entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks as “a pathway to broader Asia-Pacific regional economic integration.” Originating in 2005 as a “Strategic Economic Partnership” between a few select Pacific countries, the TPP has, as of October 2012, expanded to include 11 nations in total: the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia, with the possibility of several more joining in the future.

What makes the TPP unique is not simply the fact that it may be the largest “free trade agreement” ever negotiated, nor even the fact that only two of its roughly 26 articles actually deal with “trade,” but that it is also the most secretive trade negotiations in history, with no public oversight, input, or consultations.

Since the Obama administration came to power in January of 2009, the Trans-Pacific Partnership has become a quiet priority for the U.S., which overtook the leadership role in the “trade agreement” talks. In 2010, when Malaysia joined the TPP, the Wall Street Journal suggested that the “free-trade pact” could “serve as a counterweight to China’s economic influence,” with Japan and the Philippines both expressing interest in joining the talks.

In the meantime, the Obama administration and other participating nations have been consulting and negotiating not only with each other, but with roughly 600 corporations involved. The TPP is accelerating the most dangerous free market policies of previous U.S. administrations, bestowing unprecedented powers and privileges upon Trans-National Corporations (TNCs) while dismantling regulations and laws without any democratic oversight or input.

This three-part investigative series examines the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a legally binding trade agreement for advancing transnational corporate tyranny and dismantling domestic democratic accountability.

I. Trade Representatives: The Global Corporate Lobby

Who negotiates trade agreements? The answer is simple: trade representatives. The term “trade representative” is essentially another way of saying “corporate lobbyist.”

To prove this point, it would be useful to quickly glance over the biographies of the important U.S. Trade Representatives (USTR) since the George H.W. Bush administration, when USTR Carla A. Hills was lead negotiator for NAFTA and the WTO.

Embedded within the U.S. foreign policy establishment, Hills had a long career in government and was the USTR from 1989 to 1993, after which she established and became CEO of Hills & Company, an international consulting firm with a focus on global trade and investment for clients such as the Coca-Cola Company, Procter & Gamble, American International Group (AIG), Novartis, Bechtel, Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Inter-American Development Bank, Pfizer and Chevron.

A few accolades: Hills is a member of the board of the Council on Foreign Relations, Gilead Sciences, and is on international advisory boards for Rolls Royce, the Coca-Cola Company and JPMorgan Chase. She is also a member of the Trilateral Commission, the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Following Hill, from 1993 to 1997, the U.S. Trade Representative was Michael Kantor, who now advises corporate clients as a partner in the law firm Mayer-Brown. A member of the board of CBRE (a real estate services company), Kantor also serves on the advisory boards of ING USA and Fleishman-Hillard, a public relations firm.

Next in line, from 1997 to 2001 the USTR was Charlene Barshefsky, who is now on the boards of American Express, the Estée Lauder Company and Intel; like Hill, she is a member of both the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations.

The USTR from 2001 to 2005 was Robert Zoellick, who afterwards served as Deputy Secretary of State, Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs from 2006 to 2007, and President of the World Bank from 2007 to 2012. Following Zoellick, from 2005 to 2006, the USTR was Rob Portman, a U.S. Senator who was a possible running mate for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

And only after him did Susan Schwab, the USTR from 2006 to 2009, commit the U.S. to joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Schwab has since joined the boards of FedEx, Caterpillar and Boeing. Based on the evidence of her and her predecessors’ tenures, it is safe to say there has been a significant interchange between “trade representatives” and “corporate representatives” — to the point where it is almost impossible to distinguish them apart.

Now let’s get even more caught up to speed on appointed “government officials” so we can know exactly what we’re talking about.

In 2008, as Obama was campaigning for president, he stated, “I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race. I don’t take a dime of their money, and when I am president, they won’t find a job in my White House.”

Within a week of becoming president, Obama changed his mind and his “transition team” (responsible for selecting the Obama cabinet) became co-chaired by John Podesta, co-founder with his brother Tony Podesta of the Podesta Group, a major Washington lobbying firm.

Podesta was Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff and, as co-chair of Obama’s transition team, he declared his team was implementing “rules that are the strictest, the most far-reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history.” A top lobbyist whose firm has represented clients ranging from Wal-Mart, BP and Lockheed Martin to the Egyptian military dictatorship, Podesta appeared the ideal figure to implement Obama’s “strict” rules against hiring corporate lobbyists, right?

A little further background: the Podesta Group counts among its recent lobbying successes the stalling of a Senate bill which was calling on Egypt “to curtail human rights abuses.” The Group’s website also boasts that it “challenged” Wall Street reform after “one of the world’s largest banking firms came to the Podesta Group seeking help with their opposition” to proposed regulations for banks.

Thus, it should come as little surprise that part of the “strictest” and most “far-reaching ethics rules” announced by John Podesta in relation to lobbying was that no official could be appointed to the Obama administration if s/he had been an active lobbyist within the previous two years. Luckily for Ron Kirk, Obama’s U.S. Trade Representative, these “strict” rules only applied to the Washington D.C. area; and since Kirk was a corporate lobbyist in Austin, Texas, for the investment bank Merrill Lynch (before it was taken over by Bank of America in 2008), the “far-reaching ethics” promised by Podesta didn’t reach Kirk.

Kirk’s main priority since becoming USTR has been the Trans-Pacific Partnership, worked on in secret for nearly four years with several other countries and 600 corporations. President Obama has called it “a next-generation trade agreement” and a “model” for future agreements.

But not everyone agrees.

In May of 2012, more than 30 legal scholars from nations that will be affected by the TPP signed a letter addressed to USTR Kirk expressing their “profound concern and disappointment at the lack of public participation, transparency and open government processes in the negotiation” of the TPP.

In late June of 2012, more than 130 members of Congress followed this up with a letter that they signed and sent to Kirk urging transparency in TPP negotiations, and an inclusion of Congressional consultations, stating: “We are troubled that important policy decisions are being made without full input from Congress.”

In his not-to-worry response, Kirk reassured the public: “I believe … that we have very faithfully operated within the spirit of the Obama administration to have the most engaged and transparent process as we possibly could.”

Meanwhile, the TPP has received strong endorsements from large transnational corporations and their official lobbies, such as Thomas Donohue, the CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who told the Financial Times that, “[t]his must be an agreement with high standards. These standards will set the bar on regulatory coherence, investment and intellectual property.”

Part of these “high standards,” according to a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation group (APEC), are “deep commitments that go beyond tariff reduction and pass existing World Trade Organization standards.” In other words, it goes far beyond “trade.” This was confirmed by Iwan Azis, the head of the Asian Development Bank’s regional integration office, who stated that the TPP was intended to deal with “behind the border” issues, typically decided by domestic policy, and “which go beyond the normal scope of trade agreements” including issues of labor, environmental and intellectual property standards.

Azis commented: “As a concept, this is definitely something big… This is so comprehensive, it is like a Grade A agreement.” The TPP is designed “to be a structure on to which other nations, including possibly South Korea, and eventually even China, could be bolted.”

At the 2011 APEC summit, Chinese president Hu Jintao stated: “China supports the goal of the regional integration of the Asia-Pacific economy, using the East Asian free trade zone, full economic partnerships in Asia and the Trans-Pacific Partnership as foundations.”

The aim of the TPP appears to be in establishing a core “trade bloc” in order “to create a gravitational force that would bring others in,” according to Karan Bhatia, the Vice-President for international law at General Electric and a former deputy U.S. trade representative. Ultimately, this objective includes bringing both Japan and China into the fold.

In May of 2012, Kirk stated that he “would love nothing more” than to have China join the TPP, following the more immediate additions of Mexico, Canada, and Japan. And in November of 2011, President Obama spoke to the Australian parliament, explaining: “I have directed my national security team to make our presence and missions in the Asia Pacific a top priority… The United States is a Pacific power and we are here to stay.”

One observer and critic has noted that the TPP has the potential to become a new “global trade agreement.” Charlene Barshefsky, the USTR from 1997 to 2001, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal in October of 2012 in which she strongly endorsed the TPP as a “crucial opportunity” to overcome “barriers to innovation.” Referring to the TPP as the “most important trade negotiation of the past decade,” Barshefsky wrote that it “will set the terms of trade for many years in the world’s most economically dynamic region.”

Gary Horlick, who is rated one of the world’s top international trade lawyers with a long career representing major U.S. and global multinational corporations, and more than 20 countries in international trade negotiations and disputes – and who was the first Chairman of the World Trade Organization’s Permanent Group of Experts on subsidies – commented on the TPP: “This is the least transparent trade negotiation I have ever seen.” As part of this “transparency,” participants in the negotiations had to sign a memorandum of understanding which forbids them from releasing any “negotiating documents until four years after a deal is done or abandoned.”

What Horlick referred to as the “least transparent trade negotiations” he had ever seen, Kirk referred to as “the most engaged and transparent process” possible. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that Kirk has access to the draft document and observes and participates in the negotiations, unlike the representative bodies of governments or their populations.

So let’s call this what it is: a transnational corporate coup over the democratic process and public accountability.

Kirk explained that “there’s a practical reason” for all the secrecy in the negotiations over the TPP: “for our ability both to preserve negotiating strength and to encourage our partners to be willing to put issues on the table they may not otherwise, that we have to preserve some measure of discretion and confidentiality.”

Indeed, this is “practical.” After all, as he explained, if the talks were not done in secret, the public would be aware of what was being discussed, and if the public knew what was being planned, they would oppose it.

So secrecy is necessary in order to make the agreement as undemocratic and unaccountable as possible, to ensure that corporations get what they want while the public remains in the dark. Deceptive and saturated with disdain for democracy, certainly, but “practical” nevertheless.

Part II of Marshall’s investigative series on the Trans-Pacific Partnership will appear Wednesday.

Andrew Gavin Marshall is an independent researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada, writing on a number of social, political, economic, and historical issues. He is also Project Manager of The People’s Book Project. He also hosts a weekly podcast show, “Empire, Power, and People,” on BoilingFrogsPost.com.

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08.20.12

by Andrew Gavin Marshall

Crowdfunding a Book for the Revolution

Crowdfunding a Book for the Revolution

By: Andrew Gavin Marshall

A photo I took at the May 22 mass protest in Montreal

Dear Readers and Supporters,

Funding for The People’s Book Project has essentially – despite a few select donations – come to a halt. At the moment, there are not enough remaining funds to sustain the Project past the next week or so. For this reason, I have started a crowdfunding initiative through Indiegogo, a large crowdfunding website, to attempt to raise funds for both the Book Project itself, and to facilitate a trip to Europe, specifically Greece and Spain, in order to undertake research and journalism from the front lines of the economic crisis and anti-austerity revolts. This was done in an attempt to shift the burden of financial support from those who have long supported my work – through my website(s) – to a new audience with a much wider reach than my own, which is very minimal, to say the least.

However, funding through Indiegogo is also currently not sufficient, so I am asking for your help in promoting this initiative, through Facebook, social media, networking, etc. The only way to increase financial support is to increase exposure, and I cannot do this on my own. If you have the means, or are so inclined, your financial contributions would be enormously appreciated as well, either through my website or on Indiegogo. However, it is in the networking, social media, and promotion that I need a great deal of help. I often see the same names who take it upon themselves to help promote my work through social media, and it is incredibly appreciated; just as I often see the same names who provide financial support. While both of these groups – with some overlap between them – are essentially the reason why I have been able to continue independent research and writing up to this point, I need to expand my exposure and bases of support, in order to continue the Project itself, but also to lift some of the burden from those who have consistently supported this Project as it approaches its one-year anniversary.

So, if you have not made a financial contribution, please consider doing so, and just as – if not more – importantly, please help in sharing my articles, book promotions, and the new Indiegogo fundraising page. Your efforts mean a great deal to me, and are enormously appreciated. So thank you for all you have done, and continue to do!

In looking at the objective for the first volume of the Book Project, with a focus on the global economic crisis and global anti-austerity and resistance movements, I feel that I should re-post some of the research and writing that has come about through the generous support of readers and supporters thus far, and of which a great deal will be going into the first volume of the Book.

Starting with the global economic crisis and anti-austerity resistance movements, the following articles, samples, and excerpts have been made possible due to the generous support of readers:

Welcome to the World Revolution in the Global Age of Rage

Austerity, Adjustment, and Social Genocide: Political Language and the European Debt Crisis

Italy in Crisis: The Decline of the Roman Democracy and Rise of the ‘Super Mario’ Technocracy

Super Mario Monti and the Dictatorship of Austerity in Italy

These articles are collectively but a small sample of the actual research and writing which has gone into the Project over the past two months, which has surpassed 300 pages in writing (with over 100 pages on Greece alone!).

On the subjects of education as social control, class warfare, and student movements, the following articles have been made possible: the series, “Class War and the College Crisis.”

Part 1: The “Crisis of Democracy” and the Attack on Education

Part 2: The Purpose of Education: Social Uplift or Social Control?

Part 3: Of Prophets, Power, and the Purpose of Intellectuals

Part 4: Student Strikes, Debt Domination, and Class War in Canada

Part 5: Canada’s Economic Collapse and Social Crisis

Part 6: The Québec Student Strike: From ‘Maple Spring’ to Summer Rebellion?

Part 7: Meet Canada’s Ruling Oligarchy: Parasites-a-Plenty!

Further into the subject of the Quebec student movement, the following work has been made possible due to reader contributions and support:

Ten Points Everyone Should Know About the Quebec Student Movement

From the Chilean Winter to the Maple Spring: Solidarity and the Student Movements in Chile and Quebec

Quebec Steps Closer to Martial Law to Repress Students: Bill 78 is a “Declaration of War on the Student Movement”

Writing About the Student Movement in Québec: You’re Damn Right I’m “Biased”! … Confessions of a Non-Neutral Observer

Québec Students Spark the ‘Maple Spring’

The Maple Spring and the Mafiocracy: Struggling Students versus “Entitled Elites”

On June 11, the Global Elite Gather in Montreal: Will the Maple Spring Say Hello?

Stand Strong and Do Not Despair: Some Thoughts on the Fading Student Movement in Quebec

Organize, Imagine, and Act: How a Student Movement Can Become a Revolution

On the issue of Empire, the following research, samples, and writing have been made available through reader support and donations:

The Predatory Global Empire in Panama: Punishing the Poor

A Revolutionary Idea for a Revolutionary Time: A Plan of Action for the Global Political Awakening

An Education for Empire: The Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford Foundations in the Construction of Knowledge

Education or Domination? The Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford Foundations Developing Knowledge for the Developing World

The Council on Foreign Relations and the “Grand Area” of the American Empire

The American Empire in Latin America: “Democracy” is a Threat to “National Security”

Organized Terror and Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine

The Kennedy Brothers, State Terror, and Friendly Dictatorships

Punishing the Population: The American Occupations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic

The U.S. Strategy to Control Middle Eastern Oil: “One of the Greatest Material Prizes in World History”

Fighting the “Rising Tide” of Arab Nationalism: The Eisenhower Doctrine and the Syrian Crisis

Economic Warfare and Strangling Sanctions: Punishing Iran for its “Defiance” of the United States

Bringing Down the Empire: Challenging the Institutions of Domination

All of this does not even begin to truly cover the amount of extensive research and writing which has been undertaken in the past year, a good deal of which will be integrated into the first volume of the Book. Again, ALL of this has only been made possible due to the support of readers.

Readers and supporters have also undertaken – of their own initiative – to kindly translate some of my articles into foreign languages, simply because they chose to do so, and for which they received no financial compensation.

Among the French translations of some of my articles are:

De la dépression économique globale a la gouvernance mondiale

La politique économique du gouvernement global

Fermons la réserve fédérale mais ne nous arrêtons pas en si bon chemin!

L’éveil politique et le nouvel ordre mondial

Contre l’Institution, avertissement au mouvement Occupy Wall Street

Un court message pour l’humanité: nous voulons être libres !

De l’anarchie: Une Interview

A Greek translation of my article:

“Be the Change: A 12-Point Proposal for the Occupy Movement”

An Italian translation of one of my recent articles on the European debt crisis:

“Il linguaggio Orwelliano dietro la crisi della zona Euro”

And in Spanish translations:

“La ‘Crisis de la Democracia’ y el ataque a la educación”

Movimiento estudiantil, dominación por deudas y lucha de clases en Canadá

Del Invierno Chileno a la Primavera Canadiense: ¡Solidaridad!

Quebec se acerca a la ley marcial para reprimir a estudiantes

“Bienvenido a la revolución mundial en la era de furia global”

So thank you, sincerely, for all of your support over this past year. I could not have done any of this without you, and it’s only possible – and will only be possible in the near future – because of your support. And I will thank you in advance for helping to promote my writing, research, and fundraising campaign on Indiegogo.

In Solidarity, now and always,

Andrew Gavin Marshall

Andrew Gavin Marshall is an independent researcher and writer living in Montreal, Canada. His website (www.andrewgavinmarshall.com) features a number of articles and essays focusing on an analysis of power and resistance in the political, social, and economic realms. He is Project Manager of The People’s Book Project, and is currently writing a book on the global economic crisis and resistance movements emerging around the world. To help this book come to completion, please consider donating through the website or on Indiegogo.

08.18.12

by Andrew Gavin Marshall

Organize, Imagine, and Act: How a Student Movement Can Become a Revolution

Organize, Imagine, and Act: How a Student Movement Can Become a Revolution

By: Andrew Gavin Marshall

From the London student protests, 2010

And so it seems that the student strike in Quebec is slowing down and nearing an end, as the college – CEGEPs – in Quebec have voted to return to class, with roughly 10,000 students having voted to continue the strike, a far reduction from the 175,000 students that were on strike in late April and early May. The strike began in February of 2012 in opposition to a planned 75% increase in the cost of tuition. The students mobilized massive numbers, held mass protests, undertook picket lines at schools, expanded the issue into a wider social movement, and were consistently met with state violence in the form of riot police, pepper spray, tear gas, beatings with batons, being shot with rubber bullets, even being trampled by horses and driven into by police cars. The government enacted Bill 78, assaulting the rights to freely assemble and speak, and put a ‘pause’ on the school semester to end picket actions. Now that the school semester is starting back up again, and an election looms in the coming weeks, the students are being led away from the streets and into voting booths. The ‘Maple Spring’ has become the ‘Fall Election’.

Meanwhile, in Chile, where a student movement that began in May and June of 2011, mobilized against a highly privatized education system, is continuing with renewed energy. There had been ups and downs of actions and mobilizations within Chile over the past 15 months, but in mid-August of 2012, the resurgence was seen as students began occupying high schools, blocking streets, and undertaking mass protests. Students who took part in the occupations were threatened with having their scholarships removed. In over a year of protesting, the students have not seen any meaningful changes to their educational system, or even inclinations that those in power were listening to their demands with anything other than disdain and contempt. The students have long been met with state violence, from the oppressive apparatus of a former military dictatorship, fighting an educational system which was established near the end of the military dictatorship. Riot police would meet students with tear gas, water cannons, batons, mass arrests, and other forms of assault. Police have subsequently stormed the high schools and arrested over a hundred students participating in the occupations. This caused the university students to get more involved, and they occupied the Universidad de Chile, which had not been occupied since the beginning of the movement the previous year (often known as the Chilean Winter).

In Chile, as in Quebec, protests and marches and even the right to demonstrate are frequently declared to be illegal. In both Chile and Quebec, when protests erupted into violence (which is more often than not incited by the police themselves), these are called “riots,” and they are used in the media and public discourse to portray the movements as violent, extremist, trouble-makers, vandals, and criminals. This is designed to reduce public support for the protests (which was far more successful in Quebec than Chile), and to subsequently dismiss the demands of the students. There are, in fact, a wider variety of similarities and interesting comparisons between the Chilean Winter and the Maple Spring. Chilean students and academics have even expressed solidarity with the Quebec student movement.

We face an issue here. The student movements don’t seem to be getting anywhere substantial in terms of establishing some sort of meaningful change. This is not to say they have not achieved anything; quite the opposite, in fact. The student movements have been successful at mobilization large numbers of people, organizing protests and indeed, in politicizing a generation, which is their most sincere and important success to date. Students have suffered under propaganda campaigns, violent repression, legal intimidation, and, most of all, the determination of an elite who view any and every minor concession as the ultimate unthinkable sacrifice which would ruin all of society. In short, elites are more stubborn than students could ever seem to be, and they have the means to hold their position and tire the students out if they can’t simply scare them away or crush them down. So, while symbolic actions and political radicalization are necessary achievements, the will to continue taking actions and the hope to manifest radical ideas becomes worn down, demoralized, and sapped of its strength. This is incredibly challenging to revive if the circumstances and courses of action do not change.

So perhaps it is time for a new tactic. Instead of having radicalization follow mobilization, students could begin to have radicalization guide mobilization. For any social movement to advance, grow, and become something not simply demanding reforms, or demanding something from power, it needs to provide something to the students, to the communities, and the public at large; it needs to create. This is the difference between a reformist movement and a revolutionary movement. In this context, the word ‘revolutionary’ is not used to imply a usurping of state power and violent overthrow of authority, but rather to transform on a radical scale our conception and participation in specific or all sectors of society. Thus, it is essential to provide new ideas for action, rather than discussing and debating the new terms of capitulation. It can make all the difference between a question of how little students will get from their demands, to a question of how much we can get from a new educational structure itself. A discussion of new ideas must replace – or coincide with – the articulation of ignored demands.

How is this possible? What might this look like?

For students, the fundamental issue is education. For the student movements, growth came from expanding the issue into a wider social one, and linking up with other organizations and causes. This expands the scope, and thus, the base of support for a student movement. However, established unions played a large role in guiding (or attempting to guide), fund, and organize in cooperation with student movements. While the cause of workers is an issue that must be engaged with, the established unions that have survived to this point, roughly thirty years into the global neoliberal era, have survived only because they function on a basis of cooperating with the established powers of society, the state and corporations. They are corporatist institutions.

Over one hundred years ago, unions were extremely radical, organized, massive, and revolutionary. The actions and ideas of radically organized labour were the impetus for 8-hour work days, weekends, pensions, job security, benefits, an end to child labour, and much more. Unions subsequently faced roughly a century of battering, violence, co-optation, and destruction. Those which remain are not radical, but only slightly reformist. I say ‘slightly’ because they do not mobilize to fight for new ideas or issues, but only to protect and preserve the reforms previously implemented as a result of radical labour agitation. Thus, union representative serve as a buffer for the blunt force of the state and organized capital and corporate interests which consistently seek to undermine and exploit labour. The major unions typically serve to soften the blow against workers as the elite bring down the hammer. Under this system, all rights, benefits, security and protections are slowly and inevitably worn down and thrown away. When the established unions provide funds and direction for the student movements, they tend to steer them away from radical or revolutionary paths, and promote a highly reformist direction, and which can only be undertaken through negotiation with and capitulation to the state and corporate interests. This gets us to where we are.

When it comes to engagement and interaction, solidarity, and cooperation with labour, it should, in fact, be the more radical – and radically organized – students who lead the unions back to a more radical direction, to take them back to their origins when they achieved successes instead of softened failures. If they refuse to follow a radical direction, then students should encourage and attempt to find means of supporting the organization of new labour organizations: provide assistance, direction, ideas and physical and moral support. Students could be mobilized into the streets for workers’ rights as well as educational rights.

The main point here is that for a movement to radicalize and become revolutionary, it must cooperate with, support, and be supported by other radical and revolutionary organizations and movements. If the more dominant force is reformist, established, and corporatist (by which I mean its functioning ideology is accepting of the state and corporate dominated society), then these organizations will attempt to co-opt, direct, and steer your movement into an area ‘safe’ for the elites, if not altogether undermined and eliminated. It is not necessarily done out of an insidious desire to destroy your student movements, but rather the result of an insidious ideology embedded within the very functions of their organizations. Thus, integration, mutual support, dependency and interaction with other social movements must take place at a radical and revolutionary level if you are to sustain that potential and desire within your own movement. It’s unfortunate, because it’s more difficult; but it’s true, all the same.

Therefore, what is required are radical ideas of organization: for the student associations and other associations they interact with to be more accountable, directly, to their constituents. Instead of elected delegates or representatives making all the decisions (which is how our governments function), the decisions must be made by the constituents, and the representatives merely carry them out and organize accordingly. The student associations in Quebec and elsewhere function more along these radical lines, while labour and other groups typically do not. If student associations do not function in this manner, that is the first issue which must be addressed: either demand the associations to change, or create new ones and thereby make the unrepresentative ones obsolete. Thus, for a student movement to become revolutionary, the first step is the radicalization of organization.

Now onto something more interesting: how to radicalize ideas and actions in education itself. This next step is about the radicalization of action. While the first step, in many instances – the radicalization of organization – had been achieved in several of the student movements, the actions themselves lacked radicalization. The actions were largely confined to mass demonstrations, picket lines, school occupations, and youth rebellion against state violence and repression. These are all important actions on their own: establishing solidarity, power in numbers, a public presence, a demonstration of will and power, the development of ‘self-esteem’ for a social movement. These are necessary, but if the actions do not evolve, the movement itself cannot evolve. Thus, what is required at this point is a discussion of new ideas of action. Typically, as is the case at the moment in Quebec, students are being told to stay out of the streets and go to the voting booth, where “real” change can be made. This is illusory and useless. Unless there is a radical party, the best that can be hoped for is to delay the inevitable assault on education, or perhaps achieve a minor concession, which would likely be more of an insult than incentive.

New ideas of action must come from the students themselves, and there are a number of initiatives that could be discussed and undertaken. Fundamentally, instead of demanding from power, create something new. If education is what you want, begin to do it yourselves. In the case of a school occupations, why should the students not simply begin to have discussions on issues, share knowledge, invite professors, academics, and others who are supportive of the movement to come talk and share their knowledge?

This does not need to only take place in occupied schools, though that would be quite symbolic, but could essentially take place in any public space. It would function as a type of grassroots educational system, designed to share and expand knowledge, not to prepare you for the workforce. Job opportunities are already vanishing everywhere for youth, and they will continue to do so as the economic crisis gets worse. These types of educational forums could potentially be designed to educate and share knowledge on issues of relevance to the student movements themselves: the history of education, protest and social movement history, political power, repression, the economic system – Capitalism, neoliberalism, etc. This could – and should – expand into much larger issues and areas of knowledge, including arts, the sciences, philosophy, etc. There are already people within society who have gained their knowledge through educational institutions, and thus, there are already people from whom to draw this knowledge from in a new forum, and in a new way.

To give an example, imagine a ‘class’ (or forum) on the history of social struggles. First, a physical space is required, so to set up in a park, public venue, rent a space, or occupy a space (such as a school lecture hall). The students should have previously discussed – likely through social media networks – which intellectuals and individuals they would like to invite to come speak to them about the issue. The invited speakers would share their knowledge on the history of social struggles, promote discussion, debate one another, and engage directly with the students. For every invited outside speaker, a student should be invited to speak also, to share their own knowledge and engage on an equal basis. The notion that students are there only to learn and not teach is an incorrect one, and it’s a misnomer that should be addressed and acted upon.

The public at large should also be accepted into these educational forums. The point should be to expand knowledge and discussion among the general population, not merely the students. But the students are the ones capable of providing this forum for the population at large. To add to this: such forums should be broadcast through social media, filmed and recorded, watched online both live and archived. Students could organize ‘subject collectives’, perhaps having a group of students organized along the lines of the larger student associations (through direct democracy), who would oversee the organization of each subject or issue: history of social movements, political economy, media studies, etc. Each ‘collective’ could establish its own website, where the wider community would be encouraged to engage, support, recommend speakers and issues and venues, watch archived or live-feed forums, debate in online forums, be notified of events and speakers, and be provided with educational material, reading sources, etc. The students could write papers which would then be posted publicly on such sites, to promote discussion and to actually use the knowledge instead of writing papers for a grade, which is a rather absurd notion. These sites could have news sections, providing relevant news and developments from around the world related to their issue. The collective itself – both within the community and online – then becomes a forum for the development and extension of knowledge to a much larger sector of society, locally and globally.

This is where the actions become even more important. For a social movement to survive and expand into a revolutionary movement, it must not isolate itself, and must engage and interact directly with the wider population. The best way to do this, and one which has the added necessary effect of increasing the movement’s support among the population, is to provide a service or need. In the case of a student movement: that need is education. Merely ‘opening up’ forums to the public may not be enough. Students or ‘subject collectives’ could individually organize smaller meetings and discussions, in neighbourhoods and venues all over the city, region, or country, where students themselves speak with and to the public on issues in which they have been getting their education.

In Quebec, where students have been consistently framed by the media and elites as “entitled brats,” this tactic would be a means to share our so-called ‘entitlements’ with the wider population, and at no cost to them. Thus, as students gain knowledge, they share knowledge with others. For example, a couple history students could hold a small forum at a cafe or in a small public location which they had promoted within the neighbourhood and on social media for people to freely come to listen and engage in a discussion about a particular history topic. Of course, knowledge in such circumstances should not simply be abstract or obtuse, but relevant to those who are engaging with it. So if the discussion is on a ‘history of social movements,’ students should share knowledge on this, but make it relevant to the current social movement, to the social conditions of the wider population, and ask questions and engage with others in the venue: to promote discussion and debate. Thus, instead of the public viewing students as ‘entitled’, they may come to view students as ‘empowering.’

This type of tactic would especially have to be employed within poor communities, and oppressed communities, where students would have to be willing to listen and learn more than they would be inclined to speak and teach. This is because many student movements, simply by their position as being students, generally come from a more privileged sector of society than the really poor, minority, immigrant, or otherwise oppressed communities. These sectors largely remain in the sidelines of the student movements themselves. This must change, and for a very fundamental reason: there is a great deal to learn from these communities. Oppressed peoples have experienced and known for a much longer period of time what the majority of students are only just starting to learn and experience: the true nature and interest of power, the violent and oppressive state apparatus, the underbelly of the economic system, the reality of social existence for a great many people. In short, it would be a means through which to educate the students on deeper issues of social strife, by listening and speaking directly to and with those who exist within oppressed social spheres.

But there cannot be any taking without giving. So while oppressed communities may perhaps be willing to share their own knowledge with students and engage in discussion and debate, the students must provide something back to these communities. There is a very simple way to get this started: ask them what they need most in their communities. For example, if one community cited the cost and quality of food as a central issue, students could then leave the first meeting with the community with the intent to organize and plan around this issue. The students could hold their own discussions, meetings, debates, and share ideas on how to help resolve this specific issue within that specific community, and then propose various ideas to those community leaders. The ideas would be subject to critique, dismissal, support, etc, to go back to the drawing board with new suggestions or to get to work, putting action to the ideas.

So with the issue of food, for example, students could perhaps organize around the idea of establishing a community food garden, proposing it to the community, and, if approved and critiqued, they could find an area of land, get the support and materials they need, and work with members of that community to plant and establish such a garden, to help move toward some form of food sustainability, provided either free or cheap to those within that area. Potentially, there could be a student educational association which specialized in sharing knowledge about nutrition, horticulture, etc., and they could be brought in to share their knowledge, help in the endeavour, or even make it a staple feature of their functioning: to go to different communities to help establish food sustainability.

These are, of course, just ideas of actions, there is no reason to follow this specific outline. This is meant to merely promote the discussion of this concept: the actions, organizations, and objectives which would result from a radicalization of action are likely to be far more varied, interesting, and effective than these mere suggestions. However, I used these examples of actions and ideas to show how a student movement protesting against something (such as a tuition increase), can become a revolutionary movement for something.

These actions are revolutionary because they force people to question and reconsider their conceptions of education, its manifestation, its purpose, its institutionalization, philosophy, etc. The actions themselves engage directly with people, drawing from and providing to the population as a whole. This increases support among the population, but also greatly strengthens the ideas and actions of the students themselves. At such a conceivable point, it could not be called a ‘student movement,’ but could only be identified as a much wider social movement, which would help radicalize the wider society itself, which would in turn provide new ideas and actions to the students; solidarity in both words and actions.

These actions are revolutionary because they attempt to maneuver around power structures instead of expending all of their energy on directly battling the power structure itself. By going around the power structure – around the state, the schools, the corporations, etc. – the students would create a parallel educational structure within society, making the existing one increasingly obsolete. As this is done, the bargaining power of the state and other structures is reduced, because the students no longer rely exclusively upon them for an education. The state would most certainly attempt to repress such a movement, or perhaps even to offer much larger incentives, concessions, or even meet the previous demands of students in order to get them back in the schools and within an educational system that power controls. The state is well-established to deal with direct confrontations: that’s what police, armies, guns, badges and lawyers are for. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you’re demanding, or where you are demanding it, the state can simply tear gas you, scare you, disperse you, and wait you out. But to move around the power structure, and to create and establish something new, not under the control or direction of established institutions of power, the power structures become very nervous and insecure.

It would be foolish to think that the power structures would not respond with more state violence than they have up until present, they most certainly would. The primary difference, however, would be that the public support for the movement would have conceivably exploded, and in the case of increased violence, it would explode in anger and opposition to the state. In short, while the state would be likely to increase its tactics of intimidation and violence, the public response would likely be far more powerful than anything we have seen thus far. We saw an example of this in Quebec, when the government passed the repressive Bill 78 and a much larger segment of the population was mobilized in opposition to the government. However, this has now largely faded, and again, it’s about the difference between mobilizing against something and mobilizing for something. It’s the difference between opposition and proposition, demand and action.

The fundamental idea which I am arguing is that for a student movement to become a revolutionary movement, it must transform its demands of education into actions for education. If the issue is education, the answer is education. The inability of the student movements to have their demands met reveals a deeply-ingrained flaw in our society: that an institution does not reflect or respond to the demands of its supposed constituents. This fact makes that institution illegitimate. This flaw further manifests itself across the entire society. If the government itself, which is supposedly ‘representative’ of the people, does not reflect the intentions and interests of the population, then it is illegitimate. Most institutions do not even have a means for their constituents to have a say in who runs the institutions themselves. Some, such as governments or unions, may have elections in which people can choose candidates, but then all the other decisions are taken out of their hands. Other institutions, such as schools, corporations, banks, media, etc., do not even have a means for constituents to select leadership, let alone direction and action. University boards are populated with bankers, former government officials, corporate executives, foundation officials, and other established elites. Therefore, universities are geared toward meeting elite interests under their direction. This is flawed and wrong. Though, because most institutions function in this way across wider society, it tends to go unnoticed and is simply accepted as “the way it is.”

Students must now ask: Does it have to be this way? What other way could it be? What should change? How could that change? What is the intent of education? These questions lead to other, larger questions about the society as a whole, and, as a result, they make necessary the wider radicalization, organization, and revolution of society itself. It is a rather large idea, but I think it is also a logical one. As the economic and social circumstances for most people continue to deteriorate in the near future – and perhaps rapidly so as the global economic crisis accelerates – such ideas and actions will become all the more necessary and will generate much more support.

Since the beginning of the global economic crisis in 2007 and 2008, the world has seen a rapid acceleration of resistance movements, protests, and revolutionary struggles. The world is rumbling awake from a long lost slumber of consumption and consent as the situation of crisis reveals deep flaws in the structures, ideology, and actions of power. We are witnessing the rapid proliferation of global resistance movements, but it requires much more for them to become global revolutionary movements. It has only begun, but it requires new ideas and actions to move forward. It would potentially be very challenging to begin such actions now, but in the very least, student movements should begin to advance the discussion, to debate the direction, and to incite new ideas. These are, after all, the skills that an education is supposed to provide us with.

Perhaps it is time to put our education to use.

08.16.12

by Andrew Gavin Marshall

Stand Strong and Do Not Despair: Some Thoughts on the Fading Student Movement in Quebec

Stand Strong and Do Not Despair: Some Thoughts on the Fading Student Movement in Quebec

By: Andrew Gavin Marshall

As eight of the fourteen CEGEP preparatory schools have voted to return to class, and thereby end the strike which began in February, Quebec is beginning to witness the fading away of the first phase of the student movement, mobilized by the planned tuition increases, and which expanded into a broader social movement known as the ‘Maple Spring.’ As some students have returned to class, they were met with a heavy police presence, no doubt to ensure ‘order’ during such a “dangerous” situation in which students enter school property. After all, Bill 78, which was passed by Jean Charest’s government back in May (now known as Law 12), made student protests on (or within 50 metres of school property) an illegal act.

Bill 78 was, quite accurately, described as “a declaration of war on the student movement,” and included an excessive amount of violations of basic rights and freedoms. Regardless of the specific details of the illegalities of the Law, we – the people – do not need even our Charter of Rights and Freedoms to tell us what is right and wrong, just or unjust. The legal system itself, after all, has very little to do with ‘justice’, and far more to do with legalizing injustice. Not only was the Law a violation of legally guaranteed rights and freedoms, such as freedoms of assembly and expression, but it was an affront to a very basic sense of decency, an insult to a very common sense of democracy, and an attack on a very basic conception of freedom.

This Law remains in effect. The tuition is set to increase. And as students vote to end the strike, some are mourning the seemingly vanishing potential of the student movement to effect a real, true, and lasting change. But all was not for nothing, all is not lost, and resistance is not futile. We have witnessed but the starting actions, initiative, determination, and voice of a generation which, around the world, from Egypt, to Greece, Spain, Chile and Mexico, are standing up, taking to the streets, innovating new actions and forms of collective resistance and even revolution. Our generation is beginning – and only just beginning – to awaken our wider societies to resist and challenge a system which, in the wake of this new great global depression, which in the wake of new wars of aggression, has revealed its true nature: all for the powerful, and nothing for the people. It is a system which benefits the few at the expense of the many.

The most prominent symptom of this system is what we call ‘neoliberalism.’ I emphasize that this is a symptom, and not the cause, because neoliberalism was born of the very ideas, individuals, and institutions that have comprised and continue to comprise our system and structure of national and global power. Neoliberalism is but the malignant phase of a wider social sickness. Neoliberalism manifests itself by promoting the wholesale privatization of state and public assets, of resources, of industries, of services, of infrastructure, of roads, ports, electricity, railways, water, and yes, of education itself. It is the handing over of what is public – and thereby what is yours – to private hands: to corporations and banks. Neoliberalism is further represented by the deregulation of anything and everything that would benefit private corporate and financial interests. This means that everything from regulatory oversight of the institutions that plunged the world into economic devastation, however slight it may exist at present, will be completely dismantled. This means that any protections granted to workers, in the form of wages, collective bargaining rights, union rights, pensions and benefits… will be no more.

When economic crisis hits, there is a common scenario of reaction and response: the State moves in to bailout the banks and corporations that caused the crisis (in cooperation with the state itself, of course). As a result of the bailouts, the State buys the bad debts of banks and corporations and hands you, the people, the bill. The next phase is called “austerity.” Austerity is an economic and political euphemism for impoverishment. Austerity means that all social spending is reduced or cut entirely; so, no more public funding for social services, welfare, pensions, healthcare, education, public sector workers are fired, social housing is dismantled, and taxes are raised. The effect is obvious, more unemployment, lower incomes, higher costs for services, higher taxes, and a rapid acceleration of poverty.

The next phase, then, is what is called “structural adjustment” or “structural reform.” This means the privatization of everything, which also includes mass firings, deregulation, and an attack on labour, unions, and workers’ rights. The specific assault upon workers, by reducing their wages, eliminating pensions and benefits, and denying them the right to organize in unions, is called “labour flexibility,” meaning that the labour force becomes “flexible” to the demands of the powerful: it becomes a cheap source of easily exploitable labour for the corporations that now own everything they didn’t own already. Thus, when these corporations begin to open factories and employ the newly-impoverished population at sweatshop wages, this is called “investment.”

The result of “austerity” and “adjustment” is a massive program of social genocide. If you want to see the effects of austerity and adjustment, look to Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where the Western nations, banks, corporations, and international financial institutions – like the World Bank and IMF – have imposed neoliberalism, austerity, and adjustment over the past 40 years. You witness the dismantling of healthcare, education, social services and protections, you see the exploitation of workers, the spread of disease and hunger, and widespread dehumanization. If you think this cannot happen in the Western industrialized world itself, look to Greece, where this system is currently manifesting itself at its most extreme, and where all the same effects that took place in the so-called ‘Third World’ are now coming to the ‘First.’ What our nations and dominant institutions of power have done abroad, they are now doing at home. And just as it spread abroad through a manufactured debt crisis, so too is that how it is now manifesting at home. In June, 146 Greek academics signed a letter of solidarity with the student and social movement in Quebec, writing: “We, Greek academics, declare our solidarity to your wonderful struggle, which is our struggle!” We must begin to recognize that their struggle is ours, as well.

The population of Greece is being punished into poverty, their healthcare system is in total collapse to the point where hospitals report shortages of aspirin, gloves, syringes, toilet paper, and band-aids; families abandon children on the streets because they can no longer care for them; people go hungry and children faint in school because their family had not eaten in several days; their taxes increase, they rely upon food banks and charity for the basics of survival; homelessness explodes, social housing is dismantled, pensions for the elderly vanish, and suicide rates rapidly accelerate. Why does this take place? Because the IMF and the European Union force Greece to impose ‘austerity’ and ‘adjustment’ in return for massive bailouts which only go toward paying the interest on debts owed to German, French, Dutch, and British banks. Each bailout becomes added debt with higher interest, and thus, Greece, just like the ‘Third World’, becomes enslaved to the global institutions of domination and exploitation.

The tuition increases in Quebec are but the first signs of austerity emerging in this province and country. At the national level, Stephen Harper has begun his campaign for austerity with his budget bill, cutting public sector workers, reducing spending on social services, and increasing subsidies to corporations. His government already bailed out Canada’s big banks back in 2008 and 2009 to the tune of $114 billion, approximately $3,400 for every man, woman, and child in Canada. That is almost the same amount that Quebec students will be forced to pay under the increases in tuition. Meanwhile, the banks announce record profits, and the government then cuts their taxes. Across Canada, student debt amounts to roughly $20 billion, yet Canada’s Prime Minister is planning to spend roughly $25 billion purchasing fighter jets from an American arms manufacturer so that Canada could jump at the opportunity to help the Empire bomb poor people in foreign countries so that our corporations and banks can freely plunder their resources. Our governments, through so-called “aid” programs, fund and train the militaries and police of oppressive foreign governments, so that they may establish ‘order’ over their populations while our corporations steal their wealth and future. The same tax dollars that help foreign governments crush their own populations pay the wages of the riot police that have beaten, tear gassed, pepper sprayed, attacked and arrested the students in Quebec. Again, what we do abroad is now being done at home.

In Canada, and in Quebec, we have seen but the start of austerity, but the vague rumblings of the captains of capital, the plunderers of people, and the exploiters of everything, who are now telling our corrupted parasitic political elites that the time has come: they now want it all, everything, and to leave us with nothing. The time has come for ‘austerity’ and ‘adjustment,’ the time has come, therefore, for impoverishment and exploitation. And mark my words, as they impose this system at home, they will blame us, the people, the entire way; they will blame us for amassing large personal debts, for buying mortgages we could not afford, for taking student loans we could not pay back, for spending credit on consumption, for living above and beyond our means. They will tell us, as Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, has told the Greek people, “it’s payback time.”

Payback time for what, you ask? It’s payback time for our naivete in believing our political leaders, for engaging in a culture constructed by corporations, for doing what we were told was the right thing to do, for doing what was expected of us, what was designed for us, for being passive, obedient consumers. Simply put: the elite feel quite strongly that the population is too stupid, too malleable, to ignorant and irrelevant to decide for itself the direction society should take, or the purpose their own lives should have. Thus, it’s payback time for the slight concessions, for the minor benefits, and for the mirage of democratic trappings that they have begrudgingly granted our populations over the past century: it’s payback time for the once-radical workers movements that challenged industry and government and won rights for workers; it’s payback time for social movements that demanded revolutionary change and got minor reforms; it’s payback time for all of our ‘demands’ as purportedly free and independent beings.

Our elites, much like Marie Antoinette, looked upon the massive unrest and anger of the population and declared, “Let them eat cake”: let them have elections, let them buy televisions, iPods, and game systems; let them choose between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Democrat and Republican, Liberal and Conservative; let them buy a house and have a car, let them go to school and get a job, let them think and feel as if they are free and in charge… but do not let them take freedom or take charge. So now, it’s payback time for all the small concessions they have granted us, each one in their eyes, an unjust and undeserving sacrifice, always proclaimed to have catastrophic consequences to the economy and society and “free industry” and “enterprise.” So now, it is “all for them, and none for us.”

Now, we don’t even get our cake.

Greeks now know this story well. But here in Canada, and here in Quebec, we are only seeing the starting shots of a race to repression and poverty. The students have seen the reaction from elites, from police, and from the media, that even such a relatively small issue (as compared to the situation in Greece or Egypt or elsewhere) such as struggling against a tuition increase, can result in so much violence, demonization, condemnation, misrepresentation, propaganda, and repression. Our political elites have begun to show us their true colours, something which First Nations and other internally colonized peoples (such as the black population in the United States) have known for a great deal of time. We’re now starting to catch up, to see our elites for who and what they truly are.

Jean Charest is not the problem. Jean Charest is but the vile mucus and malingering bile coughed up from a sick and struggling society. Charest is nothing but a symptom of a deeply suffering society, of a society whose priorities are all wrong, of a society that is so bizarre and incoherent that it is capable of producing and supporting political leaders as obscene, arrogant, and repulsive as Jean Charest himself. But again, he is not the problem. Altering the symptoms is pointless if you do not address the sickness, itself.

The media is now telling Quebec students that the “answers” to our struggle lie in the ballot box, not the streets. That our solutions can come through voting for politicians, not taking collective action. It’s a funny thing, growing up in the West, where we were always told how our societies were so free and democratic, and that our youth went to go fight wars abroad so that youth at home would have the right to go out into the streets and protest, to struggle for rights and freedoms, that these were the very actions and definitions of our democracy. We were told that this was the expression of our freedom… unless of course, we decide to take that course of action ourselves. Then, we become criminals, vandals, even terrorists. It’s an ideal of democracy unless we decide to actually act upon it: then we are portrayed as violators of democracy. Our elites complain that they already gave us our damned cake, why do we feel that we are so “entitled” as to ask for more, like Oliver Twist asking for a mere extra bowl of non-nutritional work-house sludge. Poor Oliver was met with the aghast and shocked, “MOOOORE?! You want MOOORE?!” How dare you. How dare you step out into the streets and demand more equality, more freedom, more accessibility, more opportunity, more POWER. How dare you demand that the elites should follow the direction of the people. What the hell kind of society do you think you live in, a democracy?! Well, that’s what riot police are for: to put you in your place. That’s what Bill 78 was for. That’s what Jean Charest was and is for.

So, while we have witnessed but the starting putrefaction of our society in the form of austerity, we have also only witnessed but that starting signs of hope, of struggle, of resistance, and of action in an age of rage, and a coming world revolution. We have been fortunate enough to witness and partake in the beginning of what will be a long struggle, of what will be the defining feature of the world in which our generation is entering into as young adults. We have witnessed but the start at home of what has already been starting elsewhere in the world, in Egypt, in Tunisia, in Greece, Spain, Italy, in Chile and Mexico; the start of our generation – both locally and globally – standing up to our rapacious elites, of rejecting their insane ideologies, and of opposing with both our bodies and our minds, their physical and psychological oppression.

They may look down upon us in disgust and with confused mental constipation, ask, “MORE?!”

But then we will look upon them, in larger numbers, in massive and ever-expanding varieties, in solidarity with our brothers and sisters around this small little planet, and look at these morally vapid, small little people, who place themselves at the top of our world, who support themselves with hallow values and empty ideas, and we will say, “No more.“

So, to my fellow students, to my brothers and sisters in Quebec and beyond, I can only say, do not mourn the fading strike, do not regret your struggles in the streets, and do not despair: we are only in the beginning of our lives, and in the beginning of our struggle. And look, simply, upon the mass mobilization, the manifestation, the hope, and yes, the energized frustration that we had accomplished thus far. The strike was but the start of a much wider, much larger and longer social struggle, which we can only see the vague, misty hints of, which we can only hear like a distant train, but fast approaching.

We have shown to those who rule over us, that if this was the reaction to the issue of tuition, just imagine how terrified they are about what we can accomplish, about what we can represent and implement, when they decide to undertake expanded austerity and adjustment. The people have given the powerful reason to fear our mass awakening. Make no mistake, that is an accomplishment, even if you cannot see or hear it, it is there, and you can feel it.

Do not despair. Our generation is but rumbling and grumbling awake from centuries of injustice, groggy and confused, unaware entirely of our surroundings, not knowing yet which direction to go, but we know this: where we are, and where we are being led, is not where we want to be or go, and we have stood up and said so. We are finding our freedom the only way any people have ever found it: by taking it and acting on it, not asking for it. You do not demand cures from cancers. You must find and create them yourselves.

The strike might end, but the streets won’t be empty for long. So stand strong, students and supporters. Your energy, ambition, and inspiration will be needed for some time to come. The whole world is waiting for it, even if they don’t know it yet.

The future is ours, but only if we recognize that it can be, and only if we decide that it will be. And only if we act as if it already is.

I’ll see you in the streets.

08.02.12

by Andrew Gavin Marshall

Read the Revolution!

In the current phase of The People’s Book Project, I have been doing extensive research and writing on the global economic crisis and anti-austerity and resistance movements worldwide.

My objective is to finish this book as soon as possible, to have it published by the end of the year. However, I do need your support in order to continue my work on this project. With an objective to raise $2,500, I have so far raised $975.00, meaning that there is $1,525 to go!

Thus, far, I have written extensively on the causes of the American housing crisis and financial collapse and bailouts; the causes and consequences of the European debt crisis; the anti-austerity movements – such as the Indignados – but also violent resistance in the streets of Athens, that have been taking place in Europe; I have already done a significant degree of work on the Quebec student movement, as well as the Chilean student movement, and have been doing a good deal of research on the U.K. student movement from 2010 as well as the Occupy movement.

While over 250 pages of detailed research have been written and compiled, there is still a ways to go! There is more work to be done on the European debt crisis. I have roughly 50 pages single-spaced just on Greece alone, roughly the equivalent for Spain, as well as Italy, and a comparable amount for an analysis of the European politics of power at the high levels (France, Germany, Brussels); however, I still need to complete research and work on Ireland and Portugal, as well as finishing up the other sections. My main problem in writing about the European debt crisis is that every week there seem to be new and dramatic events unfolding in the EU, and it is a challenge to keep up with just the surface of what’s going on, let alone all the causes and consequences. However, I am quite determined, and my research into the crisis shows me just how unbelievably important it is to do the best research I can on this subject, and to properly explain the situation in words and terms that everyone can relate to and understand. This means I have to analyze and criticize the language which is used by politicians, economists, bankers, and the media when they describe the crisis, its causes, and its ‘solutions.’

I have also done a good deal of work on the situation in Canada, in terms of Canada’s experience with the economic crisis, and a coming housing collapse in the country, approaching austerity and growing resistance. I have yet to study the Mexican student movement, but it will definitely be included as well.

There is a great deal more work to do, and as much work as I am accomplishing, I can’t seem to be going fast enough to my liking. But I also don’t want to rush through just for the sake of finishing. Your support has to go toward the development of a finished product which I can be proud of, and which I hope others may find helpful and informative.

I have not done any recent work on the Arab Spring, and due to the length and effort already put in this book so far, and considering how far I have left to go, I may have to consider leaving it out for the moment, though this would be unfortunate. But this I will not decide right now.

I have also posted several articles, samples, and research excerpts from my book and the type of information I am examining and analyzing. These are very rough drafts, but it gives readers an idea of the work that is going into the project (in terms of the detail) – for example, in the articles on Italy’s crisis – but also on some of the analytical approaches to the subject matter – such as in my piece on political language – and of course on the scope I am hoping to reach – such as in the piece on ‘world revolution.’ Here are my recent samples:

- “Italy in Crisis: The Decline of the Roman Democracy and Rise of the ‘Super Mario’ Technocracy”

- “Super Mario Monti and the Dictatorship of Austerity in Italy”

- “Austerity, Adjustment, and Social Genocide: Political Language and the European Debt Crisis”

- “Welcome to the World Revolution in the Global Age of Rage”

The more research and writing I do on this massive crisis and the resistance erupting around the world has me utterly convinced of two major points: first, the elite are waging unrestrained class warfare the likes of which have never before been seen on such a truly massive global scale; and second, the people of the world are sporadically and often surprisingly rising up in different contexts and through different tactics against this corrupt and archaic system. The elite are seeking all for them and nothing for all, while the people are rising up, sensing instinctively that humanity was not meant to live like this.

I feel a great sense of urgency in finishing this book as soon as possible, for the global circumstances are themselves changing so rapidly, and I feel that this information needs to be approachable and accessible as soon as humanly possible. So help me to do what I can to put words to paper so that you and others may ‘read the revolution’ before – and even as – you go out and start it!

Thank you for all of your amazing and constant support!

Thank you for your donations, for sharing my articles, for re-posting my articles, for discussing this project, and for translating my work into different languages, and for sending me information and being sources of inspiration!

Sincerely,
Andrew Gavin Marshall

07.30.12

by Andrew Gavin Marshall

Welcome to the World Revolution in the Global Age of Rage

Welcome to the World Revolution in the Global Age of Rage

By: Andrew Gavin Marshall

Mass protest in Spain

I am currently writing a book on the global economic crisis and the global resistance, rebellious and revolutionary movements that have emerged in reaction to this crisis. Our world is in the midst of the greatest economic, social, and political crisis that humanity has ever collectively entered into. The scope is truly global in its context, and the effects are felt in every locality. The course of the global economic crisis is the direct and deliberate result of class warfare, waged by the political and economic elites against the people of the world. The objective is simple: all for them and none for you. At the moment, the crisis is particularly acute in Europe, as the European elites impose a coordinated strategy of class warfare against the people through “austerity” and “structural adjustment,” political euphemisms used to hide their true intention: poverty and exploitation.

The people of the world, however, are beginning to rise up, riot, resist, rebel and revolt. This brief article is an introduction to the protest movements and rebellions which have taken place around the world in the past few years against the entrenched systems and structures of power. This is but a small preview of the story that will be examined in my upcoming book. Please consider donating to The People’s Book Project in order to finance the completion of this volume.

Those who govern and rule over our world and its people have been aware of the structural and social changes which would result in bringing about social unrest and rebellion. In fact, they have been warning about the potential for such a circumstance of global revolutionary movements for a number of years. The elite are very worried, most especially at the prospect of revolutionary movements spreading beyond borders and the traditional confines of state structures. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s former National Security Adviser, co-founder with banker David Rockefeller of the Trilateral Commission, and an arch-elitist strategic thinker for the American empire, has been warning of what he terms the ‘Global Political Awakening’ as the central challenge for elites in a changing world.

In June of 2010, I published an article entitled, “The Global Political Awakening and the New World Order,” in which I examined this changing reality and in particular, the words of Zbigniew Brzezinski in identifying it. In December of 2008, Brzezinski published an article for the New York Times in which he wrote: “For the first time in history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive. Global activism is generating a surge in the quest for cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world scarred by memories of colonial or imperial domination.” This situation is made more precarious for elites as it takes place in a global transition in which the Atlantic powers – Western Europe and the United States – are experiencing a decline in their 500-year domination of the world. Brzezinski wrote that what is necessary to maintain control in this changing world is for the United States to spearhead “a collective effort for a more inclusive system of global management,” or in other words, more power for them. Brzezinski has suggested that, “the worldwide yearning for human dignity is the central challenge inherent in the phenomenon of global political awakening.” In 2005, Brzezinski wrote:

It is no overstatement to assert that now in the 21^st century the population of much of the developing world is politically stirring and in many places seething with unrest. It is a population acutely conscious of social injustice to an unprecedented degree, and often resentful of its perceived lack of political dignity. The nearly universal access to radio, television and increasingly the Internet is creating a community of shared perceptions and envy that can be galvanized and channeled by demagogic political or religious passions. These energies transcend sovereign borders and pose a challenge both to existing states as well as to the existing global hierarchy, on top of which America still perches…

The youth of the Third World are particularly restless and resentful. The demographic revolution they embody is thus a political time-bomb, as well. With the exception of Europe, Japan and America, the rapidly expanding demographic bulge in the 25-year-old-and-under age bracket is creating a huge mass of impatient young people. Their minds have been stirred by sounds and images that emanate from afar and which intensify their disaffection with what is at hand. Their potential revolutionary spearhead is likely to emerge from among the scores of millions of students concentrated in the often intellectually dubious “tertiary level” educational institutions of developing countries… Typically originating from the socially insecure lower middle class and inflamed by a sense of social outrage, these millions of students are revolutionaries-in-waiting, already semi-mobilized in large congregations, connected by the Internet and pre-positioned for a replay on a larger scale of what transpired years earlier in Mexico City or in Tiananmen Square. Their physical energy and emotional frustration is just waiting to be triggered by a cause, or a faith, or a hatred.

Important to note is that Brzezinski has not simply been writing abstractly about this concept, but has been for years traveling to and speaking at various conferences and think tanks of national and international elites, who together form policy for the powerful nations of the world. Speaking to the elite American think tank, the Carnegie Council, Brzezinski warned of “the unprecedented global challenge arising out of the unique phenomenon of a truly massive global political awakening of mankind,” as we now live “in an age in which mankind writ large is becoming politically conscious and politically activated to an unprecedented degree, and it is this condition which is producing a great deal of international turmoil.” Brzezinski noted that much of the ‘awakening’ was being spurred on by America’s role in the world, and the reality of globalization (which America projects across the globe as the single global hegemon), and that this awakening “is beginning to create something altogether new: namely, some new ideological or doctrinal challenge which might fill the void created by the disappearance of communism.” He wrote that he sees “the beginnings, in writings and stirrings, of the making of a doctrine which combines anti-Americanism with anti-globalization, and the two could become a powerful force in a world that is very unequal and turbulent.”

In 2007, the British Ministry of Defence issued a report looking at global trends over the following three decades to better plan for the “future strategic context” of the British military. The report noted that: “The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx… The world’s middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest.” In my April 2010 article, “The Global Economic Crisis: Riots, Rebellion, and Revolution,” I quoted the official British Defence Ministry report, which read:

Absolute poverty and comparative disadvantage will fuel perceptions of injustice among those whose expectations are not met, increasing tension and instability, both within and between societies and resulting in expressions of violence such as disorder, criminality, terrorism and insurgency. They may also lead to the resurgence of not only anti-capitalist ideologies, possibly linked to religious, anarchist or nihilist movements, but also to populism and the revival of Marxism.

In December of 2008, the managing director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned that the economic crisis could lead to “violent unrest on the streets.” He stated that if the elite were not able to instill an economic recovery by 2010, “then social unrest may happen in many countries – including advanced economies,” meaning the Western and industrialized world. In February of 2009, the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Pascal Lamy, warned that the economic crisis “could trigger political unrest equal to that seen during the 1930s.” In May of 2009, the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, stated that if the economic crisis did not come to an end, “there is a risk of a serious human and social crisis with very serious political implications.”

In early 2009, the top intelligence official in the United States, Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence (who oversees all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies), stated that the global economic crisis had become the primary threat to America’s “security” (meaning domination). He told the Senate Intelligence Committee: “I’d like to begin with the global economic crisis, because it already looms as the most serious one in decades, if not centuries… Economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they are prolonged for a one-or-two-year period… And instability can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have on law and order, which can spill out in dangerous ways into the international community.” He also noted that, “there could be a backlash against U.S. efforts to promote free markets because the crisis was triggered by the United States… We are generally held responsible for it.”

In December of 2008, police in Greece shot and killed a 15-year old student in Exarchia, a libertarian and anarchist stronghold in Athens. The murder resulted in thousands of protesters and riots erupting in the streets, in what the New York Times declared to be “the worst unrest in decades.” Triggered by the death of the young Greek student, the protests were the result of deeper, social and systemic issues, increasing poverty, economic stagnation and political corruption. Solidarity protests took place all over Europe, including Germany, France, and the U.K. But this was only a sample of what was to come over the following years.

In the early months of 2009, as the economic crisis was particularly blunt in the countries of Eastern Europe, with increased unemployment and inflation, the region was headed for a “spring of discontent,” as protests and riots took place in Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Latvia. In January of 2009, more than 10,000 people took to the streets in Latvia in one of the largest demonstrations since the end of Soviet rule. A demonstration of roughly 7,000 Lithuanians turned into a riot, and smaller clashes between police and protesters took place in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Hungary, while police in Iceland tear gassed a demonstration of roughly 2,000 people outside the parliament, leading to the resignation of the prime minister. The head of the IMF said that the economic crisis could cause more turmoil “almost everywhere,” adding: “The situation is really, really serious.” A mass strike took place in France, bringing hundreds of thousands of workers into the streets and pushing anti-capitalist activists and leaders to the front of a growing social movement.

May 1, 2009 – the labour activist day known as ‘May Day’ – saw protests and riots erupting across Europe, including Germany, Greece, Austria, Turkey and France. In Germany, banks were attacked by protesters, leading to many arrests; there were over 150,000 demonstrators in Ankara, Turkey; more than 10,000 people took to the streets in Madrid, Spain; thousands took to the streets in Italy and Russia and social unrest continued to spread through Eastern Europe. Results from a poll were released on early May 2009 reporting that in the United States, Italy, France, Spain, Britain and Germany, a majority of the populations felt that the economic crisis would lead to a rise in “political extremism.”

In April of 2009, the G20 met in London, and was met there with large protests, drawing tens of thousands of people into the streets. In London’s financial district, protesters smashed the windows of the Royal Bank of Scotland, which was the recipient of a massive government bailout during the early phases of the financial crisis. One man, Ian Tomlinson, dropped dead on the streets of London following an assault by a British police officer, who was later questioned under suspicion of manslaughter.

In November of 2011, a month of student protests and sit-ins erupted in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, triggered by budget cuts and tuition fees. The protests began in Austria, where students occupied the University of Vienna for over a month, quickly spreading to other cities and schools in Germany, where roughly 80,000 students took part in nationwide protests, with sit-ins taking place in 20 universities across the country, and the University of Basel in Switzerland was also occupied by students.

The small little island-country of Iceland has undergone what has been referred to as the “Kitchenware Revolution,” where the country had once been rated by the UN as the best country to live in as recently as 2007, and in late 2008, its banks collapsed and the government resigned amid the mass protests that took place. The banks were nationalized, Iceland got a new prime minister, a gay woman who brought into her cabinet a majority of women, fired bank CEOs; the constitution was re-written with significant citizen participation and the government took steps to write off debts and refused to bailout foreign investors. Now, the economy is doing much better, hence why no one is talking about Iceland in the media (woeful is power to the ‘tyranny’ of a good example). Iceland has even hired an ex-cop bounty hunter to track down and arrest the bankers that destroyed the country’s economy. As the debt burdens of a significant portion of the population of Iceland were eased, Iceland was projected in 2012 to have a faster growing economy than those in the euro area and the developed world. As reported by Bloomberg, the main difference between how Iceland has dealt with its massive economic crisis and how the rest of the ‘developed’ world has been dealing with it, is that Iceland “has put the needs of its population ahead of the markets at every turn.” Instead of rewarding bankers for causing the crisis, as we have done in Europe and North America, Icelanders have arrested them, and protected homeowners instead of evicting them.

As Greece came to dominate the news in early 2010, with talk of a bailout, protests began to erupt with more frequency in the small euro-zone country. In early May, a general strike was called in Greece against the austerity measures the government was imposing in order to get a bailout. Banks were set on fire, petrol bombs were thrown at riot police, who were pepper spraying, tear gassing, and beating protesters with batons, and three people died of suffocation in one of the bombed banks.

In May of 2010, British historian Simon Schama wrote an article for the Financial Times entitled, “The world teeters on the brink of a new age of rage,” in which he explained that historians “will tell you that there is often a time-lag between the onset of economic disaster and the accumulation of social fury.” In act one, he wrote, “the shock of a crisis initially triggers fearful disorientation” and a “rush for political saviours.” Act two witnesses “a dangerously alienated public” who “take stock of the brutal interruption of their rising expectations,” which leads to the grievance that someone “must have engineered the common misfortune,” which, I might add, is true (though Schama does not say so). To manage this situation, elites must engage in “damage-control” whereby perpetrators are brought to justice. Schama noted that, “the psychological impact of financial regulation is almost as critical as its institutional prophylactics,” or, in other words: the propaganda effect of so-called “financial regulation” on calming the angry plebs is as important (if not more so) as the financial regulations themselves. Thus, those who lobby against financial regulation, warned Scharma, “risk jeopardizing their own long-term interests.” If governments fail to “reassert the integrity of public stewardship,” then the public will come to perceive that “the perps and the new regime are cut from common cloth.” In the very least, wrote Scharma, elites attempting to implement austerity measures and other unpopular budget programs will need to “deliver a convincing story about the sharing of burdens,” for if they do not, it would “guarantee that a bad situation gets very ugly, very fast.”

As French President Nicolas Sarkozy began implementing austerity measures in France, particularly what is called “pension reform,” unions and supporters staged massive strikes in September of 2010, drawing up to three million people into the streets in over 230 demonstrations across the country. Soldiers armed with machine guns went on patrol at certain metro stations as government officials used the puffed up and conveniently-timed threat of a “terrorist attack” as being “high risk.” More strikes took place in October, with French students joining in the demonstrations, as students at roughly 400 high schools across the country built barricades of wheelie bins to prevent other students from attending classes, with reports of nearly 70% of French people supporting the strike. The reports of participants varied from the government figures of over 800,000 people to the union figures of 2-3 million people going out into the streets. The Wall Street Journal referred to the strikes as “an irrational answer” to Sarkozy’s “perfectly rational initiative” of reforms.

In November of 2010, Irish students in Dublin began protesting against university tuition increases, when peaceful sit-ins were met with violent riot police, and roughly 25,000 students took to the streets. This was the largest student protest in Ireland in a generation.

In Britain, where a new coalition government came to power – uniting the Conservatives (led by David Cameron, the Prime Minister) and the Liberal Democrats (led by Nick Clegg, Deputy PM) – tuition increases were announced, tripling the cost from 3 to 9,000 pounds. On November 10, as roughly 50,000 students took to the streets in London, the Conservative Party headquarters in central London had its windows smashed by students, who then entered the building and occupied it, even congregating up on the rooftop of the building. The police continued to ‘kettle’ protesters in the area, not allowing them to enter or leave a confined space, which of course results in violent reactions. Prime Minister David Cameron called the protest “unacceptable.” The Christian Science Monitor asked if British students were the “harbinger of future violence over austerity measures,” There were subsequent warnings that Britain was headed for a winter of unrest.

Tens of thousands again took to the streets in London in late November, including teenage students walking with university students, again erupting in riots, with the media putting in a great deal of focus on the role of young girls taking part in the protests and riots. The protests had taken place in several cities across the United Kingdom, largely peaceful save the ‘riot’ in London, and with students even occupying various schools, including Oxford. The student protests brought ‘class’ back into the political discourse. In November, several universities were occupied by students, including the School of Oriental and African Studies, UWE Bristol and Manchester Metropolitan. Several of the school occupations went for days or even weeks. Universities were then threatening to evict the students. The school occupations were the representation of a new potential grass-roots social movement building in the UK. Some commentators portrayed it as a “defining political moment for a generation.”

In early December of 2010, as the British Parliament voted in favour of the tripling of tuition, thousands of students protested outside, leading to violent confrontations with police, who stormed into crowds of students on horseback, firing tear gas, beating the youth with batons, as per usual. While the overtly aggressive tactics of police to ‘kettle’ protesters always creates violent reactions, David Cameron was able to thereafter portray the student reactions to police tactics as a “feral mob.” One student was twice pulled out from his wheelchair by police, and another student who was struck on the head with a baton was left with a brain injury. As the protests erupted into riots against the police into the night, one infamous incident included a moment where Prince Charles and his wife Camilla were attacked by rioters as their car drove through the crowd in what was called the “worst royal security breach in a generation,” as the royal couple were confronted directly by the angry plebs who attacked the Rolls-Royce and Camilla was even ‘prodded’ by a stick, as some protesters yelled, “off with their heads!” while others chanted, “Whose streets? Our streets!” As more student protests were set to take place in January of 2011, Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command contacted university officials requesting “intelligence” as students increased their protest activities, as more occupations were expected to take place.

In December of 2010, a Spanish air traffic controller strike took place, grounding flights for 330,000 people and resulting in the government declaring a state of emergency, threatening the strikers with imprisonment if they did not return to work.

Part way through December, an uprising began in the North African country of Tunisia, and by January of 2011, the 23-year long dictatorship of a French and American-supported puppet, Ben Ali, had come to an end. This marked the first major spark of what has come to be known as the Arab Spring. Protests were simultaneously erupting in Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, and elsewhere. In late January of 2011, I wrote an article entitled, “Are we witnessing the start of a global revolution?,” noting that the protests in North Africa were beginning to boil up in Egypt most especially. Egypt entered its modern revolutionary period, resulting in ending the rule of the long-time dictator, Hosni Mubarak, and though the military has been attempting to stem the struggle of the people, the revolutionary struggle continues to this day, and yet the Obama administration continues to give $1.3 billion in military aid to support the violent repression of the democratic uprising. The small Arab Gulf island of Bahrain (which is home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet) also experienced a large democratic uprising, which has been consistently and brutally crushed by the local monarchy and Saudi Arabia, with U.S. support, including the selling of arms to the dictatorship.

In early 2011, the British student protests joined forces with a wider anti-austerity social protest against the government. As protests continued over the following months all across the country, banks became a common target, noting the government’s efforts to spend taxpayer money to bailout corrupt banks and cut health, social services, welfare, pensions, and increase tuition. Several bank branches were occupied and others had protests – often very creatively imagined – organized outside closed bank branches. On March 26, roughly 500,000 protesters took to the streets of London against austerity measures. As late as July 2011, a student occupation of a school continued at Leeds.

Throughout 2011, protests in Greece picked up in size and rage. In February, roughly 100,000 people took to the streets in Athens against the government’s austerity measures, leading to clashes with riot police that lasted for three hours, with police using tear gas and flash bombs and some protesters reacting with rocks and petrol bombs. In June of 2011, Greece experienced major clashes between protesters and police, or what are often called “riots.” During a general strike in late June, police went to war against protesters assembled in central Athens. Protests continued throughout the summer and into the fall, and in November, roughly 50,000 Greeks took to the streets in Athens.

In March of 2011, as Portugal plunged forward into its own major crisis and closer to a European Union bailout, roughly 300,000 Portuguese took to the streets of Lisbon and other cities protesting against the government’s austerity measures. Driven by the youth, calling themselves Portugal’s “desperate generation,” in part inspired by the youth uprisings in North Africa, the Financial Times referred to it as “an unexpected protest movement that has tapped into some of Portugal’s deepest social grievances.”

The Portuguese protests in turn inspired the Spanish “Indignados” or 15-M movement (named after the 15^th of May, when the protests began), as youth – the indignant ones – or the “lost generation,” occupied Madrid’s famous Puerta del Sol on May 15, 2011, protesting against high unemployment, the political establishment, and the government’s handling of the economic crisis. The authorities responded in the usual way: they attempted to ban the protests and then sent in riot police. Thousands of Spaniards – primarily youth – occupied the central square, setting up tents and building a small community engaging in debate, discussion and activism. In a massive protest in June of 2011, over 250,000 Spaniards took the streets in one of the largest protests in recent Spanish history. Over the summer, as the encampment was torn down, the Indignados refined their tactics, and began to engage in direct action by assembling outside homes and preventing evictions from taking place, having stopped over 200 evictions since May of 2011, creating organic vegetable gardens in empty spaces, supporting immigrant workers in poor communities, and creating “a new social climate.”

The Indignados spurred solidarity and similar protests across Europe, including Greece, Belgium, France, Germany, the U.K., and beyond. In fact, the protests even spread to Israel, where in July of 2011, thousands of young Israelis established tent cities in protest against the rising cost of living and decreasing social spending, establishing itself on Rothschild Boulevard, a wealthy avenue in Tel Aviv named after the exceedingly wealthy banking dynasty. The protest, organized through social media, quickly spread through other cities across Israel. In late July, over 150,000 Israelis took to the streets in 12 cities across the country in the largest demonstration the country had seen in decades, demonstrating against the “rising house prices and rents, low salaries, [and] the high cost of raising children and other social issues.” In early August, another protest drew 320,000 people into the streets, leading some commentators to state that the movement marked “a revolution from a generation we thought was unable to make a revolution.” In early September, roughly 430,000 Israelis took to the streets in the largest demonstration in Israeli history.

In May and June of 2011, a student movement began to erupt in Chile, fighting against the increased privatization of their school system and the debt-load that comes with it. The state – the remnants of the Pinochet dictatorship – responded in the usual fashion: state violence, mass arrests, attempting to make protesting illegal. In clashes between students and riot police that took place in August, students managed to occupy a television station demanding a live broadcast to express their demands, with the city of Santiago being converted into “a state of siege” against the students. The “Chilean Winter” – as it came to be known – expanded into a wider social movement, including labour and environmental and indigenous groups, and continues to this very day.

The Indignados further inspired the emergence of the Occupy Movement, which began with occupy Wall Street in New York City on 17 September of 2011, bringing the dialectic of the “99% versus the 1%” into the popular and political culture. The Occupy movement, which reflected the initial tactics of the Indignados in setting up tents to occupy public spaces, quickly spread across the United States, Canada, Europe, and far beyond. There were Occupy protests that took place as far away as South Africa, in dozens of cities across Canada, in countries and cities all across Latin America, in Israel, South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and in hundreds of cities across the United States.

On October 15, 2011, a day of global protests took place, inspired by the Arab Spring, the Indignados, and the Occupy movement, when over 950 cities in 82 countries around the world experienced a global day of action originally planned for by the Spanish Indignados as a European-wide day of protest. In Italy, over 400,000 took to the streets; in Spain there were over 350,000, roughly 50,000 in New York City, with over 100,000 in both Portugal and Chile.

The Occupy movement was subsequently met with violent police repression and evictions from the encampments. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was busy spying on various Occupy groups around the country, and reportedly was involved in coordinating the crack-downs and evictions against dozens of Occupy encampments, as was later confirmed by declassified documents showing White House involvement in the repression. The FBI has also undertaken a “war of entrapment” against Occupy groups, attempting to discredit the movement and frame its participants as potential terrorists. Following the example of tactical change in the Indignados, the Occupy groups began refurbishing foreclosed homes for the homeless, helping families reclaim their homes, disrupting home foreclosure auctions, and even take on local community issues, such as issues of racism through the group, Occupy the Hood.

In late November of 2011, a public sector workers’ strike took place in the U.K., with tens of thousands of people marching in the streets across the country, as roughly two-thirds of schools shut and thousands of hospital operations postponed, while unions estimated that up to two million people went on strike. The host of a popular British television show, Jeremy Clarkson, said in a live interview that the striking workers should be taken out and shot in front of their families.

In January of 2012, protests erupted in Romania against the government’s austerity measures, leading to violent clashes with police, exchanging tear gas and firebombs. As the month continued, the protests grew larger, demanding the ouster of the government. The Economist referred to it as Romania’s “Winter of Discontent.” In early February, the Romanian Prime Minister resigned in the face of the protests.

In February of 2012, a student strike began in the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec against the provincial government’s plan to nearly double the cost of tuition, bringing hundreds of thousands of students into the streets, who were in turn met with consistent state repression and violence, in what became known as the ‘Maple Spring.’ Dealing with issues of debt, repression, and media propaganda, the Maple Spring presented an example for student organizing elsewhere in Canada and North America. The government of Quebec opposes organized students but works with organized crime – representing what can be called a ‘Mafiocracy’ – and even passed a law attempting to criminalize student demonstrations. The student movement received support and solidarity from around the world, including the Chilean student movement and even a group of nearly 150 Greek academics who proclaimed their support in the struggle against austerity for the “largest student strike in the history of North America.”

In the spring of 2012, Mexican students mobilized behind the Yo Soy 132 movement – or the “Mexican Spring” – struggling against media propaganda and the political establishment in the lead-up to national elections, and tens of thousands continued to march through the streets decrying the presidential elections as rigged and fraudulent. The Economist noted that Mexican students were beginning to “revolt.”

In May of 2012, both the Indignados and the Occupy Movement undertook a resurgence of their street activism, while the occupy protests in Seattle and Oakland resulting in violent clashes and police repression. The protests drew Occupy and labour groups closer together, and police also repressed a resurgent Occupy protest in London.

In one of the most interesting developments in recent months, we have witnessed the Spanish miners strike in the province of Asturias, having roughly 8,000 miners strike against planned austerity measures, resorting to constructing barricades and directly fighting riot police who arrived in their towns to crush the resistance of the workers. The miners have even been employing unique tactics, such as constructing make-shift missiles which they fire at the advancing forces of police repression. For all the tear gas, rubber bullets and batons being used by police to crush the strike, the miners remain resolved to continue their struggle against the state. Interestingly, it was in the very region of Asturias where miners rebelled against the right-wing Spanish government in 1934 in one of the major sparks of the Spanish Civil War which pitted socialists and anarchists against Franco and the fascists. After weeks of clashes with police in mining towns, the striking workers planned a march to Madrid to raise attention to the growing struggle. The miners arrived in Madrid in early July to cheering crowds, but were soon met with repressive police, resulting in clashes between the people and the servants of the state. As the Spanish government continued with deeper austerity measures, over one million people marched in the streets of over 80 cities across Spain, with violent clashes resulting between protesters and police in Madrid.

This brief look at the resistance, rebellious and revolutionary movements emerging and erupting around the world is by no means an exhaustive list, nor is it meant to be. It is merely a brief glimpse at the movements with which I intend to delve into detail in researching and writing about in my upcoming book, and to raise the question once again: Are we witnessing the start of a global revolution?

I would argue that, yes, indeed, we are. How long it takes, how it manifests and evolves, its failures and successes, the setbacks and leaps forward, and all the other details will be for posterity to acknowledge and examine. What is clear at present, however, is that no matter how much the media, governments and other institutions of power attempt to ignore, repress, divide and even destroy revolutionary social movements, they are increasingly evolving and emerging, in often surprising ways and with different triggering events and issues. There is, however, a commonality: where there is austerity in the world, where there is repression, where there is state, financial and corporate power taking all for themselves and leaving nothing for the rest, the rest are now rising up.

Welcome to the World Revolution.

Please donate to The People’s Book Project to help this book come to completion.

06.26.12

by Andrew Gavin Marshall

First Book To Be Done by the End of Summer!

In the past couple months I have been writing almost exclusively on the student movement in Quebec, as well as various other student/social movements around the world. As a result, my work on The People’s Book Project has been postponed, apart from continued research. In the past week, I decided to take a break from everything and re-work my plans for the Book Project and other initiatives.

For those who have been following the evolution of the Book Project since it began in October of 2011, the notion of me “reorganizing” the Project is not new; in fact, it has happened a few times. However, progress on the Project has been continuous, and I have written over 800 pages unedited. It remains disjointed and is a ways away from being a completed project, but that brings me to my current decision. Previously, I had planned to write the whole manuscript through and subsequently break it up into several smaller books, this would still take too long. The support from readers has been consistently wonderful and VERY important: I would not be where I am without you, so thank you. But I find it difficult to ask for (and to receive) additional support when I am in fact not producing a final product for a while. The support is faith-based in the expectation of a final product somewhere down the line. This is a great deal to ask of readers and supporters. This is also frustrating for me personally, as I am in need of actually producing something concrete, and better yet, something which can in turn begin to produce some extra funding for me (as small as the amount is likely to be, at least it’s something!).

So, the NEW and IMPROVED People’s Book Project:

- the focus of the Project is still on producing a series of books on a radical history and analysis of power in our world, understanding the nature of our society, how we got here, where we’re going, and what we can do to change it: a study of the evolution of power and resistance in the modern world

- I will be writing one book at a time, each will be divided according to broad subjects (political economy, imperialism and terror, social engineering and education, race and poverty, psychology and psychiatry, the scientific-technological society, and the world revolution)

- I am starting with a book that will serve as a preface/introduction to the entire Project: a look at where our global society is and how it is changing: the origin, evolution, and effects of the global economic crisis; the advanced stage of global imperialism and war; the moves toward global governance and domination; and the age of anti-austerity rebellions (as well as the efforts to co-opt, control, or destroy them), from the Arab Spring, to the Indignados and Europe, to the Occupy Movement, and to student movements in Chile and Quebec.

The Preface to the People’s Book Project will be a significant book on its own, and gives a glimpse of the state of the world at present, and the prospects for global oppression and global revolution. It hits at key issues that are affecting the lives of everyone in the world today, and thus, I think it is a timely and necessary introduction to the Book Project at large, which will be a far more comprehensive and detailed historical analysis of how we got to this current point in history, and where it is ultimately leading. My aim is to have this first book – the Preface – finished by the end of the summer (the end of August/early September).

I have already started work on the chapter covering the economic crisis, and after five days of work thus far, I am 50 pages (single-spaced) into this examination of the crisis, focusing on Europe at the moment. It’s very detailed, but an important look at power in this crisis, how it has and is being abused, for whom and with what intent, and how it effects the majority of people who have no access to or influence over that power (i.e., everyone but the elite). I have already written a good deal on several of the other subjects I will be writing about in this project, specifically in relation to the Quebec student movement, and thus, I am hoping that this book moves forward quickly and efficiently. I am incredibly motivated, and am working at a faster pace than I am certainly used to.

Also, I am planning to post a rather large chunk of the current chapter I am writing, so that you – the readers and supporters – may see what my current work is looking like. The excerpt I will provide is a look at the debt crisis and its effects in Italy, and all I can say from my research is that it’s quite the story!

I think that this method of approaching the Project is better for myself and my readers and supporters. After eight months of the People’s Book Project, I think it’s time to start producing finished products. By the time the entire Project is finished, it will no doubt be quite some time from now. But if I am able to do it piecemeal, book by book, subject by subject, and finish it off with an amalgamated, compressed, and comprehensive summary of all the works before it, this would make it a more useful enterprise for both myself and my supporters.

So that is why I have set the goal of having the first book written by the end of the Summer. For that, I again need to ask for your support. I am setting a goal of raising $2,500 to get me through the Summer while I dedicate my time to finishing this first volume. Of course, edits and publishing will follow, and that takes time, but it is time that I produce something I can call my own, and which my readers and supporters can see as the fruitful product of their support. No more hesitation, no more indecision, no more procrastination: it’s time to PRODUCE a final product! Help me make that a reality!

I will make more details about the reorganization of the Project as I decide upon it. The other volumes I have in mind have yet to be finalized as ideas, and remain just that: ideas. But the first volume, the Preface/Introduction – the age of crisis, austerity, global governance and global revolution – is already being written, and written quickly. It’s radical, it’s critical, it’s full of facts: it will make you angry, informed, and I hope, inspired. I know it’s certainly having that effect upon me.

Thank you so much for all your kind support!

Sincerely,

Andrew Gavin Marshall

Please donate to The People’s Book Project:

06.02.12

by Andrew Gavin Marshall

A Message from Chile: “The struggles of Quebec students, academics and workers are also our struggles”

NOUS SOMMES TOUS DES QUÉBÉCOIS! WE ARE ALL QUEBECERS! ¡TODOS SOMOS QUEBEQUENSES!

Santiago, Chile: July 14, 2011

The following is a Declaration of Chilean academics and student leaders in solidarity with the Quebec student movement, written in French, English, and Spanish.

For a look at the similarities between the Chilean and Quebec student movements, see my recent article: “From the Chilean Winter to the Maple Spring.”

French Version

Les soussignés, lesquels sont des professeurs et des dirigeants étudiants chiliens, dénoncent devant l’opinion publique nationale et internationale la persécution envers le mouvement étudiant qui a lieu au Québec, au Canada, laquelle trouve son expression dans la Loi 78, adoptée le jeudi 19 mai par le gouvernement du premier ministre Jean Charest.

La Loi 78, surnommée la « loi matraque », est la plus dure à avoir été adoptée depuis la Loi des mesures de guerre d’octobre 1970; elle a été dénoncé par le président du Barreau de la province, ainsi que par Amnistie Internationale, la Ligue des droits de l’Homme, les quatre principales centrales syndicales et diverses institutions académiques. Elle limite les libertés fondamentales des citoyens du Québec et restreint certains aspects fondamentaux de la liberté d’expression, de la liberté de manifester et de la liberté d’association inscrites dans la Constitution et la Charte québécoise des droits et libertés.

Cette loi ne concerne pas seulement les étudiants en grève depuis quinze semaines contre la hausse des frais de scolarité, mais aussi tous les citoyens, en particulier les enseignants, les professeurs et les travailleurs, dont les droits d’expression et d’association sont touchés. Parmi ces mesures, nous dénonçons : celles qui empêchent les manifestations spontanées de tout groupe de plus de cinquante personnes; l’interdiction de manifester à moins de cinquante mètres des écoles; le renforcement du pouvoir des forces policières qui leur permet de décider si une manifestation est légale ou illégale, à tout moment, ou si quelqu’un en est l’instigateur. De même, toute expression publique de soutien aux manifestations se voit également punie.

Maintenant, par exemple, nul ne peut, au Québec, lors d’un conflit, empêcher des étudiants d’entrer dans les collèges et les universités, sous peine d’amendes individuelles et d’amendes pour l’association étudiante dont est membre cette personne, ainsi que pour les dirigeants syndicaux et étudiants. Ces sanctions varient de 1 000 à 125 000 dollars.

Les directions des associations étudiantes ont annoncé qu’elles iraient en appel de cette loi qu’elles jugent inconstitutionnelle et elles ont appelé à la solidarité de tous les citoyens.

Le peuple québécois a appuyé le peuple chilien pendant bon nombre d’années par sa solidarité active, et c’est pourquoi, aujourd’hui, nous ressentons le besoin d’exprimer et de manifester toute notre solidarité avec les organisations étudiantes et leurs dirigeants, ainsi qu’avec les centrales syndicales et l’ensemble du mouvement citoyen.

Nous le faisons par solidarité, mais aussi parce que nous percevons que toute attaque contre la liberté, et ce, peu importe l’endroit dans le monde où celle-ci se produit, constitue une attaque contre nos libertés. La « loi Hinzpeter » adoptée par le gouvernement chilien s’inscrit dans la même perspective répressive et antidémocratique.

La lutte des étudiants, des professeurs et des travailleurs du Québec est aussi notre lutte.

Le 24 mai 2012, Santiago de Chile

Premiers signataires :

1. Sergio Grez Toso, historien, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

2. María Eugenia Domínguez, journaliste, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

3. Gabriel Boric, président de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université du Chili (FECH).

4. Camila Vallejo Dowling, vice-président de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université du Chili (FECH).

5. Felipe Ramírez, secrétaire général de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université du Chili (FECH).

6. Andrés Fielbaum, secrétaire aux communications de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université du Chili (FECH).

7. Pablo Soto Arrate, directeur exécutif du centre d’études de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université du Chili (FECH).

8. Rodrigo Cárdenas Cabezas, secrétaire général de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université de Magallanes, à Punta Arenas.

9. Sebastián Aylwin Correa, vice-président du centre étudiant de l’École de droit de l’Université du Chili.

10. Francisco Figueroa, ancien vice-président de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université du Chili (FECH) pour 2011.

11. Loreto Fernández, ancien président du centre étudiant de la Faculté des sciences sociales de l’Université du Chili (2011) et actuel délégué à la protection de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université du Chili (FECH).

12. Conseil des étudiants en santé de l’Université du Chili.

13. Eloísa González Domínguez, porte-parole de l’Assemblée étudiantes du lycée Manuel de Salas, porte-parole de l’Assemblée de coordination des étudiants secondaires de Santiago (ACES).

14. Gabriel González, président du centre des élèves de l’Institut national (CAIN) 2012, Santiago.

15. Álvaro Fernández, président du gouvernement étudiant du Lycée professionnel (GELA) pour 2011-2012, à Santiago.

16. Matías Cárdenas, ancien porte-parole pour 2011 du Lycée professionnel, et actuel secrétaire exécutif du gouvernement étudiant du Lycée professionnel (GELA) pour 2011-2012, à Santiago.

17. Tamara Castro, présidente du centre étudiant du Lycée Carvajal de Prat, à Providencia, à Santiago.

18. Diego Bautista Cubillos Polo, secrétaire exécutif du centre des éleves Internado Nacional Barros Arana, à Santiago.

19. Jorge Silva, président du centre des élèves de Liceo José Victorino Lastarria, à Providencia, à Santiago.

20. Camila Hernández, présidente du centre étudiant, à Liceo Tajamar 2012, Providencia, Santiago.

21. Moisés Paredes, ancien porte-parole du Lycée Arturo Alessandri Palma, a Providencia, à Santiago, actuel représentant des élèves expulsés et sans matricule de ce collège.

22. Camila Fuentes, présidente du centre des élèves du Lycée 7, à Providencia (CELIS), à Santiago, pour 2012.

23. Sebastián Vielmas, secrétaire général (2011) de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université catholique du Chili (FEUC).

24. Pablo Oyarzún Robles, philosophe, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

25. Eduardo Flores Retamal, président du centre étudiant de médecine vétérinaire de l’Université du Chili.

26. Carlos Ruiz Encina, sociologue, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

27. José Aylwin, avocat, professeur à l’Université australe du Chili, à Valdivia.

28. Manuel Loyola, historien, professeur à l’Université de Santiago du Chili.

29. Ariel Russel García, conseiller de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université du Chili (FECH) de la Faculté des sciences agronomiques.

30. Diego Corvalán, conseiller de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université du Chili (FECH) et ancien secrétaire général du centre étudiant de la Faculté des sciences agronomiques.

31. Faride Zerán, journaliste, professeur à l’Université du Chili, Prix national de journalisme.

32. Felipe Portales Cifuentes, sociologue, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

33. Alexis Meza Sánchez, historien, ancien dirigeant de la Fédération des étudiants de l’Université de Concepción.

34. Carlos Ossandón Buljevic, philosophe, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

35. Pedro Rosas Aravena, historien, directeur à l’École d’histoire et des sciences sociales de l’Université ARCIS.

36. Jonás Chnaidemann, biologiste, professeur à l’Université du Chili et sénateur universitaire de cette même université.

37. Marcelo Santos, communicateur social, éducateur et conseiller en communication et démocratie.

38. Pierina Ferretti, sociologue, professeure à l’Université de Valparaíso.

39. Luis Casado, ingénieur du CESI, à Francia, expert-conseil de la Confédération minière du Chili.

40. Mario Matus González, historien, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

41. Jorge Pinto Rodríguez, historien, professeur à l’Université de la Frontera, à Temuco.

42. Ignacio Díaz Concha, secrétaire général du centre étudiant du baccalauréat à l’Université du Chili.

43. Víctor de la Fuente, journaliste, directeur de l’édition chilienne du Monde Diplomatique.

44. Carlos Sandoval Ambiado, historien, professeur de l’Université de Los Lagos et de l’Université Viña del Mar.

45. Germán F. Westphal, linguiste, citoyen chilien et canadien.

46. Isabel Cassigoli, sociologue, professeur à l’Université ARCIS.

47. Margarita Iglesias Saldaña, historienne, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

48. Ángela Vergara, historienne, professeur à l’Université d’État de Californie, à Los Angeles, aux États-Unis

49. Jorge Chuaqui K., sociologue, professeur à l’Université de Valparaíso, président de l’Association nationale des usagers des services de santé mentale (ANUSSAM).

50. Félix J. Aguirre D., sociologue et politicologue, professeur à l’Université de Valparaíso.

51. Julio Pinto Vallejos, historien, professeur à l’Université de Santiago du Chili.

52. Mauricio Barría Jara, dramaturge, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

53. Darcie Doll Castillo, docteure en littérature, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

54. Carlos Molina Bustos, médedin chirurgien et historien, professeur d’histoire à l’École de santé publique de l’Université du Chili et de l’Université Viña del Mar.

55. Francisco de Torres, porte-parole générale de l’Assemblée des étudiants diplômés de la faculté de philosophie et des sciences sociales de l’Université du Chili..

56. Isabel Jara, historienne, professeure à l’Université du Chili.

57. Pedro Bravo Elizondo, docteur en littérature, professeur à l’Université d’État de Wichita, au Kansas, au États-Unis.

58. José del Pozo, historien, professeur à l’Université du Québec à Montréal, au Canada.

59. Marco Rodríguez W., sociologue, professeur à l’Université de Valparaíso.

60. Igor Goicovic Donoso, historien, professeur à l’Université de Santiago du Chili.

61. Gabriel Muñoz, coordonnateur de l’Assemblée des étudiants d’histoire de l’Université du Chili.

62. Bárbara Brito, conseillère de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université du Chili (FECH), faculté de philosophie et des sciences sociales.

63. Benjamín Infante, conseiller de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université du Chili (FECH), faculté de philosophie et des sciences sociales.

64. Manuel Jesús Hidalgo Valdivia, économiste.

65. Juan Carlos Gómez Leyton, politicologue, professeur à l’Université ARCIS.

66. Iván Ljubetic Vargas, historien, ancien professeur à l’Université du Chili, campus de Temuco.

67. Rodrigo Contreras Molina, anthropologue, professeur à l’Université de la Frontera, à Temuco.

68. Marcelo Garrido Pereira, géographe, chef du cours de géographie de l’Université académique d’humanisme chrétien.

69. Javier Sandoval Ojeda, ancien président de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université de Concepción, pour 1996-1997.

70. Mario Valdés Vera, historien, professeur de l’Université de Concepción.

71. Pablo Aravena Núñez, professeur à l’Université de Valparaíso.

72. César Cerda Albarracín, historien, professeur à l’Université métropolitaine de technologie.

73. Paz López, coordinatrice académique en chef des études culturelles à l’Université ARCIS.

74. María Soledad Jiménez, historienne, professeure à l’Université académique d’humanisme chrétien.

75. Mario Garcés Durán, historien, professeur à l’Université de Santiago du Chili, directeur de ECO Comunicaciones.

76. Rodrigo Zúñiga Contreras, philosophe, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

77. Sergio Rojas Contreras, philosophe, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

78. Carmen Gloria Bravo Quezada, historienne, professeure à l’Université de Santiago du Chili.

79. Miguel Valderrama, historien, professeur à l’Université ARCIS.

80. Kevin Villegas, sociologue, professeur à l’Université Pedro de Valdivia, campus de Chillán.

81. Alonso Serradell Díaz, maître en citoyenneté et droits de l’Homme : éthique et politique, Université de Barcelone.

82. Catherine Valenzuela Marchant, enseignante, étudiante au doctorat en histoire, Université du Chili.

83. Viviana Bravo Vargas, historienne, doctorante en études latinoaméricaines à l’Université nationale autonome du Mexique (UNAM).

84. Enrique Fernández Darraz, sociologue et historien.

85. Florencia Velasco, baccalauréat en littérature et étudiant à la maîtrise en littérature de l’Université du Chili, responsable de la rédaction de Lom Ediciones.

86. Blaise Pantel, membre du corps professoral du département de sociologie et de science politique, Université catholique de Temuco.

87. Sebastián Ríos Labbé, avocat, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

88. Oscar Zapata Cabello, délégué étudiant du cours de chimie, faculté des sciences de l’Université du Chili.

89. Evelin Ledesma Cruz, bénévole et militante pour le Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique Latine (CDHAL), Montréal, Québec, Canada.

90. Laureano Checa, Institut universitaire de la communication et de l’image (ICEI) à l’Université du Chili.

91. Lorena Antezana Barrios, professeure à l’Institut universitaire de la communication et de l’image (ICEI) à l’Université du Chili.

92. Milton Godoy Orellana, historien, professeur à l’Université académique d’humanisme chrétien.

93. José Miguel Labrín, professeur de l’Institut universitaire de la communication et de l’image (ICEI) à l’Université du Chili.

94. Ximena Poo Figueroa, professeure à l’Institut universitaire de la communication et de l’image (ICEI) à l’Université du Chili.

95. José Alberto de la Fuente, docteur en littérature, professeur à l’Université catholique Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez.

96. Jorge Gonzalorena Döll, sociologue, professeur à l’Université de Valparaíso.

97. Sandra Oyarzo Torres, sage-femme, professeure à l’Université du Chili.

98. Luis Castro, historien, professeur à l’Université de Valparaíso.

99. Patricio Troncoso Ovando, ingénieur de production, ancien président de la Fédération des étudiants de l’Université technique Federico Santa María (FEUTFSM), campus de Talcahuano, de 2001 à 2003.

100. Gonzalo Ojeda Urzúa, sociologue, professeur à l’Université de Valparaíso.

101. Valentina Saavedra, ancienne présidente du Centre des étudiants d’architecture et actuelle conseillère de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université du Chili (FECH), faculté d’architecture et d’urbanisme.

102. Cristián Pozo, sociologue.

103. Francisco Herrera, philosophe, professeur à l’Université du Chili.

104. Eleonora Reyes, historienne, professeure à l’Université du Chili.

105. Jorge Weil, économiste, professeure à l’Université du Los Lagos, Osorno.

106. Aldo González Becerra, biologiste, professeure à l’Université Autonome de Madrid et chercheur au Haut Conseil de Recherches Scientifiques (CSIC), Espagne.

107. Luis Mundaca, dirigeant syndical de la Fédération des syndicats de Heineken – CCU Chili, secrétaire général du Centre des Parents et Gardiens du Lycée professionnel (GELA), Santiago

108. Rodrigo Roco, ancien Président de la Fédération étudiante de l’Université du Chili (FECH).

109. Virginia Vidal, auteur.

English Version

Santiago, Chile: July 14, 2011

The undersigned Chilean academics and student leaders denounce before the national and international public opinion the persecution of the Quebec student movement in Canada, as expressed in Bill 78, enacted on Saturday May 19 by the Provincial Government of Premier Jean Charest.

Bill 78, the “truncheon law”, is the most severe piece of legislation since the War Measures Act was used during the October Crisis in 1970, and has been denounced by the President of the Quebec Bar Association, Amnesty International, the League for Human Rights, four major unions, and various academic bodies. The bill infringes on Quebec citizens’ freedoms by restricting fundamental aspects of their freedoms of expression, protest, and association, consecrated in the Canadian Constitution and the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

This bill not only affects the students who have been on strike protesting against the tuition hike for the past 15 weeks; it also severely affects the rights of all citizens – especially professors, academics, and workers – whose rights to expression and association are also being affected. Among the measures, we denounce those that prevent the spontaneous demonstrations of any group of more than fifty people, the prohibition of protests within fifty meters of any academic institution, strengthening the power of police forces by allowing them to decide whether a protest is legal or not at any moment, or whether an individual is an instigator.

Similarly, it punishes all public expressions of support for these mobilizations. For example, no one may restrict students’ entry to schools and universities during times of conflict under penalty of heavy fines for individuals, the student associations to which they may belong, as well as for workers’ and student union leaders. These fines vary from $1,000 to $125,000.

The leaders of student associations have announced that they will file legal motions against Bill 78 for its unconstitutional nature and they have called for the solidarity of all citizens.

The people of Quebec have supported the Chilean people for many long years through their active solidarity. Today, we feel compelled to express and demonstrate our full solidarity with their student associations and leaders, unions, and citizens’ movement.

We do this not only in solidarity, but also because we understand that any attack against freedoms in any part of this globalized world, is an attack against our own freedoms. The Chilean government’s so-called “Hinzpeter law” adopts the same repressive and undemocratic measures as Bill 78.

The struggles of Quebec students, academics and workers are also our struggles.

Santiago, Chile, May 24, 2012

Signed

1. Sergio Grez Toso, historian, faculty member of the University of Chile.

2. María Eugenia Domínguez, journalist, faculty member of the University of Chile.

3. Gabriel Boric, President, University of Chile Student Federation (FECH).

4. Camila Vallejo Dowling, Vice-President, University of Chile Student Federation (FECH).

5. Felipe Ramírez, General Secretary, University of Chile Student Federation (FECH).

6. Andrés Fielbaum, Communications Secretary, University of Chile Student Federation (FECH).

7. Pablo Soto Arrate, Executive Director of the Learning Centre of the University of Chile Student Federation (FECH).

8. Rodrigo Cárdenas Cabezas, General Secretary, University of Magallanes Student Federation, Punta Arenas.

9. Sebastián Aylwin Correa, Vice-President, Law School Student Centre, University of Chile.

10. Francisco Figueroa, former Vice-President, University of Chile Student Federation (FECH).

11. Loreto Fernández, former President, Faculty of Social Science Student Centre, University of Chile (2011); current Delegate for Well-being, University of Chile Student Federation (FECH).

12. Health Students Council, University of Chile.

13. Eloisa González Dominguez, Spokesperson, Manuel de Salas High School Student Assembly; Spokesperson, Secondary-School Students of Santiago, Coordination Assembly (ACES).

14. Gabriel González, President, National Institute Alumni Centre (CAIN) 2012, Santiago.

15. Álvaro Fernández, President, Vocational High School Student Government (GELA), 2011-2012, Santiago.

16. Matías Cárdenas, former Spokesperson (2011),Vocational High School; current Executive Secretary, Vocational High School Student Government (GELA), 2011-2012, Santiago.

17. Tamara Castro, President, Carmela Carvajal de Prat High School Student Centre, Providencia, Santiago.

18. Diego Bautista Cubillos Polo, Executive Secretary, Barros Arana Internado Nacional Student Centre, Santiago.

19. Jorge Silva, President, José Victorino Lastarria High School Student Centre, Providencia, Santiago.

20. Camila Hernández, President, Tajamar High School Student Centre, Providencia, Santiago.

21. Moisés Paredes, former Spokesperson, Arturo Alessandri Palma High School, Providencia, Santiago; current representative of students who have been expelled and have lost their scholarship to this high school.

22. Camila Fuentes, President, Providencia 7 High School Student Centre (CELIS) 2012, Santiago.

23. Sebastián Vielmas, former General Secretary (2011), Catholic University of Chile Student Federation (FEUC).

24. Pablo Oyarzún Robles, philosopher, faculty member of the University of Chile.

25. Eduardo Flores Retamal, President, University of Chile Veterinary School Student Centre.

26. Carlos Ruiz Encina, sociologist, faculty member of the University of Chile.

27. José Aylwin, lawyer, faculty member of the University Austral of Chile, Valdivia.

28. Manuel Loyola, historian, faculty member of the University of Santiago de Chile.

29. Ariel Russel García, Advisor, University of Chile Student Federation (FECH) from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences.

30. Diego Corvalán, Advisor, University of Chile Student Federation (FECH); former General Secretary of the University of Chile Social Sciences Student Centre.

31. Faride Zerán, journalist, faculty member of the University of Chile, winner of the National Award for Journalism (2007).

32. Felipe Portales Cifuentes, sociologist, faculty member of the University of Chile.

33. Alexis Meza Sánchez, historian, former leader of the University of Concepción Student Federation.

34. Carlos Ossandón Buljevic, philosopher, faculty member of the University of Chile.

35. Pedro Rosas Aravena, historian, Director of the University ARCIS School of History and Social Sciences.

36. Jonás Chnaidemann, biologist, faculty member and university senator of the University of Chile.

37. Marcelo Santos, social communications, educator and consultant in communications and democracy.

38. Pierina Ferretti, sociologist, faculty member of the University of Valparaíso.

39. Luis Casado, engineer with CESI (France), advisor of the Mining Confederation of Chile.

40. Mario Matus González, historian, faculty member of the University of Chile.

41. Jorge Pinto Rodríguez, historian, faculty member of the University of la Frontera, Temuco.

42. Ignacio Díaz Concha, General Secretary, University of Chile Baccalaureate Student Centre.

43. Víctor de la Fuente, journalist, Director of the Chilean edition of Le Monde Diplomatique.

44. Carlos Sandoval Ambiado, historian, faculty member of the University of Los Lagos and of the University Viña del Mar.

45. Germán F. Westphal, linguist, Chilean-Canadian citizen.

46. Isabel Cassigoli, sociologist, faculty member of the University ARCIS.

47. Margarita Iglesias Saldaña, historian, faculty member of the University of Chile.

48. Ángela Vergara, historian, faculty member of California State University, Los Angeles, USA.

49. Jorge Chuaqui K., sociologist, faculty member of the University of Valparaiso, President of the National Association of Mental Health Services Beneficiaries (ANUSSAM).

50. Félix J. Aguirre D., sociologist and political scientist, faculty member of the University of Valparaiso.

51. Julio Pinto Vallejos, historian, faculty member of the University of Santiago de Chile.

52. Mauricio Barría Jara, playwright, faculty member of the University of Chile.

53. Darcie Doll Castillo, PhD in Literature, faculty member of the University of Chile.

54. Carlos Molina Bustos, surgeon and historian, faculty member of history in the School of Public Health in the University of Chile and the University of Viña del Mar.

55. Francisco de Torres, General Spokesperson for the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities Postgraduate Student Assembly at the University of Chile.

56. Isabel Jara, historian, faculty member of the University of Chile.

57. Pedro Bravo Elizondo, PhD in Literature, faculty member of Wichita State University, Kansas, USA.

58. José del Pozo, historian, faculty member of the Université de Québec à Montreal, Canada.

59. Marco Rodríguez W., sociologist, faculty member of the University of Valparaiso.

60. Igor Goicovic Donoso, historian, faculty member of the University of Santiago de Chile.

61. Gabriel Muñoz, Coordinator, History Students Assembly of the University of Chile.

62. Bárbara Brito, Advisor, University of Chile Student Federation (FECH), Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities.

63. Benjamín Infante, Advisor, University of Chile Student Federation (FECH), Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities.

64. Manuel Jesús Hidalgo Valdivia, economist.

65. Juan Carlos Gómez Leyton, political scientist, faculty member of the University ARCIS.

66. Iván Ljubetic Vargas, historian, former faculty member of the University of Chile campus in Temuco.

67. Rodrigo Contreras Molina, anthropologist, faculty member of the University of la Frontera, Temuco.

68. Marcelo Garrido Pereira, geographer, Head of the Geography Department at the University Academy of Christian Humanism.

69. Javier Sandoval Ojeda, former President of the University of Concepción Student Federation, (1996-1997).

70. Mario Valdés Vera, historian, faculty member of the University of Concepción.

71. Pablo Aravena Núñez, faculty member of the University of Valparaiso.

72. César Cerda Albarracín, historian, faculty member of the Metropolitan Technological University.

73. Paz López, Academic Coordinator, Masters in Cultural Studies, University ARCIS.

74. María Soledad Jiménez, historian, faculty member of the University Academy of Christian Humanism.

75. Mario Garcés Durán, historian, faculty member of the University of Santiago de Chile, Director of ECO Communications.

76. Rodrigo Zúñiga Contreras, philosopher, faculty member of the University of Chile.

77. Sergio Rojas Contreras, philosopher, faculty member of the University of Chile.

78. Carmen Gloria Bravo Quezada, historian, faculty member of the University of Santiago de Chile.

79. Miguel Valderrama, historian, faculty member of the University ARCIS.

80. Kevin Villegas, sociologist, faculty member of the University Pedro de Valdivia campus in Chillán.

81. Alonso Serradell Díaz, Master in Citizenship and Human Rights: Ethics and Policy, University of Barcelona.

82. Catherine Valenzuela Marchant, profesor, doctoral student in History at the University of Chile.

83. Viviana Bravo Vargas, historian, doctoral student in Latin American Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

84. Enrique Fernández Darraz, sociologist and historian.

85. Florencia Velasco, BA in Literature and masters student in Literature at the University of Chile, Universidad de Chile, editor of Lom Editions.

86. Blaise Pantel, faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Political Science, Catholic University of Temuco.

87. Sebastián Ríos Labbé, lawyer, faculty member of the University of Chile.

88. Oscar Zapata Cabello, student delegate for the School of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences at the University of Chile.

89. Evelin Ledesma Cruz, volunteer and activist with the Committee on Human Rights in Latin America (CDHAL), Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

90. Laureano Checa, faculty member of the Communication and Image Institute (ICEI) of the University of Chile.

91. Lorena Antezana Barrios, faculty member of the Communication and Image Institute (ICEI) of the University of Chile.

92. Milton Godoy Orellana, historian, faculty member of the University Academy of Christian Humanism.

93. José Miguel Labrín, faculty member of the Communication and Image Institute (ICEI) of the University of Chile.

94. Ximena Poo Figueroa, faculty member of the Communication and Image Institute (ICEI) of the University of Chile.

95. José Alberto de la Fuente, PhD in Literature, faculty member of the Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez Catholic University.

96. Jorge Gonzalorena Döll, sociologist, faculty member of the University of Valparaíso.

97. Sandra Oyarzo Torres, matron, faculty member of the University of Chile.

98. Luis Castro, historian, faculty member of the University of Valparaíso.

99. Patricio Troncoso Ovando, production engineer, former President of the Federico Santa María Technical University Student Federation (FEUTFSM) at the Talcahuano campus (2001-2003).

100. Gonzalo Ojeda Urzúa, sociologist, faculty member of the University of Valparaíso.

101. Valentina Saavedra, former President of the Architecture Students’ Centre, current Advisor for the University of Chile Student Federation (FECH) Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism.

102. Cristián Pozo, sociologist.

103. Francisco Herrera, philosopher, faculty member of the University of Chile.

104. Eleonora Reyes, historian, faculty member of the University of Chile.

105. Jorge Weil, economist, faculty member of the University of Los Lagos, Osorno.

106. Aldo González Becerra, biologist, faculty member of the Autonomous University of Madrid, researcher with the Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Spain.

107. Luis Mundaca, union leader of the Heineken Union Federation – CCU Chile, General Secretary of the Vocational High School Parents and Guardians Centre, Santiago.

108. Rodrigo Roco, former President of the University of Chile Student Federation (FECH), (1997).

109. Virginia Vidal, author.

Spanish Version

Los abajo firmantes, académicos y dirigentes estudiantiles chilenos, denunciamos a la opinión pública nacional e internacional la persecución contra el movimiento estudiantil del Quebec, Canadá, expresada en la Ley 78, promulgada el jueves 19 de mayo por el gobierno del Primer Ministro Jean Charest.

La ley 78, llamada “Ley matraca”, es la más dura desde la Ley de Medidas de Guerra en Octubre de 1970 y ha sido denunciada por el mismísimo Presidente de la Orden de Abogados de esa provincia, así como por Amnistía International, la Liga de Derechos Humanos, las cuatro principales centrales sindicales y diferentes cuerpos académicos. Ella coarta las libertades fundamentales de los ciudadanos del Quebec, restringe en sus aspectos fundamentales la libertad de expresión, la libertad de manifestar y la libertad de asociación consagradas por la Constitución y por la Carta de Derechos del Quebec.

Esta Ley afecta no sólo a los estudiantes en huelga desde hace quince semanas contra el alza de aranceles, sino también al conjunto de la ciudadanía, particularmente profesores, académicos y trabajadores cuyo derechos de expresión y de asociación están siendo afectados. Dentro de estas medidas denunciamos aquellas que impiden las manifestaciones espontáneas de todo grupo de más de cincuenta personas; la prohibición de manifestar a menos de cincuenta metros de los establecimientos escolares; el reforzamiento del poder de las fuerzas policiales al permitirles decidir si una manifestación es legal o ilegal en cualquier momento, o si alguien es instigador.

Del mismo modo, se castiga toda expresión pública de apoyo a las movilizaciones. Ahora, por ejemplo, nadie en Quebec puede durante un conflicto impedir la entrada de los estudiantes a colegios y universidades, so pena de multas individuales y a la asociación estudiantil a la que pertenezcan, o a los líderes sindicales y estudiantiles. Estas multas varían de mil a 125 mil dólares.

Las directivas estudiantiles han anunciado que apelaran jurídicamente de esta ley por su inconstitucionalidad y han demandado la solidaridad de toda la ciudadanía.

El pueblo quebequense ha acompañado al pueblo chileno durante largos años con su solidaridad activa, es por ello que hoy nos sentimos convocados a expresar y demostrar nuestra más amplia solidaridad con sus organizaciones estudiantiles y sus dirigentes, con sus centrales sindicales y con todo su movimiento ciudadano.

Lo hacemos por solidaridad, pero también porque entendemos que cualquier ataque en contra de las libertades en cualquier lugar del mundo globalizado, es una ataque contra nuestras libertades. La llamada “ley Hinzpeter” impulsada por el gobierno chileno se inscribe en la misma perspectiva represiva y antidemocrática.

La lucha de los estudiantes, académicos y trabajadores quebequenses es también nuestra lucha.

Santiago de Chile, 24 de mayo de 2012.

Primeros firmantes:

Sergio Grez Toso, historiador, académico de la Universidad de Chile.

María Eugenia Domínguez, periodista, académica de la Universidad de Chile.

Gabriel Boric, Presidente de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH).

Camila Vallejo Dowling, Vice-Presidenta de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH).

Felipe Ramírez, Secretario General de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH).

Andrés Fielbaum, Secretario de Comunicaciones de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH).

Pablo Soto Arrate, Director Ejecutivo del Centro de Estudios de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH).

Rodrigo Cárdenas Cabezas, Secretario General de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Magallanes, Punta Arenas.

Sebastián Aylwin Correa, Vicepresidente del Centro de Estudiantes de la Escuela de Derecho de la Universidad de Chile.

Francisco Figueroa, ex Vicepresidente de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH), 2011.

Loreto Fernández, ex Presidenta del Centro de Estudiantes de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de Chile (2011) y actual delegada de Bienestar de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH).

Consejo de Estudiantes de la Salud de la Universidad de Chile.

Eloísa González Domínguez, Vocera de la Asamblea de Estudiantes de Liceo Manuel de Salas, Vocera de la Asamblea Coordinadora de Estudiantes Secundarios de Santiago (ACES).

Gabriel González, Presidente del Centro de Alumnos del Instituto Nacional (CAIN) 2012, Santiago.

Álvaro Fernández, Presidente del Gobierno Estudiantil del Liceo de Aplicación (GELA) 2011-2012, Santiago.

Matías Cárdenas, ex-vocero 2011 del Liceo de Aplicación, actual Secretario Ejecutivo del Gobierno Estudiantil del Liceo de Aplicación (GELA) 2011-2012, Santiago.

Tamara Castro, Presidenta del Centro de Estudiantes del Liceo Carmela Carvajal de Prat, Providencia, Santiago.

Diego Bautista Cubillos Polo, Secretario Ejecutivo del Centro de Alumnos Internado Nacional Barros Arana, Santiago.

Jorge Silva, Presidente Centro de Alumnos del Liceo José Victorino Lastarria, Providencia, Santiago.

Camila Hernández, Presidenta del Centro de Estudiantes Liceo Tajamar 2012, Providencia, Santiago.

Moisés Paredes, ex vocero del Liceo Arturo Alessandri Palma, Providencia, Santiago,actual representante de los alumnos expulsados y sin matrícula de ese colegio.

Camila Fuentes, Presidenta del Centro de Alumnas del Liceo 7 de Providencia (CELIS), 2012, Santiago.

Sebastián Vielmas, ex Secretario General (2011) de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad Católica de Chile (FEUC).

Pablo Oyarzún Robles, filósofo, académico de la Universidad de Chile.

Eduardo Flores Retamal, Presidente del Centro de Estudiantes de Medicina Veterinaria de la Universidad de Chile.

Carlos Ruiz Encina, sociólogo, académico de la Universidad de Chile.

José Aylwin, abogado, académico de la Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia.

Manuel Loyola, historiador, académico de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile.

Ariel Russel García, consejero de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH) de la Facultad de Ciencias Agronómicas.

Diego Corvalán, Consejero de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH) y ex Secretario General del Centro de Estudiantes de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad de Chile.

Faride Zerán, periodista, académica de la Universidad de Chile, Premio Nacional dePeriodismo.

Felipe Portales Cifuentes, sociólogo, académico de la Universidad de Chile.

Alexis Meza Sánchez, historiador, ex dirigente de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Concepción.

Carlos Ossandón Buljevic, filósofo, académico de la Universidad de Chile.

Pedro Rosas Aravena, historiador, Director de la Escuela de Historia y Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad ARCIS.

Jonás Chnaidemann, biólogo, académico de la Universidad de Chile y senador universitario de la misma casa de estudios.

Marcelo Santos, comunicador social, educador y consultor en comunicación y democracia.

Pierina Ferretti, socióloga, académica de la Universidad de Valparaíso.

Luis Casado, ingeniero del CESI, Francia, asesor de la Confederación Minera de Chile.

Mario Matus González, historiador, académico de la Universidad de Chile.

Jorge Pinto Rodríguez, historiador, académico de la Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco.

Ignacio Díaz Concha, Secretario General del Centro de Estudiantes de Bachillerato de la

Universidad de Chile.

Víctor de la Fuente, periodista, Director de la edición chilena de Le MondeDiplomatique.

Carlos Sandoval Ambiado, historiador, académico de la Universidad de Los Lagos y de la Universidad Viña del Mar.

Germán F. Westphal, lingüista, ciudadano chileno canadiense.

Isabel Cassigoli, socióloga, académica de la Universidad ARCIS.

Margarita Iglesias Saldaña, historiadora, académica de la Universidad de Chile.

Ángela Vergara, historiadora, académica de California State University, Los Ángeles, Estados Unidos.

Jorge Chuaqui K., sociólogo, académico de la Universidad de Valparaíso, Presidente de la Agrupación Nacional de Usuarios de Servicios de Salud Mental (ANUSSAM).

Félix J. Aguirre D., sociólogo y cientista político, académico de la Universidad de Valparaíso.

Julio Pinto Vallejos, historiador, académico de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile.

Mauricio Barría Jara, dramaturgo, académico de la Universidad de Chile.

Darcie Doll Castillo, Dra. en Literatura, académica de la Universidad de Chile.

Carlos Molina Bustos, médico-cirujano e historiador, académico de Historia de la Escuela de Salud Pública de la Universidad de Chile y de la Universidad Viña del Mar.

Francisco de Torres, vocero general de la Asamblea de Estudiantes de Postgrado de la Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades de la Universidad de Chile.

Isabel Jara, historiadora, académica de la Universidad de Chile.

Pedro Bravo Elizondo, Dr. en Literatura, académico de Wichita State University, Kansas, Estados Unidos.

José del Pozo, historiador, académico de la Université de Québec à Montreal, Canadá.

Marco Rodríguez W., sociólogo, académico de la Universidad de Valparaíso.

Igor Goicovic Donoso, historiador, académico de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile.

Gabriel Muñoz, coordinador de la Asamblea de Estudiantes de Historia de la Universidad de Chile.

Bárbara Brito, consejera de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH), Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades.

Benjamín Infante, consejero de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH), Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades.

Manuel Jesús Hidalgo Valdivia, economista.

Juan Carlos Gómez Leyton, cientista político, académico de la Universidad ARCIS.

Iván Ljubetic Vargas, historiador, ex académico de la Universidad de Chile sede Temuco.

Rodrigo Contreras Molina, antropólogo, académico de la Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco.

Marcelo Garrido Pereira, geógrafo, Jefe de la carrera de Geografía de la Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano.

Javier Sandoval Ojeda, ex Presidente de la Federación de Estudiante de la Universidad de Concepción, período 1996-1997.

Mario Valdés Vera, historiador, académico de la Universidad de Concepción.

Pablo Aravena Núñez, académico de la Universidad de Valparaíso.

César Cerda Albarracín, historiador, académico de la Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana.

Paz López, Coordinadora Académica Magíster en Estudios Culturales, Universidad ARCIS.

María Soledad Jiménez, historiadora, académica Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano.

Mario Garcés Durán, historiador, académico de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Director de ECO Comunicaciones.

Rodrigo Zúñiga Contreras, filósofo, académico de la Universidad de Chile.

Sergio Rojas Contreras, filósofo, académico de la Universidad de Chile.

Carmen Gloria Bravo Quezada, historiadora, académica de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile.

Miguel Valderrama, historiador, académico de la Universidad ARCIS.

Kevin Villegas, sociólogo, académico de la Universidad Pedro de Valdivia, sede Chillán.

Alonso Serradell Díaz, Máster en Ciudadanía y Derechos Humanos: Ética y Política, Universidad de Barcelona.

Catherine Valenzuela Marchant, profesora, estudiante de Doctorado en Historia, Universidad de Chile.

Viviana Bravo Vargas, historiadora, doctorante en Estudios Latinoamericanos en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).

Enrique Fernández Darraz, sociólogo e historiador.

Florencia Velasco, Licenciada en Literatura y estudiante de Magíster en Literatura de la Universidad de Chile, responsable de edición editorial Lom Ediciones.

Blaise Pantel, docente del Departamento de Sociología y Ciencia Política, Universidad Católica de Temuco.

Sebastián Ríos Labbé, abogado, académico de la Universidad de Chile.

Oscar Zapata Cabello, delegado estudiantil de la Carrera de Química, Facultad de Ciencias de la Universidad de Chile.

Evelin Ledesma Cruz, voluntaria y militante del Comité pour les Droits Humains en Amérique Latine (CDHAL), Montréal, Québec, Canadá.

Laureano Checa, académico del Instituto de la Comunicación y de la Imagen (ICEI) de la Universidad de Chile.

Lorena Antezana Barrios, académico del Instituto de la Comunicación y de la Imagen (ICEI) de la Universidad de Chile.

Milton Godoy Orellana, historiador, académico de la Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano.

José Miguel Labrín, académica del Instituto de la Comunicación y de la Imagen (ICEI) de la Universidad de Chile.

Ximena Poo Figueroa, académica del Instituto de la Comunicación y de la Imagen (ICEI) de la Universidad de Chile.

José Alberto de la Fuente, Dr. en Literatura, académico de la Universidad Católica

Cardenal Raúl Silva Henríquez.

Jorge Gonzalorena Döll, sociólogo, académico de la Universidad de Valparaíso.

Sandra Oyarzo Torres, matrona, académica de la Universidad de Chile.

Luis Castro, historiador, académico de la Universidad de Valparaíso.

Patricio Troncoso Ovando, ingeniero en Producción, ex presidente de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (FEUTFSM) sede Talcahuano, periodo 2001 al 2003.

Gonzalo Ojeda Urzúa, sociólogo, académico de la Universidad de Valparaíso.

Valentina Saavedra, ex Presidenta del Centro de Estudiantes de Arquitectura y actual consejera de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH) de la Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo.

Cristián Pozo, sociólogo.

Francisco Herrera, filósofo, académico de la Universidad de Chile.

Eleonora Reyes, historiadora, académica de la Universidad de Chile.

Jorge Weil, economista, académico, Universidad de Los Lagos, Osorno.

Aldo González Becerra, biólogo, académico de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid e investigador del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), España.

Luis Mundaca, dirigente sindical de la Federación de Sindicatos de Heineken – CCU Chile y Secretario General del Centro de Padres y Apoderados del Liceo de Aplicación, Santiago.

Rodrigo Roco, ex Presidente de la Federación de Estudiantes de Chile (FECH) (1997).

Virginia Vidal, escritora.

05.23.12

by Andrew Gavin Marshall

Spanish Translation: Del Invierno Chileno a la Primavera Canadiense: ¡Solidaridad!

Del Invierno Chileno a la Primavera Canadiense: ¡Solidaridad!

Por Andrew Gavin Marshall

The following is a Spanish translation of my recent article, “From the Chilean Winter to the Maple Spring,” courtesy of Verdad Ahora.

En la noche del 16 de mayo, miles de estudiantes y simpatizantes de Montreal salieron a las calles para pasar la 23va noche consecutiva de protestas, esta vez impulsada por el anuncio del gobierno de Quebec de legislar para terminar con la huelga estudiantil de 14 semanas que se ha apoderado de Quebec en los últimos tres meses. El proyecto de ley propuesto por el gobierno “impondría condiciones estrictas a los estudiantes que deseen manifestarse en contra de los aumentos previstos en las tarifas de matrícula”, que podrían “incluir multas severas contra cualquiera que intente bloquear las entradas a los colegios y universidades.” El primer ministro de Quebec, Jean Charest, anunció que el actual semestre no ha sido cancelado por el gobierno, “Estamos suspendiendo el semestre. No lo estamos cancelando… Esto nos permitirá terminar el semestre en agosto y septiembre.” Los estudiantes advirtieron que impugnarán la ley ante los tribunales “si la legislación limita su derecho a manifestarse y bloquear las clases si la mayoría de los miembros de una escuela o de las asociaciones estudiantiles vota realizarlo.”

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, el portavoz de 21 años de la asociación de estudiantes más grande, CLASSE, que representa a más de la mitad de los 160.000 estudiantes en huelga, declaró que: “El proyecto de ley que el gobierno propone a la mesa es una ley antisindical, es autoritario, represivo y vulnera el derecho de los estudiantes a la huelga… Este es un gobierno que prefiere golpear a sus jóvenes, ridiculizar a sus jóvenes, en lugar de escucharlos.” Cuando miles de personas salieron a las calles de Montreal para oponerse al plan del gobierno, se toparon nuevamente con la policía antidisturbios, y se desató la violencia después de que la que fuera una protesta pacífica fuese declarada “ilegal” por la policía, con 122 manifestantes arrestados. Sólo unos pocos de los 122 manifestantes arrestados están acusados de agredir a algunos agentes, mientras que el resto está siendo acusado de haber participado en una “protesta ilegal”. La policía antidisturbios cargó contra la multitud y se dispersó la protesta en unidades más pequeñas, que la policía luego arrinconó, y acto seguido, con roció con gas pimienta y les arrojó granadas aturdidoras, además de golpear con lumas a los estudiantes.

Más temprano el mismo día 16 de mayo, a unos 9.000 km de Montreal, cerca de 100.000 estudiantes y simpatizantes salieron a las calles en Santiago, Chile, en la segunda manifestación más importante este año, llevando al resurgimiento del movimiento estudiantil que se inició un año antes, en mayo de 2011; los estudiantes fueron movilizados por la Confederación de Estudiantes de Chile (CONFECH), una confederación de todos los sindicatos estudiantiles de universidades públicas, (así como de algunas privadas), y el sindicato más antiguo, la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (FECH). Estos sindicatos marcharon contra el sistema educativo más caro de los países de la OCDE, un sistema de educación privatizado instalado en mayor medida en Chile por el ex dictador militar, Augusto Pinochet, quien llegó al poder en 1973 con apoyo de la CIA. Gabriel Boric, el líder estudiantil de la FECH y vocero de la CONFECH de 26 años declaró: “Somos más de 100.000 personas. Estamos dando una vez más una clara señal al gobierno de que el movimiento estudiantil, después de un año, se levanta sobre sus pies y no va a descansar. Todavía estamos en la lucha.” Boric agregó: “Seguiremos siendo rebeldes, ya que el movimiento estudiantil no va a conformarse con corregir algunos excesos. Queremos arreglarlo todo.” El gobierno de Chile ha presentado tres propuestas diferentes a los estudiantes en el último año, todas las cuales no cumplían con el movimiento estudiantil, ya que eran meras concesiones que no tratan el problema principal de un sistema social, política y económicamente injusto, exigiendo un sistema de educación pública gratuita y de calidad para todos los chilenos. Boric declaró: “Este gobierno ha sido incapaz de responder a las peticiones básicas de los estudiantes.”

Las protestas de 16 de mayo 2012 se tornaron violentas con enfrentamientos entre estudiantes y policías antidisturbios, que llevaron al arresto de 70 estudiantes en Santiago. Esta fue la segunda manifestación estudiantil más importante de este año, después de cerca de 40 manifestaciones en todo el país durante 2011. La policía antidisturbios respondió a la protesta de los estudiantes con gas lacrimógeno y carros lanza agua. El 15 de marzo, Santiago fue sede de la primera manifestación estudiantil importante del año en la que varios miles de estudiantes salieron a las calles, y se produjeron enfrentamientos con la policía antidisturbios que llevaron a 50 arrestos. Por cierto, el 15 de marzo en Montreal, estudiantes y otras personas participaron en una protesta contra la brutalidad policial que terminó en violencia y en la detención de más de 200 manifestantes.

El gobierno chileno ha tratado constantemente de tanto reprimir – a través de la violencia estatal – y socavar – a través de pequeñas concesiones legislativas – al movimiento estudiantil que se ha identificado con la necesidad de un cambio en el sistema social, político y económico. A pesar de un año de protestas, la ex líder estudiantil de la FECH, de 24 años, Camila Vallejo, quien dirigió el movimiento estudiantil hasta que fue reemplazada por Boric en las elecciones estudiantiles de noviembre de 2011, comentó respecto al movimiento estudiantil: “En términos concretos, se podría decir que hemos logrado poco o nada… Pero a grandes rasgos, el movimiento estudiantil ha hecho una ruptura en la sociedad chilena. Hay un antes y un después de 2011, y por primera vez estamos hablando de temas que eran tabú en Chile.”

El 14 de mayo, la ministra de educación de Quebec, Line Beauchamp, renunció declarando: “Estoy renunciando porque ya no creo ser parte de la solución.” Ello siguió a las revelaciones de que Line Beauchamp asistió a un evento de recaudación de fondos para el Partido Liberal donde aceptó donaciones de un conocido mafioso de Montreal. Quebec se ha visto envuelta desde hace años en una controversia por la corrupta industria de la construcción, que está fuertemente controlada por la mafia y recibe contratos públicos tremendamente sobrevalorados por parte de los gobiernos municipales y provinciales. Beauchamp no ha sido la primera casualidad en el gabinete del primer ministro, Jean Charest. Ya en septiembre de 2011, la primer ministro subrogante de Jean Charest, Nathalie Normandeau, que también fue ministra de recursos naturales de Quebec, renunció en medio de controversias. Ella también estuvo implicada en escándalos de corrupción relacionados con la mafia.

Cerca de un mes después de que las protestas estudiantiles comenzaran en Chile, el ministro de educación, Joaquín Lavín, renunció en julio de 2011. Fue sustituido por Felipe Bulnes, quien a su vez renunció en diciembre de 2011, en medio del persistente movimiento estudiantil. Bulnes había tratado de calmar las protestas estudiantiles mediante la concesión de un mayor acceso al crédito y “una mejor supervisión de las universidades.” Bulnes fue reemplazado con Harald Beyer. Así como Bulnes renunció, tras las revelaciones de que tenía fuertes lazos con una universidad privada en Santiago (y por lo tanto, un interés personal en la defensa del sistema educativo privatizado), el ministro de Agricultura, José Antonio Galilea también renunció. A finales de marzo de 2012, el ministro de Energía de Chile, Rodrigo Álvarez renunció tras dos meses de protestas en la región austral de Aysén por el alza de los precios del combustible.

Como ministra de recursos naturales de Quebec (hasta su renuncia en septiembre de 2011), Nathalie Normandeau fue responsable de introducir el ‘Plan Nord’ (Plan del Norte), un programa de desarrollo económico de 80 mil millones para explotar los recursos del norte de Quebec a través de inversiones públicas y privadas. El Plan incluye inversiones en minería, silvicultura, transporte y gas, y está atrayendo el interés de corporaciones multinacionales de todo el mundo. El Plan Nord fue anunciado por Normandeau y el primer ministro Jean Charest en mayo de 2011, donde Charest declaró: “En el plano político, este es uno de los mejores momentos de mi vida.” Y añadió: “Esta es una de las razones por las que me involucré en la política.” El Plan prevé 11 nuevos proyectos mineros en los próximos años, con miles de millones gastados por el gobierno en el desarrollo de infraestructura y caminos para el transporte. La industria minera aplaudió Charest, pero incitó la preocupación de grupos ambientalistas y representantes de los pueblos originarios. En abril de 2012, un grupo de mujeres del pueblo inuit marchó desde el Norte a Montreal para protestar contra el Plan Nord, llegando a la ciudad para la reunión que promovería el Plan Nord entre el 20 y el 21 de abril. El 20 de abril, las mujeres de los pueblos originarios se reunieron para protestar contra la reunión, y se unieron a las protestas estudiantiles fuera del Palais des congrèsen en el centro de Montreal. Los manifestantes chocaron con la policía antidisturbios, granadas aturdidoras, gases lacrimógenos y lumas, y unos 90 manifestantes fueron arrestados.

En mayo de 2011, al igual que el gobierno de Quebec anunciando sus planes para el Plan Nord, el gobierno chileno anunció la aprobación del proyecto Hidroaysén, que será el generador de energía más grande de Chile, llevando a protestas de cientos de personas. El proyecto “consta de cinco represas y 1.900 kilómetros (1.180 millas) de línea de transmisión para alimentar a la red central que abastece a Santiago y a las ciudades circundantes, así como las minas de cobre de propiedad de Codelco y Anglo American Plc.” El proyecto provocó un aumento de la ira de los residentes de la región, así como de ambientalistas y otros activistas. Los opositores al proyecto presentaron recursos de amparo y una corte de apelaciones suspendió el proyecto Hidroaysén en junio de 2011. Fue en este momento que el movimiento estudiantil en Chile comenzó a emerger rápidamente. En octubre, un tribunal de apelaciones local rechazó las siete demandas contra el proyecto y dio luz verde para reanudar las obras. En diciembre, un recurso legal en contra del proyecto fue llevado a Corte Suprema de Chile. En abril de 2012, la Corte Suprema rechazó los siete recursos contra el proyecto. Esto provocó grandes protestas por la decisión de la corte, que chocaron con la represión la policía antidisturbios. La creciente demanda de energía proviene de la industria minera en rápido crecimiento de Chile, de la cual las empresas mineras canadienses son la mayor inversión de origen extranjero.

Protestas estallaron la región sureña chilena de Aysén en febrero de 2012, donde el costo de vida es significativamente mayor que en el norte (debido a la lejanía de la región patagónica) y por lo tanto, los costos de combustible, alimentos, cuidado de la salud y la educación son mayores que en otras partes. Los manifestantes se enfrentaron casi todas las noches con la policía antidisturbios, incluso levantando barricadas y lanzando piedras contra la policía, que utilizó carros lanza agua y gases lacrimógenos contra los manifestantes. Uno de los manifestantes incluso perdió un ojo durante los enfrentamientos, según informes, al ser baleado por la policía. Partidarios salieron a las calles de Santiago en solidaridad con los que luchaban en Aysén . En marzo, los manifestantes relajaron los bloqueos para mantener negociaciones entre el gobierno y las más de treinta organizaciones sociales que participaban en las protestas. Fue después de las negociaciones que renunció el ministro de energía Álvarez, diciendo que fue excluido de las conversaciones. A fines de marzo, el gobierno anunció planes para crear mejores condiciones en la región de Aysén.

En abril de 2012, Chile experimentó protestas contra una planta termoeléctrica y la minería, donde en mayor medida participaron chilenos de ascendencia indígena, y los estudiantes regresaron a las calles de Santiago, con decenas de miles de personas. A lo largo de Quebec, los estudiantes intensificaron las protestas durante todo el mes de abril, y se unieron indígenas, ecologistas y estudiantiles en protesta contra el Plan Nord. El 25 de abril, decenas de miles de estudiantes chilenos salieron a las calles de Santiago, en protesta contra la propuesta de “reforma” educacional del gobierno, que era completamente inadecuada. En el mismo día, 25 de abril, cerca de 5.000 estudiantes protestaban en Montreal contra de la cancelación del diálogo del gobierno con los líderes estudiantiles. A principios de ese mismo mes, el presidente chileno Piñera y el primer ministro canadiense Harper se reunieron en Chile para expandir el tratado de libre comercio entre los dos países. Los movimientos estudiantiles no fueron objeto de debate.

En Chile, al movimiento estudiantil y su desarrollo social más amplio junto a ambientalistas, sindicatos y otros grupos de activistas se le ha conocido como “Invierno Chileno“. En Quebec, el movimiento estudiantil, con su desarrollo social más amplio junto a sindicatos, ambientalistas, y otras organizaciones de activistas, se ha conocido como “Primavera Arce.” Ambos movimientos, manteniendo al mismo tiempo sus propias especificidades, en última instancia, se han movilizado en torno a una lucha contra el neoliberalismo, contra la austeridad, y contra un sistema social, político y económico que ha gobernado el mundo para unos pocos y en detrimento de las mayorías.

Para que ambos movimientos avancen, es importante no sólo promover actos informales y declaraciones de solidaridad entre los dos movimientos, sino comenzar a establecer vínculos directos e indirectos entre los movimientos: establecer conexiones entre las asociaciones estudiantiles, coordinar días de acciones de protesta importantes, protestar contra las empresas mineras que explotan a Quebec en el Norte y a Chile en el Sur, crear medios de comunicación organizados por estudiantes que compartan información entre ellos, realizar intercambios de activismo estudiantil entre los dos países, pero en primer lugar, es importante educar a los estudiantes en Quebec sobre lo que está ocurriendo en Chile, y a los estudiantes en Chile sobre lo que está ocurriendo en Quebec. Esa es la base para todas las otras formas de cooperación.

Así que desde el Invierno Chileno a la Primavera Arce

¡Solidarity, solidarité, solidaridad!

Andrew Gavin Marshall es un investigador independiente y escritor residente en Montreal, Canadá, que escribe sobre una serie de cuestiones sociales, políticas, económicas e históricas. También es Project Manager del The People’s Book Project y presenta un programa semanal de podcast, “Empire, Power and People”, en BoilingFrogsPost.com.

05.18.12

by Andrew Gavin Marshall

From the Chilean Winter to the Maple Spring: Solidarity and the Student Movements in Chile and Quebec

From the Chilean Winter to the Maple Spring

Solidarity and the Student Movements in Chile and Quebec

By: Andrew Gavin Marshall

Originally Published at: The Media Co-op

On the night of May 16, thousands of Montréal students and supporters took to the streets for the 23rd consecutive night of protests, this time spurred on by the Government of Québec’s announcement that it would legislate an end to the 14-week student strike which has gripped Quebec for the past three months. The government’s proposed bill would “impose strict conditions on students wanting to demonstrate against the planned tuition fee hikes,” which could “include stiff fines against anyone attempting to block entrances to the colleges and universities.” Québec Premier Jean Charest announced that the current school session will be postponed by the government, “We are suspending the session. We are not cancelling it … This will allow us to finish the session in August and September.” Students warned that they would challenge the law in court “if the legislation limits their right to demonstrate and to block classes if the majority of members of a school or student association votes to do so.”

Gabriel nadeau-Dubois, the 21-year old spokesperson for the largest student association, CLASSE, representing over half of the 160,000 striking students, stated that, “The bill that the government is proposing to table is an anti-union law, it is authoritarian, repressive and breaks the students’ right to strike… This is a government that prefers to hit on its youth, ridicule its youth rather than listen to them.” As thousands poured into the streets of Montréal to oppose the government’s plan, they were again met with riot police, and as violence broke out after what was a peaceful protest was declared “illegal” by the police, 122 protesters were arrested. Only a few of the 122 arrested protesters are being charged with assaulting officers, while the rest are being charged with taking part in an “illegal protest.” Riot police charged the crowd and broke the protest up into smaller units, which police then cornered and followed, using pepper spray and flash bang grenades, as well as beating students with batons.

Earlier on the same day of May 16, nearly 9,000 km away from Montréal, roughly 100,000 students and supporters took to the streets in Santiago, Chile, in the second major demonstration of the new year, bringing a resurgence to the student movement that began one year ago, in May of 2011, the students were mobilized by the Student Confederation of Chile (CONFECH), a confederation of all the student unions from public universities (as well as some private ones), and the oldest individual union, the Student Federation of the University of Chile (FECH). These usions collectively rallied the students against the most expensive educational system among the OECD nations, a largely privatized system of education brought in by Chile’s former military dictator, Augusto Pinochet, who came to power in 1973 with CIA support. Gabriel Boric, the 26-year old student leader of the FECH and spokesperson for CONFECH declared, “We are more than 100,000 people. We are giving again a clear sign to the government that the student movement, after a year, stands up on its feet and will not rest. We are still in the fight.” Boric added, “We will keep on being rebels, because the student movement is not going to settle for a few excesses having been corrected. We want to fix all of them.” The Chilean government has submitted three different proposals to the students in the past year, all of which did not satisfy the student movement as they were mere concessions which did not address the main issue of an unfair social, political, and economic system, demanding a free, quality public education system for all Chileans. Boric stated, “This government has been unable to respond to the students’ basic requests.”

The protests of May 16, 2012 turned violent with clashes between students and riot police, leading to the arrest of 70 students in Santiago. This was the second major student demonstration of this year, following roughly 40 demonstrations across the country in 2011. The riot police responded to the student protest with tear gas and water cannons. On March 15, Santiago was host to the first major student demonstration of the year in which several thousand students took to the streets, and clashes erupted with riot police, leading to 50 arrests. Incidentally, on March 15 in Montréal, students and others took part in a protest against police brutality which ended in violence and the arrest of over 200 protesters.

The Chilean government has consistently attempted to both repress – through state violence – and undermine – through minor legislative concessions – the student movement which has identified the necessity of change in the social, political, and economic system itself. Despite a year of protests, the former student leader of FECH, 24-year old Camilla Vallejo, who led the student movement until she was replaced by Boric in student elections in November of 2011, commented on the student movement: “In concrete terms, you could say we have accomplished little or nothing… But in broad strokes, the student movement has made a break in Chilean society. There’s a before and after 2011, and we’re talking about issues that were taboo in Chile for the first time.”

On May 14, Québec’s Education Minister Line Beauchamp resigned, stating, “I am resigning because I no longer believe I’m part of the solution.” This followed revelations that Line Beauchamp attended a Liberal Party fundraiser at which she accepted donations from a known Montréal mafioso. Québec has been embroiled for years in a controversy over the corrupt construction industry, which is heavily controlled by the Mafia and gets massively over-valued public contracts from city and provincial governments. Beauchamp has not been the only such casuality in Premier Jean Charest’s cabinet. Back in September of 2011, Jean Charest’s Deputy Premier, Nathalie Normandeau, who was also Québec’s Natural Resources Minister, resigned amid controversy. She too, has been implicated in corruption scandals related to the Mafia.

Roughly a month after the student protests began in Chile, the Education Minister Joaquin Lavin resigned in July of 2011. He was replaced with Felipe Bulnes, who in turn resigned in December of 2011, in the midst of the persistent student movement. Bulnes had attempted to calm student protests by granting increased access to credit and “improved supervision of universities.” Bulnes was then replaced with Harald Beyer. Just as Bulnes resigned, following revelations that he had strong ties to a private university in Santiago (and thus, a personal interest in defending the privatized education system), the Agriculture Minister Jose Antonio Galilea also resigned. In late March of 2012, Chile’s Energy Minister Rodrigo Alvarez resigned following two months of protests in the southern region of Aysen over increased fuel prices.

As Quebec’s Natural Resources Minister (until her resignation in September 2011), Nathalie Normandeau was responsible for introducing ‘Plan Nord’ (Northern Plan), an $80 billion economic development program to exploit the resources of northern Québec through public and private investments. The Plan includes invesments in mining, forestry, transportation, and gas, and is drawing interest from multinational corporations around the world. Plan Nord was announced by Normandeau and Premier Jean Charest in May of 2011, at which Charest stated, “On the political level, this is one of the best moments of my life.” He added, “This is one of the reasons I got involved in politics.” Tha Plan envisions 11 new mining projects in the next few years, with billions being spent by the government on developing infrastructure and roads for transportation. The mining industry applauded Charest, but incited concern from environmental groups and First Nations representatives. In April of 2012, a group of First Nations Innu women walked from the North to Montreal to protest against Plan Nord, arriving in the city for the meeting to promote Plan Nord on April 20-21. On April 20, First Nations women gathered to protest the meeting, and were joined by student protesters outside the Palais des congrès in downtown Montreal. The protesters were met with riot police, sound grenades, tear gas, and batons, and roughly 90 protesters were arrested.

Back in May of 2011, just as the Québec government was announcing its plans for Plan Nord, the Chilean government announced the approval of the HidroAysen project, to be Chile’s largest power generator, drawing protests from hundreds of people. The project “involves five dams and a 1,900 kilometer (1,180 mile) transmission line to feed the central grid that supplies Santiago and surrounding cities as well as copper mines owned by Codelco and Anglo American Plc.” The project provoked increased anger from residents of the region, as well as conservationists and other activists. Opponents of the project filed legal injunctions and an appeals court suspended the HidroAysen project in June of 2011. It was at this time that the student movement in Chile began to emerge rapidly. In October, a local appeals court rejected the seven lawsuits aginst the project and gave the green light to resume work. In December, a legal appeal against the project was taken to Chile’s Supreme Court. In April of 2012, the Supreme Court rejected the seven appeals against the project. This sparked major protests over the court’s decision, met with riot police repression. The increased demand for energy comes from the rapidly growing Chilean mining industry, of which Canadian mining companies are the largest foreign investment source.

Protests erupted in the southern Chilean region of Aysen in February of 2012, where the cost of living is significantly higher than in the north (due to the remoteness of the Patagonian region) and thus, the costs of fuel, food, health care and education were greater than elsewhere. Protesters fought almost nightly battles with riot police, even setting up barricades and throwing rocks at police, who used water cannons and tear gas on the protesters. One protester even lost an eye during the confrontations, reportedly by being shot by the police. Supporters took to the streets in Santiago in solidairty with those struggling in Aysen, also clashing with police. In March, the protesters lifted roadblocks to hold negotiations with the government and the more than thirty social organizations participating in the protests. It was after the negotiations that Energy Minister Alvarez resigned, stating that he was excluded from the talks. In late March, the government announced plans to create better conditions in the Aysen region.

In April of 2012, Chile was experiencing protests against a thermoelectric plant and mining, largely participated in by Chileans of indigenous descent, and students took back to the streets in Santiago in the tens of thousands. Across Quebec, students escalated protests throughout the month of April, and united indigenous, environmental and student activists in protest against Plan Nord. On April 25, tens of thousands of Chilean students took to the streets in Santiago, protesting the government’s education “reform” proposal, which was grossly inadequate. On the very same day, April 25, roughly 5,000 student protesters in Montreal demonstrated against the government’s cancellation of negotiations with the student leaders. Earlier in that same month, Chilean President Pinera and Canadian Prime Minister Harper met in Chile to expand the free trade agreement between the two countries. The student movements were not up for discussion.

In Chile, the student movement and its wider social development with environmental, labour, and other activist groups has been referred to as the “Chilean Winter.” In Quebec, the student movement, with its wider social development with labour, environmental, and other activist organizations, has been referred to as the ‘Maple Spring.” Both movements, while maintaining their own specifics, are ultimately mobilized around a struggle against neoliberalism, against austerity, and against a social, political, and economic system which has ruled the world for the few and at the expense of the many.

For both of these movements to move forward, it is important to not only promote informal acts and statements of solidarity between the two movements, but to begin establishing direct and indirect ties between the movements: establishing connections between the student associations, coordinating days of major protest actions, protesting mining companies that exploit both the North of Quebec and the South of Chile, creating student-run news outlets which share information between each other, undertake student-activist exchanges between the two countries; but first and foremost, it is important to educate the students in Quebec about what is taking place in Chile, and the students in Chile about what is taking place in Quebec. That is the basis for all other forms of cooperation.

So from the Chilean Winter to the Maple Spring

Solidarity, solidarité, solidaridad!

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From the Chilean Winter to the Maple Spring

Solidarity and the Student Movements in Chile and Quebec

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