Manif

The extraordinary student mobilisation in Quebec has already sustained the longest and largest student strike in the history of North America, and it has already organised the single biggest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. It is now rapidly growing into one of the most powerful and inventive anti-austerity campaigns anywhere in the world.

We have guests this weekend and I may be able to write much until Monday, but in the interim, I'd like to suggest this piece in today's Guardian, which describes what's been going on here and gives background on the student movement's aims and potential success. At 8:00 pm every night, people in my neighborhood start banging on pots, with no sign of the movement diminishing. Noise pollution is a big deal here, especially in French neighborhoods like ours, so this is an extraordinary gesture of both tolerance and solidarity; it doesn't go on for more than half an hour or so, but it's quite amazing. I went out the other night with a pot and walked around the block beating a rhythm, along with others who were either strolling or sititng on porches and balconies; the general feeling was one of exuberance and togetherness.

Marching with the students last Saturday was a high point in my life of protest: it was absolutely astounding, at 11:00 pm, to see not only this great throng of demontrators, but the people in their homes, in their cars, spilling out of restaurants, bars and cafes, all cheering, making noise, smiling, waving their arms, encouraging their children to join in. It was more like a parade than a protest march. The police, who seem to have largely given up on trying to enforce the draconian Loi 78, imposed by the Quebec government to make gatherings of more than 50 interdit without a permit, simply directed traffic, watched from streetcorners they had blocked off with their cars, and followed behind the demonstration on bikes and motorcycles. Their laissez-faire attitude was underscored for me when I saw one young woman, stark naked except for her boots and a red flag she was carrying, dancing up the middle of the parade, right past the police who didn't bat an eye! Of course, this is Montreal...

Comments

[Michael Lewin]

CHE
by Efrain Huerta

Extraordinary
Things
Ought to
Come
Down
The
Street.

For
Example
The
REVOLUTION

I really enjoyed this post Beth - inspirational!

[read more]

I am a little nervous about it because of how it's been demonized through sports and stuff. I've done my research though and there doesn't seem to be really any significant side effects. So before I jump on board the HGH bandwagon can anybody give me any advice and possible side effects that could occur? Have any of you taken HGH Supplements before?.

[Hattie]

I am very worried about where this is going to go. Fingers crossed for all of you.

[Marja-Leena]

So good to get the view straight from someone right there, not filtered by the news media, which can be so very mixed depending on biases. This is not just about tuitions going up, it is far far more. Bravo, Montrealers!

[john]

I'll take the liberty of supposing when you post on the students movement in Quebec as promised that,as an old conservative,I 'll likely not see it as you do.That said, i suspect i will join with you in decrying the Government's partial response of attempting to limit the right to assembly.The right to assembly is one of the pillars that underpin our freedoms.Its an astonishing misreading of where we came from.Sure protests are messy,but they keep the cracks in the pavement open.We should enlarge those cracks not attempt to pave them over.

[Natalie]

Fantastic, Beth! I'm glad to hear your view of it. I had the same feeling when I marched along with the millions of anti Iraq war protesters here in London way back then, a sense of human solidarity and confidence that people united in peaceful but passionate protest really could change history. We didn't succeed in stopping the war but it seems that people-power is growing as a movement anyway and the Montreal pot-bangers are part of it.