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MAPLE SPRING: THE RED SQUARE MOVEMENT RETURNS AS ANTI-AUSTERITY PROTESTS HEAT UP IN QUEBEC

April 4, 2015

MAPLE SPRING: THE RED SQUARE MOVEMENT RETURNS AS ANTI-AUSTERITY PROTESTS HEAT UP IN QUEBEC

“They may have the toughest batons. They may have the thickest armor. They may have the largest newspapers. They may have the thickest wallets. But we have the longest breath. We have the courage of the oppressed. We have the strength of the multitude. But mostly, we are just right.” – Patrick Charron Morneau, spokesperson for the Association for Student Solidarity

In the summer of 2012, streets in cities across the province of Quebec, Canada, resounded most evenings with the sound of “les casseroles.” Citizens stood at open windows and on their balconies banging pots and pans as student protesters and sympathizers snarled traffic in daily marches which, at their peak, brought up to 200,000 people onto the streets of Montreal, the province’s largest city.

The Red Square movement was born to fight against the Liberal government’s plan to raise tuition by 75% over five years. Since 1968, mass actions of this sort have stopped Canadian governments in their tracks when it came to raising the fees for higher education.

Today, Quebec’s militant student actions have resulted in the lowest costs for post-secondary education in North America. In practical terms, it has also meant less debt and less worry for young people entering an economy that is producing fewer and fewer well-paid jobs, even for those with degrees.

The success of the Red Square protests – as well as the mobilization of activists from outside groups, especially in the environmental and anti-poverty movements – may be a sign that the energy unleashed in 2012 may now be getting harnessed for a broader fight against the neoliberal economic policies favored by almost every political party in the province and across Canada as a whole.

 

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