The announcement of Doug Ford’s OSAP cuts in the spring provoked a massive outpouring of anger. This anger has only been percolating in the meantime, especially with the semester starting and students feeling the direct impact of the cuts.
Now, local student unions have begun calling walkouts and even one-day strikes on Nov. 5, in line with a day of action announced by the Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario (CFS-O).
The movement of the students in France right now shows the massive potential for the struggle against Ford here. This is why the RCP will be mobilizing in full force for this day of action, all across the province.
Shut down the campuses
From the beginning, we have argued that the only way to beat back the OSAP cuts is for the leadership of the student movement to begin energetically organizing for an all-out student strike.
The province-wide day of action is a great first step. It is especially significant that some local student unions, like at YorkU and OCAD, are organizing one-day strikes on Nov. 5. But on their own, these actions will not be enough to stop Ford’s cuts. What is needed is for the student union leadership at every campus to turn Nov. 5 into not simply a day of protest but a strike day that shuts down campuses across Ontario. Furthermore, as it is unlikely that Ford will back down after one day of strike, we must see Nov. 5 as a springboard towards an all-out strike.
For the CFS-O, this would mean making a bold and open call for a strike, and announcing a series of escalating actions to build up momentum. For the local unions, it would require energetically organizing educational campaigns, as well as general assemblies of students to discuss and vote on a strike.
This is how the 2012 Quebec student strike was built, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of students into militant pickets on all the campuses, and bringing about the downfall of the provincial government.
Fight like the French!
To anyone who says a movement like this is impossible today, we say: just look at France! Right now, the “lycéens” (high school students) are showing us what the fight for education ought to look like.
Faced with the severe underfunding of education and the deterioration of facilities, these students began organizing blockades to shut down their schools. The student unions organized general assemblies and called national days of action to spread the struggle.
This reignited the movement against the policies of the Macron government. Spurred on by the youth, the most recent mobilization against Macron on Oct. 17 drew out 800,000 people. Now, the main trade unions have put out the call for a general strike (coincidentally also on Nov. 5), escalating the fight even further.
The struggle of the students tapped into a deeper anger against the capitalist establishment which exists across a very wide layer of society. This is something we have seen countless times over the past few years, all around the world: the youth serving as the spark for mass movements of the working class. The burning hatred of the system which has robbed them of their futures is drawing these young people to the forefront of the most militant struggles. And as the movement in France shows, once they move into action, not even the most brutal repression can stop them.
The French students have shown us the way: we need to bring the student uprising here.
The same conditions that sparked the movement in France exist in Ontario as well. There is a deep and widespread anger against the Ford government. His attacks on healthcare and education, handouts to big corporations and blatant corruption have enraged both workers and students alike. In many cities, monthly anti-Ford protests are still being organized.
A student strike could be the spark that ignites all of this anger into a powerful mass movement, which won’t stop until Ford has been brought down for good.
We say:
Down with Ford!
Fight like the French!
Organize the student strike!
Join the communists
This is the message the RCP will be bringing to campuses across the province on Nov. 5. In addition to all the major campuses in Toronto, we are organized at the Universities of Waterloo, Ottawa and Windsor, as well as McMaster, Queen’s, Western, and more. If you want to get organized in the struggle for a student strike and to bring down Ford, join the communists on Nov. 5!
