Workers World Feb. 17, 2000: Canadian student strike<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../ui/styles/top.css" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="../../ui/script/ie5.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.workers.org/ui/script/DropDownMenuX.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> window.onload = function() { var ddmx = new DropDownMenuX("menu1"); ddmx.type = "horizontal"; ddmx.delay.show = 0; ddmx.delay.hide = 400; ddmx.position.level1.top = 0; ddmx.position.level1.left = 0; ddmx.position.levelX.top = 0; ddmx.position.levelX.left = 0; ddmx.fixIeSelectBoxBug = true; ddmx.zIndex.visible = 500; ddmx.zIndex.hidden = -1; ddmx.init(); } </script> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#483d8b" vlink="#2f4f4f" alink="#a52a2a">  <table width="65%" border="0" cellpadding="10" align="center"> <tr> <td height="911" align="left" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0"> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <a href="http://www.workers.org/"><img src="../../images/wwlogo.png" alt="Workers.org" width="600" height="58" border="0" /></a></td> </tr> </table> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="menu1" class="ddmx"> <tr> <td> <a class="item1" href="http://www.workers.org/">Home</a></td> <td> <a class="item1" href="javascript:void(0)">Books</a> <div class="section"> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/index.html">Selected works of Sam Marcy</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/sambol/index.htm">Bolsheviks and War</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samtech/index.htm">High Tech, Low Pay</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samsoc/index.htm">Soviet Socialism: Utopian or Scientific</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/indonesia/index.html">Indonesia 1965</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/cm/empire.html">Expanding Empire</a> </div></td> <td><a class="item1" href="javascript:void(0)">Subscribe</a> <div class="section"><a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/email.php">Email list</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/orders/index.php">Print edition</a> </div></td> <td> <a class="item1" href="http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php">Donate </a></td> <td> <a class="item3" href="http://www.workers.org/mo/index.html">Noticias en Español</a> </td> </tr> </table> <print> <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr> <td width="19%" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#E2E2E2"> <p class="caption">Support<br /> anti-war,<br /> anti-racist<br /> news </p> <p class="caption"><a href="http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php">:: Donate now ::</a></p> <hr /> <p class="caption"><print><a href="http://www.workers.org/cgi-bin/mailww/mailww.cgi"><img src="http://www.workers.org/graphics/email.gif" width="21" height="20" border="0" alt="Email this article" />Email this article</a> </print></p> <p class="caption"><print><a href="/print.php"><img src="http://www.workers.org/graphics/printer.gif" width="21" height="20" border="0" alt="Print this page" />Printable page</a></print></p> <hr /> <p class="caption"><a href="mailto:letters@workers.org">Email the editor</a></p> <form method="get" action="http://www.workers.org/cgi-bin/search/search.pl"> <input name="Terms" id="fdse_TermsEx" size="12" maxlength="255" class="email" /> <input type="submit" value="Search" style="align: center; padding: 1px 2px 1px 2px; background: #DCDCDC; color: darkslategray; font-size: 9px; border: solid #696969 1px;" /> </form> <p class="caption"> </p></td> <td width="81%"> <blockquote> <div align="right" class="translate"><a href="http://www.faganfinder.com/translate/ref.php?from=en" title="click here to translate this page into any language, using the Fagan Finder Translation Wizard" target="new" hreflang="en">Translate this page</a></div>  <h4><u>TWO REPORTS ON CANADIAN STUDENT STRIKE</u></h4> <h1>'Crushing debt burden'</h1> <P><b>By Josina Dunkel</b><br> </P><b>St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada</b></P> <P>Over 1,500 students in St. John's in the Canadian province of Newfoundland walked out of classes Feb. 2 to protest federal cuts to public colleges and universities.</P> <P>The strikers braved heavy snow to bring their demands to the government. By the end of the day they had shouted down the provincial minister of education and occupied the provincial government building for about an hour.</P><P>Called by the Canadian Federation of Students, the strike was a nationwide day of action extending from Ottawa to Labrador City, from Vancouver to Montreal. Braving single-digit temperatures and deep snow, about 20,000 students in over 50 communities across Canada walked out of classes. </P><P>They sent a clear message that the budget surplus of $12 billion should go back to social programs.</P><P>Protests took many forms. On Prince Edward Island, students served Kraft macaroni and cheese to show that tuition bills left little money for food. In Alberta, University of Calgary students set up a soup kitchen. </P><P>Students at York University in Ontario were supported by the Transit Commission, which refused to let its buses cross the student picket line.</P><P>In Newfoundland 15 communities held strikes--every place there's a public college or university. In St. John's, students from Memorial University of Newfoundland were joined by strikers from College of the North Atlantic and a significant faction of high school students.</P><P>The community support for the students' action was remarkable. Newfoundland's morning radio news shows were barraged with phone calls in support, and the commentators were more than sympathetic. Along the demonstration, drivers honked to show their support even though the strikers were blocking off a major road.</P><P>The Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labor, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Newfoundland and Labrador Nurses Union, the United Steel Workers of America, the Canadian Auto Workers, and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, gave money, endorsements, and speakers for the strike.</P><P>Support demonstrations for the Canadian student strike reached as far as Mexico City, where protestors picketed the Canadian Embassy.</P><P>In less than a decade, over $7 billion has been cut from post-secondary education in Canada. Such deep cuts have sent tuition skyrocketing. It has more than doubled.</P><P>With each increase these schools become less accessible for working and poor students. </P><P>Student debt has tripled. This contributes to emigration from some provinces and even from Canada to the United States, where wages are higher and debts can be paid off more quickly.</P><P>The student protesters' demands were clear and well-supported by the community. Students demanded a national system of scholarships, not loans, and that funds cut from social programs such as public education, health care and unemployment insurance be restored.</P><P>Students also demanded that tuition fees be eliminated. They reminded the government of the 1976 United Nations Convenant, in which it agreed to make higher education free. Instead of fees being eliminated, tuition has consistently risen, save for a few temporary tuition freezes. </P><P>In the past few weeks the Canadian government has publicly presented a number of plans for spending the $12 billion surplus. The first was to give Canadian hockey teams money to stay in Canada.</P><P>Allison North, chairperson of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Students, said: "Do you want to know where students stand on the federal government's priority list? ... We come right after the Ottawa Senators, the Montreal Canadiens, and the Toronto Maple Leafs."</P><P>Yet another slap to the suffering public-education system came when the federal government decided to give banks $100 million to compensate for students defaulting on their loans. Obviously, this does not address the reason for the widespread problem of students defaulting on loans--or why students are forced to take out loans in the first place.</P> <h3 align=LEFT>'Emboldened by the Battle of Seattle'</h3> <P><b>By Marge Maloney</b><br> </P><b>Buffalo, N.Y.</b></P> <P>Strikes, protests and teach-ins hit colleges and universities across Canada on Feb. 2. The campaign, led by the Canadian Federation of Students, demonstrated students' alarm over rising tuition fees, heavy debt loads and government funding cuts.</P> <P>University and college students held actions in more than 50 communities. The actions were endorsed by faculty associations, the labor movement and other social-action groups.</P><P>In Ottawa, roughly 1,000 students chanted and stomped enthusiastically for more than an hour at Parliament Hill.</P><P>At Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, student demonstrators were bolstered by members of the "flying squad" of the Canadian Auto Workers Local 707, whose business cards advertise support for strikes and picket lines.</P><P>Students at Toronto's York University have erected a giant "debt wall" on which thousands of students have recorded what they owe. "The debt load is crushing," a statement by the Canadian Federation of Students said. "Students who have taken out loans now owe an average of $25,000 upon graduation."</P><P>Adele Mugford, a graduate student at Carleton University, said that despite working two part-time jobs during the school year, and a third in the summer, she recently had to take out a student loan to deal with rising tuition and costs.</P><P>"As soon as you get a part-time job," said nursing student Claudia Omoreanu, "your quality of education goes down."</P><P>The Canadian Federation of Students issued a call for support and endorsements of the Access 2000 Campaign in an internationally distributed email from Elizabeth Carlyle, National Deputy Chairperson of the Federation. Included was a letter from Michael Conlon, national chairperson, in which he described the campaign:</P><P>"Access 2000 is a campaign to pressure the Canadian federal government into restoring social programme funding, reducing tuition fees, and establishing a national system of grants. February 2, 2000, was designated as a cross-Canada day of strike and mass action for students and all those who want to send a clear message to the Canadian government about its budget priorities.</P><P>"As in many other countries, years of devastating cutbacks to social spending have allowed the Canadian federal government to accumulate a multi-billion-dollar surplus. This slush fund was built on the backs of working people, students, and the poor by reducing public services, laying-off public sector workers, restricting access to employment insurance, privatizng programs, implementing user fees and reducing transfer payments to the provinces for social programs.</P><P>"On the international front," the letter concluded, "the victory in shutting down the WTO meetings in Seattle has given students the confidence to wage a united, international fight back." </P>  <p>This article is copyright under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">Creative Commons License</a>.   <br /> Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011<br> Email: <a href="MAILTO:ww@workers.org">ww@workers.org</a><br> Subscribe <a href="MAILTO:wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net">wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net</a><br> Support independent news <a href="http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php">http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php</a>)  </p> <p class="caption"><a href="http://www.workers.org/">HOME</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/us/">U.S. NEWS</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/world/">WORLD NEWS</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/editorials/">EDITORIALS</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/orders/">SUBSCRIBE</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php">DONATE</a></p> </blockquote> </body> </html>