Speech in Solidarity with Student Mobilizations in France

This article follows the statement of solidarity with the students in France from the YCL-LJC. On October 17, a major mobilization occurred across France that gathered over 800,000 people in the streets, without counting the numerous participants involved in other blockading actions. The following week, new protests brought out a comparable number of people in spite of intense police and judicial repression; numerous arrests, convictions, and major injuries. Threats from the Macron government, which promised to deploy armed forces from operation Sentinelle and antiterrorist units (RAID, GIGN), did not prevent the protest from being a long-term effort.

That same October 17, a protest was held in Montreal in solidarity with the student uprising in France. The event organized by the Union étudiante du Québec (UEQ), the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec (FECQ), and the Fédération des associations étudiantes du campus de l’Université de Montréal (FEACUM) brought out over 200 people to the streets. Beyond expressing their solidarity and condemning police violence, the protesters marched to show that the austerity measures seen in France are just as prevalent in Quebec and the rest of Canada.

Members of the Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Québec (LJC-Q) answered the call and took part in this demonstration to defend the YCL-LJC’s vision of free and universal education. Below is the speech they delivered on that occasion.

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Dear friends, dear comrades,

The Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Québec welcomes the organization of this protest by the university and college associations. Solidarity with the struggle of the French students!

Beginning in the overseas territories and working-class suburbs, the movement has grown significantly. It is a struggle for the right to universal education under fair conditions, against the power of capital. Now expanded to include the working class, with unions such as the CGT, it has become a force that is shaking the French government to its core.

We express our full solidarity with this struggle and condemn the police crackdown, which has resulted in more than 8,000 people being taken into police custody, as well as numerous serious injuries. This alarming situation will only get worse during future protests. This violence merely highlights the fear of the ruling powers, who are under the thumb of capitalist monopolies. The government is frightened by the protests and their persistence. Our solidarity is vital, because this same ruling class is attacking the rights of students and the working class in Quebec.

The three-tier system allows private education to drain the public education budget. A large share of an already meagre budget, the result of years of austerity policies, is allocated to the private sector, all in order to deprive us of education. Classrooms are overcrowded; both teaching staff and students are overworked. University programmes are being cancelled, due to an absurd profitability criterion devised in the wake of funding cuts. The dilapidated state of school buildings is now well established: one need only look at the case of Cégep Saint-Laurent. How many more classrooms will be closed due to a lack of maintenance and teaching staff? How many more children will be sent to study in unsanitary conditions?

This deliberate sabotage orchestrated by the bourgeoisie is also intended to steer us towards militarisation. The education budget, like that of all public services, is being sacrificed in order to comply with NATO’s financial agenda. This arms race and the handouts to arms dealers should set alarm bells ringing. Working-class children, facing unemployment and precarious living conditions, will be sent as cannon fodder into future imperialist wars. We must resolutely oppose this policy of austerity and warmongering. None of these political decisions is in our best interests.

That is why we must come together on a broad front in this struggle for free and universal education – a struggle which is itself intertwined with the fight against monopolies – in order to guarantee every young person a future with an education and a job under the best possible conditions.

In our workplaces and places of study, in our neighbourhoods, in our trade unions and organisations, young people must speak out loud and clear:

Money for our wages, not for war!

Mony for our schools, not for monopolies

[Editor’s note: The original French rhymes and reads:
De l’argent pour nos salaires, pas pour leur sale guerre
De l’argent pour nos écoles, pas pour les monopoles!]