University of Toronto Withholds Funds from Graduate Students’ Union over BDS Positions

By Samir Merchel, YCLer from Toronto (Dorise Nielsen club)

In a recent letter to the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union (UTGSU), UofT Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr announced that the university will be withholding nearly $11,000 of previously allocated funds from the UTGSU starting on March 31. The university’s decision was based on an older judgement by the university’s Complaint and Resolution Council for Student Societies (CRCSS), which determined in February 2021 that the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Caucus fee violates the UTGSU’s anti-discrimination policy. The decision stated that the fee, being mandatory for all union members, discriminates against students from Israel based on nationality. It also stated that the fee should be refunded for those who dislike it. The CRCSS did not fundamentally oppose the existence of the caucus, which was formed through a democratic vote in 2019, but stated that the fee must be optional for union members. This decision also stated that the union must submit a plan to make the fee optional by March 1, 2021, but did not state specific consequences for non-compliance.

The UTGSU swiftly voted to reject this decision at a Council meeting on February 16, 2021. The Council approved a motion put forward by University Governance Commissioner Lwanga Musisi to reject “the interference of the University of Toronto through the use of the CRCSS,” a university body. Musisi correctly stated, “The UTGSU has never recognized the CRCSS since it was created because the university cannot and should not overturn decisions made by our membership. […] As a student union, we are completely separate from the university.” This excellent statement clearly elucidates the difference between university clubs or sports teams, and student unions like the UTGSU. In an email to The Varsity (UofT’s student newspaper) after this meeting, the executive correctly pointed out that the CRCSS is “a body formed to undermine student union autonomy and the collective decision-making power held by our members.” As a democratic political organization, the UTGSU must have complete autonomy from the university, just as labour unions must have autonomy from their employers. A year later, the UTGSU now faces the withholding of $10,918 in dues. This incident is the first time a Canadian university has ever withheld student union funds over BDS support. Anticipating this withdrawal of funding, the union voted to create a reserve fund last February to preserve the union’s office.

This overreach by the university in UTGSU fees is reminiscent of US “right-to-work” laws, often promoted by Canadian rightists, which exist in 28 states. Not to be confused with the right to work in general, these laws prohibit collective agreements that mandate that employees join and pay dues to that workplace’s labour union. This severely undermines the power of collective bargaining and often leads to the collapse of unions and locals, due to workers seeking to avoid paying dues while still enjoying the benefits, rights, and wages that the union fights for. Likewise, UofT authorities seek to allow graduate students to avoid paying fees to the UTGSU, slowly undermining the organization. 

The pressure from the university on the UTGSU to avoid salient political issues is also reminiscent of Lenin’s warnings about economism, the myopic focus on short-term, small-scale economic goals at the expense of qualitative political changes. In 1902, Lenin wrote, “The economists limited the tasks of the working class to an economic struggle for higher wages and better working conditions, etc., asserting that the political struggle was the business of the liberal bourgeoisie.” Similarly, the university seeks to relegate the UTGSU purely to “student” issues within the university, avoiding the connections of political issues under the worldwide system of capitalist imperialism. As Marxists, we understand that it would be ineffective to fight purely for minor economic changes for certain groups at the expense of losing sight of the material base that upholds all these issues.

The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), which represents undergraduate students, recently passed a BDS motion divesting from firms doing business in the Occupied Palestinian Territories at a special general meeting on February 16, 2021. Together, these events signal a more progressive change in the political situation at the university, which has historically been resistant to the BDS movement. YCL members have been working hard to aid these developments. We welcome and support this change in the interest of linking the student struggle to the peace and solidarity movement and continuing our work to build the anti-imperialist alliance.