Quebec Solidarity Rally & “Casserole” March

This event has been endorsed by CACHE and P-fac but has not gone before the Occupy Chicago General Assembly

In one of the most lively, passionate and inspiring tour de forces in living memory, students and educators across the province of Quebec have mobilized a massive movement of refusal against neoliberal austerity that continues to amasse energy every day.

QUEBEC SOLIDARITY RALLY

Having already increased tuition fees by more than 30% in the past five years, the Liberal government of Quebec earlier this year attempted to shove through a series of new fee hikes in a long-term vision that would amount to a 127% increase in the five years to come. Adopting the symbol of a red square or ‘carre rouge’ from the expression ‘carrement dans le rouge’ (‘squarely in the red’), students and staff mobilized a bold and audacious ‘indefinite strike’, and spurned massive demonstrations in every major city on a nightly basis (the largest in Quebec history), receiving widespread support from parents, neighbors, staff and the populace in general.

In response to the growing energy of antagonism toward its initiatives, the government instituted hamfisted and sweeping repressive measures, drafting emergency laws criminalizing all demonstrations and banning unplanned marches while threatening obscene fines for violators. Meanwhile, the movement continues to grow day by day. What began as an anti-austerity student movement has precipitated into an anti-capitalist revolt against universities, banks and police in what many are calling a general and indefinite social strike. Nightly ‘casserole’ demonstrations (people marching with pots and pans) fill the night air with the noise of rage and refusal, but also the joy and exuberance of a community united by collective defiance.

Having recently passed its hundredth day, and with murmurs of its potential spread into other provinces in Canada, we wish to express our solidarity and love for all those fighting in Quebec.

Wear a red square, bring banners, pots and pans, signs and noisemakers, horns and drums, and join us for a rally and march this wednesday. Meet at University Center (525 State St., at Harrison) at 5 pm. Solidarité avec la grêve infinie!

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