vol. 2, no. 7, September 2009, $1.00
si vous voulez lire en français, : http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/
NOTA BENE: Tim Pelzer, t.pelzer@shaw.ca, edited this bulletin. You will find at the bottom the link with l'Humanité in English, a selection of the french daily communist newspaper published in Paris.
And I judge, when I am happy
As a young student
That when the sky is darkest
The dawn is near.
(Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban Five)
Yes, eventually the students will study to know if a better world is possible. Right now, however, everything seems rather quiet, at least on the surface, in the times past turbulent province of
Québec. One of the last demonstrations that took place was at the end of March in the streets of Montréal. According to the newspaper Métro, “hundreds of students, union activists and community organizers took to the streets in downtown Montréal, under the leadership of the Student’s Association, to show their opposition to private sector in public facilities”.In Mid-April, The Gazette reported that “students at Université du Québec à Montréal will join the faculty in a “silent” march this morning to show continued support for a strike by professors that threatens to extend their winter semester by several weeks”. (Photo: karate course in Paris)
But -- there is a but-- Québec students have not built permanent and strong alliances with English speaking students in other provinces. Such unity could change the face of the Canadian politics. As Young Communist League General Secretary Johan Boyden puts it in the June issue of the People’s Voice: “Student activists have a choice: slide towards advocacy, or fuel up a militant Canada-wide campaign, with allies like labour, people’s forces, and parents –for ultimately our demand is raising living standards of the people as a whole.”
Last May, the half million strong Quebec Federation of Labour called upon the Québec students to participate in May Day events in the province along with the workers and community organizers. For many years, the student movement, such as the former Quebec National Association of Students, had a tradition of encouraging student involvement in May Day activities. After all, would they not be the future working class?
At the 55th Canadian Federation of Students' Convention (CFS) in May, as reported by the People’s Voice, delegates decided that “funding for aboriginal p
ost-secondary education will be a top priority of the [CFS] together with campaigns to combat sky rocketing tuition fees in the upcoming 2009-2010 semester…” The article stressed that a special guest to the meeting came from the United States Student Association. What a beautiful idea!The People’s Weekly World in June reports that: “The U.S. has already spent over $ 170 billion on the Afghan war to date; tens of billions more are included in the supplemental appropriation, and analysts say total costs could ultimately exceed the recent bailout of Wall St.” The Congressional progressive Caucus has called on President Obama to spend this money instead on education, health care and other social programs.
(Photo: a course of information technology at an union centre in Paris)
A new trend in Québec has emerged apparently. In the past, trade unions never officially supported a political party, at least openly, except the QFL for the socialist NDP previously. Now the province’s Central trade Union, which represents thousands of members working in the education system, decided at their June convention to urge members “to vote for candidates who could defend policies of the organization”.
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CUBA IN OUR HEARTS
Finally, in May, La Vie Réelle in English received a letter from Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban Five where he announced that: “Every month new friends write to us from the most distant corners of our planet, expressing their love to our people and its Revolution and their support demanding our freedom […] The International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five has launched an extraordinary campaign to send postcards to President Barack Obama […] If you would like to learn more about this campaign and other important activities for our cause, visit http://www.thecuban5.org/
cuban5.org/ .If you want to order postcards, you can write to: info@thecuban5.org .”(Photo: Demonstration in favour of the Five in the USA)
A few years ago, Antonio also wrote, while incarcerated in USA:
Suddenly one day they lock you up
With nights that only serve silence.
They make you feel sad, betrayed,
Strange, failed, absent.
They take you to a dark and cold place
Where everything is inalienably alien,
Rooms inhabited by hate
In which the air is indifferent.
But you know that one day the kisses will return,
The light will be covered with a sweet effluvium,
The doors will be shut with hips
And the heat will spread its mouth over you being
Pledging to you eternal spring.
Against love of the good, none can succeed.
(Antonio Guerrero, Poemas confidenciales, Letras Cubanas, 29/08/04, p. 16)
L'Humanité in English
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