WEBVTT 00:00:02.340 --> 00:00:05.090 Greetings Troublemakers. Welcome to Trouble.... 00:00:05.090 --> 00:00:06.890 my name is not important. 00:00:06.890 --> 00:00:09.450 This year marks the 50th anniversary 00:00:09.450 --> 00:00:12.160 of the tumultuous events of 1968, 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:14.440 when an unprecedented wave of revolt 00:00:14.440 --> 00:00:16.450 broke out in multiple countries around the world, 00:00:16.450 --> 00:00:17.900 sending a collective shiver 00:00:17.900 --> 00:00:19.540 down the spines of the ruling class. 00:00:19.540 --> 00:00:21.120 This was arguably the closest 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:24.060 that humanity has ever come to a global revolution, 00:00:24.060 --> 00:00:26.030 and the reverberations of this shock 00:00:26.030 --> 00:00:27.900 lasted well into the next decade, 00:00:27.900 --> 00:00:29.290 as capitalists scrambled 00:00:29.290 --> 00:00:31.190 to restructure the international economy 00:00:31.190 --> 00:00:33.460 and states passed a series of reforms 00:00:33.460 --> 00:00:36.040 aimed at desperately reasserting their legitimacy. 00:00:36.040 --> 00:00:38.170 While there were many different local factors 00:00:38.170 --> 00:00:41.760 and a wide cross-section of participants to the riots of '68, 00:00:41.760 --> 00:00:44.020 a recurring theme was the leading role 00:00:44.020 --> 00:00:46.210 played by a generation of insurgent youth, 00:00:46.210 --> 00:00:48.070 fed up with the alienation and misery 00:00:48.070 --> 00:00:50.220 of everyday life under capitalism. 00:00:50.220 --> 00:00:53.680 Some of the most iconic scenes of '68 played out in Paris, 00:00:53.680 --> 00:00:55.920 where tens of thousands of university 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:58.170 and high-school students took to the streets, 00:00:58.170 --> 00:00:59.570 erected barricades 00:00:59.570 --> 00:01:01.840 and fought pitched street battles with the cops. 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:03.240 Inspired by the bravery 00:01:03.240 --> 00:01:05.680 and uncompromising militancy of these youth, 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:07.350 millions of workers joined the fray, 00:01:07.350 --> 00:01:10.040 launching the biggest wildcat strike in history, 00:01:10.040 --> 00:01:12.840 and nearly toppling the French state in the process. 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:14.490 Students also played a key role 00:01:14.490 --> 00:01:16.180 in kicking-off protests that year in 00:01:16.180 --> 00:01:18.800 Italy, Spain, West Germany, 00:01:18.800 --> 00:01:22.000 Sweden, Poland, Yugoslavia, Mexico, 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:24.530 Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, 00:01:24.530 --> 00:01:26.720 Jamaica, and the United States. 00:01:26.720 --> 00:01:27.520 Five years later, 00:01:27.520 --> 00:01:30.600 students at the Athens Polytechnic played a decisive role 00:01:30.600 --> 00:01:33.240 in toppling the fascist military junta in Greece. 00:01:33.240 --> 00:01:36.330 Sadly, the revolutionary upsurge of the 60's and 70's 00:01:36.330 --> 00:01:37.680 was ultimately put down, 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:40.400 and is now confined to the annals of history. 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:42.880 But student unrest has persisted, 00:01:42.880 --> 00:01:44.970 and today it continues to play a key role 00:01:44.970 --> 00:01:46.680 in fomenting political crises 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:48.440 and articulating broader critiques 00:01:48.440 --> 00:01:50.070 of capitalism and the state. 00:01:50.070 --> 00:01:51.560 Over the next thirty minutes, 00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:53.640 we'll explore contemporary student struggles 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:56.440 from so-called Puerto Rico, Montreal and Chile, 00:01:56.440 --> 00:01:58.920 and speak with current and former student organizers 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:00.480 as they share their experiences 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:02.980 of launching strikes, occupying buildings, 00:02:02.980 --> 00:02:04.190 taking to the streets 00:02:04.190 --> 00:02:05.720 and making a whole lot of trouble. 00:02:34.380 --> 00:02:36.460 Considering that the economic crisis 00:02:36.460 --> 00:02:38.600 is not only seen in Puerto Rico, but globally, 00:02:38.600 --> 00:02:40.700 universities as a whole 00:02:40.700 --> 00:02:43.120 in almost all parts of the world are being affected. 00:02:43.600 --> 00:02:45.960 The case of Puerto Rico 00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:49.860 can be seen as more problematic 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:54.020 considering that this country is a colony of the USA. 00:02:54.020 --> 00:02:56.160 The economic disaster, 00:02:56.160 --> 00:02:59.580 both in the empire and in the colony 00:02:59.580 --> 00:03:02.840 is exacerbated more in terms 00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:04.980 of general education. 00:03:04.980 --> 00:03:09.420 And mainly in the aspect of higher education, 00:03:09.420 --> 00:03:13.500 which has led to seeing the future as 00:03:13.500 --> 00:03:15.500 something very tragic. 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:17.730 Each year there are less students. 00:03:17.730 --> 00:03:19.720 And obviously that’s because of the crisis. 00:03:19.720 --> 00:03:21.940 Every year more people leave the country 00:03:21.940 --> 00:03:23.640 - especially young people. 00:03:23.640 --> 00:03:26.940 More youth join the army. 00:03:26.940 --> 00:03:29.940 They go study at institutes. 00:03:29.940 --> 00:03:31.640 They go study in the US. 00:03:31.640 --> 00:03:35.340 Historically, the University of Puerto Rico, 00:03:35.340 --> 00:03:37.340 which is the public university of the country, 00:03:37.340 --> 00:03:39.000 is and continues to be, 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:41.000 generally speaking, 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:43.000 a bastion of critical thought. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:45.220 To be able to talk about the 2010 strike 00:03:45.220 --> 00:03:47.560 - or, specifically about how the strike began in 2010 - 00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:51.360 we have to go back and talk about the 2005 strike. 00:03:52.200 --> 00:03:57.130 In 2005, a new increase in tuition was taking place. 00:03:57.130 --> 00:04:00.680 We're talking about a 33% tuition increase. 00:04:01.460 --> 00:04:03.300 The strike was sparked because of that. 00:04:03.300 --> 00:04:06.400 It was sparked so that education could stay accessible. 00:04:07.060 --> 00:04:09.060 It was also the strike in which the campus was occupied 00:04:09.060 --> 00:04:10.380 and shut down. 00:04:10.670 --> 00:04:12.940 The organizing was typical 00:04:12.940 --> 00:04:16.560 of traditional leftist socialist political organizations 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:18.179 - very centralized - 00:04:18.179 --> 00:04:23.720 which created resentments and tensions. 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:26.280 We cannot call it a failure, 00:04:26.280 --> 00:04:28.900 although the tuition freeze was not won. 00:04:28.900 --> 00:04:30.620 Yes, the tuition hike was carried out... 00:04:30.620 --> 00:04:33.560 the strike ended in a very chaotic way 00:04:33.560 --> 00:04:37.120 But it led many to an awareness of what we want. 00:04:38.340 --> 00:04:39.660 At the beginning of 2009 00:04:39.660 --> 00:04:41.640 we started to re-organize the university. 00:04:41.640 --> 00:04:44.480 We began to realize that we had to break down 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:50.620 these traditional centralized and hierarchical structures. 00:04:50.620 --> 00:04:51.900 We began to decentralize. 00:04:51.900 --> 00:04:55.040 We began to form affinity groups 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:56.620 - they were called action committees. 00:04:56.620 --> 00:05:00.700 From there came the idea of creating a university union. 00:05:01.340 --> 00:05:05.310 Action committees were organized by faculty, 00:05:05.310 --> 00:05:06.760 in the case of the Rio Piedras campus. 00:05:06.760 --> 00:05:09.080 And they allowed us to have a strike committee 00:05:09.080 --> 00:05:11.760 overnight, without even having a strike. 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:15.060 Then we started to push the assembly to strike. 00:05:15.060 --> 00:05:16.940 And in the assembly, it was already organic. 00:05:16.940 --> 00:05:19.300 We were no longer going with the purpose 00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:20.580 of convincing people. 00:05:21.220 --> 00:05:23.220 We were going to vote for the strike. 00:05:23.220 --> 00:05:25.220 And so the strike started. 00:05:25.960 --> 00:05:27.910 And the strike was like a snowball. 00:05:27.910 --> 00:05:30.000 As the snowball kept rolling, it kept growing. 00:05:31.960 --> 00:05:35.340 And from there 11 campuses were occupied. 00:05:36.190 --> 00:05:38.980 To be able to carry out the strike and be successful, 00:05:38.980 --> 00:05:40.660 we had to sacrifice our studies. 00:05:40.660 --> 00:05:42.660 So the occupation of the campuses, 00:05:42.660 --> 00:05:44.660 of each of the faculties, was that. 00:05:44.660 --> 00:05:48.000 To create the impossibility for normality. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:50.140 We're on strike... therefore there are no classes. 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:54.100 Making a fortress of the Rio Piedras campus 00:05:54.100 --> 00:05:57.280 - as did our comrades did in the other campuses - 00:05:57.280 --> 00:06:00.960 was done to avoid a confrontation with the cops 00:06:00.960 --> 00:06:02.040 That would have kicked us out, 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:03.600 and then the strike would have ended. 00:06:05.140 --> 00:06:06.890 That still happened. 00:06:06.890 --> 00:06:09.380 But inside, there was an atmosphere of freedom. 00:06:09.380 --> 00:06:10.900 An atmosphere of coexistence 00:06:10.900 --> 00:06:12.990 and social transformation. 00:06:12.990 --> 00:06:14.400 That's where that idea comes in. 00:06:14.400 --> 00:06:16.180 We learned to make barricades. 00:06:16.180 --> 00:06:19.080 We learned to confront the police like never before. 00:06:19.540 --> 00:06:22.840 "Out! Out! Cops get out!" 00:06:22.840 --> 00:06:25.320 We learned to think strategically. 00:06:25.320 --> 00:06:28.260 We learned to attract the people, the public. 00:06:28.260 --> 00:06:30.260 Not only was the campus taken, 00:06:30.260 --> 00:06:32.110 the streets were taken too. 00:06:32.110 --> 00:06:34.260 I think that 2010 and 2011 transformed people. 00:06:34.260 --> 00:06:37.540 It allowed the strike of 2017 00:06:37.540 --> 00:06:39.540 to be a different strike. 00:06:39.540 --> 00:06:41.540 There was a consciousness, 00:06:41.540 --> 00:06:43.360 and the genie was out of the bottle. 00:06:43.860 --> 00:06:46.340 < 00:06:46.340 --> 00:06:48.340 on the so-called ‘PROMESA’ bill, 00:06:48.340 --> 00:06:51.000 which would establish a means for Puerto Rico 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:53.840 to restructure its 72 billion dollars in debt 00:06:53.840 --> 00:06:57.760 but would also impose a Financial Control Board 00:06:57.760 --> 00:06:59.350 - or what I and other people call it - 00:06:59.350 --> 00:07:00.820 a colonial control board 00:07:00.820 --> 00:07:02.740 over the commonwealth of Puerto Rico.>> 00:07:03.180 --> 00:07:05.180 The Fiscal Control Board 00:07:05.180 --> 00:07:08.120 overrules the government of Puerto Rico 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:11.120 and decides the austerity measures to be imposed 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:12.630 on the people. 00:07:12.630 --> 00:07:14.750 And one of the first things it did 00:07:14.750 --> 00:07:18.420 was propose cuts to the University of Puerto Rico. 00:07:18.980 --> 00:07:21.960 The cuts - first they were $300 million 00:07:21.960 --> 00:07:24.300 now they are $450 million. 00:07:24.300 --> 00:07:27.060 One of the things that was discussed in the fiscal plan 00:07:27.060 --> 00:07:28.820 was a tuition increase. 00:07:28.820 --> 00:07:32.680 In 2016, when us students found this out, 00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:35.160 we began to organize. 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:37.160 And we went on strike 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:42.260 in 2010-11 committees were organized by faculty. 00:07:42.260 --> 00:07:45.180 In 2017, we did the same thing. 00:07:45.180 --> 00:07:46.800 But new committees were created, 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:48.800 such as the athlete's committee, 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:51.400 the seed-garden committee, 00:07:51.400 --> 00:07:53.880 and other committees and working groups, 00:07:53.880 --> 00:07:55.910 such as the gender working group. 00:07:55.910 --> 00:08:00.540 The strike was also connected to the crisis 00:08:00.540 --> 00:08:01.960 that the country was going through. 00:08:01.960 --> 00:08:04.860 it was tied to the fight against the Fiscal Control Board, 00:08:04.860 --> 00:08:07.840 to the struggle for independence. 00:08:07.840 --> 00:08:10.320 The majority of our protests 00:08:10.320 --> 00:08:12.320 were outside the university. 00:08:15.820 --> 00:08:18.940 The fact that we were on strike 00:08:18.940 --> 00:08:22.300 helped a lot with organizing May Day, 00:08:22.300 --> 00:08:25.200 and the tactics that were used. 00:08:25.200 --> 00:08:27.380 Black bloc tactics were used, 00:08:27.380 --> 00:08:30.340 and striking students were able to 00:08:30.340 --> 00:08:32.760 organize that black bloc. 00:08:32.760 --> 00:08:36.140 They were able to make contacts with other people 00:08:36.140 --> 00:08:38.140 who were not students, 00:08:38.140 --> 00:08:40.320 but who could participate in the strike, because 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:42.440 even though it was a student strike 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:44.480 it was open to the people. 00:08:47.970 --> 00:08:50.070 On May 22nd 2012, 00:08:50.070 --> 00:08:53.160 over 200,000 people took to the streets of Montreal, 00:08:53.160 --> 00:08:55.390 in the largest act of civil disobedience 00:08:55.390 --> 00:08:57.230 to ever occur in the territories ruled 00:08:57.230 --> 00:08:58.520 by the Canadian state. 00:08:58.520 --> 00:09:01.360 This demonstration was part of the so-called Maple Spring, 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:04.960 a massive general strike involving over 300,000 students 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:07.070 of Quebec's universities and CEGEP's, 00:09:07.070 --> 00:09:10.400 or Collèges d'enseignement général et professionnel, 00:09:10.400 --> 00:09:11.800 a province-wide network 00:09:11.800 --> 00:09:13.960 of publicly-funded vocational colleges. 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:15.430 Like many other demos that occurred 00:09:15.430 --> 00:09:17.360 in the weeks and months that followed, 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:19.280 the May 22 manif was illegal. 00:09:19.280 --> 00:09:21.230 Those marching that day were doing so 00:09:21.230 --> 00:09:23.680 in open defiance of the so-called Special Law, 00:09:23.680 --> 00:09:26.720 Bill 78, a repressive piece of legislation 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:29.200 that had recently been passed by the Liberal government, 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:31.850 and which had sought to criminalize all demonstrations 00:09:31.850 --> 00:09:34.560 whose routes were not submitted to the police in advance. 00:09:34.560 --> 00:09:37.880 Quebec has a long and storied history of student radicalism, 00:09:37.880 --> 00:09:39.930 and the province has seen no less than ten 00:09:39.930 --> 00:09:42.760 student-led general strikes in the past fifty years. 00:09:42.760 --> 00:09:45.760 But the 2012 strike lasted nearly eight months, 00:09:45.760 --> 00:09:47.480 making it by far the longest, 00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:49.680 and largest such strike in Quebec history. 00:09:49.680 --> 00:09:51.950 The social upheaval provoked by this movement 00:09:51.950 --> 00:09:54.680 ended up toppling the provincial government of Jean Charest, 00:09:54.680 --> 00:09:56.880 and rolling back the proposed tuition increase 00:09:56.880 --> 00:09:58.960 that it had originally been launched to oppose. 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:01.130 And yet... the fact that the end of the strike 00:10:01.130 --> 00:10:02.600 still felt like a crushing defeat, 00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:04.840 despite ostensibly achieving its goals, 00:10:04.840 --> 00:10:06.490 is a testament to the conviction 00:10:06.490 --> 00:10:08.280 it had inspired in its participants 00:10:08.280 --> 00:10:11.080 that an entirely new world was within their grasp. 00:10:12.608 --> 00:10:13.848 In Quebec specifically, 00:10:13.848 --> 00:10:16.820 the student movement is a big political force 00:10:16.820 --> 00:10:19.835 and it has a continuity through history 00:10:19.835 --> 00:10:21.725 of social and political organizing. 00:10:21.725 --> 00:10:23.345 The francophone student movement in Quebec 00:10:23.345 --> 00:10:24.718 goes back to the 60's, 00:10:24.718 --> 00:10:26.598 where in Quebec we had this movement 00:10:26.598 --> 00:10:28.433 called “the Quiet Revolution”. 00:10:28.433 --> 00:10:30.431 Because most of the universities were controlled 00:10:30.431 --> 00:10:31.669 either by the Church, 00:10:31.669 --> 00:10:33.048 or by the anglophones. 00:10:33.048 --> 00:10:35.488 So only really rich francophones could go 00:10:35.491 --> 00:10:36.859 to universities and colleges. 00:10:36.859 --> 00:10:41.625 The CEGEPs were founded by actual occupations of colleges 00:10:41.625 --> 00:10:43.848 demanding for accessible schooling. 00:10:43.848 --> 00:10:49.208 And it led to a huge wave of francophones and poor people 00:10:49.208 --> 00:10:52.382 getting access to so-called higher education. 00:10:52.382 --> 00:10:53.852 One of the interesting aspects 00:10:53.852 --> 00:10:55.342 about the Quebec student movement 00:10:55.342 --> 00:10:58.893 is that there's a certain level of institutionalization 00:10:58.893 --> 00:11:00.255 of student unions. 00:11:00.255 --> 00:11:02.575 Students are able to follow through 00:11:02.575 --> 00:11:04.188 from struggle to struggle. 00:11:04.188 --> 00:11:06.126 So for example in 2005, 00:11:06.126 --> 00:11:07.810 where students might have been involved 00:11:07.810 --> 00:11:09.983 at the CGEP level, at the college level 00:11:09.983 --> 00:11:13.503 – in 2012 they would have been at the university level 00:11:13.503 --> 00:11:14.843 and they could have been involved 00:11:14.843 --> 00:11:16.498 in transferring their experience 00:11:16.498 --> 00:11:19.701 and their knowledge to younger generations of activists. 00:11:19.863 --> 00:11:24.443 It has had a lot of impact on the youth in general, 00:11:24.456 --> 00:11:27.705 and the way school is held in Quebec. 00:11:30.067 --> 00:11:33.543 ASSE is a federation of local student unions 00:11:33.543 --> 00:11:36.418 that was created in 2001 to fight off the influence 00:11:36.418 --> 00:11:39.982 of the two other main student union federations, 00:11:39.982 --> 00:11:42.404 that were more on the political lobbying scene. 00:11:42.416 --> 00:11:45.709 ASSE has always seen the government as an enemy 00:11:45.709 --> 00:11:46.855 that needs to be combated. 00:11:46.855 --> 00:11:48.398 We don't wanna negotiate with these people. 00:11:48.398 --> 00:11:49.845 We wanna force them to act. 00:11:49.845 --> 00:11:53.607 What ASSE is about is really grouping together 00:11:53.607 --> 00:11:56.179 local student unions and providing spaces 00:11:56.179 --> 00:11:58.264 in which these local student unions 00:11:58.268 --> 00:12:02.534 are able to interact with each other, exchange information 00:12:02.534 --> 00:12:04.901 — and most importantly, take collective action. 00:12:04.901 --> 00:12:06.827 So how it works is that 00:12:06.827 --> 00:12:09.576 you've got many different colleges and universities 00:12:09.576 --> 00:12:12.310 that are members of the ASSE, and in between 00:12:12.310 --> 00:12:15.653 – like in colleges and universities specifically – 00:12:15.665 --> 00:12:19.325 the unions are separated by faculties. 00:12:19.327 --> 00:12:22.633 If a student union wants to become a member of ASSE, 00:12:22.633 --> 00:12:26.541 it has to organize on the principle of direct democracy. 00:12:26.543 --> 00:12:30.097 There is no talk of doing lobby work with politicians, 00:12:30.097 --> 00:12:31.111 for example, 00:12:31.111 --> 00:12:33.560 there's no talk of even doing a demo 00:12:33.560 --> 00:12:36.724 without it being voted in a GA. 00:12:36.724 --> 00:12:39.083 I don't think striking would have been possible 00:12:39.087 --> 00:12:40.857 without this kind of organization. 00:12:40.857 --> 00:12:42.942 A general assembly, or a GA, 00:12:42.942 --> 00:12:45.959 is just the practice of getting together as a group 00:12:45.959 --> 00:12:48.624 to discuss matters at hand that concern you. 00:12:48.624 --> 00:12:50.810 Everybody can come in and can vote 00:12:50.810 --> 00:12:52.274 and propose whatever they want. 00:12:52.274 --> 00:12:54.080 There has to be some procedures, 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:58.136 but the idea is to have the structure as open as possible 00:12:58.136 --> 00:12:59.883 for everybody to be able to speak 00:12:59.883 --> 00:13:01.303 on different subjects and matters 00:13:01.303 --> 00:13:02.377 and propose what they want. 00:13:02.377 --> 00:13:06.198 It's so important that students have this space 00:13:06.198 --> 00:13:08.736 to meet and organize together. 00:13:08.736 --> 00:13:11.054 Having a general assembly go on strike 00:13:11.054 --> 00:13:13.055 means that the whole faculty goes on strike. 00:13:13.055 --> 00:13:14.991 The whole collective is bound to that decision. 00:13:14.991 --> 00:13:17.037 And that meant we could block the whole campus. 00:13:20.064 --> 00:13:22.182 I was one of the people you could say 00:13:22.182 --> 00:13:24.757 was politically born in 2012. 00:13:24.757 --> 00:13:28.093 As was the case for thousands of people in Quebec. 00:13:28.093 --> 00:13:30.266 What happened then was magical. 00:13:30.266 --> 00:13:33.562 It was a social upheaval like you don't see very often, 00:13:33.562 --> 00:13:36.618 and it schooled us to street politics, 00:13:36.618 --> 00:13:38.920 to radical democracy, 00:13:38.920 --> 00:13:41.022 to what can really be obtained 00:13:41.022 --> 00:13:44.155 by making strong bonds and fighting together. 00:13:44.155 --> 00:13:47.549 The 2012 strike was a result of, I would say, 00:13:47.549 --> 00:13:50.121 at least three years of grassroots organizing. 00:13:50.121 --> 00:13:52.265 We knew in 2009 00:13:52.265 --> 00:13:55.441 that the government was planning to raise up tuition fees. 00:13:55.441 --> 00:13:57.018 So we had time to prepare. 00:13:57.018 --> 00:13:59.260 Our goal was to go step-by-step, 00:13:59.260 --> 00:14:03.486 and then to have increasingly radical actions. 00:14:03.486 --> 00:14:05.166 And eventually, 00:14:05.166 --> 00:14:07.342 when the government decided to raise the tuition, 00:14:07.342 --> 00:14:08.464 we were able to tell the people 00:14:08.464 --> 00:14:09.843 “we've done everything.” 00:14:09.843 --> 00:14:12.023 Y'know, we've done petitions. We've sent letters. 00:14:12.023 --> 00:14:13.673 We called everybody. 00:14:13.674 --> 00:14:16.019 We did all these things that we knew wouldn't work. 00:14:16.019 --> 00:14:17.886 And now the only thing we have left to do 00:14:17.886 --> 00:14:19.282 is to go on a general strike. 00:14:19.282 --> 00:14:20.577 So there's this whole build up 00:14:20.577 --> 00:14:24.072 that was really important to the success of that strike. 00:14:24.263 --> 00:14:26.059 What the student strike does, 00:14:26.059 --> 00:14:28.855 by massively shutting down campuses 00:14:28.855 --> 00:14:30.855 in universities and colleges 00:14:30.855 --> 00:14:32.621 is it frees up students to 00:14:32.621 --> 00:14:35.518 not only organize within the struggle, 00:14:35.518 --> 00:14:37.998 but also think about the issues that are outside. 00:14:38.550 --> 00:14:40.375 And at the beginning, people were saying 00:14:40.375 --> 00:14:43.295 “oh, y'know... these people are striking against tuition fees. 00:14:43.295 --> 00:14:45.638 It's a very student-centric struggle. 00:14:45.638 --> 00:14:47.309 They only want to protect themselves.” 00:14:47.309 --> 00:14:49.540 But eventually they saw that what we wanted 00:14:49.540 --> 00:14:53.306 was more radical than just striking against tuition hikes. 00:14:53.306 --> 00:14:55.640 We were for a really different society. 00:14:55.640 --> 00:14:58.680 And the strike was only a representation of that. 00:14:58.883 --> 00:15:01.301 The context of 2012 really opened space, 00:15:01.301 --> 00:15:04.217 opened cracks within people's daily lives 00:15:04.217 --> 00:15:07.008 to consider other methods of struggle, 00:15:07.008 --> 00:15:08.616 other methods of organizing. 00:15:08.616 --> 00:15:11.565 The 2012 strike was about student debt, 00:15:11.565 --> 00:15:14.817 which is incredibly high for everybody. 00:15:14.817 --> 00:15:16.687 But then it also gave us a chance 00:15:16.687 --> 00:15:18.257 to touch on debt in general. 00:15:18.257 --> 00:15:19.769 Why is everybody so in debt? 00:15:19.769 --> 00:15:21.024 Why is everybody so poor, 00:15:21.024 --> 00:15:22.998 when they're working all their lives away? 00:15:23.160 --> 00:15:24.970 During the summer of 2012 00:15:24.970 --> 00:15:27.159 we saw the emergence of assemblies, 00:15:27.159 --> 00:15:28.813 of, like, neighbourhood assemblies, 00:15:28.813 --> 00:15:30.196 which were called APAQs 00:15:30.196 --> 00:15:32.451 – Assemblées Populaire Autonome de Quartier. 00:15:32.451 --> 00:15:35.423 So basically autonomous neighbourhood assemblies. 00:15:35.423 --> 00:15:37.284 I think it was a gateway for 00:15:37.284 --> 00:15:39.803 a lot of more in-depth thinking 00:15:39.803 --> 00:15:41.413 about the current situation, 00:15:41.413 --> 00:15:42.548 which everybody shares. 00:15:42.700 --> 00:15:45.597 Everybody can realize, y'know, we're being fucked over. 00:15:45.597 --> 00:15:46.643 And eventually, 00:15:46.643 --> 00:15:49.609 after maybe five months of all the universities 00:15:49.609 --> 00:15:51.634 and the colleges being paralyzed, 00:15:51.635 --> 00:15:54.562 the government decided to pass a special law 00:15:54.562 --> 00:15:56.555 banning public demonstrations. 00:15:56.557 --> 00:15:59.571 And that was the straw that broke the camel's back. 00:15:59.571 --> 00:16:02.931 People started banging pots on their balconies one night, 00:16:02.931 --> 00:16:04.990 and then the night afterwards, 00:16:04.992 --> 00:16:06.965 everybody was in the streets banging pots 00:16:06.965 --> 00:16:08.355 against the general law. 00:16:08.516 --> 00:16:11.723 So Jean Charest is sending Quebeckers to the polls. 00:16:11.723 --> 00:16:14.174 We really faced a wall when the government decided 00:16:14.174 --> 00:16:15.551 that they couldn't go on, 00:16:15.551 --> 00:16:17.173 and decided to call an election. 00:16:17.173 --> 00:16:20.345 It was taken back from us by sold-out politicians 00:16:20.345 --> 00:16:23.731 that gained capital on our struggle. 00:16:23.731 --> 00:16:26.481 A lot of people just thought... we had won. 00:16:26.481 --> 00:16:29.554 Because everybody was gonna vote on something, 00:16:29.554 --> 00:16:31.119 and elections would solve everything. 00:16:31.119 --> 00:16:35.686 We have to beware of elections as a way to solve struggles. 00:16:35.686 --> 00:16:36.953 Because it didn't solve anything. 00:16:36.953 --> 00:16:39.582 Following 2012 there was three years 00:16:39.582 --> 00:16:41.664 of very brutal repression in the streets, 00:16:41.664 --> 00:16:44.881 specifically targeting student organization, 00:16:44.881 --> 00:16:47.019 in the hopes of breaking down the student movement. 00:16:47.019 --> 00:16:48.202 And so in 2015, 00:16:48.202 --> 00:16:50.404 there was an independent group that formed 00:16:50.404 --> 00:16:52.050 within the walls of UQAM 00:16:52.050 --> 00:16:53.893 – Université du Québec à Montréal – 00:16:53.893 --> 00:16:56.460 to start organizing again and fight back. 00:16:56.460 --> 00:16:57.999 It was an anarchist strike, 00:16:57.999 --> 00:17:02.089 in the sense that it was a refusal to let the institutions 00:17:02.089 --> 00:17:04.961 and the corporations instrumentalize us 00:17:04.961 --> 00:17:06.889 and put words in our mouth. 00:17:06.889 --> 00:17:11.123 So 2015 was really about the heritage of 2012. 00:17:11.126 --> 00:17:14.187 But it was also a message to the ones coming up 00:17:14.187 --> 00:17:15.542 that it was still possible. 00:17:15.542 --> 00:17:18.672 We still have the structures to get up and fight together. 00:17:22.215 --> 00:17:23.285 Without a doubt 00:17:23.285 --> 00:17:24.835 the most sustained student movement 00:17:24.835 --> 00:17:26.240 in the so-called Americas 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:29.400 can be found in the territories ruled by the Chilean state. 00:17:29.400 --> 00:17:31.160 Since the 2006 protests 00:17:31.160 --> 00:17:33.780 popularly known as the Penguin's Revolution, 00:17:33.780 --> 00:17:36.960 through the Chilean Winter of 2011-2013, 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:38.520 and continuing to today, 00:17:38.520 --> 00:17:39.870 the Chilean student movement 00:17:39.870 --> 00:17:42.810 has represented a consistent pole of radical activity 00:17:42.810 --> 00:17:44.320 in the southern Andean country, 00:17:44.320 --> 00:17:46.640 drawing in hundreds of thousands of participants 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:48.450 and helping to topple multiple governments, 00:17:48.450 --> 00:17:50.200 seemingly without breaking stride. 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:51.370 While its roots lie 00:17:51.370 --> 00:17:52.800 in the militant youth wings 00:17:52.800 --> 00:17:55.000 of the socialist and communist parties 00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:57.360 that once formed an important pillar of support 00:17:57.360 --> 00:17:59.520 for former president Salvador Allende, 00:17:59.520 --> 00:18:02.420 student radicalism was effectively suppressed in Chile 00:18:02.420 --> 00:18:04.960 during the long years of the Pinochet dictatorship. 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:06.900 Today's student movement is still struggling 00:18:06.900 --> 00:18:09.040 against the economic legacies of this period, 00:18:09.040 --> 00:18:11.860 in which the regime embraced neoliberal shock doctrines 00:18:11.860 --> 00:18:13.760 that led to one of the most heavily privatized 00:18:13.760 --> 00:18:15.760 education systems in the world. 00:18:15.760 --> 00:18:18.680 While the demands of today's reconstituted student movement 00:18:18.680 --> 00:18:20.720 began with relatively humble requests, 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:22.440 such as free bus passes 00:18:22.440 --> 00:18:23.970 and the waiving of onerous fees 00:18:23.970 --> 00:18:25.540 for university admission tests, 00:18:25.540 --> 00:18:27.630 they have since evolved into militant calls 00:18:27.630 --> 00:18:29.520 for free post-secondary education 00:18:29.520 --> 00:18:32.440 that have brought the entire capitalist system into question. 00:18:34.920 --> 00:18:37.340 Education in Chile is deeply segregated by class. 00:18:38.820 --> 00:18:44.240 The level of privatization caused students to go into debt. 00:18:44.240 --> 00:18:48.720 Families would be spending such a large portion 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:51.720 of their earnings to pay for education 00:18:51.720 --> 00:18:54.490 that people started to realize that it was a right 00:18:54.490 --> 00:18:56.260 that they were being deprived of 00:18:56.260 --> 00:18:58.040 and that they had to begin to mobilize. 00:18:58.580 --> 00:19:02.440 Traditional universities, especially state universities, 00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:06.280 have a long tradition of student organizing and mobilizing, 00:19:06.280 --> 00:19:10.730 where student federations are established organizations 00:19:10.730 --> 00:19:14.140 and are “accepted” by the rectories 00:19:14.140 --> 00:19:16.470 and the government as a valid interlocutor 00:19:16.470 --> 00:19:18.920 when discussing student issues. 00:19:18.920 --> 00:19:22.860 The private universities that were established in 1981 00:19:22.860 --> 00:19:24.360 are institutions that, 00:19:24.360 --> 00:19:25.840 generally speaking, 00:19:25.840 --> 00:19:29.420 have only had university federations since the 2000s. 00:19:29.420 --> 00:19:31.030 It was at that moment that the students began 00:19:31.030 --> 00:19:32.860 to demand their right to organize 00:19:32.860 --> 00:19:35.280 in a federation that was legitimized 00:19:35.280 --> 00:19:37.180 by the rectories of those institutions. 00:19:37.180 --> 00:19:39.860 The university federations are grouped in CONFECH. 00:19:40.860 --> 00:19:44.120 The CONFECH is the federation of Chilean students 00:19:44.120 --> 00:19:46.370 and is like the main body 00:19:46.370 --> 00:19:49.790 bringing together the different university federations 00:19:49.790 --> 00:19:52.650 of the majority of Chilean universities, 00:19:52.650 --> 00:19:55.260 whether they be private or public. 00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:00.300 The movement of 2011 was a really defining moment. 00:20:00.300 --> 00:20:04.420 People felt and believed in a struggle of their own, 00:20:04.420 --> 00:20:06.590 and seeing that the demonstrations 00:20:06.590 --> 00:20:08.680 began to attract many students, 00:20:08.680 --> 00:20:11.160 a much deeper analysis began to take form 00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:12.470 with regards to education. 00:20:13.560 --> 00:20:16.330 The main slogans that guided the mobilization 00:20:16.330 --> 00:20:18.300 cover different areas. 00:20:18.300 --> 00:20:20.300 The first has to do with free education, 00:20:20.300 --> 00:20:22.600 the demand that higher education 00:20:22.600 --> 00:20:25.400 be free and accessible for all students, 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:28.700 regardless of the socio-economic level of their families. 00:20:28.700 --> 00:20:30.000 The second has to do 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:33.440 with the forgiveness of debts incurred by Chilean families 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:35.440 during the process of educating their children. 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:37.470 The third has to do with the orientation 00:20:37.470 --> 00:20:39.580 that education has in our country. 00:20:39.580 --> 00:20:42.480 And there, the CONFECH’s demand 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:44.440 is to advance the creation 00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:46.460 of a national development project, 00:20:46.460 --> 00:20:48.300 in which the universities 00:20:48.300 --> 00:20:50.980 – and in particular the public and state universities – 00:20:50.980 --> 00:20:55.180 play a strategic role in the design of public policies, 00:20:55.180 --> 00:20:56.670 in conjunction with the state. 00:21:02.840 --> 00:21:05.820 It was at that point that secondary students 00:21:05.820 --> 00:21:08.460 also came together with their own demands, 00:21:08.460 --> 00:21:11.170 and the need to coordinate 00:21:11.170 --> 00:21:13.500 with high school students was sparked, 00:21:13.500 --> 00:21:17.370 since they also had been resisting, since 2006 00:21:17.370 --> 00:21:19.340 – which was known as the Penguin's Revolution. 00:21:19.340 --> 00:21:20.930 We could see a level of support 00:21:20.930 --> 00:21:22.880 that no other kind of social movement 00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:23.880 during the last decades had seen, 00:21:23.880 --> 00:21:25.760 since the end of the dictatorship. 00:21:25.760 --> 00:21:28.000 There were even polls that pointed to 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:31.640 over 80% of the population supporting student demands. 00:21:32.060 --> 00:21:33.380 We saw demonstrations 00:21:33.380 --> 00:21:36.140 of up to one million people in the capital, 00:21:36.140 --> 00:21:38.230 with entire families participating, 00:21:38.230 --> 00:21:40.360 with workers' unions participating, 00:21:40.360 --> 00:21:41.840 with people in the streets 00:21:41.840 --> 00:21:42.840 who were not affiliated 00:21:42.840 --> 00:21:44.340 with any political organization supporting. 00:21:44.340 --> 00:21:45.820 The student demands 00:21:45.820 --> 00:21:48.820 had resonated with a great majority of the country. 00:21:48.820 --> 00:21:51.800 For example, the fight against indebtedness, 00:21:51.800 --> 00:21:55.820 but also the struggle for a less classist educational system 00:21:55.820 --> 00:21:58.360 that contributes to the development of the country, 00:21:58.360 --> 00:22:01.240 and not just to the profits of the ruling class. 00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:06.700 Within what was called the anarchist movement, 00:22:06.700 --> 00:22:09.080 it was thought that the participation of anarchists 00:22:09.080 --> 00:22:10.900 within the dynamics of the student movement 00:22:10.900 --> 00:22:12.890 – for example in the election leaders, 00:22:12.890 --> 00:22:15.160 participation in voting, 00:22:15.160 --> 00:22:17.160 participation in assemblies, etc – 00:22:17.160 --> 00:22:18.850 was something that did not correspond 00:22:18.850 --> 00:22:21.180 to the principles of the anarchist movement. 00:22:21.180 --> 00:22:23.930 As of 2003, we decided that it was something 00:22:23.930 --> 00:22:25.920 that did not correspond to our current reality, 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:27.610 that as a libertarian movement 00:22:27.610 --> 00:22:30.880 we had the responsibility to nourish the student movement 00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:32.880 with our political perspective. 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:35.820 And that if it meant that our comrades 00:22:35.820 --> 00:22:38.000 had to take on representational roles 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:40.660 in an attempt to to democratize those spaces, 00:22:40.660 --> 00:22:41.650 it had to be done. 00:22:42.820 --> 00:22:44.820 There were different visions. 00:22:44.820 --> 00:22:45.900 On the one hand, 00:22:45.900 --> 00:22:48.460 there were groups that were very, like, platform based, 00:22:48.460 --> 00:22:49.940 and who called themselves anarchists. 00:22:49.940 --> 00:22:51.880 But they were groups that, after all, 00:22:51.880 --> 00:22:54.950 also sought leadership positions. 00:22:55.330 --> 00:22:56.520 And on the other hand, 00:22:56.520 --> 00:22:58.340 there were young people who were looking 00:22:58.340 --> 00:23:00.540 for a much more horizontal organization, 00:23:00.540 --> 00:23:04.760 a much more direct manifestation, or, direct action. 00:23:04.760 --> 00:23:07.620 Beginning with small affinity groups, 00:23:07.620 --> 00:23:11.560 a movement that unites from below. 00:23:11.560 --> 00:23:13.840 I think it served to effectively keep up the pressure. 00:23:13.840 --> 00:23:16.940 So that it wasn’t so easy to impose the direction 00:23:16.940 --> 00:23:19.100 that this movement could take. 00:23:19.100 --> 00:23:21.300 It was already super distorted 00:23:21.300 --> 00:23:24.140 by the filters of the political parties 00:23:24.140 --> 00:23:27.160 that directed the assemblies in some way. 00:23:27.160 --> 00:23:29.270 f we did not resist in some way, 00:23:29.270 --> 00:23:31.300 we were going to let it be much easier 00:23:31.300 --> 00:23:32.340 for them to control things. 00:23:32.340 --> 00:23:33.620 At the end of the day, 00:23:33.620 --> 00:23:37.020 you realized that it served to link you with other people 00:23:37.020 --> 00:23:40.620 who were not even part of your student organizations. 00:23:40.620 --> 00:23:42.620 But who also had their own networks. 00:23:42.620 --> 00:23:45.090 And it allowed you to see what the mistakes were, 00:23:45.090 --> 00:23:47.860 or the things that don't really make sense 00:23:47.860 --> 00:23:50.680 in the spaces in which people were mobilizing. 00:23:51.370 --> 00:23:54.680 I think it's possible to draw several lessons 00:23:54.680 --> 00:23:57.940 from the experience the Chilean student movement 00:23:57.940 --> 00:23:59.840 has accumulated during the last decade and a half. 00:23:59.840 --> 00:24:02.640 One of them has to do with the ability 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:05.400 of the student movement and its political organizations 00:24:05.400 --> 00:24:08.000 to protect its internal democratic structures. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:11.430 That allows students in the country 00:24:11.430 --> 00:24:13.440 to be represented democratically, 00:24:13.440 --> 00:24:16.800 and grants legitimacy to their spaces of representation. 00:24:16.800 --> 00:24:20.560 The other lesson has to do with the need to move 00:24:20.560 --> 00:24:23.160 from economic demands to political demands. 00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:28.300 Questioning not only the way in which neoliberalism 00:24:28.300 --> 00:24:30.480 expresses itself concretely in terms of education, 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:32.900 but by questioning the foundations 00:24:32.900 --> 00:24:34.800 of neoliberal educational policy. 00:24:34.800 --> 00:24:36.880 And what that means, is questioning, for example, 00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:40.010 the role that banks and the private sector 00:24:40.010 --> 00:24:43.140 play in education to the detriment of the public sector. 00:24:43.140 --> 00:24:45.030 Another lesson has to do with the ability 00:24:45.030 --> 00:24:46.760 of the student movement to exercise, 00:24:46.760 --> 00:24:50.400 or establish ties of solidarity with other social movements. 00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:52.180 During 2011-2012, 00:24:52.180 --> 00:24:55.640 we forged a process of coordination 00:24:55.640 --> 00:24:58.160 and relationship with labour unions, 00:24:58.160 --> 00:25:00.160 with neighbourhood organizations, 00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:02.500 with environmental organizations, 00:25:02.500 --> 00:25:04.860 with organizations that fought for 00:25:04.860 --> 00:25:06.760 and demanded gender equality, 00:25:06.760 --> 00:25:09.000 and with an endless number of other social groups 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:11.120 within Chilean society 00:25:11.120 --> 00:25:15.680 that share with us a critique of neoliberal society. 00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:17.660 Because that allows their political demand 00:25:17.660 --> 00:25:20.470 not to be exhausted within the educational demand, 00:25:20.470 --> 00:25:22.510 but rather to be projected into a political project 00:25:22.510 --> 00:25:25.180 that overcomes the student struggle, 00:25:25.180 --> 00:25:27.210 and that is ultimately related to 00:25:27.210 --> 00:25:29.380 the struggle against the neoliberal model 00:25:29.380 --> 00:25:31.220 – and therefore to the construction 00:25:31.220 --> 00:25:33.470 of a different political alternative. 00:25:39.360 --> 00:25:41.180 Students that go to school in areas without 00:25:41.180 --> 00:25:42.960 an established radical student movement 00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:45.410 often face structural and political obstacles 00:25:45.410 --> 00:25:47.690 to the types of grassroots organizing required 00:25:47.690 --> 00:25:49.200 to call general strikes, 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:51.680 or otherwise coordinate mass mobilizations 00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:52.840 of thousands of rowdy youth 00:25:52.840 --> 00:25:54.840 eager to throw down against the cops. 00:25:54.840 --> 00:25:55.890 In so-called Canada, 00:25:55.890 --> 00:25:57.830 student unions outside of Quebec 00:25:57.830 --> 00:26:00.720 are run according to the logic of representative democracy, 00:26:00.720 --> 00:26:03.300 whereby decision-making is heavily concentrated 00:26:03.300 --> 00:26:05.480 in the hands of a small executive body, 00:26:05.480 --> 00:26:07.720 whose members are elected to annual terms. 00:26:07.720 --> 00:26:09.870 These schools also lack institutions 00:26:09.870 --> 00:26:12.400 of popular participation and direct democracy, 00:26:12.400 --> 00:26:13.650 such as the general assemblies 00:26:13.650 --> 00:26:15.590 that proved so crucial to helping to kick off 00:26:15.590 --> 00:26:17.840 the 2012 student strike in Quebec. 00:26:17.840 --> 00:26:19.440 Making matters even worse, 00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:22.280 many of these local student unions are grouped into large, 00:26:22.280 --> 00:26:24.530 reformist student blocks like the CFS, 00:26:24.530 --> 00:26:26.630 or Canadian Federation of Students, 00:26:26.630 --> 00:26:29.040 who are heavily invested in the status quo. 00:26:29.040 --> 00:26:31.410 Each year, the CFS national executive 00:26:31.410 --> 00:26:34.200 collects millions of dollars out of students' tuition fees, 00:26:34.200 --> 00:26:37.220 which they then funnel into harmlessly lobbying politicians 00:26:37.220 --> 00:26:39.320 and paying their own bloated salaries. 00:26:39.320 --> 00:26:40.930 Not only do groups like the CFS 00:26:40.930 --> 00:26:43.750 occupy a space where a potentially revolutionary 00:26:43.750 --> 00:26:45.810 national student federation could exist, 00:26:45.810 --> 00:26:48.180 but they often employ a ruthless mix of lawyers, 00:26:48.180 --> 00:26:49.720 fear-mongering campaigns 00:26:49.720 --> 00:26:52.640 and procedural red tape in order to maintain their control 00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:54.900 and ensure that no radical threats to their position 00:26:54.900 --> 00:26:56.000 are allowed to emerge. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:58.040 But resistance has to start somewhere. 00:26:58.040 --> 00:27:00.240 The secret is discovering where to begin. 00:27:01.743 --> 00:27:05.684 These are very transforming times in one's life. 00:27:05.684 --> 00:27:08.244 So it's a time to learn how to act together 00:27:08.244 --> 00:27:09.898 and take control on the world, 00:27:09.898 --> 00:27:11.265 which needs you. 00:27:11.265 --> 00:27:13.639 It's going bad out there. 00:27:13.639 --> 00:27:17.852 And there is such poor political culture. 00:27:17.855 --> 00:27:19.610 And the only way to break that 00:27:19.610 --> 00:27:22.504 is to learn to speak to one another on common grounds 00:27:22.504 --> 00:27:26.203 and find what can spur us towards action. 00:27:26.654 --> 00:27:28.772 There's really a deep interconnection 00:27:28.772 --> 00:27:30.322 between student organizing 00:27:30.322 --> 00:27:33.718 and anti-capitalist and anarchist organizing in Montreal. 00:27:33.720 --> 00:27:35.127 The student movement in Quebec 00:27:35.127 --> 00:27:38.636 has existed and has organized grassroots struggles 00:27:38.636 --> 00:27:41.928 long before student unions were officially recognized. 00:27:41.928 --> 00:27:44.978 And certainly within the student movement, 00:27:44.978 --> 00:27:47.859 these ideas of direct democracy 00:27:47.859 --> 00:27:49.687 – they don't come out of the ether. 00:27:50.612 --> 00:27:51.882 In the coming years, 00:27:51.882 --> 00:27:56.420 we will confront the austerity measures 00:27:56.420 --> 00:27:58.420 of the Fiscal Control Board 00:27:58.420 --> 00:28:00.330 and US Congress. 00:28:00.330 --> 00:28:02.760 But I think that we're stronger now 00:28:02.760 --> 00:28:06.240 because students are more organized. 00:28:07.007 --> 00:28:08.507 I think one of the things, also, 00:28:08.507 --> 00:28:11.312 that anti-capitalists can bring to the student movement 00:28:11.312 --> 00:28:14.051 – and they have brought it, and it's been welcomed, also – 00:28:14.051 --> 00:28:17.155 is this analysis that striking for student issues 00:28:17.155 --> 00:28:18.552 is really important. 00:28:18.552 --> 00:28:21.087 But ultimately, blocking a tuition hike 00:28:21.087 --> 00:28:23.607 isn't going to overthrow society. 00:28:23.607 --> 00:28:26.114 It's not going to overthrow capitalism 00:28:26.114 --> 00:28:28.492 and it's not gonna really solve 00:28:28.492 --> 00:28:31.179 the day-to-day problems that students face. 00:28:31.179 --> 00:28:32.732 What the student movement does, 00:28:32.734 --> 00:28:35.050 by organizing a political struggle, 00:28:35.050 --> 00:28:38.766 is that it exposes the state, and its policies 00:28:38.766 --> 00:28:40.802 and the government for what they really are. 00:28:42.474 --> 00:28:44.960 To be able to defend the right to mobilize, 00:28:44.960 --> 00:28:47.920 we have to be capable of formulating a political discourse 00:28:47.920 --> 00:28:49.780 that allows us to count on 00:28:49.780 --> 00:28:51.080 the substantial support of the people, 00:28:51.080 --> 00:28:53.080 so that our demands are understood. 00:28:53.080 --> 00:28:55.080 So that the tactics utilized 00:28:55.080 --> 00:28:56.700 - be they street battles, 00:28:56.700 --> 00:28:58.090 street demonstrations, 00:28:58.090 --> 00:29:00.640 or university building occupations, 00:29:00.640 --> 00:29:02.780 is understood by the citizens. 00:29:02.780 --> 00:29:04.780 To achieve that, it's important to 00:29:04.780 --> 00:29:06.780 publicize our objectives. 00:29:06.780 --> 00:29:10.340 To publish videos explaining why we are mobilizing 00:29:10.340 --> 00:29:13.320 - the reasons why we are mobilizing - 00:29:13.320 --> 00:29:16.300 and connect the demands of the students 00:29:16.300 --> 00:29:20.700 with the hardships that workers endure every day. 00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:25.870 If we don't fight to transform our country, 00:29:25.870 --> 00:29:28.660 we won't be able to fight for a real education. 00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:30.880 The independence of Puerto Rico would be 00:29:30.880 --> 00:29:33.220 one aspect of our success. 00:29:33.220 --> 00:29:35.220 Quality public education is 00:29:35.220 --> 00:29:37.220 one aspect of our struggle. 00:29:37.220 --> 00:29:39.220 The education of the street is 00:29:39.220 --> 00:29:41.220 another aspect of our struggle. 00:29:41.220 --> 00:29:43.690 I can say that many of the comrades who 00:29:43.690 --> 00:29:46.940 were involved in the 2010-11 strike, 00:29:46.940 --> 00:29:48.940 and the one in 2017, 00:29:48.940 --> 00:29:50.158 understood that. 00:29:50.158 --> 00:29:52.063 That's why they are organizing alternative projects. 00:29:52.660 --> 00:29:54.660 New organizations emerge 00:29:54.660 --> 00:29:58.230 that were not tied to past political groups. 00:29:58.230 --> 00:30:00.860 These new organizations emerge 00:30:00.860 --> 00:30:03.820 to meet the needs of the students. 00:30:05.720 --> 00:30:08.980 Give priority to grassroots organizing more than 00:30:08.980 --> 00:30:12.120 groups that direct from the top. 00:30:12.120 --> 00:30:19.060 Otherwise it becomes an imaginary mobilization. 00:30:20.501 --> 00:30:22.928 One of the big stumbling blocks, I think, 00:30:22.928 --> 00:30:25.991 that has to be broken down elsewhere 00:30:25.991 --> 00:30:28.787 is that representative student democracy 00:30:28.787 --> 00:30:31.911 is really just a breeding ground for politicians. 00:30:31.911 --> 00:30:35.232 And we know, like, what politicians are about. 00:30:35.232 --> 00:30:37.822 And they're not about defending students 00:30:37.822 --> 00:30:39.513 and defending student issues. 00:30:40.820 --> 00:30:42.498 It's hard to bring a new student union 00:30:42.498 --> 00:30:46.537 that was used to the more lobbying sphere, 00:30:46.537 --> 00:30:48.322 to a more grassroots organizing. 00:30:48.322 --> 00:30:50.016 Because you have to organize. 00:30:50.016 --> 00:30:51.531 You have to mobilize people. 00:30:51.531 --> 00:30:53.749 It's a lot of work, but it's also very rewarding. 00:30:53.749 --> 00:30:55.811 You talk to people, you politicize them, 00:30:55.811 --> 00:30:58.533 and you have the impression you're really changing things. 00:30:58.533 --> 00:31:00.823 This mindset is very different from 00:31:00.823 --> 00:31:04.548 the other big student federations in Canada and Quebec 00:31:04.548 --> 00:31:06.512 that tends to see the government as, 00:31:06.512 --> 00:31:10.052 not an ally, but something that can be reasoned with. 00:31:10.823 --> 00:31:15.129 We've heard about how CFS has used legal devices 00:31:15.129 --> 00:31:17.111 and lawyers and courts 00:31:17.111 --> 00:31:20.833 to try and keep student unions under control. 00:31:20.836 --> 00:31:23.054 But I think it's becoming more and more clear 00:31:23.054 --> 00:31:27.162 to students across Canada that the CFS is really 00:31:27.162 --> 00:31:30.114 more about control and money 00:31:30.114 --> 00:31:32.463 than actual student organizing. 00:31:33.894 --> 00:31:35.454 Organizing with the people, 00:31:35.454 --> 00:31:37.643 and having a broad movement 00:31:37.643 --> 00:31:39.430 is a really strong thing. 00:31:39.430 --> 00:31:41.697 It might sound cheesy, 00:31:41.697 --> 00:31:46.324 but I truly believe that it can be a gateway 00:31:46.324 --> 00:31:48.188 for better friendships, 00:31:48.188 --> 00:31:49.852 deeper relationships 00:31:49.852 --> 00:31:52.292 with the people you share your life with, 00:31:52.292 --> 00:31:55.621 your spaces with... your neighbourhood with. 00:31:56.278 --> 00:31:59.340 It was the massive student movement, 00:31:59.340 --> 00:32:02.380 plus the support of the people for our political demands 00:32:02.380 --> 00:32:05.240 that allowed us to confront the repression 00:32:05.240 --> 00:32:07.740 with a violence of self-defense 00:32:07.740 --> 00:32:09.630 that was legitimized 00:32:09.630 --> 00:32:12.720 by a large group of the population. 00:32:13.980 --> 00:32:16.440 Police and state repression 00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:19.140 transformed us. 00:32:19.140 --> 00:32:21.140 It radicalized us. 00:32:21.140 --> 00:32:23.840 Changing us from student fighters 00:32:23.840 --> 00:32:25.465 into street fighters. 00:32:25.465 --> 00:32:26.330 Do it! 00:32:26.330 --> 00:32:28.644 You guys are what's coming. 00:32:34.017 --> 00:32:35.607 As the global political climate 00:32:35.607 --> 00:32:38.030 continues to accelerate from bad to worse, 00:32:38.030 --> 00:32:39.460 prospects for our collective future 00:32:39.460 --> 00:32:40.910 are looking pretty bleak. 00:32:40.910 --> 00:32:42.790 Today's generations are faced 00:32:42.790 --> 00:32:45.810 with a myriad of seemingly intractable problems, 00:32:45.810 --> 00:32:47.960 rooted in an increasingly authoritarian 00:32:47.960 --> 00:32:50.360 and repressive international capitalist regime, 00:32:50.360 --> 00:32:52.090 and whose dire consequences 00:32:52.090 --> 00:32:53.970 pose existential threats to the planet 00:32:53.970 --> 00:32:55.600 and even humanity itself. 00:32:55.600 --> 00:32:57.380 Many of the radicals of '68 00:32:57.380 --> 00:33:00.250 have now been incorporated into the very systems of control 00:33:00.250 --> 00:33:01.680 they once rose up to oppose. 00:33:01.680 --> 00:33:03.640 If we hope to alter the dangerous trajectory 00:33:03.640 --> 00:33:04.980 we now find ourselves on, 00:33:04.980 --> 00:33:07.530 it is vital that a new generation of revolutionaries 00:33:07.530 --> 00:33:09.580 rise up to address these challenges head-on. 00:33:09.580 --> 00:33:11.410 So at this point, we’d like to remind you 00:33:11.410 --> 00:33:13.440 that Trouble is intended to be watched in groups, 00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:14.860 and to be used as a resource 00:33:14.860 --> 00:33:17.320 to promote discussion and collective organizing. 00:33:17.320 --> 00:33:19.120 Are you a student that's interested in carrying out 00:33:19.120 --> 00:33:21.190 revolutionary anti-capitalist organizing 00:33:21.190 --> 00:33:23.130 on your university or college campus, 00:33:23.130 --> 00:33:24.360 or even in your high school? 00:33:24.360 --> 00:33:26.190 Consider getting together with some comrades, 00:33:26.190 --> 00:33:27.960 organizing a screening of this film, 00:33:27.960 --> 00:33:30.560 and discussing a strategy for where you might get started. 00:33:30.560 --> 00:33:32.830 Interested in running regular screenings of Trouble 00:33:32.830 --> 00:33:35.190 at your campus, infoshop, community center, 00:33:35.190 --> 00:33:36.760 or even just at home with friends? 00:33:36.760 --> 00:33:38.020 Become a Trouble-Maker! 00:33:38.020 --> 00:33:39.400 For 10 bucks a month, 00:33:39.400 --> 00:33:41.360 we’ll hook you up with an advanced copy of the show, 00:33:41.360 --> 00:33:43.730 and a screening kit featuring additional resources 00:33:43.730 --> 00:33:46.160 and some questions you can use to get a discussion going. 00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:49.000 If you can’t afford to support us financially, no worries! 00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:50.440 You can stream and/or download 00:33:50.440 --> 00:33:52.390 all our content for free off our website: 00:33:54.450 --> 00:33:56.680 If you’ve got any suggestions for show topics, 00:33:56.680 --> 00:33:58.380 or just want to get in touch, 00:33:58.380 --> 00:34:01.640 drop us a line at trouble@sub.media. 00:34:01.640 --> 00:34:02.640 We're stoked to announce 00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:03.870 that we reached our fundraising goals 00:34:03.870 --> 00:34:05.040 for the upcoming year, 00:34:05.040 --> 00:34:07.520 meaning that we've been able to grow the subMedia team. 00:34:07.520 --> 00:34:08.510 The next couple of months 00:34:08.510 --> 00:34:10.040 will be a bit of an adjustment period, 00:34:10.040 --> 00:34:11.240 but you can all look forward 00:34:11.240 --> 00:34:13.250 to Stim's return with a brand new show 00:34:13.250 --> 00:34:15.360 sometime in the not-too-distant future, 00:34:15.360 --> 00:34:17.550 as well as an increased output of videos 00:34:17.550 --> 00:34:19.440 throughout 2018 and beyond. 00:34:19.440 --> 00:34:21.000 We're really excited about it, 00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:22.110 and wanna give a big shout-out 00:34:22.110 --> 00:34:24.080 to all those who kicked in to make it possible. 00:34:24.080 --> 00:34:26.269 Stay tuned for part two of this series next month, 00:34:26.269 --> 00:34:28.179 as we take a closer look at another batch 00:34:28.179 --> 00:34:29.679 of student movements from around the globe. 00:34:29.679 --> 00:34:31.600 This episode would not have been possible 00:34:31.600 --> 00:34:34.280 without the generous support of Josh and Christian. 00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:36.360 Now get out there... and make some trouble!