The joint resignation letter by the Social Struggles Committee of ASSÉ was published in the booklet prepared for the orientation congress in 2013. Since the old websites keep disappearing, such as the Bloquons La Hausse (that doesn’t work anymore… please see here), I’m also posting the cahier des memoires here, just in case..
I am posting the presentation I gave at the North Carolina State-wide student convergence. The recording of the keynote address is available here but friends told me it’s not the best of recording (nor my performance.. lol) so you might be better off looking at the presentation, posted here:
Presentation (powerpoint): (it’s 22MB) Getting to the heart of movement building, by Rushdia M.
An abridged version of the ppt (with less pictures, thus proportionally more substance, ha!) (9MB): Getting to the heart of movement building, by Rushdia M – Abridged.
(I’ll try to post only the notes in a word document shortly; apologies if you have difficulty downloading the above ppt).
My thesis here is that we can have all the nuts and bolts in the world — the coalitions, structures and processes — but without the human touch and passion we can’t mobilize a department, let alone building a whole movement. While I consider relationship building – putting together an inclusive and caring group of people in the form of mobilization committees – the heart of the movement building, the General Assembly as a mechanism for living out the direct democracy can be viewed as the brain of the movement.
Here’s my conclusion, quoting from one of the slides:
If Building Relationships is [at] the heart of the movement, then general assembly/participative democracy is its brain. I don’t believe there’s a substitute for collective participation (debate, discussion and decision making) – many brains are better than a few (execs and/or the clics…)! With some structure and process I believe it is really true and possible that collective participation, via open and well organized/mobilized General Assemblies, can master a movement.
Thought this way, Coalitions such as CLASSE (bringing together decisions from many general assemblies) could and would be the super brain (or the so called super-computer).
Thus, Building Relationships, according to me, is the basis of it all and the basic building block of a movement. This is applicable at student organizing level as well as any affinity group organizing whether it be a Palestinian solidarity group or a mobilization against Austerity measures of the federal government.
In other words, it all about building ground up.
Note that the presentation file is heavy ’cause it has lots of images, in fact, it almost has only images! My text can be found in about a tenth of the slides. Please do leave me a note if you have any comments, suggestions, feedback or any corrections.
If you were to read one slide/get one piece of info from it (I’m battling over two of my favorites, but I think this is more accessible), it’s about the ABCs of outreach, according to me, of course. Here’s the extract from that slide:
(note that my presentation, thus this slide doesn’t give you to-dos for building a campaign…. there’s a lot missing in it, such as how you build a campaign – I’ll try and post something/links on that. Here it’s really point information (plotting the dots), not the threads (not necessarily linking them together)…..
(the rest of this page is my notes from one of the slides)
Research work / build your argument (argumentaire) / perhaps this can be done by a student-friendly think-tank or by a cross-campus group – as this work can be shared by all the universities and colleges
This goes hand in hand with preparing the material in a presentable format. See, for example:
http://freeeducationmontreal.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Do-we-really-need-to-raise-tuition-fees-eight-misleading-arguments-for-the-hikes.pdf
http://www.stopthehike.ca/ (See Materials link on top)
http://www.bloquonslahausse.com/ (See Materiel d’Information link on top)
http://freeeducationmontreal.org/library/ (a bunch of research material)
http://www.gratuitescolaire.info/mobilisation
Educational campaign – Share the research (talking about the issues) — ways to get your message across; show empathy – very important). Examples include:
Note: the above attracts the “choir” – those who already are somewhat a “believer” or sympathetic to the idea. They’re probably “ripe” to join the mob-squad (next level)! Make sure you have discussion about going forward (getting new people to organize with you.. A lot more on this coming up).
Reaching out one-on-one and cross communication:
Your challenge here is to “convert” the non-believer (lol). Here are some ideas:
Oh, don’t forget Systematic (make sure someone goes to each class over a certain period of time, say a week, during your campaigns) Class Announcements/discussions | CLASS VISITS ARE VITAL!!!
ONE ON ONE communication is so, but so, IMPORTANT (I can’t emphasize it enough). Meet less people, if you can’t talk to everyone, but if you were speaking to only one person about your cause and why you’re concerned, and trying to understand the other person’s point of view, it’s way better than trying to get mass attention…. if that’s only momentary….
In this context, think of law of average – for me it’s 10 to 1: for every 10 people I tried to speak with/try to give a flyer for instance, if I can have meaningful discussion with one of them, then what I’m doing is worth it. Your law of average might be different – what’s important is we’re in good spirits and keep hope that other folks out there are also interested in the cause you’re fighting for and (to feel good, let’s say) maybe need more info… so on and so forth…
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This is an email I first sent to a few friends, but we live in the Facebook and Twitter era, so it’d probably be good if anyone who read my resignation letter.zine reads this “preface”.
Hi all,
I’m writing to share two of my recent (co-)authored – reflection – pieces on ASSÉ / CLASSE with you. I am sending this to you ’cause I (sort of) recall having a conversation with you about the “race and racism” in student movement and/or in ASSÉ / CLASSE, or you might have asked me about what it was like to work with mostly all white folks (white men) in ASSÉ upper echelons.
This is quick response I’d written on Facebook in response to CFS’s allegations that the general assembly structure is racist, therefore they don’t want to adopt it.
“[CFS] hide their own inability to consult with their students (or their fear of being held accountable) behind the false notion that allowing everyone a chance to speak is somehow racist. Granted there are shortcomings in the GA structure – regardless of race or sexual orientation, some people may not be inclined to take a vocal part in a GA, but that doesn’t mean that they (CFS) should continue to work in an anti-democratic manner.
[…]
As a person of color who was actively involved during the strike, I think the issue is not whether there was problems related to people (marginalized voices) getting left behind of not finding a place among mostly white dominant spaces (Corey put it well in their first comment). The real issue is CFS using this argument to remain anti-democratic, continue with their status quo (that is top down management, so on and so forth. perhaps someone with more experience of CFS can elaborate this part).
I see it as more of a continuum of progressiveness (“radicality” and direct democracy) – There are extremely right wing student federations such as OUSA and CASA, CFS falls to the left of them. They’re more progressive then the other two (and actually want to fight against the tuition hikes, from what I gather). To the left of them, or at about the same place is FEUQ and FECQ. Then comes ASSE/CLASSE. To the extreme left, so to speak, would be an organization that’s anti-racist, anti-colonial and such.
Now saying that since CLASSE (and student movement) and it’s direct democracy structure didn’t address issues and race and privilege is ok to say, but if comes from CFS, then it’s not ok.
”
This article sheds some light on the issues of race and racism in the Quebec Student Movement: http://www.newsocialist.org/index.php/627-race-racism-and-the-quebec-student-movement
I wrote this introductory note on the racist, sexist and classist nature of the tuition fee debate (thus the Quebec Student Movement) for TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies
Brought up in a low-income family, I struggled throughout my youth in India, and in my adult life in Quebec, as I strove to access quality education. As a woman of colour, I faced further challenges in my professional life in Quebec. I was lucky enough to be able to go back to university for a Master’s degree, during which time I realized how the vicious circle of coming from an under-priviledged background comes into play. High grades are needed to access higher education, but people from low-income families (with racial and gender barriers amplifying the challenges) need to work more than others to make ends meet and pay for their education, and thus do not end up getting good grades. The high price tag and higher debt associated with post-secondary education further deters the same people from attending universities. Continue reading
I wrote this below comment in response to the article Toward a More Perfect Student Unionism: Lessons From the Maple Spring,* posted on Alternet. Sharing it here as I feel what I said in this comment is important to me and it embodies how I hold direct democracy to heart (and how I’d (and continue to) put the concept on a pedestal). In this comment, I also express what I think is important in a student movement. That is, writing a motion and succeeding in passing it are only the very beginning of the work. Continue reading