Students at Cégep Saint-Laurent, in Montreal, ended their week-long strike last Friday, but they vow that this is not the end of their movement against austerity. After difficult negotiations with the administration, a peaceful occupation of the College that was broken up by Montreal police, and several demonstrations, members of the Cégep Saint-Laurent Student Association (AECSL) say they are determined to continue fighting for their demands.
The students are demanding access to study spaces in the library, that a room be allocated to the school nurse, that all Cégep employees be given permanent positions, and that the Cégep take a stand against austerity while a large part of the facility is currently condemned due to major structural damage.
According to the AECSL, none of the demands have been met by the administration, which “[lacks] transparency” and “does not feel accountable to the students.”
Present during the occupation of the college on March 23, The North Star captured footage of Mathieu Cormier, the institution’s principal, laughing heartily as an occupier stated that they would leave the premises peacefully if their demands were met. In the video, the director general appears surrounded by Montreal police officers and private security guards as he orders the students to leave the school, threatening to forcibly remove them.
Barely an hour after the students were forcibly removed from the building, they received an email from the administration stating that all activities on campus would be suspended. The email states that “students are no longer required to report to the Cégep for the daily picket line.”
Despite this statement, which the AECSL considers to be “a clear attempt to silence the student body,” the students continued to gather daily at the picket line.“ Despite warnings from administration, picketing resumed at 5:30 a.m. A camp was set up around 6:15 a.m., and we had about a hundred strikers by 7:30 a.m.,” reads a press release from the student association.
A hard picket line was indeed maintained throughout the week, from morning to night. The students erected barricades to ensure compliance with the strike and kept themselves busy making banners, playing music, and preparing food.
A local business offered coffee daily to the strikers, who were also visited by several blue-collar workers from the city of Montreal, who came to support the students in a fight against austerity that they consider closely linked to their own upcoming strike in April.
On Tuesday and Thursday, students protested in the Saint-Laurent neighborhood, carrying a large banner that read, “Keep cutting, and we’ll go on strike in May.” Cégep students voted for another day of strike action on May 1, International Workers’ Day. All unions representing Cégep employees are, for their part, set to vote in the coming weeks on whether to call a strike in May as well.
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