CA/Continuations/Discussion Group

A series of discussions about how people locally and around the world are resisting austerity and building strong coalitions to protect public services, education, and the safety net. Our goals are to educate ourselves, strengthen our relationships, and develop a shared analysis of austerity and a shared orientation to strategies that work.

Discussion Questions

1. What makes this particular movement / uprising powerful?
2. Who is involved (students, workers, disenfranchised, etc.)?
3. How do they confront power?
4. How does this movement connect to the broader social ills / issues (beyond single issue)?
5. How does this movement compare / contrast with ours?

Upcoming Study Group Event

Facebook Invite Page: People's Budget Movement Building Study Group
When: Saturday, July 14, 2012
Time: 10:00am
Where: 214 NE Thompson Street (map)
Topic: We'll be reading 3 pieces about 3 different communities in struggle: students in Quebec, teachers in Chicago, and youth in Chile. We will start out with a potluck brunch and spend time getting to know each other. We'll have some discussion in the large group and then break into small groups for more in-depth conversations using the discussion questions provided as a starting point.

Discussion Notes

Chile

• Chile Rising: Behind the Student Protest Movement

Fault Lines follows Chile's student protest movement and examines the underlying issues driving the anger. Chilean students have taken over schools and city streets in the largest protests the country has seen in decades. The students are demanding free education, and an end to the privatisation of their schools and universities. The free-market based approach to education was implemented by the military dictator Augusto Pinochet in his last days in power. The protests are causing a political crisis for Sebastian Pinera, the country's president. But what are the underlying issues driving the anger? As the demonstrations in Chile coincide with protests erupting globally, Fault Lines follows the Chilean student movement during their fight in a country plagued by economic inequality.

Quebec's 'Maple Spring' Protests

Dave's Notes

• Canada's Maple Spring - Student protests in Quebec grow to nationwide movement. (Video)

Clanging pots and pans are sounding across the streets of Montreal as hundreds of thousands of Quebecers take part in what is being termed the "Maple Spring" - Canada's largest and longest protests ever. It all started three months ago when the provincial government announced an 75 percent increase on university tuitions.

• How Quebec's 'Maple Spring' Protests Fit With the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street (Sort Of)

Pullquote:

“

What started as a students-only protest is spilling over into a much broader debate about inequality and, ultimately, the future that peoples' leaders appear to be offering. But this is also part of a larger trend. It's amazing how quickly these regional and specific discussions -- police brutality in Tunisia, income inequality in the U.S., college tuition in Quebec - spill over into some of the same themes we see globally. A government, possessing economic and military authority, makes a move that finally angers people enough to send them into the streets.

”

• Maple Spring: The Québec Student Strike (Podcast)

• Québec Students Spark the ‘Maple Spring’ (Series of articles and videos.)

• Quebec Student Strike (Series of video reports hosted by The Real News.)

• Quebec student strike (List of reports on Democracy Now!)