We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

It’s not just about tuition anymore…

Click here to access article by Jane Gatensby from Ceasefire (UK). 

Living here in the US, one would think that Quebec was some obscure country in the middle of Africa unless, perchance, one stumbles upon a report like this which describes what has been happening directly across the border from the US. The political operatives of the One Percent in the US are dealing with this crisis by our border by simply imposing a total blackout of all reports of it in our highly controlled corporate media. Clearly they don't want students in the US to get any wrong ideas (sarcasm). Instead, they serve us ongoing, mind-numbing news reports about the Queen's celebration in London. 

Except for some coverage from The Occupied Wall Street Journal and Reflections on a Revolution, I don't even find much coverage elsewhere in more independent online left media sources, and no coverage from liberal websites. Thus, we have to go to this British source to find out what is happening.
In her latest dispatch from Montreal, Jane Gatensby reports on the powerful wave of mobilisation sweeping Quebec as the backlash grows against a far-reaching emergency law aimed at putting an end to the student strikes. What was once a fight over tuition fees, Gatensby writes, has evolved into a popular movement for the preservation of fundamental civil liberties.
The first video is not functioning from their website, so I am re-producing it here: