Dear fellow students,
The recent announcement of petitions circulating on thirteen campuses affiliated with the Canadian Federation of Students calling for de-federation has caused justifiable concern among many progressive students. This attack comes at a time when the Conservative government is spending billions on an imperialist war in Afghanistan while students face a crisis in tuition fees, student debt, youth unemployment, poverty minimum wages and now the so-called “jobless recovery” from the recession.
From our perspective, the need for unity to confront and reverse this attack on students and youth is urgent.
Students have long rejected the parameters of Canada’s flawed Constitution, placing education as a provincial concern, and fought hard for a federal-level student movement. And although the federal government’s role in funding post-secondary has been shamefully abandoned, the necessity for that role hasn’t changed. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the deeply mistaken demise of the Canadian Union of Students in 1969. Even after the formation three years later of the National Union of Students (renamed the CFS in 1981) the student movement took years to recover from this disastrous fracture. Those claiming the CFS can’t be reformed and must be destroyed don’t address the objective necessity for students to have a cross-Canada organization.
This debate is not sterile, and will have lasting impact on the student movement in Canada. Certainly there are criticisms to be made of the CFS – it is an imperfect organization. In writing this letter we don’t want to close any doors to discussion. But lets get real, sisters and brothers. After smashing the CFS, what’s next? We would wake up with a horrible hangover and have to rebuild. At best, the defederation campaigns are an incredible waste of time and distraction; at worst they make all students, well beyond CFS members and including the Quebec’s student unions, incredibly vulnerable to the right’s agenda.
We think students are correct to be vigilant against attacks on free speech against Palestinian solidarity activists, the heavy-handed approach of many university administrators to student demonstrations, and the exposure of cross-Canada Conservative Party youth training workshops with sitting MPs – on establishing front groups and working with Zionists and anti-abortion activists against local student unions, Public Interest Research Groups, and the CFS. It is regrettable that some on the “left” find a home with these folks. Intertwined into the struggle of students has always been solidarity with other youth and progressive forces in Canada and around the world, for peace and solidarity and against imperialism and war. An injury to one is an injury to all! Although sadly inactive, we fully support the CFS’s membership in the International Union of Students and reject the so-called dichotomy between narrow student struggles and the broader fight for environmental and social progress in Canada and around the world.
In our view, CFS should not make a strategic retreat from its core policies now but rather place greater emphasis on mobilization and resistance than communications strategies and lobbying, not forgetting its long-term policy: the elimination of tuition fees. It needs to continue essential work with labour and other broad coalitions, from equity to peace to climate change, and on Aboriginal students’ issues. It needs to outreach better to the Quebec student movement, including ASSÉ. None of this can be achieved by de-federation. In fact, we know countless genuine CFS grass-roots militants across the country are already debating and engaging in these struggles.
There are real problems, so let’s get to work to solve them. Unity is the only strength we have. And that’s not only for our generation of students, but the youth of the future.
In peace and solidarity,
Robin O'Kane - Selkirk College
Zachary Crispin - Selkirk College
Monica Underwood - Selkirk College
Natalie Bocking - Simon Fraser University
Rafiq Rahemtulla - Laurentian University
Garry Sran - York University
Mathieu Brûlé - York University
Nila Zameni - York University
Rekha Sharma - York University
Alastair Woods - York University
James Clark - York University
Shone Bracken - York University (Glendon College)
Brian Latour - University of Manitoba
David Tymoshchuk - University of Winnipeg
Bobby Chavarie - University of British Columbia
Cameron McKenzie - Carleton University
Meera Chander - Carleton University
Melanee Thomas - McGill University
Alexandra Dodger - McGill University
Alex Anderson - McGill University
Jamie Burnett - McGill University
Gilary Massa - Ryerson University
Mohammed Ali Aumeer - Ryerson University
Rebecca Granovsky-Larsen - Ryerson University
Annie Hyder - Ryerson University
Liana Salvador - Ryerson University
Emily Shelton - Ryerson University
JoAnne Gordon - University of Ottawa
Taiva Tegler - University of Ottawa
Michael Cheevers - University of Ottawa
Julia McDonald - University of Ottawa
Andrew Brett - George Brown College
Ryan Thurlow - George Brown College
Kaley McKean - Ontario College of Art and Design
James Wardlaw - University of Toronto
Ryan Hayes - University of Toronto
Sara Suliman - University of Toronto
Peter Hogarth - University of Toronto
Igor Shoikhedbrod - University of Toronto
Sandy Hudson - University of Toronto
Taylor Rothebell - University of Toronto
Jessica Denyer - University of Toronto
Alex Kerner - University of Toronto
Marianne Breton Fontaine - Cégep du Vieux-Montréal
Daniel Mozarowski - Algoma University
Stephanie Kelly - University of Western Ontario
Rick Telfer - University of Western Ontario
Travis Frampton - University of Western Ontario
Alissa Mazar - University of Western Ontario
Brendan Oliver - Concerned Student
Drew Garvie - OPIRG-Guelph board member
Alex Holtom - University of Guelph
Caitlin Smith - University of Guelph
Eduardo Huesca - University of Guelph
Denise Martins - University of Guelph
Erika Marteleira - University of Guelph
Zafer Mamilli - University of Guelph
Dominica McPherson - University of Guelph
Sarah Amber White - University of Guelph
Abby Wilson - University of Guelph
Demetria Jackson - University of Guelph
Shayne Sangster - University of Guelph
Raizy Marmorstein - University of Victoria
Tania Portillo - Wilfrid Laurier UniversityRick Gunderman - Mohawk College
Richard Williams - Memorial University of Newfoundland
Mikael Jensen - Vancouver Island University
Aaron Campbell - Vancouver Island University
If you want to sign your name to the letter please email progressive.students4cfs@gmail.com with your name and campus affiliation!
