In Montreal's Streets, the Movement Continues

by Ethan Cox

rabble.ca
August 24, 2012

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/ethan-cox/2012/08/maple-spring-continues

If there was any confusion over whether the suspension of
strikes at most schools signalled an end to the broader
social movement the strike generated, it was put to bed with
an emphatic bang Wednesday in the streets of Montreal. The
largest demonstration since the spring sent a strong message
that this movement is here to stay.

Place du Canada was packed by the time the speakers took to
the roof of a truck to address the assembled crowd. CLASSE
Financial Secretary Jérémie Bédard-Wien kicked things off
with a characteristically strong speech, in which he made a
noteworthy reference to this demonstration being the largest
electoral mobilization in Quebec history. Coupled with the
abundant placards reading "I'm voting for ____", which
invited protesters to fill in the issue or party of their
choice, there seemed to be a clear acknowledgement from
CLASSE that while the election will not solve our problems,
it would be folly for students to boycott it.

After representatives of the nurses union and the Quebec
Women's Federation, it was the turn of CLASSE co-
spokesperson Jeanne Reynolds.

Following the resignation of the intensely charismatic
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, Reynolds and her fellow remaining co-
spokesperson Camille Robert are under heavy pressure to live
up to his legacy of fiery, passionate speeches and dynamic
leadership within a leaderless movement.

Reynolds did not disappoint, delivering the best speech I've
ever seen her give, her voice trembling with passion as she
proclaimed that the movement will continue before, during
and after the election. As she closed to a raucous ovation
the march set off, leaving the square shortly after 3 PM.

Close to the exit point, it still took around twenty minutes
to get out of the square, as people were packed in like
sardines while we ever so slowly filed out.

There has been much debate, as there always is, about the
size of the crowd at the demonstration. Quebecor owned TVA
initially estimated 2000 people, before grudgingly bumping
that up to 5000. Radio-Canada hired an independent firm to
estimate the crowd, and they produced a number of 12,500,
which sounds great until you find out that they estimated at
2:35, half an hour before the march left. This is
significant because most people, aware the marches always
leave an hour after they are called, arrive after 3 PM, and
many others join along the route.

Most journalists on twitter were conservatively estimating
around 25,000, with gusts up to 50,000, while CUTV estimated
80,000 and CLASSE's official estimate was 100,000. In my
opinion, the crowd was over 100,000. I base that estimate on
two observations.

As we passed St. Catherine on University I stopped to watch
the crowd pass by. I was there for about fifteen minutes,
but spoke to a father who had stopped with his kid. He said
he hadn't been near the front when he stopped, but had been
watching the demo pass for forty minutes. I also noticed
from that stop that the crowd was extraordinarily tightly
packed, much more so than at any other demo I've attended.

I later spoke to a friend who had arrived at Place du Canada
shortly before 4, and found the tail end of the march still
streaming out of the park. A tightly packed crowd which
takes between forty-five minutes and an hour to pass a given
point, and stretches like a giant snake around most of
downtown, is to me clearly in excess of 100,000.

Regardless of the precise number, it was an overwhelmingly
large crowd which occupied much of the downtown core for
several hours and sent a crystal clear message to
politicians and voters alike. The movement is very much
alive, and prepared to continue the fight for a better
society.

The other interesting fact to note about the 'mega-manif,'
as people have taken to calling the massive demos which
occur on the 22nd of each month, was the presence of
political parties.

The Liberals and CAQ obviously went unrepresented, and signs
for those parties along the route most often ended up
underfoot. I saw a handful of PQ and Option Nationale signs
in the crowd, but they were few and far between. Quebec
Solidaire on the other hand enjoyed a large contingent with
several banners and dozens of signs, but more impressive
still was the heavy concentration of QS signs throughout the
crowd. It was hard to take a picture without getting a QS
sign in the frame, and it seems clear that the movement is
starting to coalesce around QS.

This should be no surprise, given that QS is arguably the
only political party in the country which can legitimately
claim to be a movement party. Their slogan, "a party of the
ballot box, and of the street" represents the background of
the party as a child of social movements, and fits nicely
with the movement's feeling that no election will bring
about the real change they seek.

It will be interesting to see how this show of strength for
the movement influences an election campaign which has
largely ignored the student issue so far, and whether
students and allies will be able to throw off their counter-
productive anti-electoral urges and come to the ballot box
in large enough numbers to help QS win more than the three
to five seats they are optimistically projected to pick up
at this point.

But regardless of how members of the movement vote, the most
significant impact of this demo was to send a clear message
to all Quebeckers that no matter who wins the election, the
issues raised over the course of the strike will continue to
be pushed, and the students remain ready to return to the
barricades at a moment's notice.

===

*Please also take a look at my colleague Roger Annis's
excellent article on Wednesday's demonstration.
http://rabble.ca/news/2012/08/tens-thousands-march-social-
justice-montreal

[rabble's Special Correspondent on the Quebec student
strike, Ethan Cox is a 28 year-old organizer, comms guy and
writer from Montreal. He cut his political teeth accrediting
the Dawson Student Union against ferocious opposition from
the college administration and has worked as a union
organizer for the Public Service Alliance of Canada. He has
also worked on several successful municipal and federal
election campaigns, and was a member of Quebec central
office staff for the NDP in the 2011 election. Most recently
he served as Quebec Director and Senior Communications
Advisor on Brian Topp's NDP leadership campaign. You can
follow him on twitter @EthanCoxMtl ]

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