{"id":1216,"date":"2026-04-05T12:25:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/debordement.crues.org\/en\/?p=1216"},"modified":"2026-04-05T12:25:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T16:25:29","slug":"from-general-assemblies-to-strikes-from-anger-to-hope-and-from-struggles-to-victories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debordement.crues.org\/en\/2026\/04\/05\/from-general-assemblies-to-strikes-from-anger-to-hope-and-from-struggles-to-victories\/","title":{"rendered":"From general assemblies to strikes, from anger to hope, and from struggles to victories"},"content":{"rendered":"
By <\/span>Elki Mercier<\/a>, on behalf of the CRUES\u00a0Executive Council.<\/span><\/div>\n\n
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Cynicism has become one of the greatest political forces of our time. We are constantly told that nothing will change, and after hearing it so often, we almost end up believing it. Faced with a world ravaged by economic, political, and ecological crises, where imperialist wars are multiplying and becoming normalized, in a context of growing precariousness where surveillance and repression of protest movements are intensifying, where every attempt at organization must contend with institutional mechanisms designed more to contain them than to respond to them, it becomes easy to view collective struggle as naive, even futile, and to succumb to discouragement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On our campuses, this reality is all too evident. Student mobilizations are difficult to organize and sustain. Energy is waning, organizational structures are struggling to endure, and the student movement sometimes finds it hard to build the momentum needed to secure tangible gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cynicism thrives in part because we are constantly told that the only possible solutions are individual ones\u2014that we must work harder, take on more debt, and be more \u201cstrategic\u201d in our personal choices. Meanwhile, the government pushes ahead with its privatization agenda and continues to chip away, piece by piece, at the social safety net. Successive governments shift the blame elsewhere, piling up anti-union, anti-immigrant, racist, transphobic, anti-feminist, and freedom-destroying bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this cynicism is a trap<\/em>. It is essential not to give in to discouragement and to believe in collective organizing, however difficult and slow it may seem. As imperfect and conflict-ridden as it is, collective organizing challenges the notion that each person is solely responsible for their own situation: no individual strategy can address structural problems. Collective struggle allows us to fight back, take control of our lives, and improve our circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, the student movement has been a space for organization capable of blocking, disrupting, and imposing a balance of power. The student strike is a political tool; it creates time, opens up a space for debate, confrontation, and mobilization. And this history continues. The student movement, particularly through CRUES, is gradually reclaiming its place by pooling our strengths and knowledge, organizing militant pressure tactics, and building a significant student political force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest CRUES congress marked a moment of unity among member associations around clear demands: to defend free, accessible, and high-quality education by calling for massive refunding for postsecondary education and a reform of student financial aid. In the face of the government\u2019s inaction, these demands are now part of a broader mobilization strategy led by CRUES and its member associations. If the government does not quickly change course, an escalation of pressure tactics\u2014up to and including an unlimited general strike\u2014is on the table, because we refuse to negotiate our own impoverishment.
However, the fight against austerity and precariousness is not limited to CRUES bodies or to the student experience; it affects every sphere of our society. For several years now, governments have been cutting funding for public institutions, shifting costs onto individuals, and promoting a market-driven approach in sectors once considered collective goods. In CEGEPs and universities, this has resulted, among other things, in rising tuition fees, deteriorating study conditions, and an increase in precarious jobs on campuses. Elsewhere, particularly in the healthcare system, these policies take the form of budget cuts, excessive workloads for staff, and increasingly difficult access to care for the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, it is important to remember that in the face of political and economic forces that collectively perpetuate precariousness, and in the face of the sense of powerlessness that insidiously creeps into our minds, only collective organizing can hope to overturn this structure. To this end, it is essential to forge strong bonds of trust among activists and between student unions, to strengthen political organization on our campuses, and to encourage acts of resistance and criticism of our administrations and the powers that be. These are essential components of the struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this in mind, CRUES calls for the mobilization to continue and expand. This May 1st, let\u2019s choose resistance and solidarity and fight for a social strike. Let\u2019s meet in the streets and join the CRUES contingent at the May 1st joint demonstration. Let\u2019s make this day a turning point for the struggles to come. Once again, the student struggle continues and is only growing stronger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cynicism has become one of the greatest political forces of our time. We are constantly told that nothing will change, and after hearing it so often, we almost end up believing it. Faced with a world ravaged by economic, political, and ecological crises, where imperialist wars are multiplying and becoming normalized, in a context of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-1216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-84","tag-elki-mercier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debordement.crues.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debordement.crues.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debordement.crues.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debordement.crues.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debordement.crues.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/debordement.crues.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1218,"href":"https:\/\/debordement.crues.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1216\/revisions\/1218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debordement.crues.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debordement.crues.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debordement.crues.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debordement.crues.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}