From #Occupy to Quebec: Strategies & Strategic Demands

What lessons can we ~ non tenure tracked faculty and other precarious academic knowledge workers ~ take away from Occupy and Quebec?

If the Occupy movement did one thing in North America, it put class on the agenda. By making it easier to forge links between differing struggles, the language of the 99 percent has acted as a social lubricant between struggles previously atomized by elite narratives. This shared language of inequality is perhaps the greatest gift the Occupy movement has given to those fighting for a more socially just world. (photo via Common Dreams)

Thus, the Occupy movement should be seen as ultimately posing the question: If our society is increasingly unequal, what are we going to do about it?
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Think about the on-going Quebec student strike. CLASSE and the two other student federations (FEUQ and FECQ) started out by speaking to issues that students cared about - the proposed rise in tuition fees.

After months and months of planning they carefully started protesting and then launched a student strike, which was continually voted upon. The strike has slowly evolved into a more general resistance to neoliberal reforms and the Charest government, especially its implementation of the draconian Law 78.

The specific demand has been generalized.

Compare these strategies and outcomes to Occupy. Go to The Indypendent to read the rest of From Occupy to Quebec: Deepening the Struggle through Strategic Demands, originally published by Common Dreams and Halifax Media Co-Op.