ReCovered

The more militant union, ASSÉ, boycotted the education summit because the government refused to discuss free education there and instead organized a rally for Tuesday, February 26, the final day of the summit. 10,000 people showed up, significantly exceeding ASSÉ’s expectations. The march was unusually combative, manifesting the hot exasperation of the students who have sacrificed so much already only to have their voices ultimately ignored. View photo essay

 

Maple Spring part deux? March 8, 2013, WagingNonviolence

Last Tuesday, 10,000 people gathered at Victoria Square in downtown Montreal for the most recent chapter of Quebec’s historic student movement. Their presence was a protest of the long-awaited education summit, which ended with the disappointing, but expected decision to increase tuition 3 percent annually, starting next fall. Read full article

 

Is the International Student Movement the future of global organizing? February 6, 2013, WagingNonviolence

The International Student Movement is part of a technological shift in the way protest movements are organized and quantified. Since the late 2000s, tech-savvy activists have recognized that such methods of coordination like convergences could be updated to keep decision-making local but make the impact global: pairing technology and grassroots organizing to construct a (rather buggy) global tech-roots machine Read full article

 

Occupy Everyone: Making Revolutionaries, Not a Revolution January 25, 2013, Truth-out

To me, the crux of Occupy’s “formula” is (1) concentrated diversity, (2) conflict resolution processes that utilize emergent conflict to fuel personal growth and (3) the requisite unification around a material basis to allow for praxis-based “decolonization.” However, each of Occupy’s forms has only allowed for highly imperfect iterations of this process—so how does it “grow?” If the dynamic of a diverse safe space in which people dismantle oppressions through conflict resolution is at the root of Occupy’s transformative potential, then perhaps there’s not a distinct formula that can be reproduced, but simply spread – a culture – that people can choose to adopt. Real full article

 

Anonymous 2012: A year in review December 27, 2012, Salon.com

In 2012, the loose association of tech-based activists protested bullying, LGBT discrimination, corporate media, Israel, Muslim genocide, police brutality, election-rigging, douchebaggery/bullying, surveillance, nationalist education, and of course Internet censorship—expanding both the range of its “causes” and the tools it deployed to defend them. Read full article

 

How to Steal an Election November 5, 2012, Salon.com

Between five and six million American citizens will have be denied the right to vote. The disenfranchised millions won’t be a random sample of Americans; they’ll overwhelmingly be poor and minority voters. And as investigative reporter Greg Palast explains in his latest book, “Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps,” they will have been taken out of the game thanks to a coordinated campaign devised by the likes of Karl Rove and funded by America’s super rich — people like the Koch brothers, hedge fund titan Paul Singer, and Texan corporate raider Harold Simmons, among others — to keep voters, overwhelmingly Democratic voters, from the polls. Read full article

 

Alive and Kicking It Up a Notch: Occupy Plans for an Expanded Mission in Its Second Year October 18, 2012, Truth-out

While tensions occasionally flared (for example, when anarchists were angered that Green Party candidates spoke at an assembly), most Occupiers were re-energized and optimistic as they talked about”Occupy 2.0″ Many felt that Occupy would move into local, community-based organizing, and help groups (not necessarily under the Occupy label) to get started, to connect with pre-existing campaigns (particularly in long-time oppressed urban communities), and to build a network. The localized, positive, and inclusive spirit may signify a potential for broader appeal in the movement’s second year. Watch video

 

The Free University of New York: If You Won’t Teach Us, We’ll Do It Ourselves October 9, 2012, Alternet.org

As traditional models of university learning begin to wither, experiments like Free U are helping students define the new education paradigm. Read full article

 

Who’s in Charge of the Debates Anyway? October 3, 2012, Salon.com

Leading up tonight’s first debate, various micro-constituencies —  eco-moms, Aurora’s anti-gun families, even Redditors — have made it known that they want their questions answered by the candidates. But ultimately, those decisions go to Jim Lehrer and the Commission on Presidential Debates. Read full article

 

Will Students Vote in November? Perspectives on Elections at the National Student Power Convergence October 1, Truth-out

On August 10-14, 200 students from around the United States, with representatives from student movements in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Quebec, met in Columbus, Ohio to start building an American student movement at the (first annual) National Student Power Convergence – causing some to ask, “Will Columbus be the next Port Huron?” Watch video

 

Being Young at the DNC September 25, 2012, The Nation

I won’t be combing South Philadelphia to register voters like I did in 2008, because the Democrats still haven’t learned what supporting youth actually looks like: letting us speak, and act, on our own behalf.  Instead, Democrats wrap Millennials in dirty diapers, and shove pacifiers in our mouths when we try to point out the problems they’re leaving for the next generation. They tell us to quit whining — they’re taking good care of us. Real full article

 

Did Quebec’s Election End the Student Movement? September 18, 2012, Alternet.org

The election divided students and left the movement with an uncertain future. But the real victory may be in what students learned about their own empowerment. On September 4, Quebec’s student movement, admired for its 300,000-person protests, provided a less sensational model for youth worldwide — of a movement struggling with the contradictory effects of a hotly contested election. Read full article

 

Occupy the DNC and Political Theater September 18, 2012, Toward Freedom

“Occupy the Democratic National Convention” was marked by frustration — an understandable feeling from the small and wearied band, protesting under conditions in which dissent was highly susceptible to ridicule. View photo essay

 

Why Don’t American Students Strike? August 13, 2012, The Nation

The 2010 British student demonstrations awoke the austerity generation. The 2011 Chilean Winter frightened tight-belted administrators the world-round. And now, Quebec’s 2012 Maple Spring is showing neoliberals that if they’re going to hike tuition, it’ll be over striking student bodies. As the spirit of youth protest winds westward, one wonders: Why don’t American students strike? Read full article

 

Occupy National Gathering: Perspectives on Police July 19, 2012, Truth-out

The mini-documentary attempts to portray the internal conflict over police confrontation at the Occupy National Gathering, particularly as it relates to the future of the movement. Interviews include former Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis, Native American Un-Occupy Albuquerque activist Amalia Montoya, and InterOccupy organizer Tamara Shapiro. Watch video

 

The Montreal Student Strike: Stills of a Mobilized City July 12, 2012, Toward Freedom

On February 13, 2012, Quebec’s student unions called for an unlimited general strike against Premier Jean Charest’s proposed tuition hikes, which amount to a $1,625 increase over five years. These photographs are from the week of the Grand Prix car race, June 6-11, which was targeted by protesters for its associations with elitism and sexism. View photo essay

 

Will Occupy Create Another World or Another Left? May 7, 2012, The Nation

“We are unstoppable! Another world is possible!” In the fall, the Occupy movement worked to prove the first half of the chant, persisting even after physical encampments were shut down. Tuesday’s May Day marked the dawn of Occupy Spring when the movement began to make the case that “another world is possible.” Read full article