[tadamon-l] ASSÉ Against Israeli Apartheid.

[Tadamon!]

* ASSÉ Against Israeli Apartheid

Call to support the first major student union in Quebec or Canada to back 
the international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions on 
Israel...

http://tadamon.resist.ca/index.php/post/1538

Montreal May 2008: Across the world grassroots movements struggling in 
opposition to Israeli apartheid are marking the 60th year of the 
Palestinian Nakba ('catastrophe') - 60 years of dispossession, ethnic 
cleansing and exile for Palestinians resulting from the creation of the 
state of Israel.

A grassroots response in opposition to Israeli apartheid is growing 
throughout the world sparked by an appeal launched by Palestinian 
civil-society organizations in 2005 for an international campaign directed 
at the government in Israel, a campaign for boycott, divestment and 
sanctions. This critical campaign is modeled on a successful international 
campaign similar in nature that played a critical role in bringing an end 
to the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Today students in Quebec are now joining the international boycott 
campaign in large numbers including L'Association pour une Solidarité 
Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ), an important Quebec-wide student federation 
representing over 42,000 students.

ASSÉ voted to support the international campaign against Israeli apartheid 
at a Quebec-wide level after several local assemblies at university and 
Cégep campuses across the province voted at a local level within general 
student assemblies to support the boycott campaign. ASSÉ's boycott 
resolution marks the first time that a major student union in Quebec or 
Canada has voted to support the international boycott campaign opposing 
Israeli apartheid.

Throughout the 2007 / 2008 school year ASSÉ in collaboration with Tadamon! 
Montreal, with support from Fédération nationale des enseignantes et 
enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ) -- Quebec's largest college level teachers 
union -- and the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) organized 
multiple workshops throughout Quebec at Cégep and university campuses 
bringing together hundreds of students for popular education workshops 
outlining the critical importance for Quebec's student movement to stand 
against Israeli apartheid.

ASSÉ represents the grassroots face of Quebec's powerful student movement, 
with tens-of-thousands of members and a strong position against 
privatization and for free post-secondary education in Quebec.

In 2005 ASSÉ launched and lead a historic student strike across Quebec, 
with over one-hundred student unions participating at the height of a 
strike rooted in a demand for a cancellation on all student debt and free 
post-secondary education in Quebec.

Utilizing mass protest, creative direct actions and grassroots 
campus-based organizing ASSÉ has successfully fought against neo-liberal 
economic policies fronted by the Liberal government of Jean Charest, who 
upon taking governmental power moved to make important changes to 
financial aid program for students in Quebec, including a $103 million 
cut. After major protests lead by ASSÉ across Quebec the Liberal 
government was forced to reverse their cuts to student funding, marking 
one of the only times in Quebec's recent history that grassroots social 
mobilization has successfully reversed unpopular government policy.

ASSÉ represents a grassroots power base within Quebec's student movement, 
one that draws parallels between the struggle for accessible and free 
education in Quebec to larger movements for social justice in the 
Americas, the Middle East and internationally.

ASSÉ has now taken an important and courageous stand to support the 
international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions, as a 
tangible step in solidarity with struggles against Israeli apartheid in 
Palestine and throughout the Middle East. This resolution marks the 
growing momentum behind the international movement against Israeli 
apartheid and a willingness to take action at a local level within 
progressive student networks in Quebec to challenge Israeli apartheid.

ASSÉ's important stand also marks a critical opportunity for grassroots 
student and social movements in Quebec to challenge the Quebec and 
Canadian government complicity towards Israeli apartheid and today the 
outright support towards Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and 
Gaza by Canada's Conservative government.

Today we call on all student and labor unions to join L'Association pour 
une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante in creating a strong and effective 
boycott movement against Israeli apartheid!

actions you can take:

* Endorse this statement: send the name of your organization and city to: 
tadamon[at]resist.ca

* Send a message of solidarity through an email to the ASSÉ National 
office congratulating them on their stand against Israeli apartheid. 
Please send your message to: webmestre(at)asse-solidarite.qc.ca

* Ask your local student union, labor union, community group, association 
or collective to follow ASSÉ's lead and adopt a position in support of the 
international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against 
Israeli apartheid.

endorsed by:

Tadamon! Montreal (Montreal, Quebec)
Palestinian BDS National Committee (Palestine)
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (Toronto, Canada)

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