Tadamon! & l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) present…

A popular education initiative in Montreal emerging from social justice networks struggling against racism, war and occupation from the Middle East to Montreal…

Monday, April 21st 12Noon, Cégep Bois de Boulogne
student-run café: le Caféinné
10 555 ave du Bois-de-Boulogne, Montréal
Hosted by Comité d’action pour la lutte étudiante boulonnaise (CALEB)

Tuesday, April 22nd, 12:30, Cégep Drummondville
960 rue St-Georges, Drummondville
Hoted by l’Association générale étudiante du Cégep de Drummondville

Wednesday, April 23rd 1pm Cégep de St-Jérôme
455 rue Fournier, St-Jérôme
Hosted by l’Association étudiante du Cégep de St-Jérôme (AGES)

Wednesday, April 23rd 12Noon Collège de Lionel-Groulx
100 rue Duquet, Ste-Thérèse
Hosted by l’Association générale étudiante du Collège de Lionel-Groulx (AGECLG)

Wednesday, April 23rd 7pm, Sherbrooke
Le Tremplin, 97 rue Wellington Sud, Sherbrooke
Une présentation de l’Association étudiante du Cégep de Sherbrooke (AÉCS)

Thursday, April 24th 6pm, QPIRG McGill
3647 University St. (metro McGill)
Hosted by Grassroots Association for Student Power (GRASP)

Saturday, April 26th 2:30 – 4:30pm @ MUCS
Hosted by Montreal Freeschool
2000 Northcliffe x. Maisoneuve, #218, Metro Vendome
(enter by the driveway at the north side of the building)

As the military shock of the US-lead “War on Terror” consumes entire nations across the Middle East, the Canadian government is playing a critical political and military role.

This popular education initiative aims to build collective knowledge on Canada’s role in the Middle East, while creating spaces within the context of Quebec’s student movement for developing collective strategies to confront war and racism both at home and abroad.

In Palestine, Canada openly supports Israel’s colonial military occupation, in Lebanon the Conservative government endorsed the 2006 Israeli attack, labeling the bombardment, in which numerous Canadians died, a “measured response”. Today in the Middle East Canada is not neutral.

Tadamon! Montreal, L’Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ) with the support of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) and Fédération nationale des enseignantes et enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ) started organizing a series of workshops in November 2007 as the world marked the 60th anniversary of the partition of Palestine, a foundational moment to the ongoing dispossession of the Palestinian people…

At a time of war this popular education initiative will attempt breakdown the political, economic and military motivation for Canada’s participation in the “War on Terror”, while building solidarity within the Quebec student movement with anti-colonial struggles in the Middle East, which the Canadian state plays a role in suppressing.

Canada’s political support for Israeli apartheid, silent complicity towards the US-lead military occupation of Iraq and major military role in southern Afghanistan, place the Canadian state on the front-lines of an international war which attacks the self-determination of the people of the Middle East.

Central points which will be presented within this workshop series are the following…

1: Introduction from a member of L’Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ) illustrating the importance / role of Quebec’s student movement within the context of international solidarity struggles, specifically the struggle for Palestinian self-determination & against Israeli apartheid.

2: Outline on Canada’s role in the Middle East historically & currently, from Canada’s support for the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, to the 2006 attack on Lebanon. Drawing connections between the historical / present realities of Canada as a nation founded on a colonialism.

3: Outline on the realities of Israeli apartheid, it’s impacts on the people of Lebanon and Palestine within the framework of historical & current event. Drawing links between the historical reality of apartheid in South Africa & the dominant international neo-liberal economic system which maintains the separation of the majority of the world’s wealth from the majority of the world’s people through a system of global economic apartheid…

4: Outline on the political framework of Tadamon! Montreal’s two major political campaigns aimed at building solidarity with anti-colonial struggles in the Middle East within Quebec’s student movement, full title / links to campaigns linked below…

* Tadamon!: De-listing Hezbollah

* Tadamon!: Boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli apartheid

Tadamon! Montreal:
514 664 1036 / tadamon[at]resist.ca