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…
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)
Je suis un étudiant militant du Vieux-Montréal et je trouve que
Comment by François-V — June 3rd, 2008 @ 2:55 PMc’est vraiment géniale de savoir que Tadamon est en lien avec l’ASSÉ !
que l’ASSÉ ne perd pas son temps avec cette question très importante et imposante,
que cette campagne pourra en effet créer des liens avec d’autres luttes comme la privatisation et le marché mondial de la faim, etc.
Nous allons maintenant avoir une bonne base de mobilisation pour l’automne 08, c’est un sujet choc, bien choisi et que beaucoup de monde a un minimum d’infos.
Enfin je suis content d’apprendre ça, je vais lutter avec eux,
merci et à la prochaine camarades ! -V-
ما تقوم به إسرائيل من حصار للشعب الفلسطيني جريمة ضد الإنسانية
Comment by Mohamed Elomari — June 3rd, 2008 @ 8:30 PMVIVA PALESTINE
Comment by STEVE PALMINPO — June 3rd, 2008 @ 8:43 PMI am pro your efforts without limits.
Comment by Tarif Al Azem — June 4th, 2008 @ 12:52 AMPeace that Israel is looking for can’t be one sided; however, all peers should be treated equally where each side has rights; at least human rights, and commitments in order to initiate the peace process.
Comment by Hatem Zaki — June 4th, 2008 @ 5:11 AMAll Israeli steps are completely rejected. They have been doing all anti human rights efforts.
Comment by Nabil Abdel Ahad Abdel Baky — June 4th, 2008 @ 6:44 AMl’injustice israelienne sera terminé un jour (sans ou avec la force) et ils doivent penser à ce jour là, puisque ils peuvent etre traités exactement comme ils sont en train de traiter les palestiniens aujourd’hui!!!!
Comment by ridha — June 4th, 2008 @ 1:19 PMA voice from Gaza….!!!!!!
Comment by arslan — June 5th, 2008 @ 1:28 AMpeople are dieing because of the siege imposed on Gaza. Unemployment is more than 80% yes eighty percent. The annual income of a person in Palestinian territories is about us $1500 and every thing is expensive like the Isrelie cities in spite of the annual income for an Isrelie person is more than us $ 22000 .
Due to that people dont have money to buy their needs, there are no goods in the markets, and if they find them , they are very expensive.
Do you imagine that people in Gaza couldn’t travel for any reason for more than two years,
a right step in the democratic tradition of quebec. salute to the comrades for a world without suffering, poverty and corruption. lets sing for liberty, freedom and justice for people all around the world, from the olive orchards of palestine to the deforested rain forests of amazon.
to the walls that was once a garden
Comment by shakib — June 6th, 2008 @ 1:44 PMspringing from the sands
tilled by all those women who loved olives
in their courtyards now silent,
once the bull dozers roll off
i bear witness to the children
who are growing old in camps
that no wall could crush the hope of palestine
borne of blood, toil and sacrifice
We all support the struggle of Palistanians
Comment by Mohammed — June 7th, 2008 @ 7:48 AMAnd all the free people in the whole world support that
I in my role wonder how Saudi arabia dare to invite some of the Israelist rabbies to attend a religious conference
I’d like someone to answer my qustion:
what does the Saudi Arabia government present to the Islamic world
I think this country stands behind the prolems of the Islamic world
Congratulations for having the courage to do the right thing! I hope that all the other student unions will follow your example.
Comment by Smadar Carmon — June 11th, 2008 @ 10:28 AMThank you for supporting peace and justice for Palestine/Israel or Israel/Palestine. If this problem is solved, many other problems will be solved. If it is not solved, our problems will consume us, and there will be no peace or justice for Palestine…or for Israel. The policy of my government, the USA, is central to this problem. As an American, I apologize for that. Our leaders tell us they are working for change, for peace, but we can see the results of their work. Change will start with the grass roots. Change will begin with movements like yours. Thank you!
Translation by Google:
Merci pour soutenir la paix et de justice pour la Palestine / Israël ou en Israël / Palestine. Si ce problème est résolu, de nombreux autres problèmes seront résolus. S’il n’est pas résolu, nos problèmes nous consommons, et il n’y aura pas de paix ni de justice pour la Palestine … ou pour Israël. La politique de mon gouvernement, les États-Unis, est au centre de ce problème. Comme un Américain, je vous présente mes excuses pour cela. Nos dirigeants nous disent qu’ils sont de travail pour le changement, pour la paix, mais nous pouvons voir les résultats de leurs travaux. Le changement commence par la base. Le changement commence avec des mouvements comme le vôtre. Merci!
Comment by Claiborne Clark — June 14th, 2008 @ 9:51 AM