<html﻿>﻿

﻿<head﻿>﻿<script type="text/javascript" src="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=2N_sDSC0" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script>﻿
﻿<script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden","showSwfDownload":true};</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="﻿https://web-static.archive.org/_static/﻿js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script>
﻿<script type="text/javascript">
  ﻿  __wm.init(﻿"https://web.archive.org/web"﻿);
  __wm.wombat(﻿"http://www.newsocialist.org/old_mag/magazine/19/article15.html"﻿,﻿"20100626192116"﻿,﻿"https://web.archive.org/"﻿,﻿"web"﻿,﻿"https://web-static.archive.org/_static/"﻿,
	      "﻿1277580076﻿");
</script>
﻿<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=1utQkbB3" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://web-static.archive.org/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />﻿
﻿<!-- End Wayback Rewrite JS Include -->
﻿

﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Student Strike at Laurentian a Major Success - Activist Bulletin Board﻿</title>﻿

﻿<meta﻿ ﻿name="description"﻿ ﻿content="New Socialist Group socialism communism  socialists communists "﻿>﻿

﻿<meta﻿ ﻿name="keywords"﻿ ﻿content="socialism, communism, socialists, communists, marx, marxists, marxism, Marx, Marxists, Marxism, Canada, politics, anarchism, Trotsky, trotskyism, NDP, radical, revolution, revolutionary, Lenin, leninism, leninist, Luxemburg, working class, 1917, syndicalism, radicalism, union, labour, anarchy"﻿>﻿

﻿</head>﻿


﻿<body﻿ ﻿topmargin="20"﻿ ﻿leftmargin="20"﻿ ﻿marginheight="20"﻿ ﻿marginwidth="20"﻿ ﻿bgcolor="#FFFFFF"﻿>﻿


﻿<font﻿ ﻿face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"﻿ ﻿size="5"﻿ ﻿color="#000000"﻿>﻿

﻿<center﻿>﻿

﻿<b﻿>﻿Student Strike at Laurentian a Major Success

﻿<br﻿>﻿</b>﻿</font>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


﻿<font﻿ ﻿face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"﻿ ﻿size="2"﻿ ﻿color="#000000"﻿>﻿

by Gary Kinsman﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, April - May 1999﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿</center>﻿


A very successful student strike turned Laurentian University (LU) in Sudbury into a ghost university on Tuesday, March 23. More than 1,100 students voted in February in favour of such a strike against a proposed tuition fee hike by the university administration and Board of Governors. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Thousands of students and hundreds of faculty simply stayed away from the university. Support staff and food workers were ordered by the administration to report for work. They were met by picket lines, which included students from LU, some from Nipissing University in North Bay, members of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), and supportive faculty. Most of the staff were quite supportive of the strike and many had signs supporting the strike in their car windows. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Cars were held up for about five minutes each creating a major a major traffic tie-up and it took some administrators hours to get into the university. There were a few problems with angry drivers on the picket lines and there was some dispute between activists and student leaders over how long cars should be held up. But overall, things went amazingly well. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

It was exciting for me to see students who had never been on a picket line before learn to organize themselves and to experience their collective power. Around 11 am, about 200 students from LU residences marched down to the main picket to join with other students and faculty 

for a rally of close to 400 people. LU had not seen such student activism for quite some time! The rally heard various speakers including Joel Harden of CFS-Ontario, a representative from the Laurentian University Faculty Association, and a speaker from the Sudbury Coalition for Social Justice. Speakers linked Harris and the corporate agenda with attacks upon other groups of people in society. It was clear that the entire university community, aside from the administration and members of the Board of Governors (BOG -- where corporate and business interests are well represented) supports a 0% tuition increase. The Senate passed a motion last month for no tuition increase this year. Active pressure will have to be maintained on the administration and on the BOG to ensure that they do not raise tuition fees later in April. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

While much of the organizing for the strike was dominated by the student associations at LU, other student activists also pushed to make the action as militant as possible. Activists hope this ferment and organizing will lead to the emergence of a new activist organization that can work with the student federations but remain independent of them. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

This very successful strike showed what is possible on other campuses in the fight against tuition hikes and for accessible post-secondary education. There is much to be learned from the LU experience. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


﻿<font﻿ ﻿size="1"﻿>﻿Gary Kinsman is a member of the New Socialist Group in Sudbury. ﻿</font>﻿</font>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


﻿<form﻿>﻿<input﻿ ﻿type="button"﻿ ﻿value="Close"﻿ ﻿onclick="top.close()"﻿>﻿</form>﻿


﻿</body>﻿

﻿</html>﻿<!--
     FILE ARCHIVED ON ﻿19:21:16 Jun 26, 2010﻿ AND RETRIEVED FROM THE
     INTERNET ARCHIVE ON ﻿10:08:02 Mar 05, 2026﻿.
     JAVASCRIPT APPENDED BY WAYBACK MACHINE, COPYRIGHT INTERNET ARCHIVE.

     ALL OTHER CONTENT MAY ALSO BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT (17 U.S.C.
     SECTION 108(a)(3)).
-->
<!--
﻿playback timings (ms):
﻿  ﻿captures_list﻿: ﻿0.633﻿
﻿  ﻿exclusion.robots﻿: ﻿0.049﻿
﻿  ﻿exclusion.robots.policy﻿: ﻿0.036﻿
﻿  ﻿esindex﻿: ﻿0.011﻿
﻿  ﻿cdx.remote﻿: ﻿15.42﻿
﻿  ﻿LoadShardBlock﻿: ﻿119.233﻿ (﻿3﻿)
﻿  ﻿PetaboxLoader3.datanode﻿: ﻿74.051﻿ (﻿4﻿)
﻿  ﻿PetaboxLoader3.resolve﻿: ﻿117.044﻿ (﻿2﻿)
﻿  ﻿load_resource﻿: ﻿100.734﻿
﻿--�