| Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante | |
| Established: | February 2001 |
| Abolished: | 31 May 2019 |
| Location: | Montreal, Quebec |
| Members: | 34 member associations |
| Homepage: | http://www.asse-solidarite.qc.ca/ |
The Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ) was a Canadian student union founded in February 2001 in Sherbrooke, Quebec, which contained about 56,000 CEGEP and university-level students in 34 member student unions throughout Quebec. The ASSÉ positioned itself distinctly from the other province-wide student unions, the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ), the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec (FECQ) and the Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ), namely rejecting hierarchical leadership structures in favor of autonomous and horizontal approaches.
The ASSÉ formed the core of the Coalition large de l'ASSÉ (CLASSE), a temporary coalition created to counter the tuition hike and coordinate 2012 Quebec student protests.
The organization was dissolved on May 31, 2019, a decision adopted in congress on April 28, 2019. A transition committee was also formed on this date.[1]
The Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante advocated for free education at all levels and for all, including the abolition of student debt, conservation of quality post-secondary education, and the democratization of schools, while opposing the commodification of education.
It deployed mass mobilization as a catalyst for social change, favouring local general assemblies as decision-making structures as opposed to referendums, considered less democratic.
It also fought for responsible taxation, the defense of minority rights, the promotion of alter-globalization, demilitarization, implementation of public housing policy, and the irrevocable right to dissidence.
The basic principles of the ASSÉ lie on the foundations of student unionism as established in Article 1 of the Charter of Grenoble in 1946. The charter stipulates that the student is a young intellectual worker. Thus, students must be associated on a union basis. The ASSÉ believes in the necessity of fighting to save the gains made by past student movements, as well as to make new gains, through permanent protest. Considering education as a right rather than as a privilege, the ASSÉ is based on the following principles:
1. For quality, free, accessible, secular, non-discriminatory public education;
2. For adequate financial aid whose aim is to eliminate student debt and ensure that fundamental needs are met;
3. For a public education network free from private-sector intrusion, including contract manufacturing;
4. For democratisation of educational institutions from a perspective of self-management;
5. For union solidarity with all international progressive fights whose aim is society's well-being;
6. Against any and all forms of globalisation that support the predominance of profit over the population's well-being [2]
7. For a combative feminism aiming to abolish patriarchy and all forms of oppression and discrimination.
See main article: 2005 Quebec student protests. On January 29, 2005, confronted with the refusal of then-Education Minister Pierre Reid to negotiate about financial aid reform, the ASSÉ holds a congress at Cégep de Saint-Laurent where it invites non-member associations to create the CASSÉÉ, the Coalition de l'Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante Élargie. In February, the CASSÉÉ launches a series of referendums and general assemblies over the start of an unlimited general strike around three main demands:
On February 24, 2005, the first associations start the strike movement. On March 16, 2005, 70,000 students are CASSÉE members, out of the 230,000 students on strike at that moment, the others being FEUQ or FECQ members.
The CASSÉÉ is excluded from the negotiation table by the new Education Minister Jean-Marc Fournier because of its refusal to condemn violent acts posed during the strike. The CASSÉÉ, however, claims that it is to divide the student movement that the minister excluded it, since, shortly after the strike began, on February 16, 2005 at Montebello, students assembled by the FEUQ and the FECQ forced Château Montebello's door with a battering ram to disturb a Parti libéral du Québec caucus, leading to a Sûreté du Québec intervention.[6]
The strike ends after the signature of an accord by the student unions and Minister Fournier that the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante qualifies of a "bargain accord" and is rejected by a majority of general assemblies, who still vote to return to class after 7 weeks of strike.
See main article: 2012 Quebec student protests.
Beginning in the summer 2011, the ASSÉ threatened the Quebec government to withart aning unlimited general strike.[7]
The Congress is the supreme decision-making instance. It is made up of delegates of all member associations and works according to the one member, one vote principle. It normally convenes two or three times a year. In the annual congress, elections to fill the executive positions are held.
The coordination council aims to coordinate the work of the following instances:
The executive council of the ASSÉ implements the mandates from the congress and the coordination council.
The task of the work committees is to help the executive council and the member associations in their mandates.
The regional councils serve to coordinate the associations in their union work.