Dawson College: Report from “The capitalist crisis and its effects on students”

On 11th February at Dawson College in Montreal, the Dawson Socialist Club organized a discussion on the economic crisis and its effect on students. More than 20 students came out to hear Camilo Cahis, a member of the Fightback editorial board, who spoke on the issue. Although most students were from Dawson, there were also students from McGill, Vanier College, and CEGEP de Maisonneuve who came out.

Camilo started his speech by outlining the causes of the capitalist crisis. As he explained, the crisis was created by the very nature of capitalism. Under capitalism, due to the anarchy of the market and the profit system, the production ends up being more than the market can absorb. Workers get laid off, factories close, and people suffer, because we have too many commodities out there! As he explained, this crisis could have happened years ago if it was not for cheap credit that attempted to forestall the crash. But postponing it with non-existent money meant that when the crisis hit, it became even deeper.

To bail out this rotten system, governments around the world are pumping trillions of dollars int o the pockets of the bosses, including Canada. The result is historic deficits and levels of debt; as Camilo pointed out, this is money that will eventually need to be paid back. As we are heading towards a really slim recovery that doesn’t allow for the economic growth to account for this massive debt, it is the workers and students that the capitalists will try to compel to pay for this crisis.

Already this is happening in Quebec. The Liberal government is planning to establish tuition fees in CEGEPs. Unlike the rest of North America, the Quebec working class was able to win the right to free education in the 1960s, at least at the CEGEP level, while university tuition fees are the lowest in Canada. The CEGEP system was created by mass mobilizations of the labour unions. The unions demanded education and training be made accessible to their children and they won this from the government and the system.

The Quebec student movement has defended these gains time and time again, the latest being during the 2005 and 2006 mass mobilizations where Dawson College was among many educational institutions whose students went on strike. Camilo also emphasized the need for the students to unite with the workers, because they have essentially the same interests. The Quebec students will mobilize to defend their gains one more time, but if we want to attack the root of the problem, we should fight for socialism, that is a democratically planned economy by the majority of society, ie the working class!

A lively debate ensued where different students gave their input on various issues such as socialism, capitalism, the student movement in the past, the need to struggle etc. After Camilo made some closing remarks the event ended and many students signed up for the Dawson Socialist Club. The Dawson Socialists are committed on organizing more such events in the future.