CSU looks for strength in numbers

The CSU has called a general assembly (GA) for next Wednesday, March 5 at 1 p.m.

The GA, the first since Sept. 2001, will put forward two questions to the student body. The first will be in continuing with the mounting international anti-war movement. The second will deal with a call for an inquiry into racism on campus.

The statement currently being proposed would affirm that Concordia students are against a potential U.S.-led war on Iraq. More importantly, it will state that:

“Concordia students stand in solidarity with people across North America who are taking action on March 5, 2003 to oppose a fundamentally unjust and brutal war against the people of Iraq.”

Organizers are hoping the adoption of this statement will lead to a general student strike against the war.

Many students have already participated in anti-war events around Montreal, including a recent blockade of the American consulate in Montreal and the massive downtown protest held Feb. 15, which attracted over 150,000 people, the largest in Canada.

Student organizers have pointed back to the importance of student protests during the war in Vietnam, the anti-nuclear proliferation campaigns of the 1980s, and most recently during the first Gulf War.

It’s important that when our government already has troops [in the Persian Gulf] and they’re wavering, that Canadians and Concordia students show them they’re opposed to war,” explained CSU VP Communications Yves Engler.

More controversial will be the motion demanding the university administration agree to an inquiry into racism on campus.

In the aftermath of Sept. 9, hostilities between groups on campus, particularly between Arab and Jewish students, have been on the rise. Students from both sides have complained that they have felt threatened and intimidated on campus. In response, the CSU is planning to organize an anti-racism conference to be held sometime in March.

Along with this, the CSU has been calling for a general inquiry into racism on campus, particularly what has been viewed as institutional racism towards Arab students. In a talk given last semester at the Universit

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