Fighting fees in 2012

Though the Nov. 10 day of action has long since passed, the fight is far from over for the Mob Squad, a Concordia-based group mobilizing students against the Quebec government’s plan to raise university tuition.
Approximately 20 people met last Friday in the Graduate Students’ Association lounge on Mackay St., passing several motions which clarified the Mob Squad’s role in the future of the student movement at Concordia.
“It helps to have a mandate because it gives us a clear focus,” said Rushdia Mehreen, a graduate student who attended the meeting. “It allows us to start the important work, which is mobilizing.”
The squad voted to define itself as independent from the Concordia Student Union. Originally an ad hoc group created by the undergraduate union, the Mob Squad worked with the CSU in the province-wide Nov. 10 demonstrations against tuition increases.
That is not to say that union representatives are barred from taking part in the Mob Squad. A motion proposing that CSU and GSA executives be prohibited from participating at Mob Squad meetings was unanimously opposed. CSU VPs Morgan Pudwell and Chad Walcott, GSA president Robert Sonin, and several CSU councillors were in attendance.
It was also decided that the Mob Squad will have no public spokesperson. Political science student and undergraduate senator Gene Morrow attended the meeting and personally feels that the Mob Squad should have no central authority.
“I see it as a place to coordinate action with a variety of people,” said Morrow.
Student activist Alex Matak facilitated the meeting and says that the next Mob Squad gathering will be “more action-oriented,” focusing on the idea of calling for a general strike and the potential for direct action.

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