Austerity strikes are back at Concordia

SCPA Students’ Association will be on strike Nov. 2 to 6

The School of Community and Public Affairs Students’ Association voted on Friday to strike against austerity during the first week of November.

SCPASA will be on strike from Nov. 2 until Nov. 6, according to the official strike motion passed last week. The motion cites the approximately $400 million in provincial grants and Concordia’s $36.6 million in cuts since the 2012-13 academic year as reasons for the strike.

The strike also corresponds with the “student associations and unions across Quebec representing workers from the health, the education, and the public sectors at large, [which] have enforced and declared strike actions for the fall 2015,” according to the motion.

The motion also indicated the strike will not apply to First Peoples Studies or inter-departmental classes. It also said that the SCPASA will “emphatically support the Manifestation Nationale organized by the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ) on November 5th.”

A portion of the motion mandated the SCPASA to ask “the Faculty of the School of Community and Public Affairs, notwithstanding the First Peoples Studies program, to be supportive of the Association’s decision, and that it acts in a spirit of solidarity.” At the time of publication, School of Community and Public Affairs president Chedly Belkhodja said he hadn’t “had a chance to sit down and talk with students.”

Student Tribunals

The SCPASA also approved a motion on Friday in support of students facing tribunals for their roles in the 2015 strikes. Through the motion, the SCPASA “condemns emphatically the decision of the University’s administration and its President, Dr. Alan Shepard, to press charges as co-complainants against students acting under the democratic mandate of their association.”

The SCPASA also “urges the administration to acknowledge the political nature of these complaints,” according to the official motion. The motion also indicated that the SCPASA stands in solidarity with the Concordia students facing tribunals as well as students who have faced repercussions for striking at other universities.