The Association for Solidarity among Student Unions (ASSÉ) is union organization which groups together several student associations from both cegep and university across Quebec. It embodies today, the continuity of a current that has made the student movement, for forty years, a key player in Quebec society and an important agent of social progress in education.

The Right to Education

ASSÉ considers education as a fundamental right for each member of the society and not a privilege. To this end, each member of the society has the right to a free, public, accessible, secular education of quality, which is free from any form of discrimination.

In terms of tuition, the only progressive policy is unequivocally free education at all levels for all. It is an objective indispensable in the fight against discriminatory regime of student debt, which blocks access of low-income people to higher education, reproducing social inequalities.

In addition, if the education system allows the flourishing political, social, economic and cultural development of its beneficiaries, it can only be public. Its funding must be provided by the State. That is what motivates the ASSÉ to denounce the trend of recent years, encouraged by the decline of public funding, the colonization of educational institutions by private enterprises. They should instead help fund schools through taxes and not by direct investment which make education activities to the narrow purposes of the capitalist production. Thus, it is imperative to have an education of quality, to obtain a massive reinvestment from public funds.

An Effective Strategy

Analysis from practice cannot be separated. For progressive demands, breaking with the established order, is necessarily an action strategy. This strategy is the combative student unionism. This means, as a first step, the development of union practices, dynamic and democratic.

As such, we have to multiply the opportunities for discussions and practices for direct democracy. Thus, the General Assembly is the perfect place to do so. ASSÉ supports the idea to push this democratization as far as possible, in a self-management perspective. Indeed, the people who are most affected by decisions for educational institutions management should take those decisions. Namely, students and workers.

Moreover, combative unionism demonstrates our solidarity with social movements for the betterment of society. Indeed, we want to not only defend the material interests that affect us as students but what concerns us as members of society. This solidarity between social struggles also allows the construction of a power relationship even harder to bend the government, or adversaries in question, and gets the earnings of different groups involved in the fight.

On the other hand, since it is impossible to rely on the goodwill of governments and administrations for safeguarding the right to education iit s necessary to build a permanent power relationship, " a counter-power. In this sense, ASSÉ has worked tirelessly to inform and to mobilize systematically and massively the student movement in Quebec.

A balance of power allows a negotiation between equals in the files and issues that concern the student population in Quebec and is necessary when decisions are taken against the students interests .

ASSÉ is not opposed to any negotiation. But it believes that the student population information and mobilization is necessary before the initiation of this kind of process. In addition to increasing significantly the chances of success of such a process, it ensures democratic control by the General Assemblies.

An Union Tradition

Several organizations have existed throughout the history of the student movement in Quebec. Most of them, those who most influenced society and our education system, have been those who, like ASSÉ now, have claimed the combative unionism. The UGEQ (Union Générale des Étudiants du Québec, 1964-1968), the ANEEQ (Association Nationale des Étudiantes et des Étudiants du Québec, 1975-1993) and the MDE (Mouvement pour le Droit à l’Éducation, 1995-2000) have been fundamental in upholding the right to education. Demanding free education at every opportunity, they unequivocally participated in the construction of a barrier that has enabled the student movement to be listen and ASSÉ claims the legacy of these organizations.

ASSÉ is its Members !

Within the ASSÉ, each student association is sovereign. The decisions taken by delegates at Congresses does not automatically become resolutions that each member associations must implement without the agreement of their General Assembly ! On the contrary, ASSÉ encourages and assists member associations to hold General Assembly regularly to give it the final say on demands or a national action plan.

In this sense, ASSÉ is a very interesting tool that allows to support an active role in democratic life in member’s institutions. For this structure to function effectively, it is necessary that ASSÉ members get involved, take in charge.