Maple Spring: Interviews with Canadian Organizers

Over the past few months, Canada has witnessed a number of pitched battles around the most recent bout of cuts and austerity measures. In Toronto, workers staged a spontaneous wildcat in response to workers fired for mocking a government official responsible for measures attacking organized workers resulting in shutdowns of the airport on a broad scale. This comes in the context of a number of attacks on workers In Quebec, attempts to raise tuition and attacks the higher education system has led to months of general social unrest, strikes, and actions that continues today.

We feature two interviews recorded in May of 2012 in Montreal, Canada with organizers active in these struggles. Richard St. Pierre is a lifelong militant who grew up in Quebec, and has been active in working class struggles and revolutionary work for over 30 years. We discuss his experiences as a miner, in struggles around social reproduction, and the student struggle in Quebec.

Second, we feature a discussion of the world crisis as seen in Toronto with Ashley, a member of Common Cause Ontario and organizer with the graduate students union, amongst other social struggles. She discusses challenges in the crisis, the airport walkout, and the tasks of revolutionaries in social struggles today.