The organization was dissolved on May 31, 2019, a decision adopted in congress on April 28, 2019. A transition committee was also formed on this date.[1]
Philosophy
The Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante advocated for free education at all levels and for all, including the abolition of student debt, conservation of quality post-secondary education, and the democratization of schools, while opposing the commodification of education.
It deployed mass mobilization as a catalyst for social change, favouring local general assemblies as decision-making structures as opposed to referendums, considered less democratic.
It also fought for responsible taxation, the defense of minority rights, the promotion of alter-globalization, demilitarization, implementation of public housing policy, and the irrevocable right to dissidence.
The basic principles of the ASSÉ lie on the foundations of student unionism as established in Article 1 of the Charter of Grenoble in 1946. The charter stipulates that the student is a young intellectual worker. Thus, students must be associated on a union basis. The ASSÉ believes in the necessity of fighting to save the gains made by past student movements, as well as to make new gains, through permanent protest. Considering education as a right rather than as a privilege, the ASSÉ is based on the following principles:
1. For quality, free, accessible, secular, non-discriminatory public education;
2. For adequate financial aid whose aim is to eliminate student debt and ensure that fundamental needs are met;
3. For a public education network free from private-sector intrusion, including contract manufacturing;
4. For democratisation of educational institutions from a perspective of self-management;
5. For union solidarity with all international progressive fights whose aim is society's well-being;
6. Against any and all forms of globalisation that support the predominance of profit over the population's well-being [2]
7. For a combative feminism aiming to abolish patriarchy and all forms of oppression and discrimination.
On January 29, 2005, confronted with the refusal of then-Education Minister Pierre Reid to negotiate about financial aid reform, the ASSÉ holds a congress at Cégep de Saint-Laurent where it invites non-member associations to create the CASSÉÉ, the Coalition de l'Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante Élargie. In February, the CASSÉÉ launches a series of referendums and general assemblies over the start of an unlimited general strike around three main demands:
The retroactive abolition of the reform to the Aide financière du Québec;[5]
The abandonment of all decentralization and market alignment projects of the college network;
Both demands go towards free education and abolition of student debt.
On February 24, 2005, the first associations start the strike movement. On March 16, 2005, 70,000 students are CASSÉE members, out of the 230,000 students on strike at that moment, the others being FEUQ or FECQ members.
The CASSÉÉ is excluded from the negotiation table by the new Education Minister Jean-Marc Fournier because of its refusal to condemn violent acts posed during the strike. The CASSÉÉ, however, claims that it is to divide the student movement that the minister excluded it, since, shortly after the strike began, on February 16, 2005 at Montebello, students assembled by the FEUQ and the FECQ forced Château Montebello's door with a battering ram to disturb a Parti libéral du Québec caucus, leading to a Sûreté du Québec intervention.[6]
The strike ends after the signature of an accord by the student unions and Minister Fournier that the Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante qualifies of a "bargain accord" and is rejected by a majority of general assemblies, who still vote to return to class after 7 weeks of strike.
Beginning in the summer 2011, the ASSÉ threatened the Quebec government to withart aning unlimited general strike.[7]
Organizational chart
Congress
The Congress is the supreme decision-making instance. It is made up of delegates of all member associations and works according to the one member, one vote principle. It normally convenes two or three times a year. In the annual congress, elections to fill the executive positions are held.
Coordination council
The coordination council aims to coordinate the work of the following instances:
Executive council
The executive council of the ASSÉ implements the mandates from the congress and the coordination council.
Permanent committees
Women's committee
Newspaper committee
Mobilization committee
Work committees
The task of the work committees is to help the executive council and the member associations in their mandates.
Training committee
Social struggles committee
Information committee
Research and academic affairs committee
Regional councils
The regional councils serve to coordinate the associations in their union work.
Conseil régional de l'ASSÉ à Montréal (CRAM)
Mobilisation des associations solidaires du Sud-Est (MASSE)
Conseil régional avant-gardiste de l'ASSÉ dans les Laurentides, Laval et Lanaudière (CRAALLL)
Front régional de l'ASSÉ à Québec (FRAQ)
Conseil régional de l'ASSÉ au Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
