Marxist Students’ Association Re-launches Campaign to Bring Direct Democracy to the University of Ottawa!

The University of Ottawa Marxist Students’ Association recently re-launched its campaign to bring about General Assemblies as the highest decision making body for their local student union. The reform, which is set to be achieved by referendum, is hoped to be both a historical moment for Ontario universities as well as the beginning of a new culture of democracy and participation for the student body of the University of Ottawa.

The current decision making model employed by the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa follows a tradition representational model found in most modern liberal institutions. As a result of this, most of the student body has proven to be alienated from all form of governance. The long-standing political elite in power has been able to keep itself there for years while relying on the absurdly low 10% voter turnout to maintain its legitimacy. These liberal and bureaucratic practices unfortunately plague most student unions in Canada and have slowed the nation wide student movement to a painful crawl.

Following the Quebecois Example!

The Maple Spring of 2012 showed us once again that the student movement of Quebec is a force which can shake the very foundations of the bourgeois state. In comparisons, their Ontario counterparts have been unable to produce a single important change in their decades of struggle. In Quebec, participation in student unions is at an all time high thanks to their democratic model: General Assemblies.

GAs are a massive forum where the entire student body comes together once a semester to decide, democratically, how to run their student union. All students can propose motions, they may all debate and they all get one vote. This democratic practice has developed a strong culture of politicization and participation among the Quebec student population, allowing them to be mobilized massively in times of strike or crisis.

In an attempt to revive the long dormant Ontario student movement, the campaign to bring General Assemblies to the University of Ottawa is hoping to develop such a democratic culture among the Ottawa U’s membership. The organizers are currently collecting 1,500 signatures, the number required to demand a referendum, and plan to present it before the SFUO’s governing body before the end of October.