The Sudbury chapter of the Revolutionary Student Movement is expressing support for students at Laurentian University’s campus in Barrie, which is slated for closure.

"We stand in solidarity with you in the struggle against the university Board of Governors’ plans to shut down many of your programs in Barrie at the end of this semester, denying hundreds the chance to finish their education there," the group says in a statement.

RSM describes itself as "an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist student group with a presence at LU’s Sudbury campus and a high school in town, where our work includes organizing students to fight for free, accessible and democratic education, as part of building a broader revolutionary working-class movement."

They say they were "dismayed" to hear of the university’s "unilateral and profit-driven decision," but are encouraged by the actions Barrie students have organized "to reclaim your education."

Students in Barrie have occupied administrative offices and demonstrated in the streets, according to the local student group. Another action is planned for Sudbury on April 15.

"We commend the initiative and militancy you have shown in pressing your demand that all Barrie students be allowed to finish the degrees they started, where they started them, until all graduate," says the RSM chapter. "Your defiant stance has even made two-faced bourgeois politicians take notice and suddenly turn warm and obliging, whereas before they never seemed to care about our daily troubles."

The group says studying at the main Sudbury campus is characterized by the board of governors as a "vibrant university experience," whereas in their view the reality is similar to what students have experienced at the Barrie offshoot.

"Here too, entire departments are being eroded if not demolished to shape a more efficient factory for producing new research, skilled labour and managers for the resource extraction industry, one of the most predatory sectors of Canadian capital," they state.

"And here, too, many find ourselves with heavy debt, uncertain futures and no real power over fundamental decisions that affect us – and further disoriented by the liberal ideology doled out by the curriculum."

The RSM chapter heralds the activism of their Barrie peers as "a powerful rallying call for us and surely for all militant students in Ontario and beyond."

But it also accuses some student bodies of being complacent. "The undergraduate Students’ General Association (at Laurentian in Sudbury) have been mostly silent, compromised by their close ties to the administration and thus unable to take real measures to mobilize their members in your support," the revolutionary students say.

The group is calling for the formation of a mobilization committee to work alongside their Barrie counterparts and "open up a new front in the fight, right here on LU’s home turf."

The "mobcom" — a contraction of mobilization committee — will be a "democratic vehicle for collective struggle, not lobbyism and capitulation," the group pledges.

A meeting to launch the committee and plan further action is set for Monday, at 4-6 p.m., at Instruction Room 30-230 in the J.N. Desmarais Library at Laurentian.

"We invite all students, faculty and service staff of LU in Sudbury who want to organize in support of the students and workers of LU in Barrie to attend the launch meeting help shape the direction of the coming actions," the RSM chapter says. "Allies from the broader community are also welcome."

Those who aren’t able to attend the meeting but want to endorse the "mobcom," or send delegates, is encouraged to email LU.Mobcom@gmail.com or message the Facebook page.

sud.editorial@sunmedia.ca