Over 500 artists speak out in support of Quebec student strike

As student associations vote one after the other to reject the most recent government offer, and as questions are increasing exponentially about how and when a solution to the current political crisis will come, the student movement received another wave of support today as 500 artists signed on to a public letter supporting the strike.

Including the likes of comic artist Julie Doucet, well known directors Sylvie Van Brabant, Hugo Latulippe and Paule Baillargeon, and certainly students and teachers of the arts, it's another indication that as the strike stretches through a 13th week, support continues.

The letter was published today on http://artistescontrelahausse.org. It reads in part:

The dramatic tuition increase being imposed by the Liberal government will further threaten equitable access to education and will bury future generations under massive debt. It represents a neoliberal policy of austerity economics that targets the social infrastructure of Québec and reinforces systemic social inequalities.

The assault on education is also an assault on culture. Artists and cultural workers also produce knowledge, they engage in the vitality of public discourse and ideas. The ideology underlying the current changes in the universities, of which the tuition hike is only one aspect, is the same ideology that aims to privatise and commodify our cultural production.

This isn't the first time artists have spoken out. Earlier in the spring, a short video was produced featuring 15 or so well known Quebec artists, during the Jutra awards for the best in Quebec cinema, several artists wore red squares on stage, and on May 1 another 153 artists also signed on to another open letter.

You can read the full letter below, or visit http://artistescontrelahause.org for more information.

Les artistes solidaires avec la grève générale des étudiants et étudiantes du Québec