Brownshirts on the rampage?

>> Young Péquiste manual suggests infiltrating "hostile" student associations

by PHILIP PREVILLE

At first, Jean-Luc Ratel thought it was a minor fiasco. As an organizer for SOGÉÉCOM, the student association at Collège Maisonneuve, he was surprised when about 20 noisy Parti Québécois supporters showed up at the association's general assembly on October 20. With their local PQ youth-wing president in tow, they monopolized the microphones, accused the association of being a bunch of anarchists and communists, and defended the PQ government's record on education.

Then, once the assembly was over, Ratel read the PQ Youth Committee's 1998 organization manual and began to smell a fish. The manual instructs the party faithful that, "if your student association is an obstacle, certain measures must be taken!"

"To me, 'certain measures' means intimidation," Ratel told the Mirror. "They're trying to infiltrate student associations in order to control them. And they're a party in power, no less. They're headed into an election and they don't want criticism."

Page 14 of the Guide de l'organisation, published by the PQ's Comité national des jeunes, suggests establishing good relations with student associations because "the association can receive your phone calls for you." If, however, good relations cannot be maintained, the manual suggests taking other measures.

Péquiste putsch plan

"If your student association is hostile [to the PQ] and does not cooperate as you would like," the manual reads, "present 'péquiste' candidates at the association's next election. Obviously, hostility is not recommended... but if your student association is an obstacle, certain measures must be taken!"

The manual also suggests that young Péquistes "feed [stories to] student media on a regular basis," after first consulting with the Comité national des jeunes to make sure their message is consistent with party policy.

PQ party spokesperson Alexandre Robin tried to play down the guide's wording. "The manual is over 100 pages long, and that's just one page," Robin told the Mirror. "Polls show that most students favour sovereignty. So having Péquistes elected to student organizations is just an expression of students' political views."

True, but the manual says nothing about students' political will--it suggests getting Péquistes elected in order to neutralize opposition and gain access to free phones. "No one follows those instructions to the letter," Robin insists.

The members of the SOGÉÉCOM executive at Collège Maisonneuve aren't so sure. External secretary Thomas Chiasson-LeBel says the PQ youth wing demonstrates a total disrespect for student politics. "These associations are the voice for defending student autonomy and student interests," Le Bel says. "Our job is to fight the government, not parrot the party line."

Propaganda mode

But Éric Champagne, a member of the Collège Maisonneuve PQ association, says SOGÉÉCOM was trying to deny all parties' right to freedom of speech. The agenda for the October 20 general assembly included a motion to ban all political parties from setting up information booths at the college. "We showed up because we had a stake in the debate," says Champagne. "Most of SOGÉÉCOM's executive are anarchists and communists, and they want to deny us our freedom of speech."

SOGÉÉCOM is one of the few student organizations in the province that is affiliated with the Mouvement pour le droit à l'éducation (MDE), a militant student-rights organization formed in 1995. The MDE has been highly critical of the current PQ government, and organized the 1996 student strike widely credited with forcing the government to implement a tuition freeze.

Champagne says he and the other PQ members at the general assembly weren't trying to stifle student opposition to the PQ. Nevertheless, at the assembly, the Péquiste students attempted to propose a vote to dissolve SOGÉÉCOM's affiliation with the MDE.

SOGÉÉCOM's Ratel claims the Péquistes were in "propaganda mode" during the meeting. "They claimed that the MDE was financed by the federal government." The MDE has never received a federal grant and is financed entirely by student memberships.