by

Their enemy is our enemy by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
June 4, 2012

Manifestation 22 Mai 2012 Montreal

Image by fatseth via Flickr

I gave a talk last week at Canada’s Wilfrid Laurier University to the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Many in the audience had pinned small red squares of felt to their clothing. The carre rouge, or red square, has become the Canadian symbol of revolt. It comes from the French phrase carrement dans le rouge, or “squarely in the red,” referring to those crushed by debt.

The streets of Montreal are clogged nightly with as many as 100,000 protesters banging pots and pans and demanding that the old systems of power be replaced. The mass student strike in Quebec, the longest and largest student protest in Canadian history, began over the announcement of tuition hikes and has metamorphosed into what must swiftly build in the United States—a broad popular uprising. The debt obligation of Canadian university students, even with Quebec’s proposed 82 percent tuition hike over several years, is dwarfed by the huge university fees and the $1 trillion of debt faced by U.S. college students.

[…]

via Truthdig

Copyright © 2012 Truthdig

Chris Hedges spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. His latest books are Death of the Liberal Class, and The World as It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress.

***

[DS added the videos.]

Quebec Student Strike Gathers Wide Support

Jun 4, 2012 by TheRealNews

Worldwide marches held in solidarity with striking Quebec students

Quebec Students Resist State Repression

Jun 3, 2012 by TheRealNews

Paul Jay talks to Jérémie Bédard-Wien, Student Organizer, CLASSE

From the archives:

Andrew Gavin Marshall: Montreal Student Protests 101 on Day 101 + Canada vs totalitarian govt crackdown

Ten Points Everyone Should Know About the Quebec Student Movement by Andrew Gavin Marshall

The Québec Student Strike: From ‘Maple Spring’ to Summer Rebellion? Part 6 by Andrew Gavin Marshall

On Anarchy: An Interview with Andrew Gavin Marshall by Devon DB

Chris Hedges: Black Bloc Could Kill OWS

Chris Hedges: Love is the most potent enemy of war (2004)

13 thoughts on “Their enemy is our enemy by Chris Hedges”

  1. Pingback: The Stimulator: How did the Quebec student movement win? « Dandelion Salad

  2. Pingback: Chris Hedges and Brian Traven: Occupy Tactics: Violence and Legitimacy in the Occupy Movement and Beyond « Dandelion Salad

  3. Pingback: How a Student Movement Can Become a Revolution by Andrew Gavin Marshall « Dandelion Salad

  4. Pingback: Stand Strong and Do Not Despair: Some Thoughts on the Fading Student Movement in Quebec by Andrew Gavin Marshall « Dandelion Salad

  5. Pingback: Occupy Will Be Back by Chris Hedges « Dandelion Salad

  6. Pingback: Dear Alex by Daniel N. White « Dandelion Salad

  7. Pingback: Michael Hudson: Obama scapegoats Euro for miserable US economy « Dandelion Salad

  8. Pingback: Chris Hedges Calls Banksters “Demon Possessed” at OWS + Interview « Dandelion Salad

  9. Always turning the other cheek just invites more abuse. The days of pacifism are over! Looking at all the sophisticated weapons ‘they’ have and do not hesitate to use against us, it is ‘fight fire with fire’ and nothing less.

    • Vera , did you quote that from a crusader from the religious right? sounds verbatim. FYI — pacifism is not only practical but it is not passive. Examples thru history abound. but, you might say OK, then what about when a Hitler comes along?

      well, let us look at that. Hitler did come along, and the nation of Denmark defeated him without shedding blood. This is what they did: the King of Denmark put on a Jewish star, and the rest of the Gentile people and Jews joined him and put on Jewish stars. this confused the Nazis. The Danish also refused to unload German cargo. NON–COOPERATION. The German SS was so demoralized, that Hitler realized that it was a no win to spend any more time or manpower there, so they left.

      there are countless examples in world history of this kind of thing.
      Being a pacifist IS fighting fire with fire. the rest is just non stop violence that will lead us into a vortex of hate and spiritual inertia.

  10. Pingback: The Maple Spring and the Mafiocracy: Struggling Students versus “Entitled Elites” « Dandelion Salad

  11. Very good article and timely, Mr Hedges. Many of us who lived through the 1960’s I suspect may be sensing an unmistakeable air of deja vu…50 years on, this could go global.

  12. Pingback: The Predatory Beast of Capitalism by William T. Hathaway « Dandelion Salad

Comments are closed.