We are students, workers, the unemployed, immigrants or first nation people : we are the civil society. Our social conditions are constantly deteriorating, and we can no longer tolerate it. We will not allow our life conditions, our educational system, our health, our working conditions and our fundamental rights to be sacrificed to the laws of the free market.

Down with the reign of the market !

Economic neoliberalism reigns all over the globe, and can be found beyond every imaginable border. Multinational corporations and financial institutions are setting government’s agendas to serve their own interests. Governments are being corrupted by an insane doctrine, and fostering this neo-liberal vision that prioritises capitalist interests over common well-being.

Obviously, Québec is not spared in this world-wide process. We see our government trying to impose neoliberal reforms on our economy, while pretending that these changes are essential to ensure our prosperity and competitiveness at the international level. The government steps aside from governance of the public sector to let private companies colonise our public goods. Removing the bit of social protections we have by privatising social services can only plunge the population into constantly increasing precariousness. We must not let this situation happen : it is urgent to establish a just and progressive tax system to ensure a fair distribution of our resources and our common well being !

Our rights are being threatened !

The political and economical elite harbour destructive values : insane competition between every possible actor in society, profitability to the detriment of social justice, productivity at the expense of a healthy environment. In other words, living in Quebec increasingly means being submitted to the financial interests of a minority. The goal of profitability is being presented to us as a solution to our social problems, but we are not going to be fooled ! Let’s mobilise ourselves and reassert our opposition to the arrogantly growing economic elite.

The attacks to the public health system are an obvious example of a vision in which benefits go to the private industry while the whole society suffers. We can not tolerate benefits being privatised and corporate losses being nationalised. Our health system, our schools, our public transit systems, nothing is spared : the state renounces its own responsibilities in order to submit the society to the rules of the free market. More often than ever before, academic research, which is financed with public funds, is being done for the sole interests of private industry. Campus cafeterias, as well as virtually every other service, are now the property of a handful of huge corporations. Everywhere in our working and living environment, private firms are present, constantly bombarding us with their capitalist propaganda. Facing this situation, we can only demand that the management of social services be protected from the rules of the free market.

Corporate growth means instability !

Bad management practices and a lack of public funds serve as an alibi for the government to offer more places to private companies in the public sector. These greedy firms offer us products whose accessibility and quality are inferior to the ones offered by public institutions. They also create harsh working conditions for their employees.

The expansion of the private field especially affects women, who represent as much of three quarters of public services employees. Therefore, they find themselves more affected by funding reductions and by the deterioration of working conditions. We cannot allow the continuation of these social injustices, of these sexist and economic discriminations ! This dire situation has lasted long enough !

The logic of private industry within the government is necessarily harmful. It is totally in opposition to a solidarity-based society : individualism is encouraged without limits while our personal responsibilities are restrained to the formula known as “every man for himself”, and productivity seems to be the only measurement of the value of a human life. As wealth accumulates at the top of the social pyramid, the population continues to suffer from more and more impoverishment.

More solidarity has to be built !

In our campuses, our hospitals and in other public spaces, the market’s interests are now more influential than the public’s will. The right to profit is actually better defended than the right to decent life conditions and the principle of human dignity. Victories brought by social struggles of the past are now threatened, where they have not already been completely erased. Let’s take back the control of our society, of our own future ! It is time to reaffirm our desire to construct a united, just and fair society.

We denounce the way our public institutions are being managed as mere private companies. We denounce the role that private companies play in public governance. To fight against this interference of private corporations, we demand a public and massive reinvestment in our social services. We also demand that the principle of human dignity be re-established over the profits of the financial elite. Private corporations must be expelled from public decision-making bodies. A real democratic process has to be forged to take charge of our collective fate.

Because no gain has ever been obtained in calm and silence, Let’s stand up to force the government to assume its social responsibilities

Dare to struggle, Dare to win

You can sign the manifesto by entering your personnal informations in the bottom section of this page.