1985. A hundred students arrive with signs and floor mattresses on the campus of the prestigious Columbia University, in the United States.
For three weeks, they occupied Hamilton Hall, protesting the administration’s complicity in apartheid.
The movement, which urges universities to cut financial ties with South Africa, will spread like wildfire across the country.
Forty years later, pro-Palestinian camps are also multiplying on university campuses.
The opposition is strong. Many managements have turned to the courts to dislodge the demonstrators, when they have not requested the intervention of the police.
There are other ways to demonstrate, argued Quebec Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry.
The pro-Palestinian camps are, however, part of a long tradition of student struggles, observes journalist and historian Taylor Noakes.
“Students have always occupied these spaces. And history shows that they have generally been right,” he emphasizes.
You don’t have to go far to find an example. “In Montreal, there was the occupation of a computer laboratory at Concordia University,” illustrates Taylor Noakes.
It was 1969. Students denounced the inaction of Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) in handling complaints from students who were victims of racism.
After several days of tension, the demonstration degenerated. Nearly a hundred people were arrested during a violent police intervention.
Concordia University recently issued a formal apology to Black communities for the harm caused during the occupation, which led to the creation of an ombudsman position.
The anti-apartheid movement is another example that comes up often.
“This is perhaps the most obvious parallel to draw with what is happening now,” said Marcos Ancelovici, professor in the sociology department at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).
The two movements do not only share a mode of action, but a demand, a call for divestment.
It must be said that the formula has proven effective.
Under pressure from students, “several universities redirected their investments towards other countries and other sectors so as not to contribute directly or indirectly to apartheid,” explains the professor.
In Canada, McGill University was even the first to divest from companies with links to South Africa.
Today, the same demand made by pro-Palestinian protesters against Israel has been firmly rejected.
“Calls for divestment driven by geopolitical issues…are divisive and not unifying,” said McGill President Deep Saini.
The university later pledged to “review” investments in gun manufacturers if protesters left the grounds.
“Students have always been at the forefront of big social justice issues,” observes Taylor Noakes.
In this sense, the pro-Palestinian camps remind him of the student demonstrations against the Vietnam War during the 1960s.
The students demanded the withdrawal of the American army from the war, which they considered immoral.
No one inside the pro-Palestinian camps imagines that this is what will bring down the Israeli government, estimates social movements specialist Francis Dupuis-Déri.
“These are enormous, complex causes that a simple citizen movement cannot transform overnight,” notes the professor at UQAM.
However, the movement forces universities to take a position and fuels public debate.
“Those who criticize student movements always have the same type of arguments: you should not demonstrate, you should be studying,” he illustrates.
But it’s the opposite: if there is one place where questioning structures is encouraged, it is on a campus, argues the professor.
Students also have a more flexible schedule and fewer responsibilities than the average worker. “They have the capacity to commit,” adds Francis Dupuis-Déri.
What does history teach us about the possible outcome?
The movement could run out of steam over the summer with the end of classes, with some universities reaching agreements with the demonstrators.
But it could also grow, especially in the event of police intervention.
“Historically, any attempt to suppress student demonstrations has had the effect of multiplying them,” notes Taylor Noakes.
His prediction? “I think anyone who gets in their way will one day be seen in an unfavorable light. »
