From the November-December 2015 issue of News & Letters

by Natalia Spiegel

Students at Montreal’s McGill University set up a tent city on campus at the beginning of the school year to dramatize McGill’s stalling on its pledge to disinvest from the fossil fuel industry. Divest McGill member and organizer Kristen Perry said that, after three years of lobbying, “They have chosen not to act despite the urgency of the climate crisis.”

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At the end of September, more than 200 students at the College of Art in New Delhi, India, rallied, marched and sat-in at their school, protesting an outdated curriculum, shortage of teaching staff and lack of sanitation. The school’s administration is refusing to meet with the students.

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Students at Westmount High School in Westmount, Quebec, Canada, formed a picket line outside their school and chanted “Free the Teachers” to protest work-to-rule orders for teachers that students argued would eliminate valuable after-school programs. Some teachers also joined in the protest.

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In Beirut at the end of August thousands gathered at Martyrs’ Square and Riad Solh Square, shouting “You stink!” to protest the paralyzed Lebanese government’s inability to collect the garbage. If trash is removed, it is often dumped in streams, the ocean or illegal landfills. The protesters were viciously attacked by security forces with live ammo.