Constructive criticisms of the contingent Désolé de ne pas écrire ca en bon québécois mais chu juste un pauv bloke qui sen crissait de ses cours de français en secondaire et ça me gène de faire foule derreurs dgrammaire. La, je crois que je menace moins la langue française quand jecrive en anglais. I like discussing the things that we couldve done better. I cant emphasize enough that this is in no way a reproach against anyone at the march or on the committee. It was a great day, I had a great time, and I have nothing but respect for the people that started Printemps 2015. Theyve done a great job, and they are clearly débordé not only with this, but with exams and other responsibilities. I just feel that theres always room for improvement, and I hope we can build an environment within this movement where people feel comfortable to express themselves, to criticise with love, and to do so without it leading to chialage (theres no English word that really properly expresses this ;)). So, heres some things that perhaps couldve been done differently: There was little preparation for la suite. I believe that at every event we should be prepared to tell people about the next event. Too often, people are thinking well that was nice, now what? and no one has an answer for them and they get discouraged Unfortunately, the calendar on printemps2015.org still doesnt have the date for the next big meeting (which is Dec 10th, 19h, probably at Concordia, btw). We should also have had posters, flyers, and announcements about the meeting. There are also a number of other interesting events coming soon (Plan Nord 3, Sud Ouest night march for better housing, various workshops, etc.) that couldve been communicated. I think its also very useful to propose an after party where we can relax, socialize, and most importantly - debrief. Immedately after marches is often the best moment for channeling peoples energy and passion towards constructive ends. The contingent wasnt as big as it couldve been, although there were plenty of people elsewhere in the march who wouldve participated if they were aware of it. I think there were a few reasons for this: We shouldve had a visible presence much earlier. The contingent event page asked people to be there at 13h. It probably shouldve been 12h. I got there at 12h45 and all i saw were two punks with Anarchist flags. In my opinion, we shouldnt be blaming the unions for taking up too much space at the march, we should be blaming ourselves for not taking up enough. I think we need to be louder and more aggressive, and we need people to know that if they dont want to participate in the marche santé, then they should come with us. One possibility is that we head off in a completely different direction, in a visible way. Another is that we wait patiently in a spot where the march will pass by, and we can encourage people to join us. That said, joining the march in the way we did didnt go well. Our contingent was immediately dispersed, and we lost our strength and energy. This may have been less apparent to the people at the front of the contingent, but those of us at the back were dispersed and isolated. I think we also lost strength when we circled Place des Arts. Taking Balmoral street (the little street running along the embankment next to Place des Festival) and then turning into the crowd on St-Cats caused much confusion, spreading out, and loss of energy. Of course, mobilization couldve gone better, but it always can. I think those of us non-student participants need to start talking about how were going to mobilize the local grassroots community. Can we please, please, please stop marching through the Plateau? Centre-Sud and Hochelag are much more interesting for various reasons. And it would be nice to do the Sud Ouest some day. We never do the Sud Ouest. What happened at the end of the march at Mont-Royal metro? Something happened, we sorta withered, and people started leaving. At the back we had no idea what was going on. Next time, it would be nice to have some pre-organized leadership on some of this stuff. If some trusted, known people were to get together beforehand, plan something out, then propose it to the group, I would follow you. Even if I didnt completely agree with your plan id follow you for the sake of solidarity. If your plan sucks, I wont follow you next time. If any of my comments, by their wording or content, have caused any offense, I truly apologize. If you were the person responsible for a decision that Ive criticized, please know that im ignorant of your responsibility, and so the criticism towards you is unintentional.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 03:12:30 +0000
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