Despite the desperate measures of the Charest government, police violence, anti‑democratic laws, and an unprecedented propaganda campaign by the bourgeois media, the "Battle of Quebec" continues to deepen.

Thanks to their unity and determination, the Quebec students have moved from opposition to massive tuition increases into a much broader fight to defend democratic rights and to oppose the anti‑people, austerity agenda of monopoly capital. This just struggle deserves the unflagging support of workers, progressives and democratic‑minded Canadians.

In the heat of this battle, there should be no space for timidity or hesitation, much less capitulation. The silence/refusal of the right‑wing leadership of the NDP and among some in trade union movement to support the students' struggle renders a disservice to their own members and to the Canadian people in general.

Pathetic pleas for "social peace" in the midst of an all-sided capitalist offensive against the social rights and conditions of youth and working people are inexcusable.

We must use every opening, every possibility to extend our solidarity, and to link it with other fronts of struggle against capitalist barbarity, imperialist aggression and war across Canada and internationally. This is everyone's fight.

With unity and solidarity, it can be won!

Miguel Figueroa is leader of the Communist Party of Canada

July 1, 2012