Clash Mtl on Nostr: The seriousness of the clashes on the campus of McGill University on June 6th has ...

The seriousness of the clashes on the campus of McGill University on June 6th has taken some time to fully come into view. Students repeatedly held the line at barricades against riot police charging, swinging batons, pepper-spraying and firing tear gas. One barricade made up of shelving units survived a direct riot police charge for close to 5 minutes due to protesters pushing back. Many protesters were unaffected by pepper spray thanks to adequate eye protection and umbrellas, while many others were treated with Maalox and able to return to the fray. A protester repeatedly punched a riot cop in the face. Many protesters were injured by baton blows and riot police charges. Groups of protesters used the multiple entrances to campus to frustrate police attempts to clear the area. Anything that could be used as a projectile was picked up and launched at the police, though good options like rocks were hard to come by.

We are certainly missing things, but it is clear that the battle was more extensive and prolonged than anything witnessed in this city since 2012. While some riots since then were more materially destructive, protesters on June 6th targeted the police because they were oriented towards a tactical goal: maintaining the occupation of the James Admin building and preventing the arrest of their comrades. Sometimes a tactical defeat -- the building occupiers were indeed arrested, all charged with breaking and entering -- is a strategic success. Definitively breaking with pacifism, proving that we can hold the line and take care of one another when it really matters, the joy of the unmediated attack on state forces; the value of these experiences that hundreds of young militants will carry forward is immeasurable.