The Canadian Union of Public Employees, local 3903 (CUPE 3903) at York University in Toronto began our strike on Rosa Luxemburg’s birthday, March 5. With our practice of rank-and-file driven “bargaining from below,” and a well-earned reputation for being “strike-happy” it seemed an apropos day to hit the lines. Certainly more so than in 2008 when we hit the lines the day after Obama’s election. You can bet that plenty of signs that day read “Yes We Can.”

CUPE 3903, which represents 2,800 teaching assistants, contract faculty, and graduate/research assistants at Canada’s third largest university, has a reputation for militancy. In 2000–01, union members waged a relatively successful 11-week strike. An 85-day strike in 2008–09 remains the longest university sector strike in Anglo-Canadian history and only ended when the union was legislated back to work by ruling provincial Liberals. In 2015, 3903 was out a month. Both 2008 and 2015 saw division cutting through the local’s left. This year’s strike, on the other hand, sees 3903’s broad left as united as it has been in a decade.

It’s worth emphasizing that these strikes are not temporary work stoppages by a small number of workers, but open-ended affairs that cause significant disruption. They are boot camps for learning about solidarity, reproducing our “militant minority.”