Kiraz Janicke, Perth
"As a student I have seen the impact of the Howard government's attacks on our education in the form of inadequate library resources, overcrowded tutorials and severely overworked staff", Alex Whisson told Green Left Weekly. Whisson is a student at Curtin University and a Socialist Alliance Senate candidate in Western Australia.
Having been involved in a variety of campaigns on campus since 1996, including fighting to defend public education, Whisson sees the recently passed legislation on higher education as "representing the worst extremes of John Howard's user-pays philosophy, where fundamental rights such as the right to education become commodities to be bought and sold.
"The Liberals' legislation will both restrict access to poorer working-class students who deserve places at university, as well as further open the door to higher levels of corporate funding as government funding continues to decline. In the end, Howard wants to see a return to the 1950s model of higher education where universities were strictly for the rich only."
Whisson said that in the federal election the Socialist Alliance will be standing on the clear position of demanding immediate restoration of the $6 billion that has been ripped out of education by the Howard government.
"Some may think this is a fanciful notion, but in reality it could be easily afforded", he said. "Look at the billions being spent on locking up refugees, the Iraq war and the 'Son of Star Wars' program — this is the obvious place to look for the funding."
The Socialist Alliance will also be campaigning for free, quality education, including the complete abolition of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme.
"The pathetic crumbling of the independents in the Senate in allowing most of the Nelson legislation through parliament shows that it is not enough to just lobby the Senate", said Fred Fuentes, a member of the Resistance socialist youth organisation, an affiliate organisation of the Socialist Alliance. He is also a guild councillor at the University of Western Australia.
"Instead, what is needed is a strong student movement that is mobilising both on campuses against university senates that implement the legislation, and on the street against the government where we need to demand 'repeal the legislation'.
"The entirety of the legislation needs to be repealed, and this will only happen if students put enough political pressure on the politicians to force them to do that. Such pressure can only come from mobilising students in publicly visible, mass protest actions.
"Across the country, members of the Socialist Alliance and Resistance will be at the forefront of building open education action groups to get as many students involved in the campaign. We'll be helping to organise pickets, blockades and occupations of university senate meetings that are discussing implementing the fees.
"The campus education action groups will also be key to building the March 31 national day of action against the attacks, as well as building contingents to the March 20 anti-Iraq occupation rallies."
Whisson said: "It's also vitally important to further the links with staff on campus for a united campaign. Last year we saw real links being built between staff and students on campuses.
"When Nelson tried to introduce individual contracts for staff, this was seen as not just an attack on workers' conditions but on the quality of student education. Nelson was forced to back down this part of the package. A united staff and student campaign can make sure we defend our universities and defeat all the attacks."
From Green Left Weekly, February 25, 2004.
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