Some of the largest student protest rallies in recent years took place on April 28, a national day of action (NDA) in defence of student unions. Fred Fuentes, a member of the socialist youth organisation Resistance, spoke to a number of student activists about their response to the rallies and how they thought the federal government's planned "voluntary student unionism" legislation could be stopped.
"The student response was pretty overwhelming at Sydney Uni", said Michael Janda, Sydney University's education officer. "We had at least 4000 people out — definitely the largest student rally since 1999." The rallies in 1999, were triggered by the last attempts by the federal Coalition government to introduce VSU at the national level.
Rebecca Barrigos, the national education officer of the National Union of Students (NUS), agreed that it was a "good turnout, with some pretty sizable rallies". The NDA was coordinated by NUS.
Barrigos believes the demonstrations were big because "the issue has resonance with students, amongst a broad layer than just the number of students the organised left is able to mobilise on any given day... I believe it was a good beginning for the campaign. I also think that we need to be emphasising now that it was just the beginning of the campaign, that if we are going to defeat VSU this year we are going to need to continue to mobilise these numbers and more...
"I'm not convinced these students will be held in the campaign unless we go back to campus and do the hard work to build the [education] collectives."
Barrigos does not believe that the April 28 NDA generated a new layer of student activists outside of the existing student left. Developing a new layer of activists on campus "is going to be critical to maintaining the momentum the campaign now has, and to be able to mobilise greater numbers in semester two".
Most campus education collectives have not yet witnessed a dramatic increase in student participation. However, this is not true at Wollongong University. Describing the turnout for April 28 as "amazing", Wollongong University education officer Jenna McConnochie explained: "We mobilised 300 students for the rally at Wollongong [the day before the NDA] with a very small team — probably about 10 people in our collective."
However, she remarked that at "our first collective meeting since the rally we had nearly 30 people, so we have already tripled our numbers as a result of that action. We think that the very next action will be bigger and stronger and will have a bigger team to coordinate it."
Asked what it was that students at Wollongong University had done to achieve this, McConnochie said: "We had a stall every day with a petition, contact list and information pamphlets that people could take away. We also had people out there liaising with students at lunchtime most days, just sitting down and talking to them about what the legislation is really about. It is nothing special. What our success is down to is that students care about this — everybody realises that they will be affected and that our rights collectively will be affected."
With the Coalition parties set to get control of both houses of federal parliament from July 1, some have asked if the anti-VSU movement can win. Although realistic about where the campaign is now and the struggles that lie ahead, McConnochie believes this is possible.
"I really do think that we can win this campaign when very early on in the piece we have 6000 in Sydney, and 10,000 nationwide. That's an incredible response and I think that there's no point fighting without a big goal in mind. The amount of time it took to turn Wollongong University from apathy into action was not huge. If we can keep this momentum happening and keep informing people about the effect this legislation will have on them personally and us collectively, then I really do think we can make the government listen to us."
Janda believes that from past experience VSU can be stopped "by putting enough pressure on the Liberal Party and making them feel some electoral pressure, some community pressure so that the party room asks that the legislation be removed or at least modified".
He encouraged students to get involved in their campus education action groups and cross-campus networks. "But if they don't want to have that level of involvement, then writing letters to their MP or senators and even ringing them up or going into their office is really important. The government still claims that most students support VSU and that the number of students [at the rallies] didn't represent the majority view, that this is a tiny minority view. So we have get those students who don't come to rallies to express their opposition in the form that they feel comfortable with whether it is a petition, a phone call or writing a letter."
"What it will take to win, and defeat VSU this time is no less than what has been required to stop VSU in the past", said Barrigos. A key part of this, would be "big, centralised displays of student outrage that can build an atmosphere that sends a clear message to the Howard government that they won't be able to get away with implementing VSU and that, even if there is some kind of legislation implemented, that the scene will be set to make sure that it becomes a dead letter, that it is never actually implemented".
NUS has already endorsed a national day of campus actions for May 19 under the slogan "Stop traffic to stop VSU", and is discussing the possibility of a number of NDAs next semester as well as a national convergence on Canberra for the first sitting of parliament on August 9.
Linking the issue of VSU to the current attacks on higher education funding and access will undoubtable play an important role in this campaign. The push for VSU comes only a year after the Howard government allowed HECS fees to be increased by 25% and allowed universities to open up 35% of places to upfront full-fee paying students.
In the last few weeks, Curtin University and La Trobe University voted to introduce full fees for the first time, while the University of Technology Sydney is planning to follow suit. The starkest indication of the direction the government is taking public education was Newcastle University's announcement on May 3 that it was going to sack at least one fifth of its staff because of a severe budget deficit.
The May 7-8 Sydney Morning Herald reported that, because of government funding cutbacks, most of Australia's 40 universities are dependent on attracting full fee-paying foreign students to make up the financial shortfall. According to the SMH: "These students students now make up one in five enrolments in Australian universities. But growth in numbers of foreign fee-payers who rescued universities from collapse has now slowed, leaving institutions vulnerable."
Commenting on this situation, federal education minister Brendan Nelson told the SMH that, just like "our wheat producers, our coal producers", universities were subject to "the vagaries of the international marketplace". This comment perfectly sums up the federal government's attitude to higher edcucation — the Coalition wants it to be a money-making business just like coal mining.
The presence of members of a number of trade unions at the April 28 rallies pointed to the potential for increased student-worker solidarity against the government's attacks on higher education and workers' union rights.
McConnochie believes such an alliance is crucial. "At Wollongong, we are looking at this campaign very much in the context of unity and creating links with other people that are going to be affected by the government's education and industrial relations reforms. We are working very closely with the NTEU [National Tertiary Education Union] and are planning a combined action for May 25 where we will march together from Wollongong Uni to the centre of Wollongong. It will be a day of giving and getting support from each other."
From Green Left Weekly, May 11, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.