Radicalizing the student body --- from tuition demands to revolution?
Dec 19 2006 14:08
I'm reprinting a message I sent to a general left activist list in Israel, ahead of a student protest march:
Quote:
...
A march by TAU students is set to take place on Thursday, December
21st, at 12:00, in protest of the government's abandoning of reduction
in tuition in favor of "differential" tuition.I suggest that we use this opportunity to enlighten the student body
to the link between their seemingly petty struggle and struggles by
other groups: workers, Palestinians, women, queers, etc.Sample slogans:
5500NIS is over my head - when I'm working for unfair wages
I can't even get a bagrut - because my parents aren't getting paid
How can I register for university - when I'm stuck at a checkpoint?
I pay the same tuition as everyone else - but as a woman, I get paid
less
Even after I finish my PhD - they still won't let me march in the
streets +Pride flag or transgender symbol
...
(the slogans sound much better in Hebrew)
The only response I got in the meantime is from a representative of an existing student group, who wishes to use the march to demand zero tuition and complete public (i.e., non-corporate and non-government) control of the university through a commission of professors, students and Histadrut members. I'm not sure if they're the right people to cooperate with, or be coopted by, but I doubt there's much sense in going there on my own.
Any thoughts?
Dec 22 2006 10:39
#2
we never heard about it in the UK press. yeah if you could let us know when there's an english language report that'd be grand 
Dec 22 2006 16:50
#3
There still is no English report, so I guess I'll just translate one from Ynet's Hebrew edition:
Moran Zalikovich from Ynet wrote:
Students Blocked Roads in Tel Aviv; The Head of the Union was ArrestedThe students, protesting the Shohat Commission, marched down streets in the university's perimeter, bearing torches and confronting the police. The head of the TAU student union and another student were arrested, and one student was injured. The university's academic staff shut down the university for the duration.
About a thousand students from TAU blocked roads in the university's perimeter today (Thu), protesting the creation of the Shohat Commission, which is to review the reform in higher education. The students marched down Einstein and Levanon streets, carrying torches, concurrently with a teacher's strike that shut down the university today for two hours.
When the student march reached the area of the intersection with Namir St.1, they were confronted by the police. The head of the student union, along with another student, Yoav Goldring2, a member of the Hadash bloc in the university, were arrested. Another student was injured and hospitalized.
Gadi Elgazi, a professor of History at TAU and a senior academic staff-member said that "this is not just a struggle for tuition and higher education accessibility, but also against the audacity of Finance clerks who believe that health is a commodity, education is a commodity and human beings are a commodity. They have to understand that people have the basic right to be healthy and study."
The head of the union, Toporovsky, had this to say in the demonstration, before he was arrested: "Unfortunately, the group of clerks controlling this country are the dictators who control the Minister of Education. She doesn't protect us, she does everything she's told. The students aren't suckers, and we will not allow higher education to be privatized." He says that the next step in the student struggle is a nation-wide shutdown of the higher education system in Israel. During the demonstration, students lit Hannukah candles, with each candle representing a department, along with various hopes for reduction of tuition and providing decent working conditions for lecturers.
For the past month or so, students and personnel at the country's universities have been setting up demonstrations and shutdowns against the setting up of the Shohat Commission for reviewing the reform in higher education in Israel. Ynet was the first to publish the fact that the commission will not include any students or representatives of academic staff; instead, the commission is made up mainly of Finance clerks. It is headed by former Minister of Finance Abraham (Baiga) Shohat. The fear is that the purpose of this commission is to raise tuition, set up a differential salary for professiors, and to privatize higher education.
Similar protests were set up yesterday at Bar Ilan University, and a day before that, at Beer Sheva. Students and personnel shut down Ben Gurion University and joined a protest march, carrying a coffin with "Higher Education" written on it. They lit candles for Hannukah and prayed: "that administration promises regarding lowering tuition will be met, and that the Shohat Commission will be dismantled". In addition, they carried signs with the solgans: "No Nation without Education", "To Banish Darkness We Have Come"3 and "Funding Education is Investment, not Spending".
The students and personnel are also protesting the fact that this commission is in session even though the recommendations offered by the previous commission were never implemented, including the lowering of tuition by 50%. Tuition has been lowered by only 26%.
Yuli Tamir, the Minister of Education, Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, and Abraham Hirschson, the Minister of Finance, met this week to discuss the Shohat Commission. In a joint statement after the meeting, they said: "It was decided that the commission be dedicated, at its core, to higher education and to the students in Israel. The commission's purpose is that every elligible candidate will be able to enter higher education. That its cities will not be blocked by the economic situation, and that every citizen will be able to enter the gates of higher education." As for academic staff, the statement further noted that any recommendation by the commission that relates to the common contract will only be implemented through negotiations by the relevant sides, as accepted, and not unilaterally. The Minister of Education repeated her call to students and members of academic staff to take part in sub-committee hearings on higher education.
(This is going to my translation portfolio. Hot damn!)
Dec 22 2006 17:07
#4
Thanks for this comrade.
Dec 22 2006 19:18
#5
I wonder how would we go about it in the UK from changing the current shitness of the NUS and creating a decent organised student body? The trots work from inside, i cant see it working, Uni of Manchester has a really left wing union but is there any others? Also should we build a proper students union.
Dec 22 2006 19:18
#6
Double post sorry.
Dec 22 2006 19:18
#7
Double post sorry.
Dec 23 2006 18:41
#8
WeTheYouth wrote:
I wonder how would we go about it in the UK from changing the current shitness of the NUS and creating a decent organised student body? The trots work from inside, i cant see it working, Uni of Manchester has a really left wing union but is there any others? Also should we build a proper students union.
From my (admitadly limited) experience of the NUS, you'd be better off bypassing them altogether. Not sure what you mean by a "proper students union" though.
Dec 28 2006 16:39
#9
I'm guessing WTY meant a union that actually gives a fuck about students, doesn't perpetuate the division between students and everyone else in the education system (teachers, cleaners, admin staff, etc.), is willing to fight on issues that matter, has democratic processes & control, and generally isn't a vehicle for careerist parasites.
that's just me tho.
out of interest, what do people think of Education Not For Sale? they are Trots but seem to be a bit more open than most front groups, I've got some mates who have a degree of respect for them but I ain't had any contact myself.
IMO it'd be useful to have a network - either as part of the Education Workers' Network or separate - for mutual aid between anarcho-based groups within the education system, in particular for giving advice to one another. most students won't stay at uni more than three years or so and so it can be difficult to find someone on campus who knows what's going on and how things can be fought, whereas having some kind of infrastructure in place to get help/advice/resources from one another would be very useful. some of us have been discussing bringing this up at the education conference in the new year.
that'd be useful for campus-specific things (landlord issues, department closures, fee hikes); same network would also be useful for building action outside of the NUS on issues that affect us on a broader scale such as top up fees.
Dec 28 2006 18:41
#10
treeofjudas, you can put stuff like that up to news. send it to the libcom address (click on the contact link) or pm an admin.
Dec 28 2006 18:58
#11
jef costello wrote:
treeofjudas, you can put stuff like that up to news. send it to the libcom address (click on the contact link) or pm an admin.
I'm not sure about the relevant copyright issues, though. I mean, I never asked Ynet if I can translate and publish this.
Feb 26 2007 14:59
#12
As was to be expected, the student union sold out to the Man (or, in this case, Woman, Yuli Tamir, Minister of Education). So much for solidarity, eh?
Then again, this struggle was definitely not grassroots. It was run and managed by the Student Union and various on-campus left-wing groups, not initiated by the student body. So I guess this was to be expected.
Wish I could say I was any better as a student, but I was very apathetic about those things, too.
Feb 26 2007 15:51
#13
JonnyT wrote:
what do people think of Education Not For Sale? they are Trots but seem to be a bit more open than most front groups, I've got some mates who have a degree of respect for them but I ain't had any contact myself.
They're nearly as bad as Student Broad Left but not quite. People who I met that were in it seemed alright, but as an AWL front group it's probably worth steering clear of.
Feb 26 2007 15:56
#14
Maybe its time that as students we got out own national strategy and network sorted?
Feb 26 2007 15:57
#15
We tried that before, didn't work sadly.
Feb 26 2007 16:01
#16
jimmer wrote:
We tried that before, didn't work sadly.
Well lets try again. We have formed a decent group in manchester called Student Direct Action, it is not affiliated to anyone (though it was set up mainly by SF members), it was set up as a syndicalist orientated student group, which would seek to act like a student union. It is essential that we get organised, we have just finished our first issue of our newsletter 'wildcat' email me if you wanna take a look, we have got a list of demands which we are building material for to campaign around.
Feb 26 2007 16:06
#17
I cease to be a student in about 4 months and with all the work I've got to do, I'm not planning on doing anything political until I've finished. But I will try and persuade some people to get involved.
Feb 26 2007 16:13
#18
jimmer wrote:
I cease to be a student in about 4 months and with all the work I've got to do, I'm not planning on doing anything political until I've finished. But I will try and persuade some people to get involved.
Thanks, we are more than likely going to call for a national conference on this. I think we will succeed this time.
Well, I didn't get enough positive responses (hardly any), so it wasn't worth it losing a working day. Turns out that a few people (including a comrade I know, a member of CPI) got arrested, and the police pulled out their heavy anti-demo guns. Luckily, said comrade wasn't harmed, but it does seem that the Israeli government is getting more repressive lately. Wonder why?
(I'll post a link to a report about it as soon as one is published in English; either that, or I'll translate a Hebrew one)