Written in 2006 by current Labour Party Councillor, Dermot Looney.
Dermot Looney leaves UCD once and for all with confidence in future radicalism.
For other accounts of the last time the government tried to introduce fees in 2002- 2003, see here and here
Going to UCD was the biggest mistake of my life to date. I never had the career orientation of those for whom Medicine is the automatic CAO choice and whose entire life from the seesaw to the grave was mapped out at age 8. But come the Leaving Cert I had the vaguest of notions of studying History and Politics in Trinity for some reason. It topped my CAO list, followed by three similar courses in her Majesty’s Inner City Polytechnic and a couple in DIT and DCU. UCD came ninth and tenth. Clearly, my results didn’t work out quite as expected.
I began a course in Social Science the week of the September 11th attacks on the US. Perhaps the timing was fortuitous in a twisted kind of way. The subsequent invasion of Afghanistan allowed for a re-emergence of a shadowed anti-war movement in Ireland. Combined with the run-up to the 2002 general election, the space for political discussion and debate in UCD was simultaneously tolerant and radical. I wasn’t involved in a direct political group or organisation but the rumblings of 01-02 were to be met in a straightforward way with the formation of the Campaign for Free Education group (CFE) in the summer of 2002.
Again, I stood on the sidelines – mostly as a student journalist with this paper – as an amalgam of left wing groups and activists set in train the serious shift in political concentration for years to come in the college. 2002-2003 was a crucial year for student activism in UCD, perhaps the most significant in decades.
CFE provided a radical platorm for change but benefited from indirect influences too. The split in the UCD Socialist Workers’ Party the previous summer had allowed a number of activists to move away from the controlling influence of that party’s leadership and develop divergent but intelligent politics with others on the left.
Simultaneously, the growth of UCD’s other Trotskyist Group, Socialist Youth, along with the actions of Labour Party members and hosts of non-aligned activists contributed to a left dynamic rarely so evident in Irish politics. Even on this micro-level the left were to achieve serious results.
CFE succeeded on both a national and college level, attacking the scandalously lethargic and downright awful Students’ Union administration of Aonghus Hourihane and his cronies while taking direct action at USI protests and affecting a shift to the left in that organisation.
The threat of fees presented by then Minister for Education Noel Dempsey – at one time blockaded into the newly-opened Vet Building by CFE – fostered a mood of real anger amongst ordinary students towards both the government and their own feckless union. The landscape was overshadowed by the threat of war in Iraq and UCD activists were involved at all levels of anti-war activism.
There was direct action at Shannon and protests all over Dublin, including a sit-down protest in front of the Dáil on Day X – the day war broke out – comprised almost entirely of UCD students. The development of Indymedia and the embracing of email groups allowed better scope for communication and debate.
Confidence was sky-high and the power of CFE was realised in the unprecedented swing to the left in the 2003 SU elections. Three of the five sabbatical officers – Paul Dillon (President), Aidan Regan (Deputy President) and Oisín Kelly (Education Officer) – were prominent CFE activists and swung the balance of power in the Students’ Union away from Fianna Fáil for the first time in years.
The story since then has been one of mixed fortunes for the radical left in UCD. The Students’ Union administration of Dillon, Regan and Kelly was perhaps the most effective in recent memory; while the ban on the sale of Coke products will be most remembered (initiated as it was outside of the Students’ Union administration), there were considerable successes in winning better conditions for Nurses and Physiotherapists. Radiographers, for so long ignored by Students’ Union administrations, were given support in their campaign against compulsory prayer seminars, one of the greatest scandals in recent times in Irish third level education.
There were innovative campaigns against library cutbacks – a thousand students taking part in four separate occupations of libraries in Belfield and Earlsfort Terrace – and welfare campaigns were brought to a new level by a Welfare Officer, Jennifer Allen, perceived to be on the right.
The overall ethos of that Union was one of hard work, action from below and better communication. For the first time UCD saw an Access Week, a Green Week, mass attendance at the USI 10K charity walk and involvement by the Union in Anti-Deportation activism.
The landslide election of Fergal Scully in 2004 was seen as a seal of approval from the student body in a radical, active, campaigning type of Students’ Union.
But the subsequent victories of James Carroll and Dan Hayden mark a return to the old type of Union which sees the college authorities and government as unquestionable partners and the Union as little more than a service provider. So where now for the left?
The successes of 2002-03 were brought about by a mixture of a radical background and sustained action by groups of activists working together. There are key lessons the left in UCD can learn from these victories and move towards rebuilding a student movement in UCD.
The ingredients for change include a conscious effort to move away from sectarianism; all victories have been won by progressive activists coming together.
Moving away from the keyboard wars of ucdsu.net and onto actual activism, meeting students where they are with sustained campaigns is crucial. Continuing action outside the narrow prism of UCD politics is vital too, linking with other activists around the country to reclaim USI and establish grassroots campaigns outside the USI structure.
Influence within the Union can come with a broad election platform in elections to UCDSU Council this coming October. Influence in UCD outside the Union can come with support for staff alienated by Brady’s corporate project and in supporting the independent media.
2002-03 can’t be repeated, nor should it be. But the new generation of activists can take heart from previous achievements in building a better, fairer UCD. I won’t be there to see it but the biggest and best mistake of my life might just continue for some years to come.
