The autumn and winter of 2010 saw the sudden and dramatic re-emergence of radical student movements, with mass student uprisings taking place across Europe and the United States in opposition to both the austerity measures being levelled against ordinary people as a result of the crisis in capitalism, and the neoliberal restructuring of education to the needs of capital. Across the Western world, governments are introducing measures to transform universities into “factories of precarious workers” – institutions devoted to the production of graduates equipped with the skills and ideas desired by industries increasingly reliant on immaterial and mental labour, turning ideas into profits, and who are willing to work in increasingly precarious situations, either entirely unpaid, or for increasingly low wages on increasingly short-terms contracts – a transformation that is increasingly meeting resistance from both students and academic staff, and which has only accelerated since the present crisis began. Meanwhile, in the Arab world, students have played a key role in the mass uprisings to topple Western-backed thugs such as Zine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak.

Springtime is a collection of writings from those at the forefront of the student resistance in the UK, Italy, France, California, Greece, and Tunisia (with brief mentions Algeria and Egypt) – a kind of scrapbook of resistance, from a diversity of perspectives and political backgrounds – featuring both first-hand accounts of the student protests, and more theoretical writings on the changing character of education, labour and student politics, as well as some historical flashbacks, in which, unsurprisingly, May 68 features heavily.

In each section we get a flavour of the peculiarities of the student movements in various countries. In the UK, we encounter the raw anger of a generation of young people betrayed by the political system – first by Labour and then by the Liberal Democrats – who suddenly find themselves faced with the trebling of tuition fees, the scrapping of the Education Maintenance Allowance, and future of indebtedness and precarious work, if they’re lucky, and unemployment if they’re not. In France, on the other hand, the youth are well aware of their power as political actors, having defeated right-wing government reforms on several occasions; but we also encounter a working-class divided along racial lines, with occasional clashes between the immigrant population of the banliues and the proportionately more white/middle-class student movement. In the US, unlike most of Europe, student occupations of their campuses are met almost immediately with swift and brutal police repression: with beatings and mass arrests. In North Africa, then, we encounter student resistance against the crude and brutal face of capitalist imperialism: the Western-backed thugs and their repressive authoritarian regimes whose role is to maintain Western influence over some of the largest energy reserves in the world.

The Italian section, in particular, merits careful reading. In one particularly excellent piece, we are given quite an in-depth discussion of the Bologna process, which is changing the character of higher education across Europe: directing universities towards the production and normalisation of precarious labour (a process in which students are simultaneously treated as consumers of a product, and raw materials being transformed into commodities), devaluing degrees, turning universities into psuedo-corporations run by business elites, and pushing a greater and greater debt burden onto students and their families. In order to fulfil the dual tasks of producing more graduates for industry and maintaining the university’s role in sustaining class privilege, “diversified inclusion” mechanisms are employed to create a two-tier system,with the best opportunities being made available to the children of the wealthy.

The thread of Counterfire (a UK Trotskyist group that broke away from the Socialist Workers’ Party in 2010) politics runs throughout the book, which brings an unfortunate element of sectarianism into the mix. In the introduction, for example, “fashionable sections of the left” (i.e. anarchists and autonomists) are decried for denouncing the state, while a substantial part of the UK section is devoted to arguing that the successes of the spontaneous, leaderless and decentralised student movement will come to nothing if they fail to adopt Leninist forms of leadership and organisation. Additionally, too much space is devoted to historical contextualisations, which often amount to little more than nostalgia for May 68, Students for a Democratic Society et al., with very tenuous links to the modern day student rebellions, which are beautiful and inspiring entirely in their own right, and not as re-enactments of uprisings from over forty years ago.

But these are minor criticisms of what is ultimately a fascinating, stimulating and inspiring collection of texts. Where Springtime is most powerful is not in the complex theoretical and ideological discussions which the Left so loves to preoccupy itself with, nor in the rhetorical flourishes and analysis-poetry of some of the book’s more stylistically accomplished sections, but in the simple stuff: the individual experiences of betrayal, abandonment, despair, anger, radicalisation, and hope – of a generation abandoned by their supposed leaders both in mainstream politics and the supposed counter-power of the trade and student unions and the official left learning to stand up for themselves together. As one young British Further Education student put it:

“I used to moan at people who said politicians were all liars and were all as bad as each other. I realise now how naive I was. Protesting against tuition fees has not only allowed me to express my opinion, it has allowed me to grow up.”

WORDS: Aidan Rowe

Review: Springtime, the New Student Rebellions is a post from Free Education for Everyone

On the 16th of November, a meeting called to plan future actions attracted a large mix of students, including many from outside the FEE/SSN activist groupings on campus. It was decided that targetting the University administration was the best tactic from here, with Berties own day in the sun still the most tightly guarded secret on campus.

Free Education for Everyone NUI Maynooth appeal to anyone with information on Bertie Ahern in NUI Maynooth to email us, with full confidentiality promised, at feemaynooth@gmail.com

Students on campus have decided to aim to collect hundreds of signatures to deliver to the University administration, to highlight the anger students feel towards the appointment of Bertie Ahern T.D, at a time cutbacks are crippling our University. If you’d like a copy of the petition, feel free to email us and get in touch.

ALSO, various left wing groups on campus, including Free Education for Everyone, will be mobilising to support Maynooth staff on the picket lines next Tuesday. Further details will be posted here following planned consultation with University staff.

NUI Maynooth News: Bertie Ahern Meeting/ November 24th Strike is a post from Free Education for Everyone

UCD Free Education for Everyone are holding a protest against the arrival of pro-fees TD, Bertie Ahern on campus.

Meet outside the library, today at 6:30pm.

Ah Jaysis, a protest? That’s counterproductive lads, cud yis not send an angry email to me secretary instead?

The man who helped build the Irish economy like a house of cards is coming to UCD to chair a LawSoc debate on the Lisbon Treaty. Ahern is still a TD and will get wheeled out to vote for the reintroduction of fees & a fresh set of cutbacks in this Decembers budget – and he’ll get away with it unless some pesky kids can stop him.

In addition, UCD Siptu Education branch are currently fighting against the colleges attempt to force through compulsory redundancies.

In a series of policy documents, both the government and Fine Gael have charted a course for higher education in Ireland. Among the proposals are:

• The introduction of a student contribution (deferred loans, extra prsi contributions) to cover the costs of tuition

• A reduction in public funding with the gap being filled by a reliance on private companies & philantropists (institutionalised charity)

• Redirecting funding away from Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences in order to increase the funding of more ‘commerically productive’ courses

• Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to allow private consortiums to build and manage educational facilities

• Using PPPs to privatise ancillary services such as cleaning, maintenance & security, in order to undermine pay & work conditions

There’s no point standing on the sidelines watching this happen. The future of education is up for grabs – it’s up to students and staff to take control of it.

If the government are going to block our access to education, we’re going to block their access to our campus.

Brian Lenihan blockade 2008 – http://www.indymedia.ie/article/89547
FEE scare off Martin Mansergh 2008 – http://www.indymedia.ie/article/89395
Another one bites the dust. Conor lenihan pulls out 2008 – http://www.indymedia.ie/article/89840
Eamon O’Cuiv gets ‘welcomed’ in NUIG – http://www.sin.ie/site/view/288/
Noel Dempsey gets blockaded 2002 – http://free-education.info/2002/10/16/ucd-students-barr…ding/

brian lenihan protest 2008

FEE protest @ the UCD clinton building 2008

Noel Dempsey gets welcomed to ucd 2002

Dempsey protest @ ucd vet building 2002

UCD FEE Protest: Bertie’s coming to Belfield is a post from Free Education for Everyone

Judicial hearings begin on Monday for some of the NYU 18, who face possible expulsion for their role in the building takeover.

more – http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2009/02/103742.shtml

NYC, USA: NYU 18 Suspended, Protest Sparks Campus Debate is a post from Free Education for Everyone

Or perhaps, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe locked himself away in his office and chose to ignore the cries of 15,000 students marching on the streets of Dublin City.

On February 4 this year, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), of which DCU is not a member, and grassroots organisation Free Education for Everyone (FEE) organised a large scale protest through the capital, the second this academic year. Its aim was to show the government that students are strongly opposed to the reintroduction of fees.

Chants of “No cutbacks, no fees, no Fianna Fail TDs” echoed through the student-heavy crowd. Many raised homemade placards, blew whistles and banged on drums. It was, as protests go, quite successful, but it did not force an immediate turnaround in government decision.

After the budget announcements in October it looked as if senior citizens were more capable of shaking the government than students. Their protests took place on the same day in autumn but it was the actions of the OAPs that saw the government back-track on the over 70s medical card debacle. Students are yet to see such results.

Despite a lack of movement on the government’s end however, the first march to Leinster House was just one event which has kept the campaign against fees in the newspapers.

Last October, at least two people were arrested when 100 students staged an anti-fees blockade of a UCD event being chaired by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan.

Then, on December 5 last year, 11 UCD students were arrested after barricading themselves in Green Party education spokesperson, TD Paul Gogarty’s office and on February 3, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was booed and jostled in NUIG by a group of 20 student protestors.

Minister O’Keeffe is due to put forward a plan to the Dail in April and reports are circulating that fees or a similarly costly student contribution system will be implemented as soon as September. According to the Minister, fees will be paid by people who can afford them, but the parameters surrounding such a means test for families has not been made clear.

Minister O’Keeffe recently told the Irish Times: “At a time of difficult choices for the public purse, there is a strong equity argument that those who benefit from higher education – and who can afford to contribute to the costs of their higher education – should be asked to do so.”

So with his mind seemingly made up, will student protests do much good? It seems that university union heads agree that protests alone will not amount to much.

USI president Shane Kelly says: “To look at the process in isolation is to fail to look at the bigger picture. Protests are not isolated incidences…they’re part of a wider mood-changing process… Overall the campaign has been very successful and we’d hope it’s been taken seriously.”

Similarly DCUSU president Niall McClave believes that the marches are just a small part of a grander plan in the fight against fees.

He says: “I think we have to show the government that we will resist fees and we have to use every tool at our disposal to do that, protests alone won’t do it, but they’re an important part of what we need to do.”

One part of the aforementioned bigger picture is utilising the voting power of students. Voting power has long been used to direct government policy and in November DCUSU ran a campaign that reminded students of the importance of registering to vote.

DCUSU are also stepping up their postcard lobbying campaign which began last semester. Anti-fees postcards were sent to DCU president Ferdinand von Prondzynski and now they are available to send to Minister O’Keeffe.

FEE is also calling on a one day shut down of all Irish third level institutions and is looking for support from other social groups around the country so the government will be more likely to sit up and take notice of students’ requests.

Julian Brophy, spokesperson for FEE in UCD says: “[We need] large support from other social groups such as the trade unions, the teachers in our colleges, secondary school students, and pensioners. Without their support, the government won’t take the student movement seriously.”

Support or no support, the fight against fees continues. If, or when, the fees are reintroduced students and parents will generate revenue for the universities which will only stand to replace the funding previously given by the government. But until the formal discussions in April, students will remain to be a loud voice that even Minister O’Keeffe will find hard to tune out.

The College View (DCU): Free the fees is a post from Free Education for Everyone

About 100 students occupied the university’s administration building from Thursday afternoon. About two dozen protesters remained until morning.

Nationwide Protests

The students had occupied the building as part of a nationwide wave of demonstrations protesting a slew of legislative reforms approved by government the same day.

A group of about 100 students took over the building during the afternoon, and remained on the first and fourth floor of the building located at Yliopistonkatu 4.

“We have had prolonged discussions with different working groups. We need more time before these laws go forward, and the right to discuss the matter, and not just with marginal groups,” said Heinonen.

The students believe that Thursday’s protest action, which also attracted staff members, was successful.

University students and faculty around the country held protests on Thursday over the timetable for university legislation reforms. Demonstrations were held in Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, Oulu, and Joensuu.

http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/02/overnight_student_sit-in_ends_at_helsinki_university_557609.html

Helsinki, Finland: Overnight Student Sit-in Ends at Helsinki University is a post from Free Education for Everyone

Last week, on the 11th of February F.E.E activists in N.U.I Maynooth dropped a reasonably sized banner off the bridge connecting the North and South campuses reading:

NO TO FEES!
WE WONT PAY

This banner remained in place for four days, and the reception to it was very positive.

In light of the removal of that banner by college security, the decision was made to drop another on the 18th of February. This banner was larger, at 4.5 meters. Before finding a new home over the Kilcock Road, it had been seen by plenty of students and locals and was met with a fantastic response. While F.E.E activists encouraged all to attend the national public sector demo in Dublin on Saturday, the banner proclaimed that the government would do far better to ‘BAIL OUT STUDENTS AND WORKERS!’ Its main slogan however was large, simple, and to the point- NO TO FEES.

The campaign has been growing rapidly in NUIM, with activists meeting not only with other students but indeed various workers on campus to, recognising that solidarity between the two groups is essential in our campaign. On the national demo against fees NUIM activists carried a banner proclaiming soldarity with Waterford Crystal workers. Of course banners are just a small part of activism, and currently we’re building bridges (rather than dropping banners off them!) with others on campus so any visiting FF TD’s in future can be met with the same welcome awarded to them by students of UCD, UL and other campuses.

In solidarity with FEE nationwide,
NUIM branch.

Maynooth FEE banner drop report is a post from Free Education for Everyone

The coalition, which includes a diverse number of groups ranging from Amnesty International to the NYU chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, is demanding that the university operate in a more transparent, open, and democratic way. 

Among the student demands are legal amnesty for the participants in the occupation, compensation for workers at NYU whose jobs were disrupted as a result of the occupation, disclosure of NYU’s budget and endowments, and the creation of a student elected “Socially Responsible Finance Committee” that would look into NYU’s investments into companies involved with the occupation of Palestine. 

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2009/02/103597.shtml

New York, U.S.A. – New York University (NYU) Occupied is a post from Free Education for Everyone

Report from UL protest February 2009 is a post from Free Education for Everyone

Trinity News : Students march on Dail is a post from Free Education for Everyone