The following is abridged from a strategy paper prepared by the socialist youth organisation, Resistance, for the National Education Conference in Melbourne, December 6-7.
In 1998, for the first time, Australian undergraduate students will enter university by paying up-front fees. Attempts to reduce staff, cut courses and library services continue, in order to make up for lost government funding. It is imperative that the campus-based movement oppose these changes and organise to stop their implementation.
At the same time, there is an increased ideological battle as the federal government seeks to justify the ongoing privatisation of our universities and a shift towards students 'paying their way', the latest example being the much-vaunted West Review.
The prospects for increased national pressure on the federal government are good. The Howard government has been weakened in the last month through widespread protest against the proposed abolition of native title on pastoral leases and the charging of bonds on nursing homes. These successful campaigns make it less likely that any further major attacks on the higher education system will take place in 1998.
The student movement in 1998 has to rise to the challenge of both providing ongoing campus-based opposition to the implementation of education restructuring and initiating a national campaign against the federal government which exposes the push to privatise education and forces a back-down.
A national campaign
Resistance believes that the National Union of Students, student activist groups and student organisations should initiate a Coalition for Public Education — a formal alliance with the National Tertiary Education and Industry Union and other staff unions, TAFE organisations such as the Victorian TAFE Students Apprentices Network, the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations and the Australian Education Union — to organise a sector-wide campaign.
Such a coalition would be built around defence of the principle of a fully publicly funded, universally accessible and equitable education sector, and around the demands "Stop privatising education", "Increase funding to public education", "No up-front fees" and "A living income for all".
The campaign would consist of the following elements:
- a national sector-wide strike and national day of action on April 2 involving all high school, TAFE and higher education students and staff;
- a charter in defence of public education to be signed by the organisations participating in the Coalition for Public Education, eminent educationalists, politicians and figures in the public eye, which clearly repudiates the federal government's privatisation plans and calls for a reversal in approach;
- printing this charter and its signatories in the major newspapers two days before the strike and national day of action, to maximise national attention;
- a second national day of action on May 5, involving students in higher education and other sectors interested in taking part;
- a concerted campaign in tandem with the above, consisting of a variety of actions — petitions, rallies, occupations, letter-signing days, fax-ins, bike rides; and
- a possible cavalcade to Canberra in June.
Campus campaigning
Any national campaign against fees must be backed up by a continuation of the campaign on individual campuses.
Significant experience has been gained in running such local campaigns over the last few years. Particularly significant are the campaign at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and the lessons the student movement can draw from it.
The RMIT campaign was successful, not because of some magic formula (it wasn't just the occupation, or the referendum demand, or the alliance with staff, or any other individual aspect), but because of the overall strategy followed and the way these tactics were used to support that.
Given this experience, we should:
- put far greater emphasis on building strong alliances with staff;
- hold staff-student general meetings on a regular basis, built by staff unions where possible and organised separately where not;
- picket any university fee-paying centres during enrolment, and focus on preventing the administration of the fee;
- encourage more discussion by on-campus activist groups and student organisations about what specific demands, in addition to stopping or reversing the introduction of fees, can be put forward which are winnable, attractive to students and staff, and able to increase the pressure on university administrations; and
- demand a binding staff/student referendum on any decisions about fees. This was crucial at RMIT in applying pressure to the administration, winning public support for the campaign and raising the issue of how and for whom the university is run.