S11: high school activists debate tactics
BY JODY BETZIEN
MELBOURNE — Beginning September 11, this city will experience a myriad of anti-World Economic Forum (WEF) actions. There is a lot of discussion and debate about how to coordinate and organise these many diverse actions so as to maximise their effectiveness. One particularly important discussion has arisen due to the fact that two high school student actions have been scheduled for September 11, both at the same venue but at different times.
A high school student strike has been called by the Socialist Party, with participants being asked to gather at 9am at Flinders Street Station. Later that day, participants in the high school walkout organised by secondary student members of the socialist youth group Resistance will meet at the station at 1pm.
At first glance, it may appear that there is no political basis for separate mobilisations and that a problem of communication has occurred. However, there a number of important political differences that explain the two tactics.
The two groups' differ in their understanding of the position that high school students occupy in society and also in their assessment of the level of political organisation among high school students.
Resistance points out that there is a fundamental difference between a strike by workers and a "strike" by high school students. The act of refusing to study is does not impact on capitalists' profits and therefore cannot increase students' bargaining power to win political demands.
This being the case, the objective of a high school action is not to maximise the length of absence from classes but maximise the number of students that participate in it. The main question that needs to be answered when considering whether to call a strike or a walkout is which tactic will encourage the largest number of high school students to take part.
When students go to school and then walkout with other students, their action is collective. Students are better protected from retribution by school administrations and, more importantly, gain a sense of the power of collective political action.
Unlike a workers' strike, which is usually preceded by a mass meeting at the which the decision to down tools is made together, high school students at their present level of political organisation are unable to do this. A high school strike relies on individual students deciding to not go to school. Many will succumb to the pressure of parents and school authorities and go to school.
To organise an effective walkout, students must discuss with and organise their classmates in the days preceding the action, produce and distribute leaflets and posters and activate networks of students in many schools. Other students are inspired when they see activists agitating in their schools in the days before, and on the day of, the walkout. When they witness large numbers of students begin to walk out of their schools at the scheduled time, students' confidence is boosted and they are more likely to join in. They will also receive a positive political lesson in the effectiveness of mass action.
This was how the Resistance-organised high school walkouts against racism in July, August and September 1998, which mobilised more than 20,000 students, unfolded. Large numbers of students who would otherwise not have attended, inspired by the lead of their more radical classmates on the day, joined in.
The act of leaving the school grounds in defiance of the administration — and in some cases the police — to attend a political action is a radical one. It is a radicalising experience for the students involved and sends a message to the capitalist elite and to other activists that young people are prepared to take action. A strike can be written off by the biased media and politicians as random truancy rather than collective political action.
This is why Resistance high school members are committed to attending school on S11. They intend to mobilise at Flinders Street with as many classmates as possible.
Resistance's tactics are based on its experiences in organising high school students, from the movement against the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, the anti-racism movement of 1998, to the anti-mandatory sentencing walkout this year.
The key consideration is what tactic will build the largest and most politically effective action. In a different political situation, different tactics, such as a strike, may be appropriate to achieve this.
The key question now is how to best coordinate the two contingents on the day so as to best unify secondary students in action against the WEF.
[Visit Green Left Weekly's special Global Action Against Corporate Tyranny web site at <http://www.greenleft.org.au/globalaction/s11>.]