To be a student and not a revolutionary is a contradiction

Mick Reynolds
Ógra Shinn Féin

“To be a student and not a revolutionary is a contradiction” – Salvador Allende

The words of the Chilean leader Salvador Alende may not hold much relevance to the ordinary student in Ireland in the 21st century.

However, at it’s basic level this statement does tie in with the ideal of what a student should aspire to: to question the norms of society, to challenge, to debate, to get involved in wider society and explore and develop your opinions.

These ideals become especially important with regard to the current economic climate and mishandling of the economy by successive governments on this island. Last December, Ogra Activists gathered together in the Rebel County to launch the Educate To Be Free Campaign, dedicated to pursuing the ideals of a fair and equitable education system for all who aspire towards it.

But whilst acknowledging the need and benefits for a campaign like Educate To Be Free and the work it has done, it is also important to reflect on the conditions which have necessitated its creation. The main impetus for the establishment of this year’s national campaign was the announcement in September by the Education Minister Bat O’ Keefe that third level fees, graduate tax, and an increase in the registration fee were all in the pipeline over the months ahead.

This announcement sent shockwaves through the student population, but the supposed leaders and defenders of student rights, U.S.I, were either unwilling to or constricted by their positions to take the actions necessary to tackle the issue head on. A cursory glance at the potential damage that the re introduction of fees could cause beings up horror scenarios.

A levy of 5000 Euro is the proposed aim of the government will price thousands of families out of education. The government would like to portray the proposed re introduction of fees as a tax on rich post graduates who supposedly can afford to pay it. The fact of the matter is that education should be free for rich or poor, and the proposed re introduction would primarily affect those families of a lower income.

Parents will be forced to budget for one child going to college whilst another is deprived the right to further education.

It surely ranks amongst the most heinous mis deeds of a government on this island that despite a decade of unprecedented economic growth, Irish families will soon face a situation where the aspirations of their children are equitable to factors that lie out of their control.

It is not unfeasible that vast areas of the country could become unemployment blackspots with the knock on effect of families being deprived of proper education. 21st Century Ireland is already massively over dependent on private education and even a small increase in the student registration fee would price thousands of students out of a viable opportunity to further their education.

As with seemingly every cutback that the Fianna Fail - Green government makes, it will be the most vulnerable who suffer most, as special needs services and small class sizes will be cut straight away.

My own university UCD has so called executive vice presidents who are on exorbitant wages for essentially chairing board meetings, one of whom has the title of “Executive in charge of Innovation”. As far as I can see, colleges on this island are still being dominated by elite cadres whose shadiness and lack of transparency are just a smokescreen for pure unbridled greed.

I’m not saying that the education system in Ireland is acceptable as it is, like everything under this government it is laden with inequality and cronyism, and though the government tries to paper over the cracks, the proposed re introduction of fees shows just how disastrous the whole system could become if we don’t fight for a fairer system with direct action.

For me, direct action is as word that is bandied about too much with no real definition. Is direct action something other than sitting round a room talking, doing a letter writing campaign or holding up placards outside a building? Or is it engaging in civil disobedience and breaking the rules of law in order to advance our cause?.

There will always be people who fall on either division of how best to deal with the problem of Fees and other inequalities within the education system, and it is only be working together with other organisations dedicating to fighting fees that we have a chance of initiating real change on this island.

It is not for us to explain why the government dropped the ball within the education system or to reconcile differences with them. We are not apologists for the incompetence and corruption that pervades politics in modern day Ireland, and we should be prepared to take any and all means necessary to ensure that there is a just and unbiased education system for all people in Ireland today. This is why student activism is so important in contemporary Ireland, at a time when there is so much to be uncertain about and so much to be questioned.

There is something of a resistance from wider society and students in general to see young people as a group that can exert real power and push their own agenda in Ireland. Perhaps because young people across Ireland are so divided across many different universities in all corners of the island there is something of a difficulty in realizing that regardless of what avenue young people are pursuing in life, they have the power to exert real change on this country.

It is clear that there is a sizeable majority of students who are opposed to any attempts to hike the registration fee or introduce third level tuition fees. Whilst this issue is obviously a very worrying and imperative problem that will affect students, it also gives the student movement in Ireland its greatest chance to present their agenda to the ruling elite for many years.

The problems which students have faced over the last couple of years have largely been localisized and as such do not turn into relevant nationwide campaigns. The Fees issue is something which will have an impact on every student or prospective student in Ireland, and gives students a chance to build a national campaign that will work towards increasing the power of students to affect change and develop a campaign that gets media recognition and the support of the people of Ireland and politicians.

But student activism cannot stop at protesting and national demonstrations. Students need to contribute their ideas and take part in localized campaigns in and around their campus and community, and the Educate To Be Free campaign can facilitate this.Ogra Shinn Fein are one of the main movements mandated and to be relied upon by students to take a direct message to the government that we are not going to sit back and accept the education system as it stands to persist in modern day Ireland.

But we are still a growing organisation, and we need to boost our numbers and engage in more direct action that gets media attention, and we cannot do this without student support.

We have a job of work to do, but provided we don’t get sidetracked, and provided we gain the support of the ordinary students, this is a battle we can win. So participate in the debate today and join a movement that won’t accept a two tier education system.