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© theotherpress ¢ Opinions

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Macdonald Stainsby
OP Columnist

Student radicals? ‘Reduce’ tuition
fees? Excuse me sir, would you hold
my picket sign? I’ve got a riot to
launch.

Well, the odds are still good—
though a little smaller than usual—
that if you are reading this, you did-
n't go to the Canadian Federation of
Students (BC) February 4 National
Day of Action. But at least one
reporter from the Province
Newspaper did, some dude named
Calvin White, who then wrote
Where Have all The Student Radicals
Gone? He's bemoaning, or so it
would appear, the loss of student
radicalism in Vancouver and in our

generation. It seems ironic that even ©

the local mainstream newspaper can
make some cutting commentary
about what was missing from the
atmosphere. He comments, accu-
rately if not regretfully, that “The
recent 19 percent hike puts increas-
es at more than 100 percent in that
short span. A raise of that size in
other sectors would spark a furious
battle instead of the well-behaved
march like the one this week.” No
kidding. However, the article goes
on to say that students have been
artificially domesticated, dumbed

down, and doped up by the estab-

lishment to make us all into good
consumers. Is this correct? Well, thar
the same authorities who are gutting
welfare, attacking women’s rights,
and getting ready to pave their way

to defeating the Pine Beetle also
want to pave our minds free of inde- _
pendent thought is not in doubt.

But the ruling class is always the
dominant cultural expression in
every epoch, correct? Considering
that, the question is why are we will-
ing to go along, and why are we
such patsies for this assault from
Gordon Campbell and his friends?

Well, I think that part of it comes
down to how many of us instinc-
tively know that the problem isn’t
simply Gordon Campbell, at least
not alone. Yes, certainly the New
Democratic Party put a tuition
freeze in place—under Glen Clark,
and after many years of ‘regular’
tuition policy, just before the
provincial election. But that’s not
even really the point, either.

ae Page 10 «

The rally downtown consisted of
constant references to voting, to
supporting and thanking the NDP,
to all manner of approaching the
problems faced today by students.
All the students were, in fact, made
into simple spectators in their own

lives and promised emancipation.
This is not empowering, nor is it~

democratic. It is a top down
approach and it is patronizing. And
considering that the demonstration
was supposed to be about the ‘stu-
dent movement’ ‘forcing’ a freeze or
even a reduction in tuition fees, it
seems only natural that the number
one complaint of the people who
didn’t show up to march was that
the ‘demonstration won't do any-
thing.’ However, talk to your class-
mates. They do, indeed, agree
tuition is out of hand. I got home
just in time to see the local CTV
news report on the demo, which
showed several shrieking students
with placards, a couple of sound-
bite quotes and then on to the next
story. The next story was also about
higher education and tuition fees. It
started with the premise that
”[T]oday’s demonstration really isn't
going to change much.” He then
went into ‘explaining’ the economic
reasons the local capitalists are gut-
ting post-secondary education.
Never mind that whether it is
attacking the environment or wel-
_ fare recipients under Clark, or all of
the above and more under
Campbell, the reasons are never
good enough. The reasons are
always for the sake of the few at the
expense of the many—and students
are no special case, but in fact are
among the most privileged of all the
sectors that the North American
economy is now squeezing out. But
nonetheless, education, as has often
been said, is a right. The question is
not of the truth of that statement,
but in how it is excersized.

The BC CFS might not be in a
position to properly fight for stu-
dent rights. I say this out of know-
ing how many of their leaders coun-
sel against the dangers of going ‘too
far.’ This ‘too far’ is in a world where
it is quite clear, whether you are a
population living under American

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bombs or a student attending uni-
versity or college, the only language
that matters is the language of force.
We students must up the ante—and
we must be willing to do so now.
eld hostage to the

 

needs of bureaucracy, we must be

willing to take risks. The reason that
all unions, student unions, and sim-
ilar NGO political organizing meth-
ods are so contradictory is the

nature of their organizing model.

On the one hand, the cause must be
adhered to, at least rhetorically, yet
on the other the institutionalized
caste that now lives within the
bureaucracy inherently fears the
mobilization of the student popula-
tion. The organizing mode of many
‘representative’ groups is to treat
people as so much cattle: to drag
them from one petition to a ballot
box or a choreographed demonstra-
tion. The actual social power of the
students would render the self-
appointed student leaderships obso-
lete. Once the ‘rank and file’ of any
organization, whether trade union,
environmental NGO or student
formed lobbying groups get into
‘motion, things have a way of spiral-

‘ing beautifully out of the control of

those who would hold them back,
safely, avoiding ‘backlash’ while get-
ting a chance to have ‘dialogue’ with
the administrators.

If any organization facing the
kind of simple obliteration of any-
thing close to a right to education
that is being faced by student
bureaucracies in BC is not counsel-
ing for more than the politics of the
spectator—then the organization
has simply no purpose at all. And
finally, the organization will be
wiped out, just as it is rendered
harmless.

Do we really need one of Canwest
Global’s newspapers to point this
out to us? However, one doesn't
need to go back to Jerry Rubin at
UBC, or SFU in 1968 to rediscover
what student radicalism looks like,
or how to actually win demands in
the course of struggle. We can mere-
ly look across the country and see
where there has indeed been a
tuition battle won by students, at
the opening of this millennium.

In Quebec, there has been a
tuition freeze since the 1970's. This
and more was the legacy of student
radicals of days gone by, themselves
a product of an entire society in
motion. The administration of
Concordia University in Montreal
decided in 1999 to invoke an
‘administration fee’, which Rector
Lowy had bluntly stated was simply
another way around the tuition
freeze. Mobilization of actual stu-
dents was undertaken, with the
threat (and use) of force, coupled
with the legitimacy of a high
turnout referendum—of over 90
percent opposed—to the ‘adminis-
tration fee,’ calling for the democra-
tization of the Board of Governors
and also removing ads from the
bathrooms. This was enforced via
rotating pickets, class boycotting

and the declaration of a strike.
Administrative functioning was dis-

rupted directly, until negotiations
were carried out by administrators
with the students. The administra-
tion was forced to abandon the

‘administration fee's’ second and
third installments, implement

democratization- of the BOG’s and
the elimination of Zoom Media in
the washrooms and the corporate
monopoly on food distribution that
had previously been assessed to
Sodexho Marriott.

Unlike the spectator model
adhered to all-too-willingly by some
Vancouver ‘student movement’
activists, General Assemblies were
used for all the motions, negotia-
tions and direct actions to be
planned, implemented, rejected or
accepted by any students who
showed up. And through this—the
mobilization of student power to
force an issue—the CSU was able to
save the student body millions of
dollars every semester since.

Can this be repeated here? Not on
the same terms, not even close.
There are some unique properties to
Concordia that do not apply. First
off, it is in Montreal which is a more
working class city in terms of
than Vancouver, and
Concordia has always been the most
working class University in
Montreal. There is a tradition at

income

February 18, 2004

 

both Concordia (formerly George
Williams) specifically and in
Quebec in general as to radical stu-
dent actions. In Vancouver, the
attempt to squash our history and
any continuity between then and
now has been largely successful;
aside from heightened political
interest after APEC in 1997, UBC
has been largely dormant. And
Simon Fraser, once one of the most
radical campuses, is now often an
ocean of what seems like apathy.

But apathy is perhaps the most
often mis-diagnosed form of pathol-
ogy that exists; though silence and
inactivity appear as apathy, when
presented with a belief that their
personal actions matter, students are
still able to display what the
Province writer described: “A differ-
ent era would have seen mass walk-
outs, sit-ins, even a general student
strike. Students back then saw
themselves as cutting edge—with
incisive minds that could cut
through the hypocrisy of elders.
They were prepared to make the
world a better place...”

But that better place was never
something that students voted for
from Victoria, it was never about
mailing postcards nor was it about
scolding those who would speak of
taking risks and try to organize the
same. Many today will tell you that
simply because one calls for mass
action doesn’t mean that it can nec-
essarily be accomplished. This is the
song of those who do not want to
fight back and are afraid to even try.
The inverse tune is, however, far
more accurate. By single-handedly
not speaking of trying to confront,
disrupt and radically mobilize,
assurances are silently made that
such will happen from below or
nothing will happen at all.

What have you got to lose?
Crushing debts?

Macdonald Stainsby is a freelance
writer, student, and social justice
activist and can be reached art:
mstainsby@tao.ca