Students should not become foot soldiers for the ALP

Labor factions in the National Union of Students are seeking to put significant resources into the 2016 federal election campaign. The goal is to emulate the 2014 We Are Union campaign, which was pivotal to the election of the Victorian Labor government under Daniel Andrews.

We all want to see the back of the Liberal government. The student movement has campaigned hard, and successfully, to defeat its attempt to deregulate higher education.

But there are two problems with the proposal to be part of a broad campaign to elect the ALP.

First, Labor has shown itself to be no friend of students. It was the federal Labor government, when last in office, that tried to push through $2.3 billion worth of cuts to higher education. It currently supports the Liberal proposal to transform a $1,000 biannual government scholarship for impoverished students into a loan, adding to the already massive debt burden of students.

Second, the Victorian model on which the proposed campaign is based has not delivered for the people it was supposed to. Up to 5,000 rank and file unionists and union organisers mobilised to door-knock marginal seats, volunteer on phone trees and campaign against the anti-worker incumbent Liberal government.

Labor’s campaign put workers at the forefront. But premier Andrews’ record in office has not been true to the efforts of those who put him there. In particular, he has refused to come good on his promises to the United Firefighters Union, which made up a large part of the campaign. Victorian UFU state secretary Peter Marshall explained to Red Flag:

“Seven hundred and twenty firefighters were on polling booths on election day. Picking 12 marginal seats, they door-knocked 43,000 homes, they were involved in 23 door-knocks on top of those that Trades Hall Council organised … They put massive resources into changing the government here in Victoria to get a better deal, and they’re being sadly let down.”

Andrews promised to end the Liberals’ war on firefighters. However, the UFU has been locked in a dispute with the state government, which is attempting to make savings in infrastructure and training that could significantly compromise firefighters’ safety, while simultaneously slandering the UFU in the press for making “unrealistic” demands.

Victorian firefighters have gone for more than two years and eight months without a new EBA, seeking one that doesn’t undermine safety or refuse a decent wage increase. Marshall explains, “Daniel Andrews, 11 days before he became premier, told the firefighters that he valued, honoured and respected the work that the firefighters did and would make sure that happened. But the reality is that he hasn’t.

“The Andrews government’s prior election commitments and promises of bargaining in good faith, respecting, valuing and honouring the work that firefighters do, were no more than political rhetoric for the sole purpose of getting elected.”

Despite this, the NUS proposal lists “important legislation for firefighters” as a key outcome of the state election, claiming this as a reason to repeat such a campaign federally. In reality, as Marshall argues, the treatment of firefighters has been “a disgraceful exercise”.

NUS must learn from the experience of the UFU, whose members ultimately were betrayed. Students should not think that we won’t also be tossed aside if Labor is elected.

Running a federal election campaign that all but calls for a vote for Labor will undermine the ability of NUS to defend the rights of university students by taking resources away from building an active and independent campaign – the very thing that is needed to rebuild the student movement.