Student conference pledges to keep fighting budget
The 2014 National Union of Students Education Conference was held on 9-11 July in Perth. More than 300 student activists and representatives from every state attended. The agenda focused on building student resistance to the federal budget.
There were two key themes. The first was deepening our understanding of how the budget will devastate Australian students. It threatens to transform higher education by replicating the US university model of huge fees, growing student debt and a gulf between a tiny handful of elite institutions and a sea of underfunded colleges.
The conference heard from academics in the National Tertiary Education Union, who explained the ramifications. In particular, fee deregulation would mean raising the cost of a degree to whatever the market can bear – in some courses, a rise greater than 200 percent. Additionally, the 20 percent reduction in government contributions to HECS would immediately lead to a substantial fee hike. The changes will, over time, exclude substantial numbers of working class students from higher education.
The second theme revolved around the crucial question: how can we fight back? Students this year have mounted an impressive campaign against the Liberal government. There have been mobilisations of thousands of students on national days of action (NDAs), which have formed the backbone of the campaign. These large demonstrations have been coupled with direct action protests such as the Q&A protest in May and the series of protests at universities, which were organised whenever a Liberal minister dared to come on campus.
The result of this approach has been the most successful NUS campaign in years. Labor, the Greens and the Palmer United Party have all pledged to block parts of the government’s education attacks. While their promises must be taken with a grain of salt, the campaign can claim this as an early victory. The decisive test will come when the attacks are put to the Senate, probably in August.
The consensus coming out of the conference was that the next NDA on 20 August, occurring in all major cities, is the key focus for the student movement in the next period. We workshopped effective ways to advertise this demonstration. We need to keep protesting to strengthen the flimsy resolve of the parliamentary opposition to Abbott’s agenda. A lively protest of more than 200 conference attendees at the nearby office of cabinet minister Julie Bishop is proof of our commitment to keep fighting.
There are, of course, live debates in the student movement. The key argument is around what kind of student movement we need. This was discussed at the conference. The left has for years argued that student unions are political bodies whose aim must be to lead students in campaigns for student rights. This argument gained backing from a number of conference guests: organisers from the MUA (WA branch) and the NUW, as well as several Indigenous activists. They all argued strongly for a militant approach.
The more conservative opposing argument is that student unions should retreat from politics, and instead focus on being fiscally viable service providers and lobby groups.
The federal budget shows the inherent flaws in the latter strategy. Students need to build political campaigns to defend their education because failing to do this allows the Liberals to implement their agenda without opposition. All activists need to focus on building the next NDA to maintain the student resistance to everything the Liberals stand for.
