The occupational failure, where to now for USI

national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Friday August 20, 2004 16:49 by Ciaran Weafer - UCDSU deputy.president at ucd dot ie

Much debate has been taking place over the last few days regarding the success, or not, of the occupation of the department of education on Tuesday. By engaging in an occupation we are taking a particular stance. It is a form of direct action which means that the action has a direct effect on the people involved. You take a stance, issue demands, and do not move until those demands are met or you are forcibly removed. If your demands are met you have been victorious if you are removed the fight moves to another day but the victory lies in the fact that you have shown an unflinching belief in your tactics and what you stand for and a commitment to continue to bring the fight to the powers that be. Anything less is a failure. As such the occupation of Tuesday last was, in this regard a failure.

This is not to deny that the decision to occupy a government building and the fact that so many people were willing to do so was very positive, and certainly a move in the right direction for USI.

The organisation however, must now stand back and honestly and critically asses the events and desist from the self important back patting and victorious rhetoric which followed the demonstration last Tuesday. It is an unfortunate reality that the student movement now looks weak in the eyes of the government. In a vain attempt to be respectable, through engaging in negotiations and undermining those participating in the occupation, certain members of USI officer board have now made a mockery of occupations as a form of direct action. Instead they have turned them into nothing more then another opportunity for a photo shoot and some quick sound bites on the radio. If those involved in the “occupation” can see through the empty threats of a sustained campaign it is unlikely that the minister is quaking in his boots at the prospect of a USI style sustained campaign of photo shoots and drinking coffee. It is only through action which directly attacks the state and brings those in power down from the pedestals they have placed themselves upon that we as a collective unit can hope for victory. The idea of an occupation and the success of taking over so many rooms should be acknowledged. I myself could even be found eating humble pie at one point early on in the day. However what had the prospect of being one of the most successful USI demos in many years and genuinely giving the government something to worry about finished with the “backbone” of USI campaigning force voluntarily leaving a building they had occupied only 5 hours before hand despite having vowed not to leave until the minister HIMSELF came to address them. We must now learn from the mistakes made on Tuesday and move forward. So where to now for the campaign?

First of all we must be clear what exactly it is we are campaigning for. We must part with tired slogans of “we don’t wana pay no fees, we just wana get degrees”. We have lost the battle if we can’t see past our own selfish interests. We merely come across as pretentious middle class spoilt upstarts who don’t want to part with drinking money so cynically disguise this as a campaign calling for equality in education. If we as a collective unit are serious about tackling inequality and injustice in the Irish education system we must fight for a complete overhaul of the system from top to bottom. Our demands must be clear and stretch far beyond our own self interest. This issues that breed inequality from the day a child is born, that ensure the prospect of reaching third level education is a non reality for many, must be challenged. This cannot be done if we focus our energies and channel our resources to a campaign that will change little or nothing for most. If the fee was abolished and we could get on with “getting our degrees” the system that produces the problems of access and inequality still exists. We must call for the resources to be put in place to ensure a truly free education system not one that simply makes life easier for a small few lucky ones. If we are to succeed we must stand back and genuinely analyse what we are fighting for and why? Did people occupy the department of education because its soo like cool to be radical and stuff, because their elected and sorta feel that its what you do when you’re a sabat, because they don’t want to pay an extra 80 euro, or because they feel sickened by the vast and obvious inequalities in education in Ireland and the broad effects this has on society at large, and particularly those living on the margins.

We must fight the state and the people who run the system as a strong united group. If we take a stance on an issue or make a political point, either through marches, sit-downs, occupations or all out war we must be unflinching in our commitment to follow through on our actions and face the consequences. Its time to seriously re address our strategies & aims, and what we hope to achieve before we get too caught up in our own self interest and self importance and delusions of success.

This is not meant as a personal criticism of any individuals but of decisions that were made and tactics adopted. I look forward to seeing if this can create a much needed debate within USI and other SUs about where we must take this campaign in order to be victorious and the tactics we use to do so.