UCD Shutdown going ahead!

dublin | education | news report

Sunday March 29, 2009 21:51

by Julian - FEE

julianbrophy at gmail dot com

UCD Shutdown - How it happened, what's taking place, and its significance

Back in the beginning of March, F.E.E (Free Education for Everyone) collected enough signatures to hold a policy referendum, which, if passed, would commit the Students Union to two things.
1- To adopt a serious and direct strategy to fight against the reintroduction of fees
2- To hold a one day shutdown of the college in conjunction with the trade unions.
The referendum got passed by a substantial majority, with 83% of the students voting in favour.

The most obvious day to hold the shutdown had seemed Monday, March the 30th, as the ICTU had called for a day of national strikes. Sadly, between the dodgy offers for talks by the government, and the somewhat corrupt and indecisive leadership of the Unions, the day of national strike has been called off; despite huge majorities voting in favour of industrial action. The shutdown in UCD is going to go ahead regardless.

The Students Union decided to call the shutdown despite the Trade Unions pulling out of the national strike, which makes the shutdown a far tougher task, in terms of organizational difficulties. Despite members of UCD SIPTU Education branch being in full support of the student’s plea to the government, lectures will still be taking place, and the library staff will be working. The majority of the sabbatical officers have proven to be indifferent to the shutdown, and have been irresolute in organizing for the day, despite the clear mandate that calls for them to do so. The burden was left completely on the shoulders of F.E.E., and Dan O’Neill, the Campaigns and Communications officer.

The main task will be to stop students attending lectures, and getting them to support the idea of a full boycott of classes. Along with Dan O’Neill, F.E.E. has managed to draw up a plan of action for the entire day, so that students have good reasons not to attend their lectures. Banners and placards will be made at 9 in the morning, followed by decoration of the college in anti-fees chalk graffiti. There will then be a film screening at 11, with a talk on the history of the student movement in UCD. A lakeside rally is to take place at 1 PM, with a variety of speakers from the trade unions and the students union, and a representative of F.E.E. There is a projected march to Hugh Brady’s gaff, the leading message being “Take a 10% (if not more) pay cut!”. Then there will be a variety of recreational activities to follow, including soccer and pool tournaments, and a mass pillow fight. To conclude the day there will be a social event in the Students Bar in the evening, with some well deserved pints and music.

Hopefully the day will be successful, and students will understand just how important it is to boycott classes. It’s a pity the national strike was called off, both for ourselves in UCD, and more importantly for workers around the country. Our shutdown is a culmination of events and actions that F.E.E. have been committed to throughout the course of the year, and the fact that this momentous step has been taken is a good sign for a student movement which tends to lean towards apathy and indifference. If USI cops on and grows some balls, they will push for shutdowns all across the country, which would be far more effective than a series of pointless marches down O’Connell Street. If students, and their representative bodies don’t adopt a hard-line approach now, then the tangibility of defeating fees will become less and less concrete. Let’s hope that the shutdown is the beginning of an upward spiral that will guarantee access to the higher education sector for thousands in years to come.

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Comments (9 of 9)

Complete Failure

by Daithí

Mon Mar 30, 2009 19:20

This day of protest completely failed. Lecture attendances as normal. Only about 60 people attended the 'rally'

still more than 5

by rally

Mon Mar 30, 2009 22:09

Well I have seen worse today. The poor taxi drivers were 5 man strong standing there like a forlorn pack of strays while dozens of taxi drivers were speeding past them and did not even honk their horn in acknowledgement of their 'strike'.
The governement has a full and utter hold of the people and even can stop strikes from going ahead.
OUCH

60?

by Ciarán - WSM- In APC

Tue Mar 31, 2009 09:43

Daithi - 60? Are you serious? Several observiers, independent of FEE or UCDSU estimated at least 300 at the rally at its highest point.

Now now don't be silly

by Crowd Control

Tue Mar 31, 2009 09:50

The two most unreliable sources for crowd figures - the police and anonymous eejits on the web - even the cops are slightly restrained by fear of appearing ridiculous.

So what have you organised yourself lately Daithi? Anything more ambitious than having a few friends around to listen to some albums and drink cider?

WSWS article

by Sascha Funke

Tue Mar 31, 2009 18:18

--clip

At the University College Dublin, which has a student body of more than 20,000, some 200 students protested against the introduction of additional tuition fees. The protest was organised by the Free Education for Everyone (FEE) group and supported by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI).

Despite the small attendance at the demonstration, many other students expressed deep hostility to the planned imposition of fees. Already, registration fees at UCD have increased from €900 per annum to €1,500. If the proposed introduction of additional fees goes through, average student debt is expected to rise from €40,000 for a four-year degree to €70,000.

Speakers made no attempt to address the betrayal by the ICTU of the planned national strike.

Instead, the leader of the USI at the college, Sean Kelly, advanced the view that increased education spending would boost the Irish economy and offset the impact of the economic crisis. He claimed that the government was now responding to pressure from students and from back-benchers in parliament.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/irel-m31.shtml

by siobhan

Wed Apr 01, 2009 15:06

I went to the demo at UCD lake at 1pm - and agree with daithi - less than 100 from what I saw - there were so few people there that it was a joke - out of 20,000 students + 4,000 staff??

there were so few people gathered that it just looked like a vey quiet lunchtime at the lake with some very cool drummers there.

I'm sorry for the organisers who probably went to alot of effort but apathy won out on the day

@ Crowd Control

Wed Apr 01, 2009 19:45

I fail to see how my organisational skills are relevant to this discussion. Look at it this way: There are 23,100 students in UCD. 5148 voted on the referendum which is a 23% turnout. Even with the ludicrous claims of 200 or 300 attending that would mean a grand total of 1% of the student body attended the rally. This tells its own story. Did anyone that attended their lectures notice a massive amount of non attendance? I highly doubt it, attendance remained as normal. Students made the decision not to go and knew a 'shutdown' would be a futile exercise

Sorry lads

by Fiery S

Thu Apr 02, 2009 19:41

All the normal (apolitical) students that I have been talking to said 100 max, closer to 60.

They laughed when I said 200.

When I read your comment, I laughed - it's a two-way street

Fri Apr 03, 2009 16:05

Once again - the only people who are more unreliable at estimating the size of demonstrations than the cops are anonymous posters on websites - not having any fear of appearing ridiculous, they apply magic shrinking cream to the figures. I'd say if any of the last few posters had been along for the ICTU demonstration against cutbacks, they would have estimated the crowd at about 10,000.

If you don't care, that's just fine - go away and do whatever it is you do with your time, watch some daytime television, look at a few Youtube clips and scratch yourself. If you really thought the protest was a joke you would be happy to ignore it instead of busying yourself trying to belittle it. None of you could organise anything more ambitious than the opening of a pack of crisps so don't expect anyone to take you seriously. Doubtless your parents have deep pockets and you don't have to worry about any education cutbacks the government brings in - fine for you, just get out of the way of people who will be affected by those cuts and want to organise in opposition to them.

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UCD Shutdown going ahead!

Comments (9 of 9)