UCD FEE Protest: Bertie's coming to Belfield

by Anti-Nama Tue Sep 29, 2009 12:08

We need more of this stuff happening around the country.

by FEE Tue Sep 29, 2009 13:10

Student campaign group, Free Education for Everyone (FEE) is planning to planning to stage a blockade of Bertie Aherns appearance at a debate on the Lisbon Treaty, tonight at 6:30pm in UCD's O'Reilly Hall. Following a blockade of Brian Lenihan by the group last September, Martin Mansergh, Mary Hannafin and Conor Lenihan were forced to pull out of other scheduled appearances at the college.

Ben McCormick, second year History student stated, “Bertie Ahern and the government constructed our economy like a house of cards. Now that's it's fallen apart, students are left to pick up the pieces for a lack of public investment in education. The reintroduction of fees or a loan system will negatively impact on students from lower socio-economic backgrounds entering third level education".

Paul Stewart, second year arts student stressed, "Education shouldn't be a debt sentence. The scarcity of part-time work and the lack of an adequate grant system means that many students are already in debt as they try to cover the costs of education. Heaping more debt on students in the form of fees will only make the situation worse. If the government are going to block our access to education, we're going to block their access to our campus.

FEE is a grassroots campaign group which was started by students and staff in UCD in September 2008 to fight against the the reintroduction of third level fees, increases in the registration fee, cutbacks and the commercialisation of education. Branches have spread to Trinity, NUI Maynooth, Galway, Limerick and Cork. Last year the group organised numerous protests, blockades and occupations.

ENDS

by SU Hack Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:57

Following on from last nights protest which was embarassing, maybe 15-25 FEE activists chanting a few slogans and watched by a bemused crowd of a couple of hundred students who seemed to spend most of that time giggling at the protesters.

I actually felt sorry for FEE, they were doing it for fellow students in the crowd who it seemed didnt give a fuck about the reintroduction of fees. The guards cant have been too worried as they let them stand outside the O'Reilly Hall.

I would welcome a FEE response to last nights debacle if only 25 people are willing to protest, where next with the campaign ?

Not a wind up post

by Godot - (personal capacity) Wed Sep 30, 2009 11:37

Any attempts to advertise protests by FEE on campus are clamped down on by the college. Any posters are barely up for more than a couple of minutes before they're gone.

UCDSU, which doesn't have that problem, organised a rally by the lake last year which had to be called off after 5 mins due to a lack of people showing up.

Beyond the occasional march in town, students aren't interested.

by Durruti - FEE Supporter Wed Sep 30, 2009 19:07

The FEE campaign is attempting to mobilise students, and college workers around the country to act in order to defeat the fees issue. The primary weapon that can be utilised in this issue is a national university strike. Students walking off campuses across the country would make it politically impossible for any government to introduce fees when faced with such opposition.

To reach that level of mobilisation in Irish universities, it is necessary for students to gain a level of confidence in their actions, and to put the maximum amount of pressure on the political establishment. This pressure will dramatically increase as the number of active participants grow. In order to do this, the FEE campaign has stuck to the tactic of direct action. Without relying on representative bodies to act on the behalf of students, FEE is trying to build a movement based on the actions of students themselves. A detailed list of actions taken so far can be found on; free-education.info.

FEE is not made up of party 'hacks' with aspirations to a career, and nor does it claim to be a representative body for students. It is a directly democratic organisation, guided by it's members. Undoubtedly, the numbers involved in grassroots campaigns such as FEE will ebb and flow at any given period, but it's commitment to taking direct action has never wained.

To this end the identifiably small group that constitutes FEE (from what was seen at UCD anyway) is attempting to mobilise students, by setting the examples that need to be followed in order to defeat fees, and openly inviting students to join. This is in contrast to the approach (that I'm sure some of FEEs detractors in UCD yesterday would like it to take) of letting a representative body such as the USI, or some of the poltical parties, fight the attacks on the education system. If the campaign against the fees and cuts was to rely on such representation, in no way could the mass mobilisation on campuses take place. In effect it would stifle the mass participation of students, and workers, that is necessary to achieve our aims.

Regardless of what a small minority of pro-fees students from UCD might say, the majority of students in the university, and around the country are undoubtedly against the re-introduction of fees. Students at lastnights UCD Lisbon debate, may have been taken by surprise to see FEE protesting at the event. However, this is primarily because they are (or were) unfamiliar with protest groups such as FEE.

However, as the crisis in Capitalism deepens, and the seemingly weekly attacks on the working-class by the state and big business increase, militant action by dockers, travel agents staff, car factory workers, crystal factory workers and students will become a common feature in Irish society. The issue of fees is not going away, and it is an inevitability that the government will attempt a re-introduction, regardless of income, in the near future. Furthering the attacks on the working-class, combined with the example set by the likes of the dockers and FEE, will, and must, awaken the students from their (temporary!) inaction.