How to Fight for Free Education

In anticipation of a strike, campus assemblies or committees should be struck up at every university and college by the local student unions. These bodies should be created with a mind to drawing in the broadest layer of students on campus. They should be widely encompassing and highly democratic bodies – not echo chambers for paid staffers. These democratic bodies would be responsible for educating students on the need for a strike, as well as presenting on various topics related to the student movement. At a certain stage, these local bodies would become responsible for electing regional and then national strike committees or assemblies. The aim of these leading bodies would be to gauge support for the idea of a strike, and then to hold a nationwide strike vote when the mood is sufficiently ripe.

The success of a student strike can measured by its ability to draw in not only the widest layer of students, but also the broader working class. As in Quebec and South Africa, student strikes have proven more successful to the extent that workers have been called into the struggle. While students can at most withhold revenue from the universities, workers have the power to grind the entire Canadian economy to a halt. This is a far greater weapon in our hands against the government.

To ignore the power of the working class would severely weaken any student strike from the very beginning. The student movement should be built with the perspective of sparking a movement of the working class struggle against austerity and inequality.

All of this should only be taken as a general template for how a student strike may develop. The exact way in which it unfolds will be determined by the actual course of events, as well as the thousands of students who alone can push it forward.

What do we demand?

Thus far, we have dealt with questions of strategy and organization in the student movement. While these are vital considerations, the movement is ultimately only as strong as the ideas and demands that underpin it. This requires that we also formulate demands that are as clear as they are bold. There can be no place for vague or moderate formulas in the movement, as demands like these tend to confuse more than they do enthuse.

The most important slogan going forward should be: For Free Education, Now! This leaves no room for guessing as to when tuition fees will be removed. When the Ontario Liberals unveiled their “free education,” it was presented in as convoluted a way as possible, to hide the fact that it wasn’t free at all. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that political jargon makes people cynical. For that reason, jargon or vagueness of any sort should be avoided like the plague in the student movement. It should present its demand for free education in as clear and simple a way as possible. By doing so, it can appeal to a wider layer of students and undercut cynicism. The same applies to the next most important demand: For Living Students Grant, Now! These should be made to cover the full price of any costs associated with attending university or college, including housing, groceries and textbooks.

In the past, the student movement has limited itself to demands which focus almost exclusively on education costs. However, this overlooks a number of other important issues which demand our attention. The most important of these is student debt.

Abolishing tuition fees would mark a huge step forward for students, but its benefits would not be equally shared. Namely, it ignores students who have already accumulated some debt or have graduated altogether. Therefore, in addition to the demand for free education, we believe it important to advance the demand for cancellation of all student debts. Why should students be asked to drown in debt for pursuing an education, when corporations are repeatedly bailed out by government due to their own negligence? This is a glaring hypocrisy that needs to be addressed by the student movement.

At certain stages, students will be reproached with the question: “but how do you propose to pay for all of this?” At which point, it is important to point out that there is enough wealth in society to provide for well beyond free education. Even if you were to take the most liberal estimates of total student debt and total tuition costs, it would only be a drop in the bucket compared with the nearly $700 billion in “dead money” sitting idle in the vaults of Canadian corporations. We should point out that this is money that could be invested in education, but which isn’t being invested owing to the logic of capitalism. From this, it naturally flows that these corporations should be taken into collective ownership, so that their wealth may be put to practical use.

Another demand that should be raised is the removal of the unelected board of governors at the universities. In the main, these are the same political stooges and millionaires responsible for the high cost of education in the first place. There is no reason why these unelected bureaucrats should be left in charge of our universities. Students should demand that existing boards of governors/directors be replaced with councils made up of elected representatives from the students, faculty, staff and local community. This ensures that those who make decisions in the university reflect those who study and work there.

These are only some of the most important demands that should be raised by the student movement. Many more will be thrown up by students themselves as the struggle develops, and each should be considered accordingly.

It’s time to fight!

As of now, the student movement has shown it can generate steam, but has yet to learn how to harness it. For that is required organization, experience and above all, strategy. These can be compared to what a piston box does with steam. Without the former, the steam will evaporate and be lost. But when harnessed, steam can be used to produce remarkable quantities of energy. It is precisely this sort of mechanism that is required in our student movement today.

Without a sustained plan of action, starting with the committees and resulting in a nationwide strike, all of our existing momentum will be squandered. It will also prove impossible to draw in the widest layer of students, when instead of a clear sighted pathway to victory, our leaders put forward half-measures and refuse to speak in clear and honest language. Students have never been more preoccupied with school and work than they are today. Their time is precious. They cannot be expected to take the student movement seriously, until the student movement takes seriously the fight for free education and its methods of struggle. This is the major task ahead of us today, and the best way to accomplish it is on the road to a nationwide strike.

The Canadian student movement now finds itself at a crucial turning point. A clear appetite exists for free education, but without yet any idea of how to accomplish it. The reason for this is decades of dithering by student leaders. But no mistake is so great as to set the student movement off track indefinitely. We hope that likeminded students from across the country will take up our call for concerted and militant action, and help to reorient the movement. There is no better time to do so than the present.

Forward to a nationwide student strike!