FEE Report from February 4th

by young and restless Sun Feb 08, 2009 14:29

while i am not involved with the group, i believe FEE are going down the right road, and i respect what the group is doing,but i feel the group is in danger of fooling themselves of non-existant successes. the protest at the dail would have been lucky to exceed 70 people. the group has a long way to go to gain more support. it is easy to have false visions of the size of your efforts when you spend every minute working hard within the group. but in all honesty,looking from the outside, i feel the group is still fairly anonymous amongst the largely inactive student body, most people see the words fee's and protest, and it is all the same to them after that. the group must proceed with caution, not to alienate themselves in the fee's struggle. i wish you all the best of success. and remember to represent the whole student bodie's interests, not just those with more radical ideals, we need to be united in this struggle. work on educating students and mobilizing them through their own desires.

by Julian - FEE Wed Feb 11, 2009 18:48

I’d like to start off by thanking the guest speakers who made the meeting, and all of the FEE activists who travelled from around the country. This is a vital step in the solidification of our campaign, and visible proof that a movement has begun that those in power cannot choose to ignore.

Before directly addressing the question of “How can we defeat fees?” I can’t help but to start with a brief but personal account of my experience within FEE. I attended a meeting on the issue of fees back in September, where it was then decided that the matter was of such great concern that a separate campaign was direly needed. A campaign that would be intent on fighting for what we believe to be a right, a campaign that would directly fight against the harsh consequences that such a heinous proposal entails.

From uneasy meetings of about six to seven unfamiliar and unacquainted faces with no official name, to a group with national recognition that has held protests, staged numerous blockades, made ministers think twice before setting foot on our campuses, gained media recognition, spread to every corner of the nation, in many cases done far more than our unions, and one that has finally reached a degree of organisation that has allowed us to come together today as a united body with the same aspirations in mind. We have certainly taken a leap down the dark road to defeating fees, and it’s through everyone’s contribution that this has been possible.

I grew up in Italy, and have only been living in Ireland for the past 2 years. Needless to say that I have come from one of the international hotspots for student activism, and now live in a country where the tangibility of such a concrete threat seems to be of little concern for the average student. So what exactly is it then that can be done to defeat fees.?

As FEE members and activists, I believe that mobilising the student body to fight this threat is our responsibility. But by no means am I proposing that FEE be the sole group responsible for defeating this proposed reintroduction, I believe this to be the role of the official bodies representing students across Ireland, USI and the individual Student Unions. I do believe however that these bodies have lacked the true coordination, organisation and awareness needed to build a mass movement of students who will mobilise as a united body who are ready to speak and act their anger. I would like to distinguish these features as imperative in our battle against fees. Awareness, in order to fully comprehend the gravity of our predicament. Batt O’ Keefe is going to present a plan to cabinet in April outlining a proposal for the introduction of fees and graduate tax, and once this is done our campaign will assume far more complex dimensions. Organisation, in order to adopt a national strategy that is strong enough to ensure that free education will not be threatened any longer. Coordination to build a mass movement of students that will fight to defend our right to free education. In order to defeat fees, these 3 features are needed especially amongst the groups that have the same objective at heart. FEE have, on numerous occasions, reiterated the desire to work alongside USI and the Student Unions, but due to dogmatic restrictions within these organisations (mainly the Student Unions), the potential power of a mass student movement is being limited, and this is only detrimental to our causes. From Paris to Frankfurt to Rome, student movements fulfilled their goals by bringing epic numbers of students together, and these official bodies must strive to do so I tandem with other groups. So, to any of the USI/SU reps here, I suggest that we work together, now, to defeat something that we both want so much to be a remnant of the past. Time is certainly of the essence, and if we don’t act immediately, then what today is a threat, tomorrow may be an imposition by few that limits the opportunities of many.

The government is trying to take away what we believe to be a fundamental basis for a proactive society. Taking away a free educational system is a quick means to solve their current, self-spawned crisis, but it is in the long run the beginning of a downward spiral. It’s one that will generate even further disparity, stratification, and polarization. I won’t go into the economic gibber gabber… I’ll save myself because I’m not great at it, and I’ll save all of you too! There are certain strategies that I think are necessary to build this sort of campaign however.

The work obviously begins in our local colleges. As local FEE groups, we must keep focussed and structured in order to continue the good work we’re doing. This begins with regular meetings and good group interaction, spanning to trying to promote our campaign among the student bodies, and turn students into activists who are passionate and dedicated to fighting Fees. To reach a high degree of student involvement, we must change our communication tactics with students. We must strive to engage with them on a personal level, enabling them to understand just how damaging this threat would be if implemented. It goes without saying that any opportunities we get to target government ministers we will take. We must stage blockades, and hold occupations when we deem necessary. These are essential forms of physical and mental resistance that will raise our profile within the media and around our campuses. They also show the government that we’re not quite as vulnerable and apathetic as they deem us. Through meaningful direct action we must seek to empower the student body as a united entity. In UCD alone we’ve prevented 3 ministers from coming to campus, and forced Lenihan to lie down covered in the back of a services jeep because he was honestly scared shitless of an angry and numerous group of students. And that’s the guy in charge of our economy?! We must all continue spreading the information necessary on our campuses to turn students into activists, with the goal of building a mass grassroots movement that has the substance to become an influential block with high social recognition. We must continue to stress that we are seeking is a stable educational system devoid of threats and cutbacks: a system that is massively invested in by the government and society through a fair and just taxation system.

Another vital step in our battle against fees is to reach a higher degree of national organisation - in order to put FEE in the limelight as a united group who can coordinate on a nationwide scale. I suggest that we hold a monthly delegate council where we come together to give reports, exchange ideas, and plan for future action. As we have seen, our Student Unions are disorganised and naïve, and certainly have no concrete strategic plans to defeat fees. The exchange of ideas is one of the first building blocks for purposeful action, and with an elevated degree of national organisation I’m sure that as a movement we will gain greater notoriety, appeal more to students throughout the country, and galvanize our opportunities for needed direct action.

Defeating fees however is not something FEE can do alone, it is not something even the students in the third level system can do alone. To defeat fees, we have to build a social movement that gains recognition, respect and support from other sectors of society. The student movement alone is one that can be discounted by the government, as they will paint a radical, degenerate and unfair façade over us. The government had no choice but to revert their med card policy because pensioners are a social group who has everyone’s support. We should aim to build a sort of historic bloc, if you will, that ties in with all other groups within society, so that the student movement is espoused by all, and therefore cannot be an ignorable social force. This again starts on our campuses. We should be presenting our campaign to teachers and workers throughout our colleges, and getting them to agree with our cause, and promote it among their fellow workers. We have to exchange ideas with the different unions around the country, and offer our support to them when needed. It is now more vital than ever to target secondary school students as they will be the first ones to pay for this shocking proposal.

If we act intelligently and most importantly, immediately, we will be able to generate a tidal wave of social forces that crashes down on the government and drowns their unjust proposals for good. We have now reached perhaps the most difficult point in our campaign, and we must respond passionately. From now, our aim should be to build a mood that escalates every day, that involves as many as possible, and that is synonymous with anger, action and change. We will now more than ever make our voices heard and our actions felt. We will spread these ideas to all campuses across the country, sparking the desire for change among all the student bodies in Ireland. Our protests and days of action will grow and become more momentous. I want to see us reach a point where we have galvanized the dormant energy throughout our campuses, and used it to build a movement of mass disobedience that is ungovernable. A movement that threatens the temporary shut-down of our colleges and perhaps larger sections of society, and continually threatens the stability that the state nurtures so much. This is the movement we must build, and together, fellow activists and FEE members, I’m confident that we will.

"Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion." - Oscar Wilde

by Jay Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:12

enjoy.

Photo credit - Aidan Beatty