It has been said that a vital part of being an activist is to know "the phase through which we are passing." It has also been said that the "art of struggle is to combine objective analysis with subject action." What is meant in both these cases is that we have to analyze, we have to be aware of, the objective situation and act accordingly. If we are in a time when there is no movement of students or workers we of course continue to explain the need for one, this would be positive. But if there is a movement of students and workers actually taking place and activists continue to confine their activities to explaining the need for one instead of organizing and acting to develop the existing movement then this would be negative.
We have to recognize the importance of the movement that is already taking place. It is a big step forward. Given the common attacks on education internationally and given the new communication systems available to us we have to see that while building in our own colleges and universities we also have to explore the possibility of coordinated international action. Cal students are at court today. Can we have US embassies and California state offices picketed and disrupted around the world? This should be our immediate call.
There is the decision to have a March 4th strike. Can this be made into a world wide strike with common demands for all students in the world? This would be a tremendous leap forward in terms of building a stronger movement but also in the consciousness of the student movement worldwide. So the student movement should recognize that we are already in a phase where there is an international student movement developing and we should try and strengthen this and actually give it organizational form and test out whether we can build a permanent international grass roots student organization around a permanent grass roots student struggle.
On this blog we argue that victory for the students will be much more possible if the workers in education and in general are part of a common struggle. We think that very important here is that the demands of the student movement contain demands in relation to the needs of the workers, jobs, wages, benefits etc. But we also think that the student movement should take concrete organizational steps to involve the workers in their campuses and through them the workers in general in their struggle. Perhaps a step in this regard would be to take the program of the struggle, complete with the demands which take up the workers issues and in every campus organize ''A UNITED STUDENT WORKER ACTION DAY''. This would mean students and the workers we could mobilize going round all the campus departments and talking with workers and depending on the mood either trying to convince them to strike there and then or building towards a mass meeting of students and workers in the evening of that day and at this discuss how to go forward united in struggle.
Many movements which have shaken the system of either capitalism or stalinism saw a student movement first and this then sparked off the workers' movement. This is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of stalinism in what was then Czechoslovak. The movement which played a crucial role in bringing down stalinism saw the students act first and then they were joined by the workers. France 1968, the largest general strike in history which saw De Gaulle say about capitalism: "the game is up" also saw the students act first and then they were joined by the workers. In Seattle at the WTO the students and anarchists took on the cops and were then joined by the workers and a victory was won. This is not an iron law, sometimes the workers will move first. But here we have an already existing movement of students so we must see that to go forward we must build this movement but also we should seek to involve the workers movement. The union leaders will resist. But the rank and file will be much more open to the need for a united struggle.
Not only do we have to spread the movement to the workers. We have to go off campus. We should do this in two ways. Take the struggle to those who make the decisions on education. In the case of California the multimillionaire regents took the decision to increase the fees. These people are nearly all very rich business people. There should be no more business as usual for their businesses. Their businesses should be disrupted by direct action.
But another way the movement should be taken off campus is take it to the high schools. When we have a day of action, demos etc try to get this information to the high schools and bring the high school students and their parents with us. Cuts in education, increased fees, are a direct attack on high school students and their families.
Build solidarity today for the students who are up in court.
Unite the movement, build the movement.
Unite the students and workers.
For a United Student Worker Action Day.
Spread the movement internationally.
Build an international student movement.
Spread the movement off campus to the high schools.
Act against the decision makers who attack education.
Expose the regents in California by direct action mobilization at their businesses.
Victory to the Cal students and all students. Send messages of support to this blog. Organize support in your area. This student movement can spark off an international movement of students and workers. It can start a new period when the capitalist offensive is halted in its tracks and thrown back and when a working peoples offensive would begin.
Sean
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