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Totalising Politicisation: Voluntary Associationism in Student Unions for Progressive Ends

Totalising Politicisation: Voluntary Associationism in Student Unions for Progressive Ends

By László Molnárfi 

Sunday 27 October 2024

The closed-shop student union model has paradoxically led to an all-encompassing, yet strikingly unrepresentative model of democracy.  It is a mirage of liberal philosophy, presupposing a magical, homogenous and apolitical unity between students. It does the bidding of university managers and the state to ensure that student unions are devoid of radical politics and to turn them into organisations invisibly occupied by the liberal mainstream. In this article, I will make the case from a left-wing perspective to abolish mandatory membership and replace it with voluntary association.

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Iran and Israel, A relationship of contradictions.

This piece will address an increasingly problematic narrative I have been seeing in news media and discussions in apparent “left-wing” outlets in the West, there is also a huge conglomerate of leftist content creators who promote these same narratives some examples to keep an eye out for are Richard Medhurst, ”SaveSheikhjarrahnow”, Max Blumenthal. They all share the following views that I write about in the following sentences. I am referring to the common misrepresentation of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a bulwark against imperialism and Western hegemony.

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TCDSU is the most democratic it has ever been, via grassroots participation

It is with bewilderment that students read the Trinity News editorial dated 21st of March 2024 accusing the Students’ Union of authoritarian tendencies. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, this year has seen student participation in the union skyrocket and power decentralized, due to the grassroots structures that we created.

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In a world which really is topsy-turvy, the true is a moment of the false

According to Guy Debord, organiser of the Situationist International (SI) anti-capitalist movement, “in a world which really is topsy-turvy, the true is a moment of the false”. What appears as true is false; what is false is true. We, students, see this everywhere, including in our universities and student unions.

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The Far Right and Migrants

The lockdown and pandemic marked a turndown for the working class. After years of stagnation following the water charges, which was briefly interrupted by a militant student movement, the left suddenly found it’s meagre gains completely halted. The far right seemed ascendant – isolation, failures by anti-racist groups and mass proliferation of disinformation on social media resulted in large scale protests by disenfranchised communities against the government’s covid policies. For a short period after the lockdown, the far right seemed to have retreated, but with economic downturn, endless government corruption and mass migration following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the far right made an explosive reveal at Sandwith Street.

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Far from an “opportunity”, the Premiership of Liz Truss spells jeopardy for Ireland

By Jack Nolan. On Sunday, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Defence, Fine Gael’s Simon Coveney, remarked on the recent election of Liz Truss as Leader of the Conservative Party and British Prime Minister as “an opportunity to try and reset relationships” between Britain, Ireland and the European Union in the wake of the fallout from the posturing over the Northern Protocol.

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Student Unions Must Become Radical or They’ll Become Redundant

The TCDSU is demanding rather than asking; 6 student unions have co-signed an open letter denouncing the government; the USI is calling for a walkout. As this year’s elected student representatives take power, it seems that we are entering a phase of renewed student radicalism. However, it is important to remember what led us trapped in the clutches of moderate, apolitical and weak leadership. Reflecting on his experiences in the student movement in the TCDSU, László Molnárfi wrote this piece a couple of months ago, on the structural factors that lead to the co-optation of student unions.

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Addressing the Cost of Living Crisis, and Inequalities in Third-Level Education are a Joint Struggle Facing Young Activists Today

By Jack Nolan. In the midst of the pandemic, and the ensuing global economic crisis in its aftermath, the
latent social and economic inequalities that have plagued Ireland, and indeed the wider
world, have been heavily accentuated by the onset of a grave cost of living crisis.

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