Padraig McCarrick gives us the lowdown on the new depths to which JobBridge is plummeting to…

Last week we saw the JobBridge National Internship Scheme post an ad for a 9 month ‘internship’ for a primary school teacher. The advertisement goes to say that ‘interns’ (read as exploited teacher) will “receive formal/informal training in the following classroom management, self evaluation and classroom evaluation, Interactive white board skills, I.T. skills to enhance classroom teaching, acquire knowledge of suitable I.T. resources. Whole school development training in Literacy and Numeracy. On completion the intern will have attained skills in I.T. use of interactive white board in classroom, be able to access relevant, suitable resources.”  For this, an unemployed teacher will receive €50 extra on top of their weekly social welfare payment for doing the exact same job as fully employed teachers with the exact same qualification.

The ad has already gained much criticism with the INTO telling the Journal.ie that they see the internship as exploitation as well as having “a directive directing members not to take part. Any teacher doing this will not get anything out of it”.

Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy in his criticism of the scheme has called on the INTO to “now act to put a stop to the use of JobBridge in this school, and also widen the campaign across the education sector with the other teachers’ unions”. Although the INTO has spoken out against the scheme, as of the time of writing this article, the Union of Students of  Ireland (USI) have failed to have publicly commented on the issue, even though it is likely that young, newly qualified teachers would be the ones most likely to avail of this so called internship.

While incidents like this effect the conditions of existing teachers with many years of experience, it is newly qualified teachers that are most exploited by this scheme. Instead of being given the chance to put their skills that they have accumulated over the past number of years of study, which includes classroom teaching experience,  their time and value as educators is being seriously undermined by the austerity drive undertaken. This has been seen in other public sector areas where the government has tried to introduce a graduate nurses scheme, which would see a grave reduction in young nurse and midwives pay conditions.

While it’s easy to dismiss these criticisms, nurses and teachers are often soft targets for complaints by those who either engage in union bashing on a regular basis, or are supporters of the current path of austerity. What these cases do highlight however is the concentrated effort to undermine working conditions, not only in the public sector, but in the private as well, by using the term ‘internship’ to replace existing jobs instead of using an internships proper function of training someone in skills which allow workers to contribute in the conditions that they deserve.

– Aisling Gallagher writes about her recent experience of having her delegate status revoked at USI Congress because she voted for two pro-choice motions. Aisling is Women’s Officer for NUS-USI and a student at Queen’s University Belfast. This post originally appeared on Aisling’s personal blog here. 

Last week I went to Ballinasloe for USI Congress 2013 as part of the QUBSU delegation. We were all student councillors, elected at the start of the year. We weren’t elected separately as delegates for the Congress (there is never as much interest within QUBSU about attending USI in comparison to attending NUS-USI), but rather expressed our interest and as councillors were all allowed to attend. This is the first important thing to remember. We weren’t elected. Our mandate came from our election as councillors, months ago, in October.

We were warned that we weren’t allowed to ‘break mandate’ at USI- that is, vote on anything/in favour of anything that contradicted live union policy. This wasn’t a decision taken by our student council, it wasn’t a decision taken by the wider student body. It was taken by the EMC (composed of the seven sabbatical officers and a few of the staff in the union). It was in direct response to USI Congress 2012- a few delegates ‘broke mandate’ and voted on things that contradicted union policy. They didn’t want this to happen again, so they introduced this rule. This rule isn’t in our constitution, it isn’t in the USI constitution. It was literally decided behind closed doors, without consulting the student council (who would probably have supported it, but that isn’t the point). This is the second important thing to remember.

On the first day of Congress, I hadn’t planned to speak- I never tend to plan these sorts of things. But a motion came up in the lapsing policy section of Congress, about continuing USI’s pro-choice work. This was the motion:

(See http://usi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/usiCLAR-2013-a7-PRINT.pdf for a copy of the 2013 Congress documentation)

I spoke in favour of continuing to work on the issue- I believe it is one of paramount importance. I then voted in favour- it easily passed (though the ‘Congress is disappointed’ point was removed, as it is to the credit of USI that they have been at the forefront of campaigning for choice in Ireland over the last while). I was told our union President would be having a word with me later on- I’d ‘broken mandate’.

Later on, I met the President (who brought the VP Campaigns with him). I was told that the EMC did not want to stop me participating, they did not want to stop me representing students, but if I broke mandate again by voting in favour of something that contradicted QUBSU live policy, I would no longer be a QUBSU delegate at USI Congress 2013. I was surprised, even though we’d be warned about the prospect of this happening. This is the QUBSU stance:

745.6 This Council repeals policy 3.1 on the Policy File. This Council recognises that the issue of abortion is a highly divisive issue  and a matter for each individual’s conscience. Being desirous of a unified,inclusive Students’ Union this Council mandates to Students’ Union to adopt a position of neutrality in regards to abortion. This Council encourages students with an interest in issues surrounding abortion to express this through the available student societies and external organisations. This Council mandates the Students’ Union to provide a neutral venue for discussions and debates regarding abortion and to assist societies with an interest in the matter in a fair and equitable manner. Proposer – Caoimhe McNeill Seconder – Jessica Kirk  (As an aside, I find it slightly ironic that they were threatening to throw me out for something that they claim is “a matter of each individual’s conscience”…)

On the second day, I voted in favour of this motion:

I do not believe that this was voting in opposition to a neutral position on abortion, I believe that this was voting in favour of telling the truth to pregnant women- something that, I would hope, people would agree on no matter what their opinion of abortion. Because the motion stipulated to “work with Choice Ireland”, our President claimed it was not neutral and that we should abstain. I was told to leave the room once I’d voted in favour, I had my delegate card taken off me and was told I was no longer a QUBSU delegate at USI Congress 2013.

Once our President had told USI that I was no longer part of the QUBSU delegation, there was nothing USI could do- and I understand that, every union is autonomous within USI. He also would not make me an observer (we had a good few delegate/observer places left over- we never fill them). If I was an observer I would not have been able to vote- but I would have been able to enter the room, to listen. Instead, I spent three days in a hotel room, following the #USI13 feed on Twitter. If it hadn’t been so far away, or the issue hadn’t been so contentious, perhaps they would’ve tried to send me home- that’s the usual protocol when someone is thrown out of a union delegation.

So what now? The support I received from other delegates was incredible, likewise, the support I received from people at home. I did not feel so alone- I knew I had done the right thing. There were two women delegates in our delegation out of eight. Many people find it absolutely ridiculous that the male dominated EMC decided to throw one out for speaking for her right to choose. That said, the week was isolating, lonely, and incredibly difficult. A few of my delegation did go out of their way to check I was alright, invite me over in the evenings, that sort of stuff- and I am very grateful for the support, particularly because it came from people who I have not exactly gotten along with in the past. I really did appreciate the effort that they made. Others ignored me for the remainder of the trip.

There are a number of issues here- firstly, regarding mandate. Were we there on the union’s mandate? Or on our individual mandate? I believe the latter, the President believes the former. That is essentially the argument, and one that will be settled at our next meeting of QUBSU student council (if you want to come along, do- it’s going to be interesting, to say the least).

However, there are a few other factors to consider- the conflict isn’t simply on mandate. Neutrality on the issue of abortion (whilst I believe is a complete cop out, ignoring our duties as student representatives and students’ union and putting our heads under the sand on the reality of the situation in Ireland), isn’t as simple as just abstaining on every motion regarding abortion. The motion itself stipulates that the council now believes it is a matter ofindividual conscience and acknowledges the right for individual students towork with external organisations. Take from that what you will.. but I believe it gives individuals the right to express their opinions and vote accordingly at national conferences.

Another issue is that of ‘mandates’ as a whole. Students’ unions sabbatical officers dislike when you criticise them, but hate when you criticise the validity of the structures that enabled them to get to where they are even more. Every time I tried to talk about the mandate issue, I was told by our President that the EMC was elected with a huge mandate, bigger than the council mandate- I agree the turn out was bigger than for the council elections.4,124 students voted in the 2012 sabbatical elections. 4,124. There are 24,197students at Queen’s. That’s a turn out of around 17% (I think- if I’m wrong, correct me! Working out percentages is not my strong point..). 17%… Anyone who thinks that this gives anyone the right to do anything in the name of ‘all students’, in the name of a ‘huge mandate’, needs a strong reality check.

There are a number of articles going round the internet about what happened at Congress- and there are some factual errors in them, unsurprisingly (that’s not to say I don’t appreciate the media coverage- I do!). Take this blog post as my account of what happened, even if it contradicts some of the things mentioned in the various articles.

Lastly, some asked me why I voted the way I did, when the motions would have passed with a comfortable majority regardless of my vote.

I voted because I am a woman, because I am a rational human being who believes in compassion for others. I voted because the laws governing my body in Northern Ireland date back to 1861. I voted because women in Ireland are told to be ashamed of making a decision regarding their reproductive health, because Savita Halappanavar’s dying foetus was given more attention than she was. I voted because I know women who have had abortions, because each one of us know women who have had abortions. I voted because my reproductive health is not the business of anyone else. I voted because QUBSU women students need to know that even though their union has abandoned them, there is still support from within the student population. I voted because I am a feminist, because I believe in equality. I voted because the other QUBSU delegates decided to remain silent. I voted because it was the right thing to do. 

In a new departure here’s a round up of the week with added hyperlinks. 

Hopefully you’ve had a productive morning, well found an Easter egg at least.  We’ve had our busiest week so far at the Irish Student Left Online. While we’d love to claim all the credit some thanks must go to the Union of Students in Ireland who really made life easy for us.

Their annual congress provided much controversy and a mass of material to write about.  First we had the controversial removal of Aisling Gallagher, NUS-USI Women’s Officer, from the Queen’s University Belfast delegation for “breaking” a very weak mandate. Then on the final day of congress the UCD delegation decided to leave congress floor following a vote that had passed mandating the incoming officer board to build links with anti-austerity groups. Before all the fun and games broke out we had our first attempt at satire published on the site. Staying with the student theme we had our shortest post on the site yet with a very short, but revealing interview by Niall Dunne of CTN in UCD with Vincent Browne.  Browne describes the student movement as “very introverted” compared to the 60s and 70s. No surprises there so.

Moving beyond the ivory tower we had the by-election in Meath-East with our political analyst Shane Fitzgerald contextualising the results in terms of turn out in the constituency over the past 3 elections. Staying on issues of a national nature we listened on in dismay this week as Leo Varadkar put his rather large feet in his rather large mouth, again and again.

Earlier in the week we’d had a debut by Fiona Dunkin on the disturbing and pervasive issue of street harassment. This was apt as we are fast approaching anti-street harassment week,  which takes place from the 7th-13th of April.

To start the week off we had Adam Loughnane make his debut for the blog with a thought provoking piece about the dearth of humanity in our world, and nothing we saw during the week filled us with too much hope.

As always if you want to get involved please get in touch contact@irishstudentleftonline.ie and we will try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Can a video by itself justify a post? Well we think it can. Champion of getting questions answered Vincent Browne is interviewed by Niall Dunne of  Campus Television Network  of UCD about the state of student politics. 

Enjoy!

More controversy from Congress: UCD walk off congress floor in pro-austerity direct action campaign launch, Joseph Loughnane gives us the lowdown…

The UCD delegation to the USI Congress walked out in protest at the fact that they couldn’t speak against a motion that proposed that the Union of Students in Ireland starts to work with other anti-austerity campaigns. You would be forgiven for thinking that I made this up, I wish I had.

Thankfully the motion was passed but its passage was another reason for the “principled” delegates of UCD to walk out. Students across the country might be shocked at such a stance to take but it just goes further to explain how out of touch some of these student leaders are with those they are meant to be representing. To be fair, not everyone who walked out was against the motion, some cited the fact that they didn’t get enough time to debate it for their protest. It leaves just one question remaining – why would any student want to speak against such a motion? In a statement from UCD Students Union, their desire to oppose it was clear: “Despite this, Congress delegates voted to pass the motion by approximately a 2/3 majority despite witnessing the desire of members on the floor to speak against”.

Less encouraging is the fact that USI’s new Campaigns Officer, Paddy Guiney, was one of the people to leave the hall on not being allowed to speak. One would hope that any person who is taking up such a position would be ‘anti-austerity’, and willing to broaden the campaign of the largest student body in the country to include those affected by measures not directly related to education. A constant criticism of student protests is how we fail to mobilise those who are also suffering to demonstrate in solidarity with students. Such a stance by the new Campaigns Officer does damage to any links the USI hopes to create.

Why would someone walk out even if they agreed with the motion? Such is the mentality of delegations when they are told to not think for themselves and stick to their mandate, or just stick with those from the same college in this case. This congress has already seen the NUS-USI Womens’ Officer being kicked out of Congress by her delegation leader due to her taking a principled stand in favour of a woman’s right to choose and against rogue pregnancy clinics giving misinformation to vulnerable women. Thankfully, one UCD student stayed in the hall, there to represent the interests of 25,000 students – students who are obviously more affected by austerity than those who walked out…

On a day when nepotism ruled supreme in Meath East and a breakout of amnesia caused 38% of voters to bother ticking a box in a futile attempt to change the track the Government is taking, the disillusion of the 62% in that constituency was replicated by those hearing of events from the USI Congress. Like the positions of power in Dáil Eireann have been gobbled up by the flag-bearers of austerity and the proponents of populism; the right-leaning students masquerading as the depoliticised have a monopoly over the direction our national union is going. Now more than ever is there a need for students who champion equality over careerism and principles over compromise to come to the fore. The USI needs to be wrestled from the hands of those who play at student activism, in a similar way to the grassroots members of SIPTU and other trade unions are attempting to take control in a process that is very much, unfinished business.

Róisín Jackman of Queen’s University Belfast writes about the controversy surrounding the removal of QUB Students’ Union delegate Aisling Gallagher, The NUS-USI Womens’ Officer,  from her delegation for claims that she voted against her Union’s mandate on abortion services twice. Róisín raises  questions about the legitimacy of these mandates and questions the democratic structures of the student movement. Business as usual some would say. Read the Trinity News story here.

Contentiously at this year’s Union of Students in Ireland (USI) Congress, a delegate from Queen’s University Belfast Students’ Union was stripped of her delegacy rights and barred from participation at Congress.  This was the result of her voting in favour of two motions which the Executive Management Committee (EMC) argued equated to her breaking QUBSU mandate. She initially received a warning having voted in favour of a pro-choice motion and was stripped of her delegacy after voting in favour of a motion instructing the USI Welfare Officer to lobby against agencies giving out misinformation to individuals who may seek abortions.

QUBSU took a pro-choice stance at the end of the last academic year by passing a motion at a meeting of the Union’s Student Council. However at the beginning of this academic year this was repealed and a position of “neutrality” was taken instead. This is at the root of the controversy because it is on the wording of this live policy that the delegate in question was barred from Congress.

However the wording of the policy itself does not indicate that the delegate necessarily went against it. The policy  outlines that “this issue of abortion is a highly divisive issue and a matter for each individual’s conscience” and that the Students’ Union adopt a position of neutrality. It then goes on to say that “students with an interest in issues surrounding abortion [should] express this through the available societies and external organisations”. Whilst the Students’ Union holds a neutral position, it recognises the right of activists to campaign and lobby within particular societies and outside of the Union. Which is what has happened with this delegate.

A number of other issues highlight the sheer abuse of power that took place in this action. Although the EMC had briefed delegates in advance of their requirement to vote in line with union policies, this is not dictated by either USI or QUBSU constitution. Therefore a mandate does not actually exist, despite the EMC’s claims that it does. The EMC does not have the authority to mandate any QUBSU delegate, unfortunately due to the fact that USI is a federation and the insistence on individual union’s right to autonomy, steering committee and the broader congress can have no part in individual delegation concerns.  Once the delegation leadership decides to demote a delegate, that’s it. So, despite the delegate not actually breaking policy and not breaking a non-existent mandate, she was informed that had the President known that she would vote in favour of pro-choice motions she would never have been allowed to attend in the first place. Which leads to two questions: Is that democracy? And,  how the hell was he under the impression she wouldn’t do this?

Allow me to put forward my answer to both questions, it’s a simple no. Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to matter to most in student politics. A lot of Students’ Unions simply allow their executive to decide who gets to go to Congress and who doesn’t. This discretionary decision making shouldn’t be allowed and the fact that it is highlights serious issues of corruption. QUBSU is one of the few unions to actually elect their delegates (though there wasn’t enough candidates this year, so they were delegates by default) which means that in saying he wouldn’t have allowed her to run, limits would have been put on eligibility to represent students for our union. Which is entirely undemocratic. What is probably most questionable is the lie that our President didn’t know that the delegate would have voted pro-choice. This is because the delegate in question is Aisling Gallagher, one of the most (if not the most) vocal pro-choice student council members and pro-choice feminist activists at QUB. Not to mention that she is NUS-USI’s Women’s Officer, which is a position which is currently dedicated to lobbying for abortion legislation north and south of the border. When putting her name in the ring as a delegate, Aisling repeatedly said that she would vote pro-choice.

Furthermore there are QUBSU delegates to NUS-USI conference and NUS conference that have made clear their intention to break the imaginary mandate by supporting a woman’s right to choose. So make sure you keep an eye out on whether they get banned from these conferences.

It is pertinent to make the point that regardless of whether or not there was a mandate, Aisling Gallagher should have voted the way she did. That’s because the role of delegates and the role of anyone involved in student politics is to look after the interests and welfare of students. Neutrality motions are the biggest cop-out that you can imagine; these are issues which directly impact on students’ lives and it’s our duty to fight for those issues. Gay adoption is a “highly divisive issue” as well, but that doesn’t mean we should shy away for fighting for gay adoption rights, or equal marriage rights.

Aisling Gallagher recognised this yesterday and decided to face the consequences of her actions. The student movement would be in a healthier condition if people acted like this on a regular basis. However to make that argument, is to accept that such an imaginary mandate actually existed in the first place.

QUBSU president Jason O’Neill can be contacted at this email address su.president@qub.ac.uk.

How’s your congress going? Or did you ever wonder what goes on at USI congress? Well you probably didn’t but ISLO gives you a quick run down of some things to look out for. Words by Eoin Griffin, inspiration drawn from years of observation. Many thanks to everyone at MSU and USI for making it possible.  Also thanks due to Thobias.

USI is the representative body for 250 000 students on the island of Ireland. It’s pretty much a big deal. It’s highest decision making body is congress which takes place annually sometime around Easter. Delegates from the 4 corners of the country descended on Ballinasloe this week for  a bit of debate and represntin’  well that’s what they say anyway. To find out more follow the twitter hash tag #usi13 or ask your SU for a report on it.

1. The Surroundings

Well let’s be honest, a few nights in an “exquisite 4 star hotel” over the Easter break isn’t the worst way to be spending your time. You’ll be provided with 3 meals over the course of the day and the occasional coffee break thrown in for good measure. As if that wasn’t enough there are the leisure centre facilities to keep you fresh and in a positive frame of mind. What more could you want over the Easter break? Engaged in debate with what should be the best and brightest from around the country, well the surrounding will be nice at least.

2. The Political Parties

Student politics are a strange beast. Both Ogra Fianna Fail and Labour Youth have subtlely controlled the local and national unions for a considerable amount of time. And even when they’re not occupying the top job the apolitical types that take their place that suggest themselves “beyond” politics feed the inertia of the unions.
At last year’s congress we saw a prominent member of YFG try to bring forward an emergency motion mandating USI to support the Fiscal Treaty. Student politics has long been used by individuals as a stepping stone to “greater” political careers. Notable past presidents of USI include Eamon Gilmore, Pat Rabbitte, Joe Duffy, Gary “Redzzer” Redmond and Colm Keavaney. Well infamous if not notable.

3. Get tweeting

We’re all about the social meeja these days. It doesn’t matter if it’s only two chimps in a room tweeting frantically, if you can somehow manage to get trending then your goal has been achieved. We’re not really sure what it achieves but it sounds good. Last year was the first congress to see massive use of Twitter and this lead to some rather tasty arguments and it must be said some very distasteful remarks by some.

Add to this the tweet screens and you’re away in a hack. Don’t want to get up and give a speech, no bother, tweet something witty and see the followers and retweets stack up.

4. Steering Committee

 Ever wonder what’s going to happen to all the SU executives and USI officers when they grow up? Well now you don’t have to. Steering Committee offers you a window to the future. They are the real bosses of congress. They seem to be the only ones who really know what is going on. Again you are reminded to look out for party links, prominent members of Fianna Fail and current government advisors abound.

5. The dress code

Do you not own a suit? Are you worried about your next rent payment? Well don’t worry you’re probably not at congress anyway. But the people there representin’ sure have brought their finest wares. It’s easier to be taken seriously by the adults in government if we wear suits and talk about things in 4 star hotels for a week.

Obviously the finery isn’t wasted on congress floor. Instead it’s all about the gala dinner. This is like your school grad except you probably don’t know or like most of the people there, and of course there’s more wine and less worrying about being served at the bar.
Congress floor is all about delegates wearing corresponding t-shirts. You know, kinda like secondary school but with less fun. It’s really important that your delegation looks the part, cause nothing says representin’ like bringing home a USI prize for best delegation!

6. The Professional Photographs

Nothing says representin’ like a professional photographer. It’s cool to spend loads of money on a hotel if there’s at least some pictorial evidence that people were there. What more can be said? As with a lot of USI’s initiatives it’s about “media reach” and how many headlines can be generated. Not so much about changing things or engaging with the 250 000 students they claim to represent. John Logue claimed that USI has improved its media reach by 500%. Well since 2009 the “student registration charge” has been changed to the “student contribution” and has increased by 150%. That’s 900 euro to 2 250 euro but hey at least we’ve reached more people.

7.  The Bad Theme Parties

Remember when you were in first year in college? Maybe living away from home for the first time, ever have a themed night? Really anything you want, from a cocktail party to watching the Lord of the Rings triology all the way through. You get the general idea; you probably grew out of it fairly lively too. Well USI congress is like a Neverland for (SOME) students that never want to grow up. It’s much easier to run in elections year after year. Spending longer in paid sabbatical positions than you actually spent as a student is cool.

I was there last year. It was something horrific to do with some bad TV show on MTV. Imagine the fake tanned bonanza. All Jersey Shored up. I sound bitter and cynical, only because I am. The tokenistic congress floor upset at our national binge drinking culture while such a string vest orgy went on the same night. Representin’.

8. Procedural Motions

Do you know your 9 a from your 9 e? Well neither does anyone else so it doesn’t really matter. Steering Committee will guide the way on this.

Do look out for the procedural motions being used in an attempt to shut down important debates. Last year it was suggested that the Bank Bailout of 2008 wasn’t a student issue and it shouldn’t really be debated at USI congress. The delegates agreed and the debate was finished. Representin’.

9. UCD

That big elephant in the room, they’ve a delegation bigger than your’s and they look gaunt and scary. Possibly from spending their days walking around Belfield lost in the concrete jungle.

They’re an endangered species though. In a recent referendum on the campus a mighty 12% of members of UCDSU voted and the majority decided they wanted to leave USI. So poor old Paddy Guiney is like a captain without a ship, running in an election for USI Officer Board but with his own organisation playing the waiting game on relationship that’s very Ross and Racheal and less Bertie and Thomas Byrne.

10. The debates

Last year it was the fees issue. On the first night of congress there was an almighty debate about USI’s policy on third level funding. In a victory for all that is good and holy the vote was put back to a special congress in May because it might have been a tincy bit undemocratic otherwise.

This elucidated a very clear split in the room. East versus West. Pale versus everyone else. It was like the Cold War just with fewer nuclear weapons and more tweeting.

Then the whole situation got out of hand when a motion about government funding of private secondary schools was brought up. The debate went on for hours. We were told how “not everyone that goes to a private school has a BMW, some people had Volvos” and my own personal favourite “well we didn’t get to go on a family holiday this year and my sister is in a private secondary school.”

And of course when talking about debates it would be remiss not to mention the hustings and how bad they can be. We had the hilarious situation of John Logue and Ciaran Nevin arguing about who left Fianna Fail first at the Presidential debate last year. As anyone knows you can’t leave Fianna Fail, it cuts like a knife and the scars run deep. All the way to Australia some would say.

Experienced student activist, Karl Gill, shares his concerns about the future of the Irish student movement.

Ireland’s largest student union, University College Dublin Students’ Union, is facing a referendum on affiliation to the Union of Students in Ireland. The call for disaffiliation is becoming extremely popular and increasingly hard to challenge. The old mantra of ‘united we stand divided we fall’ seems to fall on deaf ears as people do not see or believe in the USI tagline “together we’re stonger”. This has led a number of people to discuss the very nature of student politics, apathy and engagement. This post is an attempt to stimulate debate about the nature of Irish student politics.

Every single student in this country is a member of a student union. Unlike a Trade Union, students do not choose this membership, the majority of students are not consciously union members or see themselves as part of something that is designed and in existence to protect them, fight for them, represent them and generally raise the standard of living for students and increase the experience of university life. However students do have certain expectations of their union and I will deal with that later.

Most people involved in SU politics will tell you that students simply don’t care, that they are apathetic, they only care about having a good night life and nice, cheap coffee in the shop. While there is a point to this argument it is far from the full picture. Some students do care about Irish society in one form or another. They are involved in the SU, political societies, charity societies, student media, Amnesty, LGBT etc.. The vast majority of Social Science students are active in voluntary work and have real concerns about the direction of their country. Most students read newspapers and generally keep up to date with what is going on in the world. Most poignantly we saw young people and students at the heart of the Irish Pro-Choice movement and made up the bulk of the 20,000 strong demonstration, following the death of Savita Halappanavar, which has forced the government to finally legislate for the X-Case. But I think most obviously students care because they live in a society where the cost of living and education are going up and the prospect of a job after college going down. Students live in households that are concerned about property tax and water charges. Students live in communities with hospitals at threat of closure. To say students simply do not care is nothing more than a cop-out by our student unions. It is an argument that comes from people who either do not know the reality of everyday life for students or people who surround themselves with said people.

I am sure the hundreds of students who recently received food packages from their SU care about their future and the cost of education. I am sure that the student nurses currently actively engaged with a very serious campaign with the INMO over their pay care.. the list can go on.

So why are the students not fighting? Why was there only, at the most, 800 students from UCD and IADT marching in Dun Laoghaire on Eamon Gilmore’s clinic before Christmas? Well part of this question is the same question many Irish people are asking themselves: Why are the Irish not fighting? Why can’t we be more like the Greeks or the French? Irish people entered this crisis coming from a different position to other European countries. We came out of a period of massive economic growth, the Celtic Tiger, it was a period that saw a very low level of political unrest, civil disobedience and industrial dispute and young people in particular do not have a history or knowledge of any kind of protest movement. There was nothing for us to learn from and now we are unprepared when the fight is needed most.

Lastly, students are not fighting because they have a leadership that does not believe in them, a leadership that thinks that protesting doesn’t work, that we have no chance of winning, that do not believe in the arguments that they themselves make but only make them because they are mandated to do so and more often than not a leadership that’s primary concern is their CV and not students. In this arena real life student issues become debating fodder used to advance people’s political or corporate careers.

One things that is not recognized about students is that they might care but often don’t hold the confidence to speak up and have their voices heard. As Jim Larkin said “the great only seem great because we are on our knees, let us rise”. This blog post does not intend to be derogatory towards more affluent students but there are some points that need to be made in this regard. Students who come from private schools and families with successful businesses will almost always have the confidence to get their point across, challenge lecturers, speak in tutorials and run in SU elections while the silent majority remain silent, terrified that they will be shot down or ridiculed for making a point (even though most people are generally receptive and polite to most contributions).

SU politics always completely overlooks the element of class politics. For me, at every SU meeting it is the elephant in the room. It is an absolute indisputable fact that people in any college come from various backgrounds and have parents that hold various positions of power in society. In UCD you can find the children of politicians and millionaires but you can also find students from the poorest communities in Dublin and they are both equally represented by the same student union. In the arena of student politics both types of students are on the same side in terms of challenging the government. Whereas everywhere else in society rich are poor are naturally pitched against each other. The poor wanting more for the work that they do and the rich wanting to pay the poor less in order to increase their profit margin.

This is why industrial relations and the politics of trade unionism is based on class politics but the politics of student unions lack this dimension. I am not saying that that the sons and daughters of the wealthy control our student unions but the balance is definitely in their favour, however it is not homogeneous in this sense, SU Councils contain people from all backgrounds but the power balance definitely lines in said direction.

The leaders of student unions have an amazing ability to come across as apolitical, even though often aligned to political party of the establishment. They can win people over via niceness, socializing, enthusiasm, confidence, popularity and glamour during elections. Popular figures can rise to notoriety and are surrounded by their own gang. This is where the issue of hackery comes in to play. There are people who like associating themselves with popular people by showing them support and often get the benefits of this in terms of personal notoriety, a boost for elections or even free pizza and drink tokens. These people are like “the good wife”. They will stick by their man no matter what and will vehemently hate anyone who challenges them in anyway. They will never challenge authority because there is nothing in it for them. “Ah sure hes sound, ya can’t be saying that”. They are the major problem with student politics. They are hacks and hackery is counter revolutionary. In a workplace environment they would be break picket lines and referred to as “scabs”.

Hackery can also take the form of pure bureaucracy. There are people who can quote page and verse SU constitutions and various other documents and will use this knowledge as a form of power over others. This bureaucracy never helps anything in any real way but actually stems democracy and discussion.

Karl Marx once commented on bureaucracy as being a “magic circle from which no one can escape. Its hierarchy of knowledge.. it degenerates into.. passive obedience, the worship of authority, the mechanism of a fixed, formal action, of rigid principles, views and traditions. As for the individual bureaucrat, the purpose of the state [SU] becomes his private, a hunt for promotion and careerism”.

Not everyone involved in student politics is a hack. There are some very good, honest people, including some sabbatical officers, who simply want to represent their class and engage in the big debates in university. These are the people that, regardless of their political persuasion, often make an SU council meeting interesting with new ideas being discussed. However my criticism is an institutional one and not an individual one.

Just because students are not actively involved in student politics this does not mean they are apathetic. The free pizza/drink token culture is what people see as being the student union. This is primarily why people are not actively engaged or interested in student union politics. They are alienated from the union. Ordinary decent students either don’t even consider the SU or actively dislike it.

Effectively student unions operate more like a student government or a student representative body than a union of any kind. A union indicates active participation, a branch structure, subs and conscious membership.

If we don’t do something about it, and do it soon, student unions will get to a point where they will cease to challenge access to education and only concern themselves in student governance, welfare, entertainment and service provision. This is already the direction of student unions and the only thing that could stop it would be if the Left garnered a critical mass in unions to sway them or if there was a genuine student movement from below that by-passed union bureaucracy. These are the only options of faith for the organised student movement in Ireland and hopefully one of them will become possible in the next few years.

Until a time comes when it is realistic to change student unions the student Left should concentrate its efforts on politics and intervening in political debate, building the Pro-Choice movement and convincing students to join campaigns against austerity such as the campaign against the property tax and other serious movements of opposition.