International Socialists

Students at universities and polytechnics around the country were among the many diverse groups who breathed a collective sigh of relief when watching the death agonies of the National Government last year. The new Labour/Alliance regime has been welcomed by students for their education policies and their stated opposition to the kind of "business" model pursued so insanely by previous National Governments.

Of course, this support for the new government is completely understandable. They have removed the interest on student loans while students are still studying, they have tried to stop any fee increases next year and they have told universities to stop wasting funds competing with each other in marketing madness. All of this combines to make the Labour/Alliance government seem very much a Good Thing for students.

For those of us - and we are, by now, almost an entire generation - who have grown up under nothing but New Right approaches to education it seems like a very good thing indeed. But it is crucial that, while supporting this government against the ridiculous attacks against it from business and the right, we recognise also that these changes are in fact particularly short lived ones. To end the injustices of the New Right model more than a few minor face painting reforms are required. We can, and must, begin to demand real change.

Until 1984 a tertiary education in New Zealand was effectively free, there were universal allowances for students and universities had the ability to fund and offer extensive courses in many subjects which are now threatened because of their small numbers, such as Russian, German and so on. The Fourth Labour Government began the end of this state of affairs by introducing, alongside all the other unpleasantries, a series of tertiary fees, a student loan scheme, a beginning of the market model in education and so on.

While these New Right reforms have been around for a while - 16 years now - this does not mean that the older state of affairs can never come again. Those who tell you that we simply "can't afford free education any more" are talking nonsense. If a taxation system existed that ensured Doug Myers, Roger Kerr and a few of their mates paid a fair share of their taxes then there would be plenty of money available!

It seems odd that the government which can pour millions into Olympic funding, America's Cup support and other assorted wastes of money can then turn around and tell students there is no money for the country's education system. Free education and universal student allowances are things we can win again - they existed in the past, they can again now.

We need to remember some basic points about this issue that the Labour Party's move to cut interest payments has obscured. Even if the interest on a loan is removed while someone is studying, this system still means that the poor pay more for their education than the rich. Without universal student allowances, students remain the only group in the country who have to borrow just to eat. These statements are just as true under Labour/Alliance as they were under National. User pays education continues to discriminate against the poor, Maori and women. It is unfair.

Many who agree with these sentiments respond by saying, "Yes, but we need to give this government a chance. If we criticise them now then this will just weaken their position and leave the way open again for National." In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Business attacks on this government, which have been constant since it took office, have shown that all areas of the political spectrum intend pressuring it.

Business has far more power than students, and amendments to the Employment Relations Bill show that this government is trying to accommodate them. Without keeping up their struggle students will become lost in the myriad of pressure groups and interest sectors sitting at the feet of Helen Clark, waiting for their turn.

History has shown us real change is never delivered from above. Rather, it is always won from below. The goals of free education and universal student allowances are ones students can win from a government, but ones which will never be given to them.

This is why now, more than ever, it is vital that student activism revives. Students are not the apathetic disillusioned group liberals paint them as: the nineties were a decade marked by student occupations, marches and militancy. Just this year several hundred students marched on the offices of WINZ to protest their incompetence, a march which quickly turned to demand wider, "real" change.

It is this way - through marches, militant actions and occupations, that we can force the Government to move beyond face painting with cosmetic changes and get it to deliver real and just reforms. To do this students, and a mass of them, need to get involved in Education Action Groups, protest movements and wider political considerations. Our actions do not undermine the cause of change, they assist it. While it is not true that students here and now have nothing to lose but their chains, it is fair to say we still have a world to win.