Student Activism - A History

A History of Student Activism

Imagine: You are walking by a newsstand on your way to a morning cup of coffee. You glance at the headline, your mind in a morning fog, and proceed on your way to the much-needed dose of caffeine that you managed to drag yourself out of bed for. You finish the cup, and all of a sudden your mind jolts back to the headline, when it finally hits you. The government is trying to reintroduce tuition fees- again.

Your mind races as you try to think of how you can possibly stay in college, pay your ever-increasing rent, and juggle the part-time job you're going to have to get with the mounds of schoolwork you have to do. You think about marching right up to the Dail to speak with the Taosaich himself, as you come back to reality and start hearing other disgruntled students voicing their own anger with the government. You join forces, speak up for your rights, and from every area of the country show the government what happens when you feel they're not taking care of you. They listen to the multitudes, and you win. They not only promise that they will not reintroduce tuition fees, the pressure you put on them forces them to make a €42 million investment in third-level grants and disadvantaged access, with a promise for no increases in the capitation fee. The students of Ireland have spoken, and the government have been forced into an embarrassing climbdown.

The Role of USI in rousing Students to Action

For nearly fifty years, the Union of Students in Ireland have been galvanizing students across the country to act against issues just like the proposed reintroduction of tuition fees. USI is the sole national representative body for students in Ireland. The education and welfare of students are the main priorities of USI, and they work hard to ensure a decent standard of living for all students, as well as an "education and training system open to all." Since its inception in 1959, USI has acted to achieve the establishment of the Higher Education Grants Scheme (1970), the original abolition of tuition fees for undergraduate students (1980's) and the right of distributing abortion information throughout Ireland (1990s).

USI, though not without its own problems, acts as an example of how concerted action can help to achieve the positive resolution of student dilemmas, and also bring national media attention to the problems faced by young people.

The history of Ireland's youth speaking out together to achieve a common goal has largely been lost, as few records of protests and specific actions have been kept. However, some of the larger campaigns students have run are well remembered, due to either to their end results or the large-scale media buzz bringing attention to the plight of the youth.

Northern Ireland in the 1960's: A Fight For Civil Rights

The 1960's proved to be a time of frantic student activism in both the North and Republic. Northern Ireland in the late 1960's experience a period of civil unrest, in response to decades of Unionist discrimination against Catholics. In a 1968 civil rights march in Derry, the Royal Ulster Constabulary "booted and bludgeoned" a crowd of teachers and clerics off the streets. In response, two thousand students from Queens University marched to City Hall to protest the brutality. These students were then rerouted and blocked by the police, an event that catalyzed the formation of the country's most dynamic student movement, People's Democracy.

The next year proved to be one of the most energized times of student activism ever in the North. Student Bernadette Devlin was elected to Westminster. Students occupied parliament at Stormont preventing MPs from leaving until they were heard. A 73-mile Long March from Belfast to Derry was organized, which ended with 86 students hospitalized because of police brutality. Most notably, students acted to become a force that the government could not ignore.

UCD in the 1960's: The Gentle Revolution

Students at UCD in the 1960s acted to reform the college from a Catholic academy into the vibrant university that it is today, in what history has termed 'The Gentle Revolution.' Labour's own Ruairi Quinn played a crucial part in rousing the student body to attack the poor quality of academic programs at the college, which was according to him a "tight shoe that no longer fitted the aspirations of its overcrowded and increasingly challenging students." He helped form a group called Students for Democratic Action involving Trinity students as well. They issued a monthly publication called Confrontation, which demanded information on how the college was being run, and called for openness in decision-making and student representation. Scandal developed when the Internationalists, a group of radical students at Trinity, picketed a garden party in attendance by the Belgian King, in opposition to the Belgian government's foreign policies. The Evening Herald denounced the protest by saying it was an insult to distinguished guests of Ireland made by "pampered and unrepresentative" students. These same students organized a march to Trinity College where they gave out leaflets and made speeches calling for solidarity.

Meanwhile, the sorry state of the academic curriculum of the School of Architecture was noticed by the Royal Institute of British Architects, which threatened to take away the college's international accreditation. The students, appalled at the way their own curriculums were run, organized guest lectures every Friday, to try to save accreditation. When nothing was done by UCD to reform the program of instruction, over three-quarters of the students in the School of Architecture staged an occupation of the building for a weekend, putting pressure on the authorities.

Their collective action succeeded in gaining the support of college lecturers and some senior figures, mounting enough pressure on the administration of UCD to fully restructure the academic program of the School of Architecture the following year. The actions of the students saved their schools accreditation, and proved to the country that students had a voice and were not afraid to use it.

Students as Scapegoats: The Medical Card Campaign of the 1980s

By the early 1980s, students had become regular targets for a government that had to shave its spending, due to low participation rates in elections. The government at the time set out to end universal entitlement of third level students to medical cards, in order to save on spending. As of 1 January 1984, students between the ages of 16 and 25 could not obtain a medical card entitling them to free medical care unless their parents were already entitled to possession of one. This new policy assessed students essentially as children, and not adults in their own right. USI President Joe Duffy organized marches in protest all over the country, as well as the physical occupation of government offices.

The campaign dragged on for months, and culminated in the imprisonment of Duffy and other protesters for breaking injunctions against them. According to the USI President, the government offered them a deal while they were in prison, but didn't follow through on it once they were out of jail. Despite the defeat of the campaign, the actions of the students did not entirely go unrewarded. The government never tried to take the medical card away from any other group again, because the students showed how strongly they felt about the issue.

Years after the campaign, Duffy still believes in the collective action of students who want to be heard. "I'm a firm believer that students will react in whatever way they have to to get things done. If a phone call will do that job, then make the call...whatever it takes then that's what you have to do, and I'm sure that's what students will do when it comes down to it now."

 

SPUC v. Grogan : Students of the 1990's Fight for the Right to Choose

The early 1990s ushered in an era of student unions tackling the controversial topic of abortion information. The Society for Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) attacked student unions in court for giving out information about abortion using an interpretation of the Hamiliton Judgment by Justice Finlay in 1987, which declared the procurement of any information about abortion to be unlawful. SPUC won an appeal, and an injunction was placed on USI.

However, in 1991 the Trinity College Right to Information Group launched the Dublin Abortion Information Campaign (DAIC), which began to meet regularly. They defied the ban by providing abortion information, and distributed leaflets to inform the public of their crusade. When, in February of 1992, the X case became publicized, DAIC organized a protest and over 1,000 people showed up to support the right of a 14-year-old rape victim to travel out of the country for an abortion. The next week, they organized a 'Right to Choose' march of over 10,000 people, which drew widespread media attention and coupled with other protests in the following week to put enough pressure on the government to grant the young girl permission to leave the country.

The rising of the students to inform the public about the injustice of the situation not only saved the young girl further trauma, but eventually helped to pressure the government enough that in 1995, the Abortion Information Act was passed to allow for the free exchange of information about abortion.

The student movement throughout the nineties played a pivotal role in fighting for the liberalisation of an Ireland that had been dominated by conservative Catholic views. In particular USI was amongst the first national organization to support the decriminalisation of homosexuality which took place under a Labour government in 1992. Students also campaigned for the availability of contraception - which only became available in vending machines in the early 1990's when a Labour Minister - Brendan Howlin T.D. was Minister for Health.

The Millennium and the Fight for Free Education

Nearly two decades after the medical card campaign, students are still targeted by government cutbacks in the form of the measly grants they are given to live off of. The year 2000, caught in the midst of the Celtic Tiger economy, saw rapidly rising rents devaluing an already inadequate student grant. In response, students acting with the USI launched the largest campaign in the history of Irish students for an improved grants system. Thousands of students from every area of the country took to the streets after student union leaders made a unanimous decision to mount a persistent campaign.

On 6 November 2000, thirteen students were promised a meeting with the Minister of Education and Science after barricading themselves into the Department of Education in front of a supportive crowd. The same week, 5500 students in Dublin demonstrated, and some tied themselves to railings within the Dail grounds. Students in Limerick marched to City Hall and were able to gain support from the Lord Mayor John Ryan, of the Labour Party. The individual protests around the country all lead up to a National Day of Action on 22 January 2001, which attracted much media attention and involved students from across all of Ireland gathering at O'Connell Bridge to march to the Dail.

The students clearly succeeded in bringing public awareness to their struggle with the grants system, with over 18000 students participating in the campaign. The campaign was successful when the government announced under pressure an extra 42 million euro for student grants.

Student Action Wards Off the Reintroduction of Tuition Fees

Students were again at the wrong end of government spending when a plan to reintroduce tuition fees was announced in 2000 by Minister of Education and Science Noel Dempsey. The plan reasonably horrified students nation-wide, and sparked the uprising of young people against the unfair hike. In council elections at UCD, the Campaign for Free Education platform (CFE) ran on the grounds of truly free education for all with a living grant and abolition of all fees, and won 17 seats on the council. As fears of college students worsened, the campaign grew stronger and students were called to action. On 16 October 2002, hundreds of students occupied the Vets building in UCD to prevent Noel Dempsey from leaving for two hours. That occupation, however, was just the beginning. In the weeks and months that followed, a string of actions were taken in the name of the students against tuition fees. The Stillorgan dual carriageway was blocked by hundreds of students, who received support instead of anger from most motorists.

Marches were organized on campus, and in what was the biggest demonstration on the UCD campus in years, over 300 students marched in unison, chanting, "'What do we want? Free Education! How Do We Get it Occupation!" They then attempted to occupy O'Reilly Hall where they were turned away, and redirected themselves to occupy the dual carriageway. Cheered again by motorists, their dilemma was gaining public support. The also staged successful occupations of the Departments of Finance, Education and Transport, and carried out a successful sit-down protest outside Dail Eireann.

On 20 May 2003, CFE and USI acted together to organize over 1,000 students in a demonstration outside government buildings. Five days later, due to the massive pressure put on him by students across Ireland, Minister Noel Dempsey announced that he would not be reintroducing tuition fees, and that he had secured an extra 42 million euro with which to improve the grants system. In all, the concerted action of tens of thousands of students across the island have succeeded not only in accomplishing their goal of stopping the reintroduction of tuition fees, but also in proving that direct action works.