Books For the Rich, Pebbles For the Pauper
Written By: Cal Ashnikov
On the 26th of June, protests took place across the nation as university students mobilised against proposed fee hikes and funding cuts to higher education. This was in reaction to the Morrison government’s latest announcement that they would be significantly raising the fees for certain degrees nationwide, with the humanities, law, management, communications and social sciences being heavily impacted. Additionally, they intend to cut federal funding by some $770 million for courses such as teaching and nursing. The callousness of this attack in such a short time after previous attempts at fee deregulation in 2014 is of great significance to the wider community.
“Commodification which has turned universities into places of profit rather than education”
The significance of these actions lie in the blatant display of disregard the government has for the services provided to the community and public within this country. In a cowardly attempt to stymie criticism, they have pledged a measly $480 million to ensure that more students are pumped through courses such as engineering, nursing and IT, to the neglect of other fields of study. Meanwhile, Morrison and his posse announced this week that they will commit to a $270 billion military spending package, some $75 billion more than promised by the previous Turnbull government.(1) We thus see the essentials of the Australian ship being thrown overboard just so the captain can maintain his extravagancies. While the Australian public once again bear the brunt of privatisation and defunding, moneyed interests line their pockets through suspect military contracts that in no way serve the Australian people.
In conjunction with these callous actions of the government, we have also seen university administrations and leadership back these choices, rushing to beat one another in the race towards privatised and deregulated universities, akin to the situation in the United States. These bodies are jumping at the opportunity to impose debt so heavy that the young will have no choice but to accept whatever corporate slave job they are offered upon graduation. These fee hikes will see the cost for arts and communication more than double at 113%, while law, economics and commerce degrees will now cost $72,500.(2) These unjust changes aren’t simply the result of the financial interests of university leaderships; they are also rooted in the logic of capitalism.
In the neoliberal era, this fits into a trend of commodification which has turned universities into places of profit rather than education, functioning to bleed students dry, rather than to enlighten and embolden them to deal with the world. Commodification of education fits well with the other unstated function of universities: producing compliant thought workers for capitalism. Universities churn out graduates at quicker rates for faster profits, manufacturing cogs in a machine that are servile to the cause and tenets of the capitalist market. In implementing these changes, the government and university administrations have shown their disregard for education and lust for profits. No longer content with casualising the workforce of tutors and lecturers and cutting away at units, the leaders of this nation are now punishing the young for daring to study what interests them. All the while, they rack up the debt of these poor undergraduates to buy intercontinental missiles and facilitate the spread of the imperialist war machine.
“The government and university administrations have shown their disregard for education and lust for profits”
These consistent attacks on education within Australia only serve to highlight the importance of education and the fostering of critical thinking and awareness. As Communists, we must be aware of the significance underlying the discourse and rhetoric of the ruling class and the danger of phrases such as ‘job-relevant’ courses and degrees. We must not forget that an educated, class-conscious person is the most dangerous threat to the ruling system. As such, we must ensure that education remains accessible to all who thirst for it and not just the rich, for as Lenin said, the working people ‘need it to win’.(3) Hence, we must push for fees to be spread more evenly across courses, and to be subsidised in a fair manner so that education is accessible to those who desire it in a just and equitable way. The larger perspective must also be kept in mind, in that the mobilisation against these fee hikes and course cuts is not solely resistance to the money-hungry attitudes of university administrators. Rather, it is a mobilisation against the creeping disregard for public services to the community, against privatisation and, against the attacks on critical thinking in our increasingly militarised nation. To quote Lenin, the mobilisation against this is in fact a ‘political symptom, a symptom of the whole present situation brought about by the counter-revolution’.(4) As such, we must link this struggle to the broader counter-revolutionary attacks all of society is currently being subjected to by the ruling classes.
The conclusions to be drawn from the fee hikes being proposed by the government are wide-reaching in their significance and implications for all members of our community. The importance of choice and access in education is paramount to elevating the consciousness of all people. If this is forfeited for the desire of profits and the commodification of education, it is another step towards disenfranchising and alienating the most vulnerable demographics of our community. Additionally, we must recognise the dangers of an education system manipulating and forcing the young into politically subordinate roles as ‘disciplined minds’, robbed of the tools necessary for critical thought and development in society at large.(5) As communists, we recognise the need for arming ourselves intellectually, encouraging critical thinking and engagement that higher education offers in its diverse availability of courses. Accordingly, we must challenge each step that works to dismantle these skills that bring about innovation, creation and stimulation to our society and ensure that education remains accessible to all. In how we do this, we should once again look to the words of Comrade Lenin borne of the similar struggles of our student forebears. As Lenin said, it is the job of the party to ‘explain to the mass of “academic” protesters the objective meaning of the conflict, to try and make it consciously political, to multiply tenfold the agitation carried on by the Social-Democratic groups of students, and to direct all this activity in such a way that revolutionary conclusions will be drawn from this’.(6) As communists, we have an obligation to help orient the struggle of students and academics against the systems that are attacking these educational institutions. We have a duty to expand their class consciousness in this struggle, so that people who are suffering from the attacks of these same forces are also able to feel secure, no matter where or who they are. For it is only together that we can be enabled to push back against these creeping forces of reaction.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1 Hayne, Jordan. 2020. "Which University Fees Could Increase, Which Ones Could Fall, And What Could Go Awry". ABC News, 2020.
2 Guo, Vivienne. 2020. "Students Take To The Streets Against Controversial Fee Hikes". Honi Soit, 2020.
3 Lenin, Vladimir. 1918. "Speech At The First All-Russia Congress On Education". Speech, Moscow, 1918.
4 Lenin, V.I. 1908. "The Student Movement And The Present Political Situation". Proletary 36 (16).
5 Schweingruber, David, and Jeff Schmidt. 2003. "Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look At Salaried Professionals And The Soul-Battering System That Shapes Their Lives". Teaching Sociology 31 (2): 250.
6 Lenin, V.I. 1908. "The Student Movement And The Present Political Situation". Proletary 36 (16).
References
Guo, Vivienne. 2020. "Students Take To The Streets Against Controversial Fee Hikes". Honi Soit, 2020. http://honisoit.com/2020/06/students-take-to-the-streets-against-controversial-fee-hikes/?fbclid=IwAR0XWjnESuh58-CPFMAKZeBAiIo_u38dhtf-X8LFHXv7TuxzE2w69-TSSw4.
Hayne, Jordan. 2020. "Which University Fees Could Increase, Which Ones Could Fall, And What Could Go Awry". ABC News, 2020. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-23/what-university-fees-increasing-how-funding-works/12381362.
Lenin, V.I. 1908. "The Student Movement And The Present Political Situation". Proletary 36 (16).
Lenin, Vladimir. 1918. "Speech At The First All-Russia Congress On Education". Speech, Moscow, 1918.
Schweingruber, David, and Jeff Schmidt. 2003. "Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look At Salaried Professionals And The Soul-Battering System That Shapes Their Lives". Teaching Sociology 31 (2): 250.