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RMIT Orientation Carnivale - Voluntary Student Unionism |
The story so far....
Voluntary Student Unionism? According to the Government, VSU is about giving students 'choice'. What it really is about is the Government's attempt to cripple all student opposition to its regressive policies that directly affect the lives of students.
VSU currently exists in 3 states of Australia - Tasmania, Western Australia, and here in Victoria. It was brought in at state level, with each different government implementing separate models.
In the Western Australian model, the implications have been very severe, resulting in the depoliticising of several Student Unions, as well as the closure of at least one Union. Basically the compulsory fee that goes towards funding the student union has become voluntary, and it has become the responsibility of the unions themselves to focus on convincing students to pay a fee to join the union. It reduces the union to no more than a club, with no greater funding or power, which would have massive ramifications in the area of student rights and representation.
The Victorian model is less severe, but can still be as destructive. In this state, funding from the compulsory student union fee (which at RMIT is a percentage of the CNAF fee that you pay at the start of the year) goes through the university, to the student union. What this essentially means is that it is up to each individual university, rather than students, to decide whether a particular student union project is 'for the students' direct benefit', and whether or not they would fund it. It is a blatant shift of power from the students to the universities, and immediately puts the union under the university's thumb.
Student organisations exist so that students have a strong independent voice that can criticise both government and university management without fear of individual reprisal, and to protect the rights of students individually and collectively. VSU exists to take away that voice and to force each student to 'go it alone'. It strips students of their right to organise independently and democratically without interference from governments or university managements, by taking away the independent funding that is provided by the students - funding that is not monitored and selectively dished out by the university.
But the worst bit is yet to come. One of the promises of the Liberal Government in the recent Federal Election was to implement VSU on a federal level, in an attempt to ensure that all student unions are properly gagged. The Western Australian model is looking like the model that will be used. Why? "Because it works" a Liberal representative told us. What did they mean by 'works'? Because it gives student's more choice, or because it has been the most effective in silencing opposition to the government? What the government says VSU is supposed to achieve and what they want it to achieve are clearly two drastically different things.
Who's choice? Not mine...
The government states the VSU is about giving students choice. But what about the choice as to whether or not students want it in the first place?
If VSU is introduced federally it will occur through an act of parliament, and not by any decision of students as a group. This is because despite campaigning for VSU for nearly two decades, the Liberals have not been able to convince a majority of students to abolish universal membership through the democratic processes of student organisations - so they will attempt to enforce this 'choice' on students from above. THIS IS NOT CHOICE! This is enforcing a system on students to make life easier for the politicians, because then students can disagree all they like with what the government is doing - they can't do much about it without an effective means by which to organise political campaigns and actions.
Freedom for what?
Another of the politician's favourite phrases is that VSU is about freedom for students. But that's the problem. It is about freedom, but not for students. It protects the freedom of Vice Chancellors to spend millions of dollars of student's money on their own luxuries and savagely cut courses, with no organised student opposition. But what about the freedom of students to be represented by an independent union not restricted by the university in what they can and can't protest about?
So why should student union membership be universal? Basically, because rights must be balanced with responsibilities. Student Unions benefit all students. Thus all students have a responsibility to contribute. The idea that this breaches the rights to freedom of association would only be relevant if the associations were undemocratic or unaccountable, which is not the case. All students can have a say in what the student union does.
Similar arguments apply to the fees that students pay. The money from CNAF which goes to the Student Union is used to provide services and representation which all students benefit from. Moreover, it is spent on things that students have asked for.
For example most students don't have the money to hire lawyers, but the student body as a whole can provide student rights officers available to all. Moreover, student rights officers have the power to help students only because they have the collective might of the entire student body behind them.
Individually students have no power when they are in conflict with the administration. We all have a responsibility to our fellow students to ensure that as a group who share many common interests, we have the power to look out for each other. This can only be achieved through universal membership of a Union.
Student Unions are necessary to ensure education serves the needs of all students, and to protect their rights. They provide a counter-balance to the power of the administration and governments, whose interests are often contrary to students'. They provide services which individual students cannot, through collective strength.
Oi! Mind your own business!
The government is not looking out for students. They are not concerned about giving students 'choice' and 'freedom'. The primary aim of Voluntary Student Unionism is to destroy the power of the student voice and to make it easier for them to implement regressive policies virtually unopposed. This fact is quite clearly reflected in an official briefing circulated amongst Liberal Party members, stating:
"We do not want compulsory student monies flowing out to anti-Kennett and anti-Coalition campaigns and other fringe activities of the hard student left."
What is not mentioned is that before YSU students had control of their money. The 'anti-Kennett' and 'anti-coalition' campaigns (read pro-student, pro-education campaigns) are things that students decided on through democratic student unions. Through taking away student control of student money VSU has actually destroyed the choice and freedom of students to decide how it is spent.
It is probable that under the proposed federal legislation RMIT will still be able to charge some sort of compulsory general services fee. Theoretically RMIT could reduce this fee from the current level because they won't be providing most of the services students currently get from the student union, but in the context of massive budget cuts it is quite possible that fees will stay at a similar level.
The implementation of the current Victorian VSU legislation has already led to a major shift in power from the student representative bodies to the university managers and to the government. Student Unions must justify their spending not just to students but to the administration, thus compromising their independence and ability to advocate for students.
The fact is that it is up to us, the students, to send a very clear message to the university and to the Liberal Government that we don't accept VSU. We don't accept the way it takes control away from students and we will fight it all the way. We need as many students as possible in 1999 to organise and help with the Anti-VSU campaign, so if you believe in a strong, autonomous student voice, get in contact with the Welfare and Education Department to find out how you can help defend your student union.
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