In England when Parliament attempted to nearly triple the cost of tuition for university students last year, thousands took to the streets in mass protest. There were peaceful street demonstrations juxtaposed with Molotov-cocktail-wielding rioting that resulted in numerous accounts of injuries to police and demonstrators alike, property destruction, car and structure fires, broken windows, defaced store fronts and even a street ambush on the Royal Family’s car with Prince Charles and Camella, the Duchess of Cornwall, cowering inside, thinking, “Oh dear, I do believe the peasants are finally revolting.”
In El Salvador thousands of students and teachers at the national public university, Universidad de El Salvador, had sit-ins and occupied the campus six years ago in protest against bus fare hikes and measures speculated to lead to privatization of universities and raising tuition fees.
In Greece last year thousands followed suit with students and union workers protesting against austerity measures that jeopardized jobs, public services and public education, coupled with a national general strike.
In Egypt a sizeable portion of its 2011 Revolution consisted of young people and students that included in its demand for proper democratic representation, a secure and affordable higher education.
Not to mention the mass movements in Portugal, Puerto Rico, Germany, France and Belgium to name a few more. In fact, since about 2005 up until this year, we have seen dramatic social movements in the streets the world over, with some of them going as far as revolution.
And here in the U.S., in sunny California, on several university campuses such as California State University, Northridge, and University of California, Berkley, hundreds of students demonstrated against the recent plan for California State Universities to raise their enrollment fees and tuition by fifteen percent and Universities of California increasing its fees by eight percent.
But after a few weeks, students, one by one, filed back into the classroom, shrinking in size, and faded away into the mundane fog and routine of school life.
There was no effective organization. There was no coordinated plan. There was no revolution.
At the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (JACC) held in Sacramento recently, during an Editorial Cartooning workshop, renowned illustrator and activist John Kloss summed up the temporary and spontaneous student movement as such: “It’s a gun fight and you guys keep bringing a knife. You’re going to have to start thinking more radically.”
Kloss remembered a time back in the Berkley of the radical 60s when students used to announce a student strike, take over the school, and demand more control in their education. Unfortunately, that kind of fervor is lacking today.
The question is: do college students even care anymore?
We are often stereotyped as apathetic or worse-still, money-hungry cold individualists. How true does this ring?
It’s undeniable that most students and young people in general do not have confidence in politics, with statistics showing little voting on our part. However, during Obama’s campaign, records were broken for youth voter turnout. Approximately 23 million young people under the age of 30 voted in the 2008 presidential election, with 52 to 53 percent young voter turnout, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).
It was as if we collectively all woke up, committed ourselves to a goal and worked toward it, together.
Our main objective: put in a progressive Democrat (and replace the Republican threat) that will get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, close Guantanamo Bay, fight for more rights and reforms for the LGBTQ community and affordable healthcare and higher education. This was Obama and Clinton’s campaign platform. These were the words that we were eager to hear. This was the change we wanted and voted for.
So, uh, what happened?
Fast forward four years later. While parts of the progressive agenda have been won, military involvement in Libya makes this our third (official) war front, slashes to state budgets, tuition fees continue to climb, teacher are being laid off, and we've seen very little in the way of job growth.
Is it a wonder why so many students, youth and people in general are disenchanted with the politics?
What little hope remained in the American political process has been eliminated in the minds of first-time voters, especially in the youth.
People have to understand the political process better, understand both parties dangerous rhetoric and flaws. And the significant differences that these parties have. But more importantly, the limitations that either party has.
A voter should vote with calculated measure and reserved hope, grounded in reality. No Democrat, left alone and idle, is going to bring universal healthcare or reform higher public education. No Republican is going to stop corporations from sending its manufacturing plants overseas or curb “reckless spending.”
Still, at this point, of the two major parties, the progressives found inside the Democratic Party will be the only ones that will pass much-needed reforms.
Knowing this, you all should be angry. Be angry that this is it. That this is the construct we have to work in. Well, sort of. There’s a third option.
Unfortunately, with or without voter participation, legislature and policy are still passed; furthermore, with less voter awareness or participation, more regressive, deregulatory and dangerous policy can be, has been and will be passed.
Well, what do we do?
We have to take a stand, and I know that it does not stop at the voting booth. This isn’t a call simply to register D, R or I. This isn’t a call simply to vote or watch CNN or MSNBC (but you shouldn’t be watching Fox – that’s for damn sure, other than for comic relief).
This is a call to action, similar to what Kloss said during JACC: we, students, young people, the men and women that make up our country, need to realize the limitations and futility of disorganized protests and worst-still, apathy.
In order to keep the momentum up, we have to expose the connections among all regressive and anti-democratic political actions in this country. From those of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin to Yorba Linda’s backing of Arizona’s anti-undocumented immigrant laws that persecute, punish and vilify and already ultra-exploited and marginalized section of the community, from standing up against teacher layoffs, union busting and connecting it with the student movement for affordable higher education – because it all goes under the umbrella of one struggle. Democracy. Education is a public right – don’t let anyone tell you different.
We have to stand up to preserve our way of life, to fortify and secure our futures, the future of our children that glimmer now as sparks in our eyes and tomorrow will be born, should be born, into a just and fair world with opportunity and guaranteed security.
And we should remember: revolution is not a bad word. The U.S. and all democracies are born from it; and I would argue that without popular challenge and dissent, a democracy withers away.
