Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 41 No. 9. April 24 1978
Editorial
Editorial
Next week we march for a decent bursary. Four years in a row now VUWSA and NZUSA have mounted a campaign on bursaries, each time culminating in a march. Many students question the value of this form of protest. But it is worth considering that we were only given the STB in 1975 because of direct action.
Furthermore, marches are not the only activity engaged in. Our representatives in VUWSA and NZUSA spend a great deal of time using the "correct channels" in bargaining on our behalf. Their work is useless unless we, the students, can demonstrate that they have our support. There is only one way of effectively doing this, and that is to get out on the streets where we can be counted.
Some students also question the propriety of asking for an increase in bursaries when so many other sections of the community are having to suffer the consequences of the economic crisis. But are students so very different from those other other sections? We did not create the crisis and nor did the working people who are being asked to bear the brunt of the general attack on living standards.
This is not a facile argument. When the economy does well do students and working people prosper? Certainly not. Wages do not rise and fall as the pressure comes and goes on big business, and bursaries do not fluctuate in accordance with the "country's" prosperity. Wages, bursaries, welfare benefits — all methods by which people are paid — steadily decrease in value. The only difference in times of crisis is the rate of that decrease.
Why is this? The current crisis has been caused by the local and overseas owners of big business. Instead of using their profits to develop productive industries (like fishing) which would gain us some degree of independence from the rapidly deteriorating world economy, they are investing in high return finance houses. So production drops and people are thrown out of work.
As this happens the government cuts back on public spending, and that means that education suffers. Bursaries are just one area where this is happening but they are an important one. Holiday employment prospects may have almost completely disappeared by the end of the year, so that the traditional means of supplementing the bursary will no longer be of any use.
Most important is the fact that only 50% of Victoria students actually receive any bursary assistance at all, and of these only half are on the unabated rate. Consequently we are now getting the situation where only those with secure financial support (usually from parents) are able to attend university. The concept of a student who pays his/her way is fast becoming archaic.
Neither major party is prepared to promise more than token relief, but how could they? Neither is prepared to make any significant changes to the way our economy is structured, so cannot be expected to create more security or more jobs for anyone.
For all these reasons we must march this Wednesday. The government must be shown that students are not content with their lot, that we do not accept responsibility for the hardships inflicted on us, and that we are prepared to fight for the right to a decent education for all.
Direct action may not acheive much on its own, but it is at the heart of everything that is done. And it must involve all of us.
Simon Wilson