City of London Polytechnic Occupation Committee and Communications Officer, NUS London THOUSANDS OF students will return to college after the holiday break eager to turn last term's wave of occupations into a militant national movement against student poverty.
Morale was certainly high in Corekes DUTOTE holiday and it is vital that this is to students who have not yet been involved in occupation.
The current volatility in the student movement is tremendously significant. The situation could well develop extremely positively and a highly combative mass national student movement could emene Mapping out stategy and tacties for the positive develop ment of the movement is there fore crucially important.
There is no doubt that the new realist National Organisa lon of Labour Students (NOLS leadership of the Nationa! Union of Students (NUS) is a considerable obstacle to be overcome. NUS has consistently opposed the occupations, preferring to concentrate on an electoral 'campaign' focusing 0114884 0730540403 the General Election called 'Target 70.
There is a deep and perfectly towards NUS among occupational union's hostile response back. But it is Important that ultra-left, knee-jerk dismissal of all NUS structures - something that the Revolutionary Communist Party attempts to whip up in some colleges London Region NUS and the NUS Women's Campaign, for example, have consistently and practically supporte the cupations in defiance of the national union.
Even at December's NUS The militancy of the grants campaign seems to be reappearing Conference when a motion urging the executive to lead a national movement of occupations fell, the card vote was extremely close. After a bitter debate, in which the right-wing used every trick in the book, the vote was 370,000 to 350,000 - a difference of two large universities.
The decision of NUS London to cau au acuvu conerencs on 22 January is very important. This will be the place cussed. and tactics can be disIn the absence of NUS support, it is vital that there is a national coordination of occupations, one that is elected by and accountable to students in occupation.
It is likely that this conference will be addressed by a Greck student activist who was in the tions in Greece last year. lege occupations have been seen on a much higher level in producers like South Korea.
Within a capitalst framework this can only be solved by shooding tons European industry. The decimation of the British steel industry is a microcosm of this process. When the ories came to powor in 1979 there were some 184,000 workers in steel The Ravenscraig closure wil bring this to less than 46.000, a 75 per cent cut in the workdorce in 12 years. ly also pertinent to Ravenscraig. With ts cowardly response to both the mas sacre of the country's steel industry and to the national question itself Labour is unlikely to reap the rewards of any further Tory collapse, despite Labour's spokesperson on Scodand Donald Dewar, bieating over BS's Setrayal.
Instead, the SNP with its perspec tive of 'independence within Euroçe' is more likely to gain as Scottish nationalism is further fulled by the cioturo of Ravenscra c But tying Scotland to the Brussels bureaucrats will not advance Scottish steelworkers one iota. Like the oil industry. the Scottish steel industry should he controlled by Scottis workers, as should the whole of the Forcing the Tories out of office and fighting the Ravenscraig closure will be one step towards this goal. Greece, where the government was forced to concede their demands. Their experience will not oniv inspire activists in Britain but also provide useful lessons.
NUS London has called for a 'End Student Hardship' national NUS demonstration on 12 February. The march is anticipated to be very large and a strong appeai for further action will help develop a national occupanon movement Going into occu pation entalls management and, certainly if a national movement develops, with the Tory government. Fighting victimisation will ob rously be a central task of oc cupation activists. That task already confronts those students who were in occupation last term. Defending occupation activists will be made very much easier as more colleges fall under occupation.
It is also vital that students in occupation get support from workers in education, and from local labour movement bodies. You don't have to be a student o taise sup port for then Given Kenneth Clarke's bilstering attack on student teachers and on teacher training colleres, any camparsn vi higher and further education must obviously try to forge links with these students, who mav well be inactive themsel• Getting. upport trom f the NUT and d NATFHE is also a priority.
A change in mood looks likely in the student movement. Driven by the Tories into dire poverty with the removal of senefits, frozen grants and top up loans, lack of housing and expensive rents, students have begun to wake up after a period of passivity.
RAVEINSCRAO