School Students Union formed in London- interview
Tali Janner-Klausner is a founding member of London School Students Union – she spoke to Ben Lewis about the organisation’s plans and aspirations
Could you give us a brief history of the organization, the issues you organize on and what you plan to achieve?
LSSU was formed earlier this year, by several school and FE students who were inspired
by the mass school students unions in Europe to set up a fighting union that would defend our rights and work to improve education. Many of our members had been involved in the group School Students Against War, and felt that there was a need for an organisation
Anti-war action: students were prominently involved
that wasn’t solely based on single issue campaigning, that would provide a structure for school and FE students to organise politically about issues affecting us in education at the moment. We felt that it will be increasingly important us to get organised in the coming years, as the government (especially if Conservatives get in next year!) will look to make cuts in education as the recession deepens – we urgently need a fighting union to make education a well funded national priority.
We will be organising on local issues in individual schools as well as national concerns. Nationally, our priorities are fighting cuts, closures and redundancies in schools and colleges; resisting the aggressive marketisation of schools through the introduction of academies and ‘Public Private Partnership’ schemes; campaigning with university students for free education; and standing in solidarity with staff for better pay and conditions. We demand a real student democracy that can impact on individual schools and on how the education system as a whole is run, and we also organise on broader political issues. We recognize that our campaigns are linked to struggles worldwide, and that as a union we must support others in similar situations, both in education and the workplace.
How are things proceeding? Are you winning much support? Have you gained footing elsewhere?
At the moment we are quite an early stage, so are functioning more as a campaigning group than a mass organisation, but most school students I’ve spoken to have expressed their support for the idea, even if they don’t feel like getting involved at this stage – so we have a lot of potential in the near future, and our members are spread out over several different schools and colleges in London. Things are going well on the whole, and we have had the chance to work with or show our support for other campaigns such as the Visteon factory occupations, the school occupations in Glasgow and Lewisham, and with university students to fight tuition fees. There is also a school students’ union group in Edinburgh, who are meeting regularly and doing well. Anyone interested in getting in touch with them can look on their website, www.edinburghschoolstudents.webs.com or call Rachel Gibbs on 07847395860
What is your attitude to institutions like the Youth Parliaments? Is there any room for political intervention and kicking up a fuss?
We would of course work with institutions like Youth Parliament and the Model UN if they supported our campaigns, and agree that it is important for young people to be involved in current affairs and politics. However, it is unfortunate that none of these groups really take on a fighting role to improve education as we would look to do. Nevertheless we will still intervene and work with people involved in these groups, and I would say that there is room in any institution to kick up a fuss and to bring activism and solid political ideas onto the agenda – especially where young people are concerned.
Many comrades in today’s student movement come from the ‘Generation of 2003’ and the action of many school students who were definitely far ahead of their brothers and sisters in university. What do you draw from those struggles in terms of organizing today – say against the siege of Gaza? Are you going to make war and internationalism central to your struggles?
The walkouts and protests of 2003 were hugely inspiring, and showed the strength and mass mobilization we can achieve. Tens of thousands of schoolchildren, some even from primary schools, walked out and joined demonstrations, pickets and die-ins to show their opposition to the war on Iraq – shattering the absurd idea that young people are apathetic or incapable of such militant and relevant action. This is of course relevant today – the events of 2003 remind us that school students are often ahead of their older counterparts, and when they need to, can organise very effectively. The experiences of 2003 have also, as you say, helped and driven many student activists today.
I think that in the near future we will see similar actions arising to resist attacks on education, especially in the coming years when the government will try to force the public to carry the costs of the economic crisis. We know that we can’t just ask Brown or Cameron nicely to improve education; we will have to fight for it as we did against the war in Iraq.
Internationalism should be important to any union, as linking to other struggles is not only right, it helps us in our campaigns too – as shown by the events of 2003. We will of course be discussing and potentially supporting other political campaigns, but ensuring that these will be democratically debated and decided on, and that our focus remains on education.
School student comrades in Communist Students are planning to do some campaigning around the question of votes at 16 – obviously raising the broader questions of democracy and who rules more generally. Do you think this could have an impact?
Personally, I agree that the voting system should recognize that many young people are very involved in politics, and the results of elections affect us all. Of course we wouldn’t get very far if we limited our political participation to voting, but as you say, campaigning around votes at 16 in itself highlights other important concerns about how we can impact on our society. This is an important question and doubtless one that we will discuss in future in LSSU.
We bumped into each other at the Student Co-ordination meeting on April 18. What were your thoughts about that event in terms of offering a way forward for the student movement and your struggle in particular?
Overall, I was really impressed with the meeting. It was great to be able to discuss many pressing issues and recent developments, about the NUS, resisting fees and marketisation, working with unions and school students, climate change, Gaza and the like, and to hear different students’ ideas about them. It was especially interesting to hear international perspectives from European students involved in campaigns relating to education. It was also very useful to hear different opinions and contributions about the university occupations over the war on Gaza, and the lessons learnt from them. It seems that there is a huge potential for the student movement in Britain at the moment, and it’s organized, active resistance to cuts, marketisation and fees is going to be increasingly urgent in the next few years.
However there is clearly a long way to go. Despite the great quality and diversity of debate, and the effort made to maintain unity, the day was largely inconclusive. I felt frustrated that lack of time and minor disagreements had impeded on the cohesiveness and future plans made by those present, and there was a sense of uncertainty over how we could use the successes of the meeting to take the student movement forward.
Nevertheless, everyone was very enthusiastic about helping to build a school students’ union, and it was agreed that school and FE students are facing the same problems in education at university students and we must work together in our campaigns.
The left is obviously split up into rival factions, campaigns and fronts. Have you found this to be a help, a hindrance or both in your organizing around the LSSU thus far? What sort of political backgrounds are represented in the union?
Personally I would disagree with that analysis – though there are of course many differing opinions and often heated debates, the British left can and does agree on most important issues, especially concerning education – for example, opposing tuition fees and privatization. This has been especially clear during the recent university occupations, which saw fantastic support from diverse sections of the left. We have been supported by many different groups, and it’s great to work with campaigns that link our struggles in education with broader issues.
Naturally many of our members are quite political, but their political affiliations are their own business. I’ve found that many peoples’ experiences in other campaigns help them be more effective and on the ball across the board, but at the same time many school students are simply motivated by their own day to day experiences of education and that is also great. We hope to involve many school students who may not previously have been politically active, but nevertheless want to organise to defend education and oppose cuts.
Where would you as an organization ideally like to be by the end of the next academic year?
Difficult question – ideally of course, we’d love to see a national fighting organisation with groups in every locality and school, campaigning on local issues such as school closures, and national issues such as tuition fees. Groups could also meet locally or regionally to debate political issues and so provide a space for school and FE students to become involved or educated about many other important issues. More realistically, in the near future, it would be good to have larger, more sustained groups in London and Edinburgh, with a large membership from many different schools and colleges. We’d like to work more in FE colleges and with unions, and to have active groups within schools as well. It would also be good to have groups set up in other cities around the country and work further with campaigns such as those in Lewisham and Glasgow against school closures.
We will be meeting regularly throughout the summer, so please get in touch and get involved!
londonssu@gmail.com 07800921828