Why aren’t UK students revolting?
Have you heard the news? British students have successfully begun forming a new government, with candidates chosen from their own movement after years of continuous uprising against corruption, forcing the 14-year oligarchy out!
Wait. That seems relatively uncharacteristic for British students? Oh yeah, of course—it wasn’t us. It was actually the Serbians, who forced now ex-president Aleksandar Vučić to announce a snap election for 25 October, which lost him 25 seats and his job.
Across Italy, Spain, Serbia, Portugal, Albania and France, protests against bad schooling, poor public services and the rising cost of living have been led by students. These deteriorating conditions are often linked to neo-liberalism: an economic and political adaptation of capitalism that prioritises the looting of public institutions and wealth for private gain.
Yet despite the UK’s similar decline in geopolitical relevance, living conditions and an education system in crisis, our students have not been rioting.
This could be on the horizon—progressive organisations have called for a youth strike on the 20 November—but why are we taking so long to catch up?
One aspect at play could be the different relationship to schools and schooling.
Through the development of the British Empire, schooling was a key part of our soft power strategy. In West Afrika, the first enslavement fort and the first formal school are on the same site. In the modern era, we still fund schooling around the world and control our curriculum to teach children that “there is no alternative” to neo-liberalism. Simultaneously, education is increasingly being seen as less important as politicians decry “mickey mouse degrees”. To our politicians schooling is political but to our people education is unimportant.
Compare this to France, where students started protesting by blockading their schools alongside their parents and teachers. Inspired by their actions, over 1000 other schools were shut down. University students, workers and left-wing politicians joined. The student resistance became their business.
Meanwhile at Serbia’s Novi Sad University, student protests began after 16 people died in a railway station collapse, following renovations the protesters argue were unsafely completed, and undermined by corruption.
Charlie Roberts, a documentarian currently filming the student uprising in Serbia, said: “The amount of solidarity between students and civilians cannot be underestimated. Grandmas were lining the streets giving them food. Professors that I know are hiding students in their flats.”
In Serbia, higher education has huge political weight – people trust students and academics, universities occupy a role that is almost beyond the state. Police cannot be called onto campuses unless the Dean calls them, so solidarity created between student protestors and university management (something that seems unthinkable at British universities) meant that the occupation at Belgrade continued for over 9 months.
Students in Serbia and France saw their education as something worth fighting for, a struggle that could better their conditions across other areas. But according to YouGov, only 9% of people in the UK view education as a top three issue.
The political importance of schooling can’t be understated. It is the place where young people are taught the values and way of life of imperial-core capitalism, and the gathering place of the next generation. It is a powerful place both for reactive and progressive forces. In 2023, the RYSE published “School is a Crime Scene” where we spoke about the reactive history and role of schooling. Paris and Serbia demonstrate plainly the progressive possibilities.
We must see schools as politically relevant, and build a shared sense of struggle between students, teachers, community members, and workers. If we did that, maybe British students wouldn’t be letting the side down.
All out for 20 November!
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