tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/student-politics-9387/articlesStudent politics – The Conversation2019-08-27T13:42:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1223272019-08-27T13:42:57Z2019-08-27T13:42:57ZThe white people who spied during apartheid<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289442/original/file-20190826-8874-ik0ig2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In his new <a href="https://www.loot.co.za/product/jonathan-ancer-betrayal/zgrj-6181-g950?referrer=googlemerchant&referrer=google&PPC=Y&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5L6vtKaY5AIVx7HtCh3sBQNSEAQYAiABEgIzfPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds">book</a>, “Betrayal: The Secret Lives of Apartheid Spies”, award-winning journalist Jonathan Ancer explores why it is that spies spy. This interest, and this book, follow on the publication in 2017 of his acclaimed book, <a href="https://theconversation.com/craig-williamson-the-spy-who-came-in-for-apartheid-76030">Spy. Uncovering Craig Williamson</a>, which delved into the life and treachery of a single apartheid spy.</p>
<p>If the first book was considered, this one seems a trifle hurried. Nevertheless, it does keep its focus on trying to “understand why spies spy”.</p>
<p>A three-page introduction and slightly longer conclusion are the bookends of 14 chapters of both uneven length and, it must be said, texture.</p>
<p>The “stuff” of the book consists of 12 dossiers on individuals who were spies either for – or in two cases, against – the apartheid system. The ones chosen are all white and, with only one exception, were all drawn from South Africa’s English-speakers.</p>
<p>This community seems to have had a particular fascination with the topic. But, then again, all South Africans seem to be fascinated with the way in which spying is entwined in the country’s politics.</p>
<p>The fact that spying is in the news again suggests an almost residual interest. This past week South Africa’s former defence minister Siphiwe Nyanda issued former President Jacob Zuma with a <a href="https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/sundayworld/news/2019-08-25-general-nyanda-sues-zuma-for-defamation/">defamation lawsuit</a> for calling him an apartheid spy. This followed another senior African National Congress (ANC) member and former minister Derek Hanekom also filing a defamation lawsuit against Zuma for calling him <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2019-08-23-hanekom-vs-zuma-defamation-case-rests-on-one-issue-/">“a known enemy agent”</a> on Twitter.</p>
<h2>Dossiers</h2>
<p>Ancer writes about <a href="https://www.jacana.co.za/book-categories/new-releases-65840/spy-uncovering-craig-williamson-detail">Craig Williamson</a> again. He masqueraded as an anti-apartheid activist in the 1970s and was unmasked as a government spy in 1980. </p>
<p>Williamson is the subject of two chapters. The first is a summary of what appeared in Ancer’s first book. The other chapter breaks new ground in the on-going Williamson saga. </p>
<p>In it, Ancer reproduces a rambling (and somewhat incoherent) e-mail which was sent to him by Williamson. He also reports on a meeting the two had in a Pretoria guesthouse, where they swapped ideas on what it takes to be a good spy.</p>
<p>There is an ungainly chapter, called “Student Spooks”, which tells of student spies who operated mainly at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and University of Cape Town (UCT). Although thin on content, it throws around some names of weighty South Africans who, in one way or another, were caught in the web of successive generations of campus spies.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289418/original/file-20190826-8851-pr4t3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289418/original/file-20190826-8851-pr4t3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289418/original/file-20190826-8851-pr4t3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289418/original/file-20190826-8851-pr4t3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289418/original/file-20190826-8851-pr4t3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1124&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289418/original/file-20190826-8851-pr4t3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1124&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289418/original/file-20190826-8851-pr4t3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1124&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>The characters in the 11 remaining chapters are the once rising star of the South African Navy, Dieter Gerhardt, who passed some really serious secrets to the then communist Soviet Union; Gerard Ludi, who infiltrated the South African Communist Party in the 1960s, and nowadays runs a guesthouse. </p>
<p>Others are Jennifer Miles, the Kimberley girl, who was infatuated with the Cuban Revolution, but ended up working for apartheid; Karl Edwards, now a Port Elizabeth grandfather, who fooled some (but not all) leaders of the student organisation, National Union of South African Students (Nusas), into believing he was a serious environmentalist. </p>
<p>Yet others were Wits graduate, Ronald Hunter, the National Serviceman who was caught in the midst of southern Africa’s “Cold War”; the “jockish”, Robert Whitecross, who double-crossed two students from the Rand Afrikaans University, Jansie Lourens (and her partner). There was also boozy Rhodes theology student, Gordon Brookbanks, who ended up designing the legislation for the post-apartheid intelligence community.</p>
<p>There was also the Pietersburg-raised, and double-agent wannabe Olivia Forsyth; Joy Harden, who was to drive a wedge between those two impeccable foes of apartheid – the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/organisations/end-conscription-campaign-ecc">End Conscription Campaign</a> and the <a href="https://www.blacksash.org.za/">Black Sash</a>, the human rights organisation advocating for social justice in South Africa; Vanessa Brereton, the promising human rights lawyer who betrayed the trust of her clients; and student leader Mark Behr, who faked his own assassination attempt on the way to becoming a celebrated Afrikaans writer.</p>
<p>Several of these accounts have been drawn from recent books, like Bridget Hilton Barber’s <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjV5MPvopbkAhWZUxUIHVfBAekQFjAFegQICRAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FStudent_Comrade_Prisoner_Spy&usg=AOvVaw2-21A7Pe3monxmTQTON_DK">memoir</a>. But most of the research has been gathered from interviews, court records and other sources. Taken together, they paint a mixed picture of why it is that Ancer thinks that these spies spied.</p>
<p>But many questions remain.</p>
<h2>Heroism and tragedy</h2>
<p>In Gerhardt’s case, even after reading the lengthy chapter, it is unclear if he was interested in the cause of freedom or he did it for the money. </p>
<p>Was Karl Edwards more keen on carnal knowledge, than the ideological end of the spy’s craft? For all the geopolitical hype around Olivia Forsyth’s escapades, was the thrall of her local handler the only thing that <a href="https://mg.co.za/tag/olivia-forsyth-author">influenced her?</a> Was Joy Harnden an outright opportunist, or simply the useful idiot who was suffering from a broken heart?</p>
<p>Two of the 12 stories do stand out.</p>
<p>The first is Ancer’s “accidental spy”. As a National Servicemen, Roland Hunter found himself administering the routines which supported apartheid’s ruinous war on the people of southern Africa. Without expectation of reward, <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/1987-11-27-ed-spy-tells-of-stolen-sa-secrets">he passed on the information to the ANC</a>, then an exiled liberation movement fighting apartheid.</p>
<p>It almost cost him his life, but there seems little doubt that his bravery helped to save thousands.</p>
<p>If this is a story of heroism, the other is one of the tragedy that is surely born of the double-life which all spies live – and, yes, by which they die.</p>
<p>In his career as anti-apartheid activist and Stellenbosch Student Representative Council President, Mark Behr spied for the security police. Fearing exposure, he made a dramatic public confession, remorseful to the point of self-indulgence. He used every opportunity to speak about why he betrayed those who trusted him.</p>
<p>Although Behr become a US citizen, he regularly returned to confront the issue that eventually enveloped his life. On one such visit in November, 2015, after an end-of-year party, he suffered a heart attack and died. He was only <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2015-12-02-writer-mark-behr-dies-aged-52">52-years old.</a>.</p>
<p>There is an inevitability about spies in South Africa’s national discourse. But, even after reading Ancer’s fascinating dossiers, we seem no closer to understanding why it is that spies spy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122327/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Vale receives funding from the University of Pretoria </span></em></p>South Africans seem to be fascinated with the way in which spying is entwined in the country’s politics.Peter Vale, Senior research fellow, Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1015322018-10-03T10:29:26Z2018-10-03T10:29:26ZWhy we should give prejudiced students a voice in the classroom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238945/original/file-20181002-85614-1f8erm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Speaking freely.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/photo-crowd-protesting-against-government-during-329796554?src=QZkwVU0qaBDwD3zROg3tWw-1-25">Photographee.eu/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the space of a few years, Britain’s political landscape has changed. Now, generally, young people are <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/election-2017-young-voters-jeremy-corbyn-turnout-labour-voters-conservative-poll-lord-ashcroft-tory-a7783076.html">proportionately more likely</a> to have socially liberal and socialist views, and want to remain part of the EU. Meanwhile, older demographics proportionately <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/06/how-did-different-demographic-groups-vote-eu-referendum">voted for Brexit</a>, and were said to be <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/news/2017/04/25/demographics-dividing-britain/">largely responsible for voting</a> the Conservatives into office in 2017. </p>
<p>This polarisation was especially prevalent <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/06/27/how-britain-voted/">in university towns</a>. But general trends do not pick up on the more complex and messy reality of perspectives and sympathies. One study of young people’s views on Brexit and the EU, for example, recently found they are actually less tolerant of immigration <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-young-britons-really-think-about-brexit-and-their-prospects-outside-the-eu-86490">than is widely thought</a>.</p>
<p>Up <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/do-students-care-about-politics-796184.html">until 2016</a>, students seemed remarkably unpolitical as a majority. Many had no overt political stances or felt any affiliation with any formal political perspective. The <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/do-students-care-about-politics-796184.html">last couple of years</a>, however, have seen a distinct change in their knowledge and engagement with current issues and debates. A change that is both exciting for me as a teacher, but also concerning.</p>
<h2>Protectionist views</h2>
<p>Recently, student support <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/09/students-inspired-by-corbyn-played-big-role-in-labour-surge">for the Labour party</a> has risen, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/mar/18/revealed-how-increasingly-powerful-momentum-is-transforming-labour">thanks largely to</a> grass roots organisation Momentum which has been credited with changing Labour’s narrative into a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/09/digital-strategists-give-victory-to-labour-in-social-media-election-facebook-twitter">more relevant</a> discussion of issues that are of direct concern to young people today. </p>
<p>Emerging in parallel to this, however, have been very protectionist views, spurred on of course by UKIP and Nigel Farage. The party and its former leader have been perceived by many as saying things “as they are”, again offering a refreshingly blunt change from the usual party-political rhetoric. This is an ideological position that is gaining support right across Europe and beyond, giving people the ability to legitimise racist attitudes.</p>
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<span class="caption">Healthy discussion is vital in universities.</span>
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<p>These more protectionist views – many of which have been close to, or quite in line with, what we <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39819743">might call fascism</a> – are also becoming more overt in schools <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/racism-uk-university-students-campus-nus-incidents-a8390241.html">and universities</a> too. It seems an extreme word to use in relation to a small minority of students’ views, but the values and perceptions that I have personally heard confidently argued at times, have been very worryingly in line with this ideology.</p>
<p>I had previously assumed (wrongly perhaps) that everyone in a class would be against fascism, having enough knowledge about World War Two and the Holocaust <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-still-need-to-teach-young-people-about-the-holocaust-90481">to see the dangers</a> of the lies propagated by such ideas of supremacy.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until this year that I realised that I could no longer hold such an assumption, and by doing so I may well be alienating the students who hold such views from discussions. This could in itself serve to further entrench their views rather than aid the development of a critical, evidenced-based perspective of their own.</p>
<h2>Challenging the challengers</h2>
<p>Healthy debate, generated by a range of perspectives is very welcome in classrooms and lecture halls, and necessary for a healthy democracy. The concerning issue that is arising in society at large, and becoming increasingly prevalent in universities, is the polarisation of views. </p>
<p>This is not simply about students developing racist, fascist or right-wing views however. The emergence of these views reveals how globalisation has left many behind especially those who feel disempowered, disconnected and threatened by the changes that have and are taking place around them. It is <a href="https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutputs/wales-in-a-global-neighbourhood-the-impact-of-globalization-on-two-welsh-market-towns(8ba65cb2-b43c-4139-b2bb-2a0129ef5390).html">a backlash to much of the progress</a> many feel has been made in recent years, in terms of gender and racial equality.</p>
<p>The problem we have is that young people now obtain their perspectives from <a href="http://media.digitalnewsreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/digital-news-report-2018.pdf?x89475">a very narrow range</a> of social media sources. And, because of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444817750396">social media algorithms</a>, their political views can be formed and reinforced by a narrow range of perspectives. These views then become unchallenged and recognised as legitimate. Leaders are hero worshipped, and understanding of different perspectives, experiences and people can diminish while evidence-based, independent, critical analysis (a skill lacking in society at the best of times) is lost, polarising perspectives and narrowing debate.</p>
<p>Academics and universities need – as journalist <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/the-problems-of-populism-tactics-for-western-universities">John Morgan points out</a> – to work out how to approach the problem carefully “lest they portray themselves as part of the global elite resented by populist supporters”. Students need to feel able to express and explore their ideas. But we as teachers should be helping them to challenge their own preconceptions through evidence-based research, and develop the skills to critically analyse information for themselves.</p>
<p>The fear of non-conformity, of gender and racial equality and of diversity needs to be addressed so that cultures and global challenges become issues that are looked at from a position of understanding and contextuality, not from a reactive and defensive position. We can’t ignore any student who does not agree with a more liberal standpoint. Instead, we need to challenge them in a way that doesn’t further create defensive entrenchment of views, alienating those who perhaps already feel alienated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101532/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corinna Patterson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If we want to help students develop evidence based views, we can’t deny their standpoints.Corinna Patterson, Lecturer in Sociology, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/876672017-11-26T19:10:16Z2017-11-26T19:10:16ZStudent press in 1960s Australia was political, now it’s more Prozac<hr>
<p><em>Sally Percival Wood’s new book, <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/dissent">DISSENT: The student press in 1960s Australia</a>, takes a look at the people, power and politics of student newspapers in that tumultuous decade. Tension between political conservatism and social unrest in post-war Australia played out on university campuses, turning them into sites of dissent. Percival Wood delves into the history of student newspapers, and their role in transforming Australia socially, culturally and politically.</em> </p>
<hr>
<p>In 2017, it’s hard to imagine a student newspaper creating any sort of political waves. Fifty years ago, in 1967, things were very different. Student newspapers were bristling with dissent and, increasingly, they agitated the authorities. </p>
<p>In 1967, the academic year began with student newspapers saturated in politics. At the National Union of Australian University Students (<a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/people/509485?c=people">NUAUS</a>) summer conference, concerns were expressed about the presence of ASIO agents on university campuses. ASIO, they had reason to suspect, had files on students they regarded as a potential security risk. </p>
<p>The University of Adelaide’s On Dit reported that it had evidence of ASIO activity on campus. Several students involved in the Student Representative Council (<a href="https://www.auu.org.au/Common/ContentWM.aspx?CID=121">SRC</a>) and NUAUS had experienced break-ins at their homes, and some of their files had gone missing. </p>
<p>On Dit also reported that a “prominent right-wing student politician” had been approached about becoming an undergraduate ASIO agent at the university, and a former SRC executive was approached to work for the intelligence agency. The NUAUS also decided at its 1967 conference that it was time it expressed an opinion on the Vietnam War. By then, the war was claiming an increasing number of Australian conscripts, many of whom had just started their university degrees.</p>
<p>In Victoria, the state was gripped with the hanging of <a href="http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/explore-history/rebels-outlaws/city-criminals/ronald-ryan">Ronald Ryan</a> only a few weeks before the university year commenced. The University of Melbourne’s Farrago took a strong position, calling for Victoria to “move into the 20th century.” </p>
<p>The editors ran a special four-page edition over the summer break — December 1966–January 1967 — fully devoted to the Ryan case. Typical of student newspapers of the day, both sides of the debate, for and against the death penalty, were given equal space to argue their position. </p>
<p>Over at Monash University, the year’s first edition of Lot’s Wife announced “WANTED d.o.a. [dead or alive]”, and featured six sketched portraits of politicians, including Victorian Premier Sir Henry Bolte, with the caption: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Wanted for the premeditated torture and murder of Ronald Ryan. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Prime Minister Harold Holt also appeared under the words: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Wanted for the murder of kidnapped Australian minors; also for complicity in the torture and murder of North Vietnamese citizens. </p>
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<p>US president Lyndon B. Johnson was “wanted for the murder of thousands of American citizens; for the torture and murder of North Vietnamese citizens; for suspicion of murder in Dallas, U.S.A. in July 1963” — a contentious reference to the assassination of LBJ’s predecessor, president John F. Kennedy.</p>
<p>Beneath the six portraits were the ominous words “students beware of these men”. </p>
<p>In March 1967, The University of Sydney’s Honi Soit asked on its front page “Asian Commies: are they red or yellow?” The question did not, as it might appear, refer to racial colour. Rather, it questioned the intensity of ideological courage (communist = red) or cowardice (= yellow). </p>
<p>It related to a report on the Orientation Week Symposium “Does Asian Communism Pose a Threat to Us?”, at which every shade of political opinion in Australia was represented. Liberal MP W.C. Wentworth, the secretary of the Communist Party Laurie Aarons, Melbourne University’s ubiquitous Dr Frank Knopfelmacher, and Francis James, who had recently run as a Liberal reform candidate in the 1966 federal election. James was also well known in student press circles as the head of the Anglican Press, printer of Oz and Tharunka both of which were tried for obscenity in 1964.</p>
<p>Orientation Week 1967 at The University of Queensland was equally provocative. The year’s first issue of Semper Floreat reprinted O-Week speeches given by two prominent lecturers, Peter Wertheim and Dan O’Neill. In preparing first-year students for university life, both made pessimistic statements about UQ that were reported in Brisbane’s mainstream press. Wertheim expressed despair over the apathy at the university, which was generally seen as “a factory, of well-trained professional cogs produced to keep the wheels of society going”. </p>
<p>But he had observed the sparks of renewal, of students questioning and becoming restive about political issues. He wanted to see this grow and gather cohesion. He said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A genuine university would have to have a vital university community, composed of staff and students in communion with one another. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Meanwhile, in the nation’s capital, Woroni reported on the ANU’s obvious staff and student “communion” on display that January. It reported demonstrators had seen the behaviour of the NSW anti-demonstration squad for the first time in Canberra.</p>
<p>At the demonstration in question, several ANU students and staff were arrested. The demonstration was held in protest of the visit of South Vietnam’s prime minister Nguyen Cao Ky, who had taken over as prime minister after Ngo Dinh Diem’s assassination. </p>
<p>Over in Perth, UWA students shed some light relief on the 1967 academic year with Pelican’s annual spoof edition for Prosh week. The Prosh Peoples Daily announced: “Independence is Declared: W.A. breaks from east”. </p>
<p>Evoking the time-honoured dream of secession from the eastern states of Australia, it was reported that Western Australia’s “Premier Bland” had made a unilateral declaration on the state’s independence. He announced: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>From this time henceforward, we, the government and people of Western Australia, are independent, separate, divorced and entirely disassociated from those filthy slugs in the east. </p>
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<p>While students in Perth seemed to be in high spirits as their university year took off, in Tasmania there was gloom and despair over their Orientation Week “flop”. A Togatus observer reported:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Never again must freshers be subjected to the dreary round of speeches and cancelled meetings that were inflicted on them last week. </p>
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<hr>
<hr>
<p>The front-page report ran through a series of sad sub-headings: “Farce”, “No Sex”, “In a Daze”, and “Boring”, before coming up with “Suggestions”. These included, first, shortening it as spreading it over a week made it tedious.</p>
<p>The second suggestion to brighten up O-Week was disarmingly modest. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Wouldn’t it be a marvellous idea if we could have a real Guided Tour of the University Campus.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Students at the University of New South Wales had a much better solution for brightening up the week for freshers, “bringing Bridget Bardot and Peter Sellers together in Orientation Week — a week of films included two 1960s classics, Bardot in A Very Private Affair and Sellers in The Wrong Arm of the Law.” </p>
<p>It was not all films and fun though. Tharunka also reported that the “most important and valuable” part of O-Week was the number of talks and seminars each day.</p>
<p>The year 1967 began with a healthy dose of political adrenalin, while O-Week 2017 was launched on Prozac. At the University of Sydney, students watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and at Monash University a Summerfest of international food and family fun replaced the radical foment that made Monash the most politically dynamic campus in the country. </p>
<p><em>DISSENT</em> explores the people, the politics and the power of the student press in 1960s Australia. It traces the birth of the women’s movement and gay rights, the opening up of university education to Aboriginal students, the fight against the Vietnam War and conscription, and the pitched battles over censorship, all of which were waged by the audacious student editors of the 1960s.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87667/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Percival Wood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new book from historian Sally Percival Wood explores how the politically active student media of the 1960s changed Australia socially, culturally and politically.Sally Percival Wood, Writer / Historian, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/495492015-11-17T04:23:32Z2015-11-17T04:23:32ZWhy student leaders should be elected on merit, not party affiliation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101454/original/image-20151110-21232-1olnpce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A young man wearing an African National Congress shirt joins in student protests in South Africa. Party politics and student politics shouldn't mix.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Sydney Seshibedi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>University students in South Africa demonstrated high levels of organisation and solidarity during a series of fee protests in October 2015. Once President Jacob Zuma had declared a 0% fee increase for 2016, that solidarity wavered. </p>
<p>Some students and university workers staged a new set of protests against the practice of outsourcing. But on many campuses students began pleading with their <a href="http://www.dailysun.co.za/news/national/2015-10-28-we-want-exams">student representative councils</a> (SRCs) to call off the action and allow the scheduled final exams to go ahead. They were ignored.</p>
<p>It has become clear that SRCs no longer represent the majority of students. Many are putting political <a href="http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/cc040e004a5d27d2ac21ff6d39fe9e0c/PYA-accused-of-sabotaging-">party loyalties</a> ahead of students’ interests. Their actions were <a href="http://www.thedailyvox.co.za/did-the-pya-betray-wits-students/">being determined</a>, directly or indirectly, by their mother bodies and parties. </p>
<p>The origin of this breakdown lies in how student representatives are elected. It is time for a change in this electoral system.</p>
<h2>Problems with the process</h2>
<p>South African SRC elections differ from campus to campus. These inconsistencies stem from the <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/act101.PDF">Higher Education Act</a>, which stipulates that the composition and manner of election must be determined by an institution’s own statutes.</p>
<p>Generally, there are between ten and 15 seats on a student council. As with the country’s legislature, an organisation which secures a majority of those seats will be able to pass resolutions with ease. In many instances, student movements or organisations will put forward several candidates in a bid to gain control of the SRC.</p>
<p>The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth is a good example of this system. Students elect their leaders on an individual basis, but these candidates are largely grouped behind a student organisation that is usually tied to a political party. In the 2015 elections the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (DASO) won the elections by securing a majority of the central portfolio seats. </p>
<p>These individuals are governed by the student movement they represent. The movement, in turn, can potentially be governed by the political party they fall under. DASO, for instance, is the student arm of the country’s official opposition, the Democratic Alliance.</p>
<p>A slight variation of this model can be seen at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, or Wits. It also uses a council seat system, but the student body can’t control who takes specific portfolios. The people elected onto the SRC allocate people to different positions.</p>
<p>A major problem arises when it comes to electing the council executive. This system favours larger, more organised student movements. The parties with the most seats have more power over who occupies these important positions, and their wishes often trump those of ordinary students.</p>
<h2>Conflicts of interest</h2>
<p>South Africa’s Constitution <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/SAConstitution-web-eng-02.pdf">guarantees</a> the freedom of association, so people can join any political party they choose. Why should SRC members be any different? Quite simply because of the potential for a conflict of interest. </p>
<p>Wits’ SRC president Nompendulo Mkatshwa – who took office as the fee protests were hotting up – is an <a href="http://www.financialmail.co.za/fmfox/2015/11/04/fees-must-fall-conflict-of-interest-brewing">active member</a> of the governing African National Congress (ANC). Some students have alleged that she warned the ANC ahead of a planned march by #FeesMustFall protesters for the party’s headquarters, Luthuli House. It has also been suggested that she opposed the march.</p>
<p>There was clearly a conflict here between what an SRC leader’s constituency – students – wanted, and what her political party would have preferred. In the end, students prevailed. But what happens next time their desires clash with those of the governing party?</p>
<h2>The Indian example</h2>
<p>India’s SRC elections tend to be hotly contested, even violent affairs. In some states they are even banned, and SRC candidates are selected by university staff.</p>
<p>In 2005 the Supreme Court of India established the J Lyngdoh Commission to <a href="http://archives.peoplesdemocracy.in/2006/1203/12032006_ragesh.htm">investigate</a> student governance issues and elections in particular.</p>
<p>The commission concluded, <a href="http://www.lkouniv.ac.in/pdf/lcp_10nov2014.pdf">among other things</a>, that there was a need for candidates to be detached from political parties and to give an undertaking to that effect before being allowed to run for office. It found that SRCs had become “feeder devices” for political candidates, so students were more interested in their own future careers than representing their peers.</p>
<p>The committee noted that, despite an investigation into SRC processes as far back as 1983, “political interference in the student election process is still clearly rampant”. In Kolkata, it reported:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Members of political parties regularly forced independent candidates, or candidates ‘not conforming to the prevalent political ideology’ [not to stand] in student elections.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The primary need, therefore, is to evolve some mechanism that does away with, or at least minimises the influence of political parties in student elections. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The wheels grind slowly, though. The Supreme Court endorsed this report but only now, a decade on, are there are finally plans <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/ugc-seeks-report-on-student-union-elections/">to implement it</a>.</p>
<h2>Current system should be replaced</h2>
<p>The Indian committee’s findings and recommendations could easily be applied to South African universities. Elections on its campuses should take place on the strength of the individual, without political affiliation. Individuals would be allowed to form a caucus, but independent of political parties.</p>
<p>The beauty of such a system is that the candidates would be chosen on merit and on the content of their ideologies and manifestos. This system is not without its faults, but, importantly, it leaves the governing of students to students. There would be no chance of political parties dictating to their campus branches what must happen in student politics.</p>
<p>Such a system would also encourage student leaders to work together as a collective rather than pursuing a political agenda or set of instructions issued from the outside. It would challenge students to think for themselves in resolving issues and to develop their leadership skills. </p>
<p>Party loyalty on campuses is a dangerous trait that should be avoided.
To continue with party based student politics is to assume, incorrectly, that students are merely incubators for political parties. Not only does it create potential conflicts on campuses but it also makes student leaders pawns in politicians’ games.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49549/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Kaseke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s time to change how student representatives are elected at South Africa’s universities. The existing process gives far too much space and power to political parties.Paul Kaseke, Sessional Lecturer & Research and Teaching Associate, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/490762015-10-15T05:33:00Z2015-10-15T05:33:00ZLessons from the student vote in UK election for the EU referendum<p>Students did not hold as much sway in the 2015 UK general election as was predicted, according to a new report from the <a href="http://www.hepi.ac.uk/">Higher Education Policy Institute</a> (HEPI) think tank. It argues that while the student vote was still important, it was swallowed up by wider national swings – towards the Conservatives and away from the Liberal Democrats. </p>
<p>While <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2015/feb/05/missing-voters-individual-electoral-registration-disaster">changes to the electoral registration</a> for students did not have as negative an impact as some feared on voter turnout, HEPI warns that there are still challenges ahead for campaigners looking to get young people to vote in the upcoming EU referendum and the London mayoral race. </p>
<p>HEPI found that of 14 constituencies it <a href="http://www.hepi.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Do-students-swing-elections.pdf">had predicted</a> would be affected by the student vote, eight changed hands. For example, Kingston & Surbiton went from Liberal Democrat to Conservative, and Cambridge and Bristol West went Liberal Democrat to Labour. But the student effect didn’t always have an impact on results. Nicky Morgan, the Conservative education minister <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-32224818">was seen as vulnerable</a> in her Loughborough seat, but actually won with a 7.9% increase in the vote share. </p>
<h2>Pro EU? Plan your action now</h2>
<p><a href="http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/images/8/8b/Students_in_tertiary_education%2C_2012_%28%C2%B9%29_YB15.png">According to Eurostat</a>, the UK is home to around 2.5m students in tertiary education, more than any other EU country except Germany. Our students are numerous and <a href="http://www.icmunlimited.com/media-centre/media-centre/in-a-eu-referendum-two-fifths-of-18-to-24-year-olds-likely-to-vote-to-stay-in">far more likely to support EU membership</a> than older age groups. The EU has done a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/eu-referendum-britains-students-are-stronger-in-europe-a6689056.html">particularly good job winning over students</a> with programmes such as Erasmus, to the extent that <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/michaelheaver/100225031/eurosceptics-face-a-demographic-timebomb-young-people-want-to-stay-in-the-eu-can-we-change-their-minds/">one UKIP campaigner</a> called young people a timebomb for Eurosceptics.</p>
<p>If the student bomb doesn’t go off, it is likely to be because of low registration and low turnout. For Eurosceptics, young people staying home is good news. If you want out of the EU, the message is simple: your best strategy is to hope for a referendum held during the holidays, preferably after a major sporting fixture, and for student registration to stay as low as possible. </p>
<p>For the “in” camp, students must be targeted and must be targeted now. Perhaps counter-intuitively, it would be a good strategy not to campaign for young votes with young issues. HEPI is correct to point out that young people <a href="http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Tune_in_-_web.pdf?1419813387">want the same things everyone else does</a>: a job with a reliable wage to live on, an affordable home, happiness and an equal opportunity. </p>
<p>The pro-EU camp should argue that the EU is a source of economic opportunity after students graduate. They should keep the vote simple. The referendum will, after all, be a well-publicised, clear yes/no choice, less mediated by the political elites young people distrust - it is a vote on a decision, not a vote for a politician.</p>
<p>They must also help students get registered. The rules on electoral registration do not suit students, who move house frequently, and who – until recent changes – could be registered by their university or college. Before the 2015 election <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/feb/24/million-voters-missing-roll-electoral-commission-students-block-individual-registration">the fear that students would fall off the register was well publicised</a> and HEPI identified a surge in last minute registrations, thanks in part to active Students Unions, the Election Commission, and pressure groups like <a href="http://bitetheballot.co.uk/">Bite the Ballot</a>. </p>
<p>If you’re pro-EU, plan now for registration drives. Don’t be put off by low registration: many students will register at the last minute, so push right up to the deadline. It will be especially interesting to see if the major graduate employers who support EU membership are ready to put effort into mobilising students to vote. </p>
<h2>Students and the London mayoral election</h2>
<p>According to HESA, <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/stats">about 360,000, or 4% of the population of London, are students</a>, and the message for supporters of any candidate in the election must be clear: plan now for how you will drive for student registration, right up until election day on May 5. </p>
<p>HEPI’s pre-2015 election analysis indicated that students would swing constituencies, towards Labour or (in Brighton) towards the Greens. But although HEPI considered there was enough red among students to keep the Conservative majority down, they were struck – as many pollsters were – by the ability of the Conservative Party to win in the face of stiff predicted opposition. As for the Liberal Democrats, the party that celebrated a smashing victory among the young in 2010 was left for dead in 2015, falling behind the Greens, UKIP and the SNP among 18-to-24-year-olds.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98266/original/image-20151013-31126-1gwt9rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98266/original/image-20151013-31126-1gwt9rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98266/original/image-20151013-31126-1gwt9rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98266/original/image-20151013-31126-1gwt9rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98266/original/image-20151013-31126-1gwt9rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98266/original/image-20151013-31126-1gwt9rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98266/original/image-20151013-31126-1gwt9rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98266/original/image-20151013-31126-1gwt9rc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IPSOS Mori.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All candidates must realise that students, like young people generally, are disillusioned with public policy. Young people were the <a href="https://theconversation.com/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/young-people-were-hit-worst-by-the-great-recession-10101672.html">worst hit by the recession</a>, and they have <a href="http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2015/section-2-voters/bringing-out-the-youth-vote-young-people-and-the-2015-general-election/">borne the brunt of cuts in spending</a>, from the hike in tuition fees to the denial of housing benefit to young people. Students have suffered the same double whammy, but as HEPI indicates, they are focused on their transition to employment and to stable, independent adulthood. </p>
<p>This means candidates who want to court the student vote would be well advised to campaign on affordable housing and stable, well-paid work. Young people are <a href="https://theconversation.com/www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/contracts-with-no-guaranteed-hours/zero-hour-contracts--2014/analysis-of-employee-contracts-that-do-not-guarantee-a-minimum-number-of-hours.html">three times more likely to work on a zero hours contract</a> and their income <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/young-adults-income-has-suffered-the-most-from-the-uk-recession-latest-report-shows-9605971.html">fell further than any other age group during the recession</a>. </p>
<p>The mayoral race has already featured running battles on affordable housing and this will <a href="http://www.demos.co.uk/files/Tune_in_-_web.pdf?1419813387">pique the interest of students</a>. NHS funding and improved mental healthcare provision are also <a href="https://theconversation.com/hate-the-players-love-the-game-why-young-people-arent-voting-40921">both potential votewinners</a> among the young.</p>
<p>For both polls – the EU referendum and the London mayoral race – the message is clear. Students are a potentially powerful voting bloc, but campaigners need to make sure they are registered, and campaign on economic issues. That’s the golden ticket.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Bowman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Students didn’t hold that much sway at the election.Benjamin Bowman, PhD candidate in Politics, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/368502015-01-29T11:27:42Z2015-01-29T11:27:42ZProfessor Big Brother and his radical students – who should we fear most?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70455/original/image-20150129-22311-1rnblkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Under orders to keep watch.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-146690753/stock-photo-view-of-three-nurses-in-hospital-canteen-through-surveillance-screen.html?src=cVB6o9ysZXKxD_1WWh5_bg-1-8&ws=1">Surveillance via bikerriderlondon/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2014-15/counterterrorismandsecurity.html">Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill 2014-15</a>, having been rushed through the House of Commons with alarming speed and ease, has passed its second reading in the House of Lords. It is now in the final committee stages and on course to become law within a matter of weeks. </p>
<p>Although peers rejected a raft of amendments that would have effectively <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-i-learned-watching-the-lords-try-to-sneak-the-snoopers-charter-through-the-back-door-36811">brought the “snooper’s charter” in through the backdoor</a>, the addition of this major piece of terrorism legislation to our existing terror laws still has serious implications and should be of real concern to us all. Not least because it co-opts those of us in the public sector, firmly placing the onus on us to help implement and police strange and draconian new measures. </p>
<p>The bill imposes legal duties on those who work in local authorities, hospitals, councils, prisons, GP surgeries, social care, schools and even nurseries. It demands that they: “must, in the exercise of [their] functions, have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”, reporting to the authorities, anyone they believe to be “at risk” or involved in terrorism.</p>
<h2>Shades of McCarthyism</h2>
<p>Yes, you read that right. The overbearing <a href="https://theconversation.com/nine-reasons-you-should-care-about-nsas-prism-surveillance-15075">surveillance regime</a> of the NSA-GCHQ was clearly not invasive enough. Instead, our most trusted public servants are now being forced to become McCarthy-esque informers, casting a suspicious gaze over the rest of us as they write out a prescription for athlete’s foot, rearrange our refuse collection or assess reading competency on The Very Hungry Caterpillar. </p>
<p>These absurd measures have already invoked anger. As an academic who teaches terrorism studies, what concerns me most is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-duty-to-prevent-terrorism-must-protect-universities-freedom-and-diversity-34936">proposed new statutory duty for universities</a> and colleges to monitor and report extremism. What particularly draws my ire is the suggestion that if the government perceives that we are failing to “fulfil” this dubious responsibility, the home secretary can legally force compliance.</p>
<p>The joint parliamentary committee on human rights has already warned that the new legislation <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/12/make-universities-exempt-from-counter-terror-duty">could seriously restrict academic freedom and debate</a>, arguing that universities should be exempted from the list of authorities that the new duty will cover. </p>
<h2>Home of radical ideas</h2>
<p>It is reassuring that some within the political establishment are just as troubled by the ludicrousness of these proposals as <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/university-leaders-call-for-exemption-from-anti-terror-laws/2018228.article">those in universities</a>. But in addition to these well-founded concerns, I would point out another reason to be worried. The university is, both historically and pedagogically, the home of radical ideas, revolutionary beliefs and subversive thoughts, precisely because it is often the first exposure students have to the political world around them. </p>
<p>Just think of all the great political movements that began life on university campuses. Intoxicated by new causes to animate them, and struggles to inspire them, students are inevitably filled with enthusiasm and idealism, albeit often of the naive and unrefined variety. But that is part of growing up, of healthy political socialisation and development. Students don’t just experiment with sex, drugs, and music at university – but <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-fear-of-offending-has-trumped-freedom-of-speech-among-todays-young-people-36392">ideas too</a>.</p>
<p>Yet the government’s proposals to use academics to engender a climate of suspicion and carry out surveillance by reporting students “at risk” of radicalisation, undermines this very notion of the university as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/even-extremists-have-a-right-to-freedom-of-speech-on-campus-34691">bastion of free critical thinking</a> and experimentation.</p>
<h2>All students under suspicion</h2>
<p>If you needed further proof of how at odds these proposals are with the university experience, the government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/118187/vul-assessment.pdf">Vulnerability Assessment Framework</a> identifies the “risk factors” for radicalisation as including: “a need for identity, meaning and belonging”, “a desire for excitement and adventure”, “a desire for political or moral change”, and “being at a transitional time of life”.</p>
<p>These characterisations are not only so incredibly vague as to potentially include every student in the country, but could only be concocted by old jaded politicians who have forgotten what it was like to once be young, passionate and optimistic about change in the world around them.</p>
<p>And, to play devil’s advocate here for a second, who is to say political radicalism is necessarily always a bad thing? Rather, radicalism usually indicates a political awakening and a desire to change the world around oneself for the better. We might usefully contrast the political engagement of radicals, no matter how problematic, with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/make-the-vote-meaningful-for-young-people-not-compulsory-25939">widespread apathy</a> among Britain’s youth in recent years, evident from low voter turnouts among 18 to 24-year-olds in the last few elections. </p>
<p>The fact that so few young people vote when first given an opportunity is surely a damning indictment of the state of <a href="https://theconversation.com/make-the-vote-meaningful-for-young-people-not-compulsory-25939">young people’s engagement</a> with politics today. </p>
<p>There’s <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130705101535.htm">an old adage</a>, attributed to Disraeli, Churchill and others in various guises, that springs to mind: “If you’re young and you’re not a radical, you’ve got no soul; whereas if you’re old and still a radical, you’ve got no sense.” Perhaps that best sums up the important part “radical” politics has played in the normal political socialisation and awakening of young people throughout history. Is it really something to be feared?</p>
<p><em>The Conversation is partnering with Index on Censorship for its special edition on academic freedom. Read more <a href="https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2015/06/magazine-summer-2015-is-academic-freedom-being-eroded/">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36850/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Akil N Awan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill 2014-15, having been rushed through the House of Commons with alarming speed and ease, has passed its second reading in the House of Lords. It is now in the final…Akil N Awan, Associate Professor in Modern History, Political Violence and Terrorism, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/316462014-09-16T11:35:43Z2014-09-16T11:35:43ZNew poll reveals No camp retain lead among Scotland’s students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58922/original/866kyxcg-1410535862.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=75%2C21%2C902%2C662&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students are veering towards no. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/patrickdown/11409620885/sizes/l">Patrick_Down</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Here at the University of Edinburgh, freshers’ week has just seen a new cohort of students moving into the city. As older students jostled through freebie-stuffed stalls scrabbling for the newcomers’ attention, they might have noticed that amid the free pens and sweets, there were two new stalls in town. One said Yes, and the other No Thanks.</p>
<p>Polling by the youth market research agency <a href="http://www.youthsight.com/media-centre/research/student-vote-update-september-2014/">YouthSight</a> of 300 students in Scotland between September 1 and 4 found them to be far more likely to vote No on September 18, a repeat finding of similar polling in <a href="http://www.youthsight.com/media-centre/research/the-student-vote-2014/">April 2014</a>. While the student No vote in the YouthSight poll closely matches that of the general electorate at 46%, only 36% of students are in favour of independence. </p>
<p>While this is a relatively small sample – typically opinion polls will be closer to 1,000 respondents – quotas have been used to try to ensure the sample can be considered reflective of the UK’s full-time undergraduate population, according to gender, year of study, and university type. </p>
<p>With the wider <a href="http://blog.whatscotlandthinks.org/2014/09/poll-of-polls-5-september-updated/">polls so close</a>, it’s still all to play for. The targeting of university induction week activities shows that both sides see the student vote as a constituency where potential supporters have yet to be mobilised. </p>
<p>Research has shown that students are <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13676261.2013.830704#.VBNnY_ldVS0">more likely</a> than most young people to be politically engaged – despite their age, they have higher social class backgrounds and access to higher education. The YouthSight polling suggests as many as 88% of eligible Scottish student electors intend to vote; roughly in line with the 91% we currently see in the <a href="http://whatscotlandthinks.org/questions/on-a-scale-of-0-to-10-how-likely-is-it-that-you-would-vote-in-an-referendum-on#line">wider electorate</a>. So what chances do the rival teams on each stall have of attracting the student vote?</p>
<h2>No vote support fallen, Yes still behind</h2>
<p>Support for a No vote among students has fallen over the summer from 58% in April 2014, to 46% in September. But interestingly (and in contrast to what has been witnessed recently in national polls), support for Yes has remained relatively steady, with YouthSight’s April poll reporting 37% in favour of independence. This suggests a rise in students who are undecided – now at 18%. Yes remains behind but the gap appears to have narrowed to only 10 percentage points. </p>
<p>Possibly more worrying for the Yes side however is that only 26% of students, fewer than those currently intending to vote Yes, believe the result of the referendum will see Scotland becoming an independent country. A larger proportion – 38% – said that Scotland would remain part of the UK but be given greater autonomy. Another 12% said they expected there to be no change, and 8% foresaw Scotland stripped of some autonomous powers. It would appear that the odds are stacked against the Yes stall in this particular contest. </p>
<p>This may come to some as a surprise. While we have seen the very youngest electors in Scotland, (those aged 16 and 17-years-old) tending to favour a No vote, a far greater number of 18 to 24-year-olds have been found to be in favour of independence and <a href="http://www.natcen.ac.uk/media/176046/2012-who-supports-and-opposes-independence-and-why.pdf">Scottish Social Attitudes</a> has consistently found them to be some of the most likely to support a Yes vote. </p>
<h2>What’s driving union feeling?</h2>
<p>We cannot know for sure what is making students buck this youth trend to favour a No vote, even if this support has fallen. It may simply reflect the fact that there will be students in Scotland who are eligible to vote, but who have come to study from areas in the rest of the UK and EU where we might expect to see more support for the union. These non-Scottish students, if they are EU or qualifying Commonwealth nationals, can vote if they are on the <a href="http://scotreferendum.com/questions/who-can-vote-in-the-referendum/">electoral roll in Scotland</a>. </p>
<p>Students are also more likely than non-student young people to mix with people from across the globe in environments where internationalism is celebrated. Ideas built on concepts of nationalism may be less popular as a consequence, or at least have less resonance. </p>
<p>On a more practical level, there could also be concerns from students about university funding in an independent Scotland. It may be that the attitudes of lecturers are shaping students’ own views. A <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/majority-of-scottish-academics-set-to-vote-no-in-referendum/2015688.article">recent poll</a> for the Times Higher Education found a majority of academics in Scotland intend to vote No, viewing their decision as being better for universities.</p>
<p>Equally, if they are thinking about careers (in particular, graduate professions), growing perceptions of economic uncertainty may play more of a role in the minds of these young people, steering them towards a No vote.</p>
<h2>Not a lost cause</h2>
<p>Does this mean that for the Yes campaign students are a lost cause? Despite the polling figures, there still appear to be opportunities for politicians and campaigners to engage more students in the vote. Given their youth, many are yet to have developed voting habits, party preferences, and set ideas about how they wish to see a country run. </p>
<p>Students can still be in the process of forming political opinions and identities, and as such may offer greater potential for the campaigns to influence their voting decisions. While <a href="http://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/09/06/latest-scottish-referendum-poll-yes-lead/">YouGov polling</a> at the time of the YouthSight fieldwork had 6% of the wider electorate as still undecided, the new YouthSight poll finds the figure to be far higher for students at 18%, suggesting all is not lost for the Yes side. </p>
<p>Often living away from home for the first time, students may be particularly susceptible to influence in the absence of family to shape their voting decision. Moreover, the high levels of residential mobility for students in September may have impacted on registration, and not all those who have answered the polls will necessarily have the chance to vote. In short: there could be time yet for a shift in opinion.</p>
<p>Students only make up a small proportion of the Scottish electorate – the latest <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/dox/pressOffice/sfr197/280607_student_sfr197_1213_table_1a.xlsx">figures</a> from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show there were about 167,840 UK students in Scotland in 2012-13, with another 18,640 EU students and 28,305 non-EU students. With <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/11/referendum-registered-voters-scotland-four-million-97-per-cent">4.29m Scots registered to vote</a>, the students are unlikely to decide the outcome of the result. </p>
<p>But given their educational experiences, these young people are likely to be Scotland’s future opinion leaders, influencers, and decision-makers. Whatever the outcome of the referendum it will be these individuals who shape Scotland’s politics in years to come – regardless of which stall they find more appealing this week.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31646/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlotte Snelling receives funding for her PhD from the UK Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p>Here at the University of Edinburgh, freshers’ week has just seen a new cohort of students moving into the city. As older students jostled through freebie-stuffed stalls scrabbling for the newcomers’ attention…Charlotte Snelling, PhD student, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/243752014-03-24T06:05:04Z2014-03-24T06:05:04ZCould the youth of Britain and France swing to the far right in big numbers?<p>Participation is commonly viewed as the cornerstone of liberal democracy. In Europe, however, the decades since the 1980s have been marked by falling participation and increased disillusionment with institutional politics. These trends are most striking among young people – those within the rough boundaries of 15 to 25 years old – an electoral demographic <a href="https://theconversation.com/young-britons-should-vote-early-and-vote-often-17557">increasingly alienated</a> by mainstream politics.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, this distrust and disillusionment in older voters has precipitated the resurgence of populist anti-immigration parties across Europe. By positioning themselves beyond the left/right divide, against the establishment, some of these parties have mobilised a growing part of the discontented. In this context, the young vote appears as a natural target for the protest parties on the right, but is it likely to follow their call? </p>
<p>Polls in Europe regularly show the dismal level of trust and engagement in politics, with <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/index_en.htm">80% of the respondents</a> in 2013 across the EU expressing distrust for political parties. Accordingly, party membership has plummeted. On average across Europe, political parties <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/05/06/decline-in-party-membership-europe-ingrid-van-biezen/">have lost half of their total membership</a> over the past three decades. </p>
<p>At the same time, other ways to be political have proliferated. This is perhaps most true of the young, whose <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2013/07/19/young-people-are-less-likely-to-vote-than-older-citizens-but-they-are-also-more-diverse-in-how-they-choose-to-participate-in-politics/">characteristically diverse repertoires for political behaviour</a>, have spanned from consumer politics to the wave of young protest across Europe since 2008. Although it has become common for political elites to denounce young people as apathetic, the weight of evidence suggests that young people are turning away from the ballot box, choosing instead <a href="http://www.democraticaudit.com/?p=3296">more direct forms of participation</a> such as petitions and demonstrations. </p>
<p>Of course, young people are not monolithic across Europe. According to the <a href="http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/">European Social Survey</a> of 15 EU countries, France has the second highest rate of youth participation relative to citizens in total. The UK has witnessed the growth of an inter-generational divide between older citizens who continue to participate in politics and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-9066.12003/abstract">younger citizens who increasingly don’t</a>. The reaction of populist anti-immigration parties makes this contrast starker as the young vote could prove key in deciding the future of Europe.</p>
<h2>Le Pen’s electoral phoenix</h2>
<p>In France, Front National (FN) leader Marine Le Pen recently launched the <a href="http://www.liberation.fr/politiques/2014/03/08/le-fn-lance-marianne-collectif-etudiant-pour-la-meritocratie_985595">Collectif Marianne</a>, named after one of the most famous symbols of the French Republic and aimed at recruiting students. To accelerate the process of legitimisation of her <a href="http://theconversation.com/the-french-front-national-is-still-an-extreme-right-wing-party-20983">still extreme party</a>, Le Pen has placed her faith in an electoral phoenix. But can the young vote many thought was increasingly lost to abstention be brought back to life by the brimstone of extreme right rhetoric?</p>
<p>According to its <a href="http://www.collectifmarianne.fr/qui-sommes-nous/">website</a>, this new “think tank” for the extreme right will be run for students and by students whose “sovereignist and patriotic tendency” have pushed them to act. </p>
<p>The extreme right’s unmasked attempt to hijack the youth vote has taken place amidst <a href="https://theconversation.com/both-sarkozy-and-hollande-are-victims-of-the-french-culture-of-scandal-24358">a new series of scandals</a> involving both sides of moderate politics in France. As opposed to the left and even the far left, parties like the FN have been able to claim their “innocence” in the current situation, as they have mostly been kept out of power. Record high unemployment, social insecurity and fear for the future have proven a blessing for anti-immigrant parties in most European countries.</p>
<p>The FN’s confidence in targeting students, a group traditionally opposed to its ideas, demonstrates <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09639489.2013.872093">the degree of normalisation</a> achieved by the party. In the past 20 years, the FN has successfully increased its share of the vote within the lower classes of society and more recently bridged the gender gap in its electorate. </p>
<p>This was mostly through its appeal to the “losers” of globalisation – something which has made the young vote a natural target. With youth unemployment in the EU at almost 25%, it is no surprise that the FN is keen to tap into this pool of voters. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://generation-quoi.france2.fr/">recent survey</a> showed that only 2% of 18 to 25-year olds in France believed that almost no politicians were corrupt. Unsurprisingly, 84% declared having little or no trust at all in politics. Most felt that there was no difference between the left and the right, a discourse playing into the hands of the FN and its so-called third-way politics.</p>
<h2>Apathy among the cynics</h2>
<p>The anti-establishment baton has been taken up in British party politics by the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Founded in 1993, UKIP has only risen to prominence since the election of the present coalition government in 2010. UKIP has polled well in local and European elections in this period, at the same time as <a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/michael-skey/belonging-and-entitlement-britains-ethnic-majority-and-rise-of-ukip">the fall of the UK’s far right British National Party and the growth of distrust and cynicism</a> following the parliamentary expenses scandal. </p>
<p>The UKIP rhetorical agenda is populist, profoundly anti-immigrant and anti-Europe, and situated on the right wing of the British political spectrum. UKIP focuses on older voters who fear for the future, and has increasingly moved its headline issue away from Europe and on to <a href="http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2013/01/tom-mludzinski-europe-is-only-the-fifth-most-important-issue-to-ukip-voters.html">immigration</a>.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://yougov.co.uk/news/2013/03/05/analysis-ukip-voters/">YouGov</a>, UKIP draws its support mostly from what are known as “middle England voters”: from white English men, and “disproportionately from older people with fewer qualifications”. A majority – 71% – of UKIP voters are over 50, compared to 46% of all voters. Just 15% are under 40.</p>
<p>Claiming older votes could be a sound strategy if we consider the conclusions of an ICM Research study that found young people in the UK are firmly in favour of EU membership, relaxed about free movement and “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-young-people-want-uk-to-stay-in-europe-four-in-10-adults-aged-18-to-24-are-firmly-in-favour-of-membership-poll-shows-9006438.html">keen to keep prejudice out of any debate about immigration</a>”. </p>
<p>It also reflects the reality of young and student politics in the UK. Young people simply don’t vote as much as older generations do and unlike in France, their disengagement from elections is mirrored in other forms of institutional engagement. While young French voters join boycotts, participate in demonstrations, and so on, young people in the UK <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-9066.12003/abstract">tend to abstain from institutional politics entirely</a>. So far, unlike the French FN, UKIP has not attempted to engage with young cynicism towards the establishment.</p>
<h2>Where next?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/emploi/article/2014/02/25/frustree-la-jeunesse-francaise-reve-d-en-decoudre_4372879_1698637.html">Le Monde</a> has suggested that the current state of youth politics is reminiscent of the lead-up to the student demonstrations of May 1968. </p>
<p>Even though the last mass movement in western Europe found its strength outside traditional political structures, and the polls suggest young people are now well-educated and more progressive, the current political mood seems far less prone to optimism and progress than that of the 1960s. </p>
<p>In the UK, young people’s mass movements over the last decade such as the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11877034">student protests against university fees in 2010</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-english-riots-it-wasnt-youth-gangs-2805">riots across the UK in 2011</a>, have been rejected by institutional politics. </p>
<p>The criminalisation of protest in the UK has brought an “<a href="https://libcom.org/library/dangerous-subjects-uk-students-criminalization-protest">aura of criminality</a>” on student politics. This rejection is as common to anti-establishment parties like UKIP as it is to more mainstream parties. </p>
<p>Extreme right organisations such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/edl-uses-an-old-playbook-to-spread-message-of-hate-14611">English Defence League</a>, the Northeast Infidels and the English Volunteer Force have been <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/oct/30/english-defence-league-membership">able to mobilise support from young people</a> to some extent. But these groups have so far proved <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/is-the-party-over-for-the-edl-8889961.html">too vulnerable to internal struggles, paranoia and poor organisation</a> to be able to radicalise young people with any effect at the ballot box. </p>
<p>In France, on the other hand, while <a href="http://www.injep.fr/IMG/pdf/JES_2_lien_politique_jeunes.pdf">in 2008</a>, only 4% of 18 to 29-year-olds positioned themselves on the far right, recent <a href="http://www.ipsos.fr/sites/default/files/attachments/rapport_svv_2012_-_23_avril_2012_-_10h.pdf">polls</a> suggest that 18% of 18 to 24-year-olds and 20% of 25 to 34-year-olds turned to Marine Le Pen in the 2012 presidential election. Abstention was 27% and 26% respectively.</p>
<p>With the far-right discourse increasingly mainstream in both the French political arena and media, there is little doubt that a growing part of the young population will turn to this alternative. While it will most certainly remain a small minority, it will nonetheless help to further the process of legitimisation of ideas which were not so long ago considered taboo for students, while vilifying the cry of the youth as nothing more than an irrational protest. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24375/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Participation is commonly viewed as the cornerstone of liberal democracy. In Europe, however, the decades since the 1980s have been marked by falling participation and increased disillusionment with institutional…Aurelien Mondon, Lecturer in French Politics, University of BathBenjamin Bowman, PhD candidate in Politics, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/239522014-03-12T13:21:34Z2014-03-12T13:21:34ZTurkish students and academics treated as state’s enemy within<p>Demonstrations have broken out across Turkey following the <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/15-year-old-gezi-victim-berkin-elvan-dies-after-269-days-in-coma-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=63429&NewsCatID=341">death of Berkin Elvan</a>, a 15-year-old boy, who fell into a coma during last summer’s Gezi park protests after he was struck in the head by a teargas canister. He remained unconscious for 269 days, until he passed away on 11 March. Elvan will be remembered as the innocent adolescent who got caught up in a demonstration while on his way to buy bread. </p>
<p>As news spread of Elvan’s tragic death, universities throughout Turkey held <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/03/11/turkey-violence-istanbul-ankara-_n_4943585.html?utm_hp_ref=uk">sit-ins and protests</a>. As students at one of the country’s most prestigious public universities, Middle East Technical University (METU), tried to march to the city centre, they were met with teargas and water cannons. Just hours after, people from all over Turkey took to the streets in massive demonstrations that resembled the first days of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/turkish-urban-uprising-has-smashed-national-wall-of-fear-14916">Gezi park protests</a>. </p>
<p>It has only been a little over two weeks since <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/police-crush-odtu-protest-ahead-of-disputed-boulevards-opening-ceremony.aspx?pageID=238&nID=62914&NewsCatID=341">previous violent clashes took place at METU</a>. Students were protesting against a controversial highway that was built right through the campus’s green area, which led to the uprooting of thousands of trees. They were also calling on the government to resign in light of the continued corruption claims that first emerged in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/26/world/europe/turkish-cabinet-members-resign.html?_r=0">massive investigation last December</a>. </p>
<p>Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, used his usual defamatory language to describe the protesters, calling them “<a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-pm-erdogan-calls-protesters-atheists-leftists-terrorists.aspx?pageID=238&nid=63068&NewsCatID=338&utm_content=buffereb537&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer">atheists, leftists, and terrorists</a>”. His attitude towards Turkey’s top students – treating them as nothing more than enemies within – shows his overall disdain for any free thought or academic freedom. </p>
<h2>Students must toe the line</h2>
<p>During the past decade in power, Erdogan has tried to create the illusion that he made a clean break from the habits of the former secular regime. But within the realm of education we see his Muslim conservative AKP-led government has actually continued the tradition of Turkey’s former governments, placing immense pressure on young people to remain in line with the ruling party, or regime’s, ideology. </p>
<p>True, Erdogan is rightfully praised for eradicating a great injustice of the former secular establishment within the university campus – the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11880622">ban of the Islamic headscarf in the classroom</a>, which barred observant Muslim women from the classroom. However, with constant pressure placed on students to remain depoliticised (if not supporting his views), he is replacing one oppressive system for another. </p>
<p>This is perhaps why he chose not to abolish the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), which was created by the 1982 constitution, a vestige of Turkey’s 1980 Coup d’etat, as a means to keep tight reins over both academics and students. </p>
<p>In fact, during recent years hundreds of students have been arrested, many during protests that took place when government ministers were visiting campuses. Some were jailed on trumped-up charges of terrorism. </p>
<p>For example, in 2010, two students by the name of Ferhat Tüzer and Berna Yılmaz <a href="http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/98084/">were arrested</a> after holding up a sign calling for free education during a speech given by Erdogan. They were detained without trial for 18 months, accused of being members of a terrorist organisation. Due to the complicated sentencing and trial periods, getting information on the progress of cases involving detained students is not easy. However, it is clear that many students have been unjustly sentenced for voicing political dissent on campus.</p>
<h2>Gezi fallout</h2>
<p>Following last summer’s Gezi Park protests, the government increased its attempts to <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-gezi-turkey-in-media-and-campus-clampdown-18028">stamp out dissent among university students</a> and has even attempted to stamp its conservative values on the student population. </p>
<p>For example, Erdogan showed this when he called on legislation to <a href="http://www.louisfishman.blogspot.fr/2013/11/a-debate-on-co-ed-dorms-places-new.html">block co-ed housing of university students</a>, not just in dormitories, but also in private residences. The attempt failed, due to strong internal opposition within his own party. But it could come back on the agenda once again, depending how the political map transforms in the future. Nevertheless, the Gezi protests confirmed that regardless of one’s take on conservative values, Erdogan is trying to remove any opposition whatsoever from Turkish society.</p>
<h2>Reaching into schools</h2>
<p>Erdogan’s attempts to tighten his hold over education are stretching into schools. A <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26397755">recent law is set to close down thousands of prep-schools by September 2015</a>, which educate millions of students working on high school and university entrance exams. While Erdogan claims that the closing of the schools is an attempt by the public sector to “take back” education, from the start it was clear that it was aimed at the <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4ef8cb6a-8cc0-11e3-ad57-00144feab7de.html">Gulen religious network</a> (the Hizmet), which runs a large number of these schools. </p>
<p>The movement’s spiritual leader, Fethullah Gulen, is an Islamic religious preacher and former ally of Erdogan’s, now residing in the United States. Since the uncovering of the 17 December corruption probe, the two men are now in an all-out-war. While hitting at the Hizmet’s finances is certainly one reason driving the AKP to shut down the schools, it also seems to want to curb competing religious ideologies and sects. </p>
<p>If the present state of affairs is any sign of the future of education in Turkey, then we certainly need to be worried. It comes as new legislation is also placing <a href="http://www.todayszaman.com/news-340150-journalists-concerned-about-freedom-of-expression-in-turkey.html">restrictions on internet freedom</a> and a revamping of the judicial system. There are also numerous revelations of direct intervention by Erdogan on media outlets, in addition to the fact that <a href="http://cpj.org/reports/2013/12/second-worst-year-on-record-for-jailed-journalists.php">Turkey has the most jailed journalists in the world</a>. All this points to the fact that the government is capable of placing new restrictions on universities if it sees fit. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/02/turkey-erdogan-government-academic-freedom.html">Recent changes to bylaws of the Higher Education Board</a> are an initial sign that academics who speak out against the government could be subjected to sanctions. In early March, it was revealed that two academics were <a href="http://www.todayszaman.com/news-341168-two-academics-expelled-from-turkish-university-for-joining-gezi-protests.html">expelled from Marmara University’s faculty of communication</a>, due to the fact that they missed class time in adherence of a union strike in solidarity with Gezi protesters. As this is a new case, it will be interesting to see if the expelled academics will appeal. </p>
<p>Turkey has had its issues in the past with academic freedom. But the developments since the Gezi protests and the recent clampdown on dissent in the wake of the corruption probe, have left Turkish academics and students even more on edge about the future of the country’s education system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis Fishman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Demonstrations have broken out across Turkey following the death of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy, who fell into a coma during last summer’s Gezi park protests after he was struck in the head by a teargas…Louis Fishman, Assistant professor of history, Brooklyn CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.