Student victory
Students across New Zealand have voted against making membership of students unions voluntary.
Zanny Begg to tell students that services would be maintained under a privatised environment our arguments fell away. We were able to mobilise people only when we explained the political nature of VSM.
We had to explain to students that what they would really loose under VSM was their voice. Pushing the services line was one reason why we lost"
"One of the most convincing arguments we used in the campaign" Skinner explained "was to look at the timing of the legislation. VSM was meant to come in May. The month after a whole raft of new attacks on the tertiary education sector are going to be released by the government. Before the end of the year the National Party government has to go to the polls. VSM was about silencing student opposition to the government"
student opposition to the government™
Skinner attributes a large part of the compulsory vote to a vote "against the government" and "a victory for students and for the left. It sends a clear message to the government to "butt out' of student affairs. We don't like them interfering and we don't like their privatisation agenda in the tertiary sector, we don't like rising fees we don't like what they are doing to New Zealand"
According to Skinner students have
Pro played an important role in defending people's living standards, and have won
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The teachers union distributed leaflets
Peo urging high school students to vote rub compulsory to all school leavers at the pro end of last year. People donated money to the campaign and NZUSA built
Cer alliances with trade unions and other
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NGOs. Skinner believes all these groups
(CC have been "empowered by the victory
Zha against VSM".
The government's response to the referendum results has been to lie low.
1.
Although the education minister helped of l draft the legislation no government
Zedc official would publicly comment on the to results.
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It was left to backbencher Tony Steel to debate Skinner on radio. He tried to prop the insinuate that student unions had reneged ease on the agreement to spend equal amounts
Mar on the voluntary and compulsory the 1 campaign and that the results would be in th challenged in court. Skinner laughed this off "we carried out the campaign totally
2.
above board and won convincingly"
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The next fight facing New Zealand insis students will be the government's attempt with to remove student and staff representamai tion on university councils. Skinner says syst the campaign has already started: "We stat have a strong mandate to be here and to syst fight. We will not be silenced because we to li are even stronger then we have ever moc been". * moc
3
Source: Green Left Weekly, May 12.
The referendums were carefully constructed by the government to encourage a vote in favour of voluntary membership. Student unions were forced to spend a dollar convincing students to support voluntary student unionism for every dollar they spent convincing students that student union membership should be compulsory. The ballot paper informed students that if they voted for voluntary membership they would be refunded their student union fees. The government prohibited students from paying for their fees out of the student loan scheme.
Media, politicians and the trade union leadership told the New Zealand University Student Association (NZUSA).that they were fighting a losing battle.
Despite these hurdles NZUSA launched a massive campaign to defend students unions. As NZUSA co-president Karen Skinner explained "we were not going to take VSM lying down"
The result? Five of the seven universities voted overwhelmingly against VSM. At Massey University in Palmerston North, 46% of the student population voted, with 65% voting against VSM.
Skinner was particularly pleased that so many of Massey's 14,000 external students rejected VSM-despite their current, low level of contact with the student union.
Lincon and Canterbury universities had already promised to guarantee student union funding if VSU is introduced. But this did not stop students mobilising to defeat voluntary membership.
At the relatively conservative Victoria University, in the capital, Welling na University, In the capital, welling 30 International Viewpoint #312 June 1999
46% of the student population participated in the referendum and 72% voted for compulsory membership.
At Otago the student union began the campaign against VSM 12 months agoAs a result, 57% of the student population voted, of which 77% supported compulsory membership. According to Skinner one the strongest bases of support came from hostel students (residential colleges) where supporting compulsory unionism became the "thing to do"
The student movement only lost the referendums at Waikato and Auckland universities. At Waikato University the student association has been dominated by far right organisations since 1996. A campus referendum on voluntary membership was passed in 1996 and again in 1997. By 1999 the student union had completely collapsed. Skinner explains this meant that many students "had never seen a functioning student union and did not know what there was to support
Only 98 votes separated the union from victory at Auckland university, where only 51% of students participated in the referendum. Skinner is defiant: "We do not consider that voluntary membership has a mandate at Auckland We will contest the result by gathering a petition from 10% of the student population calling for a new referendum"
According to Skinner, the student union at Auckland University used the wrong tactics. They put a major emphasis on the importance of services provided by the student union. But it is hard to convince students that these services will be lost under a voluntary arrangement As soon as the right mobilised and tried
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