Cardiff Students Against War and Cardiff Young Greens Society šalju podršku!

As a student studying at Cardiff University, Wales, UK, I’m well aware of the challenges you face and fully support your actions. Recently, students from 30 universities across the UK were involved in occupations, similar in format to yours, in protest over our university’s complicity in war, arms trading and Western imperialism in light of the Gaza crises and the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Progressive students across the UK have also recently united to sign a petition against tuition fees and the continued commercialization of education. So far over 175,000 students have signed this. Of course the mainstream international media, which echoes the voices of the powerful elites, has failed to mention this or the popular understanding which does not support the commodification of students. So I will do the media’s job for them and outline our views in support of your actions.

The current economic crisis offers an opportunity not only to question the politics of free-market fundamentalism, the dominance of economics over politics, and the subordination of justice to the laws of finance and the accumulation of capital, but also the ways in which our culture has been (and is being) corrupted by rampant commercialization, commodification and consumption.

In a society that measures its success and failure solely through the economic lens of the Gross National Product (GNP), it becomes difficult to define students and education outside of market principles determined largely by criteria such as the rate of market growth and the accumulation of capital. The GNP does not measure justice, integrity, courage, compassion, wisdom and learning, among other values vital to the interests and health of a democratic society. Nor does it address the importance of civic participation, public goods, dissent and the fostering of democratic institutions.

In a society driven entirely by market mentalities, moralities, values and ideals, consuming, selling and branding become the primary mode through which to define our social relations and to shape our lives. This is part of the economic crisis that is barely mentioned in the mainstream media.

What is been sold off is not only our education but our collective future too. The consequences of this catastrophe can only be understood within the larger framework of a politics and market philosophy that view students as commodities and democracy as the enemy. In a democracy, education in any sphere, whether it be the public universities or the larger media, is, or should be, utterly adverse to treating young people as individual units of economic potential and as walking commodities. And it is crucial, as you are all well aware, not to “forget” that democracy should not be confused with a hypercapitalism.

At the same time, simply criticizing the market, the privatization of public goods and the commercialization of education and students, while helpful, is not enough. Stirring denunciations of what a market society does to education do not go far enough. What is equally necessary is developing public spaces and social movements that help us develop healthy notions of self, identities and visions of our future no longer defined – more accurately, defiled – by market values and mentalities.

Let’s continue our international resistance to the powerful marketing and financial forces that service big corporations and the corporate state. Good luck with your protests and occupations!

Sebastian Power,
Architecture student, Cardiff University,
On behalf of Cardiff Students Against War and Cardiff Young Greens Society.