Emma Dunne
Surveying the vast crowd gathered before him last Wednesday, 30,000 students with their banners and pickets held aloft against the persistent, chilling November rain, Gary Redmond, USI President, proclaimed that “the sleeping giant that is the student movement has been awoken”.
While the events of November 3rd may not have turned out exactly as Redmond and USI would have wished, there is no arguing with the aptness of that description of the student movement. Powerful, energetic, dedicated and active, students and student activism have historically been crucial forces in any fight for social change. In years gone by, students the world over have been at the forefront of movements to promote democracy, protect rights, push for political reform and encourage social transformation. In some cases, even movements that have toppled authoritarian regimes and deposed military juntas can trace their roots back to the campus.
South Korea 1960 – 1987
Since the republic was founded in 1948, the students of South Korea have played a pivotal role in the democratisation of the state. In 1960, students succeeded not just in prompting reform within the government, but in overthrowing the authoritarian regime of Syngman Rhee all together, bringing the first republic to an end. The student movement again flexed its muscles in 1987, and a flurry of student initiated protests led to concessions by the government that resulted in elections and significant political changes.
USA Vietnam War protests
The Vietnam War protests, or Anti-War Movement, initiated by college students, was a pivotal catalyst that prompted citizens to question the policies that surrounded America’s involvement in Vietnamese affairs. To many in America, their nation’s involvement in Vietnam seemed an exercise in futility, an uncalled for and unjustified involvement in a war the origins of which many did not even fully understand.
The anti war movement began in earnest in 1965, when the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), a student run organisation led rallies and marches to show their opposition to the war. The first of these, held in Washington in 1965, attracted over 25,000 people.
Over the next few years the student led anti war movement rapidly gained momentum, as politicians, celebrities, artists and musicians all stepped up to voice their opposition to a conflict the tide of which was increasingly turning against the USA.
Perhaps the most notable individual student demonstration of the time was the Kent State Protest of May 1970. Four students were killed and nine others wounded, with one incurring permanent paralysis as a result of his injuries, when the National Guard fired into a crowd of protesters at Kent State University, Ohio. The shootings sparked a massive public backlash, and over the following weeks a nationwide student strike forced over 540 high school and college campuses across the country to shut. One week after the shootings, over 100,000 people gathered in Washington for a mass demonstration aimed at voicing the public’s opposition to the war.
Paris 1968
French students, never quick to shy away from an opportunity to take to the streets in protest, were a pivotal force in the riots of 1968 that eventually resulted in a general election and a major reform of the education system.
In 1968, the education system in France was critically underfunded, overcrowded and lacking in adequate facilities. The student’s discontent found expression first in small scale protests and public meetings and later in mass demonstrations on the streets of the capital that were harshly and controversially suppressed by the CRS – the notoriously brutal French Riot police.
In May of that year, the students were joined by workers, and the nation was paralysed as more than 10 million employees downed tools in a series of strikes that lasted over 2 weeks. The sheer scale of the protests and the resulting election and reform of the education system that they brought about are evidence of the colossal power that students, when motivated to fight for a cause, have to make a real difference in society.
Tiananmen Square Massacre
On 3rd June, 1989, hundreds of civilians, students and others were shot dead by Chinese government forces as they protested peacefully against the ruling Communist Regime in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
The pro-democracy protests were initially a student led movement, beginning several weeks earlier with peaceful marches and demonstrations. As the movement gained momentum, the students were joined by people from all walks of life, who came together to express their discontent with the insidious corruption that pervaded the government and to call for democracy in China. The protesters occupied Tiananmen Square in the Capital city of Beijing for seven weeks in order to draw attention to their plight.
Despite repeated assurances that no violence would be used against the protesters, on June 3rd, 1989, Government forces stormed the square in a bloody attempt to crush the uprising. Hundreds, and possibly thousands of people were killed as tanks trundled through the city streets and government forces opened fire on the students and others.
Despite the fact that the uprising failed to topple the Chinese Communist regime, it is beyond contention that the student movement, even though it remained peaceful at all times, represented the biggest threat to the Chinese Government since the revolution in 1949.
The Future
It is clear that the student movement has the potential to be a potent force for change in society. However, from even a cursory look at the cases above, all examples of successful student activism that made an impact, it is clear that if student movements hope to make a real difference, they must do more than just protest. The strength of the student movement lies not just in its ability to take to the streets, but in the way in which it forms alliances with and gains the support of other sections of society. The most powerful and influential student movements in history; France, China, Iran, all have this in common. By joining with others, the students gain the power necessary to transform society, a lesson that the Irish ‘sleeping giant’, now that he has awoken, may do well to remember if he hopes to make a real difference.
