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RSSF conference, November 1968
RSSF: turn to the labour movement!
This article, written by Lynn Walsh, a delegate to
the RSSF conference from Sussex University Socialist Club, was first
published in Militant No.44, December 1968.
THE FIRST FULL conference of the Revolutionary
Socialist Students Federation was held in London, at the Roundhouse in
Chalk Farm on the 8 and 9 November.
To those who had hoped it would lay the foundations
of a viable national, socialist student organisation it was something of
a disappointment. The relatively poor attendance, especially from
outside London, indicated a falling off of enthusiasm amongst students
since the summer, which must be attributed partly to the lack of
direction from the RSSF at the beginning of this term. Unfortunately,
the conference did little to give the organisation any real sense of
direction.
At the very beginning there was a serious dispute:
the conference organisers, supported by International Socialism [later
the Socialist Workers’ Party], the International Marxist Group, New Left
Review etc, proposed that the situation in the educational institutions
should be discussed first, and political perspectives on Saturday. This
was strongly but unsuccessfully opposed by a minority, including Sussex
Socialist Club and the supporters of Militant, who demanded that the
political discussion should come first.
The absurdity of taking things in this order soon
became clear. The conference divided into two groups. The majority,
supporting the slogan of ‘Student Power’, advanced the idea that the
universities are the ‘weak link’ of capitalism and that socialist
students, supposedly the vanguard of revolution, should establish ‘Red
Bases’ in the universities as the first step towards socialism. In words
they recognise the key role of the working class in the struggle for
socialism, but in practice they postpone all discussion of the
orientation of students in relation to the workers to the distant
future.
This approach is the result of a completely false
perspective. It does not even recognise that the radicalisation amongst
large numbers of students is produced by the movement in society as a
whole: by the unfolding crisis in capitalism on a world scale on the one
side and by the enormous strength and potential power of the workers on
the other. The protagonists of ‘Student Power’, with no real ideas of
their own, have merely absorbed many of the ideas of the past period
which exaggerate out of all proportion the role of students and
intellectuals in changing society. International Socialism, the
International Marxist Group, New Left Review, etc, do not agree on any
of the fundamental issues. And yet they agree on one thing: to combine
on a vague, opportunist platform of ‘Student Power’ and to prevent a
thorough discussion of the underlying perspectives. Thus they insisted
that the student programme be discussed first, which meant that the
issue was decided on before the underlying conceptions had been brought
out into the open.
Apart from one or two demands for democratisation
and reform tacked on to the call for ‘Red Bases’, the ‘Student Power’
bloc made no attempt to formulate a programme which would connect up the
fight for improved conditions in education with the overall need to
transform society, a programme with which the RSSF would be able to win
students reacting against the existing conditions, but not yet committed
revolutionaries, to the programme of socialist revolution.
Attempting to outline such a programme, Sussex
Socialist Club, supported by a number of other delegates, moved a
resolution which called for an opening of higher education to all
sections of society, a living wage for students, a fully comprehensive
system of higher education with enough resources to break down all
distinctions between the types of institution, and finally for "workers’
control of education as the only alternative to and guarantee against
the domination of education by the employing class". This was passed,
but the majority clique merely attempted to ignore this motion posing
the issue in class terms, without at the same time advancing any real
arguments against acting on it.
The opposition group in the conference continually
emphasised the importance of thoroughly working out a consistent
socialist programme and of turning outwardly to the workers in the
labour movement. In the discussion on Saturday the real issues at stake
came out. The position of the ‘Student Power’ clique became clearer.
They asserted that the existing political parties and trade unions are
incapable of "sustaining revolutionary socialist programmes", and "it is
neither meaningful or valuable to attempt to capture these
organisations". "New, participatory mass-based organisations are
required to overthrow capitalism". But they make no attempt to work out
how the millions of workers who are still involved with these
organisations are to be won to socialist ideas. Apart from ‘Red Bases’
they have no programme in any case. In practice they not only write off
the traditional mass organisations, but also the mass of the workers
with them.
If the RSSF is to succeed in mobilising socialist
students to play a serious and sustained part in the fight for
socialism, the organisation must begin at once to work out perspectives
that measure up to the present developments in society and the tasks
facing the workers’ movement. Differences exist, and the movement will
go forward only if they are discussed in an open and honest manner.
Unfortunately, the present loose structure, without a national committee
elected on a political basis, opens up the way for further cliquishness
instead of the various groups fighting for their political positions and
putting them to the test of action and experience.
Abstract declarations of the need for the overthrow
of capitalism and the establishment of socialism do not in themselves
get us anywhere. The principles by which a socialist transformation
could be effected must be embodied in a programme, but a programme that
is going to act as a means of winning masses of workers must clearly
connect them up with the demands which continually arise from the
day-to-day clashes of the workers with the existing structure of
society. In order to put the programme into effect it is imperative to
forge links with the workers’ organisations, to establish the
reliability and authority of the RSSF as a body seriously prepared to
take up the workers’ fight as its own fight.
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