Hey comrades, I'm thinking of running for presidency in my school, and I really wanna put some socialism into my school. I'm thinking of having trans day of recognition being a school-wide event, establishing a "communal dining hall" where people eat together and share stuff and play vidya, establishing voluntary mutual aid networks of "student tutors" who help other students learn in exchange for some reward idk what yet, and if I won I would play salute 2 el chapo and put Chapo posters up everywhere. :party-parrot: :matt:
I'm kidding about the last two bits, but I do genuinely wanna make some sort of "socialist" student body. A big part of my schools student government is who they donate their yearly charity drive to, so who would be a based charity to give to? Obviously there aren't means of production so there isn't a lot I can do, but what do you think of my proposals so far? Any other ideas? (When I say school I mean high school, not college)
Second this. FNB is great, they've been at every protest in my area distributing free food masks and hand sanitizer.
doctors without borders and food not bombs.
I think the mutual aid network shouldn't just be about student tutors. I'd argue a good policy proposal is funding or doubling funding for a food pantry, as food insecurity is very common amongst college students.
if you really wanna win, talk to your college classmates and ask them what the campus needs and work out your proposals through. You can also include thanks to particular students, or at least say "hey thank you, I'll add that to my platform if you'd like to see it through, vote for me!"
One thing that I regret form my time in student activism was not forming a student union/ council thing with the express objective of bringing the university under the control students and faculty, while fighting for the interest of students along the way. A lot of student activism takes the form of charity, philanthropy, and advocacy rather than direct action for direct material benefits. Also, working with faculty unions (and if there is a unionisation effort, supporting it) should be of the utmost importance. If the janitors and TAs go on strike, the students should have an organisation that can organise a solidarity "strike."
This is the level of potent and coordinated struggle that could be waged if independent student unions were coordinated in the west, outside of the sphere of influence of Democrat-backed NGOs that split student activism up into a million different interest and advocacy groups. In Greece the student movement at the beginning of the academic year were able to occupy 700 schools and lead huge protests all over the country for safer conditions, while building up coordinating committees that can ensure the struggle will continue. We need to dream bigger than the student activism we currently have and I think looking abroad provides a lot of great inspiration.
