When I hear those words, I think about walking to school in sub-zero temperatures in the middle of winter. Why? Well, when I lived in Paris the only strikes (or grèves in French) were on the metro. You’d get about 48 hours warning and unless you lived in the far out suburbs, you were ok.
But this is all about Uni students. This is what I have been seeing at uni recently:
It’s interesting to me as this is my first taste of student politics. To be quite honest though, I’m sort of asking “What’s the point?”. I don’t understand what the big deal is. Yes, I am a uni student, but I do also work with primary and secondary school students, and you can see how I feel about the cuts here.
I don’t know why I don’t see the point in striking, probably because everything goes back to normal the next day.
However, I can say that there is at least one thing I disagree with on that flyer. At the bottom it demands “A fully funded and free education system”. I disagree with it simply because I know that it is economically unviable. Back in 1972, under Gough Whitlam, it was viable – there were less uni students. In fact, my parents benefitted from it. My dad’s parents would not have been able to send all four of their children to uni, had Gough Whitlam not made it free. But now, it isn’t viable, and some people need to see that.
I’m not going to say much more, as it will turn into some sort of incoherent rambling.
And just in case you were wondering: I am not going to the protest.
Kara L 