My first experience of leading a campaign was forced on me – the world was being screwed up by leaders who were determined to embark on an unjust war with Iraq, despite clear evidence that most of the population disagreed with them. It began to seem like democracy was being ignored and we couldn’t make a difference.
We started by protesting outside Parliament – even though we found that it was depicted as ‘bunking off’ by a national media that couldn’t understand our action would’ve been slightly less effective after school: in the dark when the politicians have all gone home…
We needed to take the message straight to these politicians that they might try not to listen but they were damn well going to see us and read about our opposition to their criminal foreign policy.
We weren’t bound by party policy or any idea of how a campaign should run. We made our placards and took to the streets. Being young meant we were rash or confident enough not to worry about conventions or rules and our stand won us national coverage. In many ways it’s the reason I’m writing now.
Removed from real life?
They were such optimistic days, and really gave me a passion for getting off the sidelines. Now I’m at university I haven’t got off my soapbox. I’m still fighting for what I see as justice – but the rules have changed and so, inevitably, have I.
Because despite that early experience in my teenage years, university came as something of a shock. How to deal with the bureaucracy of uni clubs, how to ingratiate yourself with the existing volunteers – even how to turn up in the right place at the right time and feel like anything more than a confused bystander!
It sometimes seems like university removes you further from real life politics by encasing all your hard work and action in a campus-shaped bubble, and to me it felt like the actions of dedicated college representatives and volunteers were little more than pre-determined attempts to follow the script of ‘good’ activism.
After all, uni clubs are safe – bound by their contract to remain law abiding, demonstrably removed from mainstream politics, and rarely able to act with autonomy or innovation. They don’t automatically feel like a way to fight against ideals entrenched in society or to make a tangible difference.
It took me over a year to find my own place in the uni campaigning scene. I realised I was happier working by myself than dedicating myself to climbing established hierarchies. I appreciate the control over what I am trying to change and how, when, where and why I was trying to change it.
Call to action
I’ve launched a website – at www.handsupfor.org – which aims to provide other young people with a toolkit for getting started, finding out and sharing further information. This lets me share information both with other people from my university and with the wider world, grounding our achievements in a more real political context – something especially important when you’re at a uni where the students feel slightly out of touch with the concept of hardship or poverty…
I work now as part of a variety of horizontal networks, not based on hierarchical notions of command but on the sharing of knowledge, working practices, research and resources. I’ve begun to see that university isn’t about dedicating yourself to a single cause or career – its about discovering what’s out there and how you relate to that on a personal, emotional and intellectual level.
I didn’t want to climb the union ladder or edit the paper, but have become increasingly surprised by the difference I can make through simple engagement with college groups and integrating this with the Hands Up campaign. The Hands Up manifesto, available on the site, sets out 6 key demands in a programme aiming to ‘level the political baseline’
By this I mean providing easy – and, importantly, non-directional – routes into activism, volunteering and campaigning through a whole plethora of legislative changes. Now I’m back in college, looking for support and modification of these points by my peers. After all, I’ve come to realise that it’s only by working together that we can achieve change. So why not get in touch?
Content from our partners
Related
