Over the years, student unions and the student movement have acted as the voice for students. The student movement has been a pioneer that has offered solutions for centuries, which the decision-makers sometimes listened to and sometimes didn’t. In festive speeches, we students are the builders of the future, the resource of society. The decision-makers admire the student culture and encourage its development. But when they arrive at the negotiating table, the speeches are forgotten. In the negotiations, we students are only seen as an expense, unemployed, demanding burden on society. Study grant, which used to be an investment in the future, is weakened and the debt is transferred from the government’s account to the student’s own. Students are required to take responsibility at the same time as the government abandons its own obligations and promises it made to students. Although more responsibility is placed on the students, the responsibility for education should lie with society as a whole, because in the end education is actually an investment in everything around us and a resource for all of us.
The student movement is often accused of not wanting to take responsibility for society’s needs, even though the students and the student movement already do this and bear responsibility for what is assigned to them. At the same time, the student movement is criticized for dissatisfaction and unrealistic goals, but isn’t that the purpose of the student movement? Isn’t the purpose of the student movement to represent the students’ cause in various contexts and to speak boldly for views, goals and justice for generations? There are certainly as many views on this as there are participants in the student movement. I personally see that the purpose of the student movement is always to be on the students’ side, goal-oriented and offer new solutions. Even if it appears to some as dissatisfaction and “whining”, this is our core mission.
The importance of the student movement can already be seen in the social debate. When the decision-makers’ view of students is that we are coveralls wearing people with new fingernails, false eyelashes and expensive designer clothes, the student movement is needed to remind them of the real state of affairs. Students live below the poverty threshold, and the situation is not going to get any easier if the current plans to cut students’ livelihoods are implemented. Gratitude is required of us when they give with a spoon and take away with a ladle. It is impossible to celebrate victories when we students are left with our own luck and debt in our arms. The decision-makers seem to be so detached from the everyday lives of students and drunk on balancing the economy that it is the duty of the student movement to loudly demand what is right; fair, caring and sustainable generational policy.
Faced with such views and decisions, it can be easy to get discouraged. Especially if we were alone. But we are not. We are a movement. In this movement, no one is left alone and we fight for the weaker ones. Student life is not just about partying, but a constant struggle for the better. We, the student movement, make sure that no student is left alone with their problems.
We students, the defenders of students, will not keep quiet. Now and always on the side of the student, now and always on the side of a better tomorrow.
Written by Diana Muraskina, candidate for SAMOK President in 2024
During the autumn, SAMOK’s blog and social media will present the candidates for SAMOK’s board for 2024. For more information on the General Assembly, click here.