SPARTACUS LEAGUE MILITANTS IN ACTION: in this case demonstrating their solidarity with the heroie struggle A False Dilemma Some comrades have grappled with the apparent problem of whether to work "inside" or "outide" the university. Student socialists feel the pressure of two apparently contradictory neces 1. The need to direct all our energies in the most efficient way to strengthen the labour TROYCHELL 2. The obvious need and value of doing political work among the mass of students.
On the surface the sharp tise of working class struggles against the government would seem to make this dilemma all the more acute; but if we clarily our ideas on the role of the university for the capitalists, then we can begin to see what our role should be in relation to the Universities in the Class Struggle: The Class Struggle in the Universities All of us agree that the university is not isolated from the wider society, but is becoming ever more deeply integrated into the structure of advanced capitalsm. Moreover, the role of the university within the socio-economic system of capitalism is becoming ever more central as the production of knowledge and the dissemination of ideology becomes increasingly bound up with the day to day stability of the system.
We should therefore expect (otherwise the above theories are wrong) that important developments in the wider society will be reflected in the universities and vice versa. So how does the bourgeoisie's offensive against the working class reflect itself in the university? The offensive has the following main aspects: l Fair Deal at Work, eto.) new techniques in "industrial relations" (b) new economic measures, e-g. Incomes Policy, Excess Capacity (Increased unemploy: ment), productivity deals, etc. (c) cuts in the social services. (d) new methods of manipulating the legal system. (e) new ideological justifications for the sys tem of repression and exploitation.
This list is not only the ingredients of the present attack on the working class, it also outlines the content of much of the "scientifie" work that goes on in British universities: the function of the academie economic "technicians" is to tell the bourgeoisie the different options they have in economic strategy and suggest new industrial relations techniques; the social admin-, politics, sociology, law, business studies depuriments, all of them have the function of supplying the knowledge, techniques and justifications for such policies as the government, the mass media and the employers are now pursuing against the working class.
If the workers were led by a conscious proletarian party in the present struggle, such a party would be prosecuting a merciless struggle ideologically, against these inckeys of capital in the universities. No such party exists, but there is a force right in the belly of these institutions which we can try to mobilise for this important fight: the students.
The objective basis for mobilising students for this fight is the simple fact that all this ideological shit is being pushed down their throats under the title of science. This is what the students in theso departments are called upon to celebrate and regurgitate, with suitable sanctions against those who refuse to do so and enticing career und status incentives for those who play along The practical struggle of the workers against the ruling class's industrial relations will tend to influence the most aware students in the universities to struggle against the ideological content of their courses. Similarly, development of a serious theoretical and political contestation of the existing functions of the university departments in these Tields will be a real blow against the bourgeoisle's anti-working class oftensive. In this way we can see how the apparent dilemma of working class support versus student politics can dissolve: the ciass strugele enters the wiversiries and the university enters the cons strugale, the two are, as they say, dialectically linked.
Action On the basis of this analysis wo can map out concrete forts of action to relate student socialists to the workers struggle against the government measures:
I. Find out whether any of the lecturers in the relevant departments have been doing work irectly related to the government measure:
Any who have should be viciously attacked 2. Examine the content of student courses in the relevant fields and expose their ideological content.
of the Vietnamese revolutionaries.
3. Work to expose the whole function of such departments as Management Studies and Industrial Relations; we should put forward the concept of abolishing them and replacing them with departments to do research into capitalism and the institutions it creates to maintain its 4. We should get sympathetic students to do research that can be of direct assistance to the local workers movement. 5. All this nativity should be linked with day to day propaganda, agitation and action relating to the unfolding class struggle; it should be linked with strenuous attempts on the part of the vanguard within the university to make links with ALL SEEMAN 1LTORY TO THE 1E P END BRI AH PRE TUDERL "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the PROBLEM!" - Cleaver Come to the (REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH ORGANISATION)