BE UNIONE mined the very conditions for the existence of the old student movement. Before 1968 the students had been not only the politically nost advanced section of the population, they had also had good claim to be the bearers of the most advanced forms of struggle and in a certain sense therefore the physical leaders of the class struggle. After 1968 that was no longer true. The organisational relation of forces between students and the working class is roughly equivalent to that between the single ship of the Royal Monaco navy and the American Seventh fleet. To find their feet in this new role, the student militants needed to re-think their relation to the entire political situation.
THE STUDENTS AND THE WORKINGCLASS-SECOND STAGE.
The first instinctive reaction of student militants to the new political reality was to join one of the contending revolutionary groups. This was based on the absolutely correct idea that the immediate need was to relate in some way to the upsurge of the working class, and that this could not be done directly by the student 'movement' but only via a revolutionary organisation which embraced both students and workers and had global understanding of the political situation. This however in itself fails to solve the problem of the political relation between students and the working class. This is far too complex a question to be reduced to the simple formula of selling newspapers outside factory gates. Let us examine the various ways in which a relation to the working class can be shown in practice. We will work from one extreme to the other.
At the most simple level, is the steady propaganda work which student militants of all revolutionary organisations carry out amongst worker militants. This ranges from everything from selling newspapers to running political campaigns on every conceivable subject.
At another level there is the organising of students as such for specific acts of solidarity.
The collection of funds for UCS, the voting of student union money to the postal workers, the organising of student participation in pickets is of this type.
At a more complex level is the use of student action to help groups of workers in struggle.
The occupation of Lancaster University in support of cleaners was a case of this. At a yet more complex level there is the mobil¡sation of students to create the initial base for a campaign aimed at the working class.
For example, in France this occurred over the question of the Burgos trials. The Ligue Communiste was able to utilise a base amongst students in conjunction with its base inside the working class to inaugurate a series of demonstrations on Burgos, which brought the issue into the cntre of political attention in France and forced all the workers organisations, including ultimately the French Communist Party, to take action on this issue. This campaign greatly increased the prestige of the revolutionary organisations in the eyes of the French working class and paved the way for the support of sections of the trade unions for the May 1st, 1971 demonstrations of revolutionary organisations. A political campaign run amongst students on the question of Ireland would be an example of this type of tactic.
Finally there is the use of the specific struggle of students to draw out general political lessons which can be understood by and influence the working class. On a small scale the 1970 issue of secret political files on students was an example of this. On a more dramatic level was the use made by the students of the repression carried out inside the French universities and by the French police in the period leading up to May 1968. This political struggle helped to spotlight the whole repressive nature of de Gaulle's regime. If we take the last of these first we can look at it in the light of the current struggle over the issue of students unions.
Firstly, we have to be clear about why the state is worried about the question of the political activities. It is not because the bourgeoisie is worried about the loss of "public' money or because it fears the ferocious fighting potential of the average student body. Neither does it believe that it can prevent a significant number of students joining revolutionary organisations. What it does hope it can achieve is to prevent the mass of the student body undertaking political activity. The reason why it fears this can be quite easily understood when the course of a movement like the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign is studied or the logic of the development of a movement on Ireland is understood.
A political campaign on a revolutionary issue such as Ireland or Vietnam will never be started by the reformist leaders of the working class. The mass of the working class however is still dominated by reformist ideology. It too therefore is unlikely to be the initial focus for a political movement on an issue such as this. On the other hand because of the various factors already discussed the contradictions focussing upon the student population are such that any political issue can get directly to this section of the population. The students can therefore provide the initial impetus to get any movement off the ground. This is not to be seen primarily in terms of exemplary actions but in the sheer provision of the enormous amounts of labour necessary for leaflets, pamphlets, public meetings, etc. This could be clearlv seen on the Irish demonstration last year. Here two main sections of the population were represented, Irish exiles and students. The key to building a solidarity movement is therefore the ability to utilise this existing base to get ideas across to the mass of the working class. Basically the same pattern applies to a whole range of issues from question such as South Africa to campaigns against racism. If the government could establish a barrier and snap the links between the revolutionary groups and the mass of students, they could destroy one of the most important routes whereby revolutionary ideas are transmitted into the whole of society. One of the ways they hope to do this is by changes on students unions which will allow Conservative and other students to portray the revolutionaries as "wreckers' preventing the mass of students having the maximum possible facilities in their unions. It can be seen from this analysis that the ruling class has a far clearer idea of what is important about the political activities of students than do most of the revolutionary organisations. The bourgeoisie knows it has nothing to fear from even a few thousand students constructing the alternative leadership' by selling the Workers Press or "building the party' through factory gate leafleting and selling of Socialist Worker. The problem of solving the question of revolutionaries gaining a mass base in the working class is far too great for that tactic to work. That could be seen clearly for example on the 21st February demonstration last year. Then 140,000 workers demonstrated because of a mere half-hearted gesture of defiance by the TUC. The revolutionaries impact here was nil. Any belief that the way to change this situation by individual leafleting or recruiting is absolutely ridiculous. The ruling class is not worried in the slightest by all that.
What it wants to prevent is the existence of a potential mass of alienated students who are dominated in their struggles by the ideas of the revolutionary groups and who can act as a transmission belt for revolutionary ideas into all of society. This is particularly true at a time when the strategy of the bourgeoisie is to use the political strength of the ruling class to defeat the economic strength of the trade unions. But while relating students to the working class on an individual basis thro direct work on industrial struggles, etc. is absolutely vital, it is not the key to a long term change in the relation of forces betwee the reformists and the revolutionaries within the working class. That relationship will only be changed by the ability of revolution aries to grasp political issues which will drive a knife through the sophistry of reformist ideas. Nothing could be more unlikely than a revolution in Britain growing organically out of the industrial struggle. What the individual activity of students in relation