Student Activism: An Ideology

Student Activism: Ideology that emerges in our Country


For more than a century, student movements have played a very important role among the agents of social changes. In some nations, students have succeeded in toppling governments on changing national policies. In other ways, they were instrumental in bringing about various cultural revivals. In our society being a developing nation in Asia, Filipino students were often instrumental in political and social and cultural developments. They provided inspired leadership to national liberation movements, political parties and a more local sphere, to labor organizations and cultural groups.

In the paradigm of the skeptic activist in our nation, today, the world is in great turmoil. Not only do we see war and destruction, but we also see growing poverty and hunger, the emergence of new slavery, and the ravaging of our ecosystem. Some have defined the modern world not in terms of technological advances but in terms of the growing gap between “rich” and “por.” This division of the world’s population is not simply economic but also social and political — i.e., a separation of world populations between those with basic human rights and those without. In fact, it is probably more accurate to describe today’s world not as a division between “rich” and “poor” but rather between “haves” and “disposable people”.

Student Activism defined by Fletcher as work done by students to effect political, environmental, economic, or social change[1]. It has often focused on making changes in schools, such as increasing student influence over curriculum or improving educational funding. In some settings, student groups have had a major role in broader political event. This means, that student activist deals with these entire problems, not just in terms of education but rather the problem of our country. In dealing with this kind of problem at a very young age is pretty ironic, but for them, it is the reality that we should face. They believe in the philosophy that “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”[2]

Historically, in times of crisis, student activism has been a crucial force for social change. Students around the world have been at the forefront of movements to promote democracy and human rights. Student movements have toppled powerful dictatorships and military juntas. Student movements have ended wars. And student activism has often served as the conscience for nations, reminding people in times of turmoil of the founding ideals of their countries and the aspirations of all people for justice, dignity, and equality. Thus, it comes as no surprise that the world’s most repressive government’s jail and often murder student activists, close down college campuses during times of crisis, and enforce strict guidelines about what can and cannot be taught in school systems. Those in power understand the significance of student movements — often more so than student activists themselves[3].

Student movements gain power not because they are composed of militant and dedicated students. Student movements draw their power through the formation of strategic alliances with other sectors of society facing oppression, such as workers, women, and farmers and other dispossessed peoples in the countryside. By joining in solidarity with others, student movements gain the power necessary to transform society.

In order to form alliances with other sectors of society, students must educate themselves and others about issues facing these sectors. Thus, student activism is as much about educating and organizing as about engaging in actions such as participating in rallies and marches. Or more accurately, becoming an activist requires a new understanding about the relationship between educating, organizing, and acting. Unlike the traditional academic approach that separates knowing the world from interacting with it, activism requires rethinking the relationship between thinking and doing. Only in academia are knowing and doing regarded as separate things; in reality, knowing and doing are parts of the same process. In the course of everyday life, we are always simultaneously thinking and acting, and gaining wisdom and maturity is based on training ourselves to reflect constantly about our actions and to carry out actions based on an understanding of consequences and responsibilities. Becoming an activist helps each person become conscious of their role as an agent of historical and social change.

Thus, student activism is about social change and transformation. But is the focus of activists only on changing the institutions of society? No, it is not. Changing society must be done in tandem with changing oneself. Otherwise, activists within their own movements and in the new social institutions they create will simply end up replicating the same relationships of oppression that they are fighting. Nor can we wait until later — “after the revolution,” after the creation of new institutions, or after “we have gotten into power” — to address serious problems like poverty, corruptions, scandals etc. that plague human relationships. These issues must be addressed as part of our ongoing struggles to change the world. In other words, activism must be viewed as engaging in both social change and personal transformation simultaneously. We cannot change injustices in the world without also confronting and overcoming injustices in our own practices.

The pages that follow provide resources for current student activists and more detailed information for others interested in exploring the exciting challenge of student activism. Educate. Organize. And transform society and each of our lives.

Division in Student Activism

Unlike the militants, Student Activist believed that the best way to achieve needed change was to work within it by non-violent and legal means; not to destroy the system. In the beliefs of the activist, it may seem that they have same goals but base on this study, they have divided themselves into two. The two forms of activism are the following: [1] Radical Activist, [2] Conservative Activists. Radical Activism saw their lives as part of the national political affairs. They supported political parties and therefore it was not uncommon to include them in national mass demonstration and strikes. Hence, conservatives on the other hand, tended to see themselves as full time students preparing for a career. They were more likely to look upon their student lives as long-term investments toward well paying occupations. They were more concerned with technical, professional problems, and they were unhappy when their university life was marred by the participation of radical students in national politics.[4]

Draw a fine distinction between conservatives and the radicals who have tried to isolate one from the other. While the radicals talked of destroying the system, the conservatives talked of rebuilding it. The radicals strove to differentiate itself from the mass, while the conservatives tried to point to areas within the Philippine tradition which support the case and to build upon them. As regards goals, while the conservatives were responding to failures of Philippine society to cope with the problems in the society and with the emerging nations around the world, and hoping for the right leadership to influence public policy in the right directions, the conservatives sees Philippines response to the problems of cities and developing nations as being generically related to Philippines per se – to its culture, its values, its attitudes which may coerce the majority as effectively as its own minorities and minorities elsewhere.

Ideology in Terms of Education

Activism is essentially about raising awareness and promoting education to help liberate and empower our communities. Awareness and education open people to new ways of thinking and new ways of looking at the world around them. New ways of thinking enable people to confront and solve problems in different ways. What is needed in the current period is a new kind of education — an education for our liberation. On the one hand, this requires activists to expand the content of education by bringing to the forefront issues of globalization, environmental awareness, human rights, poverty and corruption, and a host of other topics to help people understand the world. But developing an education for our liberation goes beyond questions of content. It also requires activists to adopt a new approach to education — an approach that sees education as a process linked to organizing and centered on human interactions. In this kind of form of education, activist assures a lot of changes in terms of the beliefs and awareness of student. Just like in PUP we have asked some Activist in terms of Education.

“Oo ang edukasyon napaka-halaga… pero aanhin mo din ang edukasyon, kung mismong badget dito binabawasan pa ng gobyerno…. Dapat tayong mga skolar ng bayan, magkaisa para sa mataas na badyet ng ating paaralan…”

In terms of education, they believe that education is in priority in life, but how can they study if the facilities in their classroom are broke and in bad condition. They want a higher budget in education, not in war. They said that the Arroyo administration must have focused on the needs of the youth, as youth is the future of our country.

“Interviewer: Bakit marami sa inyo ang hindi pumapasok sa mga klase?”
“Activist: Sa totoo lang, mas Masaya kasi kaming kasama ang mga kaibigan naming ditto. Madalas tinatamad na kaming pumasok, kaya tumatambay na lang kami sa tambayan, pero meron din kaming parang lecture forum dun, yung parang binabanggit yung mga isyu sa ating bansa… Hindi naman kasalanan ng samahan namin kung marami sa amin ang hindi pumapasok, nasa desisyon pa rin yun ng bawat isa sa amin….”

In this interview, we have notice, that their organization is requiring them to go to class, but it is in their decision if they’re going to or not. Most of the time, they just hang out to their friends and enjoying themselves around. They told us that issue in our country are much more important that getting a 1.0 grade in class cards.

“ Marami din sa amin ayaw ng pumasok kasi yung mga propesor namin tamad din pumasok eh…. Magbibigay lang ng assignment tapos layas agad… Madalas ang galling galling pang mag-bigay ng test, eh hindi nga siya nagtuturo ehh… puro pareport lang”

Another reason would be the Professor, they told us that most of the time, their professor don’t attend classes and just giving such hard home works. They told us that it’s unfair on their part as the student, because their responsibility must put in priority, and that’s to teach us. But they can’t blame their professors, with a very low salary that they’ve receiving in this university. Most of the Professor has a part-time job in other schools just to satisfy their needs.

“Isapang nag-papahirap sa mga iskolar ng bayan, yung SIS na yan… Sa administrasyon ni Guevarra wala na siyang ginawa kung hindi magpatayo ng mga building na wala namang kakwenta kwenta… Dapat mas unahin muna nya yung mga pasilidad sa mga classroom…. Yung SIS na yan, dagdag pahirap pa sa mga mag-aaral”

They are also complaining about the SIS fee that the University had offered to reduce a long line during enrolment process. This SIS fee are for the students, that they can pay their tuition fee in the bank, and they can assure their grades because they’re not going to be enrolled if there professors have not yet given their grades. This has an advantage and disadvantage: Advantage in the sense that, Students are not going to fall in a very long line, and the process of their enrolment would not take a long time, maybe a day is enough. While disadvantage in the sense that this fee cost a lot of money that the student should also pay. They’re saying that we are our nation’s scholar and the government should pay for all those things. The government has the responsibility in giving our needs especially about our education.


Student Activist: An Organizer for Social Change

Ideas for social change come from individuals — or, more accurately, they come from individuals through discussions with others. Individuals can turn ideas into action, but truly effective action emerges from collective efforts involving large numbers of people at the grassroots level. In other words, social change hinges on the ability of individual activists to organize with others collectively. This requires not only the reaching of common goals and a common understanding of issues but also grasping the importance of forging new human relationships based on mutual respect and solidarity.

Thus, effective activists are essentially political organizers who have devoted time to keenly develop skills in bringing people together through community education and promoting interrelationships based on respect and solidarity.

We’ve discussed the importance of creating a new approach to education for our liberation. Here we focus on the role of activists as organizers who people together to create political strategies for social change and to forge new human relationships based on respect and solidarity.

Strategies for political change are strategies for political organization. Although each political situation is unique and must be appreciated for its uniqueness, all organizing strategies share several things in common. [1] They help people to analyze power relations in society and provide insights into how unequal relations can be changed. [2] They focus on uniting all who can be united around common goals and new human values. [3] They help people to connect specific political issues with broader issues; in other words, they enable people to understand the interconnections and interrelatedness between issues. [4] They emphasize the active involvement of people in the decisions that affect their lives; in other words, they enable people to discover the power within themselves to change their lives and to change society. In short, social change is not made by individual activists who devise strategies for manipulating or acting upon others. Social change occurs when activists through interactions with others enable people collectively to find the power within them to become active agents making their own history.

Organizing strategies develop from intense and ongoing discussions at the grassroots level among people striving to reach a common understanding of critical issues facing them and seeking to create a path for their own liberation. There are no magical shortcuts in this often difficult process, although people can draw from the accumulated wisdom of past generations and contemporaries around the globe involved in similar movements for social change.

It is fairly common in all grassroots political movements to hear some activists complain about apathy in their community. “The people just aren’t interested in fighting for justice. They don’t care. They don’t want to become involved.” Remarks like these should serve as warning signs to activists. They are warning signs that point not to the state of one’s community but about the thinking of the individual activists themselves.

They point to problems in not only particular organizing strategies but, more fundamentally, in the basic understanding particular activists of the overall process of organizing for social change.
Fighting for social change involves both organizing grassroots power to change the institutions of society and mobilizing one’s own courage to change oneself. Activism must be both institution-transforming and self transforming simultaneously. In the final section that follows.

Eradication of Social Problems
World history is littered with tragic stories of social movements for reform and revolution that after gaining some power transformed into institutions of oppression no different from the very forces of evil that they were opposing.

Common explanations focus on “human nature,” such as the corrupting influences of power (i.e., “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”)[5] and the degeneration of new leaders when faced with the realities of power. Similarly, some argue that oppression and exploitation are embedded in all human societies and cannot be eliminated; the best that can be done is to change the position of oppressors and oppressed, victimizers and victims. Still other explanations tend to rationalize corruption in social movements as a necessary stage in eradicating the old order. Behind all of these common answers is the belief that real social change is impossible and that oppressed peoples should simply accept their conditions of exploitation because the alternatives are no better.

However, the political degeneration of activists involved in social movements for reform and revolution is hardly inevitable. Truly committed activists recognize that participation in movements must be accompanied by a genuine dedication to transforming their own lives, their values, and their aspirations. We cannot wait until “after we have gained power” to deal with issues of poverty, corruption, and to much use of political power. We cannot decide to set up a hierarchy of oppression and address only what we consider the most important ones. We must realize that promoting a revolution in values and thinking is as critical for the process of social change as gaining power over the institutions that influence our lives.

In this period of our history, Filipino student activist face a special responsibility: that of not only engaging in our own self-transformation in the course of fighting for social change but also promoting the transformations in values and thinking of other Filipinos. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the last four of life, he called for a radical reconstruction of society and change economically and politically in values. Equally, communism reduces men to a cog in the wheel of the state. . . . The good and just society is neither the thesis of capitalism nor the antithesis of communism, but a socially conscious democracy which reconciles the truths of individualism and collectivism.”[6]

“A true revolution of values, will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies” and to “see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring[7]. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. Thus, this means that being a student activists, participate in rallies and militantly oppose the oppressive old world order, they must not push into the background the importance of transforming the values. That they must recognize the critical significance of spiritual values like compassion, generosity and community as “weapons” to combat militaristic world visions and corporate-driven material[8].

[1] Fletcher, A. (2005) Guide to Social Change Led By and With Young People Olympia, WA: CommonAction
[2] Robert Harris, “What Students Want: Activism without Rhetoric,” Reprinted Dialogue. Vol. 2 No. 2 pp.56-57
[3] Omatsu, Glenn, “Student Activism: Resource Handbook,” CSUN Associated Students “Week of Activism”, April 2002
[4] Glaucio A. O. Soares, “The Active Few: Student Ideology and Participation in developing countries, “Student Politics”, ed. Seymor M. Lipset: (New York Basic Books Inc. 1967), pp.124-27
[5] The Grolier Internatinal Dictionary, (Danburry Connecticut, 1983) pp.695
[6] Arturo Tolentino, “The Republic in Action, (Quezon City: Bookman Publishing Company, 1962) pp.79
[7] Edward Schwartz, “What Students Wants: A view for the liberal Left,” Reprinted from Dialogue Vol. 2 pp.94
[8] Omatsu, Glenn, “Student Activism: Resource Handbook,” CSUN Associated Students “Week of Activism”, April 2002 p. 5