Often student activists are criticized for not proposing concrete solutions to the problems that others have identified. “Sure, you’re against our plan,” administrators and politicians ask, “but what alternative can you offer?”
Sometimes the “problem” is invented, of course, and sometimes students have detailed proposals at the ready, but not always. When the problem is real and students are offering no solution of their own, “what do you suggest we do?” is a legitimate question.
It’s a legitimate question. But “not this” is a legitimate answer.
Consider Mario Savio’s speech to the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley in 1964 — probably the most famous speech ever given by an American student activist:
There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious — makes you so sick at heart — that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.
Faced with a university that was breaking his heart, Savio said “no.” He said “stop.” He didn’t say “here’s an alternative.” He said “not this.”
Sometimes students, organizing against an act or a decision or a proposal or an administration, have an alternative at hand. Sometimes they have a suggestion as to what should happen next, what should take the place of the current plan or the status quo. Sometimes they have many such suggestions.
But sometimes they don’t. Sometimes what they have is “not this.” Sometimes what they have is “no.” Sometimes what they have is “stop.”
And sometimes that “stop” is the most radical, most cogent, most effective, most reasonable intervention there is.
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April 16, 2011 at 2:21 pm
Maxwell Love
Awesome! Thank you! I appreciate this blog, the inclusion of the quote from Savio, and your analysis. I only say, “austerity at what cost”? We will and must through ourselves on the gears.
April 16, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Tiffany
Very encouraging, we lobby all the time and that is always the question we try to prepare for. Most of the time, we just wanna say “not this” and that’s okay.
thank you Mr. Johnston for you support!
April 16, 2011 at 7:12 pm
guc student
you really said my mind am a student at german university in cairo , i was one of 26 suspended students who got suspended till the coming of their parents (we are all above 21 years old) because we protested and debated them and when they said to students we are liars and even called us partners of secret mason we slept at uni where they prevented food , water , blankets and closed all buildings and next day we were suspended just because we addressed the problems , check this out , documented with videos , mostly first post
the-story-behind-a-bataneyya.blogspot.com/
April 17, 2011 at 5:59 pm
Rick
Well… yes… you don’t always have to have an answer… but I think you misrepresent Mario Savio. He was arguing for the removal of various restrictions placed on students by Berkeley… but removing those restrictions doesn’t mean that anything has to be put in their place.
Removing the restrictions would obviously lead to an increase in political activity by students… but Savio would see that as a good thing. In contrast, if you are arguing against an increase in fees, then several things could happen as an alternative, and you probably wouldn’t like many of them. A big slash in student numbers? No? Well which would you prefer? It’s a valid question and “not this” is a non-answer.
April 17, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Angus Johnston
Two things, Rick —
First, Savio’s critique of the UC administration — and the Free Speech Movement itself — went far beyond the question of flyering policy. To suggest that restrictions on political activity on campus was the FSM’s only gripe is itself, I’d offer gently, a misrepresentation.
Second, to take your example of fee policy, the fact is that state funding for the University of California (like many public universities) has been declining on both a raw-numbers and a per student basis for decades. The current ongoing crisis in funding has been exacerbated by the present financial squeeze, but it’s not a reaction to that squeeze.
So yes, there are a variety of alternatives available, from changes in the tax code on down. The decision to abandon California’s vision of public higher education was a decision — a choice. It wasn’t an inevitability, and it’s false to say that starving the system is the only available alternative to fee increases and privatization.
And that is EXACTLY my point. The “what would you prefer?” question isn’t a real question, because it’s not offered in the spirit of searching for solutions. It’s offered as an attempt to limit and circumscribe discussion by narrowing the definition of the possible.
I’m not saying these are easy questions. I’m not saying there are easy solutions. But I am saying that the either-or framing embedded in “what would you prefer” is a trap.
April 17, 2011 at 7:50 pm
Malcolm
Policies are also, by their nature, constructed by a group of people smaller than the group they will be affecting. Perhaps “not this” could mean undergoing a constituent becoming process that collapses this model, as in the UC and British occupations. Not replaced with any policy, but a dynamic set of negotiated practices. I love that you’ve written about not this, but I also think it goes swimmingly with the direct action answer: This! Negation always takes a form or organization of some sort, and that can be a place from which to build.
April 18, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Angus Johnston
That’s a great point, Malcolm. “Not this” doesn’t just have to mean “not this policy,” it can also mean “not this structure, not this set of assumptions, not this bureaucracy, not this approach to politics, not this way of living.”
“Not this” is, as you say, the first step on the road to “THIS!”
April 19, 2011 at 10:41 am
Michael Dunn
Excellent post, Angus! Thanks.
It’s tiresome and frustrating to hear people constantly say, “so what’s your solution?” or “what’s the alternative?”
You are absolutely correct that the problem is often fabricated, in which case no solution is necessary except to stop talking about the bogus problem. Other times, the status quo is preferable to the proposed “solutions” which have more (or everything) to do with profits and power, and not the well being of students or taxpayers or residents. And sometimes there truly is a problem that needs to be resolved, but a reasonable solution has not yet been articulated by anyone and requires more time and thought. But this does not take away our right (and the necessity) to criticize and resist dangerous “solutions” that won’t fix the problem.
April 25, 2011 at 1:05 pm
redflags
Indeed.
May 20, 2013 at 7:17 pm
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