Direct action (trade union)
Encyclopedia
Direct Action is a network of the independent student trade union
s in Ukraine
. This trade union was founded in 2008 by the students of the National Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev
. Legalized on April 15, 2009, the trade union has its branches in a number of Kiev
universities and also in several regional centers of Ukraine
.
In 2008, when the students decided to create the new independent trade union
, it was decided to take “Direct Action” name as a sign of maintenance of the youth resistance traditions. Thus, “Direct Action” of 1990's was conventionally named “the first generation”. Some activists of the “first generation” are still contributing to the work of the trade union now.
, the trade union
is aimed at the creation of student organization from below, which is based on the horizontal principles of coordination
. This organization should gradually replace the bureaucratic
apparatus and form the relations in the educational sphere on the basis of equal rights, direct democracy
and cooperation
.
The trade union is fighting against the commercialization
of the education, aiming at the absolutely free education
. At the same time, it asserts the social rights of students, which include improvement of the conditions in the dormitories, the rise of monthly allowances, the elimination of requisitions, student exploitation etc.
“Direct Action” advocates the principles of free (libertarian) pedagogy
in the educational process. The trade union strives for the equal rights of the student and the lecturer, for the democratic forming of the educational programs, the facultative attendance and subjects’ choice. It also supports the full secularization
of science and education.
One of the main tasks of the trade union
is the creation of the strong student
movement, the unite with of the Ukrainian and foreign liberative and emancipative movements.
principles of the direct self-governance
. It is a non-leader structure. The leader posts exist only formally – all decisions are taken on a general meeting through the procedure of reaching the consensus.
The trade union is called independent because it declares its full independence from political parties or commercial structures, and is not financed by the administration of the universities.
The statute of the trade union states that the membership in the “Direct Action” is prohibited to the people who have racist
, nazi
or sexist
views or support any chauvinist
doctrine.
“Direct Action” cooperates with a number of youth and left organizations, some of the contr-culture formations, and also with the independent trade unions “Work Protection” and “Ukrainian Confederation of the Anarcho-Syndicalists Work”.
“Direct Action” publishes the newspaper
of the same name. The publication covers the trade union’s activity, the international experience, the history of the student movement, the theory of the liberation movement, the contr-culture resistance. The newspaper is distributed for free in a number of capital and regional universities.
Trade union claims their activists and supporter are subject to pressure, threat of being expelled from university and interests of intelligence services members after "series of successful actions (together with other youth organizations) against the establishment of fees for previously free services in the universities, against cutting funds for scholars and against the plans to suspend scholarships for students who received even a single grade of “3”- (C)."
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. This trade union was founded in 2008 by the students of the National Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev
Kiev University
Taras Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv , colloquially known in Ukrainian as KNU is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. It is the third oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and Kharkiv University. Currently, its structure...
. Legalized on April 15, 2009, the trade union has its branches in a number of Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
universities and also in several regional centers of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
.
History
The student trade union under the name of “Direct Action” has already existed in Kiev in the middle of 1990-s. During the time of its existence, the trade union succeeded in a number of actions, aimed at the students’ rights protection. These were the first attempts to raise the students’ movement in Ukraine. The trade union have been existing until 1998.In 2008, when the students decided to create the new independent trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
, it was decided to take “Direct Action” name as a sign of maintenance of the youth resistance traditions. Thus, “Direct Action” of 1990's was conventionally named “the first generation”. Some activists of the “first generation” are still contributing to the work of the trade union now.
Organization’s goals
According to the “Direct Action” manifestoManifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
, the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
is aimed at the creation of student organization from below, which is based on the horizontal principles of coordination
Coordination
Coordination is the act of coordinating, making different people or things work together for a goal or effect to fulfill desired goals in an organization.Coordination is a managerial function in which different activities of the business are properly adjusted and interlinked.Coordination may also...
. This organization should gradually replace the bureaucratic
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
apparatus and form the relations in the educational sphere on the basis of equal rights, direct democracy
Direct democracy
Direct democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
and cooperation
Cooperation
Cooperation or co-operation is the process of working or acting together. In its simplest form it involves things working in harmony, side by side, while in its more complicated forms, it can involve something as complex as the inner workings of a human being or even the social patterns of a...
.
The trade union is fighting against the commercialization
Commercialization
Commercialization is the process or cycle of introducing a new product or production method into the market. The actual launch of a new product is the final stage of new product development, and the one where the most money will have to be spent for advertising, sales promotion, and other marketing...
of the education, aiming at the absolutely free education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
. At the same time, it asserts the social rights of students, which include improvement of the conditions in the dormitories, the rise of monthly allowances, the elimination of requisitions, student exploitation etc.
“Direct Action” advocates the principles of free (libertarian) pedagogy
Free school
An anarchistic free school is a decentralized network in which skills, information, and knowledge are shared without hierarchy or the institutional environment of formal schooling. Free school students may be adults, children, or both...
in the educational process. The trade union strives for the equal rights of the student and the lecturer, for the democratic forming of the educational programs, the facultative attendance and subjects’ choice. It also supports the full secularization
Secularization
Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...
of science and education.
One of the main tasks of the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
is the creation of the strong student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
movement, the unite with of the Ukrainian and foreign liberative and emancipative movements.
Premises of the trade union’s activity
“Direct Action” is based on the syndicalistSyndicalism
Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...
principles of the direct self-governance
Self-governance
Self-governance is an abstract concept that refers to several scales of organization.It may refer to personal conduct or family units but more commonly refers to larger scale activities, i.e., professions, industry bodies, religions and political units , up to and including autonomous regions and...
. It is a non-leader structure. The leader posts exist only formally – all decisions are taken on a general meeting through the procedure of reaching the consensus.
The trade union is called independent because it declares its full independence from political parties or commercial structures, and is not financed by the administration of the universities.
The statute of the trade union states that the membership in the “Direct Action” is prohibited to the people who have racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
or sexist
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
views or support any chauvinist
Chauvinism
Chauvinism, in its original and primary meaning, is an exaggerated, bellicose patriotism and a belief in national superiority and glory. It is an eponym of a possibly fictional French soldier Nicolas Chauvin who was credited with many superhuman feats in the Napoleonic wars.By extension it has come...
doctrine.
“Direct Action” cooperates with a number of youth and left organizations, some of the contr-culture formations, and also with the independent trade unions “Work Protection” and “Ukrainian Confederation of the Anarcho-Syndicalists Work”.
Activity
From the moment of its foundation the trade union became a member and the initiator of several campaigns devoted to the protection of students’ and workers’ rights.- July 2008. The first action of “Direct Action”. Supporting the Rivne students, who opposed the educational payments rise, the trade union together with other organizations organizes the picket of the Ministry of Education. As a result, the Rivne academies administration enters into negotiation with the students about the new prices.
- September 2008. The trade union together with a number of other organizations conducts a number of actions against the anti-student resolutions of the new version of the law “About the Higher Education”. In particular, the “Direct Action” opposes the implementation of the compulsory labour-rent for the graduates. The activists negotiate with the officials of the Ministry of Education and piquet the Parliament profile committee. As a result, the members of the committee flay the bill and the Ministry of Education withdraws the disputable clauses from the document
- September–October 2008. Among the other organizations the “Direct Action” becomes the initiator of the campaign against the new labour code, which substantially constricts the rights of the wage labourers. The campaign starts with the opening of the big banner “NO to the new labour code” during the “Arsenal” – “Shachtar” football match. Together with other organizations the trade union takes part in press-conferences, the piquet of the Parliament profile committee, the informational campaign. The finale of the campaign was a big concert on the Khreshchatyk street “Rock Against the Official Slavery”. As an outcome, the deputies postponed the bill consideration.
- November 8, 2008. The activists of the trade union take part in a “Social March”.
- February 2009. The members of the “Direct Action” accomplish the raids to the capital hospitals where they agitate the doctors for the creation of the independent trade union branches and fighting against the implementation of the paid medicine.
- April 12, 2009. The trade union takes part in a social March under the slogan “It’s Time to Take One’s Own”. About 250 activists go on a march. During the action the “Direct Action” calls upon the students to strive for a free education, the rise of the monthly allowances and for the direct self-government in the universities.
- May 1, 2009. The alternative May demonstration. “Direct Action” together with a number of other organizations and the independent trade unions lead out to the Kiev streets more than 400 activists with social slogans.
- May–June 2009. The campaign against the implementation of paid facilities for students. The trade union activists try to persuade the officials to negotiate. When it doesn’t work, the “Direct Action” conducts meetings with the students of Kiev universities, agitates them to go on the streets with the protest actions.
- June 4, 2009. The protest action near the walls of Cabinet of Ministers. “Direct Action” together with other organizations manages to lead out on a piquet more than 150 students. During the action the “fire” and several student record books were burned down. As a result, the students achieve the calling off of the resolution about the implementation of the paid facilities on the extraordinary session of the Cabinet of Ministers.
- October 2009. DA takes an active part in a series of strike actions carried out by students and lecturers of Kiev national Boychuk institute. Protests outside the MON (Education and science ministry ESM). The strike concluded with notorious blockade of the institute in late October.
- 17 November 2009. The «Student's Day. Break the Wall» campaign — a protest against the repressive system of education; an action of solidarity with German and Austrian students who are on strike.
Projects
The standing self-educational project exists on the basis of the trade union.The seminars and trainings on the natural sciences and humanities are carried out, as well as on the attainment of some practical skills. Self-educational project functions on the basis of the libertarian pedagogy – without the teachers’ authoritarianism and compulsory methods.“Direct Action” publishes the newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
of the same name. The publication covers the trade union’s activity, the international experience, the history of the student movement, the theory of the liberation movement, the contr-culture resistance. The newspaper is distributed for free in a number of capital and regional universities.
Kiev University tensions with Student Trade Union Priama Dija
Priama Dija (Direct Action) is a network of the independent student trade unions in Ukraine aimed at the creation of student organization from below. Union itself claims to be "fighting against the commercialization of the education, aiming at the absolutely free education" which, according their claims in widely distributed paper, interfere with interests of university and faculty board.Trade union claims their activists and supporter are subject to pressure, threat of being expelled from university and interests of intelligence services members after "series of successful actions (together with other youth organizations) against the establishment of fees for previously free services in the universities, against cutting funds for scholars and against the plans to suspend scholarships for students who received even a single grade of “3”- (C)."