Andrew Bolt, Karl Marx and the casualisation of Australian universities
Despite the fantasies of Andrew Bolt and the hard right
of Australian politics, even though universities employ the odd Marxist,
there is nothing Marxist about universities, writes Dr Benjamin T. Jones. THE IDEA THAT public universities serve as a meeting place for
Marxists and the intelligentsia of the extreme left is still popular in
the public imagination.
Earlier this year, hard right culture warrior Andrew Bolt, expressed his outrage that, according to him:
'... our universities are the last refuge of the Marxist.'How did Bolt support his claim that
'... we’re paying for the teaching of Marxist politics'?He noted with alarm that 12 academics were scheduled speakers at the 2014 Marxism conference hosted by Melbourne University.
To put this in perspective, the National Tertiary Education Union estimates that 180,000 people are employed by Australian universities. Just 12 of them speaking at a conference hardly seems to justify Bolt’s suggestion that 'scores' of academics are intent on using public money to indoctrinate students with Marxism.
What Bolt’s article does demonstrate – other than he does not seem to
understand the difference between Marxism and communism – is that the
popular misconception of Marxist universities is still alive and well.
If universities really are the last refuge of Marxism, then why are
they being run increasingly like private companies and why is the
university sector not bucking the trend of casualisation in its
workforce? It seems extraordinary, but if you randomly walked into a
lecture or tutorial at an Australian public university, the chances are about 50/50 that you will find a casual academic leading the class.
While the percentage of casual or sessional staff is lower in
Australia than in the United States, universities in both countries are
offering fewer permanent positions and are increasingly reliant on staff
paid by the hour.
NTEU USYD: Casualisation and Academic Workforce
'... the number of sessional teaching staff in Australian universities [has] more than doubled between 1990 and 2005.'While the casualisation of the sector may be good for some
universities’ bottom lines, the demoralising impact on staff is keenly
felt.
According to Griffith University’s Work and Careers in Australian Universities Survey,
60 per cent of casual academics earn less that $499 a week and that is
only during active teaching weeks. The semester breaks leave casual
academics financially vulnerable, often needing to supplement their
income outside the university sector or rely on family, partners,
pensions or Centrelink. This financially precarious form of employment
often leaves casual academics unable to secure loans or plan for the
future with confidence.
In many cases, casual academics do not have access to the same
funding and research opportunities as permanent staff. There is often
limited or no professional development offered. Even basic office
equipment, like a computer and telephone, is often denied as large
numbers of casual academics are expected to share a small number of
communal work stations. While casual academics are paid only for the
time they are physically in a classroom teaching, they are effectively
coerced into unpaid labour as it is expected they spend adequate time
preparing lessons and responding to student enquiries.
The negative impacts of casualisation are bad for staff and students also. The independent Lives on Hold report suggested that the divide between blue and white collar workers has been replaced by secure and insecure employment.
According to NTEU National President, Jeannie Rea, casual academics:
'... cannot plan for a future because they don’t have secureIn a recent article in Connect,
work, [they] feel exploited and treated like disposable commodities.'
casual academic of seven years, Rebecca Goodway described the
“destructive by-product” of long term casualisation as feeling
“undervalued”, “dispensable” and “worthless”.
Casualisation, Workloads and Research. Where does quality fit?
In Capital, Marx critiques the control and exploitation of
labour power in a capitalist political economy. He notes that, “All the
capitalist cares for, is to reduce the labourer’s individual consumption
as far as possible to what is strictly necessary”. By placing value
only on the direct production of capital, rather than the worker
themself, the capitalist system ultimately leads to a process of
dehumanisation.
According to Marx, capitalism:
'... regards the proletarian, i.e. he who lives without capitalIt is hard to imagine Marx being anything but scathing of the
and ground rent from labour alone ... as nothing more than a worker ...
like a horse, he must receive enough to enable him to work. It does not
consider him, during the time when he is not working, as a human being.'
casualisation trend in Australian universities. Without job security
from semester to semester, without holiday or sick pay and without a
realistic expectation of eventual promotion or career development,
casual academics are effectively trapped in a cycle of wage slavery.
After eight or more years of full time study, their only options are to
leave academia and start again in a new field or to continue to accept
low, uncertain pay in the hope of eventually landing a coveted permanent
position.
As Marx would have it:
'Slavery has therefore been perpetuated on the earth, but under a sweeter name.'Australian universities have historically been seen as a great public
asset, but this view is rapidly changing. The new orthodoxy understands
universities to be part of a for-profit education industry. Even
Universities Australia sees the sector in these terms.
The recent Agenda for Higher Education report described education as Australia’s
'... fourth largest export industry behind iron ore, coal and gold, and ahead of tourism, natural gas and crude oil.'If education is reduced to a commodity like any other, the
demoralising influence of casualisation and the negative impact on
students becomes a necessary trade off to ensure operating costs are
reduced as far as possible.
Sydney Uni Staff and Students Strike, March 2013
they will increasingly resemble any other competitive industry. Despite
their connections to the state, they are run along capitalist lines and
are part of a larger capitalist system.
Marx did not pursue an academic career in his own day and it is hard
to imagine him finding any appeal in Australian universities if he were
alive now. Far from finding a ready home for his ideas, he would likely
advocate collective action and revolution.
Universities may still house the odd Marxist but there is nothing Marxist about universities.
You can follow Dr Jones on Twitter @BenjaminTJones1.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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