Student protest ends in shouting match

Press, 26 November 1981, Page 6

Student protest ends in shouting match

Planned as a march, actually a picket, and ending in a shouting match: such was a Canterbury University student protest about unemployment yesterday. . About 40 students and two members of the unemployed workers’ collective drove' to the Riccarton Road office of the National candidate for Fendalton, Mr Philip Burdon, and mounted a picket. They carried placards bearing slogans such as “Job search a farce” and “Jobs now.”

A shouting match between the protesters and Mr Burdon started after the president of the Students’ Association, Ms Katrina Amos, had given him a letter.

Mr Burdon invited a delegation of six students into his office, but the students challenged him to answer their questions on the footpath. After a quiet start their discussion degenerated into a shouting match during which Mr Burdon exchanged insults with both students and members of the unemployed workers’ collective. Mr Burdon said he would have taken the protest more seriously if there had been 2000 students involved.

“If ever there was anything that smacked of political gimmickry it would be this performance,” he said. Nobody had told him about the protest, and he tried several times to see Ms Amos to discuss unemployment but she had not been available. “If the Students’ Association was really concerned about it it would have got in touch with me before this. This is just a publicity stunt,” he said. Ms Amos and two other students then went with Mr Burdon into his office to discuss the students’ letter. The letter complained about unemployment, the late start of the Student' Community Assistance Programme, and the Government’s hardship grant system. After seeing Mr Burdon, Ms Amos criticised him for resorting to abusing the protesters.

“In private it was obvious he could not answer our questions about the student employment problem. His performance was just a way of getting round them,” said Ms Amos.

The students had planned to march from the Student Union building to Mr Burdon’s office at 1 p.m., but they had driven because they did not feel like wasting time marching, she said. After picketing the office between 1 p.m. and 1.50 p.m., the students dispersed.

Mr Burdon said he would “action” the letter the students presented, and perhaps refer it to the Minister of Labour (Mr Bolger).