Thought Leader Thursday – Student Movement #NietMijnSchuld 'You build a movement by first investing energy in your supporters'.

In the interview series 'Thought Leader Thursday' we speak to an expert in the field of a specific issue every Thursday. This time we talk to Martine Heijthuyzen from student movement #NietMijnSchuld.

'A failed experiment'. This is how Martine classifies the introduction of the social loan system for students. She points to the emergence of an 'unlucky generation': tens of thousands of students who face an uncertain future with sky-high debt and a poor position in the labor and housing markets. #NietMijnSchuld is campaigning for the abolition of the loan system and even wants all students to be able to graduate debt-free. Even though there is no coalition agreement yet in which this has been achieved, the political awareness that something needs to change is a fact thanks to the campaign. What lessons can we learn from a few years grassroot take action?

In search of billions to put public finances in order, Rutte I's austerity cabinet suggested in 2010 An drastic change of course for students. In instead of It pay out by a basic grant On students, had to she just the money to go to borrow. 'An investment in your own future, with social conditions for reimbursement', that's how it turned out idea explained. With the support of left-wing parties PvdA and GroenLinks and education party D66, the basic grant was replaced by the loan system in 2015. 

#NietMijnSchuld was founded a few years ago from the youth union FNV Young&United and student union LSvB. How did this collaboration come about? 

'The insight that the loan system could no longer function this way had been living under the young people. FNV Young has the subject the FNV  put on the map. Thereafter is a collaboration with LSvB sought. What's great about this organization is that they have member associations with supporters throughout the country. This is where we started the petition, asking for three different ones to demand to ask. This are the return of the basic grant, compensation for the current generation and finally the position that it should not come from the education budget. The principle of the campaign is that in the Netherlands you should be able to complete a course without debt if you also work 12 hours a week. But when you see how expensive everything has become, it becomes clear that this is almost impossible anymore without a new basic grant. In addition, we have aBased on the petition, we could recruit people who wanted to participate our action committee's that are active in every student city. She blow  liven up the campaign by taking actions and involving students and teachers. In addition to these local elements, a national action council has also been established.'  

How do you look back on the campaign so far? 

'The most exciting part is yet to come: the formation procedure! With the VVD as winner, the elections were not very beneficial for the abolition of the loan system. The end of the campaign focuses on the coalition agreement. Whether our campaign has been successful depends on what the agreement ultimately contains. What is in any case a success is that there is a very good chance that the loan system will be abolished. When we started the campaign two years ago, the  abolition of the loan system very unrealistic. So in that sense we have achieved enormous success. However, the question still remains whether students will be able to graduate debt-free after this coalition agreement.'  

Even though you have achieved a very good result with the petition (more than 50,000 signatories) and your goals are important for all students, not all students have signed it. How would you explain that? 

'Before corona, when we just started, we noticed that the sound of the VVD had been very much adopted: studying and therefore borrowing is an investment in yourself. It seemed that awareness of the impact of debt had not yet sunk in everywhere. A small drawback for us was also that several parties had started their own campaigns against the loan system. This causes people to confuse campaigns and think that they automatically sign our petition.'  

Others had previously succeeded in linking a liberal frame to the loan system (it is mainly an 'investment in yourself'). In your campaigns we can also distinguish a number of frames, such as 'the bad luck generation' and the 'failed experiment'. Was it a conscious action to contrast this with the existing frames? 

'This has certainly been thought about. I have also noticed that it is not just about student financing, but... it works for me too about a broader distribution of prosperity. When students think about how the compensation and financing should be paid, you are actually also discussing who should pay for what in the Netherlands. With many students, an ideological revolution has also been made about how the pie is divided in the Netherlands. Especially at the start of the campaign, we heard a lot of dogmas from students such as: I will earn it back later. However, practice shows that it is not easy financially for starters. The facts are on our side in that regard.'  

Have these frames also been adopted by political parties? 

'Yes, mainly the debt-free graduation. We deliberately set course beyond simply abolishing the loan system, because then it was not yet certain whether students would improve. We have it in early November together with political youth organizations signs a manifesto to make debt-free graduation possible. With the exception of the JOVD, all political youth organizations have signed this principle. This has continued to the political parties themselves. Following a consultation completed by more than 5,000 students, it turned out that students do not mind contributing themselves as long as they possibility to graduate without debt. This led us to come up with the idea of a debt-free basic grant. It's not the case that thethey are debt free fair everything shall deckknow, because the amount is calculated on a personal contribution from students through income from a job of 12 hours a week in addition to studies. It principle of debt-free graduation  could also be adopted so well by the political parties, because we gave them the freedom to interpret the concept themselves. We have ideas about this ourselves, such as a basic grant, but parties could also implement the plan in their own way  insert.'  

How did you manage to become visible among all social organizations during elections in corona times? 

'I have mainly noticed that my conversations with students have really changed during corona. Sstudents have become much more aware of their own vulnerability, because they were always left out. For example, they lost their job or were not entitled to compensation. Concerns only increased due to the resulting crisis and how it was handled. In terms of campaigning, what is most important is that we have continued to campaign consistently. These actions were also devised by the students themselves. By constantly putting pressure on the theme, in all kinds of different locations, we have gotten where we are now.' 

Even though the theme was not really a campaign topic for politicians during election times, your actions did receive a lot of attention. It is quite remarkable that you have achieved this.  

'I think we have been able to achieve this mainly through cooperation between the cities, in this way you strengthen each other and the media picks up on this. But of course students themselves also spent a lot of time mobilizing action groups and the like. During the demonstration in Amsterdam The weather was really bad, but people still came two hundred students show up. This is it all nice to see. We have noticed that organizing events during corona is another branch of sport.' 

What are your next steps towards the formation? 

'Next week, op April 17, it says An great online meeting with students planned. The students will learn how we want to ensure that the current coalition agreement is debt-free! Hundreds of students have already registered for this meeting, you can register via https://www.nietmijnschuld.nl/operatie-formatie#/. Until one coalition agreement is which includes our goals We are still going to work hard, because it really has to be doneyou be arranged. The next elections are in four years' time, today's students to make then none more chance on compensation.'  

What would your tip be to others who want to build a movement around an issue? 

'What has taught me a lot is that it is especially beneficial to put your energy into people who... yet to doubt. In the past, I would have put all my energy into convincing people who are diametrically opposed to me. But if you constantly talk to opponents, you have no energy left for the people who do it already with you agree whether it is towards youw points of view to tend. With this campaign I learned to focus on those people, instead of the people who don't want to be convinced. By emphasizing the right one people, can your movement grow, can you apply pressure and will you see that eventually even previous 'opponents' agree with your position. It's important to build a movement, rather than just persuade individuals. So put your energy where it really makes sense. Collective organization is extremely important, as a counterpart to the individualism that currently prevails in society. Collective pressure putting is a remedy that has worked for centuries. It is certainly fun to involve students in this.'