The Cadre + 22 September 1998

BY ALEX BUTOS

GLASGOW, Scotland (CUP) -- Back in Scotland’s largest city, student David Archibald - - fresh from a year-long stint in Canada -- ponders the ques- tion, “how am I different from Canadians?”

Archibald, an under- graduate student at the Uni- versity of Glasgow, spent the last school year as an exchange student at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

ow, back cat —_ prema in a working class lasgow neighborhood, the social activist and left wing campaign organizer compares none Scottish student ife.

“It’s quite common for students in Scotland to define themselves as socialists, what- ever their definition of socialist is,” Archibald says while nurs- ing a drink of scotch. “I didn’t find that in Canada.”

“Proud of my class" One student compares campus life in Canada and Scotland

“I remember in Canada|! would say ‘I’m proud of being working class,” and people would say, ‘Oh, don’t put your- self down,”” Archibald says. “And I would say, ‘I’m not putting myself down, I’m proud of my class.””

Archibald’s observations are informed by years of in- volvement in Scottish militant politics. In fact, the ee old’s background reads like a radical storybook.

At 18, he joined his first trade union. By 20, he became an active member in the Labor ae youth wing and Scot- tish Militant, a radical Marxist

roup. (He was later expelled aa the Labor Party for being involved in Scottish Militant). Then in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Archibald helped organize the anti-poll tax move- ment that swept Thatcher-era Britain.

Archibald recalls his ini- tial surprise at seeing Nike ads declaring “Just Do It!” plas- tered on the walls of student dormitories at Queen's. This almost trivial observation made him think Canadians -- con- trary to what they may say -- are strong individualists.

“It's a Canadian dream that people can [transcend their class] on an individual basis,” the father of a'six-year-old son

argues. “[Because] people in Harri

Canada are much wealthier than in Britain . . . there’s an enormous belief that the indi- vidual can crack their social status and be successful and that there’s nothing to prevent an individual from achievin their goals. People in Scot on the other hand, have a per- ception of their class that you can’t get around.”

ut there are also some parallels between life on both

sides of the Atlantic, Archibald says. “The similarities between Canada and Scotland are that there are a lot of people who are radical who are disenfran- chised,” he says. “They don’t want to vote for a party that is capitalist.”

Even at conservative- minded Queen’s, he points out, students last year took to the streets to the policies of Ontario Premier Mike

s. Unfortunately, they and other people tired of the capi- talist status quo don’t have a real left-wing alternative to turn o.*

All of the parties in Canada are -- if not in word but in deed -- devoted to capi- talism,” says Archibald. “But there’s a lot of anti-capitalist, anti-system strain out there. puaeeenaately , there’s nota

of pro something.”

Feature 7

There’s also a lot of pular disenchantment in land, Archibald says. One sign of this is the Scottish inde- pendence movement, which is su by many youth.

“In Scotland, three- fourths of young se “Te independence,” he says. “[In aJuly 1998 poll], three-fourths of people said would vote for the [sovereignist] Scottish National Party. So that shows the level of dissatisfaction.”

As Archibald finishes the last drops of Scotch in his glass, he adds a final thought on the role of students in the political process.

“I don’t come from a tradition where students are on the vanguard,” he says. “Students can’t change very much because the don’t have an [economic] power. How- ever, they have the power to raise ideas.”

Concidering Law School ??

Well, the UNB FACULTY OF LAW is holding an information session on Monday, September 28, 1998 from 11:30 to 12:20 pm in room 104, of the Robertson Library, on the UPEI Campus. Anyone intrested in the LLB program is welcome to attend!

“If your considering a career in law, the University of Toronto, Uvic, The University Of New Brunswick and McGill are the places to pursue your education. That’s the decision reached by recent law graduates, leagal professionals and academics who participated in the magazine’s exclusive survey of the country’s 16 Common-law

schools.”

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