Solidarity isn’t science fiction, it’s the core foundation of the Academy

Dr Sam Whiting, University of South Australia

In Ursula K. Le Guin’s ground-breaking novel The Dispossessed, anarchists have set-up an 'ambiguous utopia' on their moon, Anarres. However, this utopia is no land of milk and honey. It is a place of hard labour, famine, and political tension.

Not so utopic you might say? Well, that depends on your perspective. This is a place where mutual aid is the only capital, and solidarity the only currency. Where there is no property, no hierarchy, and no bigotry, people are defined solely by how they contribute to the collective good of their society.

Of course, all work is voluntary, and there is neither scarcity nor excess. Yet despite the arduousness of life on Anarres, the people of this planet are satisfied and content. They are both free to pursue their own passions and fields of enquiry and comforted in the knowledge that their collective labour is never wasted.

In this way, Le Guin’s anarchist utopia is similar to another work of science fiction, Gene Roddenberry’s United Federation of Planets. Throughout Roddenberry’s Star Trek, scarcity has been eliminated, and the coalition of species and worlds that command the Federation are free to peacefully explore and research the galaxy.

Both societies champion the pursuit and sharing of knowledge as ends in themselves, and both do so through acts of solidarity and mutual respect between both individuals and groups. Remind you of anything?

I like science fiction because it teaches us how the world could be different. I like it because it is grounded in philosophies, ideologies, and technologies that already exist in some form or another, but whose time may not yet have come to pass.

I like it also because it forces me to rethink the role of academic labour, of teaching and research, and how they both have merit on their own terms without any perceived or external reward.

And finally, I really really like it because across the best examples of utopic science fiction, research, exploration, and the sharing of knowledge are held up as the most noble pursuits of human endeavour, yet these pursuits are always grounded in ideas of morality, equity, and solidarity.

The modern academic workplace is far from Le Guin and Roddenberry’s utopic visions. Exploitation of labour is rife, hierarchies abound, and the pursuit of research funding is valued far and above the actual research itself. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. By engaging in the way our workplaces are managed and valued, staff and students can shape the future of higher education for the better. Not only can we imagine a different future for the sector and our roles in it – one in which public good is valued over private gain – but we can get there through advocacy, collective organisation, and continued engagement with the issues and decisions that affect the way universities are governed.

We can reshape our workplaces to serve the same ideals as Starfleet and the people of Anarres. There are many ways to do this, but the most equitable, democratic, tried, and true is through trade unionism.

NTEU offers a way to organise as a collective workforce, to not only better our workplaces but to participate in the discussions that shape the sector and the role that universities have in Australia and the world.

Such advocacy not only benefits our members and the tertiary workforce at large, but also our students, their families, and the broader education and research community: a community that continues to shape the national policy debate on climate change, industrial relations, diversity, democracy, governance, and diplomacy. These are big issues with big impacts. However, to do this we need to get organised. Big time.

We need every member and delegate organising and advocating in their workplaces. We need to have frank and honest conversations. We need to listen and be listened to. If we do this, we can boldly go where no one has gone before. But we must go there together.

Sam Whiting is a Lecturer in Creative Industries; Vice-President (Academic), NTEU UniSA Branch; and Secretary, International Association for the Study of Popular Music (ANZ Branch)

...across the best examples of utopic science fiction, research, exploration, and the sharing of knowledge are held up as the most noble pursuits of human endeavour...

Image from cover of Ursula K. Le Guin's novel The Dispossessed