CANCEL YOUR MEMBERSHIP AT SAMFUNNET, IT’S TIME TO STRIKE!
CANCEL YOUR MEMBERSHIP AT SAMFUNNET, IT’S TIME TO STRIKE!
Journalist: Tobias Waage Bremnes
Illustrator: Signe Aanes
Translator: Rebekka Berg
Web-distributor: Martha Ingeborg Evensen
It is a fact that the good study environment at NMBU is due to student volunteering being such a central piece. Most of us are members of Samfunnet and get involved in everything from working in the bar to being a journalist or photographer. Nevertheless, I now want to call on each and every one of you to cancel your membership in protest.
... No, I don’t actually think that we should cancel our membership at Samfunnet, but I am, on the other hand, angry at our politicians for how they treat volunteering. Despite the fact that last year was the year of volunteering, where society should thank those who work without pay to make the world a better place, there were few new proposals to promote volunteering. On the contrary, tasks continue to be assigned to volunteers. Volunteerism is often painted in a glossy picture, but behind the facade of happy children selling homemade apple pie, a dark reality is hidden. Volunteering is no longer voluntary. What was previously intended as a good-hearted supplement to the public sector has now become a poorly compensated necessity for many processes in our society. More and more often, politicians are delegating tasks to volunteers, without rewarding or funding the work.
An example of this is species registration. It is the municipalities that are responsible for the management of the areas, and it is they who decide what is built and how it is to be built. There are often major conflicts of interest, and usually between growth and protection. There are several examples I can point out, but a burning issue from Ås is the demolition of Vollskogen in order to accommodate more family homes.
One of the prerequisites for being able to conserve in a good way is to have sufficient knowledge of the areas being managed. Nevertheless, there is far too little information about species and how they have developed over time. This is absolutely central information for the public administration, but unfortunately species registration takes place mainly on a voluntary basis.
Østfold Botanical Association is an example of volunteers who use their spare time to survey and collect important information. For over 19 years, they have mapped the flora in Østfold, one municipality at a time. They have now received a grant from Viken county council and an assignment to map the whole of Viken. The work they do is invaluable, and I wish such comprehensive species registrations were paid.
Another example where the public sector is completely dependent on volunteering is food service and entertainment in the healthcare sector. I know that many people happily serve food to the elderly and want no reward for it. Nevertheless, I believe that it is a big problem that food service often goes from something voluntary to a form of compulsion.
In the healthcare sector, you do not work with products, but with people, who are often in a very vulnerable situation. When you know that the elderly will have to go to bed hungry if you don’t show up and serve food, it quickly means that you have to downgrade other important things in your life, in order to volunteer. If you are in a situation where your voluntary effort is what is decisive for the quality of an institution, it is no longer voluntary, but coercion.
I cheer for everyone who works voluntarily so that children, young people, and the elderly can have a better life. But it is time we recognize that our welfare state depends on voluntary efforts. We cannot accept it when volunteering has to fill a vacuum that the public sector cannot manage.
It is time for volunteers to speak up and for politicians to listen. It is time that those who take on social responsibility without payment are recognized and rewarded. It is time for politicians to stop ignoring this problem and start taking action. We cannot allow the Norwegian model with volunteers as a supplement to become an excuse for disclaiming responsibility. Volunteering must If we do not take action now, we risk ending up like the American welfare state, where the efforts of volunteers in cultural life, schools and care for the elderly take over the responsibility of the public sector. Where volunteering is not a choice, but a necessity and a responsibility.
We are not going to opt out of society or stop volunteering, but there has to be an end to volunteering being tasked with responsibility that the welfare state should really be doing. The spirit of hard work and volunteers who stand up for their sports team are important, but one cannot expect our welfare state to be run on voluntary efforts. Then you’ve crossed a line.
