|
Students � Come to NSSN Conference!
The student Day-X
demo in London on 9 December marked a watershed. The atmosphere
electric; young people high with excitement. Rough and ready placards
pulled no punches; the chants exhilarating. I saw a group of school
kids joining the demo chanting playfully �Revolution�. While students
dared to hope their efforts would bring victory, most knew the vote
would go against them.
As Coalition MPs
on their very handsome salaries sat securely in the hallowed Palace of
Westminster cobbling together a vote to trap young people in a future
of eternal debt or low wages, the students outside were raging in
their anger. No wonder it spilled over when the vote was announced.
As one youth said �We come up from the slums. Where they think we
gonna get �9000 from?� As Treasury windows were smashed some were
heard chanting, �Give us back our money�. In the attack on the royal
car a mischievous character was heard shouting �off with their heads�.
The day had all the elements of a real turning point in society.
But once the dust
has settled rocketing fees remain, EMA is still wiped out and teaching
budgets will be decimated. The fight goes on. These devastating cuts
will have effects far wider than young people. Fees and cuts are a
problem for everyone. Teachers and lecturers, often on casual
contracts, will be unceremoniously �let go�, college cleaners and
canteen staff will be thrown out. Simultaneously thousands of workers
in local authorities are facing the axe.
Young people are
quite rightly baulking at taking on the equivalent of small mortgages.
At the onset of the global financial crisis greedy bankers were
castigated mercilessly for selling debt to house-buyers on 100%
mortgages with not a care about what would happen if things went
belly-up. Now the Coalition millionaires themselves have passed a law
doing just that - selling �education sub-prime� debt to kids. But, to
their credit, the kids have absorbed the lessons very well and,
heroically, refuse to comply.
As the first
phase of the campaign draws to a close many students will be mulling
over what to do next. An important place to debate this issue will be
at the National Shop Stewards Network Anti-Cuts Conference on January
22nd in central London. The student issue will be to the
fore. Hundreds of rank and file trades unionists with local anti-cuts
campaigns across the country will be there. Activists and leaders from
trade unions that have shown a fighting lead like PCS, FBU and RMT
will participate. We welcome students, at the moment in the firing
line, to come and have their say.
After four
demonstrations and all that goes with a vibrant, but essentially
leaderless movement, some may argue for stronger tactics against the
police who have shown by their brutal and vindictive actions which
side this state force is on. Socialists and trades unionists on the
other hand, will be arguing that joining up with organised workers to
create a mass force is by far the most productive route to go.
Workers, especially those in local authorities now getting redundancy
notices in their thousands, have been inspired by the students
struggle and welcome joint actions.
Those living with
uncertainty about jobs and homes have watched the students come from
nowhere to present the government with its biggest challenge so far -
and dare to wonder if they can do the same.
If an appeal was
made to all unions in education for a total one day education
shutdown, that could ratchet up the opposition; if students set the
next demo on a Saturday, and made a call to all unions, and all
parents who themselves want to vent their anger, that too could result
in a mammoth show of strength, and prepare the ground for serious
coordinated strike action. Such action could rock this government. The
ConDem Coalition could break. This NSSN Conference can play a part in
making these things happen. We urge students to join with us. |
