Students in Britain are renewing their struggle for public education joining the world struggle. From Chile to Britain and from the USA to Greece, a fight for free and quality education not under the control of capital is underway. Internationally governments are carrying out the same IMF policy of privatizations, closures and cuts while putting teaching and research under the control of business.
In the UK the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts have called for a national demonstration for N9 and for support of the national unions strike day of N30. They have won the support of the National Union of Students which has 7 million members. Union leaders are also calling for support for N9.
The movement is developing and has advanced from last year, student fighters have strengthened their position inside the NUS and are reinvigorating the national NCAFC. At national and at local levels many more anti-cut activists have emerged as leaders.
The NCAFC needs to extend the call for student committees in all universities, colleges to include schools to organize for N9 and N30. New organizations that emerge in Britain have to build a powerful alliance between workers, students and youth, because the workers are the social class that produce the wealth and the working class is the force with the ability to lead a movement to defeat the government. The powerful basis of this alliance is that all are facing the attacks and must fight against them.
Furthermore we urge all student activists to democratise the student movement in their institutions.
Students can help establish deeper links with working class communities by especially the youth and Black communities by going directly to help defend these communities against police harassment and violence and fight for jobs. The anger that erupted in August amongst the oppressed communities can be won to an alliance of struggle that also puts their interests at the forefront.
Students Attacked
Students will face state repression as recently happened in Birmingham. Three NCAFC supporters were arrested following a banner-drop at the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham.
The student activists dropped a banner saying “Traitors not welcome – Hate Clegg, Love NCAFC”, referring to the Lib Dems’ broken promise to vote against fee increases.
In a move intended to intimidate student anti-cuts protesters, the three were charged with a minor road traffic offense (causing danger to road traffic users – although the prosecution admitted that no damage or injury resulted from the action). Two were bailed on condition that they did not enter central Birmingham until their trial; and a third was remanded in custody until September 26, when a second hearing will decide whether or not he will be bailed until his trial in late October. He has now been suspended as an officer of the students union and from his studies.
This is a continuation of the repression and criminalisation of protest. Unions must take responsibility and defend these students and demand the dropping of all charges. Furthermore the extreme sentences meted out following the youth risings in August must also be attacked and the youth defended. To build a programme to fight the cuts that involves the widest participation, must include students and youth who will play an important and significant role in mobilising the working class.
The government has robbed us of the education maintenance grants (EMA), they have trebled fees and cut courses. Universities, colleges and schools are turning to the private sector and local accountability will disappear allowing big business to squeeze profit out of education. Teaching and research will be controlled by and for the interests of business and there will be closures, merges and asset stripping just as happened with the nationalized manufacturing industries in the 1980s.
Internationalism – No fees no cuts
Capitalism and its governments managed to avert a crash in the 1990s by opening the world to the trillion dollar casino of the world’s markets and a world programme of privatization and misery for the masses. However all this created the crash in 2008 crash and is pushing Europe to the brink again. This means capitalism must intensify its attacks on the public and private sectors to survive.
Against this we must proudly and confidently raise the banner of the working class internationalism. Our struggles can be international through an exchange of participation in each other’s struggles in different countries and the development of common struggles. A new political leadership is needed to help guide this struggle based on Marxism and internationalism.
The party and the international can help develop a leadership in all the struggles, it can help infuse actions with an internationalist understanding and combine the lessons of students and workers struggles across the world.
We are fighting a common enemy who combine forces to make the working class submit to their attacks. The IMF, the world’s and European banks and the European Union are demanding that we pay for their crisis. Our movement must build a stronger force than they have and we can. There are millions and billions of workers on this planet who suffer from this rotting system, we must unite and use our strength.
We call on students to reject the policies of division, build a principled movement that will fight for all sectors of the class. But above all fight to overcome the divisions imposed by capitalism in the struggle for socialism.
