SocialistResistance

SocialistResistance

The battle against fees and cuts is far from over. In fact it has just begun.

Last term’s demonstrations divided the Lib Dems and shook the Coalition Government. Yet the cuts have hardly started.

The students’ movement itself is only just off the ground.

There are more than 2 million stu-dents in Britain. Another 1.7 million attend FE colleges. Most colleges have just only started to organise.

A second, greater wave of occupa-tions and demonstrations could bring the education system grinding to a halt. This would have the backing of staff and free them to join the struggle. It is their jobs that are under threat.

The vote in parliament was just the start. Universities must decide in the next few months what fees they want to charge.

Then there are the looming cuts in staff and facilities that will be an inevi-table consequence of the funding cuts.

Occupations will be central to these new struggles:

They can stop universities functioning.

They give a way for every student to be a part of the fight, where they are, in their

The fight to save the EMA is also far from over.

It has already seen the largest ever mobilisation of FE and school students. Over 130,000 walked out across the country.

Occupy to winc o l l e g e every day.

Occupations are a base to or-ganise out of.

They create a space for discussion.

They are a place that oth-ers can come to and show solidarity or talk.

They are schools for democra-cy, where we can practice the sort of democracy we are denied in the rest of our lives.

The next wave of occupation must target the vital organs of the univer-sities: offices and main spaces.

As many people as possible must be involved. Solidarity must be sought from outside.

In January the first redundancy no-tices will be landing on some workers’ door mats.

In February millions of council work-ers will be finding out if they have a job

EMA fight still onThe end of EMA is producing anger

in working class communities less af-fected by fees. This struggle can bring together the fight for education and the fight against this government’s Victorian anti-poor policies.

to go to.There will be many, many more peo-

ple looking for solidarity, and wanting to show it.

The government may try to use force against the movement but this will back-fire. They have already tried to kettle the movement off the streets and failed.

Occupations in every college, with the support college workers and work-ers outside can roll back fees.

SocialistResistance

The movement that has swept through colleges and uni-versities came as a surprise to everyone.

Young British people just aren’t like those in Europe we were told.

In one way that has been true: it’s been a long time since there was a real students’ movement in this country.

Student unions have long since turned into providers of entertainment and cheap alcohol. The NUS became just a stepping stone to a job with New Labour.

The result is that the young have been shafted like no-where else in Europe: the highest university fees, a lower minimum wage, a fixed housing market, shut out of the pen-sion system, ASBOed, demonised... list goes on.

But now people are getting angry, and getting active. Students have realised unless they organise to defend them-selves, things will just get worse.

Students have started to build their own movement. The NUS leadership has been left floundering, unable to stop the campaign pushing ahead.

Across the country the movement has been led by ad hoc student assemblies. Links between them are still weak, but the movement is less than 10 weeks old.

The assemblies can become the core of a new inde-pendent, self organised, student movement

It must be led by young people and they must be account-able. Anything else and the movement will fall apart at the first serious problem.

Every movement makes mistakes, but can learn from them. It won’t if it is being directed by others.

That is why we think that only students should be able to vote in student assemblies.

For the movement to succeed it must unite with a work-ers’ movement. But that doesn’t mean just anyone that turns up. At the moment there is the start of a students’ move-ment. But workers still haven’t moved. There is no workers movement yet.

When they do the two movements can come together, and fight together.

Workers in action will reject old ideas and look for new ones just as students are doing now. Only then can there be a true unity, for struggle transforms.

Talk of worker student-solidarity without this happen-ing is just hot air.

A real student movement can help kick start the work-ers movement.

In France and Italy in 1968, and in the 2000s, when work-ers started struggling they copied the student assemblies and formed their own. Then they met together. The students had shown how it was possible to organise the struggle on a national basis from below. They showed that you don’t have to wait for rusty union machines to clank into action. Everyone can do it for themselves.

Students must create their own movement, and lead by example. Action speaks louder than words.

Build a movement of students, for students, led by students

facebook.com/SocRes socialistresistance.org