The government has scrapped through the vote to introduce top-up fees in 2006. The anger many people feel has not gone away. The campaign needs to continue across the country. Please get in touch with ISR to order a campaign pack.

 ISR helped to organise protest and action across the country on 27th Jan,  including, Swansea, Cardiff, Taff Vale, Bristol, Southampton, London, Sheffield, Leicester and more. Below is a report from London, more to follow.

Report from Day of Action Against Fees in London Tuesday 27th January

 

Well at least it didn’t snow. 

 

We got down to Parliament Square for about 9.30am which was in time for us to see most of the NUS (national union of students) leadership being interviewed and photographed in the Square before they disappeared inside Westminster. They were not seen again for the rest of the day.

 

At its biggest point the demo reached a few hundred college and uni students and was very lively.  Seeing as London is such a crime-free city the police had nothing better to do apart from shove protestors around all day.  This is continuing the pattern of intimidation of young people who are trying to get their voices heard about issues they feel strongly about. On Day X, also in Parliament Square, school student protestors were greeted with police brutality when they came to protest against the start of the war in Iraq.

 

Despite the relatively low turnout most people I spoke to felt that it was what happened after the vote that counted in terms of building campaigns to fight for the end of all tuition fees and the introduction of a living grant.  People felt it was important to come down and let the MPs know how we felt and anger against New Labour was huge, as was anger against the NUS leadership.  Students from Canterbury and Manchester I was speaking to said they knew loads of people who would have come down if there had been NUS transport and everyone felt that the union funds would have been well spent on an ad campaign to let everyone know about the fight against fees.

 

It is clear that we cannot rely on MPs to defend our rights.  Most of the so-called rebels only opposed the “variable” aspect but would support an increase in fees to £2 500!  It is going to be down to school, college and university students building a campaign amongst other students, teaching and trade union members, parents, grandparents and everybody who opposes the plans to make a education a privilege. 

 

Education is a right and like all of our rights we have to fight to defend them against a government that would rather listen to the rich bosses than to us.  Brown spent last weekend with Microsoft, GlaxoSmithKline, Tesco and Vodafone bosses trying to find out how he could make things easier for these multi-multi-millionaire fat cats.

 

College students who came said that they represented many more students who wanted to fight against the top-up fees but needed convincing that we could make a difference.  Those I spoke to were convinced that a campaign is what’s needed and most of them signed up to ISR.  Many had participated in, organised and led anti-war strikes last year and could see the need to be organised, to link up with the trade unions and to plan and discuss the campaign as well as getting out and protesting.  Most saw the need to let others know about what is planned as vital to building a campaign.  The NUS is planning a week of action in February but it is clear that if anything is going to happen it will be us who has to get on with it.  ISR will be building for lobbies of those MPs who voted for the fees, writing to schools and colleges to try and organise debates with pro-fees MPs or discussions in about how we can get rid of fees.  Please get in contact if you would like help organising a meeting, if you want ISR members to come and speak or if you would like leaflets explaining a bit about what we need to do now.  We are also interested to hear what your ideas are. 

 

How do you think people feel now?

 

What do you think people will be willing to do to fight back against the fees – remember they are not being brought in until 2006 so we still have time!

 

Sarah Sachs-Eldridge - London ISR organiser.

 

 
 



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NO TO TOP-UP FEES

Our education - Our future!

Education should be a right for all – not a privilege for a few

Read our top-up fees fact sheet

Scrap tuition fees

No to a graduate tax

For a living grant for all students from the age of 16

For the right to a free quality education, job and training for all.

Our education - Our future

Can you afford an education? New Labour and their big business policies of privatising education are starting to mean many young people can’t.  The other major parties, such as the Tories and Liberals also support the privatisation and commercialisation of our education.

Education should be a right – not a privilege. This is why we are building the campaign to fight back against these cuts, to fight for our education which is our future!

 

What are the governments  plans?

They want to introduce top-up fees of up to £3,000 a year for university students.  Instead of paying fees each year while they study, like most students do now, top-up fees would be paid at the end of the course like a graduate tax.

 

If introduced what will top-up fees mean?

Many young people, from all backgrounds except the very rich, will be put off going to university by the huge debts.

Those that decide to go to university anyway will start their careers with huge debts.  Once they earn more than £15,000 a year they will begin paying them off according to how much they are earning.  They will be paying a bigger proportion of their income in tax and student debt repayments than millionaires pay in tax!

 

By introducing variable top-up fees, universities will be able to charge different rates for courses.  This will mean even greater inequalities between universities and course subjects than we have today.

 

But won't the government be helping people from poorer backgrounds?

Due to huge pressure from students, teachers, and parents the government has been forced to offer grants of up to £3,000 per year to the very poorest students.  This may sound generous, but under the new system the poorest students will actually be worse off:

 

  • The grants won't go anywhere near covering students' real cost of living, leaving them still having to borrow thousands of pounds per year and/or work long hours in low paid jobs, getting lower grades as a result.

  •  

What about students whose families are on ‘middle’ incomes?

Top-up fees will really hurt.  Depending on the amount they earn, some students will get some help, but they will still end up with huge debts. Barclays bank estimates that the average student debt will be £33,708 in 2010 due to tuition fees and increased living costs.

But where will the money come from?

Over £5 billion has been spent on the war on Iraq and huge tax cuts have been given to the rich. Britain is the fourth richest country in the world. Where has all the money gone from our parents’ and grandparents’ taxes which should go towards funding education? It is clear there is plenty of money available to fund a free quality education for all, the question is where is this money spent?

 

Blair and Co have shown they are only interested in keeping their big business friends happy through offering them deals in the privatisation of our education, health and other public services. Education, health care etc should all be provided by society – not down to you as an individual who may or may not have the money to pay for basic services which everyone should have access to.

 

Continuing to build the campaign against tuition fees and for a living grant for all.

The campaign against tuition fees needs to continue throughout the country.

The anger many people feel against tuition fees has not gone away. It is vital that students, all teaching staff and their trade unions, parents, grandparents etc all continue to fight against tuition fees. Education should be a right - not a privilege for a few. Some ideas for helping to do this could be to: Organise a meeting or debate in your school or college, lobbying your MP, petitioning, contacting your local press with updates of the campaign etc.  If you would like to order a campaign pack for your school, college or workplace please fill out the slip at the bottom of this leaflet.

                                                                                

For a socialist alternative

Under capitalism, profit will always come before people. The gap between the rich and poor has never been bigger. The 200 richest people in the world own more wealth than the poorest 2.4 billion.

Today more than one fifth of the world’s population live in absolute poverty. An estimated 1.4 billion people live without clean drinking water, while 2.3 billion do not have access to proper sanitation. Even in Britain, the 4th richest country in the world, one third of children live below the poverty line.

As long as capitalism exists there will be no end to war, poverty, the destruction of the environment and the other problems that face humanity.

If this system can’t afford to provide people with a decent education, pay us a living wage, provide affordable homes or give young people a decent future, we can’t afford this system. We are fighting for a socialist society based on need and not profit and that meets the needs of everyone.

 

Who are International Socialist Resistance?

ISR is an international anti-capitalist organisation run by and for young people. As well as in England, Wales and Scotland, we have groups in Northern and Southern Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, France, South Africa, Kashmir, Brazil, Australia, USA and more. We initiated the idea of school and college strikes against the war on Iraq and helped to organise many of them. We also campaign against low pay, the destruction of the environment, against the commercialisation and privatisation of our education, against racism and on many other issues. If you would like to join/get more info on ISR and link up with other young people internationally please get in touch.