The Defence of Post-16 Education Great Start, and 'No to Victimisations'!

(statement from some members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the University and Colleges Union (UCU))

We, the undersigned members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the University and Colleges Union (UCU), congratulate all those who joined the 50,000-strong march of students and lecturers to show their opposition to, and their determination to stop, the raising of fees, the privatization of Higher Education, and the axing of Educational Maintenance Allowance and the Adult Learning Grant. It was a historic day. A Radio 4 reporter rightly commented on the morning after the event that this demonstration marked the end to the consensus view that cuts are necessary.

This protest was one of the most vibrant and exciting for a decade or more. It was exciting because the large majority on the demonstration was made up of young people. They were there to defend with passion not their own futures but the futures of the next generation of students. This was not a demonstration of narrow self-interest, as it has been described in parts of the media.

Politicians and pundits have been taken aback not just by the numbers involved but by the fury of the tens of thousands who demonstrated, and of the thousands who occupied the Tory Party HQ. Anyone who teaches or works with young people will not be surprised.

This is a generation that has been shaped by illegal wars and environmental catastrophes that have destroyed societies and damaged the planet. It is a generation that has faced youth unemployment on a mass scale. It is a generation that has been demonised by governments and the media alike, and has been patronized as apathetic and apolitical. It is now being asked to pay the price for a crisis that it played no part in creating. It is refusing the invitation.

It was not only the Tories who were seen as the enemy on this day. In equal measure, Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats were angrily targeted as being dishonest liars who, as one placard put it, "stole my vote". We must pressure each and every one of those MPs to stick to their election promise on fees.

As John Harris wrote in The Guardian, the "occupation of Millbank had seemingly started on a whim, when a handful of people had walked into the foyer, not quite believing they had been allowed to do so, and decided to stay put ... angered to the point of fury by the government's axing of the educational maintenance allowance - the means-tested benefit that has enabled so many people to take up post-16 education without being a drain on the family budget."[1]

This is why we, as members of the NEC of UCU, stand with those students who were arrested. The occupation, whatever reservations some of us may have about aspects of it, registered for the Government the depth of anger that its proposals have stirred up. We must not encourage divisions amongst those opposed to the privatisation of education. We will not side with those who condemn the violence against windows and property but will not condemn or even name the long-term violence of cuts that will scar the lives of hundreds of thousands by denying them access to the education of their choice.

The most important thing about the day was the response of over 50,000 students and lecturers, and their determination to resist. That is what we celebrate.

We call upon all in the Labour movement, and those affiliated to the NUS, to rally behind all who were arrested for fighting to defend their education. The victimization of individuals for acts of resistance is something that our movement has a proud record of opposing. We must uphold that tradition today, as in the past.

The NUS/UCU demonstration has shown how a movement can be built to unite all those opposed to the Government’s cuts whether in education or beyond.

ENDS

For more information, contact: Tom Hickey on 07816 921105

Signatories: (all in personal capacities)