Youth

The events of the past two months represent an important shift in the
consciousness of British students. Having grown up knowing only
economic boom, previously labelled as “apathetic” by the media, stood up
and made their voices heard. Their message is simple and has found an
echo across many layers of society: “We will not be forced to pay for a
crisis we did not cause!” This wave of protests and occupations has
swept even the most deeply entrenched prejudices of the last period from
the political landscape, leaving many (both on the right and the left)
trailing in its wake.

Following on from last Thursday’s mass demonstration in London of youth
against the increases in college fees, the media has been full of
reports of how the police are now going to hunt down the troublemakers.
It seems this manhunt is being given top priority – murderers, rapists
and robbers can relax, the police are now otherwise engaged!

Around noon on Thursday 9th December, students
gathered in various parts of London to march towards the centre of the
city. All over London the students had made a conscious effort to bring
out school students in the morning and the days before with leaflets. At
least half of the protesters were school students  probably more. Many
were working class kids from poor areas. Even The Financial Times admitted that some 20-30,000 students participated.

With the bosses media foaming at the mouth over the throwing of a bit
of paint at the flash car being used to drive the Prince of Wales and
his wife to another shindig (no cuts here then), we reproduce an article
written for the Militant Student website just before the marches on Thursday which deals with the role played by the big business-owned press and media.

Following a successful day of action on November 24th that saw up to one
thousand school, college and university students mobilise across the
city Glasgow students again took to the streets and demonstrated on
their campuses on December 8th and 9th with the vote on fees looming.
This was despite the terrible weather conditions that had seen snowfall
down transport across much of the west of Scotland and close the M8
between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Schools were closed and the Universities
had cancelled exams but this wasn’t enough to deter the movement.

Here are some more photos fronm the Dec 9th protest in London.

On the 9th of December, MPs will vote
on whether or not to burden our youth with massive debt and force
working class kids out of further education by removing their EMA.

Drastic times call for drastic
measures. The price the Tories want ordinary working people to pay for
the crisis of their system is the wholesale destruction of the basic
minimum living standards of a civilised existence for millions. There
are no two ways about it. This is open class conflict, where one class
will succeed and one class will fail.

At around 12:15 on Wednesday the 24^th
of November, UCL students who had gathered in the main quad for a rally
as part of the ‘National Day of Action Against Education Cuts and Fees’
marched into the Jeremy Bentham Room in the UCL main building amidst
chants of “no ifs, no buts, no education cuts”. A vote on whether to
occupy was then immediately taken and passed by an overwhelming
majority.

Students occupying Leeds University’s
most important lecture theatre have now been in occupation for a week,
in opposition to the Tory attacks on higher education.

Last Wednesday around 480 students and
staff filled the largest meeting room of the Bristol Students Union.
This was an Extraordinary General Meeting, called as a result of a 24
hour occupation of the union last week.

At the Emergency General Meeting in
SOAS November 18th the students voted for the occupation of space that
the university usually rents out for money. SOAS is a unique institution
because it focuses on a variety of topics and languages such as those
from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The school has already announced
cuts to 95 specialist courses