Youth

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

I found myself stuck in Newcastle
on Monday night due to the cancellation of the busses and took the opportunity
to walk over to the fine arts building at the University to see how the Students
were getting on in their occupation and asked if there was any other support
that they might need.

The student movement accross Britain continued on Wednesday
24^th November, with thousands of students and school students
demonstrating in cities
and towns across the country. Following on from the 50,000 strong
national
demonstration in London on the 10^th November, an equivalent
number
came out to protest against the cuts, but this time in dozens of
separate
events throughout Britain.

At least 2,000 university,
FE and school students, together
with college trade unions, marched through Liverpool as part of
the national day of action against Tuition Fees.