Newcastle: Climate change protesters, 24.5.19, photo E Brunskill

Newcastle: Climate change protesters, 24.5.19, photo E Brunskill   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Gareth Bromhall, Socialist Students steering committee

Boris Johnson and his Tory government are teetering on the edge of a precipice. Students and young workers have been hit hard by cuts and want to see the back of this pro-austerity government.

Our generation grew up not knowing any different. But we are keenly aware of the injustices of lower minimum wages, sky-high rents, zero-hour contracts and increasing tuition fees. And we can see the damage that the big corporations are wreaking on our environment in the pursuit of profit.

Any programme that looks to tackle these issues needs to include the demands of a £10-an-hour minimum wage for all, rent control and a huge expansion of public housing, and an end to zero and low-hour contracts.

There is an opportunity now for students to fight back and to win the abolition of tuition fees, the cancellation of student debt, the introduction of living grants and the rolling back of the marketisation of education.

This can’t though be done through parliamentary procedure alone. Students and workers need to stand united and mobilise to fight for these essential demands across campuses and workplaces.

The 20 September climate strike will see students and workers taking action together to fight to defend the environment. We need to extend that unity to fight to kick out the Tories and for a socialist alternative that can guarantee free education, jobs and a future so that we don’t become the lost generation.