Bangor Socialist Students fight tuition fees

Bangor Socialist Students held a protest on 23 April encouraging the student union to support the Campaign to Defeat Fees (CDF), which follows several weeks of gathering support for the cause.

James Nock, Bangor Socialist Students

Following the rejection by the student union of the motion submitted by Socialist Students, calling on it to support the CDF, the group has been campaigning to change the attitude of the union.

Members of our student society have held stalls and canvassed student accommodation to collect a petition that will force the union to hold a referendum regarding their position on campaigning against tuition fees. A total of 250 signatures were needed, but over 300 were collected.

People who signed were also encouraged to attend a protest at the union to demonstrate their attitudes towards tuition fees. The campaigning contributed to the sale of over 20 copies of The Socialist in two weeks.

Although relatively small, the protest went well with press coverage from local newspapers, and with the addition of more signatures, as well as several people passing by expressing an interest in joining Socialist Students.

The protest consisted of chants, such as 'no to war and occupation, spend the money on education'; and a stall providing further information on the campaign and the activities of Socialist Students.

At the end of the protest, everybody went to hand in the petition, and a response is expected soon. The petition means that every student at Bangor should get the opportunity to vote in a referendum regarding whether or not the union should support the Campaign to Defeat Fees.

The campaign has revealed the attitude of a large number of students who are against tuition fees. It has shown that there needs to be more opportunity for students to voice their opinions to a government which appears to be increasingly ignorant of students' conditions.