The Socialist 4 August 2010

Con-Dem cuts mean: we need ‘biggest movement since poll tax’

We need 'biggest movement since poll tax'

'Radical' cuts require serious action

Waltham Forest's Labour council faces opposition

Coventry campaigners fight cuts of £140 million

Swansea trades council leads battle for services

Campaigners answer Bristol's 'Big Conversation'

Cuts news: Mental health services facing the axe

NSSN pledged to fight cuts

Troops out now!

Afghanistan: US strategy in disarray

Oppose divisive academies policy

Talks resume at British Airways

Angry workers strike over pay freeze and bosses' bonuses

Fighting fire service cuts

Witch-hunted Unison activist wins tribunal

Unite general secretary election

We won't be a lost generation, fight for jobs and education!

No to privatisation of our universities

For real jobs, not slave labour

Profiting from wrecking the environment

Stop the Cardiff incinerator

Save Wanstead Flats

Daily Mail admits guilt over smearing Tamil hunger striker

Campaigning at Leeds Pride

Book now for the summer camp!

Socialism 2010 - a weekend of discussion and debate

Love Parade catastrophe was entirely preventable

Garment workers demand a living wage

Asda profiting from low pay

Tories put profits before patients

Rich just carry on getting richer

Fast news

The howlers' world and ours

How the banks rip us off

Previous issues, etc

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We won't be a lost generation, fight for jobs and education!

The statistics range wildly but one thing is obvious - young people's plans for the future are being dashed.

Ben Robinson, Youth Fight for Jobs chair

Tens of thousands of college leavers are having the university door slammed in their faces. Not because they can't perform in exams. Not even because they're not prepared to get into the huge amounts of debt demanded by the fees system.

But because the politicians accept the logic of the market and choose to cut public services, while the bosses and bankers are encouraged to award themselves fat pay cheques.

At a time of record applications to university, the Con-Dem government is slashing the planned increase in student places.

This is the second year running that this has happened.

In fact, the previous Labour government fined universities tens of thousands of pounds for over recruiting! Two things are clear.

One is that the government is happy to smash young people's dreams to save money. The second is that this is going to become a permanent feature of the present recession - everybody currently in school or college is likely to face the same university access lottery.

No doubt a factor in the increase in university applications is that people are worried about finding a job and hope things will improve after three years and with the aid of a degree.

The fact is that one in five young people are already unemployed, with more likely to follow after the number of disappointed university applicants is revealed.

One way to ease the pressure on universities would be to provide a wide-ranging programme of apprenticeships and socially useful job creation.

But this government remains unmoved by the plight of young people and ploughs ahead with cuts.

Young people will not put up with this. Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) is calling a protest on 21 August to demand full funding and access to university for all.

We oppose students being charged to resit A-level exams. And we're calling for a programme of job creation to help those college leavers who don't want to go on to university.

At the start of the new term, YFJ will launch a campaign in the colleges for the right to a future; a job or place in education for every college leaver.