The Socialist 18 August 2010

Action now to defeat cuts!

Action now to defeat cuts!

Pakistan: Workers' solidarity urgently needed

Floods in Pakistan bring devastation - poor suffer most

Youth must fight for a future!

Student demo should be start of the fightback

No to advice service cuts

Decent pay for interns

Uni bosses say cuts will cause closures

Forecasts of fragile economic growth

Cameron sticks the boot into our council housing

Private-profit company granted 'snoopers' charter'

Private Finance Initiative: A licence to print money

Coventry Against the Cuts challenge councillors' 'legal obligation'

Northern Ireland: Belfast Stop the Cuts Alliance established

Bromley care workers fight privatisation and job cuts

Defend Our Community Services launched in Bracknell

Cuts devastate mental health services

The legacy of Leon Trotsky

Kirklees Unison strike ballot launched

CWU members accept BT pay deal

Debate how to fight back at Socialism 2010

Tube staff vote for action against cuts

Jobs under threat at Ministry of Justice

Airport workers win improved offer from BAA

Workplace news in brief

Socialist Party summer camp - book now!

Russia's raging wildfires - a crisis of government policies

Bradford must organise against the EDL

Birmingham: Community says 'No' to racist spy cameras

Previous issues, etc

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Student demo should be start of the fightback

With thousands of young people being denied a university place, facing a substandard education, forced into low paid work or left on the scrapheap of unemployment, a nationally organised fightback is essential.

Claire Laker-Mansfield, Socialist Students national organiser

The National Union of Students (NUS) has called a demonstration which will take place on 10 November.

This has been called under the banner 'Fund our Future - Stop Education Cuts' and will be a march through London.

The lecturers' union, UCU, has also given its backing to this demo. This is very positive given the need for a united fightback of students and education workers to defeat cuts and fees.

Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) and Socialist Students welcome the NUS calling a national demonstration. We will mobilise students around fighting slogans and a strategy to stop the cuts.

We want to draw together local campaigns that have been fighting cuts on their campuses and in their colleges throughout the last year.

The demo should be a vibrant display of the strength of these campaigns and show the NUS leadership that it is possible to mobilise students with more radical ideas than they generally put forward themselves.

YFJ and Socialist Students have called a joint day of action on 20 October. The date coincides with the end of the government's comprehensive spending review which will almost certainly announce further cuts.

We call for demonstrations, student walkouts and other protests to take place at colleges and universities all over the country on this day. We invite all who oppose cuts to take part. The day of action will be used as a springboard to getting a mass turnout in November.

The national demo must not be a one off 'token' protest. It should be used as a catalyst to begin the task of building a movement capable of stopping the government in its tracks.

Student walkouts, strike action by education workers and unity with those fighting cuts in all areas of the public and private sectors will be needed if we are to win this battle and defend our futures.