The Socialist 3 November 2010

Con-Dems’ cuts can be stopped

Con-Dems' cuts can be stopped

Anti-cuts movement continues to grow

Model motion for a national demonstration in 2010

Pickets injured: Solidarity with London firefighters

Solidarity with London firefighters

We need jobs, homes and services - not racism

Defend the right to asylum

Con-Dem shock therapy - midwife to a double dip?

Socialism 2010

Fund the fight for socialism

Housing: Rent caps, not benefit caps

India - no voice for Kashmiri struggle

Graduate unemployment: We will not be a lost generation!

News in brief

Cable is a coward!

Don't destroy our sickness benefits

100 students march against cuts and fees in Leeds

Students challenge Willetts

Birmingham youth protest

Nottingham school staff force council retreat over pay cuts

Tube workers take more action for safety

BBC strike over pensions

UCU: No education cuts, no fees!

National Shop Stewards Network: Anti-cuts conference

USA elections: What the Tea Party really represents

PDFs for this issue




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UCU: No education cuts, no fees!

After stopping building work on schools, preparing to privatise the NHS and slashing benefits, the Con-Dem coalition government has turned its attentions to higher education as part of its attempt to redistribute wealth upwards.

Senior management in universities, under pressure from the government, want to make staff and students pay for the cuts in funding.

While students face increased fees, reduced contact hours and poor resources, staff face attacks on jobs, pensions and conditions.

The National Union of Students (NUS) and the University and College Union (UCU) are therefore correct in calling a national demo on university funding for 10 November, before the decisions are made.

A key task is to link further with local and national anti-cuts campaigns and other TUC-affiliated unions. Even workers who did not attend university are furious that the opportunity to do so may be taken from their children and grandchildren.

The anti-cuts movements should demand the complete abolition of fees and enhanced public funding for teaching and research - demands that could win wide support.

But at the same time, we need an industrial strategy for the sector. UCU needs to ensure that national action is taken over jobs, pensions and privatisation, to protect a system of education and research it took centuries to build up and which, through public funding, was able to enhance the lives of thousands.