Make the super-rich pay for free education

Robbie Davidson, Manchester Socialist Students

After fifteen years of Tory austerity attacking our jobs, homes and services, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have made clear to the bosses their government won’t be a radical departure. And, hearing about difficult decisions to be made on things including education funding, students are preparing for the worst.

Already, the university cost of living is at an all-time high. And the money we need to live on – once maintenance grants now transformed into loans – has not risen with inflation.

And its not just students. Lecturers and university staff are being exploited ever more – with low pay and longer hours. They have organised in their unions against poor pay and conditions during the strike wave and against redundancies now.

Students at this point in time, however, do not have the same level of organisation to match our growing frustration. For most of us, the students union is nothing more than a cafe and bar. Socialist Students members in freshers’ weeks across the country have raised the need to fill that void with democratic fighting student organisations.

Free education should be a right for all, and this can only be achieved by taking it back into our hands. We’ve been told to tighten our belts by the six-figure salary bosses at the core of the marketised system. But its time the super-rich bosses and corporations are made to pay

The University and College Union (UCU) has called for an education levy on big business to pay for an end to tuition fees. We believe students and workers should have a democratic say over how university funding is spent and our universities are run. At our public meetings and stalls we found that our programme for free education chimes with students.

When they tripled tuition fees in 2010, the ensuing outrage lacked the organisation to sustain a proper movement against them. We will be prepared this time! Join Socialist Students today to get involved in the fightback.

Socialist Students says:

• No to further fee increases – get organised on campus to fight for free education! Cancel student debt, replace student loans with living grants tied to the rate of inflation. Make the super-rich pay!
• No cuts and no closures! Build democratic student organisations to link up with campus trade unions and the wider working class to fight for the funding our universities need
• Kick big business off campus! End marketisation of our education. Open up university finances to democratic oversight and control including by elected students’ representatives and campus trade unions, with the power to terminate all contracts and research tied to war, profiteering and exploitation, while guaranteeing jobs and funding
• Students need a political voice – build a new mass workers’ party that will stand up for students and workers and fight for socialism
• Fight for socialist change – for democratic public ownership of the banks, monopolies and major industry to provide us with a future