Fighting for services to tackle knife-crime crisis
Ben Goldstone, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate for Croydon mayor
Council spending on youth services fell by 73% between 2010 and 2023. More than 1,000 youth centres closed, and more than 4,500 youth worker jobs cut nationwide.
Croydon was not protected from this. In 2025, the Tory council closed the Youth Engagement Team.
This service provided support and education to young people and their families. It acted as a bridge between the council, voluntary organisations, and young people. What remains of non-statutory youth services in Croydon has been outsourced.
Croydon is the worst place for violent crime, according to the Office for National Statistics. There were 3,214 violent incidents in the year 2024-25.
There have been several tragic knife crime incidents in recent years, including, but not limited to, the stabbings of 15-year-old Elianne Andam in 2023 and, more recently, 22-year-old Lorik Abazi.
Invasive permanent facial recognition cameras, rolled out by the Metropolitan Police in Croydon, haven’t changed anything, as they are prone to false positives.
In Croydon, the Socialist Party has been campaigning for youth services to combat knife crime. We have held successful campaign stalls, calling on the council to fully fund our youth services, schools, and libraries.
We call for a right to a socially useful job for all, as well as ending racist policing. The council should set a needs-based, no-cuts budget, using its reserves and borrowing powers, as part of a campaign to win the funding we need from the Labour government.
I introduced a motion to the Croydon Trade Union Council calling for it to hold a public meeting to discuss the solutions to knife crime in the area, and how to fight cuts.
Labour and Greens
At a recent Croydon mayoral hustings, Khamisi Green, a young Socialist Party member, raised the cuts to youth services, and asked the Green and Labour candidates what they would do about this. Neither was able to provide an acceptable answer. Neither was able to confirm they won’t make cuts or raise council tax for the already-stretched working class.
So, because of this, we are standing Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates in the upcoming mayoral and council elections, providing Croydon residents with a genuine socialist vote against austerity.
Give us back our student bursary
Louie Nardini, York Socialist Students
The University of York cut bursaries at the beginning of this year. £1,000 was cut from first-year students, while other students lost £100.
For many students, living away from home for the first time, this money has been life changing. It represented the difference between focusing on studies and getting a part-time job.
The university claims that the cut to first-year students is going towards our accommodation, alleviating high prices. But at 160 halls-of-residence places, rents are up by 50% next year. York has the most expensive accommodation after London and Bristol, the highest in the north.
University needs to be open and available to everyone. But the refugee student bursary has been cut by £1,000 too. And medical students have had their bursary cut by £1,400.
Most universities are currently running to the point of bankruptcy. So private profit should have no role in our education.
This bursary cut is no surprise considering the broken funding model of all universities. So students, staff, and the whole education system is being attacked.
Labour is doing nothing to help universities. The government is increasing tuition fees, making university even more unaffordable, and it will still do nothing to solve the funding crisis.
Some vice-chancellors are calling for tuition fees to increase to £13,000 a year! A fully funded, free, public education model is the best way to solve this crisis of privatisation and capitalism.
We need to fight against university bosses scrambling to take any cash they can from us. They should not be taking money from poor students. This £1,000 belongs to us!
Socialist Students proposes that York uni reimburse our bursary money. Many students do not even know about the bursary cut yet. The university has yet to release a public message or email.
The university also needs to open its books, so that students and staff trade unions can see where the money is going, and democratically hold university bosses accountable. Let’s test these cuts in open democratic debate from students and workers.
College students say: ‘No to Trump’s wars’
As soon as students at Enfield College heard what we were campaigning about – “We won’t pay for Trump’s wars, no to Trump’s wars” – people would snap up to sign our petition. “F**k Trump” was the most common response.
Five students all came up to sign our petition together. They didn’t all agree.
One of them didn’t think his friends should sign the petition. He didn’t think the Middle East wars affected us, because Trump isn’t invading Britain.
But his friends explained to him that it does affect us, with the price of everything going up.
Ian Pattison, Enfield and Lea Valley Socialist Party
