Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/994/27334
From The Socialist newspaper, 9 May 2018
Defend Hull FE College - defend our city!
Mick Whale, president of Hull trades council
On 12 May striking lecturers and students from Hull College will be demonstrating together with the wider labour and trade union movement in Hull against the proposed axing of up to 400 jobs across the college. Further attacks on the pay, terms and conditions of support staff are expected.
Staff, students and the wider community will not accept management's so-called 'Fresh Start' rescue plan, which includes £10 million worth of cuts.
At a time that vicious cuts are being proposed, management seems to have pots of money to pay for consultants to 'manage' the process. Rumours are rife about possible vested interests lying behind some of the proposals.
Already, the University and College Union has organised two days of strike action and declared a vote of no confidence in the management of the college. Unison union is also balloting its members. Hull trades union council has demanded that college management open the financial books so that staff and students can see the true situation.
Despite management intimidation of students and staff, there is a growing determination to stop the cuts package. The more clumsy management are in trying to stop opposition to their proposals, the more confident union members are that management is rattled.
The attacks, particularly on art and creative subjects, make a mockery of Hull's Year of Culture in 2017. People are asking why last year art was promoted but this year it is under attack?
The college stands as a monument to failed corporate mismanagement and government cuts. The trades council has made a clear call for the cancellation of the cuts and for the proper funding of the further education sector. However, a central demand of the campaign is to bring the college back into public ownership, where it can be run democratically in the interest of the community as a whole.
- 12 May demonstration and rally. Assemble 12noon outside Hull College, Queens Gardens, Wilberforce Drive, Hull HU1 3DG
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
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In The Socialist 9 May 2018:
Local elections 2018
Local election results are a major warning sign for Labour
Southampton: Keith Morrell, anti-cuts councillor, re-elected
Haringey councillors need to fight austerity now
TUSC vote up in Waltham Forest but many voters stay away
TUSC stands against Birmingham council's cuts and attacks on workers
Strong TUSC result in Huddersfield
France '68
France '68: History's greatest general strike erupts
Socialist Party news and analysis
US president suggests gun control to blame for London knife deaths
Use TUC march as launch pad for action on pay
Breast cancer screening scandal
Israel/Palestine
Socialists fight for Palestinian liberation and workers' unity
Socialists in Israel-Palestine reject establishment antisemitism charge against Jeremy Corbyn
Obituaries
Roger Shrives, 5 April 1947 - 1 May 2018
Keith Pattenden 28 September 1955 - 1 May 2018
Obituary: Tony Byrne 1939 - 2018
Socialist Party workplace news
Hull Energy Works: Unofficial strike action reinstates victimised workers
Defend Hull FE College - defend our city!
Victory against academisation at Avenue Primary
Firefighters ballot for action
PCS: A fighting strategy to defeat the Tory pay cap
International socialist news and analysis
Teachers revolt in Trump country
China: Impressive, coordinated and daring crane drivers' strikes
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