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What party should students vote for?

Mary Finch, Leeds Socialist Students

The general election may be eight months away, but the three main parties have already embarked on a mission to remake their images and shore up support. Labour has pledged an £8 an hour minimum wage by 2020. The Liberal Democrats have turned their backs on plans to privatise the Student Loans Company. The Tories are vowing to continue attacks on immigrants, benefit claimants, disabled people and young people.

Whichever of these parties we vote for, it's clear that young people and students will still be paying sky-high rents for substandard accommodation. We'll still be paying at least £9,000 tuition fees every year. We'll still be ending up on zero-hour contracts, working for below the living wage.

None of the three main parties have taken any stand on these issues, and that's because they don't represent ordinary people - they stand for the super-rich and big business. These people make their profits on poverty pay, and on the mass privatisation of public services. None of these parties will defend the interests of ordinary students and young people. So when we're in the ballot box next year, which box will we tick?

We could vote Labour, to kick out the Tories, but we'll only see more of the same. We could vote Green. They've pledged a £10 an hour minimum wage, but, just like with Labour's insufficient promises, we'll have to wait until 2020 to get it. And when it comes to the crunch, the Green-led council in Brighton has passed cuts, just like all the other pro-austerity parties.

TUSC

We need a party that stands up unequivocally for workers and for students, against all the cuts, for the scrapping of tuition fees and student debt, for decent and affordable housing, for an end to zero-hour contract jobs, for £10 now and not in six years time.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) stood for all these things in the council elections in May and will be doing so again in the general and local elections 2015.

In this issue

International socialist news and analysis

No to imperialist war

US led bombings will worsen divisions

Hong Kong: "umbrella revolution" changes everything

Socialist Party news and analysis

More brutal cuts from the imploding Tories

Labour: no real alternative

Housing - a history of class struggle

Them & Us

Socialist Party workplace news

Pay cuts: Angry and ready to strike!

Local government pay: Reject employers' proposal

Hove Park victory: academies can be stopped

Doncaster Care UK workers start record strike

Continuing Bob Crow's legacy after RMT election

CWU's political fund and political voice

Socialist Students

York University - Student housing letting agency victory

Round up: Socialist Students at the freshers fairs

What party should students vote for?

Socialist Party reports and campaigns

Support the E15 mums

Scotland is in a party joining mood

Fire and rescue... rescued

Wet books: send bucks!

Readers' comments and reviews

Labour's housing failure

A day in the life of an agency worker

Film review: Still the enemy within

Home   |   The Socialist 1 October 2014   |   Join the Socialist Party

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Related links:

Elections:

Socialist Party national meeting: Perspectives for socialism after the elections

Right-wing Partido Popular wins Madrid elections - a warning to the working class

TUSC is back

Leeds Socialist Party: The May elections - and the need for a new mass workers' party

Hackney & Islington Socialist Party: What now after the elections?

Students:

Action marks the way for a national student movement for free education

Youth under attack

Students in action: Protest on 21 April

The system is broken... youth unite and fight back

Young people:

We will not be the lost generation

Defending the right to protest

The 'old normal' meant poverty for young people

Labour:

Starmer moves against Unite - No to the attack on Beckett

United action needed to defeat fire and rehire

Tuition Fees:

Conference - Sunday 28 February

Council:

Norwich City Council workers vote for strike action over broken promises on pay and conditions

TUSC:

Scotland: Pro-independence majority in highly polarised election

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition:

Ealing parking wardens strike against Serco over absence policy