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From: The Socialist issue 1104, 6 October 2020: Tories put profit first: Gambling with our jobs and lives

Search site for keywords: Cardiff - Student - Fees - Protest - Students - Socialist - Socialist Students

Cardiff student protest demands: 'refund our fees!'

photo Cardiff Socialist Students (Click to enlarge)

Elin Wilding, Cardiff Socialist Party

Students in lockdown Cardiff protested on Sunday 4 October to demand the refunding of student fees for this year, and the abolition of tuition fees entirely. Around 70 students attended in spite of the Welsh weather.

The mood was angry and has been for the last week. The demonstration was called by a student and backed by Socialist Students.

Students have been lured back to campus with promises of freshers' events and face-to-face teaching - which has been an unrealistic notion since the pandemic began - only to find that they are now at the forefront of the Tory blame game for spreading Covid-19.

Instead, they will be stuck inside to stare at a screen for £9,250 a year, when they could have stayed at home and saved thousands of pounds on rent.

Speakers included students, Cardiff Trades Union Council, and Socialist Students member Campbell Wallace: "We have all experienced, or are currently experiencing, the damaging effects of paying £9,250 a year for tuition... They tell us that students meeting in large groups is the problem.

"Yet weeks ago we had Tory ministers telling us to 'eat out to help out.' We see Rishi Sunak posing for photos with a bevvy in his hand at the pub, making us think this is OK. Coronavirus rates go up, yet for some reason, students get the blame."

Every student that spoke expressed the same frustration and anger at the situation universities and the government have put them in.

Once the speeches were over, nearly everyone at the protest began queueing up to speak to the Socialist Party. They wanted to sign our petition to scrap tuition fees, as well as expressing interest in an upcoming meeting organised by Socialist Students this week.

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Finance appeal

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.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.