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Counterfire Student Broadsheet Sept 2011
Counterfire Student Broadsheet Sept 2011
Counterfire Student Broadsheet Sept 2011
StUDENt PrOtESt?
Last autumn, a new student protest movement was born. Activists discuss the way forward now.
Clare Solomon
former President, ULU The demonstration on 10 November blew away all expectations. At midday, a 10,000-strong march from London colleges set off from ULU to join the main demo, instantly politicising an NUS notorious for its conservatism and irrelevance. By 2pm, some 50,000 students were on the move, crammed in from Trafalgar Square to Millbank. Here was
the biggest student protest for generations. And there were thousands of sixth form and FE students, protesting against the scrapping of EMA. Then, unbelievably, there was a mass occupation of Millbank Towers.This year students can take the movement to a new level. Protests and days of action are already being organised and the TUC call for co-ordinated action on 30 November gives us a great opportunity to bring students and workers together on an altogether different scale.
scale in higher education, so we need to renew our struggle demanding that profit should have no role in knowledge and learning.
Jessica Lewis
Student activist at University of East Anglia Like many other students, I started the year of student revolt with very little k nowledge or interest in politics. It was when confronted with cuts to education and rocketing tuition fees that I began to wonder why students are being made to pay for an economic crisis we didnt create. Thats how I became involved in the movement and how an entire generation became radicalised.
Maev McDaid
President, University of Liverpool Students Union The new White Paper proves that even more vicious attacks are planned. It outlines systematic privatisation of higher education, where students become consumers in a cut-throat, profit-hungry environment alien to any notion of learning. We must rally behind the slogan of free education for all. That means opposing every intrusion of the market onto our campuses. Across Europe, students are fighting with us. We should prepare for demonstrations, strikes, and occupations to defend whats ours.
Fran Legg
MSc student, SOAS R a l l ie s , o c c up at ion s , demonstrations, and teachins need to be central to campaigns against fees, cuts, and closures. As students, we must join forces with lecturers and support staff facing attacks on their jobs. Like last year, the student movement must continue to lead by example.
Liam McCafferty
Non-portfolio Officer, University of East Anglia Students Union The explosion of raw student anger which became the student revolt was inspiring. The role of students in the coming period will be about injecting the energy, vitality, and tactics of the student movement into the wider struggle against cuts.
James Haywood
President, Goldsmiths Students Union (pc) More than ever we now need to win the argument that universities are a public good, something that everyone should have a right to access. The universities W h it e Pap e r s i g n a l s privatisation on a mass
Joshua Virasami
Activist at Birkbeck The story is old: in times of crisis, they maintain the military machine, uphold the banks, and cut welfare. The coming year will be one of continued global revolt. Look at Chile and the student movement led by Camila Vallejo. Britain will be no exception.
Debt and austerity This is the second stage of the economic slump. National debts have risen as a result of the financial crisis. But these public debts are themselves held by private institutions. Rising public debts increase the risk of countries defaulting. This is what the financial markets fear may happen in Greece, Ireland, or Portugal. Since private banks hold the public debt,
they are exposed to this risk. The crisis of public debt is turning back into a crisis of the private financial system. This is the mechanism driv ing spending cuts right across the developed world . Gover n ments fear they may soon have another financial crisis on their hands, and so are desperately attempting to strengthen their banking systems by reducing public debts.
SOAS students Faduma Hassan and Feyzi ismail discuss the impact of the war on British Muslims.
StOP iSLAMOPHOBiA
communities and campaigns such as the Stop the War Coalition and Unite Against Fascism, that the likes of the EDL are still marginal. Media collusion is also part of the problem. In a recent ComRes survey, 29% of people surveyed blamed the media for the rise of Islamophobia in the UK. The Norway attacks are a good example. Amongst the confusion, the one certainty seemed to be that the killings were, and had to be, the work of an Islamic fundamentalist group, probably Al-Quaeda. Then it emerged that it was in fact the work of Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian right-wing extremist with anti-Muslim views. Con-Dem racism Now the Con-Dem Government has renewed a key part of Labours counter-terrorism strategy under the same name Prevent. One aim of this is to work with institutions, including universities, which, as Home Secretary Theresa May recently wrote, are vulnerable to radicalisation. Un i v e r s i t y m a n a g e m e nt s and Muslim societies are being encouraged to identify individuals who are potential extremists and who do not subscribe to British values. The Con-Dem Government has extended the definition of extremism to include anyone who holds ideas they consider extremist and liable to lead to illegal activity. B ut t he re i s a l m o s t no understanding, amongst those who advocate Prevent, of the links between foreign policy choices, in particular the wars Britain has fought in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya, and the growth of extremism. At the same time, our civil liberties and especially those of Muslims are being attacked. Civil liberties threatened In 2008, Rizwaan Sabir and Hicham Yezza at Nottingham University were arrested and released without charge for downloading a copy of the socalled Al Qaeda Training Manual, a document that is freely available on the internet, including from US Government websites. From the Governments perspective, identify yourself as a Muslim and youre likely to be labelled a potential terrorist. Universities should be freethinking spaces, where ideas can be debated without fear or intimidation. If the Government was serious about tackling extremism in universities and wider society, it would not occupy Muslim countries, and it would not waste billions in the process. This year, our fight against fee increases has to be a central part of challenging the Governments whole austerity plan, and it must be waged alongside a vigorous campaign against Islamophobia. We must expose the lies behind the war on terror and the backlash against British Muslims.
The so-called War on Terror is now a decade old. Far from making it a safer and more tolerant place, the war has made the world more dangerous and less democratic. In order to justify the billions spent on arms and killing, the war on terror has provided politicians from dictators to neo-cons the pretext for attacking ordinary people. Muslim communities across the country have suffered the brunt of these attacks: Britain has witnessed an upsurge of Islamophobia in the past decade. By instituting stop and search measures that target Muslim youth, and by implication attacking Muslim culture, the Government has created an atmosphere for Islamophobia and far right groups to get a hearing. Fuel for fascists Fascists and racists like the British National Party (BNP) and the English Defence League (EDL) have been revitalised by the war on terror and the portrayal of Muslims as the main enemy. It is to the credit of groups fighting against Islamophobia, including Muslim
Mass Assembly, trafalgar Square Saturday, 8 October 2011 12 noon onwards ten Years On: troops out of Afghanistan, Cut Warfare not Welfare Called by Stop the War, CND, and British Muslim initiative www.antiwarassembly.org www.stopwar.org.uk 020 7801 2768
Events
Booklaunch: the People Demand: A short history of the Arab revolutions With John Rees and Joseph Daher Wednesday, 28th September, 6.30pm The Bookshop Theatre, 51 The Cut, London SE1 8LF Europe Against Austerity international Conference Saturday, 1 October, 10am-5pm Camden Centre, London WC1H 9AU www.europeagainstausterity.org tUC Demo at tory Party Conference Sunday, 2 October, 12 noon Albert Square, Manchester Anti-war Mass Assembly: troops Out of Afghanistan Saturday, 8 October, 12 noon onwards Stop the War, CND, British Muslim Initiative www.stopwar.org.uk Counterforum: the Politics of resistance Saturday, 15 October, 12.30-6pm Packhorse Pub, Leeds www.counterfire.org National Student Demonstration: Defend education, fight privatisation Wednesday, 9th November, 11am Central London tUC co-ordinated strike action Wednesday, 30 November Across the country www.tuc.org.uk
Everyone should get involved on 30 November for a day of united action against austerity.
Unions leaders are arguing to turn 30 November into a mass day of action. The attack on workers pensions is about making ordinary people pay for the bankers crisis and to open up public services to privatisation. Its another threat to all our futures. Unity is key, across the public sector unions to the private sector, and across the whole movement against austerity. As PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said : We have always said that the more united we are, the harder it will be for the government to push through their ideologically-driven and damaging cuts. This is not just a fight for public servants, we want fair pensions for all. Co-ordinated strikes of millions can have a huge impact, but 30 November is not just a day for trade unionists. Everyone who hates what the government is doing to our society can get involved in what Unite general secretary Len McCluskey called a caolition of resistance. 30 November can take the fight against the government to a new level, but only if we all act together. To make the union leaders words a reality we need to make sure that every workplace and union branch, every campaign, every community and every college, is focused on building action on that day. If every part of the movement, including the students, throws itself into building the strikes and protests, we can deal the government a huge blow.
Counterfire publications
Strategy and Tactics: how the left can organise to transform society John Rees Capitalism and class consciousness: the ideas of Georg Lukcs Eleven Reasons to resist the Con-Dem cuts Neil Faulkner The People Demand: A short history of the Arab Revolutions John Rees and Joseph Daher
Chris Nineham
All publications are available online at www.counterfire.org or by post: Counterfire, The Bookshop Theatre, 51 The Cut, London SE1 8LF.
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Counterfire is an organisation of socialists dedicated to building the broadest possible movements of resistance. Our aim is the fundamental transformation of society. A society based on need, not profit. Counterfire has activists in many colleges and towns across the country and in different parts of London. Contact Sam (07872481769, sam@counterfire. org) or Jo (07730612105, jo@counterfire.org) to find out more.