Students Protest Against Education Cuts

MORE THAN 50,000 PROTEST AGAINST EDUCATION CUTS

Claire Laker-Mansfield, Socialist Students National Organiser

Yesterday, Wednesday November 10th, more than 50,000 students and education workers marched through the streets of London to protest at the tripling of university fees and at huge cuts to the funding of both higher and further education.

On the demonstration, the anger was palpable. Thousands upon thousands shouted chants of 'no ifs, no buts, no education cuts' and 'when they say cut back we say fight back'. The day was a testament to the strength of workers and youth when organised to take united action, and echoed the mass demonstrations seen in France in recent weeks and months.
The masses assembled on the streets yesterday will have shaken the government, who naively believed that the days of mass student demonstrations were over. It showed that the coalition will not be able to simply get away with these cuts- that young people and workers will fight.
But this demonstration must only be the start of the fightback. We need a mass, sustained campaign organised at every college and campus and linked on a national level.

Socialist Students is calling for a day of walk-outs, protests and demonstrations to take place on November 24th, as the next stage in building the movement. This needs to be built around the country, starting from today. A day of mass protests on the 24th will shake the government to its core. It will show that the demonstration yesterday was only the beginning, and that students and workers are determined to defeat the coalition government and stop education cuts.