The situation for young people looks bleak today. No longer can young people look forward to a career in their chosen field. They will be lucky to even get to go to university to train for such a career.
Today in Britain we face a possibility of loosing a whole generation to the scrap heap. Young people today growing up will be worse off than their parents before, that for me is shocking and a crying inditement of this rotten capitalist system driven by profit not to meet people’s needs.
With EMA cut, tuition fees trebled and education becoming increasingly marketwise it is little wonder young people are left feeling frustrated despondent and helpless. With over 1 million young people out of work or training and continuing to raise this could be if it’s not already a very serious situation.
Quite simply there is just not the job out there it’s not the case that young people are lazy, feckless, work shy or any of the normal rubbish that is flung their way.
Youth fight for jobs is looking to give young people a voice to speak out about the plight of young people.
I featured an article on the austerity games held on Monday in London and this is just one part of Youth fight for jobs campaign to raise the idea of changing society to benefit young people who currently see no future.
The slogan “we won’t be a lost generation, fight for jobs and education” is very fitting and has been popularised throughout the student movement and beyond.
Students, young people and workers need to unite their common struggles groups like Youth fight for jobs which I think are unique as I don’t believe there are any other groups looking to give working class young people a voice again. Currently no political party cares or speaks for them. We need a party of our own a mass workers party putting forward an alternative which puts people’s needs first and ends the drive for profit over everything else.
I can fully understand young people’s anger and frustration at a lack of opportunities with a lack of jobs benefits being cut and being forced to work for your doll are all aimed to demonise young people. Luckily young people in Youth fight for jobs are fighting back and giving a lead.
We call for education to be completely free for all and higher education to be a right not a commodity that can be sold to the highest bidder, likewise with housing young people face a far more harder time getting on the housing ladder we believe housing should be a human right shelter should not be marketised and people’s needs should be met. If there are not the homes then we feel one solution should be to embark on mass real affordable homes not the 80% of market rate the Tories currently claim is affordable, real affordable homes where young people have a place to call their own. This would not only go some way to solving the housing crisis in this country but would at the same time put people back to work in construction industry and home developments making the new homes green and efficient to last in to the future. We have key demands that young people can take up pointing to councils like Southwark where EMA has been reintroduced and say if Southwark can do this why can’t other councils.
Do not accept the money is not there it is. It is locked up in the vaults of big business currently sitting pretty on 800 billion pounds they refuse to invest as they do not see any profitable outlet. We say that money should be progressively taxed and used to invest in public works which pay a good rate a living wage and are socially useful to society. With these key demands i’ve outlined young people can start to see a future a future for the 99% a future for all.
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Showing posts with label tuitian fees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tuitian fees. Show all posts
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Saturday, 21 July 2012
Quebec: Student strike movement reaches turning point | socialistworld.net
“Most powerful challenge to neo-liberalism” in North America
Brandon Madsen, Socialist Alternative (CWI supporters in the US)
Last week, 400 socialists from across Europe and all around the world met in Belgium at the CWI Summer School. Below, Brandon Madsen reports on the commission which dealt with Quebec and the inspiring student movement taking place there.
Socialistworld.net
In response to rising tuition fees, Quebec society has been shaken to the core by four months of student strikes, which have garnered support from trade unions and been linked to far-reaching anti-austerity demands.
Though student involvement varies – with some striking indefinitely, some for a specific time, and others remaining more passive – student support for the movement has been nearly overwhelming. At the movement’s peak, the demonstrations turned out an estimated 310,000 students: that is, three out of every four students in Quebec.
The Guardian journalist Martin Lukacs describes the mass movement in Quebec as “the most powerful challenge to neoliberalism on the continent”. The symbol of the “red square”, originally used by unemployed workers in 2003 and then by students during the strike of 2005, is a ubiquitous sign of solidarity in what is being called the “Quebecois spring”.
It all started in the spring of 2011, when Education Minister Fine Beauchamps cynically attempted to sell a 75% increase in tuition fees over the next five years as a ‘cultural revolution’, ostensibly justified because it would bring Quebec tuition fees closer to those charged in other Canadian provinces.
The young people of Quebec have responded by showing Beauchamp and the rest of the neoliberal regime what a real cultural revolution looks like. Under the pressure of the determined mass demonstrations, Beauchamp resigned in May, and the movement has continued.
Amid all the excitement and inspiration, important questions remain: what is the balance of forces in this struggle, and what can bring it forward to victory?
‘Largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history’
CLASSE (the main radical student union) put out the call last autumn for strikes starting on 13 February of this year. The first major actions took place 16 February, when students joined together with workers and activists to blockade the streets surrounding stock market buildings.
From the beginning, the demonstrations were linked to a rejection of all austerity measures being carried out by the government. The 16 February demonstrations included three main demands: no increase in tuition fees, no increase in electricity charges, and no to all fees for health services.
The government’s complete intransigence and outright rejection of all student demands only poured fuel on the fire of the movement, which reached its first peak between 13 and 22 March. All supposed offers for negotiations have been non-starters designed merely to stall for time. Many of the offers in these “negotiations” are actually worse than the Education Minister’s initial proposals (for example, adding in cuts to education programmes on top of fee increases).
The Liberal Party in Quebec, concerned about the upcoming provincial elections which will take place this coming fall, have since tried to use “chaos in the streets” hysteria to distract voters from the numerous corruption allegations against them. It is estimated that as much as three quarters of the financing for the main traditional parties of Quebec is obtained illegally. By taking a hard line against demonstrators, they hoped to apply pressure that would divide and potentially break up the movement while simultaneously courting the “law and order” vote.
In line with this strategy, the new education minister Michelle Courchesne immediately proposed and proceeded to ram through a repressive new anti-protest law known as Bill 78, which went into effect on 18 May, mere days after Courchesne took over from Beauchamp. As a “special law” which specifically targets the political rights of the demonstrators, Bill 78 not only restricts education employees’ right to strike but more generally inhibits the freedom to protest on or near university grounds. It requires that all demonstrations receive approval from the police before taking place.
Far from curtailing protests or breaking up the movement, however, the law has stirred up even more outrage in broader layers of society; the protests in defiance of the law were the largest yet, with up to 500,000 marching in Montreal in ‘the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history’.
Historical roots of the student strike
Bruno-Pierre Guillette from Alternative Socialiste (CWI in Quebec), who introduced the CWI School commission on Quebec, began his remarks by comparing the student strike movement today to the ‘Quiet Revolution’ that transformed Quebec in the 1960s and 1970s.
Like the current ‘Quebecois spring’, the Quiet Revolution was an expression of a profound social crisis in Quebecois society. Despite never reaching the numerical size that today’s student strikes have at their height, these earlier movements had strong revolutionary currents within them. They were able to transform the political landscape and win reforms which improved the lives of millions. The Quiet Revolution marked the beginning of a powerful student movement, and between 1968 and 1977 there were major strike actions, most notably in 1972, which was one of the largest working class rebellions in North American history.
The development of a more secular society and the welfare state was accompanied by the rise of a stronger Quebecois national identity. The industries of health care and education, which had previously been in the hands of the Catholic Church, were taken over by the provincial government; corresponding Ministries of Education and Health were created. The civil service was unionized and electricity production and distribution were nationalized. There was massive public investment in infrastructure and education.
The years 1988-89 marked the decline of the student movement in Quebec as a call for a general student strike was unsuccessful. The Quebec Federation of College Students (FECQ), created after the experience of the failed strike, quickly took a turn towards collaboration with the university bureaucracies and bourgeois politicians and away from independent struggle. Today this organization continues to pursue a collaborationist policy and maintains ties with the centre-left nationalist Parti Québécois (PQ).
Still, there was another student strike in 1996 which resulted in a 10-year tuition freeze. Since then, both the PQ and the Liberal Party have been actively complicit in carrying out austerity measures. In 2005, the Minister of Education decided to change scholarships into student loans (which, unlike scholarships, would have to be repaid). This resulted in a massive student strike, which was successful in stopping this measure despite the heavily co-opted main student federations being used as a tool of the government against the radical wing of the movement.
It is only because of these earlier movements that Quebec’s tuition fees are so much lower than the rest of Canada’s to begin with and now the government is attempting to eliminate the hard-won gains of the past all in one fell swoop.
The tuition freeze expired in 2006 and fees have been on the rise ever since. The average Quebec university student now graduates with C$14,000 in personal student debt. This reality has served as the backdrop to the current struggle and provided the combustible material that allowed for the explosive movement of today.
The role of police repression and Bill 78
Bill 78 was the attempt of the Quebec ruling class to contain that explosion. This attempt has so far profoundly backfired on them; turning up the heat and pressure has only made the explosion more powerful.
Since the passage of Bill 78, support for the student movement in broader society has only increased. Layers of workers and activists who took part in the demonstrations previously are now coming out in defiance of the law because they are enraged by its assault on basic political rights of individuals to organize and protest.
Nonetheless, because of Bill 78’s highly repressive and undemocratic nature, it is a danger to all future movements. As such, it is urgently necessary to fight to overturn it.
Due to this law, it is now legally forbidden to have spontaneous demonstrations; everything must be reported to the police eight hours in advance or the protest is deemed illegal. Police now have the power to order changes in the timing, location, itinerary, and march routes of demonstrations. Protests or pickets within 50 metres of a university building are now illegal.
As for the right to free association: if a student society decides to support the strike, it can not only face steep fines (up to C$125,000 per day), but be legally dissolved and forced out of existence. Individual participants can be fined up to C$5000 per day and leading organizers up to C$35,000 per day.
In the last four months, the police have arrested 3000 people in what have been termed “preventative arrests”, meaning that those arrested have not actually committed any unlawful acts (implied: yet). One tactic used by the police has been to simply block off a section of street filled with demonstrators and arrest everyone indiscriminately.
These arrests have been widely condemned both within Quebec and internationally. Ten people have been seriously injured by the police in these arrests, and according to activists in the movement it is only a matter of good luck that no protestors have been killed yet.
Students need to build concrete links with workers and unions
Although there is a “truce” for now over the summer, the students have elected a strike committee that will vote on whether to take further strike action in August, which seems likely. In order to fully defeat the neoliberal austerity policies of the government, however, it will require spreading the struggle to the organized working class of Quebec.
The basis for the working class to play a leading role is there. The current attacks have not been limited to targeting students: there are plans for a new “health tax”, and healthcare subscription costs have already gone up by a factor of eight since 2010. Workers across the province are fighting against layoffs and workplace closures. Rent and utility prices are rising while wages stagnate. In Canada, more broadly, Canadian Pacific Railway workers are planning a 72-hour strike for their pensions, while the Canadian federal government tries to pass its own “special law” like Bill 78 to make that strike illegal.
The situation is ripe for the anger of the working class to be channeled into active participation in this ongoing movement. Though workers have individually taken part in the demonstrations out of the strength of their own anger and convictions, organized support from workers’ unions has been limited mostly to lip service, so far.
Connected to this are union officials’ ties to the PQ. While it is the Liberal Party who has been leading the charge for austerity and against the demonstrators, the PQ does not have any principled disagreement with them. The main difference from the Liberals is they might bring in a few superficial reforms in attempt to take the wind out of the movement instead of a one-sided cracking down. To oppose neoliberal policies effectively, the workers and their unions but be able to act politically independently from all pro-capitalist parties, including the PQ.
For the moment, the student movement’s main call to workers has been for them to use sick days to come out to demonstrations rather than take actual strike action. At the same time, they have raised the general idea of a “social strike” of all who oppose austerity. The ability to organize this type of strike action, societal in scope and political in character, is precisely what will determine the success or failure of the movement to achieve fundamental change in the long run.
If the students remain alone at the end of August, when the government intends to force them all back to the universities, this will not bode well for the movement’s success.
Will unions join student struggle?
So the key question hanging over the movement in the period ahead is: when classes start again in the fall, will the unions rise up and join the movement and full partners, or will they stand aside and allow the strikes to be crushed?
The decisive factor in this situation is the degree of rank-and-file organization, activism, and political consciousness within the unions. The only way that the unions will be mobilized to enter the struggle in full force is by a relentless push from below. This type of development can be encouraged by bold calls to the unions from the student movement. Socialists, in particular, have an important role to play in popularising the idea of a united anti-austerity fight back amongst all sections of the movement.
This is the work that Alternative Socialiste (CWI in Quebec) is doing right now, concretely by calling for a 24-hour general strike as the next step to bring together workers and students against austerity, for free education at all levels, and for decent jobs for all to combat youth unemployment.
Regardless of what happens in the fall, the raising of consciousness this movement has brought about cannot be erased. Together with the Wisconsin uprising and the advent of the Occupy movement last year, the picture is becoming increasingly clear for all to see: class struggle is back on the agenda in North America.
Brandon Madsen, Socialist Alternative (CWI supporters in the US)
Last week, 400 socialists from across Europe and all around the world met in Belgium at the CWI Summer School. Below, Brandon Madsen reports on the commission which dealt with Quebec and the inspiring student movement taking place there.
Socialistworld.net
In response to rising tuition fees, Quebec society has been shaken to the core by four months of student strikes, which have garnered support from trade unions and been linked to far-reaching anti-austerity demands.
Though student involvement varies – with some striking indefinitely, some for a specific time, and others remaining more passive – student support for the movement has been nearly overwhelming. At the movement’s peak, the demonstrations turned out an estimated 310,000 students: that is, three out of every four students in Quebec.
The Guardian journalist Martin Lukacs describes the mass movement in Quebec as “the most powerful challenge to neoliberalism on the continent”. The symbol of the “red square”, originally used by unemployed workers in 2003 and then by students during the strike of 2005, is a ubiquitous sign of solidarity in what is being called the “Quebecois spring”.
It all started in the spring of 2011, when Education Minister Fine Beauchamps cynically attempted to sell a 75% increase in tuition fees over the next five years as a ‘cultural revolution’, ostensibly justified because it would bring Quebec tuition fees closer to those charged in other Canadian provinces.
The young people of Quebec have responded by showing Beauchamp and the rest of the neoliberal regime what a real cultural revolution looks like. Under the pressure of the determined mass demonstrations, Beauchamp resigned in May, and the movement has continued.
Amid all the excitement and inspiration, important questions remain: what is the balance of forces in this struggle, and what can bring it forward to victory?
‘Largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history’
CLASSE (the main radical student union) put out the call last autumn for strikes starting on 13 February of this year. The first major actions took place 16 February, when students joined together with workers and activists to blockade the streets surrounding stock market buildings.
From the beginning, the demonstrations were linked to a rejection of all austerity measures being carried out by the government. The 16 February demonstrations included three main demands: no increase in tuition fees, no increase in electricity charges, and no to all fees for health services.
The government’s complete intransigence and outright rejection of all student demands only poured fuel on the fire of the movement, which reached its first peak between 13 and 22 March. All supposed offers for negotiations have been non-starters designed merely to stall for time. Many of the offers in these “negotiations” are actually worse than the Education Minister’s initial proposals (for example, adding in cuts to education programmes on top of fee increases).
The Liberal Party in Quebec, concerned about the upcoming provincial elections which will take place this coming fall, have since tried to use “chaos in the streets” hysteria to distract voters from the numerous corruption allegations against them. It is estimated that as much as three quarters of the financing for the main traditional parties of Quebec is obtained illegally. By taking a hard line against demonstrators, they hoped to apply pressure that would divide and potentially break up the movement while simultaneously courting the “law and order” vote.
In line with this strategy, the new education minister Michelle Courchesne immediately proposed and proceeded to ram through a repressive new anti-protest law known as Bill 78, which went into effect on 18 May, mere days after Courchesne took over from Beauchamp. As a “special law” which specifically targets the political rights of the demonstrators, Bill 78 not only restricts education employees’ right to strike but more generally inhibits the freedom to protest on or near university grounds. It requires that all demonstrations receive approval from the police before taking place.
Far from curtailing protests or breaking up the movement, however, the law has stirred up even more outrage in broader layers of society; the protests in defiance of the law were the largest yet, with up to 500,000 marching in Montreal in ‘the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history’.
Historical roots of the student strike
Bruno-Pierre Guillette from Alternative Socialiste (CWI in Quebec), who introduced the CWI School commission on Quebec, began his remarks by comparing the student strike movement today to the ‘Quiet Revolution’ that transformed Quebec in the 1960s and 1970s.
Like the current ‘Quebecois spring’, the Quiet Revolution was an expression of a profound social crisis in Quebecois society. Despite never reaching the numerical size that today’s student strikes have at their height, these earlier movements had strong revolutionary currents within them. They were able to transform the political landscape and win reforms which improved the lives of millions. The Quiet Revolution marked the beginning of a powerful student movement, and between 1968 and 1977 there were major strike actions, most notably in 1972, which was one of the largest working class rebellions in North American history.
The development of a more secular society and the welfare state was accompanied by the rise of a stronger Quebecois national identity. The industries of health care and education, which had previously been in the hands of the Catholic Church, were taken over by the provincial government; corresponding Ministries of Education and Health were created. The civil service was unionized and electricity production and distribution were nationalized. There was massive public investment in infrastructure and education.
The years 1988-89 marked the decline of the student movement in Quebec as a call for a general student strike was unsuccessful. The Quebec Federation of College Students (FECQ), created after the experience of the failed strike, quickly took a turn towards collaboration with the university bureaucracies and bourgeois politicians and away from independent struggle. Today this organization continues to pursue a collaborationist policy and maintains ties with the centre-left nationalist Parti Québécois (PQ).
Still, there was another student strike in 1996 which resulted in a 10-year tuition freeze. Since then, both the PQ and the Liberal Party have been actively complicit in carrying out austerity measures. In 2005, the Minister of Education decided to change scholarships into student loans (which, unlike scholarships, would have to be repaid). This resulted in a massive student strike, which was successful in stopping this measure despite the heavily co-opted main student federations being used as a tool of the government against the radical wing of the movement.
It is only because of these earlier movements that Quebec’s tuition fees are so much lower than the rest of Canada’s to begin with and now the government is attempting to eliminate the hard-won gains of the past all in one fell swoop.
The tuition freeze expired in 2006 and fees have been on the rise ever since. The average Quebec university student now graduates with C$14,000 in personal student debt. This reality has served as the backdrop to the current struggle and provided the combustible material that allowed for the explosive movement of today.
The role of police repression and Bill 78
Bill 78 was the attempt of the Quebec ruling class to contain that explosion. This attempt has so far profoundly backfired on them; turning up the heat and pressure has only made the explosion more powerful.
Since the passage of Bill 78, support for the student movement in broader society has only increased. Layers of workers and activists who took part in the demonstrations previously are now coming out in defiance of the law because they are enraged by its assault on basic political rights of individuals to organize and protest.
Nonetheless, because of Bill 78’s highly repressive and undemocratic nature, it is a danger to all future movements. As such, it is urgently necessary to fight to overturn it.
Due to this law, it is now legally forbidden to have spontaneous demonstrations; everything must be reported to the police eight hours in advance or the protest is deemed illegal. Police now have the power to order changes in the timing, location, itinerary, and march routes of demonstrations. Protests or pickets within 50 metres of a university building are now illegal.
As for the right to free association: if a student society decides to support the strike, it can not only face steep fines (up to C$125,000 per day), but be legally dissolved and forced out of existence. Individual participants can be fined up to C$5000 per day and leading organizers up to C$35,000 per day.
In the last four months, the police have arrested 3000 people in what have been termed “preventative arrests”, meaning that those arrested have not actually committed any unlawful acts (implied: yet). One tactic used by the police has been to simply block off a section of street filled with demonstrators and arrest everyone indiscriminately.
These arrests have been widely condemned both within Quebec and internationally. Ten people have been seriously injured by the police in these arrests, and according to activists in the movement it is only a matter of good luck that no protestors have been killed yet.
Students need to build concrete links with workers and unions
Although there is a “truce” for now over the summer, the students have elected a strike committee that will vote on whether to take further strike action in August, which seems likely. In order to fully defeat the neoliberal austerity policies of the government, however, it will require spreading the struggle to the organized working class of Quebec.
The basis for the working class to play a leading role is there. The current attacks have not been limited to targeting students: there are plans for a new “health tax”, and healthcare subscription costs have already gone up by a factor of eight since 2010. Workers across the province are fighting against layoffs and workplace closures. Rent and utility prices are rising while wages stagnate. In Canada, more broadly, Canadian Pacific Railway workers are planning a 72-hour strike for their pensions, while the Canadian federal government tries to pass its own “special law” like Bill 78 to make that strike illegal.
The situation is ripe for the anger of the working class to be channeled into active participation in this ongoing movement. Though workers have individually taken part in the demonstrations out of the strength of their own anger and convictions, organized support from workers’ unions has been limited mostly to lip service, so far.
Connected to this are union officials’ ties to the PQ. While it is the Liberal Party who has been leading the charge for austerity and against the demonstrators, the PQ does not have any principled disagreement with them. The main difference from the Liberals is they might bring in a few superficial reforms in attempt to take the wind out of the movement instead of a one-sided cracking down. To oppose neoliberal policies effectively, the workers and their unions but be able to act politically independently from all pro-capitalist parties, including the PQ.
For the moment, the student movement’s main call to workers has been for them to use sick days to come out to demonstrations rather than take actual strike action. At the same time, they have raised the general idea of a “social strike” of all who oppose austerity. The ability to organize this type of strike action, societal in scope and political in character, is precisely what will determine the success or failure of the movement to achieve fundamental change in the long run.
If the students remain alone at the end of August, when the government intends to force them all back to the universities, this will not bode well for the movement’s success.
Will unions join student struggle?
So the key question hanging over the movement in the period ahead is: when classes start again in the fall, will the unions rise up and join the movement and full partners, or will they stand aside and allow the strikes to be crushed?
The decisive factor in this situation is the degree of rank-and-file organization, activism, and political consciousness within the unions. The only way that the unions will be mobilized to enter the struggle in full force is by a relentless push from below. This type of development can be encouraged by bold calls to the unions from the student movement. Socialists, in particular, have an important role to play in popularising the idea of a united anti-austerity fight back amongst all sections of the movement.
This is the work that Alternative Socialiste (CWI in Quebec) is doing right now, concretely by calling for a 24-hour general strike as the next step to bring together workers and students against austerity, for free education at all levels, and for decent jobs for all to combat youth unemployment.
Regardless of what happens in the fall, the raising of consciousness this movement has brought about cannot be erased. Together with the Wisconsin uprising and the advent of the Occupy movement last year, the picture is becoming increasingly clear for all to see: class struggle is back on the agenda in North America.
Monday, 2 July 2012
Global youth unemployment a damning indictment of capitalism
With the shocking statistics of youth unemployment hitting new highs around the world I at its worse in Europe.
EU youth unemployment: 22.7%, Spain 52.1%, Greece 52.1%, Portugal 36.4%, Italy 36.2%, Ireland 28.5%, France 22.7%, UK 21.7%, Germany 7.9%
This for me is one of the most damning features of global capitalism. The way young people especially not exclusively mind you but I’m picking these out as being hit extremely hard since 2008. Youth unemployment has always been an issue but these numbers make bad reading for any pro market thinker. I am not and think this is one of the worst aspects of capitalism it’s not just the waste of young people’s talents it’s the hardship and the demoralisation it leaves young people with.
Young people are statistically more likely to end up unemployed again in later life if they have been unemployed in their younger life.
For capitalism which is a system based on producing things only if there is a way of making a profit out of something not for human need young people being thrown on the scrap heap seem like a price worth paying to the super rich out there.
The long term affects on health, well being, confidence, future prospects of a long term unemployed person can be devastating. I know many people who have left university well qualified and looking for a good job and having to fight for a part time job just to get by. The jobs most graduates take now are not what they trained for and their talents are going to waste quite frankly.
Those graduates who are coming out of university today will be worse off than their parents who came before. This is the first generation who cannot expect a good well paid job and a stable living. Their life will be blighted by short term work, casual part time work. Low pay and little to no pension at the end of it. This is austerity Britain and the world capitalism has given us. Meanwhile the richest 1% has increased its wealth over and over by pushing wages of ordinary workers down to extreme levels in pursuit of even greater profits for themselves.
When the governments tell us there is work out there we should be saying clearly where? There are 6 people worse in many areas across the country chasing every 1 job. I was never very good at maths at school but even I can work out that doesn’t work and will result in mass unemployment.
Although these are the official statistics this masks the true picture of a lot more in part time jobs on low pay poverty pay some might say and those who are not even registered as unemployed but are still. The situation is bad but going to get a hell of a lot worse yet as we’ve only seen an estimated 15% of the planned austerity cuts.
It’s time we fought back. Youth fight for jobs campaigns for decent paid socially useful jobs the reintroduction of EMA so young people can afford to go to college or university and the cancelling of all tuition fees. The money has been shown to be out there with 120 + billion being evaded by big rich corporations every year. With big business also sitting on a estimated 750 billion pounds a 50% initial levee on this and to force big business to start creating jobs if they do not we should nationalise the banks, the biggest business’s out there and run them for need not profit. Providing the jobs we need and the skills we need to with plenty of work needing to be done.
I would start with a mass social housing programme of a million houses being built a year there is currently 5 million people on the council housing waiting list. Why not build for need instead of only building new homes if a profit is realisable. Lets kick the market out as its failed us let’s bring housing, jobs and our NHS back into public ownership and let the workers of this world run society for the many not the few.
EU youth unemployment: 22.7%, Spain 52.1%, Greece 52.1%, Portugal 36.4%, Italy 36.2%, Ireland 28.5%, France 22.7%, UK 21.7%, Germany 7.9%
This for me is one of the most damning features of global capitalism. The way young people especially not exclusively mind you but I’m picking these out as being hit extremely hard since 2008. Youth unemployment has always been an issue but these numbers make bad reading for any pro market thinker. I am not and think this is one of the worst aspects of capitalism it’s not just the waste of young people’s talents it’s the hardship and the demoralisation it leaves young people with.
Young people are statistically more likely to end up unemployed again in later life if they have been unemployed in their younger life.
For capitalism which is a system based on producing things only if there is a way of making a profit out of something not for human need young people being thrown on the scrap heap seem like a price worth paying to the super rich out there.
The long term affects on health, well being, confidence, future prospects of a long term unemployed person can be devastating. I know many people who have left university well qualified and looking for a good job and having to fight for a part time job just to get by. The jobs most graduates take now are not what they trained for and their talents are going to waste quite frankly.
Those graduates who are coming out of university today will be worse off than their parents who came before. This is the first generation who cannot expect a good well paid job and a stable living. Their life will be blighted by short term work, casual part time work. Low pay and little to no pension at the end of it. This is austerity Britain and the world capitalism has given us. Meanwhile the richest 1% has increased its wealth over and over by pushing wages of ordinary workers down to extreme levels in pursuit of even greater profits for themselves.
When the governments tell us there is work out there we should be saying clearly where? There are 6 people worse in many areas across the country chasing every 1 job. I was never very good at maths at school but even I can work out that doesn’t work and will result in mass unemployment.
Although these are the official statistics this masks the true picture of a lot more in part time jobs on low pay poverty pay some might say and those who are not even registered as unemployed but are still. The situation is bad but going to get a hell of a lot worse yet as we’ve only seen an estimated 15% of the planned austerity cuts.
It’s time we fought back. Youth fight for jobs campaigns for decent paid socially useful jobs the reintroduction of EMA so young people can afford to go to college or university and the cancelling of all tuition fees. The money has been shown to be out there with 120 + billion being evaded by big rich corporations every year. With big business also sitting on a estimated 750 billion pounds a 50% initial levee on this and to force big business to start creating jobs if they do not we should nationalise the banks, the biggest business’s out there and run them for need not profit. Providing the jobs we need and the skills we need to with plenty of work needing to be done.
I would start with a mass social housing programme of a million houses being built a year there is currently 5 million people on the council housing waiting list. Why not build for need instead of only building new homes if a profit is realisable. Lets kick the market out as its failed us let’s bring housing, jobs and our NHS back into public ownership and let the workers of this world run society for the many not the few.
Sunday, 27 May 2012
Complete over reaction to Ukuncut’s street party protest outside Nick Cleggs home
Yesterday members of UKuncut a loose organisation targeted Nick Clegg and his home to hold a peaceful street party outside his home. This was not in anyway endangering anyone at all Nick Clegg wasn’t even in and his kids went. Ever since we have seen a complete backlash from the liberals and other such folk who claim to be on the left.
In my view no one was hurt and that wasn’t ever the intention. We may have disagreements with Ukuncut and their methods involved in protest but they are at least getting out there and trying to raise the issues which are affecting ordinary people in an imaginative way. Ok its not your average protest and isn’t march from A to B which we have been used to but fair play for having the guts to try something different and new. It got the news headlines for perhaps the wrong reasons but you can blame them for that. I think the over reaction to the fact that Nick cleggs kids could have been at home and would have felt threatened is nonsense and completely miss’s the point of the protest.
It is clear the journalists and those jumping up and down at this would be the ones who would be opposed to any sort of real fairness in society with ordinary people having a say and protest in their minds is only ok when it doesn’t inconvenience anyone. Well that’s been tried time after time and has not worked. This protest may not have worked but fair play to those at UKuncut they got off their armchairs and did something which few seem to be as we speak. Groups like UKuncut have sprung up precisely because the labour party and the labour movement too have not offered an alternative yet and people are being forced to go it alone.
You can hardly tell me that the trebling of tuition fees, selling of our NHS, some of the deepest harshest brutal cuts we have ever seen on the disabled among much much more is eve remotely comparable to an apparent threatening protest outside Nick Cleggs house. It’s frankly laughable.
In my view no one was hurt and that wasn’t ever the intention. We may have disagreements with Ukuncut and their methods involved in protest but they are at least getting out there and trying to raise the issues which are affecting ordinary people in an imaginative way. Ok its not your average protest and isn’t march from A to B which we have been used to but fair play for having the guts to try something different and new. It got the news headlines for perhaps the wrong reasons but you can blame them for that. I think the over reaction to the fact that Nick cleggs kids could have been at home and would have felt threatened is nonsense and completely miss’s the point of the protest.
It is clear the journalists and those jumping up and down at this would be the ones who would be opposed to any sort of real fairness in society with ordinary people having a say and protest in their minds is only ok when it doesn’t inconvenience anyone. Well that’s been tried time after time and has not worked. This protest may not have worked but fair play to those at UKuncut they got off their armchairs and did something which few seem to be as we speak. Groups like UKuncut have sprung up precisely because the labour party and the labour movement too have not offered an alternative yet and people are being forced to go it alone.
You can hardly tell me that the trebling of tuition fees, selling of our NHS, some of the deepest harshest brutal cuts we have ever seen on the disabled among much much more is eve remotely comparable to an apparent threatening protest outside Nick Cleggs house. It’s frankly laughable.
Saturday, 25 February 2012
The degrading of young people in society
So often we hear that young people are apathetic and not interested in the world around them. Since i have been heavily involved in politics and socialist politics in particular i have seen nothing of the sort. I have wittnessed a wide layer of young people wishing for a change in the way things are and a willingness to do something about it.
Only just before the student demonstrations against tuitian fees in december 2010 many news agencies of the capitalist pursuasion were making out no young people were interested in what was going on at the time.
How wrong could they be with up to 50 thousand plus on a march against tuitian fees and education cuts and attacks on young people as a whole hit London that year.
Since then young people have lead the way in the movements against this financial crisis. Showing a lead for trade unions and the labour movement to follow.
I am only 23 myself but i already have huge respect and solidarity for those younger than myself who for the first time are facing a worsening situation and will actually face a worse situation than their parents.
Children growing up today do not have a clue waht they are set to face with deeping youth unemployment and further education more a dream than a reality for many now
what is the future for many young people ?
Well youth fight for jobs along at www.youthfightforjobs.com and on twitter @youthfight4jobs are organising around the workfare scheme at the moment. Focusing their attacks on companies who wish to exploit young people paying them nothing just so they have a job but yet get paid nothing for it only recieving their benifits which they should get anyway.
All this results in a severe degrading of young peple and a feeling that we dont need young people we'll just make the older workers work longer in their jobs but pay them less.
Its not on, and youth fight for jobs aswell as others campaign for real jobs for young people , a reintroduction of EMA , free education for all and a mass job system paying decent socially useful wages for all to live on.
Only just before the student demonstrations against tuitian fees in december 2010 many news agencies of the capitalist pursuasion were making out no young people were interested in what was going on at the time.
How wrong could they be with up to 50 thousand plus on a march against tuitian fees and education cuts and attacks on young people as a whole hit London that year.
Since then young people have lead the way in the movements against this financial crisis. Showing a lead for trade unions and the labour movement to follow.
I am only 23 myself but i already have huge respect and solidarity for those younger than myself who for the first time are facing a worsening situation and will actually face a worse situation than their parents.
Children growing up today do not have a clue waht they are set to face with deeping youth unemployment and further education more a dream than a reality for many now
what is the future for many young people ?
Well youth fight for jobs along at www.youthfightforjobs.com and on twitter @youthfight4jobs are organising around the workfare scheme at the moment. Focusing their attacks on companies who wish to exploit young people paying them nothing just so they have a job but yet get paid nothing for it only recieving their benifits which they should get anyway.
All this results in a severe degrading of young peple and a feeling that we dont need young people we'll just make the older workers work longer in their jobs but pay them less.
Its not on, and youth fight for jobs aswell as others campaign for real jobs for young people , a reintroduction of EMA , free education for all and a mass job system paying decent socially useful wages for all to live on.
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Findings show that summer riots fuled by underlying anger
As we thought back at the time the riots in britain this summer was a outpour of pure frustration and anger in various fashions and for various different reasons. experts have been pouring over the evidence from then on and have come up with some startling findings.
Widespread anger and frustration at the way police engage with communities was a significant cause of the summer riots in every major city where disorder took place, the biggest study into their cause has found.
Hundreds of interviews with people who took part in the disturbances which spread across England in August revealed deep-seated and sometimes visceral antipathy towards police.
In a unique collaboration, the Guardian and London School of Economics (LSE) interviewed 270 people who rioted in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Manchester and Salford.
The project collected more than 1.3m words of first-person accounts from rioters, giving an unprecedented insight into what drove people to participate in England's most serious bout of civil unrest in a generation. Rioters revealed that a complex mix of grievances brought them on to the streets but analysts appointed by the LSE identified distrust and antipathy toward police as a key driving force.
Details of the research findings, which are also based on an analysis of an exclusive database of more than 2.5m riot-related tweets, will be unveiled in a series of reports over the next five days. Monday's findings include:
• Many rioters conceded that their involvement in looting was simply down to opportunism, saying that a perceived suspension of normal rules presented them with an opportunity to acquire goods and luxury items they could not ordinarily afford. They often described the riots as a chance to obtain "free stuff" or sought to justify the theft.
• Despite David Cameron saying gangs were "at the heart" of the disturbances, evidence shows they temporarily suspended hostilities. The effective four-day truce – which many said was unprecedented – applied to towns and cities across England. However, on the whole, the research found gang members played only a marginal role in the riots.
• Contrary to widespread speculation that rioters used social media to organise themselves and share "viral" information, sites such as Facebook and Twitter were not used in any significant way. However, BlackBerry phones – and the free messaging service known as "BBM" – were used extensively to communicate, share information and plan riots in advance.
• Although mainly young and male, those involved in the riots came from a cross-section of local communities. Just under half of those interviewed in the study were students. Of those who were not in education and were of working age, 59% were unemployed. Although half of those interviewed were black, people who took part in the disorder did not consider these "race riots".
• Rioters identified a range of political grievances, but at the heart of their complaints was a pervasive sense of injustice. For some this was economic: the lack of money, jobs or opportunity. For others it was more broadly social: how they felt they were treated compared with others. Many mentioned the increase in student tuition fees and the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance.
Although rioters expressed a mix of opinions about the disorder, many of those involved said they felt like they were participating in explicitly anti-police riots. They cited "policing" as the most significant cause of the riots, and anger over the police shooting of Mark Duggan, which triggered initial disturbances in Tottenham, was repeatedly mentioned – even outside London.
The most common complaints related to people's everyday experience of policing, with many expressing deep frustration at the way people in their communities were subjected to stop and search. An independent panel set up by the government in the aftermath of the riots identified stop and search as a possible "motivation factor" for black and Asian rioters.
In findings released last week, the panel – which took evidence from riot-hit communities and victims, but did not speak to rioters – concluded there was no single cause for the riots, but urged police to improve the way stop and search is conducted. "Where young law-abiding people are repeatedly targeted there is a very real danger that stop and search will have a corrosive effect on their relationship with the police," it said.Of those interviewed in the Reading the Riots study, 73% said they had been stopped and searched in the previous 12 months. They were more than eight times more likely to have been stopped and searched in the previous year than the general population in London.
This goes to show that the actions of a tory government at the helm with savage deep cuts being driven through in local areas such as Tottenham by their new labour collaborators in local councils such as Tottenham. Many of the findings confirm what we as socialists have thought all along about the riots and that the conclusions drawn by the government to claim we need harder tougher policing is entirely the wrong thing to do and would only anger young disenfranchised people even more.
With a estimate of 1.2 million young people out of work and not in training and with this figure only a estimate and set to rise i sadly can only see the repeat of such events we witnessed this summer. They may not be started the same way or triggered in a similar fashion as this summers riots but no doubt the anger still lives on in those communities.
Widespread anger and frustration at the way police engage with communities was a significant cause of the summer riots in every major city where disorder took place, the biggest study into their cause has found.
Hundreds of interviews with people who took part in the disturbances which spread across England in August revealed deep-seated and sometimes visceral antipathy towards police.
In a unique collaboration, the Guardian and London School of Economics (LSE) interviewed 270 people who rioted in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Manchester and Salford.
The project collected more than 1.3m words of first-person accounts from rioters, giving an unprecedented insight into what drove people to participate in England's most serious bout of civil unrest in a generation. Rioters revealed that a complex mix of grievances brought them on to the streets but analysts appointed by the LSE identified distrust and antipathy toward police as a key driving force.
Details of the research findings, which are also based on an analysis of an exclusive database of more than 2.5m riot-related tweets, will be unveiled in a series of reports over the next five days. Monday's findings include:
• Many rioters conceded that their involvement in looting was simply down to opportunism, saying that a perceived suspension of normal rules presented them with an opportunity to acquire goods and luxury items they could not ordinarily afford. They often described the riots as a chance to obtain "free stuff" or sought to justify the theft.
• Despite David Cameron saying gangs were "at the heart" of the disturbances, evidence shows they temporarily suspended hostilities. The effective four-day truce – which many said was unprecedented – applied to towns and cities across England. However, on the whole, the research found gang members played only a marginal role in the riots.
• Contrary to widespread speculation that rioters used social media to organise themselves and share "viral" information, sites such as Facebook and Twitter were not used in any significant way. However, BlackBerry phones – and the free messaging service known as "BBM" – were used extensively to communicate, share information and plan riots in advance.
• Although mainly young and male, those involved in the riots came from a cross-section of local communities. Just under half of those interviewed in the study were students. Of those who were not in education and were of working age, 59% were unemployed. Although half of those interviewed were black, people who took part in the disorder did not consider these "race riots".
• Rioters identified a range of political grievances, but at the heart of their complaints was a pervasive sense of injustice. For some this was economic: the lack of money, jobs or opportunity. For others it was more broadly social: how they felt they were treated compared with others. Many mentioned the increase in student tuition fees and the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance.
Although rioters expressed a mix of opinions about the disorder, many of those involved said they felt like they were participating in explicitly anti-police riots. They cited "policing" as the most significant cause of the riots, and anger over the police shooting of Mark Duggan, which triggered initial disturbances in Tottenham, was repeatedly mentioned – even outside London.
The most common complaints related to people's everyday experience of policing, with many expressing deep frustration at the way people in their communities were subjected to stop and search. An independent panel set up by the government in the aftermath of the riots identified stop and search as a possible "motivation factor" for black and Asian rioters.
In findings released last week, the panel – which took evidence from riot-hit communities and victims, but did not speak to rioters – concluded there was no single cause for the riots, but urged police to improve the way stop and search is conducted. "Where young law-abiding people are repeatedly targeted there is a very real danger that stop and search will have a corrosive effect on their relationship with the police," it said.Of those interviewed in the Reading the Riots study, 73% said they had been stopped and searched in the previous 12 months. They were more than eight times more likely to have been stopped and searched in the previous year than the general population in London.
This goes to show that the actions of a tory government at the helm with savage deep cuts being driven through in local areas such as Tottenham by their new labour collaborators in local councils such as Tottenham. Many of the findings confirm what we as socialists have thought all along about the riots and that the conclusions drawn by the government to claim we need harder tougher policing is entirely the wrong thing to do and would only anger young disenfranchised people even more.
With a estimate of 1.2 million young people out of work and not in training and with this figure only a estimate and set to rise i sadly can only see the repeat of such events we witnessed this summer. They may not be started the same way or triggered in a similar fashion as this summers riots but no doubt the anger still lives on in those communities.
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Unemployed Britain, figures show unemployment on the rise
• Nearly 2.5m people unemployed
• Benefit claimants rise to 1.56m
• Number of women out of work highest since 1988
• Record number are self-employed or working part time
• Youth unemployment pushes back towards 1m
Are just a few of the figures out today from the office of national statistics. All this makes grim news for us all. The governments plans are clearly not working and there is no recovery no matter what they say. It is clear now that the job market in this country is static very few jobs are being created and where they are they are often low paid and poor conditions often part time too.
It is time to tell this government that there is a job crisis in this country and something needs to be done. The bill for people on job seekers allowance will rise as more people loose their job over the next 4 years of this present government then who knows what after that. It is worrying for many young people in particular growing up today facing fewer and fewer opputunities in society for them. A lack of jobs is just one of them.
Youth Fight for Jobs will be marching from Jarrow to London this october to highlight the need for more jobs for young people and the lack of opputunities young people have today.
We also expect and hope the NUS, The national Union of Students to call a national Demonstration for later this eyar too to highlight the lack of jobs and again to put pressure on this government to reverse its decision to treble tuitian fees to 9 grand a year .
The figures out today are worrying also for people set to loose their jobs over the next year or so too. The more unemployed people there are out there the harder it will be for people made redundant to find work again. Further increasing the problem.
But the tories do not worry about mass unemployment they will just blame it on lazy benifit scroungign culture and claim people are not looking hard enough for jobs. Absolute nonsense when there are few jobs it is ridiculously hard to get a job. Even if you have come out of university and have been lucky enough to come out with reasonably small debt you are not even garunteed a job then. So what good will going to university be when at the end you still cant find a job and are told you have no experience so we dont want you.
It is very demoralising for young people and its these people who we face loosing for good if we do not act now and start standing up for young people and their lack of opputunities.
• Benefit claimants rise to 1.56m
• Number of women out of work highest since 1988
• Record number are self-employed or working part time
• Youth unemployment pushes back towards 1m
Are just a few of the figures out today from the office of national statistics. All this makes grim news for us all. The governments plans are clearly not working and there is no recovery no matter what they say. It is clear now that the job market in this country is static very few jobs are being created and where they are they are often low paid and poor conditions often part time too.
It is time to tell this government that there is a job crisis in this country and something needs to be done. The bill for people on job seekers allowance will rise as more people loose their job over the next 4 years of this present government then who knows what after that. It is worrying for many young people in particular growing up today facing fewer and fewer opputunities in society for them. A lack of jobs is just one of them.
Youth Fight for Jobs will be marching from Jarrow to London this october to highlight the need for more jobs for young people and the lack of opputunities young people have today.
We also expect and hope the NUS, The national Union of Students to call a national Demonstration for later this eyar too to highlight the lack of jobs and again to put pressure on this government to reverse its decision to treble tuitian fees to 9 grand a year .
The figures out today are worrying also for people set to loose their jobs over the next year or so too. The more unemployed people there are out there the harder it will be for people made redundant to find work again. Further increasing the problem.
But the tories do not worry about mass unemployment they will just blame it on lazy benifit scroungign culture and claim people are not looking hard enough for jobs. Absolute nonsense when there are few jobs it is ridiculously hard to get a job. Even if you have come out of university and have been lucky enough to come out with reasonably small debt you are not even garunteed a job then. So what good will going to university be when at the end you still cant find a job and are told you have no experience so we dont want you.
It is very demoralising for young people and its these people who we face loosing for good if we do not act now and start standing up for young people and their lack of opputunities.
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
The "Youth of today"
It is tough growing up in the world today. The youth are under huge pressures now more than ever. With 1 million unemployed as we stand it is no wonder so many young people are angry about the situation they find themselves in.
Coupled with the fact next year the 9 thousand pounds a year of tuitian fees will be brought in. This as i have previously talked about on here will fule a new sense of anger in students as they look for alternatives and see very little.
The things that havent been discussed about the increase in tuitian fees is the added pressure that will go with that. The cut in higher education funding will affect the choices students and universities have in what courses they can do.
It is a bleak choice for students and young people at the moment growing up in a world where nearly every night there is bad negative news on the tv stating which country is needing a bail out of its debt next. They then hear how much debt they will be in if they do try and fulfill their ambitions at university . All this must make them feel like they are up to their neck in debt and no way out of this cycle.
This is not fair. On a young generation which hold the key to moving us all forward in many ways as they are the future are being victimised from all angles.
We see only this week even further evidence with the jailing of Charlie Gilmore from the magnificent students demonstrations last year in December. Many were arrested and detained against their will in kettles and there are legal proceedings going through against that and the police who kettled young students younger than 18 for excessive lengths of time and without food or water or toilet facilities. This is not on in my book it is bad enough to submit anyone to this sort of treatment but leta lone under 18's.
There is increasing attempts by the ruling class to clamp down on political protest from young people as we have seen with the handing out of harsh sentances to protesters who although acting a little stupid to say the least have been given harsh sentances. Like the 32 month sentance to Edward Woodwood for dropping a fire extinguisher off the top of Conservative HQ. Not excusing these students but i can totally understand the anger they feel and were hitting back due to their lack of opputunities from this government inflicting cuts and privatisation and less opputunities to them as a result.
What options are they left with when they feel they have no voice in a political sense. Not one of the main political parties speaks their language anymore. It was said the Lib Dems did support students and played very well on this fact last time at the election but this can no longer be true due to them selling out their pledges to vote with the tories for higher tuitian fees.
This was met with huge anger andaggression from many students and young people who just weeks before had seen their EMA decimated which is another vital component of a students life today giving them the chance to get to school and college and pay for their education materials.
We as socialists must show that there is a light and a chance for them to engage in class struggle but not turn to such dangerous tactics of anarchism. We would much rather they built up their anger and developed a good sense of collective power with their fellow students and took strike action, occupations and demonstrations on a mass scale. This is far more effective when organised properly.
The collective power of the organised working class cannot be underestimated. The trade unions and students need to merge into one now really as we aer all facing attacks from all angles and united we stand divided we fall.
The fact that there have been politically motivated arrests and jail sentances is all designed to put young people off protesting. This will not work as the harder they come down on them the stronger their views against the state will become. We must be there to channel that into a positive action rather than a negative one though.
This autumn many young people are reinacting the Jarrow to London march
"Youth Fight for Jobs is organising a march from Jarrow to London in October, in the footsteps of the unemployed seventy-five years ago. They marched for the right to work, to be able to have a job. It seems this government is forcing millions today to do the same. We will set off on 1 October, a day before the start of the Conservative conference, and arrive in London 5 weeks later on 5 November. We are calling on the anti-cuts movement, student activists, trade union members and unemployed workers to support our march."
Youth Fight for Jobs was launched in January 2009 to combat the effects of the recession on young people. It is supported by Unite, RMT, PCS, CWU, UCU, Bectu and many local trade union and student union groups.
We stand shulder to shoulder with these young people in their fight for a better opputunity in life.
THE RIGHT TO A DECENT JOB FOR ALL, WITH A LIVING WAGE OF AT LEAST £8 AN HOUR
NO TO CHEAP LABOUR APPRENTICESHIPS! ALL APPRENTICESHIPS TO PAY AT LEAST THE MINIMUM WAGE, WITH A JOB GUARANTEED AT THE END
NO TO UNIVERSITY FEES. SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN TO DEFEAT FEES.
These are just some of the basic demands young people want today we as the working class must support them and make them feel they are not alone and we as the workers are all in this together and together we can win.
Coupled with the fact next year the 9 thousand pounds a year of tuitian fees will be brought in. This as i have previously talked about on here will fule a new sense of anger in students as they look for alternatives and see very little.
The things that havent been discussed about the increase in tuitian fees is the added pressure that will go with that. The cut in higher education funding will affect the choices students and universities have in what courses they can do.
It is a bleak choice for students and young people at the moment growing up in a world where nearly every night there is bad negative news on the tv stating which country is needing a bail out of its debt next. They then hear how much debt they will be in if they do try and fulfill their ambitions at university . All this must make them feel like they are up to their neck in debt and no way out of this cycle.
This is not fair. On a young generation which hold the key to moving us all forward in many ways as they are the future are being victimised from all angles.
We see only this week even further evidence with the jailing of Charlie Gilmore from the magnificent students demonstrations last year in December. Many were arrested and detained against their will in kettles and there are legal proceedings going through against that and the police who kettled young students younger than 18 for excessive lengths of time and without food or water or toilet facilities. This is not on in my book it is bad enough to submit anyone to this sort of treatment but leta lone under 18's.
There is increasing attempts by the ruling class to clamp down on political protest from young people as we have seen with the handing out of harsh sentances to protesters who although acting a little stupid to say the least have been given harsh sentances. Like the 32 month sentance to Edward Woodwood for dropping a fire extinguisher off the top of Conservative HQ. Not excusing these students but i can totally understand the anger they feel and were hitting back due to their lack of opputunities from this government inflicting cuts and privatisation and less opputunities to them as a result.
What options are they left with when they feel they have no voice in a political sense. Not one of the main political parties speaks their language anymore. It was said the Lib Dems did support students and played very well on this fact last time at the election but this can no longer be true due to them selling out their pledges to vote with the tories for higher tuitian fees.
This was met with huge anger andaggression from many students and young people who just weeks before had seen their EMA decimated which is another vital component of a students life today giving them the chance to get to school and college and pay for their education materials.
We as socialists must show that there is a light and a chance for them to engage in class struggle but not turn to such dangerous tactics of anarchism. We would much rather they built up their anger and developed a good sense of collective power with their fellow students and took strike action, occupations and demonstrations on a mass scale. This is far more effective when organised properly.
The collective power of the organised working class cannot be underestimated. The trade unions and students need to merge into one now really as we aer all facing attacks from all angles and united we stand divided we fall.
The fact that there have been politically motivated arrests and jail sentances is all designed to put young people off protesting. This will not work as the harder they come down on them the stronger their views against the state will become. We must be there to channel that into a positive action rather than a negative one though.
This autumn many young people are reinacting the Jarrow to London march
"Youth Fight for Jobs is organising a march from Jarrow to London in October, in the footsteps of the unemployed seventy-five years ago. They marched for the right to work, to be able to have a job. It seems this government is forcing millions today to do the same. We will set off on 1 October, a day before the start of the Conservative conference, and arrive in London 5 weeks later on 5 November. We are calling on the anti-cuts movement, student activists, trade union members and unemployed workers to support our march."
Youth Fight for Jobs was launched in January 2009 to combat the effects of the recession on young people. It is supported by Unite, RMT, PCS, CWU, UCU, Bectu and many local trade union and student union groups.
We stand shulder to shoulder with these young people in their fight for a better opputunity in life.
THE RIGHT TO A DECENT JOB FOR ALL, WITH A LIVING WAGE OF AT LEAST £8 AN HOUR
NO TO CHEAP LABOUR APPRENTICESHIPS! ALL APPRENTICESHIPS TO PAY AT LEAST THE MINIMUM WAGE, WITH A JOB GUARANTEED AT THE END
NO TO UNIVERSITY FEES. SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN TO DEFEAT FEES.
These are just some of the basic demands young people want today we as the working class must support them and make them feel they are not alone and we as the workers are all in this together and together we can win.
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Social mobility out the window as rich kids allowed to buy extra university places
News this morning of plans to allow super wealthy families and their kids e xtra university places is rightly being slammed as a insult to all the good hard working students from less well off backgrounds.
Universities such as Oxford could offer extra places to students who can pay the fees up front rather than taking out state-funded loans, under the governments plans. Photograph: Lonely Planet Images/Alamy
Teenagers from the wealthiest families would be able to pay for extra places at the most competitive universities under government proposals that could allow institutions to charge some British students the same high fees as overseas undergraduates.
Candidates who take up the extra places would not be eligible for publicly funded loans to pay tuition fees or living costs, limiting this option to all but the most privileged households who could pay fees up front.
Under the plans, the extra students may be charged as much as international undergraduates. At the most competitive universities, these students face fees ranging from £12,000 a year for arts subjects to £18,000 for sciences and more than £28,000 for medicine. Applicants would be required to meet the course entry requirements.
The changes would give more students the chance to attend their first choice of university. At present, the government sets a quota of undergraduate places that English universities are allowed to offer each year.
Employers and charities will also be encouraged to sponsor "off-quota" places under the plans to be outlined in a higher education white paper in the summer.
Ministers argue that the creation of extra places will boost social mobility by freeing up more publicly subsidised places for undergraduates from poorer homes.
But the proposals are likely to be criticised as a means for the wealthiest to "buy places" at a time when the government is to cut 10,000 publicly funded places.
The universities minister, David Willetts, told the Guardian: "There are various important issues that need to be addressed around off-quota places, but I start from the view that an increase in the total number of higher education places could aid social mobility.
"There would need to be arrangements to make sure any such system was fair and worked in the interests of students as well as institutions. But it is not clear what the benefit is of the current rules, which, for example, limit the ability of charities or social enterprises to sponsor students.
"We are inviting ideas on the whole concept and we will listen very carefully to all the responses we receive."
The proposal is most likely to be taken up by highly selective institutions, which turn away thousands of qualified candidates a year. Oxford accepted slightly more than 3,000 British and EU undergraduates out of about 17,000 who applied for the current academic year.
That demand is due to intensify as the latest application figures show the number of candidates for this autumn has risen by 2.1% to about 633,000 – another record high.
The places may not be covered by access agreements, under which universities are required to outline how they will improve their proportion of students from state schools and deprived backgrounds.
Under one version of the scheme, universities might operate a "needs-blind" admissions process, which assesses all candidates regardless of their ability to pay, but then offers places off-quota to candidates from the most privileged homes.
The expansion of places will put greater pressure on less popular universities. Ministers have warned that undersubscribed institutions could have government-funded places withdrawn.
In a speech last month, the business secretary, Vince Cable, said: "Institutions could very well find themselves in trouble if students can't see value. In circumstances where places are unfilled, we might withdraw those places, and institutions should not assume they will easily get them back."
This is more likely to happen if more sought-after universities are free to expand in response to student demand.
The government is also keen to encourage more corporate sponsorship of university places. The accountancy firm KPMG has unveiled a plan to pay fees for students at universities including Durham, in a training programme leading to an honours degree in accounting.
These students also fall outside government restrictions on numbers, chiefly because they are on bespoke courses reserved for one firm's employees. They do not need financial support as KPMG covers their fees and pays them a salary.
The current version of the scheme is, in effect, an outsourcing of corporate training, but the range of education on offer could become more diverse in future.
This sounds to me like the first stage of privatising our higher education sector. The fact that business's can buy courses for trainees is just introducing private money into the sector. This smells very suspicious much like the NHS plans by the tories.
How can they have the nerve to say this will encourage social mobility is beyond me. It is distinctly unfair and is attempting to create a usand them situation with the wealthier families paying for a better future for their sons or daughters.
It is fundementally unfair and must be opposed in my view.
Universities such as Oxford could offer extra places to students who can pay the fees up front rather than taking out state-funded loans, under the governments plans. Photograph: Lonely Planet Images/Alamy
Teenagers from the wealthiest families would be able to pay for extra places at the most competitive universities under government proposals that could allow institutions to charge some British students the same high fees as overseas undergraduates.
Candidates who take up the extra places would not be eligible for publicly funded loans to pay tuition fees or living costs, limiting this option to all but the most privileged households who could pay fees up front.
Under the plans, the extra students may be charged as much as international undergraduates. At the most competitive universities, these students face fees ranging from £12,000 a year for arts subjects to £18,000 for sciences and more than £28,000 for medicine. Applicants would be required to meet the course entry requirements.
The changes would give more students the chance to attend their first choice of university. At present, the government sets a quota of undergraduate places that English universities are allowed to offer each year.
Employers and charities will also be encouraged to sponsor "off-quota" places under the plans to be outlined in a higher education white paper in the summer.
Ministers argue that the creation of extra places will boost social mobility by freeing up more publicly subsidised places for undergraduates from poorer homes.
But the proposals are likely to be criticised as a means for the wealthiest to "buy places" at a time when the government is to cut 10,000 publicly funded places.
The universities minister, David Willetts, told the Guardian: "There are various important issues that need to be addressed around off-quota places, but I start from the view that an increase in the total number of higher education places could aid social mobility.
"There would need to be arrangements to make sure any such system was fair and worked in the interests of students as well as institutions. But it is not clear what the benefit is of the current rules, which, for example, limit the ability of charities or social enterprises to sponsor students.
"We are inviting ideas on the whole concept and we will listen very carefully to all the responses we receive."
The proposal is most likely to be taken up by highly selective institutions, which turn away thousands of qualified candidates a year. Oxford accepted slightly more than 3,000 British and EU undergraduates out of about 17,000 who applied for the current academic year.
That demand is due to intensify as the latest application figures show the number of candidates for this autumn has risen by 2.1% to about 633,000 – another record high.
The places may not be covered by access agreements, under which universities are required to outline how they will improve their proportion of students from state schools and deprived backgrounds.
Under one version of the scheme, universities might operate a "needs-blind" admissions process, which assesses all candidates regardless of their ability to pay, but then offers places off-quota to candidates from the most privileged homes.
The expansion of places will put greater pressure on less popular universities. Ministers have warned that undersubscribed institutions could have government-funded places withdrawn.
In a speech last month, the business secretary, Vince Cable, said: "Institutions could very well find themselves in trouble if students can't see value. In circumstances where places are unfilled, we might withdraw those places, and institutions should not assume they will easily get them back."
This is more likely to happen if more sought-after universities are free to expand in response to student demand.
The government is also keen to encourage more corporate sponsorship of university places. The accountancy firm KPMG has unveiled a plan to pay fees for students at universities including Durham, in a training programme leading to an honours degree in accounting.
These students also fall outside government restrictions on numbers, chiefly because they are on bespoke courses reserved for one firm's employees. They do not need financial support as KPMG covers their fees and pays them a salary.
The current version of the scheme is, in effect, an outsourcing of corporate training, but the range of education on offer could become more diverse in future.
This sounds to me like the first stage of privatising our higher education sector. The fact that business's can buy courses for trainees is just introducing private money into the sector. This smells very suspicious much like the NHS plans by the tories.
How can they have the nerve to say this will encourage social mobility is beyond me. It is distinctly unfair and is attempting to create a usand them situation with the wealthier families paying for a better future for their sons or daughters.
It is fundementally unfair and must be opposed in my view.
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Young people of today betrayed by the media
I was talking casually to a guy in the pub last night and we got on to the news and the world we live in and all that and it turned to young people. As i'm still relatively young myself i found this interesting to hear this guys views on things.
The guy must have been in his 60's i would imagine and he made the point that young people are no different today to what they were back when he was a young lad growing up. He made a strong case to say that back then jobs were far easier to come by and the opputunities were there for all if they wanted them.
He said that coupled with the media trying to paint young people constantly in a negative fashion the employers are prejudice to young people thinking they are all the same and no one wants to work.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I agreed with this guy on many points but i think this point he raises is crucial.
I posted on this blog not so long ago that unemployment figures for todays youth is staggeringly high with many graduates leaving university not being able to find work. It is no easier for those who do not attend university and the point university i will revisit during this piece.
Even if you do not attend university there are no better chances for you either sadly. I dont like to paint a negative picuture of things myself eitehr but the sad facts are that there are very few jobs around at the moment. Certainly even fewer for the more practical people out there. I ask you where are the aprenterships for kids leaving school who possibly havent done so well academically but are still vital workers if trained properly.
I think another side to this is the fact due to capitalisms crisis at the moment and i see it contuining still no business or factory are willing to take a risk on a young untrained person. No one will take a school leaver under their wing and train them up. They would much rather go out there and pluck a foreign worker already trained and ready to go for next to nothing.
Now i'm not saying that is nessesarily wrong many companies do do that as money is everything to many companies now a days but where is the government in all this trying to encourage companies and firms to take a chance on a young person and train them up ?
But instead as i eluded to earlier the government seem to hold the youth of today in contempt take the trebeling of tuitian fees and the scrapping of the EMA grant to many less well off working class students.
Many people who aer parents now will probably most likely have had a better life than their parents but for the first time in many years kids growing up today may have less chances and a less chance of finding a job and moving on in life due to these deep rooted problems.
Lets make no mistake this is not a problem which has just come about over night. It has been a gradual selling off of our manufacturing industries under Margret Thatcher and previous labour governments. There is very little manual labour work out there it seems and even less opputunities to learn a trade either.
I and the excellent campaign backed by the socialist party - youth fight for jobs all agree that the youth of today are just as willing to work as ever and more than happy to pay their way and work for a living if the opputunities are there. Ok we all may need some encouragement from time to time but i personally think we are doing our children a great dis-service by running them down in our capitalist media. I think the youth of today is vitally important as what they learn now will be kept with them for life. So investing in our childrens future is no better way of keeping a country on the right track.
The guy must have been in his 60's i would imagine and he made the point that young people are no different today to what they were back when he was a young lad growing up. He made a strong case to say that back then jobs were far easier to come by and the opputunities were there for all if they wanted them.
He said that coupled with the media trying to paint young people constantly in a negative fashion the employers are prejudice to young people thinking they are all the same and no one wants to work.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I agreed with this guy on many points but i think this point he raises is crucial.
I posted on this blog not so long ago that unemployment figures for todays youth is staggeringly high with many graduates leaving university not being able to find work. It is no easier for those who do not attend university and the point university i will revisit during this piece.
Even if you do not attend university there are no better chances for you either sadly. I dont like to paint a negative picuture of things myself eitehr but the sad facts are that there are very few jobs around at the moment. Certainly even fewer for the more practical people out there. I ask you where are the aprenterships for kids leaving school who possibly havent done so well academically but are still vital workers if trained properly.
I think another side to this is the fact due to capitalisms crisis at the moment and i see it contuining still no business or factory are willing to take a risk on a young untrained person. No one will take a school leaver under their wing and train them up. They would much rather go out there and pluck a foreign worker already trained and ready to go for next to nothing.
Now i'm not saying that is nessesarily wrong many companies do do that as money is everything to many companies now a days but where is the government in all this trying to encourage companies and firms to take a chance on a young person and train them up ?
But instead as i eluded to earlier the government seem to hold the youth of today in contempt take the trebeling of tuitian fees and the scrapping of the EMA grant to many less well off working class students.
Many people who aer parents now will probably most likely have had a better life than their parents but for the first time in many years kids growing up today may have less chances and a less chance of finding a job and moving on in life due to these deep rooted problems.
Lets make no mistake this is not a problem which has just come about over night. It has been a gradual selling off of our manufacturing industries under Margret Thatcher and previous labour governments. There is very little manual labour work out there it seems and even less opputunities to learn a trade either.
I and the excellent campaign backed by the socialist party - youth fight for jobs all agree that the youth of today are just as willing to work as ever and more than happy to pay their way and work for a living if the opputunities are there. Ok we all may need some encouragement from time to time but i personally think we are doing our children a great dis-service by running them down in our capitalist media. I think the youth of today is vitally important as what they learn now will be kept with them for life. So investing in our childrens future is no better way of keeping a country on the right track.
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Education for the mass's not just the ruling class's
We are always learning from the day we are born till the day we die. Life is all about learning and learning well.
SO when the coalition government decided to treble student university tuitian fees thinking that the universities charging 9 thousand pounds would be the exception not the rule we all thought here we go again.
Today we find ourselves in the situation of nearly every university in the Uk charging 9 grand a year for its courses. This is due to the fact they have to charge the top rate to cover the gap in funding that has been cut from the higher education budget.
For myself who has spent a lot of time in education and still involved to a extent whilst i'm doing my open university course in social sciences i can appreciate how important a education is to people.
I could really understand the students anger last year on the demo's planned by the NUS who's handling of it all was pretty slow and sluggish in my view. But they had huge demo's with students putting the lib dems who they thought represented them sold out their pledges to vote for raising of tuitian fees.
No wonder so many students feel let down by this political class. The people like Nick Clegg and Vince cable and Simon Hughes should be ashamed of their actions. Worse is Simon hughes who obstained and couldnt even vote agianst the bill how spineless. It still must be very raw in the youth of todays minds and many students minds too.
I personall feel all education should be free for all. The price that a country spends on investing in its youth and students it will reap in the long run. Take Cuba for example where education is totally free there is a lot of very intelligent people who come out of Cuba and are very talented.
I do feel if the balance of the economy was adressed and wealth was redistributed fairly under a socialist society that education would be able to be free and peoples education would be deamed a very important asset to a country and its people. After all your skilled workforce is only as good as they are due to the education they have recieved i believe.
Another thing which i feel is totally unfair is private schools in this country. The likes of Eton where alot of the current tory party have progressed through is full of filthy rich kids and they are so isolated from the rest of society no wonder they grow up not understanding the way the rest of us live. So i do hope and think that if we ever do change our society and the economic power is shifted and distributed a lot more fairly then private schools will be abolished and made a thing of the past.
Private schools encourage elitism and are bad for society as they produce a them and us feeling which is not a fair way of thinking.
The fact that many private school are able to register themselves as charities and recieve charitable funding is just plain wrong in my opinion. The reason why so many who go to private school go on to do so well is that they are already half way there. Attending a school like Eton is that leg up that working class kids do not get. Working class students can still make it to the top dont get me wrong but we are seeing a far narrower market now which is increasingly being filled with privately educated people from a rich affluant background.
This is not a tory own issue most of the labour front bench in the House of Commons have been privately educated so a party taht was always rooted in the working class have been infiltrated by a political elite from a middle to upper class background.
As the title of this blogpost suggests i want to see education for the mass's not just the ruling class's. I want to see a good comprehensive schooling system where there is opputunities for working class kids to succeed. I think this can happen by abolishing private schools and making things a fair level playing field for all .
As at the end of the day i feel we have to be moving towards educating people to better society nnot like today where the sole purpose of education is to prepare you for work which is fair enough but it is to bring them through to make more money and become a part of the capitalist system sadly. I think in older life more people learn for their own enjoyment and to further their knowledge but when your younger it is all about working hard to get better grades to earn more and more money. It is still a money drive education system which under a socialist society would work in the opposite direction. Where you would learn for yourself but also to better society and for others too.
Nick Clegg last week was doing a speech on social mobility but untill the balance of power and wealth isnt just concentrated just with a select few at the top social mobility will continue to be a struggle for working class children. It is quite hypocritical of Clegg though to be lecturing us on social mobility when it was his party who campaigned against the rise in tuitian fees yet when in government with the tories went against all that and also cvoting to scrap the vital EMA grant which helped many working class students obtain expensive books and school equiptment aswell as ensuring they could afford to get to and from school. So how he feels that he is now in the position to lecture us on social mobility i will never know.
SO when the coalition government decided to treble student university tuitian fees thinking that the universities charging 9 thousand pounds would be the exception not the rule we all thought here we go again.
Today we find ourselves in the situation of nearly every university in the Uk charging 9 grand a year for its courses. This is due to the fact they have to charge the top rate to cover the gap in funding that has been cut from the higher education budget.
For myself who has spent a lot of time in education and still involved to a extent whilst i'm doing my open university course in social sciences i can appreciate how important a education is to people.
I could really understand the students anger last year on the demo's planned by the NUS who's handling of it all was pretty slow and sluggish in my view. But they had huge demo's with students putting the lib dems who they thought represented them sold out their pledges to vote for raising of tuitian fees.
No wonder so many students feel let down by this political class. The people like Nick Clegg and Vince cable and Simon Hughes should be ashamed of their actions. Worse is Simon hughes who obstained and couldnt even vote agianst the bill how spineless. It still must be very raw in the youth of todays minds and many students minds too.
I personall feel all education should be free for all. The price that a country spends on investing in its youth and students it will reap in the long run. Take Cuba for example where education is totally free there is a lot of very intelligent people who come out of Cuba and are very talented.
I do feel if the balance of the economy was adressed and wealth was redistributed fairly under a socialist society that education would be able to be free and peoples education would be deamed a very important asset to a country and its people. After all your skilled workforce is only as good as they are due to the education they have recieved i believe.
Another thing which i feel is totally unfair is private schools in this country. The likes of Eton where alot of the current tory party have progressed through is full of filthy rich kids and they are so isolated from the rest of society no wonder they grow up not understanding the way the rest of us live. So i do hope and think that if we ever do change our society and the economic power is shifted and distributed a lot more fairly then private schools will be abolished and made a thing of the past.
Private schools encourage elitism and are bad for society as they produce a them and us feeling which is not a fair way of thinking.
The fact that many private school are able to register themselves as charities and recieve charitable funding is just plain wrong in my opinion. The reason why so many who go to private school go on to do so well is that they are already half way there. Attending a school like Eton is that leg up that working class kids do not get. Working class students can still make it to the top dont get me wrong but we are seeing a far narrower market now which is increasingly being filled with privately educated people from a rich affluant background.
This is not a tory own issue most of the labour front bench in the House of Commons have been privately educated so a party taht was always rooted in the working class have been infiltrated by a political elite from a middle to upper class background.
As the title of this blogpost suggests i want to see education for the mass's not just the ruling class's. I want to see a good comprehensive schooling system where there is opputunities for working class kids to succeed. I think this can happen by abolishing private schools and making things a fair level playing field for all .
As at the end of the day i feel we have to be moving towards educating people to better society nnot like today where the sole purpose of education is to prepare you for work which is fair enough but it is to bring them through to make more money and become a part of the capitalist system sadly. I think in older life more people learn for their own enjoyment and to further their knowledge but when your younger it is all about working hard to get better grades to earn more and more money. It is still a money drive education system which under a socialist society would work in the opposite direction. Where you would learn for yourself but also to better society and for others too.
Nick Clegg last week was doing a speech on social mobility but untill the balance of power and wealth isnt just concentrated just with a select few at the top social mobility will continue to be a struggle for working class children. It is quite hypocritical of Clegg though to be lecturing us on social mobility when it was his party who campaigned against the rise in tuitian fees yet when in government with the tories went against all that and also cvoting to scrap the vital EMA grant which helped many working class students obtain expensive books and school equiptment aswell as ensuring they could afford to get to and from school. So how he feels that he is now in the position to lecture us on social mobility i will never know.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Youth unemployment figures up today, gov still with no plan for more jobs
So today we have learned unemployment rate for those aged from 16-24 up by 0.8 on the quarter to reach 20.6% the highest figure since records began in 1992. Very worrying neews indeed for those young people struggling to find a job out there today.
I am a socialist and the socialist party has a excellent campaign that has been going for sometime now and is becoming ever more rellevant as the months tick by. Their demands are simple
THE RIGHT TO A DECENT JOB FOR ALL, WITH A LIVING WAGE OF AT LEAST £8 AN HOUR
NO TO CHEAP LABOUR APPRENTICESHIPS! ALL APPRENTICESHIPS TO PAY AT LEAST THE MINIMUM WAGE, WITH A JOB GUARANTEED AT THE END
NO TO UNIVERSITY FEES. SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN TO DEFEAT FEES.
The last point there is very telling as we see week by week each university coming out and announcing it will be charging the top rate of 9 thousand pounds a year tuitian fees. This is despite the government telling us this price would be the exception not the norm.
Take Hull in yorkshire one of the worst areas in teh country for youth unemployment.
Welcome to Hull - capital of youth unemployment. Where 50% of young men leave school without a single A*-C grade GCSE. Where chlamydia, gonorrhoea and teenage pregnancy are at the highest levels in the country. Where youth services face being slashed by 75%. And where 40% of people are employed by the city council which is about to cut 1,350 jobs.
The young people of this city have been abandoned. The Lib Dem council is in charge of a budget that is supposed to provide for some of the neediest young people in the country, yet they see fit to cut their provisions to barely a quarter of the already inadequate funding.
Young people in Hull will lose their youth centres, their sexual health clinics, their after school clubs, their EMA and the Learning Zone, a ten week course based at the KC stadium with local rugby and football teams.
Even the shining star of youth provisions, the Albemarle Music Centre, hasn't escaped the axe. 600 young musicians a week use this centre. It is home to the Yorkshire Young Musicians and the Hull Philharmonic orchestra, as well as 18 other musical ensembles. However, the centre will lose all of its funding.
There is huge anger about the impending cuts. It even triggered a youth-led demonstration during half term. Hundreds of young people and youth workers protested outside the city hall, outside the train station and outside the guildhall, with young people from the Albemarle staging musical protests at each location.
However, this will not be enough. The council will stand firm, despite the pressure of thousands of workers, youth and trade unionists protesting already. The only alternative being offered in the council chamber is a Labour group wanting to cut salaries rather than lead a real fightback.
Hull Youth Fight for Jobs will be joining the march from Jarrow to London in October to call for a better future for young people. We want action from the government to provide jobs, training and decent welfare.
To get involved with any part of the march or for information on other ways you can help see www.jarrow2london2011.wordpress.com
aswell as Hull there is Lewisham in south London one of the most deprieved areas in the whole of the country and again it is having its budget cut by labour and the tories by a huge amount. It is outrageous that those who need the help most will not get it no longer.
New figures show that Lewisham has the highest level of youth unemployment in Britain with 35.8% of 16-24 year unemployed in the borough. Due to cuts in funding from the council services for unemployed youth will close their doors. Within the next month Connexions and Opening Doors will close down.
The lack of common sense from Lewisham council is astounding. It is outrageous that at the same time as these figures coming out they refuse to provide the funding necessary to keep these vital services going. Many young people rely on services like Connexions and Opening Doors to help them out of the misery of unemployment.
We say that councils should be funding services to create work and keep people off the dole queue. We are holding this demonstration to show the council and the ConDem government that young people won't take attacks on our futures lying down. We won't be a lost generation, we will fight for real jobs and a decent education.
Lastly i'd just like to bring to peoples attention the Jarrow march that is taking place this October i myself will be helping out with this if i can as the route comes into our area and would love to show solidarity with the youth marching to London to protest about the lack of jobs for the youth of today.
This October will mark the 75th anniversary of the Jarrow March against unemployment. Recent figures have shown that the issue of unemployment still exists especially amongst youths. At present there are 965,000 16-24 year olds who are unemployed.
Youth Fight for Jobs will bring the issue right to the fore by holding a march from Jarrow to London, starting on 1 October and ending on 5 November. We will be holding the protest to demand decent jobs and a free education for young people.
Youth Fight for Jobs, National Organiser Paul Callanan says: "Young people now face the worst attacks on our rights and living standards we've seen in generations. The government is determined to push through cuts that will limit opportunities for youth even further. They also want to see unemployed youth used as slave labour for big business by putting people on work for dole schemes. With the brutal attacks being made on the right to an education as well, we really feel that every avenue is being closed off for people who want a decent future.
"We will be marching from Jarrow to London in October to show this Con-Dem government that we will not see all the gains made by working class people over the last century blotted out of existence. We want to put the issue of youth unemployment right at the top of the agenda. As well as the march we will be building protests, demonstrations and rallies up and down the country in solidarity with the march, with the aim of linking up student activists, trade unionists, those fighting against the cuts and the unemployed.
"This is the time for young people to say; "we won't be a lost generation! Fight for jobs and education!"
I am a socialist and the socialist party has a excellent campaign that has been going for sometime now and is becoming ever more rellevant as the months tick by. Their demands are simple
THE RIGHT TO A DECENT JOB FOR ALL, WITH A LIVING WAGE OF AT LEAST £8 AN HOUR
NO TO CHEAP LABOUR APPRENTICESHIPS! ALL APPRENTICESHIPS TO PAY AT LEAST THE MINIMUM WAGE, WITH A JOB GUARANTEED AT THE END
NO TO UNIVERSITY FEES. SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN TO DEFEAT FEES.
The last point there is very telling as we see week by week each university coming out and announcing it will be charging the top rate of 9 thousand pounds a year tuitian fees. This is despite the government telling us this price would be the exception not the norm.
Take Hull in yorkshire one of the worst areas in teh country for youth unemployment.
Welcome to Hull - capital of youth unemployment. Where 50% of young men leave school without a single A*-C grade GCSE. Where chlamydia, gonorrhoea and teenage pregnancy are at the highest levels in the country. Where youth services face being slashed by 75%. And where 40% of people are employed by the city council which is about to cut 1,350 jobs.
The young people of this city have been abandoned. The Lib Dem council is in charge of a budget that is supposed to provide for some of the neediest young people in the country, yet they see fit to cut their provisions to barely a quarter of the already inadequate funding.
Young people in Hull will lose their youth centres, their sexual health clinics, their after school clubs, their EMA and the Learning Zone, a ten week course based at the KC stadium with local rugby and football teams.
Even the shining star of youth provisions, the Albemarle Music Centre, hasn't escaped the axe. 600 young musicians a week use this centre. It is home to the Yorkshire Young Musicians and the Hull Philharmonic orchestra, as well as 18 other musical ensembles. However, the centre will lose all of its funding.
There is huge anger about the impending cuts. It even triggered a youth-led demonstration during half term. Hundreds of young people and youth workers protested outside the city hall, outside the train station and outside the guildhall, with young people from the Albemarle staging musical protests at each location.
However, this will not be enough. The council will stand firm, despite the pressure of thousands of workers, youth and trade unionists protesting already. The only alternative being offered in the council chamber is a Labour group wanting to cut salaries rather than lead a real fightback.
Hull Youth Fight for Jobs will be joining the march from Jarrow to London in October to call for a better future for young people. We want action from the government to provide jobs, training and decent welfare.
To get involved with any part of the march or for information on other ways you can help see www.jarrow2london2011.wordpress.com
aswell as Hull there is Lewisham in south London one of the most deprieved areas in the whole of the country and again it is having its budget cut by labour and the tories by a huge amount. It is outrageous that those who need the help most will not get it no longer.
New figures show that Lewisham has the highest level of youth unemployment in Britain with 35.8% of 16-24 year unemployed in the borough. Due to cuts in funding from the council services for unemployed youth will close their doors. Within the next month Connexions and Opening Doors will close down.
The lack of common sense from Lewisham council is astounding. It is outrageous that at the same time as these figures coming out they refuse to provide the funding necessary to keep these vital services going. Many young people rely on services like Connexions and Opening Doors to help them out of the misery of unemployment.
We say that councils should be funding services to create work and keep people off the dole queue. We are holding this demonstration to show the council and the ConDem government that young people won't take attacks on our futures lying down. We won't be a lost generation, we will fight for real jobs and a decent education.
Lastly i'd just like to bring to peoples attention the Jarrow march that is taking place this October i myself will be helping out with this if i can as the route comes into our area and would love to show solidarity with the youth marching to London to protest about the lack of jobs for the youth of today.
This October will mark the 75th anniversary of the Jarrow March against unemployment. Recent figures have shown that the issue of unemployment still exists especially amongst youths. At present there are 965,000 16-24 year olds who are unemployed.
Youth Fight for Jobs will bring the issue right to the fore by holding a march from Jarrow to London, starting on 1 October and ending on 5 November. We will be holding the protest to demand decent jobs and a free education for young people.
Youth Fight for Jobs, National Organiser Paul Callanan says: "Young people now face the worst attacks on our rights and living standards we've seen in generations. The government is determined to push through cuts that will limit opportunities for youth even further. They also want to see unemployed youth used as slave labour for big business by putting people on work for dole schemes. With the brutal attacks being made on the right to an education as well, we really feel that every avenue is being closed off for people who want a decent future.
"We will be marching from Jarrow to London in October to show this Con-Dem government that we will not see all the gains made by working class people over the last century blotted out of existence. We want to put the issue of youth unemployment right at the top of the agenda. As well as the march we will be building protests, demonstrations and rallies up and down the country in solidarity with the march, with the aim of linking up student activists, trade unionists, those fighting against the cuts and the unemployed.
"This is the time for young people to say; "we won't be a lost generation! Fight for jobs and education!"
Monday, 21 February 2011
Leader of the NUS Aaron Porter to step down at last
SO news is breaking that the president of the NUS Aaron Porter is to not stand again for re-election in April. After months of dithering and inaction Aaron has taken it upon himself to stand down. This will be greted with relief from many students across the land who now see Aaron as a student hate figure. I do not personally have anything against the guy think he's alright as a person but as a leader of a movement of students he has ultimatly failed. It has not been a easy job of course with the unleashing of a radicailasation within students with teh hiking of tuitian fees to university.
The farce with Lib Dem ministers who signed a pledge not voting for raising of tuitian fees.
What also didnt help his cause was an internal NUS memo urged students to stop protesting against fees and described elements of the Government’s package as ‘progressive’. Vince Cable bragged about this on the BBC’s Question Time, giving Aaron the kiss of death
To date, the NUS Presidency has proved a fairly pain-free launchpad for a glamorous political career that ends in a Labour Cabinet: ask Jack Straw, Charles Clarke and Phil Woolas. Yes, you can expect a bit of sniping from the left, but in the past NUS Presidents have relished it while being easily able to marginalise radical elements.
But Aaron Porter chose the wrong time to be a Blairite at the helm of the student movement. If the joint NUS/UCU demo on November 10th had been half as big, Porter would still be in office. But it lit a torchpaper. No-one on left or right had a real sense of the burning anger on campuses and in sixth forms across the country. Unlike previous generations, many of today’s young people feel they have no future; they feel lied to and betrayed by a cynical political elite; and they believe they’re up against a Government with no mandate.
I do actually feel sorry for Porter in a way he has obviosly been thrusted into a difficult situation he wasnt prepared for but i do think he could have done a lot lot more.
I fully expect him to turn up in a safe labour seat though one day as a MP. He has the air of a careerist polititian to me and that wouldnt surprise me to see him as a MP one day. But for now the NUS must move on and try to fidn its next leader who can harness this growing anger within students at all levels. It will be a tough job for anyone stepping into it. I dont envy them but i do hope they get the right person for the job as the next few years could be crucial.
The farce with Lib Dem ministers who signed a pledge not voting for raising of tuitian fees.
What also didnt help his cause was an internal NUS memo urged students to stop protesting against fees and described elements of the Government’s package as ‘progressive’. Vince Cable bragged about this on the BBC’s Question Time, giving Aaron the kiss of death
To date, the NUS Presidency has proved a fairly pain-free launchpad for a glamorous political career that ends in a Labour Cabinet: ask Jack Straw, Charles Clarke and Phil Woolas. Yes, you can expect a bit of sniping from the left, but in the past NUS Presidents have relished it while being easily able to marginalise radical elements.
But Aaron Porter chose the wrong time to be a Blairite at the helm of the student movement. If the joint NUS/UCU demo on November 10th had been half as big, Porter would still be in office. But it lit a torchpaper. No-one on left or right had a real sense of the burning anger on campuses and in sixth forms across the country. Unlike previous generations, many of today’s young people feel they have no future; they feel lied to and betrayed by a cynical political elite; and they believe they’re up against a Government with no mandate.
I do actually feel sorry for Porter in a way he has obviosly been thrusted into a difficult situation he wasnt prepared for but i do think he could have done a lot lot more.
I fully expect him to turn up in a safe labour seat though one day as a MP. He has the air of a careerist polititian to me and that wouldnt surprise me to see him as a MP one day. But for now the NUS must move on and try to fidn its next leader who can harness this growing anger within students at all levels. It will be a tough job for anyone stepping into it. I dont envy them but i do hope they get the right person for the job as the next few years could be crucial.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Why the student movement isnt dead
Reading Sunny hundles pice on liberal conspiracy http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/02/08/why-the-student-movement-in-england-is-essentially-dead/ you'd be forgiven the youth and students have given up the fight. Maybe that's waht some want ? to say i told you so i dont know.
But i do not feel this movement is dead at all. Yes it has faced some big blows by the abolishment of EMA going throug hand trebling of tuitian fees. But there are still lots of fight and battles ahead. We will do well to remember the poll tax got pushed back even once it was made law so there is always hope where there is a will for the fight.
I personally feel the trades unions need to invigerate the students and bring them on board. Of course the NUS will not do anything now. They are too focused on electing its next careerist leader. Aaron Porter who has betrayed his members and all students by failing to act and even he admitted dithering about when it comes to actingg. He simply must go he has failed and nedds replacing by someone with a stronger will and mind for the battles ahead.
With the opporaching demo on march 26th in London called by the TUC. Students must be at the fore front of this demo. Whilst non students attended the demo's for tuitian fees likewise students should show solidarity to come on the mass march 26th demo.
Students and young people as we well know do not enjoy sitting in endless meetings and dull discussions like us. They want to get out there and do something. TO feel apart of something.
The way we can do this is by involving them in local campaigns. If a local anti cuts group have a lobby of their local council when the budget is being set locally. Why not invite a load of students along allow them to shout and chant at the councillors let them vent their anger locally too. We discussed this last night. Linking up anti cuts movement and student one. It can bbe doen just needs some thinking about. The NSSN anti cuts body needs to incorperate students too and if any local anti cuts unions are set up. One is being set up locally to me in Stevenage for example i feel rightly so that a youth/student should be on its committee stearing the direction of the campaign locally and organising for big mass demo's nationally. Young people should have a big say in where this movement goes as ultimatly they will be the ones benifiting from it if we are successful.
This is the fight of our lives. To save public services and often peoples lives if crucial support is cut to disabled and mentally ill people in this country.
Students must not be left out of any movement or decision. But they do need to be active and feel involved. If their own union wont do this, NUS, then the wider trades union movement should bring them on board and teach them the ways.
The student movement is not dead it just needs a injection of belief and c onfidence which to be honest we all need. This will come wit ha successful TUC demo on march 26th. This demo could really shake the government if big and loud enough. we hope to have hundreds of thousands and maybe millions on the streets of London that day. Put the fear of god into those con-dems. Make them realise ordinary working people will not just stand by and watch their public services get destroyed. If we dont stand and fight now, we never will and the tories will clean up.
It is crucial that the TUC demo on march 26 has a message. I believe strongly that a threat to government of mass co-ordinated strike action should be seriously threatening to teh government. We have to mean it though. We cant go with empty threats and pull out wimpering back home. We have got to be serious about this. Start by threatening a full one day mass general strike in the public sector then if cuts carry on escalate the pressure with further cleverly orchestrated strike action.
This will get the tories and probably even Ed miliband running around panicing. Thinking oh god what are we going to do. Lets condem this strike before its even happened and call it irresponsible for wanting to protect working peoples jobs. Oh no we cant have that can we.
I can see Ed miliband being trapped if this happens as he will not know where to turn. Condem the strikes and sell out his own movement backed by unions who voted him in. Or join with us working people and stand for his principles. Whilst getting a hammering in the national press. I think its about time we stopped listening to what the media out there are saying and do waht's right aand protect workers jobs and lives.
The students will play a big part in all of this i feel lets get them involved and active more.
But i do not feel this movement is dead at all. Yes it has faced some big blows by the abolishment of EMA going throug hand trebling of tuitian fees. But there are still lots of fight and battles ahead. We will do well to remember the poll tax got pushed back even once it was made law so there is always hope where there is a will for the fight.
I personally feel the trades unions need to invigerate the students and bring them on board. Of course the NUS will not do anything now. They are too focused on electing its next careerist leader. Aaron Porter who has betrayed his members and all students by failing to act and even he admitted dithering about when it comes to actingg. He simply must go he has failed and nedds replacing by someone with a stronger will and mind for the battles ahead.
With the opporaching demo on march 26th in London called by the TUC. Students must be at the fore front of this demo. Whilst non students attended the demo's for tuitian fees likewise students should show solidarity to come on the mass march 26th demo.
Students and young people as we well know do not enjoy sitting in endless meetings and dull discussions like us. They want to get out there and do something. TO feel apart of something.
The way we can do this is by involving them in local campaigns. If a local anti cuts group have a lobby of their local council when the budget is being set locally. Why not invite a load of students along allow them to shout and chant at the councillors let them vent their anger locally too. We discussed this last night. Linking up anti cuts movement and student one. It can bbe doen just needs some thinking about. The NSSN anti cuts body needs to incorperate students too and if any local anti cuts unions are set up. One is being set up locally to me in Stevenage for example i feel rightly so that a youth/student should be on its committee stearing the direction of the campaign locally and organising for big mass demo's nationally. Young people should have a big say in where this movement goes as ultimatly they will be the ones benifiting from it if we are successful.
This is the fight of our lives. To save public services and often peoples lives if crucial support is cut to disabled and mentally ill people in this country.
Students must not be left out of any movement or decision. But they do need to be active and feel involved. If their own union wont do this, NUS, then the wider trades union movement should bring them on board and teach them the ways.
The student movement is not dead it just needs a injection of belief and c onfidence which to be honest we all need. This will come wit ha successful TUC demo on march 26th. This demo could really shake the government if big and loud enough. we hope to have hundreds of thousands and maybe millions on the streets of London that day. Put the fear of god into those con-dems. Make them realise ordinary working people will not just stand by and watch their public services get destroyed. If we dont stand and fight now, we never will and the tories will clean up.
It is crucial that the TUC demo on march 26 has a message. I believe strongly that a threat to government of mass co-ordinated strike action should be seriously threatening to teh government. We have to mean it though. We cant go with empty threats and pull out wimpering back home. We have got to be serious about this. Start by threatening a full one day mass general strike in the public sector then if cuts carry on escalate the pressure with further cleverly orchestrated strike action.
This will get the tories and probably even Ed miliband running around panicing. Thinking oh god what are we going to do. Lets condem this strike before its even happened and call it irresponsible for wanting to protect working peoples jobs. Oh no we cant have that can we.
I can see Ed miliband being trapped if this happens as he will not know where to turn. Condem the strikes and sell out his own movement backed by unions who voted him in. Or join with us working people and stand for his principles. Whilst getting a hammering in the national press. I think its about time we stopped listening to what the media out there are saying and do waht's right aand protect workers jobs and lives.
The students will play a big part in all of this i feel lets get them involved and active more.
Thursday, 9 December 2010
A sad day for young people
So this evening we heard the government had won the vote in the house of commons by 323 votes in favour and 302 against the rise in tuitian fees to 9000 pounds per year. They also won the second vote to raise the minimum fee to 6000 pounds. The vote came in closer than thought . It turns out a majority of 21 is a very slim number and if the Lib dems had stayed with their pledges this bill would have not got through.
So a very sad day indeed. Coupled with disapointing scenes of police heavy handed tactics on innocent peaceful protesters it seems a very dark day to me. It appears as though Nick clegg has fully signed up with the tories now. All but name and has condemned students to a lot of debt which will take alot longer to pay off.
It will be interesting to see in future days, weeks and months how big of a impact this will have on the lib dems and their futures. Will they get wiped out at local level next year in the loacl council elections. I'd say itw ould be a grim day for any lib dem member today. As the party who relied heavily on the student vote it looks as though they have sold a lot of their voters down the river now.
If only labour could come up with a proper fair alternative to this they would trounce the government on this issue of higher education funding. With cuts of 80% universities have to find the money from somewhere its just sad it is at the e xpense of the poor old student every time.
Whilst i blog all this i am fully awarea nd have been reminded all of today that it was Labour who introduced tuitian fees and top up fees in the first place. SO i dont really think labour can take a high ground on this as it was partly responsible for all this now. But one thing i can say we never priced students out of a good education. With studant loans and grants it was still reachable now it looks impossible for many working class people to get to university and fullfill their potential. This will also have devastating impacts on this country too. Where we will have a skill's shortage.
So a very sad day indeed. Coupled with disapointing scenes of police heavy handed tactics on innocent peaceful protesters it seems a very dark day to me. It appears as though Nick clegg has fully signed up with the tories now. All but name and has condemned students to a lot of debt which will take alot longer to pay off.
It will be interesting to see in future days, weeks and months how big of a impact this will have on the lib dems and their futures. Will they get wiped out at local level next year in the loacl council elections. I'd say itw ould be a grim day for any lib dem member today. As the party who relied heavily on the student vote it looks as though they have sold a lot of their voters down the river now.
If only labour could come up with a proper fair alternative to this they would trounce the government on this issue of higher education funding. With cuts of 80% universities have to find the money from somewhere its just sad it is at the e xpense of the poor old student every time.
Whilst i blog all this i am fully awarea nd have been reminded all of today that it was Labour who introduced tuitian fees and top up fees in the first place. SO i dont really think labour can take a high ground on this as it was partly responsible for all this now. But one thing i can say we never priced students out of a good education. With studant loans and grants it was still reachable now it looks impossible for many working class people to get to university and fullfill their potential. This will also have devastating impacts on this country too. Where we will have a skill's shortage.
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
Response from my MP on tuitian fees
Hi there this is a email i just recieved from my local MP who appears to be backing the tuitian fees rise. If people are interested these are his views below.
07 December 2010
Dear Mr Wright
Thank you for contacting me about Higher Education Funding.
The previous Government established a review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance which was chaired by Lord Browne. This Review proposed no limit on the fees for students. After careful consideration the Coalition Government has decided to cap the fees at a lower threshold of £6,000 with an upper threshold of £9,000. Universities will be able to set their own fees however, those Universities seeking to charge more than £6,000 will have to increase their efforts to attract students from lower-income families. To support those on lower incomes a £150 million National Scholarship Programme has been announced to which upper threshold universities will be expected to contribute funds.
In addition, graduates will not be required to repay any money until they have reached an income of £21,000, £6,000 higher than the previous threshold. This means that many lower-income students will be better off under the new arrangements which the National Union of Students and others fully accept. Only those students earning above £41,000 will repay at the full rate so again, this is a better offer than has been made before. Further to this, it will be the case that part-time students would have equal access to Student Loans just as fulltime students have which again represents a better deal than currently exists.
I raise the points above because they have often not been made clear to people when looking at the national headlines. These changes mean that the system will be far more progressive in helping those on lower incomes, than has been the case to date.
Having been a student myself I remember all too well the system that used to exist where those who overran their grants or did not receive sufficient support from their parents would run up overdrafts, often at fifteen or twenty percent in interest. Whilst the system then had some merit, it did not require many students to actually contribute to their education from which they would inevitably enjoy a substantially higher income.
This is a very difficult decision to take. As a new Government we have inherited a substantial deficit and it means that everybody is having to contribute more to balance the books. I personally believe that under graduates should contribute towards the cost of their education, not least because it will often lead to substantially higher incomes than would otherwise be the case. Further to this, I do not believe it is fair that those older people who have not had the benefit of a university education should subsidise younger people who will.
Cont’d/……
07 December 2010
I also believe that it is time we struck a better balance between a university education and vocational skills. The last Government actively encouraged young people to believe that only a university education would suffice. This has been enormously detrimental both to many young people for whom university simply isn’t right and the economy in starving us of people with the appropriate technical and vocational skills needed. So, whilst I appreciate the points that have been raised by a number of people I shall be supporting the Government’s proposals with regards to Higher Education and Tuition Fees.
Yours sincerely
Mark Prisk MP
(dictated by Mark Prisk and sent on his behalf)
07 December 2010
Dear Mr Wright
Thank you for contacting me about Higher Education Funding.
The previous Government established a review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance which was chaired by Lord Browne. This Review proposed no limit on the fees for students. After careful consideration the Coalition Government has decided to cap the fees at a lower threshold of £6,000 with an upper threshold of £9,000. Universities will be able to set their own fees however, those Universities seeking to charge more than £6,000 will have to increase their efforts to attract students from lower-income families. To support those on lower incomes a £150 million National Scholarship Programme has been announced to which upper threshold universities will be expected to contribute funds.
In addition, graduates will not be required to repay any money until they have reached an income of £21,000, £6,000 higher than the previous threshold. This means that many lower-income students will be better off under the new arrangements which the National Union of Students and others fully accept. Only those students earning above £41,000 will repay at the full rate so again, this is a better offer than has been made before. Further to this, it will be the case that part-time students would have equal access to Student Loans just as fulltime students have which again represents a better deal than currently exists.
I raise the points above because they have often not been made clear to people when looking at the national headlines. These changes mean that the system will be far more progressive in helping those on lower incomes, than has been the case to date.
Having been a student myself I remember all too well the system that used to exist where those who overran their grants or did not receive sufficient support from their parents would run up overdrafts, often at fifteen or twenty percent in interest. Whilst the system then had some merit, it did not require many students to actually contribute to their education from which they would inevitably enjoy a substantially higher income.
This is a very difficult decision to take. As a new Government we have inherited a substantial deficit and it means that everybody is having to contribute more to balance the books. I personally believe that under graduates should contribute towards the cost of their education, not least because it will often lead to substantially higher incomes than would otherwise be the case. Further to this, I do not believe it is fair that those older people who have not had the benefit of a university education should subsidise younger people who will.
Cont’d/……
07 December 2010
I also believe that it is time we struck a better balance between a university education and vocational skills. The last Government actively encouraged young people to believe that only a university education would suffice. This has been enormously detrimental both to many young people for whom university simply isn’t right and the economy in starving us of people with the appropriate technical and vocational skills needed. So, whilst I appreciate the points that have been raised by a number of people I shall be supporting the Government’s proposals with regards to Higher Education and Tuition Fees.
Yours sincerely
Mark Prisk MP
(dictated by Mark Prisk and sent on his behalf)
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Kettling a disgraceful way to treat protesters
Today is the second wave of student protests all over the United Kingdom against tuitian fees rising to 9 thousand pounds a year. AStudents from all over the country have walked out on mass today not just against university fee increases that Nick clegg seems to now regret promising to protect against but also the removal of the EMA which helps a lot of less well off students and families afford school equipment.
But a number of students protesting today in the capital in London have been kettled, a police tactic they use in a event of a riot where the crowds are penned in. This is going to create tension and if there isnt violence before this might just trigger any off.
Lets hope there are no repeats of the violence seen on the 10th of november but if any does break out police heavy handed tactics and leaving police vans as decoys to set students up should be highlighted.
I have already read of students being beaten heavily with trunchens and being kidney prodded and all sorts of unsavory actions. The police should not provoke trouble they should just respect the peaceful protest and not rial already angry students up.
But a number of students protesting today in the capital in London have been kettled, a police tactic they use in a event of a riot where the crowds are penned in. This is going to create tension and if there isnt violence before this might just trigger any off.
Lets hope there are no repeats of the violence seen on the 10th of november but if any does break out police heavy handed tactics and leaving police vans as decoys to set students up should be highlighted.
I have already read of students being beaten heavily with trunchens and being kidney prodded and all sorts of unsavory actions. The police should not provoke trouble they should just respect the peaceful protest and not rial already angry students up.
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Which way will the lib dems go ?
After reading the labour lists article on the lib dems and the rise in tuitian fees which can be read here
http://www.labourlist.org/a-final-warning-to-the-liberal-democrats
i thought i should blog my feelings. As the article sets out this could be a turning point for the lib dems and their legacey really. Alot of their seats they hold are in key university city's including Sheffield where Nick clegg sits. Cambridge, bath and Norwich if only by a slim majority of 300 votes.
I think the lib dems should personally stand with labour on this issue and stand against the rise in tuitian fees to as much as 9,000 pounds. The lib dems have always done well out of the student vote but as they look to turn their backs on these pledges they made to campaign agaisnt a rise in fees they will be duely punished i hope.
The only option they have is to obstain from the vote, how many will or how many will cave in and sell out once again.
No wonder the youngest parliamentary candidate in the last election who came second to my own Mp Mark prisk has joined labour this week from the lib dems. Andrew Lewin wil be made very welcome indeed.
I would also just like to mention the big demo 2010
which yuo can read more about here
http://www.demo2010.org/
is a huge student rally in london tommorrow campainging about these cuts to higher education and rises in tuitain fees. I urge any young students or political activists to get up there if yuo can i believe it starts at half past 10 on horse guards parade.
best of luck comrades
http://www.labourlist.org/a-final-warning-to-the-liberal-democrats
i thought i should blog my feelings. As the article sets out this could be a turning point for the lib dems and their legacey really. Alot of their seats they hold are in key university city's including Sheffield where Nick clegg sits. Cambridge, bath and Norwich if only by a slim majority of 300 votes.
I think the lib dems should personally stand with labour on this issue and stand against the rise in tuitian fees to as much as 9,000 pounds. The lib dems have always done well out of the student vote but as they look to turn their backs on these pledges they made to campaign agaisnt a rise in fees they will be duely punished i hope.
The only option they have is to obstain from the vote, how many will or how many will cave in and sell out once again.
No wonder the youngest parliamentary candidate in the last election who came second to my own Mp Mark prisk has joined labour this week from the lib dems. Andrew Lewin wil be made very welcome indeed.
I would also just like to mention the big demo 2010
which yuo can read more about here
http://www.demo2010.org/
is a huge student rally in london tommorrow campainging about these cuts to higher education and rises in tuitain fees. I urge any young students or political activists to get up there if yuo can i believe it starts at half past 10 on horse guards parade.
best of luck comrades
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