Following its National Steering Meeting, the NCAFC has called an autumn convention to co-ordinate the resistance, and released a Unity Statement to foster co-operation at every level with other networks.
Colleagues and Comrades,
The coming year will be a year of assaults against the public sector, and in particular the education system. We are going to see cuts on a massive scale, as well as fundamental and potentially irreversible changes to the structure of schools universities – in particular the de-democratisation of the HE sector and rampant attacks on comprehensive secondary education in favour of academies and privatisation. These attacks are no longer academic – some of them will be happening in the next few months. These measures are being taken with the united support of the political establishment, and the resistance to them must be equal to the danger posed.
This is a crisis not only for students and education workers, but for the public sector as a whole; and, more broadly, for the kind of society we live in. It is a moment in which the basic rights that generations fought for and gained could, after being fatally weakened by Thatcher & Sons, be lost forever. To fight this fight we will need to organise mass resistance in the Unions, and remould a rank-and-file student movement capable of making the sector ungovernable.
In response to this crisis, several networks have emerged, aiming to co-ordinate a fight back among students and workers. While these groups have lives of their own, we see no reason, ultimately, why they should exist as separate entities. At any rate, this moment is too important to be squandered by a classic formula of competing recruitment drives and events. We call on all activists, organisations and networks to work together as the next wave of cuts unfolds, on local and national levels. We propose a co-hosted conference on November 6th, open to everyone who wants to hold a workshop, discuss organisation, and put forward proposals for action to be voted on by the whole conference. This would provide a good opportunity for the networks to co-operate formally on a national level for the first time. The convention will be planned through a series of open meetings; anyone who wants to be involved can. Get in touch!
Email: againstfeesandcuts@gmail.com
Keep in touch with planning the convention by RSVP-ing here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115357131842929
