To all activists and supporters,
It is now barely one week until the November 9th national demo against fees, cuts and privatisation: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=172700659466128
It is impossible to overstate the importance of this demonstration. On top of a tripling of fees, the scrapping of EMA and the worst cuts in the history of universities, the higher education white paper will turn education into a privatised system with profit-makers and market chaos at its heart.
The quality and nature of our education will get worse and the effects on access will be catastrophic. With enough of a presense on November 9th, we can force education back onto the agenda this autumn, in the midst of the biggest social movement Britain has seen in decades, and force a U-turn from the government.
But, as you will know, the demonstration is not being organised by NUS – though it is being officially supported by them. This means that turnout is not guaranteed, and that it is up to us to make sure that it is decent and big. For weeks and months, some activists have been working non-stop to build and organise this demo: this week and next, that will become a job for everyone. Whatever your capacity to bring numbers out, NCAFC is here to help.
Here are some steps you can take to get numbers to come on the demo:
- Put up a facebook event for your campus or school, advertising a local meetup and signposting the main facebook event.
- Book transport, if you need any
- Get an all-student email out from your union urging students to come on the demo and advertising where and when to go. (We have a model all-student email that you can cut and paste – email michael.chessum@nus.org.uk).
- Shout it out: go round lecture theatres and classes making a 2 minute speech about the demo, urgning people to come down and mentining the meetup points.
- Make sure that lots of posters and leaflets are out: in bars and cafes; in halls; on the union’s noticeboards; in libraries; in common rooms; and around prominent bits of campus.
- Put a blurb up on your website, and get your accounts tweeting the hashtag #nov9
- Share the main facebook event right now! https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=172700659466128
- Spread the word: talk to your classmates and friends and get them to talk to theirs
If you want posters and leaflets for free, please visit UCL Union at 25 Gordon Street, Bloomsbury (nearest tube: Euston). If you want to print your own, see here: http://anticuts.com/2011/10/11/updated-publicity/
