National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts
A coalition of students and workers fighting against tuition fees and education cuts
The University and Colleges Union, UCU, have called a series of strikes in the run up to March 26.
There are moves to coordinate these strikes together for Thursday 24 March, which should see many colleges and universities shut down.
Students should join the teachers on the picketlines in their hundreds to strengthen the strike.
After meeting up early on the 10th of November at ULU, the Free Educartion Bloc feeder march is joining UCU and NUS at Horse Guards Avenue.
From there the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts and everyone else is marching all the way to the rally in London Bridge.
We will be posting our route (ULU – Horse Guards Ave) soon, but in the meantime you can have a look at the logistics of the national demonstration and at a map of the route here.
The education system as we know it is under attack. Under the last government, almost £1 billion in cuts to further and higher education were announced. If this wasn’t enough, the new government has announced that an extra £670 million will be cut from the Department of Education.
Staff at University of Arts London will be striking on Thursday 27 May, after two-thirds of UCU members voted in favour of strike action. UAL management has refused to back down from the threat of redundancies and course closures, leaving the union with no choice but to strike.
A rally is planned at 3pm outside Central Saint Martins and the Cochrane Theatre on the corner of Southampton Row and Theobald’s Road.
The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts fully supports direct action taken by students and workers against job and course cuts, be it strikes, action short of a strike, or occupations.
Reports from a variety of colleges and universities updated as we receive more. Whether you’re an education worker, a student or neither, if you have a report from a picket line or demo post it here as a comment or email it to [email protected] (pictures also welcome!) [Read more...]
Lecturers at four universities and eleven FE colleges will be on strike tomorrow (for the list see the UCU website) against cuts.
Demonstration in London – May 5
Assemble 1pm, King’s College London (The Strand)
Students at Leeds University have voted down a student union referendum on the following:
“Should LUU oppose industrial action on campus that negatively impacts on the education of students?”
- in other words, should it scab on lecturers?
The vote was 891 to 717. A Leeds student activists commented:
“I’m very happy that Leeds students voted to defend their own interests and those of staff, and didn’t violate the principle of unions by opposing another union.
“To LUU, I’d say that any move to oppose strike action would be against the interests and the wishes of your members.”
UCU and Unison members at Lambeth College are fighting plans by their management for £3.5 million in cuts – which will mean up to a hundred teaching and support staff losing their jobs – and a much worse education for students and service for the local community.
[Read more...]
From Kings College London UCU:
Last Tuesday’s (30 March) strike in defence of education at King’s exceeded all expectations. More than 250 people joined loud and vibrant picket lines on all four King’s campuses. Security guards at one campus indicated that numbers entering their building were as much as 75% down. At the main building on the Strand only a small trickle of students and staff went in.
[Read more...]
By Rowan Rheingans, Newcastle Free Education Network
Newcastle University’s Free Education Network held a rally on 18 March to mark the day the government announced massive cuts across the public sector. The rally was addressed by trade unionists including a UCU Newcastle University rep and a PCS speaker to make the links with attacks on public services, as well as student speakers from the newly formed Free Education Network (a group of students and staff at the university who are collectively opposed to tuition fees, course cuts and job losses on campus). [Read more...]
