THE Young Socialists Students Society yesterday called for a general strike on December 9th when the House of Commons will be voting on increasing tuition fees to up to £9,000 a year.
Young Socialists Students Society secretary Joshua Ogunleye told News Line: ‘Youth have shown that they are completely opposed to the raise in fees and want free state education.
‘The workers have shown that they are with us and unions like Unison have given us students their full support and now is the time to show the coalition that we mean business, and that means a general strike on December 9th.’
He added: ‘It’s common knowledge that the coalition is weak. Vince Cable’s antics prove that.
‘Now’s the time to bring the coalition down and go forward to a workers’ government.’
The NUS has announced ‘a day of lobbying for Thursday 9th December.’
It added: ‘The vote will be a critical test for the coalition, which has faced mass protests over its plan to triple fees to £9,000 after every Liberal Democrat MP signed an individual pledge to vote against any increase if they were elected to parliament.
‘With the vote being rushed through, it is absolutely crucial for students and their families to lobby every MP and counter every argument to vote for increasing the cap.
‘The scale of the task that faces the student movement is daunting but the efforts so far have been more than up to this challenge.
‘Over 52,000 people attended the national demo on Wednesday 10 November and independent local student actions have sprung up across the country’.
NUS President Aaron Porter said: ‘MPs can be left in no doubt as to the widespread public opposition to these plans or of the consequences of steamrollering them through parliament.
‘For the third time in less than a month thousands of students have taken to the streets to protest against the government’s attacks on further and higher education.’
He added: ‘Despite repeated dismissals by Nick Clegg that these are uninformed protesters, students are intelligent, articulate people who are not being listened to by those in whom they placed their hope for a different politics.’
More information on the NUS lobby ‘will be available shortly’, the NUS said.
The Education Activist Network said: ‘The NUS has promised to build a national day of action with a lobby of Parliament, and representatives of university occupations and campaigns have called for parents, workers and trade unionists to do everything in their power to join in.’
It added: ‘Unison, one of the country’s largest unions with members across the education sector, has issued a statement supporting the student protests, as have many leading members of the National Union of Teachers.
‘Delegates at the special HE conference of the UCU voted for a national demonstration on the day when Parliament votes on tuition fees.
‘The national student coordination meeting this Sunday voted to back this call and issued a statement calling for “parents, workers and trade unionists to do everything in their power to join our resistance on the day of the vote in parliament, up to and including walking out to join our demonstration”.’
A spokesman for the University and College Union (UCU) told News Line that the UCU was planning a joint lobby of parliament with the NUS on December 9th, but added that ‘we’re still talking’ to the authorities about the arrangements for next Thursday’s events.
Negotiations for a 5.00pm rally in Trafalgar Square when the vote in parliament takes place were also taking place, the UCU said.
The union is also calling for everyone to join demonstrations against fees in every town and city on December 8th, the day before the vote.
UCU General Secretary Sally Hunt said: ‘If the government thinks it can hurry through these deeply unpopular and fundamentally flawed plans without a fight, it is utterly mistaken.
‘We do not think penalising families by trebling the cost of a degree is fair or progressive.
‘Every MP should think hard about what these proposals will really mean for their constituents.’
‘We support the students and the UCU,’ said a spokesman for the civil service union PCS, which gave its backing to the action called by the NUS and the UCU.
‘Their campaign against the education cuts has been an inspiration and we’ll do everything we can to support them,’ continued the PCS spokesman.
‘I expect our members will join any rally that is called on December 9th and of course all unions should support the students on this day.’
