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Students protest at the University of Greenwich |
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By Eddie Kacar, University of Greenwich Marxists
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Monday, 08 February 2010 |
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Greenwich Uni students demonstrate against attacks on education
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On the 4th February 2010, the
Student Union at the University of Greenwich called a demonstration at the
Maritime campus, outside the Vice Chancellor’s office. This was in response to
the recent decision by the university management to increase tuition fees next
academic year. As well as this, the university has started charging students
for the use of the shuttle bus service between campuses, which was free
previously, as well as charging for parking at the Avery Hill campus.
The demonstration was attended by around 400
students from all campuses of the university. There was a very militant mood
among the students, who were understandably angered by the attack on their
conditions. The students then went on to picket the front gate, before going on
to march around the university grounds. Among the slogans chanted by the crowd
was; “What do we want? Free education,
When do we want it? NOW” and; “One
solution, Revolution”. Members of the University of Greenwich
Marxist society were also present and played a
leading role.
The protest at Greenwich is not a random occurrence and is
not isolated to that particular university. We have been reporting on the
various students’ and lecturers’ protests across the country, of which Greenwich is a recent
addition. Due to the economic crisis, the ruling class is endeavouring to
recover the losses it made and franticly trying to maintain their profits by
attacking the conditions of everyone. The government is plagued with debt after
bailing out the banks. To fill the black hole in the public finances the
government is making cuts to all our services, including draconian cut to
education spending. This inevitably means that tuition fees will go up,
lecturers and teachers will lose their jobs. Departments and even whole
universities are expected to be closed down.
Students, lecturers and all teaching staff need
to organise in there unions, be it the NUS, UCU or the NUT, to fight this
attack. These unions must also work in cooperation with each other, because
strength comes from unity. We applaud the courageous students of Greenwich, and also congratulate the leaders of the
students’ unions at the University
of Greenwich for this
crucial first step. But we must recognise that this is only the beginning. The
pressure must be continually applied to the management. We urge the Student
Union leaders to step up the struggle and also link up with the struggles of
the lecturers and teachers organised in the UCU and NUT.
Fight the cuts!
For the abolition of tuition fees!
For Free Shuttle Bus services!
The NUS should link up with the UCU and the NUT to form an alliance in the interests of Higher Education in Britain.
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