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A year before the next general election is due the Labour Government is
proposing another increase in top up fees for UK students. Currently
universities can charge up to £3,000 per year. It is being proposed
that they can be raised to £7,000. 
The recent wave of student occupations in solidarity with Gaza has highlighted a renewed political consciousness among students, and the success that can be achieved through direct action. The spontaneous and independent basis of the occupations also revealed the potential for mobilisation through grass-roots organising in channels outside of the National Union of Students. In the midst of such developments, a referendum among students on the University of Sussex's affiliation to the National Union of Students was held last month. Those who voted 'yes' to affiliation won by a staggering 87.4%. 
In one sense we welcome the TUC’s new pamphlet Does Work Work for you? A Young Worker’s Guide to their Rights and Trade Union Membership. A key factor in favour of capitalists over workers is the fact that each new generation of workers often has the relearn the lessons of its ancestors, and as such each new worker generally enters the work place feeling isolated and overwhelmed. The employer can get away with a great deal that has already been made illegal as a result of previous worker’s struggles, without many workers realising. Therefore this pamphlet could be very useful, in that it explains the rights of workers in areas such as the minimum wage, working hours and breaks and agency work.
At 6pm, on the 12th of March the Marxist society of the University of London Union met for a discussion on ‘Marxism and Darwinism’. The topic of this meeting was chosen in order to coincide with the recent exhibitions and publicity surrounding the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s masterwork, ‘Origin of the Species’ in November this year, and John Pickard, author of “150th anniversary of publication of Origin of the Species” led off for the first time (at a political meeting) for 15 years before a meeting of about fifteen people, comprising students, Socialist Appeal supporters and other interested people. Includes audio of the meeting.
2009 has seen the largest wave of student activism in the UK for a generation. This activism has taken the form of student occupations in 25 universities (and counting) across the country, including Oxford, Sussex, London School of Economics, Kings College London, Manchester, Cambridge, Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow.
As school students, our future is
increasingly placed at risk by economic crisis. Education cannot be where our
government goes to for cutting corners; it must be a priority especially during
these times. It
was with this in mind that on Wednesday 25th February, a modest yet
energetic group from London School Students’ Union joined the national
demonstration against tuition fees in marching through London to protest
against the government’s plans to lift the cap on tuition fees, and to demand free education!
Student protest in London
– what next?
As the capitalist crisis deepens so it
creates waves of political and social upheaval. In this new period of recession that is unfolding it is clear that
the solution for the ruling class is to force ordinary people to accept a
reduction of their living standards. They want us to pay for their crisis. This
is a recipe for class struggle. It is the duty of the Marxists to carry the
ideas of socialism into the labour movement. Learn the lessons of the past, in
order to prepare for the future. On the 14th of February
Socialist Appeal held a day school in London on Cuba, Iran and the Communist
International, all of which have important anniversaries in 2009.
The begining of this year marks the anniversaries of the Cuban and Iranian revolution, as well as the founding of the Communist International. The Stalinist degeneration of the Soviet Union, and subsequently the Communist International, undoubtedly had far-reaching effects on the outcome of revolutionary movements throughout the 20th century. Come to the Socialist Appeal Marxism Day School in central London on Saturday 14th February, where we will discuss the lessons of the past so as to better prepare for the battles of the future.
Over the weekend, from the 9th to the 11th of January, the
International Marxist Tendency organised the 5th Northern European
Winter School in Berlin. The number of comrades and IMT sections
participating was much greater in comparison to previous years. Around
20 to 40 comrades attended the Winter Schools in past years. That was
already a success, but this year we had 150 comrades and sympathisers
from Germany, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia, Switzerland,
Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Britain, France, Italy and Austria coming to
a city with a great revolutionary history and tradition. We also had
guests and speakers from Pakistan, Venezuela, Brazil, Canada and the
United States. The attendance clearly exceeded our expectations and put
a big question mark over the name "Northern European Winter School".
The newest University in London, London Metropolitan, is in trouble. Earlier
this week, a crowd of over 100 disgruntled teachers, students and staff
gathered outside the Holloway campus to protest against cuts of up to 500 jobs.
It seems the cuts are the result of bad book keeping by management that led to
years of over-reporting of student completion rates to the Met's funding body
HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England). Now HEFCE is demanding a
repayment of £38 billion and, as usual, the tops intend to produce the bulk of
it in the form of staff cuts.
