Student protest over free education expected to draw thousands
-
Loading... - INES NOVAK
- 01 Nov 2020
- 792 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
Thousands of young people are expected to take to the streets of central London this week to voice their anger over the government’s “attacks on free education”, in what organisers are describing as a resurgent movement of student protest following the Conservatives’s election victory in May.
Organisers of the march on 4 November, called to protest against plans to axe the remaining education maintenance grants, also say that increasing numbers of students have attended meetings at universities and colleges since Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader in September.
“Events that six or 12 months ago were attracting 10 or a dozen activists are now seeing hundreds of people turn up,” said Deborah Hermanns, from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, which has organised the London demonstration.
Last year, 10,000 people took part in a student protest in the capital that ended in series of scuffles and accusations of police violence. The protest against tuition fees and spending cuts was the biggest mobilisation of students since 2010, when demonstrators occupied Tory party offices at Millbank.
The lastest protest received a boost when Hermanns persuaded Corbyn to endorse it publicly and persuaded him to pose for a picture after bumping into him on a north London bus.
The backing from the top of the Labour party was underlined when the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, confirmed he would speak at the event. “It gives people a real sense of hope that the leaders of the opposition party are prepared to stand up for free education,” Hermanns said.
During his leadership campaign, Corbyn said he wanted to scrap tuition fees and reintroduce maintenance grants, a policy he costed at £10bn a year. The party’s higher education spokesman, Gordon Marsden, said its policy would now go into a consultation process. “It’s really important we have a far more inclusive consultation within the party than we’ve had in the past,” he said.
Students say the election of a Tory government and Corbyn’s subsequent victory have radicalised a new generation of students, with Labour, the Greens and smaller leftwing political groups all reporting an upturn in interest. The Labour party said thousands of new members had joined its student groups in the past few months, and a spokesperson said the number of Young Labour members had doubled to around 57,000 since the start of the year.
Hermanns said many of those now taking the lead in organising next week’s demonstration had been Corbyn campaign volunteers. “That gave them hope, a sense that things can change, and now they realise that there is a real fight going on to protect free education and help rejuvenate student politics,” she said.
The demonstration is rooted in anger at government plans to scrap the remaining maintenance grants. It will demand “free education funded through progressive taxation, and an end to the scapegoating and deportation of international students”. The march is the first in what activists hope will be a series of protests and occupations in the coming months, including a possible student strike in February next year.
The surge in interest in the student movement follows a boost for other political groups outside Westminster following Corbyn’s election, including a spike in membership at the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and increased interest in anti-austerity campaigns.
Hermanns says she expects the demonstration to be at least as big as last year’s. “It is obviously difficult to say, but we are confident we will get at least as many people out again this time,” she said.
“The political climate is different now. We have a leader of the Labour party who is fully behind us, a re-energised activist base and a growing realisation among those involved that this has to be a starting point rather than an end it itself.”
