Angry? We are. 18 millionaires in the cabinet tell us that we can no longer afford an open, affordable and fair education system. 75% cuts to the education budget > fees of up to £9000 > free school meals scrapped > EMA discarded. Our politicians have lied to us; the Lib Dems were planning to break their tuition fee pledges even as they made them. The Tories hid their post-election agenda behind the vague rhetoric of ‘big society’. They are acting unaccountably, suppressing protest with police violence.
Inaction is no longer an option. This is a call out to university students, sixth form students, cleaners, administrative staff, lecturers and fellows and anyone who does not accept the disastrous slashing of education budgets and the raising of tuition fees – anyone who believes that the future of education is greater than just another arena for the free market to expand its operations – anyone who believes that education should be accessible to all – anyone who believes that education expands the collective horizons of society immeasurably.
Together, we can fight this. Unlike the politicians, who impose these disastrous cuts from above in order to protect the financial system which has created this mess, we will work together and listen to each other to fight for a free and fair education system for the benefit of all society, not profit.
Cambridge Defend Education is a campaign started up in October 2010 as a response to the cuts to education funding and fee increases. Organising teach-ins, local protests and occupying the Old Schools building, as well as mobilising for national demonstrations, it is part of a huge and growing wave of protest from students, lecturers, University staff and 6th formers, determined to defeat funding cuts to Universities and fee increases, and we need your help. Now more than ever we need an active campaign to fight government proposals which threaten the future of higher education, as part of the fight against wider public sector cuts.
