Guildford Against Fees And Cuts

All over Guildford, Surrey, and nationwide, people are realising the full impact of the ConDem Coalition’s cuts agenda and the lasting impact cuts will have on our communities.

We have seen a historic uprising of students all over the country- yet in Surrey the response has been strangely muted. Surrey University NUS booked coaches to ferry students to the 10^th November demonstration but failed to build a campaign. Indeed, it was clear that the executive was reluctant to lay on transport at-all, and only did so because the demonstration was called by the National NUS. Surrey’s NUS did nothing to promote the event and refused to print or distribute posters. Some flyers were produced but they had no details of transport, time or place. The A5 flyers had only the word Demo-Lition and a date written on them. They looked like cryptic night-club flyers. This was surely an intentional device in order to limit the number of students attending the demonstration and stunt any campaign before it got started.

A meeting was held between two students and two Surrey NUS executive officers following the 10^th November demonstration. In this meeting the Executives repeated many times that they did not want to see a campaign against Fees & Cuts in the University.

University Students, College Students and School Students must join with workers to fight against all cuts from all quarters. The cuts agenda is not based on fiscal considerations; it is an ideological attempt to roll back the welfare state.

 There is a real alternative to:
*The scrapping of the EMA
*The rise in fees to £9,000
*40% cut in University education funding across the board
*Total end of government funding for arts and humanities subjects in universities
*Redundancies for lecturers and support staff
*The marketisation of education, which aims to produce a two tier education system and will see many universities close.

Students, teachers, lecturers and parents must recognise that the cuts in education are part of the wider cuts to public services.

 In Surrey this means:
*Closure of the connections careers and youth advisory service
*25% cut in fire service
*The probable closure of all libraries, to be replaced by mobile libraries
*Scrapping of the Education Welfare Service
*400 redundancies at the Royal Surrey Hospital, with more to come
*The reduction of beds per ward at the Royal Surrey Hospital
*Cutting of home help service for the disabled and elderly
*Closure of youth centres and Youth Outreach Services
*There has already been a £3.5million cut in Youth Services 
*The subsidy for “less profitable” bus services scrapped –meaning less busses and the end to some routes
*Mother and Baby support service closed
*A 30% cut in government funding to the council
*Scrapping of infrastructure projects and road repair programs
*The job Centre is also due to be cut, just when unemployment is rising
*Community Support offices in Frimley, Farnham, and Staines are going to close
*Family support funding is going to be scrapped
*The council’s adult service budget is being slashed
This is just a few of the savage cuts we are seeing to our public services.

Employment is set to soar in Surrey. Funding for the National Tax Office in Woking is to be slashed, whilst large corporations get away with dodging multi-million pound tax bills.  Surrey’s primary schools have been urged to become academies thus removing the council’s responsibility for primary school education. Social workers are going to be made redundant, with those that are left doing more of the administration that support workers were doing.

But if we stand together and say NO we can reverse this attack on our living standards. The students have shown us how. The cracks in the coalition are already starting to widen, but we need to work together, the cuts aren’t going to defeat themselves.

We’ve started a F/book page “Guildford Against Fees And Cuts”. We want this to become the main conduit for communication to discuss our ideas.  Please join and post your ideas.

Most of all we need help to kick start the campaign in Guildford.
*We need help to run a stall in the University- It doesn’t matter whether you are a student.
*We need help to distribute flyers at Guildford College and in the town centre.

*We need your ideas and input, your skills and creativity.

If you are at college, university, or school. If you are a teacher, student or parent -unemployed or a worker Join the campaign:
Guildford Against Fees And Cuts – as part of the wider Save Our Services in Surrey campaign. – Help us build for the demonstrations on the 11^th and 21^st December.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Guildford-Against-Fees-Cuts/167151436659040
Email: guildfordagainstfeesandcuts@yahoo.co.uk

 

Dates To Remember:

Thursday, December 9, at 12:00pm, Parliament Square, London
The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts – March on Parliament.
This is the day parliament decides on the future of education
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=174417069252718&ref=mf

Saturday, December 11^th, at 11:30am, Assemble Woking Train Station
Demonstration Against The Cuts. Called by Save Our Services in Surrey.
This promises to be a large demonstration to kick-start the campaign in Guildford and beyond. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111862642215211&ref=mf

 Tuesday, December 21, at 12:00pm, Outside County Hall, Penrhyn Road, Kingston, KT1
Don’t Let Them Sell Out Surrey: Lobby Surrey County Council.
The council will be deciding the fate of the Fire Service, Libraries, Youth and Senior Citizen’s services at this meeting.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=177155738977156&ref=mf

 No Ifs No Buts No Public Service or Education cuts!!! 

Join Guildford Against Fees And Cuts F/b page for updates – and post your thoughts
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Guildford-Against-Fees-Cuts/167151436659040
Email: guildfordagainstfeesandcuts@yahoo.co.uk

Official Launch Meeting: Save Our Services in Surrey (Report By Guildford Against Fees And Cuts)

Official Launch Meeting: Save Our Services in Surrey

The 14^th October saw the official launch of the Save Our Services in Surrey campaign. 80 people came together to discuss the governments planned public service cuts and plan a local response. There were delegates from a dozen local union branches as well as several community and campaign groups.

Apart from the many trade union branches that sent delegates, there were delegates from Surrey County Council Trade Unions (SCCTU), Royal Holloway University Anti Cuts Alliance, Peace & Justice Coalition, Peace Party, Guildford Transition Towns and Redhill Coalition Against The Cuts.

Save Our Services in Surrey has already been active prior to the official launch. It has successfully led campaigns that have saved Shortwood School and Ashford College and lobbied the council earlier in the year to oppose fire service cuts. 

The meeting took the form of an open discussion rather than having a panel of speakers.
Dan, from the Royal Holloway University Anti Cuts Alliance told the meeting that the coming marketisation of education and public services will have dire consequences for the young and the vulnerable in society. The Royal Holloway NUS president recently stated that the two successful anti-cuts meetings on campus gave him the mandate to take action not just over education cuts but public spending cuts in general. The NUS at Holloway was fully backing the Anti-Cuts Alliance and its public meeting arranged for the 21^st, October.

A Surrey County Council union official spoke about the Council’s “Public Value Review” whose conclusions are due out next week. She told the meting; “We must fight for every job, and if we save just one job it will be a victory. We must work with many other communities and groups, and be proactive if we are to be successful”.

An official from the UCU spoke to the meeting, she said “the managers at the University of Surrey pretend they don’t know what’s going to happen about the cuts in the University. Everyone knows there are cuts coming, but the management are not being up-front about them”.

Another local union official spoke about the national debt that the government keeps telling us about. She said “yes, there is a huge debt at 48% of GDP, but this is nothing like the national debt following the war. For much of the 20^th Century the national debt was running at over 100% of GDP- and for the ten years after World War Two the National debt was over 200%- peaking at 250%. During this time the country was able to build schools, roads, undertake a massive house building programme and create the welfare state”. These cuts she concluded “were political and not economically motivated”.A union official from the Royal Surrey Hospital Trust told the meeting that management was restricting union activity and its campaigns over closures. He spoke of eighty recent redundancies with another eighty planned for the near future.

A student told the meeting that we were in this position because of the banks. “It’s not my fault” he said, “It’s not my mistake”.

A Green Party councillor and member of the Redhill Coalition Against The Cuts related his experiences of council meetings where “alternative service delivery” was being discussed. “Council meetings are always about the best ways to make cuts, not if the cuts should be made”. The council at Redhill plans to cut 20% of its workforce.

A Surrey unison member said to the meeting; “councillors don’t use services themselves because they tend to be better off. They don’t really know what it means to have their services cut. They often think council services are luxuries. 52 libraries are under threat in Surrey. The number of Social Workers and their support staff are being cut and the Council’s adult service is being slashed. Staff are already exhausted with case loads exceeding 100 cases. Managers should come out of their offices and see what is happening on the ground”.

Chris Leary, from Save Our Services in Surrey urged everyone to join SOSiS and create a central campaigning hub. “We can support individual campaigns by picketing and putting pressure on councillors and Council managers. We need to be united, proactive, and demand the services we need”.Before the meeting closed there was a unanimous vote to adopt the draft constitution and three officers were elected. Chair, Co-ordinator, and Outreach/Campaign Organiser.

Two further meetings were announced:
Holloway University Anti Cuts Alliance meeting in Egham, 21^st October.
A student meeting against the cuts at the University Of Surrey 26^th October.
Join Guildford Against Fees And Cuts
Save Our Services in Surrey
Redhill Coalition Against The Cuts
Royal Holloway University Anti Cuts Alliance
Anti cuts coalition in Sussex and Surrey Public meeting

Sussex University Student Occupation 2010 -The Full Story

                       SUSSEX UNIVERSITY STUDENT OCCUPATION

 SUSSEX STOP THE CUTS
The Stop the Cuts campaign formed in response to plans by the University administration to cut back on spending by millions in the next few years. The University is planning to cut £3 million this academic year, and £5 million next year.

Sussex Stop the Cuts is a group for all staff and students concerned about the negative effects these cuts will have on the quality of education, research and livelihoods at Sussex. Everyone who studies or works at Sussex needs to challenge the decisions being made on their behalf. And ask whether the millions of pounds spent on new buildings and managerial salaries would have been better spent on courses, jobs and pensions.

 The Stop the Cuts campaign demands the university administration makes no compulsory redundancies and resists student fees and cuts in higher education spending. It argues for the reining in of executive pay, the postponement of new building projects, and the protection of academic freedom. Sussex Stop the Cuts also calls for a concerted student effort to prevent the threatened 5% cut to USSU’s block grant from the University. Instead, the campaign calls for the University to provide USSU with the financial assistance it needs to provide students with fundamental support services through the recession. Now is the time when students need their Union the most!

 SUSSEX HOUSE
Last week students occupied Sussex House (the management buildings of Sussex University) in solidarity with lecturers who had voted in favour of strike action. Roger Morgan (Head of Security) and John Duffy (Registrar and Secretary) stopped some staff from leaving, herded them in to an office and joining them, locked the door. They represented this to the police as a hostage situation. The result was 16 vans of riot police were called onto campus. Students were beaten back with fists, knees, batons and police dogs. Senior managers including Robert Allison (Pro-Vice Chancellor) and Michael Farthing, (Vice Chancellor), were eye witneses to students being attacked by the riot police.

Senior managers including John Duffy (Registrar and Secretary) and Roger Morgan (Head of Security) repeated their hostage story to the High Court in order to get an injunction against the entire student body. The injunction made occupational protests on campus illegal. Michael Farthing then suspended 6 students indefinitely. They have not been given a reason  as to why they have been suspended, nor have they been told when they will be reinstated. This is a politically motivated attack on 6 students by the management. An attempt to intimidate the student body in the face of unprecidented cuts to their education. A warning to students not to support the UCU lecturers’ strike.

BUT WE SAY
– STUDENTS, LECTURERS AND STAFF UNITE!
– UNCONDITIONAL IMMEDIATE REINSTATE OF THE SUSSEX 6!
– NO POLICE VIOLENCE ON CAMPUS!
– NO CONFIDENCE IN VCEG! (Vice Chancellor’s Executive Group)
– THE REMOVAL OF ROGER MORGAN, HEAD OF SECURITY
– THE RIGHT TO PROTEST!

 THURSDAY – 11^th
Around two in the afternoon there was a demonstration around an entrance to the University.  I arrived as the last speaker, Simon Hardy from the Fight Cuts at Westminster Campaign addressed the cowed. Simon Hardy is a member of Workers Power and led the recent occupation of Westminster University.

The rally concluded with a unanimous vote to re-oocupy Sussex House. Around eight hundred students and staff marched around the campus and then to Sussex House. Once inside students seperated and  made their way around the building. From the roof of the building several stories high, students could still be seen entering the building and protesting outside. After some time it was decided to vacate the building. The demonstration continued around the campus until it reached a lecture theater, Arts A2. This is now the venue for the occupation.  Once the building was secured, an open meeting was convened. A letter was drafted to the Vice Chancellor, Michael Farthing listing a series of demands and a petition for him to collect in person.

The main demand was the unconditional reinstatement of the six students. There was some discussion wether the letter should include wider demands such as no compulsory redundancies, however a more focussed campaign was decided upon. An assurance that no disciplinary action should be taken against any one involved in this present occupation, the last occupation and any future occupations was added to the demands. Around five hundred students and staff  unanimusly voted to stay in occupation until their main demands were met.

Cuts campaigners were able to rerout lectures, sheduled for the occupied theater- and contacted lectureres to minimise the disruption to teaching. Meanwhile the meeting decided that it wasn’t the occupation that might disrupt teaching, but the Vice Chanacellor’s refusal to collect the petition and engage with the meeting.          

 A delegate from the Brighton Workers Support Committee spoke to the meeting. He spoke of the unity between students and workers in Brighton. He referred to the students’ support for the postal workers  as an example of students and workers coming together. And spoke of last week’s Brighton March For Jobs, where the Sussex Six addressed a rally of workers and students. Another speaker from The Portsmouth Cuts Campaign called the Sussex students “an inspiration to us all”.

 After a break, the meeting reconvened with a discussion on what to do whilst occupying  the lecture theater. There was a feeling in the meeting that the theater should be used as a creative and educational space during the occupation. Films were suggested, talks and workshops. A need to make publicity materials like banners and flyers was highlighted, along with a press release and internet messages.

EVENING RALLY
The meeting broke up for a while. Some people came and went whilst others were busy organising pratical things. I went around the campus postering and alerting students to the occupation. At six oclock the meeting came together again for an evening rally. A packed lecture theater of around five hundred students and staff were joined by trades unionists and supporters. Prof Dave Hill, TUSC Parliamentary Candidate for Brighton and Socialist Resistence member spoke to the rally. He said, “Social studies conducted in the ‘70’s showed the optimum size for a seminar is twelve people, but today classes have thirty people. And the attacks on education will mean a further fifteen thousand lecturer jobs will dissapear around the country. Dave Hill emphasised that the students’ struggle is the workers’ struggle.. He said he was “humbled by the number of students on the TUC organised March For Jobs in Brighton which numbered six to seven thousand”. “Students unite and fight- It reminds me of 1968” he said. [lol]

He went on to say, “The students and workers struggles are one because life is about living in society not just about education and jobs. You can’t live on a five pound eighty minimum wage. Some people earn  five pound eighty a second. Its all down to surplas value.- As workers, don’t get to keep the value of what we produce”. “Over the time of the Labour government, the richest one percent has halved the proportion of tax they pay, while the poorest ten percent have doubled their’s. And still the poor is expected to pay for the bankers’ crisis. The government claims the cuts are unavoidable, but if we cut trident, cut the id scheme, and taxed the rich, education cuts would not be necessary. He summed up by calling for the reinstatement of  the Sussex Six and demanded those that made false allegations of hostage taking be called to account.

The RMT delegate described the Sussex students as a “real inspiration to the whole trade union movement”. And promissed to support them “until they are victorious”. He went on to tell how the RMT has recently voted for industrial action. Not over pay, but over the loss of fifteen thousand, rail infrustructure job loosess. These job losses are vital for the safety of the railways and will take the railway network back to the days of accidents. A UCU official spoke to the rally about their forthcomming strike next Thursday. He said the strike demanded “No compulsory redundancies and ACAS negotiations” and warned of more strikes next term. He called for student and lecturer solidarity, “We all have a common interest in good working conditions.The cuts are an attack on all of us” he said. “The management has been pressurised by the occupation of the theater, in defiance of the injunction. This is a result of the solidarity between workers and students.”

 PLANNING MEETING 
After an interval of some time a planning meeting was called. The meeting voted unanimously to stay over night, and perhaps indefinitly. Priorities were identified, such as to arrange a “teach-in” for the following day and to build support within the ancillary staff, as well as the wider community. Two support workers told the meeting of the solidarity the support staff of the Unite union felt toward the students and lectureres. The meeting organised itself in to working parties with groups for banner making, food, publicity, bedding and the like. A teach-in, a day of debate and critical discussion was planned. The meeeting arranged a demonstration and a talk by a History of Art lecturer from Portsmouth University on the student struggles of 1968.

 THOUGHTS
The student body on show here today unanimously recognised the context in which these cuts were taking place and laid the ultimate blame on the very capitalist system itself. The students involved in today’s action were not necessarily socialists, but of a more libertarian anti-capitalism. A most immediate indication as to where the students took their political cue was in their propensity to use hand waving gestures instead of hand clapping to signify approval. A practice popularised by the eco and libertarian trends in the anti-capitalist movement. The use of hand waving was a conscious reference of these trends. And expressed an identification with them.

Another thing that struck me was the amazing efficiency and coolness of the students. These guys were experienced pros – and any group considering an occupational protest would do well to speak to them. They knew what to organise and how to organise it.  The students emphasised their wish to make creative use of the space they occupied. Creative arts were high on the agenda. And they lost no time in forming creative working parties to set up events and workshops for the following days. The students’ demonstration exhibited the very best of contemporary anti-capitalist protest.

 UPDATE – FRIDAY 12th
Students at Sussex are continuing to occupy a lecture theatre in protest of the suspension of the Sussex Six. After twenty-four hours. The students still haven’t had their demands met or had any further contact with management, since they came to collect the list of demands and  petition yesterday afternoon.

 Today Sussex staff publicly defied a court injunction to come to the occupation and show their support. Sussex management are on the verge of being forced to make a humiliating climbdown and unconditionally re-instate the 6 students. Sussex UCU, following an unprecedented 80% turn out in their ballot, are now set for strike action over 115 job cuts. Staff at Leeds will be going out on strike against cuts this week, and unions at many other campuses are balloting for action. Ballots for strike action are underway or imminent at King’s, UCL and Westminster, along with London FE institutions. Student sit-ins have taken place in Essex, Sussex, UCL and Westminster.

 There was a demonstration on Library Square at 3 pm, in support of the occupation and against the cuts and suspensions. Management have granted a conditional return to the students suspended last week -but the conditions of their return mean they continue to be singled out and prevented from taking part fully in campus life. A video link was arranged so that the suspended students could speak to the occupation. Throughout the day the forum has been receiving messages of support from workers and students from all over the country and abroad. We need to seize the moment and apply as much pressure as we can nationally to Vice Chancellors, Peter Mandelson and the government. We need to stand in solidarity with all staff facing compulsory redundancy.

Take action this week! Support the strikes and the Sussex 6! Come to the demonstration on the 20th of March! We call for you to JOIN US in our programme across the following days, student, worker or ‘just someone intrigued’.

Download Word Version of this document with pictures: https://suacs.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/cuts-text-pics.doc
Download Word Version of this document -text only:  https://suacs.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/cuts-text-only.doc 

Come to the UCU demonstration against cuts in London on the 20th of March http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=3787
Attend the Education Activists’ meeting, Kings College London. 16^th March. 6.30pm https://suacs.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/16th-march-regional-meeting-flyer.pdf
Details of further action: https://suacs.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/cuts-further-action.doc

LINKS: 
Visit our blog https://suacs.wordpress.com/ for the full story to date and further updates.
Or join our F/b page: Guildford Against Fees And Cuts

Join the  F/b group: Sussex Stop The Cuts
Or Visit http://www.defendsussex.wordpress.com

Dan Vockins, Sussex NUS addresses a meeting of academics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5ar1KjLKME&feature=channel

National Campaign Against Fees And Cuts – Statement of intent (6th February 2010)

This is the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts statement of intent, passed at the National Convention on 6th February.

Statement of Intent
Fees, debt and marketisation are increasingly turning education from a right for all into a privilege for the wealthy. The NCAFC opposes all proposed and existing fees, course cuts, staff redundancies or reductions in education spending. Cuts are compounding 30 years of neo-liberal reforms which are turning our universities and colleges into businesses organised to produce profit and a pliant workforce, not critically thinking people and a better society.
Education can and should be funded not by student fees and taxes on the poor, but by progressive taxation. It should be an emancipator right, free and available to all.

We will fight for:
– A halt to all education cuts, the abolition of all fees and a living grant for every student, in FE and HE. Tax the rich to fund education

– Education not profit: business out of our schools, colleges and universities.

– A mass movement of students, including occupations, direct action and walk-outs from FE and 6th form colleges and schools, against fees and cuts. Solidarity with our lecturers, teachers and workers.

– Fees, cuts and marketisation are affecting all areas of education; schools, FE colleges, adult and part-time education institutions are being hit and must work together in the response. Regional meetings much be concerned with issues affecting all students in different types of education.

– This campaign also recognises that oppressed groups are being scapegoated due to the crisis, and that cuts will affect them the most. This campaign therefore commits itself to opposing all forms of racism including Islamophobia

– We are committed to solidarity and co-operation with Liberation organisations that share these values (including, but not limited to, the autonomous NUS liberation campaigns, all of which have free education policy), and condemn all forms of discrimination. Black, Disabled, LGBT and women students are systematically disadvantaged and discriminated by society and are disproportionately affected by fees and cuts.

– We are an internationalist campaign. We are for solidarity with students and workers across the world in our common struggle against exploitation and oppression. We are opposed to the victimisation of students and education workers over immigration status, as well as all deportations and immigration controls. We are opposed to all imperialist wars, sanctions and occupations: UK troops out of Afghanistan now.

– We will compile a national education activists’ contact database for co-ordinating activites

– We agree to initiate a national boycott of the National Student Survery (NSS) to oppose marketisation of education

– To send representatives to the Bologna process counter-conference on March 11th

– To support the call for a national demonstration outside the Autumn conference of whichever party wins the General Election.

– To support the teach-in at King’s College London on 27th February called by KCL UCU, No Cuts @ King’s and the London Education Activist Network

– Where possible ‘cultural evenings’ will be put on in student unions nationwide with poetry, theatre, music exhibitions and other artictic forms, with guest speakers and performers invited, in opposition to fees and cuts.

– To convene a meeting dedicated to the discussion of a united left slate in the NUS elections. All groups, networks, student unions and individual activists should be able to attend and participate.

– To change our name to the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts

– That a national convener be elected from each region (North, South, London, East Anglia) to convene a regular open national steering committee with the regional conveners. This national organising meeting be open to all education activists.

N.B. The grammar of the statement is not perfect, as it is based on the original script from the conference; this will be addressed at the next national meeting. Please send corrections to ucl.free.education@gmail.com or againstfeesandcuts@gmail.com

Join the National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts F/b group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=108319208229

 NCAFC London Area: 
 http://ncafclondon.wordpress.com/

 27^th February: “Teach In” An alternative day of lectures  with speakers and guests. See F/b event. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=285147785052 

National Campaign Against Fees And Cuts – Statement Of Intent

This is the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts statement of intent, passed at the National Convention on 6th February.

Statement of Intent
Fees, debt and marketisation are increasingly turning education from a right for all into a privilege for the wealthy. The NCAFC opposes all proposed and existing fees, course cuts, staff redundancies or reductions in education spending. Cuts are compounding 30 years of neo-liberal reforms which are turning our universities and colleges into businesses organised to produce profit and a pliant workforce, not critically thinking people and a better society.
Education can and should be funded not by student fees and taxes on the poor, but by progressive taxation. It should be an emancipator right, free and available to all.

We will fight for:
– A halt to all education cuts, the abolition of all fees and a living grant for every student, in FE and HE. Tax the rich to fund education
– Education not profit: business out of our schools, colleges and universities.
– A mass movement of students, including occupations, direct action and walk-outs from FE and 6th form colleges and schools, against fees and cuts. Solidarity with our lecturers, teachers and workers.
– Fees, cuts and marketisation are affecting all areas of education; schools, FE colleges, adult and part-time education institutions are being hit and must work together in the response. Regional meetings much be concerned with issues affecting all students in different types of education.
– This campaign also recognises that oppressed groups are being scapegoated due to the crisis, and that cuts will affect them the most. This campaign therefore commits itself to opposing all forms of racism including Islamophobia
– We are committed to solidarity and co-operation with Liberation organisations that share these values (including, but not limited to, the autonomous NUS liberation campaigns, all of which have free education policy), and condemn all forms of discrimination. Black, Disabled, LGBT and women students are systematically disadvantaged and discriminated by society and are disproportionately affected by fees and cuts.
– We are an internationalist campaign. We are for solidarity with students and workers across the world in our common struggle against exploitation and oppression. We are opposed to the victimisation of students and education workers over immigration status, as well as all deportations and immigration controls. We are opposed to all imperialist wars, sanctions and occupations: UK troops out of Afghanistan now.
– We will compile a national education activists’ contact database for co-ordinating activites
– We agree to initiate a national boycott of the National Student Survery (NSS) to oppose marketisation of education
– To send representatives to the Bologna process counter-conference on March 11th
– To support the call for a national demonstration outside the Autumn conference of whichever party wins the General Election.
– To support the teach-in at King’s College London on 27th February called by KCL UCU, No Cuts @ King’s and the London Education Activist Network
– Where possible ‘cultural evenings’ will be put on in student unions nationwide with poetry, theatre, music exhibitions and other artictic forms, with guest speakers and performers invited, in opposition to fees and cuts.
– To convene a meeting dedicated to the discussion of a united left slate in the NUS elections. All groups, networks, student unions and individual activists should be able to attend and participate.
– To change our name to the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts
– That a national convener be elected from each region (North, South, London, East Anglia) to convene a regular open national steering committee with the regional conveners. This national organising meeting be open to all education activists.

N.B. The grammar of the statement is not perfect, as it is based on the original script from the conference; this will be addressed at the next national meeting. Please send corrections to ucl.free.education@gmail.com or againstfeesandcuts@gmail.com

 Join the National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts F/b group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=108319208229

 NCAFC London Area: http://ncafclondon.wordpress.com/