NUS national protest against the cuts 10.11.10 [London]
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sunnysidedown
caput mortuum
0:58 -
TopCat
Putin fanboy
I was so pleased and proud to see some of the red and black flags me and debs and my mum and others made last year being waved about from the top of the tory HQ.
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
Not exactly a history buff are you. Yet another subject on which you are spectacularly woefully ill infomed.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
Even my mum wishes she had scrapped with the police and looted on that big march back then.
Flanflinger
Well-Known Member
I wonder how many of those Anarchists have ever paid any tax ?
Flanflinger
Well-Known Member
So your Mum aspires to be a thief. How nice for you.
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
Even if they have i'll bet it pales into insignificance in comparison to the tax avoidance/evasion of Lord Ashcroft the Tory's man in belize.....
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
about the same as vodaphone
Fedayn
Well-Known Member
And your mum will no doubt be delighted that your aspirations to be a wanker have been well and truly met.
TopCat
Putin fanboy
She is a great role model.
Streathamite
ideological dogmatist
what about fash? or what about if we were in an actual, serious revolutionary situation?
love detective
there's no love too small
Never thought I'd see the day where I pretty much agreed with everything written by a student class war group! But I have to say most of that was spot on
Has anything been done across anti-cuts groups to establish any kind of legal/financial/practical support group/funds for anyone nicked yesterday/going ahead ?
Not only important from the practical point of view of individuals concerned, but also to prevent this being driven into a single issue/narrow focus type thing around students - as butchers mentioned earlier - the awareness of a lot of students of the wider picture has been pretty impressive, ditto their distancing from the NUS as a mediating/controlling body - both these things seem to have taken a lot of us, rather pleasantly, by surprise - so it would seem appropriate to show as much support as possible to those doing what we all thought would never be done. Any 'them and us' that develops should squarely have pricks like porter in the them camp, rather than 'students' in general as 'them'
Ideally solidarity actions shouldn't be contained to just coming from students (and even less the institutional student unions) per the request from the leeds class war student, but spread out across the wider anti-cuts 'movement' to keep the thing focussed on what it's about
Streathamite
ideological dogmatist
you mean, like Philip "schmutter" Green the govt adviser did, er no, wait, hang on a minute....
I guess they pay VAT on Rizzla and Cider.
I think the trouble yesterday will have hurt the student's case. If they expect other people to pay for their education they need to argue the net benefit to society is worth paying for it out of general education. For a long time they have allowed the debate to be framed in terms of individual benefit from education in terms of salary. Whilst the debate stays framed in those arguments they will lose.
Scenes of kids with odd haircuts waving Iphones about and smashing up buildings will not do them any good.
i wouldn't have even known anything was going on if there was only some chants and banners. your fire setters etc did a great job.
madzone
Physically unfavourable
chilango
Hypothetical Wanker
A combination of "peaceful protest" and reasonable lobbying over the last 20 years has seen HE students go from zero fees and full grants to 9000 grand fees and 20 odd k of debt.
dennisr
the acceptable face
editor
hiraethified
So do you think that unless someone pays tax you they have no legitimate right to have a say in how the country is run?
dennisr
the acceptable face
Clearly not - given s/he probably supports the fella who just bought the results of the last election with his tax-free cash (Ashcroft)
Streathamite
ideological dogmatist
No, but there badly needs to be something like this, and there's the problem. The main national anti-cuts grouping - simply by dint of having got there first - is CoR, which unfortunately now looks like being another swappie frontjob, plus a few token Left Figureheads (Benn, Corbyn, Lucas, serwotka, Mcdonnell...), and going to their Whitehall rally did little to dispel this, as I stood listening to the usual rhetoric-by-numbers (the speaker who made the biggest impression on me was a 17-year-old 'A' level student, so draw your own conclusions). My group's a member, but i'd rather not leave that sort of thing to CoR.
So it's down to individual groups, and we're trying to build relationships with other groups, but it's very much hard work, just as is raising funds for our own group.
Streathamite
ideological dogmatist
sorry, but only someone under Tory indoctrination could come up with this ridiculous conformist crap. The people who will be most 'alienated' by yesterday (smug tory suits in the Home Counties) are simply not on our side anyway, and their support isn't worth having, and never has been. What possibly could the Studes lose by having such people tutting into their G&Ts? Parents up and down the country seeing their kids saddled with such crippling debts will see it differently.
More importantly, yesterday was a declaration of intent, that we are NOT just going to be walked over. The Govt HAS to take that seriously.
There has been direct action and violence against tution fees in the past. The real problem is that a lot more people are attending University these days. The international league tables are dominated by US universities that are able to charge a lot more in fees to raise funds. There is an argument that the social good that having an educated population brings benefits everyone, this is the case that needs to be made to ensure the greater funding from general taxation for Universities.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
please in future engage brain before posting
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