On June 8, the Labour Government pushed through its plans to scrap student grants and bring in fees. 34 Labour MPs voted against the Government, in support of an amendment from Dennis Canavan MP to save the grant.
The vote was taken right at the end of the session to avoid the TV news at nine and ten o’clock. No vote was taken on the proposal to introduce tuition fees.
Now that it is law, the Government will have to face a fight to implement the Act. Grants will be phased out rather than scrapped all at once. Tuition fees will be collected on a college-to-college basis, often in monthly or termly installments. This gives activists plenty of opportunity to throw these plans into chaos.
The Campaign for Free Education is aiming to co-ordinate action in two ways. We have called a national demonstration on 18 November in London, to focus student anger. A massive wave of demonstrations, occupations and civil disobedience is needed. The recent occupation at the University of East London shows how popular this sort of action can be.
The UEL occupation taught us the value of solidarity. The main issue behind the occupation was the threat of 80 staff redundancies. The students were taking solidarity action in defence of their comrades in the campus trade unions. In response, they received solid support from the staff unions for their actions — much better than the response they received from their national students’ union, which was largely indifferent. A huge campaign against grant cuts and fees, making solidarity with education workers and others coming into conflict with the Government is the way the campaign must go forward.
The CFE is co-ordinating student union-run campaigns of non-payment and non-collection of fees. Because the fees are being collected college by college, and because with each new term/semester a new wave of fees will be charged, there is a huge potential for this campaign. Like the anti-poll tax campaign, it has a potential to grow with each new stage: the next round of payment demands, attempts to discipline unions or individuals and so on.
Again staff/student solidarity is vital. Staff unions can refuse to process the fees, teaching staff can refuse to discipline non-payers and students can support staff actions — and can reply with occupations, pickets, etc., if their college management attempt to intimidate staff.
Though the vote in the Commons was a defeat, it is by no means the end of the battle. The poll tax rebellion didn’t start in earnest until the bills started arriving. We can also draw some encouragement from the fact that 34 Labour MPs were prepared to vote against the Government, and that not all of these were “the usual suspects”, as Millbank Towers tried to portray them. Austin Mitchell, for example, voted for Canavan’s amendment. Students know that they are not alone in opposing these plans, even in the heart of New Labour.
The coming term will be a critical one. Thirty years on from the tremendous worker-student uprisings of 1968 we need to recapture some of that spirit. If students and workers fighting in solidarity can bring down a dictator like Suharto, then surely we can take on Blair.
Mick Duncan
