Student Broad Left

Next week hundreds of students will be participating in the Bring Back EMA National Day of Action on Tuesday 19 March – the day before Tory Chancellor George Osborne delivers his budget to Parliament.

This national day of action will see more than 10 campuses - from Gateshead to Birmingham - doing stunts, banner drops, petitioning MPs and more in a bid to raise the profile of the campaign to bring back EMA and put pressure on George Osborne and MPs ahead of the budget.

The National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts National Conference is taking place this weekend in Birmingham (8 & 9 December 2012).

The Student Broad Left looks forward to this opportunity to unite the student left to take on the Tories, austerity and fight for the alternative – free education.

The motions we are putting forward to the discussion are: 1) We need left unity to demand a fighting NUS: take on the Tories & austerity 2) Bring Back EMA! 3) Venezuela shows there is an alternative: free education as a right 4) Fund Education Not War – Scrap Trident, Scrap Fees!

Two years on from the enormous wave of student resistance in 2010, which saw tens of thousands of students protesting outside Parliament and occupying their campuses against the proposal to treble tuition fees, students are getting ready to take the streets of London once more in a national demonstration to defend education on Wednesday 21 November.

Student Broad Left is proud to be organising STUDENT FIGHTBACK 2012 alongside the National Black Students’ Alliance on Saturday 13 October at University College London from 10am – 5.30pm. Register your place now by emailing info@studentfightback.org.uk with your name university/college/organisation, email and phone number.

Students across the country are preparing for an autumn of resistance in response to the biggest attack on students and wider society for generations. The NUS #Demo2012 will be a central focus this year with tens of thousands of students mobilising to march on Parliament under the banner of defending education for all.

Next month (April 2012) up to one thousand student representatives from across the country will meet in Sheffield for the NUS National Conference to decide the next steps for the student movement.

Top of the agenda at this year’s conference will be whether or not the NUS should lead a united, national campaign against cuts, fees and privatisation by organising a first term national demonstration.

Last year the vote for a national demo was extremely close, with anti-cuts students narrowly losing the motion by 15 or so swing vote. With the Tory-led government charging ahead with attacks on students it is clear that the fight to defend education is far from over. And there is no doubt that whether or not NUS should organise a national demo will be a key dividing line at this year’s national conference.

The NUS Women’s Campaign, which represents millions of women students nationally, has made a decisive intervention this week, which could swing the vote at next month’s NUS Conference.

The National Union of Students has announced a week of action from Monday 12 – Friday 16 March to oppose the Tory-led government's savage cuts to education and higher fees.

The week of action will take place on campuses across the country to demonstrate that high fees, hidden course costs and a lack of bursaries are pricing students out of education, that postgraduate students need a better deal, and that students will not stand by and let the Tory-led government press ahead with its destructive plans to sell off and privatise our universities and colleges. We want openness on course costs and openness on the future of our education system.

When the Tory-led government launched their attack on education last year, most notably through the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance and the trebling of tuition fees, a huge response was necessary and it definitely happened.

Further education (FE) Students were at the heart of demonstrations of tens of thousands that rocked the government. This was a politically defining moment for many young people.

In a statement signed by all four full-time officers, the University of Liverpool Guild of Students have urged NUS to take the initiative in calling a national demonstration against fees and cuts. Read more

Last month a coalition of over 100 student leaders launched the Bring Back EMA Campaign which seeks to build a broad and active campaign to put pressure on the government to re-instate the Education Maintenance Allowance, which was shamefully scrapped in 2010 despite enormous opposition from students and the wider public.

By Matt Stanley, NUS NEC & President of Midkent College SU

With freshers week underway or just around the corner at colleges and universities across Britain now is the perfect time to start promoting the national demo amongst students.

The NUS Black Students’ Campaign has these produced a fantastic, customisable for local details, #Demo2012 posters to be distributed throughout the student movement.

Order free posters for your campus now by contacting NUS Black Students’ Officer at aaron.kiely@nus.org.uk with your name, position, college/university, postal address and phone number.

Next week students across the country will be taking part in the NUS day of action against FE fees. Matt Stanley, President of MidKent College and NUS NEC-elect, explains why students should fight the introduction of fees in FE.

Student Broad Left urges students across London to join with the University of London Union demonstration next Wednesday against the Tories’ devastating education policies. This protest is part of the NUS Week of Action and is also supported by the Education Activist Network and the National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts.

The University of London Union and the NUS Black Students’ Campaign have joined forces to call the London Student Feeder March for the November 30 Strike March.

Please share the facebook event: London students feeder march for N30 Strike March

Students from across Scotland have occupied The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in opposition to the introduction of £9k annual fees for non Scottish UK students.