The week at Middlesex...

I thought I'd paste edited highlights from an email by a friend at Middlesex University to let you know about important anti-cuts events there this week!

The lecturers' union UCU will be taking strike action on Thursday 24th March. Middlesex University Students Union (MUSU) in solidarity with the staff are asking students not to cross the picket line, and to stage a walkout. In the next week, you'll be seeing more materials around the campuses from Monday onwards. I have a feeling this could be a big day, the word is spreading quick amongst students and staff.

On Friday 25th March the Rave against the cuts festival will be held in Hendon - during the day we'll have stalls including the Barnet TUC, as well as Defend education society stall. In the evening, there will be a live event night, and tickets are now on sale for the great price of £3. I would urge you all to spread the word and let's make this a great event.

Last but not least is the 26th March National Demonstration in central London organised by the TUC. This will be one of the biggest so far, with numbers expecting to be around a million strong. The Middlesex block will meet at the National Gallery in Trafalgar square (nearest tube Charing Cross), please remember to wear red to signify we're all from Middlesex.

However it is important to remember the 26th is not the end, but the beginning of resistance in this country.

Here's hoping!

Middlesex University students protest - more to come on Wednesday

I went in my capacity of Barnet TUC publicity officer to photograph the protest organised by the Middlesex University Students Union (MUSU) this afternoon. They gave out leaflets, made speeches and marched around the university's Hendon campus in order to promote the National Union of Students (NUS) demonstration in central London this coming Wednesday.

I might have been embarrassed to help with this sort of activity in the past, but now I see it in the nature of skills transfer. The students are revolting, but many students unions and the NUS itself have been rather, how shall I put it, supine in the recent period. The effect is that sometimes students need advice in banner-making and so on.

In the case of NUS, the lack of campaigning has been a deliberate strategy - Labour Students tamed and reformed NUS so that it could not cause the government too many headaches. A lot of sad schmucks got a career out of it as well. That was fine (by them) when Labour was the government, it's not so good for them now, and it's been lousy for students all along. Hence, NUS calls its first demonstration in five years.

If you want to join the demonstration in central London on Wednesday, it assembles at 11.30am at Horse Guards Avenue. Middlesex students and staff are leaving Hendon campus at 11am.

My set of pictures from the Middlesex protest is here.

Typical students...?

I can remember a TV advert of yesteryear; in it someone says "typical student, always protesting". I can't remember what it advertised; a rather sensible looking young man rolls his eyes heavenward at the stereotypical (wishful) thinking of an older woman - his grandmother?

My friend, whose employer is one of those public bodies about to be axed in government cuts, said a few months ago that the cuts are inevitable. "Even students aren't bothered; if even students aren't protesting, then you really are stuffed", she said, or words to that effect.

Well, since then, there have been some fairly radical protests against cuts; the odd blip here and there. Students and staff at Barnet and Enfield's own Middlesex University demonstrated and occupied against the axing of the philosophy department. Students occupied part of Goldsmiths today and they are sitting in now. With the scale of the cuts proposed to Higher Education, we will see much more of that, I'm sure.

Wednesday's announcement that universities will be free to charge undergraduates up to £9,000 a year in tuition fees (and they have to borrow more money to pay for their living expenses), means students will also need to step up their campaign around student finance.

The National Union of Students (NUS) has, for the first time in many years, called a demonstration against HE cuts and around student finance (although it's not clear what their actual demands are). I have been asking trade unionist friends to take some annual leave and go on the demonstration next Wednesday 10 November (assemble from 11.30am at Horse Guards Avenue).

Once upon a time, student demos were ten a penny; now they are rare and precious. It's not because students don't care any more; it's because they are worried about what their education is costing them and their parents and are scared to miss a lecture. And because, frankly, they are out of practice.

I'm happy to share the news that Middlesex University management have agreed to students and lecturers at the university postponing lectures next Wednesday to enable them to go on the NUS demo. Middlesex University Students' Union (MUSU) has organised a warm-up demonstration next Monday 8 November from 4-6pm at the Hendon campus on the Burroughs. If you are in the area, drop by! And, of course, a number of them will be on the national demonstration. Watch out for the banners and placards.

P.S. On a personal note, I almost certainly would not have gone to University College London as an undergraduate if I'd had to pay £9,000 a year and living expenses. My enemies might say that's no loss! But my friends know different.