The government is running scared 1 from trying to impose top up feto
on students, so they've decided to re-brand it. They have taken a leaf out of the book of the nuclear power industry -which famously renamed the leaky, scandal-ridden Windscale nuclear plant in Cumbria as "Sellafield", hoping campaigners wouldn't notice.
The term "top-up fees" is to be ditched, but the effects of the policy will remain the same. Paying what Education Secretary Charles Clarke is now trying to smuggle through as an 'individualised graduate tax will amount to paying the same £3000 in extra fees.
Clarke and the remnants of New Labour's spin doctors think a hard sell of the renamed policy may be enough to fool the more dull-witted Labour back-benchers and get the legislation through parliament without another damaging rebellion. If not, they may have to compromise in order to get the fees imposed.
Even though Alistair Campbell is no in charge, the same old rules apply. The government argue that in order to expand higher education to include half of all under 30s by 2010, they have to tax better off students to benefit the poor, who may only be eligible to pay two thirds of the fee.
Recent figures show that 48 per cent of young people from the top social classes go to university, compared with 18 per cent of those from the bottom three classes. What Tony Blair and his friends don't understand is that students can't afford to pay any fees at all. Education should be a right, as it was for university students when they got their education, and not a privilege for the rich, as it will be if they get their way.
In Britain - with one of the highest levels of child poverty in Europe, one in five chilEuropean Paris 12-15 November The European Social Forum is not an organisation, not a united front platform, but "an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking of effective action by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neo-liberalism and to domination of the world by capital".
Among the high-profile figures who will
be speaking in Paris are Walden Bello, Antonio Negri, George Monbiot, Luca
Casarini, Fausto Bertinotti, Susan
George, and others. There will be hundreds of forums and debates.
Socialist Resistance is actively involved
in building a British contingent to go to
Paris. If you want to get involved in any way
in the campaign, or want to come along,
email us at [email protected] or
ring Karen on 020 8800 7460. dren grows up in poverty. But the poorest children remain socially excluded if one of the key routes out of poverty, education, is out of people's reach. The new proposals argue that everyone, rich or poor should pay their way.
For years, the higher education system has been under attack in Britain and elsewhere from the likes of Tony Blair. Student loans and top up fees are just the tip of the iceberg in a sustained programme to bring big business into education. Ultimately, governments would love to see the privatisation of education as a means of making profits in a world of decreasing opportunities to make a quick buck.
But this project has hit problems in recent years, and private companies have sometimes found that little money is to be made from the day to day running of public services.
WS Atkins recently lost the contract to run education services for Southwark Council in south London due to the deterioration in service in the year or so Atkins was responsible.
Problems have also emerged elsewhere. Governments have got away with these attacks either because of a lack of confidence to fight back, or in too many cases because unions, including student unions have been too close to the Labour government.
The only answer is to organise opposition in every university and college against fees, and any attempt to erode students rights further. We also need to put demands on the government.
Fees are about making the younger generation pay for the crisis of neoliberal governments.
But there is a radicalisation among young people in Britain, with hundreds of thouNOT FEES sands seeing protest something which can achieve real change.
Tony Blair is on the ropes, with a dwindling band of allies in government: and a real fight over student poverty could help get rid of him sooner, rather than later. NOT FEES