UCU Left - We need a national response to education cuts!


			The UCU Left is a national organisation of University and College Union activists. It is committed to ensuring that the new union has a democratic structure through which members can determine policy, and elected officers and professional officials can be held accountable. It seeks to defend educational equality, and to oppose the consequences of neo-liberal marketisation. It is opposed to all forms of racism, sexism, oppression and imperialism.

We Need a National Response to Education Cuts

Picket Line and Strike Rally at London Met - Oct 15th 2009

We are facing the biggest onslaught on post-16 education in many decades – one which risks reversing the consistent growth of Higher Education, virtually sinking much of Adult Education, cutting a huge swathe through Further Education and completely derailing the notions of ‘lifelong education’ and ‘widening access’.

Now we face huge cuts, major job losses, course closures and attacks on our pay, conditions and pensions. Over the past few weeks we have seen a string of announcements in both HE and FE signaling the scale of the cuts.

In HE the latest figures suggest a £915 million cut, with the elite Russell Group even suggesting that cuts might total £2.5 billion. They went on to state that the future survival of up to 30 universities could be at stake.

The government plans £720 million cuts in Adult Education, reductions in Basic Skills and Esol provision, and a 10% cut in the FE Budget. While the axe in FE will fall predominantly on adult education, funding is also to be slashed to areas that FE colleges had been encouraged to go into such as Train to Gain

The fact that the Russell Group and Tory papers such as the Sunday Times have added their voices to protest at government cuts is significant. However while they only want to defend the elite universities, we must campaign to defend education provision across the board. That is why the fight to stops the cuts and closures at London Metropolitan University has been so important for our union.

The UK already has one of the lowest proportions of teenagers in education, and is one of only two developed countries currently cutting funds to post-16 education in a period when unemployment is almost 3 million and youth unemployment almost 1 million.

Whoever wins the general election, New Labour or the Tories, they will carry on cutting and using our pay, jobs and pensions to grab back the billions enthusiastically poured into banks and businesses during the financial crisis. While poverty, unemployment, debt and repossessions grow, our Principals and Vice-chancellors pay themselves mega-salaries and bankers go on insisting that they deserve huge bonuses.

Resistance

Now more than ever we need to ensure that the UCU is a union that can fight back. We need to elect a leadership which can develop national and local resistance to the attacks on post-16 education. Since the UCU was formed four years ago UCU Left members have been at the forefront of developing a democratic, member-led union prepared to organise effective action for decent pay and conditions.

Crucially we have also sought to promote a vision of education as a universal right and public service, and have been clear about the need to resist neoliberalism whereby everything is measured by profit and the bottom line.

This academic year we have seen the victory of UCU members at Tower Hamlets College after a four week strike to defend jobs and education. Members at Barnsley College have also driven back a major attempt to cuts jobs and downgrade lecturing staff. UCU Left supporters have been at the heart of these fight backs.

There have also been some important victories against attempted job cuts in Higher Education – notably at Liverpool University. At the moment UCU members in university campuses across the country from Leeds to Kings College, UCL & London Met are at the forefront of campaigns to defend jobs.

United

These campaigns show that if we build a broad, united resistance to defend education and fight job losses, we can win – and other workers, students and our communities will respond in solidarity.

That is why we urge you to vote for our UCU Left list of candidates in the elections for UCU’s Vice President and members of the NEC which takes place between 8th February and 5th March.

All our candidates are experienced activists but also UCU members who share a commitment to education alongside the basic trade union principles of solidarity, the need for united action, and the idea that ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’.

We need a national campaign of resistance to the attacks we face which should involve both sectors in unity with other trade unions, students and our communities.