By Kat Fletcher
"There will be no paradise island of education in the sea of capitalist society. We need to build links with other groups fighting the neo-liberal agenda, most of all in the workers' movement. And we should demand that the government taxes business and the rich to provide decent public services and a decent life for all."
- René Schuijlenburg, speaker at this year's NUS demo
Several things happened on December 4th. Something like 20,000 students marched through London. Speakers from ongoing industrial disputes and the left-wing of the labour movement addressed an NUS rally for the first time in years. And Tony Blair did a U-turn on top-up fees.
Surely shome coincidence?
Close. . .
Whether or not the official NUS figure of 23,000 is right, Wednesday's national demonstration was certainly the biggest for a long time. It was also the most militant since 1998, when the national demo was organised by the Campaign for Free Education independently of NUS. Although driving rain turned the placards to mush and saved the NUS leadership from the embarrassment of marching under anti-graduate tax slogans, chants and banners demanding "grants not fees" and "free education" were everywhere. Even Belle Turner, as NUS compere at the final rally, had the crowd shouting "What do we want? Free education!" Those of you old enough to remember when NUS supported the abolition of grants will realise what a massive step forward this is.
And that wasn't all that was new. Normally the platform at the final rally is boredom incarnate - Ken Livingstone, a trade union bureaucrat, perhaps a Lib Dem MP. This was the first year anyone vaguely militant or left-wing get within ten feet of the microphone. René Schuijlenburg, a leading activist in the anti-fees strikes and occupations that took place in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia last year, was followed by Matt Wrack, a striking firefighter and prominent Socialist Alliance activist. Left-wing Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn spoke was followed by "awkward squad" NATFHE General Secretary Paul Mackney.
If you'd told me in February that, at the next NUS demo, every single speaker would express solidarity with striking workers, condemn American policy in Iraq and call for the government to tax the rich, I honestly wouldn't have believed you. Yet all the speakers - and particularly Matt Wrack and Jeremy Corbyn - received a brilliant response. In fact, it was the first NUS demo I can remember when large numbers of people actually listened to the speakers. (And how embarrassed did Mandy Telford look!)
An anecdote to illustrate the kind of demo it was, before I start getting critical. At one point on the march we passed a bar called the Old Fire Station - nothing to do with the FBU, actually, but people thought it was and started cheering.
. . .but no cigar
Compare all this to October's pathetic lobby of Parliament, where less than 150 people took part and labour movement speakers were deliberately excluded from the platform. So have the NUS leaders wisely employed the last few months to change their spots? I'm afraid not.
In the first place, the demo was big because of the threat of top-up fees - all credit to student unions for mobilising their members, but very little to do with NUS. Furthermore, the demo's labour movement-orientation was not the work of the NUS leadership. Matt Wrack, Jeremy Corbyn and Paul Mackney were only invited because of a motion proposed by the left on the NUS national executive - a motion which VP (Education) Chris Weavers opposed on the grounds that the demo should be purely about student funding! And did Chris meet René Schuijlenburg at a meeting of ESIB (the European NUS)? Did he f**k! Rene was invited by lefty NUS exec Faz Velmi, who met him when she was invited to speak at an anti-GATS protest and conference in Cologne.
Similarly, the NUS "Students support the firefighters - Tax the rich to fund public services" banner which received so much attention on the demo was proposed, designed and commissioned by the left. It's a good thing that we've started to have an impact on NUS campaigns, but we shouldn't let the Blairites take the credit.
What scared Blair?
Tony Blair's announcement straight after the demo that the government's education funding review will not result in top-up fees is a clear sign that mass, high-profile student action which links up with the struggles of the labour movement can have an impact. The last thing the government wants is a militant student movement acting in solidarity with the trade union upsurge. Let's make December 4th the start of a movement which fulfils their worst nightmares!
· Kat Fletcher is NUS Women's Officer and a member of the Student Campaign Forum - www.studentcampaignforum.org.uk
