As many as 7,000 students marched through London on Wednesday 15 November to demand “Free Education now — tax the rich”.
The protest was organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts and supported by Momentum, RMT, Unite, NUS Scotland and student unions across the country. Workers’ Liberty student activists were centrally involved in organising and leading the demonstration, along with other comrades in NCAFC.
The demonstration was arguably the most energetic and loud free education march in recent years. The atmosphere was boosted by well timed flares and the presence of the largest ever aerial banner at a UK free education demo (held horizontally to be seen from above). The three demands of the protest were: scrap all fees, living grants for all and stop the campus cuts.
The demonstration passed Picturehouse Central, stopping outside in solidarity with the striking workers, and so that protesters could chant slogans used by Picturehouse workers on the picket lines.
As expected, many demonstrators came from London universities. However, over 60 campuses across the UK mobilised. This has created the potential for NCAFC to link up these activists into a national movement, the task now is to maintain and build these connections.
NCAFC will keep up the immediate pressure for free education and build into our activism the democratic networks and culture that will bring future generations of activists into the fight for free education, until it is won, and beyond that.
NCAFC Winter Conference
9-10 December
Liverpool Guild of Students
More details here
