Materials
Global Week Of Action - For Free Emancipatory Education for All
The International Student Movement, responsible for the calls that have resulted in significant waves of direct action by students across Europe and indeed the world. Their latest week of action has been called for November 9-18; ENS believes student activists in the UK should respond. Read more
New Constitution
The new Education Not For Sale constitution, amended and ratified at ENS national conference on October 25th, 2009.
Education Not For Sale Constitution
Occupation briefing - what your uni has been briefed to do if you occupy!
What follows is a briefing published by university administrators concerning student occupations . It outlines some of the tactics used by university authorities to deal with student protest, specifically occupations. It is not clear exactly who wrote the briefing, or who received it, but since it is addressed to members of the Association for Heads of University Administration (AHUA), we can reasonably assume that it has been received by a number of vice chancellors and others in positions of authority around the country.
It was decided to publish this document at and Education Not For Sale open steering meeting on September 20th. There were no objections from the activists present.
What follows was transcribed from hard copy by Education Not for Sale.
As circulated by an anonymous ENS activist
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Blueprint flyer
WHAT IS THE “BLUEPRINT”?
Earlier this year, the National Union of Students (NUS) published a paper laying out a new model for Higher Education (HE) funding. The document was called The Blueprint, and proposes a graduate tax model of funding for undergraduate qualifications, including those outside of the traditional BA/BSc framework, such as some vocational training, etc. This is a change from previous NUS policy, which was to focus their energy on opposing the lifting of the cap, while supporting the ideal of free education. This flyer is intended to explain the Blueprint and some of its flaws as Education Not for Sale see it; we hope it will be taken in the spirit of open constructive criticism intended to address flaws in the NUS’s tactics and The Blueprint’s model, rather than an attack on another voice of the student movement.
The basic ideas of The Blueprint are:
• That HE funding should be administered by a “People’s Trust for Higher Education”. This would be under the control of representatives of HE institutions, HE students, and graduate employers, with the chair being appointed by the Secretary of State. It would design and implement a personal contribution scheme defined by legislation and ministerial guidance, and would set and adjust the price of an individual academic credit.
• That personal contributions should be based on the “ability to pay”, “sustained income over time”, and “amount of accredited Higher Education undertaken”, lasting for a fixed period (20 years) rather than being of a fixed amount. Therefore different income brackets would pay different rates, on a monthly basis, out of their income, but the tax would only be applied to those who have actually studied for HE qualifications.
• That it should be possible to pay off a certain amount of academic credits in advance. The amount that a normal student could pay off should be capped, but their employer should also be able to pay off some credits – the Blueprint does not mention a cap on employer pay-offs. Paid-off credits could be partially offset against National Insurance contributions, offering a tax incentive for employers to do so.
• That slightly different rules regarding the paying-off of credits would apply to mature students, to account for the fact that they may not be earning for a full 20 years after they complete their course, etc.
• That the personal contributions from this scheme should replace top-up fees; in other words, the government would continue to partially fund HE with money raised through other sources of taxation, and there would continue to be other income streams such as donations from alumni, sponsorship by business, etc.
It’s worth noting that the graduate tax payments would be made on top of any repayments of student maintenance loans, as they only replace repayments on student fee loans, and the existing maintenance package would be expected to stay in place. The NUS failed to point this out in The Blueprint, so their figures only account for the graduate tax.
Note also that the NUS’ figures need to be adjusted for inflation from 2006-7 prices, meaning that the rates are higher than they appear, especially when the failure of pay to track inflation in many industries recently has led to a decline in ‘real’ wages.
A final issue to be aware of is that you could get ‘free’ higher education under this system by emigrating after the end of your degree – no matter what you earn in Canada, Mexico or Japan, you are under no obligation to pay anything back to the UK government. Language students, take note!
A ‘POLITICAL CONSENSUS’?
NUS President Wes Streeting has suggested that The Blueprint was produced in an attempt to break the ‘political consensus’ that fees were the only or best way to fund HE. In other words, Wes thinks that the best way to defend students’ interests is to show that there are other ways for them to pay, rather than questioning whether they should be paying in the first place.
But this approach of playing into individual funding of HE is dangerous – it makes small concessions look larger because they are close to the position students are actively arguing for. It puts less pressure on the government and asks for minor alterations to the system that are not necessarily better. It legitimises the consensus on education being individually funded by moving the main dissenting voice within the consensus. The Blueprint challenges the consensus on fees, for sure… But it fails to challenge the consensus that education cannot be free!
Education Not for Sale argues that this approach to breaking the consensus is naive – proposing the Blueprint as the cure for HE funding’s ills would mean turning our backs on free education. Instead we think that students should be fighting on all fronts for their interests, always supporting universally free education funded by those who can best afford it – rich individuals and businesses – while also exerting influence over decisions taken within the current framework, such as the lifting of the top-up fee cap. If you agree with us, contact us and get involved in our campaigns.
WHAT ARE THE BLUEPRINT’S FLAWS?
The problem with proposing The Blueprint’s model is not just that students should be arguing for free education instead. There are various problems with the Blueprint that could have been tightened up even within the mainstream approach of individuals paying for their degrees. Leaving the issue of free education aside, the NUS should at least be demanding a more democratic and transparent model that preserves the academic integrity of our HE institutions and prevents marketisation. Here are just some of the flaws of the model proposed by NUS:
1. The backbone of The Blueprint is the People’s Trust. However, there is no guarantee that the Trust would be democratic; the NUS does not propose that representatives be elected, etc. Furthermore, students are likely to have less influence on the board unless all members are limited to a short period on it, as employers could stay on for 40 years or more, while almost all undergraduates would last less than a tenth of that time.
2. The People’s Trust would not be as independent as NUS claim – the chair would be appointed by a member of the government, it is to submit to “ministerial guidance” and legislation, and the government would be able to set and alter the key constant in the formulae used to determine contributions, thereby controlling the tax.
3. The NUS failed to include important figures, such as how many credits an employer could pay off, or the probable cost of a credit. This makes it difficult to predict the actual impact on people’s finances, or the fairness of the scheme to those on low incomes, and means that even if the government did follow the NUS’s proposals, they could be made to suit any agenda by choosing the right numbers.
4. The idea of paying off credits in advance makes a mockery of the graduate tax – if the cost is set too low, then the rich could pay off a large chunk of their contributions, thus lowering how much they pay (possibly to a lower rate than someone on half their wage, depending on the exact numbers), whereas if it is too high, only the rich will be able to do it, buying their way out of the 20-year period, while the less well-off cannot.
5. The NUS itself openly admits that its model would shift HE towards providing “part-time study” for “the workforce”, and “meet[ing] the needs of businesses”. In other words, HE would become a training tool for employers, would help to casualise work and shift towards part-time work (thereby pushing down wages and job security), while genuine academic work would be squeezed even further out of undergraduate work.
6. The graduate tax is based on the idea of a service-user fee, whereas HE should be funded on the basis of ability to pay, just like the majority of public spending, including the NHS, lower levels of education, defence, etc. This is because everyone benefits from HE, not just graduates, while businesses and the rich benefit disproportionately through their roles as employers, the main consumers of new technologies, etc.
7. The Blueprint is not a stand-alone solution – it relies on the government finding alternative funding for National Insurance contributions so that credit pay-offs by employers can be offset against them. The NUS suggests that savings could be made due to the removal of various administrative tasks allowed by this model, but this doesn’t take into account the massive administration required to calculate every graduate’s contributions on a monthly basis, etc.
8. Employers who make large contributions to their employees, or who make ‘charitable’ donations to the funding body, and who sit on the board controlling funding, are much more likely to want a marketised system that panders to their desires, allows them to set the syllabus, and strips HE of its academic integrity. The NUS claim to oppose the marketisation of education, and yet the model they have suggested puts heavy emphasis on the centrality of employers and businesses in sponsoring individuals, controlling HE funding, etc. While industry-HE links are necessary to ensure (at least some) education is practical, this should be based on voluntary consultation by institutions, not business control over funding, etc.
9. The Blueprint is completely opaque. At least under the fee system we know how much we are paying for our course before we do it; under the graduate tax, we would have to ask ourselves “can I pay back P=(I-(T/12))xCxW, calculated monthly, for 20 years?” Add to that credit pay-offs, fluctuation in the ‘constant’ set by the government, fluctuation in credit prices, employers’ contributions, and so on, and it becomes a nightmare. The government could change how much you have to pay at any point after the start of your course under The Blueprint’s model.
10. The Blueprint does not call for, or even hint at, free education. The NUS has an obligation to be fighting for students’ interests, improving the accessibility of HE, etc. The Blueprint fails to adequately do that, because the NUS have turned their back on the struggle for free education. The Blueprint actively condones the idea of paying for HE on an individual ‘user’ basis, and if successful, would lock us into a situation of accepting a similar system to fees for at least 15 years before it broke even. This would be a massive setback for those who want to see free education reintroduced across the UK, like present-day Scotland or 1970s England.
Blueprint students’ union briefing
THE PURPOSE OF THIS BRIEFING
As you are almost certainly aware, the National Union of Students (NUS) published a paper laying out a new model for Higher Education (HE) funding earlier this year. The document was called The Blueprint, and proposes a graduate tax model of funding for undergraduate qualifications, including those outside of the traditional BA/BSc framework, such as some vocational training, etc. This is a change from previous NUS policy, which was to focus their energy on opposing the lifting of the cap, while supporting the ideal of free education.
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The last great sell-out?
An assessment of NUS’s “Blueprint” for HE funding (read about the campaign here).
By Daniel Randall, NUS NEC 2005-2006 and NUS Trustee Board (pc).
(This article first appeared in the online version of Varsity, the Cambridge student newspaper)
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No to the Governance Review! For grass-roots reform of NUS, no to a second Extraordinary Conference!
Education Not for Sale’s leaflet to the NUS Extraordinary Conference (Wednesday 12 2008).
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ENS constitution
1. ENS is governed by a conference which will be convened by the ENS steering committee at least once a year with at least five weeks notice of date and location. Voting at the conference is open to everyone who self-defines as an ENS supporter.
2. Only a conference can amend or replace this constitution or ENS’s basic statement of aims (though all this requires is a simple majority vote).
3. Quorum for the conference is thirty people.
4. The steering committee will consist of
- Two convenors, elected separately by conference;
- A block of ten members, elected by conference;
- Representatives of autonomous groups eg local groups, ENS Women (see below).
5. The Steering Committee will maintain and extend ENS’s communication networks and practical organisational capabilities, ensure that every activist has access to its infrastructure, help timetable national ENS events, edit official ENS material in accordance with policies set by the conference, and elect officers. The committee will elect a secretary, treasurer, website manager and elect other officers as it sees fit. These officers can be recalled and replaced at any time; the convenors can only be replaced by a conference. The Steering Committee shall have the power to authorise the expenditure of ENS resources. It shall have no powers of censure or any nontrivial powers not specified here. The Convenors shall have no special powers.
6. Quorum for a decision of the steering committee is seven assenting members.
7. Steering must meet at least six times a year, and should aim to meet at least once every six weeks. The time and venue for meetings of the steering committee shall be set either by an individual so tasked by the committee or by seven assenting members of the committee. Details of meetings must be posted on the front page of the ENS website and on the e-lists at least ten days in advance. Meetings will be open to all self-defining ENS supporters to speak, make proposals etc (though only steering committee members will be able to vote) and minutes of its meetings will be made available on the ENS website within a week of the meeting.
9. Those holding minority positions with ENS - whichever body the majority position was decided by - have a right to make their disagreements public and fight for their point of view. Minority positions will be given space on the ENS website, in publications etc.
10. Groups of ENS supporters have the right to propose alternative platforms, organise themselves into factions and so on, though it is not necessary to do so in order to enjoy minority rights.
11. ENS Women is an autonomous organisation within ENS. Groups of ENS supporters may form autonomous groups on the basis of oppression (eg sex, race, sexuality, disability), sector (eg FE, HE), institution or locality, and elect representatives to the Steering Committee.
New “Where we stand” statement for ENS
Education Not for Sale is a network of anti-capitalist students founded in September 2005. We exist to fight the rule of profit in our education system and in society as a whole, seeking to organize students alongside workers in struggle to replace capitalism with a society based on collective ownership, social provision for need, ecological sustainability and consistent democracy. We organize in the National Union of Students, in student unions, on campuses and in a variety of campaigns and movements.
We fight for:
- Free, top-quality, secular and democratic education and public services at every level, funded by taxing the rich and business.
- The abolition of all fees and a living, non-means-tested grant for every student, in FE and HE.
- Education not profit: business out of our schools, colleges and universities. Institutions run democratically by students, education workers and communities and aimed at developing free human beings, not teaching factories run by bureaucrats to make a profit and produce compliant workers.
- Mass direct action to win our demands, a campaigning NUS which mobilises such action - and a rank-and-file movement of student unions and the activist left prepared to take up the fight in opposition to NUS’s current right-wing leadership.
- Mass involvement and democratic control in NUS and student unions: for fighting unions, not bureaucratic service-providers.
- Student-worker unity; a fight to organize students who work; consistent support for workers’ struggles, on campus and beyond, in Britain and worldwide.
- Consistent support for women’s, black, LGBT and disabled liberation. Defend the NUS Liberation Campaigns. Free abortion on demand; free 24 hour nurseries and other social provision to liberate women from domestic drudgery. Militant opposition to the BNP, no platform for fascists. Fight racist lies, defend asylum-seekers, no borders.
- A political, internationalist student movement turned outwards towards the anti-war, climate change, global justice and anti-capitalist movements.
- Opposition to imperialism. The immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. We oppose any war and sanctions on Iran. In the event of an attack on Iran, we will launch a direct action campaign at campuses across the UK, along with student Stop the War groups.
- Solidarity with student, workers’, women’s and other movements fighting exploitation and oppression everywhere. Solidarity with the Palestinians in their struggle for self-determination.
- Left unity. The organizations of the student left should unite - maximum unity in action, free and open debate about our differences and disagreements.
We call on all student activists and organizations who broadly accept this statement of aims to support ENS.
Draft for new Education Not for Sale constitution
Proposals for discussion at the Reclaim the Campus conference.
If you have constitutional/structural proposals, proposals for a statement of aims, or motions, please send them to reclaimthecampus@gmail.com and we will display them on this site once they are forwarded. Please try to keep submissions to 500 words maximum. The final deadline for submissions is 1pm on Friday 16 May; short amendments will be allowed on the day. (Comments, whether for publication or not, are also welcome.)
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Living grants for all! Tax the rich!
We demand a living, non-means-tested grant for every student! Tax the rich!
We are calling on student activists, officers and campaigners to sign the following statement.
We the undersigned believe that the decision of NUS National Conference 2006 to abandon the national union’s policy for a non-means-tested grant was a step backwards. We oppose this shift back towards the situation which existed immediately after the election of the Blair government, when the Labour Students-dominated leadership of NUS positively supported the abolition of grants, arguing that they were “unaffordable”.
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ENS Amendments for NUS Conference 2007
Student unions can submit amendments for the 2007 NUS Conference, which takes place March 27-29 in Blackpool
The four “zones ” or topics for discussion are “Education ”, “Strong and active unions ”, “Welfare and student rights ” and “Society and citizenship ”; each SU is entitled to submit one motion in each zone. The word limit is 240, and the deadline for submission is 1pm, Friday 23 February. ENS activists have produced a number of model amendments which you can propose to your student union. FOr help submitting amendments please email sofie.buckland@nus.org.uk
The motions document, detailing all text already submitted can be found here( .doc file).
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£10,000 per year fees threat
By Sofie Buckland, NUS National Executive
Many vice-chancellors are preparing a campaign for a big rise in top-up fees, according to the results of a survey published in the Guardian on 18 January.
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Students and the environment: Fight for democracy!
This is a discussion piece written by a supporter of Education Not for Sale from Cambridge University. We welcome further contributions on the subject.
As you’re reading this, look around at the room you’re in. Think about your halls of residence, your lecture halls, your classrooms, in fact, every building you go into in your week, I want you to ask yourself “how ecologically sound is this building?”.
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ENS Women statement on the Ipswich murders
We, the members of ENS-Women, are deeply disturbed and upset by the recent murders of women in Ipswich, and by the media coverage of these tragic events. We are also mindful that these events cannot be understood as occurring in a vacuum; rather, violence against women is widespread in the UK, and sex workers are especially vulnerable to violence, rape & murder at the hands of men.
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Ultra Vires Briefing - the law, what it says, what it doesn’t say and how to beat it
ENS has produced a briefing about the “ultra vires” provisions of charities law. Their impact on the activities of student unions are a big issue for student activists. This is because student campaigners of all sorts are regularly told by their student union officers that particular proposals to the SU are ultra vires and cannot be carried out.
This guide seeks to set out in basic terms what the law says and what it doesn’t; explain how in most cases it is relatively easy to get round ultra vires perfectly legally, providing some suggestions for doing so; and put the case for campaigning for changes to the law so that students alone and not the government can determine how our unions’ money is spent. We intend it as a contribution to rebuilding the culture of political campaigning that we need in the student movement.
To download it as a PDF click here.
ENS model motions to NUS Conference 2007
Student unions can submit motions for the 2007 NUS Conference, which takes place March 27-29 in Blackpool
The four “zones ” or topics for discussion are “Education ”, “Strong and active unions ”, “Welfare and student rights ” and “Society and citizenship ”; each SU is entitled to submit one motion in each zone. The word limit is 400, and the deadline for submission is 1pm, Friday 1 December.
This is a vital opportunity for left-wing activists to get text submitted to NUS Conference. ENS activists have produced a number of model motions which you can propose to your student union.
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Text of ENS leaflet distributed at NUS national demo, 29/10/2006
Tax the rich to fund education! Living grants for all!
Education Not for Sale believes that there is only one way to fund a genuinely free and fair education system - taxation of the rich and business, redistributing resources from profits and luxury to the education and other services people need. This is the only demand that can cut through the government’s lying claim that there is not enough money for public services.
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Means-testing and “targeted grants”
In March 2006, policy supporting “targeted grants” (i.e. means-testing) was passed at a small and largely apolitical NUS Conference, bringing an end to 5 years of NUS commitment to universal free education and living grants for all.
Labour Students - the prime movers behind the policy - justified it by sending speaker after speaker to the podium to tell conference how middle-class they were and how they really didn’t need a grant.
On the face of it, it’s a convincing argument; why should rich, middle-class Blairites get a state grant to pay for the entirety of their education when they’re clearly wealthy enough to pay for it themselves?
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Message of Congratulations and Solidarity of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company on the victory of the workers, students and people of France
11th April 2006
Over the past few weeks, the people of Iran, the working people, students and our union, have been closely and with much interest following the news from France, hoping in our hearts for the victory of the just movement of the great workers’ and students’ unions and the people of France.
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ENS bulletin #1 now online
ENS produced a bulletin for NUS Conference 2006 - download it as a PDF here or read some of the articles online below.
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An open letter to the student left
To members of Socialist Students, Socialist Worker Students' Society, Student Broad Left, Revolution, Scottish Socialist Youth, Respect Students and the Young Greens:
Comrades -
The situation faced by students in Britain today is dire. The introduction of top-up fees in 2006 will be yet another massive blow to education in this country, making it impossible for countless young working-class people to enter Higher Education and effectively deterring thousands more.
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NUS’s £100,000 waste scandal
Over the last two years, one aspect of the right-wing consensus which dominates the National Union of Students has been support for money-saving “reforms ”. The “reforms ” have been anti-democratic through and through: cutting the size and length of National Conference, slashing the travel budget of part-time National Executive Committee members and, outrageously, cancelling NUS’s national education funding demonstration this year. Some more radical “reformers ” want to go further, for instance by abolishing the part-time section of the NEC entirely - as has been proposed by some motions and amendments to this conference.
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2005-2006 in review - a shameful timeline
April 2005 - NUS's annual conference sees right-wing independents gain further influence on the National Executive Committee, mainly to the detriment of Labour Students. Sections of the left, in alliance with religious conservatives, walk out while Houzan Mahmoud (an Iraqi revolutionary socialist) is speaking. Two Jewish members of the NEC resign, alleging anti-Semitism within NUS. The religious right almost succeeds in defeating a motion defending the existing time limit on abortion.
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2005-2006 in review - the National Union that wasn’t
It's been an up and down year for the student movement in Britain. The anti-G8 mobilisations in Edinburgh in July brought tens of thousands of young people onto the streets to demonstrate in favour of a better world. Events organised by activist campaigns like People & Planet attracted hundreds. Dynamic campaigns against on-campus, day-to-day issues sprang up at colleges and universities in Exmouth, Sussex, Lambeth, Swansea and elsewhere. Student activism in this country on issues from library opening hours up to international trade rules is still alive and well.
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Time to Learn French!
Sofie Buckland and Daniel Randall report from the 300,000-strong demonstration for young workers' rights in Paris on March 18. (Originally published in the ENS Bulletin for NUS conference 2006)
On Saturday 18 March, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Paris against the French government's “Contrat Première Embauche ” (First Job Contract, CPE) proposal, which will allow employers to summarily sack workers under 26 during their first two years of employment. The demonstration was part of a national mobilisation that brought more than a million protesters onto the streets across France, and part of a national campaign that shows no sign of ebbing.
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Back NATFHE/AUT on March 7th - leaflet text
Academic staff have seen their pay fall by 30% in the past two decades compared with the pay of other similar professions. At the same time their productivity has hugely increased. Employers promised to use new government funding and the extra billions from top-up fees to fund a pay-increase for lecturers. But they haven't kept their promise. They won't talk unconditionally to the unions, and they won't even make a pay-offer for 2006-07. Meantime Vice-Chancellors are happy to award themselves a massive pay-increase of 25% over the next three years.
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Protest to free Iranian bus workers!
From Eric Lee, LabourStart website - www.labourstart.org.uk
Four days ago, security forces in Iran began arresting hundreds of striking bus workers in Tehran.
That’s right — I said “hundreds”.
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FE STUDENTS FIGHT PRIVATISATION
By Rob MacDonald - President, Lambeth College Student Union
Lambeth Student Unions boycott of canteens was a fantastic success. Hundreds of students and staff joined the boycott. In all four canteens only a handful of meals were bought. The Student Union believes 95% of students and staff that normally use the canteen didn’t on boycott day. College and Scolarest management now know how serious the students are and the power we can have when properly organised. After the boycott a delegation from the Student Union handed in a 1400 strong petition calling for food at prices students can afford.
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Universally Challenged
Click here for an article from Corporate Watch on the role of corporate investment in university life, from scholarships to research and development, and activist responses to it.
Germany: students hit by social cuts
By Ben Lewis
On 20 November 2005, 3,000 students from across the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia gathered to demonstrate against the first reading of a bill, proposed by the state's Christian Democrat (CDU)-Liberal (FDP) coalition government, to introduce student fees of €500 per semester (around £675 per academic year) The second reading is planned to take place in March, and if the bill passes, fees will be implemented from October 2007. Education policy in Germany is, due to its federal structures, determined by local government in the states, so although similar demonstrations were organised in other affected areas such as Stuttgart and Hamburg, the action was not nationally coordinated.
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ENS model amendments for NUS Conference 2006
Last term, student unions submitted motions for the 2006 NUS Conference, which takes place March 28-30. This term, SUs can submit shorter motions, known as “amendments”.
The four “zones” or topics for discussion are “Education”, “Strong and active unions”, “Welfare and student rights” and “Society and citizenship”; each SU is entitled to submit one amendment in each zone. The word limit is 240, and the deadline for submission is 1pm, Friday 10 February.
This is a vital opportunity for left-wing activists to get text submitted to NUS Conference. ENS activists have produced a number of model amendments which you can propose to your student union.
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The Case For Free Higher Education
by Angus Hebenton, graduate student, Oxford University.
A major part of the reason why free higher education remains a basic socialist principle is the same reason why the 1945 Labour government introduced it: so that potential students, especially from working class backgrounds, are not deterred from applying.
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NUS Conference 2005: the facts
ENS activists have produced a briefing pack on the events of and issues raised at NUS Conference 2005. Click here to dispel the myths!
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Workers win collective bargaining in Haitian free trade zone
(December 2005)
One of the campaigns on which ENS has worked with No Sweat and Students Against Sweatshops has been in support of the Haitian trade union SOCOWA/Batay Ouvriye’s attempts to unionise the factory producing goods for Levi Strauss in the Ouanaminthe Free Trade Zone. We have just received news that this campaign has taken a big step forward, with the union winning collective bargaining rights for the first time.
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ENS Winter Gathering - Report
Report on discussion and decisions made
12-6pm, Saturday 10 December
Leeds University Union
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Stickers
ENS has produced campaign stickers in a variety of colours. Slogans include ‘Education not for sale!’, ‘Living grants for all’, ‘Students against sweatshops’ and ‘Tax the rich’. “We will producing new stickers for the new academic year; our current stock is left over from NUS conference and includes some ENS NUS election campaign stickers. We will therefore provide stickers at the discounted price of £5 for twenty sheets (240 stickers) or £9 for 40 sheets (480 stickers).
ENS Logo
The ENS logo is available here.
Affiliate your student union or campaigning group to Education Not for Sale!
Model motion for affiliation
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Iran and the left
From an article in Tribune, 18 November 2005
Peter Tatchell urges solidarity with the Iranian people's struggle against clerical tyranny
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Students with jobs lose out in exams.
By Rebecca Smithers, Guardian education editor, 24 November 2005
Private firms poised to run state schools after reform
Christian groups in talks to take over from local education authorities. Matthew Taylor, the Guardian.
Dare they do it?
At last ministers show signs of wanting to reform secondary school admissions. In The Guardian, John Crace assesses the chances of them introducing a fairer, simpler system.
We’re teachers, not terrorists
Trying to stop academics from teaching certain topics under new anti-terrorism legislation is only going to make us do it more, argues Gargi Bhattacharyya in The Guardian .
Iraqi gays face abuse and murder
No to Shariah law - For a democratic, secular Iraq
London - 16 August 2005
“Iraqi gay and lesbian people face blackmail, torture, rape and murder, according to our contacts inside the country. We urge solidarity with our queer brothers and sisters in Iraq. It is time for an international queer movement to defend the victims of Islamist terror in Iraq,” said gay Muslim Ramzi Isalam of the LGBT human rights group OutRage!.
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ENS statement on top-up fees, student poverty and education funding
The following statement on education funding was agreed as a basis for campaigning at the ENS winter gathering on 10 December.
ENS founding statement
Agreed upon at the first ENS Gathering, September 3 2005
NUS CONFERENCE 2006 - VOTE EDUCATION NOT FOR SALE!
At its winter gathering, held on December 10 at Leeds University Union, Education Not for Sale decided its candidates for the NUS National Executive Committee elections which will take place at NUS’s Annual Conference on 28-30 March 2006.
The case for a new student activist network
Education in the UK is increasingly geared towards the job market. By introducing variable top-up fees, the 2004 Higher Education Act established a market within the state-funded Higher Education system, forcing universities to sacrifice quality and choice and implement increases in class sizes and cuts in teaching posts in the name of “efficiency”. This trend has been mirrored in schools and colleges across the country, where cuts in courses, Private Finance Initiatives and privately owned City Academies subordinate the provision of quality education to the demands of business. The curriculum is being reshaped to introduce children as young as five to “entrepreneurship”. Meanwhile, communities are divided along religious, sectarian and ethnic lines by the promotion of faith schools.
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Democratic structure
This is a draft document to set down organising principles and an operating procedure for Education Not for Sale, which will be discussed at the Leeds gathering on December 10th
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ENS statement on the suspension of Middlesex University Students’ Union president Keith Shilson
Defend student union independence!
Oppose Hizb ut-Tahrir!
Following recent Government pledges to clamp down on Islamist extremists on British campuses, the administration at Middlesex University has suspended its student union president, Keith Shilson, for organising a meeting at which Hizb ut-Tahrir would present its case.
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Interview with a sacked TGWU shop steward at Gate Gourmet, August 11.
What are the conditions like at Gate Gourmet?
They are the very worst conditions - they really are treating them like slaves. But we are not asking them for anything - for any money or anything - we are just asking them for dignity at work, respect - that’s what we want, and it doesn’t cost them anything. That is what we’re looking for.
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IRAQ: Boys trapped in commercial sex trade
by IRIN News Service
BAGHDAD,
8 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Hassan Feiraz, a 16-year-old boy, has started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Baghdad, joining a growing number of adolescents soliciting in Iraq under the threat of street gangs or the force of poverty.
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Oxford University SU Alternative White Paper
The Oxford University SU Alternative White Paper presents alternative proposals for funding Higher Education through progressive taxation.
Public buildings and private finance? That’s a formula for tomorrow’s slums
Larry Elliott, The Guardian, August 2005
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Materials produced by ENS for NUS Conference 2005
Society and citizenship debate bulletin
Special bulletin in response to walkout when Iraqi socialist feminist Houzan Mahmoud spoke
Speaker Tour leaflet
40 Reasons why Tariq Ramadan is a reactionary bigot
“40 reasons why Tariq Ramadan is a reactionary bigot ” was written by the French Marxist, Yves Coleman and has been reproduced by the Alliance for Workers' Liberty (AWL). The text presents factual information about the politics of Tariq Ramadan.
There are many issues the Left must address.
First is the question of honest polemic.
Useful political debate requires clearly presented political positions and an attempt to honestly engage with opponents. And yet Yves Coleman believes that it almost impossible to either ‘catch' or ‘corner' Tariq Ramadan. He is difficult to pin down. The reason is simple: Tariq Ramadan often says one thing to one group, and something different, or contradictory, elsewhere.
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