Workers Power (Britain)
Images of students occupying the Headquaters of the Conservative party in London were beamed around the world as fury of cuts to education and increased tuition fees spilt out onto the streets
THE HUGE SIZE of Wednesday’s student demo and the sheer ferocity of the protesters has put the fear of God into Cameron, Clegg and the whole ruling class – they know that this is just the beginning, and that far from winning the propaganda war, millions of people can see that there is a new way forward in the fight against the cuts – mass direct action on the streets.
The storming of the Tories’ Millbank HQ was an outpouring of spontaneous rage…and there’s plenty more where that came from. Over the weeks and months ahead, trade unionists, students, firefighters, tube workers, civil servants, women and unemployed people will all be taking against the vicious £83bn cuts which will vandalise our welfare and destroy the future of countless communities.
Simon Hardy from REVOLUTION sent a message to ITV news: “let’s be clear – we didn’t vote for these tremendous cuts.”
The capitalists know that if this movement is united in action it can punch a hole through their cuts programme and bring down the cuts coalition.
That’s why the whole ruling class is furiously denouncing the protesters. Every instrument of the capitalist state has united to condemn the Millbank occupation, criminalise the protesters, name and witch-hunt student and union leaders as “ring leaders” and demand heavier policing and strict punishment.
The occupation of Millbank was not a crime – it was a brave act of rebellion and resistance. The criminals were not the working class youth who took out their rage on the windows of the Tories posh multi-million pound offices, but the smug millionaire Tory cabinet and their minions who want to make the very poorest and most vulnerable in society pay the cost of the capitalist crisis, and deny generations of working class youth education and jobs.
Workers Power and the REVOLUTION socialist youth movement are proud to have played a leading role in the protest. REVOLUTION members like Luke Cooper of Sussex University have been libelled in the press, with the Tory Evening Standard fabricating a quotation to make it look as if Luke incited violence. Luke said “this is mood music to deflect from the real story – that 52,000 took part in the biggest weekday march in a generartion against this government”.
Solidarity
Scores of students have been arrested, other student leaders like Clare Solomon of ULU and John McDonnell, and lecturers at Goldsmiths College have also faced a barrage of insolent abuse in the Tory press.
We need a massive campaign of solidarity with the victims of the witch-hunt and the frame-up. The National Union of Journalists should strain every nerve to isolate the liars and support the libelled. Unions should threaten immediate walkouts if any protesters face discipline or sacking at work. If college authorities move against students, their administration offices should be occupied until all charges are dropped and all measures revoked.
BBC workers face a vicious attack on their pensions and have taken strike action. The same lie machine that the Tories and the state are using against the students today they will use against media workers tomorrow, as they will aqainst every section of the working class that takes action against the cuts.
Our answer is, shut their lying mouths! Media workers can pull the plug on the capitalist lie machine and demand a right to reply for the working class resistance.
The big picture is now crystal clear. The students have shown that what has happened in France can happen here. Even the disgusting Tory Daily Star rag was forced to reveal that 54 per cent of it’s readers polled backed the students, not the Tories and not the police.
Students – join the protests on 24 November. Workers – bring forward your claims, your strike ballots, your actions and strike together in a mighty wave. Unemployed, women, disabled people, every victim of the Tory cuts: follow the students’ example and occupy every facility threatened with closure. Everyone – unite in anti-cuts committees the length and breadth of Britain.
On Wednesday there was a strong whiff of the anti-poll tax movement in the air. The Tories have a massive fight on their hands. If we unite in action in a general strike, we can bring down Cameron like we brought down Thatcher – and drive this weak and cowardly coalition from office.