In response to the proposed
cuts to education by the ConDem government last autumn ‘
Aber Students Against The Cuts’, an open movement of students and staff from Aberystwyth University plus members of the community, formed in Aberystwyth. Since then, the government has successfully raised the cap on tuition fees, abolished the Education Maintenance Allowance in England and introduced massive and unprecedented cuts to Education funding. Despite all the high profile protests, dozens of student occupations, publicity about alternative solutions, celebrity appeals and inspiration from popular revolutions in North Africa, the government has managed to begin the implementation its extremist austerity agenda.
One might conclude that the impassioned actions of hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life have come to nothing: that this deeply unpopular government remains unstoppable. However, it would be to underestimate the power of the establishment to presume that a series of street protests or student occupations alone could bring it down. More than that it would be to misunderstand the nature and direction of the movement that has emerged in opposition.
