Occupy London to join student protest

Occupy London activists will take part in the national walkout planned by the students in opposition to the coalition government’s proposed reforms to higher education.


Anti-capitalist activists from Occupy London Stock Exchange movement will join the national day of protest in solidarity with university students who have planned to boycott lectures on Wednesday to show how universities would be if the tuition fees keep rising.

“Since the first assemblies at Occupy London in October, we’ve stood strong in solidarity with students fighting against the commodification of knowledge that is happening to our education system under the guise of unnecessary austerity cuts,” LSX supporter Arun Mistry said.

Tens of thousands of students at campuses all over the UK are expected to attend the protest arranged by the National Union of Students (NUS) as part of its Come Clean campaign to highlight that high tuition fees, hidden course costs and a lack of bursaries would force more and more students to leave the universities.

The NUS stressed the protest was planned to urge both the universities and government to come clean on the education costs and the future of the country’s education system.

The move comes after it was revealed in January that the government was seeking to drop, or delay the HE Bill, including steps on changing the university system to the more competitive one.

NUS president Liam Burns said that the national protest would tell the government that the student unions need a national debate on higher education reforms, it would also remind ministers that “we are watching what they’re doing.”

“When the government quietly dropped plans for a higher education bill earlier this year they didn’t drop their plans. They simply removed the opportunity for the kind of scrutiny that has been afforded to changes to the NHS.

“Students, parents, lecturers and anyone with a stake in education wants to know what the government and our institutions have in store for higher education and demand that they come clean,” Burns added.