By Sebastian Egerton-Read
“The Government and University have already made up their mind.” “We can’t win.” “Demonstrations don’t make a difference.” “I can’t make a difference.” You may have felt one, some or all of these things at some point while thinking about the possible rise in tuition fees.
This is a policy that will affect so many people, even if it doesn’t affect current students directly. The next generations of children from poorer families will not have the opportunities of Higher Education. This policy subverts fairness and justice, two things which are always worth fighting for. A student movement and a university united against these cuts are essential to preserving the opportunities that we have enjoyed.
Sixty years ago it would have been hard to predict the significant advances Britain has made in tackling sexism, racism and homophobia. From the introduction of the Equal Pay Act, the legalisation of homosexuality in 1967 to the Race Relations Amendment Act in 2000, huge steps to tackle discrimination have been achieved and Britain is a more tolerant society as a result. There is still a long way to go and we must defend the progress that has been made. Given the chance the Tories will roll back what has been achieved like they did in the 1980s with measures like the introduction of Section 28 which made it illegal for teachers to discuss homosexuality in schools. There will always be cynicism and those who believe we can’t change the world: but history teaches us something different. In many ways it is amazing that there is still a battle to try and convince ordinary people that they can change things, despite these incredible social victories.
A common argument made is that just because there are a few outraged students about tuition fees, it doesn’t mean that they can have the same impact as the massive social movements of the last fifty years. However, it is rarely mentioned that these movements often had humble beginnings themselves. In 1965, two dozen people took to the streets on Trafalgar Square to protest for Gay Pride, the protesters were arrested and beaten by the police, yet by the 1980s homosexual discrimination was being removed from all sorts of legislation and today we have civil partnerships and a much fairer world.
In the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of enraged Americans took the streets to try and stop the Vietnam War. They left those demonstrations feeling that they had failed, but recently released US documents actually later proved that they had averted something much worse. The military had put forward plans to both Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon to launch a nuclear strike on Vietnam to try and end the war, but on both those occasions the Presidents were deterred by the massive protests that were being staged outside their window.
So you can make a difference. We can make a difference. Acting empowers. Once you act, even if it is in a small way, you will feel more empowered to act again, you will want to act again, and you will encourage others to act. Small movements can have huge impacts, even in making actual changes in legislation. In 1968, at a Ford Assembly Plant in Dagenham, a group of women working as sewing machinists went on strike over the lack of equal pay between them and the male workers in the plant. The strike action halted car production, which won the women an increase in pay. This was a hugely important factor in forcing the introduction of the Equal Pay Act in 1970. The incident was even considered significant enough to dramatise in a recent film called ‘Made in Dagenham’. Yet the student national demo of more than 50,000 on 10th November shows that our movement against fees and cuts is massive and growing: imagine what impact we could have.
Getting involved with this movement and acting against this policy is very easy. There is already a large network of students mobilised on campuses, pooling their resources and ideas together. There are a lot of things going on in the coming period and a lot of students are involved; adding your name to that number is very easy. You can take part in this movement in so many different ways, whether it be taking part in demonstrations and sit ins, writing articles, contributing to and/or handing out leaflets, writing a letter to an MP,demanding further action from your guild or students’ union, demanding more from your Vice Chancellor, telling people about the facts of this horrible policy, or even simply advertising the movement on your facebook page!
So, get involved today. Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot make a difference. A famous democratic campaigner Margaret Mead once said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”
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