International Worker No 239, Saturday, September 13, 1997 Defend free university education Mobilise against Labour's attacks By the Editorial Board The Socialist Equality Party calls on all working people, youth and students to mobilise against Labour's plans to impose university tuition fees of up to £1,000 from 1998. In ending the democratic right to free, universal education, Labour is demonstrating once again that it is the party of class privilege and inequality. The imposition of fees and the abolition of all maintenance grants by 1999 will drive thousands of young people out of Higher Education and force thousands more into debt. Tens of thousands of jobs will be lost as an immediate result, compounding the problems of overcrowding and lack of resources. Higher Education will be further stratified along class lines, with selected universities and courses available only to a privileged elite. Blair's "New Labour" government has cynically packaged its plans as an attempt to benefit the least well-off. By exempting the poorest students from fees and introducing a sliding scale of charges based on parental income (with those on combined earnings of £30,000 per annum plus paying the total fee), Labour claims it is ending a "middle class" privilege! But their plans to abolish maintenance grants exposes this lie. Mandatory grants to help with living costs were introduced in 1962, to "ensure that those qualified to take advantage of costly facilities are not deterred from doing so". This principle came under attack by the Thatcher government who restricted grants and introduced the loan schemes. This led to a situation where one in three students miss lectures to work part-time and one in five drop out of their courses for financial reasons. Labour's measures will take this still further. Grants currently paid to 900,000 students will end, forcing them to take out loans to help with living costs -- estimated to be as high as £10,000 over three years. This will have to be repaid on starting full-time employment. It will penalise poorer students in particular, who will have to borrow more. Many students will be forced into cheap labour jobs. Many more who in the past could rely on parental help with living costs will face greater hardship as their parents have to finance their education instead. Crisis rooted in profit system The crisis in education is rooted in the profit system. The developments in science and technique have revolutionised production and vastly increased productive capacity. Under capitalism, however, society's resources are controlled and directed by a privileged elite and harnessed solely to the drive for profits. The globalisation of production has seen the emergence of huge transnational companies which shift production from one part of the world to another, in search of the cheapest labour, raw materials and the best conditions for profit. Governments in every country -- regardless of their political colourations -- have responded with a drive to make "their" country internationally competitive. To ensure the best rate of returns for the corporations, wages and conditions have been slashed and corporate taxes virtually eliminated. This has led to mass lay-offs and the growth of "flexible" employment -- i.e. short term contracts -- whilst funding for basic provisions such as education, health and welfare has been undermined. As more and more people chase fewer and fewer jobs, the numbers entering higher education have expanded to one in three of all young people in Britain. More than one-third of these are aged 21 or over, entering higher education to "re-skill". At the same time government funding for education has been slashed. Between 1989/90 and 1994/95 there was a 25% cut in funding per student. In the three years between 1993 and 1996, 10,000 lecturers jobs were cut, almost doubling the number of students to staff. University Vice-Chancellors have predicted a financial shortfall of £3bn by the year 2000. Selection and privilege Labour's proposals will intensify the financial crisis still further. The government will reduce its contribution to Higher Education in direct proportion to the new fees paid by students from next year. The result will be the introduction of additional top up fees for certain universities and courses. From the standpoint of the profit system, it makes no sense to provide decent education to broad masses of people, when only a handful of highly-skilled and educated workers are required. Labour's proposals aim at concentrating "top level" education on the few -- selected by their ability to pay. Education Minister David Blunkett made this clear when he announced the new measures: "Most people don't go to university so why should they pay for it? Labour faced this question and answered it. It's only right that students pay towards the system that gives their earning power a boost." The same argument is used by Labour to attack every area of social provision -- "Why should the employed pay for the jobless?", "Why should the healthy pay for the sick?", etc. In this way Labour seeks to justify the dismantling of basic rights. A genuine socialist party is needed That Labour is leading this assault goes to the heart of the political problems facing students and all working people. The Labour-led National Union of Students have accepted that students should help finance the cost of education and even campaigned for the abolition of maintenance grants. It has advocated a further increase in corporate sponsorship, ensuring ever greater control by big business over individual students and education in general. In the run up to the General Election organisations such as the Socialist Workers Party sought to build up support for a Labour government, claiming that it would be "softer" than the Tories. Having helped to power the most right wing government in British post-war history, the SWP now claim that "the working class" Labour Party can be forced to change course. In this way they seek to prevent a political rebellion by working people and students against the Labour Party and its big business backers. The development of the productive forces both demands and makes possible a highly educated population. Moreover, the resources exist in abundance for raising the cultural and intellectual level of everyone. For this to take place, there must be a fundamental reorganisation of social priorities and a corresponding redistribution of wealth. The allocation of educational resources must be determined by social need. If the capitalists say that their system can no longer provide education for all, then a new system is required -- one in which the economy is geared towards satisfying human requirements and interests and not the selfish accumulation of profit. To carry through the fight for this programme demands the building of a genuine socialist leadership. The Socialist Equality Party bases its programme on the struggle for social equality and internationalism. Our aim is to unite all working people and youth in a common struggle for social change. Labour's education proposals demonstrate the urgent need for this.

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