On the day of the release of the Government’s Autumn Budget 2017, the University’s Socialist Students Society organised a day of action to protest Tory policies.
The protest was part of a nationwide Socialist Students’ campaign on university campuses on 22 November.
Will Sharland, the president of UoN’s Socialist Students, said:
“Socialist Students are a nationwide organisation, and we are quite committed to doing activism and engaging with society. The University is run like a corporation, with a lot of top-down decision making, and it is the role of workers and students to put pressure on these institutions and give us a voice.”
“There are some concessions being made to benefit young people, and I think that’s a recognition of the Tories that young people are attracted by socialist policies […]”
Members of staff questioned the decision to protest before properly analysing the newly released budget. The society responded to criticism saying that timing does not change the fact that the budget is laden with harsh cuts that harm workers, students and ordinary people.
A student, who was present at the protest, mentioned that they were particularly looking forward to TfL Rail improvements.
Socialist Students coordinator, Tessa Warrington, noted:
“There are some concessions being made to benefit young people, and I think that’s a recognition of the Tories that young people are attracted by socialist policies and saw themselves being disadvantaged by the interests of the rich 1%. These concessions aren’t going to be near enough to give young people a future, but it highlights how students can apply pressure for more socialist policy.”
Marvel Kalukembi
Featured image courtesy of ‘Shamraze/Nuhaize‘ via Flickr. License here.
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