Tuition fees have tripled for students in London recently.
Here's what some of the students have to say about it.
Students who say they are staging a sit-in at University College London have issued a statement. They say: "We stand against fees and savage cuts to higher education and government attempts to force society to pay for a crisis it didn't cause. Promises have been broken, the political process has failed and we have been left with no other option. We stand in solidarity with all those fighting these cuts nationally and internationally. These cuts are a product of ideology and not necessity."
If I knew how to post pictures here, I would do that, but go look at these kid's faces.
I originally saw this at BoingBoing, and it was this video that inspired me:
Did you catch the part where they learned something about the journalists and the police and the politicians by being out in the streets? This is why we need to stop pinning our hopes on politicians and figure out how to frame what is happening in this country politically in a way that will inspire us and our fellow citizens to take to the streets.
Did you catch the part where the students are now understanding why the transit workers are striking and they are in solidarity with them?
Nothing else is going to work. Nothing. We need to try message after message until we find the one that makes our differences seem trivial. Until we find ourselves out in the streets with people we used to be bitterly divided from, but now see as fellow citizens in the struggle.
This is not about more and better democrats, though you can be assured that is what it will lead to. This is about working class people remembering that we are power brokers too. That we are the group of people who have turned tides throughout history. We are the group of people who have forced the elite and powerful to accept the change that is needed. We won't be able to wield that power until our fellow citizens learn these lessons.
I know we all think it is hopeless, that American citizens will not get into the streets. But that is what is stopping this from happening. Is it so hard to believe, that we have all been weakened into a state where we are hopeless and thus think we are without power? That is not the same thing as being without power. And yes, it will be difficult, the hardest thing we have ever done. But watch that kid again. Think about how alive he looks.
I'm repeating the student's comments from above the fold, because they are the rallying cry we need.
We stand against fees and savage cuts to higher education and government attempts to force
society to pay for a crisis it didn't cause. Promises have been broken, the political process has failed and we have been left with no other option. We stand in solidarity with all those fighting these cuts nationally and internationally. These cuts are a product of ideology and not necessity.