After nearly two years of cutbacks and creeping privatisation, the NUS has called for a walkout and action against the privatisation of Higher Education.

There is a planned lobby of Parliament on 7th March, to be followed up by a ‘week of action’ beginning 12th March.

The NUS have chosen these dates in order to avoid taking joint action alongside the UCU who will be striking against pension cuts on March 1st.

After sitting on its hands and denouncing its own members to the police for two years, the NUS remains determined to avoid uniting resistance beyond the limited, single issue of Higher Education.

Students have been let down by the leadership of the NUS at every turn. It’s no coincidence that the newfound mood to fight in the NUS comes exactly as the government ditches its White Paper. Many of the policies set out in the White Paper have been implemented regardless, and this process is set to continue.

Unless students can unite with the broader resistance to job cuts, pension hikes and the dismantling of the welfare state, then we will not be able to reverse the damage done to our universities.

A defeat for the UCU in their struggle against pension cuts will pave the way for creeping privatisation to become outright privatisation. A workforce with cheap pensions is much more attractive to private investors.

The NUS still has the potential to mobilise significant numbers of students against education cuts. But this alone is not enough. The government has launched an offensive against the entirety of the welfare state, and is preparing for decisive confrontations with sections of the working class.

Success in one area depends on our ability to forge practical unity between separate struggles. Stopping the government’s cuts offensive means opposing every attempt to divide us, setting private against public sector, old against young, the employed against the unemployed.

REVOLUTION members will be organising on campuses to build joint action between Student Unions and the UCU on March 1st.

We call on the NUS to name March 1st as the date for a national walkout and demonstration to defend education.

All out on March 1st – let’s make it happen.

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