NCAFC Conference 2012 will be a great opportunity for students to come together and discuss how student activists can work together in different areas of struggle.

It is an opportunity to publicise the arguments against the competition and divisions which hamper the anti-cuts movement.

The conference is a chance to turn NCAFC outwards and situate our defence of free education within the general resistance to austerity.

Since the last conference, we have seen the rise of the #Occupy movement, the most widespread riots in a generation, and unprecedented strikes against the government’s pensions robbery.

Students opposed to education cuts have to link up with other groups of people involved in struggles to defend their jobs and pay or otherwise opposed to the cuts –  trade unionists, unemployed youth, disabled activists, and so on.

UCU have named the day for further industrial action against the great pensions rip-off as March 1^st. Students have to fill the weeks ahead with consistent efforts to spread support for the strikes amongst young people;  NCAFC can enable students to take the lead in organising solidarity work, demonstrations and actions in the run-up and on the day itself.

We can play an important role in revealing consequences which pension cuts will have for young people. A key question for us will be mobilising against the government’s efforts to bribe older workers – allowing them to keep their pension in return for their silence while younger workers are stripped of any chance of a decent pension after a lifetime of work.

The Tories and their Lib-Dem allies won’t stop cutting unless they are forced out of power. We should recognise the huge potential shown on November 30th by the millions of people who went out on strike.

The anti-cuts movement is now much broader than at the end of 2010, moving beyond students to the wider working-class.

We need to mobilise young people over the issue of pensions, over NHS cuts and ‘reforms’ (which will help the government turn the NHS into a business), and against the government’s entire cuts offensive.

Our aim should be mobilising young people as a distinct group, fighting to represent our interests within this broader anti-cuts movement.

This means fighting against youth unemployment, education cuts, racist scapegoating and related issues, and this will mean NCAFC needs to broaden it’s remit.

If we want to see a mass movement develop which is strong enough to topple the millionaires’ coalition, we will also have to learn from the mistakes of the past years.

The anti-cuts movement remains divided, with NCAFC, Education Activist Network, Youth Fight for Jobs (and Education), Student Broad Left and Progressive Students all trying to be the education-based campaign against cuts, with many of these being the brain-child of a particular left group.

This has led to some ridiculous situations – two national demonstrations being called on the same day in different parts of the country, energy-sapping debates over who will run for NUS conference from which campaign (and accusations of back-room deals and political manoeuvres) and local groups being forced to decide which to affiliate to and which national conferences to send people to.

So much wasted time and energy could have been saved if we had a single, national, youth anti-cuts campaign.

REVOLUTION members will be putting forward 3 motions to the NCAFC conference.

The first calls for NCAFC to support the establishment of democratic committees in towns and cities for March 1st.

The second calls on the group to have a broad focus and campaign around a number of issues which affect youth.

The third calls on the NCAFC National Committee to organise a unity conference alongside other youth and student groups in the summer, to facilitate joint work and investigate the possibility of combining structures.

We hope these motions can provide the basis for a unified and multi-faceted campaign against the government – one which taps into the bitter opposition and proven determination which young people have displayed in every clash with this rotten government.