Anti-Fees Protest at Exam Schools on Tuesday

James Hogan | 28.11.2004 09:09 | Education | Oxford

A protest against all forms of fees and supporting a non-means tested grant for every student will take place on Tuesday.

EDUCATION IS A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE

On Tuesday, 30th October at 10.00am, a protest will take place at Examination Schools on High Street, Oxford, against the existence of higher education fees in every form. We believe that every student in the country who wishes to enter higher education must have a non-means tested grant, and that all forms of fees should be abolished, so that education is based solely on one's desire to learn, and not based on their ability to pay.

We believe that comments made by the University Chancellor, Chris Pattern, supporting fees, are highly damaging to the work done by the Oxford University Student Union's "Target Schools" access initiative, which aims to widen access from less-privileged backgrounds.

We believe that every student who wants higher education deserves it, regardless of their financial status.

We fully support the government's target to have 50% of young people in higher education, to expand their opportunities. However, fees must be abolished for this to happen without any fear of debt.

Anyone who supports us is welcome to turn up to Examination Schools on Tuesday 10.00am, where our aim is to block the entrance.

James Hogan

Comments

Hide the following 16 comments

and ?

28.11.2004 12:45

"We believe that every student who wants higher education deserves it, regardless of their financial status"

... and regardless of their intellectual ability ?

Teacher

Correction

28.11.2004 16:54

Tuesday, 30th NOVEMBER

See you there!

28.11.2004 18:28

Good luck with it

Owen
Homepage: http://www.osan.org.uk

A bit pointless?

28.11.2004 21:19

I don't mean to pour cold water on an attempt to use direct action for social change - because that is something I would usually encourage. There is a time and a place, however...I'm not sure this is it. What will blocking the Exam Schools accomplish, apart from really pissing off a lot of the people we *should* be trying to persuade through a rational discussion? I think this is just going to backfire quite badly...

I'm happy to be convinced otherwise...?

Matt

Matt S

Don't worry...

29.11.2004 03:56

Students being denied access to their lectures and MMR vaccinations will effectively highlight how other students are denied access to higher education. Our physical barrier will represent the financial barrier that they face. We've been inundated with messages of support, and it looks like Tuesday will be big...

Straegically inept...

29.11.2004 12:14

Well - I'm definitely not convinced. I'm on the verge of thinking that this is a pisstake, actually.

I think this is a very very bad idea - please don't do it.

Matt

Matt S

erm...

29.11.2004 12:51

... why do it on the day of a vaccine? quite apart from the slightly dodgy nature of the idea in general, surely you're just falling into an obvious media trap - and actualy stopping people getting vaccinations!

if you're going to take confrontational direct action that really pisses people off, you should have a clear idea of why it's something other than just representative of something...

are you prepared for people to try and push pass you? would they be wrong if they did?

This is a really bad idea...

29.11.2004 15:41

This protest has absolutely no chance of succeeding. Last year's occupation whilst unsuccessful did manage to raise a high media profile and energised a lot of people. It also alientated a large swathe of an otherwise potentially sympathetic student population. Making people miss lectures has some symbolic value, making them contract mumps has none whatsoever. Fees are here, if people really want to do something then they should show solidarity and go to Cardiff. This protest lacks support from those who organised last year and I imagine OUSU will be deeply pissed off if it gets blamed (as it inevitably will) for something it doesn't support either. We should be working to make sure that hardship systems are in place and campaigning for specific tangible things like regional weighting not protesting for the sake of it. As like Matt a usual supporter of direct action for social change I urge you to reconsider, it will do far more damage than good. Best wishes,

R

Ridiculous

29.11.2004 15:58

Regardless of the idiocy of blocking the entrance, I object to what you're protesting about. Give EVERY student a full grant? Give every millionaire's kid a full grant? Give every former Eton and Westminster public schoolboy a full grant? Give someone who's loaded because of paid employment a full grant? NHS is struggling right now, as are the worst schools, and you think splashing out cash so needlessly is a sound idea?

Priorities

29.11.2004 23:49

The question we should all be asking is why is there always an endless budget for wars, but inadequate funds for health, education, public housing and so on.....

Elise

P.S. Despite being an advocate of direct action, I too am not convinced that this protest will achieve anything.

Elise

Thanks anyway

30.11.2004 11:07

Thanks to the one other person who joined me. I am disappointed that this was unsuccessful. Free education is a fundamental human right, much more important than getting a minor cough. I think the remarks made on the OxfordGossip website were very selfish - students here may not be affected, but there are thousnds out there for whom higher education is not possible because they cannot afford it.

EDUCATION IS A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE

why?

30.11.2004 15:05

Can someone please tell me what the point is of this sort of direct action in general? As I see it, all it serves to do is to piss people off. As a socialist, I believe in democracy i.e. everyone having an equal voice in governing our society. Therefore, I find it quite sinister that a small minority of people can use physical shows of strength to attempt to distort the political agenda. Even discounting this, though, what is the point? It really does not change things. The government are really not shitting bricks about a handful of people at exam schools, libraries or wherever else these things take place. Funnily enough, they have a country to run...

all the best
Steve x

Steve

Comments hidden

30.11.2004 15:22

Comments threatening violence against the protesters were hidden from this article, plus followup trolls from same poster.

Please refer to editorial guidelines:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/static/editorial.html

an IMC volunteer

listen, james...

30.11.2004 19:39

I believe in free education, i believe in direct action, i'm a socialist and an anti-authoritarian and i think that your idea was one of the worst i've heard in a long time. I believe almost anyone coming from this perspective would think exactly the same. As far as i know, you're not involved in any activist groups in Oxford (certainly not OSAN, as some have suggested) so presumably haven't asked others about this, or tried to find a basis for the action in any community round OU.

did you literally just try and kick something off by posting on here? that's not the way to do things - find people and talk to others.

using physical force for some things is acceptable - e.g. pushing through a line of police guarding an arms fair - but people would have been entirely in their rights to oppose you as you would have been physically intimidating them for no discernible good reason. the difference is that the police in such a context are protecting the enemies of the people, whilst uni students have no (particularly) guilty position. what were you expecting - people to stand back and absorb the symbolism which had suddenly struck them dumb with realisation? is that how you normally communicate things to people?

DA is about collective action which goes to the source of a problem and with its basis in democratic community, not random acts of 'symbolic' intimdation.

AnOther

Socialist opposes socialism shocker!!!!!!!!!!!

01.12.2004 00:34

Steve said---
"As a socialist, I believe in democracy i.e. everyone having an equal voice in governing our society."
Anarchists say---
"As an anarchist, I believe in anarchy i.e. everyone having an equal voice in governing our society, not just the 'majority'."

Steve said---
"I find it quite sinister that a small minority of people can use physical shows of strength to attempt to distort the political agenda."
Anarchists say---
"I find it quite sinister that a small minority of people can believe marching from A to B can distort the political agenda."

Oi!

beware of misinformation

02.12.2004 22:03

I need to urgently clarify a few points:

1. The comment above was not posted by me. There may be another 'owen', or there may be
more sinister things going on. Comments may be posted to indymedia by anyone, under any nane. Apparently I am being blamed by some for having organised the above mentioned protest.

2. The above mentioned protest was not organised by me. Nor did I turn up or take part.

3. It was not organised through OSAN.

4. It was not organised by anyone I know.

It's worth pointing out that the action did *not* in fact take place.

So what we have is an unknown person or group calling for a stupid and inappropriate action which they were unwilling or incapable of carrying out, then comments appearing to be from 'owen' or 'osan' materialise.

Put it all together and it looks like an attempt to discredit the anti-fees campaign, or OSAN, or me, or a combination of those. However, I may be jumping to conclusions. But the whole thing is very disconcerting....

PS I do occasionally post to indymedia, usually anonymously; but on this occasion it seemed best to post under my real name to avoid confusion.

owen english