Manchester Campaign Against the Cuts

The campaign in defence of Education got off to a tremendous start in Manchester with a rally in All Saints Park called by UCU, UNISON, GMB and the NUS and supported by Manchester Right to Work, RMT and Manchester Trades Council. Speakers from UCU, UNISON and NUS outlined the devastating effects which the Browne recommendation would result in, if carried out: mass privatisation of HE, every job in HE under threat and the return of HE as an elitist and discriminatory privilege. UCU warned that Browne would encourage competitiveness between and within institutions, with some universities joining the race to the bottom, offering budget courses to overcrowded lecture theatres – courses in employability, written by managers but taught by a casualised and alienated workforce. The NUS voiced their outrage and anger at the theft of the future of a generation – when those currently in power will deny future generations of the educational opportunities which they themselves have enjoyed. Speakers from Right to Work linked the attacks on education to the wider attacks on the public sector. This was followed by an energetic meeting at Manchester Trades Council at which NUS and UCU delegates from all Manchester institutions were able to work on continuing the joint campaign in defence of education.