Scrap All Tuition Fees

ANOTHER FORM of tax - tuition fees - was debated in Parliament this week. Over 100 New Labour MPs either abstained or voted for a motion to abandon proposals for top-up fees.

Even they have to sometimes reflect the anger that exists outside Parliament. After all, they want to hold on to their seats. New Labour's 2001 manifesto said: "We will not introduce top-up fees and have legislated to prevent them".

If New Labour get their way, universities will be able to increase tuition fees to Ł3,000 from 2006. And where will it end? In an interview with the Financial Times, the outgoing vice-chancellor of Cambridge University said that fees should be raised to Ł6,000 to cope with the financial problems that UK universities have at the moment.

Antonio Valiente, a student at the University of Glamorgan, told the socialist: "Why should we, the students have to pay for it? A lot of students have problems paying their fees. The student loans aren't working and a lot of young people decide not to go to university to avoid the debts students accumulate.

"The vice-chancellor referred to universities as a business and said that charging Ł6,000 a year was the only way to make the business work. In my opinion, quality higher education should not be a business for rich people but a public service that everyone, no matter what their financial situation, should be able to enjoy."

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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

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When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.

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