Lambeth College to strike against cuts

Eleven London colleges, including Lambeth, have voted to strike on 5 May in protest at the Labour government’s decimation of further education. I give my full support to the staff in their action and urge students, parents and the community to come out in their support, too.

Lambeth College has announced £3.5 million cuts – 10% of its budget, equivalent to 100 jobs and scores of courses. Nationally £340 million is being swiped from further education budgets.

I work at Lambeth for one or two days a week, supporting 15 and 16 year olds in motorcycle maintenance and construction. The tutors there are top notch, dedicated to giving students, who are perhaps not academically minded, the best chance to find a suitable trade and career. The support staff from the canteen to the library to the stores all make great efforts to engage with the young students.

Only this week, I found out that the bricklaying tutors were called in and told one of them would not be working next year – even though the courses are full, the success rate outstanding and Britain needs at least a million new council houses. What further proof is needed that capitalism isn’t working and we need to end the madness of the market? That's why the Anticapitalists fight for a socialist planned economy.

College workers are now not sure whether they will have a job next September, whether their courses will survive or whether their students will join the other two and a half million on the dole – effectively on the scrapheap before they’re 20! This is the reality of the cuts that the capitalist parties – Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour – are demanding from working class communities.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said:

All the tough talk about cuts has moved on and it is no longer figures on paper, but people's jobs and access to education that are disappearing. We believe in the power of education to make a real difference to people lives and do not think we should be slashing funding at a time when more people than ever need access to education. UCU members are still on the side of education and they will be fighting to save jobs and defend education.

The Anticapitalists say. “Enough is enough! Strike to defend jobs and courses! College staff, students and local communities unite and fight!”

See what our manifesto says on education here.