No cutbacks!
No fees!
Five reasons you should protest on 4 February:
1. €5000 fees will hit you and your family – The government is intent on re-introducing full fees of €5,000 per year or more. Whether this is as a direct fee, a student loan system or a graduate tax, it is an attack on your right to education, as well as of those coming after you.
2. Young people locked out of education – They have already increased registration fees to €1,500 per year. Full fees would deny access to tens of thousands of young people and saddle the rest with crippling debt. The introduction of top up fees in Britain resulted in a 4% reduction in student numbers.
3. Attack on our education system – The government want bigger classes with less resources. Fees and cutbacks are the start of a massive assault by the government that will destroy our education system and which must be stopped.
4. Help knock the government back – Only a very big mobilisation can knock the government back. The government thinks students are an easy target. A protest of tens of thousands in Dublin on 4 February will force them to think again. Don’t leave it up to somebody else to protest!
5. Build a movement that can win – The demonstration on 4 February has to be the start in building a mass movement of students on every campus across the country that can defeat the government on fees and education cuts. That movement will only be built if students like you protest and get involved!
The truth about fees:
The government claims it wants to introduce fees to make the rich pay and use the revenue to increase access to college for those from working class backgrounds. This is a complete con.
* They are taking the axe to programmes to keep potential early school-leavers in school and is cutting special needs and language support. This means many vulnerable students’ hopes for third level vanishing!
*If they get away with introducing fees, they will swiftly be increased and extended to hit most, if not all students, as has happened in Britain and is happening with the registration fees.
*Abolishing fees has increased access to third-level but serious inequalities remain. The way to tackle these is not fees – it is investment in all levels of education and the establishment of a living grant for all students.
*The heads of UCD and Trinity award themselves €6 million a year for salaries, bonuses and allowances. The calls by many college authorities and Presidents for a re-introduction of fees are outrageous. Fees would not result in better education or services for students, the government would simply use it as a cost-cutting measure to hide their cutbacks in thirdlevel spending.
*The government happily handed over €10 billion to the banks. Yet they are intent on making students and our families pay for the economic crisis and on making college “profitable” for the private sector.
*Young people and mature students shouldn’t have to pay for the crisis. Education should be publicly funded by a progressive taxation system, which means that the rich should pay more in tax.
How we can defeat fees:
*The government’s partial u-turn on medical cards for older people after protest and public outcry shows that they can be defeated.
*The government is intent on introducing fees so will not be persuaded or “lobbied” to change their minds. Action, not words, is needed to force them back. They can be defeated by a mass movement of students, involving tens of thousands across the country.
*Link with others affected by the cuts – build a movement involving secondary school students and college workers.
*Organise in college – protest against visiting government TDs, target local TD offices, get everyone you know involved. This is a stepping stone to the type of campaign needed to defeat fees, including mass student strikes and occupations.
*Organise meetings on campus after the February 4th demonstration. Only by students themselves becoming organisers can we build fighting students’ unions capable of leading a movement to defeat fees. There is an urgency to this campaign: the government is due to decide on fees in April – we have to develop a significant movement before then.
What you can do to build for 4 February:
*Get leaflets from the FEE stall in your college or contact FEE in your area and give them to your friends and classmates.
*Get involved in FEE – come along to a FEE public meeting in your college or contact us. Help with stalls, leafleting and postering.
*Give a talk at the start of your tutorial or lecture about the threat of fees and why the demonstration on 4 February is so important.
*Make sure your Students’ Union is building for the protest and providing free buses to it. If they’re not, try to get a motion passed at Student Council to make sure they do.
Get involved with FEE:
Free Education for Everyone (FEE) is an active campaign against fees that strives to organise second and third level students right across the country. It is currently organised in UCD, Trinity, Maynooth, NUIG, UCC and UL. FEE has organised a series of protests, blockades and occupations against fees.
FEE members are actively involved in their Students’ Unions as well as building FEE. We are aiming to build a mass movement that can defeat fees and education cuts. This will only happen if students like you get involved. Contact your local FEE group to get more leaflets to give out to your friends or to get involved in building for the protest.
UCD: ucdfee@gmail.com 0857189621
TCD: trinityfee@gmail.com 0876799341
Cork: feecork@gmail.com 0861918224
Galway: feegalway@gmail.com 0861243064
UL: ulfightfees@gmail.com 0877675890
Maynooth: feemaynooth@gmail.com
National/other colleges: stopfees@gmail.com 0861688050