Fuck austerity, free education now!

Updated leaflet for UK student protests! Also available as a pdf – with space left for upcoming protests and contact details of local groups. Email theviolentminority [at] riseup.net for a copy of the original files.

Fuck debt! Fuck rent! Fuck Austerity! Decent, free education for everyone!

Page 1 of the Leaflet

University has become a scheme to get us to pay for our own job training. Courses are advertised for “transferable skills” and job prospects, while corporations even get a say in course content. The rich are the ones who benefit from this. They profit from trained-up, compliant workers while we foot the bill: it comes out of our wage packets each month as student loan repayments.

If this wasn’t bad enough – a huge amount of student loan money goes to crooks calling themselves landlords. Our rent pays off their mortgages while they sit on their arses watching the money roll in.

Most recently, we’ve seen the introduction of £9k fees, part of the Tory “austerity” programme. They say it is about clearing the deficit – but really it’s about taking money from us and giving it to the rich. The new fees actually cost them more than the old ones!

If we do nothing about it this is going to get worse. We’ll see hikes in the interest on student loans, even bigger rents, and more cuts to our public services. The rich get richer and we get poorer. SO LET’S FIGHT BACK!

Blocs – How to do them Better!

The anti-austerity march on June 20th saw a bloc of 150+ anarchists marching together in London – more than we’ve had in a while. (not sure what a bloc is? See note at the end of this article…) Big flags meant that people could find each other, and the masks handed out by NetPol meant that almost everyone had their face covered. Sadly, the actual action that happened was a bit shit. The bloc started off as part of the main march, with NO uniformed police in sight. Flares and smoke bombs were let off. But even though it walked past plenty of obvious targets, there was only minor damage caused. Although the flags and banners meant that the bloc kept together a lot better than normal, people were still often spread out and in danger of getting separated completely. Then came the breakaway – people were led away from the centre of London, and on a long walk south of the river. This was tiring but didn’t lead to any actions. Not only was there less obviously worth doing, the bloc also picked up a big  following of riot vans and police. After what felt like a long and pointless walk, the bloc ended up back at the speeches of the main march. (apparently the target in South London was a property developer, which people spray-painted then left really fast when police moved in)

While it was a good show of force, and better than just walking from A to B, there was SO much we could have done better! This article has three ideas on that…

(Translation) Nid oes eisiau sleisan arall o’r darten – Rydym ni eisiau’r ffycin’ becws cyfa!

(Cyfieithiad – Cymraeg | English)

We Don’t Want a Bigger Slice of the Pie… New Version!

The general election has happened – and once again the rich have got in. Just like it would have been under Labour, the Tories are planning further cuts to our services and to make life even worse for benefits claimants. To mark this totally expected event, I’ve made an updated and improved edition of the classic “We don’t want a bigger slice of the pie…” leaflet from two years ago. The message is still the same – don’t mourn, fight back!

(Translations: Cymraeg | English)

Want to fight the cuts? Passive protests aren’t enough!

With the con-dem government and the rich imposing cuts, job losses, privatisation, and other bullshit, it’s right to fight back. But why stop there? Workers have always had worse pay and conditions than they deserve – even before the cuts. The government has always tried to screw us over on behalf of the people who get rich from our hard work: the bankers and the bosses. Fuck that! We need to create a new system, not defend the old one.

(This post is a re-working of a leaflet I put up here a while back – to make it relevant to the wider anti-cuts movement, and not just students. New pdf is here: We Don’t Want a Bigger Slice of the Pie… (print version) )