City of Westminster college students march out over cuts

With placards held high, shouting “fightback” to the beat of a drum, students at City of Westminster College (CWC) walked out of their college today against budget cuts.

I arrived at around 3.30pm, where 40 students were still chanting angry anti-cuts slogans against the college management. The walkout had started at 9am with as many as 100 students joining in, but these students showed no sign of quieting down.

Jake, one the students active in the walkout, spoke to REVOLUTION about the demonstration.

“We’re here because the college management are cutting staff which affects the teachers and also the students. One of the worst things about the cuts is that there are no longer enough staff to service the EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance) office. Some people are having to drop out of their courses through lack of money. We know that lots of colleges are facing a similar thing all over the country. It’s about time we did something to stop it!"

“The cuts are happening because the college decided to move all the different buildings on to one main campus at Paddington. It’s costing them loads of money and they’ve decided to make our teachers and our education pay the price. They will be turning it into one of those academies, in a venture with big business.”

Jake was outraged that bankers in the City of London are still being paid huge bonuses and that money that should have gone towards our education has been spent on handing over trillions to the banking system.

“The government is going to be in debt for years, and it’s our generation which seems to be hit hardest because of it. The way I see it is that young people are the future, and we need to fight for that in the here and now.”

“We announced our walkout to students one week ago via leaflets and told everyone we knew at the college. Teachers are generally in support of the walkout, but unfortunately they are too scared about losing their jobs to demonstrate with us at the moment. Our message to the teachers is clear: we need you and we will continue to support you!”

“Management have been so shaken up by the action we have taken that they called a meeting of all the different campuses of CWC to discuss what to do. We’re still waiting to hear what they have to say. If they don’t talk to us, then we’ll just continue piling on the pressure until they give in.”

I asked Jake if by this he meant they would be walking out again. Jake smiled. “No comment.”