8/8/2019 Gauche Issue1 Backpage

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CAMBRIDGE LEFT GROUPCambridge Left Group is a network of activists challenging injustice through education, action, & coordination with other groups. We

work to end all forms of exploitation and oppression including marketisation of education, war and exploitative globalisation, climatechange, disability and all discrimination, including class, gender, & race oppression. We believe that, as Cambridge students andresidents, we can take effective action on such broad issues, by tackling them at a local as well as global level.

http://tinyurl.com/clgfacebookcambridgeleftgroup@lists.riseup.net

Lord Brownes review into tuition fees is due to reportwithin a week, but it is a clear fix-up with nolegitimacy : Freedom of Information requests wererejected; no university students or staff were representedon the panel; Browne accepted a senior job fromCameron, thereby calling into question his impartiality;most damningly, the review was not even exploring agraduate tax - until Vince Cable stuck his oar in.

This last fact is unsurprising given that the outcome has been widely regarded as a foregone conclusion. Thegovernment want to increase fees, so Brownes supposeddisinterested neutrality will serve as their cover. It doesmake one wonder how it took so long or whatalternatives they were considering, though!

The Guardian claims Browne will recommend abolishingthe cap on fees altogether, with fees of 10,000+ per yearat top universities and segregating them from otheruniversities. The Times claimed fees could rise to 7,000.

At best, Browne will recommend a graduate tax that may be slightly more progressive on balance than the currentfee regime but could equally well exacerbate class/wealthdivides depending on the exact scheme used (see http://www.free-education.org.uk/?p=631).

Whatever happens, we will be force-fed the line thatgraduates must inherently provide more funding perhead than non- graduates, because of the individual(economic) benefit they reap; see http://tinyurl.com/tcs2010mich1 for why this is nonsense.

CUSUs policy on this is rightly in favour of contribution

solely on the grounds of ability to pay; paying a graduateless than a non-graduate to do the same work is absurd &unfair, but is the end result of both fees & a graduate tax.We should demand universal free education, funded by aprogressive tax system by taxing the rich!

Luke Hawksbee

Until 2010, there was no self-representation forCambridges disabled students , excluding anddisempowering us. Initiating a new autonomousliberation campaign has meant we can help CUSU stick tothe principle of nothing about us without us whichguides the disability rights movement. We focus on barriers that disable us: impairment is not the main causeof disability. Were also keen to hear from non -disabledsupporters, so email disabled@cusu.cam.ac.uk to getinvolved, and/or to find out more about radical disability

politics and the support we provide.Beccy Talmy

As we go through modern life from our birth we areforced into the gender binary , from the toys we are givento the way we are brought up to the stereotypes ever-present in society and the media. Think Outside the Boxseeks to challenge this binary; it is a new campaign foreveryone who is non-binary-gendered, is trans* and not

fully out or just doesn't want to be defined by their binarysex. We're campaigning both for awareness of non-binary-gendered people and understanding of the complexities ofgender identity, as well as calling for change on some ofthe more gendered experiences we have from day to day(focusing on forms and toilet facilities).

For people who are non-binary-gendered these areas arehorribly inaccessible, from being forced to choose maleor female on forms or for toilet facilities, to the waypeople change how they treat you depending on yourchoice and the reinforcement that society does not acceptyour identity. We believe that not only is this hurtful and

harmful but that people should not be defined by theirgender and should be treated first as who they are, ahuman being. See www.lbgt.cusu.cam.ac.uk/think formore information.

Susan Thomas

disabled students

tuition fees

think outside the box

Visit thegreatunrest.wordpress.com & thethirdestate.netfor collaboratively-written progressive/left-wingcommentary (with a sense of humour), history & theory.Cambridge graduates/students write for both of them.

First meeting Wed 13th Oct,contact us for location: