By Michael Chessum. In the corridors of power, the idea of free education has in 10 years somehow become an almost unutterably radical demand. Almost exactly three years ago, on 6 February 2010, the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts was founded at a conference in University College London, in opposition to the then-New Labour government's cuts to education and the National Union of Students' abandonment of free education as a core principle. Now, with the student movement of 2010 having seemingly dissipated in November into a washed-out park in south London, the front line of the fight for education must shift, in terms both of its aims, and, most vitally, how it relates to a broader movement against markets and privatisation. The retrial of Alfie Meadows – a victim of police violence in 2010 – illustrates the farcical and costly legacy of the political policing that has emerged as a response to the student movement. Read more...
