We at Vision are excited to be able to exclusively bring original transcripts of speeches, as recorded by audio equipment at the rally held at the National Demonstration. These are by Frances O’Grady, the Deputy General Secretary of the TUC, and Aaron Porter, President of the NUS. Sally Hunt, the General Secretary of the UCU, also briefly addressed protestors in a welcome message, though the earliest parts of her speech were not recorded.
These transcripts are particularly relevant following the riots that occurred after the march, especially as the actions of 200 or so students have overshadowed the speeches made to the 50,000 or so reported to be in attendance at the rally. There has as a result been a lack of coverage around the original intentions of the march and of its high-profile organisers.
Videos were shown between speeches, and cheering and booing also interrupted or became a clear part of communication between orator and listener. These moments have been noted in square brackets.
York Vision is a newspaper founded on the principle of editorial independence, and therefore the content of the speeches outlined below does not in any way necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Vision, its editorial team, contributors or associated partners, including YUSU, the University and any advertisers. Views, political or otherwise, are strictly those of speechmakers and/or the institutions they represent and every effort has been made to accurately transcribe these. Any grammatical or syntactical error should be treated as that of the speechmaker, not of the transcription.
It is of course the view of Vision that peaceful protest is and will be far more effective than any violent one, and Vision does not condone the events that followed these speeches at 30 Millbank and the Millbank Tower.
Sally Hunt, General Secretary, University and College Union
Now, we’ve got some more (videos) to show you because we’ve had a lot of students who’ve been putting together montages again about what politicians say on the one-hand, and what they do on the other. But I just need to tell everyone who can see me at the front: this march goes right the way back to Westminster. There are thousands – thousands and thousands of you here to say “no to fee rises to 9,000, no to cutting EMAs, no to the cuts in education, no to a government that breaks its promises!”
[cheers, followed by video and more cheers]
Hello! I want to see some jumping… Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! This is better. Keeping you warm; on to the next video… This is like cBeebies, isn’t it? Next film!
Here! Are there any flags out there? I’ve got a flag – have you got a flag? My flag says “save education?” What do we say? “Save education!” Can’t hear you? “Save education!” Louder! Aaah that’s better. Can I try my one again? I say Tory you say? (response: “scum!”)
I’ve got one more video for you and then we’ve got other speakers than just me.
Hello UCU! I’m proud to be a General Secretary of a Union that helps people – that helps people learn. Now I need to say a big thank you to the University of the Arts’ Student Union who won the competition for those films that we just saw. It’s fantastic, and we thank you for that. And now I just need to ask, I think there might be some stewards amongst you. If there are, can you come down to the left-hand side of the bus, because we need to have a chat.
Now, we’re students, we’re educators, but we exist in a country that is taking a hit in terms of cuts throughout the public sector. And unless we stand together with others, we are not going to win this fight. So it is my great privilege to introduce Frances O’Grady, the Deputy General Secretary of the TUC who is here to bring solidarity. Frances.
Frances O’Grady, Deputy General Secretary, Trade Union Congress
I am so proud to bring solidarity on behalf of the TUC. I wanna tell you – you are not alone. You’ve got 7 million workers with you. [cheering] Workers, students, NUS and TUC – are we united? [cheers] Are we strong? [cheers] Are we gonna win? [cheers] I wanna bring a very clear message to the government here today – we are going to fight these unnecessary, these vicious, these right-wing ideological cuts and we are gonna win! [cheers]
Because let’s be clear, what they’re doing with tuition fees today – this isn’t just about an assault on our education system, this isn’t just about an assault on our members’ jobs, this is about turning colleges and universities from places of learning and opportunity into a finishing school for the rich. [cheers]
We’re not gonna have it. And I know, and you know, we’ve got a big fight on our hands. We know about the Comprehensive Spending Review. We know about the attacks on welfare, on services, on the unemployed, as well as students. And we know that those workers left behind in our colleges are gonna have heavier workloads, more stress. We know that the quality of teaching will get worse, we know courses will be scrapped, we know it’s gonna be tough. But I tell you this, we are determined to expose the government cuts as unfair, unnecessary and out-of-touch. [cheers]
Together we are the new coalition. We are gonna speak for the people. And I tell you what. We’re not gonna put up with anymore of these half-truths and lies. Don’t tell me that increasing tuition fees isn’t going to put off bright students from ordinary background from going to college. Don’t tell us lies. [cheers]
And don’t tell us that personal debt isn’t a problem for ordinary people like us. Don’t tell us that. And don’t tell us, don’t dare tell us, “we’re all in this together” when the banks- [cheers interrupt] Because we know the banks are being let off scot-free, instead of punishing students, why not punish the bankers? Instead of more debt for the poor, what about more taxes for the rich? Because this public spending deficit – this wasn’t caused by workers. It wasn’t caused by public services workers, firefighters, school meal workers, refuse workers, tube workers, and it certainly wasn’t caused by students. [cheers]
We know where the fault lies. We know where the blame lies. And we want the bankers and the financiers called to account. [cheers]
So no more of this conservative, right-wing dogma. And no more, I tell you when the Lib Dems come looking for our votes, they better take a good, hard look in the mirror before they ask us to support them- [cheers interrupt, continue at length]
But this has got to be the beginning. We have got to get out there. We have got to go back to our workplaces, our communities, our campuses; we have got to build the biggest, the best, the boldest coalition this country has ever seen. And I want to stop by asking you one last question: we are calling a mass-national demonstration on Saturday 26th March in London. Will you be there? [cheers]
We are united, we are strong, we will. Thank you! [cheers]
Sally Hunt, General Secretary, UCU
Thank you Frances. We are now, very quickly, going to show you a fantastic video – the winner, by the University of the Arts. This is what education does: it makes people brilliant.
Isn’t that fantastic? The University of the Arts – well done, thank you!
Now, woo, you’re all being quiet, that’s never happened before. I’d just like to check – are you all still there? Bit of jumping! Jump! Jump! Jump!
Yep, you’re all still awake, that’s good, because I’m going to introduce the President of the NUS, Aaron Porter, who has done nothing but fight and fight and fight what is a terrible broken promise by this government. So I’m very proud, Aaron, to introduce you – the National Union of Students’ President! [cheers]
Aaron Porter, President, NUS
Friends, friends, just before I start, I want to ask you a favour before I say a few words. If you’ve got a phone on you, get it out. Yeah, I’m not going to ask for all of your numbers at once. If you can, to stay involved in the campaign, if you can text NUS + your email address to 88802, you can stay involved in the campaign. If you can do that now, that’d be absolutely fantastic.
So it’s NUS + your email address to 88802. And I promise they don’t come to me.
Right! Students, teachers, parents, friends, brothers and sisters; thank you. Thank you for coming today. Today we have colleges, universities, towns, cities from the four corners of the United Kingdom represented here. And from far and wide we have come together to defend our education system and we are in the fight of our lives! [cheers]
Today, today we have taken over the streets of London in unprecedented number. Fifty thousand of us, it’s the biggest student demo in generations. We face an unprecedented attack on our future before it has even begun. This government’s assault on education is an attack on every single student – every individual teacher, every individual lecturer, every individual college, every individual university. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. [cheers]
And I tell you now – we will fight! [cheers] We will not tolerate the previous generation passing on expense to the next. Nor we will let politicians force us to pick up the bill to access a college and attend university education, which was funded for them for free. We stand here together to defend education in the face of savage cuts, we stand proud, we stand together, we stand united. [cheers]
The government is abdicating its responsibility to fund the education and skills provision we desperately need just as every other government of a civilized country is investing in its future, we have pulled back the drawbridge on generations that will follow us. They are imposing barbaric cuts that would brutalise our colleges and universities and they are turning the clock back to a day when only the elite could afford to progress through colleges and universities. [booing]
My hope is that they don’t know what they are doing, but my fear is that they know exactly what they are doing – but they just don’t care. [boos]
The government is embarking on the road to privatization of colleges and universities. The shameful abolition of state funding for the arts, humanities and social sciences. …for our universities and draw on the support for the poorest in our colleges! [boos]
We cannot and we will not accept that miserable vision for our future. We will not accept their miserable vision; the government’s short-sighted and self-defeated cuts to our colleges and universities must be resisted and that resistance begins now. That resistance beings today. That resistance begins here! [cheers]
We will fight back- [interrupted by cheers, later unintelligble] …we will fight back against attempts to pull back the funding in education we need to enrich our culture and we will fight back against attempts to dismantle the funding in education we need for social mobility. They deny the public value of higher education and seek instead to force the next generation to fund the bill. I tell you now – we will not pay for others’ mistakes, we will not pay for a crisis that we did not cause. I tell you now, it is not us who will pay – it is them. We will make them pay! [cheers]
We trusted politicians to keep their promises. We saw earlier how Nick Clegg told us at the general election: “no more broken promises.” I agreed with Nick, but where is he now? He told NUS Conference this year that he would resist, fight against and campaign against any lifting of that fee cap, and he told us he would vote against any lifting of that cap. He told us he wanted to join forces with us, but where is he today? [cheers]
I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you where he is – he’s on the government benches, down the road, defending the tripling of fees that he promised to abolish! [boos] He defended the scrapping of Education Maintenance Allowance that he said he would keep, he is defending the cuts to colleges and universities that he said he opposed. The broken promises fall thick and fast, and the consequences fall on the shoulders of the next generation.
But we are here today to tell politicians that we all no longer accept broken promises, we will not tolerate their broken promises. [cheers]
Politicans from whatever party who break their promises have lied to students, they have lied to voters, they have lied to each and every one of us! And we will not accept it. Where they break their promises, we, from next week, will initiate the right to recall and we will petition them to be recalled and face the voters! [cheers]
The generation who had HE for free are pulling up the drawbridge on the next generation, denying our brothers, our sisters, our children, our friends, our neighbours the opportunity to study at college or university based on their ability and not their ability to pay! But we are willing to fight back! We are not only here for ourselves, we are here for each of them and we are here for each other.
But this does not end today, this is just the beginning. Each and every one of us must go back to our homes and prepare to organize. The government’s irrational and unjustifiable cuts to colleges and universities must be resisted. They will be resisted and the resistance begins here, today. [cheers]
Our future is at stake and this is the biggest battle of our lives, so make sure that this is the day that we began the fight that we will fight it to the very end. This government will not be allowed to take advantage of us any longer- [drowned out by cheers, end of speech unintelligible].