Fighting the cuts in education

The stepping-up of the public sector cuts between 3%-10% this year shows that the Muldoon Government is following the Thatcher-Reagan-Fraser policy of attacking workers to restore profits. Once you accept the bosses’ argument that profits are the only basis of economic growth, then the necessity for cuts follows, and the possibility of a united working class opposition to the cuts is lost. It is important for this reason to reject the bosses’ argument about profits, so that all those affected by the cuts, whether privileged university staff and students or oppressed groups such as women and Polynesians, can join forces in fighting back against the cuts. Because the attack on education is merely one part of the total attack on the public sector now taking place, I will begin by looking at the cuts in general before dealing with education.