The Pluto Press Holiday Sale! 50% off all books until 5th December
The Pluto Press Holiday Sale! 50% off all books until 5th December
Tue, 31 Oct 2017, 18:00
University of Warwick, SO.19, Social Sciences Building, Coventry, CV4 7AL
Marking the release of 'Student Revolt' by Matt Myers
In 2010 young people across Britain took to the streets to defy a wave of government attacks on education, increasing tuition fees and cuts to grants for university and college students. Today, students face new attacks on higher education from the current Conservative government, and the popularity of Labour’s propositions at the last general election brought these issues back to the forefront of media attention. 15 days before the Free Education National Demo called by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, this panel featuring researchers and activists will explore decades of student activism, and talk about the 2010 movement as a way of relating to current political strategies on campuses today.
Members of the panel:
Matt Myers is the author of the recently published book Student Revolt: Voices of the Austerity Generation (Pluto Press) – an oral history of the 2010 student movement against tuition fees and education cuts. He has been an activist in the student movement since 2010 and is now a history PhD student at Oxford University. As well as well as exploring the themes of the book, he will frame the present ruptures in British politics against the legacy of 2010, and chart the movement’s lessons for students today.
Connor Woodman was at Warwick for five years, and completed his MA thesis on the history of student activism at Warwick. His talk will cover the main moments of mass political contention on campus, from a 1970 uprising over political files to a riotous demonstration against a Thatcherite minister’s visit to campus in 1983, up until the present day, examining the contours and lessons of this history of conflict and struggle.
Craig Black is a PhD student at Warwick, senior editor at Novara Media and was interviewed for Matt’s book. He was one of a few thousand kettled at the ‘Battle of Parliament Square’ in 2010 and will share some stories and reflections on that period of the student movement.
Their presentations will be followed by an interactive discussion on student movements past and present.
