STATEMENT - ART AGAINST CUTS

Goldsmiths Art Dept. Staff and Students Against the Government's Attack on Education

1. No to the attack on the arts and art educationWe strongly oppose any increase in tuition fees and all cuts throughout education and thepublic sector. In particular, we object to this Government's systematic attack on the arts andhumanities as an important arena for debate, critical thought, and cultural production at large.Contemporary art in the UK is being attacked on two fronts. Cuts to education funding willmake art schools prohibitively expensive for artists, curators and writers wanting to go to artschool. Cuts to art funding will dramatically reduce the spaces, opportunities and employmentemerging artists, curators and writers will be able to enter and contribute to after theireducation. Both directly affect the future of graduates from the Art Department at Goldsmiths,and mutilate the scope of art contributing to societal processes at large.The cuts and increases will badly damage the prospects and possibilities of so many whowish to benefit from education and the arts in the coming years. It is imperative that theseproposed cuts be opposed as strongly as possible. To that end, the Warden, the College,Senior Management Team and Heads of Departments must also publicly voice their dismayand opposition to these proposals.

2. For free educationThe real argument is not whether fees and cuts are acceptable or not - they are clearlyregressive - but whether free public education is a principle respected by this Government.When, as now, a publicly funded education system is being valiantly fought for by current,future and former students, this struggle must be understood to be one amongst others forstate funding to be used for the direct betterment of its population. The privatisation ofeducation will massively exacerbate existing social divisions, and reinforce the sociallycatastrophic effects of a finance-dominated economy. As such we oppose it and will do all wecan alongside the rest of the population now beginning to fight back against it.

3. Support for the victimsWe strongly support, and will work to defend, the Goldsmiths students and others who havebeen arrested while protesting against these cuts to Education and the public sector.

4. Coordinated actionThe staff and students of the Department of Art wish to contribute all we can to thedevelopment of the current movement against cuts and fees. The creativity and criticality socelebrated as engines for economic growth during the bubble years should now be directed tofacilitating and feeding the struggle against these regressive, ideologically motivated cuts.Artists have historically been among those producing the critique and driving the developmentof society, imagining alternatives, and attacking injustices. As inheritors of this tradition westand up against the government programme to push society backward in the attempt tosustain the profits of an elite minority.

We oppose the further commodification of teaching and study in the university, and thedestruction of services and benefits across the public sector.

We support all those in occupation in art schools and universities in London, across the UK and internationally, and we call on Goldsmiths staff and students to give support and assistance to those facing intimidation from management and bailiffs. Only by disrupting business as usual can we prevent them from imposing business forever.

STAFF AND STUDENTS OF GOLDSMITHS COLLEGE LONDON

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