ALNWICK? Didn't he play inside right for Derby County in 1952 or was it the scene of some battle or other?
A year ago those would have been the stock replies to any questions about Alnwick. Now most students know something about Aluwick.
Ainwick is in fact a rural market town in Northumberland. Thirty live miles north of Newcastle with a population of 7,000, it is in the heart of the depressed North-East. The town's present claim to fame comes from the fight students there are now putting up against the imminent closure of the college of further education.
The tot began to set into teacher training nationally in 1972 with the Tories acceptance of the James Report, which proposed a 24% reduction in the number of teacher training places available. The Lahour Government, far from making things better, simply made them worse. While they reversed only one sixth of the £182 million slashed from the edueation budget by Barber in December 193, met only one seventh of te SUS prants demands, and refused to extend the sent treeze to students, they tunnei procceded to increase the cuts in teacher training to a massive 44%:
MERGERS One way of introducing these cutbacks has been the moves to merge colleges In this manner the state can lower its overbeads - human overheads, like students and stall! So it was that in May this year a letter arrived in Ainwick from the Department of Education and Science stating that the college was to become an appen dage of the polytechnic in Newcastle.
The merging, or more correctly the closure of the college in Alnwick will have grave repercussions on the working class in the town.
With forecasts that unemployment will reach the million mark next year the future is bleak in the North-East.
In Ainwick there are 196 men and 57 women on the dole -and with only six jobs vacant the chances of finding ers omployed there can expect the same fate, In the event of the closure nearly 7% of the town' total population will be unemployed.
PITFALLS When fighting the closures students have to avoid many pitfall, for it is not the case that they should oppose mergers as a matter of principle, Many of those small colleges are tightly run by the prin cipals, with the students' usion weakly organised and hamstrung by petty rules like lights out or no visitor after time. Joining with other colleges would act ually benefit sach students.
Thus students have to say! we are not opposed to your merger provided certain conditions are met. That is, they should rate of expansion; no rodusdancies or wage and salary cuts; an improvement in But at Anwick we soo tho state's policy of education on the cheap by merging at its worst, not just because of the unemployment it would cause, but also he cause a new busing costng 1430,000 has recently been completed. Ainwick will become the first phost college.
Students in the Newcastle area have cuts. Besides taking up the Alnwick cass, they have been squatting empty property in Newcastle to highlight the housine shonase while the nolvtechnic students occupied the administration block in protest against the proposed cuts in building programmes.
CONFERENCE It was out of the polytochnic occupation that the call for a regional confer ence came. In this it is hoped to involve workers and school stedents in the strueld. The conterince, which will be hel at the start of next term on 18 January. offers the possibility of students -boll in college and at schoul - and workers planning action to combat the cuts in all Gelds oF education spending in the Newcastle area, including the Alnwick closure.
It s conferences like the one u Nog castle that can lay the basis for ridding. TE COUCES DE ENC SPOCTIC DE CLOSUES that now haunts them. It is with the coor tinuation of the direct action launched this term that students and workers can stop the authorities from solving their crisis al our expense.
Rick Sissons Subscribe to Red