So, the week has ended, and the leviathan of political activism that is Campaign Coalition awakened. Our first major campaign is the 'Campaign to Defeat Student Fees' and all systems have been go for a livley start. Last Thursday saw the creation of the campaign stand and Alex and I made sure that people were aware of the issue at hand, getting signatures along the way. The librarian wasn't too happy because we hadn't booked the space. After five hours of signature-gaining, Alex and I decided to call it a day. We had about 120 signatures after the first day, which gave us hope that all this talk about 'apathetic students' is just a load of old twoddle, letting the NUS 'solve it' by creating the governance review, another thing that has been taking up my time because the NUS love to hide all the facts between lots and lots of writing in one white paper.
Morys and Alex continued the stand on Monday for two hours, getting another 50 or so signatures. What we found is that people seem genuinley unaware of whats happening (bit like the NUS then, perhaps they SHOULD all be new labour MP's....) and although aware, that the rate of interest is rising, they had no idea that Gordon Brown is planning to sell off the Student Loans Company to Private Investors. (http://www.upsu.net/forums/v/message,130,4178.htm)
Today we had the first meeting since the Stall was launched for Campaign Coalition, and established that campaign merchandise was vital, t-shirts, badges and stickers on their way! meanwhile we will continue to be cold, outside the library, so even if it is out of compassion, please come and talk to us, maybe even sign our petiton....
