Jack Leahy | News Editor
A rally calling for the protection of student supports in the 2015 budget will take place on Wednesday October 8th. Organised by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), “Rally for Education” intends to “highlight the value of education to society as well as the valuable contributions that students make to their communities.”
Students will march from the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Street from 11.30 am, concluding at Molesworth Street, across the road from Leinster House, where a number of speeches and artistic performances will take place.
In September, Dublin City Council approved USI’s request to display a large graphic banner from the headquarters of the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU) at Liberty Hall. Advertising the national protest march and intended to evoke public support, it duly hung for over a week.
Speaking to The University Times last month, USI President Laura Harmon expressed her hopes that “thousands” of students will attend the protest.The event marks the organisation’s return to its traditional single-location mass protest event, having in recent years organised co-ordinated regional “days of action”.
In 2013, fewer than 100 students attended a Molesworth Street rally on a wretched October afternoon. Events in Cork and Sligo, however, attracted a combined total of around 6,000 students.
USI’s recent efforts to encourage solidarity among unions have borne fruit for this campaign, with SIPTU, Irish Federation of University Teachers, Teachers’ Union of Ireland, ICTU Youth, Young Workers Network, We’re Not Leaving, Communication Workers Union, Communication Workers Youth Committee, Defend the University, Irish Second Level Students’ Union, Conradh na Gaeilge, and NUS-USI among the organisations to express their support for the rally.
Speaking to The University Times, Harmon emphasised the ‘positive’ approach to the campaign and the increased level of support from similar organisations:
“The pre-budget campaign this year is more positive in its approach than previous years and focuses on the value of education to society and the contributions that students make.”
She went on to say: “However, it has a strong central message that student supports need to be protected, in particular the maintenance grant and the Back to Education Allowance. SUs will be lobbying public representatives in the run-up to the Budget on our pre-submission, which also includes asks around student accommodation.”
Photo of Martin Lynch, USI Vice President for the Southern Area, courtesy of USI.
