People Across Europe Protest Cuts in Spending to Education and Public Services
By JYOTHI NATARAJAN
Students in London protesting cuts to spending on education. In the United Kingdom (U.K.), Spain, France, Greece, Italy and Ireland, governments are also cutting their budgets because of the financial crisis. More than one in five 16- to 24-year-olds in the European Union are unemployed. PHOTO: Flickr/chrisjohnbeckett
After hearing that his local public youth center in Oxfordshire, England (United Kingdom), would be closed in March 2011 because of budget cuts, 12-year-old Nicky Wishart decided to take action. In December, he organized a protest outside the local office of Prime Minister David Cameron to save the center. After learning about his plan though, police officers pulled Nicky out of class. Nicky told reporters that one police officer said to him, “If a riot breaks out we will arrest people, and if anything happens you will get arrested because you are the organizer.”
Nicky Wishart protesting the closing of his public youth center. Nicky helped to bring together more than 1,500 kids across the United Kingdom who felt strongly about saving their youth centers. PHOTO: Tom Jennings
As Nicky’s fight for his youth center shows, the spending cuts in Europe are affecting kids, too. The youth center in Oxfordshire is one of hundreds of centers across the country that are set to close next year. Kids go there to use computers and the Internet, play table tennis, listen to music and hang out with other kids without having to spend money. Wishart’s mother explained, “Through the club they’ve had all sorts of experiences that I couldn’t afford to give them myself.”
To organize the protest, Nicky used the computer at the center to create a Facebook group called “Save ALL U.K. Youth Centers.” Despite pressure from the police not to hold the protest, he and more than 100 other people joined the rally. “I just want to say to [Mr. Cameron], look, this really doesn’t have to close. Lots of people use it.”
What’s Happening Across Europe
Here’s a look at how spending cuts are affecting some countries across Europe. According to the Trade Union Advisory Committee as well as the Nobel Prize–winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, the best alternative to the cuts is “investing in quality public services” rather than taking that funding away.
United Kingdom (U.K.): The government made the largest spending cuts since World War II . They reduced government funding for universities by the equivalent of 4.7 billion U.S. dollars and tripled the fees to attend many of those same universities.
France: Millions of people protested an increase in the retirement age. The increase means that people must wait longer to collect money after they stop working.
Romania: Salaries for many public sector jobs are being cut by 25 percent.
Greece: Salaries for some public sector jobs will be cut in half, and there will be cuts to spending on building of new schools, roads and hospitals.
Italy: The government is cutting spending for education by putting small universities together and ending some academic programs.
I’ve heard about this protest before and I think it’s wrong to raise the school prices so high. I think these kids are doing and that’s a great way to take charge.
I was really touched by the activism done by the students in Europe.I am from the Bahamas and with your dedication and determination i was inspired to base a project on youth empowerment.
I think that this is a very good website.and i am happy to hear that you’ll trying to help the youths out
Thankyou for all your efforts that you have put in this. very interesting info . “Every man is the builder of a temple called his body.” by Henry David Thoreau.
Nice read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing a little research on that. And he just bought me lunch because I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!