Militant/Caroline Bellamy

MANCHESTER, England — Andrés Mendoza, Communist League candidate for city council here, addresses 60 students at a March 27 debate organized by Manchester Young Lives. Next to Mendoza, from left, are Philip Eckersley, United Kingdom Independence Party; Loz Kaye, Pirate Party; Kieran Turner-Dave, Green Party; and Lucy Powell, currently a Member of Parliament for the Labour Party. They are all candidates in the U.K. national and local May 7 elections.

“The path I have taken to advance in life through education is open to others,” Powell said, when panelists were asked about their view on education. She called for cutting university tuition fees and guaranteed apprenticeships for young people, saying “the route to work is through education.”

“Real education comes through joining fights such as the recent health workers strike. There I’ve learned about solidarity,” Mendoza said. “The education you get through capitalism is all about how to climb the ladder in competition with your fellow students, it’s all about dog-eat-dog values. The factory I work in has more apprentices, but they’re put on a lower rate of pay than those they work alongside. The unions need to fight for them to get the same rate of pay.”

A participant asked Powell why Manchester’s Labour-run city council was cutting funds for youth services. “It would be nice if we didn’t have to pay for such things. But Labour wants to balance the books in a fair way,” she replied.

“These aren’t our books, and the government deficit isn’t workers’ responsibility,” Mendoza said. “Instead of looking to the bosses’ government to protect us, we should look to fellow workers and how through our struggles workers can transform themselves, preparing to take political power.”