US Students have followed the lead given by students in the UK. Faced with an 8% increase in fees, students at Berkeley in California - which has a radical history going back to the 1960's, and was recently the venue for the North American Conference of Worker Co-operatives - organised a massive demonstration that was met with violence by police. Some details are available here.
A poll conducted by NBC News/Wall Street Journal, also indicates the problem for Republicans and Tea Partiers. It showed that even amongst Republicans there was a majority opposition to actual spending cuts as opposed to the theoretical idea of spending cuts. Seven in 10 Americans called themselves “somewhat uncomfortable” or “not comfortable at all” with the idea of reducing the deficit by cutting spending on Social Security, Medicare and defense programs. Nearly six in 10 expressed discomfort with raising the Social Security retirement age to 69—even if the change were phased in over 60 years.
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