There was a Momentum meeting in Sheffield yesterday to discuss the best way to defend Corbyn against those Labour MPs who are trying to remove him. Around 200 people turned up to the meeting, which was a great turnout. Peter and Rhea both addressed the meeting, with the latter’s speech talking about a fundamental change in society and the democratisation of the economy and the party and the need to fight for socialism. Unfortunately Read more…
This week is seeing staff at 44 universities across the UK go on strike as part of their campaign for a decent pay increase, an end to zero-hour contracts and a closing of the gender pay gap. Already the University of the Arts London, the University of West London and the University of Aberdeen have had staff walk out this week. Tomorrow (Thursday 30 June) staff at the following universities will be Read more…
Events are moving at lightning speed. Decisive action is required and socialist ideas can be a powerful rallying point. We will be updating this page as events unfold to help guide those who want to defend Corbyn and fight for socialism. The system is broken, we need a revolution! Wednesday 29 June – 14:00 RMT Young Members’ statement: We want to build a real future for ordinary working people in this Read more…
Students at Queen Mary’s College in Basingstoke are furious about an Edexcel Biology A Level exam. Edexcel exams are set by the largest education multinational company in the world: Pearson PLC. The exam had almost nothing to do with the course that has been taught this year. In fact, according to the students, the paper was a reheated version of an AS Level paper from two years ago. Thousands of other students around the Read more…
Today Marxist students have been out supporting UCU members on strike as part of the ongoing pay dispute. Ross, a UCU member from Queen Margaret University (QMU) who was on strike today has sent in the following report: There were about 12 of us on the picket line. The university wasn’t busy as its the summer period. However the picket was lively, with workers songs being sung. Some of the shop stewards Read more…
Three days ago, six people were killed and dozens wounded outside Oaxaca when the Mexican police opened fire on unarmed protestors defending state education: http://www.marxist.com/mexico-brutal-repression-of-teachers… This is another chapter in the story of the Mexican state’s assault on workers through violent repression of unionists and a brutal swathe of privatizations, aimed largely at opening the country’s oil reserves to foreign trade and investment. All sympathy and solidarity with the victims: rest in Read more…
A petition opposing the retrospective alteration to student loan repayments, begun by Durham University student Alex True, has been rejected by parliament. Having gathered over 120,000 signatures in the space of a few days, it demonstrates the strength of feeling against tuition fees and this latest modification. Nonetheless, it will not be discussed by MPs. The petition arose as a response to secretive alterations of the student loan repayment system. As Martin Read more…
We publish below an eyewitness account of the Nuit Debout movement that has, along with massive strike action, been sweeping France. For an analysis of the movement, its strengths and weaknesses, see here: http://www.socialist.net/french-labour-law-strengths-and-weaknesses-of-the-movement.htm ——————— Since March, a fervour has been sweeping France. In direct opposition to the proposed counter-reforms of la loi pour la croissance et l’activité, which would grant the bosses greater freedom to extend working weeks, without economic compensation, and Read more…
The dispute over pay between universities and the UCU continues today with a strike at the University of Sussex. While staff pay has fallen by 14.5% since 2009, the vice-chancellor at Sussex has a salary of £287,000. Throughout the HE sector 49% of staff are on insecure contracts and on average women earn £6,103 per year less than their male counterparts. Marxist students offer full solidarity to our staff who are Read more…
Below we publish a report of a meeting that took place at London Metropolitan University last week: The mood was one of anger and determination to fight on Tuesday 7 June, when more than 40 people gathered to plan the fightback against the job cuts and victimisation of trade unionists taking place at London Metropolitan University. Management had disguised the scale of the planned cuts by counting staff, who though officially ‘on Read more…
On Sunday 5 June, Momentum Youth and Students held its founding conference. The mood was very positive thanks in part to the large attendance of almost 200 young people, but mainly due to the fact that there was a real sense of the tide having turned. Socialism is now back on the agenda and this is enthusing large swathes of young people who are new to politics. The day was split up into Read more…
Following the announcement by the Vice-Chancellor of London Metropolitan University (LMU) that there are to be almost 400 more job cuts, staff are organising a fightback with an initial public meeting tonight (7 June 2016). The university has suffered a huge reduction in size over the past few years. When originally formed in 2002 by a merger, it had a total of 28,000 students. This has been cut to the current Read more…
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