Model Motion – Support the NUS walkout!

The National Union of Students (NUS) has called for a nationwide day of action this term, on 2 March, involving a student walkout at universities across the country, and a mass demonstration in central London. 

Marxist students will be making the case for the NUS demands, and helping to build unity between students and staff. On this basis, we can organise a coordinated campaign across the whole education sector.

This could set an example for the rest of the labour movement – providing a platform for a one-day strike across the whole public sector, and a wider fight back against the Tories and the bosses.

We encourage all Marxist Societies across the country to pass this motion.

Students and workers: unite and fight! 

Model Motion

This Marxist society notes:

• The National Union of Students (NUS) has called for a nationwide day of action on 2 March, involving student walkouts across the country, and a mass demonstration in central London.
• The NUS is demanding fully funded education, which is accessible, lifelong, and democratised.
• This action comes after students have faced a year of lockdowns, mental health crises, and eye-watering rent and fees, and in the context of a government which doesn’t care for the well-being of students and workers.
• This action by the NUS comes in the wake of three days of strike action by the University and College Union (UCU) in December 2021 over pensions, pay and conditions, and coincides with more planned actions by the UCU this term.
• This action also comes at a time when the National Education Union (NEU) is increasingly mobilising college staff to take industrial action over academisation and poor working conditions for teachers.

This Marxist society believes:

• This NUS action on 2 March is an opportunity for staff and students across schools, colleges, and universities to unite to strike a decisive blow against the marketisation of education.
• It is also a chance to strike a blow against the Tory government which has put the profits of big business ahead of the health and education of students and workers. 
• We should seize the moment to demand that education be free and fully funded, paid for by the expropriation of the banks and big businesses which have profited from our education for so long.
• Marketisation should be resisted with real democratisation in education, with workers’ control of institutions involving students and staff democratically running schools, colleges, and universities in the interests of educational need, not cost-cutting or profit-making.
• Solidarity and coordinated action between students and workers is the best way to fight for a fundamental transformation of the education sector, and of society more broadly, starting by getting rid of the Tory government.

This Marxist society resolves:

• We must build for the maximum possible turnout of students and staff for the 2 March walkout.
• We will organise lecture shoutouts, leafleting, campus stalls, postering, and mass meetings of students and workers to debate and discuss our strategy and demands.
• We will demand that our student union adopt this motion, spread information about the NUS action and the strike action of the trade unions, provide resources such as transport to build for the demonstrations, and mobilise for local actions in the build up to the walkout.
• We will agitate for mass meetings to form committees of action involving representatives from the trade unions and the student movement, to coordinate these efforts in every town and city across the country