Theory and analysis

Update from Cambridge: Build the occupation, support the strike!

The UCU strikes are in full swing once again in Cambridge after a hiatus between December and February. The ongoing bout of industrial action is shaping up to be more explosive. Aside from breakfast runs, picketing, etc. the rallies have been reinvigorated by the student-led occupation. Impassioned union chants are filling the air. While the VC is rearranging his meetings elsewhere, and insisting that business continues as usual, the pickets are Read more…

By Marxist Student, 6 yearsMarch 6, 2020 ago

Victory to UCU! Students must support the strikes!

The UCU’s London branches came together for a rally and march on Wednesday 26 February to mobilise support for the strike and put pressure on management. Around 750 angry lecturers and staff marched through central London up to the Bank of England, joined by Marxist students from UCL, KCL, SOAS, LSE and Queen Mary’s University. It is fitting that a march in support of such a strike ended at the heart Read more…

By Marxist Student, 6 yearsMarch 6, 2020 ago

Anti-casualisation rally at Kings, support the UCU strike!

Today an anti-casualisation rally took place on the picket line at KCL. Despite the rain there was a strong amount of support from both students and staff (and a few bus drivers in passing traffic!) who gathered to listen to militant workers from different sectors of the workforce at King’s discussing their experiences in a supposedly ‘world-class’ institution. Across the board, whether GTAs, cleaning staff or academics, the issues are Read more…

By Marxist Student, 6 yearsMarch 4, 2020 ago

BREAKING: Cambridge occupied in solidarity with UCU strike

A number of students including those of the Cambridge Marxist society have occupied Old Schools, the administrative hub of The University of Cambridge, in coordination with CDE and other groups of the left in solidarity with the UCU strike. They say: “We support the immediate demands put forward by UCU wholeheartedly in their pensions and four fights (fair pay; inequality; casualisation; and rising workloads) disputes. We challenge the university to meet Read more…

By Marxist Student, 6 yearsMarch 3, 2020 ago

Ireland: Students occupy against rent hikes

Students at NUI Galway, University College Dublin, NUI Cork and elsewhere have been involved in occupations of their universities in response to spiralling rents. The conditions being faced by students in Ireland will be immediately familiar to students in Britain. STATEMENTFollowing the decision of NUI Galway to implement a 4% rent increase on student accommodation, we will be occupying the quadrangle day and night until it this decision is revoked.#ReduceTheRents #FreezeThe4 Read more…

By Marxist Student, 6 yearsFebruary 28, 2020 ago

UCU Strike: Reports from the picket lines

Sheffield: We joined striking university workers on the picket line in the rain this morning. Over the next few weeks, we will be posting first hand accounts from UCU members talking about why they’re on strike and how the issues around the USS pension fund, pay, and working conditions affect them. Here’s Steffan on casualisation 👇 “My name’s Steffan Blayney, I’m a postdoctoral researcher in the History department and I’m also the Read more…

By Marxist Student, 6 yearsFebruary 25, 2020 ago

Solidarity, strength and sacrifice – MSF Conference 2020

On Saturday 15 February, 140 young activists from across the country met in London for this year’s national conference of the Marxist Student Federation (MSF).This has been a fantastic 12 months for the MSF, with the organisation going from strength to strength. This was reflected in the enthusiastic and militant mood amongst all present. World in revolt The day began with a session on The World in Revolt, led by Fred Weston Read more…

By Marxist Student, 6 yearsFebruary 19, 2020 ago

Students and workers walk out at SOAS over job cuts

A walkout occurred on 23 January 2020 at SOAS, University of London to condemn the cuts of the fractional workers and academic staff on research leave. With over 400 students and staff, both permanent and temporary in attendance, many have stated that this was the largest demonstration at SOAS. A week before the walkout, SOAS management announced they would be suspending research leave for the 2020/21 academic year declaring that the Read more…

By Marxist Student, 6 yearsJanuary 31, 2020 ago

No return to Blairism – keep labour red!

There is no denying that the result for Labour on December 13th 2019 was devastating. Why was Labour incapable of winning at the ballot box? Luckily, it would seem, there was no shortage of ‘political experts’ claiming to answer this question. As soon as the exit poll was released, New Labour stalwart Alan Johnson was on ITV shouting “I want Momentum gone.” Many on the Labour right argue that this election Read more…

By Marxist Student, 6 yearsJanuary 23, 2020 ago

Why I fight: for revolutionary optimism

I knew that coming to university would allow me to meet people that shared my political views. Coming from a small college, I’d never talked about the issues that face human beings and our planet with my friends at home. Most political talk was limited to surface level drama within bourgeois political parties and what Trump was posting on Twitter. Having been interested in the writings of Marx from a young Read more…

By Marxist Student, 6 yearsJanuary 20, 2020 ago

Solidarity with the secondary students in Chile!

Photo: Reuters On the 8th of January the government of Chile announced that it will prosecute 34 leaders of secondary students’ organizations under the State’s Security Law, after they succeeded in boycotting nationwide the integrated system of tests for university admission (PSU). This law, which substantially aggravates the sentences for which would be otherwise only minor offenses, has been historically used by the Chilean state to intimidate and silence popular protests. Read more…

By Marxist Student, 6 yearsJanuary 13, 2020 ago

India: condemn brutal attack on the student leaders of JNU!

The Modi government has unleashed a brutal attack on the student leaders of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi through its goons, allegedly linked to ABVP and RSS. The thugs of the ABVP, student wing of BJP, assembled in large numbers along with security personnel in civilian clothes, and entered the premises of the university on the evening of 5 January. They severely beat and injured many student leaders, including the president Read more…

By Marxist Student, 6 yearsJanuary 6, 2020 ago

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