Theory and analysis

Hands Off Venezuela: picket and meeting

On January 23, the president of the opposition controlled Venezuelan National Assembly Juan Guaidó appointed himself as “president in charge” at a street rally. He was immediately recognised as “legitimate president” of Venezuela by Trump, Bolsonaro, Canada, Colombia and the Organisation of American States. The US has threatened president Maduro, instructed him to resign and called on the Army to intervene to force him. This is an ongoing coup attempt. President Maduro Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Tuition fees hit the poorest hardest: a reply to KCL’s director of social mobility

On Sunday, 20 January 2019, the Guardian published an opinion piece by Anne-Marie Canning, the Director of Social Mobility and Student Success at KCL, in which she asserted that cutting tuition fees would mean “shut[ing] the door to poor students”. Her paradoxical argument rests on the fact that, since the Tory-led coalition government hiked tuition fees to 9,000 pounds per year in 2012, 800 million pounds have been spent on funding “schemes Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Private tuition: an extortionate sticking plaster for deep Tory cuts

The private tuition industry’s profits are soaring as Tory cuts continue to decimate the education system. Parents are having to fill the gap in education left by inadequate funding, academisation, and more ‘rigorous’ examinations. Children in Tory Britain are being left behind in the pursuit of profit.  The private tuition industry in the UK is now estimated to be worth £2bn, the cheapest tuition available from large companies such as Explore Learning Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Which way forward for outsourced workers at KCL?

After successes at the London School of Economics (LSE), Kings College London (KCL), the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and others, outsourced workers at London universities are proving that determined and militant campaigns get results. Strike action, demonstrations, and student solidarity have forced university management to agree to end outsourcing and bring workers in-house. Management dishonesty But it will come as no surprise to anyone to learn that almost as Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Plymouth votes to leave the NUS: is disaffiliation the right tactic?

The University of Plymouth’s Student Union has decided to leave the NUS, after 519 of 1006 members voted to end its affiliation. The debate for leaving came after recent news that the NUS is currently facing a £3 million-pound deficit. UPSU president Alex Doyle recently told the BBC there are “significant concerns” regarding the NUS’ value for money for students, as well as a “lack of political standing and lack of support.” Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Cuts are wrecking my school

The treatment of secondary school teachers is frankly appalling. It appears that underpaying them isn’t enough, as my school has gone as far to actually refuse to pay them for overtime labour. By forcing them to sign contracts that state that overtime labour is “voluntary” in a state school is a blatant violation of their rights as teachers. The school often forces them to come in on weekends to teach students unnecessary Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

UCU college workers to strike against woeful wages

UCU members at 16 further education colleges will down tools in 2019 in response to a 25 percent pay cut over the last decade. Last year, workers at 10 colleges struck over pay, and they will be joined by colleagues at six further institutions this year for another round of action. A whopping 89 percent of UCU members in the FE sector (which mostly caters to adult learners and students from poorer Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Free speech, no-platforming and fighting the Right

The topic of no-platforming has come up intermittently in the student movement over the last few years. This is a tactic is to deny political opponents a speaking platform, either by appealing to universities or student unions to ban them from speaking, or by organising disruptive ‘direct action’ to prevent speaking engagements. This tactic is not just used against the far-right, but also against transphobic, second-wave feminists such as Germaine Greer and Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Why I Fight: Lenin, Prevent, and the struggle for socialism

The book that made me a Marxist was Lenin’s State and Revolution, which I first read at the age of 13. It was almost revelatory in how it showed me the façade of the ‘democracy’ that we live in. This was no ‘free society’, with elections where people have a genuine choice and the media is an impartial body that reports on all things in a fair manner. Rather, we live in Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Marxists at NUS conference

This year’s NUS conference, to be held in Glasgow on 8-11 April 2019, will play host to a record number of Marxist delegates. We’ll be arguing for the NUS to adopt radical socialist policies, as the only route by which the NUS can make itself relevant to the students it is supposed to represent, and as the central plank of a plan to get the NUS out of its £3 million deficit. Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Two more victories for Marxists in NUS delegate elections

Last week NUS delegate election campaigns were held in Manchester Metropolitan University and Leeds University. Marxist students ran on a bold socialist programme in both universities and were successfully elected. These Marxist delegates from MMU and Leeds will join delegates from SOAS, UCL, UEA, Swansea, and Sheffield at the NUS conference in Glasgow in April 2019. Together the Marxist delegates will argue for the NUS to transform itself into a fighting socialist Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Yellow Vests and students – Appeal from Nanterre University

Resolution adopted by the General Assembly of students at Paris Nanterre University on Monday 10th December 2018: In the last two weeks the movement of outrage against Macron has done nothing bug grow. High school students are showing the way forward: tens of thousands have taken to the streets en masse. On university campuses there has been an explosion of General Assemblies, strikes and sit-ins. Last Saturday, workers with and without yellow Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

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