Theory and analysis

Solidarity with high school students in France – fight police repression!

On Thursday 6 December, high school students demonstrated outside a school in Mantes-la-Jolie, west of Paris. After a demonstration to protest the new reforms to the exam system, the students were brutally arrested by police officers. Shocking images of the arrest have been circulating on social media. Police officers, armed and equipped with helmets, the infamous “flash balls” (batons) and shields, were filmed twisting students’ arms behind their backs. Other students can Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

French Marxist students call for general strike to bring down the government

Yesterday the General Assembly at Paul-Valery University in Montpellier passed a resolution calling for a general strike to bring down the Macron government. The same resolution is being brought to university General Assemblies in Toulouse Jean-Jaures today, and in Nanterre (Pairs) and Lyon in the near future. Inspired to link up with the Yellow Vest movement, which has been sweeping France, the Marxist Student groups at the university moved the resolution to Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Marxist students begin preparations for NUS Conference 2019

This year’s NUS Conference will take place on 8-11 April 2019 in Glasgow. It will play host to more Marxist student delegates than ever before, including from UCL, SOAS, Swansea, UEA and Sheffield, with many more elections still to take place. The conference is set to deal with the £3 million deficit in the NUS budget. We will be arguing that financial questions are, at root, political questions. If the NUS wants Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Insurrectionary mood hits France

  Since this article was written, Macron’s government has backed down on the rise of fuel taxes. This has come in the context of rising support for the yellow vest movement – reaching 84% on 27th November – and the threat of a general strike from the major trade unions. More protesters have died or fallen into coma after receiving tear gas canisters. On the other hand, riot police have abandoned their Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

NUS conference to discuss joining the fight against precarious work

  On 20th November, Marxist student and NUS delegate Nico Navarro Padrón passed a motion through SOAS Union’s General Meeting to support the struggles of precarious workers. The motion, unanimously accepted by the UGM, will now be brought to the NUS conference in April next year. As Marxists, we are part of the struggle of all workers against exploitation, and fully back the strikes and demands of precarious workers at the universities. Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

MSF Conference

Political developments in Britain are accelerating rapidly. The Brexit fiasco threatens to topple the government. A Corbyn government is on the cards. A period of intense class struggle is on the agenda. And all the while a new world economic slump looms on the horizon. As Karl Marx once said: ‘Philosophers have interpreted the world, the point is to change it’. Our task is to prepare for and participate in the coming Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Reading Uni’s use of Prevent legislation says a lot about our rights under capitalism

  We’re often told that our society promotes freedom of expression and discussion, that you can say and write whatever you want. Yet the recent revelation that the University of Reading has labelled an essay on the ethics of socialist revolution as ‘extremist’ under the Prevent legislations reveals the truth about our rights and freedoms under capitalism. The essay is ‘required reading’ for third-year students studying Politics at Reading and yet students Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Courier organisations establish Transnational Federation: class struggle set to intensify

  On 25 and 26 October 2018, 100 meal couriers came together in Brussels. They are part of 34 courier collectives and/or trade unions that fight the exploitation by platforms such as Deliveroo, UberEats, Foodora and Glovo. They set up the Transnational Federation of Couriers to share their experiences and the fight against the multinationals. Critical mass The European conference was a product of the struggle of the Brussels Deliveroo couriers. Last Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Why I Fight: there is an alternative to capitalism

  I arrived at Marxism for one reason: my search for an alternative. I’ve lived all my life, bar the period I spend studying at Swansea University, in the strong Labour constituency that is the Torfaen County Borough. This year is the 35th anniversary of the county’s inception, and it has spent the entirety of its lifetime in the hands of the Labour Party. It is an area in which  always loyally Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

White supremacists confront Glasgow Marxists: join us to fight the far-right

  Yesterday we were accosted by a couple of far-right people at our stall on the Glasgow uni campus. They accused us of being part of a ‘Jewish conspiracy’ and singled out one of our comrades for being blonde-haired and blue-eyed, saying that she did not belong in our group. We tried to ridicule them initially, hoping they would leave, but they continued to berate us, with one of them threatening to Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

Crisis in Sheffield Labour Students: the fight for a socialist Labour Party rages on

  In the first six weeks of this academic year Sheffield Labour Students (SLS) society at the University of Sheffield has experienced mass-resignations from their left-wing committee and cancelled an event involving Chris Williamson MP. Now less than half of the committee positions are filled and SLS are in danger of a Blairite resurgence. The reasons for this crisis are manifold, yet the most prominent feature is the resigning members’ inability to Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

NUS faces bankruptcy: which way forward?

  The National Union of Students (NUS) is facing bankruptcy, according to a letter recently sent from its national executive to affiliated student unions. Shakira Martin and Peter Robinson, President and Chief Executive of the NUS, claim that the NUS is projecting a £3m deficit which it will be unable to afford. This will entail a reduction in NUS staff and wages and cause the activities the NUS offers students to be Read more…

By Marxist Student, ago

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