This morning, on the picket line in West Cambridge, Mo from the Cambridge Marxist society interviewed Rob Bricheno, Senior Network Systems Specialist for the University Information Services, University of Cambridge – a striking UCU member. Why are you on strike? This is a bridge too far for academic related professional staff (which is what I am). Lecturers are over a barrel to a certain extent, but I can only relate that professional Read more…
After an excellent start to the UCU strikes last week, Marxist students have again been out on the picket lines today in solidarity with our lecturers. Despite the snow and sub-zero temperatures the pickets were in excellent spirits this morning – everyone feels like this is a strike that can be won. In Norwich, the socialist society at the University of East Anglia was on the picket lines again shoulder-to-shoulder with all Read more…
The most militant action ever taken by the University and College Union (UCU) has begun. Academic staff at 62 universities have formed picket lines with the intention of taking a total of 14 days of strike action over cuts to their pensions. This attack on staff is part of the wider marketisation of education that has led to a grinding down of working and living conditions for staff in the education sector. Read more…
Marxist students have been on the picket lines alongside staff all over the country. Emilie Dufwa, NUS delegate from UCL and member of the UCL Marxist society, answers some of the questions she has encountered on the picket line from students wondering why they should support the strike. WHAT ARE LECTURERS STRIKING FOR? University lecturers will strike across Britain from 22 February in response to a brutal attack on pensions. Fourteen days Read more…
On Thursday the 22nd of February, the first day of UCU strike action in defence of pensions, Liverpool Marxist Society joined lecturers at the University of Liverpool on the picket lines. During this time we got the opportunity to interview Dr Anastasia Tataryn, lecturer in the Law School and member of UCU at the University. What is this strike in relation to and what is the dispute about? The dispute is about Read more…
This morning marks the beginning of the most militant strike action ever taken by academic staff at universities. Full details of the planned action can be found here. This strike is over the question of pensions – staff are getting shafted in their retirement because of government cuts and universities that prioritise high salaries for management over decent pensions for staff. But today’s strike isn’t just about pensions. It’s about the broader Read more…
The day I signed up to the Marxist Student Federation had a purely accidental character. What if I had chosen a university in another city? What if I had decided not to go to university at all? What would my politics be if I had never moved away from my home in Poland to a small town in South Wales? The period when I lived in Poland for the first twelve years Read more…
Some people argue that capitalism = democracy and communism = dictatorship. Is that really the case? Jess takes up the arguments.
The resolution below was passed unanimously by the Marxist Student Federation national conference in February 2018 ———– The Marxist Student Federation (MSF) conference notes: The Spanish state has consistently denied the democratic right of the Catalan people to decide their own future. One of the pillars of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, written as part of a fake “transition” to democracy which left the foundations of the Franco regime untouched and Read more…
Fifty years after the revolutionary events of 1968, one hundred revolutionary Marxist students gathered at SOAS in London for the annual Marxist Student Federation conference. With comrades from Glasgow to Southampton present the conference, which was the Federation’s fifth, was the most enjoyable yet. 1968: year of revolution The day kicked off with a discussion of the events of 1968 itself. Ellen Morton from the Glasgow Marxist society took the conference Read more…
After three weeks of strike action at Eastham Refinery, the Suttons tanker drivers have been victorious. From the police being used to cross the picket line, the arrest of demonstrators and even an appeal to Manchester High Court for an injunction to stop picketing altogether, management threw everything at the workers but they remained unbowed. Suttons Tanker Drivers, with the support of the labour movement behind them, fought back and forced management Read more…
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