Support UCU strike

Tom Porter-Brown, Birmingham Socialist Students

As part of the Funding Not Fees campaign, Birmingham Socialist Students is setting up links with the University and College Union branch at Birmingham City University (BCU). Its members are currently on strike because of the attacks and job cuts from the vice-chancellor.

We’ve tried to encourage students to support university staff by using the student union (SU) ‘ideas board’, which would allow us to more easily mobilise on campus. But for any notice on the ideas board to be taken forward, it requires at least 25 votes, and the current board of SU trustees intends to increase this minimum to 300 votes. Or more precisely, 3% of the total students at BCU.

This is obviously an attack on students’ ability to have a say in how our university is run, even if the ideas board has its bureaucratic limitations. Fortunately, the 300-vote minimum has yet to be implemented. A Socialist Students member was able to attend a conference between students and the SU and challenged the decision.

The excuses given by the SU trustees was that not enough students engage with the ideas board or with student elections in general and that this massive increase would encourage students to vote. In actuality this is designed to make it harder to pass ideas meant to prioritise the interests of students, and the trustees themselves know this.

Management plans shelved

Fortunately, one socialist arguing against the increase was enough to encourage other students in the meeting to oppose it as well. The result was the trustees shelving the increase, for now at least. It’s also worth mentioning that the trustees also faced criticism for claiming to be politically impartial when questioned about Palestine and the Supreme Court ruling on trans rights, yet they were quick to release a statement regarding India and Pakistan.

The SU is only impartial with politics its tops don’t agree with. Those leading the SU come under pressure to side with uni management over students. That’s not to say there aren’t individuals who want to help students, but it’ll take them being prepared to mobilise the mass of students, including linking up with uni workers, to bring about change.

Socialist Students will stay alert to future attacks on student democracy and will make sure they are challenged or shut down. This doesn’t just apply to Birmingham, it’s happening all over Britain and it’s why I encourage fellow students to join the struggle for a socialist education system.