Suzie Matthews, South Wales Socialist Students

The University of South Wales (USW) is going to Socialist Students conference for 2026. For the last year, we have been fighting for the opportunity to bring our Socialist Students society back into existence.

We had to fight to re-register. USW administrators weren’t happy with our campaigning on campus against the war on Gaza, exposing the university’s connections with companies providing software for military drones used by the Israeli army.

Students are enthusiastic about learning of and discussing socialist ideas. Each student brings new ideas and experience – a small-scale version of the energy you can find at the annual conference.

Cardiff Socialist Students has hired a minibus to travel to Manchester this Saturday 14 February to take part in the conference. The seats are full!

Socialist Students conference is an opportunity to get to know like-minded students. It truly gives you a sense of our movement’s scale and energy.

That was my biggest takeaway from last year. It reminded me that we are in a real movement, and that everyone wants a change in our conditions.

Hopefully this year will be similar.