Organise to defeat the far right on campus!
Louie Nardini, York Socialist Students
Capitalism’s inability to provide a future for the younger generation is shown by what societies are being ratified this year at universities in York. At York St. John, there is no organisation or society for the traditional parties, Labour, Conservatives and Lib Dem, who have overseen a decline in living standards during an era of capitalism in crisis. Other than Socialist Students, and other left-wing societies, there is no other political society on the SU website other than Restore Britain – a far-right group which emerged from a split in Reform UK.
Restore frames itself as an anti-establishment party, yet its head, Rupert Lowe, claims MPs should be paid £250,000 a year – giving already out of touch political ‘representatives’ living standards much higher than the declining standards of the working-class majority. Long before Andy Burnham set out plans to cut the pensioners’ triple lock, Restore was rallying to get rid of it completely. Not only this, in its public documents it rejects the claim that public services are underfunded! So much for offering anything different from the past 15 years of brutal austerity.
The Restore society at the University of York has gotten into a lot of trouble for its “Get Foreigners Out” social media post. The hateful division put forward by Restore has exposed them to many students, many of whom are angry and correctly understand that such right-wing groups do not represent the interests of anyone but the super-rich capitalist class.
Socialist Students agrees with calls to kick the Restore society off campus, along with similar calls across the country for Reform UK and anti-abortion groups. We are fighting to defeat them politically, rather than by administrative means.
The way to cut across racist division is socialist unity amongst the working class. Socialist Students across university campuses across the country has consistently held meetings, demonstrations, and discussions on how to fight the far right, racism, sexism, and all forms of division pushed by the bosses. We explain that far-right ideas must be defeated politically, rather than simply ignoring them if they begin to get an echo.
At the same time, anything left up to the Students Union by itself is not guaranteed to get finished – this includes the battle for our views. We cannot rely on the SU to do the job of defeating the far right for us. If we allow the SU to repress societies because of their views, they could potentially use those tactics to bite back against us. It has been the case elsewhere in the country that Socialist Students has had society applications denied, or have been barred from holding meetings, etc.
In line with our ‘action-led’ approach, Socialist Students is organising youth strikes on 20 November – ‘fighting for our futures, not their wars’ – to politically guide the energy and anger of students to a real fight against war, racism, austerity, and the move to a fully funded free education model.
Official support for N20 youth strike!
National Union of Students (NUS)
The National Union of Students (NUS), which represents over seven million students, announced on 28 October, in its response to the chancellor’s Budget, that it will be taking part in the youth strike. NUS said the Budget “does nothing for students”: the chancellor had done nothing about unfair student loans in England, had slowed the growth of the minimum wage for people aged 18 to 20, breaking a manifesto promise, and had given no detail on funding universities and colleges. Students had been left out of the conversation, NUS said, and “that’s why NUS is taking part in the youth strike”. It is asking students to sign up to take part on the day.
National Education Union (NEU)
The national executive of the NEU, which organised staff in schools and colleges, has unanimously voted to back the International Youth Strike.
The executive resolved to “express support for the right of young people to peacefully organise, protest and make their voices heard, including those taking part in the N20 day of action”, and to “oppose disciplinary action against students participating in peaceful protest activity, including detentions or other sanctions, and to support campaigns defending students’ rights where required”.
University and College Union (UCU)
The UCU, which organises workers in universities and colleges, has called a national day of action over the crisis in further and higher education on 20 November. Unison, another trade union, has voted to join the day of action in higher education too.
Other support in Britain
Numerous trade union branches and bodies have passed motions in support of N20. A model trade union motion can be found at: socialiststudents.org.uk/international-youth-strike-model-trade-union-motion/
The Young Greens are on board. So too, the Stop The War Coalition, which was welcomed to its first in-person meeting of the international organising group on 17 October.
Protests confirmed so far for Friday 20 November:
- London: 12 noon, Parliament Square
- Birmingham: 12 noon, University of Birmingham, Green Heart; 2:30pm, High Street, outside Waterstones
- Brighton: 12:30pm, St Peter’s Square
- Bristol: 1pm, College Green
- Cambridge: 4pm, King’s Parade
- Cardiff: 11am, Cardiff University Students’ Union
- Carlisle: 12 noon, Market Cross
- Cheltenham: 12 noon, Imperial Gardens
- Coventry: 12 noon, Priory Street, outside the Cathedral
- Guildford: 12:30pm, University of Surrey, Philip Marchant Building
- Hull: 12:30pm, Queen’s Gardens
- Leeds: 12 noon, Parkinson Steps
- Leicester: 1:30pm, Clock Tower
- Liverpool: 1pm, University Square
- Manchester & Salford: 12 noon, Whitworth Arch, then march to No10 North
- Newcastle: 12 noon, Civic Centre Gardens next to St Thomas’s Church
- Northampton: 12:30pm, Angel Square
- Nottingham: 12:30pm, Nottingham Trent Students’ Union
- Paisley: from 11am, UWS Paisley Campus Library
- Plymouth: 12 noon, Sundial, Armada Way
- Pontypridd: 12 noon, USW Treforest, outside G Block
- Preston: 12 noon, University of Lancashire Student Centre
- Reading: 12 noon, Forbury Gardens
- Sheffield: 1pm, Barker’s Pool
- Southampton: 12 noon, Guildhall Square
- Stoke-on-Trent: 12 noon, Ember Square
- Swansea: 12 noon, Swansea University, Fulton House Green; 12 noon, Gower College Gorseinon, College Gates
- Wolverhampton: 12 noon, Wulfruna Street, outside the University
- Worcester: 3pm, Sabrina Bridge
- York: 2pm, St Helen’s Square
Join the student fightback: join Socialist Students…
Visit socialiststudents.org.uk/join or text 07403 057 140
