I attended Global Justice Youth’s annual event We Rise 2025 at the University of Sussex in February. They had reached out to invite Socialist Students, so I attended from our group in Southampton. Over 100 attend the event, split into a number of panels and workshops, covering a range of global issues.
The opening plenary entitled “Capitalism in a World on Fire: Oil, climate change and neoliberal power”, with great contributions on the failures of neoliberalism for working-class people, the insidious effects of the political lobbying of fossil fuel capital and on the origins and aims of the horrific genocide in Gaza. I made a contribution praising the fact that the discussion drew direct links between the capitalist system and these crises.
However, the discussion was lacking a clear solution, so I posed the ideas of a socialist green transition based on public ownership of industry, with production planned to meet the needs of ordinary people and the environment.
After lunch there was a talk on ‘Trump, Reform and the global rise of the Far Right’. The panel discussed how capitalist politicians use rhetoric that blames immigration, rather than the policies of capitalist governments cutting public services, for ruining our lives.
One young attendee asked how to make this point to the wider masses, in opposition to the billionaire-owned media diverting blame away from the capitalist elite.
There was an organisation discussion, detailing Global Youth Justice’s campaigning including around issues such as fossil fuel legislation and protesting UK-Israel trade deals.
Whilst this was interesting and positive, the workshop lacked a clear push to link them together to form a coherent and concrete political programme that can begin to tackle the global crises of capitalism.
The final panel was titled “Another world is possible”, which provided a nice summary of the day as well as some revolutionary optimism. However, despite the use of the statistic that 47% of young people think “the entire way of our society is organised must be radically changed through revolution”; the final contributions were restricted by a lack of clear political directive to engage and win over the working class, which is the force that can bring about change internationally.
Overall I thought it was a very good event, with young people starting to draw socialist conclusions based on their experience of the crisis of global capitalism that is staring us right in the face.
Student Justice for Palestine held a peaceful protest at the University of Arts London (UAL), protesting against our university’s compliance in the current genocide of Palestinians. The university has continually ignored and blocked student demands that our tuition fees should not be used to fund war and arms deals.
Protesters temporarily occupied a space on Chelsea campus on 17 February to declare that the university chancellor Clive Myrie cannot and will not get away with silencing students and staff. Just two hours after the occupation, students received verbal threats from the management to vacate the premises by 9pm, or face disciplinary action.
The purposeful use of vague terminology of the code of conduct, and heavy police and security presence is part and parcel of the university’s intimidation tactics. UAL has a history of abusing its code of conduct to silence its students and staff from expressing their freedom of speech and right to protest.
After an emergency rally to protest university’s intimidation tactics, it was decided that we would end the encampment, as this was in the best interest of international students, who are here on visas, and already facing disciplinary action for peacefully protesting.
Occupation
Student Justice for Palestine has stated that it will continue to hold space on the campus, hosting readings, discussion, and other pro-Palestine events over the next week until its meeting with the university chancellor and other board members.
This is where they will again negotiate student demands on divesting from Lvmh, Lloyds Bank, and L’Oréal, changing its current definition of antisemitism that protects Zionism, and to protect and support its Palestinian students.
UAL Socialist Students stands in solidarity with Student Justice for Palestine. We condemn the university management on their consistent refusal to cut any ties with big companies who are complicit in the slaughter of Palestinians.
We support the demands that students have put towards our university. And we support our fellow students and staff’s right to strike, protest, and occupy as means of getting these demands met.
We should decide
We call for elected committees of students and staff to have democratic control over how our money is being spent. We should all be asking ourselves why do our universities continue to invest and collaborate with arms dealing companies in the first place?
Keir Starmer’s Labour government must tax the super-rich, and create a fully funded education system that is of higher quality, and accessible to all students of all backgrounds.
Socialist Students believes that this is all comes to a much larger issue that needs a systemic change – socialist change. We need a new mass workers’ party that stands on an anti-war, socialist programme – fighting for free education, decent, affordable housing, and against war and austerity.
March 8th is International Women’s Day. It was founded by socialists over one hundred years ago as a day of campaigning for the rights of all women – for decent working conditions, for a political voice, and for a life free from sexism and exploitation.
In 2025, this fight is still going on. From the dismantling of Roe v Wade in the US, which saw the removal of abortion rights from millions of women, to the mass movement in Iran following the murder of Mahsa Amini by the ‘morality police’, there are many recent examples of attacks on women being met with protests and resistance.
Socialist Students is campaigning for socialist ideas to build a united mass movement that can fight back against all attacks on women’s rights, and put an end to sexism and violence against women for good.
End sexism and violence against women on campus
Reports consistently show that around three quarters of women students experience sexual violence while at university. The numbers are similar for colleges and sixth forms. Many victims are forced to take measures such as skipping lectures, changing course modules, or even dropping out of study to avoid their attacker.
The majority of sexual assaults take place on our campuses. On top of this, the rising cost of living and inadequate maintenance support force working-class students especially to take part-time jobs alongside their studies. Many have to work in the night-time economy, forced to make their way home after work in the dark, alone. Sexist harassment is rife in industries like hospitality, where a big proportion of women students work.
Yet universities are doing far too little to end the problem of sexism and violence against women. Only 2% of students experiencing sexual violence feel both able to report it to their university and are satisfied with the reporting process. Clearly we can have no faith in unaccountable university managements to protect students.
Students’ unions and trade unions must organise and campaign against sexual harassment in workplaces, including schools, colleges and universities. Introduce democratically elected committees comprising students and staff to investigate all reports of sexual assault and sexist abuse.
Fight back with funding and free education
As successive Labour and Tory governments have slashed direct government funding to universities, vice chancellors have obediently carried out cuts – including to things like counselling services, campus lighting, transport, and student bursaries, all of which has left students further exposed to the effects of sexism and sexual violence.
Socialist Students societies have launched numerous campaigns against cuts to campus jobs and services – such as in Liverpool, where we successfully campaigned for the reinstatement of the night bus. We think a key part of challenging sexism on campus is building a united movement for free, fully funded education instead of the current marketised tuition fee system.
Neither Labour nor the university managements have any alternative to the worsening conditions on campus, because they work within the framework of capitalism. Accepting this ‘profit-before-all-else’ system means accepting that a tiny elite in society gets richer and richer, while education and other public services crumble – with workers and students made to pay the price.
Organise on campus to fight to provide adequate resources for women who have experienced sexual violence. Fight to end the marketised basis of universities, by campaigning to abolish tuition fees. Fully fund education, cancel student debt and replace student loans with living maintenance grants for all – take the wealth off the super-rich.
The current unelected university managements can’t protect students’ right to a safe and rewarding education. Students and staff should democratically run our universities instead. Build democratic, fighting students’ unions that can link up with the campus trade unions and fight for the high-quality education we need.
Build a new mass workers’ party that gives students and workers from all backgrounds a political voice – a socialist alternative to Starmer, Farage and all the establishment parties and politicians.
A socialist alternative to sexism and capitalism
Socialist Students fights against all sexist ideas and behaviour, which exist not just on campus but all across society, perpetuated by capitalist institutions and corporations.
To seriously challenge sexist ideas means building a mass movement against capitalism, which is an inherently unequal system that benefits from sexism in countless ways.
Capitalism saves vast profits by consigning responsibility for childcare and housework to individual families, predominantly to the women within them. Women workers are paid less than men (in higher education the gender pay gap is about 20%) and this in turn reinforces ideas about women’s unequal status. The media, as well as the beauty, fashion and leisure industries, all benefit from the commodification of women’s bodies, promoting harmful stereotypes about how men and women should look and behave. The ruling class also relies on sexist ideas as one way to divide working-class people and weaken our ability to collectively fight their attacks.
A socialist revolution would remove this capitalist basis for sexism. All of society’s wealth, resources and technology would be used as part of a democratic plan to meet everyone’s needs. It would be a system based on cooperation and solidarity, and these values would come to be reflected in personal relations and culture. By removing the material basis for sexism, it would be possible to dislodge all sexist ideas and attitudes over time.
Build a movement that fights to take the wealth and power out of the hands of the super-rich and the elites. For a socialist world in which the working class democratically runs society to meet the needs of all people, to lay the basis for ending sexism and all forms of oppression
Do you want to kick sexism off campus?
Do you agree with our socialist ideas to end sexism and violence against women? Get in touch to get involved in campaigning alongside a local Socialist Students group. We want to hold protests and marches, organise outreach campaigns through leafleting and petitioning, and build pressure on students’ unions to publicly support and campaign for the socialist policies outlined in this leaflet.
Students and workers protest against Cardiff uni job cuts. Photo: Cardiff Socialist Party
The vice chancellors have ramped up their offensive on university students and staff this year. More than 2,000 new redundancies have been planned since the start of 2025 alone. This figure will rise even higher in coming weeks, as a number of institutions are yet to confirm the scale of their announced cuts. At several universities the planned redundancies amount to 10% or more of the workforce.
For students, the threat of mass course closures comes on top of an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, as well as a tuition fee hike next year that will do nothing to resolve the crisis in higher education.
Socialist Students is serious about fighting to end the uni funding crisis, by mobilising students to demand no course cuts, no job losses, and for free, fully funded education.
Workers in the University and College Union (UCU) have responded to attacks by balloting for strike action in at least a dozen university branches so far. And Unison is currently balloting tens of thousands of its members in higher education. Socialist Students groups will organise for the biggest-possible student attendance at picket lines, and build for solidarity action.
But students should not limit ourselves to an exclusively supporting role in the struggle. We can propose our own initiatives, within which we invite the trade unions on campus to play a leading role. That way we can show that students are serious about fighting and pro-active in our determination to fight shoulder to shoulder with staff. That is the most inspiring kind of solidarity that students can give in this fight for the future of higher education.
For Socialist Students groups, this means putting forward a plan of action that can organise staff, students and working-class people locally in a campaign to fight back as soon as any cuts are announced. We can build for mass meetings, hold protests, organise lobbies of MPs, collect signatures for an open letter or petition – there is no shortage of options.
A plan of activity can bring people together. But what transforms a series of gatherings into an effective movement is a clear political programme of demands to fight for. Socialist Students has launched the Funding Not Fees campaign as a way of putting forward the ideas we think are needed to build such a movement.
Socialist Students says:
No to further fee increases – get organised on campus to fight for free education! Cancel student debt, replace student loans with living grants tied to the rate of inflation. Make the super-rich pay!
No cuts and no closures! Build democratic student organisations to link up with campus trade unions and the wider working class to fight for the funding our universities need
Kick big business off campus! End marketisation of our education. Open up university finances to democratic oversight and control, including by elected students’ representatives and campus trade unions, with the power to terminate all contracts and research tied to war, occupation, profiteering and exploitation, while guaranteeing jobs and funding
Students need a political voice. Build a new mass workers’ party that will stand up for students and workers and fights for socialist policies
Fight for socialist change. For democratic public ownership of the banks, monopolies and major industry to provide us with a future
Cardiff Uni – pressure wins £19 million from Welsh government
Aris Prevost, Cardiff Socialist Students
On top of 400 jobs cut at Cardiff Uni, 200 job cuts have been announced at Bangor Uni and 90 at University South Wales. Having previously said that there is no more money, and under popular pressure and protests, the Welsh government has announced £19 million investment into higher education in Wales.
However, this does not mean a final victory. A one-time £19 million cash injection will only partially stem the tide of cuts. Cardiff University alone faces a £30 million deficit. It’s £15 million at Bangor and £20 million at USW (see below). But this additional money will not solve the funding crisis. In fact, it remains unclear where this money will go, and what strings are attached.
We demand an immediate end to all cuts, and that pressure is put on governments in Cardiff and London for adequate funding.
The fightback at Cardiff Uni is clearly working. The uni bosses’ position is growing weaker by the day. A unified student and staff pushback can force the university to halt all cuts.
As part of the fightback, there was a demo organised by music alumni on 22 February, where they played a public concert outside city hall. The concert loudly highlighted the cultural impact that music in Cardiff has. Cardiff has many independent music venues and cultural roots which have been under attack, including the closure of the beloved venue The Moon.
Other events are being planned, especially targeting uni open days as well as organising further marches and rallies.
Moving forward, we need to push for an alternative funding model to fix higher education. It is only by running education as a public good rather than a commodity to be sold that we will be able to end this crisis and save jobs. We need a new workers’ party that fights for free education, fully publicly funded by making the super-rich pay!
Uni South Wales students build cuts resistance
Suzie Matthews
Following in Cardiff University’s controversial footsteps, the University of South Wales (USW) announced on 17 February its plans to axe around 90 jobs, including entire courses.
In response, Rhondda Cynon Taf Socialist Party held a campaign stall in opposition, and student support was immense. Under the hypocritical shadow of a crane building a shiny new block, more than half of the students who passed by stopped to sign the petition.
There was the distinct sense that something ought to be done. Three students left their details to find out more about joining the Socialist Party, one suggested organising a protest. The atmosphere isn’t yet one of anger – though that can change when cuts to specific courses are announced.
We have been campaigning at USW for a while now. Staff and students have told us about cuts to Maths courses and professional services, fearing that what is happening at Cardiff would arrive at their doorsteps. It is difficult to view USW as an institution struggling for money whilst a new building is being thrown up. Students and staff are concerned about where these cuts will fall – many assumed that they will be primarily directed at the arts and humanities.
40% of students at USW are international students, a group that is hideously overcharged. Uni managements have blamed a drop off in international applicants for their budget deficits. But we can’t stand for cuts and job losses, we must fight for higher education fully funded by government.
Brunel Uni – workers strike against cuts
Ryan Leonard, Brunel Socialist Students
Staff at Brunel University were informed in October last year of a planned “significant academic resizing programme”. The plan was to make 130 redundancies of full-time academic staff and 79 profession service staff, a 14% reduction in staffing levels. It goes without saying that students were left in the dark, we were only informed of the university management’s plans by our lecturers.
Lecturers in UCU have announced a calendar of 16 strike days, escalating over a period of six weeks, beginning on 28 February. Socialist Students will be building student support for the strikes.
The vice chancellor of Brunel is Andrew Jones, a Labour councillor. He lists on his LinkedIn page “business planning” and “strategic thinking” as skills he’s gained from his role at Brunel. Just last year the university hired 139 academic staff… incredibly strategic.
For the last five years, Brunel has exploited international students, who can be charged far higher fees, as a source of income and despite being warned consistently over the last two years that the law around student visas would change, senior leadership continued on this path.
Students are rightly frustrated. Some of the people I study with have lost their tutors during their dissertations, which is terrifying. Planned redundancies don’t include the 69 members of the executive team, all earning over £100k. Nor the vice chancellor, earning £267k a year.
Our uni is not the assorted renovations that Brunel has carried out, totalling five times the savings made by sacking staff. Our uni is the educators, the students and the relationships between us. All of which will suffer if Brunel’s redundancy plan goes ahead.
Liverpool Uni – standing in SU elections to fight cuts
Hannah Ponting, Liverpool Socialist Students
After the numerous job cuts announced at universities across the country, lots of us were worried about similar cuts occurring in Liverpool.
The University of Liverpool has followed other unis and enacted a plan of ‘voluntary redundancies’ of staff. However, uni bosses are being extremely vague about the number of job cuts, despite pressure from the UCU for transparency.
This news comes only 17 weeks after the Labour government’s tuition fees hike. Job losses will have a negative impact on students as well as staff, emphasising the importance of uniting Socialist Students work with the demands of the trade unions.
Students Union officer elections are coming up. We are taking this as an opportunity to stand a socialist candidate in order to give a platform to our ideas. I am very proud to be that candidate, and to stand on an anti-cuts platform, aiming to build the Funding Not Fees campaign, as well as amplifying the voices of the uni workers.
In these times of increasing cuts at universities throughout the UK, it is increasingly important to keep socialist ideas visible on our campuses and to build the Funding Not Fees campaign, as part of our work as Socialist Students.
Coventry Uni bosses threaten ‘fire and rehire’
Frank Hammond, Coventry Socialist Students
Over 90 full-time staff members are set to be cut at Coventry University, with a further 200 staff re-enrolled under a subsidiary called Peoples Future Limited (PFL). A familiar fire-and-rehire fiasco is underway with whole courses set to terminated along with lecturers’ jobs.
Uni bosses argue the recent tuition fees rise will still not cover the uplift of National Insurance contribution rates, and that their contributions to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme is ‘unaffordable’. The bosses’ solution? Fire and rehire to remove staff from the scheme.
It should be noted that Vice Chancellor and CEO of Coventry University, John Latham, was reported to have received an £80,768 bonus on top of his £312,617 salary during the financial year ending March 2023. Furthermore, only five days after this decision was announced from the university in December 2024, Latham was named as a non-executive director of the Labour government’s Department for Business and Trade.
A lecturer within the university has personally expressed fear for their living situation to me as a result of the unacceptable decision; not originally from the UK and coming from a country that’s fought a war throughout the last few years, redundancy is one of the scariest words to throw around. Workers are once again being exploited, threatened and neglected. And yet, we receive nothing but silence or excuses from the ones in charge. Another example of “desperate times calling for desperate measures”, as per the standard under Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
Opposing the decision, Coventry Socialist Students has called a public meeting, working to spread the word to students, lecturers and unionists alike, in the interest of exposing unjust cuts. It will hear from a UCU trade union rep. We want to open a discussion of what can be done and ultimately making a shout to the bosses that this decision is not being accepted.
Hard-working people are currently at risk of being punished with seemingly no remorse from the staff at the top. Students kicking up a fuss is a warning to the higher-ups to heed as we continue with the Funding nor Fees campaign.
Socialist Students conference
Over 100 students came together for the Socialist Students national conference on 8 February. We discussed motions proposed by the national steering committee and different groups, and voted on whether or not these match the common consensus of those attending for us to put in the action in the coming year. My first year attending, as a delegate, has allowed me and many more another opportunity to see light at the end of the dark tunnel of austerity.
Students travelled from north, south and all about to have their say in where we go as a movement next, to share concerns and opinions, and ultimately lend their hand in the fight for a fairer system.
To witness a strong crowd of young people who weren’t afraid to speak up, defend their morals and intelligently respond to ignorant criticism is rejuvenating and should strike worry in the hearts of the capitalists and ruling class. Support for the cause is indeed rising, people are seeing the petrifying portrait being painted by Starmer’s Labour government and want better. The experience has gifted me hope and strength to continue fighting for a socialist future.
Alongside many issues, a consistent offender echoed in the anecdotes of students were job cuts in universities across the country. I was able to use one of my contributions to give my own account of seeing cuts in higher education.
We remain determined to defend teachers and students, to fight for free education, and for socialist change.
Resist Bradford uni course and nursery closure
Tom Gibson, Bradford Socialist Party
Bradford university is laying off 300 staff, shutting down chemistry and media courses, and also shutting the university nursery. These are deep cuts that will take away the livelihoods of hundreds of hardworking people, who are either educating students or looking after children. These cuts will lock out many potential students who need the nursery to look after their children while they study, reducing access to education for those with young children.
Our campaign stall was warmly received by students and staff who were very concerned about these cuts. This is part of a wider effort by the Socialist Party in Bradford to combat cuts.
Unis being run as if they are profit-seeking companies has led to this funding crisis, downgrading of the quality of education. We will fight alongside staff and students for a publicly funded and free university system that is fair and accessible.
The Trade Union and Labour student societies at the University of Manchester hosted a Q&A with Labour MP Richard Burgon. Burgon supported Jeremy Corbyn when he was Labour leader.
Burgon voted against Keir Starmer’s government, opposing the two-child benefit cap, which leaves hundreds of thousands of people in poverty. He was suspended as a Labour MP for this, but let back in the day before the meeting.
We submitted a question, asking Burgon to take the demand for free education and an end to tuition fees into Parliament. But the question was blocked by the groups at the head of the Q&A.
Instead, the MP was asked simply if he believed in free education, to which he comfortably answered “yes”, whilst avoiding how he would act on his belief with a fighting plan.
Our members used the more open segment of the event to ask Burgon, given his suspension and the weakness of Labour’s base in the working class, if it was now time to look towards an alternative party, built on the trade unions, with socialist policies. His answer was simple, a resounding “no”.
The dozens of students in the room were asked to keep faith in the ‘broad church’ of the Labour Party. Is Burgon walking on egg shells with Keir Starmer to protect his job in Parliament?
We were not alone in our criticisms of Labour. One young person left Burgon fumbling for words, asking: “Should we vote for right-wing Labour candidates over pro-working-class independents, like Jeremy Corbyn?”
Socialist Students continues to fight for political representation for trade unions and working-class people – a fight Burgon is welcome to join us in.
Cardiff students rally against job cuts. Photo: Rhydian Witts
Aris Prevost, Cardiff Socialist Students
Cardiff Students Against Cuts hosted a rally outside of the Main Building at the Cathays Campus on 12 February to demand that Cardiff uni vice-chancellor Wendy Larner and the University Executive Board stop the 400 proposed job cuts.
Preceding the rally was a town hall meeting between students and the vice-chancellor, which was predictably a farce. Larner over run in her initial speech, dodging every single question that was asked, and left 15 minutes early.
While Larner showed the cowardice of the higher-ups in the Cardiff uni management, the rally showed the resilience and solidarity that the students, staff, and trade unions have. While it was a cold and slightly wet affair, over 100 people turned up, with several speakers including students and staff from courses being cut completely. It also heard from the Vice President of the Cardiff University and College Union (UCU) branch, as well as representatives from Unite and the Trades Union Council, who are both Socialist Party members. A strong theme running throughout the rally was how vital the cut courses were for Cardiff, especially music in the Wales, the ‘Land of Song’.
Staff-student solidarity
Socialist Party member Dave Reid rounded off the speeches. He urged students to fight back against the cuts through solidarity between the students and the workers, backed by the trade council.
Cardiff UCU is balloting for industrial action. It is vital that if and when they go on strike, that us students stand on the picket line with staff. It is only through class solidarity that we can mount a fightback and stop these cuts.
Only the beginning
This rally is only the beginning, we are having weekly meetings hosted by Cardiff Socialist Students to decide our next steps campaigning.
We demand that Cardiff University stops the 400 job cuts, for the vice-chancellor and executive board to be sacked and replaced with workers who understand the day-to-day workings of the University. We call on the Labour governments in Cardiff and Westminster to treat education like a public good and to fully fund higher education.
We demand:
No job losses, no course closures at Cardiff University
The university board to use available reserves to plug the current gap and demand sufficient funding from the UK government to maintain courses and departments at Cardiff University
Open the books at Cardiff University to see where the income is being spent and the investments made
End the commercialisation of university education – return it to a public service rather than a profit-making business
Democratise the university. For a board to be elected by university workers, students, the local community and trade unions. And for the vice-chancellor to be on the same wage as a head of department.
Proper funding for all universities, take the wealth off the super-rich
Eliminate tuition fees, and reintroduce maintenance grants for all
End low pay, job cuts, and ‘casualisation’ of higher education workers
Over 100 students met in the Highfields Community Centre in Leicester for Socialist Students annual conference on 8 February. School, college and university students, as well as young workers in attendance, contributed to a lively and serious discussion. It was inspiring to see newly established Socialist Students groups sending delegations to this year’s conference, including from Hertfordshire, York, Aberystwyth, Manchester, Sussex, and Brunel Universities, joining those societies who have already begun to sink roots.
The conference took place just months after Labour announced an increase in tuition fees for the first time since 2017. Socialist Students launched the Funding Not Fees campaign last autumn in anticipation of the new wave of cuts and attacks on students and staff on campuses in the pipeline from the new Labour government.
The conference discussed and agreed a national campaigning strategy for fighting Starmer’s tuition fee hike, including organising a calendar of campaign action in the run-up to Labour’s summer spending review. Socialist Students delegates discussed building campaigns alongside anti-cuts groups, local trade union branches, tenants organisations, and students’ union officers and course reps. A lively discussion confirmed the need to demand university managements don’t implement any future increases to fees, and to organise lobbies of local MPs to demand they put forward free education amendments in Parliament to the summer spending review – all linked to building a movement to win the funding necessary for the higher education sector as a whole.
Campaigning
That isn’t to mention the campaigns Socialist Students is already leading on campuses, linked to the question of funding not fees. Like for example, Cardiff students against the cuts, campaigning against 400 planned redundancies at Cardiff University. Manchester and Southampton Socialist Student groups are fighting against sky-high student rents. At Queen Mary University, Socialist Students are campaigning for funding gender-neutral changing facilities in the students’ union. And York Socialist Students are protesting against the Reform UK society recently registered at York uni, who offer no solution to the uni funding crisis, just division.
The conference provided a forum for discussion on the instability and chaos writ large by capitalism globally, a system in a state of rot and decay. Trump’s presidency in the US is just another confirmation of this – introducing a fresh dose of chaos into capitalist world relations, and fresh threats of attacks on some of the most oppressed in society and the environment, as well as the working class as a whole.
Mass fightback
But Socialist Students conference also discussed the potential for a mass fightback of students and workers against Trump and all pro-capitalist politicians and parties attempting to play the divide-and-rule game around the world, including here in Britain. In the US, public support for trade unions is at an all-time high, with working-class struggle on the increase. This points towards the key missing ingredient in the situation globally – mass working-class political parties, armed with a socialist programme to unite workers and young people of all different backgrounds in a common struggle against racist division and against the bosses’ system.
This was a feature of the final rally too. The closing rally was addressed by students covering issues from the slaughter in Gaza to the crisis and attacks on democratic rights in Nigeria, to fight the far right as well as fighting for free education and a socialist alternative to capitalism. The rally was pleased to welcome Independent MP for Leicester South, Shockat Adam, who spoke movingly about the slaughter in Gaza and the wave of revolt against the Labour Party for its support for the war on which he was elected.
Socialist Students speakers on the platform welcomed the stance Shockat has taken on the war, and highlighted the role he and the other sitting independent MPs could play in providing a political voice not only to the anti-war movement, but also to the struggles of students and workers on campuses against cuts and fees.
Rally speakers invited Shockat to continue to work with Socialist Students and be part of the Funding Not Fees campaign in Parliament – which includes scrapping tuition fees, cancelling student debt and replacing loans with living grants for students, all funded by taking the wealth off the super-rich, as a step towards building that working-class political opposition to all the attacks of Starmer’s Labour.
Flash points for struggle
Adam Powell-Davies, Socialist Students national organiser, introduced the discussions. We print edited extracts of his speech
The Tories were booted out at the general election last year, suffering their worst ever defeat. When you look back it’s no wonder. Life just kept on getting worse for the vast majority of people under the Tories, all while the richest individuals, the capitalists and the financial speculators, were allowed to line their pockets. Of course, MPs also got a tidy pay rise, not to mention the university vice chancellors, the academy heads, the college executives and others.
The Tories’ fate is a warning to any party that seeks to rule on behalf of an increasingly sick capitalist system, including Keir Starmer’s Labour government. Because at the same time, there is also a growing layer of working-class and young people who are refusing to accept the horrors of this system.
Opposition to capitalist governments is growing globally, including with it the reemergence of working class struggle in many countries, taking strike action at a level not seen in a generation.
Look at Serbia where there’s an ongoing movement led by students which has so far brought down a prime minister, and the movement keeps going. Similarly, there was the mass movement in Bangladesh last year which brought down the hated prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Revolution
Many will have seen the latest findings from a Channel 4 survey which says 47% of 13 to 27-year-olds in Britain think the “entire way our society is organized must be radically changed through revolution”.
Socialist Students is very clear about what type of revolution we think is needed. We call for the socialist transformation of society to put wealth, resources and technology into the hands of working-class people. And on that basis, draw up a democratic plan for how to meet the needs of all, including the need to protect our environment. Through socialist revolutions taking place internationally, working-class collaboration globally could replace the competition, conflict and war between capitalist states that exists currently.
Socialist Students sets ourselves the target of finding and organising the young people in schools, colleges and universities who want to fight for that kind of socialist world.
This Labour government will prove utterly incapable of meeting the aspirations of millions of workers and young people, laying the ground for numerous battles against it.
Starmer’s first budget in October was proof. Just take the example of colleges and schools. Labour’s spending plans will do nothing to stop the epidemic of cuts and the recruitment crisis in education. The crises of overcrowded classes and students being left without the support they need. £300 million to further education does not touch the sides of what is needed. £1.4 billion to schools will not stop a situation where most secondary schools are not able to meet costs next year.
Corbyn and Starmer
What a difference five years makes. Up until 2019, the Labour Party was under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, who drew the hatred of big business and the capitalist class for putting forward a hugely popular programme of reforms to British capitalism: anti-austerity and including the call for free education for all.
It wasn’t Corbyn the mild-mannered man that struck fear into the hearts of big business, but rather the movement that he had the potential to mobilise.
Unfortunately however, he did not sufficiently mobilise his support base to stand up to the right wing of the Labour Party, the Tories, and the capitalist class behind them. And with that, Starmer has been able to rescue the Labour Party as a ‘second eleven’ for British capitalism. While initially Starmer was compelled to adapt to aspects of Corbyn’s manifesto, all of that has now gone.
There was a glimpse already in the general election, of the potential for the fight to be taken to this government. At the same time as Labour coming to power, five anti-war MPs were voted in based on a mood of disgust against Labour and Tory support for the Israeli state’s war on Gaza. Those five independent MPs included Jeremy Corbyn and Shockat Adam, MP for Leicester South, who is speaking at our rally today.
We would like to see these independent MPs, as well as the now three MPs who are still suspended from the Labour Party, to go much further and to come out as a clear parliamentary voice giving expression to all the struggles that are going to break out against this government.
Gaza
Many will be horrified watching on at Trump’s warmongering rhetoric about turning the Gaza Strip into a ‘riviera of the Middle East’. Socialist Students demands an immediate end to the Israeli state’s war, and a withdrawal, right now, of the Israeli military from all occupied territories.
There are going to be battles on our campuses from students and workers too. Well over half of universities now are making cuts to courses, redundancies to the tune of hundreds. 400 at Cardiff University, for example, is a sign of what is to come elsewhere. Socialist Students has been able to take part in and lead a campaign in Cardiff, we called a meeting on Monday attended by over 70 students and members of staff.
We also have to expect further movements over the climate catastrophe, including for many of those to be spearheaded by young people.
The invaluable lesson that a new generation of young people has learned from the strike wave is that striking works, and nationwide strikes will break out against the Labour government at some stage too.
Right to protest
In the face of growing opposition, Starmer has already shown he has no problem using heavy-handed measures to put down protest. On his watch we’ve seen the heaviest ever prison sentences for direct action given to Just Stop Oil climate activists, as well as the arrest of over 60 on the last national Gaza demo in London. A crackdown on the right to protest can also become a further accelerator of opposition against this government.
These are just some of the flash points where battles will erupt under this government. The discussions at this conference are vital to discuss the next steps to develop Socialist Students as an organisation, and prepare to fight for our socialist ideas in the movements that are to come.
“Since capitalism benefits from perpetuating gender inequality, individuals are constantly being bombarded with ideas that reinforce sexism and misogyny. Sexism is a systemic issue, and requires systemic solutions.
Socialist Students recognises that the fight to end sexism and misogyny is not separate from the fight to bring an end to the capitalist system as a whole and for the socialist transformation of society.“
Liverpool Socialist Students members on a ‘Reclaim the Night’ march last term
Roza Kwiecinska, East London college student
Universities might champion themselves as places of liberal freedom and advocate for human rights and feminism. But the experience of staff and students is very different. When it comes to providing fair job opportunities for everyone, regardless of gender, and protecting women from sexual assault, universities still fail.
On campus, sexism is a problem that takes many forms. From unfair grading of assessments based on gender, to comments about women students’ appearance, clothing and makeup. There is no inherent biological advantage for male students, but there is a huge underestimation of women students.
Education has the third-highest gender pay gap out of all the UK sectors, worse than manufacturing, mining and retail. Although women make up around half of university lecturers, they are significantly outnumbered in higher academic positions. Only 24% of professors are women. Even fewer women hold top roles, with just 18% as vice-chancellors or principals.
Women students also experience shockingly high levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence, both on and off the university campus. From ‘casual’ teasing to online trolling, harassment and physical attacks.
Campus should be a safe space for all students, no matter their gender, sexual orientation or race. It should not only be a place of learning, but also a place of integration, friendships and discovering yourself.
One terrifying statistic is that 97% of young women (18-24) in the UK have been sexually harassed. Many of these incidents happen in education and learning environments. This shows that right now, for many people, university is not that safe a place.
Research by the Young Women’s Trust found that young women who endure sexism in the UK are “five times more likely to suffer from clinical depression” and that “younger women who had experienced sexism were more likely to report greater psychological distress even four years following a sexist experience.”
University is a place where students are not only stressed about grades, additional jobs they have to do, finding an apartment, but where women are exposed to sexism, leaving long-lasting impacts, including on mental health.
Universities are not doing enough to tackle sexism and sexual harassment. 72% of students don’t know or are unsure about where to report or seek support. When women are brave enough to speak out, many find that it backfires. Women face diminishment or silencing: it is disgraceful that universities in England have used non-disclosure agreements to silence those who have experienced sexual harassment and violence.
Procedures for reporting sexual harassment should be managed by committees led by trade unions and students. This would ensure that the processes are effectively implemented and accessible to those who need them, fostering a zero-tolerance policy for harassment and abuse on campus.
For too long, the universities have overlooked survivors, enabled a ‘rape culture’, and prioritised profits over the safety of students. There has to be increased funding and support for student services, and a commitment to taking action against violent behaviours.
Seemingly small things like improved lighting around campus and housing at night, and accessible transport links to campus are important too. The safety of women students is priceless and should not be compromised. We need a fully funded, free public transport network, so that people can get home safely. Socialist Students has led campaigns to fight for these measures, such as the campaign to save the Liverpool night bus.
It is mindblowing that students not only have to pay huge sums of money for education, but also are exposed to harassment and sexism. Building a movement for free education is essential – scrapping fees and debt and introducing living student grants. We fight for full government funding to provide a safe and free education for all.
These problems are not new. In 2010, the National Union of Students (NUS) published a report finding: “One in seven respondents had experienced a serious physical or sexual assault during their time as a student, 12% had been stalked while at university or college, and 68% had been a victim of one or more kinds of sexual harassment while they were at university.”
Following the report, NUS strategy focused on promoting ‘zero-tolerance’ policies in students union bars. But like the ‘Ask for Angela’ scheme, unions have been accredited without investing in the training for staff and bouncers, or staffing levels, to make it enforceable.
There has also been a focus on educating students about consent, often working alongside university management.
It is essential to focus on education and training; we must confront prejudices, gender stereotypes, and sexist behaviour whenever we encounter them. Though who delivers it and how is important.
However, education alone has clearly not been enough to solve the problem. One problem is that strategies based on ‘raising awareness’ can reduce the issue to just an individual problem or behaviour. Socialist Students understands that individual behaviour is influenced by the broader economic and social system we live in, which is capitalism.
Since capitalism benefits from perpetuating gender inequality, individuals are constantly being bombarded with ideas that reinforce sexism and misogyny. Sexism is a systemic issue, and requires systemic solutions.
Take social media, for example. We live in a world where the impact of social media is massive. Misogynistic messages are targeted at boys and young men. Social media has been monetised to make huge profits for social media companies as well as individual ‘influencers’. Individuals like Andrew Tate or Ben Shapiro have made millions from using sexist rhetoric to explain the economic crisis and ‘crisis of masculinity’. And they prefer to blame minorities, immigrants and women for the effects of a capitalist world – propping up capitalism through reactionary ideas.
Additionally, access to online pornography has left children and young people, especially young men, with a misguided representation of women, men, and what sexual relationships look like. Porn created under a capitalist system reinforces harmful stereotypes and objectifies women and doesn’t show the act of consent, which is crucial in any relationship. As much as 90% of it is violent – normalising sexual violence against women.
Education can cut through these ideas, but it won’t stop them being promoted in the first place. Socialist Students calls for the social media companies to be brought into public ownership to remove the profit incentive behind the spread of misogynistic and divisive ideas, and for them to be run and controlled democratically. For example, by subjecting algorithms to scrutiny by trade unions, young people, educators and others. The same goes for all of the major corporations and businesses that also profit from sexism.
This is why Socialist Students recognises that the fight to end sexism and misogyny is not separate from the fight to bring an end to the capitalist system as a whole and for the socialist transformation of society.
Manchester Socialist Students members protesting alongside trade union campaigners last term
Robbie Davidson Manchester Socialist Students
The University of Manchester has announced that the rents will more than double at three student housing complexes in Fallowfield: Oak House, Owen’s Park, and Woolton Hall.
Following the success of last year’s student rent strike in Manchester, rents in Fallowfield were reduced by 30%, standing out against the cost-of-living crisis.
The complex also hosts the cheapest venue for students in the city by far, Squirrels Bar. Squirrels will also be demolished, chipping away at our ability to socialise affordably.
Labour disgrace
Combined with Labour’s disgraceful hike in tuition fees, the rent hike means students in Oak House will pay almost £5,000 more per year. This is amidst already brutal conditions for many young people, with average expenditure far exceeding student loans.
Food bank use amongst students stands at record highs, as do the rates of self-harm and suicide. But the bosses at the University of Manchester are using the people they are supposed to look after as a tool to close the funding gap left by a decade and a half of austerity.
Socialist Students is demanding that rents are not doubled, and that they remain at a fixed, stable rate. We believe that high-quality, affordable housing must be made available to all, overseen by a democratic body of students, staff, and the community, who decide how our homes are priced.
The rent rises will come after the student blocks are redeveloped. Regeneration of the complex is necessary, it is falling apart. Students face regular infestations, broken amenities, and share a few dozen washing machines between thousands of people.
Multimillion privatisation
Regeneration, while keeping rents stable, is not possible with a multimillion pound contract with a private construction company. But a nationalised building service, under the democratic control of working people, would be able to do that.
We demand that Squirrels, and other affordable venues, are protected, allowing students to relax and socialise, without further straining our cost of living.
This attack can only be fought by a unified response, bringing together students, trade unions, and campus activist groups. To achieve this, Socialist Students is calling for a general meeting that everyone can attend to discuss the fight back – not just to protect a few blocks, but to fight for the funding our universities need, out of the pockets of the super-rich.
Manchester Socialist Students meeting: How can socialists fight the housing crisis?
Wednesday 29th January, 4pm University of ManchesterStudents’ Union, Room 2.1
The Welsh Labour government announced recently that it would be following the Labour government in Westminster by raising university tuition fees. From September 2025, Welsh students in Wales will be charged £9,535 a year, an increase of £285. Fees had already been raised by £250 this September.
The changes bring the university sector in Wales in line with the English system, though key differences still remain.
The university system and its finances have been in the hands of the Welsh Government since the creation of the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) in 1998. The Senedd can set the tuition fee cap for Welsh universities and set out funding and loans that students can get to help with finance.
In England, students receive a tuition fee loan to pay off tuition fees, and a maintenance loan to help with living expenses while at university. The amount a student gets depends on how much their family earns. In Wales, maintenance loans and grants work differently. All students get the same amount, but family earnings determine how much is a grant versus a loan. In addition, maintenance loans in Wales are higher than in England. English students living outside of London get up to £9,978 a year. Welsh students who live outside of London are entitled to £11,720.
Better deal?
Generally, the Welsh government has offered a marginally better deal for students. This would not have been the case were it not for students and organisers fighting to put pressure on the Welsh government.
Now these concessions are coming under threat.
The Welsh government is looking for ways to solve the lack of higher education funding, and trying to solve its own money problems. The solution it is choosing is to charge students more money while allowing universities to cut courses and staff members.
This is why the Funding Not Fees campaign and Socialist Students are so important, to fight back against the cuts that students in Wales have hard fought.
We demand the Welsh government immediately reverse the planned fees increase, and campaign alongside students in England for free, fully funded education with liveable maintenance grants, funded by the super-rich.
Socialist Students 