Socialist Students hosting an ‘open mic’ at the end of the Trump Not Welcome demonstration in London, 17.09.25
Across the UK, students have walked out in protest against Donald Trump’s state visit.
Trump was invited by our prime minister, Keir Starmer, to join him for a luxury banquet with the King. Thousands of miles away from the royal palace, the Palestinians in Gaza meanwhile continue to starve – a horror that Trump and Starmer have backed up through their support of the Israeli state’s war of terror.
By walking out of school, college and university on September 17, young people have sent a clear message to Trump, Starmer and all the big business politicians: “We won’t stand for your agenda of war, poverty and discrimination. We’re ready to fight for our futures!”
The youth walkouts against Trump’s state visit show that young people can have a voice when we unite and fight together. Now we need to get organised in our schools and colleges, to make sure the voice of our generation is heard as loudly and consistently as possible, so that we can have a real say over what goes on in our lives.
We need a say in stopping our government supporting war in Gaza and all around the world. We need to demand and fight for our right to protest. We need a say in how our education is run. And that’s just the start of what we need to fight for, if we want a world where our lives come before profit!
That’s why Socialist Students is calling on young people to build students’ unions in schools and colleges across the UK, as the best way to continue the fight for our futures beyond September 17.
Students’ unions can give us a voice
A students’ union means young people coming together, sharing our ideas for how to fight back, and then all pulling together with a plan to win.
The first step is holding a meeting of everyone who is interested in campaigning in your school/college. You could start by inviting anyone who protested against Trump. But to get even more people involved, you could put up posters and give out leaflets to other students, advertising the date and time for your meeting.
In the meeting, everyone can have a chance to share their thoughts on what the main issues are facing students in your school/college, and what students should do about it. There might be anger at war, racism or the climate crisis. Or maybe students have had enough of high cafeteria prices, or the expensive cost of school trips. Students have the right to protest on all of this and more!
There are lots of ways to campaign on the issues students face. You could hold a protest at lunchtime. You could write a protest letter to your headteacher, explaining the issues you face and the changes you want to see, and get as many students as possible to sign it. You could all organise to attend an upcoming protest in your town/city, and make posters to bring with you.
The key thing is getting people to discuss and agree on an issue, make a plan to protest, and then do it – as a team! That’s the power of a students’ union.
Do you want help building a students’ union at your school/college?
Socialist Students is an organisation of young people who want to fight for socialism. We are active in schools, colleges and universities across the UK.
Socialism means a world where the needs of people come before the profits of big business and the super-rich. Socialism would be a world where people work together to end the problems facing humanity: war, climate change, poverty, racism and all forms of discrimination.
Socialist Students fights now for every step possible towards a socialist world. We know the wealth exists to give everyone a good life, but it’s in the hands of a tiny minority of super-rich people: the capitalists. In all our campaigns, we point towards the need for a movement of working-class and young people to take that wealth into our hands instead – for socialist change, not capitalist chaos.
Young people are bracing for yet another tuition fee attack from Keir Starmer’s austerity machine. Last year’s tuition fee rise, the first since the Con-Dem government tripled fees, may be the first of many, as the pro-big business Labour government tries to placate the markets by making us pay.
The broken funding model of marketised education, along with rocketing housing prices and collapsing services, has already plunged students into a cost-of-living crisis. Bereft of a political voice fighting in our interests, students on average have to work 20 hours every week on top of our studies just to cover our essential needs. The maximum maintenance loan of £10,544 covers just half the costs a first-year student faces.
Politicians and university bosses continue to make us foot the bill for their deepening crisis. Over 40% of UK universities will be dropping into deficits next year, with fee rises, staff cuts and worsening teaching standards to plaster over the central issue: there aren’t enough resources invested in education.
Some universities and private landlords have made a killing with an 18% increase in student rents in the last two academic years alone. Students have nothing left to give, 65% of us already cut back on food spending and other essentials to make ends meet. So the message from the campuses is clear: no to the cost-of-living crisis!
Polls suggest a Corbyn-led party would actually win a general election amongst 18 to 24-year-olds. No wonder there’s been enthusiasm amongst young people since Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana announced steps towards setting up ‘Your Party’. The Corbyn-led Labour Party electrified students and young people with the commitment to free education.
Socialist Students believes the launch of such a party would be a welcome challenge to establishment politics. A new party involving campus activists and trade unions to launch a serious fightback against both the failing marketised funding model, and the rotten capitalist system behind it would be a massive step forward. Thousands of cash-strapped students could be prepared to fight for a socialist programme for education: including an end to fees, grants not loans, an end to redundancies and the complete renationalisation of higher education.
Build a new party against the system he represents – fight for a socialist future!
As the people in Gaza starve to death, and thousands are massacred just queuing for food, Donald Trump will be visiting the UK to feast on a luxury banquet with the King. How can we not protest?
That’s why Socialist Students is calling on students to walk out from their schools, colleges and universities on 17 September – the day Trump arrives in the UK for his official ‘state visit’.
Trump wants to turn Gaza into a “riviera”, as a playground for the super-rich. Trump, like Biden before him, has led the US in backing up the Israeli state’s war of terror on the Palestinians, and accepts the Israeli military attacks on Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
How has our prime minister Keir Starmer responded? By handing Trump an invite to meet the King on a five-star, three-day holiday to the UK in September – paid for with the taxes of working-class people! Starmer like Trump has no issue with the Israeli state waging war on the Palestinians.
Young people have to send a message to Trump and Starmer that we won’t stand for their capitalist system, which awards privileges to the warmongers and profits to the super-rich while creating wars, climate crisis, and poverty for the rest of us.
Let’s get organised for a real future. For a socialist world free from war, poverty and oppression.
We can beat Starmer’s Labour
A good future for young people is a million miles from what Starmer’s Labour Party wants. Their main concern is protecting the profits of big business and the super-rich, by making workers and young people pay the price.
But we can beat them back. Starmer has so far led his government into humiliating U-turns over attacks to disability benefits and the winter fuel payment, under pressure from mass opposition. No wonder Starmer wants to stop us fighting back by clamping down on our right to protest.
By building mass movements of workers and young people, we could end all arms sales to Israel, and fight to end the siege of Gaza and occupation of all the Palestinian territories.
Key to this is building a political alternative to Labour. The huge enthusiasm for the initiative of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana to launch a new party shows the potential for this – a mass workers’ party that makes the super-rich pay, not workers and young people.
Defend the right to protest
We’ve seen how Starmer has tried to criminalise the anti-war movement. But he should remember the fate of the former Tory home secretary, Suella Braverman. She tried to ban the Gaza anti-war protests as ‘hate marches’, but she got thrown out – and eventually so did her government! That happened because of mass opposition to the Tories. We can do the same under Labour too.
How can you build the youth walkouts against Trump?
1) Get other people on board!
Who do you know who hates Trump? Who do you know who wants to fight for a decent future for young people? Tell them about the campaign and get them involved in building the walkouts!
You could give out leaflets in your town or city centre to let other young people know about the walkout campaign. If we meet someone who wants to organise a walkout in their school or college, why not give them a stack of leaflets to give out to people they know? Order walkout material here!
On the first day of term, could you organise to give out leaflets to students at your school or college? It could be before class starts, during breaktime, or at the end of the day as people leave – as long as it gets a buzz going from day one of term!
From there, how will you plan to keep up the momentum all the way to September 17? What about a meeting to get everyone organised? Could you then plan some more leafleting? What about putting up posters?
By discussing with other people, you can make a plan for what your walkout will look like. After walking out, could you organise a march from your school/college? Could you all meet up in the weeks before September 17 to make posters or banners, which you could carry as you walk out? What slogans could you use? What protest chants can you think of? What about marching to a nearby park or open space and having a protest there after walking out?
3) Tell us where you’re walking out on September 17!
The issue of disability cuts may have dropped a little from current consciousness, following a major, if partial, retreat from the government, and the announcement that PIP changes will come only after the Timms review is “co-produced” by disabled people. We are all waiting to see exactly what that means.
However, every indication so far is that the review is being rigged beyond even the most pessimistic estimates. This year, disabled students will have to organise to defend PIP, a benefit that supports and enables many.
This may be a slow burning campaign, culminating in Autumn 2026, rather than a repeat of the pitched three-month battle over disability cuts that humbled the government in July. However, with time to prepare properly, it could be even more significant.
The NUS so far has provided no lead at all. Socialist Students, as a campaigning organisation fighting to get students building the maximum fightback to this Labour government, can play an important role and support the development of Universities Against Disability Cuts (UADC).
Socialist Students societies can start preparing now, in advance of the start of term, to link up with other societies, pass student union motions, and hold meetings on campus, led by disabled students, but also involving socialists, campus staff and trade unions, linking in all of the wider issues: university funding crises, rent and housing, fees, low pay, war, defence of trans students, an analysis of capitalism, the crisis in working class political representation, and the need for socialism.
These are already common ideas for many disabled people, and we want those people to be part of Socialist Students in fighting for a socialist world that meets the needs of everyone.
Young people are determined to have a say in our lives and the big events that affect them, as was shown by the student walkouts against the Iraq war in 2003 (see below), as well as school climate strikes, mass Gaza protests, Black Lives Matter and more.
The capitalist education system tries to strip away our confidence to take action. Restrictive rules, a lack of say in our curriculum, locked gates that trap us in the whole day – it’s designed to make us feel powerless.
Walking out is a way to temporarily turn this arrangement on its head. It’s a chance for young people to get a sense of our own agency, and link up with wider struggles taking place. The experience of a one-day walkout can be the lesson of a lifetime, which is that we don’t have to accept things the way they are.
That is what hundreds of thousands of students showed by walking out against the invasion of Iraq. By helping to organise the biggest possible walkouts against Trump’s state visit to the UK on 17 September, Socialist Students wants to show that young people today are again prepared to fight back for a future free from poverty, war and oppression.
The work we do now over the summer is laying the foundations for huge protests when term starts again.
WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW
1) 26 July – Day of action against Starmer’s meeting with Trump
Ahead of his formal state visit in September, Trump is visiting Scotland from 25-29 July.
As part of this visit, he will meet with prime minister Keir Starmer. Both men are united in their defence of a capitalist system that means chaos and brutality for the vast majority of the world’s population – demonstrated, for example, in their support for the Israeli state’s genocidal war on the Palestinians. No wonder Starmer has spoken of his “good personal relationship” with Trump!
Socialist Students is calling a UK-wide day of action on Saturday 26 July to protest against the war and austerity agenda of Trump and Starmer. It is a chance for everyone who has said they will walk out on 17 September to get together in their area and give Trump a taste of what’s to come.
You could organise a protest, hold a mass leafleting and postering session, or do a campaign stall with an ‘open mic’ or megaphone that allows us to tell passers-by why we will be walking out. The important thing is being visible to other young people who we can talk to about getting involved in the campaign over the rest of the summer.
2) Poster the town red!
Socialist Students has had a flurry of names through our website from areas that have been covered in ‘Youth Walkout Against Trump’ posters. You can organise to stick up posters in places where young people are likely to see them – like parks, or town or city centres. If you want to get posters to put up in your area, or any other Trump walkout material, visit our resources page.
3) Big opportunities for leafleting
There are a number of ‘headline’ events where we can meet young people over the summer. These include:
Pride events
Music festivals and other community/cultural festivals
A-Level results days at sixth forms/colleges (Thursday 14 August)
GCSE results days at schools (Thursday 21 August)
If we get a group of young people going along to hand out leaflets, we can have an even bigger impact. Why not start by inviting your friends to help you out?
4) Organise a meetup – what ideas are needed to beat Trump and capitalism?
If all goes well, there will be a group of students walking out from your school, college or university on 17 September. But what do we chant? What slogans are we protesting around? After 17 September, what will the next steps be in the fight against Trump and the chaos he represents for our futures?
Answering all of that requires a discussion on what Trump is, the capitalist system he represents, and the need for socialism as the alternative.
A vital way to build the campaign over the summer is getting young people together to discuss how we can beat Trump and capitalism – combining our action with ideas to change the world. If you want to request a speaker to come and speak at your meetup, get in touch at socialistudents@gmail.com.
5) Building links with the workers’ movement
Walking out can be a nerve-racking experience. One way to gain confidence in our action is by building points of support in our community, to show that, as young people, we don’t stand alone.
The trade unions are organisations that bring together workers who, like all of us walking out against Trump, are fighting to change society in the interests of ordinary people, not the bosses.
You can send our model trade union motion to trade union branches and trades councils in your area, to ask for their solidarity – including asking if we could speak about our campaign at an upcoming meeting.
‘Day X’ – when hundreds of thousands walked out against war
Guest article originally published in The Socialist issue 1331
Socialist Party reporters
In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, school students in Britain walked out of classes and protests multiple times against the war.
The Socialist Party was a leading part of the huge anti-war demonstrations that year, some of the biggest in history, and we were also among the main organisers of the school walkouts, with the campaign ‘International Socialist Resistance – youth against the war’ (ISR) calling a walkout on ‘Day X’ – the day of the invasion – and other initiatives.
Protests and walkouts build up
On 15 February over 30 million people internationally demonstrated against Bush and Blair’s war for oil in Iraq. Many of those protesting were school and college students who saw the demo as the first step in building the anti-war movement.
We helped school and college students across England and Wales to set up student-run anti-war groups and to organise walkouts, strikes and protests as part of the international student day of action against the war and cuts in education on 5 March.
On that day in Coventry, Max Toynbee from Finham Park school reported: “At my school we got about 35 people to a meeting at which Dave Nellist spoke [then Coventry Socialist Party councillor for St Michael’s ward]. A lot of people there were year seven students, who are in the first year of secondary school, 11 and 12-year-olds.”
In Sheffield 400 students took part in the strikes: “When students arrived in the city centre, there was a really lively march with loads of chanting and singing – which then went onto the FE college and another school and went round calling for students to ‘Come Out and join our protests’.
“This took place in the background of some head teachers and the education department trying to stop the walkouts through the press, including a head teacher sending letters home to parents telling them students had been given ISR flyers!”
In London, Downing Street and Whitehall came to a grinding halt for an hour when 500 school students took a rolling protest from Parliament Green down to the gates of Downing Street.
“School students from across London – from north, south and west – and even from Potters Bar in Hertfordshire came to the demonstration. Throughout the day new groups of students arrived after walking out of their school. Some had just heard about the action on the news and decided to walk out. A number of students had been threatened with exclusion but as many said: ‘They can’t exclude all of us if we stick together.’”
There were more walkouts on 7 March, in Leicester alone our reports suggest that at least 1,000 walked out, from maybe ten schools around the county.
In the next two weeks there was further action. Over 100 school students from Clapton girls school in Hackney, London, organised a lively strike on 17 March.
Natalie, 16, told the Socialist: “We organised this strike because we felt like we needed our voice heard and to do something before the war starts. The strike has gone really well, apart from some teachers telling us to go back into school. We are going to build this by going to as many schools as possible to get them to protest – Blair isn’t listening and we have to make him!”
Day X
And then came Day X and the invasion itself on 20 March. Within hours of cruise missiles exploding in Baghdad a wave of anti-war demos and protests, involving millions of people, swept around the globe. And as our reports from issue 293 of the Socialist show, students on Day X were to the fore as tens of thousands walked out.
We said: “The London borough of Waltham Forest has never seen anything like it. At the peak of the protest 3,000 school and sixth form students took over the streets. Together they marched chanting and shouting from school to school in the borough. Terrified teachers rushed to lock the gates and stop students from joining the march, although a few managed to escape.”
In Birmingham: “Well over 5,000 school, college and university students poured into Victoria Square, Birmingham after a wave of walkouts and strikes across the city.
“Many school students were barricaded into schools by teachers but climbed over fences and gates to join the protest against the war. Whole schools were threatened with suspension if they walked out. However, this had little effect.”
Lev Taylor in Reading said: “The amount of people was amazing – just about the entire school had turned up and there were groups yelling anti-war slogans.”
Students in Britain were joined by others internationally. Sascha Stanicic, CWI Germany, wrote about the 150,000 who walked out in Germany: “In a magnificent show of anger against Bush’s war, school students stopped their lessons and took to the streets. In some cities headmasters tried to lock them into the schools. This prompted youth to shout “freedom for the political prisoners”.
In other cases, teachers joined in the strike and took their whole classes to the demos.
“In Hamburg, we co-organised a half-hour stoppage of work by apprentices in the defence company Airbus. Hospital workers in some southern German cities also stopped work for 30 minutes against the war. One of the biggest school student demonstrations took place in Berlin with 70,000 on the march. Stuttgart followed with 20,000 in the second school strike within a month.”
Aftermath
We didn’t stop on Day X either. We organised more action and said the lead of the school students should be joined by the trade unions and workers: “The school students who turned out in the run-up to and including Day X in London and throughout the country definitely inspired many groups of workers.
“However, it is still the case that the anti-union laws and the threat of victimisation still weighs heavy on many people, who would like to take protest action and strike action but still are not fully confident about initiating such action themselves. While there were lots of protests and workers taking time off, the occurrence of actual industrial action was, unfortunately, limited, because many union leaders did not back up their calls for action with concrete plans.
“That is why the Socialist Party proposal for organising a meeting of workplace reps, union executive committee members and general secretaries is crucial.”
And for the school students, we fought disciplinary action that had arisen in some places against those who walked out: “Those who have been disciplined or threatened with exclusion by their schools for taking anti-war action will be offered support against victimisation. Local coalitions are also being asked to raise the matter with local MPs and councillors, and the NUT teachers’ union at a local level is to be approached for help.”
The fantastic school student walkouts and protests in March 2003 show what is possible and are an inspiring lesson for today.
Buckingham Palace has booked in Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK for 17-19 September.
Already hundreds of students have signed up to walk out of their schools, colleges and universities on Wednesday 17 September – the day that Trump arrives in the UK – as part of the Youth Walkout Against Trump campaign.
The youth walkouts, initiated by Socialist Students, will be a protest against the chaos that Trump’s presidency represents for young people’s futures globally.
Students will be walking out to instead demand a future to look forward to – for free education, a decent job, and the guarantee of a high-quality and affordable home for all; for an end to climate crisis; and for a world free from war, oppression and exploitation.
With Trump’s visit taking place while Parliament is in recess, Keir Starmer and his Labour government will be hoping to escape the firing line of mass protests like those which Trump provoked during his first state visit to the UK in 2018.
But the Youth Walkout Against Trump campaign will not let Labour off the hook. Adam Gillman, Socialist Students national organiser,said: “By building the youth walkouts, we can send a powerful message to young people and workers in America that we stand with them against Trump – not with Starmer, who issued the invite for this state visit.”
TJ, a 19-year-old student in Leeds, said: “Labour has made cut after cut to young people’s futures while bosses make record profits. now they roll out the red carpet for oppressive leaders abroad. I am building for these walkouts to give young people a way to show Starmer’s Labour that this is not what the public voted for.”
Lauren from Wrexham said: “Trump’s visit to the UK is an opportunity to fight back; not just against him but the capitalist system he upholds, which puts the interests of big business above the lives of working-class people. These walkouts are a chance to stand up to Trump, as well as our government who welcome him with open arms, and all other leaders who uphold this corrupt system! That’s why I’m building the youth walkouts against Trump.”
Penelope, a college student from Preston, highlighted the common attacks facing students either side of the Atlantic: “Trump has cut funding to US universities, and has attacked students and staff standing up on issues like Palestine. Meanwhile Starmer’s government here raises universities tuition fees and continues the rampant underfunding of all levels of education. By walking out when Trump visits we are showing that young people everywhere have to fight for a decent education, in a capitalist world where none of our hard-won rights can be taken for granted”.
While the university term has come to a close, and schools and sixth forms break up next week, Socialist Students will be continuing to build the walkout campaign over the summer – including calling public youth meetings in towns and cities throughout the UK to discuss how young people can build the walkouts and get organised to win a decent future under this Labour government.
Socialist Students members building the Trump walkouts on the national Gaza demo in London, 21.06.25
Hannah Ponting, Liverpool Socialist Students
It is no secret that Donald Trump’s second term as president spells out even further chaos for the world. His bombing of Iran is an alarming escalation of an already explosive situation. He has bragged about doing “monumental damage” in Iran, but all he is doing is creating monumental fear and instability.
He has disgustingly backed up the Israeli state’s slaughter in Gaza, calling for it to be made into a holiday resort dubbed the ‘Gaza Riviera’.
It follows his aggressive use of trade tariffs – particularly in relation to China – which has already worsened international tensions. On top of this, Trump has demonstrated his willingness to trash the climate for his own interests, calling to “drill baby, drill” more fossil fuels, and withdrawing the United States from the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement in 2020.
The chaos Trump brings is a reflection of a system that prioritises profit first and foremost, at the expense of the working class and young people. Trump’s capitalist agenda offers no real solutions for ordinary people in the US and instead, through his international aggression, actively endangers people across the globe.
This is why Socialist Students has launched the Youth Walkout Against Trump campaign in preparation for ‘Day X’ – the day of Trump’s second state visit, the date of which has not yet been announced. To give students in schools, colleges and universities the opportunity to organise and protest against Trump’s visit and the capitalist system which it reflects.
But this isn’t simply about one man. Trump is a symptom of capitalism – a system which prioritises profit above all else, fuelling war and inequality worldwide.
In order for us to effectively oppose Trump, it is necessary to oppose the capitalist system he represents, and instead present an alternative way forward, against wars and austerity, and towards socialism.
Sofia Pandolfi, college student in West London
Socialist Students is building for youth walkouts against US president Donald Trump’s planned visit to the UK. At our campaign stall outside West London College in Hammersmith, we had a strong response from students, teachers, and people passing by.
Many students were keen on demonstrating their opposition to both Trump, and Keir Starmer, who has invited him. With our leaflets on the youth walkouts, we explained to students how they could get others in their college to participate, and how they could prepare for a walkout.
People applauded our initiative. Walkouts support our fight for workers and young people to unite against Trump, and also the capitalist system he is part of.
By campaigning for the Trump walkouts among students in schools, colleges, and universities across the country, we can build an organised, national response against his visit.
Leeds – building walkout on my first stall
Dylan, Notre Dame Sixth Form College student
I took part in a campaign stall protesting Trump’s visit to the UK. It was my first stall.
I was able to hand out many leaflets, targeting students. We were able to get five students to leave their details to help with organising the protest, as well as handing out almost all of our leaflets.
I talked to many who were curious, yet had limited knowledge on politics. But they acknowledged that the current state of affairs is tumultuous, and may start to affect their lives. One man was worried and conflicted on the war between Israel and Iran.
Some of the apolitical rhetoric has not just come from ignorance, but from a lack of left representation in politics. This has left the majority of the youth with a ‘why bother’ attitude, as they believe their vote is powerless, and that no current party can truly capture their views.
MidKent College – anger at Trump and Starmer
James Gretton, university student
Socialist Party members promoted the youth walkout against Trump to students at MidKent College in Medway. At our campaign stall, students opposed to Trump likewise opposed Starmer. They organically connected the dots that both leaders favour the capitalist class, exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis for everyone.
But a common response from MidKent students was how Trump and his consequences are confined to the US, not concerning the UK. But Trumpism is accelerating the capitalist crisis. And Trump’s far-right populism threatens the rights of various groups, including students.
In times of capitalist crisis, world leaders hope their people won’t fight back. Students and workers, including at MidKent, can disprove that with a socialist fightback.
Protests have erupted in Los Angeles, California against the deportation of migrants, under the orders of Trump, by immigration authority ICE. The Trump administration has sent in the National Guard, a military force, to put down protests. Workers and young people have faced tear gas, rubber bullets and explosives from state forces.
Hypocritically, both Trump and Democratic Governor of California Gavin Newsom have called for an end to violence, while forces under their instructions carry out acts of brutality.
During the protests, David Huerta, President of California’s largest trade union the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), was arrested. The union is currently organising a strike of 55,000 LA county workers.
Trump and other capitalist politicians want to cut across a united working-class fightback. With nothing positive to offer working-class and young people, Trump’s policies are aimed at whipping up division – carrying out cuts and attacking the rights of women, trans people, migrants and others.
These events show that his attacks will provoke protests, in the US and internationally.
When Trump comes to visit Britain, we are ready to show we stand with the working class in the US and internationally, not with Starmer’s Labour government rolling out the red carpet for him.
It’s important we start organising and building for the walkouts now so that, the moment Trump steps foot in Britain, we can have a united show of strength. To get involved and help us prepare for the walkouts, get involved and join Socialist Students. Help us build a socialist alternative to capitalist chaos.
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.
Staff at Liverpool Hope University are the most recent victims of the nationwide university funding crisis.
University management has confirmed that dozens of staff members will be made redundant across social sciences, humanities, education and creative arts. Not only this, but over a hundred staff members have been sent letters informing them that their job is at risk, meaning staff members will have to wait months with this threat dangling over their heads to even know if their job is secured or not.
In response to such a frontal attack on workers, two days after this announcement, over 200 students and staff protested at Hope University outside the vice-chancellor’s office, whose salary reportedly stands at £264,723.
The message of this demonstration couldn’t have been more clear. Students are appalled at this treatment of lecturers and staff.
Every worker or student who spoke was rightfully completely against these attacks. How can the university cite financial shortcomings when it has individuals on a quarter of a million pounds a year? The university claims these draconian attacks are necessary. It should open the books for its own workers and students to see where the money is going.
Regardless of the financial situation, this is not an isolated case. There is a funding crisis among many universities with hundreds of jobs at stake elsewhere. Hope University isn’t the first and it won’t be the last to be struck with cuts, with many universities actively running deficit budgets.
The only policy Labour has offered is increasing the burden on students with increased tuition fees for the first time since 2012.
The real solution is simply funding, not more fees. The Labour government must provide education with the adequate funding it so desperately needs. Despite what the Labour government has repeatedly stated, there is an abundance of wealth in society. With private energy companies alone making £120 billion in profit in the past years – five times as much as Rachel Reeves’s fiscal ‘black hole’ – the money workers need is clearly there. These companies should be nationalised under democratic workers’ control and their wealth used to protect workers and students. If the Labour government won’t do this then the trade unions should form a new party that will.
Socialist Students 