No to war: Help build the walkouts against Trump

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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.

Solidarity with workers and young people in California

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Walk out against Trump!

Socialist Students stands in solidarity with workers and young people in the US, facing down President Donald Trump’s state repression. We are organising students at schools, colleges and unis to walk out against Trump on Day X – the day Trump visits parliament, on the invitation of Starmer and the King.

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.

Birmingham City Uni: Defend SU democracy!

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Support UCU strike

Tom Porter-Brown, Birmingham Socialist Students

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

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

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

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

Management plans shelved

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

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

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

Liverpool Hope Uni students and staff protest job loss threat

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Thomas Butler, Liverpool Socialist Students

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.

UCU demo must be step towards national fightback on cuts

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Adam Powell Davies, Socialist Students national organiser

Around 500 rallied in London on Saturday 10 May for the UCU ‘Protect Education Now’ national demonstration. The protest brought together workers from across the education sector to demand an end to cuts in universities, colleges and prison education.

Socialist Students brought solidarity, with members travelling from across the UK to attend. Our placard slogans and chants included ‘funding not fees, no staff redundancies’, and ‘money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation’.

Post-16 education faces its deepest funding crisis in decades. Currently one in two universities are cutting jobs and courses.

This Labour government, acting in defence of the capitalists’ profit interests, is determined to squeeze funding for education and all our public services. Only a mass campaign bringing together workers across sectors will be able to win the public funding that is needed to save post-16 education from the current crisis of marketisation.

That’s why this demonstration was significant – it was a glimpse of what can be done when a national lead is given. It was positive that UCU general secretary Jo Grady told the rally that the 10 May demo will not be the last national action in the campaign to stop the cuts.

Socialist Students supports calls by activists in UCU for 10 May to be a step towards building a concerted fightback, including properly preparing for UK-wide action, coordinated with other education unions.

The demo heard from UCU activists from Cardiff and Dundee universities, where staff have taken strike action and successfully halted compulsory redundancies this year. This shows the potential for UK-wide strike action to halt cuts. Any industrial action should be linked to a political strategy that demands full public funding, paid for by the super-rich.

Several speakers called for more lobbying of MPs. Socialist Students agrees with this approach, as it can help clarify who is on the side of our movement. But that has to be combined with a call for action from those MPs who claim they stand with us – like demanding they raise our campaigns in parliament.

Socialist Students has been organising lobbies of MPs through the Funding Not Fees campaign this year. In the run-up to the 11 June government spending review, we will be contacting MPs to ask that they submit an anti-cuts, free education amendment – to demand the super-rich pays for the crisis in post-16 education, not students and workers.

Socialist Students societies have also been busy organising Funding Not Fees protests and meetings around the country. This week at Bradford Uni we held a successful day of action against the cuts, with support from UCU and Unison branches.

Unfortunately, Socialist Students did not get the opportunity to address the 10 May demo. Two of our members asked to speak, to bring solidarity to UCU and talk about our campaigning. But despite being told there might be time at the end, the rally was cut short by 40 minutes without explanation.

There was one speaker bringing solidarity from students, NUS president Amira Campbell. Members of the Socialist Students steering committee will be meeting with Amira and NUS vice-president (Higher Education) Alex Stanley to discuss how to build a student movement alongside staff to end the crisis in higher education.

Staff and students unite against Bradford uni cuts

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TJ Diniz Mota, Leeds Socialist Students

Socialist Students held a successful day of action on 13 May, building a visible and defiant stand against devastating cuts proposed by university management.

Many shared sadness and disbelief at the university’s decision to axe its media and television course during Bradford’s tenure as the UK City of Culture. Culture means little to profit vultures.

There are proposals to stop their flagship chemistry course, close down the university nursery, and slash 300 jobs – an eye-watering 20% of the workforce.

The protest was backed by the University and College Union (UCU) branch. And staff from across the university came out in support.

Further solidarity was shown online by Unison union at Leeds uni, which promoted the protest in the days prior. Supporters of Bradford and Shipley Trades Union Council also attended.

Anger is growing

This action was the result of weeks of consistent organising. Through weekly campaign stalls, online promotion, and raising the issue at local trade union meetings, we heard the frustration and growing anger from staff and students.

Support wasn’t just garnered from the university community. Cars going by our action blared their horns in support, crowds across the street shouted their sympathies, and passers-by commended our efforts.

All of this just goes to show the growing awareness of austerity and the national crisis in higher education funding. Uni vice-chancellors are earning more than the prime minister, and making decisions at the cost of student’s futures and staff livelihoods.

There was overwhelming support for strike action in Bradford UCU’s indicative ballot. Socialist Students continues to organise, raise awareness, demand no redundancies, no austerity budgets, and free, fully funded education for all. Because a post-16 education is not a commodity.

College students fight back – fully fund our education

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Adam Gillman, Socialist Students national organiser

Further education is in massive crisis. Teachers and staff leaving, courses cut, high class sizes – the list goes on. Students face a cost-of-living crisis, unable to afford high transport costs and expensive food.

Afterwards, there is the prospect of crisis-ridden university education with mountains of student debt, or low-paid insecure work. Adult college learners have to pay sometimes as much as thousands to study.

Facing what can feel like it’s going to be an increasingly bleak future, stressed from exams, many students face mental health crisis, not helped by the terrible state of mental health services.

Further education has been underfunded for decades. Between 2010 and 2020, per pupil funding fell by 14% in colleges, and 28% in school sixth forms.

Further education faces a shortfall of £400 million. The Labour government has proposed a plan for £300 million, £100 million short, and way less than what’s actually needed for our education.

This is only the beginning. Unless we fight back and win, more attacks will come.

Job cuts

We can’t rule out mass job cuts, like what’s taking place at universities, where uni bosses have already announced over 5,000 job cuts this year.

The University and College Union (UCU), which organises college staff, has launched the ‘New Deal for FE’ campaign, fighting for more funding for further education, and better pay and conditions for staff. UCU is also opposing uni cuts with the ‘Stop the cuts: Fund higher education now’ campaign.

Students and young people should fight alongside the trade unions for properly funded, free education.

FE colleges are typically managed by education trusts, run as if they are businesses, with highly paid executives and board members. Students sit exams run by privatised exam boards too.

Socialist Students calls for colleges, as well as exam boards and all aspects of education, to be brought into democratic public ownership, with elected bodies of staff and students having control.

We fight for every step forward for students to get organised and fight back, including by developing and building student unions in colleges. Existing student unions typically have very limited democratic structures, shackled by college management. But every opportunity should be grasped to put forward what is needed.

The strike wave showed that by fighting back, we can win. When hundreds of thousands of teachers went on strike, they forced the government to give them a pay rise.

And students can fight back too. In London, Pimlico Sixth Form College students went on strike to protest racist uniform rules, and against removing black history month from the curriculum.

Hundreds of thousands of students and young people have come to the streets against the horrific genocidal attacks launched against the Palestinians. This led to the sacking of right-wing racist Tory home secretary Suella Braverman.

We’ve won before

During the Covid crisis, school and college student protests forced the Tories to back down on their plans to downgrade the exam grades for working-class students.

We can fight and win funding for our colleges too. That means fighting for a political alternative to Keir Starmer’s Labour – a democratic trade union-based mass workers’ party that fights for fully funded free education, against all the attacks on young and working-class people.

Funding Not Fees

Socialist Students is organising lobbies of our local MPs, to see where they stand on education funding, and whether they plan to actually represent us against this Labour government.

Will they join our movement for free, fully funded education, demand that big business foots the bill, not students and workers? Or will they stay silent, as this government destroys our lives and futures?

Funding Not Fees campaign – fighting for staff and students

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Adam Powell-Davies, Socialist Students national organiser

Socialist Students has stepped up our campaigning for a free, fully funded, and democratic education system.

We’ve protested against Labour’s rise in tuition fees on 25 university campuses. When sixth form teachers and university workers have been on strike, we’ve been on the picket lines.

Now we’re bringing our solidarity to education workers rallying against cuts at the ‘protect education now’ national demonstration, organised by the University and College Union (UCU) in London on 10 May.

The government is fuelling the crisis in education. Labour government ministers parrot their pro-austerity watchword of ‘efficiencies’ – cuts. That’s because the alternative – publicly funding education – is opposed by the big corporations and super-rich individuals that this government serves.

The best way to ‘protect education now’ is to build a mass movement for a real alternative to what this Labour government is offering – for free, fully funded education, paid for by taking the wealth off big business and the super-rich.

Socialist Students has launched the Funding Not Fees campaign to raise the kind of demands a movement could fight for now. Socialist Student members on the UCU national demo will be talking to trade unionists about the campaign, to ask if they would like a representative from Funding Not Fees to speak at their upcoming union branch meeting.

We also think that our movement needs a voice in parliament. That’s why Funding Not Fees campaigners are contacting MPs over the next month. We’ll be requesting that MPs meet with us, and pledge to raise a pro-free education amendment in opposition to any further attacks on staff and students in the upcoming Labour government spending review on 11 June.

Birmingham City uni: Build the strike against redundancies

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Tom Porter-Brown, Socialist Students activist at Birmingham City University

The University and College Union (UCU) branch at Birmingham City University (BCU) has begun strike action in reaction to the attacks by the vice chancellor (VC). A planned ‘restructure’ includes 36 academic staff redundancies.

The VC claims that his changes are to benefit students, but how is it in students’ interests when staff suffer job cuts, students are crammed into lecture rooms, and courses are at risk of closure?

It’s no coincidence that the VC chose to announce his plans at the end of February, because the time it took for the union to jump through all the hoops of the Tory anti-trade union laws means the strike has begun during exam season. Members think this is a deliberate move to try to cut across students supporting staff. He’s even gone as far as sending a mass email to students, telling us that “only 9% of staff have voted to go on strike and it should have a minimal impact on lectures”. 

He’s got that figure by counting all BCU staff, including, for example, caterers and cleaners, but has neglected to mention that not every staff member is part of UCU! Although the VC’s bending of the truth could come back to haunt him when students don’t get their grades back in time, and no doubt he’ll contradict himself and blame it on the striking lecturers.

UCU had a good first picket, staying for hours until the rally at lunchtime. At least 50 staff, students and supporters, including Socialist Students members, turned up.

Union members need student support, which several of them expressed, discussing with each other the best way to communicate the issue to their students. Socialist Students members are campaigning to help build that support.

Socialist Students members discussed anti-austerity and anti-war ideas with strikers. If Keir Starmer and his Labour government can afford massive military budgets, they can afford to plug the funding deficit in universities. We talked about how the unions need a political voice, a new workers’ party, to fight for that to happen, and that universities need staff and students in control of the funding and resources to run it for the sake of education instead of profit.

Youth unemployment: blame bosses not young people

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Tom Gibson, Bradford Socialist Students

One million people aged 18-24 are not in active employment, training or education, and have to rely on benefits or family support to ensure they don’t fall behind on rent, food and other costs.

Keir Starmer’s Labour government’s response to rising levels of unemployed young people – further attacks on the welfare state. This won’t increase employment but will instead drive more young people into poverty, making it harder to find job opportunities, particularly for those with disabilities.

As someone who has finished their degree and is actively trying to find work, it has been tricky. Even finding part-time work has been a struggle. In addition, finding financial support outside of the disability benefits which I receive (under attack by this wretched government) has been very tricky.

Young people are actively trying to find jobs or educational opportunities but, thanks to years of austerity, the decline of industry and the marketisation of universities, as well as rising housing prices and inflation, our living standards are rapidly plummeting. The capitalist system views young people as a resource to be super-exploited with low pay and bad conditions so pushes anti-welfare anti-education policies to “get them to work”.

Being out of employment or education shouldn’t mean being condemned but instead helped, both in regard to education and employment. There should be easier access to training programmes and an increase in well-paid public jobs. Unemployment and disability benefits should be increased and made easier to access. Being able to return to education, a luxury often only the richest can afford, should be accessible to all who want to learn a new subject or change their career path.

I am proud to be in Socialist Students which stands up to the capitalist narratives around young people, and fights for a system that would enable us all to live a stable and happy life. It’s not ‘shame on young people’ that so many are unemployed, it is a shame on our rotten capitalist system. While young people are stuck in low-paid jobs, substandard education or forced to rely on unemployment benefits, the richest in society are getting richer. The wealth and resources in society could provide decent jobs and decent living standards for all, if that wealth was used to democratically plan society for all our benefit instead of the profits of a few.