Tag: marxism

Socialist Students conference: Preparing for the new era full of opportunities

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“We truly are in unprecedented times” – these were the opening words of the 2026 Socialist Students conference in Manchester. On Saturday 14 February, over 80 student activists from across England and Wales battled train cancellations and a cost-of-studying crisis to come and debate what can be done to combat crisis-ridden capitalism on and off campus.

Kicking off the opening session on ‘The struggle for socialism in a world on fire’, Robbie Davidson from Manchester Socialist Students pointed out that young people can see more clearly than ever that this is a system with no answers. The purpose of the discussion wasn’t just to moan about the ills of capitalism today, but to have a stocktake of what is wrong with the world so we can understand how to change it.

That’s why he described the brutal repression being meted out by Trump and his anti-immigration ICE goons in Minneapolis, and the stoking of global tensions with military interventions in each of Venezuela, Nigeria and Iran in recent months.

This is not coming from a position of strength, but because Trump is unable to answer declining living standards and becoming ever more unpopular among workers and youth in America. There’s been walkouts of students and workers in Minneapolis against ICE killings, and occupations, as well as some of the biggest protests in US history around the No Kings movement.

And crucially, socialism is back on the agenda in the US. Newly elected Zohran Mamdani declares himself a socialist, a point of attraction rather than a turn-off for the million-plus who voted for him, and the thousands who came out to campaign for him.

Walking out against Trump

The effect of “bigot in chief” Trump on radicalising young people isn’t just a factor in the US, but also here in Britain. Last September when he came to Britain, Socialist Students organised walkouts of school and college students against the red carpet being rolled out for him by Starmer and the royal family. Despite attempts by headteachers to threaten disciplinary action, lock school gates and snatch leaflets from our hands, Socialist Students met college and school students taking political action for their first time and helped them get organised.

Not that there’s a lack of reasons to be angry much closer to home. Those turning 18 today will have lived their entire life in the wake of the 2008 banking crisis. Many of British capitalism’s problems stem from this era. In the two decades since, Tory, Lib Dem and Labour governments have attempted to break even by making the working class pay.

Low pay and high rents accelerated in the austerity era, schools became underfunded to the extent that teachers have been paying out of their own pocket for supplies for years. Dean Young from Liverpool described the dire situation facing young people leaving education. The unemployment rate among 16 to 24-year-olds is now 15.9%, with over half a million looking for work and unable to get it, while 800,000 claim Universal Credit. Linked to this is the disappearance of graduate and entry-level job roles.

And as James Taylor from Birmingham described, those able to find full-time employment on marginally more than the minimum wage will be faced with crippling loan repayments of 9% of their income over the £28,470 threshold for repayments, set to be frozen for the remainder of this government. Crippling interest of inflation +1% and additional repayments of 14% for those with postgraduate qualifications means that even those entering previously well-paid professions are finding their income squeezed by student debt. No wonder in recent years there have been well-supported strikes by resident doctors, teachers and even barristers!

These are just a few of many examples of trade unions coming back on to the scene. Conference delegates gave plenty of examples of how Socialist Students groups have worked with unions, including those in higher education struggling against job cuts, low pay and bad working conditions.

Tilde Resare from University of Sheffield described the ongoing strikes against redundances. Management have been hard to negotiate with, demanding strikers work in their own time to make up for work missed during strikes or face losing 100% of their pay (including for non-strike days). Striking University and College Union members effectively faced a 18-day-long lockout.

One staff member was penalised for not running a tutorial to prepare for an exam that had already happened. Sheffield Socialist Students have been able to help explain the reasons for the strike to students by leafleting alongside striking workers.

Ben from Birmingham called on delegates to look for where workers are fighting back in their local areas, such as the Birmingham bin workers fighting pay cuts and deskilling, or Oxfordshire firefighters campaigning to maintain a safe level of cover.

These examples of collective action by workers aren’t just deserving of support in their own right, but can give confidence and inspiration to students in how to organise to win their own struggles.

The University of Essex is threating closure of its Southend campus – hundreds of local students, especially from working-class backgrounds and facing barriers to study are being told they don’t have a place at university.

15,000 threatened job cuts

Nationally there have been 15,000 threatened job cuts in higher education since the start of 2025, with the government not ruling out closure of some unis. The occupation of campus buildings and mass assemblies on the level that took place against the trebling of tuition fees in 2010 could spark a national movement. This would put pressure on the Labour government to step in with emergency funding and replace the current inadequate funding model for higher education that relies on UK students being saddled with debt, international students rinsed for every penny, and universities making deals with arms companies and other unethical investments.

In Manchester, where the university is the largest landlord in the city, Socialist Students have played a leading role in the relaunched ‘Fight The Rent Hike’ campaign. This is in response to one of two relatively affordable options for university halls being replaced with one costing £100 a week more, with the rents raised after prospective students had already applied to live there.

With student finance held at below-inflation levels for years, the cost-of-studying crisis has reached such a level that a few quid extra a week in laundry costs represents a big hit for students. Socialist Students at University of Arts London (UAL) launched the Circuit No! campaign against washing machine provider Circuit Go charging over £5 a load for laundry.

To add insult to injury, costs for the same washing machines provided by this company, who have 90% of the UK market stitched up, vary massively between campuses, even within the same city.

As Kat from UAL put it: “Students across the country are being ripped off. It’s time for students to take a stand”.

Morgan Tritton from University of Hertfordshire described the epidemic of violence against women on campus: “We’re not putting up and shutting up”. Socialist Students societies have recently campaigned to improve sexual harassment reporting policies at Herts, won gender neutral changing rooms at Queen Mary University, and reinstated the night bus at University of Liverpool.

Socialist Students national organiser Adam Powell-Davies described how, although we are not at the moment in the middle of a national wave of student struggle, there is a questioning of the system in the minds of young people.

Socialist Students has been making progress, with a record number of students signing up to get involved this academic year. That’s because we don’t just talk about revolution, or fight for every possible gain on campus, but link the two to the need for socialist transformation of society.

To set ourselves up for this new era of opportunities to build support for socialist ideas on campuses, the conference debated and voted to adopt a new constitution for Socialist Students. This re-establishes the democratic structures of Socialist Students, with each society having the right to send motions to conference establishing the political and campaigning direction of the organisation, send a representative to the national steering committee that assesses the work of Socialist Students and takes decisions between conferences, and to vote on the officers responsible for the day-to-day running of the organisation.

This includes the existing 40 societies and campus groups active across England and Wales. But the conference also agreed that other student groups with a socialist orientation should be able to affiliate to Socialist Students and participate in its structures.

We expect everyone involved in Socialist Students to agree to aims of fighting for socialism, while encouraging maximum debate on how it can best be achieved. This will mean testing out ideas in the real struggle and then reassessing based on the fullest possible democratic debate within the structures of Socialist Students.

Your Party and the Greens

Already, representatives of Aston Left Society and Kings College London and University College London Your Party supporters were present at the conference.

With the huge surge in support for and membership of the Green Party among young people since the election of Zack Polanski as leader, this could include Green Party societies. As Tom Porter-Brown from Leicester put it, we have to show the way to Green Party members who want to fight austerity and capitalism.

It’s likely that after the May local elections, the Greens will have over 1,000 councillors, including in areas with large student populations, and a greater platform than ever to fight austerity. This will put them to the test as to whether they take an active role in campaigning for more funding for services, or a backseat one, or worse still join council administrations in wielding the axe as they have in Bristol and Sheffield.

Against the arguments that nothing can be done under the current model for funding local councils, we should be prepared to argue that the organised mass of young people and workers can knock back commissioners and council cuts, and that Green councils use reserves and borrowing to put a stop to the cuts.

Say to Greens, let’s come together and prove that the answer to our problems lies in the coffers of the fat cats. After all, no party governing under the constraints of the capitalist markets will be able to fundamentally change things for working-class and young people.

This includes Reform UK. Many spoke on the worry students and young people feel at the prospect of a Reform government, and the growth of the far right beyond that. At the same time, the conference recognised that they have been able to grow due to the failure of the establishment parties and that the working class does not yet have its own mass political voice.

As Ali from Yorkshire pointed out in the closing rally, Reform societies have been set up on some uni campuses but at the moment find a limited echo. When Farage’s social media manager was invited to speak at York University, hundreds came out to protest.

After all, what do Reform have to offer students? They have no answers to the higher education funding crisis, for example, or any of the crises students face. So what better way to cut across support for Reform and the far right than to offer a real alternative? A socialist world free from want and oppression.

Multiple speakers pointed to the two thirds of young people in Britain who, in opinion polls, have said they’d like to live in a socialist economic system. The task now will be to translate the constitution and motions voted on from words on a bit of paper into action, so Socialist Students can be a real factor in the battles emerging on campus.

As Becca Bayman from Liverpool commented in the closing rally, it’s an increasingly difficult time for students, but increasingly important to build a fightback. After this year’s conference, Socialist Students is well placed to lead this.

IWD 2026: End sexism and violence against women

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Text from a Socialist Students leaflet produced for International Women’s Day 2026

International Women’s Day – March 8th – once again takes place in a world of chaos. Wars, economic instability, and attacks on basic rights have become the norm. The Epstein files reveal the sexism and rottenness of the capitalist class.

There is a lot to protest about! Many of the legal and social rights women have won are under threat and exacerbated by capitalist turmoil. Even basics like health care and housing have become a struggle. Sexist and misogynistic ideas are being amplified by powerful figures, not least President Trump.

A major issue for women students is the outrageous levels of sexual harassment and abuse we face. 97% of young women in Britain have experienced sexual harassment. That confirms what we all know from our experiences on campus, on nights out and at work. University and college bosses are more concerned about cost and their reputation than student safety.

Around the world young women are part of the mass movements challenging the sexism, poverty, repression and exploitation of the capitalist system. We’ve had enough, and we need change.

Raising awareness of the issue is not enough. We need action.

That starts with getting organised – and discussing what we want to fight for. Immediate measures that would dramatically improve women’s safety on campus include: free 24/7 shuttle transport; decent lighting; and the expansion of student support services.

Venues can do much more, including distributing free drink covers. All venue staff should have training to identify red flags and how to intervene, with sufficient staffing levels to ensure they can.
Instead of unaccountable uni bosses, we need student and trade union democratic oversight of reporting and complaints procedures so we can have confidence in them.

Socialist Students is campaigning for all of these demands. Winning safe learning and social spaces will mean fighting for funding. Socialist Students fights for full public funding of education and an end to the rotten market model of running education.

Fight for socialism

Prejudices, gender stereotyping, and sexist behaviour should be challenged; that starts with democratic and accountable student committees which should be in control of how training is carried out.

But education alone is not enough. Sexist ideas do not stem from individuals; they are products of the capitalist system we live in.

Systemic problems require systemic solutions. To eliminate gender violence, we need to challenge the root cause of sexist ideas by taking economic and political control out of the hands of the small minority who profit from inequality and oppression.

We need a mass movement with workers and youth at its heart to win the funding and resources we need and fight for a socialist alternative to capitalism.

Get involved with Socialist Students and discuss how you can be part of building that movement.

CLICK HERE to part of building the movement for a socialist alternative to sexism and capitalism

Why we’re coming to Socialist Students conference

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Suzie Matthews, South Wales Socialist Students

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hopefully this year will be similar.

Fight for socialism against the dawn of the living dead jobs

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Fight for socialism against the dawn of the living dead jobs

Hannah Ponting, Liverpool Socialist Students

It’s no secret that an unemployment crisis has been looming over Britain for years.

The employment rate has been falling for the past two years, exposing the fragility of the capitalist system.

Young people entering the job market are particularly affected by this crisis. It has been reported that, for some entry-level jobs, as many as 141 graduates are competing for a single job. At the same time, one in seven young people are now currently unemployed.

This figure doesn’t even take into account the thousands of people trapped in precarious employment circumstances, such as those in exploitative zero-hour contacts, with no certainty as to their income from one month to the next, and little-to-no protection in case of sickness.

As we enter 2026, the situation is set to worsen. Economists warn that an increasing number of so-called ‘zombie firms’ are likely to collapse, as increased energy prices, an end to cheap credit, and increases to national insurance contributions ‘kill’ them off.

For defenders of capitalism, the closing of zombie firms may be masqueraded as good for the economy, but it is ultimately workers that bear the price of their collapse with mass redundancies.

This incoming crisis is not the result of bad managements or unfortunate timing. It flows directly from the short-term, profit-driven logic of capitalism.

So to fight this crisis we have to fight against capitalism itself. Workers and young people can fight for a socialist future that guarantees jobs, pay and conditions and offers real possibilities for retraining. We should demand that any failing industries be nationalised under democratic workers’ control, and take the economic power held by the bosses into our own hands to plan to provide a decent job, housing and standard of living for all.

Herts uni sit-in wins for Gazan student

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Charlie Cunningham, Herts Socialist Students

Two Herts Socialist Students members organised a sit-in in December to advocate for a Palestinian student, who had been denied an offer by the higher-ups at the University of Hertfordshire, for discriminatory reasons.

The student had been granted a series of phone-call interviews to assess their English language abilities, rather than sitting a conventional English language test, due to their circumstances living through the genocide, and currently living in a camp in Gaza.

No management understanding

However, these interviews put them at an unfair disadvantage. Management failed to show any understanding for the student’s lived experiences:

  • Damaged infrastructure in Gaza, causing poor phone reception
  • Immense pressure of their family’s and their own future at stake
  • Inappropriate and inconsiderate questions, such as “what’s your favourite food?”, and “what do you like to do in your spare time?” to someone suffering through starvation and frequent displacements

Herts Socialist Students recognised this institutionalised racism against international students, and decided to take action, acting as last-minute unofficial advocates for the student’s case.

By sheer luck, we met the heads of the uni’s International Office in person. They told us there was nothing we could do. We informed them we would not leave until we had the opportunity to advocate properly.

After several meetings that day, we convinced them to give the applicant a third interview, with questions that were trauma-informed, and took their circumstances into account. They passed with flying colours.

Mass movement

The fact that two students were able to have such a large impact on their decision highlights the sheer disregard for the lives of international students, which was demonstrated with the original decision. The uni insisted it was not negotiable, until it was.

We can stand up to oppression, and unchallenged unelected bureaucrats on campus. If only two students were able to have such an immediate impact, the possibilities for mobilising on other issues are huge.

Students get organised! Come to Socialist Students conference

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James Gretton, Southampton Socialist Students

Student life leaves a lot to be desired right now. Before we even make it to university, tuition fees get hiked year by year. When we’re on campus studying, it’s under precarious conditions with cuts to resources and staff. When we get home from campus, our housing is untenable, leaving us vulnerable to exploitative landlords. When we graduate, obscene student debt burdens us, and youth unemployment is rising.

And every step of the way, we are onlookers to a world in crisis. Trump’s imperialist agenda threatens further conflict and war; it fuels further economic instability which the bosses will try to make the working class and young people pay the price for; the ravaging consequences of climate change continue to worsen. And here, Keir Starmer’s government continues to attack workers and young people. Starmer dined with the King and Trump at Windsor Castle in September, while thousands in Gaza starved.

That is why, across uni campuses, colleges and schools, Socialist Students is fighting back. We are campaigning to defend our education from government and bosses’ attacks, and fighting for decent housing, free education and socialist change.

It’s clear to see why capitalism is losing favour among younger generations. It is a system which values profit over people, and that concentrates wealth into the few, depriving the many. It offers no promising future for young people.

That’s what was behind the initial enthusiasm for Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Party, as well as for new Green Party leader Zack Polanski’s ‘eco-populist’ platform against inequality and injustice.

Socialist Students is an organisation in which students can come together to explore socialist ideas and get involved fighting for them. We organised walkouts of school, college and uni students to protest against Trump’s state visit to the UK last year. We have led the fightback for fully funded free education under the Funding Not Fees campaign. We have fought alongside our teachers and other education staff defending jobs and our education. We have taken part in the mass protests against the slaughter or Palestinians in Gaza. And we are part of the fight for a new mass party that fights for young people and workers, and for socialist change.

On 14 February, the Socialist Students National Conference will take place in Manchester. It will discuss a new constitution to prepare for the road ahead of widespread youth and student struggles and protests.

If you want to fight for your future, for an alternative, this is the opportunity to express yourself and be heard.

Join us at Socialist Students conference!

Socialist Students conference 2026

Saturday 14 February 2026
University of Manchester

Come to Socialist Students conference

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Youth get organised – Fight for socialist change

University of Manchester, 14 February 2026

The genocidal siege of Gaza. Climate breakdown that threatens the existence of life on our planet. Governments whipping up racism, sexism, and all forms of division. Attacks on the right to protest and more authoritarian laws. There is no shortage of issues pushing students and young people into the fore of mass movements, taking action for an alternative.

Internationally, the past year has unleashed a wave of mass protests and uprisings spearheaded by young people, from Indonesia to Nepal, Madagascar to the Philippines. In Britain, young people have continued to march in our hundreds and thousands to demand an end to Israeli state terror and war in the Middle East.

But despite the heroic preparedness of young people and the working class to fight back, the politicians, institutions, and the ‘profit-before-all’ system they uphold – capitalism – remain in place. And so the nightmare of war, poverty, and climate destruction continues, as our futures are sacrificed for the profits of a super-rich few.

What needs to be done to put an end to this nightmare? That is the key question that the Socialist Students conference 2026 is setting itself.

Socialist Students is a democratic, national organisation of students fighting for a socialist alternative to capitalism. We are active in schools, colleges and universities across the UK. Our conference is open to all students and young people who want to discuss, debate and make a collective plan of action for how to build a socialist youth movement in Britain today.

There will be plenty to discuss, including:

  • How can we build a mass socialist party to give students a voice in the fight against Labour and Reform? What role could Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Party play? What about Zack Polanski and the Green Party?
  • How can students support workers in education fighting against cuts and low pay, and build a united movement to make the super-rich pay for the funding we need?
  • Why are so many student unions not on our side? And how can students build democratic student organisations that actually fight in our interests?

If you are a student or student/youth organisation that wants to be part of this discussion, get in touch and register your interest in attending here: socialiststudents.org.uk/socialist-students-conference-2026/

Is it too late for socialist change to end climate change?

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Hannah Ponting, Liverpool Socialist Students
Originally published in the Autumn 2025 edition of Socialist Student

Climate change has got the world hurtling towards disaster. The disarray flowing from capitalist governments across the globe has left a trail of destruction, with wildfires raging, sea levels rising, and a potentially very bleak future for young people on the horizon.

The internationally agreed target of capping global warming at 1.5% above preindustrial levels, deemed essential by climate scientists to prevent the worst effects of climate change, is looking dangerously out of reach, with the effects of climate change being no longer predictions of the future, but current events. In early 2025, the LA wildfires burned over 40,000 acres of land, resulting in the loss of the homes of tens of thousands of people. Around 40% of glaciers are already beyond saving and doomed to melt, which will have a massive impact on the billions of people reliant on glaciers to regulate the water used to grow food.

We have also been feeling the effects of climate change in the UK. The summer of 2022 saw temperatures hitting 40 degrees in the UK for the first time in history, leading to rail lines buckling, 20% of hospital operations being cancelled during the peak of the heatwave, and over 3000 people dying prematurely due to the heat. Following this, at the start of July 2023, the planet endured the two hottest days ever recorded.

No Climate Justice Under Capitalism

There is no solution to the climate crisis under capitalism. Capitalism, driven by competition and big business profits before all else, cannot deliver the coordinated, long-term planning required to address the climate crisis. In fact, 71% of all global greenhouse gas emissions since 1988 can be traced to just 100 fossil fuel producers.

This Labour government defends the interests of capitalism, and has demonstrated its lack of willingness to fight the climate crisis head-on. Even before the election, Keir Starmer abandoned Labour’s policy of investing £28 billion into green investment funds, despite the ongoing climate crisis.

The same unwillingness to act can be seen in country after country, where capitalist governments prioritise the profits of ‘their’ capitalist class over the needs of ordinary people and the environment.

While many may hope that international climate agreements may offer a step in the right direction, this has been demonstrated to not be the case. Even if every commitment made at the 2016 Paris Agreement was met, global warming would still go beyond the 2-degree limit that the summit declared as an essential cap. Furthermore, not a single industrialised country is even on track to meet the commitment that it made in 2016.

Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement is a clear indication that capitalist politicians are willing to abandon climate targets in favour of national interests and short-term profit motives. The US is a massive contributor to climate change, ranking second in the world after China, with the US still having a higher rate of emissions of planet-warming gases per capita.

Rather than attempting to tackle this problem, Trump is ignoring the scientific evidence and encouraging further acceleration of fossil fuel and oil extractions as part of his ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ pledge! The Trump administration has also launched attacks on universities, pulling funding from diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programmes, many of which are based around climate change, which will limit further research into environmental studies.

At a time when global cooperation to end the climate crisis is needed more than ever, Trump’s divisive politics and use of trade tariffs globally make him a clear example of the unplanned chaos that capitalism means for the world today.

Clearly we can’t trust our planet in the hands of the capitalists and their politicians. By fighting to take big businesses into public ownership, including nationalising polluting oil and gas companies under democratic workers’ control and management, the working class could run these industries for social need not profit, and focus on taking co-ordinated steps to make the switch towards environmentally friendly energy sources.

If workers had a democratic say in how society is run, a planned ‘green transition’ away from fossil fuels and towards environmentally friendly alternatives could be achieved without mass job losses for workers in those industries.

Workers’ control

The ‘Lucas Plan’ in the 1970s gives a glimpse of how workers currently employed in environmentally harmful industries could redirect their skills and expertise to lead the charge for a green transition.

Over fifty years ago, workers at Lucas Aerospace – a company making electronic systems for missiles – were threatened with mass redundancies due to deindustrialisation. Instead of accepting these losses, the workers, organised in trade unions, proposed a shift in production from military manufacturing to socially useful goods.

Over 150 ideas with detailed technical designs were included in the plan, offering a glimpse into the opportunities that can arise when workers are given the chance to repurpose their technical expertise into socially useful goods.

Tragically, due to resistance from the management and the lack of workers’ control in the company, the plan was ultimately blocked. Nonetheless, the Lucas Plan is perhaps relevant now more than ever before. It highlights why we need democratic, fighting trade unions to play a central role in the fight against climate change and towards a sustainable future.

The impact of war

This era of capitalist crisis means horror on end – not just seen in the deepening climate crisis, but also in increasing wars, including the genocidal horrors suffered by the Palestinians in Gaza.

War not only displaces millions of people and causes devastating loss of life. It also wreaks havoc on the climate. Russia’s war in Ukraine, for example, has severely damaged biodiversity and inflicted lasting harm on Ukraine’s natural environment.

Examples of capitalist war’s devastating effects on the climate can also be seen throughout history. During the Vietnam War, over 5 million acres of forest and 500,000 acres of farmland were destroyed, with over 400,000 tons of the toxic chemical Napalm being sprayed over the Vietnamese countryside by the US. In Iraq, marshlands were reduced by 90% after President Saddam Hussein ordered major rivers be stopped in order to crush an uprising. Furthermore, Afghanistan has lost nearly 95% of its forest cover in recent decades.

Even during ‘peacetime’, militaries use vast amounts of dirty energy. For example, the US Department of Defense’s 566,000 buildings make up 40% of its fossil fuel consumption. These structures include training centres, dormitories, factories, and other facilities across the department’s nearly 800 bases worldwide. As nations continue to boost military spending in an increasingly multipolar and unstable world, the climate continues to bear the consequences.

Youth vs climate chaos

The message is clear: young people aren’t willing to pay the price for capitalism’s exploitation of the climate, and failure to give us a future. The climate crisis is pushing more and more students and young people into action. As well as countless grassroots youth-led campaigns taking shape in various communities, the ‘School Strike for Climate’ movement saw millions of students across the globe mobilise in protest against climate change, demonstrating that a new generation of young people have been pushed into action. After all, young people are now entering into a world of climate breakdown, increased militarisation, and vast economic inequality. Now, more than ever, young people are seeking an alternative system which can provide a genuine way forwards.

While many young people may have looked to the Green Party, hoping that they may provide an alternative, their actions have fallen short. For example, the party voted through £51 million in cuts to Bristol City Council, a move defended by Green council leader Tony Dyer as a necessity, as he explained in a BBC interview that they were simply having to “work within the constraints that are placed upon us.” This just exposes the Greens’ lack of a clear, transformative vision for a socialist society, which is vital for any party looking to stand up to the capitalist system and its demands that the working class pay for the bosses’ climate catastrophe.

As Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn’s 2019 manifesto included a £250 billion green transformation fund, a commitment to a publicly owned national grid, and for the “supply arms of the big six energy companies to be brought into public ownership”. His manifesto, which also included other bold policies such as the scrapping of tuition fees, electrified millions of young people.

Now Corbyn has joined Zarah Sultana in pledging to build a new party to take on Starmer’s Labour. Socialist Students welcomes this as a potential major step forward in fighting climate change and capitalism. As a bare minimum, Corbyn’s green policies from 2019 would be a starting point, from which a mass movement for socialist change, not climate change, could be built.

Under a socialist system, the banks and major industries – including the major energy companies – would be placed in the hands of workers, not the capitalist bosses. By cooperating and discussing together, it would be possible to democratically draw up a plan of production based on human need, including the need for a healthy environment. The world’s massive wealth, resources and technology could be steered towards ensuring we live sustainably. Millions of high-quality, eco-friendly jobs would be created as societies shift rapidly towards green energy. Decisions about where to locate renewable energy production could be made democratically, with proper community consultation.

Socialist Students campaigns at schools, colleges, and universities across the country – to allow young people to make their voices heard in the fight for a viable socialist future, in which the needs of people and the planet which we live on are no longer secondary to profit. If you agree, then join us this term.

U.S. working class needs its own political voice

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Dean Young, Liverpool Socialist Students
Originally published in the Autumn 2025 edition of Socialist Student

Donald Trump has been ever-present in US and world politics for over a decade. Despite losing an election in 2020 he just refused to go away. Why is this? What does Trump represent within American society? And the inevitable question for socialists all around the world – how can Trump be defeated?

The capitalist system is deep in crisis – economic, social, political and environmental. Capitalist leaders across the world, from Trump to Starmer, look to make workers and young people pay for this, and they are hated for it. In the US, Biden’s administration represented price rises and falling wages. Voters rejected that – either by not voting or voting Trump to beat Biden.

Trump has not gone away because he is currently able to capitalise on the problems within American society. What are those problems? America is a society divided by class. Even though he presents as anti-establishment, Trump is a representative of the capitalist class of exploiters, a billionaire son of a millionaire property tycoon. On the other side sits the working class, whose interests are the opposite of the private profit-prioritising capitalist class – but who have no party of their own who can answer Trump’s division and build a united fightback against all his attacks.

Living standards are falling, and people do have a right to be angry because of this. For example, it was estimated by CBS News in August 2024 that 27.1 million have no healthcare coverage. 27.1 million people. This is larger than the population of 22 of the 27 EU member states and not far off 40% of the entire population of the UK.

The American working class has never had a mass party to lead it with a programme representing its needs, such as free healthcare and education. Amid this vacuum today, Trump, despite representing American capitalism, finds an echo among workers looking for an alternative to the current status quo. He does so partly by expressing rage against the establishment but links that with populist, reactionary messaging to divert the rightful anger of millions of Americans about their dire standards of living.

Trump promised American workers that he would improve their living standards, but his measures will not end the crisis of the capitalist system. In fact, he will accelerate the crises. For example, his tariffs have the aim of increasing America’s share of the world’s wealth, but they will increase the costs of goods for US workers. Tariffs and other policies will also ratchet up tensions and crisis across the world.

Trump blames immigrants, LGBT+ people and any other marginalised groups he can think of for the problems of American capitalist society. His mantra is to divide and rule to sow division within the working class so that he and his billionaire friends can continue to exploit without a fightback.

Trump does not answer the anger and frustrations millions of working-class Americans have. His programme of privatisation and tax cuts for the mega-rich only makes things worse.

Whereas former Democratic Presidents such as Obama and Biden would performatively act as ‘progressives’ while bombing innocent people in Yemen, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc., or enabling the genocide in Gaza, Trump and his acolytes will happily boast about turning Gaza into a ‘riviera’.

Role of the Democrats

The Democrats are no alternative within American society. They also aided the genocide in Gaza against the Palestinian people. They had a majority in both branches of Congress (the Senate and House of Representatives) from 2020-2022, and have held similar majorities many times previously. What have they delivered for the American working class? No universal, nationalised healthcare system. No codified abortion rights. No enshrined rights for all LGBT+ people. They bailed out the corrupt banks after they crashed the world economy in 2008 while workers faced job losses and poverty pay. Remember Kamala Harris had more billionaires supporting her (83) than Donald Trump (52) according to Forbes and the Independent. The Democrats are deeply wedded to the exploitation of the working class and poor both at home in the US and abroad.

Should socialists support the Democratic party as a lesser evil? It is understandable when faced with the stark reality of a Trump presidency many will say “vote the lesser evil.” But this is not a solution for the American working class. What is needed is the building of a party of the working class, which gives people something to actively want to support.

Self-described socialists have run within the Democratic party in the past, most famously Bernie Sanders, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and now Zohran Mamdani. Sanders in 2016 and 2020 ran for the presidential nomination and saw mass enthusiasm for his programme of free healthcare and education and a $15-an-hour minimum wage. What was the response of the Democratic party? To block him from being the presidential challenger who could have beaten Trump, and put up an establishment representative in Hilary Clinton instead.

Mamdani

It is important that the lessons are learned by the supporters of Zohran Mamdani. Zohran won the Democratic nomination for the Mayor of New York City in June 2025 with an incredible 570,000 votes.

Mamdani’s programme promises reforms that are hugely popular: a rent freeze, building public housing, a $30-an-hour minimum wage by 2030, free buses, free childcare, city-owned grocery stores with price caps, and increasing taxes on the rich. He has also been a prominent opponent of the Israeli state’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Significantly he won the votes in some districts that voted for Trump in last year’s presidential election, indicating the potential for socialist candidates to cut across support for Trump in the working class.

Since then, many high-profile Democratic party stalwarts have refused to endorse him. His main competitor in the primary Andrew Cuomo – a former Democratic Governor of the state of New York mired in scandal but still backed by a $25 million ‘super PAC’ and endorsed by Bill Clinton and hedge fund billionaires – has announced he will run as an independent candidate.

Yet again we see the capitalist establishment in the Democratic party attempting to sabotage anyone who dares to mention the word socialism. The capitalist establishment, including Trump, will do all in its power to prevent a radical reformer winning control of the biggest city in the US, the seat of all the main capitalist institutions – Wall Street and the financial centre. While many sections of big business have accommodated to Trump and his unorthodox approach, despite backing Harris in the election, the situation is very different when the anti-establishment challenge comes from the left.

This must be a fight for the building of an political voice of the working class, independent of big business interests. The pro-capitalist Democratic leadership will aim to either neutralise him by watering down his programme or will outright sabotage him.

Mamdani must mobilise the local workers’ movement in New York in support of this programme. This is crucial as the trade unions are the principal organisations of the working class. If elected, they have the ability to help carry out Mamdani’s programme by, for example, withdrawing their labour to emphasise their support for Mamdani.

An example for Mamdani is in Liverpool, when socialists led the city council in 1983-85 and fought Thatcher for millions of pounds to fund what the Liverpool working class needed – including 5,000 council homes, nurseries, sports facilities, and apprenticeships. The struggle included strikes as well as trade union and community delegates being central to determining council policy.

Workers fighting back

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there are 14.3 million workers in trade unions in the US. Imagine the power of a party which brought together the millions of organised workers across the unions, giving them a unified political voice.

Even before Trump’s re-election there has been positive developments within the organised workers’ movement. In workplaces there have been strike action and trade union campaigns across the country in recent years. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in its most recent reports from the year 2023, 477,900 US workers took strike action, the largest number since 2018. This included a strike movement in Starbucks, which is still ongoing with Starbucks refusing to recognise the workers’ right to unionise; the SAG-AFTRA strike of film and TV workers in July-November 2023; and the September-October 2023 strike movement of the United Auto Workers against the three largest automaker companies: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

It is significant that a number of workers in the US, before Trump’s re-election, took strike action for the first time. The consequence of this will be the development of new working-class organisers in union branches, workplaces and communities, and a greater confidence in the ability of the working class to fight independently in its own interests. A stronger basis exists therefore with these new working-class, battle-hardened activists to combat the attacks of the Trump government. The potential for victories can be seen with a January-February 2025 strike of the Oregon Nurses Association, with the workers there winning a 22% pay increase alongside better terms and conditions for employment.

In addition, on the streets we have seen three particularly noteworthy events in the only seven months since Trump’s inauguration. On 5 April 2025 there was a synchronised ‘day of action’ in all 50 states, comprising 1,300 demonstrations and events protesting the anti-working-class policies of the Trump administration. The ‘No Kings’ demonstrations (so titled because of Trump’s increasing use of executive power to push through legislation) on 14 June included 2,100 events and demonstrations, with an estimated five million taking part. There was also the uprising in California against ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) on 6 June amidst raids against people of both legal and illegal migrant status in Los Angeles. All of this without an existing political party that can pull together all of the struggles of the working class! Imagine the potential if such a force, armed with a socialist programme, was able to lead the way.

The importance of the trade unions, and the millions they represent, is that they are the main organisations of the working class. A collective voice for the trade unions in a new party would put the working class in the driving seat.

The job of socialists in America is to fight for a mass party of the working class, which would be capable of providing the leadership to the millions of angry working class people in the US. We as socialists internationally can aid this fight by building mass parties of the working class in each of our respective countries, in doing so providing a potential model for US workers to follow.

In addition we can stand up against Trump by protesting him and the capitalist system in decline that he represents. Socialist Students is leading such a campaign across the country with our walkout and protest campaign against Trump’s September UK visit (see next page). The building of mass workers’ parties, the arming of the trade unions with a fighting strategy, and building an international socialist movement is what is necessary to defeat the barbarism of Trump and the chaos of capitalism that he represents.

So, let’s get on with it!

Kick sexism off campus!

On By adampd1968In UncategorizedLeave a comment

Lottie Young
Cambridge Socialist Students
Article taken from Autumn 2025 edition of the Socialist Student magazine

Sexism is an enduring problem in universities that has significant impacts on students. Sexual harassment, objectifying and misogynistic comments from classmates, drink spiking, and sexual assault are common. These attitudes are a product of and perpetuated by capitalism, which is a system based on exploitation and inequality. Today, women’s lives are vastly different from even a few decades ago. Struggles for personal autonomy, financial independence, and legal rights –such as equal pay and access to education – have made gains. At the same time, these gains are not conclusive, and the horrors of sexism can still be seen, such as the murder of Sarah Everard by an off-duty police officer.

A survey of 4,491 students by Revolt Sexual Assault found that 70% of female students had experienced sexual violence, with 25% of these students reporting that they skipped lectures, tutorials, or changed certain modules to avoid their attackers, and a shocking 16% ended their studies as a result of the violence and harassment they experienced.

It is clear that whilst attitudes towards women in universities have experienced some progress – with women now able to earn degrees, enter into careers in academia, and hold positions of leadership in universities – we are still incredibly far from the elimination of sexism and sexual violence within universities and wider society.

These shocking statistics come amidst the years of cuts to services and infrastructure for students, including campus lighting, night transport, counselling services, student bursaries, and the funding of programmes to tackle on-campus sexism. The fact that only 6% of respondents felt that they could report their assault to their university shows that current university services are not helping students to feel comfortable, safe, and supported on campus.

Fight for funding and control of our campuses

In 2023, the average salary for the vice chancellor across the UK’s twenty-four Russell Group universities exceeded £400,000 (with the vice chancellor of Oxford University earning a staggering £1,048,000), with more than two-thirds of them receiving pay rises. While students are left to deal with rising tuition fees, the cost-of-living crisis, and cuts to education – including the subsequent lack of prevention of sexual violence – the decision-makers are raking in the cash.

If we can’t trust the cutting university bosses to keep us safe, then students have to fight to guarantee this right ourselves. That should start with student unions linking up with trade unions to campaign against sexual harassment in schools, colleges and universities. Part of that should be campaigning for democratically elected committees of students and staff to be in charge of investigating reports of sexism and sexual violence on campus, ensuring that the processes are effectively implemented and accessible to those who need them.

The money is clearly there in society to create fundamental change for all students, but it is going into the pockets of a select few instead. Socialist Students has initiated the Funding not Fees campaign to build a movement for fully funded, free education – paid for by taking the wealth out the hands of the super-rich.

Imagine what we could do if we had all the resources we need for education. We could scrap tuition fees and introduce maintenance grants that actually cover the cost of living. There could be massive investment in things like campus lighting and secure student housing. We could make sure that every university campus had free-to-use, properly staffed creche facilities, so that parents with young children could attend classes.

How to take on ‘lad culture’

Many measures within universities to tackle sexism are aimed at quelling ‘lad culture’. This sees sexism and sexual violence as deriving from the behaviour of individual or groups of men, or a culture among young men which encourages sexism.

Misogynistc ideas exist across society, and can even become more prominent among sections. The Revolt Sexual Assault survey found 42% of respondents agreed that actions constituting sexual assault and harassment had become “normalised” at university. There are also stories of disgusting sexist messages shared on many student group chats. For example, a group chat of Durham University students included discussions of sleeping with ‘a different bird every night for a bed’ and ‘posh lads’ competing to sleep with the ‘poorest girl’.

Students absolutely have the right to ‘call out’ derogatory comments made by individual men, but what could most effectively stamp out sexism and misogyny on a campus- and society-wide basis is a mass movement against sexism and for the things we all need, uniting people of all genders in a common struggle. Today working-class and young people’s struggles against all forms of oppression have been pushed back. Previous generations were able to use their collective weight and joint interest in challenging reactionary ideas to make gains against sexism.

It is no coincidence that the propaganda of Andrew Tate and Co. has become more popular during the huge crisis of capitalism which exists today and the misery which comes with it. But limiting campaigning against sexism to opposing male ‘culture’ or individual sexist men, without acknowledging that the capitalism system embraces and promotes gender inequality and sexism, also doesn’t offer women a way forward. It can also subsequently repel men from participating in the fight against sexism (and thus capitalism) instead of uniting the working class in a mass struggle against oppression, both on campus and beyond.

A socialist alternative to sexism and capitalism

There are many examples of how capitalism benefits from promoting gender inequality and sexism. The notion that women should care for both the family and the home is promoted because it means that women will continue to do this unpaid work, subsequently saving the capitalist class billions, which would otherwise need to be spent on public services – like expanded childcare and social care – or on increased wages so that those services could be bought privately in the market. The objectification of women and unattainable beauty standards are promoted by the fashion industry to sell their products, continuously promising women that they can help them reach this ‘ideal’ form of attractiveness. And finally, sexism, which more often than not causes strain between men and women in society, is useful to the ruling class as it encourages the division of the working class.

To truly eliminate the sexist ideas and ‘culture’, the dismantling of capitalism and the socialist transformation of society is necessary, for it is capitalism that drives sexism and misogyny. A socialist society would be one in which public and state organisations and institutions (including universities) were under the democratic control of workers and service users; in which society was democratically planned for need not profit; and in which the idea of gender norms and inequality were no longer promoted.

Whilst this would not instantaneously eradicate gender norms that have been embedded in class society, the socialist transformation would dismantle the structures and means through which those ideas have been sustained, thus forming a society in which gender norms, sexist ideas, and gender-based power imbalances would no longer be relevant. Therefore, the ‘lad’ culture and the deeply ingrained sexist values within our society which significantly drive sexism on-campus would be eliminated.

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