Tag: marxism

REPORT: Trump walkouts give young people a voice

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Hundreds of school and college students walked out to protest Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK on 17 September. On the thousands-strong protest through central London, the Socialist Students contingent was by far the most lively, youthful and politically bold. Our chants and slogans were not just drawing attention to Trump and the role he is playing, but also to Keir Starmer’s complicity in war, genocide, and defending the profits of the billionaires.

In Liverpool 75 walked out, there were 25 in Leeds, 15 from a Sheffield sixth form, 30 from one college in Nuneaton, 25 in Preston, and many more at youth protests around the country. The Trump walkouts showed that we can take matters into our own hands and have a voice when we organise and fight back.

Our walkouts forced their way into the national media. The government had been doing their best to keep Trump’s visit under wraps, knowing the anger it would provoke. But our campaign got onto ITV and BBC, into the Independent newspaper, even over the pond into Time magazine – which has twice named Trump ‘Man of the year’!

Right to protest

Hundreds walked out against Trump, but it would have been many more if not for the police being called on students to try to intimidate us into not exercising our right to protest.

In west London, about a dozen police officers were waiting at the tube station to try to intercept students travelling to the central London demo. In south London, a headteacher called the police on us, as well as ripping up leaflets that students were being handed as they were going into school.

In east London, hundreds of students spilled out into the playground at lunch, ready to walk out and join the protests in central London. They were prevented from doing so by a police van as well as about a dozen police officers at the school gates.

In north London, headteachers in Enfield were communicating with each other and the police to try and clamp down on student exercising their right to protest. That didn’t stop nine students walking out at one school.

Despite all the obstacles, when we are organised, we can overcome all the barriers put in our way. We can have a say over what goes on in our lives.

Schools, colleges, sixth forms… our entire capitalist education system is designed to strip away young peoples’ confidence to take action: restrictive rules try to teach us from a young age to obey authority; there is a complete lack of a say over our curriculum and what we get taught; gates are locked to keep us in all day, trapping us in prison-like conditions; students are thrown into ‘isolation rooms’ as punishment, facing a wall in solitary confinement conditions. All this is designed to make us feel powerless. And it’s not accidental.

This capitalist system we live under is about making profit for a tiny few at the top of society, a super-rich minority, at the expense of everyone else. It means mega wealth for the billionaires while poverty, war, and climate destruction become the norm. Capitalism will look for all the ways it can to maintain this unequal arrangement, that includes trying to drill into us from a young age, while we are in school, that we can’t fight back to change things.

The youth walkouts against Trump were a way to show that we can fight back. We sent a clear message to Trump, Starmer and the capitalist class that we won’t accept their agenda.

Build students unions

As a first next step, Socialist Students is calling on young people to build our own students unions. These can be spaces where students in a school or college can come together to share ideas about how to fight back and to make a plan of action. Why not organise a meeting of everyone who is interested, including those who joined walkouts and other supporters?

The meeting could take place in the playground, or a quiet indoor space, or there might be sympathetic teachers who are be open to allowing us to meet in their classroom, for example. A starting point could be to find out which teachers are trade union reps for the education unions in your school.

Then the meeting can decide collectively what campaigning issues to take up. There might be anger at what is going on in the world – war, poverty, climate catastrophe. But locally there might be anger at canteen prices, the cost of school trips, uniform policies… At some schools, students have been told that they are unable to wear political badges, for example.

Once a main campaigning priority has been agreed on, one idea could be to write a short protest letter setting out the issues, getting as many students as possible to sign it, and to take a list of demands to the headteacher. That pressure could be increased by organising a protest at lunchtime or outside the gates after school. A march to the local council offices could lobby a meeting of local councillors to ask what they are going to do to address the issues. There could also be a lobby of a local MP.

Students in east London prevented from protesting plan to write to their local MP Dianne Abbott to ask for her support in demanding the right to protest.

Socialist Students groups can also get together to attend protests outside of school or college. Socialist Students will have a contingent on the 11 October Gaza demo in London, for example. In Liverpool on 27 September, there is a protest outside of Labour Party conference, which Socialist Students will be attending – exposing all of the ways in which the Labour government is attacking our futures.

A new party fighting for our future

Events across the whole of society shape the conditions which we grow up in. We have a Labour government hiking uni fees, cutting funding to schools and public services, that has attacked benefits for disabled people including getting rid of PIP for under-18s.

Outside of schools and colleges, young people need a political voice. Many have been enthused by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s ‘Your Party’. It is polling highest among 18 to 24-year-olds. Socialist Students calls for a new mass workers’ party that fights for a future for young people.

As leader of the Labour Party, Corbyn called for free education, mass council house building and a fully funded NHS, and many other policies to make the super-rich pay. Now young people again have a chance for a political party to fight for those things. There is the opportunity for a mass party that puts across an anti-war, socialist alternative to Labour, as well as to Reform. Socialist Students says any new party should be a democratic socialist party. We are holding meetings on 50+ university campuses across the country to discuss that.

Young people need a voice – our own students unions organising to fight in our collective interests. And a political voice, a party that links our struggles to those of other young people and the working class as a whole.

We have to fight for a future. That is linked to the struggle for a socialist society as an alternative to capitalism. That would be a system where the banks and major industries are owned and run by the working class, democratically discussing and collaborating to draw up a plan of how to use the wealth and resources in society to meet the needs of all. Internationally, that would lay the basis for an end to war and climate disaster. Join Socialist Students to fight for a future. Fight for socialist change.

JOIN SOCIALIST STUDENTS

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How can ‘Your Party’ be a socialist voice for students?

On By adampd1968In Uncategorized1 Comment

More than half a million people signed up to Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s call for a new party within a few days of its announcement, with hundreds of thousands more since. Polls show that support for the potential new party is highest among young people, and would win among 18 to 24-year-olds – and that’s before the party has even been formed!

And no wonder there has been this enthusiasm for a political alternative, when you look at the world on offer to young people today.

In Gaza, Palestinians are suffering genocidal horror. The number of people fleeing war and persecution globally has never been higher. Capitalist politicians and the billionaires they defend just sit on their hands, while the climate crisis threatens humanity.

As students, we face the soaring cost of living, dismal housing, and more and more student debt. The prospect of one day having a good job and a decent home that we can afford seems more distant than ever.

None of the establishment parties have any answers to this situation. They are all united in their defence of a capitalist system that puts big business profits before the needs of humanity and our planet.

After 14 years of brutal Tory austerity, Labour has only offered more of the same: cuts to benefits, attacks on trans people and other minority groups, raising tuition fees, and supporting the Israeli state’s slaughter. Starmer has clamped down on the right to protest, to try and prevent even more opposition to his rule, but so far he has only provoked more anger.

Reform UK have tried to cash in, cynically posing as an alternative. But all they do is pose as anti-establishment, while offering no alternative to austerity in local councils, and all the while stoking racism and division which weakens our ability to fight back.

OUR CHANCE FOR A POLITICAL VOICE

For the thousands of young people who have signed up to Corbyn and Sultana’s initiative – ‘Your Party’ – the prospect of a new party will therefore be a ray of hope in the fight for a better future: ‘Finally, our chance to have a political voice that fights for us, not the warmongers and the billionaires’!

When Corbyn was leader of the Labour Party, there was huge enthusiasm among young people for his anti-austerity, anti-war policies. In the 2017 and 2019 general elections, Corbyn offered the chance for free education: an end to tuition fees, and maintenance grants instead of loans.

On election day, students literally queued around the block to vote for Corbyn. The capitalist media called it a ‘youthquake’ – not as praise, but out of fear of the mass movement that Corbyn’s programme generated.

Today, there is again the possibility of a major party that fights for free education, along with other policies that could make a real difference to our lives – like rent controls and mass council housebuilding, a minimum wage of at least £15-an-hour for all, and a massive ‘green transition’ away from fossil fuels. We could have a party that fights to defend the right to protest, and backs up movements fighting to end the Israeli state’s terror and occupation of the Palestinian territories.

To win all these things and more, the party will have to draw its strength from the mass mood to fight back that exists under this Labour government. By giving a lead to and reinforcing the collective action of working-class and young people, the party would be able to spearhead a movement capable of wrenching wealth, resources and control of society out of the hands of the super-rich and big business.

JOIN SOCIALIST STUDENTS

Over the past year, Socialist Students has been campaigning for fully funded, free education to end the cuts, cost-of-living crisis and debt currently facing students. We have called youth walkouts across the UK against Donald Trump’s state visit, to show that young people won’t stand for a world of war, poverty and division. We stand in council and parliamentary elections, putting forward socialist solutions to the misery facing young people, and plan to do the same in the May 2026 local elections.

So if you want to discuss, campaign and fight now for a socialist alternative to the chaos facing our futures, then you should get involved in your local Socialist Students society this year.

But imagine how much further that fight would be strengthened if we had a new mass party giving a voice to student organisations, trade unions, anti-cuts campaigns, climate and anti-war movements, and more. A political voice linking our struggles as students to everyone else in society who is fighting back under this rotten capitalist system.

That’s why Socialist Students will be joining Corbyn and Sultana’s new party this year. And if you want to fight for this to be a democratic party, rooted in the struggles of working-class and young people, which fights for socialist policies – and join up with students in socialist societies on 50+ campuses doing the same! – then Socialist Students is the organisation for you.

JOIN SOCIALIST STUDENTS!

Trump visit dates confirmed – students are ready to protest on September 17

On By adampd1968In Uncategorized1 Comment

Socialist Students press release

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.

Click to get involved

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.

Unite for free education! Not war, poverty and racism

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Text from a Socialist Students leaflet

What future do young people have today? The wealth of the richest 1% soars. But all we get are countless wars and climate destruction. The cost of everything is getting higher and higher – from phone bills and food prices to transport fares.

Rent is unaffordable. Wages are too low. Education is under attack. And under Labour, things are only getting worse. In this cruel capitalist world, it’s no wonder so many young people struggle with their mental health. Some students don’t receive mental health support, due to underfunding – services for all young people are inadequate.

This Labour government has shown it is no different to the conservatives. Even before they were in power, Labour backed the Israeli state’s assault on Gaza. Since forming a government, they’ve raised tuition fees for the first time in nearly a decade, refused to end age-based pay discrimination, and announced plans to restrict disability benefits – including raising the age for young people to access Personal Independence Payment from 16 to 18.

Whether it’s enabling war and poverty overseas or attacking the futures of young people in Britain, Starmer’s Labour Party is always on the side of the super-rich elites and their capitalist system. Starmer has rolled out the red carpet for Trump to visit the UK, both of which defend the same capitalist system.

This capitalist system, prioritises short – term profit over the majority of people’s needs at every turn, from education and housing to healthcare, jobs, and the environment, as well as stoking racist and homophobic division.

There is an alternative

The resources exist to provide everyone with a decent standard of living. The top 100 UK companies hand over £80 billion a year to shareholders – money that could instead be used to fund high-quality housing, free education, public transport, and well-paid jobs.

If we took all the major corporations and banks into public ownership, run democratically by working-class people to meet people’s needs and not for profit, then everyone could have a decent well-paid job, a high-quality home, free public transport, and access to free education and healthcare. It would be a socialist society based on collaboration and solidarity between people, laying the basis for ending all war, oppression and where human need and environmental sustainability come first.

We can fight back!

We’ve seen the power of working-class collective action. When workers across the country took strike action in recent years, they forced both bosses and the Conservative government to make concessions on pay, conditions, and funding for our services.

If the trade unions can fight and win under the Conservatives, then they can do the same under Labour. Every young worker should join a trade union, get active and fight for a socialist leadership which could be fighting for a £15-an-hour minimum wage for all – with no exceptions based on age.

Students also have the power to fight back and link up with workers doing the same. Socialist Students members in colleges and schools have recently organised walkouts and campaigns against the war in Gaza, and also fought for the right to meet and discuss socialist ideas. We have seen huge movements initiated by students take place in Serbia, Bangladesh and elsewhere at the forefront of challenging capitalist governments power.

In 2021 students at Pimlico Sixth Form College in London went on strike to protest the racist uniform rules, and against the removing of Black History month from the curriculum. When we fight, we can win change.

But we need political representation for our movements. Labour won’t represent us. Neither will the Tories, Reform, or the other pro-capitalist parties. They represent the interests of capitalism whilst expecting young people to quietly accept a system that fails us.

We say: enough. It’s time to build a new political force – a mass working-class party with socialist policies that gives a voice to our struggles and a vision for a socialist future.

We say:

  • For fully funded, free education – introduce living grants for all students, scrap tuition fees and cancel student debt, and stop cuts to courses
  • Divestment from arms and big business – no place for profiteers from war and exploitation in our education
  • Mass trade union struggle for a £15-an hour minimum wage now! Ban unequal youth pay rates and scrap zero-hour contracts
  • End the housing crisis! For a mass building programme of high-quality, affordable council housing
  • Take the wealth off the super-rich! For the banks, monopolies and major industries to be owned and run by the working class to meet everyone’s needs, not the profits of a few
  • Build the socialist opposition to Labour, the Conservatives, Reform and all the establishment parties! Build a new mass workers’ party with socialist policies to give working class and young people a political voice!

Our education system has been decimated by years of cuts – first under the Tories, now under Labour. Class sizes have grown. Teachers are overworked. Mental health support is practically non-existent. Buildings are falling apart. And now, Labour is planning to raise tuition fees even further – while diverting funding toward STEM subjects and away from vocational and humanities courses.

Socialist Students is organising lobbies of our local MPs, to see where they stand on education funding – and what they plan to do to represent us against this Labour government. Will they join our movement for free, fully funded education – to demand that big business foots the bill for education, not students and workers? Or will they stay silent as this government destroys our lives and futures?

Find out more about the Funding Not Fees campaign

Letter to NUS: Building a united movement for fully funded, free education

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The following is the text from a letter sent from the Socialist Students steering committee to Alex Stanley, Vice President Higher Education for the National Union of Students (NUS), on Wednesday 9th April.

Dear Alex Stanley,

As you will know, there is a major funding crisis in higher education which is hitting students, staff, and local communities. Over 5000 redundancies have been planned by the vice-chancellors this academic year, with up to 5000 more to come according to the University and College Union (UCU). Students continue to suffer from a devastating gap between our living costs and maintenance support, and our futures are stalked by uncertainty in a volatile world of increasing war, climate crisis and poverty.  

In response to the funding crisis in post-16 education,  UCU has launched the ‘Stop the Cuts’ campaign, which includes a national demonstration in London on Saturday 10th May. Socialist Students will be rallying as many students as we can to the UCU demonstration, because we think this event – organised by the largest trade union in higher education, as part of a national campaign against the crisis of marketisation – can be a vital staging point for building a united student and worker movement for fully funded, free education. But that is also why we believe NUS must do everything it can to seriously build for this demonstration.

We call for:

  1. NUS to encourage all students’ unions to arrange free or low-cost transport to Central London on Saturday 10th May, including financially supporting students’ unions to do so if necessary
  2. NUS to issue the call to all students’ unions to actively promote the UCU demonstration among its members – including: emailing details of the demonstration to students; organising leafleting sessions; and postering across campus
  3. NUS to produce a public statement in solidarity with the UCU ‘Stop the Cuts’ campaign
  4. NUS to hold a national online meeting, open to all who wish to attend, on the topic of, ‘How students can unite with staff for fully funded, free education’

We recognise that NUS has begun campaigning around funding for education, and welcome the ‘A Fair Deal for Our Future’ campaign, which includes the demand for better maintenance support. However, we believe student leadership has to go much further in raising what is needed for a genuinely fair and free education system for all. Socialist Students has launched the Funding Not Fees campaign this year, raising the following set of demands:

  • No to Labour’s tuition fee hike – scrap fees and cancel student debt
  • Living grants, not loans
  • Stop all cuts and closures on campus. End low pay and casualisation of staff
  • Divestment from arms and big business – no place for profiteers from war and exploitation on our campus

We would appreciate the opportunity to discuss further what ideas and strategy are needed to mobilise students alongside staff in a movement for free, fully funded education. To this end, please could we arrange a meeting at the earliest possible convenience between NUS representatives and members of the Socialist Students steering committee?

In solidarity,
Socialist Students steering committee

Liverpool Guild election: fighting fees, cuts, and cost of living

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Hannah Ponting, Socialist Students candidate in Liverpool student election

Student union elections provide a great platform to voice socialist ideas on campuses. At Liverpool university, we collaboratively created a manifesto focusing on socialist policies, and subsequently selected a candidate who could put forward these policies, and represent socialist ideas in this election. I am very proud to have been that candidate.

The first of our main policies was fighting against Labour’s recent tuition fee hike, and for free education. The increasing cost of university should not be a barrier to young working-class people pursuing higher education. We based this policy around the Funding Not Fees campaign, launched by Socialist Students nationally.

The increasing cost of living is a significant concern to students. Funding life at university is becoming increasingly difficult. We focused on fighting to expand bursaries and reinstate the university’s food pantry, which was previously scrapped.

The university’s night bus is another service which was previously scrapped, although was reinstated due to campaigns led by Socialist Students. We said, expand the night bus to more areas in and around Liverpool, and to increase its frequency to every half an hour.

There has been a recent crisis of violence towards women and girls on campus. We believe that it is necessary to fight for all students to have a genuinely safe, reliable, and affordable way home.

Fight job cuts

Cuts are occurring at universities around the country. Liverpool uni refused to be transparent with the University and College Union (UCU), when pressured about its own job cuts.

We said the university must open its books and have financial transparency. This also extends to fighting for divestment from arms companies.

We held campaign stalls, and other leafleting and postering. We got a brilliant response from both students and workers on campus, with discussions about the cost of living and cuts to disability benefits.

We also held a public meeting. It provided a brilliant chance to explain our policies, and allow for any questions to be asked.

I spoke at endorsement meetings of other societies, such as Labour Students, to advocate socialist ideas to more students.

We achieved 151 first preference votes, rising to 192 when transferable votes were added. 9th place out of 24 candidates. The top four were elected.

There is an appetite for socialist ideas on campus. It’s our job to direct the frustration that young people are increasingly feeling – with the capitalist system and Labour government –into an organised movement.

UCU launches ‘stop the cuts’ campaign

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Joint campus union rally in Leeds, 2022

Adam Powell-Davies, Socialist Students national organiser

The University and College Union (UCU) held a parliamentary lobby and rally to launch its ‘Stop the cuts: fund higher education now’ campaign on 18 March.

Shocking redundancies

This was the first national campaign initiative in the ‘stop the cuts’ campaign, less than a week after the shocking announcement of 632 planned redundancies at Dundee University. UCU estimates that up to 10,000 jobs could be cut this year alone – 5% of staff.

The event was attended by UCU branches from across the country, with rally speakers from as far afield as Lancaster and Bangor, reflecting the enthusiasm for a trade union response to the cuts devastating higher education.

The rally showed that there’s a discussion taking place within the union over the best way forward in this fight, with a range of different opinions expressed. Several speakers called for coordinated, nationwide strike action, linked to the battle over staff pay and conditions.

I spoke to bring solidarity from Socialist Students to the rally, highlighting the need for students to link up with campus trade unions in the fight for full public funding for education, paid for by taking the wealth off the rich – not more fees, cuts and cost-of-living crisis.

Joining UCU activists was suspended Labour MP John McDonnell. He spoke of the need for “a parliamentary voice” to the struggles of university staff, saying the lobby was an opportunity to “recruit MPs as allies of the UCU”.

Funding Not Fees

Socialist Students groups are organising lobbies of local MPs, under the banner ‘Funding Not Fees’. This brings together students and staff, as well as trade unionists, anti-war activists, community campaigners, and more in the fight for political representatives who will give a voice to all the struggles of working-class and young people, under this pro-big business Keir Starmer government.

While Socialist Students continues to build Funding Not Fees on campuses, we hope to link up with the UCU ‘stop the cuts’ campaign – including mobilising the maximum student turnout to the UCU’s national demonstration in London on Saturday 10 May.

Coventry’s fight for free education

Frank Hammond, Coventry Socialist Students

United against attempts to break down our educational infrastructure, workers at Coventry University protested on 15 March. Perfectly planned to clash with the uni’s open day, they were supported by students, other trade unionists, and attendees of the Socialist Party’s national congress taking place in the same city.

John Latham, vice-chancellor and CEO of Coventry uni, has proposed job cuts of over 90 staff and plans to remove 200 others from the pension scheme (see ‘Students: Build the resistance to uni cuts!’.

And what a turnout for the protest. Over a hundred slowly passing by, holding signs; trade unionists, workers and students pumping their fists, clutching their wooden sticks from placards we all built to tell the bosses we aren’t accepting these attacks lying down.

Our placards held our campaign slogan: “Funding not fees! No redundancies!” The Funding Not Fees campaign aims to build a resistance to the many attacks on uni students and workers – the university bosses’ motives being a symptom of the failing system.

Speaking at the protest, former Labour MP Dave Nellist said the ‘fire-and-rehire’ scheme was being used as psychological blackmail against the staff. 66% of UK universities face deficit budgets this year.  If Coventry University succeeded, many other universities would use the same tactics, he said. Clause 22 of the Employment Rights Bill declares ‘fire and rehire’ to be grounds for automatic unfair dismissal. But, with a 174-seat majority in the Commons, Labour, if they wanted to, could have immediately declared the practice illegal last July to protect workers from these attacks. But they didn’t.

Students and workers

My much-loved lecturer and vice chair of Coventry’s University and College Union (UCU) branch Monika Koehler-Ridley was interviewed by BBC news. I was delighted that she has attended a Socialist Party branch meeting to talk about the campaign. Students and workers have a common enemy. We’ll fight for free education, fight to end privatisation, fight for a society where we feel secure in our futures and do our part in pursuing the liberation of the working class.

Breaking news at Cardiff uni

A massive 83% of University and College Union (UCU) members have voted to strike. This is in response to 400 planned job losses.

86% voted for action short of strike, up to and including an assessment boycott. 64% voted in the ballot.

CAMPAIGN: Don’t rent from slum landlord City Rooms!

On By adampd1968In UncategorizedLeave a comment

● Release Declan Miller from the abusive contract!

● Fight back against capitalist housing crisis!

Text from a Queen Mary Socialist Students campaign leaflet

City Rooms have demanded that Declan pay until the end of his contract despite the unlivable conditions at the property. Queen Mary student Declan has had no choice but to work part time to cover extortionate rents and is now being forced to pay for a room he cannot safely live in.

Yet, with a last reported turnover of £16 million and over £1 million in reserves, a rate of profit of around 50% higher than the average London landlord, annual payments to its two owners of £1m in dividends and the director’s salary, City Rooms are more than able to release Declan from this deplorable situation. But choose not to. Instead, they have decided to profit from a young tenant who they have knowingly put and kept in a violent and discriminatory letting, lining their pockets with no regard for the consequences.

A Queen Mary university student has been battling for months with a verbally and physically abusive flatmate, with no safe refuge! We demand that City Rooms, the property management, release Declan Miller from his contract immediately. City rooms, aware of the abusive thug’s behaviour, did not disclose this information upon signing the student into an exploitative contract leaving him unable to access alternative safe accommodation.

These kinds of situations are becoming more frequent than ever. In a borough like Tower Hamlets, with over 20,000 people on the waiting list for council housing, many are forced to resort to dishonest renting contracts with landlords and renting companies taking advantage of people in desperate housing situations. This is why we need fully implemented licensing and inspection of landlords to enforce decent housing standards. There is clearly more that can be done by Tower Hamlets Council to strengthen their licensing scheme which could start by making licensing compulsory for all landlords and bringing in rent controls.

Unaffordable rents, sky-high house prices and a rising cost of living – it’s no wonder that young people experience the worst of the housing crisis, on top of enormous tuition fees that are being increased as of September 2025. The Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) reported in December 2024 that the maximum student loan is now less than the average student rent. The maintenance loans that saddle us with lifelong debt, have left students to fend for themselves in London’s private housing market or are forced to choose cramped and often poor quality halls. This is why we call for the end of the marketisation of our education, and for universities to be free and fully funded to provide safe, accessible housing for all students.

Many councils have declared bankruptcy with 63 more set to do so in the next year due to, now Labour-led, austerity where public services have been cut to the bone, like the recent £5 bn cut from the welfare bill. Starmer’s Labour party has made it clear they do not represent the interests of the working class and young people, cutting the winter fuel payment for pensioners, lifting the cap on tuition fees, and the continued support of the Israeli state’s onslaught on Gaza, many are looking for an alternative to the broken system.

The mass building of council homes, democratic control over housing management and regulations will not happen under Labour, it is clear and necessary that workers and young people must fight for a new mass workers party for an anti-war, anti-austerity programme to provide the services we desperately need. This includes democratic rent caps, a mass housing programme; over 7000,000 homes in the UK are standing empty! If workers and students took this resource into democratic control, it could be one step in the right direction towards fixing the housing crisis and the exploitative tactics of landlords and renting companies who act with impunity.

Fighting back can get results as proven by the case of Lawanya in 2021, a penniless asylum seeker and refugee campaign organiser. City Rooms, with their history of exploiting vulnerable renters, had bullied and forced Lawanya out of their property with no consideration for her situation at the time, whilst still demanding that she pay the rent on the full contract all due to there not being a ‘break clause’ in her contract. Despite this, campaign action and protests led by the Socialist Party backed by the London Renters Union and trade unions like Unite, bought City Rooms to bitterly admit defeat, agreeing to a reduction in the total amount and an affordable repayment rate. This offer was only reached through the resilience and strength of fighting together against the super rich bosses who had even threatened Lawanya’s asylum status!

Now they are back again to threaten and bully another vulnerable person into staying in their property despite it being an unsafe living space. From eviction to unjust debts to unsafe living conditions, challenging the predatory behaviour of companies like City Rooms is vital. Rights for the working class and young people are not granted by the rich, but won through struggle.

Fight for mass council home building and democratic rent control!

  • Implement licensing and inspection of landlords to enforce decent housing standards
  • Full public funding for universities to provide safe housing and make education free
  • Make the rich landlords and bosses pay, fight for socialist policies
  • Workers and young people need our own, new, mass party to fight for our interests