Sofia Pandolfi, college student and Socialist Students member, gave an inspiring speech at Socialism 2025. Read what she had to say here!
Young people today have grown up in a world of crisis. We’ve seen governments increase university tuition fees, cut our youth services, attempt to strip away disability benefits for young people, and propose a future which gives us no hope.
Internationally, we’ve watched our government support the brutal genocide in Palestine, claiming it has no money to invest in our education and services.
Living under a system devoid of opportunities, and dependent on international exploitation, has fuelled anger and frustration.
But if we young people are to have a real future to look forward to, we need to transform our anger into action – by getting organised for a socialist alternative to capitalism, and the war, exploitation and oppression that this system produces.
That is what Socialist Students did when Donald Trump, an embodiment of capitalism in crisis, came to visit the UK on the invitation of Keir Starmer in September.
Socialists Students organised a campaign of youth walkouts against Trump to get young people organised against Trump and Starmer’s politics of war and division. To build for the walkouts in London, I helped to give out hundreds of leaflets, put up posters, and met with students to share ideas on how to protest against Trump’s visit.
Hundreds of students across the country, standing up to Trump and the brutal system he represents, walked out of their schools, colleges, and universities on the 17 September – the day Trump was in Windsor Castle feasting on a state banquet with Starmer, the King, and a guest list of billionaire tech CEOs.
It wasn’t easy. At one school in South London, we watched the headteacher rip leaflets out of students’ hands. At another school in East London, the management called the police to intimidate students into not protesting.
The youth walkouts against Trump were a chance to show that young people can fight back when we get organised. Socialist Students is now following up the walkouts with a campaign to get students in schools, sixth forms and colleges building our own students’ unions, as a way for young people to have an organised voice. Not just for one day, but always.
By getting organised as students, we can more effectively link up with the workers who keep our education and society running and build a united movement for the socialist change that we all need.
For that, young people also need a political voice through which we can fight alongside the organised working class. Your Party is an opportunity to do that.
Your Party could give a voice to young people’s anger by demanding fully funded free education, mass building of council houses and rent controls, as part of a socialist programme to transform the lives of working-class and young people.
Why not take that first step by having Zarah Sultana, Jeremy Corbyn, and other Your Party MPs in the Independent Alliance proposing an amendment to the upcoming budget – instead of Labour’s plans for more tuition fee rises, calling for the total abolition of fees, as well as the cancellation of student debt, and the immediate reintroduction of maintenance grants for all students?
Socialist Students members have joined Your Party and are fighting for socialism and working-class struggle to be at the heart of it.
In universities across the country, we’ve organised dozens of meetings discussing how Your Party can be a democratic voice for students. As a next step to building the party we need on campus, we will be inviting Zarah Sultana, Jeremy Corbyn and the other Independent Alliance MPs to be part of a Your Party speaking tour of universities and colleges.
If you want to help build a political voice which can help unite students and young people with the powerful struggles of the working class, then join Socialist Students at your school, college or university to help build the fightback.
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.
Come to the Central London demo, Saturday 11 October
Join the Socialist Students contingent!
Meet from 11.30am for speeches before marching – Cleopatra’s Needle, by Embankment Station
Contact 07515921699 or socialistudents@gmail.com for more info
For two years the Israeli state has inflicted genocidal horror on the Palestinians, backed up by capitalist governments around the world, including Starmer’s Labour Party in Britain.
After collaborating in the killing of over 60,000 Palestinians, injuring hundreds of thousands, and reducing the Gaza strip to rubble, Donald Trump and the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have the nerve to now pronounce a ‘peace plan’ to end the war on Gaza.
What say do the Palestinian masses have in all this? Where is their right to democratically decide how to organise their society and fight for a future free from starvation, war and repression?
By linking up with the working classes throughout the region, the Palestinians could build a powerful movement to take wealth, resources and control of society out of the hands of the warmongering capitalist elites. That would lay the foundation for real ‘peace’ and the genuine right to self-determination.
Instead there is the devastating prospect of a ‘transitional authority’ in Gaza headed by Trump. This is the man who has talked about turning Gaza into a ‘riviera’ – a playground for the super-rich established through the continued expulsion, oppression and exploitation of the Palestinians.
Trump’s choice for right-hand man is fellow warmonger Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister who led the British invasion of Iraq – not to mention introducing tuition fees, privatising the NHS, selling off council homes, and handing over schools to big business academy trusts.
Clearly the Palestinians have no future in the hands of these capitalist leaders, whose priority is the profit interests of the super-rich and big business, and never the needs of working-class and young people. That’s why the global anti-war movement in solidarity with the Palestinians cannot let up.
Students have launched encampments on university campuses. School and college students have walked out of class to protest the slaughter in Gaza, including hundreds who took part in the Youth Walkouts against Trump when the US President came to the UK in September.
Socialist Students is calling on students to join our contingent on the next National March for Palestine on Saturday 11 October. We think young people need to get organised in the fight for socialism as the only way to end all war and deliver a decent future for all, in Britain and around the world. Joining our contingent will be a good starting point!
And after the contingent, get involved with Socialist Students in your school, college or university to continue the fight for a socialist future. Socialist Students is joining Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s ‘Your Party’ this term to fight for an anti-war socialist voice for working-class and young people. We will also be campaigning for the funding needed for our education, including supporting workers’ strikes against redundancies and cuts to our courses.
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.
Socialist Students hosting an ‘open mic’ at the end of the Trump Not Welcome demonstration in London, 17.09.25
Across the UK, students have walked out in protest against Donald Trump’s state visit.
Trump was invited by our prime minister, Keir Starmer, to join him for a luxury banquet with the King. Thousands of miles away from the royal palace, the Palestinians in Gaza meanwhile continue to starve – a horror that Trump and Starmer have backed up through their support of the Israeli state’s war of terror.
By walking out of school, college and university on September 17, young people have sent a clear message to Trump, Starmer and all the big business politicians: “We won’t stand for your agenda of war, poverty and discrimination. We’re ready to fight for our futures!”
The youth walkouts against Trump’s state visit show that young people can have a voice when we unite and fight together. Now we need to get organised in our schools and colleges, to make sure the voice of our generation is heard as loudly and consistently as possible, so that we can have a real say over what goes on in our lives.
We need a say in stopping our government supporting war in Gaza and all around the world. We need to demand and fight for our right to protest. We need a say in how our education is run. And that’s just the start of what we need to fight for, if we want a world where our lives come before profit!
That’s why Socialist Students is calling on young people to build students’ unions in schools and colleges across the UK, as the best way to continue the fight for our futures beyond September 17.
Students’ unions can give us a voice
A students’ union means young people coming together, sharing our ideas for how to fight back, and then all pulling together with a plan to win.
The first step is holding a meeting of everyone who is interested in campaigning in your school/college. You could start by inviting anyone who protested against Trump. But to get even more people involved, you could put up posters and give out leaflets to other students, advertising the date and time for your meeting.
In the meeting, everyone can have a chance to share their thoughts on what the main issues are facing students in your school/college, and what students should do about it. There might be anger at war, racism or the climate crisis. Or maybe students have had enough of high cafeteria prices, or the expensive cost of school trips. Students have the right to protest on all of this and more!
There are lots of ways to campaign on the issues students face. You could hold a protest at lunchtime. You could write a protest letter to your headteacher, explaining the issues you face and the changes you want to see, and get as many students as possible to sign it. You could all organise to attend an upcoming protest in your town/city, and make posters to bring with you.
The key thing is getting people to discuss and agree on an issue, make a plan to protest, and then do it – as a team! That’s the power of a students’ union.
Do you want help building a students’ union at your school/college?
Socialist Students is an organisation of young people who want to fight for socialism. We are active in schools, colleges and universities across the UK.
Socialism means a world where the needs of people come before the profits of big business and the super-rich. Socialism would be a world where people work together to end the problems facing humanity: war, climate change, poverty, racism and all forms of discrimination.
Socialist Students fights now for every step possible towards a socialist world. We know the wealth exists to give everyone a good life, but it’s in the hands of a tiny minority of super-rich people: the capitalists. In all our campaigns, we point towards the need for a movement of working-class and young people to take that wealth into our hands instead – for socialist change, not capitalist chaos.
Build a new party against the system he represents – fight for a socialist future!
As the people in Gaza starve to death, and thousands are massacred just queuing for food, Donald Trump will be visiting the UK to feast on a luxury banquet with the King. How can we not protest?
That’s why Socialist Students is calling on students to walk out from their schools, colleges and universities on 17 September – the day Trump arrives in the UK for his official ‘state visit’.
Trump wants to turn Gaza into a “riviera”, as a playground for the super-rich. Trump, like Biden before him, has led the US in backing up the Israeli state’s war of terror on the Palestinians, and accepts the Israeli military attacks on Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
How has our prime minister Keir Starmer responded? By handing Trump an invite to meet the King on a five-star, three-day holiday to the UK in September – paid for with the taxes of working-class people! Starmer like Trump has no issue with the Israeli state waging war on the Palestinians.
Young people have to send a message to Trump and Starmer that we won’t stand for their capitalist system, which awards privileges to the warmongers and profits to the super-rich while creating wars, climate crisis, and poverty for the rest of us.
Let’s get organised for a real future. For a socialist world free from war, poverty and oppression.
We can beat Starmer’s Labour
A good future for young people is a million miles from what Starmer’s Labour Party wants. Their main concern is protecting the profits of big business and the super-rich, by making workers and young people pay the price.
But we can beat them back. Starmer has so far led his government into humiliating U-turns over attacks to disability benefits and the winter fuel payment, under pressure from mass opposition. No wonder Starmer wants to stop us fighting back by clamping down on our right to protest.
By building mass movements of workers and young people, we could end all arms sales to Israel, and fight to end the siege of Gaza and occupation of all the Palestinian territories.
Key to this is building a political alternative to Labour. The huge enthusiasm for the initiative of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana to launch a new party shows the potential for this – a mass workers’ party that makes the super-rich pay, not workers and young people.
Defend the right to protest
We’ve seen how Starmer has tried to criminalise the anti-war movement. But he should remember the fate of the former Tory home secretary, Suella Braverman. She tried to ban the Gaza anti-war protests as ‘hate marches’, but she got thrown out – and eventually so did her government! That happened because of mass opposition to the Tories. We can do the same under Labour too.
How can you build the youth walkouts against Trump?
1) Get other people on board!
Who do you know who hates Trump? Who do you know who wants to fight for a decent future for young people? Tell them about the campaign and get them involved in building the walkouts!
You could give out leaflets in your town or city centre to let other young people know about the walkout campaign. If we meet someone who wants to organise a walkout in their school or college, why not give them a stack of leaflets to give out to people they know? Order walkout material here!
On the first day of term, could you organise to give out leaflets to students at your school or college? It could be before class starts, during breaktime, or at the end of the day as people leave – as long as it gets a buzz going from day one of term!
From there, how will you plan to keep up the momentum all the way to September 17? What about a meeting to get everyone organised? Could you then plan some more leafleting? What about putting up posters?
By discussing with other people, you can make a plan for what your walkout will look like. After walking out, could you organise a march from your school/college? Could you all meet up in the weeks before September 17 to make posters or banners, which you could carry as you walk out? What slogans could you use? What protest chants can you think of? What about marching to a nearby park or open space and having a protest there after walking out?
3) Tell us where you’re walking out on September 17!
Young people are determined to have a say in our lives and the big events that affect them, as was shown by the student walkouts against the Iraq war in 2003 (see below), as well as school climate strikes, mass Gaza protests, Black Lives Matter and more.
The capitalist education system tries to strip away our confidence to take action. Restrictive rules, a lack of say in our curriculum, locked gates that trap us in the whole day – it’s designed to make us feel powerless.
Walking out is a way to temporarily turn this arrangement on its head. It’s a chance for young people to get a sense of our own agency, and link up with wider struggles taking place. The experience of a one-day walkout can be the lesson of a lifetime, which is that we don’t have to accept things the way they are.
That is what hundreds of thousands of students showed by walking out against the invasion of Iraq. By helping to organise the biggest possible walkouts against Trump’s state visit to the UK on 17 September, Socialist Students wants to show that young people today are again prepared to fight back for a future free from poverty, war and oppression.
The work we do now over the summer is laying the foundations for huge protests when term starts again.
WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW
1) 26 July – Day of action against Starmer’s meeting with Trump
Ahead of his formal state visit in September, Trump is visiting Scotland from 25-29 July.
As part of this visit, he will meet with prime minister Keir Starmer. Both men are united in their defence of a capitalist system that means chaos and brutality for the vast majority of the world’s population – demonstrated, for example, in their support for the Israeli state’s genocidal war on the Palestinians. No wonder Starmer has spoken of his “good personal relationship” with Trump!
Socialist Students is calling a UK-wide day of action on Saturday 26 July to protest against the war and austerity agenda of Trump and Starmer. It is a chance for everyone who has said they will walk out on 17 September to get together in their area and give Trump a taste of what’s to come.
You could organise a protest, hold a mass leafleting and postering session, or do a campaign stall with an ‘open mic’ or megaphone that allows us to tell passers-by why we will be walking out. The important thing is being visible to other young people who we can talk to about getting involved in the campaign over the rest of the summer.
2) Poster the town red!
Socialist Students has had a flurry of names through our website from areas that have been covered in ‘Youth Walkout Against Trump’ posters. You can organise to stick up posters in places where young people are likely to see them – like parks, or town or city centres. If you want to get posters to put up in your area, or any other Trump walkout material, visit our resources page.
3) Big opportunities for leafleting
There are a number of ‘headline’ events where we can meet young people over the summer. These include:
Pride events
Music festivals and other community/cultural festivals
A-Level results days at sixth forms/colleges (Thursday 14 August)
GCSE results days at schools (Thursday 21 August)
If we get a group of young people going along to hand out leaflets, we can have an even bigger impact. Why not start by inviting your friends to help you out?
4) Organise a meetup – what ideas are needed to beat Trump and capitalism?
If all goes well, there will be a group of students walking out from your school, college or university on 17 September. But what do we chant? What slogans are we protesting around? After 17 September, what will the next steps be in the fight against Trump and the chaos he represents for our futures?
Answering all of that requires a discussion on what Trump is, the capitalist system he represents, and the need for socialism as the alternative.
A vital way to build the campaign over the summer is getting young people together to discuss how we can beat Trump and capitalism – combining our action with ideas to change the world. If you want to request a speaker to come and speak at your meetup, get in touch at socialistudents@gmail.com.
5) Building links with the workers’ movement
Walking out can be a nerve-racking experience. One way to gain confidence in our action is by building points of support in our community, to show that, as young people, we don’t stand alone.
The trade unions are organisations that bring together workers who, like all of us walking out against Trump, are fighting to change society in the interests of ordinary people, not the bosses.
You can send our model trade union motion to trade union branches and trades councils in your area, to ask for their solidarity – including asking if we could speak about our campaign at an upcoming meeting.
‘Day X’ – when hundreds of thousands walked out against war
Guest article originally published in The Socialist issue 1331
Socialist Party reporters
In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, school students in Britain walked out of classes and protests multiple times against the war.
The Socialist Party was a leading part of the huge anti-war demonstrations that year, some of the biggest in history, and we were also among the main organisers of the school walkouts, with the campaign ‘International Socialist Resistance – youth against the war’ (ISR) calling a walkout on ‘Day X’ – the day of the invasion – and other initiatives.
Protests and walkouts build up
On 15 February over 30 million people internationally demonstrated against Bush and Blair’s war for oil in Iraq. Many of those protesting were school and college students who saw the demo as the first step in building the anti-war movement.
We helped school and college students across England and Wales to set up student-run anti-war groups and to organise walkouts, strikes and protests as part of the international student day of action against the war and cuts in education on 5 March.
On that day in Coventry, Max Toynbee from Finham Park school reported: “At my school we got about 35 people to a meeting at which Dave Nellist spoke [then Coventry Socialist Party councillor for St Michael’s ward]. A lot of people there were year seven students, who are in the first year of secondary school, 11 and 12-year-olds.”
In Sheffield 400 students took part in the strikes: “When students arrived in the city centre, there was a really lively march with loads of chanting and singing – which then went onto the FE college and another school and went round calling for students to ‘Come Out and join our protests’.
“This took place in the background of some head teachers and the education department trying to stop the walkouts through the press, including a head teacher sending letters home to parents telling them students had been given ISR flyers!”
In London, Downing Street and Whitehall came to a grinding halt for an hour when 500 school students took a rolling protest from Parliament Green down to the gates of Downing Street.
“School students from across London – from north, south and west – and even from Potters Bar in Hertfordshire came to the demonstration. Throughout the day new groups of students arrived after walking out of their school. Some had just heard about the action on the news and decided to walk out. A number of students had been threatened with exclusion but as many said: ‘They can’t exclude all of us if we stick together.’”
There were more walkouts on 7 March, in Leicester alone our reports suggest that at least 1,000 walked out, from maybe ten schools around the county.
In the next two weeks there was further action. Over 100 school students from Clapton girls school in Hackney, London, organised a lively strike on 17 March.
Natalie, 16, told the Socialist: “We organised this strike because we felt like we needed our voice heard and to do something before the war starts. The strike has gone really well, apart from some teachers telling us to go back into school. We are going to build this by going to as many schools as possible to get them to protest – Blair isn’t listening and we have to make him!”
Day X
And then came Day X and the invasion itself on 20 March. Within hours of cruise missiles exploding in Baghdad a wave of anti-war demos and protests, involving millions of people, swept around the globe. And as our reports from issue 293 of the Socialist show, students on Day X were to the fore as tens of thousands walked out.
We said: “The London borough of Waltham Forest has never seen anything like it. At the peak of the protest 3,000 school and sixth form students took over the streets. Together they marched chanting and shouting from school to school in the borough. Terrified teachers rushed to lock the gates and stop students from joining the march, although a few managed to escape.”
In Birmingham: “Well over 5,000 school, college and university students poured into Victoria Square, Birmingham after a wave of walkouts and strikes across the city.
“Many school students were barricaded into schools by teachers but climbed over fences and gates to join the protest against the war. Whole schools were threatened with suspension if they walked out. However, this had little effect.”
Lev Taylor in Reading said: “The amount of people was amazing – just about the entire school had turned up and there were groups yelling anti-war slogans.”
Students in Britain were joined by others internationally. Sascha Stanicic, CWI Germany, wrote about the 150,000 who walked out in Germany: “In a magnificent show of anger against Bush’s war, school students stopped their lessons and took to the streets. In some cities headmasters tried to lock them into the schools. This prompted youth to shout “freedom for the political prisoners”.
In other cases, teachers joined in the strike and took their whole classes to the demos.
“In Hamburg, we co-organised a half-hour stoppage of work by apprentices in the defence company Airbus. Hospital workers in some southern German cities also stopped work for 30 minutes against the war. One of the biggest school student demonstrations took place in Berlin with 70,000 on the march. Stuttgart followed with 20,000 in the second school strike within a month.”
Aftermath
We didn’t stop on Day X either. We organised more action and said the lead of the school students should be joined by the trade unions and workers: “The school students who turned out in the run-up to and including Day X in London and throughout the country definitely inspired many groups of workers.
“However, it is still the case that the anti-union laws and the threat of victimisation still weighs heavy on many people, who would like to take protest action and strike action but still are not fully confident about initiating such action themselves. While there were lots of protests and workers taking time off, the occurrence of actual industrial action was, unfortunately, limited, because many union leaders did not back up their calls for action with concrete plans.
“That is why the Socialist Party proposal for organising a meeting of workplace reps, union executive committee members and general secretaries is crucial.”
And for the school students, we fought disciplinary action that had arisen in some places against those who walked out: “Those who have been disciplined or threatened with exclusion by their schools for taking anti-war action will be offered support against victimisation. Local coalitions are also being asked to raise the matter with local MPs and councillors, and the NUT teachers’ union at a local level is to be approached for help.”
The fantastic school student walkouts and protests in March 2003 show what is possible and are an inspiring lesson for today.
Buckingham Palace has booked in Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK for 17-19 September.
Already hundreds of students have signed up to walk out of their schools, colleges and universities on Wednesday 17 September – the day that Trump arrives in the UK – as part of the Youth Walkout Against Trump campaign.
The youth walkouts, initiated by Socialist Students, will be a protest against the chaos that Trump’s presidency represents for young people’s futures globally.
Students will be walking out to instead demand a future to look forward to – for free education, a decent job, and the guarantee of a high-quality and affordable home for all; for an end to climate crisis; and for a world free from war, oppression and exploitation.
With Trump’s visit taking place while Parliament is in recess, Keir Starmer and his Labour government will be hoping to escape the firing line of mass protests like those which Trump provoked during his first state visit to the UK in 2018.
But the Youth Walkout Against Trump campaign will not let Labour off the hook. Adam Gillman, Socialist Students national organiser,said: “By building the youth walkouts, we can send a powerful message to young people and workers in America that we stand with them against Trump – not with Starmer, who issued the invite for this state visit.”
TJ, a 19-year-old student in Leeds, said: “Labour has made cut after cut to young people’s futures while bosses make record profits. now they roll out the red carpet for oppressive leaders abroad. I am building for these walkouts to give young people a way to show Starmer’s Labour that this is not what the public voted for.”
Lauren from Wrexham said: “Trump’s visit to the UK is an opportunity to fight back; not just against him but the capitalist system he upholds, which puts the interests of big business above the lives of working-class people. These walkouts are a chance to stand up to Trump, as well as our government who welcome him with open arms, and all other leaders who uphold this corrupt system! That’s why I’m building the youth walkouts against Trump.”
Penelope, a college student from Preston, highlighted the common attacks facing students either side of the Atlantic: “Trump has cut funding to US universities, and has attacked students and staff standing up on issues like Palestine. Meanwhile Starmer’s government here raises universities tuition fees and continues the rampant underfunding of all levels of education. By walking out when Trump visits we are showing that young people everywhere have to fight for a decent education, in a capitalist world where none of our hard-won rights can be taken for granted”.
While the university term has come to a close, and schools and sixth forms break up next week, Socialist Students will be continuing to build the walkout campaign over the summer – including calling public youth meetings in towns and cities throughout the UK to discuss how young people can build the walkouts and get organised to win a decent future under this Labour government.
Socialist Students members building the Trump walkouts on the national Gaza demo in London, 21.06.25
Hannah Ponting, Liverpool Socialist Students
It is no secret that Donald Trump’s second term as president spells out even further chaos for the world. His bombing of Iran is an alarming escalation of an already explosive situation. He has bragged about doing “monumental damage” in Iran, but all he is doing is creating monumental fear and instability.
He has disgustingly backed up the Israeli state’s slaughter in Gaza, calling for it to be made into a holiday resort dubbed the ‘Gaza Riviera’.
It follows his aggressive use of trade tariffs – particularly in relation to China – which has already worsened international tensions. On top of this, Trump has demonstrated his willingness to trash the climate for his own interests, calling to “drill baby, drill” more fossil fuels, and withdrawing the United States from the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement in 2020.
The chaos Trump brings is a reflection of a system that prioritises profit first and foremost, at the expense of the working class and young people. Trump’s capitalist agenda offers no real solutions for ordinary people in the US and instead, through his international aggression, actively endangers people across the globe.
This is why Socialist Students has launched the Youth Walkout Against Trump campaign in preparation for ‘Day X’ – the day of Trump’s second state visit, the date of which has not yet been announced. To give students in schools, colleges and universities the opportunity to organise and protest against Trump’s visit and the capitalist system which it reflects.
But this isn’t simply about one man. Trump is a symptom of capitalism – a system which prioritises profit above all else, fuelling war and inequality worldwide.
In order for us to effectively oppose Trump, it is necessary to oppose the capitalist system he represents, and instead present an alternative way forward, against wars and austerity, and towards socialism.
Sofia Pandolfi, college student in West London
Socialist Students is building for youth walkouts against US president Donald Trump’s planned visit to the UK. At our campaign stall outside West London College in Hammersmith, we had a strong response from students, teachers, and people passing by.
Many students were keen on demonstrating their opposition to both Trump, and Keir Starmer, who has invited him. With our leaflets on the youth walkouts, we explained to students how they could get others in their college to participate, and how they could prepare for a walkout.
People applauded our initiative. Walkouts support our fight for workers and young people to unite against Trump, and also the capitalist system he is part of.
By campaigning for the Trump walkouts among students in schools, colleges, and universities across the country, we can build an organised, national response against his visit.
Leeds – building walkout on my first stall
Dylan, Notre Dame Sixth Form College student
I took part in a campaign stall protesting Trump’s visit to the UK. It was my first stall.
I was able to hand out many leaflets, targeting students. We were able to get five students to leave their details to help with organising the protest, as well as handing out almost all of our leaflets.
I talked to many who were curious, yet had limited knowledge on politics. But they acknowledged that the current state of affairs is tumultuous, and may start to affect their lives. One man was worried and conflicted on the war between Israel and Iran.
Some of the apolitical rhetoric has not just come from ignorance, but from a lack of left representation in politics. This has left the majority of the youth with a ‘why bother’ attitude, as they believe their vote is powerless, and that no current party can truly capture their views.
MidKent College – anger at Trump and Starmer
James Gretton, university student
Socialist Party members promoted the youth walkout against Trump to students at MidKent College in Medway. At our campaign stall, students opposed to Trump likewise opposed Starmer. They organically connected the dots that both leaders favour the capitalist class, exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis for everyone.
But a common response from MidKent students was how Trump and his consequences are confined to the US, not concerning the UK. But Trumpism is accelerating the capitalist crisis. And Trump’s far-right populism threatens the rights of various groups, including students.
In times of capitalist crisis, world leaders hope their people won’t fight back. Students and workers, including at MidKent, can disprove that with a socialist fightback.
Protests have erupted in Los Angeles, California against the deportation of migrants, under the orders of Trump, by immigration authority ICE. The Trump administration has sent in the National Guard, a military force, to put down protests. Workers and young people have faced tear gas, rubber bullets and explosives from state forces.
Hypocritically, both Trump and Democratic Governor of California Gavin Newsom have called for an end to violence, while forces under their instructions carry out acts of brutality.
During the protests, David Huerta, President of California’s largest trade union the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), was arrested. The union is currently organising a strike of 55,000 LA county workers.
Trump and other capitalist politicians want to cut across a united working-class fightback. With nothing positive to offer working-class and young people, Trump’s policies are aimed at whipping up division – carrying out cuts and attacking the rights of women, trans people, migrants and others.
These events show that his attacks will provoke protests, in the US and internationally.
When Trump comes to visit Britain, we are ready to show we stand with the working class in the US and internationally, not with Starmer’s Labour government rolling out the red carpet for him.
It’s important we start organising and building for the walkouts now so that, the moment Trump steps foot in Britain, we can have a united show of strength. To get involved and help us prepare for the walkouts, get involved and join Socialist Students. Help us build a socialist alternative to capitalist chaos.
Socialist Students 