Book your stalls for the Freshers’ fairs now!

Socialist Students

Book your stalls for the Freshers’ fairs now!

In September, thousands of young people will be starting at
universities across the country. Many will be looking for an alternative
to the capitalist system that creates poverty, war and terrorism.
Socialist Students is currently active in over 60 universities and
colleges in England and Wales and has the potential to establish more
societies than ever before!

Luke Aylward and Zena Awad, Socialist Students

Freshers’ Fairs are an ideal way either to build an existing
Socialist Students’ society or start a new one. It is the best chance we
have of recruiting new members as well as trying to get across our
socialist ideas.

In some universities and colleges we still have no society
established but we have been active and regularly campaigning on issues
affecting students. Socialist Students members should be confident that
this year will see us established as a society on that campus.

Freshers’ Fairs promote existing clubs and societies to the new
students – the ‘freshers’. They are also meant to help students
launching a club or society to meet other interested students and get
the required number of members to set it up. All National Union of
Students’ (NUS) members have the right to book a stall at the Freshers’
Fairs. Socialist Students are urged to find out the dates involved and
to book their stalls now, before they’re all gone.

Over the last year, young people have seen the occupation of Iraq
descend into chaos, terrorist attacks in London, growing instability in
the world and the failure of the G8 leaders to address the issues of
world poverty and climate change. They face continuing cuts and
privatisation in education and the prospect of student debt, low pay,
casual work and unemployment.

The NUS has failed to mobilise students on these issues, despite the
anger felt by the majority of young people, while cutting democratic
structures within the union. In contrast, Socialist Students have been
in the forefront of taking up and campaigning on issues affecting
students on and off campuses. We call on NUS to campaign against
privatisation and cuts, for a living grant for all students and to be a
fighting union representing the interests of its 5.2 million members.

It is vital that we build Socialist Students to provide an
alternative to those millions. We will fight to transform NUS into an
active campaigning union that could, alongside the trade unions, help
build a movement of students and workers in defence of our services,
against war and terror and for a socialist world.

Socialist Students is already an obstacle to the policies of the
right-wing leadership of the NUS and we are rapidly becoming their main
political challenge locally, regionally and nationally – so book your
Freshers’ Fairs stalls now!