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From The Socialist newspaper, 26 February 2020
Solidarity with striking university staff
Workers and students unite
UCU strikers, students and RMT transport union members on a picket line together at King's College London, photo Gary Harbord (Click to enlarge)
Reece Lawton, Nottingham University Socialist Students
It is time for students to coordinate action with striking staff, as our struggles against casualisation, the commodification of education, and attacks on trade unions are a struggle against the same enemy - the Tories, the bosses and their system.
The trebling of tuition fees, which came alongside a cut in government funding to universities, has taken its toll on university workers and students alike. On the one hand, it has meant increased workloads and attacks on pay, pensions and conditions for staff. On the other hand, it has meant student debt, spiralling housing costs, and cuts to courses and student services.
This strike is a significant step towards building a united student and worker struggle that fights for the abolition of tuition fees, for an end to the marketisation of higher education, and for a fully-funded education system where the objective is the pursuit of knowledge rather than making profit.
Join your teaching staff and support workers in the University and College Union (UCU) on the picket lines, and let's build a movement to resist Tory austerity and defend our right to protest on the campuses!
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Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 26 February 2020:
News
Average wages recover to pre-crisis levels - but we're still over a decade behind
Bezos gives $10bn for climate - nationalise the rest!
What we think
Immigration: For a system that meets the needs of the majority, not a rich elite
Universities strike
Solidarity with striking university staff
University workers' strike over pay, pensions and workload escalates
Council cuts
Coventry: A socialist councillor who will vote against cuts
Number of women killed by current or ex-partner rises
Leicester: We can't take any more cuts, any more misery, and we are fighting back
Students and workers out together on Budget Day, 11 March
Council cuts could cost Labour another general election
Workplace news
Packed meeting of workplace militants, strikers, socialists and trade union leaders
All out to win Royal Mail strike reballot
PCS union relaunches pay campaign
Workers call on Interserve bosses to recognise union
International news
Germany: Right-wing terror attacks - fight racism, fight capitalism!
Northern Ireland's strike wave
The BBC
This is the BBC: fight the cuts - and the capitalist media
Campaigns
Congress 2020 appeal: Donate to help us renew vital resources
Readers' opinion
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