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

UCU strikers, students and RMT transport union members on a picket line together at King’s College London, photo Gary Harbord   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

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!