Defend the right to protest: demo in Sheffield, Saturday 3rd April , photo A Tice

Defend the right to protest: demo in Sheffield, Saturday 3rd April , photo A Tice   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Noah Eden, Sheffield Socialist Students

I am a 2nd year student, and an avid socialist. Since term began in Sheffield, the Socialist Party and Socialist Students have been working tirelessly to campaign for the change we want to see.

Since freshers week, we have had weekly Socialist Students meetings, with new faces turning up every week, eager to get involved in discussions and ask questions.

Our six meetings have included topics like ‘violence against women and police misogyny’ and ‘colonialism, imperialism and racism’. Both of those meetings had talks given by our own Socialist Students members. And we have had weekly campaign stalls.

In one meeting, we were very lucky to have talks given by Chris Rawlinson, the Unite union branch secretary for the University of Sheffield, and Lisa Gibson, a fellow Unite rep and cleaner. They told us about the campaign to try and get the university cleaners £10 an hour. We ran stalls to get signatures to help their campaign, which has won!

We took part in the Youth Fight for Jobs demonstration in Leeds (see ‘Hundreds march with Youth Fight for Jobs’ at socialistparty.org.uk), marching around the city centre for a £15-an-hour minimum wage and the abolition of zero-hour contracts.

The rally had a plethora of great speakers, including Sarah Woolley, the bakers’ union BFAWU general secretary. The demonstration was covered by ITV News. We have many more plans, including a climate change demo on 6 November.

  • socialiststudents.org.uk