The Socialist 2 December 2020

Better for billionaires, Worse for workers

Spending Review. Unions must resist return to austerity

What will the spending review mean for me?

Napo kickstarts fight against pay freeze

Better for billionaires. Worse for workers

Arcadia and Debenhams closures: Nationalise to save jobs and pensions

Scotland: Campaign wins end to period poverty

NHS: Underfunded, understaffed, underpaid

News in brief

Where is devolution heading?

Don't let the festive season be one of misery for retail workers

Equity union conference calls for radical change - now lead a fight!

Solidarity with Brighton UCU strike - we won't pay for Covid crisis

East London teachers strike in support of victimised union rep

Heathrow workers strike against 'fire and rehire' plans

Hackney: Stop plan to halve school support staff!

Pay freeze protest Homerton Hospital

Unison general secretary ballot closes

'Building back greener' - yet more Tory greenwash

Conflict in Ethiopia: ethnic-linguistic divisions are the historical product of capitalist inequality

Review: Friedrich Engels - Condition of the working class in England

Socialism 2020 feedback

Wales TUSC plans to mount an electoral challenge

Rent strikers' victory in Manchester student halls

Labour meeting lets MP get away with 'Spycops' abstention

Selling the Socialist

Fighting fund target smashed!

TV: The Social Dilemma

Fast fashion, big profits, low pay

Diego Maradona - Working-class rebel, football genius

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Solidarity with Brighton UCU strike - we won't pay for Covid crisis

Brighton UCU pickett line Photo: Glenn Kelly (Click to enlarge)

Phoebe Rimmer, Brighton University Socialist Students

Brighton University's decision to make a third of its IT department redundant during a time when it is so desperately needed, is emblematic of a greater problem - turning universities into businesses.

It is a clear attempt at cutting costs at the expense of providing quality education. Where lectures have moved online in light of the pandemic, the IT team is crucial in ensuring that this can be achieved to as high of a standard as possible, given the circumstances.

How can we expect competent levels of teaching, and communication and resources to be available, without the work of the IT staff who supplement them?

Online teaching is massively important at this time, as it protects our vulnerable students and staff.

We cannot afford to go back to face-to-face teaching when the university cannot provide a safe environment, such as social distancing measures and proper hygiene procedures.

We have seen how universities are a hotspot for the virus, so can we really afford to open up Brighton campuses to risk it all? Are the lives of students and staff worth less than the profits made?

Ultimately we must put an end to the marketisation of education. Under this system, universities will forever be competing with one another like private businesses.

We stand with the University and College Union and their decision to strike on 2 December, and we call on Brighton Students' Union to do so too.

The redundancies will affect our education, our future, and we must unite against Brighton University's financially driven decisions.

University staff are essential in our education, students are not customers, and access to free education is a right.

Staff and students alike should not be exploited to uphold a broken system. Not now, not ever.

In this issue

What we think

Spending Review. Unions must resist return to austerity