The Socialist 3 January 2018

Widening wealth gap, increase in poverty…make the fat cats pay

2018: more upheavals loom

Tory prescription for mental illness: stress and bureaucracy

The Socialist inbox

Widening wealth gap, increase in poverty...make the fat cats pay

Mobilise against rip-off executive pay

Rail: fares up, bosses' pay up - delays and cancellations up

Thousands live in tents and sheds - seize empty homes

Heart unit rescued by campaigning saves baby with pioneering surgery

NHS in winter crisis as Branson creams off £1bn

Blairite council 'all ears' to rich property developers

Stop the rotten redevelopment plan, demand residents

Housing victory for Sussex students

Leeds: temporary reprieve for playing fields

Bradford protest against children's service cuts

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition conference

Equal sick pay rights for staff at Charlton Park Academy

Newham: school strike solid against academy

Fire service victory

Leeds college pay protests

Catalan elections: PP humiliated

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Higher education

Mobilise against rip-off executive pay and marketisation

Fight for free education

Socialist Students marching for free education, 2016, photo Isai Priya (Click to enlarge)

Theo Sharieff, Socialist Students national chair

In the new year honours, five 'fat cat' current and former vice-chancellors were rewarded for their 'services to education'.

The national outrage that was sparked before Christmas over the levels of VC pay led to the resignation of Bath university vice-chancellor Glynis Breakwell. So the vast majority of students and staff on campuses will be perplexed and angered over why our university executives continue to be rewarded and praised by the political establishment.

One recent article in the Sunday Times reported on the comparatively 'low pay' of Harper Adams University's vice-chancellor, which currently stands at £182,000 a year - higher than the prime minister's salary.

And while this may be on the lower end of the scale as compared to other fat cat VCs, it is eye-wateringly high in the eyes of the vast majority of students and workers who have to put up with low-paid, precarious work on campuses and elsewhere.

What's more, these grotesque rates of pay continue at a time when it was reported by the Financial Times that millennials face a pension squeeze, with the government admitting openly that around 12 million workers are currently under-saving for their retirement.

As the furore over vice-chancellor pay has continued, student support for the Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party has continued to grow, peaking in December at a staggering 68%. This support reflects his popular policy of abolishing tuition fees and bringing back maintenance grants.

Jeremy Corbyn should capitalise on the protests started by Bath university students and workers last term by harnessing this record level of support and calling for national demonstrations against rip-off executive pay and the marketisation of our universities.

Mass demonstrations, coordinated by the National Union of Students and supported by the Labour leadership, and linked to demands for greater accountability, workers' rights on campuses and free education, could see the end to this rotten Tory government.

In this issue

New Year statement

2018: more upheavals loom