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Solidarity

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From: The Socialist issue 1075, 26 February 2020: Austerity kills

Search site for keywords: Solidarity - University - Students - Student - Education

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.