Students in Warwick campaigning for free education were brutally attacked by police in December. Officers stormed their occupation with CS gas and Tasers, beating everyone in reach, and dragging one student across the room by her hair.

Manchester Socialist Students called a protest in response. Our vibrant, enthusiastic march from the students' union to the local police station sent a clear message that police violence has no place on campus. We didn't come across a single person who thought police actions were justifiable.

Laurence Maples, Manchester

Profit destroys lives

The violence at Warwick University was just part of ongoing attempts to undermine the right to protest. Attacks on democratic rights go hand in hand with austerity, and are designed to repress attempts to fight back.

So on 10 December, students at Leicester University gathered to show solidarity with Warwick students.

The event was also a vigil for Professor Stefan Grimm, the Imperial College London researcher who died last month, apparently by suicide. Stefan was attacked by bosses for failing to attract commercial interest in his pioneering work on an "anti-cancer gene".

In a final email, he wrote: "What these guys don't know is that they destroy lives. Well, they certainly destroyed mine. This is not a university anymore but a business, with a very few, up in the hierarchy, profiteering, and the rest of us milked for money."

The two events are connected. Escalating tuition fees and deteriorating working conditions are both results of marketising education.

Caroline Vincent, Leicester

Rally against racism

Chants of "Hands up - don't shoot!" and "No justice, no peace" were heard loud and clear in Huddersfield in December. Thirty university and college students gathered in the pouring rain to protest US police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

Incensed by the justice system's failure to indict the officers responsible for these brutal murders, Socialist Students from Huddersfield University and Greenhead College organised a solidarity protest and vigil.

Darren Wilson's lack of remorse on national television, stating that he would do it all again, is not only disgusting but points to an overarching problem with the system. Victims of police killings disproportionally look like Michael Brown and not like Darren Wilson.

This is not a problem just for America. In Britain today, despite the mainstream media trying to convince us otherwise, we are eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a terrorist. In both Britain and the US, despite significant differences in the justice system, you are more likely to be killed by the police if you are black.

Students in Huddersfield increasingly realise the law enforcement and judicial system can't solve the problem of embedded racism. Organisation and independent action are the keys to change.

Lily Green, Huddersfield

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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.

Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.

We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.

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From: The Socialist issue 838, 7 January 2015: Bankers get bonuses... workers get the boot

Socialist Students campaigning reports

Socialist Students is a democratic campaigning organisation with groups in universities and colleges throughout the country.

Read more at socialiststudents.org.uk

Cops off campus!