{"id":32788,"date":"2022-06-19T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2022-06-19T07:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?p=32788"},"modified":"2025-02-23T11:02:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T11:02:58","slug":"reviving-student-action-and-strike-solidarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/society\/education\/reviving-student-action-and-strike-solidarity\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviving student action and strike solidarity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">The decade since the abolition of the university fee cap in 2012 has felt painfully long for staff and students. Universities are no longer fertile ground for public knowledge but an exercise in marketised competition, commodification and over-inflated managerialism. Accordingly, students are increasingly framed as consumers entrapped in swelling debt, while overworked academics are forced to dedicate more time to admin than to teaching or research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s not that the university sector is strapped for cash. With more than<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.lse.ac.uk\/politicsandpolicy\/the-marketisation-of-our-universities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> 2,500 managerial staff <\/a>on six-figure salaries and the average vice chancellor raking in \u00a3250,000, students know exactly where their \u00a39,000 a year is going. Moreover, with the decline in direct government funding and the near abolition of teaching and maintenance grants, universities are becoming bigger players in the finance sector. Alongside traditional borrowing from banks, universities have taken to issuing their <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@drleejones\/the-seven-deadly-sins-of-marketisation-in-british-higher-education-c91102a04a8f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">own bonds<\/a> on the debt capital markets to raise funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where are universities putting this money? It\u2019s not enriching student education, nor supporting lecturers and support staff. No, capital is being raised to construct lavish campus buildings and unaffordable purpose-built student accommodation. The intention? More students, more money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Worse is coming. The 2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/805127\/Review_of_post_18_education_and_funding.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Augar review<\/a>, an independent report into UK higher and further education, <a href=\"https:\/\/wonkhe.com\/blogs\/the-augar-review-the-essential-overview-for-he\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recommended<\/a> lowering tuition fees to \u00a37,500 per year. This lip service to \u2018consumer rights\u2019 (when education should be free), paired with the Conservatives\u2019 unwillingness to publicly fund social goods, is expected to come with lower repayment thresholds on student loans, disproportionately impacting lower earners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But students and workers are fighting back. The UK\u2019s roughly 2.5 million students are already becoming the housing activists and disability rights campaigners of the future, by rejecting the division between town and gown and acknowledging the continuities and solidarities that link us to broader society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And we are already winning. On 5 November 2020, students on Manchester\u2019s Fallowfield campus woke up to find themselves in a makeshift prison after security set up temporary fences around student halls. Furious, they tore down the fences, kickstarting the largest rent strike in 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These strikes were an unparalleled success, the student movement had not organised so successfully for years. It was reported that <a href=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/uk\/2021\/11\/02\/exclusive-students-were-given-140m-in-rent-refunds-last-academic-year-227450\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u00a3140 million <\/a>has been returned to students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, in early 2021, a small group of universities in London initiated fee strikes, a tactic borrowed from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2021\/feb\/18\/the-columbia-university-student-strike-is-about-far-more-than-tuition\">US student organisers<\/a> and largely led by the group \u2018Liberate the University\u2019. From this, the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/redsqmovement\">Red Square Movement<\/a>&nbsp;emerged. Rent strike organisers, postgraduates, students\u2019 union officers, National Union of Students activists from a range of struggles formed a national organisation. We\u2019ve shown that resistance is not only possible <em>\u2013<\/em> it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our mission is simple: we want to repurpose universities to meet the needs of our communities, continue the fight for free, liberated education and build a renewed, radical student movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There will be plenty for us to organise around in the coming year. We are looking ahead to two major flashpoints, each with huge implications for the future of universities. First, the UCU and other unions will strike again in what is likely to be the decisive final showdown in their long-running dispute over pay, pensions, equality, and working conditions. Second, when the government finally gets round to it, we are expecting regressive changes this year to the way this broken system is funded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The same students who tore down fences and went on rent strike last year will now have a good chunk of their lessons cancelled due to strikes<em><em>\u2013<\/em><\/em> and then be asked to pay back more when they graduate. They will not be happy! We want to organise that rage. We\u2019re building a nationwide strike solidarity network and getting ready for coordinated action that hits employers where it hurts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong><b>This article first appeared in Issue #235, <em>Educate, agitate, organise<\/em>.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/subscribe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Subscribe today<\/a> to support independent socialist media<\/b><\/strong> and get your copy hot off the press!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Red Square Movement outline the recent history of student resistance in the UK and their work in organising co-ordinated national action<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":44715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,3],"tags":[2991],"class_list":["post-32788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-work-trade-unions","tag-the-red-square-movement"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - 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