UK students

Student activism in the UK and the NUS. See also UCU.

The Morning Star's Jewish problem

It's happened too often to be written off as a momentary slip: the Morning Star and its political masters at the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) have a Jewish problem. The paper has consistently claimed that allegations of antisemitism within Labour have been overwhelmingly "manifestly untrue and malicious" and the work of "not only British and Israeli state actors but an unscrupulous assembly of reactionary forces of all kinds" (quotes from a Morning Star article by Nick Wright, 22 October 2020). When the Equality and Human Rights Commission published its highly critical report into...

Tuck report finds NUS lacking

The National Union of Students has failed on multiple occasions since 2005 and prior to address the concerns of Jewish students, and to implement the findings of seven reports or investigations into concerns relating to antisemitism in the organisation. That is the finding of Rebecca Tuck KC’s report , published on 12 January. It was commissioned in May 2022 after the suspension of the then President-elect. The repeated failure, Tuck finds, has clearly impacted the culture in the organisation. The underlying reason for the poor relationship between NUS and Jewish students is given as attitudes...

How to make student occupations effective

The wave of occupations across campuses in support of the UCU during the industrial action in spring 2022 demonstrated a new, successful tactic: fast paced multiple-building occupations. Students at Sheffield University occupied five buildings, taking a new target in quick succession after each old one, confusing university management and stretching them to the point of hiring in extra security staff. At Sheffield, the university policy is to shut down a building once it is under occupation. Students hopped from one building to another. They left some occupiers to continue in each building...

Oxford students protest in support of UCU strike

Previous UCU strike in Oxford, 2018 On 10 January, the University of Oxford’s new Vice-Chancellor, Irene Tracey, was formally sworn in at a ceremony in the Sheldonian Theatre. A small group of students held a protest outside, with signs calling for the new Vice Chancellor to negotiate with the UCU over the ongoing dispute. The mood was upbeat, with discussions amongst the protestors about the dispute over strategies within the UCU, and how to build student support for picket lines in the new year. Several passers-by stopped to chat about the dispute, student-staff solidarity and the strike...

NUS: debate, not summary sacking!

The President of the UK National Union of Students (NUS), Shaima Dallali, has been sacked for alleged “significant breaches of NUS’s policies”. The sacking comes as a result of an ongoing (and still to report) KC-led inquiry into allegations of antisemitism in the NUS. It is the first time in NUS history that a President has been sacked, although officers have previously been suspended by the organisation’s full-time staff. It is very concerning that the sacking has occurred before the antisemitism inquiry reports: the action risks prejudicing responses to that report. A brief statement from...

Student protest hits military links

On Friday 28 October, students at the University of Sheffield finished their week-long sit-in to protest against the university’s complicity with arms manufacturers. Students from a variety of campus activist groups took over the Diamond, which is the largest lecture block in Sheffield and houses the Engineering Department (the department most involved in the arms trade). University management responded by shutting down all teaching in the building for a week, eventually using the threat of intervention by bailiffs to drive protestors out on Friday. Significantly, arms manufacturing firms were...

Sheffield students occupy against arms trade

Bucket, a University of Sheffield occupier, talked to Solidarity . There is an occupation of the Diamond, the largest building in the University of Sheffield (UoS), to demand that the university ends its contracts with arms companies like Rolls Royce, Boeing and BAE Systems, and that these firms not be allowed to careers fairs. These arms manufacturers supply weapons that are used in wars that kill hundreds of thousands of people around the world, and so UoS should not take their money, or funnel graduates into their research programmes. We have chosen to occupy the Diamond because it is...

Student conference on cost-of-living crisis

Activists in Sheffield Solidarity Group organised a conference on 22 October where students from around the country gathered in Sheffield to discuss our response to the Cost of Living crisis, building on the rent strikes and fee strikes of 2020-21. It was open, democratic and allowed all viewpoints to be discussed. There have been pockets of strong organisation, particularly in Sheffield, Nottingham, Manchester, and more recently in London with London Solidarity Group. The hardship faced by students now requires us to put forward demands as students, for students. Agreed demands included...

Students face cost-of-living crunch

Students face rising rents, the revocation of previously agreed fixed cost contracts, and stagnant maintenance loans that are not available to all. For some of us this is the second “once in a lifetime” economic event in our lifetimes, with many mature students having lived through the financial crash of 2008. Inflation is higher for poorer households. This is also true of students. In 2021-2, first year students in halls were spending on average at least 75% of maintenance loans on rent alone. It does not take an economist to realise that with the current surge in the cost of basic goods that...

Tories “derecognise” NUS

The government has suspended engagement with the National Union of Students (NUS) over allegations of antisemitism. Last month a row erupted over the invitation of rap artist Lowkey to NUS conference and (very old) social media comments made by President-elect Shaima Dallali. The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) objected to Lowkey’s ultra-anti-Zionism and a post that Dallali made 10 years ago appearing to legitimise attacks on Jews in Israel-Palestine. Dallali apologised for the tweet, said her views had changed, that she recognises the alienation of Jewish students and welcomed an NUS inquiry...

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