Education

US teachers declare victory

On Tuesday 6 March teachers in West Virginia, USA, were celebrating winning all five of their demands after a nine-day statewide strike and included an occupation of the Capitol. Teachers defeated an expansion of charter schools (similar to academy schools in the UK), a proposal to eliminate seniority, and a ″paycheck-protection″ bill which would have ended union dues being collected from pay. They won a significant pay rise and a mechanism to change unfair health-insurance practices. Lois Weiner, writing for New Politics just before the strike won, explains how teachers organised. This was a...

"There is a world beyond the campus" - Vote Sahaya James for NUS President

Students don’t live in hermetically sealed containers, undisturbed by the oppression and exploitation around the world. Yet too often student unions behave as if they do. We constantly hear the rhetoric of the “average student” concerned only with the costs of printing and nights out, as if campuses aren’t implicated in the injustices which define our society. When institutions like Oxford and Cambridge invest millions in offshore funds to develop deep sea drilling, climate justice is an issue for our student unions. When institutions act as border guards, monitoring the attendance of...

Student and workers say #NoCapitulation - Support the strikes!

Student occupiers, anti cuts activists and UCU members from across the UK spoke to Workers' Liberty Bristol students occupation An occupation of Bristol University Senior Management’s offices has forced the university to concede to most of their demands. A Bristol Uni occupier writes... The strikes are over proposed changes to the USS pension scheme, in which many staff would lose up to 40% of their pension. So far there have been eight strike days at sixty-four universities, escalating over three weeks with another nineteen possible days planned. It is the first nationally co-ordinated strike...

Support Picturehouse workers — students and workers unite!

On Thursday, 14 December, 2017 I attended a picket of Hackney Picturehouse against the mistreatment of the workers at the cinema and every other Picturehouse and Cineworld cinema in the United Kingdom. The Picturehouse workers have been on strike now for over a year: they’re paid £9.30 per hour, no access to sick, maternity or paternity pay, and the managers are refusing to negotiate with them. This simply cannot continue! No workers at such cinemas can give you tickets to watch Star Wars, pizza and coke to enjoy whilst relaxing, if they don’t receive enough money for a decent home, TV or any...

Take the stress out of studying!

I’m a 15-year-old socialist from the London Borough of Hackney. I’m currently in my final year at secondary school at an academy in Hackney Downs called the Mossbourne Federation. My school is a pressurising experience: students are giving at least two pieces of long homework a day, the examination structure is 100% just exams, students get long detentions just for standing up without permission, students have to wear spotless black socks, school opens at 8.17am, and so it continues. It’s even pressurising for teachers and other members of staff. Some work from 7.40am to 6.30pm, teachers spend...

Free education now!

As many as 7,000 students marched through London on Wednesday 15 November to demand “Free Education now — tax the rich”. The protest was organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts and supported by Momentum, RMT, Unite, NUS Scotland and student unions across the country. Workers’ Liberty student activists were centrally involved in organising and leading the demonstration, along with other comrades in NCAFC. The demonstration was arguably the most energetic and loud free education march in recent years. The atmosphere was boosted by well timed flares and the presence of the...

Independent Working-Class Education: a world to win

Hosted by educationalists and labour movement activists at Northern College on the last weekend of May, the IWCE's "A World To Win" was an excellent event which discussed key moments in the development of trade unionism in this country - from the Combination Acts to modern blacklisting, violent rioting in 1700s Liverpool to the GMB organising in ASDA. We also discussed the nature of what working class education should entail and considered Marxist economics, industrial history and philosophy. Practically, we set the basis for facilitating IWCE forums and talks in our towns and cities in the...

University of the Arts students occupy

On the 16 March, news was spread amongst University of the Arts London (UAL) students that management had decided to cut over 800 places on their Foundation courses. Three days later, students and SUARTS sabbs are occupying management rooms at Central St Martins, King’s Cross in a peaceful yet poignant protest. This article first appeared on Huffington Post Foundation courses in the arts provide students with a year in which to further their education, opportunities and creative development. These courses are free for Home students aged 19 and under. As such, they remain one of the last areas...

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