Solidarity 217, 21 September 2011

Students of the world

After a strike by 2,000 workers and students at the American University in Cairo (AUC), which lasted more than a week, university bosses issued a statement on Monday 19 September in which they appeared to concede the strikers’ main demands. The strike had focused on winning a cap on fees, a reversal of a recent 9% fees hike, greater student representation in the running of the university and a series of workers’ demands including wage increases and a reduction in working hours. The AUC said: “The American University in Cairo reached an agreement today with the Independent Syndicate...

Partial victory in ESOL fight

A funding guidance document published on the Skills Funding Agency website in August quietly revealed a U-turn on cuts to ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages). The government has (belatedly) backtracked on proposed changes to funding eligibility, which would have seen as many as 70% of current ESOL students unable to access classes. This is a victory that we should celebrate and communicate to our students, colleagues and supporters who have been campaigning hard since the start of the year through Action for ESOL. We must also acknowledge that this is a not a full victory. In July...

Scottish students occupy

About 100 students from across Scotland occupied an Edinburgh University lecture theatre over the weekend of 16-17 September. Before ending their occupation they agreed to disrupt management at Scottish universities with an ongoing campaign of rolling 36 hour occupations across Scotland. Edinburgh is one of two institutions set to fix fees at the most expensive rate in the UK for students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Robin Parker, NUS Scotland President in supporting the occupation said, “It’s absolutely no surprise that Edinburgh University students are incredibly angry about...

McUniversities for some, elitism for others

Ed Maltby examines the government’s Higher Education White Paper. According to the White Paper, private firms will be given degree-awarding powers, allowing them to teach and award higher-education degrees at Further Education colleges. The market will be opened to allow multinational corporations to take over UK universities or set up their own institutions. In general it will be easier for a wider range of types of organisation to gain degree-awarding powers. This promises to create a large market in cheap arts and humanities degrees (around £5,000 a year) taught by Edexcel at FE colleges...

University staff under attack

As the full implications of the government’s plans for universities become clear, university staff are gearing up for a national fight over pensions, and local disputes over job cuts. In the pre-92 universities, members of the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) have voted for both strikes (58% in favour) and action short (77% in favour) in a row over cuts to pension provision. From 1 October their existing final salary scheme will be closed to new members and replaced by a much inferior career average scheme; members of the old scheme will see contributions rise and benefits fall. Post-92...

We say: Support the Palestinians at the UN

Democrats and socialists should support the Palestinian Authority's attempt to get United Nations recognition for a sovereign Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders. Firstly, because the Palestinians have a right to a state of their own. Secondly, because the situation in which the Palestinians are now locked is one in which they cannot hope to win. The declaration of a Palestinian state focuses the fundamental question — two states as the only possible solution. It is a logical and necessary development of the process initiated by the Oslo agreement of 1993. Despite the continued Israeli...

Unite for a workers' Europe

In June 2011 the Greek government agreed a four-year cuts programme of €28 billion, and was told by the EU that was €5.5 billion too little. Italy’s latest cuts total €70 billion, again over several years. Ireland’s, about €8 billion. Portugal’s, the same. Spain’s, €15 billion. In total the governments reckon €135 billion of cuts might get them straight. The Financial Times (16 September) reckons €230 billion for the one-off loss if the governments don’t meet their IOUs. Suppose those €135 billion cuts are represented by one apple, and €230 billion is one orange. The European Union’s economy...

Rail union leader speaks up for Israeli links

At this year’s Trades Union Congress (12-14 September in London), an amendment on the Israel/Palestine conflict from the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) called for TUC affiliates to “review their bilateral relations with all Israeli organisations”. Alex Gordon, president of the Rail, Maritime and Transport workers’ union (RMT), spoke against the amendment, arguing that British unions should strengthen, not weaken, their relations with workers’ organisations in Israel. Gordon said: “My union has welcomed the Workers’ Advice Centre (Ma’an) to our conference in previous years. We’ve...

Preparing for Workers' Liberty conference

The AWL’s annual conference, which decides our policy, sets the framework for our activity and elects our leadership for a year, will take place in London on 22-23 October. AWL has grown by nearly 50% in the last year; this will be our biggest conference for some time. In many political parties, there are all kinds of tricks and filters to prevent conferences from exercising real control over those who run the organisation. One mechanism is limiting the amount of information that the membership have about what will take place at the conference, and thus the amount of input they have into it...

Civil servants, can't live with them, can't live without them

The conventional wisdom in journalism is that short snappy headlines work best. That bias is particularly popular in the tabloid press where the job of combining reporting and strident comment in memorable headlines has become an special art form. Think “Gotcha” or “Up Yours Delors”. Sometimes, however, this craft collapses under the weight and volume of prejudice it is expected to carry. So it was with the Sunday Express on 18 September. Sunday is the day for salacious stories of promiscuous footballers and soap stars, drunken royals or, occasionally, corrupt politicians. Express readers may...

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