Editorial: Workers and Students Unite!

Submitted by AWL on 23 March, 2003 - 9:30

Student walkouts against the war are absolutely fantastic, but we can do so much more to strike a blow to Blair. By organising meetings and teach ins at our schools and colleges, we can begin to build a movement that has its basis in positive ideas, not just reaction.
Inviting trade union activists to speak at an anti-war meeting is always a good idea - find ways of linking up with workers and tying your anti-war campaign in with workers' struggles. How, for example, can this government afford a £1,000,000,000 war when it cannot afford a few million to pay the Fire Service? We need a Fire Service. We most definitely do not need this war.

If you're organising a walkout, involve teachers who are trade union activists. Paul Mackney, the head of NATFHE (the Further Education teachers' union) has already said that although walkouts 'may be breaking Thatcher's grim anti-union laws,' workers who strike 'will be upholding the principle of human solidarity.' Solidarity is the principle that must drive us forward in the anti-war movement; solidarity with each other, solidarity with workers in struggle, and solidarity with the peoples of Iraq against US/UK imperialism and Hussein's fascist regime.

This war -in addition to other brutalities perpetrated by capitalism across the world - has awakened a new generation of people to radical politics. Also, young people are discovering for the first time in years the ideas of class and class struggle. Any movement that wants to change the world for the better must have a basis in the class struggle. Historically, the movements that have impacted most on the face of society have been spearheaded by workers and youth together.

The working class is the democratic class, and it is the agent of change. A mass, working class orientated movement can not only stop Bush and Blair in the here and now, it can one day stop capitalism altogether. Students and young people dedicated to building a better world must unite with workers to achieve this goal.

By Daniel Randall
Editor, Bolshy

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