Government raises fees and freezes grants: what a fucking surprise
Posted on July 2, 2009
Filed Under News
STOP PRESS! NUS strategy of begging like an obedient puppy for scraps from the government’s table and then rolling over in utter, abject capitulation when it gets nothing has actually worked! The government has decreased tuition fees, raised grants and released a joint statement with education sector bosses promising further reductions in future as part of a transition to a fees-free system!
Oh, hang on… I think we might have that a bit back to front…
Read more
“Can we win free education?” - NUS President Wes Streeting debates Daniel Randall ENS
Posted on July 1, 2009
Filed Under News
2.10pm, Saturday 11 July
School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square (Russell Square, Euston or Goodge Street tube)
With the £3,000 cap on top-up fees up for imminent review, British students are facing the nightmare of an unrestricted marketplace in Higher Education, with university bosses clamouring for the right to charge tens of thousands of pounds per year for the privilege of studying.
How should the student movement respond? Is it time to accept the reality of fees, and simply fight for them to be capped at manageable levels? Or can we fight for them to be abolished altogether? And, as the capitalist crisis bites, where does the struggle against fees fit into a wider struggle against the rule of profit in the education system and society as a whole?
Where should the student movement be going?
Wes Streeting is the president of the National Union of Students and a member of Labour Students.
Daniel Randall is a supporter of the Education Not for Sale network (http://www.free-education.org.uk). He sat on NUS National Executive Committee from 2005-6 and this year was elected to NUS’s new Trustee Board - having promised to bring it down from inside.
This debate takes place as part of Ideas for Freedom, an annual weekend of socialist debate and discussion hosted by the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty (see here). We will ask those who do not have a ticket for the event to make a small, voluntary contribution (to book a ticket go to here).
School students’ struggles in France public meeting
Posted on June 29, 2009
Filed Under News
School students’ struggles in France - a student activist from France’s New Anticapitalist Party speaks in London
A joint Education Not for Sale - London School Students’ Union meeting
6.30pm, Monday July 13
School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1 (Russell Square, Euston or Goodge St. stations)
The past year has seen huge waves of student resistance to cuts and privatisation. As the economic crisis deepens, public services are facing the brunt of the crisis through cuts and redundancies. Education too is being used for cost cutting, with school and university students facing higher tuition fees, school closures and crippling budget cuts. Throughout Europe, governments have been attacking education, and throughout Europe these attacks have been met by mass, grassroots opposition and resistance from school and university students.
From school walkouts and demonstrations to university occupations, students have defended education, and France has been one of the most inspiring and successful examples of this. These student movements have had many impressive achievements and can provide many important lessons to us in Britain, facing the same threats to our education system.
London School Students’ Union and Education Not for Sale, a student group campaigning for free education, are holding a joint public meeting about this movement. Ameline Shah, a student activist in France’s New Anticapitalist Party, will speak on the youth movements in France and the rest of Europe and her involvement in the French school students’ union.
For more information ring Tali on 07800 921 828 or email londonssu@gmail.com
Facebook event here.
Victory for anti-cuts campaign at Sussex
Posted on June 26, 2009
Filed Under News
A message from Lee Vernon, anti-cuts activist and Finance Officer of the University of Sussex Students Union concerning the ‘Save Linguistics’ campaign, aimed at preventing the cutting of the linguistics department at the university.
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Solidarity with anti-cuts struggle at Manchester College
Posted on June 24, 2009
Filed Under News
UPDATE UCU members at Manchester College have overwhelmingly voted for strike action. Following a ballot where 74% of members polled voted yes to strike action and 84% voted in favour of action short of a strike, the union announced that members will walk out on Wednesday 1 July.
UCU are to ballot over compulsory redundancies at Manchester College.
Read more
Help stop the eviction of the Lewisham Bridge school occupation!
Posted on June 23, 2009
Filed Under News
UPDATE The eviction was defeated and the occupation continues!
From the Hands Off Lewisham Bridge campaign
An eviction notice has been served on the occupation at Lewisham Bridge.
Bailiffs are arriving at 10.30 on Wednesday (24 June) morning.
Read more
Support the anti-Academy struggle in Barrow!
Posted on June 21, 2009
Filed Under Actions, News
Students and parents at Parkview School in Barrow-in-Furness are campaigning against the closure of their school to make way for an Academy. For more details on the struggle and how you can support it, read on.
Read more
The last great sell-out?
Posted on June 21, 2009
Filed Under Articles, Inside NUS, News
An assessment of NUS’s “Blueprint” for HE funding (read about the campaign here).
By Daniel Randall, NUS NEC 2005-2006 and NUS Trustee Board (pc).
(This article first appeared in the online version of Varsity, the Cambridge student newspaper)
Read more
Activists occupy SOAS to stop deportation of cleaners; solidarity messages and demo
Posted on June 15, 2009
Filed Under News
Activists are occupying the director’s office at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London in response to an immigration raid that saw nine cleaners shipped off to a detention centre to be deported. Their demands include:
* That the three cleaners who have not yet been deported are given the right to remain.
* That SOAS brings its cleaning services back in house.
(See below for their statement with the full list of 11 demands.)
More at www.freesoascleaners.blogspot.com
What you can do:
Please take a few moments to send messages of solidarity to freesoascleaners@gmail.com and protests to SOAS director Paul Webley at pw2@soas.ac.uk. This is vitally important and urgent.
And: protest today, Monday 15 June, at 4.30pm outside SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square (Euston, Goodge Street or Russell Square tube).
Education Not for Sale supporters inside the occupation can be contacted on 07784 641 808.
Read more
Liverpool wins; struggle erupts at Edinburgh
Posted on May 19, 2009
Filed Under News
Workers and students at Liverpool University have defeated management’s plans to close the university’s statistics, philosophy, and politics and communication studies departments. For more information, see the Times Higher Education Supplement here.
Meanwhile a massive struggle has started against harsh cuts in modern languages at Edinburgh University. For more information see here or email ENS Steering Committee member Katherine McMahon at katherine.a.mcmahon@gmail.com
Defend jobs, services and education! March in solidarity with London Met, 23 May!
Posted on May 15, 2009
Filed Under News
Following a successful day of strike action by workers at London Metropolitan Univerity over massive cuts on 7 May, and a student occupation in solidarity…
PCS, Unison, UCU and London Metropolitan University student groups are holding a march to defend jobs, services and education in London on Saturday 23 May.
The March starts at Highbury fields (near City university) at 11am, passing London Met, and finishing in Archway Park.
With the prospect of 800 job losses at London Met, and hundreds at local civil service offices, and with more student action on the way by London students, this is the time to show that there is national opposition to cuts in education.
ENS is trying to mobilise national support for the student struggles at London Met - come down on the 23rd to show that the fighback is national!
For more see savelondonmetuni.blogspot.com/2009/04/march-to-defend-jobs-learning.html
For the Facebook group for the ENS contingent, see here.
London Met students occupy against cuts
Posted on May 12, 2009
Filed Under News
As part of the ongoing campaign against massive cuts at London Metropolitan University - which saw workers taking a day of strike action on 7 May, and will see further action on 23 May - students in the art, media and design department have occupied part of a building at the City campus on Commercial Road. It seems that the university will try to evict them. It is vitally important that we mobilise the maximum possible solidarity.
There will be a demonstration tonight (Tuesday 12 May), outside the building at 5.30pm - arrive from 5pm
See here for location details:
www.londonmet.ac.uk/about/commercial-road.cfm
For more information see
savelondonmetuni.blogspot.com
www.thelondonmetcrisis.blogspot.com
www.lmuucu.org.uk
twitter.com/savelondonmet
or the Facebook group here
Messages of solidarity to savelondonmet@gmail.com
More soon.
A UCU member on their dispute
Posted on May 11, 2009
Filed Under News
By Camila Bassi (Camila is a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam, writing in a personal capacity)
Lecturers at two thirds of higher education institutions face the real threat of losing their jobs. The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has said that 100 institutions are planning collective redundancies. While most of these 100 institutions have yet to go public, Liverpool University has announced eight of its forty five departments risk closure, Thames Valley has proposed shutting completely one of its four campuses, and one in four staff at London Metropolitan University face the sack. Reduced student funding in the area of health means nursing and health profession departments across the UK also face cuts. So too do university departments who scored 1* or 2* in the recent RAE exercise, i.e. those places deemed at the ‘low end’ of a crude audit of academic productivity and ‘quality’. Work intensification is another major issue, especially if one combines the higher number of students expected to go to university from September 2009 (due to the recession) and planned job cuts and recruitment freezes. The student-staff ratio for UK universities was 9/1 thirty years ago, today it is 18/1 (higher than France, Germany and the United States).
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“Education Not for Sale: make a stand against the marketisation of our universities” protest
Posted on May 6, 2009
Filed Under News
Meet 10am, Thursday 7 May
Outside Universities UK conference
1 Great George Street, London SW1
(Westminster or St James Park Tube)
For the Facebook event see here.
More information below.
Read more
Glasgow parents fight school closures with direct action
Posted on May 6, 2009
Filed Under News, Uncategorized
By Katherine McMahon
In Glasgow, the city council have voted to shut down 23 primary schools and nurseries. The motive is nakedly stated as £3.7 million per year of savings, and there is no plan to build new schools - all the children from these schools will simply be moved into other schools, with class sizes reaching over 40. This means that the plans affect not only the children from the closed schools but also those in the receiving schools - which adds up to nearly a fifth of all primary school children in the city. The standard of education in the city will drop; children will have to take buses to school; communities will be broken up.
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A report from anti-fascist students in Liverpool
Posted on April 27, 2009
Filed Under News
BNP Thugs Take to the Streets of Liverpool and Assault Local Anti-Fascists
Yesterday, April 23rd, saw fifteen members of Liverpool BNP members take to the streets of our city again. As word got around that they were leafleting on Church Street, around 12.30pm, local anti-fascists did what they could to mobilise people (not the easiest thing to do mid-week, mid afternoon!). By 1pm there was around twenty anti-fascists leafleting in and around the BNP, making it loud and clear what the BNP stood for, and why people shouldn’t tolerate their presence. This was met by the standard bellowing of ‘get a wash’ and ‘get a job’ from the BNP only serving to further alienate members of the public, from whom they were already getting short shrift.
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May 1: March for a living wage at London universities and colleges!
Posted on April 27, 2009
Filed Under News
May Day, May Day… Low pay – No way!
Victory for Living Wage protesters at Birkbeck College!
Staff and students to demonstrate to end poverty pay for cleaners + caterers across Bloomsbury!
March, stunt + rally this May Day!
The recently-formed Bloomsbury Living Wage campaign has called a demonstration for this May Day (1st May.) The protest will include a stunt to make visible the contribution that low-paid and mainly-migrant cleaners and caterers make to our city; and will call for the introduction of the London Living Wage (LLW) across the many educational centres in Bloomsbury.
The LLW is a minimum wage and conditions package established by the GLA, which takes into account the higher costs of living in London. Its rate (currently £7.45 an hour) has been calculated carefully through adapting the national minimum wage to local conditions. It also includes a series of other basic rights (including sick pay and union rights.)
Recently, after a long campaign by Birkbeck staff and student unions, which was supported by public figures such as Ken Loach and MP John McDonnell, management at the university agreed to pay all cleaning and catering staff the Living Wage rate. This followed a similarly successful campaign at SOAS, and the decision by 27 other employers across London to implement the Living Wage. Now Birkbeck and SOAS activists have joined forces with other Bloomsbury college campaigners to organise a May Day protest.
Some Bloomsbury universities still pay wages as low as the minimum wage of £5.73. This means that to make ends meet cleaners and other staff often end up doing several jobs (sometimes on top of organising childcare) and working unsociable early morning and weekend shifts. Further, there even have been cases of unscrupulous subcontractors not paying employees for months.
We say that the people who prepare our food and make our buildings fit for purpose are essential to making universities function properly. They deserve to be treated with dignity!
We have chosen international workers’ day (May Day) to demand this, as too often low-paid migrant workers are treated as ‘invisible’ and their contribution to the work and society, ignored.
Our 1st May action will begin with a rally (including MPs and other public figures) at 12 pm midday at the main steps, SOAS, 10 Thornhaugh St.
The Bloomsbury Living Wage Campaign is supported by activists from UCL, SOAS, Birkbeck, LSHTM, Senate House, and Institute of Education.
For more information contact Camilla on 07789 680 115 or c.royle@ucl.ac.uk
Everyone deserves a Living Wage!
After the occupations: report from 18th April activist coordination
Posted on April 24, 2009
Filed Under News
By Sacha Ismail, SOAS and Daniel Randall, University of Sheffield (pc)
On April 18, those involved in the wave of university occupations over Gaza, and other left-wing student activists, met at a “coordination” conference to discuss the way forward for the student left. About 90 took part, including members of Workers’ Liberty, Education Not for Sale, Workers Power and the CPGB, with the SWP sending a long a contingent to keep an eye on things, though the clear majority was unaffiliated, with a large number of anarchists.
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Save London Met! March on 23 May for jobs and education!
Posted on April 23, 2009
Filed Under News
The government has cut £18 million from London Metropolitan University’s annual teaching budget and demanded that the university pay back £38 million in past funding. 550 posts are due to go, which means 8-900 job losses - 25 percent of the workforce! London Met management are making deep cuts, seeking to make staff and the university’s mostly working-class students pay for their incompetence and for the capitalist economic crisis.
This is a massive deal. The existence of the institution is at stake. And it is test case for what the bosses want to do to our education system.
UCU members are London Met are balloting for action; and there is a march on Saturday 23 May “For jobs and education”. See you there!
March for Jobs and Education
Called by LMU UCU, LMU Unison, CIC UCU, Islington PCS
Meet 11am, Saturday 23 May, LMU Tower Building, Holloway Road
The campaign blog is here savelondonmetuni.blogspot.com
UCU pay dispute: more scabbing from NUS
Posted on April 23, 2009
Filed Under News
Join the Facebook group to support UCU and oppose NUS’s shit position! here.
“Given the effects of the current economic climate on the graduate jobs market, students need industrial action by university staff like a hole in the head.” - NUS President Wes Streeting.
Having refused to support the crucial AUT-NATFHE dispute in 2005-6, NUS is now scabbing on our brothers and sisters in UCU. UCU intends to ballot its members over pay; but instead of supporting them, our national union is putting out statements undermining their struggle. A position of neutrality between workers and the employers who are attacking their pay means, in effect, supporting the bosses.
It is roughly the equivalent of UCU arguing against free education in order to free up more money for lecturers’ salaries. And it undermines students’ struggles against cuts in education too. This is a disgrace.
Send your messages of protest to wes.streeting@nus.org.uk
For NUS’s full statement, see here or see below.
Read more
Occupations against school closures
Posted on April 23, 2009
Filed Under News
After the occupation of a number of Glasgow schools to stop them being closed comes an occupation in Lewisham. The idea of direct action, and occupations in particular, is catching on.
By Vicky Thompson
At about 7 this morning, parents struggled past security to occupy the roof of Lewisham Bridge Primary School in protest at Lewisham Council’s absurd decision to decant all the children and pupils 1.5 miles away. They are still on the roof, despite an enormous police presence. Lewisham Council has effectively been thwarted in its attempts to knock down the primary school that has been at the heart of the community for decades, after the school building recently received a Grade II listing. But this has not stopped the council going ahead with a plan that has made parents extremely angry.
In preparation for the move to another building, children have already been forced to take a four week Easter break, rather than the usual two. As you can imagine, this places an enormous extra burden on the shoulders of working families who are forced to pay childcare for the extra two weeks.
If you’re in the Lewisham area, come and show solidarity with the occupiers! If you can’t do that, please join the facebook group “Hands Off Lewisham Bridge Primary School” and invite your friends.
Facebook group here
We will post a full report from the Glasgow occupations shortly
NUS conference 2009: bureaucrats in the ascendant; what the student left needs to do
Posted on April 7, 2009
Filed Under News
By Ed Maltby, Education Not for Sale national secretary, and Chris Marks, Hull University Union VP Education-elect (pc)
The 2009 National Union of Students conference (31 March-2 April) saw the union’s right-wing leadership in the ascendant. At the same time it made clear what the student left needs to do.
Read more
Students and workers fight cuts at Liverpool Uni
Posted on March 17, 2009
Filed Under News
Students and workers are campaigning against major cuts at Liverpool Uni; lecturers have threatened strike action as part of the campaign.
For more on the story, see this report in the Guardian.
For a report of their 600-strong demo see here.
More coverage soon.
University bosses campaign for higher fees - how do we stop them?
Posted on March 17, 2009
Filed Under News
University bosses have in effect launched a campaign for lifting the cap on tuition fees. On the same day that BBC News published a poll showing that two thirds of vice-chancellors want a major increase in fees, the bosses’ organisation Universities UK published a survey clearly intended to soften up of public opinion for further marketisation.
Read more
Greetings from Occupied Sheffield
Posted on March 16, 2009
Filed Under Actions, News
Daniel Randall, an organiser of the University of Sheffield student occupation and a member of the Education Not for Sale Steering Committee, writes from inside the occupation…
Read more
National free education demo: a step forward
Posted on February 26, 2009
Filed Under News, Uncategorized
Around 700 or 800 students marched through London yesterday on the national demonstration against fees and marketisation organised by Education Not for Sale in alliance with other socialists, anti-capitalists and free education campaigners, as well as a number of student unions and the NUS Women’s, LGBT and Black Students’ Campaigns. (For a full list of the sponsoring organisations, see www.studentdemo2009.org.uk.)
Read more
ENS fringe meeting after tomorrow’s free education demo: how do we go on to win?
Posted on February 24, 2009
Filed Under News
Organising the 25 February demonstration for free education has been a positive step forward. But how can we organise the kind of further, more radical action that can actually beat fees and marketisation, and win our demands? After the wave of occupations in solidarity with Gaza, direct action is back on the agenda. Will we see a wave of occupations against top-up fees and for free education? What sort of politics are needed to underpin such a movement of resistance to the bosses’ attempts to make students and other public service-users, as well as workers, pay for their economic crisis?
Speakers
Daniel Randall (Education Not for Sale)
Tali Janner-Klausner (London school student activist)
Catherine Ayme (Student activist at Lille University, member of France’s New Anti-capitalist Party)
Chair
Tom Wills, University of Sussex Students’ Union president-elect
3.45pm (or as soon as the demo ends if later)
The Ivy House, 8-10 Southampton Row (two minutes from Holborn tube)
Map here.
Email education.not.for.sale@gmail.com or ring 07961 040 618
Ring 07961 040 618.
As another uni occupies, Labour Students prepare to slam occupations!
Posted on February 24, 2009
Filed Under News
As Cardiff University goes into occupation over Gaza (see occupiedcardiff.blogspot.com), the following motion has been submitted to this Saturday’s Labour Students conference by Manchester Metropolitan University Labour Club. It seeks to portray the Gaza occupations movement as anti-democratic and anti-semitic.
Following the failure of the NUS leadership to support the 25 February demonstration for free education, and its destruction of NUS democracy, this is just another step in Labour Students’ degeneration. What we want to know is, will NUS president Wes Streeting vote for the motion?
ENS looks forward to seeing and helping organise a wave of new occupations, over free education and other issues, in the coming period.
For ENS’s statement on the Gaza occupations, which discusses the issue of anti-semitism, see here.
Read more
Israeli student war-refuser tours Britain, 5-14 March
Posted on February 20, 2009
Filed Under News
The Shministim speak: Israeli student jailed for refusing to serve in army tours Britain, 5-14 March 2009
Following massive demonstrations and a wave of student occupations against Israel’s war in Gaza, British activists will be hosting a speaker tour with Tamar Katz, one of the Shministim, Israeli high school students jailed for refusing to fight in the occupied Palestinian territories. She is being brought over by Workers’ Liberty students, but the meetings are being hosted by a variety of organisations.
Tamar, 19, was jailed three times, for a total of 51 days at the end of 2008, for refusing to take part in military service. She explained why:
“I refuse to enlist in the Israeli military on conscientious grounds. I am not willing to become part of an occupying army, that has been an invader of foreign lands for decades, which perpetuates a racist regime of robbery in these lands, tyrannizes civilians and makes life difficult for millions under a false pretext of security.
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Byam Shaw students occupy against course cuts
Posted on February 19, 2009
Filed Under News
Students at Byam Shaw School of Art at Central St Martins (part of University of the Arts London) have occupied in opposition to course and budget cuts, against outsourcing and for democratic representation. This is fantastically important - a model for other students across the UK.
As we commented, the occupations in solidarity with Gaza clearly have the potential to embolden students to take action in defence of their own direct material interests too.
byamshawpeoplesuniversity.blogspot.com
Messages of solidarity to Byamshawpeoplesuniversity@gmail.com
The occupiers’ demands are below.
Read more
Student activists arrested in Iran
Posted on February 13, 2009
Filed Under News
From Equality and Freedom Seeking Students in Iran
Mohammad Pourabdollah and Alireza Davoudi, two Equality and Freedom Seeking Students in Iran, were arrested.
This morning, Feb. 12th 2009, the forces of regime arrested Mohammad Pourabdollah in a brutal attack to his house in Tehran. He has been kept in the Evin Prison since then. There is no recent news from his situation and he has had no contacts with his family. Mohammad, a chemical engineering student at the University of Tehran, is one of the fifty EFS students who were arrested last year – after the 13 Azar, Students Day celebration.
Alireza Davoudi was also taken away from his home in Isfahan by the regime force and transferred to an unknown place. He is also one of the famous student activists in the university of Isfahan who was arrested last spring and kept under harsh physical and mental torture.
All EFS students in Iran ask from all social movement activists to spread out the news from the recent arrest’s raise of student movement activists in Iran.
For more see www.azady-barabary.org
Gaza occupations: inspiring solidarity shows direct action can win
Posted on February 12, 2009
Filed Under News
• We need direct action for free education, and a new federation of student unions and activists independent of the NUS structures
• 7 March and 18 April events will discuss the way forward for the student movement
The last week has seen a new surge of student occupations in solidarity with the people of Gaza, with students occupying at Manchester, Strathclyde, Glasgow, Goldsmiths, Edinburgh and UEA.
The wave of occupations that has swept the country in opposition to Israel’s assault on Gaza is one of the most encouraging developments in the British student movement for a long time. It has big implications for student activism on many issues, including the fight for free education, and for the future of student unionism. ENS supporters participated in the occupations and in two cases, Cambridge and Edinburgh, played an important role in initiating them.
Read more
ENS candidates for NUS executive disqualified
Posted on February 12, 2009
Filed Under News
On Friday 6 February, Education Not for Sale submitted four candidates for NUS National Executive:
Daniel Randall (Sheffield University): President and national executive councillor
Koos Couvée (Sussex University): Vice-President Higher Education
Katherine McMahon (Edinburgh University): Vice-President Welfare
Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Bradford University): Vice-President Union Development
However, the nominations were handed in one minute late and therefore disqualified.
We are not claiming that our democratic rights have been outrageously violated; clearly, we screwed up. However, we do believe that NUS Election Committee’s decision was unreasonable.
Read more
ENS amendments for NUS conference 2009
Posted on February 11, 2009
Filed Under News
Dear student unionist,
Please find below ENS’s model amendments for NUS conference 2009 (31 March-2 April). Each NUS-affiliated SU can submit one amendment in each Zone. The deadline for submission is 27 February.
If you would like help submitting them or for more information, get in touch at education.not.for.sale@gmail.com
In solidarity
Daniel Randall
Read more
Mobilise for the national demonstration, 25 February!
Posted on February 1, 2009
Filed Under News
Education Not for Sale is delighted that the national demonstration which we initiated and have taken a central role in organising is coming together, and will be attended by many hundreds if not thousands of student activists. In the year that the cap on top-up fees could be lifted, this action could not be more important - so bring a delegation from your college or university!
For more information, including about transport, or for model publicity, email studentdemo2009@gmail.com
For more see the website www.studentdemo2009.org.uk
For the Facebook event for the demo, see here.
For more details, a list of supporting student unions, the supporting statement etc, see below
Read more
Stay of execution comes to an end: NUS democracy abolished
Posted on January 21, 2009
Filed Under Inside NUS, News
By Daniel Randall, University of Sheffield delegate to Extraordinary Conference (pc).
Yesterday’s NUS Extraordinary Conference finally ended the stay of execution that the left had won for the union’s democracy by pushing back ratification of the new constitution at Annual Conference 2008. The constitution comes into immediate effect, and this March’s Annual Conference will elect members to the new National Executive Council and the Trustee Board. For a report of the first Extraordinary Conference, click here, and for ENS’s criticisms of the original “Green Paper” on Governance that launched the process that culminated yesterday, click here. For ENS’s leaflet to the 12th November Extraordinary Conference, click here.
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New NUS constitution destroys democracy - activists need to ask “What next?”
Posted on January 21, 2009
Filed Under Inside NUS, News
Yesterday, 20 March, an NUS Extraordinary Conference voted by a large majority to ratify NUS’s new constitution, gutting democracy in the national union.
University of Sussex Students’ Union has called a meeting on Saturday 7 March for student union officers and activists who opposed the new constitution, oppose NUS’s current disastrous trajectory and want to discuss what to do next. Below is the text from the Facebook event and a link to the event. Full report of the Extraordinary Conference soon.
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International Students Movement demands free education worldwide
Posted on January 17, 2009
Filed Under International struggles, News
By Gemma Short, Sheffield University and NUS Women’s Committee
Recently I took part in an international webchat conference organised by activists, mainly in continental Europe, under the banner of the “international students movement — emancipating education for all”.
Read more
School staff take action to defend teacher sacked for wearing trainers!
Posted on January 15, 2009
Filed Under News
For the Facebook group “Friends of Adrian Swain”, see here.
Staff at St Paul’s Way School in Tower Hamlets, East London, will demonstrate outside the town hall at 3.30pm on Friday 16 January to protest against the sacking of Adrian Swain - the socialist, Permanent Revolution member and NUT activist sacked for failing to comply with a new dress code by wearing trainers and tracksuit bottoms.
Read more
SOAS students occupy in solidarity with the Palestinians
Posted on January 14, 2009
Filed Under News
From an ENS supporter at LSE
Read more
An interview with an Irish free education activist
Posted on December 4, 2008
Filed Under International struggles, News
Ed Maltby spoke to Paul Murphy, a left student activist in Dublin in the group Free Education for Everyone.
Describe the general political situation in Ireland at the moment.
We’re fighting a defensive battle, not yet an offensive one. The government’s attacks on Higher Education are part of a broader agenda to decrease the role of the state, and to cut or privatise large parts of the public sector. The same offensive includes the privatisation of Aer Lingus and the attempted privatisation of the Dublin public transport service.
Read more
Bangladeshi garment trade unionists speak in UK
Posted on December 4, 2008
Filed Under International struggles, News
NO SWEAT BANGLADESH WORKERS SOLIDARITY TOUR
4-8 DECEMBER 2008
With activists from the National Garment Workers Federation of Bangladesh
THURSDAY 4 DECEMBER
Public meeting in Leeds
mfenwick67@hotmail.com or ring 07814 896 517 for more details
FRIDAY 5 DECEMBER
Picket the Associated British Foods AGM! Kick Primark out of the TUC building! Solidarity with Bangladeshi garment workers!
10.30am, outside the TUC’s Congress Centre, Great Russell Street (nearest tube Tottenham Court Road)
For more in this scandal see this article in the Guardian.
SATURDAY 6 DECEMBER
No Sweat/Workers’ Climate action contingent on the National Climate March
Meet 11.30am, underneath the Roosevelt Statue, by Brook Street/Upper Brook Street, Grosvenor Square (nearest tubes Bond Street and Marble Arch)
Comedy and musical benefit for Bangladeshi garment workers, with Dave Pepper, Spacegirl, Rik the Poet Treeman and the Captain of Rant…
From 7.30pm @ the Cross Kings, York Way near King’s Cross. £8/£5 concessions
SUNDAY 7 DECEMBER
NO SWEAT GATHERING!
10.30am-5.30pm, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road (Mile End tube)
Featuring Mark Thomas, Bangladeshi Garment Workers, video linkup with Mexican trade unionists and much more…
£6/£4 concessions
Details at www.nosweat.org.uk
MONDAY 8 DECEMBER
Public meeting, Sheffield University
7pm, Meeting Room 2 (Octagon Centre)
More info: nosweat@shef.ac.uk or ring 07961 040 618
www.nosweat.org.uk
stuartjordan32@hotmail.com
07817 595 626
Organise for the national student demonstration, 25 February 2009!
Posted on December 2, 2008
Filed Under Campaigns, News
NATIONAL STUDENT DEMONSTRATION, WEDNESDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2009, LONDON
NEXT OPEN PLANNING MEETING, SUNDAY 31 JANUARY, SOAS (CENTRAL LONDON)
Supported by NUS Women’s Campaign, NUS LGBT Campaign, University of Bradford Union, Union of UEA Students, University of Sussex Students’ Union and Aston Students’ Guild
Email studentdemo2009@gmail.com
For the Facebook group, including the event for the 14 December planning meeting, see here.
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Defend Koos Couvée!
Posted on December 2, 2008
Filed Under News
Sussex University victimises socialist for anti-war protest
In October, Koos Couvée, a former sabbatical officer of University of Sussex Students’ Union, member of the Education Not for Sale steering committee and prominent socialist activist at Sussex Uni, took part in an anti-military recruitment protest on his campus. The university have responded by banning him from campus between 6.15pm and 8.45am! Here Koos explains the issues and calls for solidarity.
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Italian students and workers vs Berlusconi
Posted on November 20, 2008
Filed Under International struggles, News
This article first appeared in Solidarity on 30 October. An update on the Italian comrades’ struggle will appear shortly.
“They are pissing on us, but the government tells us it’s raining”. These words on a banner in Rome on 18 October say it all: the five-month post-electoral honeymoon between the right-wing racist government and large sections of the Italian masses is unravelling.
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The end of the National Union of Students? A report on NUS Extraordinary Conference
Posted on November 13, 2008
Filed Under News
By Daniel Randall, University of Sheffield delegate
This is a provisional report; a selection of more comprehensive reports will appear on this site soon.
The NUS leadership and its supporters will undoubtedly crow that their proposed new constitution was passed overwhelmingly (614 to 142) by the 12 November Extraordinary Conference in Wolverhampton. But when one considers both the fact that this was a term-time, weekday conference called without a requirement for cross-campus ballots pick elect delegates; and the amount of financial and human resources they had at their disposal to push their propaganda (including emailing all conference delegate with a pro-constitution rant by National Treasurer Dave Lewis - apparently done “in error”), it is hardly surprising that the activist left wasn’t able to mobilise equivalent numbers.
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No to the Governance Review! For grass-roots reform of NUS, no to a second Extraordinary Conference!
Posted on November 12, 2008
Filed Under ENS Statements, Inside NUS, News
Education Not for Sale’s leaflet to the NUS Extraordinary Conference (Wednesday 12 2008).
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Open planning meeting for a national demonstration, 15 November
Posted on November 6, 2008
Filed Under News
Police violence against LSE students protesting for human rights
Posted on November 5, 2008
Filed Under News
From student activists at the London School of Economics
Police have used unlawful violence to prevent a student demonstration at the London School of Economics.
Students gathered outside the opening of the New Academic Building by the Queen to protest against the naming of a lecture theatre after Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the dead dictator of the UAE. When the group dropped a banner reading “No more Dirty Money at LSE” a policeman approached the group and, without warning, kneed a student in the testicles and punched him on the side of the head twice.
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Emergency demonstration against grant cuts and cuts in student numbers
Posted on November 4, 2008
Filed Under News
Called by the Another Education is Possible conference and supported by Education Not for Sale
Emergency Demonstration - 3pm on Friday the 14th of November
Assemble outside Westminster Cathedral, Victoria Street (5 minutes from Victoria station)
Tax the rich to fund…
FREE EDUCATION & LIVING GRANTS FOR ALL
* £200 million “missing” from the governments budget for higher education
* Billions in bail outs for the bankers
We have seen year-on-year attacks on our right for an education. The latest are cuts to thousands of student grants after a £200 million short-fall from the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills. This comes only a few weeks after the government promised to bail out bankers with billions of tax payer’s money.
If you would like to take part with ENS email education.not.for.sale@gmail.com
Another Education is Possible conference: SWP firmly in control
Posted on November 2, 2008
Filed Under News
By Gemma Short, NUS Women’s Committee
If you would like to post an alternative report of the conference, or a comment on this, email it to education.not.for.sale@gmail.com and we will publish it.
About 150 activists attended the Another Education is Possible conference at SOAS on 1 November (there were slightly over a hundred in both the opening and closing plenaries). This very reasonable turn out reflected the hopes for left unity that a layer of student activists had invested in the conference. Indeed the event was attended by members of a wide variety of different student left groups; but the SWP, the organisation that initiated it and played the main role in its organisation, remained firmly and predictably in control.
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While New Labour cuts grants and student numbers, Irish students show how to fight back! Join the call for a national demo
Posted on October 29, 2008
Filed Under News
On Wednesday 29 October, the Government confirmed to the Guardian that it plans to slash eligibility for student grants, and cut student numbers by up to 10,000.
For the details, see the Guardian article here.
Higher education minister John Denham denies that this has anything to do with the economic crisis, but it is a clear indication of how New Labour plans to cut back as things get tight. Its shows how we need to take social wealth out of the hands of the bankers and capitalists so it can be used for social need. That goal is a long way off; but we begin now by fiercely resisting every cut, and demanding what students need.
On 22 October, Irish students brought Dublin to a standstill when 10,000 demonstrated against increased university registration charges, budget cuts and threats to reintroduce tuition fees - see here. As a proportion of the membership of the Union of Students in Ireland, this is equivalent to 200,000 in Britain; in stark contrast to the Blairite-led NUS’s total passivity in the face of New Labour attacks.
ENS’s call for a national demonstration early next year, which is gaining support across the country, is more important than ever. Please add your or your organisation’s name, and get involved. See below for more details.
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ENS activist meetings, Friday 31 October and Saturday 1 November
Posted on October 29, 2008
Filed Under News, Uncategorized
ENS activists will be caucusing on the evening of Friday 31 October, after the anti-capitalist demonstration in the City of London and in advance of Saturday’s “Another Education is Possible” conference the next day. We will also be caucusing at the conference itself.
8pm, Friday 31 October, the Anchor Tap pub, Horsleydown Lane, SE1 2LN, near to Tower Hill, London Bridge and Bermondsey stations. For a map see, here.
Another Education is Possible is from 11am till 5pm, Saturday 1 November, at SOAS, near Russell Square. See http://www.anothereducationispossible.org.uk
Come along to discuss the conference, the recent announcement that the government plans to cut grants and limit student numbers, and our call for a national demonstration. For more information or to meet us on Saturday, email Daniel at skillz_999@hotmail.com or ring 07961 040 618
Class(room) struggle: workers fight back at Nottingham Trent and Sussex
Posted on October 3, 2008
Filed Under News
On 6 October, lecturers at Nottingham Trent University and their supporters will rally in protest at management’s decision to terminate the recognition agreement with their union, UCU. Below is the national UCU call in support of the rally. Meanwhile, management at Sussex University are attempting to cut the pensions of university support workers organised by Unite - leading to a strike on Friday 10 October. Sussex Education Not for Sale is actively supporting this struggle; below is the text of their leaflet distributed at Sussex freshers’ fair.
As our institutions become closer and closer to fully-fledged capitalist businesses, battles like these will become more and more common and increasingly sharp, making the need for unity in struggle between students and workers on campus even more urgent.
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Is the fight for free education worth it? A debate
Posted on September 28, 2008
Filed Under News
NO (!): Wes Streeting, NUS President
YES: Aled Dilwyn Fisher, LSESU General Secretary and ENS
A meeting for SOAS students, hosted by SOAS student union
4pm, Wednesday 15 October, in the JCR, School of Oriental and African Studies, Russell Square, London
For more information email education.not.for.sale@gmail.com
Leaders of Iranian student left speak in London, Monday 29 September
Posted on September 25, 2008
Filed Under News
Behrooz Karimizadeh and Kaveh Abbasian hold a Press Conference in London
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International day of action for “emancipating education”, 5 November 2008
Posted on September 19, 2008
Filed Under News
An international day of action against the commercialisation of education is being held on 5 November, with participation by students in many countries.
For the international website with more details, see www.emancipating-education-for-all.org
For the Facebook group to plan actions in the UK, see here
Call for a national demonstration against top-up fees and for living grants, spring 2009
Posted on September 17, 2008
Filed Under News
Please support this statement and get involved in organising the demonstration.
For the Facebook group for the demonstration, see here.
The statement and list of signatories can now be found here.
NUS Honorary Vice-President faces prison in Iran
Posted on September 7, 2008
Filed Under News
Earlier this year, NUS conference elected Iranian socialist student activist Anoosheh Azadbar Honorary Vice-President of NUS. (Anoosheh’s candidacy was organised by supporters of ENS; for more information, see here.) On 4 September, Anoosheh was brought before a court in Iran.
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ENS steering committee, Saturday 13 September
Posted on September 6, 2008
Filed Under News
Education Not for Sale Steering Committee meeting.
1-4pm, Saturday 13 September
London School of Economics (a few minutes walk from Holborn tube)
Room tbc
We will be discussing issues including organising action against top-up fees; the renewed threat of NUS extraordinary conferences to destroy democracy in our national union; and the proposals that are floating around for a new united left student organisation.
All ENS supporters can attend; please feel free to come along to find out more as well. For more information email Aled a.d.fisher@lse.ac.uk
NUS training racism incident: our national union’s political culture is rotten!
Posted on September 3, 2008
Filed Under News
The revelation that, at an NUS training event in York last month, one SU officer suggested that more black students at an institution would mean more gun and knife crime and a need for metal detectors, while another held up a sign saying “Bring back slavery”, tells us a lot about NUS’s political culture.
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Mobilise for the anti-BNP demo on 16 August!
Posted on July 30, 2008
Filed Under News
Between 15 and 17 August, the British National Party will be holding its annual Red, White and Blue “festival” at Codnor-Denby in Derbyshire on land owned by former BNP councillor Alan Warner. For months now, local anti-fascist groups and trade unions have been working to organise a protest on 16 August. ENS is supporting the demonstration.
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Aled Dilwyn Fisher’s new blog
Posted on June 20, 2008
Filed Under News
For the blog run by ENS steering member and LSESU General Secretary Aled Dilwyn Fisher, see http://aleddilwynfisher.wordpress.com
Hicham Yezza released - keep up the pressure!
Posted on June 20, 2008
Filed Under News
Press release from the campaign to stop the deportation of Hicham Yezza. For an earlier report on the campaign, see here.
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Students: support the London Underground cleaners!
Posted on June 20, 2008
Filed Under News
Most material on the ENS website is, inevitably, student/college/university-focused. However, being socialists 100% committed to support for workers in struggle, we publish coverage of disputes outside the education sector with a fair degree of regularity. And this is an important one.
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UEA staff oppose marketisation and fees
Posted on June 20, 2008
Filed Under News
UEA Staff Oppose the Marketisation of Higher Education through Variable Tuition Fees
11 June 2008 - for immediate release
The Assembly of the University of East Anglia staff today sent a clear message to the government that the growing marketisation and increasing student debt has a negative impact on the higher education sector as a whole, especially with the prospect of the “cap” being lifted on home undergraduate tuition fees by the Government looming on the horizon.
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Solidarity with students in Iran, 26 July
Posted on June 13, 2008
Filed Under News
A meeting to discuss organising campaigning in solidarity with students in Iran
2-5pm, Saturday 26 July,
School of Oriental and African Studies, London (Euston, Russell Square or Goodge Street tube)
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ENS Steering Committee minutes
Posted on June 13, 2008
Filed Under News
Below are the minutes of the last ENS Steering Committee meeting.
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UEA activists launch free education campaign
Posted on June 6, 2008
Filed Under News
SU activists at the University of East Anglia have launched a campaign against the marketisation of education and for free education, counterposing the demand for free education for all to NUS’s “pathetically weak” slogan of “keep the cap”.
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Going on strike, attacked by fascists, being deported? Don’t expect any help from NUS
Posted on June 5, 2008
Filed Under News
UCU members in FE colleges in London will be striking on Monday 9 June against the 2.5% pay increase - in effect, a pay cut - they have been offered for 2008/09. UCU is also threatening further action across England in the autumn. They will not, however, be receiving support from NUS.
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Lecturers call for boycott of Keele
Posted on June 4, 2008
Filed Under News
The lecturers’ union UCU is calling for a boycott of Keele University as part of the campaign against management’s attacks on staff.
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“Class” struggle in Berlin
Posted on June 3, 2008
Filed Under News
By German socialist youth activist Wladek Flakin
About 8,000 school students left their classes on May 22 and demonstrated through the centre of Berlin to the school administration building. The protest was directed against classes being cancelled, the lack of teachers, and also against Germany’s three-tiered school system which discriminates against the poor and immigrants.
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Fascists attack left students in Rome after university occupation: please send solidarity messages
Posted on June 2, 2008
Filed Under News
On Monday students at Rome’s La Sapienza university occupied, and stopped Roberto Fiore, leader of the hard line fascist Forza Nuova from addressing a conference.
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Manchester Uni elections dispute
Posted on June 2, 2008
Filed Under News
Manchester University Student Respect activist Alex Castro was elected to the position of International Students’ Officer but subsequently disqualified. Below we reprint two statements, one from SU Women’s Officer-elect Jennie Killip and one from the “Defend Alex Castro” campaign.
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Activist attacked by far right
Posted on June 1, 2008
Filed Under News
A supporter of Education Not for Sale in Huddersfield was attacked by the far right on Friday morning on her way to work. She was attacked by three men who pulled her to the ground and kicked her in the ribs, and slashed at her head with a knife. She suffered a fractured rib. The comrade has been campaigning to no-platform the BNP at her campus and has been obviously targeted. They knew her name and route to work. As she was attacked they called her a “Dirty red”, “Lesbo”, and “Britain-hater”.
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ENS steering committee
Posted on May 30, 2008
Filed Under News
The first meeting of ENS’s new steering committee will take place at the London School of Economics (a few minutes from Holborn tube) at 1pm on Sunday 8 June. Room to be confirmed shortly. The meeting is open to all ENS supporters. A draft agenda will appear here soon. For more information, email Sofie Buckland at volsunga@gmail.com
For the members of the steering committee, see here.
Stop the deportation of Hicham Yezza!
Posted on May 30, 2008
Filed Under News
Stop press! Hicham’s deportation has been postponed. Having now been incarcerated for over two weeks, he has been told he will be transported to a fifth detention centre. We need to keep up the campaign. For more information and resources, see http://freehichamyezza.wordpress.com
Last week a Nottingham University student, Rizwaan Sabir, and academic, Hicham Yezza, were arrested and held without charge for six days. Their “crime”? Reading and printing off an al Qaeda training manual as part of their academic activities. Now Hicham Yezza faces deportation this Sunday!
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Racism on the NUS NEC? Students deserve a full public inquiry!
Posted on May 30, 2008
Filed Under News
From Aled Dilwyn Fisher, LSESU General Secretary-elect and ENS steering committee
Dear student,
Ama Uzowuru, NUS Vice-President for Welfare, recently reported on her official blog that another full-time member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) told her that her name was “too foreign to be mainstream”, and should consequently not feature on promotional materials for the NUS Extra Card.
To make matters worse, three other full-time NEC members present apparently did not intervene, and, in Ama’s words, “took the route that we should ‘park the conversation till later’”.
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Nottingham students and staff fight against racism and for right to protest
Posted on May 21, 2008
Filed Under News
PRESS RELEASE
Nottingham University Students and Staff Express Serious Concerns about Recent Use of the Terrorism Act on Campus and Demand Academic Freedom
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“Our school is not for sale!”: Bolton teachers strike against academy plan
Posted on May 20, 2008
Filed Under News
Teachers at Withins school in Bolton are leading a campaign against the closure of their school as part of an Academy programme. Below is the latest report on the campaign, from Jason Travis of Bolton NUT.
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Climate change and the student movement
Posted on May 20, 2008
Filed Under News
A conference for activists
Friday 6-Saturday 7 June (with activist training on the Sunday), Brighton
Sponsored by University of Sussex SU. With speakers and workshops from groups including Student Climate Project, People and Planet, Liberty, Campaign against Climate Change, Climate Camp, Workers’ Climate Action and many more…
£8 including crashpad accommodation.
For more information see here.
Southampton students’ blockade for university democracy
Posted on May 19, 2008
Filed Under News
From Socialist Students - released at 4.30pm on 15 May 2008.
100 Southampton University students have marched through campus and are blockading a university court meeting.
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Sheffield University democracy struggle: we win round one
Posted on May 19, 2008
Filed Under Inside NUS, News
By Gemma Short, Sheffield University
As you may have heard, five students at Sheffield University were recently put before a student union disciplinary panel for breaking a “mandate” at NUS Annual Conference 2008 to vote for the NUS Governance Review (see “Defend Sheffield University democracy struggle”, here). As explained previously, this “mandate” was at best dubious; imposed on the delegates after they had been elected – often on clear anti-governance review platforms, by a Union Council which is shockingly disengaged from the students it ‘represents’, without a referendum or general meeting and pretty much in secret.
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New ENS steering committee; “Where we stand” statement; constitution; and policy
Posted on May 18, 2008
Filed Under News
Agreed by Reclaim the Campus conference
Convenors
Sofie Buckland, NUS NEC
Heather Shaw, Sheffield College
“Block of 10″ (in order elected)
Aled Dilwyn Fisher, LSE
Koos Couvee, Sussex University
Samantha Godwin, UCL
Daniel Randall, Sheffield University
Katherine McMahon, Edinburgh University
Ed Maltby, Cambridge University
Tom Wills, Sussex University
Sham Rajyaguru, UCL
Vicky Thompson, Manchester University
Alex Wood, Aston University
ENS Women
Rachael Ferguson, Greenwich University
- For policy passed and rejected by the conference, see here.
- For the new “Where we stand” statement, see here.
- For the new constitution, see here.
Proposals to Reclaim the Campus conference
Posted on May 12, 2008
Filed Under News
Defend Sheffield University democracy activists!
Posted on May 9, 2008
Filed Under News
Five members of Sheffield University SU’s delegation to the 2008 NUS conference face disciplinary action following their refusal to vote in line with a “mandate” imposed on them by their Union’s Council in favour of the NUS Governance Review.
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New venue and updated agenda for Reclaim the Campus conference
Posted on May 7, 2008
Filed Under News
Reclaim the Campus will now be held 11am-7pm, Saturday 17 May, at Birkbeck College (on Malet Street, London WC1, near Goodge Street, Russell Square and Euston tubes) rather than LSE. For a map see here.
See below for the updated agenda, plus the conference statement and list of supporters.
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Draft for a new “where we stand” statement for ENS
Posted on May 2, 2008
Filed Under News
Proposed by Daniel Randall, Sheffield University. To submit alternative statements or amendments to this one, or comments, email reclaimthecampus@gmail.com and we will put them up. Please try to limit statements to 500 words.
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St Helens school students walk out over academy plans
Posted on April 28, 2008
Filed Under News
On 17 April, hundreds of students at St Aelreds Catholic Technology College walked out in protest over plans to merge their school with Newton High School and create a £33m Academy.
See here for a local press report.
Draft agenda for Reclaim the Campus conference - please circulate and comment!
Posted on April 26, 2008
Filed Under News
For the RTC statement and a list of supporters, see here.
Draft agenda for Reclaim the Campus conference, Birkbeck College (London), Saturday 17 May 2008
This comes out of a planning meeting held at Sussex University on Saturday 25 April. Please circulate and encourage activists who plan to attend to comment. At a time when the NUS leadership are advocating a new emergency conference to destroy NUS democracy, this event could not be more important. Please come, bring a delegation, but also take an active parts in shaping its organisation!
1. Please email any suggestions or comments, including for speakers, to reclaimthecampus@gmail.com
2. We will be meeting again to discuss further at the “Students of the world, ignite” (about 1968) conference at LSE on Saturday 3 May, around lunchtime. For more information, email.
3. The conference will have a session to discuss ongoing organisation - whether that is a strengthened version of Education Not for Sale, or an organisation with a new name. Submissions for a statement of aims/programme and for structure should be submitted by email by 1pm on Friday 16 May. We urge comrades to keep each submission to 500 words. Small amendments will be allowed on the day. We propose electing a committee on the basis of the structure agreed.
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Calling for state bans on fascists: like turkeys voting for Christmas?
Posted on April 24, 2008
Filed Under News
At this year’s NUS conference, a delegate who supports the Workers Power-influenced youth group Revolution moved a motion from his university, UCL, calling for the government to ban far-right websites such as Redwatch. (We should make it clear that we do not know whether the comrade was acting on behalf of Revolution or not.) Here we print two pieces relevant to this debate. We encourage ENS supporters and others to make further contributions.
In the first article, Vicky Thompson, a libertarian communist and anti-fascist activist who was a Manchester University delegate at the conference, explains why she opposed the UCL motion. In the second, Sacha Ismail from SOAS responds to a letter in the 23 April Guardian from the three SWP/Respect councillors in Tower Hamlets which calls for a state ban on the fascistic Islamist group al-Muhajiroun.
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Occupation at Manchester: students confront uni bosses and police
Posted on April 23, 2008
Filed Under Actions, News
Students at Manchester University have occupied a key campus building following a demonstration organised by the left-led SU. See below for more information and updates.
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Victimised UCL Union general secretary reinstated
Posted on April 23, 2008
Filed Under News
Sam Godwin, General Secretary of UCL student union, was victimised by the union bureaucracy after a general meeting vote to campaign to kick military recruiters off campus. For ENS’s statement of support at the time, see here. She has now been reinstated. Below is a message from UCL antiwar society with the latest information and an appeal for solidarity.
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ENS bulletin for 24 April: “Support our teachers and lecturers!”
Posted on April 23, 2008
Filed Under News
On Thursday 24 April, many tens of thousands of teachers (organised in the NUT union) and college lecturers (UCU) will be on strike over pay. They will be joined by civil servants in the Department of Work and Pensions and the Department of Transport (PCS), and by workers in Birmingham City Council (Unison) and the homelessness charity Shelter (TGWU). In all, hundreds of thousands of workers will be on strike.
ENS supports these strikes - because, as anti-capitalists, we support all workers in struggle against bosses. And we think it is particularly important for students to link our struggles to those of our teachers and other education workers - including by supporting the NUT and UCU as much as we can. That’s why we’ve produced a special bulletin about why students should support the strikes, which we’d urge activists to download, copy and distribute around their colleges. Please also give copies to your lecturers etc, to stress that students around the country are organising to support them.
Download the strike bulletin as an two-sided A5 leaflet here.
Download as a one-sided A4 leaflet here.
For a list of strike rallies around the country, see here.
Where now for the student movement? Reclaim the Campus conference, LSE, 17 May
Posted on April 13, 2008
Filed Under News
After the defeat of the NUS Governance Review, how do we transform our national union?
How do we win the fight for free education?
A conference for student activists and student union officers
Saturday 17 May, London School of Economics
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NUS conference elects jailed Iranian student socialist as honorary vice-president
Posted on April 8, 2008
Filed Under Inside NUS, International struggles, News
This story is also reported on the blog run by Iran’s Freedom and Equality-Seeking Students: freeirstudent.blogspot.com
On 2 April, NUS national conference voted overwhelmingly to elect Iranian student activist Anoosheh Azaadbar as an Honorary Vice-President.
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Kick the military out of education!
Posted on April 6, 2008
Filed Under News
According to the Observer, the government is considering plans to militarise British schools by extending the system of “cadet forces”, which currently exists mainly in private schools, throughout the state system.
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NUS Governance Review defeated: now the real fight begins!
Posted on April 4, 2008
Filed Under Inside NUS, News
On 1 April, the National Union of Students conference in Blackpool narrowly voted to reject the NUS leadership’s “Governance Review”, which would have abolished what little democracy remains in our union and institutionalised its conversion into a pro-government lobbying organisation.
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Education Not for Sale NUS conference fringe meeting
Posted on March 30, 2008
Filed Under News, Uncategorized
NUS conference fringe meeting
Reclaim the campus! Fighting the rule of profit in education and society
6pm, Wednesday 2 April
From academies and business-dominated FE colleges to top-up fees and corporate-controlled research, the marketisation of Britain’s education system is in full swing. There is widespread opposition to this process, and many campuses have seen direct action against cuts and privatisation.
So far, however, we are yet to see the kind of explosive student struggles that have shaken countries including France and Greece, where radical students have linked up with the workers’ movement and taken mass action to win their demands. In part, this is because the NUS leadership has done everything it can to block and undermine such struggles. Their Governance Review is intended precisely to end the possibility of NUS becoming an effective weapon in this fight.
We believe that, to be truly effective, the fight against marketisation needs to be part of a fight against capitalism - for an education system and society that put human need before the demands of profit. Come and discuss how we can can make that happen, reclaiming our campuses and transforming our education system as part of the struggle to change the world.
Speakers: Aled Dilwyn Fisher (Young Greens and LSESU General Secretary-elect); Heather Shaw (Education Not for Sale); a representative of Sussex Not for Sale - mass campaign against the marketisation of Sussex University
Chair: Sofie Buckland (NUS NEC)
Debate on University of Manchester SU elections
Posted on March 26, 2008
Filed Under News
The recent elections at University of Manchester Students’ Union saw a major shift, with the Respect/SWP-led coalition losing most of its positions. Some of these were won by the right, others by non-Respect left-wingers. As part of encouraging a debate on the way forward for the student left, ENS is publishing a number of different views of what happened at Manchester Uni.
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Will NUS conference oppose war and support Iranian students?
Posted on March 17, 2008
Filed Under News
On Sunday 16 March, delegates from universities and colleges across the country met for NUS conference “compositing”, the process by which the various motions and amendments submitted to the conference are quite literally chopped up and reconstructed in more manageable units. Among these was a motion from the National Executive Committee, proposed by ENS supporter Sofie Buckland, and a similar one from Sheffield College, proposed by ENS supporter Heather Shaw, which commit NUS to sharply oppose war and sanctions against Iran and organise practical solidarity with students, workers and others fighting to overthrow Iran’s theocratic government from below.
Unfortunately, the composited motion, which will be discussed as an amendment under the heading “Global solidarity” in the “Society & Citizenship” debate, will be opposed by some on the left, with a formal speech being requested by Plymouth University.
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Near-win for left at NUS Women’s Conference
Posted on March 16, 2008
Filed Under ENS Women, News
By Laura Schwartz, NUS Women’s Committee
The success of Education Not for Sale ENS Women at this year’s NUS Women’s Conference (13-15 March) in passing radical left-wing policy and mobilising a significant number of conference delegates around socialist feminist politics, is testimony to the hard work of our activists both within NUS and outside it with Feminist Fightback over the last two and a half years.
So is the result of the election held at the conference for NUS National Women’s Officer.
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Save NUS democracy - for a democratic, campaigning NUS! Vote Heather Shaw for National Secretary
Posted on March 14, 2008
Filed Under News
Dear student activist,
I’m writing to ask for your support in the upcoming election for NUS National Secretary.
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Action to defend Mehdi Kazemi, March 22
Posted on March 12, 2008
Filed Under ENS Women, News
On Saturday March 22 at 2pm, Middle East Workers’ Solidarity will be staging a protest opposite Downing Street in defence of Mehdi Kazemi, a gay Iranian asylum seeker who the British government plans to send back to Iran on the grounds that if gay Iranians are “discreet about their sexuality”, they will not get in trouble.
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UCL students ban military recruiters; right wing tries to ban SU general secretary… Defend Sam Godwin!
Posted on March 12, 2008
Filed Under News
On 5 March, a 300-plus strong general meeting of UCL Union passed a motion proposed by socialist activist Sham Rajyaguru, president of UCL’s Stop the War Society, to ban the Officer Training Corps, University Royal Navy Units, University of London Air Squadron and all other military organisations from freshers’ events and other union-sponsored events, union premises, and student-run media. Now the right of the union has responded by suspending left-wing General Secretary Sam Godwin.
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Sussex Uni mutinies over “reforms”
Posted on March 7, 2008
Filed Under News
From Sussex Not for Sale, released Thursday 6 March 2007.
Sussex University could see the biggest protest in its history tomorrow [Friday 7 March 2007] as students and academics rally against the influence of market forces in the university.
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City University activists fight to “take back union”
Posted on February 29, 2008
Filed Under News
Left activists at City University are running in their student union elections as part of a campaign to reclaim their union and make it an active, political campaigning organisation. For more information see their website, www.takebackyourunion.com
Sussex “Education Not for Sale” campaign launched
Posted on February 28, 2008
Filed Under Actions, News
Students at the University of Sussex have launched an “Education Not for Sale” campaign
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Essex University students reclaim their union
Posted on February 20, 2008
Filed Under News
Students at Essex University have elected a radical left sabbatical team to run their student union. In the elections last week, four out of five sabbatical positions were won by members of the “Viva Essex” slate - Yousuf Joondan for Vice President Education, Zak Suffee for VP Welfare and Community, Arnold Ma for VP Services and Communications and Abu Sayeed for VP Sports and Societies. Viva Essex’s presidential candidate, Respect and SWP member Dominic Kavakeb, was defeated by only 30 votes, 825 to 855.
ENS offers Viva Essex campaigners our congratulations: this is a fantastic example of how rank-and-file activists can build mass support and begin to turn a student union around. More information and reports from Essex shortly.
Motions and amendments to NUS NEC, 21 February
Posted on February 19, 2008
Filed Under Inside NUS, News
Motions and amendments to the NUS National Executive Committee meeting on 21 February 2008.
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Long Road College anti-Stagecoach campaign
Posted on February 11, 2008
Filed Under News
From Sam Wade, NUS rep, Long Road Sixth-Form College Students’ Union
The Students’ Union at Long Road Sixth-Form College has recently launched a campaign calling for a rate on buses for students of whatever age or type of education, and that the buses in Cambridge be run in a fashion that serves the best interests of the students who rely on them so heavily.
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Anoosheh Azaadbar for NUS Honorary VP!
Posted on February 11, 2008
Filed Under News
For a PDF of Anoosheh’s manifesto, click here. For the text, see below. For her list of nominators and supporters, see here.
Model amendments for NUS Conference 2008
Posted on February 6, 2008
Filed Under News
Please find below ENS’s model amendments for NUS Conference 2008.
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Let Flores study! Let the Sukulas stay in Bolton! Against deportations and racism!
Posted on February 6, 2008
Filed Under ENS Women, News
Flores Sukula has lived in Bolton for the past seven years, successfully passed courses at Bolton Sixth Form College and secured a place on the Health and Social Care degree course at Manchester Metropolitan University. After completing her degree she wants to go on to train as a midwife.
The future looks bright? Unfortunately, it’s not so easy as Flores like thousands of others of young people has been blocked from taking up her place at university because as an asylum seeker (from the Democratic Republic of Congo), with the attendant racist immigration controls, she is being denied access to the course. The university are insisting on treating her as an overseas student and saying that to register for the course she would have to pay fees of around £6000- all without recourse to even so much as a student loan.
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Yes, left unity was possible: but it was not ENS that scuppered it; Student Broad Left cheapens anti-racism with libel against ENS
Posted on February 6, 2008
Filed Under News, Uncategorized
February 6th 2008
By Sofie Buckland, NUS NEC
George Woods of the Student Broad Left group has issued a statement accusing Education Not for Sale of responsibility for scuppering negotiations for a united left slate at the 2008 NUS conference. It can be read here. (We urge SBL to reciprocate by publishing a link to this reply, but are under no illusions that they will do so.)
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Vote Education Not for Sale, for a democratic, campaigning NUS - and continue the Fight for left unity, at NUS Conference and beyond
Posted on February 6, 2008
Filed Under News, Uncategorized
February 5th 2008
The Education Not for Sale network has nominated four candidates for the full-time positions on NUS National Executive:
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Facebook bans union organiser!
Posted on January 26, 2008
Filed Under Actions, News
From Eric Lee of LabourStart, the online trade union news-service.
In a moment I’m going to ask you to support the most unusual campaign we have ever launched - but first, some background.
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Fight for free speech at the University of Nottingham
Posted on January 23, 2008
Filed Under Actions, News
Students at Nottingham University are calling a demonstration for 23 February against attempts to quash their rights to protest and organise. One student has been arrested and others banned from the library for failing to ask permission to demonstrate and circulate petitions.
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Iranian regime murders student activist: protest to free our comrades!
Posted on January 23, 2008
Filed Under International struggles, News
By Sofie Buckland, NUS National Executive
In December last year, several dozen left-wing Iranian students were arrested for organising or taking part in action on 16 Azar (7 December), Iran’s traditional “Student Day” of protest. Since then, many more activists have been arrested in a continuing crackdown, and one of the detained has now been murdered by the police of the Islamist regime.
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Free the detained Iranian student activists!
Posted on December 18, 2007
Filed Under International struggles, News
Please add your or your organisation’s name to this statement; it will be translated and sent to activists in Iran. Email your name to Daniel at skillz_999@hotmail.com
As education workers and student activists, we condemn the detention of over forty student activists by the Iranian regime since 7 December (16 Azar in the Iranian calendar). This date has been a day of student protest in Iran for many years; it is now a symbol of Iranian students’ struggle against the theocratic-capitalist regime of the Islamic Republic just as it was against the dictatorship of the Shah. Activists were arrested in the run up to the day of action, and following the demonstrations and actions which took place in a number of cities. Many are now reportedly being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison and have been subjected to torture.
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A call for left unity in NUS
Posted on December 3, 2007
Filed Under News
To left groups including Student Respect/Socialist Worker Student Society, Socialist Students, and to unaffiliated activists on the student left in Britain,
We are writing to propose the creation of a united left electoral slate to challenge for the leadership of the National Union of Students at the 2008 NUS conference.
The domination of NUS and many student unions by Labour Students, “Organised Independents” and other right-wing groups has meant defeat after defeat for the student movement. Now, with its “Governance Review” rewriting the NUS constitution, the NUS leadership is seeking to move the national union even further away from a militant, campaigning policy by breaking up the few remaining democratic channels through which grassroots student activists can become involved in influencing the policy and direction of NUS.
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Class(room) struggles: meeting at Sussex Uni
Posted on November 20, 2007
Filed Under Actions, News
ENS supporters at the University of Sussex have organised a meeting on “class(room) struggles: education workers within, against and beyond capital”. Read on for more info.
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NUS Honorary Vice-President blinded and jailed for five years
Posted on November 8, 2007
Filed Under International struggles, News
At last year’s NUS conference in April, Mansour Ossanlou, the president of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company, was elected by an overwhelming majority as NUS Honorary Vice-President. Now he has been partially blinded and jailed for five years by the Iranian government. The charge? “Propaganda against the system and acting against national security.
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Campaign for NUS Democracy launched - get involved!
Posted on November 8, 2007
Filed Under Inside NUS, News
On Sunday 4 November, a meeting was held at Birkbeck College in London to launch a united campaign against the attacks on democracy that are part of NUS’s “Governance Review”.
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From an ENS supporter in Paris: French students occupy as workers clash with Sarkozy government
Posted on November 7, 2007
Filed Under International struggles, News
By Ed Maltby
**Stop press! See below for how occupations and other student actions are spreading in Paris**
French students are uniting with workers to organise a mass opposition to President Sarkozy's offensive on health, pensions, asylum seekers, the right to strike and education.
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The fightback continues
Posted on October 22, 2007
Filed Under Actions, Events, News
Around 300 activists attended the second annual Feminist Fightback conference at the University of East London on 20th October (which was initiated by ENS’s autonomous women’s caucus), and around 40 activists attended ENS’s ‘Education For Freedom’ conference which took place the day after.
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Postal workers’ dispute: University of Sussex SU passes anti-scab, pro-strike policy
Posted on October 22, 2007
Filed Under Actions, News
Further cementing its reputation as one of the leading activist-led, radical SUs in the country, USSU has passed policy condemning the use of students as scab labour in the recent postal dispute.
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Sofie Buckland for NUS Women's Officer!
Posted on October 19, 2007
Filed Under ENS Women, News
No one needs to tell feminist activists that the fight for women's liberation has not been won. In Britain women make up 70% of recipients of the pathetically low minimum wage, we face cuts and privatization in the public services so many of us rely on, domestic violence and rape aren't taken seriously by a judicial system full of ancient male chauvinist judges and disinterested police, we still have to cast doubt on our own mental health to get an abortion (if our local NHS services can even provide one in time), and we struggle to find high-quality affordable care for our children if we choose to study or to work.
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The struggle for the future of NUS
Posted on September 11, 2007
Filed Under Inside NUS, News
In June 2007, the NUS leadership produced a “Green Paper” on “Governance Review”, taking its mandate from an interpretation of policy passed at annual conferences. A summary of the paper is available here. Read on for ENS’s response, including appendices on NUS finances and its culture of waste.
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