Battling for the education we need
An open letter about the state of education from concerned grandmother Kes Grant of the anti-academisation campaign John Roan Resists.
NEU battles ahead – report from NEU conference
The first NEU conference set an ambitious course for boycotts and strikes over primary school testing, funding and pay, report rs21 delegates.
Beyond taking sides on No Outsiders
To understand the controversy about LGBT lessons in schools, we need to understand the oppression of both LGBT people and the Muslim community.
Student bans and securitisation at KCL
Politically active students at KCL have been barred from entering campus without any justification. Read KCL Justice for Cleaners’ statement here!
Global youth strikers: declare a climate emergency
From Mauritius to Manchester, young people around the world walked out of their schools and colleges on Friday 15 March, demanding action on climate change.
Knife crime and the myth of the friendly copper
Mitch Mitchell argues that putting more police on the streets will not solve the problem of knife crime and will lead to more targeting of BAME youth.
How students supported the miners’ strike: an activist remembers
On 6 March 1984, the walkout at Cortonwood Colliery signalled the beginning of the 1984-85 miners’ strike. Colin Revolting remembers how he and his fellow students supported the miners.
The story of the LA teachers’ strike
Jesse Hagopian talks to LA teacher Gillian Russom about how the teachers in Los Angeles organised, what they won, and what it means for wider education struggles in the USA.
Rape culture and the neoliberal university
Warwick University’s response to sexism, racism and rape culture on campus has been appalling but sadly predictable, writes Warwick graduate Rachel Jones.
Caring enough to strike: US teachers’ strikes in perspective
Last week, 33,000 Los Angeles teachers went on strike. Tithi Bhattacharya analyses the past year’s teachers strikes from a social reproduction framework.
What we mean when we talk about benefits cuts
The Secret Housing Barrister describes the consequences of the UK government’s continued enforcement of an illegal benefits cap.
‘Courageous conversations’: students occupy SOAS library
This week students at SOAS occupied the library in opposition to cuts. Seth Uzman points to the wider education struggles they are part of.
What exactly does a university Vice Chancellor do?
As HE workers prepare for action over pay, Mike Haynes asks: what do VCs actually do?
Happy NEU year?
The newly formed National Education Union is currently balloting for action. What are the prospects for the new union and the left within it?
Immigration White Paper: We treat #PatientsNotPassports
The government published its delayed Immigration White Paper yesterday. Here a doctor tells us about the damage current immigration policies is already causing patients.
Library cuts and mathemagics
A struggle over library cuts reveals how shock doctrine tactics work at the level of an individual university.
Academies suck… money and life out of our schools
A key dispute in the battle against education privatisation has been unfolding at John Roan school in Greenwich. Support staff will be on strike again next week.
A Kestral for a Knave: fifty years on
Barry Hines’s book A Kestrel for a Knave, which became the film Kes, was published fifty years ago this year, but it remains as relevant as ever.
Resistance not resilience: ruling class and radical approaches to mental health
While employers want healthy workers, they are not prepared to look at the deeper causes of mental distress.
The political economy of urban crisis: housing and the city
At the recent Revenge of Everyday Life conference, Ruth Lorimer talked about the growth of social reproductive services such as cleaning through gig economy platforms in cities, while Katya Nasim talked about the housing crisis and the work of London Renters Union. Listen to the talks and discussion:
Reflections on the Education Spring
An interview with Lois Weiner about the flowering of militancy in the US education system
Experimenting on our kids: academisation and its discontents
Staff are taking strike action against the academisation of their school in Greenwich. Their next strike days are on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 July, when GMB staff will be joining their striking NEU colleagues. Below is a video of a speech given by Howard Stevenson at a previous strike rally. Introduced by Andy Stone, Joint Secretary, Wandsworth […]
50 years from May ‘68, students in France are mobilising again
France is again in the midst of a wave of intense social action, with universities disrupted for months and mass arrests in Mayday protests.
“No human is illegal”: NHS staff speak out on Windrush
The Windrush scandal was the inevitable result of the “hostile environment”- we need to push back and support the rights of all migrants
“They can never stop the spring”: France in 2018
Fifty years after the 1968 uprisings, social struggles are flaring up in France once again following attacks on workers and universities
Update: what’s new in the UCU strike?
We look at the latest developments in the wave of strikes that has taken employers by surprise across the higher education system.
UCU strike: dispatches from the picket line
Striking academic workers and their student supporters report on the ongoing nationwide action in defence of pensions.
A critical week lies ahead in the West Virginia teachers’ strike
The West Virginia teachers’ strike marks the return of the mass strike to the US in 2018.
“We have to fight this”: interview with a striking lecturer
The strike action beginning next Thursday will be one of the largest ever in UK Higher Education.