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UPCOMING EVENTS

  • While the Tories deny racism, school students walk out to #DecoloniseEducation

    Two reports have recently emerged trying to whitewash the Tories of blame and deny the racism that is endemic within capitalist society. On 30 March, the Met Police investigated themselves, only to find that they had “acted appropriately” when forcibly clamping on vigils to Sarah Everard and other victims of gender-based violence. More recently, alarm has come from the release of the government’s Race Commission report.

    Already, the so-called independence of this report has been completely exposed. Original arrangements for it had been conducted by Boris Johnson’s senior advisor Munira Mirza, with the eventual product being commissioned by Tony Sewell – a CEO of a charity who just so happens to be friends with Johnson, accepting the Tory line on racism (it basically doesn’t exist!)

    It is no surprise why choices so seemingly random and disconnected were made by Johnson in putting the report together. Both Mirza and Swell have a long record of commentary absolving the government and police of blame for systemic racism in Britain, with some of it branching out into overt denialism and apologism. Does Johnson really think it is appropriate for an official report into racism to have been organised by a woman who penned articles on far-right websites with headlines like “The myth of institutional racism” (2019) and “Stop pandering to muslims” (2007)?

    Sewell’s own past writing has centred on his claim that, rather than systemic racism and discrimination, the main problem facing black communities is “absent fathers”. This mirrors a long history of tropes insinuating that BAME people themselves are to blame for the conditions they are faced in society – a particularly ironic thing to say when we consider 

    Johnson himself is an absent father to a still-unknown number of children! 

    Through rigging, cherry-picking data and lying about which academics contributed to the report, the resulting 258 pages conclude that Britain is no longer a country where the “system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities”. Those who complain about racism today are the real ones to blame for refusing to recognise that Britain serves as “a beacon to the rest of Europe and the world”, showing “reluctance to ackonwledge that the UK had become open and fairer”. 

    A central method of the report is also in centring the discussion about racism solely on the attitudes of individual white people towards race, focussing on data suggesting that blatant racist attitudes are less in favour among White British people than they were in previous decades. Even if this is true, it doesn’t take much to demonstrate this is missing the point. More than anything, this is the Tories attempting to divert blame from themselves. If racism is solely an ‘individual’ issue rather than systemic, Johnson no longer has to concern himself with disproportionate gaps in outcome for BAME people in education, health and police harrassment, which the report reduces to “culture”. 

    Protests

    Nobody in the #BlackLivesMatter movement was really asking for this report. What was being demanded was concrete action on what we knew already existed! 

    Rather than waiting on a government report to let us know whether or not racism is real, hundreds of young and working class people took to the streets in last year’s wave of BLM protest, which lifted the lid on the legacy of colonialism and imperialism in Britain while highlighting existing injustices. Parallels currently can also be made to the continued protests against the Tories’ draconian Police and Crime Bill, which threatens to severely restrict the democratic right to protest. While campaigners in Bristol last year tore down the statue to slave trader Edward Colston, this year they are up against police violence which has been seriously misrepresented in the capitalist media.

    It is ironic how, in the same week that the Tories try to place a lid on discussions about racism through this report, protests erupted at Pimlico Academy in South London, where students staged walkouts chanting “we want change!” over the shocking scale of discrimination in the school. The Academy’s headteacher Daniel Smith had incurred the disgust of students by banning the afro hairstyle, along with ‘colourful’ hijabs. In this context, the move to fly the Union Flag in the school yard was perceived by students as an underhanded attack on them. 

    The demands of the students in their schoolyard occupation have been inspirational. Hundreds of students of all ethnicities stood together to demand not just a reversal of the school’s decision, but also for a thorough revision of the school curriculum to no longer simply reflect a history of European kings and queens. 

    The action has already had an impact, with the headteacher apparently promising to stand down. The National Education Union, which represents the interests of education workers and teachers, have made arrangements to ballot for strike action over their own grievances. This demonstrates powerful opportunities to bring these struggles together, of students and education workers united in their demands!

    Where next for BLM in education?

    We need to make sure that a new explosion of protest takes place, demonstrating that #BlackLivesMatter and demanding an end to violence against women and gender non-comforming people, which the capitalist system breeds. 

    Preparations for this should be made with education unions in all schools, colleges and universities preparing for action in solidarity wherever students are protesting to expose oppression, whether that be racism, or around discussions on rape culture, which has gained increased prominence in recent weeks.

    We need to make sure that all waves of protest like this not only demonstrate existing inequality, but force through lasting changes. This is why action committees and mass assemblies of students, supportive parents and teaching unions should be formed in all places of education to ensure that necessary changes to the curriculum take place. Our education should reflect who we are now, as well as informing young people about our rich history of anti-racist and workers struggle, led by a multi-racial working class.

    How do we force this? One way should be through preparation for a national student strike against racism and sexism. Where student action is taking place, connections should be made with teachers’ unions and other unions and campaign groups, first for regional and London-wide action before branching out further. 

    It is only by connecting our struggles, finding ground to unite and challenging victim-blaming and elite power that we can win real change. Ultimately, we need to challenge the rotten capitalist system – a system which thrives on continued division between oppressed people and workers. Capitalism can’t meet our needs; it must go!

    ___________

    Come to our national launch of Socialist Feminist Alternative – “Stamp Out Sexism and Racism: At school, at work, on the street” – Friday April 16 @ 7pm. 

    Register on Eventbrite and click ‘going’ here!

  • Solidarity with Student Rent Strikers! Sign our petition

    The student revolt erupting across the country continues to take place. New initiatives, such as the ‘Nancy Out!’ campaign in Manchester where students are fighting to remove the current Vice Chancellor Nancy Rothwell, demonstrate that for us, this is not just a simple matter of winning small concessions. We want to reclaim education and run it for ourselves.

    For years, we have been expected to put up with an education system that is increasingly being run along the lines of profit-making, while the needs of students – particularly working-class students – go unrecognised.

    This is why Student Socialist Alternative has launched this petition to show maximum solidarity with all those in struggle with their uni managers. We invite not just students, but all those who want to build a force to demand and fight for fundamental system change to put their names down today!

  • What is the role of socialists in the student Covid uprising?

    Student Socialist Alternative hosted an online meeting titled ‘The Fight to Reclaim Education: Socialist Organisers’ Call’ on Friday 22nd January. This brought student rent strikers together with activists from London Renters’ Union, the University and Colleges Union and more. The speakers were very well received, with the other participants speaking from the ‘floor’ echoing many of the same ideas and principles as the organised speakers. An overall feeling of agreement was reached after a healthy discussion and replies by speakers.

    A major theme in the meeting was the need for solidarity between students and teaching and support staff, and to join up their struggles to fight for universities that puts education and working conditions first. The logic of capitalism means this will never be put first for as long as this system remains in place, so we must fight against fees and marketisation to make it possible.

    Speakers also gave their experiences of organising rent strikes, both in university accommodation and private housing more generally. While legal defence can only take you so far, a combative political struggle can win real victories. The best defence is an offence against the university bosses and the government that protects their privileges.

    The section of contributions from the floor included a discussion on whether it is important to link the rent strike campaign to socialist issues. It is certainly true that anticapitalist ideas are gaining massively among young people, which will be accelerated by the pandemic, but some may be hesitant to connect the campaign with the need for socialist change to avoid being seen as ‘too narrow’ and ‘political’. 

    Ultimately though, socialists can win support for our ideas through fighting alongside the widest group of people in the rent strikes. Through organising for real gains and concessions, even under this system, allows us to make clear that it is capitalism that is the root cause of attacks on students and workers’ conditions and safety. Only a socialist society with an economy planned along democratic lines can provide lasting solutions to the problems facing us. 

    Likewise, the point was made that the movement can and should carry on beyond the issue of students being crammed into unsafe accommodation and having to pay unfair rent for accommodation many are not using, and the pandemic more generally. One speaker raised the point that to really connect the strikes to the need to fully take education into our hands, we must be prepared to step up our struggle to win not just rent rebates, reductions and ‘no detriment’ policies, but many more radical and winnable demands, such as: 

    • A ban on student evictions, even after the pandemic. 
    • Good quality student grants. 
    • Full recognition of renters unions, so students can continue to hold the landlords to account through regular dialogue and talks. 
    • Mental health support for all students who need it. Link up with NHS campaigners to fight privatisation. 
    • Guaranteed tech support, with free provision of laptops for those who need it. Scrap printer charges in university libraries. 
    • Take our curriculum, housing and university services under our control by forming democratic oversight bodies run by students themselves, to make sure these policies are fully carried out.

    The failings of capitalism are being exposed to people through the process of struggle. Winning concessions and victories builds the confidence that not only things should change but also that when we fight, we are able to win that change. In this way, the current student rent strike could lead to a generalised fight for safe and affordable housing, to reclaim our education and ultimately a society organised along truly democratic, i.e. socialist lines

    Also raised was the idea of challenging notions of education as a product that is consumed, as opposed to a public good that benefits society as a whole. This mentality is consciously pushed by the system of tuition fees. Many students understandably feel like they want to ‘get their money’s worth’, which is pushing thousands to positively get involved with their local rent strikes. But socialists must also be upfront that this will never happen under a marketised education system, rather than one that is publicly funded and democratically controlled by both students and staff.

    Finally, the need for a democratically organised movement with a unified national structure was raised. Coordinated action is more effective than disorganised action and formal structures are needed to make sure negotiators and the movement’s leadership are accountable and decisions can be made in a democratic way. The NUS are in a great position to build such national structures. Already, the ‘Students Deserve Better Collective’ has been formed by them, which exists to federate rent strike organisations with the support of NUS President Larissa Kennedy.

    This is undoubtedly a step forward and must be strengthened by both forming a clear and consistent leadership that can not only keep drawing local campaigns together, but also take the lead in organising coordinated days of protest action, coordinated student drives to actively support university staff on strike action when necessary, and plan out occupations on university campuses across the country, putting demands on managers to meet our demands immediately. Action committees should be elected in every rent strike group across the country to put this into effect!

    Student Socialist Alternative stands in solidarity with all those taking action in the ongoing student revolt. Join us today to build a Marxist voice in our movements!

    WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE EVENT HERE.

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