Photo credit Steve Eason
The UCU strike over pensions is taking place at a time when left wing and socialist politics is on the rise. Over the weekend, a poll by Survation – one of the only companies to correctly call the 2017 election – put Labour 7 points ahead of the Tories.
Unlike many traditional left parties in Europe who are sinking electorally, Labour under Jeremy Corbyn has taken a sharp leftwing turn. They are now the party that stands for abolishing tuition fees, nationalising key industries including rail, ending austerity, tackling climate change and raising taxes on the rich.
This is the platform Corbyn put forward at the last election and the one which delivered such a strong result for Labour, taking several seats off the Tories and smashing their majority. Students and young people were central to this success, not only because they turned out in such high numbers to vote Labour but also because they organised themselves into effective campaigning groups able to make a big impact on the ground. However, you only had to go to one of the mass rallies Corbyn held during the election campaign to have seen that it wasn’t only about young people. Old and young were standing side by side. This unity was driven by a shared desire for a government that put the interests of ordinary people – whatever their age – above the needs of the richest in society.
This is the political backdrop to the pensions strike. And just like the Corbyn surge at the election, this strike is intergenerational. It unites a workforce in universities that has people close to retirement at one end, and those who have just finished their degrees at the other. But it also unites people across ages because the strike is in response to an attack by one class against another. As universities become more like international businesses run for profit, those at the top of the system seek to extract more money from workers at the bottom – by attacking their pay, pensions, and conditions. The end result is that more of the money that flows around in universities goes to the likes of Vice Chancellors. Students see this process affecting them too as they are forced to pay more for their education.
But it’s not just in education where working class people are being forced to pay. It’s happening everywhere and is supported by a Tory government who are driving through brutal austerity. The strike is a fundamental challenge to these attacks on ordinary people that goes beyond the world of higher education. If university workers win, it will raise the confidence of other people to fight too and make justification of austerity more difficult. It is for this reason that the strike helps a left wing political project like Cobynism and makes is more viable. This process also works the other: the growth of left wing politics feeds into the strike and gives it more support from outside boosting the morale of those within. This two-way process can be seen in the way Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have both come out in support of the strike, and in the way many Labour MPs have spoken at strike rallies and attended picket lines. This hasn’t always happened but the unity between a Labour opposition and workers on strike presents a nightmare scenario for the bosses.
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