NEC Elections 2024
UCU Left calls on members to vote for candidates who are committed to building the fights against the attacks faced by workers in Further, Higher and Prison Education.
UCU Left candidates stand for strengthening democracy in our union and for using the power of trade unions to fight for a more equal, sustainable and peaceful world.
Posts
- Assessing an epic battle: the UCU strike at Brighton University 
The long-running strike by UCU members at University of Brighton ended on 10th November. What we believe to be the longest ever strike in UK HE history, certainly the longest by UCU, lasted 129 days. In fact, as the walk-out followed on immediately after a strike against punitive MAB deductions, the total period of strike action …Continue reading “Assessing an epic battle: the UCU strike at Brighton University ”
- Report on UCU National Executive meeting November 2023
A Crisis in the Making in Post-92 Higher Education UCU’s National Executive Committee met last week and voted to reaffirm its support for solidarity with the Palestinian people and call for branches and members to build support for staff student walkouts on the 29th November. The walkouts are part of the UN International Day of Solidarity …Continue reading “Report on UCU National Executive meeting November 2023”
- BRICUP Seminar 3: Erasing Palestine • Prof Rebecca Ruth Gould
6pm Thursday 30 NovemberZoom: /bit.ly/BRICUPSeminar3 This is a timely talk by Rebecca Gould. In the UK, as in the US and across Europe, voices for Palestine are being suppressed. Some of the key sites for this silencing are the campuses of universities and colleges. Student activity is being banned, students are facing threats of disciplinary action, …Continue reading “BRICUP Seminar 3: Erasing Palestine • Prof Rebecca Ruth Gould”
- All out for Palestine on 29 November UN Day of SolidarityWeeks of relentless bombing have left more than 14500 dead and tens of thousands injured, while homes, schools, hospitals and basic infrastructure across Gaza have been flattened. Millions around the world are organising to show they reject this mass murder and challenge the complicity of our governments and institutions in the Israeli war machine and the …
Continue reading “All out for Palestine on 29 November UN Day of Solidarity “
- What happened to the ‘national’ FE dispute?
Last week saw UCU members in FE on strike over pay, workload and national binding bargaining (i.e. a pay rise that is paid to every branch). The strikes were well supported with large, vibrant pickets – many members were out for the first time. Billed as a national ‘Respect FE’ campaign members were initially excited to …Continue reading “What happened to the ‘national’ FE dispute?”
- Fair pay in FE
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week 14 FE colleges will take strike action over pay, workload and national binding bargaining. FE lecturers’ pay has been cut by 30% in real terms over the last decade. At the same time workloads have increased as management pack classrooms to maximise their profits. FE staff have to … - After million people march for Palestine – now take the movement into the workplace
Saturday’s demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinians was the biggest march for Palestine in British history and one of the biggest marches in British history. A million people poured into London to march to the US embassy. The march more than filled the two-and-a-half-mile route all the way from Park Lane to the US Embassy. Suella Braverman and … - What went wrong with the UCU Rising Campaign?
How the UCU reballot over pay and conditions missed the threshold The turnout in the reballot, at 42.59%, will be a huge disappointment for every union member who wanted to see a fight over pay and conditions. But a 68.32% vote for strike action, and a 75.57% vote for action short of a strike, shows that …Continue reading “What went wrong with the UCU Rising Campaign?”
- UKRI, Palestine and Academic Freedom: How UK research funding moved from critical thinking to Blacklisting and McCarthyism
The Israeli war on the Palestinian people has had an impact across wide areas of civil society far from the Middle East and far from the politics of the Israel-Palestine conflict. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the umbrella body for the UK’s funding councils, has walked head first into a row about its (lack of) independence … - One State!
Register here: bit.ly/BRICUP23_24Seminar2 The remorseless colonisation of the West Bank through illegal settlements, the disaggregation of the territory, continuous pressure to force Palestinians into exile, and the isolation of the Gaza Strip since 2006, have now rendered a two-state solution impossible, if it was ever desirable. Yet the genocidal bombardment of Gaza and the Israeli Government …