Leeds Uni
Louie Fulton
The question “what is socialism?” was asked a lot. When we explained, most agreed that a mass workers’ movement is needed and that they would like to see a socialist society in the future.
One international student from the US explained to me how the costs work for international students. £22,000 was the cost of tuition, with an additional £3,000 for the visa.
They still have to pay for rent and living costs on top! All this is paid for with a personal loan back in the US, as they do not even have access to the British student finance system.
This student is now stuck working two jobs. One in the UK as a server, and one in the US, providing IT support to a healthcare company.
Many students strongly feel that Labour no longer represents them. They feel lost for political representation.
Some are considering voting Green as they see them as the only viable alternative to Labour. We made the case for a party based on the working class, where the trade unions could stand their own candidates, for example.
One student said about freshers week: “This is way too commercial”. Another student, who said that they felt “advertised to”, bought a Socialist paper and a Socialist Student magazine
Their idea of freshers week was socialising, meeting friends and getting drunk. But they had corporate sponsors trying to sell them stuff constantly.
We collected almost 100 names of people interested in Socialist Students.
Leeds Beckett
Iain Dalton
A dozen students left their contact details to find out more about Socialist Students, before it started raining. While more students took our leaflets, asked us to explain what we mean by socialism, or how we can drive all the Tories from power – blue and red.
Leeds Socialist Students 