Rallying in solidarity with Gaza student occupation

Anthony from Socialist Students addressing the rally – photo Iain Dalton

Socialist Students members joined a rally marking just over a week since students occupied the Parkinson building at Leeds University in protest at university policies in relation to the ongoing war on Gaza.

Socialist Party Yorkshire regional secretary, Iain Dalton was involved in the hundreds-strong occupation at Leeds Uni in 2010 and spoke to point out some lessons of that struggle for today’s occupiers – key being linking up with workers on campus and the wider trade union movement to ensure the struggle on this issue and others is taken beyond the confines of the Parkinson building as the rally and hopefully future ones will do.

Socialist Students member Anthony Bracuti brought solidarity to the occupiers from Socialist Students. He pointed that the university was following in the footsteps of Sunak and Starmer, and with the local elections coming up, the political apologists for the catastrophe in Gaza should face a challenge as Anthony and other Socialist Students members will be doing by standing as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition challenge.

Leeds Socialist Students

Leeds uni students occupy Parkinson building over Israel-Palestine war

Students at the University of Leeds have occupied the iconic Parkinson building in response to university management’s unwillingness to distance itself from the Israeli state.

On 7 March, students stormed the building, the most recognisable symbol of the university, in anger at the actions of the uni with regards to the genocidal attacks in Gaza.

The university is still reeling from the scandal of its chaplain, Zechariah Deutsch, joining the IDF in November, and his propagandising on official and unofficial social media and WhatsApp groups. Deutsch returned to the UK in February and is still officially the Orthodox Jewish Chaplain.

The occupiers seek to force the university to deny him access to students; to force the university to commit to the safety of Palestinian students; and for the university to divest its interests in the state of Israel.

The marketisation of the university sector inevitably results in the university prioritising its own image. Without friendly media, the university cannot attract lucrative international students and their fees. As a result, uni management had initially locked the occupiers inside the building, with no access to food, in order to starve them out. Despite this, there have been daily demonstrations on campus in solidarity, including significant disruption to a university open day. Hopefully the occupiers can hurt the university in the only place management cares about, its wallet, and so bring about the change they are striving for.

Anthony Bracuti, Uni of Leeds Socialist Students

Freshers Reports 2023

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 occupation – students back staff strike

Monday’s rally in support of student occupation at Leeds Uni – photo Iain Dalton

Students at the University of Leeds have occupied the vice-chancellor’s office in solidarity with University and College Union (UCU) strikers, and in response to management’s punitive policy of 100% pay deduction for the soon-to-be-implemented marking boycott.

Staff in UCU were openly grateful for the action of these students: “It’s really heartening to see cooperation of this kind. We don’t want to strike. We don’t want to hurt students, so it’s encouraging to know that the student body understands that.”

UCU member have been striking for wage equality, an end to casualised contracts, and better pay, pensions and working conditions. One UCU PhD student said: “Postgrads are really screwed over. We should have basic working rights”.

Over 150 students and staff showed their discontent with the bullying vice-chancellor at a rally on 23 May, the day the occupation started. Socialist Party member Iain Dalton – who was one of the Leeds Uni occupiers in 2010 – also spoke in support of the action.

Anthony Bracuti, Leeds Socialist Students

Socialist Students join Leeds Climate Strike

Leeds Socialist Students members at the YouthStrike4Climate rally in Leeds, 24/9/21

Socialist Students from Leeds University and Leeds Beckett were part of a 150 strong protest on Parkinson steps at Leeds University organised by the student-staff Climate Coalition at Leeds University.

Staff at the university won the right to have an hour stoppage at work, which facilitated a march down to the Youth Strike for Climate rally in the city centre, with UCU and Unite branches at the university bringing their banners on the demonstration.

We gave out leaflets at both protesters for the Youth March for Jobs on Octover 9th which were well received. Our banner and placards calling for ‘Socialist Change to End Climate Change’ drew attention, leading to Leeds Student Radio to interview two of us, and someone joining us on the protest wanting to get active in Socialist Students.

Leeds Socialist Students 

Increased interest in socialist ideas amongst Leeds freshers

Well attended first Leeds Socialist Students meeting of the year

Leeds Socialist Students ran campaign stalls over a three-day period during freshers week this year. Given the recent IEA report that young people are more interested in ever in a socialist system, it is unsurprising that we had a lot of people stop at our stall to ask questions and agree about how socialist ideas offer a real alternative and viable future for young people. 

Across the four university campuses, as well as sixth form and FE colleges in Leeds, we had over 100 people leave their details and sign up to our mailing list. Our first meeting, ‘What is Socialism?,’ was held at a local pub with 25 attendees. The discussion was rigorous and engaging with questions ranging from the issue of identity politics to Marxist economics. We planned activity for this week to get out and active on the Youth Strike for Climate work stoppage and protest at the University of Leeds this Friday (24th Sept), promoting the upcoming Yorkshire Youth March for Jobs on 9^th October in Leeds. We’ll meet weekly during term with upcoming meetings on climate, sexual assault, and racism.

Kat Gwyther, Leeds Uni Socialist Students

Students back UCU strike at Leeds Uni

Hundreds of University of Leeds lecturers, staff and students are rallying against pension cuts, unstable/zero-hour contracts, overwork and wage inequality. UCU members at 60 universities are striking for eight days over the coming fortnight after the university managements failed to respond to demands for fair treatment of all staff. Leeds Socialist Society are enthusiastic supporters of the movement, along with other student groups and individuals.

Molly Rampton, Leeds Uni Socialist Students

The UCU strike is a crucial last resort in the fight for fair working conditions at many universities across the country. Many lecturers and other staff live without the security of knowing that they will be employed until the next academic year or semester, while even those with long-term contracts have seen their pensions slashed. Many staff are paid hourly, which does not include time spent planning for and evaluating work outside of class hours. Wage gaps remain static, with people of colour and most women earning less than their white male counterparts.

The strike has been criticised for disrupting student’s education – a claim deliberately blind to the fact that this education cannot take place without quality teaching; which in turn cannot take place without quality of life for those teachers. Staff at Leeds must feel valued and secure within the institution in order to be able to impart their knowledge and expertise effectively.

The mistreatment of Leeds University employees is directly at odds with the enormous fees currently paid by students. The academic body deserves investment into educational, rather than market demands and we will stand for nothing less.

Leeds Uni Socialist Students campaigns for Corbyn’s anti-austerity policies

With the general election rapidly approaching, the Leeds University Socialist Students have been actively campaigning for a Corbyn led Labour government.

Allen Haigh, Leeds Uni Socialist Students

Along with our regular Wednesday stalls, we decided to canvass at one of the larger student halls, Lupton residences, on Thursday, November 21st to assure that all students had registered to vote, and to have a conversation with them about the current political landscape.

We also sought to help disambiguate any thoughts or perceptions students had about Corbyn’s campaign; and expressed our strong belief that an anti-austerity, anti-capitalist government based on a socialist platform, one in line with the needs of workers and students alike, had the potential to radically change the workings of our society for the better.

We were pleased to find that generally students were already registered, and were personally invested in the outcome of this election. We spoke to some students who were already planning to vote for Labour based on the strength of their manifesto, as well as others who still felt ambivalent about their voting intentions but were intrigued or impressed by Labours pledges on free education, and investment in the NHS.We visited one block that was largely composed of student nurses, who were particularly sympathetic to Labours plans for the NHS due to their first-hand experience of inadequate funding and gross mismanagement. We exchanged thoughts on what we perceived to be the current shortcomings and what needed to be done in the future to protect the interests of staff and patients alike.

We visited one block that was largely composed of student nurses, who were particularly sympathetic to Labours plans for the NHS due to their first-hand experience of inadequate funding and gross mismanagement. We exchanged thoughts on what we perceived to be the current shortcomings and what needed to be done in the future to protect the interests of staff and patients alike.

We also canvassed in the Hyde Park, an area with a large student population in Leeds, on Monday, 25th of November, and again were pleased to find that most students had registered and had educated themselves about some key policy differences.We stressed to Corbyn supporters that regardless of the outcome of the election, there would remain a continuous need to fight for socialist policies, whilst those who remained undecided pledged that they would remain vigilante of media bias, and do their research on what a Corbyn campaign would really stand for.

Most of all it was good to see that almost every single individual saw Boris Johnson’s anti-establishment rhetoric for what it really is, a farce, and most seemed to recognise the need for real change in society; Leeds Socialist Students will certainly continue to fight for a fairer Britian.
We stressed to Corbyn supporters that regardless of the outcome of the election, there would remain a continuous need to fight for socialist policies, whilst those who remained undecided pledged that they would remain vigilante of media bias, and do their research on what a Corbyn campaign would really stand for.

Most of all it was good to see that almost every single individual saw Boris Johnson’s anti-establishment rhetoric for what it really is, a farce, and most seemed to recognise the need for real change in society; Leeds Socialist Students will certainly continue to fight for a fairer Britian.

Students demand Leeds University divests from HSBC

Students demand Leeds University divests from HSBC

Around 25 students joined a protest called by Palestine Solidarity group at Leeds University this Wednesday 29th November demanding that the university divests it’s investments in HSBC.

Iain Dalton, Socialist Students Yorkshire Organiser

The protest follows the university divesting from three companies involved in funding weapons sales to, or directly supporting, the repression of the Israeli state against the Palestinian people.

The vibrant and loud protest assembled and rallied outside the student’s union before marching around campus. Impassioned speeches were made about the brutal repression of the Israeli armed forces and the plight of Palestinian families including from Palestinian students studying at the University.

Socialist Students placards on the protest

Socialist Students took part in the demonstration with placards demanding the university ‘Stop funding Israeli state terror’.

We also distributed copies of the report from the recent Socialism conference organised by the Socialist Struggle Movement in Israel/Palestine which points to the need for a struggle between working class people, Arab and Jew to build a socialist alternative to the current conflict.

Students protest against Mark Regev speaking at Leeds Uni

Palestine Solidarity Group (PSG) protest against Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev speaking on campus today. Three Socialist Students members were present for solidarity.

Morgan King, Leeds Uni Socialist Students

Mark Regev has condoned Israeli war crimes in Gaza and yet, despite protests going back over a year by PSG, has returned to the University of Leeds for a second time by invitation of the University Union’s Jewish Society. While we at Socialist Students and at PSG recognise the right to free speech of people of any faith, ethnic background or political standpoint, we wholeheartedly condemn the University continuing to give a platform to war criminals and those who contribute to the repression and human rights abuses of Palestinian citizens.

Just last week, on the back of reports of the University’s divestment from their shares in companies providing weapons and military equipment to the State of Israel, the Vice-Chancellor told the students present at his annual Q&A that he believed that the University should always consider the ethical repercussions of financial investments. However, he refused to provide an update on those divestments.

Since then, it has become apparent that the University still holds shares worth more than £1m in HSBC, a company which holds large investments in Elbit Systems – an artillery company that, following the deaths of over 2,000 Palestinians in Operation Protective Edge in 2014, boasted that its weapons were “battle-proven.” Coupled with the hypocrisy of publicly condemning human rights abuses while inviting a war crime apologist to speak discreetly on campus, this failure to divest is symptomatic of the cancer that consumes the University of Leeds and other centres of higher education around the country: the obsession with profit. It is disgusting that our tuition fees are being used to support the criminal actions of a racist state, and it is a terrifying prospect that the leadership of this University cares more about how much more they can add to their £2.2bn surplus than people’s lives.

Protests like PSG’s successful one today, which drew 40-50 people, are the only way we can make our voices heard to create meaningful change at our universities. Whether it’s human rights, student housing or tuition fees you feel strongly about, let what happened today reassure you that there is strength in numbers.