UCU

UCU

• Jo Grady victory: all change at the top of UCU

  

  Jo Grady has been elected General Secretary of UCU in a victory for the left, now the rank and file need to get organised argues Graham Kirkwood

• Counterfire statement on UCU election for general secretary

  

  Voting starts this week for a new general secretary for the UCU, following the resignation of Sally Hunt. Counterfire members in the union have agreed this statement:

• UCU: we are the union

  

  The annual UCU conference has begun and the leadership, unwilling to accept criticism, has acted anti-democratically and with contempt of its members reports Des Freedman

• UCU pensions dispute: the battle is over, but the fight continues

  

  UCU members recently voted to suspend industrial action; the action may be on pause but the dispute is far from over. 

• After Windrush: this racist government must go - Counterfire Freesheet May 2018

  

  Windrush, May 68, Palestine, UCU strike, Marx and more - Counterfire freesheet edition 025, May 2018

• University workers' statement on UCU ballot result

  

  The strike is over: our fight is not

• The case to vote 'no' in the UCU ballot and how we can win

  

  As university workers vote in a ballot on UUK's latest offer, Lee Jones explains why they should vote no and how the campaign to reject the deal can win

• Vote NO: university workers call to reject proposed deal

  

  Lecturers and supporters met at a national activists meeting today to discuss the campaign to reject UUK's proposed deal

• Reject the UUK deal: we need to fight now

  

  In this open letter, university workers from across the country argue that we cannot accept the deal as it stands, and must fight for a No vote

• Update on university pensions dispute

  

  These motions, passed at various branches, offer a guide as to how we should approach the dispute at this critical moment

• University strikes: employers’ retreat needs to be nailed down

  

  As UUK returns with a further offer, Des Freedman takes a look at the immediate options facing university staff involved in the dispute

• We're not going to take it any more - statement from precarious staff at the University of Kent

  

  Following the UCU strike against pension cuts, precarious staff at the University of Kent release a statement demanding no pay cuts for strike action for already poorly paid staff

• Time's up Theresa - Counterfire Freesheet March 2018

  

  Brexit, Corbyn and the Labour right, gender pay gap, commodification of universities and more...

• The government's stance on Salisbury is a big gamble - weekly briefing

  

  Theresa May's Cold War revivalism is a high risk strategy for all of us, writes Alex Snowdon 

• Lecturers' strike: the rank and file have spoken, now we have to take the lead

  

  Feyzi Ismail reports from outside UCU headquarters as the union’s Higher Education Committee votes to reject the employers’ derisory offer

• Lecturers' strike update: no capitulation

  

  Des Freedman and Vladimir Unkovski-Korica explain why the deal between UCU and UUK is bad one and should be rejected

• Lecturers' strike update: together we can win

  

  As the lecturers' stike enters its final week, a lecturer explains what we have achieved and what we still need to do

• Lecturers' strike update: students at Reading University begin occupation

  

  Joining a wave of student occupations that look set to escalate this week, students at Reading University have begun an occupation in solildarity with striking lecturers

• Student Occupations Live #OccupyUUK

  

  Live updates of students occupying university buildings in solidarity with striking lecturers. #UCUstrike #StrikeForUSS

• The lecturers' strikes started in winter but are finishing in spring - weekly briefing

  

  University staff and students have shown that committed and passionate resistance is possible and neccesary, finds Des Freedman

• Lecturers' strike update: inside the occupation at Exeter University

  

  Now on the third day of #ExeterOccupy in support of striking lecturers, Theseus Stefanatos and Alex Rafael Rose report on the action students are taking and why

• Lecturers strike massive blow

  

  The UCU strike is not just about pensions. It is an opportunity to fight for a new vision for Higher Education, argues Milly Williamson

• Lecturers' strike: interview with a QMU striker

  

  A UCU striker at Queen Mary University speaks to Katherine Connelly about the ongoing dispute

• Lecturers' strike update: students occupy in Bristol, Exeter and Leicester

  

  In solidarity with striking lecturers and opposing further marketisation of higher education, students begin occupying management offices reports Jack Hazeldine

• Lecturers' strike: Deepen the action, spread the support

  

  As the strike continues, we must up the ante, argues Des Freedman

• Against the marketisation of our education

  

  Rather than calling for compensation for lost teaching time, students should stand in full solidarity with university and college staff

• Lecturers' strike report: students show their support

  

  On the 5th day of the UCU strike, picket lines stayed strong despite the weather and students came out in force to show their support

• Europe: why retreat must not turn into defeat for the left - weekly briefing

  

  Lindsey German analyses Jeremy Corbyn's speech on Brexit, as well as the importance of the UCU strike and the growing movement against the NRA in the US

• What you can do to support the lecturers' strike

  

  As the strike continues we must keep the pressure on, argues Chris Nineham

• Lecturers' strike updates: Striking to win

  

  As the UCU strike carries on into its 4th day, we put together some short reports from picket lines around the country

• Bristol leads the way in supporting striking university staff - photos

  

  After a huge mobilisation to support striking lecturers on the first day of the strike, Bristolians took to the streets again to show solidarity reports Jack Hazeldine

• Forget the Arctic conditions: our universities are on fire

  

  The UCU strike has the potential to rebuild the campaign against the marketisation of our higher education, writes Des Freedman

• Lecturers' strike day one: A bad day for the casino

  

  University strikers across the country are reporting the most successful and well supported industrial action for years

• 'They think we are weak - they could not be more wrong': Goldsmiths kicks off against pension cuts

  

  On the first day of this historic strike, Goldsmiths lecturers show they mean business and are fighting to win

• Solidarity with striking lecturers - resolution

  

  Resolution to submit at your Union branches/CLPs/elsewhere in solidarity with UCU members going on strike from Thursday

• Why we strike: why lecturers need your support

  

  As university staff are set to take strike action, two lecturers, Des Freedman and Vladimir Unkovski-Korica explain why you should support the strike

• Biggest ever strike in higher education? UCU members prepare to defend pensions

  

  As education workers get ready to strike, Des Freedman, a professor at Goldsmiths University, tells us what we can do to support them

• University staff set to strike after ballot victory

  

  University staff are set for 14 days of strike action after voting decisively for walkouts in opposition to attacks on their pensions reports Des Freedman

• SOAS and the fight against precarity

  

  Reporting the extent of precarity across the university sector in Britain is welcome but precarious work needs to end now, argues Carrie Benjamin

• The assault on universities: the 2016 version

  

  Ahead of the education protest called by the NUS and UCU on 19 November, Des Freedman and Feyzi Ismail explain why staff and students should join it

• Lecturers' strike: fighting for fairness and the future

  

  Higher education (HE) workers across the country took the first of two consecutive days' strike action in the campaign for fair pay. Graham Kirkwood reports 

• Challenging the pay and working conditions of hourly-paid and fractional staff

  

  Staff at Queen Mary’s have launched an anticasualisation campaign demanding pay for all hours worked at London Living Wage and contract uniformity. Isabelle Leach reports

• Pessimism and rage in the higher education pensions dispute

  

  We have seven weeks in which to raise the temperature and to inject some hope into the battle to defend pensions says Des Freedman

• Hands off our pensions!

  

  Des Freedman, Brian Alleyne and Tom Henri on why staff at 69 universities have started a marking boycott to protest against proposed changes to pensions