Last week, I was invited onto GB News to debate Jack Eccles, the head of Reform Students.
The debate centred on the decision by the ‘Debating and Political Society’ at Bangor University in North Wales to decline an invitation for two Reform UK MPs to speak on campus.
Despite what you may have been led to believe, this wasn’t a violation of their inalienable civil liberties. Nor was it an attack from a University infiltrated by Marxist radicals.
Rather, it was a slightly embarrassing snub for the Reform rabble – including media regulars like Zia Yusuf and Suella Braverman – who seem to believe they have a divine right to a student audience.
Austerity agenda
Following this decision, Reform responded by threatening to cut £30 million of funding from Bangor University over ‘free speech’ violations, should Nigel Farage’s party get into power.
This is despite the fact, by the way, that the Debating and Political Society is affiliated to the Students’ Union, which is independent from the university itself.
This hysterical reaction exposes Reform’s true priorities: they aren’t defending free speech, but rather their right to promote a programme for the bosses.
Reform MPs summon the almighty principle of ‘free speech’ to mask their austerity plans. In doing so, they expose the truth that under capitalism, ‘free speech’ has always meant freedom for the rich.
Our ‘free’ press is monopolised by billionaires. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage and his coterie are regular fixtures on BBC shows like Question Time and Newsnight. The Reform leader even hosts his own daily prime-time show on GB News!
Meanwhile, the British state has arrested thousands of peaceful protesters for opposing the genocide in Palestine.
Students, meanwhile, have been repeatedly victimised, suspended, and arrested for their support of Palestine on campus – including one of the RCP’s own members just last week!
On these genuine free-speech issues, however, Reform has remained deafeningly silent. What a surprise!
Who does Reform represent?
The true character of Reform is being exposed daily. While they rose in the polls on an anti-establishment ticket, the closer they are getting to power, the more they are bowing before the bankers and bosses, and toning down their ‘radical’ language.
Reform previously suggested nationalising 50 percent of key utilities and cutting taxes for workers.
But now, they’ve changed their tune, calling for a bonanza of deregulation, “fiscal responsibility”, and to be “the most pro-business, pro-entrepreneurship government this country has seen in modern times…free[ing] businesses to get on and make more money”.
Farage has even suggested that the minimum wage might be “too high for younger workers”!
As they backtrack on their economic promises, Reform has become increasingly reliant on whipping up culture wars to maintain their anti-establishment image.
Whether attacking immigrants or students, they will play every card to divide the working class and distract from the fact that, in power, they would continue the austerity of the Tories and Labour.
The threat to cut £30 million from Bangor is only a fraction of the massive cuts they are gearing up to implement – not just to higher education, but to the welfare state, the NHS, and social care.
Should we ban Reform?
These charlatans’ abstract ravings about free speech resonate very little with students. Young people today harbour a deep-seated hatred for the entire establishment and its politicians – Reform included.
Given the unilateral support for austerity and imperialism across the political spectrum, it is no surprise that students are uninterested in hosting Reform MPs.
So, should we be banning Reform from campus?
As Communists, we are not in favour of university bureaucracies banning speakers. Their interests are aligned with the ruling class – as seen with the suspensions, expulsions, and arrests carried out across UK universities during the Palestine movement.
We have no trust in these well-paid careerists to defend our interests. Our trust lies in students and workers themselves; we are fighting to put power in their hands.
And if students and workers decide that they don’t want pro-austerity, pro-genocide MPs to speak on their campus, then they should have the right to mobilise in protest. That is the free speech we are interested in.
The establishment politicians can whine all they want. They’ll still have their access to rich donors, newspaper columns, and TV slots. But if they imagine they can have the red carpet rolled out for them on campuses where students despise them, they can think again!
Two years ago, at the Cardiff Students’ Union Annual General Meeting, the Communists organised to pass a motion to defend students’ freedom to protest against the genocide in Palestine.
Since then, the university management has spent thousands on a High Court injunction to ban demonstrations on campus. The real threat to freedom of speech comes not from students, but from the top – the state, the university higher-ups, and the billionaire media.
The best way to defend our democratic rights – and to fight imperialism, austerity, and marketisation – is by organising and mobilising on a mass basis.
We saw a glimpse of this power at Cardiff University, where the Communists led a campaign to boot reactionary Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg off campus.
Whoever wins the next election, university funding is going to remain on the chopping block. It’s going to be a race to the bottom for job cuts, attacks on conditions, and the quality of our learning.
We need to prepare the ground for mass struggles of students and workers, not just to defend ourselves against cuts and job losses, but to take control of our universities, and to take down the capitalist system altogether.
