Comrades from the Leeds Marxists interview local delivery riders working for exploitative “gig-economy” firm Deliveroo, reporting on the precarious conditions faced by such “self-employed” workers. In response to these attacks by the bosses’, Deliveroo drivers – and others – are organising and fighting back.
A Marxist Student Federation member came a respectable second in the King’s College London student union elections, which concluded last week. Running on an openly socialist programme, Joe Attard of the KCL Marxist Society received 500 votes, demonstrating a real appetite for radical ideas at a traditionally conservative university.
We publish here three short letters in which young workers in different sectors explain the conditions they face in the workplace. It is clear that young people across the country are forced to endure enormous exploitation and insecurity. The leaders of the labour movement need to take bold steps to organise young workers and guarantee decent pay and conditions for all.
Campaigning has now begun for elections to the Kings College London Student Union (KCLSU) sabbatical positions. Joe Attard, President of the KCL Marxist Society, is standing for the position of vice president for postgraduate students on an explicitly political and socialist platform. We present here Joe’s manifesto. Postgrads and workers: unite and fight!
Sarah Taylor of the Newcastle Marxists looks at a little known strike that took place in Washington, near Sunderland, a centenary ago, when over 1,000 school children took part in a strike to ensure they were provided with free school lunches. Today, school students are again on the front line in the fight against austerity and the broken capitalist system.
Last Saturday, 11th February, around 100 students and young workers from at least 20 schools, colleges, and universities across the country gathered in London for the annual national conference of the Marxist Student Federation. The number of attendees was a fitting figure to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution.
We publish here a further set of reports and videos from the enormous protests against Trump and his reactionary policies – mass demonstrations that have erupted in cities and towns across the country, with thousands of radicalised students and young workers coming onto the streets against Trump and the Tories, and in solidarity with migrants and the oppressed everywhere.
With just over one week to go until the national conference of the Marxist Student Federation, we publish here a video and article about the life and ideas of Lenin. Join us at this year’s MSF conference to celebrate the centenary of the Russian Revolution and discuss how we can fight for revolution today!
In the past year, the Rent Strike Collective has gained momentum and popularity across the UK, with even the NUS supporting student rent strikes, along with the Radical Housing Network. Alex Sheehan from the Reading Marxists looks at the tactic of the rent strike and the way in which this can be linked to the wider struggle for socialism.
The 4th national conference of the Marxist Student Federation – taking place at UCL on 11th February – will be a Bolshevik celebration of the life and ideas of Vladimir Lenin, 100 years since the February Revolution in Russia kicked off events that would lead to the first successful proletarian revolution in history.
Research carried out by the University and College Union (UCU) reveals the extent to which university and college management in the UK are engaging academic staff on insecure contracts. But the reality of working in HE institutions is not only one of job insecurity, but also one of low pay and increasing workloads.
Dozens of UNISON comrades were out in force in front of King’s College London last Friday with placards and banners to protest the abuse and exploitation of cleaning staff at the university, who have recently received individual letters warning that they are likely to be sacked or have their hours reduced under restructure of the workforce.