Back in 2022, I was one of only four revolutionary communist workers at the University of Sheffield.
But thanks to the support of a dozen student members, our party branch waded into the first post-COVID strike wave to see how far clockwise we could move the dial of class struggle.
At this point, the University and College Union (UCU) had been fighting a dispute over pensions and working conditions for four years at over 100 universities. A tidal wave of young militant workers rushed into the union.
The strike was clearly winnable, but the general secretary refused to go beyond half measures: ‘one-off’ day-long or week-long strikes.
Reading articles in Socialist Appeal – the predecessor of The Communist – we were convinced that the next step was a co-ordinated indefinite strike.
The union needed to take up the gauntlet the bosses had thrown down: going beyond pleading for crumbs from deaf ears plugged with six-figure salaries, and taking the fight to the government for a fully-funded higher education system.
Armed with Socialist Appeal, we marched down to our picket line to make the case for this change of tactic.
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We encountered some initial resistance. As one older worker put it: “What do I think of indefinite strike? I think it’s a stupid and damaging idea!” This same individual, after 30 minutes, had come to the conclusion, “Okay, yes – it’s the only way forward, but you’ll never convince everyone else!”
Always up for a challenge, we decided to prove him wrong! Our comrades campaigned across the picket lines every day for a week. We discussed workers’ control, the need to reverse marketisation, and to inspire the students to engage in the same struggle.
We built up to a general meeting where we got up and put forward a motion, based on arguments in the newspaper about the UCU strikes. “Take the battle to the bosses!” was the watchword.
Suddenly the room bubbled up with energy, and worker after worker came into the discussion to agree. By the end of the meeting our motion was passed, committing our branch delegates to fight for this tactic at every opportunity.
By 2023, this branch put forward a resolution to congress – “Kick Out Capitalism!” – with the full list of demands from Socialist Appeal. Again this soared through congress, with our own comrades beaten to the podium by a worker we did not know, who got up to enthusiastically support the motion!
Motion HE32 passed at HE conference this afternoon! ✊
Drafted by comrades of UCU Marxists and put forward by University of Sheffield branch, it commits the union to kicking capitalism out of Higher Education!🚩 pic.twitter.com/NLxOjGFKhX
— UCU Marxists (@ucumarxists) May 28, 2023
Unfortunately, for the time being our efforts were quietly sat on, or swept under the rug by the union bureaucracy. But clearly, starting from a small force we can begin to form the backbone for much larger layers inclined towards militant action.
We need to build such strong, initial nuclei at every campus. That is why I have turned all my energy to recruitment, and training new layers of communists, particularly from the radicalised student body – so that we are ready for the next wave of class struggle.
