Student Union (SU) elections have been taking place at universities across the country in recent weeks.
These are rightly seen as a joke by most students – your candidate options range from smarmy wannabe careerists, to the downright absurd (a bottle of ‘Tesco balsamic vinegar’ for SU president, anyone?)
This is a time of rising anger amongst young people – towards US and Israeli imperialism in their war on Iran; toward those exposed Epstein files, which further reveal the hideous face of the billionaire elite; and toward the crisis in Britain.
Rather than join the barrage of ‘vote me’ candidates, the communists stood to connect the situation facing young people with the need to overthrow capitalism.
We share here reports from our recent election campaigns at Cardiff University and the University of Sheffield.
“F*** the election”
Cardiff Communists ran Alice Nicholson on a “F*** the election” campaign platform.
Our campaign wasn’t based on getting Alice a nice cushy job for their CV, but building a force on campus that wants to smash the capitalist system.
Despite us barely mentioning Alice’s name in our campaigning, they still received over 700 votes from students who wanted to see a Revolutionary Communist SU president.
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We had a team of communists ready to get stuck into this campaign, boldly walking up to other students and asking, “Are you sick of the paedophile billionaires?” The answer was usually ‘yes!’. Many said they think we need a revolution to overthrow capitalism.
Our task is to organise these radicalised young people at the university. We’ve so far recruited four new members to the party as a result of the campaign, with more planning to join soon!
Roo Humble, Cardiff
A fighting organisation
What was raised in the candidate briefing for the Sheffield SU elections? Was it issues facing students, or the cuts to higher education, perhaps? No. All the SU told candidates was just how great standing in the election would be for their careers.
When higher education is in crisis, when the university is in bed with arms companies, when 14 percent of students are having to use foodbanks, this careerism is nothing short of disgusting.
We instead put forward the need for a fighting SU – one that could be a beacon for the struggle against marketisation and for the fight to overthrow capitalism.
We spoke to students about what made them angry. We gave shoutouts in lectures, speeches in busy areas, and drew in our newest recruits into an active campaign.
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Comrades found that the crisis facing universities is just a footnote for most compared to their anger at the crisis of capitalism as a whole.
When the ruling elites have been exposed as a cabal of paedophiles – and the same elites are bombing innocent school children in Iran while workers suffer at home – it’s becoming obvious to young people that the whole system needs to go.
By tapping into this, we’ve so far recruited three people directly to the RCP. Building the revolutionary party is the most important campaign of all!
Saoirse Camilleri, Sheffield
Communists say: Hands off Iran! Down with US imperialism!
Following the outbreak of the war on Iran, Communist and Marxist societies have organised rallies and open meetings on campuses to protest the United States’ and Israel’s imperialist aggression.
Here we share reports of our activities in London, Edinburgh, and Manchester.
UCL communists host emergency meeting on the Iran war
On Thursday 5 March, the Revolutionary Communist Students organised an emergency meeting on the war on Iran at UCL.
Comrades had limited time to advertise the meeting, so we took the initiative to arrange multiple stalls on campus throughout the week, where we tried to catch students leaving their classes. We also went around campus postering about the meeting.
Despite the short notice, on the day of the meeting the lecture hall was full even before the speaker had arrived! Latecomers struggled to find a seat.
In total, there were more than 70 attendees as Khaled Malachi, RCP London organiser, put forward a Marxist analysis, and our position as communists.
Khaled explained that the US and Israel are merely using the language of ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ to pursue their predatory imperialist interests, and that regime change brought about by previous interventions on the part of US imperialism has led to devastation, reaction, and barbarism across the Middle East.
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However, far from being an easy war for the US, this is proving to be a big miscalculation on Trump’s part. He concluded by explaining that the task of communists in Britain is to oppose our own government’s role in this imperialist aggression.
This was followed by a rich discussion, touching on the hypocrisy of the western warmongers, how the cracks are already opening up amongst Trump’s base due to the Epstein scandal and how this war has the potential to lead to even more anger at home, how it will make life worse in Britain and impact consciousness here.
It’s clear that our explanation of the meaning and implications of this war left a good impression on the audience. By the end of the meeting, ten new people had expressed interest in getting organised with us!
Sumit, UCL Communists
Consistent anti-imperialists
As we built for the rally we had called on 9 March by holding stalls on campus, we came across many students and workers who agreed with our opposition to the war in Iran and showed their disgust towards American imperialism.
A barista in a nearby coffee shop we stopped off in even pointed at the flyers the comrade had with her and said, “By the way, I totally agree with this.”
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Although the rally was ultimately small, we made it lively, chanting, “Hands off Iran” and “the US is a terrorist state”, followed by speeches that made it clear that revolutionary communists are consistent anti-imperialists.
We highlighted the disastrous role that US and Israeli imperialism play in the Middle East – and for the world economy, which has knock-on effects for workers everywhere. To fight against imperialism, we must overthrow the capitalist system!
Edinburgh Communists
Rally and open meeting in Manchester
We organised a rally and open meeting on campus after attending a Stop the War demonstration in Manchester earlier in the week. It left many people feeling defeated and still looking for answers about Iran, Israel, and American imperialism.
We noticed that there was a complete lack of activity on campus that could connect with students’ anger and provide political clarity. We decided to push back our planned Marxist Society talk and instead discuss the question of Iran.
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The rally was not enormous, but those who did attend told us they had been actively looking for how to express support for Iran – something that neither the labour movement in Manchester, or other student groups, provided. One person we met there has since joined the party!
At the meeting, it was clear that students are already drawing links to Palestine, Venezuela, and even the Epstein files – and are seeing all of these as connected to the same rotten system.
Leah Harthill, Manchester
“Rachel Reeves, your time has passed!”
On 12 March, Leeds comrades took part in a protest at the University of Leeds, where war criminal Rachel Reeves had been invited onto campus as part of a talk “celebrating the achievements of successful women” for International Women’s Day.
While turnout was initially modest, the crowd grew as people stopped to observe. Alongside making plenty of noise, we were armed with RCP banners, flags, and flyers that we had prepared providing our perspectives to draw people in.
“I’m sick of this university inviting genocide supporters onto our campus,” said one student we spoke with.
“The worst thing is the SU,” added another. “They make all these token gestures but they still won’t come out against the genocide, against women and girls dying.”
This anger at these cynical ‘celebrations’ of women’s rights motivated more and more to join despite harsh wind and rain. “This is outrageous,” said one shocked passerby. “That woman, of all people?”
One of our comrades, Annie, gave a fiery speech exposing Reeves’ hypocrisy: how can she talk about the ‘celebrating women’ when she has been directly attacking women in the UK and abroad? What right does she have to talk about ‘overcoming oppression’ when it’s her government that appointed Mandelson, knowing he was implicated with Epstein?
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We linked anger about Palestine to anger about Epstein, as well as the anger just generally – anger urgently needs to be directed at the ruling class and the system at the head of everything. One chant that we raised connected particularly well: “Rachel Reeves, your time has passed – we know you serve the Epstein class!”
While this protest did not kick Reeves off campus, we certainly made her feel unwelcome. People on the inside told us our demands were heard loud and clear: no war criminals on campus! Fight women’s oppression with revolution!
Leeds Communists
Communists demolish the Tories on campus!
Earlier this month, the Edinburgh Revolutionary Communist society was invited to debate the Conservative and Unionist Society.
The Tories argued that “nationality is more uniting than class”, while we defended the motion that “capitalism is the root of societal decay”. The debate was a big success: 120 people attended, and by the end, we had won over a clear majority.
We leafleted and put up posters across campus to draw students in beforehand. This led to many interesting discussions, allowing us to gauge the mood, sharpen our arguments, and anticipate the kinds of questions likely to arise.
When the debate began, almost half the room initially agreed that nationality is more uniting than class. This reflected what we had heard on stalls: many instinctively felt that nationality and culture create shared interests.
But once the interests of the capitalist class were exposed, many reconsidered. Our rebuttal examined the class character of Scottish independence, and stressed cases of international workers’ solidarity, such as the ‘block everything’ strikes for Palestine in Italy.
By the end, around 15 percent had switched their vote against the motion.
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When it came to our motion, more than half the room already agreed. The comrade used this chance to expound upon why capitalism is inherently a crisis-ridden system, linking it to the rise in poverty, crime, and social decay in Britain.
In the end, we won both motions with more than 60 percent of the vote – an encouraging sign of the growing radicalisation of youth.
One of the attendees said that in 30 minutes, we explained the ideas of communism more clearly than anyone else had done in their life. Another attendee was equally impressed: “Holy shit, she has an answer for everything!”
This produced a huge boost in the district’s morale and a pride in our Party and our ideas.
Sara Al Disi, Edinburgh Communists
