Revolutionary Communist Party member Adam Baguley has kicked off his campaign to become the president of Lancaster University Students’ Union today, on a communist programme to fight the cuts (see below).
The deep crisis of capitalism is reaching into the daily lives of students and staff. An onslaught of cuts and attacks on its way, with the Lancaster uni bosses planning 400 staff redundancies, alongside course closures and department restructuring.
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What’s more, student life is under attack (see below) with popular college bars shut down altogether, leaving their already precarious staff without extra income at a time where the cost-of-living is through the roof.
These attacks have come while this particular university is making a fortune. In their 2023/24 Financial Statement, the senior management showed that they are raking in a £22 million surplus – and that’s after the bosses and private companies have skimmed off plenty of cream, with their bloated salaries and juicy contracts.
Given this perfect storm of anger, and with the memory of the university’s complicity in Israel’s genocide still fresh in people’s heads, Adam’s manifesto is already receiving an echo.
On day one of the campaign, members of the Lancaster Communist Society have already painted the campus red with bold posters and flyers, and spoken to dozens of students. A schedule of rallies, lecture shout-outs, stalls, and door-knocking sessions has been organised for the coming week.
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Alongside similar anti-cuts campaigns at Sheffield, Cardiff, and Leeds, the Revolutionary Communist Party is showing the way forward: linking the crisis in higher education to the crisis of the whole system, and calling for a mass movement to put students and workers in control.
Follow along and get involved with Adam’s campaign at @adam4lancspresident on Instagram, and read his manifesto below!
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A communist programme for Lancaster University Students’ Union
- Fight back against the bosses’ cuts! Not a single lecturer should be sacked! Not a single department or service should be cut!
- End student rent immediately! We are sick of being cash cows for a university acting as a big landlord. For staff and student control of student halls!
- Abolish tuition fees! Bring back maintenance grants! The money exists for uni to be free. Expropriate the big banks and corporations!
- Keep the bars open! Students deserve somewhere to socialise. Reverse the closures! Give colleges and societies proper funding!
- Kick private companies off campus! We don’t want our fees going to profiteers and parasites. Bring all services in-house!
- Cut all ties with imperialism! Divest from all arms manufacturers, as well as any institutions with links to the Israeli state.
- For democratic control of the uni by staff and students! No more bureaucrats on six-figure salaries. We know how to run the uni best!
- Students and workers, unite and fight! For a fighting students’ union, and a national campaign against cuts and capitalism!
Even the bars are shutting down!
Aarondev Atwal, Lancaster University
In December, Lancaster University announced that they plan to cut 400 full-time staff members over the next two years “to be sustainable”.
Since then, the university has been slashing department funding. Students are forced to pay for mandatory parts of their studies, while multiple departments are neglected, with staff stretched to their limit.
On top of all of this, the university has now closed multiple college bars, and reduced the opening times of others. This is killing campus life, and has meant bar staff losing their jobs.
The bar staff were already on zero-hour contracts, meaning that they were paid less than a full-time worker. Carrying out these attacks at the same time as hiking rent for student halls is shocking!
Instead of funding facilities for students and staff, this money has been tossed into glamour projects, such as a campus in Barrow (for the benefit of BAE systems). This shows the real priorities of the uni bosses; to maintain an attractive portfolio, not quality education.
No wonder there’s a growing hatred against university management. There’s a storm brewing in Lancaster – and these cuts will only make it stronger.
That’s why members of the Lancaster Communist Society are campaigning for Adam Baguley, the communist candidate for student union president, in the elections.
