When students begin university in 2025, they will arrive having lived through an era shaped entirely by crisis. Born into the financial crash of 2008, their lives are shaped by austerity, war, and deepening polarisation.
Young people in Britain today have been deeply radicalised by these experiences. Poll after poll shows that they no longer trust the traditional pillars of capitalist society; from the state and politicians to the media. The ongoing genocide in Gaza, in particular, has fuelled people’s anger.
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Yet when students attempt to express this solidarity, they are met with repression (see below). University managements and student unions have silenced pro-Palestine activists, some even going so far as to expel students who take action.
But young people are not backing down. They are determined to fight back.
Real answers
The problem is that the so-called ‘Left’ offers no way forward. What students are demanding are real answers: Why is there war, poverty, and crisis? And how can this system of misery be ended once and for all?
This is the role of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) and our student societies on 45 campuses across the UK. This freshers, we will be holding events to discuss the burning questions facing our generation.
To truly understand the complex events of our time, such as the war in Ukraine, the struggle in Palestine, the crises of capitalism, and oppression, we need a genuinely scientific explanation. Marxist theory provides exactly that.
Our opening meetings will therefore address the question: Why You Should Be a Communist.
Training ground
We are revolutionaries. We are serious about the task of overthrowing capitalism. That is why we study Marxist ideas carefully and apply them to the world around us.
Over the coming year, our societies will host meetings on Marxist philosophy, the nature of the state, how to fight repression, the causes of capitalist crises, imperialism, and much more, always tying these ideas to current events and the struggles unfolding across the world.
But theory is only the beginning. As Marx himself said:
“The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.”
Our societies are training grounds for revolutionaries. We go beyond meetings: we join demonstrations, support workers on picket lines, and strive to connect student struggles with the wider fight of the working class.
We are actively building the revolutionary party that working people so urgently need.
So if you wish to join us and help us build such a party, reach out now and help us change the world!
NUS in showdown with pro-Palestine students
Tarik Alshemmari, London School of Economics
The genocide in Gaza remains on the minds of students and workers across Britain. Last year, around 40 encampments for Palestine were set up in universities up and down the country.
It would make sense, therefore, that those who claim to represent students must support the struggle for a free Palestine and be on the front lines of defending student activists against repression, expulsions, and smears of antisemitism.
The NUS (National Union of Students) obviously thinks differently. Not only is it not defending students, but has joined in the repression and slanders.
Most recently, the NUS cracked down on more than two hundred pro-Palestine sabbatical officers and student groups who wrote an open letter demanding the NUS condemn the Gaza genocide, call for a ceasefire, and lead a national divestment campaign.
Their response? threats of removal and accusations of antisemitism.
While 67 percent of students are skipping meals and over 4 in 5 worry about making ends meet, the NUS prefers to join the British state in trying to force young people to get in line.
The NUS has been a politically bankrupt force for years, serving as a stepping stone for Labour party careerists, from Neil Kinnock to Wes Streeting.
The NUS has clearly shown where it stands on Palestine. In last years’ national conference ‘Solutions Not Sides’ was the platform for their discussion on the ongoing genocide. This group is well known for ‘both sidesing’ the so-called conflict.
The NUS also keeps close relations with the UJS (Union of Jewish Students), which the NUS offered to lead ‘antisemitism training’. This is the same UJS, which has received direct funding from the Israeli state, who hold an ‘enduring commitment to Israel’, and happily met with war criminal Israeli president Isaac Herzog, who has previously stated that “there are no innocent civilians in Gaza”.
The NUS, far from fighting for and alongside students, is more worried about upsetting the government, the university management, and the liberal media.
