We need militancy in the Workers and Students movements

Callum Williamson looks at the need for militancy in the Workers and Students movements

It is an inevitability that this economic downturn will lead to a heightened state of class conflict across the globe. In past weeks 250,000 Irish public sector workers went on strike against wage cuts. In Turkey there have been walk outs involving thousands of public sector workers, over the right to collective bargaining (vital particularly during this crisis). There have also been labour disputes closer to home in previous months. The Vestas and Lindsey oil refinery workers were successful in attracting significant media attention, although the latter was a dispute that manifested itself in displays of petty nationalism. What we need now is class solidarity. We must expose the lies of the right and rally behind Marxist politics. Not only must the workers defend what they have already attained, but they should be making further demands and pushing for more concessions from the capitalist class and the state. This is of particular importance in the UK where a Tory victory in the next general elections would spell disaster for the working class. The time has come for a step-up in militancy. The Conservatives, who will probably form the next government, will be vicious in their attacks on social welfare and the public sector. The workers must be organised for the fight back and set out basic demands around housing, wages and benefits.

THE STUDENTS STRUGGLE

So where does this leave students?  It is likely that the recession in Britain will be used as an excuse, by whatever main party is in government, to cut on education. There must be no cutting on our future. As well as this tuition fees may well rise to up to £7,000. There is no doubt that the students movement is on the back foot and so we must double our efforts to see the tuition fees abolished and our education made completely free. However, the students have other struggles to partake in as a section of the youth. Communist students demand full democratic rights at 16 and a decent adult minimum wage for all. The youth must have a voice and must no longer be exploited as cheap labour. Students have the ability to win these demands if they are prepared to be radical enough. In January this year students up and down the country occupied university buildings in response to Israel’s incursion into Gaza and the horrific human rights abuses there. The students set out their demands and many of them were won. At Kings College in London the occupation won scholarships for Palestinian students, forced the university to disinvest from the arms trade and the university agreed to send teaching equipment to Gaza. Here was an example of students standing up for oppressed people thousands of miles away and there is no reason why they cannot win their battles at home.

What is required now from workers and students is education, agitation and organisation. In the current economic climate the capitalist class will try and take back every concession the workers and students have wrestled from them . However,out of the intensification of the fight comes an opportunity for the people to change our society for the better. We must strive for an egalitarian and liberated world, free from poverty and oppression. There are hard times ahead for the working class, but the victory of the masses will come if people are prepared to fight for it. It is our duty as Communists to win the majority over to Marxist thinking. This is no small task but it is something we must achieve and it is something (with patient building) we can achieve.