On Thursday May 7 Communist Students were up at the crack of dawn to attend the picket lines at London Metropolitan University, showing our support for the strike action against outrageous cuts proposals following severe mismanagement and bureaucracy. The pickets were quite well attended and there was  a positive mood amongst the strikers. Students largely stayed away from university, and those who did turn up on the day were more than willing to listen to the arguments around the strike, put their names to the UCU petition and then either go home or stay on the pickets for a while. CS distributed a leaflet and received a warm response from UCU members.

In the afternoon there was a rally of about 200 people outside the main campus on Holloway Road. There were numerous speakers ranging from Jeremy Corbyn MP and George Galloway MP to National Union of Students President Wes Streeting. The latter speaker was of course of interest to us: after initially saying that students need UCU strike action “like a hole in the head” given the current climate, he very clearly came out in support of the strike. It remains to be seen whether he will be so clearly in favour of UCU national action should the current ballot be successful.  We support UCU members taking action nationally and will support them all we can. In our leaflet, we also put out the call for local university solidarity committees to assist any future action. In this vein, CS was also present at the demonstrations in Liverpool on Saturday May 9 against closures at John Moore University.

Below are two interviews we conducted with London Met UCU members that give a bit more background into the dispute. If you would like further details about what is going on at London Met and how you can get involved, go to:

http://www.ucu.org.uk

http://savelondonmetuni.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?sid=3210980cf9141509b90c079cc012fec8&gid=46966049540&ref=search

Amanda Sackur, Chair of London Met UCU and member of the UCU NEC

We are on strike out of frustration in our campaign to save the university from the cuts that management want to impose. Other roads do not seem to be getting us anywhere, so this is the only way that we can take action and demonstrate the importance and sincerity of the campaign.

CS:The cuts are likely to have a disproportionate effect on university workers who are not in the UCU but members of Unison. Could you describe some of the things you have done to try and get these workers behind the campaign?

I cannot speak for Unison, but from conversations with Unison workers there is absolute anger about this institution being driven into the ground, and unsurprisingly not an insignificant amount of concern for their own livelihoods and futures. But UCU and Unison are running a joint campaign – we are linked together with the students too in order to present a united front against the university management.

CS:And what is the sentiment amongst students?

Most students are very angry indeed. We attended a meeting which was called at very short notice yesterday in one particular building, and there were about 150 students there. This reflects their bad treatment by the management and the fact that they have not been informed of this at all – there has not even been formal consultation along the lines of some of the things we have been going through.

CS:How does this fit in with the picture across the country and the proposed cuts at numerous institutions?

I think there is a certain mood for fighting back across the country. In Doncaster for example, the cuts have been averted, restructuring withdrawn completely and the principal and director of finance have gone.

CS:But are these cases isolated ones or is such a sentiment present across the country? For example, London Met has quite a history of taking action.

I do think workers are starting to get organized – there is a national ballot at the moment. But you are right that London Met is a special case – not only for historical reasons – but also simply due to the sheer scale of the job losses. When you are talking of seeing a quarter of the work force cut in one go, that transforms the institution completely. So as appalling as some of the other threats are nationally, they are on a smaller scale than here.

Alan, teacher at London Met

I have been working here for almost 34 years. We are on strike today to try and bring attention to a series of cuts that are taking place on an enormous scale. We are expecting to lose around 550 Full-Time Equivalents, which translates into about 800 people’s jobs. We are getting support from students, other trade unionists and from local trade unions involved in similar struggles at the moment – trying to fight what amounts to a general crisis in the education sector because of under-funding from the government. This university was established partly in order to offer education for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, but now this central purpose has been undermined by government cuts. That is why we are on strike today, we hope it will be successful and we ask for all your support.