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#NoCapitulation: How one hashtag saved the UK university strike
From the brink of defeat to an unexpected success, academics at universities across the UK used social media to organise a hugely effective protest movement
The next morning, by the time Grady reached for her phone, protests were planned, local meetings were overflowing, branch representatives were heading to London to vote. The tone had shifted from defeat to action. There was no need, Grady says, to cajole union representatives into voting against the deal — it was clear what members wanted. "The branch I'm a member of, 350 [people] voted, and all to reject," she says. "More wanted to take part, but couldn't get in because of capacity issues."
Placard in hand, Rooksby kept checking his phone for text messages and Twitter updates. By midday his branch representative messaged that it was clear the deal would be rejected, describing the union leadership as "taken aback". "There was a renewed sense of optimism," says Rooksby. "Throughout the day, UCU branches up and down the country met and rejected this proposed deal."
By y 16:00, it was confirmed that the UCU would reject the deal. "It's unusual for members to defeat the leadership, for them to be taken by surprise from a movement from below," said Rooksby. "If feels like the leadership are running to catch up."
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/no-capitulation-uk-university-pension-protest-twitter
British university lecturers are in their fourth week of a militant, historic strike—taking a stand not just against austerity, but for a more humane, democratic higher education system.
March 15, 2018
At more than sixty institutions, members of the University and College Union (UCU) voted overwhelmingly to strike, and so far the walkout has unfolded in fourteen days across four consecutive weeks, this being the week of greatest disruptive effect.
Students have rallied around their lecturers on the understanding that “their working conditions are our learning conditions,” as many banners proclaim, a slogan notably similar to that of West Virginia’s simultaneous teachers strike. Students don’t need to be told that the pension cuts are transpiring, inexplicably, at the very moment their own costs have risen to more than £9,000 annually (a result of a tripling of fees introduced in 2010). Tens of thousands of students have demanded money back for every class day lost to the strike, a tactical demand not at all incompatible with something more elemental that is emerging in student consciousness: a rejection of the model of students as consumers by fee-greedy institutions, in favor of a restoration of the humane conception of students as creators and seekers of knowledge.
University managements clearly did not expect so broad a strike, or one of such lasting duration, carried out with such force of expression, rocking almost every one of their institutions. They also did not anticipate the drubbing they took in the press, especially from those newspapers most likely to understand the threat to British universities’ global competitiveness if its pension system were damaged. (The Financial Times deserves a special tribute for its sheer magnificence.) Faced with employee rebellion, student criticism, and blistering press coverage, one university after another signaled a change of heart, the watershed being Oxford University’s about-face.
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/onl...versity-pensions-austerity-student-solidarity
Will this strike continue into April and May 2018 ?
https://www.theguardian.com/educati...university-staff-irate-over-pensions-deal-ucu
From the brink of defeat to an unexpected success, academics at universities across the UK used social media to organise a hugely effective protest movement
The next morning, by the time Grady reached for her phone, protests were planned, local meetings were overflowing, branch representatives were heading to London to vote. The tone had shifted from defeat to action. There was no need, Grady says, to cajole union representatives into voting against the deal — it was clear what members wanted. "The branch I'm a member of, 350 [people] voted, and all to reject," she says. "More wanted to take part, but couldn't get in because of capacity issues."
Placard in hand, Rooksby kept checking his phone for text messages and Twitter updates. By midday his branch representative messaged that it was clear the deal would be rejected, describing the union leadership as "taken aback". "There was a renewed sense of optimism," says Rooksby. "Throughout the day, UCU branches up and down the country met and rejected this proposed deal."
By y 16:00, it was confirmed that the UCU would reject the deal. "It's unusual for members to defeat the leadership, for them to be taken by surprise from a movement from below," said Rooksby. "If feels like the leadership are running to catch up."
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/no-capitulation-uk-university-pension-protest-twitter
British university lecturers are in their fourth week of a militant, historic strike—taking a stand not just against austerity, but for a more humane, democratic higher education system.
March 15, 2018
At more than sixty institutions, members of the University and College Union (UCU) voted overwhelmingly to strike, and so far the walkout has unfolded in fourteen days across four consecutive weeks, this being the week of greatest disruptive effect.
Students have rallied around their lecturers on the understanding that “their working conditions are our learning conditions,” as many banners proclaim, a slogan notably similar to that of West Virginia’s simultaneous teachers strike. Students don’t need to be told that the pension cuts are transpiring, inexplicably, at the very moment their own costs have risen to more than £9,000 annually (a result of a tripling of fees introduced in 2010). Tens of thousands of students have demanded money back for every class day lost to the strike, a tactical demand not at all incompatible with something more elemental that is emerging in student consciousness: a rejection of the model of students as consumers by fee-greedy institutions, in favor of a restoration of the humane conception of students as creators and seekers of knowledge.
University managements clearly did not expect so broad a strike, or one of such lasting duration, carried out with such force of expression, rocking almost every one of their institutions. They also did not anticipate the drubbing they took in the press, especially from those newspapers most likely to understand the threat to British universities’ global competitiveness if its pension system were damaged. (The Financial Times deserves a special tribute for its sheer magnificence.) Faced with employee rebellion, student criticism, and blistering press coverage, one university after another signaled a change of heart, the watershed being Oxford University’s about-face.
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/onl...versity-pensions-austerity-student-solidarity
Will this strike continue into April and May 2018 ?
https://www.theguardian.com/educati...university-staff-irate-over-pensions-deal-ucu
