The fight for liberation is about ensuring every member is able to play their part and can flourish in our union and in our workplaces. But our universities, colleges and prisons are not cut off from the rest of society. We need to be at the heart of turning the calls to decolonise the curriculum made so forcefully by the Black Lives Matter movement into a reality.
We face a Government that is one of the most right wing in memory, and an Opposition that won’t oppose them. The Tories systematically scapegoat vulnerable groups for their own failures. That’s why a Government that can’t get the economy to grow continues to make its main headline policies about some 45,000 desperate refugees in small boats, a tiny fraction — about 1/670 — of the population.
The Rwanda plan, the use of ex-military barracks and the Bibi Stockholm prison barge to house people seeking asylum are further parts of the government’s racist offensive. We have to be at the heart of resistance to these attacks.
Since Brexit, the Tory Government has made life harder for our Migrant members. Their racist policies towards migrants and refugees have targeted international students and staff. They now want to increase the earning thresholds for our colleagues and make punitive changes to student visas to appease the far right in their own party. I will defend the rights of colleagues and their family members to stay in the UK.
We say that we have to stand together, both to oppose racist immigration controls and demand practical financial support for visa fees in the here and now, and to insist that Labour repeal these policies when they come to office.
We are witnessing a horrendous war in Palestine, but the UK Government’s priority is not seeking an end to this violence, but to attack our civil liberties. Our members are facing harassment for speaking out against Israel’s horrific war in Gaza and our government’s involvement. We have to stand up for free speech on Palestine and oppose any witch hunting of staff or students. Our Government’s cheerleading of the Israeli Defence Force, verbally and through provision of military support, is shameful.
Universities across the UK are complicit in supporting Israel’s war machine through military-linked research and investments. Our union has long established, clear policies backing members who support the call from Palestinian civil society for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) on Israel. As General Secretary I will ensure that members can access the campaigning resources they need, and support them if they come under attack in the media, from their employers or the government for supporting BDS.
Our employers are happy to divide and rule. At best, they treat equality as a ‘special interest’. Most of the time they turn a blind eye to harassment, bullying and discrimination, especially when it comes from senior managers or government ministers.
As a trade union we stand against war in the Ukraine and against an expansion of NATO. We argue for welfare not warfare, to welcome refugees and for climate justice.
We say that the fight for equality is in everybody’s interest. We must stand firm against all forms of racism including anti-semitism. We must show support and solidarity with the most downtrodden in society — with refugees, with the Palestinians — because we know that racism and division within our members, and within the wider working class, is a recipe for ruin. Previous generations of trade unionists chased Oswald Mosely’s fascists out of the East End of London, and the National Front out of Leicester and London.
UCU must continue its work to oppose homophobia and transphobia. We must protect the concepts of freedom of speech and academic freedom from those who seek to abuse and distort their meaning to attempt to justify transphobia. We must continue to counter those who claim that advocating for trans rights conflicts with the rights of women. Transphobic and homophobic violence is on the rise, stoked by the Government. Much needed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act and a full and effective ban on conversion therapies remain unmet. It is crucial we ensure our campuses and workplaces are welcoming for our trans and gender diverse siblings.
There is no place for sexism, disablism and ageism in our union.
Previous generations’ working lives were shaped by the Equal Pay Act. But the fight for women’s liberation is not over. Across the post-16 education sector, women are penalised for having children, they miss out on promotions and are forced to take unpaid leave for caring responsibilities.
Our workforce is structurally segregated. Even after implementing Equal Pay schemes, we still see women members — and members racialised as black, and our disabled members — concentrated in precarious research-only and teaching-only pathways, or in academic-related and administrative positions with little or no opportunity for advancement. A similar pattern is visible in Further Education and Adult and Community Education. Many Hourly Paid Lecturers are women and racialised as black, and can lose their work with as little as 14 days notice. We cannot address inequality in staff retention (and thus promotion) without addressing casualisation.
We need to turbo-charge the Gender, Race and Disability Pay Gaps ‘Four Fights’ campaign and we need an anti-casualisation campaign in FE and ACE that campaigns to ‘level up’ and liberate everyone treated as second-class citizens in our institutions. We must continue to develop effective guidance and campaigning to combat sexual harassment and gender-based violence on our campuses and other workplaces.
As General Secretary I will work towards
- ensuring the democratic structures are respected so all our equality standing committees strands are listened to and not sidelined,
- ensuring that our union is a welcoming place for all, with no place for bigotry and prejudice, and
- takes collective action to transform life opportunities for everyone,
- the fight for liberation in wider society, in the UK and internationally,
- building resistance to the Government’s attacks on equality, and defending migrant and trans members in particular.
The Climate crisis is a key trade union issue
The devastating reality of a heating planet with more extreme weather events is now a lived experience for billions of people here in the UK and around the world. It is working people everywhere who suffer the most, in overheated work places, in the loss of homes, livelihoods and lives. But it is employers and corporations, not workers, who continue to worsen the climate crisis.The market has driven the climate crisis putting profit before people and planet, and the market will not provide the solution.
The latest UN reports talk about a ‘hellish’ future even at 3 degrees warming. Yet this Tory government — in a desperate attempt to shift the attention from the cost of living crisis and their other failures — have used the climate crisis as another front in their culture wars. They peddle lies which put the blame for rising energy bills on so-called ‘green subsidies’ rather than the obscene profits of the energy companies. Lies which suggest tackling the climate crisis is a war on drivers, rather the reality of a decades long war on public transport through privatisation. Lies that say we can’t afford the policies needed to reach net zero.
This climate injustice and inaction threatens our lives and livelihoods and our working conditions.
But the reality is that a serious and urgent government action on climate change, and public ownership of energy utilities, would cut energy bills. A mass nationwide programme of insulation would reduce energy use and keep homes warm. Investment in public transport with cheap or free fares would reduce emissions, create jobs and an accessible, integrated transport system.
In UCU we joined the student climate strikers in 2019, joined with XR protests, and joined campaigns against new oil and gas and more fossil fuels. We need more of this and should support and build a climate movement that mobilises the huge demonstrations we need alongside the direct action which can prevent new carbon intensive projects.
We should play a role in winning the debate within the wider trade union movement that workers should be at the forefront of campaigning to keep fossil fuels in the ground and for a huge transformation of our economy to prioritise a habitable planet for workers everywhere, rather than the profits of a minority.
UCU has established a Climate and Ecological Emergency committee and has done excellent work on Green New Deal bargaining support. We must keep building these areas — I will ensure that this is high on the agenda and part of our national bargaining.
Saira Weiner for UCU General Secretary 