The lecturers' union UCU will be taking strike action on Thursday 24th March. Middlesex University Students Union (MUSU) in solidarity with the staff are asking students not to cross the picket line, and to stage a walkout. In the next week, you'll be seeing more materials around the campuses from Monday onwards. I have a feeling this could be a big day, the word is spreading quick amongst students and staff.Here's hoping!
On Friday 25th March the Rave against the cuts festival will be held in Hendon - during the day we'll have stalls including the Barnet TUC, as well as Defend education society stall. In the evening, there will be a live event night, and tickets are now on sale for the great price of £3. I would urge you all to spread the word and let's make this a great event.
Last but not least is the 26th March National Demonstration in central London organised by the TUC. This will be one of the biggest so far, with numbers expecting to be around a million strong. The Middlesex block will meet at the National Gallery in Trafalgar square (nearest tube Charing Cross), please remember to wear red to signify we're all from Middlesex.
However it is important to remember the 26th is not the end, but the beginning of resistance in this country.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
The week at Middlesex...
I thought I'd paste edited highlights from an email by a friend at Middlesex University to let you know about important anti-cuts events there this week!
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4 comments:
I don’t have any lectures on Thursday which means that I am deprived of my right to cross a picket line. I hope students who lose their classes through industrial action will demand that they are reimbursed by the university.
Quite right, you should put pressure on the university management not to put the squeeze on their employees (which is what the strike is about).
However, it's too bad that you don't see your relationship to your university and your lecturers as anything more than a commercial transaction.
I sometimes think it's rather a bleak universe you inhabit. Can we still be friends?
Well I was under the impression that secondary picketing was illegal. Perhaps the law has been changed? If not, the NUS should not be actively encouraging students to engage in criminal activity. There is widespread support for students in this country, but once they start taking the law into their own hands, it will evaporate.
As for the strike action itself, students are not to blame for the financial predicament that the country faces and it is utterly selfish of lecturers to take strike action at such a crucial time in the academic year. Students have assignments to complete and, in many cases, finals to prepare for.
It is not the students who created this financial relationship, but they are the ones who pay the price. If you buy a ticket for the cinema and they stop the film 20 minutes from the end, you would rightly complain.
I do realise that the incursion of facts into your little dreamland are most unwelcome, so, it's a shitty job but someone has to do it. Based on OBR figures:
2011-12 spending increase of £10.6 billion
2012-13 spending increase of £9.2 billion
2013-14 spending increase of £8.1 billion
2014-15 spending increase of £6.1 billion
Cuts? What cuts?
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