Bermondsey Republican Socialists support UCU strikers

 

Supporters of this website congratulate members of the University and College Union for taking strike action on 29 June to defend London South Bank University. Bermondsey has a long relationship with LSBU going back to its foundation as Borough Polytechnic in 19th century. Local people have been closely involved in its successes both as workers and students.

 

Today the university is facing the most serious threats in its history. The City’s financial policies imposed by a Tory government supported by Bermondsey MP Simon Hughes are the most obvious danger. The Tories want LSBU privatised and made to compete with cheaper FE colleges. They have withdrawn funding and forced universities to charge huge fees. They want to get rid of national pay bargaining, cut pensions, make cuts and redundancies and raise workloads.

 

The second danger comes from LSBU’s Tory Governors and their Corporate Plan. They are ahead of the game in trying to impose local pay bargaining to reduce pay levels and pensions. For the past two years the Governors have blocked national pay awards and kept the money. They rubbed salt into the wounds by offering it as a bribe for a bureaucratic Performance Management Scheme. LSBU workers want their rights and are determined to win them back. UCU strikers must be commended for sticking to their principles. The strike is the beginning of the fight back. All LSBU workers need united action to remove the Governors and replace them with democracy.

 

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