Communist Students Support Striking University Staff

The letter reads:

The students of the Connolly Youth Movement send our unwavering support to our university lecturers and staff taking industrial action this October. We express our wholehearted support for your industrial action, and we wish it the most success. Strike action is the most militant and compelling form of collective action which can genuinely challenge the government and other employers for better pay and conditions.

The conditions which have made it necessary for you to take strike action are an affront to the work that you put in, and also our right to a decent education which genuinely prepares us for the future. The government has chosen to ignore your right to decent pay and conditions, and jeopardised our education as a result. It is the same government which chooses to spend billions on expanding military technology to make NATO membership more accessible, that denies teachers basic pay and conditions at work.

In the face of rising costs and a rapidly changing economy, conditioned by wars and regular economic crises, workers can barely afford to live, despite us being in a supposed “growth” period. Still, the conditions of casual labour, low wages and unpaid hours persist. We recognise that these are particularly common amongst post-graduate workers and new employees in universities. These workers often perform vital duties that hold up our universities, duties which should be recognised by fair pay for all hours worked.

Your strike action comes on World Teachers Day, the 5th of October, commemorating the passing of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. The recommendation states that “Working conditions for teachers should be such as will best promote effective learning and enable teachers to concentrate on their professional tasks.”. The reckless actions of this government are an assault on your abilities to promote effective learning and dangerously play with the living conditions of working people and all public sector staff.

We thank you for taking this action, as it not only aims to secure your future, but ours as students. The CYM believes that the working class university staff and working class students have a common interest. An interest which demands better classrooms, teaching facilities, lab equipment, lower fees and any demands which increase the participation and engagement of everyday students for a rich and full education. This was demonstrated in support that you and your colleagues have given to recent protests against university fees.

We reiterate our commitment as students to struggle in tandem with the militant university workers, for a better university. One which recognises the real needs of education and removes all barriers for working class students and staff alike. We wish to assert that organisation is the only defence against the attacks on fundamental rights and previously won gains which persist daily. We thank you for taking the first steps towards this in your industrial action today!

Signed,

Student Commission

Connolly Youth Movement