Students rally outside Senate House to support the strikes

On Monday (21/02), students assembled outside Senate House at noon for the Students Support The Strike Rally organised by Cambridge Defend Education and Cambridge UCU. Just hours earlier, the University Council had voted down UCU’s proposals, marking a defeat for campaigners.

The student-led rally started with a remix of Italian protest folk song Bella Ciao, popularized through its use in Netflix’s Money Heist, blasting from the speakers whilst students formed a dance circle.  

Students danced on King’s Parade

As the first of many songs ended, student speeches began. 

They claimed the “real disruption to our education is not strikes or the coronavirus pandemic” but the “exploitation” of staff and “marketisation” of higher education. Another demanded “liberatory, emancipatory education that is free at the point of use.” 

A University spokesperson later said that “the University deeply regrets the impact that industrial action will have on our students’ education – particularly given the challenges that so many have faced during the past two years.”

Students claimed pensions and contracts were not isolated issues but part of wider problems in a university that takes research grants from “corporations engaged in war and destruction” and “works with the Home Office to surveil international students.” 

They stated that the idea that poor working conditions for staff don’t affect students “could not be further from the truth.” The Facebook event for the rally stated that staff’s “teaching conditions are our learning conditions” and drew attention to how postgraduate students often take on teaching and supervising during their own studies. 

Undergraduate students took the lead on speeches

Following student speeches, a member of UCU reported back on the protest they had held outside the Triangle Building this morning where University Council members were voting on whether to support UCU pension proposals. 

They claimed that almost 40 people had assembled in the street. They also claimed to have managed to “briefly speak” to a couple of University Council members, including Stephen Toope, the Vice-Chancellor.

Despite the Council voting not to accept the UCU’s proposals, one speaker argued that the result had made it “more important than ever” to “keep fighting back.” 

A spokesperson for the University said that “the University remains committed to working with its unions, and continues with Cambridge UCU to press for the redesign of the Universities Superannuation Scheme with a view to achieving better outcomes for members and putting the scheme on a more sustainable footing.”

As the rally drew to a close, a final speaker told the crowd to turn and face Senate House, asking them whether the historic building contained the “kind of offices of someone who couldn’t afford to pay us proper wages would work in.”

The rally concluded with yet another DJ set, remixing traditional protest songs such as Solidarity Forever and Get Up Stand Up with pop songs such as Lady Gaga’s Poker Face.

The music continued with crowds of students dancing outside as UCU members headed into St Mary’s Church for their branch meeting. 

Featured image credits: Rebekah Treganna