Statement of Support for the Student Occupations

Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory

Statement of Support for the Student Occupations

We congratulate the students for their exemplary initiative and encourage all academics in the UK and abroad and the trade union movement to stand by them in their demands and to ensure that no legal action is taken against them.

Sustained protest and direct mass action, such as the current occupations, are the only serious option we have in order to resist successfully the government’s proposals.

The government’s proposed education ‘reforms’ are a blueprint for the wholesale privatization of UK higher education. This would abolish almost all funding for teaching in the arts and humanities and transform UK higher education into a fully market-driven system. Such a vision of the future of UK higher education must be rejected. The government wants to make it even more élitist and subordinated to the interests of capital and the state.

The government's proposals are a part of a much broader and violent attack on the working and living conditions of workers that is taking place throughout Europe and worldwide as a consequence of the economic crisis.

HM supports student occupations' demands that universities must fight for free education for all, and sees the struggle as a part of a broader movement that is taking place from Greece to France to Italy and across the rest of Europe against government cuts and austerity programmes.   Only by unifying these struggles can we successfully fight the government’s proposals. HM will continue to support all such resistance.  

Signed by Editorial Board and Corresponding Editors of Historical Materialism: Research in Critical Marxist Theory

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