EDUCATION’S SUCH A MESS, BUT WHERE THE FUCK IS NUS?

Posted on November 24, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged #FreeEdNOW, 2010, Barclays, campaign wins, campaigning, demonstration, direct action, divestment, fossil free, Free Education, grassroots, lobbying, london, NCAFC, NUS, people and planet, power, protests, rent strikes, student debt, student movement, student protest, students' unions, tuition fees, UCL cut the rent.

Last week students from around the UK marched through London to pressure the government into finally delivering free education. The march has become a yearly spectacle and a symbol of the importance of direct action to the student movement. This year however, the National Union of Students decided not to back the demo, claiming that putting more energy into lobbying will have a greater impact than this direct action could. This shift of attitude isn’t just found in the higher ranks of NUS; it is also becoming commonplace in more and more student unions across the country.

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REVIVING CAMPUS ACTIVISM – A ROADMAP

Posted on July 6, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academic culture, academics, access, accessible academia, accountability, alliances, Apartheid, austerity, awareness, awareness raising, British political history, Campaign for Lincoln Democracy, campaign strategy, campaigning, campus culture, co-operation, co-operative university, collective action, communication, Community, culture, curricula, curriculum reform, decision making, democracy, democratic higher education, depoliticised unions, direct action, diversity, economics, economics education, elections, employment rights, escalation, experts, GE17, government, grassroots, higher education, hubris, international organising, investigative journalism, Lincoln SU, Lincoln University, listicles, lobbying, local media, manchester, media, neoliberalism, occupation, organising, petitions, pluralism, politics, Post-Crash Economics Society, postgraduate tutors, Queen's University Belfast Students' Union, Queens' University Belfast, radical media, referendum, Rethinking Economics, senior management, Social Science Centre Lincoln, startup media, strategy, student activism, student democracy, student elections, student experience scores, student life, student media, student societies, students, students' unions, teaching, teaching staff, trade unions, uk, uk politics, universities, university staff, War of Words, Warwick Anti-Casualisation, Warwick University, workers, workers rights, working conditions, WOW 2016, young people, youth turnout.

by Bradley Allsop

We live in turbulent times. The political establishment has been rocked again and again this last year. The government is embattled in a way it hasn’t been for 7 years and that rarest of things in British politics, change, is peeking its head above the parapet. What’s more, for the first time in my lifetime, it seems my generation is willing to be an active participant in all this. June’s election saw the highest rise in youth turnout in British political history – it reached its highest absolute level since 1992. It falls to those of us already engaged to fan this flame and help it spread beyond the ballot box, building the political courage and competencies of our fellows. Nowhere offers a better opportunity for us to do this than on university campuses.

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DIRTY MONEY – HOW ETHICAL ARE OUR UNIVERSITIES’ INVESTMENTS?

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged BHP Billiton, BP, business, climate change, curriculum, direct action, divestment, education, energy, energy policy, Erasmus University, ethical investment, ethics, ExxonMobil, fossil free, fossil fuel industry, fossil fuels, global, global community, global warming, growth, higher education, hunger strike, innovation, investment, King's College London, lobbying, local, money, morality, non-profit universities, Norwich University of the Arts, occupation, People & Planet, progress, renewable energy, renewables research, research, research funding, Rio Tinto, Roger Hallam, Rotterdam School of Management, Shell, student activism, students, sustainability, tuition fees, universities, university community, University of East Anglia, venture capital.

Each university is different from one another. Moreover, they are very different from most other institutions of all types. On one hand they are educational institutions; on the other they are businesses. As businesses they make investments, though this is not something we would usually think of as a priority of educators. It is worth taking the time to investigate what your university is truly involved with and if their investments are ethical, not only for moral peace of mind but also to have a clearer idea of what your tuition fees are being put toward.

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PRICE HIKES AND RENT STRIKES – SOLVING THE UEA ACCOMMODATION CRISIS

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged accommodation, bunk beds, david richardson, direct action, league tables, lobbying, lower income backgrounds, petitions, price hikes, private renting, profit, rent, rent strikes, student accommodation, student activism, student life, student loans, student satisfaction survey, student unions, students, teaching staff, UCL, UCL cut the rent, UEA, UEA Vision 2030, university, university courses, university management, university rankings, zero hour contracts.

Whist chatting to a friend last week I found myself looking at the price of accommodation at UEA for the next academic year. I found that the prices are set to rise yet again, with the price of the most expensive undergraduate accommodation reaching over £5800 a year, or £153.30 per week if you want your shocks in smaller weekly doses rather than one big lump.

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WE GET THE POLITICIANS WE DESERVE

Posted on August 11, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged andy burnham, austerity, blairite, british politics, corbyn, entryism, entryist, healthcare, international, jeremy corbyn, Labour, labour leadership, labour party, lobbying, media, owen smith, pharmaceutical companies, politics, privatisation, uk politics.

Since the day the Labour party shot itself in the foot and used the turmoil in the Conservative party as an opportunity to break its own ranks, a great divide seems to have appeared among the left. While Corbyn’s election as Labour leader swelled its membership with young and idealistic newcomers, many worry that he is still not electable. After he was deemed too left wing by the PLP and his opposition deemed too right wing for the membership, it became clear that what was needed was a new face- to package Corbyn’s ideas in to a smoother, less radical and more electable politician.

Enter Owen Smith. Despite there being no dramatic differences between Corbyn and Smith’s publicly professed politics, the left wing of the internet has spiralled in to bickering about nuances and rumours from the past, dividing itself in to the radicals and the Blairites, the entryists and the game theorists. What was once a political discussion has now become some kind of complex emotional entanglement.Continue Reading

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