Stories from the picket: Day one
STORIES chats with those standing in the picket lines, who are desperately trying to convince their colleagues not to cross the picket line.
It’s the first day of the strike — the first of a planned 14 days of nationwide industrial action, in which UCU-member lecturers are fighting for fairer pensions.
I’m sitting in the Welfare Tent, watching the front steps of the main building. The scene is almost comical, if not depressing. Students and teachers stand on the steps with banners and high vis jackets, urging their colleagues not to enter the buildings, not to mention grappling with the bracing late-winter chill. Many still go in. Some turn around. A large number put their head down and walk in with large strides, trying their best not to make contact with those in the picket line at all.
STORIES spent the first day of the strike talking with students and teachers who spent hours in the cold trying to make the picket line as strong as possible.
The students we talked to expressed unanimous solidarity with the teaching staff at SOAS to have a sustainable pension. For many, the struggle over pensions was symptomatic of a broader, more serious malady throughout the higher education sector, where increasing fees and marketisation have fostered anger amongst students who can’t discern where their fees are going. Grainne, who studies MA Labour, Social Movements and Development, asked: “Why is there pensions being cut when my education fees are going up? This is completely illogical and is part of a wider regime in Britain at the expense of education.”
Kornelia, a second year studying Art History and Anthropology, reasoned that, because of this, students’ anger should not be directed towards professors: “It’s not that we are angry at our professors, we are angry at the system that works in a way that is completely unsustainable. You can not sustain yourself on £10,000 a year as a pension.”
Fathima and Ganga, who also study MA Labour, Social Movements and Development, connected the strike to the plight of international students, many of whom describe themselves as in a more precarious position by paying higher fees.
While some international students have said that they may cross the picket line and attend classes so as not to ‘lose’ money due to the higher fees that they pay, Ganga told us that the decisions made at universities here in the U.K. are linked to global movements in education, and lecturers are thus worthy of international students’ support: “We’re in this country and we know that the policies that are happening here are happening around the globe as well. We know that India is not far behind. For me it’s about how the whole system is crumbling down and how it will spread. We have to take action and support our teachers.”
Fathimah agreed that there was a bigger picture at stake — rather than being just about money, for some the strike represents a global struggle against neoliberal education systems, that is more important than fees lost on empty class hours. She told us that “this is not just about the pensions, it’s about Higher Education as a whole. It’s so neoliberal. In my first degree in Indonesia I also fought against this. I want to see a change in the HE system.”
For some students, the strike resonates with topics covered in the classroom at SOAS, where our degrees focus — perhaps more than at most universities — on social movements and change. Grainne talked about the irony of having to choose to support her professors who had been teaching them about strikes taking place around the world, as movements dealt with in theory in class had suddenly materialised as real-life choices for both students and staff.
Joining supportive students on the picket line, of course, are staff members. Support staff, such as those involved in the Justice for Workers campaign, have joined at times to show their solidarity with striking workers. A member of the academic staff at SOAS, is directly affected by the change in pension scheme and is on strike. “For me it’s easy, it’s about my lifetime income and how I will be paid when I’m old and how my colleagues who are old now already are being paid,” he said. “It’s just a simple strike for retaining the rights and benefits we have, just tilting the balance in favour of employees rights.”
A master’s student of migration, said she wants to pursue a PhD in the future. For students like her, the struggle over pensions is directly related to their future. While students may lose out on class hours in the short term, in the long term the changed pension scheme means that a career in academia will be even harder to access.
Students and staff on the picket line have been forced to confront their colleagues, and perhaps their friends, to persuade them not to enter the building.
Grainne said that she had persuaded one person from entering in the hour she had been standing outside. “Friends of mine aren’t really going in, many of them have chosen to stay in their local neighbourhoods,” she told us. “For language classes, people are making those difficult decisions. International students are complaining that they are being harassed by tutors, and saying that they will have visa problems if they don’t go in.”
Those on the picket line reported that some students told them that they were in solidarity with the strike, but nonetheless chose to enter the building. “I have had some ironic situations where a girl said she was in solidarity with the strike,” Grainne reported, “and that she wanted to go print off a letter saying she is in solidarity with the strike in the library.”
Kornelia had turned two people back by pointing out alternative places to go, such as cafes in the Bloomsbury area or local libraries such as the Wellcome Collection. “But two is not much when you see all those people passing by and not even making eye contact with us. Sometimes it’s enough to just stop and listen.”
Those who do stop and talk to picketers present their own dilemmas. The migration masters student told us that many students had told her: “I have to use the building.” Many seemed unprepared for the strike, and didn’t want to deal with the inconvenience of not being able to use the prayer room or access their locker.
She was understanding. She said that students had been informed late about the strike, and many may not have had the time to prepare to study elsewhere. Nonetheless, Ava believed that there was no need to cross the picket line, saying “maybe you could pray somewhere else, see the exhibition another day. People need to adjust to it.”
Some students, though, may have needed more from the building than a quick visit to their lockers. “We had one unpleasant situation when we were talking to a PhD student who felt really stressed about it,” Kornelia reported, “and he said that he has to choose between his struggles and the strike and his struggle right now was to finish his deadline.”
While those on the picket line reported that a majority of students who approached the steps entered the building despite their efforts to persuade them not to, the member of academic staff said there there weren’t as many students at SOAS on the first strike day, as compared to other days. “Especially at 9 and 11, very few people came in,” he noted. “I think that’s a sign that those who knew about the strike stayed away. Then there are those who are quite determined to go anyway because they had to do something.”
A member of academic staff described a group of students from one class, all gathered together outside the building, some choosing to enter and some remaining outside. “That was a funny conflict,” he told us. “I think some were maybe convinced not to go in, and some who went in then came out again. Some made up their mind when they were inside. I think the picket line does have an effect, it’s different than an email.”
Seeing fellow students and staff cross the picket line elicited a feeling of anger and betrayal, for some, especially when those crossing purported to be in solidarity with the strike. Grainne noted that one UCU member had told her that “people ask him for badges, ask him for selfies, and then go in.”
But those on the picket line also expressed understanding for those who decide to cross it, noting a connection to the lack of proper information about strike action and the significance of crossing the picket line. “I’m a student representative for Art History and I’ve noticed that many people just do not get why it is wrong to cross the picket line,” Karolina told us. “So it makes me really sad when people just pass without speaking to us, because I think a lot of a lack of support comes from lack of understanding.”
“I’m really willing to talk to people. The information at the picket line is a really important thing. I’m still hopeful.”
Fathimah found herself somewhere in between this sense of anger and understanding. “At least respect your friend or your teacher. But maybe they don’t understand the issue,” she told us. “I really hate those people who understand but who choose to ignore and go in rather that they don’t know and don’t give us a chance to inform them.”
“From the lecturers side, for me, it’s easy to strike but I realise it’s hard for students, and I realise it sucks that it goes through you guys — that you have to bear the cost,” the member of academic staff told us. “My colleagues and I very much realise that it’s not cool and don’t feel happy about it.”
Nonetheless, student solidarity is necessary for the strike to do well. If students fail to turn up to scheduled classes, demand renumeration from the university, or plan solidarity action, it could push Universities UK, the organisation behind the pension scheme, to give in to lecturers’ demands and end the strike early.
“I’m not surprised,” the member of academic staff told us, referring to students crossing the picket line. “But I think it shows that we don’t have a sense of community because it’s not clear what the community is. Are we one community? Are you guys different from me?”
