Month: March 2022

SOAS and 67 other UK Universities strike again in March

Trade unions UCU and UNISON saw their members  taking further strike action from Monday 21st to Friday 25th March 2022. This is the latest move in a long saga as employers refuse reasonable negotiations on pay and working conditions and “force through” pension cuts despite the efforts of 68 UK universities who have already undergone 10 days of strike action between 14th February and 2nd March this year. 

University teaching and support staff have been protesting to tackle five main concerns: cuts to pensions, cuts to pay, precarious employment, pay inequality and unsafe workloads. It is estimated that on average university staff are set to lose 35% of their pension and since pay has dropped by 20% in the last 13 years, staff are essentially working for free one day every week. Additionally, there is a 9% ethnicity pay gap across the sector and a 14.8% gender pay gap. Alongside this, staff have been required to work more and are given unmanageable workloads, an established practice that has only been further compounded by the pandemic. The physical and mental health of staff has been detrimentally impacted with over half showing signs of depression.

SOAS students have an important history in standing alongside workers’ struggles and have played a fundamental role in bringing about effective change in the past. Similarly with recent strikes, students have been consistent and unrelenting in their support, participating in Walkouts, standing alongside the picket lines and attending Teach Outs. Some have even gone to great lengths and occupied management offices and have in-turn been subjected to security violence, intimidation tactics, threats of legal action and denial of basic facilities. Students are willing to put their own welfare at risk because they value the importance of fair and civil leadership, they support the right to fair and equal pay for teaching and support staff alike and recognise the impact that staff working conditions have on their learning. 

SOAS is a university that prides itself on its equality, diversity and inclusivity and through promotion of such values attracts its student customer base. It is therefore utterly disingenuous and hypocritical for it to not only be complicit in maintaining unequal and unliveable work conditions of its staff but to also be actively involved in suppressing them from protesting and voicing their concerns.

To regain the trust and confidence of students and staff at SOAS, students are demanding that management must “do everything in its power to prevent any disruption caused by the employers’ attack on pay and pensions by encouraging employers to re-enter negotiations with the Unions as soon as possible and to voice in UUK to put pressure on USS to implement the UCU proposals, which USS recently said were viable and implementable”.

Finally, as staff and student union members we must remember to always be compassionate and inclusive in our fight for better working and learning conditions. Let us recognise that whilst prioritising the needs of our own union is important, we must also extend ourselves in actively promoting  and supporting  the demands of more exploited staff. Perhaps that is a greater moral use of our strike action – protecting the weakest members of our community.

Photo credit: Sophie Squire for the Socialist Worker

Policy Brief Issue 6: February 2022

SWEDEN’S FEMINIST FOREIGN POLICY PARADOX

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Russia Against The World

The main news event of the past week has been Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which seems to be a premeditated plan executed after years of preparation. It is clear that Russia has maintained a high level of interest in Ukraine since it annexed Crimea back in 2014, in retaliation for ousting the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. The motivation behind this major military assault is the perceived threat Ukraine might pose to Russia should it join NATO. For Putin, this would be unacceptable as it would allow NATO to acquire territories bordering Russia and therefore infringe on Russia’s sphere of influence. 

There have been numerous attempts at diplomatic talks between Russia and Western leaders in an effort to de-escalate the conflict that has long been brewing, which were evidently unsuccessful. Western leaders such as French and American presidents, Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden, held talks with Putin to negotiate a peace deal, but were never able to come to terms with Russia’s demands. The talks with Macron initially showed promise, but were unable to dissuade Putin from invading Ukraine which he declared in a televised speech as an act of self-defence.

Putin has advised Ukrainians not to interfere with the Russian mobilisation in the Donetsk region, and has threatened that all foreign countries who intervene will be met with a swift and unprecedented response. On the other hand, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, has urged his people to defend their country at all costs, stating that Ukraine is their home and does not belong to anyone else. He reiterates, to domestic and international audiences, that Ukraine is a sovereign state and that the invasion violates international laws and threatens global peace. While much support has been pledged by international bodies, such as the United States and the European Union, in the form of arms and aid funding, Ukraine’s military stands alone in its defence against a much stronger opponent.

As of the 27th February 2022, Russia has placed its nuclear forces on high alert, signalling to international audiences that it has not ruled out the use of nuclear weapons. While many see this as a deterrent to other actors assisting Ukraine in its fight against Russia, it has increased tensions internationally. Any nuclear escalation presents a significant threat to global security.

Practical support for the Ukrainians has been provided through non-military methods, which the Ukrainian president has deemed inefficient in providing immediate support against the assault. Military intervention is being requested on top of the sanctions placed by the US and European states, the same sanctions that have dropped the Russian currency to a new low and has increased oil prices.

The Russian assault on Ukraine is dominating  the media, and protests have erupted worldwide in opposition to Russia’s actions. The ICC has even initiated an investigation into the allegations of Russia committing war crimes against Ukrainian civilians. Only time will tell what plans Putin has in store, and how this act of aggression in Ukraine serves Russia’s interests. The invasion of Ukraine has polarised the international community and seemingly left Russia without allies, with the possible exception of China, which is now under pressure to act as mediator; Israel agreed to act as a mediator at the moment with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett travelling to meet President Putin and Zelensky. The stakes for mediation are high: commentators recognise this is the most significant military event to occur in Europe since the Second World War and caution that further escalation could mark the start of the third.

Politics over Hijab in Karnataka: a Precursor to State Elections 2023

This weekly briefing is being published in retrospect due to the CCRJ solidarity with the 2022 University Staff Strike.

The Hindu nationalist movement (popularly known as Hindutva) is known for its conservative position and Hindu supremacist ideology. Since 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) government has been the political force translating the ideology into policies and governance. It has once again flared up controversy by pursuing policies that target religious minorities in India. One instance of this is the number of institutions in the state of Karnataka which are witnessing protests predominantly led by upper-caste Hindu students against their Muslim peers wearing hijab in class. 

In January 2022, six female students in the Udupi district were denied access to their college campus for donning the hijab. Since then the state, with a BJP government at the helm, has witnessed similar incidents where students wearing hijabs were not allowed to enter their institution’s premises. In some cases, radical Hindu organizations mobilized Hindu students to protest against their Muslim peers by wearing saffron scarves, claiming that there was no equality in allowing religious clothing in “secular educational” spaces. There are video reports of saffron-clad men heckling women wearing hijab and burqa.

A Muslim girl student filed a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court against institutions claiming that Article 14 and 25 of the Indian Constitution guarantees theirright to practice their religion and should protect them from discrimination. The State Government shutdown  colleges for three days until the High Court announced its decision on the matter, but the High Court has only passed an interim order so far, to prevent students from wearing any religious clothing until the final order is out. This order has established a false equivalence between hijab and saffron scarves: unlike the hijab, worn by only some Muslim women as part of their religious expression, the purpose of saffron scarves has been to intimidate Muslim women. 

Any observer of Indian politics would not find it surprising that a communal issue on religious lines has been instigated in a state with upcoming polls. Karnataka will be due for its Legislative Assembly elections in May 2023 and will be one of the few states where the Prime Minister’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)  will be in direct competition with its principal national opposition, the Indian National Congress (INC). The last elections to the house in 2018 resulted in a hung assembly with BJP winning more seats despite INC winning the popular vote. 

BJP has been known to instigate communal issues in poll-bound states and foster a polarised atmosphere to score electoral points and support. In 2021, civic bodies in Gujarat state, where elections will be taking place in December 2022, announced regulations against the sale of non-vegetarian food in public spaces. The Delhi riots in 2020 and the demonization of Shaheen Bagh protestors (which was led by Muslim women in the Delhi neighbourhood) occuredjust before the Delhi elections in May 2020. A similar attempt was made to demonise farmers’ protests as a Khalistani plot in January 2021 as the year-long movement was led by farmers from Punjab and Haryana, states with significant sikh populations. But the government had to concede as Punjab is due for polls in February 2022. 

It is a recurring strategy and somewhat tired script of Hindu nationalists to target religious minorities and impose hypocritical standards.  Despite empty political declarations to the contrary, the promise of secularism has always been in contradiction to the Hindutva project. Hindu nationalists, led by the BJP, argue that secularism is a tool of appeasement for minorities which is why there has been a systematic attempt at subverting the constitutional promise of equality. 

Prime Minister Modi, a member of the BJP, promised an “inclusive India” after winning his second term in 2019 but his party has continued to engage in communally polarising election strategies across the country. This controversy over hijabs has created tensions and division among students who were previously studying together, disrupted Muslim female students from accessing their educational institutions ahead of their final exams and set a disturbing precedent of religious discrimination. It is imperative that Mr Modi intervenes and reassures his commitment to his promise. 

Image Credit: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters