Featured in Issue XIII – July 2021
Last month we interviewed a worker about a strike that broke out at the University of Liverpool to stop redundancies. In our questions we (incorrectly) stated that students who had been occupying scab-lectures in 2020 had stopped at the request of UCU. It turns out that we were misinformed, and in fact they had stopped for other reasons such as burnout and the end of the strike. We have now been informed by those involved that the union made no attempts to discourage them. We can only apologise for any confusion the error caused.
The strike ended on the 11th of June, as planned. The union then began a marking ban, while continuing a work-to-rule. On the 24th, students organised a protest to show their support for the workers. However, the University has now made it clear that anyone participating in the marking ban to any degree will lose full pay. Which begs the obvious question: why work at all? As of the 29th, strike action has not been announced but tensions are rising and further conflict seems inevitable. If strike action is pursued, is it worth following the slow and stifling official process? Could additional tactics be used to escalate the dispute?
Liverpool Anarchist 