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SOLIDARITY WITH UCU UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL STAFF
LGBT+ Socialists in action supporting striking UCU members (Image: Paul McGowan)
Published 06 August 2021
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What the University of Liverpool UCU branch is doing should be an inspiration to all trade union branches, first they smashed the tory implemented threshold for strike action with 84% of members who voting in a ballot to back strike action, and before even taking strike action had already saved 1/3rd of the threatened jobs.
The university had originally intended to sack up to 47 staff, that was then revised down to 32 after the UCU threatened industrial action. The UCU is now campaigning to save the last 2 jobs of the 7,000+ work force in a true showing of 'all for one and one for all'.
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During these planned job cuts affecting people's livelihoods, the University of Liverpool’s vice-chancellor Louise Kenny reportedly put her luxury six bed, nine bath, 6,100ft² mansion, in County Cork, Ireland on the market for €3.2 million (£2.8m), 6 bed, 9 bathroom, 6,100 square foot mansion in Ireland. The University itself we are told had a turnover of £584.7 million in 2020, so why are these health job cuts happening, during a global pandemic at that?
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It has also been inspiring to see that while the university refused to meet with the UCU to resolve the dispute, or to allow ACAS to mediate between UCU and management, a boycott was called to push the university to stop the planned redundancies and to hold urgent talks to resolve the dispute.
This has included:
- not applying for any advertised jobs at Liverpool
- not agreeing to speak at or organise academic or other conferences at Liverpool which are outside of contract
- not accepting new invitations to give lectures at Liverpool
- not accepting new positions as visiting professors or researchers at Liverpool
- not accepting invitations outside of contract to write for any academic journal which is edited at or produced by Liverpool
- not accepting new contracts as external examiners for taught courses at Liverpool
LGBT+ Socialists with Dr. Jo Grady, General Secretary of the University and College Union (Image: UCU)
The fight in Liverpool is also a fight for the future of the UCU and sets a president for fighting against this disreputable practices in the sector by employers, a fight in which this branch has truly embodied fighting for a university system where staff and students support one another and faculties will not allow themselves to be pitted against one another. - Unity is strength
LGBT+ Socialists believe in actively supporting workers and the struggles of working-class communities, taking a strong stand against Homophobia, Transphobia, Disablism, Sexism, Racism, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and all other forms of bigotry and oppression is not an optional extra in the class struggle but in fact a core part of it.
Report co-authors Paul Boyce, Trude Sundberg and Róisín Ryan-Flood said: "As well as experiencing widespread job insecurity and mental health issues, our research shows that too many LGBT+ staff still find themselves on the receiving end of homophobic and transphobic language in the workplace. Moreover, they face a range of indirect discrimination in higher education such as a lack of representation in curricula, failures in institutional support, and unequal research opportunities."
Key findings of the report include:
- over three-quarters (77 %) of respondents have thought about leaving higher education
- almost half (47%) have experienced mental health issues
- more than four in 10 (41) % have experienced burnout
- three in 10 (30%) have experienced homophobic language
- 29% said promotion criteria negatively impact LGBT+ people
of those identifying as women, non-binary or other, 26%, 25% and 33% respectively have witnessed derogatory language towards others
- almost half (47%) indicated that the decolonisation work in their institution does not include working on issues related to gender diversity and sexual orientation
- all black LGBT+ respondents reported either personal discriminatory experiences or having witnessed derogatory language towards others.
Students, socialist groups, and trade unionists stand in solidarity with the UCU in Liverpool (Image: UCU
Dr. Luna Centifanti speaks to the crowd (Image: Paul McGowan)
LJMU UCU Branch Chair Dr. Bee Hughes speaks to the crowd (Image: Paul McGowan)
To quote UCU General Secretary Dr. Jo Grady on LGBT+ and more specifically Trans Rights: "The rights of trans people are under constant attack in this country, in the mainstream press, in workplaces, and, unfortunately, in our colleges and universities. They suffer disproportionately from numerous forms of discrimination and violence. They are among the most vulnerable targets of the far-right ideologies that are becoming increasingly visible and influential in society. Questioning the validity of trans people is not a debate. It has very real consequences, as the increase in trans hate crime demonstrates"
"Its quite simple. Attacking trans women does not protect cis women. Attacking the institutions that campaign for equality for trans women does not protect cis women. Treating the lives of trans people as a philosophical debate dehumanises trans people. They exist and always have. It often seems that those who argue so vociferously about this just don’t wish to explore the idea that they’re wrong on this, or that by applying the criminal actions of a handful of trans folk to all trans people - which is at the root of many ‘threat’ claims - is transphobic. Anyway, not only do I want to express solidarity to all trans and non binary people, this has also got me thinking about what UCU can and should do to ensure we are even more involved in helping fight this fight and stand shoulder to shoulder with our trans and nb siblings"
Trade unionists helped lead the fight for LGBT+ rights, but the struggle for an equal world continues, we’ve come a long way in fighting for equality but there’s more to be done.
Over the past 12 months we’ve seen a huge spike in the number LGBT+ hate crimes reported, with the number of LGBT+ hate crime per capita rising by 144% between 2013-14 and 2017-18 and an increase in trans hate crimes of 81%. In Liverpool there has been a 900% since 2014 with more than 6 violet homophobic attacks i the past month alone.
Whatever our background, all working class people must continue and redouble our collective efforts to stand in one another's struggles to bring about equality at work and in society at large, eensuring all LGBT+ and people of other mioity backgrounds have equal life chances.
As we did under the name Labour Party LGBT+ Network, LGBT+ Socialists stand in complete solidarity with the UCU and all those involved in this fight.
There will be a solidarity rally in Liverppool outside the Reilly Building on Brownlow Hill at 12pm on Moday 9th August, we will be in attendance.