Calling all academics - members of UCU

[AlwaysTawnyOwl]

The election papers for the NEC are out. Please do vote - there is just one candidate in the LGBT+ section who is standing up for open respectful discussion and is a member of the Labour Women’s Declaration. Don’t waste your vote!

Thanks for the advice - I've just received my voting papers. Having to read between the lines, altho' some candidates are fairly brazenly rejecting academic freedom. So they're easy to cross off my list.

Yes I'll be voting for the candidate who supports academic freedom.

I read all the statements last night, and I like the look of some of the candidates on the UCU Commons platform, as they generally seem to be a breath of fresh air.

But then I went to the UCU Commons website, and found their first statement of values was 'unequivocal' support for trans people, whose "lives are not up for debate" (except that women's lives, views, ideas and freedoms are always up for debate as a consequence, aren't they?). And I see that they supported Jo Grady, the Gen Sec who used the "TERFBlocker" programme on Twitter.

Oh well ...

Not many people to vote for sadly. But there is power in the single transferrable vote. I only have to vote for one person, if that's the only person I want.

Just came on to post about this--I've actually just left UCU (because I am GC, and I threw in the towel after seeing the reception that met one brave woman try to stand up for women's rights in a recent email discussion) but as my last act as a union member I'm trying to figure out who to vote for. Anyone affiliated with UCU Commons is evidently out. Are we allowed to post names of candidates who are (genuinely) for academic freedom? It's quite hard to read between the lines... SB at Edinburgh, I guess, SP at Reading maybe?

If you can vote for Eurig Scandrett, I would recommend doing so.

Thanks @SuperLoudPoppingAction, unfortunately he's not on my ballot papers--different region I guess. I'm in London.

I've had MC (Bath) recommended to me in a feminist I refuse to say gender critical, all feminism is gender critical by definition forum elsewhere.

What about MM Bournemouth? I've heard she's tried to speak up for sex as opposed to gender id?

I can see a lot of candidates to rule out based either on their statement or because they're on the UCU Commons slate. Of the others, I'm in a quandary with the STV. Is it better to vote for anyone who might be OK, in the hope that it'll help keep out the ones who definitely aren't?

SB (Edinburgh) is as far as I can see the only candidate saying she'll actually speak up for women's rights, so that's a vote in the bag, both for NEC and LGBT+ rep. MC (Bath) has a bit on academic freedom at the end of his address so that's OK for me, though if he's obliquely signalling support for women's rights I'd rather he had the courage to say so openly. MMc (Central Lancashire) was recommended to me in another forum, nothing to do with feminism, but from what was being said there I don't think he's into ID politics which bodes well.

My options are Alison Chapman, Stewart Fraser or Philip Wilson. Anyone know if there's one that hasn't drunk the kool aid?

Good luck, voters. I used to belong to UCU in a previous university admin job. When I got my ballot papers I used to go through looking for UCU Left and crossing them out, as they were invariably far more focused on boycotting Israel than the humdrum business of trying to get better pay and working conditions for UCU members in the UK. UCU was as much use as a chocolate fireguard when my place went through the Pay and Modernisation re-grading exercise and made an absolute hash of it.

I often look back at what the UK was like when I was very much younger and wonder how we got to where we are now - ludicrously high house prices, employment rights slashed, ordinary people unable to maintain a reasonable standard of living without support from benefits, hardly anyone in a union and many unions not recognised. One of the factors has to be that the unions lost the plot. After over-reaching themselves in the 70s and taking their members out on strike action at the drop of a hat, in the 80s and 90s after Thatcher had massively reduced their power, instead of applying themselves to solid grassroots work that would have proved their worth to members and potential members, many allowed themselves to be hi-jacked by activists, often using union work as a stepping stone to a political career. Sad, given the long and proud history of the trades unions in the UK.

Gasp0de I remember Labour voters turning against the Unions and heralding in Thatcher. The Unions were as thick as planks and nothing seems to have changed. Ideology above pragmatism and they have never learned. They are still touting ideology but this time it's trans ideology in the guise of equality. One of the gripes about unions now is that they prevent progress such as Teaching, NHS, Police etc. Just look at the Manchester Arena inquiry ffs and Grenfell and Maternity in NHS trusts and the legal claims in the Billions, Rail strikes affecting working people, all to be paid for by tax payers, and on and on. People aren't dumb asses, they know what's happening, otherwise Jeremy Corbyn would have got in with a landslide and unions would be in every industry in the UK. The sick man of Europe isn't something I want to go back to.

I wish you all luck with your vote but although strongly Labour I have no love for the Unions which I see as a regressive force (my dad worshiped them but then that was the 1950's). Workers co-operatives deserve thought....enough waffle.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g sadly, I think your analysis is pretty spot on.

I was interested to read the statement by Steve Sangwine, stating the brutal facts about the stupid "Four Fights" strikes this time last year. He's got my vote.

Striking for academic and academic-related staff is a pretty crude weapon - we have the wit to think of better ways of getting senior management teams to realise that the continuing erosion of our conditions is not sustainable.

Thanks for this thread OP. Would LOVE to get some sane GC people there to combat the kool aid

SB in Edinburgh is our BEST bet!