UCU March for Education: a photo series

Pi photographer Pietro Sambuy shares his thoughts on the ongoing UCU strike action, alongside a series of images taken at last week’s March for Education.

The strike action by UCU members has been escalating and will continue up until 13th March. There are currently 74 universities across the UK fighting for better education, pensions, and pay. The academic sector has suffered from a decade of pay cuts, increasing pay inequalities along gender, ethnicity and disabilities lines, unrealistic workloads, and the resulting mental health crisis in the sector.

The mood of staff is militant as they continue to struggle against management that is determined to convert universities into a business and commodity education. Many student supporters, most notably students from the UCL Marxist society, have been on the picket lines day after day with their lecturers. Now, more than ever, students need to mobilise and support their academic staff.

These shots were taken as part of the march on Wednesday 26th February 2020, which demonstrated up to the Bank of England, in the City of London.

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