Full Speech to ATUC/ASC May Day Event 2021

Below is the full text of my speech to Aberdeen Trades Union Council and Aberdeen Social Centre's joint International Workers' Day (May Day) event on Saturday 1 May 2021.

"Comrades, friends,

"Sasha Brydon, Secretary of Aberdeen Trades Union Council, and Regional President of the North East Scotland College Students’ Association.

"Life for students prior to the pandemic, to put it lightly, was already pretty difficult: the gig economy with its insecure work; substandard student accommodation providers, and worse private landlords; and an education system which viewed students as essentially money pinatas.

"It is often said that Covid-19 has exacerbated many of the inequalities we find in society, the plight of students is no different.

"Students, like many other sections of society, have had an awful year. The Scottish Government essentially forced a postcode lottery with their system of awarding grades, until grassroots school pupils aided by MSPs and others overturned the SQA and Scottish Government, and nearly toppled the Deputy First Minister.

"For pupils who went through the exam fiasco, they were forced on to unsafe university campuses because the institutions didn’t want to forfeit precious student halls income, separating many students from their communities and families for months; and for students who did test positive, or just have to self isolate, they were given shoddy care packages (if you can even call them that) by their institutions or halls providers.

"For College students, many of whom study practical courses such as construction and engineering, such as students at NESCol’s Altens campus in Aberdeen, their programmes of study were hollowed out due to restrictions placed on work within workshops. This places huge insecurity on students who don’t know what they’re going to do for the next academic year, or indeed when the current academic year is going to finish. For College HNC Nursing students they have also had a particularly bad year, as across Scotland they were denied Covid-19 life insurance to go on placements at NHS facilities, whereas HNC Nursing students doing the same level and course at Universities such as RGU didn’t face the same restrictions. This was brought to our attention at the Students’ Association, and we, alongside Colleges Scotland, NUS Scotland and the class reps who came to us were able to force a Scottish Government u-turn benefiting over 2000 students across Scotland. You would think there wouldn’t have been this omission, (at least I hope it was just an omission) we need these dedicated students to staff our health service in years to come.

"Additionally there was a period of disruption due to the (now resolved) national dispute between Colleges Scotland and EIS-FELA. Students at NESCol were quick to organise, and we were one of the first groups of students to voice our support to EIS-FELA within NUS Scotland. Nobody on any side of the dispute wanted the industrial action to take place, but College lecturers were forced into this position by the employers. I’m glad to see this national dispute resolved, with a victory to EIS-FELA to protect the role of the lecturer in further education. There are still a few local disputes ongoing in the central belt at one or two institutions.

"Students as a whole, whether College or University, are victims of a gig economy which relies on predominantly young people, many students have been going to work during the pandemic as retail workers or workers in fast food, including Deliveroo and others. Young people have also been blamed for rises in Covid-19 rates, but people somehow don’t see the link with that.

"Students are also victims of an education system which views them as customers and stakeholders who pay for a service, rather than people who are seeking upskilling, reskilling or pure educational enhancement. Further education receives its funding partly based on the number of students it can ferry through its programme of courses, which forces Colleges to focus on credit targets, and only paying lip-service to student welfare.

"All of this paints a pretty grim picture.

"NUS Scotland during the election has been calling on all parties to support a student guarantee, under the slogan of ‘students deserve better’ which would be:

• The right for every student to access a fully funded education system.
• The right for all students to access a comprehensive student support system.
• The right for all students to receive a safe and inclusive education.
• The right for students to be an integral part of shaping a better world.

"NUS Scotland has been key in securing millions of pounds in extra discretionary funding from the SFC and Scottish Government, and continues to be a key critical friend of the Scottish Government.

"Students, through their democratic representative organisations working nationally, can move mountains."

My Road to Damascus

If anybody has ever said their politics has not changed then they would not be telling the truth. Sometimes people's ideas can change very rapidly, as some would say mine has, but all change is organic. There is usually an underlying reason, as all change is caused by something. My political shift was closer to a conversion, hence the title. The shift has also been spiritual as much as political.

For a little over three years, between December 2016 and March 2020, I was a member of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB). Do I regret it? Much like the late Denis Healey, the former Labour minister and once upon a time Communist, not one bit. The CPB instilled a reverence for inner-party democracy, a completely sound critique of capitalism, and an understanding of the need to build coalitions and win people over by relationship building, including a strong sense of community organising; all of these things have stuck.

I joined the Labour Party in May 2020, after quite a bit of thought. I had been considering leaving the CPB for a while, the democratic centralism was just a bit too centralist for my liking. Another factor which lead to my disillusionment, or alienation, with the CPB was the unrelenting optimism that the doctrine of historical materialism was correct, and that capitalism would by its very nature give way to socialism, and socialism to communism. As Lord Glasman once said, the least true thing anyone has ever said in politics is things can only get better. This was meant as a stab against New Labour, but it works quite well against Communists.

The period of the pandemic has been a very depressing time, but it has meant time to myself for hard introspection, both of my politics and my spirituality.

I have come to realise that there is an inherent radicalism, as well as a deep conservatism within my politics. The radicalism from reading Marx, the conservatism from the experiences in my life and community. Capitalism, with its commodification of human beings, nature and everything in between is something which must be resisted wholeheartedly. Where capitalism's revolutionary nature is praised by Marx, eroding old social ties, the ancient traditions of family and community, that is where I depart with Marx. Any moves to resist the domination of capital must be supported, especially at the most local level; from trades unions, tenants unions, civic society, community groups, political parties and others. The Labour tradition, my conservatism, is not a discriminatory conservatism. It is a conservatism which centres family, work, community, place, obligation to one another, and democracy. This politics is also about reminding us of our common humanity. Much like the allegory of the cave, it took leaving the CPB and proper time for introspection about my politics to realise this inherent conservatism, which caused me to drift into the open arms of Blue Labour, a fairly niche Labour Party pressure group.

I have also thrown off the cold philosophical materialism that was instilled by the CPB. I don't think anyone who has lived through this air of pestilence and death can not believe in some form of spirituality. This is not to say I believe in God, I cannot say I either do or don't. I'd regard myself as an agnostic, culturally Christian and much more open to the spiritual than I once was. I was brought up deeply, coldly atheist, so philosophical materialism came naturally to me. 2020 was the first time I had actively of my own accord read parts of the Bible. My mother and her family are atheists, while my father's parents align with the Protestantse Kerk, although living in Scotland they attend Church of Scotland services. I had been estranged from my Dad's side of the family on and off for many years, however I have recently grown closer, which has only strengthened the spirituality.

I aim to further expand my ideas on various subjects, like the railways for example which I have already began here, but I felt the need to write a brief few paragraphs about my changing politics.

In the meantime, my politics can be summed up in a sentence from the young Benjamin Disraeli: "I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad."

Source: https://twitter.com/blue_labour/status/1222912088529612800