After fourteen days the pickets took to their posts this morning to end the first phase of strike action. This dispute is unprecedented in UK higher education and history is being written. These playlists have been dedicated to those on the picket line; those people have stood through snow, wind and freezing rain and with those on strike, they still have plenty to write in this dispute. The end is still to be made.
- We began our music today by reminding everyone that this has been tough. Tough for those pickets in all sorts of weather and the Minutemen with their lively rendition of ‘This Ain’t No Picnic’.
- Next up was a big thank you to all those students who have shown their support despite the impact that they have felt. We played REM and ‘Welcome to the Occupation’ in appreciation of their solidarity.
- Our message this morning to UUK is to ‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is’ with the disco track by Rose Royce.
- We know this action will bring with it change. What change remains to be seen. A new unity across our institution beckons, for colleagues across departments and disciplines. We need to make it happen. Sam Cooke and ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’.
- We played a really powerful song and message from the women’s band, First Aid Kit. Behind this superb tune, you need to listen carefully to the lyrics of their ‘You Are the Problem Here’.
- Here is another cover of that John Lennon classic ‘Working Class Hero’ and this time it was by local lad John Power, a great rendition.
- Was there ever a time when employers who stole employee resources were called thieves? Say it as it is. The great tone of Kirsty MacColl can never be overstated. This one, ‘Free World’ seems apt for us on strike in defence of our pensions.
- Our rally followed at noon and so to John Lennon and his ‘Power To The People’. Power to the pickets, to the strikers and to the members!
- Economy class for us, but this Joan Armatrading number is pure first class, ‘All The Way From America’.
- After it is over… petty retribution, greater solidarity and collegiality. We’ll have to wait and see. We can organise, we can agitate and we can educate. For the cowboys came Johnny Cash and ‘Ghost Riders In The Sky’.
- Use your education to stand up for what you believe in. As we come towards the end of today’s music, we return to the political lyrics of the Minutemen and their ‘Price of Paradise’. A great tune and great antiwar message.
- We’ve played it before but this one by Utah Phillips is for today. The message is for us all; for pickets, colleagues still in work, for UUK and senior managers. The message is simple ‘There is Power in a Union’.
We’ll be back in a short time no doubt. The next phase of industrial action is being planned now. We do not want this. We want to get back to work, to teach students and research. We have to call this out: Victory to UCU in this dispute. Victory to the pickets and to those who have fought over the past six weeks in defence of our rights, our pensions. The tagline #USSstrikes #music4thepickets #NoCapitulation
UCU UoL Management School 