Goldsmiths strike still strong after nearly three months

Goldsmiths UCU members including author Michael Rosen joined the rally on Wednesday (Pic: Guy Smallman)

Around 50 members of the UCU union—who are on indefinite strike—rallied in front of Goldsmiths University in south London on Wednesday. 

It was the first day of term for students on PGCE teacher training courses—and the start of their thirteenth week of action.

“All of this could easily have been avoided,” Sipho, a maths lecturer, told the rally.

After Goldsmiths announced its plan to cut 269 people at risk of redundancy, Sipho refused to grade around 20 essays as part of a marking and assessment boycott.

“That was maybe two weeks’ worth of work,” he said. “I would still have been teaching. I would still have been visiting schools.

“If you applied for the PGCE in Maths, I would have interviewed you. What I’m saying is, I would still be doing my job.

“But, in retaliation for the marking and assessment boycott, the bosses took 100 percent of our pay away. We’re getting nothing at the moment.”

Another striker told Socialist Worker, “It’s shameful what Goldsmiths is trying to do to ‘balance the books’.”

Goldsmiths bosses want to make £22 million worth of cuts. It is part of a financial crisis across universities in Britain that flows from a broken, profit-driven model.

Shireen Asaw, a Green Party councillor on Lewisham Council, was there to offer solidarity.

“Lewisham Council and Lewisham Green Party stand with you,” she said. “We will keep doing everything that we can do to pressure management to drop the threat of redundancies and get serious about negotiations.  

Michael Rosen, the well-known children’s author and a professor at Goldsmiths, applauded the action. 

“When they try to take away our jobs, we have a choice,” he said. “We can either bow and scrape and watch industries go to the wall or we can make a stand.

“Now you can do that by handing out leaflets and holding vigils—there’s nothing wrong with that.

“But, until you withdraw your labour, nobody takes any notice. That’s the power we have against attacks like the one you’re facing,” he said.

This isn’t the first time that the bosses at Goldsmiths have attacked the workers.

“Two years ago, there was a round of cuts that resulted in hundreds of staff being made redundant. Fast forward to 2026, and they’re at it again,” Vincent, the Goldsmiths UCU health and safety rep said.

“We’ve been on indefinite strike for months which is, I think, unprecedented in our sector.

“But I think it’s important to bear in mind that what we’re doing here is important for the sector as a whole.

“We’re not the only institution fighting back. We’re doing this for our colleagues at other institutions as well.”

Goldsmiths workers have been on indefinite strike since 8 June. They have shown incredible resilience in the face of bosses who want to wreck the university. 

They shouldn’t be left to fight alone. The UCU union agreed at its annual conference this year to launch a coordinated programme of strike ballots across the higher education sector. This could be combined with a political campaign to defend education. 

But the union has dithered and delayed rather than putting these plans into action. It has given bosses time to plan cuts and course closures across the sector. The union needs a plan for a coordinated, nationwide fightback.