Campus was still waking up when I showed up for my early morning shift (0800-1100). Our estates colleagues were sorting out the rubbish, security staff were setting out the covid placards, & there weren't many people around. It's the kind of quiet winter morning that I love, where everything is still soft and slow; where possibility lingers at every corner.
I didn’t know what to expect on the picket lines on day 1. I was nervous and excited, a bit worried about how students would react, wondering if there’d be enough of us on the pickets or if it was going to be just the ECRs again (doing all the labour & fighting, fighting, fighting). Would I run into my students (many of whom I've never met in person)? Would I see my colleagues cross the picket line, refusing to acknowledge us?
It’s been years since I’ve been on a picket line- would I still know how to persuade, cajole, joke, and stand firm? To channel my rage into enthusiasm & constant patter? I’ve never participated in strike action in the UK either- is picket line etiquette different here?
It seems like a facile thing to worry about (and probably is), but it's so tied to that feeling of being the outsider, the odd one out, the only Brown one in the room, the immigrant, that one talking about the Global South again[...], *that* feeling that surrounds almost every interaction and experience I have at this institution.
Universities are bordered in many ways, not just in the threatening automated Tier 4/Tier 2 emails but in who participates where, the forms that can take, whose voice is valued or not, & the kinds of othering you carry etched into your skin, your passport, your accent, your jokes.
The hostile environment of UKBA in cahoots with the hostile environment of my university only adds more layers of precarity, fear, anxiety, and traps you in a cycle of constantly calculating risk.
Our UCU colleagues were setting up at the OLD building. I picked up a picket line placard, was helped with my armband, and handed a number of leaflets [pensions only at first]. A colleague and I walked over to the Library to hold down the fort.
It's an odd feeling to talk to students so early in the morning, when they've made the effort to schlep in and bag the best spots in the library. They're really determined to be there – and a picket line of two isn't really cutting it as a tactic! :)
Student-staff solidarity remains one of the most incredible and uplifting moments of being on the picket line- it’s genuinely when I have most felt #partofLSE. Their commitment to standing with us, to debate with their peers (including one worrying one around race & achievement gaps) and cajole them into joining us- it’s moving and it’s a glimpse of what kind of university we can even imagine & hope for.
By 10:30 am or so, we were quite a strong picket- lots of meeting new colleagues (across departments!) and students- the sociology students were a particular delight!
