Student-Worker Struggles for Fair Labour Practices on University Campuses

In 2015 and 2016 students at South African universities campaigned under the banner #FeesMustFall for the abolition of tuition fees. It was widely reported that students were pushing for far-reaching change: Twenty-five years after the end of apartheid rule they were calling for the decolonisation of the country’s education system.

Little public attention however has been paid to the alliances of students and workers in parallel #EndOutsourcing campaigns for fair labour practices for all university workers. What were the trajectories of the student-worker movements for insourcing of all workers at public institutions of higher learning? What did they have in common with similar campaigns that arose at the same time also at universities in the United Kingdom? What are the common aims of these struggles, and how successful have they been?

Read my analysis here.