The Association for Psychosocial Studies (APS) Solidarity and Support Statement for Industrial Actions and Strikers

We, at the Association for Psychosocial Studies, would like to formally acknowledge our support for industrial actions happening across the UK higher education institutions.

As an Association, we are firmly in support of social justice and this means that employers should be called upon to guarantee fair pay and conditions and equitable working practices These issues cut deep for us in the APS. Many of our members, including members of our Executive Board, have been the victims of workforce reduction policies in this time of intensifying economic and political uncertainty. We recognise the devastating impact on individuals and support the rights of the workforce to defend jobs and their conditions of employment.

As multiple UCU branches across the UK have noted, women, people of colour and people with protected characteristics are disproportionately impacted. The undeniable effect of these reverses any advances made in recent years towards a more richly diverse academic staff, effectively reinforcing the white male dominance

The convergence of crises we have lived through in the wake of the pandemic has highlighted how intersectional our struggles are. We cannot divorce labour disputes from the wider issues of systemic racism, gender-based violence and repressive methods of control plaguing our societies. By implication this entails a widening of solidarity between academics and mental health practitioners as well as with academic support staff, cleaners and security staff who are also falling fowl of dehumanising neoliberal policies.

Our activities as an Association are designed to foster the re-humanisation’ of working and living, to work across sectional boundaries and to nourish new alliances and spaces of support.

 

In solidarity,

The Association for Psychosocial Studies

Nini Fang
Author: Nini Fang