KCL goes to Women's Strike // UCU Strikes

*** KCL GOES TO WOMEN'S STRIKE WITH WOMEN'S STRIKE ASSEMBLY **

We call on students and staff of all genders from King's College to publicly support the Women's Strike on 8th of March, International Women's Day! We strike for pensions, equal pay and career prospects, for stable contracts and decent wages. We strike from our waged labour – teaching, researching and marking. We strike from our unwaged labour – childcare, housework, emotional and pastoral labour. We strike to make our invisible labour visible.

On the 8th of March will gather at the Strand picket line (main entrance of Strand building) at 11.30 am for short talks, chats and interventions by staff and students. At 12.30 pm we will start marching together to Russell Square, where the Women's Strike Assembly will kick off at 1 pm.

PROGRAMME

11.00 Mayssoon Sukarieh (KCL) and Siggie Vertommen (KCL): short intro of women's working conditions at KCL and International Women's Strike
11.10 Camilla Royle, KCL UCU
11.20 Lea Ypi (LSE)
11.30 Hareem Ghani, KCL's Women's Officer from NUS
11.40 Koshka Duff (KCL): Can the law be feminist? discussion with students
12.00 Carina Minami and Cleo Anderson, KCL students Gendering Global Politics module
12.20 Marcia from KCL cleaners
12.30 We march to Russell Square

Bring pots and pans, whistles, noise makers, umbrellas, placards
and banners and wear red.

We are preparing Women's Strike banners and placards on 7th of March, between 2-5 pm, at Goldsmiths Teach Out

WOMEN'S STRIKE EVENT:
https://www.facebook.com/events/398094657285688/

Why a Women's Strike at KCL?

8th of March is not only a USS strike day, it is also International Women’s Day. Following an international call, women in more than 60 countries are protesting their current conditions of womanhood, which are marked by labour exploitation, sexual harassment, neoliberal welfare cuts, state and police violence, racism and transphobia.

The widespread protests will disrupt business as usual as women will walk out of their kitchens, universities, schools, bedrooms, factories, hospitals, brothels and offices. They will take on the impossible task of striking from all the paid and unpaid work they do. They realise that changing the world for women, means changing the world for everyone.

We, women and non-binary people working or studying at King’s College London have many reasons to be angry and concerned.

The gender pay gap in higher education is 12%. At King’s College female academic staff even earn 16.8% less than male academic staff, and female non-academic staff earn 12.8% less than male non-academic staff. This is the second worst gender pay gap in the country. And the pay gap even widens for women with children and care as they are more likely to work part time, leading to significantly lower pensions in the future. The assault on staff pensions will therefore affect women disproportionately.

In addition, childcare at universities is either non-existent or unaffordable with the number of places provided inadequate. In the UK, childcare is one of the most expensive in Europe. King’s has a particularly bad record in this regard since many campuses lack any dedicated childcare provision.

Women among academic staff are expected to bear the hidden, unpaid labour of caring for students in the midst of a mental health crisis on campus. Assessment of academic output, such as the Research Excellence Framework, will continue to disadvantage women for as long as that work extends to evening and weekends when there is unequal distribution of domestic labour in the home. Simultaneously, women and non-binary people are dealing with sexual harassment, assault and bullying in universities. The hierarchies of the university leave many students and early career academics afraid to report assault or harassment, whilst being ignored and silenced when they do. Many universities will only take action on sexual assault if it has been reported to the police, raising the threshold of unreported abuse and lowering accountability.

On 8th of March – a UCU strike day - women within higher education, including students and staff, need to stand as a united front to fight for a safe place of work and study, free from the values of capital.

JOIN THE WOMEN’S STRIKE, WE HAVE A WORLD TO WIN