Sally Hunt, general secretary, 
speech to UCU Congress  2010

Congress,
Sally Hunt, general secretary.
You know, we could have filled that film one hundred times over with the work you do.
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Yet at the very time we need it most, it seems that education and learning are out of political fashion.
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What kind of government would cut colleges and universities by £1.5bn while giving £8 billion pounds of tax giveaways to big business?
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Let me state for the record....
I DONT agree with Nick..... 
Or his new best friend George.
Or any other member of this government which has decided to prioritise the rich....at the expense of the poor.... 
....and which seems to prefer ignorance to education.
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I want to start by acknowledging what's been on everyone's mind during this our fifth Congress as a unified trade union. 
As our country struggles to find its way out of recession, we meet here at a challenging time for education, for UCU and for the whole labour movement.
There are of course questions of strategy and tactics that we have debated this week. 
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They are vital to the conduct of this campaign or that.
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But in this transformed political situation the real question is:
What kind of a society do we want to argue for;
To campaign for;
And to live in.
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The level of cuts across further and higher education mean many of you will be anxious not just about the union’s future...but about your own position too. 
We are all wondering not just about
Our own students; 
Our own institutions:
Our friends and colleagues faced with the sack. 
But about our children and grand children too.
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How much will an education cost by the time they are grown up?  
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In the modern age, the promise made by each generation to its successor was to increase opportunity and expand learning.

Well, this second great depression and the pathetic response to it by our political leaders has broken that covenant.
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But this union is still here.
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And we have risen to challenges like this before. 
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For ninety years or more, from the earliest days of trade unionism in colleges and universities, people like us have stood in our shoes and wondered what the future would hold. 
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Back in the 1920s we made a choice.
We decided that to organise for better pay and conditions for ourselves....would go hand in hand with organising for a better education too.
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We’ve stood for opportunity over elitism through two world wars; 
We’ve seen society transformed by mass education; 
We’ve taken the worst that Mrs Thatcher could throw at us;
We’ve even seen politicians who benefited from free education break that covenant with the next generation.
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I raise the memory of those who came before not from sentimentality.  
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Rather to remind us that our challenges while great are nothing new. 
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Our predecessors organised to achieve trade union recognition. 
We will organise to defend it.  
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Our predecessors organised to win decent pay and – yes – decent pensions.
We will organise to retain those hard won benefits.
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And our predecessors organised to win access to education for all.
We will organise to 
Defend courses, 
Defend provision 
And 
Defend jobs.
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We will not accept the attack on education being implemented by the current government.
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Nor will we stand back while students with the ability to benefit from education are stopped from doing so and told to accept their lot in life.
WE – no one else – WE...
....recognise our responsibility to work together to:
Defend education;
Defend our members; and 
Defend our vision of society. 
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Because at this most challenging time for our members; for our students; for our union we choose TO ACT.
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And history shows that working together we can win. 
The lesson for us is to stand together so that we may rise together. And we will.
The day Congress began I counted more than one hundred institutions making cuts – 
Slashing courses; 
Sacking staff;
Usually both. 
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That number will multiply no doubt, but let us take a moment to celebrate what it means to be a member of UCU.
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At Kings College, at UCL, at Leeds, at Tower Hamlets, Northumberland College and many more we have fought the employers to a standstill.  
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Our actions have saved jobs.  
We have members still putting bread on the family table today because of the union.
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That’s something worth being a part of.
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Now at Sussex University and The Manchester College – here in this city - we face the worst of the worst.  
Employers who don’t even pretend to talk to the union, and we will need all your support too there.
Today, our union faces a challenge and a choice once more.
At time of such insecurity and vulnerability, there has never been a greater need for a strong union to stand up for staff in further and higher education.
But the question we need to answer is: how will this union and our people win in this new political environment we find ourselves in?
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We know that this new Coalition government is – for better or worse - here to stay. 
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We also know that when you have a government that says 
"No" to child trust funds; 
"No" to university places; 
"No" to the young persons’ guarantee; 
"No" to adult learning; and 
“No” to comprehensive education 
You have a government which has an ignorance policy where its education policy should be.
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And we should say "no" to that government.
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The new coalition’s philosophy is that the only solution to the new challenges we face is to cut public services, including our colleges and universities. 
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In Downing Street, they may call it the Big Society. 
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But a better description would be every man and woman for him or herself. 
The Big Society allows us to say tough luck to those whose university places are cut.
It says get on your bike to the millions who have lost their job. 
It says don’t dream to mums and dads who just want their kid to have a better chance than they did.
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It is actually a society founded on ignorance, not knowledge. 
A throwback to a supposed golden age which never actually existed.  
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And it won't work. 
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In cutting spending on education and learning it ignores our history. 
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It ignores the fact that it has been government investment which has made our universities the envy of the world.
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It ignores the fact that it is only through further education that people can retrain and reskill.
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And it ignores the fact that a modern society and economy needs everybody to be better educated not just a lucky few.

We stand for something different.
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In the film that preceded my speech Joe Baden describes selling “education as a means to education – not to anything else”.
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And we say education encourages all that is best in our society.
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It increases democratic engagement.
It promotes a sense of mutual regard.
And it underpins the idea that everybody has a stake in the country.
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So I am clear that in the face of this political attack, it's not enough just to say "no" to the Lib-Con policy of ignorance over education. 
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We must also have a strategy that meets these new challenges.
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I don’t have all the answers but I do know where I think we should start.
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First, we need to form a broad coalition with our students. 
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A real coalition aimed at creating divisions within the government and increasing our influence on the opposition.
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That will mean working together with NUS – listening to others - rather than always dictating our own agenda.
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But the rewards are substantial. My aim is to hold to account every MP who pledged not to increase the cost of education.
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We will remind them that politicians who campaign on an anti fees ticket and then abstain when they are increased will never be trusted again.
In this case at least – abstinence will not make the voters’ heart grow fonder.
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Second, we need to win the argument with the public that universities and colleges matter.
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Too often we are the first for the axe because the politicians think they can get away with it.
Yet society depends on what you do.
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Our doctors, nurses and teachers are trained in colleges and universities.  
Our engineers and architects are too.  
What we do to give people a second chance affects crime rates, personal health, well being and improves community cohesion.
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Through Make Education Count, and working with our sister unions, we can and must make the case for education, and against ignorance.  
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Third, we must focus on increasing our power within the workplace.
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This union’s record in defending members is second to none. 
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Our membership is growing because people know that we will always do our best by them.
But the next wave of cuts will test this union’s organisation to the limit. 
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We have to be ready for whatever is thrown at us.
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That is why we are investing so much in organising, recruitment and training.
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And why having a sound financial basis for the union is so essential.
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Congress, this year because of people like you, thousands have been given the opportunity to learn; to better themselves; to provide for their family.
Yet government wishes to turn that tap off. 
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Why?
Shouldn’t we be spurring innovation and creating jobs by investing our resources into universities and colleges - not cutting them? 
Shouldn’t we be supporting communities to provide opportunities not closing adult education centres?
And shouldn’t we be expanding education for the most vulnerable not closing people’s options down.
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This is a time to fuel genius and the innovation within our people not snuff it out for the sake of a new seat on the front benches.
Congress, our vision is one that gives every person the opportunity to make the most of their lives. 
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At this Congress we have put that vision into policy and practice.
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Yet we also know that in the coming struggles it is the heart of this union that will be tested as much as our policy or political strategy.
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In the face of government and employer hostility it has always been – IT WILL ALWAYS BE - the ability of members acting together that has allowed our union to achieve its aims.

That is as true today as it ever has been.
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As educators and trade unionists we have always stood for all that is best in our society.
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Now at this crucial moment in the union’s history, we in this room stand as a bridge between a past hard won and a future uncertain.
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Our job is nothing less than to defend education.
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Together WE can do it.
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Thank you.