On 14 February at 9am, students and staff occupied the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) campus as part of the UCU national strike. Picket lines had been set up outside three LSE buildings, including the Centre Building (CBG) and the Library. The mood was one of love, care and solidarity on this Valentineâs Day, not least because of the teach-outs organised by staff and students. In fact, the first teach-out, organised by Dr Mai Taha, Dr Sara Salem and Dr Ayça Ăubukçu â all from the Department of Sociology, was dedicated to the late bell hooks. The three sociology professors read sections of the American intellectualâs books, including All About Love and Teaching To Transgress. Participants were then invited to take the microphone and read their favorite excerpts from bell hooksâ works. It was indeed important, it seemed, to remember that this strike was not one against students or education, as one of the organisers of the teach-out on bell hooks recalled. âStrike is really about loveâ, said Dr Ayça Ăubukçu at the end of her reading. Indeed, it seemed to me, observing from afar, in the middle of a group of 20-30 participants, from different age, nationality, ethnic background, and probably class, there was a shared sense that, for one of the few times at LSE, we were united not in opposition, but in support of what we might call, for lack of better words, revolutionary love. Throughout the rest of day, other activities were organised by various members of the UCU in collaboration with LSE students.Â
On the way home from that first day of the strike, I thought of the words of James Baldwin: âLove has never been a popular movement and no oneâs ever really wanted to be free. The world is held together, really it is, held together, by the love and the passion of a very few people.â And it is true, yes, certainly, that we were barely a crowd of a hundred people throughout the day, but, it was equally true, that a few passionate people fully dedicated to the revolutionary cause can single-handedly, not âchange the worldâ, but change hearts! And so it was, yes, the hearts that this first day was aimed at. In a world gangrened by hatred (social, classist, racial, etc.), in a world plunged, not so far away, in the horror of human trade and colonisation, and mass destruction and of the worldâs embrace of totalitarianism, in a world confronted by the renewed temptation of fascism, to raise, in todayâs cacophony and torpor, love as the gold standard of our movements is, in my opinion, the one and only path to liberation. Let us raise our hearts and move forward! For, when the sun of the world goes down in the democracies, to fight for love is to rise in humanity.
-remyÂ
H/TÂ Beth Emma Goldman at Adjunct Professor United - Taking Action
