The UCU Left is a national organisation of University and College Union activists. It is committed to ensuring that the new union has a democratic structure through which members can determine policy, and elected officers and professional officials can be held accountable. It seeks to defend educational equality, and to oppose the consequences of neo-liberal marketisation. It is opposed to all forms of racism, sexism, oppression and imperialism.
SEC Election - Ordinary Member Seats

Carlo Morelli (Dundee University)

Election Address
I am currently President of Dundee University UCU and have been for three years. I have been a lecturer in economics at Dundee for nine years.

I am standing for election for the UCU Scottish Executive for the first time as I believe the past two pay disputes have highlighted a number of key issues for activists in the UCU;

  • We have become a major union whose membership increasingly understands the need for a strong trade union. This should be based upon active local branches, accountable representation and national campaigning.


  • Education itself is facing a growing threat from marketisation and financial pressures created by governments nationally and management locally. We need a union which recognises that education is not simply an industry< where trade unions bargain over pay and conditions. We need a union that recognises and responds to the ideological onslaught that education faces from governments intent on opening up the public sector to the market.


  • The executive of UCU Scotland does not have a high enough profile in UCU nor amongst Scottish members. The executive of UCU Scotland therefore needs to develop greater influence within UCU and be prepared to campaign over wider trade union and social justice issues amongst members in Scotland.
UCU Scotland needs to become a stronger trade union in both the traditional sense of building grass root branches with reps and committees fighting for pay and conditions and as a trade union which recognises its role as part of a wider struggle for social justice and equality.

The idea that we simply fight for our own pay and ignore the inequality of other workers in education is an idea of the past, not one for a trade union in a world where there is de-skilling and privatisation. We need a union which supports ALL workers in their fight against cuts whether they are in UCU, UNISON or any other or no union. As the saying goes ‘Unity is Strength’.

I also believe we need to be a union which shows its support for the fight for equality and social justice. We have cuts in education and the introduction of fees for students because money available to fund education is squandered on the government’s priorities, most notably the war in Iraq or the replacement of nuclear missiles. Dissent over government policy has been met with islamophobia, racism and witch-hunting in education. I therefore believe a union should not be neutral in the face of these attacks on students or workers in education. We all have a right to an education free from racism and intimidation and as workers in education we have the right to work free from harassment. I therefore believe in a trade unionism which faces up to the political challenges facing education.

Biographical information including service to the union
I am Currently employed as a lecturer in Economics in the School of Social Sciences at Dundee University

My union experience includes the following:

  • Dundee AUT & Dundee UCU President for 3 years


  • Ordinary Member of Dundee AUT Executive for 5 years


  • Delegate to the AUT Council for 3 years


  • Delegate to the Scottish AUT Council for 2 years


I am a member of UCU Left and of the Socialist Workers Party.


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