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.
NEC Election - UK-Elected HE Seats

Gargi Battacharyya (Birmingham University)

Election Address

I am a Reader in Cultural Politics and Religion at the University of Birmingham. I am standing for election to the National Executive Committee because I believe that higher education is facing a period of extreme change and potential crisis. This demands a concerted reinvigoration of union organisation in our sector;

  • To defend the values of education and scholarship;


  • To defend our professional status and autonomy;


  • To defend jobs, departments and subjects under attack.



I am committed to:
  • Building branches and local associations and supporting local activists;


  • Promoting the values of teaching, scholarship and research and of academic freedom;


  • Achieving proper contracts for all academic and related staff in the sector;


  • Fighting discrimination and promoting equality;


  • Building a union that can undertake effective campaigns of industrial action, political lobbying and public awareness and that is not afraid to defend our members’ jobs, pay and conditions and the values of our profession.



Defending the university ideal
I believe that the task of defending higher education demands that we build solidarity with other trade unions and that our union is made stronger by engaging in wider political debates about the future of public services and the priorities of state spending.

The interests of our members and the sector cannot be served by pretending that concerns about our pay and conditions can be separated from our concern about the future of the sector. Our union has a duty to speak out against war and the waste of both human life and public resources and the catastrophic impact this has had on relations between communities and individuals. If we do not, others will judge us to be too remote, too self-interested and too limited in vision to offer and protect the space of free debate and exchange of ideas that is needed so urgently in this country.

We must fight to defend the ideal of a university system that has room for debate and diversity, that nurtures research and teaching in all disciplines, that values education and supports students, and that appreciates learning as something more than an enhancement of economic advantage.

Only our members can make this happen - because only we understand what is at stake. Unless the union can capitalise on this knowledge and engage our members, we are no good to anyone. I believe that the next National Executive needs to take this challenge seriously.

I am a member of UCU Left.

Biographical information including service to the union

In Local Association:
  • Member since 1993


  • Local committee member (1996-1998)


  • Local President (1998-2000)


  • Delegate to Council (1997-2000)



At national level:
  • Member of Women’s Committee (1999-2000)


  • Member of National Executive Committee (2000-2006)


  • Chair of Equal Opportunities Committee (2000-2003)


  • Representative for Equality Challenge Unit (2001-2003)


  • Representative for Commission for Racial Equality working party for education (2000-2001)


  • Chair of Finance and Membership Committee (2002-2003)


  • Chair of Recruitment, Organising and Campaigns Committee (2003-2004)


  • Delegate to Trade Union Congress


  • Delegate to TUC Black Workers Conference (1998-2006)


  • Representative for TUC Race Relations Committee (2002-2006)



Employed:
  • Reader at University of Birmingham, Permanent contract (1993-present)


  • Full-time Lecturer at University of Wolverhampton (1992-1993)


  • Part-time tutor at Universities of London and Oxford (1990-1992)



Other positions held:
  • Management committee member for Birmingham Asian Resource Centre;


  • Birmingham Race Action Partnership;


  • Lay member of employment tribunals;


  • Committee member of West Midlands Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

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