Warwick Soviet Socialist Students’ Union: satirical pages on the rise at Warwick

With just under 400 likes, the University of Warwick Soviet Socialist Students’ Union (WSSSU) Facebook page is slowly increasing in popularity after its creation on March 4.

The page seems to mark an increase in satirical humour this year at Warwick, following in the footsteps of The Hoar and Remington Spa.

The page is marked as a political organisation and posts about the plans of their ‘Dear Leader’ to reform and revolutionise Warwick University and the Students’ Union (SU).

The Facebook page has photoshopped images of Lenin attached to the Koan, Soviet flags flying across the SU, and the repeated use of term ‘comrade’ to emphasise the socialism it’s propagating.

Its light-hearted attitude is clear by the fake quotations coming from Mao, Castro, Stalin and Jeremy Corbyn.

The only likes of the page are The Hoar, Warwick for Free Panini, Warwick for Free Education, Fossil Free Warwick University and The Boar – the first two of which are renowned for their satirical approach to student politics.

Yet this page is not the only one of its kind. Warwick Comrade is a profile that people can add as a friend, which again mocks an extreme socialism within Warwick SU.

Notably several of the current Sabb officers like and are friends with both pages, such as George Creasy, the societies officer, and Olly Rice, the democracy and development officer.

One of the several admins behind the WSSSU page commented: “The inspiration for [the Facebook page] came when Luke Pilot said he was ‘looking forward to taking down capitalism’ when he was announced president elect, which we thought was definitely not what his mandate from the students is about, as well as being quite funny… So we thought we’d have fun with a caricature of the SU to make our point.”

When asked about the lack of student engagement in politics, the admin said: “The SU has a horrific engagement problem, and it’s probably partly because they shout loudly about left-wing politics and just attack the university.

“They should be trying to engage with more international students. They better support societies and sports clubs, rather than being a barrier for them.”

They added: “There is a lack of engagement because the SU chooses to make itself self-importantly irrelevant for most students.”

However, some students aren’t convinced. First-year student Zoë Varenne commented: “I find it stupid and poorly executed. It might have had the potential to be funny but certainly could be done a whole lot more cleverly; it totally lacks finesse.”

She finished: “It’s unclear if it’s actually supposed to be taken semi seriously? Personally I just think it’s all a bit silly.”

You can check out the WSSSU page here.